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NASIR KHOSRAU (Nasiri Khusru)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 248 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NASIR KHOSRAU (Nasiri Khusru) , See also:

Abu Mu`in-ed-din Nasir b. Khosrau (1004-1088), whose nom de plume was Hujjat, the first See also:great didactic poet of See also:Persia, was See also:born, according to his own statement, A.H. 394 (A.D. 1004), at Kubadiyan, near See also:Balkh in See also:Khorasan. The first See also:forty-two years of his See also:life are obscure; we learn from incidental remarks of his that he was a Sunnite, probably according to the Ilanifite rite, well versed in all the branches of natural See also:science, in See also:medicine, See also:mathematics, See also:astronomy and See also:astrology, in See also:Greek See also:philosophy, and the See also:interpretation of the See also:Koran; that he was much addicted to worldly pleasures, especially to excessive See also:wine drinking. He had studied Arabic, See also:Turkish, Greek, the See also:vernacular See also:languages of See also:India and See also:Sind, and perhaps even See also:Hebrew; he had visited See also:Multan and See also:Lahore, and the splendid Ghaznavide See also:court under See also:Sultan Mahmud, Firdousi's See also:patron. Later on he See also:chose Mery for his See also:residence, and was the owner of a See also:house and See also:garden there. In A.H. 437 (A.D. 1045) he appears as See also:financial secretary and See also:revenue See also:collector of the Seljuk sultan Toghrul Beg, or rather of his See also:brother Jaghir Beg, the emir of Khorasan, who had conquered Mery in 1037. About this See also:time, inspired by a heavenly See also:voice (which he pretends to have heard in a See also:dream), he abjured all the luxuries of life, and resolved upon a See also:pilgrimage to the See also:holy shrines of See also:Mecca and See also:Medina, hoping to find there the See also:solution of all his religious doubts. The graphic description of this See also:journey is contained in the Safarnama, which possesses a See also:special value among books of travel, since it contains the most See also:authentic See also:account of the See also:state of the Mussulman See also:world in the See also:middle of the filth See also:century.

The See also:

minute sketches of See also:Jerusalem and its environs are even now of See also:practical value. During the seven years of his journey (A.D. 1045–1052) Nasir visited Mecca four times, and performed all the See also:rites and observances of a zealous See also:pilgrim; but he was far more attracted by See also:Cairo, the See also:capital of See also:Egypt, and the residence of the Fatimite sultan Mostansir billah, the great See also:champion of the Shi'a, and the spiritual as well as See also:political See also:head of the house of 'All, which was just then waging a deadly See also:war against the 'Abbaside See also:caliph of See also:Bagdad, and the great defender of the Sunnite creed, Toghrul Beg the Seljuk. At the very time of Nasir's visit to Cairo, the See also:power of the See also:Egyptian See also:Fatimites was in its See also:zenith; See also:Syria, the See also:Hejaz, See also:Africa, and See also:Sicily obeyed Mostansir's sway, and the utmost See also:order, See also:security and prosperity reigned in Egypt. At Cairo he became thoroughly imbued with Shia doctrines, and their introduction into his native See also:country was henceforth the See also:sole See also:object of his life. The hostility he encountered in the See also:propagation of these new religious ideas after his return to Khorasan in 1052 and Sunnite fanaticism compelled him at last to flee, and after many wanderings he found a See also:refuge in Yumgan (about 1o6o) in the mountains of See also:Badakshan, where he spent as a See also:hermit the last decades of his life, and gathered See also:round him a considerable number of devoted adherents, who have handed down his doctrines to succeeding generations. • Most of Nasir's lyrical poems were composed in his retirement, and their See also:chief topics are—an enthusiastic praise of 'See also:Ali, his descendants, and Mostansir in particular; passionate outcries against Khorasan and its rulers, who had driven him from house and See also:home; the highest See also:satisfaction with the quiet solitude of Yumgan; and utter despondency again in seeing himself despised by his former associates and for ever excluded from participation in the glorious contest of life. But scattered through all these alternate outbursts of See also:hope and despair we find See also:precious lessons of purest morality, and See also:solemn warnings against the tricks and perfidy of the world, the vanity of all earthly splendour and greatness, the folly and injustice of men, and the See also:hypocrisy, frivolity and viciousness of fashionablesociety and princely courts in particular. It is the same See also:strain which runs, although in a somewhat See also:lower See also:key, through his two larger mathnawis or See also:double-rhymed poems, the Rushanainama, or " See also:book of enlightenment," and the Sa'adatnama, or " book of felicity." The former is divided into two sections: the first, of a See also:meta-See also:physical See also:character, contains a sort of practical cosmography, chiefly based on See also:Avicenna's theories, but frequently intermixed both with the freer speculations of the well-known philosophical brotherhood of See also:Basra, the Ikhwan-es-safa'i, and purely Shi'ite or Isma'ilite ideas; the second, or ethical See also:section of the poem, abounds in moral See also:maxims and ingenious thoughts on See also:man's See also:good and See also:bad qualities, on the See also:necessity of shunning the See also:company of See also:fools and double-faced See also:friends, on the deceptive allurements of the world and the See also:secret snares of ambitious craving for See also:rank and See also:wealth. It concludes with an imaginary See also:vision of a beautiful world of See also:spirits who have stripped off the fetters of earthly cares and sorrows and revel in the pure See also:light of divine See also:wisdom and love. If we compare this with a similar See also:allegory in Nasir's diwan, which culminates in the praise of Mostansir, we are fairly entitled to look upon it as a covert allusion to the eminent men who revealed to the poet in Cairo the secrets of the Isma'ilitic faith, and showed him what he considered the " heavenly See also:ladder " to See also:superior knowledge and spiritual See also:bliss. The passage, thus interpreted, lends additional See also:weight to the correctness of Dr Ethe s reconstruction of the date of the Rushanainama, viz.

A.H. 440 (A.D. 1049), which, notwithstanding M. Schefcr's objections, is warranted both by the astronomical details and by the metrical requirements of the respective verses. That of ccurse does not exclude the possibility of the bulk of the poem having been composed at an earlier See also:

period ; it only ascribes its completion or perhaps final revision to Nasir's sojourn in Egypt. A similar See also:series of excellent teachings on practical wisdom and the blessings of a virtuous life, only of a severer and more uncompromising character, is contained in the Sa'adatnama; and, judging from the extreme bitterness of See also:tone manifested in the " reproaches of See also:kings and emirs," we should be inclined to consider it a protest against the vile aspersions poured out upon Nasir's moral and religious attitude during those persecutions which drove him at last to Yumgan. Of all the other See also:works of our author mentioned by See also:Oriental writers there has as yet been found only one, the Zddelmusdfirin or " travelling provisions of pilgrims " (in the private See also:possession of M. See also:Schefer, See also:Paris), a theoretical description of his religious and philosophical principles; and we can very well dismiss the See also:rest as being probably just as apocryphal as Nasir's famous auto-See also:biography (found in several See also:Persian tadhkiras or See also:biographies of poets), a See also:mere See also:forgery of the most extravagant description, which is mainly responsible for the confusion in names and See also:dates in older accounts of our author. See See also:Sprenger's See also:Catalogue of the See also:Libraries of the See also:King of Oudh (1854) ; H. Effie, " Nasir Chusrau's Rushanainama," in Zeitschrift der deutsehen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, xxxiii., xxxiv., 1879–188o; E. Fagnan, " Le Livre de la felicite," in vol. xxxiv. of the same See also:journal, 643-674; Ch. Schefer, Sefer Nameh, public, traduit et annote (Paris, 1881), and by See also:Guy le See also:Strange in Pilgrims' See also:Text Society (1888); H.

Effie, in Gottinger Nachrichten, 1882, pp. 124-152, Z.D.M.G., 1882, pp. 478-508; and Geiger's Grundriss der iranischen Philologie ii. p. 278; Fagnan in Journ. As. 7th see. vol. xiii. pp. 164 seq., and See also:

Rieu, See also:Cat. Pers. See also:MSS. in Br. Illus., concluded that the poet and the pilgrim were different persons. The opposite view was See also:developed by Ethe. (H.

End of Article: NASIR KHOSRAU (Nasiri Khusru)

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