Mas‘ud Sa‘d Salman

Mas’ud Sa’d Salman, Amir Mas’ud ibn Sa’d Salman (1033/1046/1047/1048-1121/1130), a poet hailing from Hamadan. His father, Sa’d ibn Salman, a companion of the early Ghaznavid sultans, accompanied the Ghaznavid Amir Majdud ibn Mas’ud to India, settled in Lahore, and served as the chief accountant. Born in Lahore, Mas’ud Sa’d entered the Ghaznavid court in early youth at the suggestion of his father. He first attached himself to the court of the Ghaznavid Sultan Ibrahim and later served a companion of Sayf al-Dawla Mahmud, the son of Sultan Ibrahim, and accompanied him as a close companion of his to India where he made a name for himself and was regarded as an eminent amir in the affairs of campaigns and conquests. Suspicious of his son, Sayf al-Dawla, Sultan Ibrahim cast him into prison accompanied by some of his companions including Mas’ud Sa’d Salman. Mas’ud was imprisoned for seven years at the citadels of Su and Dihak and three years at the citadel of Nay. In his poetry, he makes references to the three citadels. It was at the Su Citadel that he made the acquaintance of Munajjimi Bahrami from whom he learned astronomy and astrology. Among the envious whose instigations led to his imprisonment was Abu al-Faraj Runi. Finally, he was released owing to the intercession of ‘Amid al-Mulk Abu al-Qasim Khass, a court dignitary, and returned to Lahore. It was under the Ghaznavid Sultan Mas’ud ibn Ibrahim that Mas’ud Sa’d stayed in Chalandar for a while, but he incurred the sultan’s disfavor once more and was imprisoned at the Maranj Citadel for a period of eight years following which he was released by the intercession of Thiqat al-Mulk Tahir ibn ‘Ali ibn Mushkan, a dignitary at the court of Mas’ud, and was appointed a librarian at the royal library, a position he maintained under ‘Azud al-Dawla Shirzad ibn Mas’ud, Malik Arsalan ibn Mas’ud, and Bahram Shah ibn Mas’ud whom he eulogized. Mas’ud Sa’d Salman was one of the greatest of qasida poets of Persia who mainly composed poetry on the model of the poets of Khurasan. He had mastery of composing qasidas of complaint (shakwa’iyya) wherein he relates the agonies of prison, estrangement from his parents and childhood, his innocence, the adversaries’ and calumnies. In his poetical compositions, he followed poets like Firdawsi, Manuchihri, Nasir Khusraw, and ‘Unsuri. His contemporaries include the poets, Rashidi, Sayyid Muhammad ibn Nasir ‘Alawi, Amir Mu’izzi, Sana’i, ‘Uthman Mukhtari, and Abu al-Faraj Runi. He was well-versed in different disciplines and some of his elegant poetical compositions in Arabic are extant. Some poems composed in the Indian style have also been attributed to him. His divan of poetry includes Persian qasidas, mathnawis, ghazals, quatrains, musammats, tarji’bands, and qit’as. His prison poems (habisiyyat) are famous as well. He is regarded as one of the distinguished representatives of the school of poetry under the Seljuks which is regarded to be between the Khurasani and ‘Iraqi styles of poetry, where in the Khurasani forms prevail, though thematic and formal alterations have been made to it. The school is marked by the significance accorded to social and intellectual issues, didactic and pseudo-mystical teachings, and rhetorical figures. His poetry falls into two categories: eulogic qasidas, mainly opening with depictions of nature, reflecting less innovative themes, particularly in terms of novel imagery; secondly, his sentimental poetry, like his prison poems and elegies, the fruits of years of agony in prison according him further sublimity and rendering him on a par with distinguished poets, e.g. Amir Mu’izzi. He was at the zenith of his poetical career in prison, remote from nature which may justify the point that he failed to excel his predecessors in terms of novel imagery, though the restrictions of confinement led him to raise interesting emotional themes, such as solitude and nostalgia, and present novel depictions of the night and the stars, his only experiences in years as to nature and the world without, and depict unique pictures of the length of night, the rising and setting of stars and the restrictions of confinement. His imagery is particularly marked by the philosophical, at times scientific and particularly astronomical, hue which he accorded to them, reflecting that he was an erudite man well-versed in philosophy and other disciplines. A court dignitary and a eulogist poet in the outside world, he maintained such characteristics in confinement as well. His poetry falls between the Indian and the ‘Iraqi styles, viz. between epic and lyricism. His lyrical poetry is manifested in his prison poems (habsiyyat) and responses (mujabat, viz. poems composed as responses to those of others), which may be regarded as informal poetry (ikhwaniyyat). Worthy of note are his elegies, particularly those composed for his son, Salih, who died when his father was in prision. All of his elegies are masterly, moving, and sorrowful. He introduced prison poems and shahrashub to Persian poetry and the earliest of Persian poem in the form of mustazad is also by him. It is reported that he had three divans of poetry in Persian, Arabic, and Hindi, though his Hindi poems are not extant and only few of his Arabic poetical compositions survive. His Persian divan, running to 17,000 couplets and including qasidas, qit’as, quatrains, shahrashubs and few ghazals, has repeatedly appeared. He reportedly made a selection of the Shahnama under the title of Ikhtiyarat, though it is not extant. He was a prose stylist but none of his prose compositions have surfaced. His poetical vigor, diction, and employment of harmonious words are indubitably exquisite. His tremendous imaginativeness has enabled him to express one point by different thematic expressions each of which is of interest. Thus, he presents innovative metaphors, similes, depictions, and themes.

Asar-afarinan (5/ 233-234); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (2/ 483-501); Danishnama-yi Adab-i Farsi, Adab-i Farsi dar Afghanistan (3/ 943-946).