The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi

International Society for Iranian Studies

The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi TabriziAuthor(s): Leonard LewisohnReviewed work(s):Source: Iranian Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2/3 (1989), pp. 99-127Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4310670 .

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Leonard Lewisohn

The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi

Of the rhyme and verse of Shams-e Mashreqi Go tell the news to all who merit it Because the worth of pearls borne from sea all jewelers will appreciate.

-Mashreqi

I. Mystic and Calligrapher: The Life of Mashreqi (d. 85911454)

During the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century in Tabriz, the political and cultural capital of medieval Persia, a remarkable congregation of Sufi poets assembled whose society, fcllowship, and fraternity in Sufism, made them all members of one literary movement in Persian poetry, known as the 'School of Tabriz'.1 In presenting the literary accomplishmcnts and the mystical outlook of this School to a wider audience, the present article attempts to introduce the least known member of this school, namely, the Sufi gnostic poet, 'Abd al-Rahim Khalvati (Mashreqi), whose poetic oeuvre and biography has, to date, been completely neglected by Persian literary historians, both east and west.

1 The poets who belonged to this school include Mahmud Shabestari (d. 1339), Mohammad Shirin Maghrebi (d. 1408), Mohammad 'Assar Tabrizi (d. 1390), Kamal Khojandi (d. 1400), Qasem Anwar Tabrizi (d. 1433), Salman Savaji (d. 1376), Homam Tabrizi (d. 1314), Mohammad Lahiji ('Asiri', d. 1506), Shah Ne'matollah (d. 1430), and Shah Da'i Shirazi (d. 1466). For a detailed study of the different poets and their mutual cross-influence of ideas, see Leonard Lewisohn, A Critical Edition of the Divan of Maghrebi (forthcoming 1990), Vol. 1, Chap. 9.



100 Lewisohn

The only available historical source to provide a detailed account of Mashreqi's biography is the Rawdtt al-janan by Ebn Karbala'i,2 a biographical work on the famous Sufis, scholars, and saints of Tabriz, written in 1567. The following extracts provide an outline of the poet's background:

Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim (known as 'the Recluse' [Khalvati]) was the son of our master, Shams al-Din Mohammad al-Aqtabi al-Mashreqi, bom in Tabriz, of Transcaucasian origin (Nakhichevan), a distant relative of al-Ziya al-Maleki al-'Osmani. He was one of the eminent men of his time.

Mowlana Shams al-Din Mohammad (al-Aqtabi al-Mashreqi) was a disciple of Mohammad Maghrebi, from whom he received his spiritual training. Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim, like his father, was also in the beginning a disciple of our master Mohammad Maghrebi. Later, he came to serve many other eminent masters of his day: Soltan Khajeh 'Ali Safavi3, Shaykh Zayn al-Din Khafi, and Shaykh Kamal Khojandi, and received their blessings.

He wrote good poetry, particularly using the technical terminology [of the Sufis], taking as his penname 'Mashreqi'. He has a Divan of poetry and was the leading figure of his time in the art of calligraphy. In fact, it appears that he had such a reputation as a fine calligrapher, that the diplomas in calligraphy of most the masters of the art in Azarbaijan and Khorasan bear his signature.

Mowlana Shams al-Din Mohammad has two sons: 1) the above- mentioned Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim and 2) Khajch 'Abd al-Hayy. Both were excellent calligraphers and were pupils of their notable father. The venerable Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim was not as conscientious in the art of calligraphy [as his brother] owing to his preoccupation with both exoteric and esoteric sciences, and abstention from matters of lesser importance, leaving that business [calligraphy] up to his elder brother, 'Abd al-Hayy.

In calligraphy, 'Abd al-Hayy followed the style of Khajeh Yaqut Mosta'sem4 so well that it surpassed all imagination. According to

2 Ebn Karbala'i , Rawddt al-janan, 2 vols. Ed. Ja'far Soltan al-Qorra'i (Tehran: 1965). 3 Khajeh 'Ali Safavi (d. 1429) was the third in succession to Safi al-Din Ardabili (d. 1334), the founder of the Safavi Order; the latter is referred to in the highest terms throughout the Raw4ddt al-janan by Ebn Karbala'i.

A famous calligrapher who flourished during the reign of the last Abbasid Caliph, Mosta'sem billah, dying in Baghdad in 698/1298 (Editor's note, Ebn Karbala'i, op. cit., I, p. 568). See also, A. Schimmel, "Poetry and Calligraphy: Thoughts about their Interrealtion in Persian Culture" in Ettinghausen, R. &



The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi 101

reliable accounts, there lived in Tabriz a calligrapher by the name of Mowlana 'Omar, who wrote a beautiful script and had a comprehensive knowledge of the art of calligraphy. Mowlana 'Omar owned an original page of calligraphy written by Khajeh Yaqut, which he lent to Khajeh 'Abd al-Hayy, who copied out the text in an identical hand onto paper of the same quality. Then, instead of the original, he handed his own copy of the page to Mowlana 'Omar, who failed to distinguish the forgery. A short while later, 'Abd al-Hayy asked Mowlana 'Omar if he could borrow the page back. Khajeh 'Omar brought it out, 'Abd al- Hayy presented him with the original calligraphy by Yaqut Mosta'sem, which Khajeh 'Omar still did not recognize, believing that Yaqut Mosta'sem had written two pages with the same text. Upon investigation, however, he realised that the original and the copy were inscribed by separate hands.

It is also said that 'Abd al-Hayy's frequent production of forged versions of Khajeh Yaqut's calligraphy caused his early death, since this was an act of fragrant discourtcsy. Since Khajeh Yaqut was a person of spiritual eminence, and endowed with a subtle body (scheb baten), some eminent men -being of jealous disposition-will not endure such effrontery and discourtesy.

The death of Khajeh 'Abd al-Hayy occurred in 825/1421 at the beginning of the reign of Eskandar, son of Qara-Yusuf. His grave is beside that of Mowlana Mohammad Maghrebi, who used to address him as 'his son'.

Following his brother's death, 'Abd al-Rahim was forced to resume the profession of calligraphy since scribes and calligraphers were in constant demand. Mowlana Bavvab, Mowlana Mohammad Khalili, and Mowlana 'Abd al-Vase', and others, all received instruction in calligraphy from him.

Another memorable tale told of 'Abd al-Rahim Khalvati is that he could copy out the whole edition of the Koran in forty days. Then he would joke, "I sit in reatreat for forty days (Cheheleh) and bring forth an entire holy scripture. I wonder what other Sufis who sit for forty days get from their retreat?!"5

Ebn Karbala'i also relates that both Shams al-Din Mohammad Aqtabi and 'Abd al-Rahim Khalvati (Mashreqi) were disciples of Mohammad Maghrebi. Khajeh Khalvati took his patronym, al-Mashreqi, as a pen-name, and along with his Divan, which is discussed later on, composed the following works, which are

Yarshater, E., eds., Highlights of Persian Art (Boulder: 1979), pp. 187-88, for a discussion of the importance of al-Mosta'semi. S Ebn Karbala'i, op. cit., I, pp. 83-85.



102 Lewisohn

primarily tracts and glosses on various aspects of Ebn 'Arabi's theosophy and Sufi poetry:

1. Mafatlif al-ghayb 2. Hdshryeh bar sharz-e 'Estelahait-e Shaykh 'Abd al-Razzaq Kdshi 3. Sharh-e Nosfis-e Shaykh Sadr al-Din Mohammad Qunyavi 4. Sharh bar qafideh-ye 'Meymiyeh-ye Khamriyeh-ye Flrediyyeh 5. Resdleh-ye saneh-ye Sarmadiyeh 6. Resaileh-ye merat al-'ibddfi ma'rifat al-ma'ad 7. Sharh bar Roba'i- ye hora'iyeh 8. Sharhi bar ba'di az abydt-e moshkeleh-ye Golshan-e raZ.6

Mashreqi often excelled amongst his contemporaries in disputation on matters of religion, especially in elucidating subtle points of Sufi theosophy, as Is evident from the following tale:

One time, Mowlana Shaykh Ardabili, one of the eminent students of Mir Seyyed Jurjani7-God's grace be upon him!--came to Tabriz to attend the wake of the funeral of Shaykh Shah Ibrahim Safavi [d. 1447], organized by Shah Hoseyn Sarpoli [d. 1457]. Many were the eminent Seyyeds, Sufi masters, and famous savants among the nobility and gentry of Tabriz who graced that gathering. In the course of the ceremony, certain questions concerning recondite and difficult points in the science of Sufism were put by Shaykh Ardabili before the entire gathering to resolve. 'Abd al-Rahim Khalvati proceeded to answer all his queries with suitable explanations, bringing forward appropriate expressions couched in the technical terminology employed by the Sufis so that the objections of the entire assembly were effectively answered and indisputably resolved. Mowlana Ardabili praised his reply; and by way of expressing his respect for Mashreqi, declared, "Until now, we all supposed that Shams al-Din's son (Mashreqi) was but a calligrapher; we see now that you are a very adept philosopher, as well".8

In addition to his facility in poetry and his ability in the field of Sufi theosophy, Mashreqi was also one of the main historians and chroniclers of the spiritual culture of his day. Ebn Karbala'i cites a manuscript by him, which is no longer extant, to complete his account of no less than five major Sufi sages: Kamal Khojandi,9 Sharaf al-Din Tarami,10 Baba Faraj Tabrizi,11 Abu Mansur Mohammad Hafdat al-'Attari (d. 571/1175;),12 and Isma'il Sisi.13

6 Ibid. I, p. 86. 7 A renowned mathematician and mystic famous for his treatise on 'Sufi Terminology' (al-Ta'rifdt) who flourished in Shiraz, and passed away there in 1413. 8 Ebn Karbala'i op. cit., I, pp. 85-86. 9 Ebn Karbala'i, op.cil., I, p. 509. 10 Ibid., 1, p. 225.




Mozaffar Bazzazi, a famous judge and jurisprudent of the 9th/14th century in Tabriz,14 was said to have commented: "However much I ponder, I can find no one who has lived in Tabriz in the two hundred years prior to Khajeh 'Abd al- Rahim, to equal his stature in learning and virtue. Indeed, it is so."15 Another Tabrizi jurisprudent, Qazizadeh Ansari, composed an elegy upon the graves of Mashreqi, Maghrebi, and other notables of Tabriz, which contains this line, reflecting Bazzazi's opinion of Mashreqi's learning:

May peace also grace, may love embrace him Who was to us Perfection's summation, Wisdom's exposition, a synopsis of gnosis -Mashreqi, our master and vicar.16

According to Ebn Karbala'i, Mashreqi died in 859/1454.

Mashreqi also composed chronograms to commemorate the deaths of Kamal Khojandi and Maghrebi. These short poems communicate his intimate and sympathetic relationship with many of the great Sufi mystics of his day who lived in Tabriz. Following Kamal Khojandi's demise, Mashreqi wrote:17

The Perfect Shaykh: Kamal the Master -indeed a gnostic man of Truth-- The world he possessed With poetic purity and freshness of his verse; Since the day, that first when Speech Upon the earth was swept, None had heard the like of the speech Which that eminent poet did speak.

Though in the year 'Eight-hundred & three'18

His sun did se-yet I see He lives, awake, secluded,

11 Ibid., I, p. 377. 12 Ibid., I, p. 287. 13 Ibid., II, p. 102-4. 14 His grandfather, 'Abd al-Rahim Bazzazi was, incidentally, a highly advanced disciple of Mohammad Maghrebi, profoundly dedicated to the Sufi Path. See Ebn Karbala'i, I, pp. 367-68. 15 Ibid. 16 Ebn Karbala'i, op. cit., I, pp. 97-98. 17 Ibid., I, p. 510. 18 This year refers to the Islamic lunar calender, corresponding to 1401 A.D.



104 Lewisohn

A moon by clouds concealed, secreted Within the supersensory sphere.

Mashreqi's abilities as a composer of occasional poems and his genius for verse extemporization were obvious from his early youth, as another tale concerning his encounter with the great poet of Khojand, with whom he was intimate, enjoying a relationship of 'spiritual paternity' from his childhood, demonstrates:

Once in his childhood, 'Abd al-Rahim Khalvati and his brother, 'Abd al-Hayy, went to pay a visit to Shaykh Kamal Khojandi. It was the holy month of Ramadan. Shaykh Kamal remarked: "We shall pass this day in your company, for Shams al-Din,19 knowing that we were about to go on a journey, sent you to us." Shaykh Khojandi ordered that food be brought forth for the youths. They protested that they were fasting, but the venerable master objected, saying, "You have not yet been bound [at your ages] with the obligations of fasting. Eat." The boys completely resigned themselves to the command of Kamal Khojandi, and broke their fast. After they had eaten, the master said, "We shall entertain you in another way as well, and relate two Prophetic traditions (!adlth) to you, which you may memorize, and one couplet of my poetry, which is not in my Divan.20 The two traditions of sanctity hadith-e qodsi) are as follows: "Fasting is mine and I reward it" and "Go hungry, that you may see me. Become detached, that you may be in Union with me."21 The couplet is:

When I seized the hand of the Friend And did smear with kisses all her cuff And hand, I could swear mine own hand It was, that I saw kissing with such love.

19 Ebn Karbala'i's reference here is to Shams al-Din Mohammad al-Aqtabi al- Mashreqi, the poet's father. 20 To this day, this verse cannot be found in 'Aziz Dowlatabadi's edition of the Divan-e Kamal al-in Mas'gd Khojandi (Tehran: 1958). It is also absent from the recent critical edition of Kamal's Divan edited by K. Shidfar (Moscow: 1975). 21 The first tradition is cited by the Concordance et Indices de la Tradition Musuilmane, (ed. A.J. Wensinck et. al. ) Tome 3, p. 466; but the second tradition does not appear in any form in either Wensinck, ibid., or in B. Foruzanfar's Ahddith-e mathnawi (Tehran: 1955). However, both traditions occur cited as a single aphorism by Najm al-Din Razi in the Mersad al-'ebad, who attributes both sayings to Jesus. See H. Algar (trans.), The Path of God's Bondsmen, Persian Heritage Series, No. 35; (New York: 1982), p. 324n.




Showing his grasp of this lesson in tradition by the Master, Mashreqi set to verse both traditions in a fragment (Qal'eh), versifying Kamal's couplet in another fragment.22

Mashreqi's father, Shams al-Din Aqtabi, according to 'Abd al-Razzaq Kermani and 'Abd al-'Aziz Ebn Shir Malek Va'ezi (two of the formost biographers of Shah Ne'matollah), was appointed a Khalifa (regional vicar) commissioned to take charge of Sufis in Tabriz by the renowned Sufi poet and founder of the Ne'matollahi Order, Shah Ne'matollah.23 This fact probably indicates that Mashreqi himself was directly acquainted with Shah Ne'matollah, as an analysis of verse-parallels between their two Divans might well prove.

I. Love and Unity: Mystical Motifs in Mashreqi's Verse

Having summarized the biographical particulars of Mashreqi's life, scant as they are, it is now fitting to turn to his only surviving work, his Persian Divan, the only existing manuscript MS. OR 3313 (folios 66-195) in the British Library.24 This manuscript consists of 260 Persian ghazals (eight of which are bilingual lyrics: molamma' ), one ode (qasida), one construct-poem (tarkib- band), two strophe-poems (tarji'-bands), fourteen fragments (moqata'dt), sixty- two quatrains (robt'iyyit), and eleven single-verse aphorisms (mofraddt ). In this manuscript are also found seven adaptations (tadminiat: a poem of varying length in which a poet inserts a distich or hemistich by another poet), two of which employ Maghrebi's verses, composed as direct answers (javab) to both the rhyming-refrains of Maghrebi's two strophe-poems.25

22 Ebn Karbala'i, op. cit., I, p. 87. 23 For possible evidence of this, see Va'ezi's Resaleh dar siyar-e hadrat-e Shah Ne'matollah Val!, and Kermani's Manaqeb-e hadrat-e Shah Ne'matollah Vali in Aubin, Jean (ed.), Materiaux Pour La Biographie de Shah Ni'matullah Wali Kermani (Tehran & Paris: 1956, rprt. 1983), pp. 308: line 7; 110: line 14. 24 The manuscript is dated Baghdad, 15 Jumada II, A.H. 953/1546. See: Charles Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: 1895), pp. 181-2. This Divan, uncovered in the course of my research-work on Maghrebi, has been noted by no other scholar, whether Occidental or Iranian. Munzavi in his Fehrest-e noskheha-ye khat;i-ye fdrsi (pp. 2531-32) mentions several Divans of Mashreqi: Mashreqi Shirazi, Mashreqi Tusi, Mashreqi Kashani -but records no Mashreqi Tabrizi (unless possibly his reference to two Divan-e Mashreqi-s-nos. 26002 & 26003 in the Majles and E'temad al- Dowleh Harnadan Libraries refer to our Mashreqi). The British Library MS. of Mashreqi's Divan is bound together with a Divan of Maghrebi, which it follows in sequence (I have not employed this latter Divan of Maghrebi in my edition; it is also listed in Rieu's Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum; (London: 1881), Vol. 2, p. 633 as "Add. 7739"). 25 See below, p. 20 ff. for a discussion of the importance of these adaptations.



106 Lewisohn

The Divan of Mashreqi , like that of Maghrebi, is heavily influenced by over a century and a half of Sufi teachings devoted to the exposition of the theosophical doctrines of Ebn 'Arabi (d. 1240). As the various titles of Mashreqi's other works and the scant biographical material available demonstrate, the poet is philosophically and methodologically of the same school of Sufism as Maghrebi: a follower of Ebn 'Arabi and Sadr al-Din Qunyawi (d. 1274). The fact that Mashreqi wrote a commentary on Shabestari's Garden of Mysteries (Sharhi bar ba'd4 az abyat-e moshkel-e Golshan-e raz), is significant insofar as it demonstrates his adherence to the spiritual lineage of emulators, commentators, and lovers of this work, which has been extoled as "one of the greatest masterpieces of Persian literature"26 and "the handiest introduction to the thought of post-Ebn 'Arabi Sufism".27

The type of the ghazal which appears in the Divans of Maghrebi and Mashreqi, it should be noted, is, as a verse-form, essentially a romantic lyric devoted to erotic and bacchic themes--being, approximately speaking, the Persian counterpart of our English sonnet. Since the twelfth century, however, with the appearance of the Divans of Sana'i (d. 1131) and, later, 'Attar (d. 1220), a distinct and separate genre inspired by Sufi metaphysics and symbolism, known as the mystical or gnostic ghazal (ghazal-e 'erfdni / 'arefaneh) had evolved in Persia, which still had not, however, been sharply distinguished from the traditional romantic ghazal (ghazal-e 'dsheqaneh). By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, (Maghrebi's - Mashrcqi's period) the gnostic ghazal had further engendered another type of poem which was based upon the highly refined symbolic and abstract vocabulary found in the voluminous writings of Ebn 'Arabi and those Sufis who followed his school. In the fourteenth century, as Qasem Ghani explains,

Some Sufi poets created a new style in the ghazal which perhaps had little in common with the ghazal as it existed up till then. This new type of ghazal can be classified as a type of vcrse-fonn which illustrates the topoi, ideas, aims, spiritual stations and mystical states of the Sufis, using a special technical 'Sufi terminology' (Esteldhdt-e siufiyyeh) in a very explicit way, regardless of whether the poem be ornamented with proper poetic metaphors and allusions or not. The poetry of Maghrebi best illustrates this new type of ghazal. In his ghazals, it is clearly evident to every reader that all the ideas and expressions are exclusively mystical.28

The Divan of Mashreqi belongs to this tradition of the more recent traditions of the Sufi symbolic ghazaJ-best illustrated in his own period by his spiritual master, Maghrebi -although he follows, as well, the conventions of the gnostic

26 S.H. Nasr, Islamic Art & Spirituality (Suffolk: 1987), p. 93. 27 A. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: 1975), p. 280. 28 Bahth dar dtMhr va afl7cr va ahval-e fHlfez: Thrikh-e tasavvof dar islam az sadr-e islam ta 'asr-e Hdfez, (Tehran: 1977), 1, p. 563.




ghazal beginning with Sana'i, flowing through 'Attar, Rumi, and 'Eraqi, and continuing down to Maghrebi, a kind of mystical 'stream of consciousness' expressed by the latter in the verse:

These waves of verse you read do fly from the cosmos-encompassing Sea of Reality.

By the Red Sea's furious tide this frothy foam was brought.

His 'wave' did bring you Maghrebi; it spewed up 'Eraqi as well;

'Attar has come from its 'frothy foam',

And from it up swelled Sana'i, as well.29

The Divan of Mashreqi also stands in the central current of this mystical stream. In a ghazal modeled on the style of the Divan-e Shams-e Tabriz of Rumi, for example, Mashreqi identifies himself as a poet and spiritual master directly in the initiatic line of 'Attar and Rumi:

Come, come to the apothecary's shop, to 'Attar's corner,30 if you have

The heart's dolor; show 'our master' your weakly pulse, and lay the balm

of wisdom upon your wounds.

Not in the forum, Nor in the tavern, The Khdneqah or in mosques, am I seen: My sphere's beyond both the earth and heaven.

The way to Shams-e Tabriz was lost to all;

29 See L. Lcwisohn, A Critical Edition of the Divan of Maghrebi, (forthcoming 1991), Vol. 2, Ghazal 169: 21-22. 30 This line occurs on fol. 72a. The word 'Aztur in Persian means 'druggist' or perfumer', the 'apothecary's shop' or 'Attar's corner being the medieval drugstore. The poet 'Attar was a druggist by profession. The word Mowlana (meaning 'our master') in the next verse refers both to the honorary sobriquet of the poet Rumi, and, as an indirect pun, to Mashreqi himself, as spiritual master and doctor of souls. This verse constitutes the last couplet (maqta') of a ghazal, in the third hemistich of which the poet claims himself to be 'drowned in the ocean of wisdom; the Simurgh of the Mt. Qaf of spiritual power'.



108 Lewisohn

Invisible that Shams, that sun3' did fall And now my Sun is visible to all.

The verse of Mashreqi is characterized by the same fundamental motifs which inspire Maghrebi's Divan. Mashreqi is the traditional amant metaphysique, lover and poet enraptured with the Truth, his philosophy being mystical and amorous in one breath. In most of Mashreqi's poems, as in those of Maghrebi, there is a pun between Mashreqi, the poet's name, and its literal signification of 'Eastern.' Additional puns come into play when the poet refers to himself as Shams-e Mashreqi, alluding to (1) the literal meaning of 'the Eastem Sun', and (2) the allegorical sense of 'the aurora of spiritual illuminative wisdom shining from the visionary Orient'. The major motifs in his verse might perhaps be typified as follows:

A. Interiorization of the tenets of Islam. B. Poeticization of Ebn 'Arabi's theosophy C. The Unity of Being (vahdat al-vojtd) D. The Religion of Love E. Unity of Religions

Although Maghrebi is perhaps more adept as a poet than Mashreqi, both display great dexterity in expressing the elements of Ebn 'Arabi's theosophy, adapted and compressed into the symbolic terms of their poetic medium. Sometimes Mashreqi shows considerable originality, as his striking use of metaphors to express the theosophical doctrine of 'perpetual creation'32 (Islamic counterpart to the Heraclitian 'all things are a-flowing') in the following quatrain demonstrates:

As oil unto a lamp does pass The strength of Being courses With unbroken flow from head to heart. It is just this that gnostics Profess to be 'Creation's ever-newness':

The man from arbor to manor who is walking Has altered when he reaches his dwelling.

The Sufi concept of the 'unity of being' or vahdat al-vojiid33 expressed in the context of the Platonic doctrine that there is but one Absolute Beauty reflected in physical forms, is expressed by Mashreqi in the following verses:

There is just one letter, one character

31 These two couplets are found on folio 136b. The latter puns on the literal meaning of the name of Rumi's spiritual master, Shams-e Tabriz (sun of Tabriz). 32 Divan-e Mashreqi, fol. 187b. See T. Izutsu, "The Concept of Perpetual Creation in Islamic Mysticism and Zen Buddhism" in Melanges Offerts Li Henri Corbin, ed. S.H. Nasr, (Tchran: 1977), pp. 139-41. 33 See William Chittick, "Ebn al-'Arabi's Doctrine of the Oneness of Being" in Sufi: A Journal of Sufism, 4 (1989), pp. 6-14.




Within all the scroll of existence; And yet it shows, that one letter The whole scroll of God's unicity.

The Love-of-Reality is their original And all these lovely idols' beauty fascimile. That Moon does cast the beams of light Which keeps alit my domicile.34

The doctrine of the Unity of Being in fact permeates the Divans of all the Sufi poets of this period,35 and is elaborated by Ebn 'Arabi in his writings within the framework of the concept known as the 'revelation of the Divine Names' (tajalli al-asmd'). Each act of creation, according to this doctrine, is generated by a Divinc Name; the Names are in turn subdidvided into Names of Wrath (qahr) and Names of Mercy (loif), complementary contraries whose dynamic interaction overrules and directs creation. The gnostic recognizes Who it is who speaks, and what type of Name from Divine-One-Who-Is-Named is proclaimed by the events of cach moment, as Mashreqi in a quatrain explains:

O look, I have become Your Essence's very name And from this name which I'vc become Your light is cast throughout the world.

It all is one: both I, the sun And you the light that's cast therefrom; One: both all name and quality-- These belong to you-and to me Your Essence which evcrything subsumes.36

All speech in fact reveals the Divine Name, the Speaker (al-motekallem), Mashreqi claims:

That One who turns our breath to rhapsody, Within the tongue's reedpipe sings his mclody, At times is far, at times essentially Does dwell with us in intimacy. Unto these men of busy-ness Indeed such mysteries appear a mess And not adepts, they cannot sense There's One who docs possess 'Locution', 'Vision', and 'Audition'. Because these arcane mysteries of Articulation

34 Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 79a. 35 See Ehsan Yarshater, She'r-e farsi dar 'ahd-e Shah Rokh (Tchran: 1955), p. 164-65. 36 Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 188, Roba'i.



110 Lewisohn

You do not sense, in all your utterance Is found nonsense and incoherence. What grace Indeed, exists in speech, unless the Oratrix Upon the tongue cast a flash of wit?37

The permanence and subsistence of the Divine Names, regardless of their revelation In creation, lead Ebn 'Arabi to the strange doctrine of the 'non- existence of the Divine Names'--or rather their a priori existence without any creative manifestation within God's Knowledge. Likewise, all things or entities also have an eternal 'non-existent' prototype (al-a'yan al-thdbeteh) in God's consciousness, a sort of unarticulated being virtually equivalent to nothingness. These doctrines of Ebn 'Arabi are versified in Persian by Mashreqi as well. Here in English, however, a prose translation perhaps better suits the abstract subject- matter:

Every Divine Name possesses two forms: Outer and Inner. The Inner form is Intelligible, solely within the Divine Consciousness, which you may infer to be its essence and determined prototype. The other, 'outer' form of Divine Name is sometimes manifest, and sometimes exists non-manifest, but 'potential' in essence.38

What a puzzling tale it all is! The Divine prototypes of things are said to be nonexistent, invisible in nothingness, yet, at the same time, they are said to be an 'exhibition' of the Absolute Being, who is God. However, when all is said and done, how can nothingness be an exhibition of Divine Eternity?39

Like other poets of the School of Tabriz, Mashreqi is heartily opposed to ritualistic religion devoid of the spirit of Love. His Islam is an entirely interiorized 'religion of Love':

Our belief is this: Whoever has no Love can have no Faith. When first the covenant between The souls of men and the sphere of heaven Was struck, I was, God knows, a lover then.40

Further elaborating on the theme of the Sufi's 'religion of love', in response to an anonymous interrogator, Mashreqi composed an entire ghazal (folio. 131) outlining 'ten stations of Love' in the order of: Courtesy (adab), Fear (tars), Patience (wabr), Heart-conviction (tasdiq), Generosity (sekhavat), Knowledge ('elm), Poverty (meskindt), Gnosis ('erfan), and Self-knowledge (khod-

37 Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 83, Ghazal. 38 Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 184, Qat'eh. 39 Divdn-e Mashreqi, Fol. 185, Qat'eh. 40 Divcn-e Mashreqi, Fol. 103a.




shenasi). His general impatience with formalistic Islam and particular dislike for the heartless piety of ratiocentric ascetics led Mashreqi to compose the following fragment (qat'e) elaborating an entircly esoteric exegesis of the four 'Pillars of Islam', a partial prose translation of which reads:

What are the pillars of Islam? Know them to be Fasting, Pilgrimage, Ritual Prayer, and Alms-giving. Fasting (sawm) which today are but hollow rituals; in truth, they signify Annihilation of the self in the Divine Essence. 'Pilgrimage' is realization of the station of the gnostics, gaining salvation from the fires of separation. Likewise, 'Alms-giving' implies a charity which freely spends, sacrificing in God's way everything in creation. Abandon yourself until you become merged and one in Him. Wash your hands of 'self', to say your 'Ritual Prayer'. If your complete the obligations entailed by these 'Pillars' of the Religious Way, I'd offer you a thousand souls as a sacrifice.41

III. Mashreqi's Imitation of Maghrebi

Who pulls tradition down and sets up fashion? Pretence is one thing, and another, passion. In every smith whose work I come across Tradition is the ore, fashion the dross. Pretenders mock the dead to make their mark, As little children shout who fear the dark. 'His work is new, Why, then, his name encumber With ancient poets?' He is of their number.

-Vcrnon Watkins

That many of Dante's sonnets in La vita nuova were composed in response to various poems by Cavalcanti; that Emerson paraphrased German translations of Hafez in his English verse; that William Blake set to verse the exordium of Thomas Jefferson's American 'Declaration of Independance'--is not considered artless, unaesthetic, or abnormal literary practisc. When we speak of Persian poetical tradition, citing the verse of the great Persian lyricists such as Nezami, Hafez, Salman Savaji, or Maghrebi, it is best to remember the importance of the role of convention in any literature. In the words of Northropc Frye:

All art is equally conventionalized, but we do not ordinarily notice this fact unless we are unaccustomed to the convention. In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented....This state of things makes it difficult to appraise a literature which includes Chaucer, much of whose poetry is translated or paraphrased from others; Shakespeare, whose plays

41 Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 184.



112 Lewisohn

sometimes follow their sources verbatim; and Milton, who asked for nothing better than to steal as much as possible out of the Bible. It is not only the inexperienced reader who looks for a residual originality in such works. Most of us tend to think of a poet's real achievement as distinct from, or even contrasted with, the achievement present in what he stole, and we are thus apt to concentrate on peripheral rather than on central critical facts.

...It is hardly possible to accept a critical view which confuses the original with the aboriginal, and imagines that a 'creative' poet sits down with a pencil and some blank paper and eventually produces a new poem in a special act of creation ex nihilo. Human beings do not create in that way...Literature may have life, reality, experience, nature, imaginative truth, social conditions, or what you will for its content; but literature itself is not made out of these things. Poetry can only be made out of other poems; novels out of other novels.42

Nor, indeed, should we wonder if Mashreqi imitates the poetic style of Maghrebi. Belonging to the same Sufi tradition as the latter, his poetry often seems to constitute an attempt to 'redo' Maghrebi, to surpass his master's expression. This attitude demonstrates, on the one hand, the predominance of the elements of poetic devices such as 'allusion' (talmih), 'quotation' (tadmin), and 'poetic response' (esteqbil)-to Maghrebi -in the poet's Divan, and, on the other, communicates the eminence of his spiritual rank.

Considering the importance of Mashreqi's 'creative imitation' of Maghrebi in his Divan, a brief critical overview of the historical background and literary tradition of verse-imitation among Persian poet's in Mashreqi's day, is in order.43 The

42 Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton: 1973 reprt.), p. 97. 43 Although consideration of the antonym of 'imitation', i.e., the notion of poetic originality (bda') in Persian literary criticism transcends the scope of the present article, poetic originality among the Persian Sufi poets seems to comprise three key elements:

1. Firstly, the notion of poetic originality (ebda') among the Muslim mystical poets as well as their extraordinary preoccupation with the composition of poetry in general -may both be said to be derived from the the idea of the inimitability of the Koran. All the poetical figures of speech (sanaye'-e badi') employed by the Sufis in their verse, in fact, seem to have had similar antecedents in the divine rhetoric of the Koran. Concerning the earliest systematic treatise on the rhetorical devices in the language of the Koran -Abu Bakr Mohammad al- Baqillani's Inimitability of the Koran (I'jaz al-Qur'cin)--Vincente Cantarino (Arabic Poetics in the Golden Age [Leiden: 1975, p. 14]) observes that the author "spends a long part of the treatise answering the question: Can the I'jaz of the Koran be recognized by the rhetorical figures which it contains? His affirmative answer consists of a detailed demonstration that the same rhetorical figures of speech found in poetry are also found in the holy text. Abu Hilal al-'Askari (d. 1005), whose literary views greatly influenced those of al-Baqillani's, had stated




in the introduction to his famous Kitcb al-sint'atayn (The Book of the The Two Arts) that the rhetorical arts of eloquence -balagha, fasaha-are, after the knowledge of God, the worthiest of all things to be learned, since through them the I'jaz al-Qur'ajn can be recognized." And as Jalal al-Din Homa'i argued in his classic work on Persian poetic devices (Fonun-e balaghat va sana'at adabi [Tehran: 1984, 2nd ed.], p. 316.), "The best example of poetic originality (ebda') in books written in the Arabic language occurs in Surah XI: 44 of the Koran. Entire treatises on the figures of speech expressed in this verse alone have been written by literary scholars, who have been able to adduce and discover all the other available figures of speech [in poetry] solely by reference to this verse."

2. Secondly, the Persian Sufi poets did recognize the existence of a definite kind of independent artistic originality at the basis of poetic inspiration. Rashid al-Din Vatvat, author of one the first manuals in Persian on poetic figures of speech, the Hadd'iq al-sehr fi daqa'iq al-sha'r (ed. Abbas Eqbal, [Tehran: 1929] composed in 1157, about the same time as the Chahair maqa leh [The Four Discourses] of Nezami 'Aruzi Samarqandi) describes the meaning of poetic originality (ebdd') as follows: 'This figure of speech is said by masters of diction (arbib-e bayan) to consist of novel ideas expressed with good words arranged in a verse-form without any apparent exertions. However, I say that ebda' cannot be considered merely a 'figure of speech'; on the contrary, all intellectual and learned discourse must possess originality, for everything else besides this belongs to the vulgar diction." (ladj'iq al-sehr, p. 83). And Dowlatshah, defending the spiritual basis of originality, observes: "It is a mistaken assumption to think that the purpose of poetry is merely regularity in metre (nazm), failing to understand that behind the curtain of this bridal chamber lie virginal mysteries, and in this room are chaste ladies of Ideas" (Tadhkerdt al-sho'ard , ed. M. 'Abbasi, [Tehran: 1958], p. 15). 'Abd al-Hoseyn Zarrinkub's recent work on Literary Criticism (Naqd-e adabi, [Tehran: 1982] 2 vols.) discusses this type of literary originality among the Persian Sufi poets in great detail. See, for example, Vol. 1, pp. 106-08, 212- 14, 236; II, p. 762 (ft. 20), 787 (ft. 131).

3. Thirdly, since in the Sufi poet's ethos and in the Islamic world-view there exists no purely individual originality, no merely human creativity whose Origin is not transcendent and divine, we also find that the Sufis' theories of poetic inspiration equally efface the ego from the artist's atelier, instituting God-or Muslim mystical tradition -as the sole actor and agent on the mental screen and blank page of the poet's mind and paper. According to the Sufis, Beauty and Truth are of Divine origin, rays from the heavenly pleroma of the Divine Names (hence, al-Badi' [The Originator] being a Divine Name, is the sole source of artistic creativity). Furthermore, the Koranic doctrine of the predestination and the crcation of human actions explicitly negates any purcly human creativity. Interpreting verse 17 of Surah 13 from the Koran:

Or have they ascribed to God associates who have created as he created, so that creation

is all alike to them? Say: 'God is the Creator of everything, and he is

the One, the Omnipotent'. (trans. A.J.Arberry, the Koran Interpreted)

Abu Bakr al-Kalabazi (d. 995), the author of the first systematic treatise on Sufism, the Ketib al-ta'arruf (concerning which the eminent Sufi theosopher,



114 Lewisohn

practise of writing verse-imitations or poems composed 'after' the classical masters is of great antiquity. In the Ketab al-$Ind'atdyn (The Book of the Two Arts) by Abu Hilal al-'Askari (d. after 1005), one of the earliest writers to discuss the issue, the following observation is offered concerning literary borrowing in general:

Not one of the various types of speakers can avoid borrowing concepts from somebody else prior and adding to the molds of those who preceded him. But if they borrow any concepts, they must dress them up with their own words....The Prince of the believers, 'Ali ibn Abu Talib--may God be pleased with him-has said, 'Were discourse not repeated, It would dwindle away'....The ugliness of borrowing ideas consists in one's accepting the idea and then also all of its wording, or

Sohravardi Maqtuil [d. 1191] commented: "But for the Ta'arruf we should not have known of Sufism.") pronounced: "So God denies that there is any Creator other than himself. Now since acts are things, it necessarily follows that God is the Creator of them: for if acts had not been created, God would have been the Creator of certain things, but not of all, and then his words, "God is the Creator of everything" would be a lie-far exalted is God above that!...Abu Bakr al-Wasiti interpreted God's words, "his is whatsoever dwells in the night or in the day" [Koran VI: 13], as follows: 'If a man claims that anything of his kingdom--that is, 'whatsoever dwells in the night or in the day'-be it so much as a thought or a motion, is his, or through him, or for him, or from him, then he is contending with (God's) absolute authority, and weakening his power." (The Doctrine of the Sufis [Kehib al-ta'arrufJ trans. A.J. Arberry, [Cambridge: 1977 rpt.], p. 28.) Also cf. similar discussions of this issue raised by J.C. Bilrgel, The Feather of Simurgh: The "Licit Magic" of the arts of Medieval Islam (New York: 1988), pp. 7-8, 16- 23.)

It is the first and the third elements of poetic originality mentioned above which mainly preoccupied the Sufi poets. However, because their conception of originality was based on an acsthetics of heart-savour or dhowq(the esoteric dimension of the poetic originality among the Sufis corresponding to an unveiling, tajalli) which strikes the heart, the organ of poetic vision; cf. the profound discussion of Ebn 'Arabi's theories of poetic vision by W.C. Chittick, "The World of Imagination and Poetic Imagery According to Ibn al-'Arabi", in Temenos: A Review Devoted to the Arts of the Imagination, No. 10, 1989, pp. 99-119), future study of the concept of ebda' in Persian Sufi poetry will require a careful review of the mystics' theories relating to poetic Imagination and Inspiration.

In conclusion, from this preliminary examination of the "central critical facts" in the aesthetics of classical Persian Sufi poetry, we find an oscillation between two poles of expression whose mutual relation is more complementary than contrary in nature. Briefly put, these two poles in our modem parlance are inspiration and tradition, and in the lexicon of the Persian poets: ebda' (invention, creativity, originality, innovative ability) and serqat (literary theft or plagiarism). The ensuing discussion, however, will be limited to analysing the significance of the latter pole-of literary theft or verse-imitation-rather than studying the former dimension of poetic originality.




most of it, or presenting it in a place which is not suitable. The idea only becomes beautiful through its adornment.44

Shams al-Din Qays al-Razi, the thineenth-century author of a brillant treatise on medieval Persian prosody: Al-Mo'jam fi ma'ayir ash'dr al-'ajam45 describes four types of literary borrowing, two of these tending towards the negative pole of plagiary or serqat and two of which lean towards the positive pole of invention, novelty, and originality (ebda'). In one of the earliest works written in Persian detailing the classical education of poets and their literary milieu, the famous Four Discourses (Chahar maqaleh) of Nezami 'Aruzi Samarqandi, the aspiring poet is exhorted to "commit to memory 20,000 couplets of the poetry of the Ancients and 10,000 verses of the works of the Moderns"; he is further counseled to keep these verses "constantly before his eyes, and continually read and mark the Diwdns of the masters of his art", The young poet, says Nezami 'Aruzi, should form his taste by a wide reading of poetry so as to strengthen his style of expression, and acquaint himself with "the works treating of poctic ideas and phraseology, plagiarisms [italics mine], biographies, and all sciences of this class."46

During the late fourteenth century, the period of Maghrebi and Mashreqi, such ideas concerning imitation, emulation, study, and adoption of the Divans of other poets had deeply permeated the minds of the Persian poets. The following are the seven main poetic devices employed, whether consciously or unconsciously, by both the Sufi and the profane poets in the act of borrowing:

A. Talmih: indirect 'allusion' to a historical proverb or to a previous poet's couplet. B. Eqtebas: 'Quotation' from the Koran or hadith inserted into a verse. C. Ersa-l-e meth/dl: 'Narration of a proverb' in a verse. D. Tadmin: 'Insertion' or quotation of a entire distich or a hemistich of another poet's verse by way of illustration of one's own ideas. E. Esteqbdl, javab: composition of a poem of varying length and form in 'response' and direct reference, sometimes to refute, sometimes to emulate the ideas of the source poem. F. Tatabbo': 'Imitation', 'pursuit', or 'following' of the manner or style of another poet. G. Nazireh: Poetical 'paraphrase' or imitation of a previous poet's poem.47

44 Cited by Vincente Cantarino, Arabic Poetics in the Golden Age, pp. 129-30. 45 Ed. Mohammad Qazvini & M. Razavi, (Tehran: 1957), pp. 464-76. 46 Chahar Maqaleh (The Four Discourses) of Niz?mi 'Aruidi-i Samarqandi, trans. E.G. Browne (London: 1921, repr. 1978), pp. 49-50. 47 Mohammad Qazvini summarizes the relationship of four of these devices as follows: "The principle and basis of tadmin, eqlebds, ersal-e methal, and lalmrh is the poet's adoption of something from someone else without conciously intending to 'use' it or to 'plagiarize' it (serqat), yet also without this happening after the manner of an 'inspired coincidence between two poems' (tavarrod). In reality, if the item adopted by the poet be someone else's verse or poem, this art is called



116 Lewisohn

It should be emphasized that the practise of tatabbo' and Nazfreh to which Mashreqi's Divan belongs, was quite widespread during this era. Indeed, artistic borrowing in the Persian poetic tradition came to be considered a necessary aspect of literary erudition, part of the phenomenon which A.J. Arberry described as "the incessant emulation which was the inevitable consequence of the acceptance by all Persian poets of a comparatively narrow repertory of themes and images."48 Later on, in the Safavid era, it even became fashionable for poets to write entire Divans in imitation of the classical Persian poets. While much of Mashreqi's poetry constitutes unadulterated tatabbo' of Maghrebi, he also is particularly fond of the poetical device of tadmin. tadmin in Persian poetry, according to Keyvan Sami'i:

was usually employed by the poet to bring about an apposite resemblance (tamaththol) by way of demonstrating and illustrating his views through citing a hemistich or a famous couplet by another poet, inserting the latter in an proper context of his verse. I personally cannot recall that any poet engaged in the practice of tadmin in any other style besides this before the Safavid period. In these latter days, however, a poet could quite often be found writing a tadmin or 'imitation' of every line in another poct's ghazal. However, this custom cannot be properly designated as tadmin because in the technical lexicon of poetics, tadmin refers to a practice involving a poet's adoption of a hemistich or couplet or two couplets from another poet to use in his own poem in an appropriate place as an imitative illustration (tamathihol) to be borrowed rather than stolen or plagiarized (serqat). The inserted couplet or hemistich would have to be well-known and to contain a proverbial allusion, so that the reader may not doubt the poet's originality, or suspect him of plagiarism."49

The poetic device of tadmin, being an intregral part of the Persian poet's rhetorical tradition, does not in any way indicate indigence of poetic imagination, but as Peter Avery remarks, demonstrates that

a continuing craft secret was being passed on among a select band of composers and audiences who were upholders of a refined and subtle culture constantly threatened with extinction. The tadmin and talmih, the ersal-e mathal and eqtebas, signal the survival, through disastrous vicissitudes, of an asset which neither conquering warlords nor bigotted

tadmin; if it be something from the Koran or Prophetic tradition it is called eqtebds; if it be a proverb it is called ersal-e methdl; and if it be an allusion indirectly pointing to one of these things, or to a famous historical tale, then it is termed talmih". "Ba'di tadminha-ye !Ifez" in Majmu 'eh-ye maqdlat darbareh-ye IIfe?, ed. A. Khodaparast (Tehran: 1985), pp. 78-79. 48 Classical Persian Literature (London: 1958), p. 352. 49 Kayvan Sami'i, Tahqiqat-e adabi: sokhanani pira-mun-e she'r va shd'eri (Tehran: 1982), p. 384-85.




religious fanatics could obliterate. Threads from earlier poems were woven into an everlastingly renewed web of poetry to produce a fabric that became the banner of an outstanding feat of cultural preservation that has made Iranian literature a by-word for excellence and beauty.50

Speaking of the frequency of verse-imitation of one poet by another poet through employment of an identical or similar rhyme and/or meter (the practise of nazireh) in fifteenth-century Persian poetry, Ehsan Yarshater points out that, "It became a current practise to write parallels to the works of older masters, emulating the metre, rhyme-pattern, and sometimes the type of content of an earlier ghazal, qasideh, or mathnavi. This trend continued through the Safavid and Mughal period, when poets often found themselves challenged to 'respond' to a poem of a past or present master."51 The case of two sixteenth century poets, for instance-Fazli (d. 1563) and and Abu al-Faz.1 Daftari (d. 1575), who were known to have extensively imitated the Divan of Hafez, to the extent of writing separate ghazal-s in the same meters and rhymes in 'response' to all of Hafez's poems52, particularly illustrates this practice. Dowlatshah Samarqandi's comment concerning the poet Homam Tabrizi (d. 714/1314), that, "Most of his poems [Homam's] were written in response (javab migayad) to the ghazals and odes of Sa'di and Hafez",53 is more understandable in light of this deeply ingrained aspect of the Persian poetic tradition. The same custom appears to have been a prevalent literary practice among all of Maghrcbi's and Mashreqi's contemporaries, such as Kamal Khojandi, most of whose ghazal-s were written, according to an editor of his Divan, 'Aziz Dowlatabadi, "in response (esteqbal) to his predecessor' poetry, the great masters of Persian literature, such as Ferdowsi, Anvari, Nezami, and especially Sa'di and Hafez."54 Kamal's open and unabashed admission of borrowing from the Divan of Hasan Dehlavi expressed in the following couplet also makes a paradoxical claim to a sort of poetic originality in the practise of tatabbo' and ladmin:

None could find a flaw in me. To all its clear: As a thief I'm fine; I stole from Hasan.55

50 From an article by Peter Avery, "Borrowings and Allusion in Hafez", p. 13, unpublished typescript lent to the author. 51 From his article in the Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6 (The Timurid and Safavid Periods), ed. P. Jackson & L. Lockhart (Cambridge: 1986), p. 983. 52 Kayvan Sami'i, "Tadmin dar ghazaliyit-e ltafez" in Tahqiqat-e adabi, op., cit., pp. 378-79. 53 Tadhkerat al-sho'ard'; ed. E.G. Browne (London: 1901), p. 204. See also Divan-e Homdm Tabriz, ed., R. Eyvazi (Tabriz: 1970), introduction, p. 57; for confirmation of this. 54 Divan-e Kamal al-Din Mas'ud Khojandi, ed. 'A. Dowlatabadi, (Tehran: 1958), introduction, p. 7. 55 The phrase 'As a thief I'm fine' (dozd-e hasanam) here is also a direct pun on the Indian Persian poet Hasan Dehlavi (d. 1328), whose penname was Hasan.



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Jami's comment on above verse in the Baharestan bears out the veracity of this claim, underlining Kamal's preoccupation with the art of tatabbo':

Kamal Khojandi followed the poetic style of Hasan Dehlavi, but the poetry of Hasan lacks the subtlety of thought and idea which is found in Kamal's verse. Those who dubbed Kamal 'the brigand of Hasan' probably based their assertions on this type of imitation (tatabbo ).56

Another poet of the same period, Katebi Nishapuri (d. 838/1434) ridiculed Kamal Khojandi as a plagiarist in these two couplets:

If the words of Hasan of Dehli From the verse of Amir Khosrow Appear extracted, do not find fault. For -Khosrow is a master; in fact, above all masters.

Then when Kamal Khojandi you catch In the act of snatching ideas from Hasan's verse Don't scream thief; it's no worse Than a brigand pinching from a brigand.57

'Esmat Bokhara'i (d. 1425), one of the major poets of the fifteenth century whose style has been often compared with Maghrebi, and whom Dowlatshah acclaimed as the most popular poet of the reign of Shah Rokh (reigned 1405- 47),58 is also judged by Jami as a poet who merely imitated and followed (tatabbo') the style of Amir Khosrow Dehlavi.59

Thus the hemistich could also be interpreted to mean: 'Clealy, I'm a plagiarist of the verse of Hasan Dehlavi' (I stole from Hasan). 56 Baharestdn of Jami (Tehran: 1961; reprinted from the Vienna edition of 1846), pp. 100-01. See also A. Zarrinkub, Naqd-e adabi, op. cit., Vol I, pp. 235- 36. 57 Cited by M. Qazvini, Badi' tadminhd-ye FHdfe?, p. 112. The following translation of this verse by Edward Browne, (A Literary history of Persia, Vol. 3 (Cambridge: 1920), p. 491), casts a different light on its meaning:

If Hasan stole ideas from Khosrow, one cannot prevent him, For Khosrow is a master, nay, more than the masters! And if Kamal stole Hasan's ideas from his Divan One can say nothing to him: a thief has fallen on a thief!

58 Ketab Tadhkerdt al-sho'ara', ed. E.G. Browne, op. cit., p. 358. The collected poetry of this poet has been recently edited and published by A. Karami, Divan-e 'Esmat Bokhard'i (Tehran: 1987). 59 Bahdrestin, op. cit., p. 102.




From the above examples of the prevalence of the practise of tadmin and tatabbo' during this period, it is evident how integral an element this was in the repertoire of the Persian poet's craft.

There also exists a spiritual aspect to this poetic method which is by no means insignificant, related to various contemplative disciplines practised by the Sufis; in particular to the constant commemoration of God (dhikr) and the practise of sama' (audition to mystical poetry and music)60; the latter being influenced by the psalm-like nature of the Persian Sufi ghazal, written as much to be sung as to be read aloud -the situation of Sufi gnostic ghazal in the khaneqah corresponding more or less to the function of the hymn in the Church.

This spiritual dimension of tatabbo' is perhaps best illustrated in the Persian Divan of Mir 'Ali Shir Nava'i (d. 1501), known by the pen-name of 'Fani'. While wielding great political power as the vizier of Soltan Hoseyn Bayqara, Mir 'Ali Nava'i was also famed for his patronage of poets and love of letters (his biographical work on the 'Lives of the Poets' in Turkish entitled Majdles al- nafa'es was translated several times into Pcrsian). Because his tremendous political influence and power was also complemented by a sincere devotion to Sufism61, Jami gave this vizier his benediction as the "lovcr and devotee of the Darvishes, rather-one who is beloved and believed in by them."62 It was on Mir Nava'i's instigation that Jami collated and collected his own Divan. By his prompting Jami also wrote many other works, including his famous commenatary on 'Eraqi's Divine Flashes (Lama'at) entitled Asha'ai al-lama'ct, and his biographical history of Sufi saints, the Nafaha-t al-ons.

Fani's Persian Divan is deliberately divided into two types of ghazals called tatabbo' and mokhtara' (original inventions) and, of course, the imitative poems far outnumber the original pieces. Stressing the spiritual basis of his practise of tatabbo', Mir 'Ali Nava'i composed this quatrain:

By Fani's following People's verse In 'poems of imitation' There is no intention Of putting poetic prowess on exhibition,

no conceit nor pretension.

60 See Terry Graham, "The Influence of Sufism on Music in Islamic Countries" in Sufi: A Journal of Sufism, 1 (1988-9), pp. 22-7. 61 Tadhkerat al-sho'ara', op. cit., p. 349. 62 Divan-e Amir Nezam al-din 'Ali Shir Nava'i, ed. R. Homayunfar (Tehran: 1963), introduction, pp. 17-18.



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But masters of Letters are princes of heart; So, standing by the door of the heart The begging of inspiration is his intention.63

Fani, here, like other Sufi poets, subordinates poetry to prophecy, and art to love. (We may recall that the rank of the poets was placed by Nezami in the Makhzan al-asrar just behind the row of the Prophets, and poets were counted among the number of the Saints.64) Perhaps Mir 'Ali Nava'i even wished in his quatrain to elevate the stature and rank of the poet as high as his contemporary admirer, the author of the Memoirs of the Poets, Dowlatshah Samarqandi, who declared, citing Sana'i, that

Poets are maids-in-waiting to the brides of ideas; they are critics of the refined subtleties of the Mysteries. Like divers their magnanimous natures and upright consciences are able to bring in as flash a myriad pearls from the depths of the ocean of Placelessness to the shores of actuality. They lavish these pearls upon the heads of adepts in Archetypal meanings (ahl-e ma'dni). Indeed the falcon of archetypal meaning lies in the snare of this group, and the restive colt of gnostic subtleties by this company has been tamed. Sana'i says:

Do not count traditional historians among the number of the poets; for Jesus' niche is in heaven but parrots perch upon twig-ends65

The spiritual sense of tatabbo' is thus seen to involve the practise of a kind of imitatio deus, a training and discipline to which the artist, the poet, and the Sufi fedeli d'amore must submit to cleanse his heart and, thence, to perfect his art.

The influence of Maghrebi's inspiration on Mashreqi's Divan, in respect to both spiritual content (ma'nd) and formal literary terminology (laf?), is overwhelming to the point of saturation. One of the unique aspects of Mashreqi's Divan is the existence of an entire section called tadmindt (adaptions of a former poet's verse), noted previously, which are'found in a series of seven dowbayti-s on folios 186- 187. Mashreqi composed tadminit to the rhyming refrains of famous strophe- poems by Sa'di and 'Eraqi; there are also two tadmrndt of the rhyming refrains of Maghrebi's two strophe-poems. In the lyrical section (ghazaliyydt) of his Divan, almost every second ghazal of Mashreqi acts as a nazireh (poetical paraphrase) of one of Maghrebi's poems, constantly reiterating themes, repeating

63 Divan-e Navd'i, op. cit., introduction, p. D. I am indebted to Professor T. Gandjei of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London University, for this reference. 64 Cf. J.C. Burgel, op. cit., p. 59. 65 Tadhkerat al-sho'ard', op. cit., p. 5.




meters, re-employing imagery, and revolving around the same general stock of metaphors: ocean vs. drop, plurality vs. unity, concentration vs. distraction of heart, tress and face, indivisibility of name (esm) and Named One (mosamma), lover and beloved, etc., which grace Maghrebi's verses.

Consider, for instance, how Mashreqi follows Maghrebi's style, down to the very meter and rhyme, and how his imagery is copied with precision (although his ideas undergo considerable poetic revision)-in the following Ghazal:

The mesh of Faith and infidelity Upon the heart's-beloved's way Is set like gaudy spectres to beguile you. If you have stability Cast the blaze of Love upon them both.

To lovers how long shall you boast and bluster O Shaykh, of holy fear and piety? Such speech betrays the trace to me Of flux and variability.

For grief and pain, and eyes which rain With tears, a heart forlorn at dawn Which heaves with sighs-these you must have. What will you gain, devoid of pain, But flowery talk and turgid rhetoric?

In that reflecting glass in which ill-will, Conceit or greed or envy still do have a place Never will the heart's-beloved bare her face.

Was that the meaning of Religion-- To put your heart in hock in a hundred shops With untrained hopes & eyes agape on every course Then in the Mosque to toss your body in wantonness?

Religion, Creed, and Faith to us Is the longing and the love we sense Beholding the heart's-beloved's face. -Such Faith is true to visionaries, Considered by them sound theology.

O Shams-e Mashreqi, you are the Eastern Sun, For from your face the light of Heaven is shown. Pious remains the businessman, Gazing at the promised land The plighted word of Eden's virgins.66

66 Divan-e Mashreqi, Folios 92-93.



122 Lewisohn

Now, reading Maghrebi's own original Ghazal,67 imitated by Mashreqi above (composed even in the same metre and rhyme), it quickly becomes evident how deeply Imbued Mashreqi's imagination was with the images, concepts and melodies of Maghrebi's poetry:

What to men is infidelity and sin For me is Faith and true doctrine. All the world's gall and bitterness To my taste seems sweet, delicious.

An eye which sees the Truth Has no sight for lies; For all 'un-truth' that is conceived Or what is perceived as lies, mendacity Is in the eyes themselves deceived-- The vantage-point of men without veracity.

For in the briar-patch of pride and envy, Deceit, hypocrisy -polytheism and jealousy, The blossom of Unity cannot flourish.

I sought from my soul the seat of the Friend; She said, 'The Friend's abode, should it exist Is within a heart that is destitute'.

Paradise does make for short-sighted man all life's business,

Just for the sake of heaven his exertions; It's dullness that makes him yean for heaven's virgins.

But in the Paradise of Verity's masters Only the TRUTH exists. For Verity's masters Verily, no other paradise exists.

If, indeed, you profess to view The Beloved Chinese fetish, Gaudy spectres hold your sight; Your purview's just caricature.

Alas! Your gaze does not scan That Chinese image, and empty effigies Grip your eyes, and you discem But stray designs-not the Plan.

67 No. 35 in my edition of his Divan.




Mask yourself as you wish, no veil on Maghrebi is cast

by all such flux of figuration through all your forms of fluctuation:

His quality is stability, his spirit at peace,

his soul in consolidation.

Although the Persian original of this ghazal by Mashreqi is not the best example of his handling of this genre, his ripostes (javab) below to the rhyming refrains of Maghrebi's two strophe-poems (tarji'band) are brilliant, and show how sucessfully Mashreqi could acquit himself in handling the device of tadmrn:

MAGHREBI's refrain:

All is He within the span of existence- In truth, but He exists, but He it is who lives.

MASHREQI's riposte:

How can I select another to love? For 'All is He within the span of existence'.

Who can my fancy affect Since 'In truth but He exists. but He it is who lives'-?

MAGHREBI's refrain:

There is a treasure: This world's its talisman;

It is an essence: Whose attributes is man.



124 Lewisohn

MASHREQI's riposte:

For 'the treasure' I have on hand In that rag and bones shop of the heart The world acts as charm and talisman'. Latent within my essence and attributes My Inward gaze contemplates An 'essence whose attributes are man'.

In short, although Mashreqi was quite conscious of his emulation of Maghrebi, he adopts a quite independent attitude towards his mentor. Both poets werc luminaries unafraid of the effulgence of their verses, but Mashreqi tended to vocalize his brillance, beaming back his inspiration upon his original teacher, amplifying, expounding, with further poetic commentary the various theosophical doctrines preached by Maghrebi in the context of his own personal mystical experience. Sometimes he even claimed to outshine his master, as in the following two verses where Mashreqi mentioned Maghrebi directly by name:

O Occident!68 0 source of Love's lights to me; If you are 'Maghrebi'-I am solar luminosity, A sun whose Oriental blaze Consumes the West, bums up all Occidents So no mote of dust without my glow exists.

In these two Persian couplets Mashreqi is actually following the meter an(d rhyme-scheme of Maghrebi's ghazal 125, the last line (maqta') of which runs:

Now from the Orient my sun appears

So utterly from Maghrebi am I set free.

In another ghazal, Mashreqi indulges in a conceit common to the repertoire of the Persian Sufi poets (exotic to us, perhaps, although familiar to the likes of a Blake or Shakespeare), boasting that his brillance renders the light of the material sun unworthy for Maghrebi (addressed by his name in this line) to behold:

O sun of Faith -Shams-e Din, Before your features so fine, Your two bright cheeks,

68 The term 'Maghreb' (Occident) mentioned here contains a pun on the literal meaning of the penname 'Maghrebi'.




Why should Maghrebi bend his looks to scan the moon or sun? 69

And yet the wine and light which both Mashreqi and Maghrebi quaff and contemplate had but one Divine source, as the following response by Mashreqi to a ghazal by Maghrebi -the former poet practicing 'insertion' (tadmin) of a distich by the latter, again addressing Maghrebi directly by name (devices which show that his ghazal was consciously modeled on Maghrebi's original ghazal]-- demonstrates:

MAGHREBI 's original Ghazal (CXXVII: 9, 11, 12, 13):

O let us perish in nullity in the being of the Friend;

Blase to existence, refuse to see any self-identity, 'I' or 'me'.

Lend us your assistance, Saki! serve us the wine of eternity,

give us a cup as offering, in love of wine we're languishing.

Till within the Self we'll steep ourselves so deep, so drunk shall we

Become within, that from the niche of nullity, we'll lift our heads to heaven.

Are we not beams of luminosity? O Friend, in the space of a breath We'll make our way to the orb of day

occidentally 'like Maghrebi'.

MASHREQI's response (fol. 137):

In Love's aseity We'll reach nullity "Blase to existence, refuse to see any self-identity, 'I' or 'me',"

Again we'll be As Shams-e Maghrebi,

69 The term 'Shams-e Din' means the Sun of Faith or Sun of Religion while also containing an allusion to the alternate penname of Mashreqi which is Shams. The term dow rokh means here 'two cheeks', rokh being the Persian translation of the Arabic khadd (cheek), although in modern Persian rokh more often means merely 'face' or 'features'.



126 Lewisohn

"O Saki, give us a cup as offering, in love of wine we're languishing."

Despite such flagrant imitation and obvious adaption of Maghrebi's style, many are the verse passages abounding in his Divan-often entire ghazal-which demonstrate that Mashreqi was able to transcend the degree of poetic imitation and even spiritual mendicancy (illustrated by the tatabbo' concept of 'Ali Shir Nava'i) and, notwithstanding his obvious identification with Maghrebi's style, to realize the rank of independent, adept, and mystic poet in his own right. Hence, many of Mashreqi's ghazals appear as highly original re-visions of Maghrebi's ideas, rather than merely derivative imitations of a lesser quality.70

Because we do not possess the adequate critical means to assess Mashreqi's stature amidst the pantheon of the previous and subsequent masters of Persian gnostic poetry-the poet's Divan has not yet been published-magnanimity demands the utmost frugality in our exercise of the critical spirit, and so suspension of passing a final judgement on his work. Furthermore, what was offered above by way of selected translation of random verses amounts to less than a fraction of the poet's whole Divan, hardly a representative overview.

What appears to be of greater significance is the poet's place as an exponent of the genre of the 'gnostic ghazal' (ghazal-e 'erfcni-'drefdneh)-Mashreqi's particular contribution to the legacy of medieval Persian Sufism. For in this tradition Mashreqi's degree as a poet is pre-eminent; he stands both as an important disciple/initiate of Maghrebi, progenitor of this symbolic tradition, and as a poet who copied Maghrebi's style, a style which was to be emulated by poets as far-ranging as Shah Ne'matollah (d. 1430), 'Abd al-Rahman Jami (d. 1492), and Mohammad Lahiji ('Asiri', d. 1516 ). But beyond these merely literary issues, we may say that Mashreqi's rank as a poet appears quite eminent if regarded from the standpoint of the mystical state (hal) in relation to which his verse was but a vehicle. In fact, he no doubt would have concured with Paul Valdry's opinion71 that the essence of poetic language is the re-creation of the poetic state, and thus, ultimately, the offspring of a certain spiritual consciousness (hal). He would well have felt as Richard Rolle, the fourteenth century English mystic, did about poetry that, "Those who love the world indeed know the words or verses of our songs, but not their music."72 So in surveying his Divan, we may recall that it is a matter of spirit and heart, rather than the letters and forms of verse, the metres and norms of prosody, which qualifies the Sufi poet. For in Rumi's words:

70 For further examples of such similarities, see our list of parallels between the two poet's Divans in A Critical Edition of the Divan of Maghrebi, Chap. IX. A. 6. 71 The Art of Poetry, trans. D. Folliot (New York: 1961), pp. 72-73. 72 Grant, The Literature of Mysticism in Western Tradition (London: 1983), p. 14.




Words are only nests. Meanings winged creatures aflight. Bodies are rivers,

the Spirit their steady current.73

-A truth which Mashreqi also enunciates in a verse (folio 103):

Here all charm of diction is nothing in this tome of verse the art of rhetoric

and poetic science bears a spirit and all evokes a higher sense.

Having composed a commentary upon the Golshan-e raz of Mahmud Shabestari, Mashreqi would no doubt have endorsed its author's view of the hermenuetics of Sufi poetry,74 that

The mystical significance unveiled, Experienced by heart-savour-- No philological interpretation reveals.

It was alluding to this truth in his own verse, that Mashreqi wrote (folio 126):

Of the rhyme and verse of Shams-e Mashreqi Go tell the news to all who merit it Because the worth of pearls bome from the sea

all jewelers will appreciate.

Leonard Lewisohn, School of Oriental and African Studies, London Univcrsity

73 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. Nicholson, Bk. IV 32-92. 74 Cf. L. Lewisohn, "Shabestari's Garden of Mysteries: The Aesthetics and Hermeneutics of Sufi Poetry" in Temenos: A Review Devoted to the Arts of the Imagination, 10 (1989), pp. 177-207



The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi

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