Khaqani Shirvani

Khaqani Shirwani, Afzal al-Din Badil, Ibrahim ibn ‘Ali Khaqani Haqa’iqi Shirwani (1126-1199), one of the greatest poets of Persia, bearing the title Hassan al-‘Ajam. The title which is truely befitting him was granted him by his paternal uncle, Kafi al-Din ‘Umar. Khaqaani names himself by this title and Awfi also uses the same title to refer to him. Nonetheless, his more famous title, Afzal al-Din, was used by his contemporaries and he uses the same to refer to himself. His name is mentioned by biographers as Ibrahim, though he calls himself Badil. His father, Najib al-Din ‘Ali Marwi, was a carpenter, whose profession is repeatedly referred to by Khaqani. His grandfather was a spinner. His mother was a Nestorian maid and a cook of Roman descent who converted to Islam. Khaqani’s paternal uncle, Kafi al-Din ‘Umar ibn ‘Uthman, was a physician an philosopher who was Khaqani’s custodian until the latter turned 25 years of age. Our poet makes mention of the favors of his philosopher custodian many a time, praising him. He also received his education, for a while, from his cousin, Wahid al-Din ‘Uthman, studying different branches of literary and philosophical sciences with his uncle and cousin. He also studied the arts of poetry with Abu al-‘Ala’ Ganjawi, a distinguished poet attached to the court of Shirwanshahs. Our poet’s nom de plume was originally Haqa’iqi, but after being introduced to Khaqan Manuchihr by Abu al-‘Ala’, the latter granted him the title ‘Khaqani’. Introduced to Khaqan Akbar Fakhr al-Din Manuchihr ibn Firiydun Shirwan Shah, Khaqani was attached to the court of Shirwan Shahs and was highly awarded by the king. He was dissatisfied with the court of Shirwan Shah after a while and longed to visit the masters of Khurasan and courts of the East, ‘Iraq, and Khurasan, as reflected in his numerous allusions. But, Shirwan Shah did not grant him permission. This saddened our poet. Finally, he departed for ‘Iraq and reached Rayy, but fell sick there. Then, he was informed of the Ghuzz invasion of Khurasan, captivity of Sanjar, and execution of Imam Muhammad ibn Yahya. He changed his mind and had to return to ‘the confinement of Shirwan’. A brief while after his return to Shirwan and joining audience with Shriwan Shah, he requested permission to go to pilgrimage and visit the rulers of both ‘Iraqs. While on pilgrimage at Mecca and Medina, he composed elegant qasidas and on his return, he visited some grandees, like the Seljuk Sultan Muhammad ibn Mahmud (1153-1155) and Jamal al-Din Muhammad ibn ‘Ali Isfahani, vizier to Qutb al-Din, the ruler of Mosul. It was by the vizier’s recommendation that he joined audience with al-Muqtafi li-Amr Allah, the ‘Abbasid Caliph, who offered him a scribal employment, but he declined. It was at that time, about 1156 or 1157, that he was composing his Tuhfat al-‘Iraqayn. En route towards Baghdad, Khaqani saw the Mada’in Palace and composed his elegant qasida about the palace which lay in ruins. Upon his arrival in Isfahan, he composed a qasida about Isfahan in which he offered his apologies for a lampoon on the city, originally composed by Mujir al-Din Baylaqani, though attributed to him. Thus, he changed the displeasure of the notables of the city with him, as reflected in a qasida by Jamal al-Din ‘Abd al-Razzaq, into satisfaction. Nonetheless, owing to factors unknown to us, perhaps due to the works of the slanderous, Shirwan Shah was displeased with him and the displeasure led to his confinement. Khaqani was released after a year by ‘Izz al-Dawla’s intercession. His elegant confinement qasidas (habsiyyat) are included in his Divan. Our poet departed for his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1174, but after his return to Shirwan in 1176, his 20 year old son, Rashid al-Din, died and some other afflictions befell him, leading him to live a secluded life in Tabriz in his last years where he died and was buried at Maqbarat al-Shu’ara’ (Poets’ Cemetery), in the Surkhab neighborhood of Tabriz. The date of his death is reported by Dawlatshah as 1186, but other dates have been provided, like 1198  as recorded in Nata’ij al-Afkar. Khaqani was well sopported and liberally awarded by Fakhr al-Din Manuchihr ibn Firiydun Shirwan Shah and his son, Khaqan-i Kabir Jalal al-Din Abu al-Muzaffar Akhistan ibn Manuchihr. Khaqani had also eulogized the Khwarazmshahi ‘Ala’ al-Din Atsiz ibn Muhammad (1127-1160) in his early poetical career. He met Nusrat al-Din Ispahbed Abu al-Muzaffar Kiyalwashir and Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad ibn Mahmud ibn Malikshah (1153-1160) on his journey to ‘Iraq and also Rukn al-Din Arsalan ibn Tughril (1160-1176), the Khwarazmshahi Muzaffar al-Din ‘Ala’ al-Din Takish ibn Il Arsalan, and some other rulers in the regions adjacent to Shirwan. He was on friendly or unfriendly terms with poets, the earliest of which was with Abu al-‘Ala’ Ganjawi, Khaqani’s teacher of poetry and belles-lettres who gave the hand of his daughter to Khaqani in marriage and introduced him to Shirwan Shah’s court; nonetheless, hatred raged between them before long and they lampooned each other. Some couplets of Khaqani’s lampoons for his master are included in the former’s Tuhfat al-‘Iraqayn. Khaqani was rewarded for his impropriety by his student, Mujir al-Din Baylaqani. Khaqani was on friendly terms with Nizami and the latter composed an elegy for him. Rashid al-Din Watwat, a distinguished poet, was a friend of Khaqani for a while and they composed eulogies for each other, but differences occurred between them and they lampooned each other. Falaki Shirwani was also a companion of Khaqani and Athir al-Din Akhsikati who followed Khaqani’s style is considered as one of his adversaries. Further, Khaqani had intimate relations and corresponded with some other scholars and poets. Besides his Divan which includes qasidas, qit’as, tarji’s, ghazals, and quatrains, he also composed the mathnavi of Tuhfat al-‘Iraqayn on his first journey to Mecca and the two ‘Iraqs and dedicated it to Jamal al-Din Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn ‘Ali Isfhani, a distinguished notable flourishing in the 12^th century and the vizier of the ruler of Mosul. In the accounts of cities, he makes mention of their notables followed by couplets describing his own state. Khaqani is one of the most distinguished poets composing qasidas and one of the pillars of Persian poetry. He is well-known for his vigor and master in intertwining forms, creating meanings and innovative themes, and selecting particulars manners of presenting his depictions and similes. All his compositions are imbued with such novel qualities. His mastery of a vast array of sciences, knowledge of the accounts of his times, and his excellent use of such material in his allusions made it possible for him to create unrivalled, novel, and scholarly themes in his poetry. He finds no restrictions in the employment of Arabic words, even those less known to the Persian audience, in Persian poetry. However, what leads to difficulty in understanding his poetry is not his use of scholarly material and difficult terms, but complications lie in his intertwining of the above with delicacy of ideas in creating novel and numerous themes, compositions, metaphors, and allusions. Nevertheless, the audience familiar with his diction faces far less difficulties in understanding his poetry. His Divan is one of the most complicated collections of poetry; as a consequence of which his exalted mastery and poetic vigor is less appreciated by common people, since an accurate appreciation of his poetry demands mastery of Persian and sciences, e.g. traditional Persian medicine which is based on botany and pharmacology; astronomy, history, and Qur’anic and hadith sciences. Further, the reader must be sufficiently familiar with Persian poetry from a technical point of view, the so-called ‘art of poesy’ so that he may accurately understand Khaqani’s terse poetry. He is a classical Persian poet some of whose compositions truly reflect his manner of life. Some of his qit’as and qasidas reflect the real events in his life. Despite the fact that his poetical style is ornate (such quality is natural in qasida), but the reader acquainted with his poetry indubitably learns about many of the qualities of his life and his moral characteristics, true feelings, and generally about him from the psychological and sociological aspects of his times. Khaqani’s qasidas are most elegant. Some elegant qasidas of his are included in his collection of poetry, though his ghazals are not on a par with his qasidas. His poetry is complicated, artistic with belletristic twists and formal delicacies. His Divan, the mathnavi Tuhfat al-‘Iraqayn, Munsha’at, and a short mathnavi titled Khatm al-Ghara’b are extant. Taking similar themes, expression, and some ghazals with identical rhymes and rhythms in Khaqani, Hafiz, and Sa’di, it may be inferred that the last two distinguished poets accorded significance to Khaqani’s poetry. From the poet’s times, the need was felt to better appreciate his poetry which has led to writing commentaries on his poetry. Ziya’ al-Din Sajjadi is one of the most distinguished commentators studying Khaqani’s poetry and writing commentaries on it. He is also credited for having published the best edition of his Divan and a glossary of the terms and expressions used in Khaqani’s poetry. Mir Jala al-Din Kazzazi, Ma’sumih Ma’dankan, and Nasrullah Imam have also composed studies of Khaqani. Modern scholarship revealed that Tuhfat al-‘Iraqayn had been originally titled Khatm al-Ghara’b, a manuscript copy of which is available with the library of a museum in Austria. The work was edited by Iraj Afshar and was published in 2006. Khaqani went on pilgrimage to Mecca twice and composed some exquisite qasidas unparalleled in Persian literature about Mecca, pilgrimage rites, and the stations en route to Mecca. One of these qasidas was titled Bakurat al-Asfar wa Madhkurat al-Ashar, written in gold at the behest of Meccan notables. He also composed a qasida about the Mada’in Palace (Ayvan-i Mada’in) in which he powerfully expressed his sorrows for the destruction of Persian civilization and its ancient sovereignty. Indeed he is to be termed as ‘the Meccan poet’ of Persia. He is also one of the most distinguished poets who composed confinement poetry. The term habsiyya is applied to poetical compositions made in confinement or about the agonies experienced there. It is reported that he was confined for having departed from Shiwan without the king’s permission as a result of which he was cast into prison on the orders of Akhistan, the king of Shirwan. While serving his term, he composed his well-known qasida, Tarsa’iyya, in which he requested Andronicus Comnenus, a Roman prince and Shirwan Shah’s guest, to intercede with the king on his behalf and have him released from prison. He composed four other confinement qasidas in which his agonies and sufferings are reflected. Shadiabadi (fl. 16^th century) was the first scholar studying his poetry and trying to clarify the difficult points. He was followed by ‘Abd al-Wahhab Husayni (d. 1679). Khanikov and Minorsky also wrote commentaries on Khaqani’s works. Minorsky wrote a commentary on the Tarsa’iyya qasida and the terms and characters alluded therein. The commentary was translated into Persian by ‘Abd al-Husayn Zarrinkub who added further annotations. Munsha’at-i Khaqani is a collection of his epistles addressed to his contemporaries which he composed in an elegant and ornate prose style. It is edited and published by Ziya’ al-Din Sajjadi and Muhammad Rawshan.

Atashkada-yi Azar (1/ 149-194); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (2/ 776-792); Da’irat al-Ma’arif-i Farsi (1/ 876); Rayhanat al-Adab (2/ 280-281); Farhang-i Sukhanvaran (292-294).