From lyrical poems, to Qasidas, the true worth of Muslim poetry spans many traditions
Many, who may have heard the names of Saadi, Hafiz or Omar Khayyam, know little about the excellence of their poetical compositions bequeathed to us, and the times they lived in.
Before the Renaissance burst upon Mediaeval Europe in the wake of the Muslim conquest of Constantinople in AD1463 poetry was considered profane and frivolous by the European court and clergy alike. It was the direct consequence of Muslim influence that lyrical poetry, distinct from religious poetry, took birth in Europe.
It was the pre-Islamic poet-king of Arabia, the famous Imraul Qays, in the sixth century after Christ, who composed poems based on personal-feelings and ‘experiences’, a millennium before England produced its Shakespeare. Imraul Qays wrote against Fate: “We are birds, flies and worms and yet bolder than ravening wolves. The roots of nobility reach deep into the earth, but death robs me of my youth ....” These lines remind the reader of Shakespeare’s blank verse uttered by a tragic character in one of his plays: “We are to the gods as flies to the boys; they kill us for their sport.”
While mentioning lmraul Qays and quoting his verses. it would be improper if a significant fact — the poetic genre of Qasida (or ode) — is not taken note of “The Qasida has nothing in common with the English odes (‘Ode to the West wind’ or ‘Ode to a nightingale’). The Arabic Qasida was a long poem beginning with ‘Tashbib’, recalling the exploits of youth, meeting the loved one (wisal), then facing the agony of love and pangs of separation (hijr). It ended with the glorification of the poet’s tribe or patron. This particular kind of poetry was peculiar to the Arab taste and talent.
‘Political’ as well as satirical poems originated during Banu Ummaya’s so-called ‘golden age’ under Abdul Malik and Hajjaj. Al-Akhtal, the court poet, the leader of this genre, was outdone by his rival Farazdaq. It was only in the 18th century that satirical poems composed by Dryden and Alexander Pope gained recognition as poetry, proper, in England.
In 740 A.D., Abdul Malik’s successor Walid II, reported to be not given much to piety, patronised drinking songs ( like ‘Saqi Nama’ in Persian). Adi Ibne Zayd, a Christian started composing such songs. An independent form of love poems was also introduced at this time to the Arab connoisseurs of poetry which were composed by Umar ibne Abi Rabiah. These love songs are different from the ‘Tashbib’ of the old Qasidas.
The Abbasid caliphs, particularly during Harun-ur- Rashid’s 23-year rule (786-809 A.D.) particularly cultivated this form of poetry .In his time love poetry, composed mainly by the by non-Arab residents of Baghdad, became popular. Abu Nawas of Persian parentage, Marwan Ibne All Hafsah, a Khorasanian Jew, Khalaful Ahmar of Farghana and Abul Alahiyah, a Christian who later became an ascetic were famous poets of these lyrics.
After the sacking of Baghdad by the Mongol Horde in 1258 A.D., Iran came under Mongol rule. During this period under the Persian ruler Saad ibne Zangi, who recognizing Mongol authority retained his kingdom, the poet Saadi (d.1291), taking his name from his patron, wrote original works of a moralising nature of mingled verse and prose. The Gulistan (Rose Garden) and Bostan (Pleasure Garden) are still regarded as classic expressions of Islamic morality and ethical conduct. Half a century after Saadi, came the most celebrated of all Persian poets, Shamsuddin Mohammad Hafiz from Saadi’s city of Shiraz. His ‘Diwan’ was first published in 1868 A.D. His poems centre on praise for nature’s beauty , on flowers blossoming in spring, on the nightingale’s song of yearning (like that of the English Romantic poets), on the joys of youth and the pleasures of drinking. These poems of Hafiz are the precursors of our extremely sensuous and secular love lyrics, or Ghazals. But they have been invested with a sacred significance and are admired by pious people as allegorical verses, their inner meaning being about not a physical love but about the love of the Creator — Ishqe Haqiqi.
Omar Khayyam (d.1132) lived and wrote before the Mongol tempest. Although a mathematician of great worth, his real reputation is based on his poetry. He composed his Rubaiyat, or quatrains, in Persian. These are witty, hedonistic wine songs preaching a carefree enjoyment of life. But even these quatrains are given a mystic meaning, as it was unthinkable that a Muslim would write profane things so openly and publicly.
But the greatest mystic (Sufi) poet of Islam, who wrote his Masnavi in Persian, although he was brought up in Konya, Turkey, was Jalaluddin Roomi, or Maulana Room. His Masnavi, or stanzas of eight verses (like Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat of four-verse stanzas) is a masterly exposition of Islamic mysticism through fables, stories and metaphysical reflections centring around his main philosophical theme — the dissolution of the ego (‘khudi’).
He anticipated our own poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal, who acknowledges him as his source of inspiration.
