NAZIR AKBARABADI 'FATHER OF THE NAZM' Selected Poems Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Nazir Akbarabadi (1735-1830) is an Indian poet known as the 'Father of the Nazm', who wrote mainly Urdu nazms. The canvas of Nazir's nazms is so vast that it encompasses all aspects of human behavior and every person can find nazms that can suit his taste. Many of his poems are about daily life and observations of things and are humourous. His poems are loved by ordinary folk today. Titles: On Being Patient, On Your Beauty, On Death, On Money, Story of Man, The Quest for Love, The Sick World's Party,...

DIVAN OF SARMAD Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Sarmad (d. 1659) or Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed, whose name 'Sarmad' derives from the Persian word for eternal or everlasting, was a famous and infamous Persian dervish poet of Jewish and Armenian origin. As a merchant he gathered his wares and travelled to India to sell them. In India he renounced Judaism and adopted Islam: he later renounced it in favour of Hinduism that he finally renounced for Sufism. He was known for exposing and ridiculing the major religions and hypocrisy of his day, but he also wrote beautiful mystical poetry in the form...

DIVAN OF 'ATTAR Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Farid al-din 'Attar is seen with Sana'i and Rumi (who he met and influenced) as one of the three most important Sufi Poet-Masters of the 13th century. He composed over forty books mainly in the epic masnavi form of rhyming couplets, his most famous being The Book of God and The Conference of the Birds. He also composed many powerful mystical poems in the ghazal form that influenced Sadi and Hafiz and all who came later and he was a master in the ruba'i form. Here for the first time is a fine selection of his poems in all three forms in the...

DIVAN OF NIZAMI Translation and Introduction Paul Smith Nizami (d. 1208) is a true Sufi Master Poet who is most famous for his six books in masnavi form: The Treasury of Mysteries, Layla and Majnun, Khrosrau and Shirin, The Seven Portraits and his two books on Alexander. He also composed a Divan of approximately 20, ooo couplets mostly in ghazals and ruba'is... tragically only 200 couplets survive. His influence on Attar, Rumi, Sadi, Hafiz and Jami and all others that followed was profound. Here are two of his greatest mystical masnavi epic poems The Treasury of Mysteries, Layla and Majnun in...

THE COMPLETE MAJNUN POEMS OF QAYS IBN AL-MULAWWAH AND NIZAMI'S LAYLA & MAJNUN Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Majnun was a real person Qays (Majnun='madman') was a youth, a Bedouin poet in the seventh century of the Bani Amir tribe in the Najd desert in Arabia. He fell in love with Layla from the same tribe whom he was denied. (It is said that Shakespeare was inspired by their tale for Romeo & Juliet from their tragic love story). His rpoetry was composed before and some after his descent into love-madness (mast). Here, in the form of the qit'as in which they were composed, is the...

RABI'A AL-ADAWIYYA: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith RABI'A OF BASRA (717-801). Her Spiritual Master was Hazrat Hassan Basri. Throughout her life, her Love of God, poverty and self-denial did not waver. As her fame grew she had many disciples. She also had discussions with many of the renowned religious people of her time. More interesting than her absolute asceticism, however, is the actual concept of Divine Love that Rabi'a introduced. She was the first to introduce the idea that God should be loved for God's own sake. She is widely considered to be the most important of...

MAHSATI GANJAVI: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith We know little of Mahsati Ganjavi's life (1098-1185) except that she lived in Ganjeh when Sultan Sanjar reigned and as she was a poet at his court she would have known Anvari. She was a court, dervish (Sufi) and ribald poet. She knew Nizami (she is said to have been buried in his mausoleum) and Omar Khayyam... and like Omar composed only in the ruba'i form and must be considered not only a master of that form but also to have helped to revolutionize it. She was an influence on perhaps Iran's greatest female poet Jahan Khatun...

HUMA: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Merwan S. Irani, known world-wide as Meher Baba, took Huma (Phoenix) as his takhallus or pen-name when he composed enlightened ghazals in a mixture of Persian, Urdu, Hindi & Gujarati in his twenties as a realized disciple of the Qutub or Perfect Master Upasni Maharaj, and also later on. He knew the ghazals of Hafiz by heart as did his father the dervish Sheriar Irani, who had originally walked to Pune in India from Khooramshah in Iran. Merwan went on to reveal himself as Perfect Master (Qutub) and later also declared himself as the...