 |
||||||||
| home | poetry
gallery |
prose backdrop | events |
submission guidelines | about
us |
book reviews | ||
Book Reviews
Review by Elias g. Abu-Saba, Ph.D. Why do we need to write about Qurratu’l Ayn, a Persian woman born and died in the first half of the nineteenth Century? It was the time of regime change and revolution in Europe and also of fermentation of ideas and democracy. In the Middle East; particular the Muslim world in general, the people were slumbering under tyranny. In Persia as in every other country in the Middle East, authoritarian regimes were the norm. In 1814 -1817? Fatimih Zarrin Yaj was born to in a traditional Muslim family. Her education was in Theology. In her short life (she was executed in 1852) she lived and fought for her own rights and those of other women. Not only did she dare the norms of her culture in being highly educated she stood courageously and debated prominent men in the field of philosophy and religion, maintaining that the Holy Koran should not impose restrictions on women. She argued that such restrictions as they existed at the time were imposed by men. To prove her point she removed her veil in the presence of a group of men, hastening her death. Throughout her life and after she was known by the name of Qurratu’lAyn (meaning in Arabic ‘a blessing to the eyes of her beholder’). She was also given another name, Tahiri. In Arabic it is Tahira, the pure. Hence this writer will refer to her by Tahira. To be fair, not all men were against her. Many admired her and followed her writings and speeches very closely. Her execution and death left a mark in the civilized world and a coterie of followers both in Persia and Europe. She wrote some of the best poetry in her mystical and religious pursuit. She spoke of God as the lover without his mention - to do otherwise would have been a heresy in Islam. In the tradition of the Sufi God is addressed as the lover. Thus the Sufi wrote ghazel (love poetry) to their lover and described their intimate feelings in a very flowery language. Tahira spoke freely the language of the lovers. اى عاشقان اى عاشقان شد اشكارا وجه
حق
Lovers! Creation veils his face no more! And اى فداى تو هم دل وهم جان
O that I could sacrifice for you my heart and soul. God was described by the Sufi as a direction. The seeker would have to run after in pursuit the union with God, and here Tahira says: كربتو افتدم نظر جهره بجهره رو برو
If I met you face to face… What would the Sufi do in meeting her God face to face? Certainly she would be dazzled and molten from the intense light. She becomes one with the Ultimate of Being, a blasphemous concept according to the Islamic Sharia. In her poem “Look up” Tahira declares بان صبح بدى افرموو آغاز ِ تنفّس
روشن بمه عالم شد زآفاق وزا نفس Look up! Our dawning day draws its first breath! The world grows light! Our souls begin to glow! The dawning of the day is the time when the Sufi unites with God. Body and soul are transformed into a state of glowing. Such is the yearning and hope of the seeker of truth, God. Tahira lived and died under the influence of this glow. Poem after and verse after verse, Tahira witnesses to this realty, the reality of being consumed with the all powerful God. سجود وجهك فرضًا علي بالصلواتي
ترا برستم اكر في المثل جولات ومناتي I will lay my head in the dust before your face. My idol, this is the holy law I embrace. You are the Ka’aba that long to circle’round… Before God there can be no other law. For God is the Alpha and Beta as far as the Sufi is concerned. Of course, no one at the time of Tahira’s life or after her death considered her as a Sufi. The poetess was a member of the Babi community, a mystical community that sprung out in the 19th century in Persia. One of its notables was Mirza Husayn-‘Ali Nuri, Baha’u’llah after whom the Baha’I faith came to be known to us. Tahirih, A Portrait in Poetry provides a window into the life of Mystics in Islam. It is also a testament that in Islam, one doesn’t have to be as rigid as fundamentalism has decreed. Given the concern of the world community about Islam nowadays, this little volume about the life and poetry of Tahiri comes at an opportune time. Read an excerpt from this book opens in new window About the Translators Amin Banani, Ph.D. is Emeritus Professor of History and Persian Literature at the University ofalifornia at Los Angeles. He, along with Jascha Kessler, is translator of Bride of Acacias: Selected Poems of Forough Farrokhzad (Caravan Books, 1982). Jascha Kessler, Ph.D., Litt.D. is Professor of English and Modern Literature at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has published three volumes of poetry: Whatever Love Declares (Plantin Press, 1969), After the Armies Have Passed (NYU Press 1970) and In Memory of the Future (Kayak Press, 1976). Anthony A. Lee is co-author of and teaches African American history and other subjects at West Los Angeles College. He is general editor of academic series, Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions (Kalimát Press), now in its seventeeth volume. His poems have been published in ONTHEBUS, The Homestead Review, Arts Dialogue among others. He is the winner of the Nat Turner Poetry Prize of 2003 (Cross Keys Press). His website is www.anthonyalee.com.  |
||||||||
