Closely connected with the lyric poetry of Per sia, especially by the bond of mysticism. is the didactic and religious. So closely are the two re lated that it is sometimes impossible to decide to which class a poet belongs, because he in reality belono.s, to both.
The mystie and didactic poetry of Persia is entirely Surds:tie in character. The greatest of all who wrote in this genre was Jalal-ud-Din Rumi (q.v.) (1207-1273), whose /Melia and I/Oh m:xi are among our most important siturses for the study of Sutiism. The first mystic poets, how 1 Ver, were probably Bayazid Bistami ((lied c.874) and Abu Saftl ihn Abul Khiair (968-1049), of whose works a number of quatrains have sur vived. In the eleventh century the Rimana'ina mah of Nasir-i Khusru deserves mention. The earliest great predecessor of dal:thud-Din, how ever, was Farid-nd-Din Attar (q.v.) (died 1299), whose ilaatig at-Tair, or Bird-Parliament, is a remarkably beautiful allegory of the struggle of the soul to attain to the infinite. Here belongs also another of the greatest. naun•s Of all Persian literature. Sadi (q.v.) (e.1190-1291). His listan, or Rose Garden, and Busts, or Carden, are among the greatest didactic productions of the East. The last important mystic poet was Nahnind Shaldstari (died 1317), the author of the Gui..in•i-Vu„ or Rose Garden of which may serve as a text-book of Sufiistic phi losophy.
'('lie : Court poetry, the third division of the lyric, is the least interesting of all from a literary point of view. The favor shown to poets from the earliest period of Islamitie rule in Persia naturally encouraged the production of eulogies, which, with the luxuriance of Oriental imagina tion, are so fulsome as to cloy the Occidental reader. The metrical intricacy keeps pace with the increasing artificiality of the Court poets, Such rhymes as aaaaammax, blAbbbbbb,r, and so on, and a series of gbazals, united by mip.a's, or rhyming couplets at regular intervals, are com mon. Within the poems themselves there are conceits and obscure allusions which in many eases battle• even the ingenuity of an Oriental reader, and give rise to couno•ntary after com mentau•y. From the long series of poets of this type the names of Watwat (1088-1182), i\lnizzi ( died 1117), Khakani ( died about 1199) , and the greatest of them all, Anvari (q.v.) (died about 1190), may be mentioned.
The drama of Persia, apart front the miracle play of figmin and flosein (q.v.), is of late de velopment and little importance. The prose lit erature, as has been intimated, is also of small extent and value as compared with the poetry. While it is true that Sadi in the works already mentioned intermingled prose and verse, and that his example was followed by Nakhshabi (died 1330) in his Sindbadminwh, o• Book of Sindbad, it scents, nevertheless, strange that so few of the great Persian writers should have availed them selves of prose. There is, however, a mass of
novels, tales, fables, legends, and anecdotes, as well as of history, encyclop,edias, and the like. The oldest specimens of Persian prose are Mu walTak's book on pharmacology and Balamis's translation of Tabari, both dating from the tenth Century. As authors of notes and travel, we may mention Abu Tahir, whose numerous romances are chiefly concerned with old Iranian legends, as in his Dusf(in. o• nag mah (dealing with the legend of Hushang) and his Dart lma malt (on tile story of Darius and Alexander). the anonymous writers of the (on the Alexander legend), the Ilssah-i Ilntim la't (on Hotim Tai. proverbial for his generosity and nobility), and the modern Taki (sev enteenth century), the author of a huge romance in fifteen volumes, entitled Bfistan-i Xayal. There is besides a multitude of novelettes and of tales in the style of the Arabian. Nights (q.v.). Here the most important are the Baxlyeernitmah, or Book of the Ten Viziers, the Jissa.-i eahar dar riii, or Story of the Four Dervishes, perhaps by Amir Khusru ((lied 1325), the latimamah, or Book of the Parrot, based on the Sanskrit Su kasuptati, and the Bahar-i danig, or Spring Gar den of Wisdom, by Inayat-ullah Kanbu (died 1071). The best known of all the prose fiction in Persian is \Vaiz Kasbifi's (died 1504-05) Am rar-i Sutural, or Lights of Canopus, based on the Ralila Ira Dimmmah, and so ultimately on the Sanskrit Paiicalantra (q.v.), although the Lato'if utquIru'if, or Witty and Amusing Stories, by Safi, the son of Waiz Kashifi, also deserves mention.
Consult: Hammer, Gcschic•/tie der sclainew Hoick ii (1st e Persiens mit tellies(' (Vienna, 1818) ; Ouseley, Biographical Soliecs of Persian. Poets (London, 1846) ; Bat-bier de Meynard, La poesie en Terse (Paris, 1877) ; Darmesteter, Les origines de la poesie persane (ib., 1887) ; Pizzi, u$tot•ia della poesia persiana (Turin. 1894) ; Eth6, Die heifische 'and romantische Poesie der Perser (Ilambnrg, 1887) ; id., Die nips! isehe, diduktisehe mid Poesie and (las spatere Sehriftthant der Verso- (ib., 1888) ; id., "Neupersische Liteia tur," and Noldeke, "Das iranische Nationalepos," in Geiger und Kuhn, Grandriss der iranisehen I Philologie, vol. ii., ( St rasslirg, 1890) ; Reed, Persian Literature, and Modern, (Chi cago, 1893) ; Horn, Gesehiehte der persischen Lit teratur (Leipzig, 1901) ; Remy, Influence of 1-n dia and Persia art the Poetry of Germany (New York, 1901) ; Browne, Literary History of Per sia (London, 1902) ; Chodzko, Specimens of the Popular Poetry of Persia (London, 1842) ; Cos tello, Rose Garden of Persia (new ed., ib., 1899) ; Dole and Walker, Flowers front Persian Poets (New York, 1901).