Courtly Riddles : Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry

229 Pages·2010·0.83 MB·English

by  Seyed-Gohrab

Courtly Riddles
Iranian Studies Series
The Iranian Studies Series publishes high-quality scholarship on various
aspects of Iranian civilisation, covering both contemporary and classical
cultures of the Persian cultural area. The contemporary Persian-speaking
area includes Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Central Asia, while classi-
cal societies using Persian as a literary and cultural language were located
in Anatolia, Caucasus, Central Asia and the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent.
The objective of the series is to foster studies of the literary, historical, reli-
gious and linguistic products in Iranian languages. In addition to research
monographsandreferenceworks,theseries publishesEnglish-Persiancriti-
cal text-editions of important texts. The series intends to publish resources
and original research and make them accessible toa wide audience.
Chief Editor:
A.A. Seyed-Gohrab (Leiden University)
Advisory Board ofISS:
F. Abdullaeva (University of Oxford)
I. Afshar (University ofTehran)
G.R. van denBerg(Leiden University)
J.T.P. de Bruijn (Leiden University)
N.Chalisova (Russian State University ofMoscow)
D.Davis(OhioState University)
F.D. Lewis (University of Chicago)
L.Lewisohn(University of Exeter,UK)
S. McGlinn (Unaffiliated)
Ch. Melville (University ofCambridge)
D.Meneghini (University ofVenice)
N.Pourjavady (University of Tehran)
Ch. Ruymbeke (University of Cambridge)
S. Sharma (Boston University)
K.Talattof (University of Arizona)
Z.Vesel (CNRS, Paris)
R. Zipoli (University of Venice)
Courtly Riddles
Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry
A.A. Seyed-Gohrab
Leiden University Press
Cover design:TarekAtrissiDesign
Layout: V3-Services, Baarn
ISBN 978 90 87280871
e-ISBN 978 94 00600102
NUR 630
©A.A. Seyed-Gohrab / Leiden University Press, 2010
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
above,nopart ofthisbookmay bereproduced,storedinorintroduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written per-
mission ofboth thecopyrightowner andthe author of thebook.
vujýd-i mæ mu<ammæ>ñ-st „æfiø
ki ta…qñqash fusýn ast-u fasæna

Our existence is a riddle, „æfiø
Its solutions are to be found in spells and myths
To Miriam with love
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 9
PART ONE

Chapter One
The Eloquent Mute

Structure of the book 11
Previous Studies on Riddles 14

Chapter Two
Inimitable Simplicity

The development of riddle poetry 20
The riddle as defined in Persian rhetorical manuals 23
The appearance of early literary riddles 29
From description to riddling 32
Riddles and metaphors 64

PART TWO

Chapter Three
“Words Covered in Veils”

Riddles in romances 71
Riddles in Firdowsñ’s Shæh-næma 76
Chapter Four
“A Nightingale without feathers”
Riddlers of the Late Ghaznavid and Early Seljuq Periods

Introduction 85
Mas<ýd Sa<d Salmæn 86
Riddles on fire 90
Musical instruments 101
Amñr Mu<izzñ 113
Sanæ>ñ of Ghazna 133

Chapter Five
The Virtues of the King:
Riddles in Mukhtærñ’s Hunar-næma

‘Uthmæn Mukhtærñ Ghaznavñ 145
The Book of Excellence (Hunar-Næma) 146
Riddles in the Hunar-næma 158
The Pen, as a symbol of administrative power 177
Symbols of military power 182

Conclusion 200

References 203

Index 215
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are due to several organisations, colleagues and friends,
without whose support this book could not have been written. First of
all, I would like to express my gratitude to the Netherlands
Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), who presented me with
a Veni-prize, enabling me to write this book. I am most thankful to
the various institutions of Leiden University that made this research
possible. Thanks are also due to my colleagues in the Institute of
Languages and Cultures of the Middle-East who have always been
supporting in more than one way. I would particularly like to thank
Dr. Gabrielle van den Berg who kindly offered to take over part of
my teaching tasks, and has always been ready to discuss any aspects
of Persian culture. I would like to thank Drs. Marjolijn van Zutphen
who meticulously read the entire manuscript, and Amin
Ghodratzadeh, who made an index for this. Also I would like to
extend my gratitude to Professor Hans de Bruijn for his advice.
A portion of the material in part one was originally published in
Edebiyæt: Journal of Middle Eastern and Comparative Literature
(2001, vol. 12, pp. 15-36) under the title of “The Art of Riddling in
Classical Persian Poetry.”
This book would have not had the same form without the aid of
my friend Sen McGlinn who generously spent many precious hours
to find a right English translation of many subtle and elusive
metaphors in Persian riddles. I would like to express my gratitude for
his editorial assistance, but any mistake to be found in this book is all
mine.