Rudaki; The Father of Persian Poetry

Rudaki; The Father of Persian Poetry, compiled and authored by Mohammad Dehghani, is one of the eight volumes in the “History and Literature of Iran” series. This collection is tailored for audiences interested in Iran’s cultural and literary history who wish to explore selections of Iranian literary masterpieces presented in a simple and fluent language along with necessary explanations and interpretations. The series exclusively focuses on Iran’s history and literature after Islam and strives to connect Iranian literary history with general world history, highlighting intellectual and cultural developments in countries and regions linked to Iran. In doing so, it provides a clearer scope for comparing Iran’s history and literature with global history and literature.
In this book, Rudaki’s major odes and ghazals, along with some fragments, couplets, scattered verses, and quatrains, are compiled largely based on extensive research conducted by Sa’id Nafisi regarding Rudaki’s life and works. Difficult words and phrases, alongside specific names, are explained in footnotes.
The book begins with the author’s examination of Rudaki’s life and thoughts. Rudaki lived during one of the finest periods in Iranian history, arguably the most brilliant era of Iranian civilization post-Islam. The exact date of Rudaki’s birth remains uncertain, but it likely occurred between 250 and 265 AH in one of the villages of Rudak in Samarkand region. Apparently, during the thirty-year reign of Nasr, Rudaki found his way into the Samanid court, becoming the first great Persian-language poet. A significant portion of Rudaki’s poems and epics has been lost, leaving only about a thousand verses intact today. Yet, the remaining works exhibit such excellence that their author is rightly considered an unparalleled and skilled poet.
After the first section, which covers Rudaki’s life and thoughts, selections of his poetry are presented, including odes, ghazals, philosophical poems, fragments, couplets, scattered verses, and quatrains. Among these, the odes section is more detailed. However, a notable part of Rudaki’s corpus consisted of his narrative epics, all composed in masnavi form. The first and most significant of these masnavis was the translation of “Kalilah wa Dimnah,” of which only 129 scattered verses remain.
“Rudaki; The Father of Persian Poetry” is an engaging and valuable book that acquaints readers interested in Persian poetry with the life, thoughts, and poetry of Rudaki, the father of Persian poetry.