Rudaki

Rudaki, Abu ‘Abd Allah Ja’far ibn Muhammad (d. 940), a Persian poet flourishing under the Samanids in the 10^th century. According to some reports, he lost his sight in an early age, though some other reports indicate that he lost his sight later in life. He was born in the village of Banuj Rudak (in modern day Tajikistan), in the district of Rudak, adjacent to Nakhshab and Samarqand. He committed the Qur’an to heart at the age of eight and learned different manners of Qur’anic recitation. He is considered as the father of Persian poetry, since he was the first poet to have composed a divan. He was well-respected at the court of the Samanid Amir Nasr and amassed a great fortune. It is reported that he composed 100,000 couplets and was exquisitely well-versed in music, translation, and vocals. He was out of favor with rulers in the last three years of his life. He returned to his hometown late in life and died there. Rudaki eulogized the Samanid Amir Sa’id Nasr ibn Ahmad in Isma’il; the Safarid Abu Ja’far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalaf ibn Layth, also well-known as Banuya; Makan ibn Kaki, the Daylamite general; and Khwaja Abu al-Fazl Bal’ami, the Samanid vizier, who encouraged Rudaki to versify Kalila wa Dimna. Rudaki had a son by the name of ‘Abd Allah whose name preceded his father’s in many biographical works, hence his appellation (kunya) Abu ‘Abd Allah. In his al-Mu’jam fi Ma’ayyir Ash’ar ‘Ajam, Shams Qays Razi regards Rudaki as the first poet who composed twin couplets and recounts that his first poetical composition was when he heard a child admiring his own winning in plays, rhythmically saying: ‘rolling, rolling, it moves towards the walnut tree.’ In his famous biographical work, Dawlatshah Samarqandi reports that the boy was the son of Ya’qub Layth, the founder of the Saffarid dynasty. According to the report, the poet, impressed by the words, goes home and composes poetry in the same meter and since his poetical compositions were in the form of twin couplets, they become famous as twin couplets or quatrains. It is recounted in biographical works that Rudaki played the harp and he was such poet and musician that having heard of his poetical composition ‘Scent of the quarter of Muliyan’, the Samanid Abu Nasr was so impressed that he departed Herat for Bukhara barefoot. The account is recounted in Nizami ‘Aruzi’s Chahar Maqala (Four Discourses), based on which the Samanid Amir Nasr, or some Amir, departs Bukhara for Herat and attaches his heart to the gentle climate of the latter and postpones his return to Bukhara season after season. Thus, he and his retinue reside in Herat for four years. The Amir’s army, desirous of returning to Bukhara, turned to Rudaki, who was well-respected by the Amir, requesting him to put his art of minstrelsy to practice and urge the king to return and receive in return a reward of 50,000 dirhams. Thus, Rudaki composes a qasida and, early in the morn when the Samanid Amir was inebriated by wine, plays the harp, reciting the poetical composition, and so impresses the king that he mounts barefoot galloping towards Bukhara. It is reported that his retinue carried his shoes for two parsangs. Rudaki had a transmitter, probably by the name of Maj, who recited his poetical compositions. The name is recorded as Maj in Rudaki’s poetry, though it is recorded as Ma’j in the Farhang-i Anjumanara-yi Nasiri. The number of his poetical compositions is recorded in Samarqandi’s Tadhkira, Jami’s Baharistan, Habib al-Siyar, Zinat al-Majalis, and Miftah al-Tawarikh, to have exceeded one million couplets, though the numbers reported in sources are slightly different. His most significant work is his versified Kalila wa Dimna. Three of his mathnawis are extant, but few of his poetical compositions are extant. Kalil wa Dimna was originally a book of Indian origin, rendered into Middle Persian by Buzurgmihr in Sassanid times. It was later renderd into Arabic in Islamic times by Ruzbih Daduya (Dadawayh), well-known as Ibn Muqaffa’. Ibn Muqaffa’’s rendering or the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) text was versified into New Persian by Rudaki. Ibn Muqaffa’s version was later rendered into Persian prose by Nasr Allah Munshi in the 12 century under the Ghaznavid Bahram Shah. The account of versification of the work by Rudaki is also recounted in Firdawsi’s Shahnama. In his Kashkul, Shaykh Baha’i records that Rudaki’s versification of Kalila wa Dimna ran to 12,000 couplets. Rudaki’s other works include Sandbadnama, another work of Indian origin rendered into Pahlavi (Middle Persian) in Sassanid times which found its way from Persia into Arabic literature and Europe. The work was rendered into Persian at the behest of the Samanid Nuh ibn Nasr. The revised version of the work by Katib Samarqandi was originally based on a version by Abu al-Fawaris Qanarizi, which, according to studies conducted by Paul Horn, the German Orientalist of renown, is originally based on Rudaki’s Sandbadnama. Rudaki’s lyrical compositions mainly consist of his ghazals and quatrains. His bucholic poetry resembles that of Abu Nuwas. He was quite successful in such poetry and depiction of nature and beauties of the world and his success is reflected in the compositions by his contemporaries. Such similes and colorful depictions of nature paved the ground for poets like Manuchihri Damghani in depiction of nature. Rudaki’s eulogies are composed in the form of qasidas, though at times the last couplets eulogize a patron. Some of his long qasidas are devoted to eulogies of notables, the most famous of which is the one composed in praise of Abu Ja’far Ahmad ibn Muhammad, a ruler of Sistan. A few of his elegies and lampoons are extant. He was moderate in his eulogies and obsequiousness is not reflected in his eulogies. Two of his elegies, for Sahid Balkhi and Khwaja Muradi, are well-known. His poetry is imbued with aphorisms and wise councils, mainly urging the readers to take lessons from the vicissitudes of life. Some writers, like Muhammad Awfi in his Lubab al-Albab, report that Rudaki was born blind. The earliest of sources recount that he was born blind. Nonetheless, his blindness is not mentioned in some other sources, like Sam’ani’s Ansab, Nizami ‘Aruzi’s Chahar Maqala, and Tarikh-i Sistan. On the other hand, some of Rudaki’s extant poetry reflects that he was not blind. Taking into account Rudaki’s compositions in which he explicitly employs the verbal forms of ‘to see’ (didan), some Persian thinkers, like Mahmud ibn ‘Umar Najati, the author of Basatin al-Fuzala’, maintain that he lost his sight late in life. Nevertheless, comparing the poetical compositions of Rudaki and Bashshar ibn Burd, a Shu’ubi blind poet versifying in Arabic, Badi’ al-Zaman Furuzanfar holds that the mentioned poetical compositions of Rudaki do not contradict his blindness. On the contrry, Sa’id Nafisi explicitly rejects the claim to Rudaki’s blindness, saying that the poet has made no reference to his blindness in his own compositions and the biographers who produced such claim have made no mention of any couplets by Rudadi to substantiate their claim. Rudaki may have been blind when he composed his Kalila wa Dimna, which is not extant today, and such claim may be thus in harmony with Firdawsi’s report about our poet’s versification of Kalila wa Dimna, the findings of researchers, and the imagery in his similes. One millennium after the death of Rudaki in 1940, Sadr al-Din ‘Ayni, the founder of Tajiki Persian literature decided to find Rudaki’s burial place as mentioned in Tarikh-i Samarqand. Following many an endeavor, he finally succeeded in finding Rudaki’s grave in an ancient cemetery in Banuj Rud. The grave was exhumed in 1965 by a Russian archeological team headed by Grasimov, a Russian sculptor of renown. Studies conducted on the remains and taking into account the poet’s compositions, his face was drawn. The studies reflected that his eyeballs had not been removed but his head had been held on fire or blazing charcoal thus causing burning and making him lose his eye sight. Numerous fractures in the spine and ribs reflect his being subject to tortures before death. Rudaki is regarded as the father of Persian literature, before whom Persian poetry had been composed, but his poetical compositions served as the avant-garde of Persian poetry. Richard Frye maintains that Rudaki contributed to the conversion of Pahlavi script into Persian script. Some of his poetical compositions have been incorporated in numerous Persian biographies and further works, serving as the basis of collection of his poetry. He drew a distinction between Persian poetry and following Arabic poetry. He created novel Persian meters and forms and by his numerous renderings in verse and composition of didactic and philosophical poetry and also lyrical compositions and eulogies paved the path for Persian poetry. The poets who used Rukaki’s poetry as the models of their poetry include Ghaza’iri Razi, ‘Uthman Mukhtari, Suzani Samarqandi, Farrukhi Sistani, Mu’izzi Nayshaburi, Khaqani Shirwani, Abu Sa’id Abu al-Khayr, Rumi, and Hafiz. Rudaki’s poetry reflects fluency of expression in terms of form and meaning and he must be regarded as the founder of the Khurasani style of Persian poetry. He also composed the earliest exquisite Persian ghazals. His poetry intertwines joy, passion, ecstasy, sorrow, asceticism, aphorisms, doubt, and certitude. His imagination is exquisitely vigorous and his imagery is quite clear. He was the avant-garde of chakama versification. A complete qasida by him, including an exordium and the last couplets devoted to the patron’s eulogy, is extant. His commemoration ceremony was held in Tehran in December 2008. The most distinguished scholars who have conducted studies on Rudaki include Braginsky, Siminov, Sadr al-Din ‘Ayni, Sa’id Nafisi, Muhammad ‘Ali Furughi, Muhammad Shakurov, and Richard Frye. After his grave had been uncovered, a tomb, resembling that of ‘Attar, was erected in his burial place in the village of Banuj Rudak or Panjikant, located at a distance of 170 km in the north of Dushanba, Tajikistan. His tomb’s façade is octagonal crowned by a cupola.

Ba Karavan-i Hulla (11-18); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (1/ 371-389); Siyri dar Shi’ir-i Farsi (214-219); Farhang-i Sukhanvaran (401-402).