11th-century Persian Isma'ili poet, scholar, philosopher, and missionary
Nasir Khusraw
(
Persian
:
????????
; 1004 ? between 1072?1088) was an
Isma'ili
poet, philosopher, traveler, and missionary (
da'i
) for the Isma'ili
Fatimid Caliphate
.
Despite being one of the most prominent Isma'ili philosophers and theologians of the Fatimids and the writer of many philosophical works intended for only the inner circle of the Isma'ili community, Nasir is best known to the general public as a poet and writer who ardently supported his native Persian tongue as an artistic and scientific language. All of Nasir's philosophical Isma'ili works are in Persian, a rarity in the Isma'ili literature of the Fatimids, which primarily used
Arabic
.
Nasir was a key figure in the spread of Isma'ilism in
Central Asia
. He is with great reverence called "Pir" or "Shah Sayyid Nasir" by the Isma'ili community of
Badakhshan
(split between
Afghanistan
and
Tajikistan
) and their branches in northern
Pakistan
, who all consider him to be their founder.
Name
[
edit
]
Nasir Khusraw's full name was Abu Mu'in Hamid al-Din Nasir ibn Khusraw ibn Harith al-Qubadiyani al-Marvazi, which he would generally refer himself by in his prose philosophical works.
In his book
Safarnama
, he mostly calls himself "Nasir", and in his poetry he mostly uses the
pen-name
"Hujjat", a title meaning "proof", which he had received by the
Isma'ili
missionary organisation in
Cairo
.
In his poetry he also sometimes use the names of "Nasir" and "Khusraw", the latter being a Persian name, which according to historian Dr C. Alice Hunsberger "would certainly have been a point of great pride to this defender of Persian culture and language."
His name is also transliterated as Nasir-i Khusraw
and Naser-e Khosrow.
Life
[
edit
]
Nasir is the subject of many tales, including a fake autobiography that bears his name and has been passed around between Isma'ilis and non-Isma'ilis for many centuries. The writings of Nasir that are still in existence offer insightful information about his life and philosophy. Yet, it appears that the majority of these manuscripts were censored to remove any references to Isma'ilism by antagonistic
Sunni
scribes. A native Persian,
[5]
[6]
[7]
Nasir was from a family of government bureaucrats and landowners.
He most likely adhered to the
Twelver Shi'ism
form of Islam before his conversion to Isma'ilism.
He was born in 1004 in
Qubadiyan
, a neighborhood of the city of
Balkh
, which was part of the
Marw
province in the
Khurasan
region.
The area was then controlled by the
Ghaznavids
, a culturally
Persianised
dynasty of
Turkic
slave origin.
Nasir supposedly started his career as a scribe before moving to the city of Marw to work as a financial administrator. He was allowed entry to the court at Balkh until in 1040, when Khurasan was conquered by the
Seljuks
.
He retained his office under the Seljuks,
whose co-founder
Chaghri Beg
ruled Khurasan.
Around the age of 41, Nasir underwent a tremendous and sudden change in his spirituality, which drastically altered the direction of his life. According to Nasir, the incident had the characteristics of a dream.
He subsequently resigned from his office and converted to Isma'ilism.
In December 1045, Nasir made the decision to embark on a prolonged journey with the ultimate goal of performing a pilgrimage to
Mecca
. In March 1046, along with his brother Abu Sa'id and an Indian attendant, he started his journey, which would first end after nearly seven years.
From Khurasan, he travelled west, passing through northern and western Iran,
Armenia
, and
Asia Minor
. He then descended to
Syria
,
Palestine
, and then
Arabia
, where he performed his pilgrimage.
On August 1047, he went to Cairo in
Egypt
,
which served as the capital of the Isma'ili
Fatimid Caliphate
.
The Fatimid Caliphate was the first and last significant Shi'i dominion until the emergence of the
Safavid dynasty
of Iran in 1501, who declared Twelver Shi'ism as its official religion.
The majority of other governmental power bases were overwhelmingly Sunni, including the Ghaznavid and Seljuk rulers, who demonstrated their support for the
Abbasid
caliph in
Baghdad
by making determined efforts to put an end to Isma'ili activity, especially that of Isma'ili missionaries operating under the Fatimid caliph.
At Cairo, Nasir was taught Isma'ili teachings, law, and administration by prominent scholars.
He met
al-Mu'ayyad fi'l-Din al-Shirazi
(died 1087), an Isma'ili scholar from
Shiraz
in southwestern Iran, who had also recently arrived to Cairo.
He became Nasir's teacher, instructing him in enigmatic Isma'ili concepts and philosophy.
Nasir was raised to the position of
d?‘?
"missionary" and appointed as the
Hujjat-i Khorasan
, though the hostility he encountered in the propagation of these new religious ideas after his return to
Greater Khorasan
in 1052 A.D. and Sunnite
fanaticism
compelled him at last to flee. After wandering from place to place, he found refuge in
Yamgan
(about 1060 A.D.) in the mountains of
Badakhshan
, where he spent as a hermit the last decades of his life, gathering a considerable number of devoted adherents, who have handed down his doctrines to succeeding generations.
[17]
Nasir-i Khusraw explained that through revelation (
tanzil
), intellectual matters were transformed into a state that could be understood by humankind. Esoteric interpretation (
ta’wil
) is necessary to revert them to their original intellectual state. He also said that one must not be satisfied with the exoteric form but look for the person who can explain the original esoteric meaning to them. In saying this he alluded to the
Imam of the Time
.
[18]
He died in Yamagan in present-day northern Afghanistan.
[19]
He was buried in a small mausoleum on a small hill in the present-day village of Hadrat-i Sayyid (also called Hadrat-i Sa'id), on the eastern side of the
Koksha Valley
in present-day
Afghanistan
.
According to an engraved inscription on the structure, it was renovated in 1697.
Works
[
edit
]
Safarnama
(The Book of Travels) is his most famous work. He visited dozens of cities in about seven years (March 6, 1046 – October 23, 1052) and wrote comprehensively about them, including details about colleges, caravanserais, mosques, scientists, kings, the public, the population, the area of the cities, and, of course, his interesting memories. After 1000 years, his
Safarnama
is still readable for
Persian-speaking
people.
Among his other works, most of the lyrical poems in his
Diwan
were composed in his retirement, and their chief topics are an enthusiastic praise of
Ali
, his descendants, and al-Mustansir in particular, along with passionate outcries against Khorasan and its rulers, who had driven him from his home. It also explores his immense satisfaction with the quiet solitude of Yumgan, and his utter despondency again in seeing himself despised by his former associates and excluded from participation in the glorious contest of life. Scattered through all these alternating outbursts of hope and despair, there are lessons of morality, and solemn warnings against the tricks and perfidy of the world, the vanity of all earthly splendour and greatness, the folly and injustice of men, and the hypocrisy, frivolity and viciousness of fashionable society and princely courts in particular.
[17]
- Gushayish va Rahayish
(
Persian
:
????? ? ?????
)
Another work of Nasir Khusraw is the
Persian
philosophical work "Gushayish va Rahayish" which has been translated into English by F.M. Hunzai under the title: "Knowledge and Liberation". The work discusses creation, questions related to the soul, epistemology, and Ismaili Islamic doctrines. From a linguistic point of view, the work is an example of early philosophical writing in new Persian.
It is the same strain which runs, although in a somewhat lower key, through his two larger
masnavis
, the
Rawshana-i-nama
(
Persian
:
????????????
) (or Book of Enlightenment, also known as
Shish Fasl
), and the
Sa'datnama
(Book of Felicity). The former is divided into two sections: the first, of a
metaphysical
character, contains a sort of practical
cosmography
, chiefly based on
Avicenna
's theories, but frequently intermixed both with the freer speculations of the well-known philosophical brotherhood of
Basra
, the
Ikhwan al-Safa
, and purely Shi'ite or Isma'ili ideas; the second, or ethical section of the poem, abounds in moral maxims and ingenious thoughts on man's good and bad qualities, on the necessity of shunning the company of fools and double-faced friends, on the deceptive allurements of the world and the secret snares of ambitious men craving for rank and wealth. It concludes with an imaginary vision of a beautiful work of spirits who have stripped off the fetters of earthly cares and sorrows and revel in the pure light of divine wisdom and love.
[17]
If we compare this with a similar
allegory
in Nasir's
Diwan
, which culminates in the praise of Mustansir, we are fairly entitled to look upon it as a covert allusion to the eminent men who revealed to the poet in Cairo the secrets of the Isma'ili faith, and showed him what he considered the heavenly ladder to superior knowledge and spiritual bliss.
[17]
A similar series of excellent teachings on practical wisdom and the blessings of a virtuous life, only of a more severe and uncompromising character, is contained in the
Sa'datnama
; and, judging from the extreme bitterness of tone manifested in the reproaches of kings and emirs, we should be inclined to consider it a protest against the vile aspersions poured out upon Nasir's moral and religious attitude during those persecutions which drove him at last to Yumgan.
[17]
Of all other works of the author, the
Zaad-al-Musafirin
(or Travelling Provisions of Pilgrims) and the
Wajh-i Din
(or The Face of Religion) are theoretical descriptions of his religious and philosophical principles; the rest of them can be dismissed as being probably just as
apocryphal
as Nasir's famous autobiography (found in several Persian
tadhkiras
or biographies of poets), a mere forgery of the most extravagant description, which is mainly responsible for the confusion in names and dates in older accounts of our author.
[17]
Nasir Khusraw, explains the spiritual interpretation of the tradition of a six day creation of the physical universe. He writes about how the story of creation is a symbolic explanation of what happened when God created the universe. Interpreting it literally is something human beings do based on the limits of their intellects. In the scriptures, when it says that God began the work of creating the world on Sunday, completed it on Friday, and then rested on Saturday, it is not a literal account, rather a symbolic one.
[22]
When the Prophets shared the story of a six-day creation of the physical universe, it was meant for the people to understand that God was saying that six prophets would come into this world and command people to work. When the seventh day came, God would not command in this manner, but would rather reward them for their hard work.
[22]
- Book on Mathematics
(
Persian
:
????? ?????? ? ????? ??????
)
Nasir Khusraw wrote a book on mathematics which has now been lost. He states in his other work that he could:
not find one single scholar throughout all of Khorasan and eastern lands like myself [who] could grapple with the solutions to these problems
. But he felt it his responsibility to take the task for readers he would never see, 'those yet to come, in a time yet to come'
- Jami? al hikmatayn
(
Persian
:
???? ????????
)
Legacy and assessment
[
edit
]
Despite being one of the most prominent Isma'ili philosophers and theologians of the Fatimid era and the writer of many philosophical works intended for only the inner circle of the Isma'ili community, Nasir is best known to the general public as a poet and writer who ardently supported Persian as an artistic and scientific language. All of Nasir's philosophical Isma'ili works are in Persian, a rarity in the Isma'ili literature of the Fatimids, which primarily used Arabic.
Nasir was a key figure in the spread of Isma'ilism in
Central Asia
. He is with great reverence called "Pir" or "Shah Sayyid Nasir" by the Isma'ili community of
Badakhshan
(split between Afghanistan and
Tajikistan
) and their branches in northern
Pakistan
, who all consider him to be their founder.
Devotees that visit Nasir Khusraw's mausoleum also refer him by other names than "Nasir Khusraw", such as
sh?h
(king),
sh?h-i buzurgv?r
(great king),
mawl?
(guardian),
sh?d-i Yumg?n
(sun of Yumgan), and
uq?b-i Yumg?n
(eagle of Yumgan). The latter refers to one of Nasir Khusraw's poems, written to offer moral advice; The narrative, which is based on an ancient fable, describes an eagle circling in the sky "full of selfish pride" before being brought to the ground by an arrow with eagle feathers sewn into its fletch. The final lines of the poem convey a lesson, which has become a well-known saying amongst speakers of the Persian language;
az m?st ki bar m?st
("what comes from us returns to us"), meaning that people possess the very characteristic that will determine both their success and failure.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Nanji, Azim (2012-04-24),
"N??ir-i K?h?usraw"
,
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition
, Brill
, retrieved
2023-09-03
,
N??ir-i K?h?usraw, whose full name was Ab? Mu??n N??ir b. K?h?usraw b. ??rit?h? al-?ub?d?h?iy?n?, Persian poet and prose writer, a noted traveller, and an Ism???l? philosopher and d??? [q.v.].
- ^
"N??ir-i Khusraw"
.
Digital PUL
. 2020-01-25
. Retrieved
2023-09-03
.
N??ir-i Khusraw was a Persian scholar, poet, traveler and missionary for the Ism???l? Sh??? movement who is widely credited with the establishment of the Ism???l? community in Badakhshan.
- ^
"Nasir Khusraw, The Ruby of Badakhshan: A Portrait of the Persian Poet, Traveller and Philosoph | Columbia Alumni Association"
.
www.alumni.columbia.edu
. Retrieved
2023-09-03
.
Nasir Khusraw, The Ruby of Badakhshan: A Portrait of the Persian Poet, Traveller and Philosoph
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Ethe, Karl Hermann (1911). "
N?sir Khosrau
". In
Chisholm, Hugh
(ed.).
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 248.
- ^
Virani, Shafique (2019).
"Hierohistory in Q??? l-Nu?m?n's Foundation of Symbolic Interpretation (As?s al-Ta?w?l): The Birth of Jesus"
.
Studies in Islamic Historiography
: 147?169.
doi
:
10.1163/9789004415294_007
.
ISBN
9789004415294
.
S2CID
214047322
.
- ^
Ludwig W. Adamec
(2009),
Historical Dictionary of Islam
, p.237. Scarecrow Press.
ISBN
0810861615
.
- ^
a
b
Virani, Shafique (January 2005).
"The Days of Creation in the Thought of Nasir Khusraw"
.
Nasir Khusraw: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Bosworth, C. E. (1988).
"Bal? ii. From the Arab conquest to the Mongols."
. In
Yarshater, Ehsan
(ed.).
Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume III/6: Ba?t??r? tribe II?Ban?n
. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 587?596.
ISBN
978-0-71009-118-5
.
- Bosworth, C. E. (1990).
"?a?r? Beg D?w?d"
. In
Yarshater, Ehsan
(ed.).
Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume IV/6: Burial II?Calendars II
. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 617?618.
ISBN
978-0-71009-129-1
.
- Bosworth, C. E. (2001).
"Ghaznavids"
. In
Yarshater, Ehsan
(ed.).
Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume X/6: Germany VI?Gindaros
. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 578?583.
ISBN
978-0-933273-55-9
.
- Dabashi, Hamid
(2012).
Shi'ism: A Religion of Protest
. Harvard University Press.
ISBN
978-0674049451
.
- Daftary, Farhad
(2004).
Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies
. London and New York: I.B. Tauris.
ISBN
978-0-8577-1386-5
.
- Daftary, Farhad
(2007).
The Ism??ı?lı?s: Their History and Doctrines
(Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0-521-61636-2
.
- Daftary, Farhad (2017).
Ismaili History and Intellectual Traditions
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-1-138-28810-2
.
- Gould, Rebecca Ruth
(2022).
The Persian Prison Poem
. Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN
978-1474484015
.
- Hunsberger, Dr C. Alice (2003).
"Nasir Khusraw: A Portrait of The Persian Poet, Traveller and Philosopher"
(PDF)
.
The Institute of Ismaili Studies
: 1?14.
- Mahamid, H. (2017). "Persecutions against Isma?ili Missionaries in Central Asia: The Case of N?ser Khosrow".
Journal of Persianate Studies
.
10
(1).
Brill
: 57?72.
doi
:
10.1163/18747167-12341307
.
- Qutbuddin, Tahera (2020).
"al-Mu?ayyad al-Sh?r?z?"
. In Fleet, Kate;
Kramer, Gudrun
; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John;
Rowson, Everett
(eds.).
Encyclopaedia of Islam
(3rd ed.). Brill Online.
ISSN
1873-9830
.
- Schadl, Marcus (2009). "The Shrine of Nasir Khusraw: Imprisoned Deep in the Valley of Yumgan".
Muqarnas Online
.
26
(1).
Brill
: 63?93.
doi
:
10.1163/22118993_02601004
.
- de Smet, Daniel (2021).
"N??ir-i Khusraw"
. In Fleet, Kate;
Kramer, Gudrun
; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John;
Rowson, Everett
(eds.).
Encyclopaedia of Islam
(3rd ed.). Brill Online.
ISSN
1873-9830
.
- Utas, Bo (2021).
Persian Prose: A History of Persian Literature, Vol V
. I.B. Tauris.
ISBN
978-1845119065
.
Further reading
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Contemporary
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Poetry
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Armenia
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Afghanistan
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Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language of
Iran
,
Tajikistan
and one of the two official languages of
Afghanistan
.
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17th?19th
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20th?
present
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Ahl us-
Sunnah
wa’l-
Jama’ah
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Shia Islam
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Imami
Mahdiist
Shi'ite
Sects in
Islam
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Muhakkima
(
Arbitration
)
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Murji'ah
(
Hasan ibn
Mu??mmad
ibn al-
Hanafiyyah
)
| Karr?m?yya
|
- Ab? ?Abdill?h Mu??mmad ibn Karr?m ibn Arr?k ibn Huz?ba ibn al-Bar?’ as-Sijj?
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- T?n?yya (Ab? Bakr ibn ?Abdall?h)
- W?hid?yya
- Zar?b?yya
|
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Other sects
|
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- Muhammad ibn Ziy?d al-K?f?
|
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Other Murj?s
|
- Al-Harith ibn Surayj
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- Salm ibn S?lem
- H?laf ibn Ayy?b
- Ibr?him ibn Yous?f
- Nusayr ibn Yahy?
- Ahmad ibn H?rb
- Amr ibn Murrah
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Mu'shabbiha
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Qadariyah
(
Ma'bad
al-Juhani
)
| Alevism
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(
Rationalism
)
|
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- Ab? Amr (Ab? Mu‘tam?r) Mu?mmar ibn Abb?d as-S?lam?
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- Ali al-Aswar?
- Ab? Bakr Mu??mmad ibn Abdill?h ibn Shab?b al-Basr?
- H?b?t?yya
- Sumam?yya
- K?‘b?yya
- Ab?’l-K?s?m Abdull?h ibn Ahmad ibn M?hm?d al-Balh? al-K?‘b?
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