BABA TAHIR: LIFE & POEMS Translations, Introduction Paul Smith Baba Tahir, or Oryan ('The Naked') of Hamadan... approx. 990-1065, was a great God-intoxicated, or God-mad soul (mast) and possibly a Qutub (Perfect Master) who composed about 120 known ruba'i in a simpler metre than the usual 'hazaj' metre. His simple, mystical poems that he would sing while wandering naked throughout the land had a profound influence on Sufis and dervishes and other ruba'i composers, especially Abu Sa'id, Ibn Sina and Omar Khayyam. Included in the Introduction... the life of Baba Tahir, an essay on the ruba'i...

AUHAD UD-DIN: LIFE & POEMS Translation and Introduction by Paul Smith Auhad ud-din Kermani (1164-1238) was influenced by 'Attar, Ibn 'Arabi (whom he knew) and Suhrawadi and was a powerful speaker and a Sufi Master whose disciples at one time numbered over 70,000. He used the ruba'i form (composing over 1700) in his teaching although he also composed in other forms. Among his followers was Auhadi of Maragha who took his takhallus or pen-name from his master. His ideas and behaviour was said to have shocked many of his fellow Sufis and contemporaries. Included in the Introduction... the Life...

BULLEH SHAH: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Bulleh Shah (1680-1758) was a Sufi poet who composed in Punjabi and settled in Kasur, now in Pakistan. His Spiritual Master was Shah Inayat. The poetic form Bulleh Shah is called the Kafi, a style of Punjabi poetry used not only by the Sufis of Sindh and Punjab, but also by Sikh gurus. His poetry and philosophy strongly criticizes the Islamic religious orthodoxy of his day. His time was marked with communal strife between Muslims and Sikhs. But in that age Bulleh Shah was a beacon of hope and peace for the citizens of the Punjab....

BEDIL: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Mirza Abdul-Qader Bedil (1644-1721) is one of the most respected poets from Afghanistan. In the early 17th century, his family moved from Balkh to India, to live under the Mughul dynasty. He was born and educated near Patna. In his later life he spent time travelling and visiting ancestral lands. His writings in Persian are extensive, being one of the creators of the 'Indian style'. Bedil's 16 books of poetry contain nearly 147,000 couplets. With Ghalib he is considered a master of the complicated 'Indian Style' of the ghazal. He...

DARA SHIKOH: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Dara Shikoh (1615-1659) was the oldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan of Mughal India and was known to be a loving husband, a good son and loving father. He was a fine poet, his poems having the influence of Sufism to which he was dedicated. He used 'Qadiri' as his takhallus or pen-name. His Divan of ghazals, ruba'is and qasidas in Persian was not the only work he left us, his five prose works on Sufism and mysticism are popular in India even today. His Majma al-Bahrain or The Mingling of the Two Oceans is an explanation of the...

GHALIB: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Mirza Asadullah Beg (1797-1869}, known as Ghalib (conqueror), a pen-name or takhallus he adopted in the tradition of all classical Urdu poets, was born in the city of Agra of parents with Turkish aristocratic ancestry. When he was only five his father died in a battle while and his uncle Nasrullah Beg Khan took charge of him. But he lost his uncle also at the age of eight. He lived on state patronage, credit or the generosity of friends. His fame came to him posthumously. He had remarked during his life that although his age had...

HAFIZ: LIFE & POEMS Translation, Introduction Paul Smith Persia's greatest exponent of the ghazal Hafiz (1320-139o) became a Perfect Master (Qutub), was twice exiled from his beloved Shiraz for his criticism of rulers and false Sufi masters and hypocritical clergy. His Divan shows he composed in nearly all forms. As with his ghazals, his masnavis and other poems are sometimes mystical and sometimes critical of the hypocrisy of his times. Included in the Introduction is the Life and Times and Poetry of Hafiz and a history of some of the forms of poetry in which he composed. Selected...

IBN 'ARABI: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith In the West he is known as the Doctor Maximus and in the Islamic world as The Great Master. Born in Murcia in Spain in 1165 his family moved to Seville. At thirty-fivehe left for Mecca where he completed his most influential book of poems The Interpreter of Ardent Desires and began writing his masterpiece, the vast Meccan Revelations. A prolific writer, Ibn 'Arabi is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea later known as the 'Unity of Being'. His emphasis was on the true potential of the human being and the path to...

IBN YAMIN: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Amir Fakhr al-Din Mahmud, or Ibn Yamin (1286-1367), was born in Turkistan. His father was a poet who taught him the craft and left his son wealthy and the role of the court-poet in Khurasan. Ibn Yamin was taken captive when war broke out in 1342 and his complete Divan of poems was destroyed. He was a master of the form of the qi'ta. He is now as he was then, famous for his down-to-earth wisdom. Hafiz was probably influenced by his poems. During the last 25 years of his life he composed a further 5000 couplets on top of those he...

IBN AL-FARID: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Umar Ibn al-Farid, an Egyptian poet (1181-1235), is considered to be the undisputed master of Islamic mystical poetry into Arabic. He is considered not only to be a poet but a Perfect Master (Qutub) a God-realised soul... and it is his journey to unity with God that he reveals in probably the longest qasida (ode) in Arabic (761 couplets), his famous The Mystic's Progress. The other poem for which he is most known is his Wine Poem that is often seen as a prologue to the The Mystic's Progress. Although these long poems have been...