Khaqani

File:Afzal al-din badil khaghani statue-tabriz.jpg

Sculpture of Khaqani in Tabriz, Iran.

Khāqāni or Khāghāni (1121/1122,Shamakhi – 1190,Tabriz) (Persian: خاقانی) was a Persian^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] poet. He was born in the historical region known as Shirvan (located now in present country of Azerbaijan), under the Shirvanshah (a vassal of the Seljuq empire) and died in Tabriz, Iran.

Life

Khaghani (real name, Afzaladdin Badil (Ibrahim) ibn Ali Nadjar)^[6] was born into the family of a carpenter in Melgem, a village near Shamakhy. Khaghani lost his father at an early age and was brought up by his uncle, Kafi-eddin Umar Shervani, a doctor and astronomer at the Shirvanshah’s court, who for seven years (until his death) acted "both as nurse and tutor" to Khaghani. Khaghani's mother, originally of Nestorian faith, later accepted Islam. The poet himself had a remarkable knowledge of Christianity, and his poetry is profused with Christian imagery and symbols. He was also taught by his cousin (son of Kafi-eddin Umar) in philosophy. His master in poetry was the famous Abul-Ala Ganjavi who introduced him to the court of Khaqan Manuchehr Shirvanshah and Khaqani got his title from this king. He also married daughter of Abul-Ala.

Work and legacy

In his youth, Khaghani wrote under the pen-name Haqai'qi ("Seeker"). After he had been invited to the court of the Shirvanshah Abu'l Muzaffar Khaqan-i-Akbar Manuchiher the son of Faridun^[6], he assumed the pen-name of Khaghani ("regal"). The na'at (a specific type of poetry) written at the time when his literary talent had reached its peak, procured him the title Hassān'l-A'jam (The Persian Hassān)(حسان العجم)^[6]. Hassan ibn Thabit being a famous Arabic poet, Khaqani's title is reference to the fact that he was the Persian Hassan.

As well as Diwān^[6], Khāqāni left some letters and a lesser known 'Ajaibu l-Gharyib (Curious Rarities)^[6]. The life of a court poet palled on him, and he "fled from the iron cage where he felt like a bird with a broken wing" and set off a journey about the Middle East. His travels gave him material for his famous poem Tohfat-ul Iraqein (in Persian: تحفه العراقين meaning A Gift from the Two Iraqs), the two Iraqs being 'Persian Iraq' (western Iran) and 'Arabic Iraq' (Mesopotamia))^[6]. This book supplies us with a good deal of material for his biography and in which he described his impressions of the Middle East. He also wrote his famous qasida The Arch of Madain (in Persian: ايوان مداين) beautifully painting his sorrow and impression of the remains of Sassanid's Palace near the Ctesiphon.

On return home, Khaghani broke off with the court of the Shirvanshah’s, and Shah Akhsitan gave order for his imprisonment. It was in prison that Khaghani wrote one of his most powerful anti-feudal poems called Habsiyye (Prison Poem). Upon release he moved with his family to Tabriz where fate dealt with him one tragic blow after another: first his young son died, then his daughter and then his wife. Khagani was left all alone, and he soon too died in Tabriz. He was buried at the Poet’s Cemetery in Surkhab Neighbourhood of Tabriz.

Khaghani left a remarkable Persian-language heritage which includes some magnificent odes-distiches of as many as three hundred lines with the same rhyme, melodious ghazals, dramatic poems protesting against oppression and glorifying reason and toil, and elegies lamenting the death of his children, his wife and his relatives.

According to the late 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].

Some of the quatrains of Khaqani are also recorded in the book Nozhat al-Majales.

Sample Rubaiyat (Quatrains)

Persian original:

مرغی که نوای درد راند عشق است

پيکی که زبان غيب داند عشق است

هستی که به نيستيت خواند عشق است

وآنچ از تو ترا باز رهاند عشق است

English translation by R. Saberi:

The bird that sings the song of pain is love

The courier who knows the tongue of the Unseen is love

The existence that call you to nonexistence is love

And that which redeems you from you is love

Persian Original:

دانی ز جهان چه طرف بربستم هيچ

وز حاصل ايام چه در دستم هيچ

شمع خردم ولی چو بنشستم هيچ

آن جام جمم ولی چون بشکستم هيچ

English Translation by R. Saberi:

Do you know what I benefitted from this world? Nothing

And what I gained from the days of life? Nothing

I am a candle of wisdom; but when extinguished, nothing

I am the cup of Jamshid; but when broken nothing

References

Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968 OCLC 460598. ISBN 90-277-0143-1
Anna Livia Beelaert, "Khaqani Sherwani" in Encyclopedia Iranica [2]
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 Encyclopedia Iranica [3]

Notes

^ Robert T. Lambdin, Laura C. Lambdin, Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. pg 134: "The Twelfth century Persian Khaqani Shirvani 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
^ 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. "
^ Anna Livia Beelaert, "Khaqani Sherwani" in Encyclopedia Iranica [1]
^ 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"
^ Lloyd V. J. Ridgeon, Islamic interpretations of Christianity, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. pg 123: "Quatrain attributed to the Persian poet Khaqani (d. 1200)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968. pp 203-208.

External links

Khaqani's works in original Persian at RiRa—The Persian Digital Library

[1] Robert T. Lambdin, Laura C. Lambdin, Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. pg 134: "The Twelfth century Persian Khaqani Shirvani 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

[2] 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. "

[3] Anna Livia Beelaert, "Khaqani Sherwani" in Encyclopedia Iranica [1]

[4] 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"

[5] Lloyd V. J. Ridgeon, Islamic interpretations of Christianity, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. pg 123: "Quatrain attributed to the Persian poet Khaqani (d. 1200)

[Rypka-6] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968. pp 203-208.

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