Jami

Illustration from Jami's Rose Garden of the Pious, dated 1553. The image blends Persian poetry and Persian miniature into one, as is the norm for many works of Persian literature.

Nur ad-Din Abd ar-Rahman Jami (Persian: نورالدین عبدالرحمن جامی) (August 18, 1414–November 19, 1492) was one of the greatest Persian poets in the 15th century and one of the last great Sufi poets of Persia. His fame rests even more on his mystical authority than on his talents as a poet and writer.

Biography

He was born in a village near Jam, but a few years after his birth, his family migrated to the cultural city of Herat in present-day Afghanistan where he was able to study Peripateticism, mathematics, Arabic literature, natural sciences, and Islamic philosophy at the Nizamiyyah University of Herat.

Afterwards he went to Samarqand, the most important centre of scientific studies in the Islamic World and completed his studies there. He was a famous Sufi, and a follower of the Naqshbandiyyah Sufi Order. At the end of his life he was living in Herat.

Youth seeking his father's advice on choosing a male lover
From the Haft Awrang of Jami, in the story "A Father Advises his Son About Love." See Nazar ill'al-murd Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

Teachings

In his role as Sufi shaykh, Jami expounded a number of teachings regarding following the Sufi path. In his view, love was the fundamental stepping stone for starting on the spiritual journey. To a student who claimed never to have loved, he said, "Go and love first, then come to me and I will show you the way."[1]

Works

Same youth conversing with suitors
Another illustration from the Haft Awrang

Jami wrote approximately eighty-seven books and letters, some of which have been translated into English. His works range from prose to poetry, and from the mundane to the religious. He has also written works of history. His poetry has been inspired by the ghazals of Hafez, and his Haft Awrang is, by his own admission, influenced by the works of Nezami.

Divan of Jami

Among his works are:

• Baharestan (Abode of Spring) Modeled upon the Gulestan of Saadi
• Diwanha-ye Sehganeh (Triplet Divans)
• Al-Fawaed-Uz-Ziya'iya.
• Haft Awrang (Seven Thrones) His major poetical work. The fifth of the seven stories is his acclaimed "Yusuf and Zulaykha", which tells the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife based on the Quran.
• Jame -esokanan-e Kaja Parsa
• Lawa'ih A treatise on Sufism (Shafts of Light)
• Nafahat al-Uns (Breaths of Fellowship) Biographies of the Sufi Saints
• Resala-ye manasek-e hajj
• Resala-ye musiqi
• Resala-ye tariq-e Kvajagan
• Resala-ye sarayet-e dekr
• Resala-ye so al o jawab-e Hendustan
• Sara-e hadit-e Abi Zarrin al-Aqili
• Sar-rešta-yetariqu-e Kājagān (The Quintessence of the Path of the Masters)
• Shawahidal-nubuwwa (Distinctive Signs of Prophecy)
• Tajnīs 'al-luġāt (Homonymy/Punning of Languages) A lexicographical work containing homonymous Persian and Arabic lemmata.
• Tuhfat al-ahrar (The Gift of the Nobel)

Along with his works are his contributions to previous works and works that have been created in response to his new ideas.

See also

• Ghazal
• Persian literature
• List of Persian poets and authors
• Nazar ill'al-murd

References

• E.G. Browne. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998. ISBN 0-700-70406-X
• Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K

External links

• Jami on PoetryPortal
• Jami on Iran Chamber Society Website
• Jami's Yusuf and Zulaikha: A Study in the Method of Appropriation of Sacred Text
• Jami (Wikipedia)