Growing up in Afghanistan, I recall that the books by Persian poems Sadi and Hafiz was in every home honered and loved second to Quran. The peomes are timeless. I never get tired of listoning to them.
For us, in Iran, the Quran is nowhere to be seen compared to Hafez and Shahname, and Golestan,. Hafez is like Zarathustra for us. Sufism itself is an underground (personal) Zoroastrianism.
@@nomesa7374 Non Islamic should not talk about Hafez, a person who dedicated entire life for Qur'an. About zoroastrian they don't even claim Modern Persian (Farsi)as Persian heritage forget Hafiz. Sufism is nowhere Zoroastrianism a Priestly based clergy more like Shia clergy which modern Iranians follow. Sufis are missionary group 90% muslims are converted by Sufi missionaries. Nice try.
@@arabianinferno6918 1. "Non Islamic should not talk about Hafez": Its a free world. You are nobody to tell me what to say. So Sad for you. Lol 2. "Zoroastrianism a Priestly based clergy more like Shia clergy": That is why, I said "Personal Zoroastrian". 3. "About zoroastrian they don't even claim Modern Persian (Farsi)as Persian heritage": Because they are organized religion. Do you understand "Personal Religion"? Sufism is that. 4, "Sufis are missionary group": Maybe in your village. Sufis created Baghdad and named it a Zoroastrian name. Muslim Rulers throughout the entire period, hated the Sufis and especially their grand teachers. 5. "[Hafiz was ]a person who dedicated entire life for Qur'an": Are you kidding? He has dedicated himself to Pire-Moghan (the Old Magi or Zarathustra), Mogh-Bachegan (the Magi's students), Wine, Music, Dance, Love, and stories of Shahnameh. He repeatedly and badly ridiculed Fasting, Haj, and Jihad (as holy war). Muslim Clergies hated (and still hate) him. He never went to Haj and didn't like to go there. He even said repeatedly that he is not Muslim (directly or esotericly). Hahahaha, I doubt if you even can read Persian poetry.
1. "Non Islamic should not talk about Hafez": Its a free world. You are nobody to tell me what to say. So Sad for you. Lol 2. "Zoroastrianism a Priestly based clergy more like Shia clergy": That is why, I said "Personal Zoroastrian". 3. "About zoroastrian they don't even claim Modern Persian (Farsi)as Persian heritage": Because they are organized religion. Do you understand "Personal Religion"? Sufism is that. 4, "Sufis are missionary group": Maybe in your village. Sufis created Baghdad and named it a Zoroastrian name. Muslim Rulers throughout the entire period, hated the Sufis and especially their grand teachers. 5. "[Hafiz was ]a person who dedicated entire life for Qur'an": Are you kidding? He has dedicated himself to Pire-Moghan (the Old Magi or Zarathustra), Mogh-Bachegan (the Magi's students), Wine, Music, Dance, Love, and stories of Shahnameh. He repeatedly and badly ridiculed Fasting, Haj, and Jihad (as holy war). Muslim Clergies hated (and still hate) him. He never went to Haj and didn't like to go there. He even said repeatedly that he is not Muslim (directly or esotericly). Hahahaha, I doubt if you even can read Persian poetry.
Great job. The video is prepared carefully and detailed explanation is provided for each poet. As a Persian (Iranian) who have read most of these works (except sanaee and roudaki), I confess that "Fiction Beast" has reviewed Persian poetry and its influence in literature in a short time (just 27 min). As a Persian, I am really grateful for introducing Persian culture to the world. Well done Sir!!!
@@Fiction_Beast Rābi'a bint Ka'b (arabisch رابعة بنت كعب, DMG Rābi‘a bint Ka‘b, auch persisch رابعهٔ بلخى, DMG Rābi‘a-i Balḫī) war eine persische Samanidenfürstentochter und Dichterin der persischen Literatur des 10. Jahrhunderts. Rabia Balchi thematisierte ihre verbotene Liebe zu einem Sklaven. Vor allem in Afghanistan ranken sich Legenden um ihre Person. Ihr Mausoleum befindet sich in der nordafghanischen Stadt Balch im zentralen Park unweit des Schreins von Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa.
Thanks for the introduction. I am from Bangladesh. My father was Madrasah educated person with good comand on urdu and reasonable farsi. I learned about these names during childhood. Not beyond names and their main books... Now in my 50s I am curious about persian culture.... Want to visit Shiraj and bukhara....
thanks, great job , I wish once more these people colaborate , and work together to revive this great culture , I am proud of all persian people ,and their litrature. that would be great translating more poems , dorood va sepase from Iran
I like Khayyam. When I was a child, I wasn't very interested in poetry and I only read illustrated stories of Shahnameh. I'd read some of Khayyam's poems before, but Sadegh Hedayat made me more interested in Khayyam.
What a great overview. Growing up Iranian-American, I always felt drawn to Persian poetry as a way for me to connect to my roots. I have read works in English so far. Although I can speak Farsi, my next step is to learn how to read and write so I can read the poems in the original language! Thank you for sharing this video!
What a delight, outweighs Turkish delight (ha ha). I love Persian food but never tasted Persian poems now I am sold. Thank you so much for this comprehensive review. You have done an amazing work.
As soon as you mentioned Turkish delight, i could smell it :) Persian poetry has been very underappreciated outside the language. partly because poetry translation is hard, partly becuase only narrative poetry gets read these days.
Sharon, you have won the free giveaway. It's a copy of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat (penguin classic version). If you want to recieve it, please send me your home address by email, or private message on instagram or twitter. Please don't write your address here.
@@Fiction_Beast What a surprise as it is not often that I get such a message. Since I am not on instagram or twitter I will have to wait for my daughter to help me. Thank you so much.
I really like your content. But one mistake is to call the Persian alphabet the Arabic alphabet. The Perso-Arabic alphabet was a direct evolution of the Aramaic and Pahlavi Alphabets (generated in Sasanids Ctesiphon). Besides innovations of dots and vowels by Iranians, almost all calligraphic styles are the innovations of Iranians. So it is a Persian Alphabet. Some historians and etymologists also argue that the Arabic language itself was generated by Mathematicians of Ctesiphon (look at Arabic's mathematical structure) to compete with the scientific supremacy of Greek and Roman languages. For example, ferdows, Al-ard (the earth), Zamzam, and so many other fundamental words have Iranian origins (Pardis, or erd). That is why, The oldest found Arabic text is in Syria and Iraq.
Regarding the rhythm and rhythm, you are very right. Persian Poetry is considered the first attempt of humans to "write down" (not just to hear) the music. Gatha (the short book of Zarathustra) is also poetic.
I have a huge problem with the end part of your video. "Iran have not been arabised due to Mongolian attack!". Actually all thanks to Iranian poets like Ferdowsi not some savage army which destroyed all the books and cause curcial gap in writing history of Persia due this attack. Next generation of Mongolian kings were under influence of Persian and they changed their attitude and their religious.
@@Fiction_Beast ты глуп как и многие. Вы понятия не имеете о монголах они ничего общего не имеют с современной монголией. Монголы это те же тюрки. Я Казах из рода Кереит и мы были всю историю тюрками так же как и найманы и борджигины и все остальные рода которые поддержали Чингисхана. Если ты считаешь наш дикой ордой то запомни дикая орда никогда не смогла бы завоевать пол мира и держать в страхе даже вас европейцев которые пройграли все сражения с монголами потому что отстали как в развитии так и военном деле. У нас была своя письменность, литература и культура тактже она и осталась и арабизация это ни что то страшное , а наоборот привнесла и объединила тюркскую,иранскую и многие другие культуры. Так что почитай умных книжек и не пиши всякой ереси
Is it like Sanskrit/Tamil vs hindi. Sanskrit and Tamil languages have loads of poetry while hindi is more of a prose based language. We also have a type of sherjangi here in india, its called Antakshari(Sanskrit for "end of akshar(letter)"). Btw, persian heavily influenced hindi. I hope to learn this language soon.
@@FBlindia was ruled by persian speaking dynasties for around 1000 years. Starting with the ghaznavids and ending with the mughals right before british colonization. Persian has had lots of influence on all Indian languages. It is very easy for linguistic to tell the difference between cognates and borrowed words. Even a persian speaker can look at hindu or/and urdu and see the influence for themselves.
Great rundown - Persia was one of the defining civilizations of the Silk Road, alongside India, China, and Rome - could you possibly do a video on Rumi's magnum opus, the Masnavi? for some reason, the Masnavi as a whole work is far less known in the West than, say, Attar's Birds, despite Rumi's huge popularity - it's mystifying that this poet is mostly known in terms of scattered verses, while his monumental and visionary central life's work is overlooked - it would even be interesting to explore how that's even possible
Thank you great video❤❤❤. By the way we don't use Arabic script because the Arabic script itself is a branch of Avestan and pahlavid script. The earliest Arabic script is kufi which is very similar to Avesta script one can easily understand the similarities si in conclusion Arab people adopted our way of writing and changed it over time.
As a Farsi/Dari speaking Afghan American who left Afghanistan at age 14, I can read and write Dari. Farsi a most beautiful language imaginable, of course I am biased. Unfortunately, these poems lose their beauty and essence when translated into English. It’s like taking a masterpiece of art, say a Van Gough or a Rembrandt and just letting a toddler brush paint all over it. The ONLY way to truly appreciate the immense and blinding beauty of Farsi/Dari poetry is to learn the language and learn it very well!
good luck for you, as an Afghanistanian I admire your efforts. but it were the Persian scientists and linguistics who modified both Arabic and Persian languages, otherwise Arabs were brutal men and knew nothing about literature
So engaging! I loved and knew so many things!! Please continue to do the works you do❤❤ continue to introduce the different cultural and literary aspects of the world to each others.
Thank you for sharing! I love Rumi and Hafiz’s the most. I must say that China’s early literature had a very strong poetry presence, so much so that even in its prose there were many couplets. Every scholar, every government officials, many emperors, generals and merchants, women … wrote poetry. Even today, it is not unusual for young children to recite dozens of poems from ancient times. The famous Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai (701-762 AD) had a poem “Amidst the Flowers with a Jug of Wine”, about the moon, the flowers, wine, solitude and friendship - I find it interesting to read this together with Khayyam’s famous poem “… beneath the bough, a flask of wine … and thou beside me singing…” Today, we find Khayyam’s portrait on the Egyptian wine bottle, and Li Bai’s name on the traditional Japanese wine (sake) bottle. They are immortalized by their poems that have traveled to so many lands.
This also applies to Persia, where the very strong presence of ancient Persian shapes everyday life. It is very usual and common for Iranian youth to recite dozen of poems and legends dating back to ancient times.
Plz more on Persian literature! And I know it’s a lot to ask but a whole series on Shahnameh could be great! Or maybe on other modern ones like Nima, Forough, Moshiri.
As a Blit, and a lifetime reader of Persian poetry, I can say that "almost" sixty precent of it is prosaic! and has a highly articulated classification. For instance with Molavi (or name which he is famous with in the west "Rumi) Three gigantic books (of his five gigantic books) is prosaic. Or the same story goes with Nezami, Sa'adi. and also better having in mind that what works are we categorizing as Persian literature? since the overall manner and essence of "Iranian Philosophy'' is actually poetic. as if they had sensed where has the "truth" concealed! (please forgive my English)
Hello Fiction Beast, I chanced upon your presentation "Ten Persian Poets" and found it very ably put. I immediately latched on to it. This is something I had been looking for for a very long time. I have read Hafez in-depth, but wanted a short list of other greats to read their poetry properly. My immediate question is: Where can I buy the Persian Kalam of these 10 poets in Farsi? I have Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and Attar's "The Conference of Birds", and also Khayyam, but for the rest of the ten, I want to acquire their original Persian volumes [ in Farsi, with or without translations]. Best wishes
I recommend you read more modern Persian poems as well,they are great there are many greats poets in the kinda modern area to from Parvin Etesami,to Akhavsn Sales,Nima Yoshij and Forogh Farokhzad
It’s fascinating the effort you’ve put behind this informative clip. Just one correction that Rumi was not from Iran, he was from Balkh which is located in Afghanistan. The original language was called Dari which started getting changed in the last 200 years in Iran. If not then what language was Hafez and Sa’adi’s poetries were said? Then what would you call this poem of Hafez : ز شعر دلکش حافظ کسی بود آگاه _ گه لطف طبع و سخن گفتن دری داند. Thanks.
Rumi was a Persian from Balkh. Afghanistan didn't exist back then, it was just another province of Iran. The language is called Parsi/Farsi (Persian) and originated in Iran. It spread from Iran to the rest of the Persianate World, Dari is just a dialect of Persian. Hafez and Sa'adi were from Shiraz, that is in Iran. 😂
I loved the video! It is funny that I met your channel because I was looking for someone who talked about Shahnameh and now you come with a video which opens up a whole world of literature i had ignored! A question: do you speak farsi? Is it difficult to learn?
That's great to hear. At least someone is learning from my videos. Thanks. Some. I think Farsi writing can be challenging to those unfamiliar to Arabic script. the language itself has no genders and its verb conjugation is somewhat similiar to Russian, changes based on the tense and person.
Awesome work. brilliant. but as you yourself said: the Persian poems do not translate and should be read in Farsi to understand the depth and beauty of it.
*SOME CORRECTIONS OF WRONG INFORMATION IN THIS VIDEO:* Persian doesn't use the "Arabic" alphabet. It uses the *Persian alphabet.* Arabic speakers can't read Persian since they don't know how the letters are pronounced in Persian. Persian is an Indo-Euopean language, meaning it is just as close to English as English is close to Hindi. Persian hasn't adapted "too many" Arabic vocabulary. Only 5% of Persian words trace an Arabic origin. Your false and unscientific research ridiculously suggests that Persian uses 20%-40% of Arabic words. Persian is a very rich language and can easily create new words out of native word stems. Persian is correctly called Parsi.
English language is based on Sanskrit language and in Arabic. Also there are a lot of Persian words which is borrowed from Persian into Arabic language.
Oh man. Great video, tho I’d like to add that Coleman barks is not a good translator. If you want a better translation I recommend Nicholson or I recommend you buying the Oxford classics version of Mathnavi.
One big mistake at the begining, Persian does not contain 20 -40 percent arabic loan words, I studied persian literature and only islamic/religious books contain arabic. This is a major mistake in your introduction. Farsi contains approximately 5 to 7 percent arabic loan words also,arabic contains a lot of persian loan words, for instance iraqi arabic contains a lot of farsi loan words approximate 15-20 percent. Also ferdowsi's Shahnameh is 100 percent written in farsi with no arabic loanwords.
Just because Tajiks were conquered by Persians doesnt mean Tajiks' accomplishments and heritage belongs to Iranians. Otherwise we can say whole of Iran belongs to Mongolians since Iran was another Khanate of Mongolia at one point. Also another point, you wouldn't claim Ghandi was a white Englishman just because he lived in the British Empire which at the time included India. Also Tajiks were only part of Persian Empire 100-200 years. Rest of history there were other empires whose rulers were not Persians, but Turks, Arabs, Mongols and Tajiks themselves (Samanid Empire)
If you agree with the logic that Ghandi was not a white Englishman just because he lived in the British Empire which included India at the time, then you also must agree that a lot of these people were Tajiks and not "Persians".
My dear, English in poetry and literature versus Persian is like a drop in the ocean. In English, the elements that exist in Persian poetry and literature do not exist in English, not only in English, but also in other languages. I am reciting a poem by Ferdowsi the Great. Now you can translate it into English. See if it is beautiful in Persian or in English. هوشنگ با رای و داد به جای پدر تاج بر سر نهاد
Many of these poets were Tajiks. Not Persians. The concept of Persian has changed to mean people of Iran only these days. It excludes the Tajiks of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan who in the time of Rumi (born in Balkh, Afghanistan) may have been considered Persian but are not considered that anymore. Therefor Its wrong to call these ancient Tajik poets "Persian" just because they spoke Persian. Its like calling an English speaking Nigerian an Englishman just because he only speaks English and published his works in a more dominant language of the time. If Rumi and the other Tajiks in this list lived forever and didnt die, they would be considered Tajik today, not Persian. Iranians love to claim everyone under the sun that lived in the past as "Persian" even if they are Tajiks in reality.
@@antidweller6373 actually if we are being correct now that you mention it, "Persian" as an identity didnt exist back then and neither does now. The term "Persian" is an English word and doesnt exist in the "Persian" language. Nobody calls themselves "Farsi" in Iran or anywhere else. Only westernized Iranians like to call themselves "Persian".
@@antidweller6373 "Persian" is an English word and nobody calls themselves "Farsi" people lol. Specially not 1000 years ago when people didnt have a concept of ethnicity.
Great video. Western society are inconceivable without Iranian deep ancient knowledge due to mongol then arabs tried to destroy this amazing culture which bring love and poetry and again you see today the Islamic regime trying to destroy it but still not capable due to the zorvanisim and mythraic love still remain in Iranian people in Iranian pelato.
🤡🤡🤡 joker -- read the Samanids dynasty, Saman Khuda from Balkh was the founder of it. The capital of the dynasty was based in Bukhara. Rabia Balkhi was a princess of Samanids. She wrote in Farsi and what that has anything to do with Baloch or Balochistan?
I ilke Persian poetry. And proud of a Turkish poet and philosopher; Mevlana Celalettin-i Rumi having an important place in it. He wrote all his poems in Iranian because of great cultural influence of Persia. His “Mesnevi “ is a masterpiece…🙏🏻
Rumi was Persian and belonged to Iran and Iranian culture. And in the course of his life, he lived in IRAN. Try not to confiscate what does not belong to you. He was not Turkish, and there was no Turkey since 1924, and it was created by Britain. Before that, it was Ottoman which was nothing but inhumanity. It is not lovely behaving like this, Mr. Koglu.
I think this guy was some Persian person from Iran because he didn’t put a lot of great poetry of Afghanistan who were way better than Iran even I didn’t see any Tajikistan best poetry in this video
The presenter is not Iranian; he doesn't sound like an Iranian at all. But these poets are Persian poets; they belong to Persian speaking peoples all over the world. The idea of modern countries is a new concept, only 3 or 4 hundred years old. So one shouldn't talk of these poets as Afghanistani or Iranian. Rumi was a Persian from Balkh; Hafez was a Persian from Shiraz. They weren't Afghanistani or Iranian; they were Persians. At those times, people in this area only identified themselves with their names, ethnicity, town and religion; eg, a person would say, "I am Ali, son of Mohammad; I am Persian, and I am a Muslim from Herat." That's it. Modern countries came later. That is why one only hears of tribal/family names for periods of history- Safavids or Samanids, eg. For Safavids or Samanids, the most important thing was to conquer as much territory as they could, and also the ruler should have been from their families. They didn't care about Afghanistan, Iran, or Tajikistan. So we should leave our current nationalistic pride aside and just celebrate our shared history and literature. Two poets who talked specifically about Iran in their works were Ferdowsi and Nezami, but you can be certain that by Iran, they meant the lands of Persian peoples (today's Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and many other lands occupied by Persians); they were not talking about modern-day Iran, because there was no modern-day Iran.
@@piruz3243Wrong, Iran is not a modern country. Iran is the oldest country on earth. The notion and borders of modern Iran already existed in the works and maps of Persian poets and scholars in antiquity. Today's Iran is the ancient Persian land that Ferdowsi and Nizami extensively write about in their poetry. Iran's historical territories and provinces throughout Asia have been stolen and made into various artificial states.
@@texmexexpress Every country today is a modern country, my friend. You are confusing the concept of a modern country with a new country, which are not the same thing. The concept of a modern country is probably only about 300 years old; before that, all the world was based on tribal or feudal systems. This does not mean that countries didn't exist before; it just means that they were defined by the territories of tribal chiefs or feudal lords. As an example, when the Zand dynasty (capital Shiraz) came to power in 1751 after the Afsharids, the Afsharids (capital Mashhad) were still ruling the eastern part of Iran. The interesting thing is that the Afsharids were in power until 1796, while the Zand dynasty fell in 1794. Both were defeated by the Qajars. So which one was Iran? As for Iran being the oldest country, different scholars have different lists of the oldest countries in the world; they differ because each uses different criteria. Iran definitely is one of the oldest. But one cannot make an absolute assertion that it is the oldest; it depends on the criteria that is being used. Also, you speak of old maps and borders. Until the 19th century, every single dynasty in Iran, without exception, had different borders. Not only that, but the borders of each dynasty changed as it gained or lost territory. So, tell me, which of these hundreds of borders are the 'real' borders of Iran? It is absurd to claim that every territory that was once ruled by Iran belongs to Iran. If we go by this claim, many other countries can have overlapping claims because they once ruled the same territories. The only time that borders didn't change was when the Pahlavi dynasty replaced the Qajars, because by that time, Iran was already a modern country with distinct borders. So unlike the old times, rulers can change, but borders stay the same.
@S U I dont think you really understand what shi’ism is. 1. The Hadith you mentioned is about twelve caliphs whom all are from Quryash tribe. And it is stated clearly this way without the need for (interpretation) 2. The difference come from pillars of Islam. Shia believe that you are not really a muslim until you believe in Imamah and that the 12 Imams are Infallible. 3. Shia believe Fatimah is more like a goddess than just a normal human being. 4. Shia consider the prophet as a secondary character of Islam and thus it is very hard to say we split after the death of the prophet since you don’t really take anything away from the teachings of the prophet because it was transmitted to us by people like Abu hurayrah, Aisha, and Ibn-Abbas...etc (Shia consider them infidels)
@@Fiction_Beast if you mean that nobody is infallible, yeah I agree obviously we’re all flawed but there’s a difference between having the capacity to do immoral things and actively and continuously doing immoral things (and I’m using my moral doctrine as the criteria here so there’s no confusion) without repentance, regret or shame all the while revelling in what you’ve been doing do you get what I’m saying brother?
@@husnaasadi infact, mahmud ghazni looted somnath temple from my country, india and paid ferdousi gold coins for each verse he wrote. Ghaznavid dynasty was itself turkish.
@@husnaasadi Do you really believe your shits? There is no place name as Afghanistan in medival and ancient time. Afghan is the name Pashtun tribe and nothing to do with Persian . Secondly Iran as political and identity meaning mentioned by Sassanid king Ardeshir I in his inscription as "IranShahr" this inscription located in "Kaba Zartosht" of Fars province . Instead of repeating nonsense claim, research about name of Iran . Before Reza Shah all Iranian call their land as Iran . The name Persia was traditional name by westerners since Ancient Greece. When you don't have enough knowledge no need to repeat nonsense claims
Persian poet's? You mean Afghanistan's poet's jalaludin Mohammed balkhi, Rabia balkhi , if you don't know about balkh please check Google , do not creat wrong video with wrong information maybe Iranian paid you to do this
All the poems have been written in Persian. Then you say why they are called Persian poets? Ferdowsi has mentioned the name of Iran many times in his poetry. In general, all these poets belong to a single culture that is common between Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Wars and borders later separated this single culture. Afghanistan and Tajikistan They were also part of Iran at the time of these poets.
@@husnaasadi What you are saying is influenced by emerging nationalist ideologies based on prejudice and hatred of others. Iran has an ancient and clear history, the cultural geography of Iran and the Persian language including present-day Iran, Tajikistan and the Persian-speaking parts of Afghanistan.
