Nezami Ganjavi and Classical Persian Literature: Demystifying the Mystic

by Kamran Talattof

Overview

This book offers new insights into the twelfth-century Persian poet Nezami Ganjavi. Challenging the dominant interpretation of Nezami’s poetry as the product of mysticism or Islam, this book explores Nezami’s literary techniques such as his pictorial allegory and his profound conceptualization of poetry, rhetoric, and eloquence. It employs several theoretical and methodological approaches to clarify the nature of his artistic approach to poetry. Chapters explore Nezami’s understanding of rhetoric and literature as Sakhon, his interest in literary genres, the diversity of themes explored in his Five Treasures, the sources of Nezami’s creativity, and his literary devices. Exploring themes such as love, religion, science, wine, gender, and philosophy, this study compares Nezami’s works to other giants of Persian poetry such as Ferdowsi, Jami, Rudaki, and others. The book argues that Nezami’s main concern was to weave poetry rather than to promote any specific ideology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030979928
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	09/29/2022
Series:	Literatures and Cultures of the Islamic World
Edition description:	1st ed. 2022
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kamran Talattof is Professor of Persian Literature and Iranian Culture at the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies and affiliated with the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona, USA. He is also the Founding Chair of the Roshan Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Persian and Iranian Studies. He has published widely across literature (modern and classical), Iranian and Middle Eastern culture, history and cinema, as well as Persian language pedagogy and translation

Table of Contents

1. Nezami Ganjavi and Classical Persian Literature.- 2. Nezami, the Persian Wordsmith: The Concept of Sakhon in Classical Persian Poetry.- 3. Women and Love in the Works of Nezami, Ferdowsi, and Jami.- 4. Faith, Facts, and Fantasy: Stories of Ascension and Nezamian Allegory.- 5. Wine and Identity in the Works of Nezami and Rudaki.- 6. Nezamian Pictorial Allegory in Layli o Majnun.- 7. In Search of Religion and Dantean Moments in "The Story of Mahan".- 8. Sublime Metier, Literary Techniques, and Allegory.