Английская Википедия:Hunar-nāma
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Italic title Шаблон:Cleanup lang Hunar-nāma ('the book of excellence', also transliterated Honarnāme) is a 487-distich Persian mathnavī poem composed by ‘Uthmān Mukhtārī at Tabas in the period 500-508 (1105-13 CE), when he was at the court of Seljuqs in Kirmān. The poem is dedicated to the ruler of Tabas, Yamīn al-Dowla (aka Ḥisām ad-Dīn Yamīn ad-Dowla Shams al-Ma‘ālī Abū ’l-Muẓaffar Amīr Ismā‘īl Gīlakī, and can be read as a 'letter of application' demonstrating Mukhtārī's skill as a court poet.[1] It has been characterised as 'perhaps the most interesting of the poems dedicated to Gīlākī'.[2]
Form
The poem is unique among masnavīs for portraying a young poet being tested, not by a more senior poet as in other medieval Persian poems, but by an astrologer. Moreover, is also unique for including a series of riddles (ten in all) on the spiritual, intellectual, and military ideals for a king.[3] These in turn have a distinctive structure: each has ten distichs posing ethical questions, followed by two distichs in which the poet delivers his answers.[4] The riddles in particular serve to showcase Mukhtārī's virtuosity in poetic description. The poem is also among the earliest to have been written in the khafīf metre.[5]
Contents
The poem begins of a cosmological survey, which descends from heaven to earth before culminating in praise of God and his Prophet. The second half of the poem narrates the reverse process: the striving of the poet's persona to proceed from a mundane existence to spiritual perfection. He achieves this by going on a journey and meeting an astrologer, who tests his wisdom with riddles
As translated by A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, the contents of the Hunar-nāma are:[6]
- [A description of heaven]
- The twelve signs of the zodiac (davāzdah burj)
- The dispositions of the signs of the zodiac (ṭabāyi‘-i burūj)
- The seven planets and the extent of their annual movements (haft kowkab-i sayyāra bā miqdār-i ḥarikat-i sāliyāna)
- The influence of the moon and the sun (vilāyat-i māh-u āftāb)
- The houses of the stars (khāna-hā-yi kavākib)
- The generation of the seven fathers and the four mothers (mavālid-i haft pidar-u chahār mādar)
- A comparison of the four elements to the four humours [blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile] and the four seasons of the year (taṭbīq-i chahār ‘unṣur bā ikhlāt-i arba‘a va chahār faṣl-i sāl): fire (ātash), wind (bād), water (āb), earth (khāk)
- The three stages of generation (mavālid-i si-gāna): minerals (ma‘danī), vegetative (giyāhān), animals (jānivarān)
- Man's superiority over other animals (faẓīlat-i ādamī bar dīgar jānivarān)
- The Creator (āfarīdigār)
- The prophets (peyghāmbarān)
- In praise of the leader of Prophets, Muḥammad the Chosen, peace be upon him, and of his companions (na‘t-i sayyid-i anbiyā’ Muḥammad-i Muṣṭafā ‘alayih as-salām va yārānash)
- The desire to attain human perfection and the search for the Perfect Man (ārizū-yi risīdan ba kamāl-i insānī va justijū-yi mardān-i kāmil)
- The reason for travelling (sahab-i musāfirat)
- The guidance of the astrologer, with reference to the advantages of travelling (rahnimūn-yi sitāra-shinās bā ishārat ba favā’id-i musāfirat)
- Questions and answers with the astrologer (pursish u pāsukh bā sitāra-shinās)
- Speech and rhetoric (sukhan u sukhan-shinās)
- In praise of the leader of commanders, Yamīn ad-Dowla (Madḥ-i Sayyid al-umarā’ Yamīn ad-Dowla Ḥisām ad-Dīn Shams al-Ma‘ālī Abū ’l-Muẓaffar Amīr Ismā‘īl-i Gīlakī)
- Character-testing by solving poetic enigmas and riddles (āzmāyish-i ṭab‘ ba ḥall-i rumūz va alghāz-i shā‘irāna)
- On high [spiritual] aspirations (himmat-i buland)
- The virile reign (dowlat-t javān)
- On a distinguished name (nām-i arjumand)
- The open and generous hand (dast-i gushāda-yi bakhshanda)
- Riddle on a pen (chīstān-i qalam)
- Riddle on a sword (chīstān-i shamshīr)
- Riddle on a lance (chīstān-i nayza)
- Riddle on the quality of the bow and arrow (chīstān dar ṣifat-i tīr-u kamān)
- Riddle on the quality of a horse (chīstān dar ṣifat-i asb)
- Riddle on the quality of the bounteous banquet and the breadth of the Prince's generosity (chīstān dar ṣifat-i khwān-i karam va sufra-yi jūd-i mamdūḥ)
- The astrologer's speech after the character test (guftār-i sitāra-shinās pas az azmāyish-t ṭab‘)
- The end of the poem: praising and praying for the Praised One, and explaining the poet's conditions and wishes (khātama-yi mathnavĩ: dar madḥ va du‘ā-yi mamdūḥ va bayān-i aḥvāl va āmāl-i shā‘ir)
Sources and influences
Though rather different, the Hunar-nāma may have drawn some inspiration from the Rowshanā’ī-namā by Nāṣir-i Khusrow (d. 1075). It may in turn have inspired Sanā’ī's Ḥadīqat al-ḥaqīqa, Seyr al-‘ibād, and Kār-nāma.[7] The testing of the poet's wisdom recalls similar tests of young men's wits in Persian epic and romance texts such as Khosrow ud Redak, Asadī's Garshāsp-nāma, and Firdow's Shāh-nāma.[8]
Editions and translations
- Humā’ī, Jalāl ad-Dīn, Funūn-i balāghat va ṣanā‘at-i adabī (Tehran, 1975) [critical edition]
- Seyed-Gohrab, A. A., Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), pp. 156-99 includes translations of the riddles.
References
- ↑ J. T. P. Bruijn, Of Piety and Poetry: The Interaction of Religion and Literature in the Life and Works of Hakīm Sanā’ī of Ghazna (Leiden, 1983), p. 153.
- ↑ G.E. Tetley, The Ghaznavid and Seljuk Turks: Poetry as a Source for Iranian History (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009), p. 138.
- ↑ A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), p. 150.
- ↑ A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), pp. 28-29.
- ↑ Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, 'A Mystical Reading of Nizāmī’s Use of Nature in the Haft Paykar’, in A Key to the Treasure of the Hakīm: Artistic and Humanistic Aspects of Nizāmī Ganjavī’s ‘Khamsa’, ed. by Johann-Christoph Bürgel and Christine van Ruymbeke (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2011), pp. 181-93 (at p. 188).
- ↑ A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), pp. 148-50.
- ↑ A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), pp. 150-52.
- ↑ A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), p. 163.
