A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian PoetryAnnemarie Schimmel, one of the world's foremost authorities on Persian literature, provides a comprehensive introduction to the complicated and highly sophisticated system of rhetoric and imagery used by the poets of Iran, Ottoman Turkey, and Muslim India. She shows that these images have been used and refined over the centuries and reflect the changing conditions in the Muslim world. According to Schimmel, Persian poetry does not aim to be spontaneous in spirit or highly personal in form. Instead it is rooted in conventions and rules of prosody, rhymes, and verbal instrumentation. Ideally, every verse should be like a precious stone--perfectly formed and multifaceted--and convey the dynamic relationship between everyday reality and the transcendental. Persian poetry, Schimmel explains, is more similar to medieval European verse than Western poetry as it has been written since the Romantic period. The characteristic verse form is the ghazal--a set of rhyming couplets--which serves as a vehicle for shrouding in conventional tropes the poet's real intentions. Because Persian poetry is neither narrative nor dramatic in its overall form, its strength lies in an "architectonic" design; each precisely expressed image is carefully fitted into a pattern of linked figures of speech. Schimmel shows that at its heart Persian poetry transforms the world into a web of symbols embedded in Islamic culture. |
Contents
The Language of the Birds | 177 |
The Sky the Wind and the | 201 |
From the Scholars Bookshelf | 245 |
Playing with Numbers | 255 |
Appendix | 303 |
Notes | 325 |
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Common terms and phrases
al-ḥaqiqat allusions Amir Khusrau Anīs Anwari appears Arabic Armaghān-i Pāk ash-shu'arā Aşlaḥ Attar Aufi Azad beauty became become Bedil beloved beloved's bird Calligraphy century chapter cheek classical color Dard Daulatshah described Dīvān Divine Dīwān epic expression Farrukhi fārsī fire Fuzuli garden Ghalib ghazal Grammatik ḥadīth Hafiz heart Hindu History of Persia Ikram imagery India Iqbal Iran Islamic Jami Ka'ba Kalim Kashmir Khaqani Khizāna-i āmira Koran Kulliyāt Kulliyāt-i fārsī letters lover Lubāb lyric Majnun Manuchihri Maqālāt Mathnawi mentioned moon Mughal Muḥammad Muslim mystical nightingale Nizami Ottoman Ottoman Poetry Persian literature Persian poetry poem poetical poets praise prayer Prophet qaşīda Qasim-i Kahi rhyme rose ruby Rückert Rückert/Pertsch Rumi Rumi's Sa'di Sana'i says Schimmel Shah Shāhnāma soul story Sufi Sura Tadhkirat Tadhkirat-i shu'ară-i Kashmir theme tradition translation tresses Triumphal Sun tulip Turk Turkish Urdu Dīwān Urfi verse wine word writing Yunus Emre Yusuf