Persian Literature. The photos used in this presentation belong to the rightful owner.

1. PERSIAN
LITERATURE

2. Brief Background of the
Country

3. Persia
The Persian Empire is the name given to a
series of dynasties centered in modern-day Iran
The first Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the
Great

4. Cyrus the Great
 He founded the first Persian Empire,
also known as the Achaemenid Empire,
in 550 B.C.
 The leader of one such tribe—began to
defeat nearby kingdoms, including
Media, Lydia and Babylon, joining them
under one rule

5. Darius the Great
The fourth king of the Achaemenid Empire,
ruled over the Persian Empire
He unified the empire
 The Persian Empire entered a period of
decline after a failed invasion of Greece by
Xerxes I in 480 BC.

6. Persia’s Location

7. Persian Religion
The first Persian Empire was shaped by a different
religion: Zoroastrianism
Prophet Zoroaster
taught followers to worship one god instead
of the many deities worshipped by earlier
Indo-Iranian groups.

8. Persian Culture
The ancient Persians of the Achaemenid
Empire created art in many forms
Early Persian art included large, carved
rock reliefs cut into cliffs, such as those
found at Naqsh-e Rustam

9. THE START OF PERSIAN
LITERATURE

10. PERSIAN LITERATURE
• Dated to c. 522 BCE with the creation of the
Behistun Inscription of Darius I
• Alexander the Great destroyed the library at
Persepolis c. 330 BCE and other works
• Is therefore commonly dated from c. 750 CE,
with the rise of the Abbasid Dynasty

11. • Is the oldest literature in the world
• The greatest and most influential work is the Shahnameh (The
Persian Book of Kings) written by the poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi
between 977-1010 CE.
PERSIAN LITERATURE

12. CHARACTERISTICS OF
PERSIAN LITERATURE

13. THE LITERATURE OF PERSIA
• Body of writings in New Persian (also called Modern Persian) the
form of the Persian language written since the 9th century
• Comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian
language
• Poetry was regarded as the highest form of artistic expression

14. WRITERS AND POETS IN PERSIAN
LITERATURE

15. known as Rudaki, also known as “Adam of
Poets”, was a Persian poet regarded as the first
great literary genius of the Modern Persian
Language.
known as Daqiqi, was one of the
most prominent Persian poets of
Samanid era. He was the first to
undertake the creation of the
national epic of Iran, the
Shahnameh.
2. Abu Mansur Daqiqi
1. Abu Abdollah Ja’far Ibn Muhammad Rudaki

16. 3. Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi Tusi
4. Adam Sanai Ghaznavi
Was a Persian poet and the author of Shahnameh
“Book of Kings”, which is one of the largest epic poems
created by a single poet, and the national epic of
Greater Iran.
He wrote an enormous quantity of
mystical verse, of which the called
“The Walled Garden of Truth or
The Hadiqat al Hadiqaqa” is his
master work and the first Persian
mythical epic of Sufism.

17. 5. Abu Hamid bin Abu Bakr Ibrahim
was a Persian mystic poet, theoretician of Sufism,
and hagiographer from Nishapur who had an
abiding influence on Persian poetry and Sufism.
6. Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
Known as Rumi and also
called by the honorific
Mawlana, the greatest
Sufi mystic poet in the
Persian language.

18. 7. Saadi Shirazi
was a major Persian poet and prose writer of
the medieval period. He is recognized for the
quality of his writings and for the depth of his
social and moral thoughts.
8. Nizami Ganjavi
the greatest romantic epic
poet in Persian literature,
who brought a colloquial
and realistic style to the
Persian epic.

19. 9. Omar Khayyam
Was a Persian polymath, mathematician,
astronomer, philosopher, and a poet. There is a
tradition of attributing poetry to Omar
Khayyam, written in the form of quatrains.
10. Hafez Shirazi
his collected works are regarded
as a pinnacle of Persian
literature and are to be found in
the homes of most people in
Iran and Afghanistan.

20. POEMS AND SHORT STORIES IN
PERSIAN LITERATURE

21. WHAT WAS TOLD, THAT
Rumi speaks about the love of lovers, he
refers not only to the love they share
between each other, but about the love
they both share towards the Being that
transcends their beings.

22. THE WALLED GRADEN OF TRUTH
The Walled Garden of Truth or The Hadiqat al
Haqiqa is his master work and the first Persian
mystical epic of Sufism. Dedicated to Bahram
Shah, the work expresses the poet’s ideas on God,
love, philosophy and reason. For close to 900
years, From The Walled Garden of Truth has been
consistently read as a classic and employed as a
Sufi textbook.

23. THE MANNERS OF KINGS
In this story, a king was about to execute a
prisoner, but the prisoner tells how God
blesses those who are generous. The
prisoner was trying to placate the king and
prevent being executed. Lying can sometimes
be good, because speaking the alternative,
the truth, can cause a lot of trouble.

24. ON THE ADVANTAGES OF SILENCE
Rodrigues soon begins to question God's
existence, if only hypothetically. Though he still
believes in God, he allows himself to consider
how ridiculous all their lives and sufferings would
be if there is no God. His realizations are
revelatory and profound. Thousands will have
suffered and died for nothing, and around the
world

25. LITERARY PIECES

26. Rubáiyát of
Omar Khayyám

27. •is the work of two authors,
Omar Khayyám (1048-1131),
and Edward FitzGerald (1809-1893).
•a lyric poem in quatrains
(four-line stanzas)
•published in March 1859

28. Meter and Rhyme Scheme
•the poem is in iambic pentameter
•in most stanzas, the rhyme scheme is aaba
•However, in a few stanzas, all four lines
rhyme

29. Stanza 1 Rhyme Scheme: aaba
Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

30. Stanza 10 Rhyme Scheme: aaaa
With me along some Strip of Herbage strown
That just divides the desert from the sown,
Where name of Slave and Sultan scarce is known,
And pity Sultan Mahmud on his Throne.

31. Themes:
• Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)
• Wine as the Water of Life
• Fate
• Ineluctable Death

32. Imagery
• Personifications
• Alliteration
• Metaphor
Source: https://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/rubaiyat.html

33. (Shahnameh)
The Book of Kings
by Ferdowsi

34. Ferdowsi
• most important poet at the
court of Mahmud of Ghazni
• celebrated as the most
influential figure in Persian
literature
• regarded as the "Immortal
Homer of the East"

35. •an epic poem that recounts the history
of pre-Islamic Persia.
•contains 62 stories, told in 990
chapters with 50,000
rhyming couplets
•world’s longest epic poem written
by a single poet

36. •is essentially a chronicle of kings, with the
larger sections divided according to the
coronations and deaths of individual
monarchs.
•include ancient myths, legends, and
historical figures, such as Alexander
the Great, dating back to the sixth
century b.c.

37. •written in Middle and
Modern Persian
LANGUAGE
CHARACTERS
• ancient Persian heroes—
generals and commanders

38. “The Story of Sohrab and Rostam”
Rostam was unaware that he had a son, Sohrab, by Princess Tahmina. He
had not seen the Princess for many years. After years without any real
knowledge of one another, Rostam and Sohrab faced each other in
battle, fighting on opposing sides. Rostam did not recognise his own son,
although Sohrab had suspicions that Rostam may be his father.
They fought in single combat and Rostam wrestled Sohrab to the ground,
stabbing him fatally. As he lay dying, Sohrab recalled how his love for his
father – the mighty Rostam - had brought him there in the first place.
Rostam, to his horror, realised the truth. He saw his own arm bracelet on
Sohrab, which he had given to Tahmina many years before and which
Tahmina had given to Sohrab before the battle, in the hope that it might
protect him.
But he realised the truth too late. He had killed his own son, ‘the person
who was dearer to him than all others’. This is one of the most tragic
episodes of the Shahnameh.

39. THEMES
•Fate
•Immortality
•Power
•Loyalty
•Dissension between king and hero

40. THANK YOU!