The book is a richly documented work with illustrative examples translated from Persian into Russian mostly by the authors.

Chapter IFlourishing development of the Iranian literature in the 13th – early 16th century. Mature classics presents the survey of the works of the most glorious literary geniuses of the period – the greatest Sufi mystic and poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition and the author of didactic works Sa‘di Shirazi, one of India’s greatest Persian-language poets Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, who was the first to follow the example of Nizami’s khamsa, the most celebrated Persian lyric poet Hafiz who had the greatest impact on the course of post-fourteenth century Persian lyrics, and the acknowledged spiritual leader, scholar and prolific master of poetry ʿAbd al-Rahman Jami.

The literary works of the contemporaries of the above-mentioned celebrities, such as satirists ‘Obayd Zakani and Bushaq Shirazi, members of Herat literary circle Badr al-Din Hilali and Kamal al-Din Binai are not left without attention either.

The works of all the poets of the period show that classical Iranian literary tradition already established its own norms regarding genres, themes and motifs both in lyric and epic poetry and completely emancipated itself from the maternal Arab tradition.

Chapter II The period of transformation of the canon in Persian-language literature of the 16th – early 18th century. Late classics first of all deals with the transformation of Persian literary pattern, significant shift in style of Persian poetry and the formation of a new stylistic paradigm, later called Indian style (sabk-e hendi) which reveals itself in the poetic works written throughout the Iranian cultural area – in the Safavid Iran, Central Asia and prosperous Mughal India. The new style is characterized by a special structure of poetry and original poetics (tarz-i taza), called in the works of its leading exponents “colorful” (rangin), “unfamiliar” (bigana), “sophisticated, twisted” (pichida) and “refined” (nazuk). In the works of one and the same poet original philosophical and gnostic themes, complex comparisons and allegories, revealing an incisive poetic fantasy and creativity, can easily co-exist with experiments in form and content or penetrating insight into the psychology and negotiations of the love relationship (maktab-e woquʿ). The chapter is focused on the poetry of Baba Fagani, Vahshi Bafqi, Moḥtasham Kashani, ʿOrfi Shirazi, Naziri Nishapuri, Ṭaleb Amoli, Kalim Kashani, Saiido Nasafi, one of the most celebrated and prolific poets of the Safavid period Saib Tabrizi, and one of the most difficult and challenging poets of sabk-e hendi Abd al-Qader Bidel.

The new style will dominate Persian poetry for the next two centuries until in the middle of the 18th century poets turn to a neoclassicism rejecting the excesses of the Indian style. The chapter presents a survey of poetry whose practitioners – among which Moshtaq and Hatef Isfahani – adopted a smooth, clear, flowing and free of ambiguities poetics closer to the stylistic principles of early Persian poetry. Later this movement became known as the “literary return” (bazgasht-e adabi).

The chapter also analyzes ta‘ziyeh – a unique form of serious drama to have developed in the world of Islam, which commemorates the sufferings of the 12 Shiʿite imams. The attention is paid to the genesis of ta‘ziyeh and its poetics.

Chapter III Development of Persian prose in the 13th–18th centuries describes different prose genres – frame stories (as Tuti-nama by Zia al-Din Nakhshabi), hagiography (ʿAbd al-Rahman Jami’s Nafahat al-ons), anthology with biographies of the poets (tazkera), an extensive work of diverse contents Badayeʿ al-waqayeʿ by memoirist and poet Zayn al-Din Wasifi and dastan, fictional narrative based on written and oral traditions.

01

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Женщины режут руки при виде красоты Йусуфа. Миниатюра. Бухара. Около 1670 г. Фонд Марджани ИМ/Р-53

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Горожанин в саду у крестьянина. Рукопись Джами «Субхат ал-абрар», изготовленная для царевича Бахрам Мирзы. Художник Афтаб Наккаш. Иран, Герат. 1530–1540-е гг. Фонд Марджани ИМ/Р-59, л. 124

Индийская невеста перед падишахом Акбаром. Лист из рукописи. Мухаммад-Риза Нав’и Хабушани «Суз ва гудаз». Художник Мухаммад Касим. Иран, Мешхед. 1640–1650-е гг. Фонд Марджани ИМ/Р-45

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Та‘зийе. Иран, Сахраруд Феса, 8 сентября 2019 г. Фото Мохаммада Хади Хосрови. Источник: Информационное агентство Мизан

Камал ал-Мулк. Изображение