Khwaju Kermani

Khwaju Kermani (Persian: خواجوی کرمانی‎), whose full name is Abu’l-ʿAṭā Kamāl-al-Din Maḥmud b. ʿAli b. Maḥmud Morshedi (1280–1352), was a famous Persian poet and Sufi mystic from Iran.[1]

Life

He was born in Kerman, Iran on 24 December 1290. His nickname Khwaju is a diminutive of the Persian word Khwaja which he uses as his poetic penname. This title points to descent from a family of high social status. The nisba (name title) Morshedi indicates his associate with the Persian Sufi master Shaykh Abu Eshaq Kazeruni, the founder of the Morshediyya order. He died around 1349 in Shiraz, Iran, and his tomb in Shiraz is a popular tourist attraction today. When he was young, he visited Egypt, Syria, Jerusalem and Iraq. He also performed the Hajj in Mecca. One purpose of his travel is said to have been education and meeting with scholars of other lands. He composed one of his best known works Homāy o Homāyun in Baghdad. Returning to Iranian lands in 1335, he strove to find a position as a court poet by dedicating poems to the rulers of his time, such as the Il-Khanid rulers Abu Saʿid Bahādor Khan and Arpa Khan, the Mozaffarid Mubariz al-Din Muhammad, and Abu Esshaq of the Inju dynasty.

The tomb of the poet is encased in a protective glass to shield from the elements in Shiraz

Works

He was a prolific writer.

List of Poems
  • Divan (Persian: دیوان خواجو‎) - a collection of his poems in the form of Ghazals, qasidas, strophic poems, qeṭʾas (occasional verse), and quatrains
  • Homāy o Homāyun (Persian: همای و همایون‎) The poem relates the adventures of the Persian prince Homāy, who falls in love with the Chinese princess, Homāyun.
  • Gol o Nowruz (Persian: گل و نوروز‎) The poem tells another love story, this time vaguely situated in the time shortly before the advent of Islam.
  • Rowżat-al-anwār (Persian: روضة الانورز‎) In twenty poetic discources, the poet deals with requirements for the mystical path and the ethics of kingship.
  • Kamāl-nām (Persian: کمال نام‎)
  • Gowhar-nāma (Persian: گوهرنامه‎)
  • Sām-nāma (Persian: سام نامه‎) A heroic epic about the grandfather of Rustam

Translations
  • Homāy e Homāyun. Un romanzo d'amore e avventura dalla Persia medievale. ed. and trans. by Nahid Norozi, preface by J.C. Buergel, Milano: Mimesis 2011

See also

Notes
  1. J. T. P. de Bruijn, "ḴᵛĀJU KERMĀNI" in Encyclopaedia Iranica - accessed March 2011

Further reading


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