a hymn, a chant, a piece of vocal music.

The root term ” N-SH-D ” refers to a search for a lost object.

Anshada means to recite poetry.

The term Nashid itself considered as referring to the raising of the human voice , probably took on its musical connotation at the time when the melodius recitation of poetry in public became fashionable.

The term as it appears in literature relating to music from the 9th century onwards denotes , in addition to its general sense of singing , various forms associated with scholarly music.

This type of Nashid is placed at the head of avocal composition – a prelude leading to the main theme. It has different lengths.

The author of Kitab al Aghani states that Isaq al Mawsili ” began the song with a Nashid followed a Basit: he employed in it the technique of octavation , he included a refrain , and all this in the singing of only 4 words. Therefore, the Nashid developing on one or two words constituted a type of metrical character following the specifications of Al Farabi and other later authors.

 

The sequence of Nashid, Basit etc appears in an extensive form of composition introduced into Spain by Ziryab ” It was established in al andalus that the one beginning a musical performance would intone the Nashid at the outset of his song ir respective of the rhythm , he would then bring in the Basit , and conclude with Muharrikat and Andzadj following the rules laid down by Ziryab.

Al Katib-in the 11th century AD- relates that al Kindi , ibn al Tayyib, and others declare that the ” Nashid ” consists of singing at the beginning of the speech which is not in verse , a number of words in an unspecified tempo , and that the ” istihalal ” consists of declaiming at the beginning of a song a single word in free rhythm.

Al Farabi ( in his Kitab al mausiki al kabir ) talks of different methods of commencing a song- talks of different methods of commencing a song – simple vocations, octaviation, and preludes based on the text of a song.

For Al Shirwami  , a 15th century (AD ) author , the nashid or nashid al arab is composed of 2 verses on free notes, then 2 others on timed note.

For him , the Basit is an isolated fragment sung on a heavy rhythm.

Mihyar b Marzawayh al daylami Abu `l-Husayn-

A poet who used the Arabic language , originally a Zoroastrian but becoming a convert to Islam in 1004AD at the hands of al Sharif al-Radi ( d.1016 AD ), dying in 1037.

The famous Shia poets and “nakib “of the descendants of the Prophet took charge of the4 education of this young protege. They naturally took care of  him also to teach him the rules of versification. He was protected by the Sharif and left behined an extensive Diwan. He copied his master and attempted almost all the genres of poetry.

Mihyar excelled in the ghazal , friendly or amorous reproach ( itab ) and the marthiya.

His poem where he laments the death of his master is considered to be a masterpiece is used as a basis of comparison. The Sunni scholars who condemned him for his conversion nevertheless consider his poetry to be of  ” extreme beauty “.

Ibn Taghribardi and also the Spaniard Ibn Bassam are said to have praised him highly.

I critic like Ali Dj al Tahir of the 20th century AD considers that the decline of the Arabic poetry begins after Mihyar and that the Saldjuk period is characterised by a tendency to imitation and even towards making a pastiche of l Rida and his pupil.

Abul Kasim Hassan b. Ahmed- a Persian poet at Ghaznavid Court during the early 11th century AD.

Probably born in Balkh probably born in Balkh , and was orphaned at an early age. He was introduced to the Sultans Court at Ghazna. He served Sultan Mohammed as his Amir ( Malik al Shuara )- supervising the poets at the Court. He became a rich man through his art. He and Rudaki are mentioned as the most successful Persian Court poets ever.

According to Dawlat Shah and Rida Kuli Khan he died in 1039 AD.

Dawlat Shah states that Unsuri wrote 30000 distichs. Little more then one tenth of his work has survived. There is little doubt about his influence on Persian poetry. However, Khakhani ( d.1199 ) AD criticised the one sidedness of Unsuris panegyrics because of his neglect of loftier themes favoured by later poets.

Also by the 13th century AD the kasidas of Anwari instead of Unsuri became the most important source of examples for the use of rhetorical figures.

He was appreciated again , during the 18th and 20th centuries, as a major representative of the Khurasani style. However, since then he has been criticised as too rational and also of adding little to poetry.

He wrote mainly Kasidas and Rubaiyas. Most panegyrics are dedicated to Sultan Mahmud. f his poems were rhetorical – sual wa djawab, and the enumeration of qualities in pairs- taksim al sifat. His themes are typical of Court poetry and include celebration of Sultan Mahmuds victories. Unsuri also wrote ANACRONTIC verse.

Awfi mentions 3 romantic “mathnawis ” dedicated  by Unsuri to Sultan Yamin al Dawla Mahmud, and named collectively “khizana Yamin al-Dawla ”

Since the 19th century the Diwan has been printed several times.

Djalal Ud Din Rumi b.Baha` al Din Sultan Ul Ulama Walad b Husayn b Ahmad Khatibi. Known by the sobriquet Mawlana ( Mevlana ), Persian poet and founder of the Mawlawiyya order od dervishes, which was named after him, was born on 30 September 1207 ( AD ) in Konya.

His father whose sermons have been preserved and printed ( Ma`arif . Madjmua i Mawaiz wa sukhanan i sultan al ulama Baha al din Muhammad b husayni khatibi i Balkhi masshur ba bahai i walad ) was a preacher in Balkh.
According to the biographical sources he left Balkh because of a dispute with the Khwarizmshah Ala al Din Muhammad and his son Fakhr al Jalal al din al Razi ( d.1209 AD), and when his son Djalal ud Din was 5 years old , ie, in 1213, emigrated to the west.

In the year 1228 AD, at the request of the Saldjuk Prince Ala al Din Kaykubad , the family moved to Konya , where Baha al-din Walad died in 1231. A year after his death Sayyid Burhan al din Muhakkik, an old pupil of his, came to Konya to visit his former master, but found that he was no longer alive. Djalal ud Din became a student of Sayyid Burhan al din until the latters death nine years later.
Buhar al Din, however, withdrew to Kayseri after some time and died there most probably in 1239 AD.

According to Aflaki, Maulana Rumi went to Aleppo and Damascus after the arrival of the Sayyid to complete his studies. Burhan al Din is supposed to have made him aware that his father possessed learning that could be won not through study but through inner experience. After the death of Burhan al din, Rumi was alone for 5 years. On Friday 26th November 1244AD, the wandering dervish Shams al din Muhammad Tabrizi came to Konya and put up in the ` khan `of the sugar merchants.

Rumi met and talked to him; Shams asked him about the meaning of the saying of Bayazid Bistami, Rumi gave him the answer. The appearance of Tabrizi made a decisive chandge in the life of Maulana. In the Sufi manner, he fell in love with the dervish and took him into his home.
Tabrizi constantly wore a black ( kulah ), and because of his restless wandering he was called “paranda ” ( the flier ).
Although as his “makalat ” show , he had the usual theological conceptions of his time , he tried to keep Maulana away from the study of books.

Shams Tabrizi is called in the sources ” sultan al mashukin “, ” price of the loved ones “, and Maulanas son, Sultan Walad, who knew Shams well, develops in the “Ibtidanama ” a theory that there is another class of ” lovers who have reached the goal ” ( ashikan i wasil ), besides the ” perfect saints ” ( awliya i kamil ). Beyond these there is another stage ( makam )- that of the beloved ( the masukh ). Until Shams appeared nobody had heard about this stage, and Shams had reached it. Shams showed Mawlana this way of Sufi love, and Maulana had to re learn everything from him.

Maulanas love for Shams i Tabrizi turned him into a poet , but at the same time caused him to neglect his students ( murids ) and dis regard everyone but Shams. The murids were enraged by this and maintained that they were more important then the foreign unknown dervish and are even said to have threatened Sham`s life. Thereupon Shams fled on 11th March 1246 ( AD ) to Damascus. But the murids did not achieve their end. Maulana was much disconcerted and sent his son Sultan Walad to Damascus. Shams could not resisit the spoken entreaties of Sultan Walad and the written poetical entries of Maulana, and returned on foot with Sultan Walad to Konya. But once again the murids began to murmur again and took pains to keep Shams away from Maulana. Shams is said to have declared and no one would be able to find him again. On 5th December 1247 Shams was murdered with the participation of Sultan Walads brother Ala al Din, and the corpse was thrown into a well and later found and buried by Sultan Walad, who mentions nothing of this murder in the “ibadatnama “, not wanting to make the family scandal public.

Shams` death was kept from Maulana, as he went to Damascus twice to look for him. His spiritual condition is depicted in touching verses by Sultan Walad ( Waladnama ): he became all the more a poet, devoted himself to listening to music and to dancing ( sama )to an extent that even his son obviously felt was immoderate , and found the lost Shams in himself. In most of his ghazals the takhalus is not his own name, but that of his mystic lover.

In the year 1249 AD Maulana announced that Shams had appeared to him again in the form of one of his murids, Salah al din Zarkub of Konya. He appointed the goldsmith, who was illiterate but distinguished by his handsomeness and pleasant character, as khalifa , and thus as the superior of the other murids. He himself wanted to retire from the offices of Shaykh and preacher. The murids found that Shams al din , the Tabrizi, had been more bearable than the uncultured goldsmiths apprentice from Konya, whom they had known from childhood. Plans were even made to murder him, and then revealed.

The murids noticed that the Maulana threatened to desert them completely, and they asked remorsefully for forgiveness. It may be assumed that the loyal attitude of Sultan Walad and the pleaseant personality of Salal al Din helped to surmount this crises. For ten years Salal al din filled the office of a deputy ( naib and khalifa ), then he became ill and died, according to the inscription on his sacrcophagus, in muharram 29th December 1258 (AD ).
His successor , Celebi Husam al din Hassan, was to be the inspirer of the Mathnawi. Husam al Din lived with the Maulana for ten years until until the latter`s death on 18th December 1273 and it was when Sultan Walad that the real history of the Order began. He founded the first branches of the order and helped it to gain greater respect. Already in the lifetime of Mawlana the members of the order had the title Mawlawi. At first they were recruited artisans . The central part of the religious practices was held by listening to music, and dancing, which were indeed usual amongst other Orders, but never had the greatest importance , as with the Mawlawis. The dance ceremony in the regular , solemn form which is usual later , was first introduced by Pir Adil Celebi.(d.1460 AD ).

The Mawlana himself appears to have been of a philanthropic and strongly emotional type, to judge from the coutless love poems in the Diwan, easily inflamed, inclined to work off his excitement in the dance. Whether his religious ideas possess anything original besides the general mystical piety of his time, will have to be shown by the analysis of his works, which are:

1) The `Diwan `, containing Ghazals and Quatrains. There are also Greek and Turkish verses in this, the presence of which shows a certain connexion with sections of the common folk and also with the non Muslim elements of the Konya population.
His “takhalus ” is ” Khamush ” which is often replaced with the name of Shams i Tabriz. In some Ghazals, Salal al Din also appears as the “takhalus .”

2) ” Mathnawi i Manawi- a Didactic poetical work in double verses , in six ` daftars `. The long poem was inspired by Husam al Din Celebi , who suggested to Maulana that he should produce something like the religious ” Mathnawi ” of Sanai and Attar. The Mawlana is supposed to have at once pulled out the famous eighteen verses of the introduction out of his turban already written. The rest he dictated to Husam al Din. The date when the work was begun is not known. We know only that between the first and the second “daftar ” was a pause of two years, caused by the death of Husam al Din`s wife. The second “daftar ” was started in 1263 AD , as the poet says himself. Mawlana dictated his verse whenever it occurred to him, dancing, standing, sitting, walking, sometimes in the night until the morning. Then Husam al din read out what was written and the necessary corrections were made. The whole is composed very informally and without any thought of a well planned structure.

3) ” Fihi ma fih “. Collection of Maulanas sayings.

4) ” Mawaiz macalis i saba ”

5) ” Makhtubat ”

It is not easy to summarise systematically the main lines of Maulana`s thought. He was not a philosopher ( in his works are often attacks against the vacuity of purely intellectual philosophy) and claimed not to be a classical poet ( in the Diwan and Mathnawi he proclaims his dislike for rhymes and poetical artificies )but above all he was a passionate lover of God who expressed his feelings in a poetically unorthodox , volcanic way, thus creating a style which is unique in the enrire Persian litarature.
Historically, influences on him by the religious and philosophical thought of Ghazzali, Ibn Arabi, Sanai, Attar have been traced.

The following account outilnes shortly some of the main trends in Maulana`s thoughts -

God: The absolute transcendence of God seems conceived not only spatially and intellectually but even morally. God is himself the Absolute Value , Good and Evil being relative to Him and both at His orders. Reality is ordered in 4 ” spaces “: the Realm of Nothingness of Phantasy, of Existence, of Senses and Colours. God is beyond Nothingness and Being. He works in the Nothingness, which is His Workshop.
In this sense is difficult to speak of a real “pantheism ” in Maulana:in any case immanentism is totally to his turn of mind.

Creation : Maulana seems to accept the Asharite idea of the discontinuity of time and creation. God creates and destroys all in discontinuous atoms of time. He creates things murmuring enchanting words in their ears while they are still asleep in the Nothingness.

The World: The non – Human World is something created by God in preparation for the creation of nature Man. Nature is a hint of God: every tree that germinates from the dark earth extending its branches towards the sun is a symbol of the liberation of Spirit from Matter. Creation has been however progressive. In a famous passage Maulana sketches a theory of mystical evolution. The emergence of Man ( who always remained Man , even in his former stages of development ) from the animal kingdom is a first step indicating further journeys to the realms of the Angels and of God.

Man: Man is not simply a compound of body and soul. The human compound is formed by a body, his manifest part, a deeper soul, a still more concealed mind, an even deeper , a spirit partaking of revelation present only in Saints and Prophets.  Maulanas spiritual anthropology does not accept an indiscriminate possibility for every one to reach the highest stages of sanctity. Prophets and Saints are ” different ” from ordinary men. In an intersting passage Maulana shows the pragmatic utility of bowing in veneration to the Holy Men : it is the only way of breaking the ever re appearing humanistic pride and superbity of Man.

God speaks through the mouth of the ” man of god “. The Prophet, the Holy Man is the manifest sign of the Unity of God, he is above the normal human standards.

Ethics; Maulana is far from speaking the language of modern ” liberal ” religious thinkers. The exterior practices of worship are binding for all. The reason given for this is also  of a typically Muslim pragmatic character; the exterior rites are  useful, like the presents of a lover to his Beloved.  If love were a purely spiritual thing why should God have created the material World. On the problem of freedom and destiny he acutely remarks that there is a great difference between the momentaneous act of  God ( sun ) and the result of the act ( masnu ), between kada ( the act of deciding or predestining ), and Mahdi ( the predestined thing ).

One has to love the sun of God , not his masnu.  When his spiritual eyes are open , man recognises that he is , at the same time, totally operated and moved by God and totally free, of a freedom unmeasurably  above the petty freedoms of ordinary men. To reach this deeper freedom inGod, efforts and action ( kushish) are necessary. Perfect examples of this supreme freedom are the Saints and the Prophets.

Life after death; The nearness to God in the worlds beyond is never felt by the Maulana as a real absorption in God without any residue. The metaphors he uses to express fana in an interesting passage of the ” Mathnawi ” are for instance the following: the flame of the candle in the presence of the sun, or a deer in the presence of a lion, or, elsewhere, as red hot iron in the fire, when iron takes the properties of fire without losing its own individual essence. In that state it can claim to be fire as well as iron.  The soul near God becomes then one ” according to whose desire the torrents and rivers flow, and the stars move in such wise as He wills.”  In another passage Maulana tells of a lover who, as he reached the presence of his Beloved , died and ” the bird , his spirit , flew out of his body ” for ” God is such that , when He comes , there is not a single hair of thee remaining.”  The real end of the story is told some lines further, under the heading: ” How the Beloved caressed , the senseless lover that he might return to his senses.” Maulana goes even so far as to admit an element of activity in the otherwordly plane, so that the highest degree in the life of spirit ” is not attainment but infinite aspiration after having attained “; .. there is a very occult mystery here in the fact that Moses set out to run towards a Khidr… This Divine Court is the infinite Plane. Leave the seat of honour behined; the Way is they seat of honour ”

In the work of the Maulana elements of colloquial language penetrate sometimes  even into the more refined language of the ghazals and of the “ecstatic” style of the ” mathnawi ” There are a number of verses of Maulana containing a few words and sentences in colloguial Greek. The style of writing found no imitators, but it is  highly valued by modern Persians ( even those who do not agree with his mystical views )  and perhaps exerted a certain influence in the movement of simplification and modernization of Persian literature begun in the 19th century.

Urdu poet of 19th century India.

He was the son of another poet – Shah Husayn Hakikat. Muhsin achieved fame through his Tadhkirah of Urdu poets – Sarapa Sukhan- , published in Lucknow,India, in 1860. Here the ghazals of over 700 poets are included.

His work is distinguished by its arrangement- the poetry is grouped in about 50 chapters- each representing a part of the human body- hence the term “sarapa “, where each part of the body forms a rhyme ( radif ).

The book is particularly rich in poems of Mushafi, Ishki, Muhsin himself , and his father Hakikat. However, it mentions all poets – big or small with biographical details.

His arrangement appears to have been imitated once by Gogul Prashad Rosa.
Muhsin also translated and adapted two of the three sections ( tabakat ) of a tadhkirah of Urdu poets from Persian to Urdu. This is the ” Makhzan i Nikat ” of Muhammad Kaim.

Persian poet of 17th century ( AD ).
Born in Harat ( modern day Iran ), Nazim spent many years in Jahangirnagar in India. He was a court poet of Beglerbegis of Harat. His greatest work – ” Yusuf u Zulaikha ” , completed in 1661 , was dedicated to one of the Governors– Abbas Kali Khan Shamlu.
This work is an imitation of Ferdowsis work of the same name. However, this work became very popular – especially in Central Asia -which is still the case today.

His lyrical Diwan contains many excellent poems and Ghazals – some of which are even sung today by the classically trained singers of Samarkand and Bukhara.

Muhammad Rida of Khabushan in the vicinity of Mashad.

Persian poet of the 16th century (AD ). The son of merchant , Nawi studied in Kashan under Mawlana Muhtasham. He later became close to Hakim Nur Muhammad Khan.
Like other poets in Persia at the time he was attracted to the Mughal Courts in India- where he was patrinised by Mirza Yusuf Khan Mashadi and then by Khan Khanan ( Mirza Abdal Rahim ).

The best work of Nawi as a poet was ” Suz u Gudaz ” – ” Burning and Melting “, which was a touching theme depicting the devotion of a Hindu Princess who accompanies her late husband in death on the funeral pyre.
It is written in an artificial language and distinguished by the originality of subject , which had not been taken by any Persian poet beforw Nawi.

His works were highly esteemed in India and he received 10,000 rupees , and elephant and a horse with valuable trappings for a ” Saki Nama ” dedicated to Khan Khanan.

His Diwan – ” Lubb al Albab ” has come down to us but remains un noticed.

Abd Allah Musharaf al din b Muslim b Saadi
Known as Shaykh Saadi, poet and prose writer of 13th century AD. One of the most renowned authors of Persian poetry.

Born in Shiraz ( modern day Iran ), probably between 1213-1219 and died in the same city in 1292. Saadi was the foremost Persian poet up to hs time. Only a few certain facts can be ascertained with certainty about his life. He was orphaned at an early age. He studied and then taught at the Nazzimiya in Baghdad.
One of his teachers was Al Suharwardi and Ibn al Djawi. Saadi was married at least twice and travelled the world of Islam and beyond extensively.

With typcal humour he cautioned his audience not to believe travellers tales ( Gulistan ). Saadi showed strong sympathy for orphans in his work. He is said to have met his contemporary – Maulana Rumi , and also met the historian Djuwayni.
Saadis first debateable work after his youthfull travels was the Bustan ( 1257 ). His Gulistan ( 1258 ) was dedicated to the rulers son- Saad Abu Bakr. Hence his pen name -Saadi.

He is criricised for his apparent readiness to praise whoever was in power in Fars. He claims that it was indigence that drove him to write panegyrics and it should be ponted out that his work frequently consists of moral advise. His panegyrics contain fine passages , for example, the verse of the Mongol ” Sahih Diwan ” . His works include the long poem in mathnawi form, the Bustan, the prosimetrum ( makama ) Gulistan, panegyrics ( kasaid ) on various prominent persons elegies ( marthiyat ) , numerous lyric poems ( Ghazliyat ) , a number of shorter epigremmatic poems ( kikat and rubaiyyat ). Saadi also wrote some Kasaid in Arabic.

His fame rests mainly with the Gulsitan and Bustan , and also his ghazals. The Bustan and Gulistan are both collections of moralising anecdotes.
Both are a first in Persian literature and raise Persian to a new level of sophistication.
The social background of Saadis Gulistan was that which saw the Mongol invasion and the sack of Baghdad.

Saadi is considered to be patronising rulers -but this could have been done to ensure survival. However, in his work is the sympathy for the weak and plea for tolerance. The popularity of his work may be due to the themes of moralising and also his need for survival at the same time- both themes are in Bustan and Gulistan. Alot of his moralising passed into the everyday stock of morals.

Both Gulistan and Bustan imply the impossibility of absolute standards when dealing with fallible humanity.
For his moral conclusions are illusive and mutual respect is preferable to disruptive ethical absolutism.

Saadis innovations , or refinements and oragnisation of previosuly extant elemets are no less apparent in his ghazals.
It is with Saadi that the Ghazal achieves its classical perfection and in his hands the ghazal is emancipated from the Kasida. With Saadi the emotional tenor has become inward rather then public and this inwardness is confirmed by the submission of the poets own takhalus as the culminating moment of the poem.

His ghazals are divided into 4 groups: 1) tayyibat ( nobel, pleasure )- this is the largest group 2) Baday ( rarities ) 3) Khawatim ( final ) 4) Kadim ( ancient ).

Ghazals are considered his greatest works. However, in the west the Bustan and Gulistan are more admired then his ghazals.

The destruction of the Mongol invasion threatened the fabric of Islamic civilisation and in this period the culture of peripheral areas flourished.
One such are was Fars where Islam continued strongly.

However, at this time the ” coming of age ” of Persian as a language of International Islamic culture is also evidenced by Rumi in Turkey and Amir Khusraw in India.

Previous poets such as Attar had looked beyonf the Court for subject matter but mainly for Sufi reasons.
Saadi does it from pure human sympathy.

His work , the Bustan ( derived from the Persian word , Bu, meaning smell, perfume. ) is a didactic poem written in the city of Shiraz in 1257 AD , in 10 chapters.

The work is a classic and has been translated in many languages, including English.

In Turkish there are its commentaries- notbaly those of Shami and Sudi , both at the end of 16th century AD.  The Bustan was translated into Turkish by Taftazani in 1354 AD.

Abu Muin Nasir b. Khusraw b. Harith al Kubad Hiyani-

Persian poet and prose writer. Born in 1004 AD.

He had interest in science , mathematics, and poetry from an early age. In 1045 AD he went for the Hajj and wrote his ” Safar Nama ” about his journey, and stayed in Mecca for 6 months after which he went and lived in Balkh.

However, as an avid propagator of the Ismaili faith made him a target of the orthodox Ulema and he fled to Badakshan where he died between 1072 and 1078. It is during his stay in Badakshan during which his most productive work occurred.

His work reflects a wide range of intellectual and poetic discourse and are a significant contribution to Muslim literature in Persian during the 11th century AD.  Khusraws writings on Ismailism also survive and these works had a significant impact amongst Persian speaking Muslims of Central Asia. This makes him an important figure of medieval Persian literature.

His best work is the ” Diwan” and the ” Confessional Ode ” are reflections on his inner conflicts and spiritual development. The tone is moral. The ” Safar Nama ” is an account of his travels and it falls within the medieval Muslim travel literature.