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THOUGH Mawazna-i-Anees-o-Dabeer is sometimes regarded as Shibli No’mani’s best critical work, it is a fact that Mawazna is sometimes criticised for being partisan as Shibli has clearly tilted the balance towards Anees.
On the other hand, the depth and meticulousness with which Shibli has evaluated Persian poetry in his She’r-ul-‘Ajam is beyond comparison. It is, therefore, often said that She’r-ul-‘Ajam is Shibli’s best literary work. An Urdu work on history of Persian poetry, She’r-ul-‘Ajam consists of five volumes. As mentioned in some early editions through chronogram, Shibli began working on it in 1324 Hijri/1906-07 AD and finished the task in 1325 Hijri/1907-08, quite a remarkable pace considering that the five-volume tome has over 1,400 pages and must have demanded great physical and mental efforts as it is well supplied with historical facts, literary references and quotations from Persian poetry that serve as samples.
The first volume took some time to appear and it was first published in 1908. It describes the beginning of Persian poetry and some early Persian poets, such as Rudaki, Firdousi, Hakeem Sanai, Omar Khayyam and Nizami Ganjavi. The second volume of She’r-ul-‘Ajam, published in 1909, analyses poetry of some poets of middle era, such as Attaar of Nishapur, Saadi Sherazi and Hafiz Sherazi. The latter-day Persian poets --- including Urfi, Talib Aamli, Kaleem and Saaib --- are discussed in the third volume that appeared in 1910. The fourth one, published in 1912, does not discuss any more poets but deliberates on critical theories such as what poetry is, how poetry began in Iran and what specific characteristics Persian poetry has. The last and fifth part that appeared four years after Shiblis’s death, in 1918, is on some genres of Persian poetry and surveys qaseeda (panegyric ode) and ghazal as well as Sufi poetry, moral poetry and philosophical aspects of Persian poetry.
Shibli has been criticised for ignoring some Persian poets who have significant influence in the latter-day Persian poetry, Jami, for instance. One of the harshest criticisms against She’r-ul-‘Ajam came from Hafiz Mahmood Sherani, a much-respected scholar. Shibli, as wrote Sherani, had not been careful about accepting historical facts and She’r-ul-‘Ajam narrates many events based on anecdotal evidence. Sherani’s articles evaluating She’r-ul-‘Ajam had appeared between 1922 and 1927 in Urdu, a quarterly journal published by Moulvi Abdul Haq from Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu, and — as some researchers suspect — it was Moulvi Abdul Haq himself who had instigated Sherani to write against Shibli because of some personal differences. Hence began a whole genre of Shibli-bashing, bent upon damaging Shibli for some of his actual and many of his perceived or presumed lapses. Till today, the volley of fiery critical ideas against Shibli has not stopped. But Shibli lives on.
Defending Shibli, Aftab Ahmed Siddiqi has pointed out in one of his articles (reproduced in Saheefa’s special issue on Shibli, published in 2014) that Shibli had relied upon many Persian tazkiras, or works recording lives and works of Persian poets. The writers of those Persian tazkiras have disagreement among them on many dates and events and Shibli had only quoted them and, in a way, Sherani’s criticism is directed towards the writers of those tazkiras and not Shibli, wrote Siddiqi. Secondly, several scholarly works on the lives and works of Persian poets were edited and published after She’r-ul-‘Ajam’s publication. As for Shibli’s opinion about certain Persian poets, it is a matter of taste or personal likes or dislikes and a very subjective matter.
It is a fact that no other scholar of Urdu could even come closer to what Shibli has written in Urdu on Persian poetry, let alone surpassing Shibli. Sherani all of a sudden stopped critical review of She’r-ul-‘Ajam and left it unfinished for unknown reasons. But most of the scholars and critics agree that Shibli’s She’r-ul-‘Ajam is an extraordinary work and no other scholar could have matched Shibli in this regard for Shibli’s study of Persian poetry and his love and command over it were simply awe-inspiring and especially his superb selection of Persian couplets is one of the reasons why the book is still sought-after by poetry buffs.
It is pertinent to mention here that Edward Brown’s Literary History of Persia, too, is considered a magisterial work on the subject as Brown was an exceptional scholar of Persian. But Shibli No’mani’s She’r-ul-‘Ajam is different from Brown’s work in that Brown discusses political events and their impact on poetry but he mostly refrains from directly commenting on literary merits of Persian poetry and usually quotes some Iranian scholar when faced with such situation. But Shibli himself was a poet of Persian and relished Persian poetry. So he does not shy away from commenting on poets and is spot on.
Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2023
