Author Description

ABU NUWAS & OBEYD ZAKANI 'CONTROVERSIAL' DERVISH/SUFI POETS Selected Poems & Prose Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Abu Nuwas (757-814) was the most famous and infamous poet who composed in Arabic of the Abbasid era. His style was extravagant and his compositions reflected the licentious manners of the upper classes of his day. As a youth he was sold into slavery; a wealthy benefactor later set him free. As a man he finally settled in Baghdad and was composing poetry. Because of his long hair, he acquired the name Abu Nuwas (Father of Ringlets). Gradually he attracted the attention of Harun al-Rashid and was given quarters at court. His ability as a poet no doubt was one reason for Abu Nuwas' success with the caliph, but after a while he became known as a reprobate and participated in less reputable pastimes with the ruler. He spent time in Egypt but soon returned to Baghdad to live out his remaining years. He is popular today, perhaps more so than he ever was, as a kind of comic anti-hero. His poems consist of qit'as (of which he was the first master) ghazals and qasidas. His poems could be classified into: praises, mockeries, jokes, complaints, love of men and women, wine, hunting, laments, asceticism. All forms are here in the true meaning & rhyme structure. Introduction: Life, Times & Poetry and forms both composed in and two appendixes of some stories about him in the Arabian Nights and elsewhere. Obeyd Zakani (1300-1371) is an important a figure in Persian and Sufi literature and poetry. His satire, humorous stories, ribald and obscene poems, social commentary, mystical ghazals, prose, ruba'is, qit'as and his famous epic qasida 'Cat & Mouse' are popular today and are more relevant than ever. He is considered to be one of the world's greatest satirist and social-commentator whose life and mystical poems had a great influence on his student and friend Hafiz and many others and he (like his predecessor Abu Nuwas is as controversial today as they ever were.Th