The Great Umar Khayyam

The Rubáiyát by the Persian poet ‘Umar Khayyæm (1048-1131) is used in contemporary Iran as a resistance literature, symbolizing the secularist voice in cultural debates. While Islamic fundamentalists criticize Khayyæm as an atheist and materialist philosopher who questions God’s creation and the promise of reward or punishment in the hereafter, secularist intellectuals see in him an example of a scientist who scrutinizes the mysteries of the world. Others see a spiritual master, a Sufi, who guides people to the truth. This volume collects eighteen essays on the history of the reception of ‘Umar Khayyæm in various literary traditions, exploring how his philosophy of doubt, carpe diem, hedonism, and in vino veritas has inspired generations of poets, novelists, painters, musicians, calligraphers and film-makers

'The Houses of the Tulips’: Persian Poetry on the Fallen in the Iran-Iraq War

Middle Eastern Studie

She’r marham-e hejran

Middle Eastern Studie

Omar Khayyam’s Transgressive Ethics and Their Socio-Political Implications in Contemporary Iran

Middle Eastern Studie

A Modern Persian Poet on Iran-Iraq War: Qayṣar Amīnpūr

Middle Eastern Studie

Poëzie en politiek in Iran: Ayatollah ook dichter

Middle Eastern Studie

Gambling in Taverns: Reflections on the Notion of Play in Persian Culture

This article treats the notion of “play” in various cultural domains, ranging from exegesis of the Quran, to “mirror for princes” and medieval mystical poetry. The article emphasizes the importance of play for medieval court culture and how a distinction was made between mind games such as chess and backgammon and physical games such as polo. The intriguing aspect of such treatments of games is that they are connected to pleasure and pastimes where a strong fear of gambling exists. The article also briefly deals with the tensions between theological views on play and the popularity of various sorts of play at Persian courts such as chess, backgammon, literary riddles, and polo. While these are actual games in Persia, their poetic and aesthetic aspects are also discussed. For instance, many references are made to polo in an allegorical sense in which the polo ball becomes a metaphor for the head of the lover and the polo stick the hair of the beloved. The article concludes with an analysis of the notion of play in Islamic mysticism, especially in the works of the twelfth-century poet Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. 1220)

Een Perzische Floris ende Blancefloer? Over het elfde-eeuwse Perzische liefdesepos Warqa en Golshâh

Middle Eastern Studie

Poetry as Salve for Persian Exiles

With the coming of the 1979 Revolution and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88), Persian poetry entered into a new phase. While the revolutionary poets wrote about the ideals of the revolution, motivating young soldiers to go to the front, many established poets were persecuted, imprisoned, or executed, and some chose exile. From this period onward, a rich corpus of Persian poetry about exile has been created. With minds in their new homes and hearts in the homeland, the poets reflect on a wide range of new experiences. What strikes me in reading the poetry of exiled Iranians is that their poetry, as well as their other writings, usually starts with traumatic experiences in prisons before and after the revolution, followed by reflective narratives about their flight from Iran, and a period of adaptation and even acceptance of the new culture, elaborating on life in exile with all its hardships and problems. In these three phases, poetry often functions as a salve, offering poets a space for reflection and contemplation. The authors have recourse to classical Persian poetry, which conveys the ephemerality of life, to universalize the theme of exile by relating it to a mystical longing of the soul for its original abode and to the uncertainties of mundane life. While classical poetry is restorative for pains and tribulations, the exiled authors also compose their own poetry depicting a bitter and souring process of acquiescence to an uncertain life in the diaspora. In this essay, I will first give an example of how classical Persian poetry is used by the diaspora in an exilic context, and then, I will analyze the poetry of three Persian poets: Nasim Khaksar, Pegah Ahmadi, and Fatemeh Shams. There are a large number of Persian poets in the diaspora whose poetry deserves to be analyzed. Each of these poets, whether they are established, amateur, or novice, reveals a new aspect of life in exile

Gambling in Taverns: Reflections on the Notion of Play in Persian Culture

This article treats the notion of “play” in various cultural domains, ranging from exegesis of the Quran, to “mirror for princes” and medieval mystical poetry. The article emphasizes the importance of play for medieval court culture and how a distinction was made between mind games such as chess and backgammon and physical games such as polo. The intriguing aspect of such treatments of games is that they are connected to pleasure and pastimes where a strong fear of gambling exists. The article also briefly deals with the tensions between theological views on play and the popularity of various sorts of play at Persian courts such as chess, backgammon, literary riddles, and polo. While these are actual games in Persia, their poetic and aesthetic aspects are also discussed. For instance, many references are made to polo in an allegorical sense in which the polo ball becomes a metaphor for the head of the lover and the polo stick the hair of the beloved. The article concludes with an analysis of the notion of play in Islamic mysticism, especially in the works of the twelfth-century poet Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. 1220)