The Religious Use of Persian Poetry

Summary

The development of a religiously inspired poetry has been one the most decisive processes of Persian literary history. The earliest traces of this trend can already be found in the literature of the tenth century A.D., the period of the Sāmānid amīrs who did so much to stimulate the literary use of the Persian language. In the course of the next two centuries, during the Ghaznavid and Saljuq periods, this development can be followed through the works of a continuous series of poets who, though belonging to different groups of the Islamic community, appear often to work along convergent lines.

Towards the end of the twelfth century A.D. religious poetry had become an integral part of the Persian literary tradition. Its impact was not confined to those writers who had devoted themselves exclusively to a religious way of life. It also penetrated the poetry that had remained in touch with the secular life. Only very few Persian poets of the subsequent centuries were completely untouched by the religious trend. Its significance goes even further than Persian literature proper. The literary traditions of other Muslim nations in Asia whose conversion to Islam went together with an acculturation to Islamic Persian civilisation – the Turkish peoples of Central Asia and Anatolia and the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent – adopted it as an essential part of their own poetry.

The religious use of poetry, as I intend it in this discussion, may be defined as the use of the means at the disposal of the literary artist in the tradition of Persian poetry in general for specifically religious purposes. These means include the various forms of poetry, the stock of images, of topoi and figures of speech as well as the social conventions connected with the craft of the secular poet. The process of the development of religious poetry during its earliest, formative stage – i.e. from its first appearance up to the late twelfth century A.D. – led to the creation of a number of poetic genres that were characteristic of this kind of poetry. Nearly always, they were ultimately based on forms of poetry that had already been in use in the tradition of profane literature before they received a new application and a new, religious meaning.