Mansur al-Hallaj & Nesimi: Two great Sufi-Martyr Poets: Selected Poems

MANSUR AL-HALLAJ & NESIMI TWO GREAT SUFI-MARTYR POETS Selected Poems Translation & Introduction Paul Smith The Perfect Master, poet & martyr, MANSUR AL-HALLAJ (died 919), was born in Shiraz and tortured and executed in Baghdad for declaring: “I am the Truth (Anal Haq).” Much has been written about his famous (and in¬famous) statement, but few of his powerful, often mysteries and always deeply conscious and spiritual poems in Arabic have been translated into English, and in the poetic form in which they were composed. Now here they are! Included is The Tawasin. ‘Written in rhymed Arabic prose… it sets forth a doctrine of saintship—a doctrine founded on personal experience and clothed in the form of a subtle yet passionate dialectic.’ This is a free-form poetic translation that captures the beauty and meaning and the mystery and the profundity of this controversial classic of Sufism. The Introduction contains : The Life, Times and Works of Mansur al-Hallaj, The Perfect Master (Qutub), ‘Anal-Haq’ or ‘I am the Truth’ of Mansur Hallaj, etc. There is a wide selection of his qit’as, ghazals, ruba’is, qasidas. NESIMI (1369-1417) is considered one of the greatest Sufi poets and one of the most prominent early masters in Turkish literary history. Very little is known for certain about his life, including his real name. It is also possible that he was descended from the Prophet Mohammed since he has sometimes been accorded the title of seyyid that is reserved for people claimed to be in Muhammad’s line of descent. From his poetry, it’s evident that Nesimi was greatly influenced by MANSUR AL-HALLAJ and as a direct result of his beliefs that were considered blasphemous by contemporary religious authorities he was seized and according to most accounts… skinned alive in Aleppo. A number of legends later grew up around his execution, such as the story that he mocked his executioners with improvised verse and, after the execution, draped his flayed skin around his shoulders and departed. His tomb in Aleppo remains an important place of pilgrimage to this day. His work consists of two collections of poems, one in Persian and the other, Turkish. The Turkish Divan consists of 250-300 gazels and about 150 roba’is. After his death his work continued to exercise a great influence on many Turkish language poets and authors. Introduction on his Life & Times & Poetry and the Forms he wrote in. The correct rhyme & meaning are both here in these beautiful, powerful, often controversial poems. Paul Smith (b.1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages… including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Shah Latif, Bulleh Shah, Mahsati, Lalla Ded, Rahman Baba, Iqbal, Makhfi, Ghalib, Zafar Abu Nuwas, Rabi’a, Aatish, Dadu, Rahim, Vrind, Huma, Rudaki and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and a dozen screenplays. www.newhumanitybook.com Read more