Kharabat (poetry)

Kharabat (Persian: خرابات‎) is a term in Persian poetry, sometimes used as a proverb.[1] It has been suggested, as a possible etymological explanation, that the word was created as a combination of the two (exactly opposite) words kharab ("ruinous") and abad ("prosperous").[1]

In the words of Prof. Hamid Dabashi; "Persian literary historians have concurred that the word originally meant "house or tavern of ill repute" but was eventually appropriated by mystics to mean a place that they frequent by way of suspending all hypocritical pretense to piety (...) The idea is that there are places that you can frequent that will dismantle your beliefs, and yet, in doing so, will also restore your faith. The proverbial tavern in Persian poetry is that kharabat."[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Dabashi 2013, p. 21.
  2. ↑ Dabashi 2013, pp. 20-21.

Sources

  • Dabashi, Hamid (2013). Being a Muslim in the World. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1137301284.
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