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Thomas Hyde who was studying Zoroastrian doctrines in Oxford at the end of the seventeenth century, coined the word "dualism". This was taken over by Bayle and later by Leibniz. Christian Wolff, Kant's mentor, extended its use to metaphysics, applying it to the Cartesian doctrine which views "thought and matter" as two mutually independent substances. Against this dualism, Kant, Spinoza, then later Fichte and Hegel reacted with idealism, and the positivists with materialism.
Plethon was one of the first who in his writings talked about Zoroastrian and Platonic systems and placed his Magnum Opus, the Laws, under the double patronage of Zoroaster and Plato. Among those who attempted a compromise between Christianity and Platonism - itself supposed to have been derived from Zoroasterianism, we may cite not only Bessarion, Pico della Mirandola, Marsile Ficino, and Erasmus, but also Franciscus Patricius, the editor of the larger recension of the Chaldaic Oracles, who wrote that:
Zoroaster, first of all people, almost laid the foundations, however, rough, of the Catholic Faith. (Duchesne-Guillemin, Western Response to Zoroaster, p. 4)
To the Christians, Iran had always been, above all, the homeland of the Three Wise Men who guided by a star, had come to prostrate themselves at Bethlehem. Zoroaster and the Magi used to be cited by the Apologists from Justin onwards as among those external witnesses they call upon to corroborate and justify the truth of Christianity to pagans.
H. H. Shaeder tries to find an Iranian origin for Christianity. He writes:
With the knowledge of the Avesta, there arose the temptation to search for concealed sources of primitive Christianity in the Iranian religion. (ibid., p. 16, and Goethe's Erlebnis des Ostens, p. 134)
Zoroaster’s influence in the European literature and thought can be seen in works of such imminent men as Voltaire, Diderot, Goethes, Byron, Wordsworth and Shelley.
Greeks themselves do not hide the fact that they are heirs and successors to the Eastern sages, especially of Zoroaster. (Duchesne-Guillemin, Western Response to Zoroaster, p 70)
According to a very old tradition, Zoroaster was supposed to have instructed Pythagoras (while he visited
Plinius attributes the first tradition to Eudoxus and Aristotle and the second tradition to Hermipus (250 B.C.). He calls Zoroaster as the preacher of one of the most exalted and useful philosophies". (ibid.)We are told that the pre-Socratic thinker, Empedocles, was a pupil of the Mages. This can be corroborated by the resemblance between his dualism and the dualism inherent in the Iranian religion.
We are also told that Democritus from Abdere, the founder of the theory of atomism, and the sophist Protagoras had a Magi for their teachers, sent to their fathers expressly by King Xerxes, in order to reciprocate the excellent reception bestowed upon him in his war expedition. We are told that Democritus has taken his theory of the images and the telepathic phenomena from Iranian theosophy (Henry Charles Puech, L'Iran et la philosophie Grecque, La Civilization Iranienne). Aristotle also saw a connection between the dualism of the Magi and Plato's system.
Eisler exalts the Iranian influence and places it at the very origin of Greek philosophy and Orphism. (Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt, 1910) Reitzenstein, believes Plato to be heavily indebted to Zoroaster. He developed Eisler's views and expanded on them with the help of H. Schaeder. (Studien zum Antiken Synkretismus, 1926)
J. Bidez although more moderate in his views, still shows the historically attested contacts between the Magi and the Academy and in his book "Eos, ou Ploton et l'Orient", shows what the Greek thinkers might owe to Iranian doctrines. (Western Response, opt. cit. p. 70)
Plethon wrote a compendium on the Zoroastrian and Platonic systems. In this Magnus Opus, the Laws were placed under the double patronage of Zoroaster and Plato. (ibid. p.4)
The Greeks, attributed to Zoroaster and the Magi from an early date, the doctrine of Boundless time which had become so familiar to them. That, as Junker has rightly pointed out (Junker, Aion Vorstellung pp. 140-154), influenced their conception of the Aion. (Emile Benveniste, The Persian Religion, p. 114)
According to A. William Jackson:
"The Greeks, with their anthropomorphic idea of the Pantheon of Heaven, were struck by the ideal and spiritual nature of the Iranian conception of the God-head and divinity."
Abundant allusions in the classics prove the truth of his statement, which is also in concordance with the actual facts. It is the purity and the abstract character of the Persian celestial hierarchy that distinguishes its Pantheon so greatly from the divinities of other Aryan Nations. (A. V. William Jackson, Zoroastrian Studies, p. 37)
If we accept the statement of A. H. Mills that philosophy was introduced to Greece for the first time by Anaxagoras in 426 B.C. (A. H. Mills, Zarathustra, Philo, the Achaemenids and Israel, p. 108), then we should agree all the more about the indebtedness of Greeks to the Iranians for teaching them philosophy. Mills states that Heraclitus, who was born in
According to Lingua Stella, quoted by Dr. Duchesne-Guillemin, Heraclitus while stressing the role of the struggle in the world, believed, nevertheless, in a Logos or a Nomos. The essence of this intelligible law was fire. This reminds us of the connection of Fire and Rta, the true order in the Indo-Iranian system. Heraclitus has been suspected for other reasons, of drawing from Iranian sources, such as scoffing at anthropomorphic images and at the bloodshed in the cult. (Western Response.)
Duchesne-Guillemin admits that undoubtedly there are striking similarities of doctrine between
"Even leaving aside for the moment the Hellenistic period with the emergence of gnosticism, we can enumerate among these striking similarities dualism, the divinization of time, the division of world history into definite periods, the notion of a world soul, fire as a symbol of cosmic law, and the existence of ideal models of things." (ibid. p. 70)
F.M. Cornford remarks that:
Whether we accept or not, no student of Orphic and Pythagorean thought will fail to see the hypothesis of a direct influence of
Henry Charles Puech states that:
Plato had, especially in his old age, many Iranian pupils. There are people who fix 6 thousand years as the interval separating Zoroaster from Plato. He says although this date seems fantastic, it is very significant. It answers one of the conceptions Iranians have about the cosmic duration. As this is 12,000 years, the advent of the Iranian prophet and the Greek philosopher marks the beginning and the end of the second half of this time. Zoroaster is considered as the precursor of Plato. Plato as the reincarnation of Zoroaster, the renovator of Zoroastrian religion, and perhaps the savior predicted by Mazdean eschatology. (H. C. Puech, opt. cit.)
Although this does not tally with Iranian tradition at all, still it shows how indebted the Academy felt towards Zoroaster and his philosophy.They must have felt great affinity between the Zoroastrian philosophy and that of Plato to consider him as a reincarnation of Zoroaster.
There is enough information about the appearance of Eudox of Cnidus in the Academy in the last part of Plato’s life, about 368 B.C. He was one of the most important elements in propagating Iranian ideas in the Academy. He was so imbued with Iranian philosophy that he could impregnate these ideas firmly in the mind of Plato and his disciples.
It was through his influence that the first generation of Platonists with firm Iranian ideas were formed. One finds this influence in two dialogues of Plato, the Epinomy and the First Alcibiad. The same kind of influence is also evident in Xenocrates, Heraclitus and Hermodores.
Aristotle, himself, at least in his youth, was under the same spell and the thinkers of his school, such as Eudemos of Rhodes who wrote about Zurvanite dualism, Cliarchus of Scles, Aristoxenes of Tarente and later bibliographer Hermippus, all of whom, were quite interested in
Plutarch also in his "Isis and Osiris" gives a very sympathetic exposition of the Iranian dualism.
Zoroaster, according to Greek tradition, patronized a series of sciences or pseudo-sciences in
It is indeed very revealing that, after the conquest of the Orient by Alexander, and the permanent contact the Greeks made with Iranians, instead of making them boast about their knowledge and science, they became more and more subdued to the hegemony of the Iranians in these domains.
One can see from Diodores that with Hecateus of Abdere (320 B. C.) appears a school of thought, which believes that Pythagoras and all the first philosophers were pupils of the sages of the East. Here the Hellenists are at a loss. How could one explain the saying of Sotion (200 - 150 B.C.) who shows in his Diadoches (i.e. the line of succession of the first philosophers) quoted by Diogenes Laertes that the names of the first philosophers begin with Zoroaster and continues with such Persian names as Ostanes, Astrampsychos, Gobryas, and Pazatas. (Duchesne-Guillemin, La Religion d l' Iran Ancien, p 24-25)
To quote Dr. Duchesne-Guillemin:
Il devit notoire que Pythagore avait ete l'eleve de Zoroastre, que Platon avait visite-ou voulu visiter-les Mages de Perse etc... Ceux-ci, en autorite et en anciente, ne le cedaient pas aux sages d'Egypt, autres pretendus initiateurs de la philosophic. Sotion (200- 150) consacre a la Diodoche. c'est-a-dire a la succession ou lignee des philosophes un traite ou puisera Diogene Laerce et ou sont nommes apres Zoroastre. Ostanes, Astrampsvchos, Gobryas et Pazatas... (ibid.)
But then, under the spell of the Hellenistic School, he has to give an explanation for such a vault-face in the attitude of the Greeks. So he explains this strange phenomena thus:
La conquete de l'Orient par Alexandre et les contacts permanants qu'elle institua, modifierent les vues des Grecs sur leur passe. On voit apparaitre avec Hecate D'Abdere (320), que citera Diodore, opinion selon laquelle Pythagore et tous les premiers philosophes avaient ete a l'ecole des sages d'orient. Cette opinion etait elle-meme une invention des orientaux, un moyen pour eux de reagir contre invasion de l'hellenisme en sauvant leur superiorite. Les Grecs l'adopterent lorsque leur philosophie, delaissant la voie de la raisen, se tourna de plus en plus, a parlir du ler. Siecle avant notre ere, vers la mystique, ressucitant le pythagorisme comme une espece de religion. II devint notoire que Pythagore avait ete l'eleve de Zoroastre etc.. (ibid., p. 24)
In another place he mentions that:
Par ce contact prologe, les Grecs purent prendre plus intimement connaissance des doctrines Iraniennes. En tout cas le prestige de L'Iran s'accrut a leurs yeux. Toute une literature s'ecrivit en langue grecque pour exposer les pretendues doctrines de Zoroastre et de ses disciples, Hystaspe (vistaspa) et Ostanes (inconnu dans les source Iranians)... (Bidez-Cumont. Les Mages Hellenises)
Could not this be a sort of re-confirmation of Iranian Historians' view that Alexander translated all the Iranian books of religion and science into Greek and then destroyed the original Persian documents. Are we not justified in saying that the Greeks of post-Alexanderian age were more honest than the later historians, who for reasons of their own turned the table completely round
The Iranian influence was not only exercised through some Zoroastrian apocrypha, but it was also widely exercised through Mithraism.
According to Nelson who is an authority on Greek religion, it is indeed not so easy to clarify how this influence operated (Duchesne-Guillemin, opt. cit. p. 245-246)
The doctrines of Zarathustra brought very great and profound ideas that went to encounter the Greek thought; the unique God, elevated above everything and anything, the dualism and the combat between good and bad powers, the cult without any images or forms, the final catastrophic end of the world and finally Zurvanism.
The influence of the ideas of Iranians over Greeks were great but the way that it traversed was obscure and indirect; often it left its finger-prints not directly but through other people, who had themselves grasped the power of the Iranian thought. (ibid. p. 246)
This influence was felt even as late as the time of Khusrow I, Anushirvan, when by order of Justinian in 529 A.D. the School of Athens was closed and six of the last Platonic philosophers who resided in that school, came as refugees to Ctesiphon.
They considered
Priscien and other Greek philosophers were interrogated by the King and it is through his demand that Priscien compiled an abridged treatise on psychology, physiology etc... for him. This was entitled: "Solution eorum de quilus dubitavi Chosroes Persarum rex". In the preface to this treatise Priscien writes these revealing words:
When I present to you this book, I have done nothing but to offer you a fruit that I have picked from your own garden. It is in the same fashion that people make sacrifice to Gods from among their own creatures. (Saeed Nafisi, Mehr Monthly Publication, first year, p. 41)
For the Arabs in the early stages of their incursion/domination in
It was through some Iranian Nestorians such as Hunnayn and his son and nephew that they came to know about the Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras and Porphyrius and many other neo-Platonists. But still these books as presented, did not attract much attention except in the domain of Dialectics. This only because they had to fight the Christians who were attacking the foundations of Islam with the weapon of Greek dialectics.
All the movements that originated from
The majority of the brilliant philosophers of Islam who wrote their books in Arabic were Iranians. Among them one can enumerate the following: Razi, Ibn-Meskawaih, Farabi, Ibn-Sina, Biruni and Ghazali.
If one omits these great names from the philosophers of Islam, there remains only very few such as Al-Kindi and Averroes. So, one can see the importance of Iranian contribution in this respect.
Through the translation made by Dominic Gundisalvus, Archdeacon of Segovia, in the early parts of the 12th century, the Christian West became acquainted with Aristotle by way of Avicenna, Farabi, and Ghazali. (Alfred Guillaum, The Legacy of Islam, p. 246) All three of these are Iranians.
Gundisalvus in his own encyclopedia of knowledge relies mostly on the information he received from the Arabic sources, mainly written by Iranian authors. What is interesting to note is that, the West, although knew some of the works of the Greeks prior to the translations made from the Arabic language, had not as yet any inklings or zeal for studying philosophy and getting interested in such works. It was the above mentioned Iranians who made the European scholars interested in the work of Aristotle and in philosophy in general.
Before entering into the subject we should ask ourselves, in passing, how was it that the Iranians with their own background of philosophy and culture, became the mouthpiece of the Greek philosophers, especially Plato and Aristotle, and why didn’t they mention anything in their works, about their heirloom of pre-Islamic times.
Two or three very obvious reasons come to mind immediately. The first is that the Caliphs were very touchy about Iranian religion and philosophies. In them there was always a discussion of Zoroaster and dualism which was indeed against the Islamic precepts. In fact they used to send to the gallows any person who showed the slightest tendency towards such ideas (after cursory judicial proceedings).
The second reason which has some bearing upon the first was that Iranians who were interested in philosophic discussions, although not allowed to enter into the arena on their own account, could shield themselves behind a Greek mouthpiece. For them, Greek philosophy, as we have already seen in the Pre-Islamic section of this chapter, had indeed borrowed quite a good deal from Iranian philosophers of old and therefore using these tenets and philosophies was not absolutely contrary to their own ideas. In fact according to Farabi:
philosophy at the beginning, was carried from
And according to Sohrawardi:
the leaven of Logos in the Orient and Occident was in the origin of one single school and there was no opposition amongst them. They were two branches of the same dynasty respectively perpetuated by the sages of
Modern Western scholars, who are excessively under the tutelage of Greek culture, claim that Muslim philosophy is only Greek philosophy translated into Arabic language, adorned with a superstructure of monotheistic religious and ethical ideas, which according to individual taste is considered to be misfit or a harmonious complement. (J.L. Teicher, Avicenna scientist and philosopher, p. 29)
Are we accusing Western philosophy in the same manner, simply because it is based to a great extent on Greek philosophy? It is true that the bulk of Islamic philosophy is, indeed, the direct continuation of Greek speculation, but it has in addition original features of its own which do not derive from Greek models.
These features run the risk of being totally submerged under the vast expanse of Greek sources habitually adduced by commentators of Arabic thought. According to Dr. Teicher:
the confidence with which such commentators rely on the illuminating power of bare Greek quotations is unfortunately seldom shared by the reader of their words who is very often disappointed and perplexed when the only help offered to him for the understanding of a very difficult passage of Islamic philosophy is an obscure text of Aristotle or Plotinius. (all the philosophers referred to are Iranians, but Teicher has always used Arabic or Arab, instead of Persian or Muslim).
A recent movement in the study of the origin of Islamic philosophy claims to have discovered an easy solution for the problems. The members of this movement tell us that:
The origin of Arabic (ibid.) philosophy is to be found in resumes, compendia, and all kinds of school textbooks of the later Hellenistic period which were translated into Arabic.
They ascribe magical powers to quite innocuous compilations; such compilations may, with due caution, be considered as indication of the rate of diffusion of interest in philosophy among Mohammadans. (ibid.) But we cannot adduce thereby a complete subservience of Mohammadan philosophy to Greek philosophy. These compilations are certainly not the source of inspiration of original and creative thought. (ibid. p. 29-30)
The late Professor Edward Browne believes that:
the epic, lyric, didactic, mystic, satiric, or pessimist poets of Iran such as Firdowsi, Hafez, Sa’adi, Nasir-Khusrow, Attar, Jallal ad-Din Balkhi (Rumi); Ubayd-i-Zakani, and Omar Khayyam, each in his own different way appeals to some ground common to all mankind. And these are the ones that are known best, outside
He calls Iranians:
the most ancient, gifted and original peoples of the world. (ibid.)
From among these the best-known in
Out of the different European nations, if we take
This does not mean that the others were completely ignored but it only shows the national preference in each case. The first country who began to study the Iranian literature and appreciate it were the Germans. The German scholars were in touch with Persian literature and poetry through the translation of Sa’adi’s Gulistan and Bustan made by the traveler and scholar Adam Olearius (1671 A.D.).
These had a salutary influence on German literature of the 17th century. This influence continued to be active in the eighteenth century and one of the results of it was the tale of Joseph produced by Grumelshausen under the influence of the story of Yusuf and Zuleikha, as rendered and developed in the Iranian literature.
Thanks to a number of remarkable poet-scholars, such as Herder,
Hartmann, Schlegel and Hammer and later Ruckert revealed to poets and writers of the West new and almost unsuspected treasures that were hidden in the Eastern Literature especially that of Iran. This literature entered into 19th century German literature to a degree unparalleled in
The most important single work that influenced German literature as well as all the literatures of
Goethe, like his predecessors, made it his conscious aim to open a way for the real heritage of Oriental poetry to enter into the poetry of
He believed that the East and the West were not really separate from each other and should approach each other. In furthering this philosophy he also envisaged, a world literature and proposed that the door should become wide open so that the greatest poets of the East i.e. Sa’adi and Hafez should become members of it. In a letter about his "West -Ostlicher Diwan" he writes:
My hope and aim is to approach, by means of this work, the East to the West, the past to the present and the Persians to the Germans.
We are told that "West-Ostlicher Diwan" was suggested to Goethe by a translation of the Diwan of Hafez. When Goethe became acquainted with Hafez’s Diwan he wrote:
Suddenly I came face to face with the celestial perfume of the East and invigorating breeze of Eternity that was being blown from the plains and the wastelands of
Then in the late summer of the same year he wrote:
I am getting mad. If I do not immediately start composing poetry, I will not be able to bear the amazing influence of this extraordinary personality who has suddenly entered into my life.
In one place he compares Hafez to a ship and himself to a humble and broken raft and exclaims:
0, Hafez, how can anyone boast to be thy equal...
and he considers the verses of Hafez as:
a miracle of human taste and refinement and a regenerating source of perfection and beauty as well as philosophy and Erfan...
He calls him "Saint Hafez" and "celestial Friend". Goethe was acquainted with Iranian Literature and time and again he talks about seven great Persian poets "Firdowsi, Anvari, Nizami, Mowlavi, Sa’adi, Hafez and Jami". He has even prepared a short biography of these seven Iranian poets.
Goethe, according to Professor Gibb:
found in Oriental poetry first of all a means of escape into the world of imagination from the brutal realities of the age. But he was not satisfied with mere imitation but by taking the art and ideals of Persian poetry with those medieval and romantic elements in the European tradition with which they were in closest harmony, he created a new idiom to express his own thought and at the same time emphasized the cosmopolitanism which it was his aim to express in German literature. (ibid.)
But contrary to Professor Gibb’s suggestion, in his Diwan, Goethe really tried to introduce Iranian ideas into German literature and did not use those idioms only to express his own thought. Unfortunately a new rage of nationalism swept over
However, once the interest was aroused it could not be completely forgotten. Besides, the other countries of
Before leaving Goethe, the great master-mind of
Deep down inside me a strong Mithraistic feeling exists. Every time I have seen the Sun I have looked at it with the same respect and adoration that I feel towards the personality of Jesus. Because the Sun is the strongest and the highest emblem of eternal beauty of God that the earthly people can gaze upon. I am praising the creative power of God by worshipping the Sun and the Light that through Mithra "the Radiant" offers to us humans and to all animals and plants of the earth the power of life and action. (S. Shafa, Preface to the translation of West-Ostlicher Diwan)
Fredric Nietzsche also is full of praise for Hafez. He says:
0 Hafez thou hast built a tavern of philosophy which is mightier than any other palace in the world, and in it, thou hast prepared a wine full of sweet words that surpasses the power of a world to drink. Who can be the guest in thy tavern but the mythological Simurgh?
It was only through looking at Iranian literature and history that he produced his "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." Although this work has little to do with the prophet of Ancient Iran, still one can find many ideas attributed to
We find the following sentences in Nietzsche’s work:
And if the fault were in your ears, why gave He to us ears that heard Him ill? And if there were uncleanness in our ears, go to, who had put it there?
Too many of his works miscarried this Potter that had not fully learned his trade. But in that He revenged Himself on His Pots and creations for that they turned out ill, He sinned against Good taste. (Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
Doesn’t the above reminds one of Omar Khayyam’s verses such as the following:
Why, said another, some there are who tell
Of one who threatens he will toss to Hell,
The luckless Pots he marred in making. Pish,
He’s a good Fellow, and t’will all be well."
and:
After a momentary silence spake,
Some vessel of a more ungainly Make,
They snare at me for leaning all awry,
What! did the Hand then of the Potter Shake?
The same can be said about many allegories he uses, as when a snake enters the mouth of a sleeping man, which is well known in Persian verses. Hafez and Mowlavi both have verses concerning the need to create a "Real Man" which could have influenced Nietzsche in talking about Superman and Higher man.
Hafez says:
A real Man cannot be found in our earthly world,
We should make a new world and a new
and Mowlavi says:
Yester night a Sheikh was seeking with a lamp all over the town,
Stating that he was tired of devils and wild beasts and was looking for a
I told him that we have already searched everywhere for him, he could not be found
He said I am looking for that who could not be found.
For a time Persian fashion held the field in
Heine although did not spare his satire on this Oriental influence, nevertheless, could not keep the Oriental note entirely out of his lyric. One can say with Professor Gibb that:
Persian poets had cast their spell over Goethe and the Germans.
However, the case is different when we consider
The first time when the English people seriously began to learn Farsi and to get acquainted with the rich Persian literature, was during the colonization of
The Court language of the Mughal Kings in
After the victory of the Clive over Duplex in the battle of Plassy (1757),
So they imposed upon their staff the necessity of learning Farsi and soon a number of these English staff who learned Persian for official purposes came in contact with a very great and rich literature and started to study the language for its literary merits as well.
Sir William Jones translated the biography of Nadir Shah by Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi from Farsi into English and has added to this translation notes on Persian history and Persian language. He also translated into English verse, one of the Ghazals of Hafez. In 1774 he issued his Latin commentaries on Asiatic poetry not as a philologist but as a man of taste, not as an interpreter but as a poet.
For the first time he opened to the classically educated circles of
Then came Mathew Arnold’s "Sohrab and Rustam" which was adopted from Shahnameh of Firdowsi. However, Professor Gibb believes that for
However, we see a different picture when we read about those who made an effort to translate Persian poetry into English. According to the late Professor Arberry the translation of Persian verse into English had become a fashion early in the 19th century and the name of Hafez was in everybody’s mouth.
It was at this period that Joseph Champion, John Richardson, John Knot, John Hadley and Hindley, Walter Loaf and Richard Le Galienne translated Hafez, and Lady Gertrude Bell spent a great many years of her life to translate Hafez into English verse and finally published her work in 1897. Longfellow translated Sa’adi’s well-known poem that begins with this verse.
Bani Adam a’azaye yek-digarand
Ke dar Afarinesh ze yek goharand
in the following way:
All that inhabits this great earth, Whatever be their rank or worth,
Are kindred and allied by birth, And made by the same clay.
And this verse:
Chon ke gol raft-o golistan shod kharab, Bouye gol ra az ke jou'im az gollab.
which was rendered by Shelly as:
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead
Are heaped for the beloved’s bed,
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on...
One notices in these verses the use of the same meter and rhyme as is used in the Persian verse. Shelly became acquainted with Iranian literature by reading the works of Sir William Jones and therefore it is possible that when he brings his name into the last verse of the following poem:
Less oft is peace in Shelley’s mind,
Than calm in waters seen.
he is imitating Hafez and other Iranian poets who must mention their names or their pen names in the last verse of each ghazal. George B. Walker reminds us that Browning, like Platen in
All those efforts on the part of the English scholars who became interested in Persian literature by reading the original, were of no avail to reach the mind of English public until Fitzgerald produced his magnificient translation of Omar Khayyam into English. This soon penetrated into the heart of Western poetry. Of course Fitzgerald’s translation was not a simple translation but a recreation. It was at once truly Persian and truly English and soon it found its way into every home in
As Professor Gibb puts it:
nothing else from the East except the Bible is so well-known and so frequently quoted in all English literature. (Gibb, opt. cit.)
So Fitzgerald for the first time, really introduced Persian literature to the English public, just as in an earlier period Goethe introduced Hafez to
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse – and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness,
And Wilderness is
and:
Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide,
And wash the Body whence the Life has died,
And lay me, shrouded in the living leaf,
By some not unfrequented Garden-side.
Fitzgerald introduced not only the Iranian Omar Khayyam to
Sa’adi was another great poet of
Nonetheless, Arbuthnot translated Gulistan in full. He writes in 1887 in his "Persian Portrait" about Sa’adi, that:
of all the great Persian poets Sa’adi’s genius agrees most with that of European methods, and the great beauty of his style is its elegant simplicity.
Sir William Jones says about him:
His life was almost wholly spent in travel, but no man who enjoyed the greatest leisure ever left behind him more valuable fruits of his genius and industry.
Sir Gore Ouslay calls him:
the brightest ornament of
Vambery refers to him as follows:
This great poet and scholar is an object of veneration, not only to the people of
Jami, the famous Iranian poet calls him:
The nightingale of the groves of
In commenting about another Persian book called Dabistan (the first chapter of which was translated by Francis Gladwin in 1789 and the whole book by David Shea and Anthony Troyer in 1843), E.F. Arbuthnot says:
Many of ideas contained in it may be traced in the works of Dante Milton, Voltaire, Volney, Victor Hugo and others.
The description of Heaven and Hell, as given by Arda-Viraf, about 200 A.D. bears a wonderful resemblance to the "Paradiso" and "Inferno’ of Dante or the "Revelation of St. John."
Again the author of Dabistan, in his chapter on the religion of the Ilahiah, focuses on the disputes of the people of different religions. A similar chapter or series of chapters, on the same subject will be found in Volney’s work written at the end of the last century, and called "The Ruins, or a Survey of the Revolution of Empires." The meeting of the believers in different religions, their ideas, tenets, miracles, prophesies, sacred writings, customs, speeches, and traditions, are as well told in the one book as in the other, and bear a close resemblance.
In "Les Miserables" of Victor Hugo, the story of the good bishop M. Miriel and the thief Jean Valjan will always be remembered. The following is the story as it is told in the Dabistan.
Muhammad Ali of
On this, Muhammad Ali, rising his head, said to him, "I laid myself down to feign sleep so that thou mightest accomplish thy desires, whereas thou art in despair. Be no longer uneasy". He then arose, and pointed out the place where all the things were stored away, In consequence of this generous proceeding the robber repented, abandoned his vile profession and became a virtious character.
Arbuthnot believed that "From the Dabistan" the modern spiritualists and theosophists could gather and perhaps have gathered quite a harvest of wonders. (ibid.)
Farsi has made its contribution to the vast vocabulary of English, like any other major language. Of the words borrowed either directly or indirectly the following is a selection:
God, azur, lilac, jasmine, narcissus, scimitar, paradise, year, khaki, amber, kaftan, khan, anchor, bulb, bezoar, tutty, yoke, band, balcony, kiosk, tambour, giraffe, rank, taffetta, cheque, shawl, sugar, divan, pyjamas, pistachio, cumberband, tinkal, kibab, crimson, scarlet, thunder, new, houri, medium, soup, camphor, sandal, copper, sear-sucker, salamander, cake, arsenic, hat, hood, checkmate, rook, caravan, carboy, tatar, borax, fairy, and the like...
Besides there is a similarity between the following words owing to a common origin of the two languages:
father, mother, brother, sister, daughter, bad, star, eyebrow, lip, door, new, better, stand, name, cow, etc...
Pierre Jaubert, who visited
(It is interesting to know that the Farsi word "barid" or postilion found its way into European languages as Verda in Latin, Paard in Dutch and Pferd in German).
One also notices many similarities in the sayings and proverbs at the two nations.
1. In the wrestling matches in
2. The same saying "Pot calling the kettle black" exists in both languages.
3. For the Persian carrying "cumin to
4. When the cook (which normally is a female) makes a dish salty, the Iranians say: "It appears that the cook wants a husband" and in English they say "the cook is in love."
5. When two people resemble each other very much the Iranians say: "They are like two halves of an apple" and we find in Twelfth Night of Shakespeare the following expression:
One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons. An apple cleft in two is not more twine.
6. When an Iranian wants to show in his speech that he was excessively ashamed he says: "I wish the floor would have opened and swallowed me up." The same expression is used in English.
7. For the Iranian saying "to hit two targets with one arrow", there is an English counterpart, "to kill two birds with one stone."
If we looked carefully we could find many other similar sayings in English and other European languages that has an old counterpart in Farsi.
As it was said in the case of
There, they were more in need of Arabic than Farsi. However, the work of Iranian poets that were already known in literary circles in
Although Victor Hugo in the preface to his "Les Orientals" states that "all the world was Hellenist, now it is Orientalist" and although he confessed to strong poetic sympathies for the Orientalist art and wrote that "there, all is vast, rich, productive, as in the Middle Ages, that other ocean of poetry was," Professor Gibb believes that:
with all that he states, he was using it for the artistic effect of its glowing colors as De la Croix painted Algerian subjects. The same can be said of almost all the French romantics. (Gibb, opt. cit.)
However, going through the French literature of the 19th century and first-half of the 20th century, one feels that quite a great deal of Iranian literature is gradually finding its way into the French language by the efforts and good offices of individual poets and scholars interested in the East and Iran for its own sake.
For example we see the works of Attar, Nizami, Sa’adi, Hafez and Jami, appear in French. Silvestre de Sacy translated in 1805 Attar’s Pand-Nameh into French. Several translations of Gulistan appeared in
This book impressed the literary circles of
A great document showing the genius and creative power of Aryan race....
J. J. Ampere called Ferdowsi:
One of the greatest poets of the human race...
and in comparing ShahNameh with Niebelungen, Iliad, Odysseus and other similar epics of the Indians, considered it the greatest of them all. Barbier de Maynard translated Bustan of Sa’adi in 1880. Renan, in praising the book in the Journal Asiatique wrote:
Sa’adi is not a stranger among us, indeed he is one of us...
In the study of the religions of old
Darmesteter followed on his foot-steps and published in 1880 "Ormozd et Ahriman, leurs origines et leurs histoires."
In 1734 already a book had been published by Jean de Bosobere about "the History of Manicheism" and this interested Victor Hugo to such an extent that we are told by Maurice Barres that he was a Manichean at heart.
Victor Hugo in his book entitled "Dieu" recites:
Deux dieux, dit Zoroastre, un desordre normal. L’etre, c’est, le combat du bien contre le mal
In another piece in the same book "Le Manicheism" Victor Hugo expresses indeed his own faith. Jerome and Jean Tharaud published quite a number of poems all based on Iranian literature such as "La Cruche de Khayyam," "Le Poete et Le Roi," "Evangile selon Sa’adi," "La Marchard et le Roi," "La Tombe du poete", "Le Perroquet du Sage", "Une Histoire uncroyable", "Le Sage et le Mongole" and "Le Prince et La Mort".
Paul Fort (born in 1872) one of the celebrated French poets of the present century, who visited Tehran on the occasion of the millenary celebrations of Firdowsi, published for that occasion a poem entitled "Ode en l’honneur de Ferdousi," in which after praising Ferdowsi goes on to add:
Tout le Choeur des Muses Gauloises,
Chantant nuage et lueurs,
Traversant l’azur, tout le choeur,
de nos sages, de nos soufis,
de Villon, Ronsard, La Fontaine,
Chenier, Baudelaire et Verlaine,
Nerval, Musset, ce La martine,
cet Hugo dont je ne fais fi,
Quelques milliers d’autres ma fi!
d’où vient sous la lune argentine
Ce Grand murmure de louanges
Plus melodieux que vol d’anges
Ou le concert du Paradis,
Vers le pur souvenir d’Hafiz,
d’Omar Khayyam, de Sa’adi,
de légions d’autres encore,
Attar, Sehâbi, Qéttali,
Abou-Said ou Gazâli,
Chantres d’Ispahan, de Mysore,
de Chiraz plu doux que l’aurore.
Bien vrai, que depuis tant d’années.
Muses de France et de l’Iran,
à se chèrir predestinées, S’entre-guettaient.
Et l’Orient devant qu’aient bondi les Croisades
embaumait l’air de l’Occident,
et faisait, sur nos hivers blancs,
pleuvoir ses roses en cascades.
Tant qu’il vint à notre patrie,
nos arts et nos litératures,
de la Grèce beauté, mesure,
de la Perse charm et féerie.
In
I must admit that I have been a bit unsure of where to begin. Many of you are dedicated disciples of Maulana Rumi. Others have just participated in a panel discussion on the significance of his poetry led by leading academics. For such scholars to be followed by a mere student of Rumi is a tall task, even for a Secretary-General!
Of course, just by looking around this hall, I can claim confidently that, eight centuries after his birth, Maulana Rumi lives on. This event is a wonderful opportunity to reaffirm our devotion to his humanist philosophy and to highlight the principles of tolerance, understanding and compassion, which suffuse his compositions.
As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I hope to carry out my duties cheerfully and with humility, just as our moderator suggested. I know this is a tall task, but I would like to accomplish it with the same tolerance, understanding and compassion that the Maulana teaches.
Rumi’s poetry is timeless. But its celebration at the United Nations is extremely timely. Events of recent years have created a growing gulf between communities and nations. They have led to a worrying rise in intolerance and cross-cultural tensions. Reversing these trends has become vital to long-term peace and stability in our world.
These goals demand that every one of us look beyond our narrow short-term self-interests. As the Maulana teaches, we must be mindful of the people around us, and love them as human beings and God’s creatures. In doing so, we should all recognize our essential interdependence and place the well-being of our communities and of all humanity on par with our own interests.
This commemoration draws attention to this urgent need in a most engaging fashion. Indeed, by bringing together people of diverse backgrounds to celebrate Rumi’s universal philosophy, today’s gathering contributes to the UN’s own efforts to promote a culture of peace through the Alliance of Civilizations. The successor to our earlier Dialogue among Civilizations process, this initiative responds to the clear need for action by the international community to bridge divides and promote understanding. The Alliance has identified several priority areas for action and is developing a strategy to promote better understanding between the world of politics and religion. Commemorations like this one can help inspire and motivate its important work and ensure the project’s ultimate success. More immediately, I think we can all be assured of a successful celebration. So let me just wish everyone a pleasant evening and cede the stage to our gifted guests. Article
| Rumi’s “Fihi ma Fih” translated into Pushtu | |
| TEHRAN, July 29 (MNA) -- Afghanistan’s Information and Culture Ministry announced on Sunday that the mystical work “Fihi ma Fih” by Molana Rumi has been translated into Pushtu. | |
Habib Hossa, Nazanin Halim, and Haroon Hasan were members of the team that translated the work from Persian. He expressed hope that the book would be warmly received by the literary figures of Afghanistan and Pakistan. |
