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Persian literature

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Literature types

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   Persian literature (in Persian: ادبیات پارسی‎) spans two and a half
   millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its
   sources often come from far-flung regions beyond the borders of
   present-day Iran, as the Persian language flourished and survives
   across wide swaths of Central Asia. For instance, Rumi, one of Persia's
   (and Islam's) best-loved poets, wrote in Persian but lived in Konya,
   now in Turkey and then the capital of the Seljuks. The Ghaznavids
   conquered large territories in Central and South Asia, and adopted
   Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from
   areas that are now part of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central
   Asia. Not all this literature is written in Persian, as some consider
   works written by ethnic Persians in other languages, such as Greek and
   Arabic, to be included.

   Surviving works in Persian languages (such as Old Persian or Middle
   Persian) date back as far as 650 BCE, the date of the earliest
   surviving Achaemenid inscriptions. The bulk of the surviving Persian
   literature, however, comes from the times following the Islamic
   conquest of Iran circa 650 CE. After the Abbasids came to power (750
   CE), the Persians became the scribes and bureaucrats of the Islamic
   empire and increasingly, also its writers and poets. Persians wrote
   both in Arabic and Persian; Persian predominated in later literary
   circles. Persian poets such as Sa'di, Hafiz, Omar Khayyam and Rumi are
   well known in the world and have influenced the literature of many
   countries.

Classical Persian literature

   Kelileh va Demneh Persian manuscript copy dated 1429, from Herat,
   depicts the Jackal trying to lead the Lion astray.
   Enlarge
   Kelileh va Demneh Persian manuscript copy dated 1429, from Herat,
   depicts the Jackal trying to lead the Lion astray.

Pre-Islamic Iranian literature

     * See also: Pahlavi literature

   Very few literary works have remained from ancient Persia. Most of
   these consist of the royal inscriptions of Achaemenid kings,
   particularly Darius I (522-486 BC) and his son Xerxes. Zoroastrian
   writings were mainly destroyed in the Islamic conquest of Iran. The
   Parsis who fled to India however took with them some of the books of
   the Zoroastrian canon, including some of the Avesta and ancient
   commentaries (Zend) thereof. Some works of Sassanid geography and
   travel also survived albeit in Arabic translations.

   No single text devoting to literary criticism has survived from
   Pre-Islamic Persia. However, there are some essyas in Pahlavi such as
   Ayin-e name nebeshtan and Bab-e edteda’I-ye Kalile va Demne which have
   been considered as literary criticism. (Zarrinkoub, 1959) Some
   researchers have quoted the Sho’ubiyye as asserting the pre-Islamic
   Persians had books on eloquence, such as Karvand. No trace remains of
   such books. There are some indications that some among Persian elite
   were familiar with Greek rhetoric and literary criticism.(Zarrinkoub,
   1947)

Persian literature of the medieval and pre-modern periods

   While initially overshadowed by Arabic during the Umayyad and early
   Abbasid caliphates, modern Persian soon became a literary language
   again of the Central Asian lands. The rebirth of the language in its
   new form is often accredited to Ferdowsi, Unsuri, Daqiqi, Rudaki and
   their generation, as they used pre-Islamic nationalism as a conduit to
   revive the language and customs of ancient Persia.

   In particular, says Ferdowsi himself in his Shahnama:

   بسی رنج بردم در این سال سی
   عجم زنده کردم بدین پارسی

   "For thirty years I endured much pain and strife,
   with Persian I gave the Ajam verve and life".

Poetry

   Nizami Mausoleum in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
   Enlarge
   Nizami Mausoleum in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

   So strong is the Persian aptitude for versifying everyday expressions
   that one can encounter poetry in almost every classical work, whether
   from Persian literature, science, or metaphysics. In short, the ability
   to write in verse form was a pre-requisite for any scholar. For
   example, almost half of Avicenna's medical writings are known to be
   versified.

   Works of the early era of Persian poetry are characterized by strong
   court patronage, an extravagance of panegyrics, and what is known as
   سبک فاخر "exalted in style". The tradition of royal patronage began
   perhaps under the Sassanide era, and carried over through the Abbasid
   and Samanid courts into every major Persian dynasty. The Qasideh was
   perhaps the most famous form of panegyric used, though quatrains such
   as those in Omar Khayyam's Ruba'iyyat are also widely popular.

   "Khorasani style", as most of its followers were associated with
   Greater Khorasan, is characterized with its supercilious diction,
   dignified tone, and relatively literate language. The chief
   representatives of this lyricism are Asjadi, Farrukhi Sistani, Unsuri,
   and Manuchehri. Panegyric masters such as Rudaki were known for their
   love of nature, their verse abounding with evocative descriptions.

   Through these courts and system of patronage emerged the epic style of
   poetry, with Ferdowsi's Shahnama at the apex. By glorifying the Iranian
   historical past in heroic and elevated verses, he and other notables
   such as Daqiqi and Asadi Tusi presented the " Ajam" with a source of
   pride and inspiration that has helped preserve a sense of identity for
   the Iranian peoples over the ages. Ferdowsi set a model to be followed
   by a host of other poets later on.

   The thirteenth century marks the ascendancy of lyric poetry with the
   consequent development of the ghazal into a major verse form, as well
   as the rise of mystical and Sufi poetry. This style is often called
   "the Eraqi style", and is known by its emotional lyric qualities, rich
   meters, and the relative simplicity of its language. Emotional romantic
   poetry was not something new however, as works such as Vis o Ramin by
   Asad Gorgani, and Yusof o Zoleikha by Am'aq exemplify. Poets such as
   Sana'i and Attar (who ostensibly have inspired Rumi), Khaqani Shirvani,
   Anvari, and Nezami, were highly respected ghazal writers. But the elite
   of this school are none other than Rumi, Sadi, and Hafez.

   Regarding the tradition of Persian love poetry during the Safavid era,
   Persian historian Ehsan Yarshater notes that "As a rule, the beloved is
   not a woman, but a young man. In the early centuries of Islam, the
   raids into Central Asia produced many young slaves. Slaves were also
   bought or received as gifts. They were made to serve as pages at court
   or in the households of the affluent, or as soldiers and body-guards.
   Young men, slaves or not, also, served wine at banquets and receptions,
   and the more gifted among them could play music and maintain a
   cultivated conversation. It was love toward young pages, soldiers, or
   novices in trades and professions which was the subject of lyrical
   introductions to panegyrics from the beginning of Persian poetry, and
   of the ghazal."

   In the didactic genre one can mention Sanai's Hadiqatul Haqiqah as well
   as Nezami's Makhzan-ul-Asrār. Some of Attar's works also belong to this
   genre as do the major works of Rumi, although some tend to classify
   these in the lyrical type, due to their mystical and emotional
   qualities. And some tend to group Naser Khosrow's works in this style
   as well, however the true gem of this genre is Sadi's Bustan, a
   heavyweight of Persian literature.

   After the fifteenth century, the Indian style of Persian poetry
   (sometimes also called Isfahani or Safavi styles) took over. This style
   has its roots in the Timurid era, and produced the likes of Amir
   Khosrow Dehlavi.

   Illustration from copy of Divan of Hafez. Accompanying caption reads:
   بزن در پرده چنگ ای ماه مطرب "pluck the notes of the harp, oh minstrel
   of The Moon".

   Illustration from Attar's The Conference of the Birds. A sufi poetry
   popular.

   Bahram Gur and the Indian princess in the black pavilion. Depiction
   from Nizami's Khamsa (Quintet).

   Illustration from Jami's Rose Garden of the Pious, 1553. The image
   blends Persian poetry and Persian miniature into one, as is the norm
   for many works of Persian literature.

Essays

   The most significant essay of this era are Nizami Arudhi Samarqandi's
   "Chahār Maqāleh" as well as Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi's anecdote
   compendium Jawami ul-Hikayat. Shams al-Mo'ali Abol-hasan Ghaboos ibn
   Wushmgir's famous work, The Qabusnama (A Mirror for Princes), is a
   highly esteemed Belles-lettres work of Persian literature. Also highly
   regarded is Siyasatnama, by Nizam al-Mulk, a famous Persian vizier.
   Kelileh va Demneh, translated from Indian folk tales, can also be
   mentioned in this category. It is seen as a collection of adages in
   Persian literary studies and does thus not convey folkloric notions.

Biographies, hagiographies, and historical works

   Among the major historical and biographical works in classical Persian,
   one can mention Abolfazl Beyhaghi's famous Tarikh-i Beyhaqi, Lubab
   ul-Albab of Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi (which has been regarded as a
   reliable chronological source by many experts), as well as Ata al-Mulk
   Juvayni's famous Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvaini (which spans the
   Mongolid and Ilkhanid era events of Iran). Attar's Tadkhirat al-Awliya,
   ("Biographies of the Saints") is also a detailed account of Sufi
   mystics, which is referenced by many subsequent authors, and considered
   a significant work in mystical hagiography.

Literary criticism

   The oldest surviving work of Persian literary criticism after the
   Islamic conquest of Persia is Muqaddame-ye Shahname-ye Abu Mansuri,
   which was written in the Samanid period. The work deals with the myths
   and legends of Shahname and is considered the oldest surviving example
   of Persian prose. It also shows an attempt by the authors to evaluate
   literary works critically.

Dictionaries

   Dehkhoda names 200 Persian lexicographical works in his monumental
   Dehkhoda Dictionary, the earliest being from the late Sassanid era,
   namely Farhang-i Avim (فرهنگ اویم) and Farhang-i Menakhtay (فرهنگ
   مناختای). The most widely used Persian lexicons in the Middle Ages were
   those of Abu Hafs Soghdi (فرهنگ ابو حفص سغدی) and Asadi Tusi (فرهنگ لغت
   فرس) which was written in 1092. Also highly regarded in the Persian
   literature lexical corpus are the works of Mohammad Moin.

   In 1645, Ravius and Lugduni completed a Persian-Latin dictionary. This
   was followed by J. Richardson's 2 volume Oxford edition (1777) and
   Gladwin-Malda's (1770) Persian-English Dictionaries, Scharif and S.
   Peters' Persian-Russian Dictionary (1869), and a host of 30 other
   Persian lexicographical translations up until the 1950s. Currently
   English-Persian dictionaries of Manouchehr Aryanpour and Soleiman Haim
   are widely used in Iran.

Persian phrases

                               PERSIAN PHRASES
   * Thousands of friends are far too few, an enemy is too much. *
   Hezaaraan dust kam and, Iek doshman ziaad ast.
   * The wise enemy is better than the ignorant friend. *
   Doshman daanaa behtar az dust e naadaan ast.
   * The wise enemy rises you, the ignorant friend falls you. *
   Doshman e daanaaa bolandat mikonad. Bar zaminat mizanad naadaan e dust.

The influence of Persian literature on world literature

Sufi literature

   Some of Persia's best-beloved medieval poets were Sufis, and their
   poetry was, and is, widely read by Sufis from Morocco to Indonesia.
   Rumi (Molana) in particular is renowned both as a poet and the founder
   of a widespread Sufi order. The themes and styles of this devotional
   poetry have been widely imitated by many Sufi poets. See also the
   article on Sufi poetry.

   Many notable texts in Persian mystic literature are not poems, yet
   highly read and regarded. Among those are Kimiya-yi sa'ādat and Asrar
   al-Tawhid.

Areas once under Ghaznavid or Mughal rule

Afghanistan and Central Asia

   Afghanistan and the Transoxiana have the claim of being the birthplace
   of Modern Persian. Most of the great patrons of Persian literature such
   as Sultan Sanjar and the courts of the Samanids and Ghaznavids were
   situated in this region, as were the geniuses such as Rudaki, Unsuri,
   and Ferdowsi who composed them. As such, this rich literary heritage
   continues to survive well into the present in countries like
   Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

India, Pakistan, and Kashmir

   With the emergence of the Ghaznavids and their successors such as the
   Ghurids, Timurids and Mughal Empire, Persian culture and its literature
   gradually diffused into the vast Indian subcontinent. Persian was the
   language of the nobility, literary circles, and the royal Mughal courts
   for hundreds of years. (In modern times, Persian has been generally
   supplanted by Urdu, a heavily Persian-influenced dialect of
   Hindustani.)

   Under the Moghul Empire of India during the sixteenth century, the
   official language of India became Persian. Only in 1832 did the British
   army force the Indian subcontinent to begin conducting business in
   English. (Clawson, p.6) Persian poetry in fact flourished in these
   regions while post- Safavid Iranian literature stagnated. Dehkhoda and
   other scholars of the 20th century, for example, largely based their
   works on the detailed lexicography produced in India, using
   compilations such as Ghazi khan Badr Muhammad Dehlavi's Adat al-Fudhala
   (اداه الفضلا), Ibrahim Ghavamuddin Farughi's Farhang-i Ibrahimi (فرهنگ
   ابراهیمی), and particularly Muhammad Padshah's Farhang-i Anandraj
   (فرهنگ آناندراج). Famous South Asian poets and scholars such as Amir
   Khosrow Dehlavi and Muhammad Iqbal of Lahore found many admirers in
   Iran itself.

Western literature

   Persian literature was little known in the West before the 19th
   century. It became much better known following the publication of
   several translations from the works of late medieval Persian poets, and
   inspired works by various Western poets and writers.

German literature

     * In 1819, Goethe published his West-östlicher Divan, a collection of
       lyric poems inspired by a German translation of Hafiz (1326-1390).
     * The German essayist and philosopher Nietzsche was the author of the
       book Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885), referring to the ancient
       Persian prophet Zoroaster(circa 1700 BCE).

English literature

     * A selection from Firdausi's Shahnameh (935-1020) was published in
       1832 by James Atkinson, a physician employed by the British East
       India Company.
     * A portion of this abridgment was later versified by the British
       poet Matthew Arnold in his 1853 Rustam and Sohrab.
     * The American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was another admirer of
       Persian poetry. He published several essays in 1876 that discuss
       Persian poetry: Letters and Social Aims, From the Persian of Hafiz,
       and Ghaselle.

   Perhaps the most popular Persian poet of the 19th and early 20th
   centuries was Omar Khayyam (1048-1123), whose Rubaiyat was freely
   translated by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. Khayyam is esteemed more as a
   scientist than a poet in his native Persia, but in Fitzgerald's
   rendering, he became one of the most quoted poets in English. Khayyam's
   line, "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou", is known to many who
   could not say who wrote it, or where.

   The Persian poet and mystic Rumi (1207-1273) (known as Molana in Iran)
   has attracted a large following in the late 20th and early 21st
   centuries. Popularizing translations by Coleman Barks have presented
   Rumi as a New Age sage. There are also a number of more literary
   translations by scholars such as A. J. Arberry.

   The classical poets (Hafiz, Sa'di, Khayyam, Rumi, Nezami and Ferdowsi),
   are now widely known in English and can be read in various
   translations. Other works of Persian literature are untranslated and
   little known.

Contemporary Persian Literature

   Some leading figures of Iranian literary intellectuals: (L to R)
   Morteza Keyvan, Ahmad Shamlou, Nima Yooshij, Siavash Kasraie, and
   Hushang Ebtehaj.
   Enlarge
   Some leading figures of Iranian literary intellectuals: (L to R)
   Morteza Keyvan, Ahmad Shamlou, Nima Yooshij, Siavash Kasraie, and
   Hushang Ebtehaj.

   Literature of the late 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

History

   In 19th century, Persian literature experienced a dramatic change and
   entered a new era. The beginning of this change is exemplified in an
   incident in the mid-nineteenth century at the court of Nasereddin Shah,
   where the reform-minded prime minister, Amir Kabir, chastises the poet
   Habibollah Qa'ani for "lying" in a panegyric qasida in honour of the
   prime minister. Amir Kabir, of course, saw poetry in general and the
   type of poetry that had developed during the Qajar period as
   detrimental to "progress" and "modernization" in the Iranian society,
   which was in dire need of change. Such extraliterary concerns were
   expressed increasingly by others, such as Fath-'Ali Akhundzadeh, Mirza
   Aqa Khan Kermani, and Mirza Malkom Khan, who also addressed a need for
   a change in Persian poetry in literary terms as well, always, however,
   linking it to social concerns.

   One cannot understand the new Persian literary movement without
   undestanding the intellectual movements among Iranian philosophical
   circles along with social ones. Given the social and political climate
   of Persia (Iran) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
   which led to the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911, the
   idea of the necessity of a change in Persian poetry in a way that would
   reflect the realities of a country in transition was gradually becoming
   widespread and propagated by such notable literary figures as Ali Akbar
   Dehkhoda and Abolqasem Aref, who challenged the traditional system of
   Persian poetry in terms of introducing new content as well as
   experimentation with rhetorical, lexicosemantic, and structural aspects
   of poetry. While Dehkhoda, for instance, uses a lesser-known
   traditional form, the mosammat, to elegize the execution of a
   revolutionary journalist, 'Aref employs the ghazal, "the most central
   genre within the lyrical tradition" (p. 88), to write his "Payam-e
   Azadi" (Message of Freedom).

   Some researchers argue that, the notion of "sociopolitical
   ramifications of esthetic changes" led to the idea of poets "as social
   leaders trying the limits and possibilities of social change.

   An important argument in the development of modern Persian literature
   (and, of course, other aspects of the Iranian society as a whole) has
   centered around the question of modernization and Westernization and
   whether or not, in practice, these terms are, in fact, synonymous as
   used to describe the evolution of Iranian society, and in this case,
   Persian literature in the course of the past one or two centuries. It
   can be argued that almost all advocates of modernism in Persian
   literature, from Akhundzadeh, Kermani, and Malkom Khan to Dehkhoda,
   Aref, Bahar, and Rafat, among others, to varying degrees, were inspired
   by developments and changes that had occurred in Western, particularly
   European, literatures. Still, such inspirations would not mean blindly
   copying Western models, but in practice, adaptation of aspects of
   Western literature which were then altered and tailored to fit the
   needs of the Iranian culture.

   For Sadeq Hedayat, who was arguably the most modern of all modern
   writers, modernity was not just a question of scientific rationality or
   a pure imitation of European values. An outstanding feature of
   Hedayat’s modernism is his secular criticism in regard to the Iranian
   society. Hedayat thus established a critical approach that was almost
   unique in the period between the two World Wars in Iran. His modern
   search for truth avoided any romantic glorification of ideology and a
   more realistic view of the underdeveloped and underprivileged members
   of the Iranian society. Much of this was carried out by Hedayat in a
   universal style and tone. This perhaps is the main reason why Hedayat
   can be considered as a universal writer and not simply as an Iranian
   writer. His work belongs to what Goethe described as Weltliteratur in
   the last decade of his life as a reaction to Romantic literary
   criticism’s breaking through the traditional limits of European
   literature by re-evaluating the literatures of the Middle Ages and of
   the Orient. For Goethe world literature was not a hierarchically
   structured thesaurus, but as an element contemporaneous to him. In a
   letter to Adolph Friedrich Carl Streckfuss on January 27 1827 he
   compares his situation to that of a sorcerer’s apprentice with the
   world literature streaming towards him as if to engulf him. Goethe
   echoes Herder in stressing that literature is the common property of
   mankind, and that it emerges in all places and at all times. “National
   literature does not mean much at present, affirms Goethe in his
   conversation with Eckermann on 31 January 1827, it is time for an era
   of world literature, and everybody must endeavour to accelerate this
   epoch”. Erich Auerbach has the same idea in mind when he writes: World
   literature refers not simply to what is common and human as such, but
   rather to this as the mutual fertilisation of the manifold. It
   presupposes the felix culpa of mankind’s division into host of
   cultures. Edward Said also reminds us of the relevance of views put
   forward by Goethe and Auerbach: “The main requirement for the kind of
   philological understanding Auerbach and his predecessors were talking
   about and tried to practise, notes Said, was one that sympathetically
   and subjectively entered into the life of a written text as seen from
   the perspective of its time and its author. Rather than alienation and
   hostility to another time and a different culture, philology as applied
   to Weltliteratur involved a profound humanistic spirit deployed with
   generosity and, if I may use the word, hospitality. Thus the
   interpreter's mind actively makes a place in it for a foreign "other".
   And this creative making of a place for works that are otherwise alien
   and distant is the most important facet of the interpreter's mission.”

   Following the pioneering works of Ahmad Kasravi, Sadeq Hedayat and many
   others, Iranian wave of comparative literature and literary criticism
   reached a symbolic crest with emergence of literary figures,
   Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub, Shahrokh Meskoob, Houshang Golshiri and
   Ebrahim Golestan.

   Persian literature in Afghanistan has also experienced a dramatic
   change during last few decades. At the beginning of the twentieth
   century, Afghanistan was confronted with economic and social change
   which also sparked a new approach to literature. In 1911, Mahmud Tarzi,
   who came back to Afghanistan after years of exile in Turkey and was
   influential in government circles, started a fortnightly publication
   named Saraj’ul Akhbar. Saraj was not the first such publication in the
   country, but in the field of journalism and literature it instigated a
   new period of change and modernisation. Saraj not only played an
   important role in journalism; it also gave new impulses to literature
   as a whole and opened the way for poetry and lyrics to search for new
   avenues of expression so that personal thoughts took on a more social
   colour. In the year 1309 (1930 AD), after months of cultural
   stagnation, a group of writers founded the Herat literary circle. A
   year later another group calling itself the Kabul Literary Circle was
   founded in the capital. Both groups published their own regular
   magazines dedicated to culture and persian literature. But both,
   especially the Kabul publication, had little success in becoming a
   venue for modern Persian poetry and writing. In time, the Kabul
   publication turned into a stronghold for traditional writers and poets,
   and modernism in Dari literature was pushed to the fringes of social
   and cultural life. Three of the prominent classical poets in
   Afghanistan at the time were Ghary Abdullah, Abdul Hagh Beytat and
   Khalil Ullah Khalili. The first two received the honorary title of
   Malek ul Shoara (King of Poets), one after the other. Khalili, the
   third and youngest, felt himself drawn toward the Khorasan style of
   poetry instead of the usual Hendi style. He was also interested in
   modern poetry, and wrote on the side a few poems in a more modern style
   with new aspects of thought and meaning. In 1318, after two poems by
   Nima Youshij with the names "Gharab" and "Ghaghnus" were published,
   Khalili also wrote a piece of poetry under the name "Sorude Kuhestan"
   or "The Song of the Mountain" in the same rhyming pattern as Nima, and
   sent it to the Kabul Literary Circle. But the traditionalists in Kabul
   refused to publish the piece in their magazine because it was not
   written in the old traditional rhyme, and they criticised Khalili for
   modernising his style of writing poems. Still, very gradually and
   despite all the efforts of traditionalists new styles did find their
   way into literature and literary circles. The first book of new poems
   was published in the year 1336 (1957), and in the year 1341 (1962), a
   collection of modern Persian poetry was published in Kabul. The first
   group who wrote poems in the new style consisted of Mahmud Farani,
   Baregh Shafi’i, Solyman Layegh, Sohail, Ayeneh and a few others. Later,
   others such as Vasef Bakhtari, Asadullah Habib and Latif Nazemi joined
   the group. Each had his own share in modernizing Persian poetry in
   Afghanistan. Other notable figures are Ustad Behtab, Leila Sarahat
   Roshani, Sayed Elan Bahar and Parwin Pazwak. Poets like Mayakovsky,
   Yase Nien and Lahouti (an Iranian poet living in exile in Russia)
   exerted a special influence on the Persian poets in Afghanistan. The
   influence of Iranians (e.g . Farrokhi Yazdi and Ahmad Shamlou) on
   modern Afghan prose and poetry, especially in the second half of the
   twentieth century, must also be taken into consideration. Prominent
   Afghan writers like Asef Soltanzadeh, Reza Ebrahimi, Ameneh Mohammadi,
   and Abbas Jafari grew up in Iran and were under influence of Iranian
   writers and teachers. Although Afghan authors have not proven
   themselves in the international arena like Iranian writers have, due to
   their talent, Persian literature in Afghanistan has a promising future.

   The new poetry in Tajikistan is mostly concerned with the way of life
   of people and is revolutionary. From the 50's until the advent of new
   poetry in France, Asia and Latin America, the impact on the
   modernization drive was strong. In 60's Iranian modern poetry and that
   of Mohammad Iqbal Lahouri made very good impression in Tajik poetry and
   this period is probably the most rich, prolific and active period for
   development of themes and forms in Persian poetry in Tajikistan. Some
   Tajik poets were mere imitators and one smells the traits and scent of
   foreign poets in their works. Only two or three poets were able to
   digest the foreign poetry and compose new poetry. In Tajikistan, the
   format and pictorial image of short stories and novels were taken from
   Russian and European literature. Some of Tajikistan's prominent names
   in Persian literature are Golrokhsar Safi Eva, Mo'men Ghena'at,
   Farzaneh Khojandi and Layeq Shir-Ali.

Novels

   Well-known novelists include:
     * Simin Daneshvar
     * Bozorg Alavi
     * Ebrahim Golestan

Satire

     * Iraj Mirza
     * Ebrahim Nabavi
     * Kioumars Saberi Foumani
     * Hadi Khorsandi
     * Obeid Zakani
     * Dehkhoda
     * Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi
     * Omran Salehi

Literary criticism

   Shahrokh Meskoob, Prominent literary critic and Shahnameh expert
   Shahrokh Meskoob, Prominent literary critic and Shahnameh expert

   Pioneers of persian literary criticism in 19th century include Mirza
   Fath `Ali Akhundzade, Mirza Malkom Khan, Mirza `Abd al-Rahim Talebof
   and Zeyn al-`Abedin Maraghe`i.

   Prominent 20th century critics include:
     * Allameh Dehkhoda
     * Badiozzaman Forouzanfar
     * Mohammad Taghi Bahar
     * Jalal Homaei
     * Mohammad Moin
     * Saeed Nafisi
     * Parviz Natel-Khanlari
     * Sadeq Hedayat
     * Ahmad Kasravi.
     * Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub
     * Shahrokh Meskoob

   Said Nafisi analyzed and edited several literary works. He is
   well-known for his works on Rudaki and also Sufi literature. Parviz
   Natel-Khanlari and Gholamhossein Yousefi who belong to Nafisi's
   generation were also involved in modern literature and critical
   writings. Natel Khanlari is distinguished for the simplicity of his
   style. He did not follow the traditionalists nor did he advocate the
   new. Indeed, his approach accommodated the entire spectrum of
   creativity and expression in Persian literature. In his short life,
   Ahmad Kasravi, who was an experienced authority on literature attacked
   the writers and poets whose works served despotism.

   Contemporary Persian literary criticism reached its maturity after
   Sadeq Hedayat, Ebrahim Golestan, Houshang Golshiri, Abdolhossein
   Zarrinkoub and Shahrokh Meskoob. Among these figures Zarrinkoub held
   academic positions and had reputation not only among intellectuals but
   also in academia. Beside his significant contrubution to the maturity
   of Persian language and literature, Zarrinkoob boosted comparative
   literature and Persian literary criticism. Zarrinkoub's Serr e Ney is a
   critical and comparative analysis of Rumi's Masnavi. In turn, Shahrokh
   Meskoob worked on Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh on the basis of the principles
   of modern literary criticism.

   Mohammad Taghi Bahar's main contribution to this field is his book
   called Sabk Shenasi (Stylistics). It is a pioneering work in the
   practice of Persian literary historiography and the emergence and
   development of Persian literature as a distinct institution in the
   early part of the twentieth century. It contends that the exemplary
   status of Sabk-shinasi rests on the recognition of its disciplinary or
   institutional achievements. It further contends that, rather than a
   text on Persian ‘stylistics’, Sabk-shinasi is a vast history of Persian
   literary prose, and, as such, is a significant intervention in Persian
   literary historiography.

   Jalal Homaei, Badiozzaman Forouzanfar and his student, Mohammad Reza
   Shafiei-Kadkani are other notale figures who have edited a number of
   prominent literary works

   Critical analysis of Jami's works has been carried out by Ala Khan
   Afsahzad. His classic book won the prestigious award of Iran's Year
   Best book in year 2000.

Persian short stories

   Historically, the modern Persian short story has undergone three stages
   of development: a formative period, a period of consolidation and
   growth, and a period of diversity.

The formative period

   The formative period was ushered in by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh's
   collection Yak-i Bud Yak-i Nabud(1921; tr. H. Moayyad and P. Sprachman
   as Once Upon a Time, New York, 1985), and gained momentum with the
   early short stories of Sadeq Hedayat (1903-51). Jamalzadeh (1895-1997)
   is usually considered as the first writer of modem short stories in
   Persian. His stories focus on plot and action rather than on mood or
   character development, and in that respect are reminiscent of the works
   of Guy de Maupassam and O. Henry. In contrast, Sadeq Hedayat, the
   writer who introduced modernism to Persian literature, brought about a
   fundamental change in Persian fiction. In addition to his longer
   stories, Bgf-e kur (his masterpiece; see above ii.) and Haji Aqa
   (1945), he wrote collections of short stories including Seh Ghatra Khun
   (Three Drops of Blood, 1932; tr. into French by G. Lazard as Trois
   gouuttes de sang, Paris 1996) and Zenda be Gur (Buried Alive, 1930).
   His stories were written in a simple and lucid language, but he
   employed a variety of approaches, from realism and naturalism to
   surrealistic fantasy, breaking new ground and introducing a whole range
   of literary models and presenting new possibilities for the further
   development of the genre. He experimented with disrupted chronology"and
   non-linear or circular plots, applying these techniques to both his
   realistic and surrealist writings. Unlike Hedayat, who focused on the
   psychological complexity and latent vulnerabilities of the individual,
   Bozorg Alavi depicts ideologically motivated personages defying
   oppression and social injustice. Such characters, seldom portrayed
   before in Persian fiction, are Alavi's main contribution to the
   thematic range of the modem Persian short story. This commitment to
   social issues is emulated by Fereydun Tonokaboni (b. 1937), Mahmud
   Dawlatabadi (b. 1940), Samad Behrangi (q.v.; 1939-68), and other
   writers of the left in the next generation.

   Sadeq Chubak was one of the first authors to break the taboo. Following
   the example of William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell, and
   Ernest Hemingway, his blunt approach appears in the early short story
   collections Khayma Shab-bazi (The Puppet Show, 1945) and Antar-i ke
   Luti-ash Morda Bud (1949; tr. P. Avery as "The Baboon Whose Buffoon was
   Dead," New World Writing 11, 1957, pp. 14-24), Later stories like Zir-e
   Cheragh-e Ghermez, Pirahan-e Zereski, and Chera Darya Tufani Shoda Bud
   describe the naked bestiality and moral degradation of the personages
   with no trace of squeamishness. His short stories mirror rotting
   society, populated by the crashed and the defeated. Chubak picks
   marginal characters--vagrants, pigeon-racers, corpse-washers,
   prostitutes, and opium addicts-who rarely appear in the fiction of his
   predecessors, and whom he portrays with vividness and force. His
   readers come face to face with grim realities and incidents which they
   have often witnessed for themselves in everyday life but shunned out of
   their mind through complacency.

   A distinctive trait of post-war Persian fiction, in all the three
   stages of development, is the attention devoted to narrative styles and
   techniques, In matters of style two main trends prevail: Some authors,
   like Chubak and Al-e Ahmad, follow colloquial speech patterns; others,
   such as Ebrahim Golestan (b. 1922) and Mohammad Etemadzadeh "Behazin"
   (b, 1915), have adopted a more literary and lyrical tone. Although the
   work of all four writers stretch into later periods, some brief remarks
   about their differing techniques, which delineated future paths, need
   mentioning at the outset. Golestan experimented with different
   narrative styles, and it was only in two late collections of stories,
   Juy o Divar o Teshna (The Stream and the Wall and the Parched, 1967)
   and Madd o Meh (The Tide and the Mist, 1969) that he managed to find a
   style and voice of his own. His poetic language draws inspiration both
   from syntactical forms of classical Persian prose, and the experiments
   of modernist writers, most notably Gertrude Stein. The influence of
   modernism is evident also in the structure of Golestan's short stories,
   where the traditional linear plot-line is abandoned in favour of
   disrupted chronology and free association of ideas. Contrary to most
   other modern Persian authors, Golestan pays little heed to the state of
   the poor and the dispossessed. Instead, his short stories are devoted
   to the world of Persian intellectuals, their concerns, anxieties and
   private obsessions. His short stories resemble well-made decorative
   objets d'art, pleasing perhaps to the cognoscenti but leaving the
   majority of readers unmoved. Golestan's brand of modernism has
   influenced the later gcneration of writers like Bahman Forsi (b. 1933)
   and Hooshang Golshiri (b. 1937). Although the stories of Behazin show
   similar indebtedness to classical Persian models, he does not follow
   Golestan's modernist experiments with syntax. Behazin is an author
   whose stories, delivered in a lucid literary style, express his leftist
   social beliefs. In some of his later works like the short story
   collection Mohra-ye Mar (The Snake Charm. 1955), he turns to literary
   allegory, imbuing ancient tales with a new message, a technique which
   allows him to express his critical views obliquely. Behazin's
   predecessors in the sub-genre of the allegorical tale were Hedayat (in
   Ab-e Zendegi, 1931) and Chubak ("Esa'a-ye Adab" in the collection
   Khayma-Shab-Bazi).

Period of Growth and Development

   This second period in the development of the modern Persian short story
   began with the coup of 19 August 1953, and ended with the revolution of
   1979.
   Mehdi Akhavan Sales and Fereydoon Moshiri, modern Persian poets
   Enlarge
   Mehdi Akhavan Sales and Fereydoon Moshiri, modern Persian poets

   Jalal Al-e Ahmad is among the proponents of new political and cultural
   ideas whose influence and impact straddle both the first and the second
   periods in the history of modern Persian fiction. His writings show an
   awareness of the works of Franz Fanon and the new generation of
   third-world writers concerned with the problems of cultural domination
   by colonial powers. Al-e Ahmad, Behazin, Tonekaboni, and Behrangi can
   all be described as engage writers because most of their stories are
   built around a central ideological tenet or "thesis" and illustrate the
   authors' political views and leanings.

   Another notable author from this period is Simin Daneshvar (b. 1921),
   the first woman writer of note in contemporary Persian literature. Her
   reputation rests largely on her popular navel Savusun (1969). Simin
   Daneshvar's short stories deserve mention because they focus on the
   plight and social exclusion of women in Persian society and address
   topical issues from a woman's point of view.

   Gholam Hossein Saedi' s (1935-85) short stories, which he called
   ghessa, often transcend the boundaries of realism and attain a symbolic
   significance. His allegorical stories, which occasionally resemble
   folkloric tales and fables, are inhabited by displaced persons, trapped
   in dead ends (Sepanlu, p. 117). They emphasize the anxieties and the
   psychological perturbarions of his deeply troubled personages. Sadeghi
   (1936-84) was yet another author who focused on the anxieties and
   secret mental agonies of his personages.

   Hooshang Golshiri (b. 1937) and Asghar Elahi (b. 1944) both created
   memorable psychological portraits through interim monologue and stream
   of consciousness techniques. Golshiri the author of the long story
   Shazda Ehtejab (Prince Ehtejab, 1968), is particularly noted for his
   successful experiments with extended interior monologues. A bold,
   innovative writer eager to explore modern methods and styles, Golshiri
   uses stream of consciousness narrative to reassess familiar theories
   and events.

Period of diversity

   Post-revolutionary fiction, including the short story, is marked by
   dynamic experimentation with techniques of narration, choice of plot,
   imagery, and structure. In line with recent tendencies in most modern
   literatures, modern Persian fiction expresses doubts, uncertainty.
   anxiety, tension, paradox, and dilemmas; it tells of beginnings and not
   of ends. Almost a century old, modern Persian fiction has remained
   receptive to external influences and follows trends and styles as they
   appear elsewhere, stream of consciousness techniques and magical
   realism being cases in point. From a fictionalized remembrance of the
   nation's idealized past, to a portrayal of imbalances and injustices,
   and to the depiction of the hardships of war and revolution, Persian
   fiction has remained a vehicle for change as well as testament to its
   painful process.

Poetry

   Of the hundreds of contemporary Persian poets (classical and modern)
   notable figures include : Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, Simin Behbahani, Forough
   Farrokhzad, Bijan Jalali, Siavash Kasraie, Fereydoon Moshiri, Nader
   Naderpour, Sohrab Sepehri, Mohammad Reza Shafiei-Kadkani, Ahmad
   Shamlou, Nima Yushij, Manouchehr Atashi, Houshang Ebtehaj, Mirzadeh
   Eshghi (classical), Mohammad Taghi Bahar(classical), Aref (classical),
   Parvin Etesami (classical), and Shahriar (classical) out of hundreds of
   poets.
   Nima Youshij, Founder of Modern Persian Poetry
   Nima Youshij, Founder of Modern Persian Poetry

Classical Persian poetry in Modern time

   A few notable classical poets arose since 19th century, among which
   Mohammad Taghi Bahar and Parvin Etesami have been most celebrated.
   Mohammad Taghi Bahar had the title "King of poets" and had a
   significant role in the emergence and development of Persian literature
   as a distinct institution in the early part of the twentieth century.
   The theme of his poems was social and political situation of Iran.

   Parvin Etesami may be called the greatest Persian poetess writing in
   the classical style. One of her remarkable series, called Mast va
   Hoshyar (The Drunk and the Sober) , won admirations from many of those
   involved in romantic poetry.

Modern Persian poetry

   Nima Yushij is considered, quite rightly, the father of modern Persian
   poetry, introducing a whole bundle of techniques and forms to
   differentiate the modern from the old. Nevertheless, the merit of
   popularizing this new literary from within a country and culture which
   is solidly based on a thousand years of classical poetry, goes to his
   few disciples. Ahmad Shamlou stood tall amongst that new generation who
   adopted Nima's methods and restlessly tried new undiscovered domains of
   modernism in poetry.

   The transformation of Persian poetry brought about by Nima Youshij,
   untying it feet from the fetters of the prosodic measures, was a
   turning point in the long tradition of our poetry. It opened a huge
   vista in the perception and thinking of the poets that came after him.
   Nima offered a different understanding of the principles of classical
   poetry. His artistry was not confined to removing the need for a fixed
   length hemistich and dispensing with the tradition of rhyming. Above,
   and overseeing these changes, and going beyond altering the formation
   of the old poetry, he was focusing on a broader structure and function
   based on a more contemporary understanding of human and social
   existence. His aim in renovating poetry was to commit it to a natural
   identity and also to achieve a modern discipline in the mind and
   linguistic performance of the poet.

   Nima rightly recognized that the formal and literal technique
   dominating classical poetry interfered with its vitality, vigor and
   progress. Although he accepted some of its aesthetic properties and
   extended them in the new poetry writing, he never ceased for a moment
   to widen his poetic experience by emphasizing the singular distinction
   of this art, and in returning a natural order to it. What Nima Youshij
   founded in contemporary poetry, which confirmed an entire era in the
   conviction that the traditional order of poetry could be challenged,
   his creative successor, Ahmad Shamlou, kept in our horizon by imparting
   a more innovative experience.

   The Sepid poem (which translates to white poem), which draws its
   sources from this great poet, avoided the compulsory rules which had
   entered the Nimai’ school of poetry and adopted a freer structure. This
   allowed a more direct relationship linking the poet with his or her
   emotional roots. In previous poetry, the qualities of the poet’s vision
   as well as the span of the subject could only be expressed in general
   terms and were subsumed by the formal limitations imposed on poetic
   expression.

   Nima’s poetry transgressed these limitations. It relied on the natural
   function inherent within poetry itself to portray the poet’s solidarity
   with life and the wide world surrounding him or her in specific and
   unambiguous details and scenes. “Sepid poetry” continues the poetic
   vision as Nima underlined and avoids the contrived rules imposed on its
   creation. However, its most distinct difference with Nimai’ poetry is
   to move away from the rhythms it employed. Nima Yioushij paid attention
   to an overall harmonious rhyming and created many experimental examples
   to achieve this end.

   Ahmad Shamlu discovered the inner characteristics of poetry and its
   manifestation in the literary creations of classical masters as well as
   the Nimai’ experience. He offered an individual approach. By distancing
   himself from the obligations imposed by older poetry, and some of the
   limitations that had entered the Nimai’ poem, he recognized the role of
   prose and music hidden in the language. In the structure of “Sepid
   poetry”, in contrast to the prosodic and Nimai’ rules, the poem arms
   itself entirely with the natural ability of words and incorporates a
   prose-like process without losing its poetic distinction. “Sepid
   poetry” is a development over the Nimai’ poetry - a large branch of
   that. It is a poetry created upon Nima Youshij innovations. Nima
   thought that any change in the construction and the tools of a poet’s
   expression is conditional on his/her knowledge of the world and a
   revolutionized outlook. “Sepid poetry” could not take root outside this
   teaching and a sincere application of it.
   M.T.Bahar, best classical poet of modern time
   M.T.Bahar, best classical poet of modern time

   According to Simin Behbahani, Sepid Poetry did not received general
   acceptance before Bijan Jalali's works. He is considered the founder of
   Sepid poetry according to Behbahani. Behbahani herself used the "Char
   Pareh" style of Nima, and subsequently, turn to "Ghazal", a free
   flowing, poetry style similar to the Western "Sonnet". Simin Behbahani
   contributed to a historic development in the form of the "Ghazal", as
   she added theatrical subjects, and daily events and conversations into
   this style of poetry. She has expanded the range of traditional Persian
   verse forms and produced some of the most significant works of Persian
   literature in 20th century.

   A reluctant follower of Nima Yushij, Mehdi Akhavan Sales published his
   "Organ" (1951) to support contentions against Nima Yushij's
   ground-breaking endeavors. But before long he realized that Nima and
   the modernists emulating him had more to offer than a just a change in
   rhythm, rhyme, and the general application of the classical Arabic
   meters. In Persian poetry, Mehdi Akhavan Sales has established a bridge
   between the Khorassani and Nima Schools. The critics consider Mehdi
   Akhavan Sales as one of the best contemporary Persian poets. He is one
   of the pioneers of Free Verse (New Style Poetry) in Persian literature,
   particularly of modern style epics. It was his ambition, for a long
   time, to introduce a fresh style in the Persian poetry.

   Forough Farrokhzad is important in the literary history of Iran for
   three reasons. First, she was among the first generation to embrace the
   new style of poetry, pioneered by Nima Yushij during the 1920s, which
   demanded that poets experiment with rhyme, imagery, and the individual
   voice. Second, she was the first modern Iranian woman to graphically
   articulate private sexual landscapes from a woman's perspective.
   Finally, she transcended her own literary role and experimented with
   acting, painting, and documentary film-making.

   Fereydoon Moshiri is best known as conciliator of classical Persian
   poetry at one side with the New Poetry initiated by Nima Yooshij at the
   other side. One of the major contributions of Moshiri's poetry,
   according to some observers, is the broadening of the social and
   geographical scope of modern Persian literature.

   A poet of the last generation before the Islamic Revolution worthy of
   mention is Mohammad Reza Shafiei-Kadkani (M. Sereshk). Though he is
   from Khorassan and sways between allegiance to Nima Youshij and Akhavan
   Saless; in his poetry he shows the influences of Hafez and Mowlavi. He
   uses simple, lyrical language, and is mostly inspired by political
   atmosphere. He is the most successful of those poets who, in the past
   four decades, have tried hard to find a synthesis between the two
   models of Ahmad Shamloo and Nima Youshij.

   Abdul Halim Shayek, whose pen name is Pendar, was born in Herat,
   Afghanistan, in 1938 and died in San Jose, California, USA in 2005. His
   poems are available at http://www.shayekpendar.com.

Persian Literature Awards

     * National Ferdowsi Prize
     * Houshang Golshiri Award
     * Sadeq Hedayat Award
     * Bijan Jalali Award
     * Iran's Annual Book Prize
     * Ala Khan Afsahzad Award
     * Mehrgan Adab Prize
     * Parvin Etesami Award
     * Yalda Literary Award
     * Isfahan Literary Award

Authors and Poets

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