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Persian Sufi poetry : an introduction to the mystical use of classical Persian poems

Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, has found its finest expression in the classical poetry of Persia, in particular during its most creative period up to the late 15th century. Focusing on the poems themselves rather than on their authors, this very readable introduction surveys the development of Persian mystical poetry, dealing first with the relation between Sufism and literature and then with the four main genres of the tradition: the epigram, the homiletic poem, love poetry, and symbolic narrative.

Recasting Persian poetry : scenarios of poetic modernity in Iran

"Using a semiotic model of poetic change, Recasting Persian Poetry presents a critical history of the evolution of Persian poetry in modern Iran. Iran's contact with Europe in the nineteenth century produced largely imaginary ideas about European culture and literature. In a series of textual maneuvers and cultural contestations, successive generations of Iranian intellectuals sought to recast the classical tradition in a mold at once modern and relevant to their concerns." "In particular, Karimi proposes a revision of the view that sets the Modernist poet Nima Yushij as the single-handed inventor of "New Poetry." This view, he argues, has resulted in an exaggerated sense of the esthetic gulf between the modernist poetry of Iran and classical Persian poetry." "Through a number of close readings of works by Nima's predecessors, Karimi makes visible a century-old Persian poetic tradition with Nima as its culmination."--Jacket

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Recasting Persian poetry : scenarios of poetic modernity in Iran