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| image_size =
| image_size =
| caption =
| caption =
| birth_date = Between 1120–1125<ref name ="Minorsky" />{{rp|572}}
| birth_date = Between 1120 and 1127
| birth_place = [[Shirvan]] (present-day [[Azerbaijan]])
| birth_place = [[Shirvan]]
| death_date = July 1199<ref name ="Clinton"/>{{rp|97}}
| death_date = Between 1186-87 and 1199
| death_place = [[Tabriz]] (present-day [[Iran]])
| death_place = [[Tabriz]]
| movement = Habsiyāt (prison poetry)
| movement = Habsiyāt (prison poetry)
| notableworks= ''Divān'', ''Tuhfat al-‘Irāqayn''
| notableworks= ''Divān'', ''Tuhfat al-‘Irāqayn''
}}
}}
'''Khāqāni ''' ({{lang-fa|خاقانی}}) (c. 1120{{snds}}July 1199), was a major [[Persian people|Persian]]{{Ref|Notea|a}} [[poet]] and prose-writer.<ref name="Rypka">Jan Rypka, ''History of Iranian Literature''. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968. pp 203-208.</ref> He was born in [[Transcaucasia]] in the historical region known as [[Shirvan]], where he served as an ode-writer to the [[Shirvanshah]]s.<ref name = "Clinton">O. L. Vil'èevskij, & Clinton, J. (1969). The Chronograms of Khaqani. Iranian Studies, 2(2/3), 97-105.</ref> His fame most securely rests upon the [[Qasida#Persian|qasida]]s collected in his [[Diwan_(poetry)|Divān]], and his autobiographical travelogue ''Tohfat al-ʿErāqayn''.<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/><ref name ="Minorsky">Minorsky, V. (1945). Khāqānī and Andronicus Comnenus. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 11(3), 550-578. </ref> He is also notable for his exploration of the genre that later became known as ''habsiyāt'' ("prison poetry"). The genre has been described as the "medieval Islamic world's most aesthetically compelling corpus of texts dealing with incarceration".<ref name = "Gould">Gould, Rebecca, Wearing the Belt of Oppression: Khāqāni's Christian Qasida and the Prison Poetry of Medieval Shirvān, Journal of Persianate Studies, June 2016, Vol.9(1), pp.19-44</ref>
'''Khāqāni ''' ({{lang-fa|خاقانی}}) ({{circa|1120|lk=on}}{{efn-lr|Using the decipherment of the poet's chronogram and corroborating references in his Divān, scholars have proposed 514–15/1120–1121,{{sfn|Clinton|Vil'Čevskij|1969|p=101}} circa 519/1125,{{sfn|Minorsky|1945|p=572}} and 1127{{sfn|Iranica}} as the most probable dates for his birth.}} – {{circa}} 1199), was a major [[Persian people|Persian]]{{efn-lr|He is invariably described as a Persian by all scholarly sources used herein.{{sfn|Iranica}}{{sfn|Britannica}}{{sfn|Minorsky|1945|p=550}}{{sfn|Rypka|2011}}{{sfn|Clinton|Vil'Čevskij|1969|p=97}}{{sfn|Gould|2016}}}} [[poet]] and [[Prose|prose-writer]]. He was born in [[Transcaucasia]] in the historical region known as [[Shirvan]], where he served as an ode-writer to the [[Shirvanshah]]s. His fame most securely rests upon the [[Qasida#Persian|qasida]]s collected in his [[Diwan_(poetry)|Divān]], and his autobiographical travelogue ''Tohfat al-ʿErāqayn''. He is also notable for his exploration of the genre that later became known as ''habsiyāt'' ("prison poetry").


== Life ==
== Life ==
'''Afzāl al-dīn Ibrāhīm Khāqānī''',<ref name ="Clinton"/><ref name ="Minorsky" />{{rp|551}} more commonly '''Khaqani''', was born circa 1120 into the family of a carpenter in [[Shirvan]]. Khaqani's mother was originally a slave-girl of [[Nestorianism|Nestorian Christian]] faith who had converted to Islam. According to Khaqani, she was a descendant of "the great Philippus", which some scholars such as [[Vladimir Minorsky|Minorsky]] (1945) have interpreted as meaning [[Philip the Arab|Marcus Julius Philippus]].<ref name ="Minorsky"/>{{rp|574}} The poet himself had a remarkable knowledge of [[Christianity]], and his poetry is profused with Christian imagery and symbols. Khaqani lost his father at an early age and was brought up by his uncle, Omar Uthmān, a doctor and astronomer at the [[Shirvanshah]]'s court. Later in life, Khaqani wrote a poem in his praise, in which he used the similarity of his uncle's name and that of [[Omar Khayyam]] to compare their virtues.<ref name = "Aminrazavi">Razavi, M. A. (2007). The wine of wisdom: The life, poetry and philosophy of Omar Khayyam. Oxford: Oneworld.</ref>{{rp|49}} He was a pupil of the famed poet Abul-Ala Ganjavi who introduced him to the court of [[Manuchihr III of Shirvan|Manuchihr III]]. He married the daughter of Abul-Ala.
'''Afzal al-dīn Badil ibn ʿAli ibn ʿOthmān''', more commonly '''Khāqānī''', was born into the family of a carpenter in [[Shirvan]].{{sfn|Iranica}} Khaqani's mother was originally a slave-girl of [[Nestorianism|Nestorian Christian]] faith who had converted to Islam. According to Khaqani, she was a descendant of "the great Philippus", which some scholars such as [[Vladimir Minorsky|Minorsky]] (1945) have interpreted as meaning [[Philip the Arab|Marcus Julius Philippus]].{{sfn|Minorsky|1945|p=574}} Khaqani lost his father at an early age and was brought up by his uncle, Kāfi-al-Din ʿOmar, a physician. Later in life, Khaqani wrote a poem in his praise, in which he used the similarity of his uncle's name and that of [[Omar Khayyam]] to compare their virtues.{{sfn|Aminrazavi|2011|p=49}}


Khaqani may have been a [[child prodigy]], since several of his poems can be dated to his early youth, indicating that he had become the eulogist of [[Manuchihr III of Shirvan|Manuchihr III]] at an early age. In his early youth, Khaqani wrote under the [[pen name]] ''Haqaiʿqi'' ("Seeker"). The Shirvanshahs bore the title ''Khaqan'', from which he later derived the pen name, ''Khaqani'' ("regal").{{sfn|Rypka|2011}} Some traditional stories describe him as being the pupil and son-in-law of the famed poet Abul-Ala Ganjavi, however, this is not corroborated by Khaqani's own writings.{{sfn|Iranica}}
⚫
Khaqani in his youth decided to embark on a pilgrimage to [[Mecca]], against the wishes of his ruler and patron. In his first attempt to depart Shirvan, he was captured by Manuchehr's henchmen in the nearby [[Beylagan]]. Charged with being insubordinate, he was imprisoned for a period of 5<ref name ="Gould"/>{{rp|21}} or 7<ref name ="Minorsky"/>{{rp|561}} months in an ancient fortress in [[Shabaran]], near [[Derbent|Darband]]. Khaqani was condemned to a number of subsequent imprisonments, until in 1156-7 he succeeded in escaping and setting out on a lengthy expedition through the Middle East.<ref name ="Minorsky"/>{{rp|550}} His travels gave him material for his famous work ''Tuhfat al-‘Irāqayn'' (''A Gift from the Two Iraqs''; in reference to western Iran ('Persian Iraq') and Mesopotamia ('Arabic Iraq')).<ref name="Rypka"/> This book serves as an autobiography and also presents his impressions of the Middle East. The work contains his famous qasida ''The Portals at Madāʾen'', in which the contemplation of the ruins of the Sassanid Palace near [[Ctesiphon]], according to Beelaert (2010) "elicits a warning about the transience of royal courts".


⚫
Khaqani in his youth decided to embark on a pilgrimage to [[Mecca]], against the wishes of his ruler and patron. In his first attempt to depart Shirvan, he was captured by Manuchehr's henchmen in the nearby [[Beylagan]]. Charged with being insubordinate, he was imprisoned for a period of 5{{sfn|Gould|2016|p=21}} or 7{{sfn|Minorsky|1945|p=561}} months in an ancient fortress in [[Shabaran]], near [[Derbent|Darband]]. Khaqani was condemned to a number of subsequent imprisonments, until in 1156-7 he succeeded in escaping and setting out on a lengthy expedition through the Middle East.{{sfn|Minorsky|1945|p=550}} His travels gave him material for his famous work ''Tuhfat al-‘Irāqayn'' (''A Gift from the Two Iraqs''; in reference to western Iran ('Persian Iraq') and Mesopotamia ('Arabic Iraq')).{{sfn|Rypka|2011}} He also composed his famous qasida ''The Portals at Madāʾen'', in which the contemplation of the ruins of the Sassanid Palace near [[Ctesiphon]], according to Beelaert (2010) "elicits a warning about the transience of royal courts."{{sfn|Iranica}}
⚫
Upon his return, Khaqani was immediately detained by Manuchihr's successor [[Akhsitan I]]. To memorialize his incarceration in verse, Khaqani composed some of his most powerful anti-feudal poems in a genre that will later become known as ''habsiyāt'' (prison poetry). In total, five of his poems describe his ordeal in prison. One of the poems, widely known as the "Christian" qasida, is considered by Gould (2016) to be "one of his boldest acts of literary rebellion".<ref name ="Gould" /> Minorsky (1945) identified [[Andronikos I Komnenos|Andronicus Comnenus]] as the patron to whom Khaqani addressed this poem along with another one of the prison poems.<ref name ="Minorsky" />


⚫
Upon his return, Khaqani was immediately detained by Manuchihr's successor [[Akhsitan I]]. To memorialize his incarceration in verse, Khaqani composed his most powerful anti-feudal poems in a genre that will later become known as ''habsiyāt'' (prison poetry). In total, five of his poems describe his ordeal in prison. One of the poems, widely known as the "Christian" qasida, is considered by Gould (2016) to be "one of his boldest acts of literary rebellion".{{sfn|Gould|2016}} Minorsky (1945) identified [[Andronikos I Komnenos|Andronicus Comnenus]] as the patron to whom Khaqani addressed this poem.{{sfn|Minorsky|1945}}
⚫
Between 1173–1175, Khaqani composed odes in honor of the Shirvan victory over the [[Kievan Rus'|Russians]], in which he reports the locations and details of the operations including the destruction of 73 Russian ships.<ref name ="Minorsky" /><ref name ="Clinton"/>{{rp|98}} About the same time, Khaqani went on a second pilgrimage, after which he and his family settled at [[Tabriz]], where his personal life was filled with tragedy. First his son died young, then his daughter and then his wife. Khaqani composed elegies lamenting the death of all three. According to the gravestone in Tabriz, Khaqani died in [[Shawwal]] 595, corresponding to July 1199.<ref name ="Clinton"/>{{rp|97}}

⚫
Between 1173–1175, Khaqani composed odes in honor of the Shirvan victory over the [[Kievan Rus'|Russians]], in which he reports the locations and details of the operations, including the destruction of 73 Russian ships.{{sfn|Minorsky|1945|p=558}}{{sfn|Clinton|Vil'Čevskij|1969|p=98}} His personal life at this time was filled with tragedy. He suffered several family bereavements, including the death of his first wife, and his young son, Rashid-al-Din. Khaqani composed elegies lamenting their deaths. About the same time, Khaqani went on a second pilgrimage, after which he retired from court life to settle at [[Tabriz]]. According to accounts of him in various biographical works on poets, the date of his death ranges from 1186 to 1199.{{sfn|Iranica}} According to the gravestone in Tabriz, Khaqani died in [[Shawwal]] 595, corresponding to July 1199.{{sfn|Clinton|Vil'Čevskij|1969|p=97}}


== Work and legacy ==
== Work and legacy ==
[[File:Khagani Shirvani stamp.jpg|thumbnail|right|1997 Azerbaijani stamp of the Persian poet Khaqani]]
[[File:Khagani Shirvani stamp.jpg|thumbnail|right|1997 Azerbaijani stamp of the Persian poet Khaqani]]


Khaqani's Divān contains qasidas (both [[panegyrics]] and non-panegyric odes), tarjiʿāt (strophic poems), [[ghazal]]s (profane love poems), and [[rubaʿi]]s (quatrains). His other famous work, ''Tohfat al-ʿErāqayn'', is a [[Mathnawi_(poetic_form)|mathnawi]] and was originally titled ''Khatm al-gharāʾeb'' ("Curious Rarities").<ref name="Rypka"/> Beelaert notes that, although the work is a mathnawi, it exhibits more affinities with his other qasidas.<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/> His surviving prose works include the prose introduction to the aforementioned mathnawi, and approximately sixty letters attributed to him.
Khaqani's Divān contains qasidas (both [[panegyrics]] and non-panegyric odes), tarjiʿāt (strophic poems), [[ghazal]]s (profane love poems), and [[rubaʿi]]s (quatrains). His other famous work, ''Tohfat al-ʿErāqayn'', originally titled ''Khatm al-gharāʾeb'' ("Curious Rarities"), is written in couplet form ([[Mathnawi_(poetic_form)|mathnawi]]) and is over three thousand verses long.{{sfn|Rypka|2011}}{{sfn|Iranica}} This book serves as an autobiography and also presents his impressions of the Middle East. Beelaert notes that, although the work is a mathnawi, it exhibits more affinities with his other qasidas.{{sfn|Iranica}} His surviving prose works include the prose introduction to the aforementioned mathnawi, and approximately sixty letters attributed to him.{{sfn|Iranica}}


Khaqani lived within a partly Christian milieu, and according to Beelaert, he was "a product of the culturally complex milieu of the Caucasus."{{sfn|Iranica}} He established friendly contact with Byzantine, Armenian and Georgian royalty. His poetry is sometimes profused with Christian imagery and symbols,{{sfn|Britannica}} and according to Lewis (2009), he "imbues his Christian images with a positive aura and an insider's knowledge of [[Christianity]]."{{sfn|Lewis|2009}}
⚫
It is often believed that Khaqani's complex mode of expression has often been an obstacle to a full appreciation of his poetical value.<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/> Much of his poetry is considered to be abstruse, exhibiting a vast range of vocabulary and an abundance of [[play-on-words]]. According to Minorsky the poems "bristle with rare words, unusual similes and allusions to astrology, medicine, theology, history, to say nothing of the numerous hints concerning happenings of the poet's own life and time".<ref name ="Minorsky"/>{{rp|550}} [[Ali Dashti]] referred to him as "the inaccessible poet" and contrasted the difficulty of Khaqani's poems to the simplicity of [[Saadi Shirazi|Saadi]]'s poetry.<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/>


⚫
It is often believed that Khaqani's complex mode of expression has often been an obstacle to a full appreciation of his poetical value.{{sfn|Iranica}} Much of his poetry is considered to be abstruse, exhibiting a vast range of vocabulary and an abundance of [[play-on-words]]. According to Minorsky the poems "bristle with rare words, unusual similes and allusions to astrology, medicine, theology, history, to say nothing of the numerous hints concerning happenings of the poet's own life and time".{{sfn|Minorsky|1945|p=550}} [[Ali Dashti]] referred to him as "the inaccessible poet" and contrasted the difficulty of Khaqani's poems to the simplicity of [[Saadi Shirazi|Saadi]]'s poetry.{{sfn|Iranica}}
In his youth, Khaqani wrote under the pen-name ''Haqaiʿqi'' ("Seeker"). After he had been invited to the court of Manuchihr III, he assumed the pen-name of ''Khaqani'' ("regal").<ref name="Rypka"/> The naʿtiyas (poetry in praise of Prophet Muhammad) written at the time when his literary talent had reached its peak, procured him the title ''Hassān'l-Aʿjam'' ("The Persian Hassān"). [[Hassan ibn Thabit]] being a famous Arabic poet who composed panegyrics in praise of Prophet Muhammad, Khaqani's title is reference to the fact that he was the Persian Hassan.<ref name="Rypka"/> He claimed to become a speaker of [[Georgian language]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia|last=Rayfield|first=Donald|publisher=Reaktion Books|year=2012|isbn=1780230303|location=London|page=94|author-link=Donald Rayfield}}</ref> and produced an ode in which he praised King [[Demetrius I of Georgia]].<ref>{{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|title=Khāqānī|last=Kazhdan|first=Alexander|authorlink=|url=|volume=|page=1126|pages=}}</ref>


It is believed that the work of figures such as [[Omar Khayyam]]<ref name ="Aminrazavi"/>, [[al-Maʿarri]], [[Unsuri]], [[Masud Sa'd Salman]], and [[Sanai]] were parts of Khaqani's literary background.<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/> In turn, his work influenced such men as [[Nezami Ganjavi]], [[Jami]], and likely Saadi and [[Hafez]]. According to [[Jan Rypka]]: "A Master of the language, a poet possessing both intellect and heart, who fled from the outer world to the inner world, a personality who did not conform to type - all this places him in the front ranks of [[Persian literature]]".<ref name="Rypka"/>
Khaqani is widely considered to be a major Persian language poet.{{efn-lr|He is, for example, referred to as a "major" poet by Beelaert{{sfn|Iranica}} and Vil'Čevskij,{{sfn|Clinton|Vil'Čevskij|1969|p=97}} and "one of the greatest Persian poets" by Minorsky,{{sfn|Minorsky|1945|p=550}} and Rypka considers him one of the great masters of the Persian tongue.{{sfn|Rypka|2011}}}} His habsiyāt ("prison poetry") is considered one of the finest of its kind.{{sfn|Britannica}} The genre has been described as the "medieval Islamic world's most aesthetically compelling corpus of texts dealing with incarceration."{{sfn|Gould|2016}} The naʿtiyas (poetry in praise of Prophet Muhammad) procured him the title ''Hassān'l-Aʿjam'' ("The Persian Hassān"). [[Hassan ibn Thabit]] being a famous Arabic poet who composed panegyrics in praise of Prophet Muhammad, Khaqani's title is reference to the fact that he was the Persian Hassan.{{sfn|Rypka|2011}} It is believed that the work of figures such as [[Omar Khayyam]], [[al-Maʿarri]], [[Unsuri]], [[Masud Sa'd Salman]], and [[Sanai]] were parts of Khaqani's literary background. In turn, his work influenced such men as [[Nezami Ganjavi]], [[Jami]], and likely Saadi and [[Hafez]].{{sfn|Iranica}} According to [[Jan Rypka]]: "A Master of the language, a poet possessing both intellect and heart, who fled from the outer world to the inner world, a personality who did not conform to type — all this places him in the front ranks of [[Persian literature]]".{{sfn|Rypka|2011}}

⚫
==References==
===Footnotes===
{{notelist-lr}}
===Citations===
{{reflist|2}}
===Bibliography===

* {{cite web |last1=Beelaert |first1=Anna Livia |title=ḴĀQĀNI ŠERVĀNI |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kaqani-servani |website=Encyclopædia Iranica |accessdate=30 October 2019|ref=CITEREFIranica}}

* {{cite journal|last1=Minorsky|first1=V.|title= Khāqānī and Andronicus Comnenus.|journal= Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|year=1945|volume=11|issue=3|pages=550–578|jstor=609336| ref=harv}}

* {{cite journal|last1=Clinton|first1=Jerome W.|last2=Vil'Čevskij|first2=O. L. |title= The Chronograms of Khaqani.|journal= Iranian Studies|year=1969|volume=2|issue=2/3|pages=97–105|jstor=4310036| ref=harv}}

* {{cite journal|last1=Gould|first1=Rebecca|title= Wearing the Belt of Oppression: Khāqāni's Christian Qasida and the Prison Poetry of Medieval Shirvān|journal= Journal of Persianate Studies|year=2016|volume=9|issue=1|pages=19-44| ref=harv}}

* {{cite web |title=Khaqani |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Khaqani |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=27 October 2019| ref=CITEREFBritannica}}

* {{cite book |last1=Rypka |first1=Jan |title=History of Iranian Literature |year=2011 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9789401034814| ref=harv}}

* {{cite book |last1=Aminrazavi |first1=Mehdi |title=The Wine Of Wisdom |year=2011 |publisher=Oneworld Publications |isbn=978-9695191385| ref=harv}}

* {{cite journal|last1=Lewis|first1=Franklin|title= Sexual Occidentation: The Politics of Conversion, Christian-love and Boy-love in 'Attār.|journal= Iranian Studies|year=2009|volume=42|issue=5|pages=693-723| jstor=40646791| ref=harv}}


==See also==
==See also==
Line 39: Line 64:
*[[Shirvanshah]]
*[[Shirvanshah]]
*[[Persian poetry]]
*[[Persian poetry]]

⚫
==References==
* Jan Rypka, ''History of Iranian Literature''. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968 {{OCLC|460598}}. {{ISBN|90-277-0143-1}}
* Anna Livia Beelaert, "Khaqani Sherwani" in Encyclopوdia Iranica [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kaqani-servani-major-persian-poet]
*R. Saberi ''A Thousand Years of Persian Rubaiyat: An Anthology of Quatrains from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century Along With the Original Persian'' (Paperback) by Reza Saberi (Editor, Translator)
*Anna Livia Beelaert, "Khaqani Sherwani" in Encyclopوdia Iranica [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kaqani-servani-major-persian-poet]
*Rebecca Ruth Gould, "The Political Cosmology of Prison Poetics: Khāqānī of Shirwān on Muslim–Christian Difference," Literature Compass 11.7 (2014): 496–515.

==Notes==
:a.{{Note|Notea}}He is invariably described as a Persian poet by all scholarly sources such as: <ref name="Donzel1994">{{cite book|last1=Donzel|first1=E. J. van|title=Islamic Desk Reference|date=1 January 1994|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-09738-4|page=205|quote=Khaqani, Afdal al-Din Ibrahim: outstanding Persian poet from Shirwan; 1126-1199. He is known for having created a new type of qasida* for his panegyrics, but above all for his ascetic Sufi poetry.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/islamicdeskrefer00donz_0}}</ref><ref name="Robert T. Lambdin 2000. pg 134"/><ref name="Reinert, B 2009"/><ref name="iranicaonline.org"/><ref name="Annemarie Schimmel 2004. pg 260"/><ref name="Lloyd V. J 2001. pg 123"/><ref name="Khaqani"/><ref name ="Minorsky" /><ref name ="Clinton"/>
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Robert T. Lambdin 2000. pg 134">Robert T. Lambdin, Laura C. Lambdin, ''Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. pg 134: "The Twelfth century Persian Khaqani Sharvani wrote a poem entitled "The Language of the Birds" apparently related to the better-known work of his Persian contemporary Farid Ud-Din Attar, the '''Conference of the Birds'''</ref><ref name="Reinert, B 2009">Reinert, B. "Ḵh̲āḳānī , afḍal al-dīn ibrāhīm (Badīl) b. ʿalī b. ʿut̲h̲mān." ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2009. Brill Online. Excerpt: ", outstanding Persian poet, born about 520/1126, d. 595/1199, who left a diwan , the mathnawi called Tuhfat al-Irāqayn and sixty letters. "</ref><ref name="iranicaonline.org">Anna Livia Beelaert, "Khaqani Sherwani" in Encyclopedia Iranica: "ḴĀQĀNI ٹERVĀNI (or ٹarvāni), AF¯AL-AL-DIN BADIL B. ʿALI B. ʿOṮMĀN, a major Persian poet and prose writer (b. ٹervān, ca. 521/1127; d. Tabriz, between 582/1186-87 and 595/1199). " [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kaqani-servani][http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kaqani-servani-poet]</ref><ref name="Annemarie Schimmel 2004. pg 260">Annemarie Schimmel, Burzine K. Waghmar , ''The empire of the great Mughals: history, art and culture'', Reaktion Books, 2004. pg 260: "The poet call this portrayal 'Fragrant Bouquet,' ''Dastanbu'', a word user by the Persian poet Khaqani (died 1199) in a poem of praise to spouse of his patron"</ref><ref name="Lloyd V. J 2001. pg 123">Lloyd V. J. Ridgeon, ''Islamic interpretations of Christianity'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. pg 123: "Quatrain attributed to the Persian poet Khaqani (d. 1200)</ref><ref name="Khaqani">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/316348/Khaqani Khaqani] in [[Encyclopedia Britannica]]:"Persian poet, whose importance rests mainly on his brilliant court poems, satires, and epigrams."</ref>
}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Khaqani}}
*[http://rira.ir/rira/php/?page=view&mod=classicpoems&obj=poet&id=17 Khaqani's works in original Persian] at [[RiRa|RiRa—The Persian Digital Library]]


{{Persian literature}}
{{Persian literature}}

Revision as of 07:47, 31 October 2019

Khaqani
خاقانی
BornBetween 1120 and 1127
Shirvan
DiedBetween 1186-87 and 1199
Tabriz
Literary movementHabsiyāt (prison poetry)
Notable worksDivān, Tuhfat al-‘Irāqayn

Khāqāni (Persian: خاقانی) (c. 1120[i] – c. 1199), was a major Persian[ii] poet and prose-writer. He was born in Transcaucasia in the historical region known as Shirvan, where he served as an ode-writer to the Shirvanshahs. His fame most securely rests upon the qasidas collected in his Divān, and his autobiographical travelogue Tohfat al-ʿErāqayn. He is also notable for his exploration of the genre that later became known as habsiyāt ("prison poetry").

Life

Afzal al-dīn Badil ibn ʿAli ibn ʿOthmān, more commonly Khāqānī, was born into the family of a carpenter in Shirvan.[3] Khaqani's mother was originally a slave-girl of Nestorian Christian faith who had converted to Islam. According to Khaqani, she was a descendant of "the great Philippus", which some scholars such as Minorsky (1945) have interpreted as meaning Marcus Julius Philippus.[9] Khaqani lost his father at an early age and was brought up by his uncle, Kāfi-al-Din ʿOmar, a physician. Later in life, Khaqani wrote a poem in his praise, in which he used the similarity of his uncle's name and that of Omar Khayyam to compare their virtues.[10]

Khaqani may have been a child prodigy, since several of his poems can be dated to his early youth, indicating that he had become the eulogist of Manuchihr III at an early age. In his early youth, Khaqani wrote under the pen name Haqaiʿqi ("Seeker"). The Shirvanshahs bore the title Khaqan, from which he later derived the pen name, Khaqani ("regal").[6] Some traditional stories describe him as being the pupil and son-in-law of the famed poet Abul-Ala Ganjavi, however, this is not corroborated by Khaqani's own writings.[3]

Khaqani in his youth decided to embark on a pilgrimage to Mecca, against the wishes of his ruler and patron. In his first attempt to depart Shirvan, he was captured by Manuchehr's henchmen in the nearby Beylagan. Charged with being insubordinate, he was imprisoned for a period of 5[11] or 7[12] months in an ancient fortress in Shabaran, near Darband. Khaqani was condemned to a number of subsequent imprisonments, until in 1156-7 he succeeded in escaping and setting out on a lengthy expedition through the Middle East.[5] His travels gave him material for his famous work Tuhfat al-‘Irāqayn (A Gift from the Two Iraqs; in reference to western Iran ('Persian Iraq') and Mesopotamia ('Arabic Iraq')).[6] He also composed his famous qasida The Portals at Madāʾen, in which the contemplation of the ruins of the Sassanid Palace near Ctesiphon, according to Beelaert (2010) "elicits a warning about the transience of royal courts."[3]

Upon his return, Khaqani was immediately detained by Manuchihr's successor Akhsitan I. To memorialize his incarceration in verse, Khaqani composed his most powerful anti-feudal poems in a genre that will later become known as habsiyāt (prison poetry). In total, five of his poems describe his ordeal in prison. One of the poems, widely known as the "Christian" qasida, is considered by Gould (2016) to be "one of his boldest acts of literary rebellion".[8] Minorsky (1945) identified Andronicus Comnenus as the patron to whom Khaqani addressed this poem.[13]

Between 1173–1175, Khaqani composed odes in honor of the Shirvan victory over the Russians, in which he reports the locations and details of the operations, including the destruction of 73 Russian ships.[14][15] His personal life at this time was filled with tragedy. He suffered several family bereavements, including the death of his first wife, and his young son, Rashid-al-Din. Khaqani composed elegies lamenting their deaths. About the same time, Khaqani went on a second pilgrimage, after which he retired from court life to settle at Tabriz. According to accounts of him in various biographical works on poets, the date of his death ranges from 1186 to 1199.[3] According to the gravestone in Tabriz, Khaqani died in Shawwal 595, corresponding to July 1199.[7]

Work and legacy

1997 Azerbaijani stamp of the Persian poet Khaqani

Khaqani's Divān contains qasidas (both panegyrics and non-panegyric odes), tarjiʿāt (strophic poems), ghazals (profane love poems), and rubaʿis (quatrains). His other famous work, Tohfat al-ʿErāqayn, originally titled Khatm al-gharāʾeb ("Curious Rarities"), is written in couplet form (mathnawi) and is over three thousand verses long.[6][3] This book serves as an autobiography and also presents his impressions of the Middle East. Beelaert notes that, although the work is a mathnawi, it exhibits more affinities with his other qasidas.[3] His surviving prose works include the prose introduction to the aforementioned mathnawi, and approximately sixty letters attributed to him.[3]

Khaqani lived within a partly Christian milieu, and according to Beelaert, he was "a product of the culturally complex milieu of the Caucasus."[3] He established friendly contact with Byzantine, Armenian and Georgian royalty. His poetry is sometimes profused with Christian imagery and symbols,[4] and according to Lewis (2009), he "imbues his Christian images with a positive aura and an insider's knowledge of Christianity."[16]

It is often believed that Khaqani's complex mode of expression has often been an obstacle to a full appreciation of his poetical value.[3] Much of his poetry is considered to be abstruse, exhibiting a vast range of vocabulary and an abundance of play-on-words. According to Minorsky the poems "bristle with rare words, unusual similes and allusions to astrology, medicine, theology, history, to say nothing of the numerous hints concerning happenings of the poet's own life and time".[5] Ali Dashti referred to him as "the inaccessible poet" and contrasted the difficulty of Khaqani's poems to the simplicity of Saadi's poetry.[3]

Khaqani is widely considered to be a major Persian language poet.[iii] His habsiyāt ("prison poetry") is considered one of the finest of its kind.[4] The genre has been described as the "medieval Islamic world's most aesthetically compelling corpus of texts dealing with incarceration."[8] The naʿtiyas (poetry in praise of Prophet Muhammad) procured him the title Hassān'l-Aʿjam ("The Persian Hassān"). Hassan ibn Thabit being a famous Arabic poet who composed panegyrics in praise of Prophet Muhammad, Khaqani's title is reference to the fact that he was the Persian Hassan.[6] It is believed that the work of figures such as Omar Khayyam, al-Maʿarri, Unsuri, Masud Sa'd Salman, and Sanai were parts of Khaqani's literary background. In turn, his work influenced such men as Nezami Ganjavi, Jami, and likely Saadi and Hafez.[3] According to Jan Rypka: "A Master of the language, a poet possessing both intellect and heart, who fled from the outer world to the inner world, a personality who did not conform to type — all this places him in the front ranks of Persian literature".[6]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Using the decipherment of the poet's chronogram and corroborating references in his Divān, scholars have proposed 514–15/1120–1121,[1] circa 519/1125,[2] and 1127[3] as the most probable dates for his birth.
  2. ^ He is invariably described as a Persian by all scholarly sources used herein.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
  3. ^ He is, for example, referred to as a "major" poet by Beelaert[3] and Vil'Čevskij,[7] and "one of the greatest Persian poets" by Minorsky,[5] and Rypka considers him one of the great masters of the Persian tongue.[6]

Citations

  1. ^ Clinton & Vil'Čevskij 1969, p. 101.
  2. ^ Minorsky 1945, p. 572.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Iranica.
  4. ^ a b c Britannica.
  5. ^ a b c d Minorsky 1945, p. 550.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Rypka 2011.
  7. ^ a b c Clinton & Vil'Čevskij 1969, p. 97.
  8. ^ a b c Gould 2016.
  9. ^ Minorsky 1945, p. 574.
  10. ^ Aminrazavi 2011, p. 49.
  11. ^ Gould 2016, p. 21.
  12. ^ Minorsky 1945, p. 561.
  13. ^ Minorsky 1945.
  14. ^ Minorsky 1945, p. 558.
  15. ^ Clinton & Vil'Čevskij 1969, p. 98.
  16. ^ Lewis 2009.

Bibliography

  • Beelaert, Anna Livia. "ḴĀQĀNI ŠERVĀNI". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  • Minorsky, V. (1945). "Khāqānī and Andronicus Comnenus". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 11 (3): 550–578. JSTOR 609336. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Clinton, Jerome W.; Vil'Čevskij, O. L. (1969). "The Chronograms of Khaqani". Iranian Studies. 2 (2/3): 97–105. JSTOR 4310036. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Gould, Rebecca (2016). "Wearing the Belt of Oppression: Khāqāni's Christian Qasida and the Prison Poetry of Medieval Shirvān". Journal of Persianate Studies. 9 (1): 19–44. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • "Khaqani". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  • Lewis, Franklin (2009). "Sexual Occidentation: The Politics of Conversion, Christian-love and Boy-love in 'Attār". Iranian Studies. 42 (5): 693–723. JSTOR 40646791. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

See also

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