Make a Shield from Wisdom Selected Verses from Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s ‘Dīwān’
I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
Persian literature, especially its poetry, constitutes one of the world’s great literary traditions. Amongst the foremost, but in the West least known, medieval Persian poets was Nāṣir-i Khusraw. A great thinker of the early Islamic world, whose writing inspired the intellectual development of Ismaili Islam, Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s poetry – lyrical and deeply human – has so far received surprisingly little attention from translators in the West. Unique and important for our understanding of the times in which he lived, Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s ideas, expressed with consummate artistry, will appeal strongly to readers of today. His descriptions of the world around him and his skills in the use of language and metre, all serve to fascinate the enthusiast for poetry, as well as students of the medieval Islamic world and Ismaili thought.
Here, the noted Islamic scholar Annemarie Schimmel provides a translation of some of Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s qaṣīdas, together with a detailed study of the poet and his work. The result will appeal to readers of poetry, literary history and philosophy, as well as those interested in the Ismaili contribution to Islamic thought and culture.
Introduction
1. Nāṣir-i Khusraw as a Poet
2. The Contents of Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s Poetry
3. Selected Poems from the Dīwān
4. Select Bibliography
Index
Quotations from the Qur’an
‘... a truly scholarly achievement which should provide the basis for more detailed studies on Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s poetry.’
– Sunil Sharma, MELA Notes
Annemarie Schimmel is Professor Emeritus of Indo-Muslim Culture at Harvard University and Honorary Professor at the University of Bonn. She has published over fifty books on Islamic literature, mysticism and culture, and has also translated works from Persian, Urdu, Arabic and Turkish into English and German.