Persian Literature, Volume 1, Comprising The Shah Nameh

Persian Literature, Volume 1,
Comprising The Shah Nameh

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1,Comprising The
Shah Nameh, The Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan , by
Anonymous, et al
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Title: Persian Literature, Volume 1,Comprising The Shah Nameh, The
Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: November 26, 2003 [eBook #10315]
Language: English
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LITERATURE, VOLUME 1,COMPRISING THE SHAH NAMEH,
THE RUBAIYAT, THE DIVAN, AND THE GULISTAN ***
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PERSIAN LITERATURE
comprising
THE SHÁH NÁMEH, THE RUBÁIYÁT THE DIVAN, AND THE
GULISTAN
Revised Edition, Volume 1
1909

With a special introduction by RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL, Ph.D.

SPECIAL INTRODUCTION
A certain amount of romantic interest has always attached to Persia.
With a continuous history stretching back into those dawn-days of
history in which fancy loves to play, the mention of its name brings to
our minds the vision of things beautiful and artistic, the memory of
great deeds and days of chivalry. We seem almost to smell the
fragrance of the rose-gardens of Tus and of Shiraz, and to hear the
knight-errants tell of war and of love. There are other Oriental
civilizations, whose coming and going have not been in vain for the
world; they have done their little bit of apportioned work in the
universe, and have done it well. India and Arabia have had their great
poets and their great heroes, yet they have remained well-nigh
unknown to the men and women of our latter day, even to those whose
world is that of letters. But the names of Firdusi, Sa'di, Omar Khayyám,
Jami, and Háfiz, have a place in our own temples of fame. They have
won their way into the book-stalls and stand upon our shelves, side by
side with the other books which mould our life and shape our character.
Some reason there must be for the special favor which we show to
these products of Persian genius, and for the hold which they have
upon us. We need not go far to find it. The under-current forces, which
determine our own civilization of to-day, are in a general way the same
forces which were at play during the heyday of Persian literary
production. We owe to the Hellenic spirit, which at various times has
found its way into our midst, our love for the beautiful in art and in
literature. We owe to the Semitic, which has been inbreathed into us by
religious forms and beliefs, the tone of our better life, the moral level to
which we aspire. The same two forces were at work in Persia. Even
while that country was purely Iránian, it was always open to Semitic
influences. The welding together of the two civilizations is the true
signature of Persian history. The likeness which is so evident between
the religion of the Avesta, the sacred book of the pre-Mohammedan
Persians, and the religion of the Old and New Testaments, makes it in a
sense easy for us to understand these followers of Zoroaster. Persian
poetry, with its love of life and this-worldliness, with its wealth of
imagery and its appeal to that which is human in all men, is much more

readily comprehended by us than is the poetry of all the rest of the
Orient. And, therefore, Goethe, Platen, Rückert, von Schack, Fitzgerald,
and Arnold have been able to re-sing their masterpieces so as to delight
and instruct our own days--of which thing neither India nor Arabia can
boast.
Tales of chivalry have always delighted the Persian ear. A certain
inherent gayety of heart, a philosophy which was not so sternly
vigorous as was that of the Semite, lent color to his imagination. It
guided the hands of the skilful workmen in the palaces of Susa and
Persepolis, and fixed the brightly colored tiles upon their walls. It led
the deftly working fingers of their scribes and painters to illuminate
their manuscripts so gorgeously as to strike us with wonder at the
assemblage of hues and the boldness of designs. Their Zoroaster was
never deified. They could think of his own doings and of the deeds of
the mighty men of valor who lived before and after him with very little
to hinder the free play of their fancy. And so this fancy roamed up and
down the whole course of Persian history: taking a long look into the
vista of