Rudaki. Poet of inaccessible simplicity

Brief biography of the poet, the main facts of life and work:

ABU ABDALLAH JAFAR RUDAKI (c. 860-941)

Abu Abdallah (according to some sources - Abul Hasan, that is, the son of Hasan) Rudaki is the founder of great literature in Farsi (Persian). Some biographers of the poet claim that the real name of Rudaki sounded like Abdullah Jafar Ibn Muhammad. The Persians generally called him the Adam of the Poets.

Abdallah was born around 860 in the mountain village of Rudak near Penjikent. The name of Rudaki, which the poet used in his poems, is nisboy. There is no information about Rudaki's parents, however, as well as about the poet's family in general.

Early biographers claim that Rudaki was blind from birth. In later historiography, the point of view was established that he was blinded. This point of view was also confirmed by the outstanding Soviet scientist M. M. Gerasimov, who examined the poet's skull and restored his appearance.

The boy wrote poetry, he himself composed music and was a performer of his own works. Creativity was easy for him, and fellow countrymen appreciated Rudaki's talents. According to legend, the famous Abullabak Bakhtiyar gave Rudaki his chang - a musical instrument, and his occupation - to wander around the villages and delight people's ears with music.

The thirst for knowledge led the young Abdullo to Samarkand, where he studied at the madrasah and became famous for his talents.

Emir Nasr I ibn Ahmad Samanid (864-892), being the ruler of Khorasan, called Rudaki to Bukhara, brought the poet closer to him and made him a member of the court divan. Rudaki went uphill, and soon he was proclaimed the "king of poets." It should be noted that the "king of poets" at the courts of the major rulers of the East then performed the role of a teacher (ostasis) and a censor.

The poet's wealth increased to an extreme degree. He had two hundred slaves; four hundred camels were walking, loaded with his luggage. After Rudaki, none of the poets of the East had such wealth, and no one had such happiness.

To understand the meaning of Rudaki's poetry, it is necessary to remember the history. For a long time, the Iranian peoples lived and developed safely on their own. The invasion of Iran by the troops of the Arab Caliphate in the 7th century dealt a crushing blow to the ancient Iranian culture. Fire and sword planted a new religion of the conquerors - Islam, and the Arabic language. For Iranian literature came the "age of silence". Literature seemed to have ceased to exist: many ancient works were burned by the conquerors as ungodly, and new ones were not created. However, Iranian literature did not completely disappear; it remained only in a foreign language state.

In the 9th century, the Arab Caliphate was in crisis and began to disintegrate. One of the first to separate from it was the state of the Samanid dynasty. Although the origin of the Samanids is still unknown, many researchers claim that they were Persians. The Samanids descended from the last pre-Arab Sassanid dynasty and based their influence on the aristocratic strata of society and the people on the renewal of ancient Iranian traditions. The capital of the Samanids, Bukhara, became one of the largest cities in the Muslim world. Nishapur was the main city in Khorasan. In this city sat the governor of all the possessions of the Samanids south of the Amu Darya.

The Samanids cultivated their native language - Farsi - and contributed to its development. Ordinary Iranian became the official (state) language colloquial of that time, called Dari or Darie-Farsi. A new Iranian literature began to take shape in Farsi. We must pay tribute, the aristocracy, headed by the monarch, appreciated the role of poetry, which was very popular among the people, as a means of strengthening their power and influence.

Poetry in the Farsi language of the classical period (X-V centuries) originated in the territory Central Asia and Khorasan (which is now part of the borders of Central Asia, Northern Afghanistan and Northern Iran), among the so-called "Eastern Iranians" - Tajiks. Then it spread to the territory of Iran, among the "Western Iranians" - Persians, now called Iranians.

There are two legends about the origin of this poetry in Farsi.

According to one of them, the crowned darling of fate, Shah Bahram Gur Sasanid (5th century), declaring his love with his "heart's joy" - Dilaram, suddenly spoke in verse. According to another legend, an unknown young man wandered through the narrow streets of Samarkand. Suddenly he heard a strange song sung by a boy who was playing nuts with his comrades: "Rolling, rolling, he will roll to the hole." The young man liked the rhyme very much, and to this melody he came up with the first rubaiyat about the beauties of Samarkand and the charms of his native home in the mountains of Zarafshan. This young man was Rudaki, the founder of classical poetry in Farsi.

It is believed that it was Rudaki who developed all forms of classical Farsi-language poetry, managed to weave folk traditions with Arabic and Persian literary heritage in a single ornament. He also wrote magnificent odes-qasidas, and light gazelles, and chased quatrains - rubais.

A famous legend tells about the impact on the listeners of Rudaki's poetry. One day, Emir Nasr and his retinue went on a long journey. How long, how short the journey lasted, history is silent, but one fine morning Rudaki was seized by homesickness. And then, accompanying himself on the chang, he began to sing about the gardens of Bukhara. It was an improvisation, but its strength turned out to be such that the whole retinue sobbed, and Emir Nasr jumped on his horse and rushed towards the crossing over the Amu Darya. He did not even have time to change his slippers and put on his boots only on the second leg...

Rudaki also lived in great wealth and honor under the successors of Nasr I - emirs Ismail I ibn Ahmad Samani (892-907) and Ahmad ibn Ismail Samani (907-914).

The situation changed during the reign of Emir Nasr II ibn Ahmad Samani (914-942).

Rudaki not only fell into disgrace, he was blinded, deprived of all his property and exiled to his native village, where the poet died a deep old man in terrible need.

The reason for Rudaki's disgrace is not exactly known. Scientists put forward various versions. Most likely, the sympathetic attitude of the poet to one of the popular uprisings in Bukhara, which was associated with the heretical movement of the Karmatians, who proclaimed the property equality of people, played a certain role.

According to early biographers, Rudaki left a huge poetic legacy - about one million three hundred thousand poetic lines. Only a small part of his work has survived to our times. It is generally accepted that the manuscripts of Rudaki's poems, like many compiled and copied in the 10th-12th centuries and kept in the palace libraries of Khorasan and Maverannahr, perished during the Mongol invasion.

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858 - 941

Abul Hassan Jafar

Abu Abdallah Rudaki (according to other sources, Abul Hassan Jafar) (c. 858, the village of Panjrudak, now Tajikistan - 941, ibid.) - Tajik and Persian poet.
The outstanding poet, the founder of Persian classical poetry, Abu Abdallah Jafar Ibn Muhammad (according to other sources - Abul Hassan) was born in 858 in the village of Panjrud (translated from Tajik as five streams) (now the village of Panjrud of the Penjikent region of the Sughd region of the Republic of Tajikistan) not far from the famous settlements of Penjikent. Rudak means stream, hence the pseudonym of the poet Rudaki (that is, from Panjrud, in other words, born in Panjrud).
Creation
Rudaki is the founder of Persian literature, the founder of poetry in Farsi-Tajik, the founder of poetic genre forms. Early became famous as a singer and rhapsodist, as well as a poet. He received a good scholastic education, knew the Arabic language well, as well as the Koran. The fact of Rudaki's blindness from birth is refuted by the Soviet scientist M.M. Gerasimov, the author of a method for restoring the appearance of a person based on skeletal remains, arguing that blindness did not occur earlier than 60 years. Iranian scholar Said Nafisi, who claims that Rudaki and Amir Nasr Somoni (the ruler from the Samanid dynasty) were Ismailis and in 940 there was a great uprising against the Ismailis. On the advice of the vizier, who hated Rudaki, Amir Nasr ordered the poet to be blinded and his property to be confiscated. After another court poet, who had previously envied Rudaki, shamed Amir Nasr with the fact that "In history, you will be remembered as the ruler who blinded the great poet." Amir Nasr, greatly regretting what he had done, ordered the vizier to be executed and generously bestowed on Rudaki, but the poet refused from generous gifts and died in poverty in his native village of Panjrud, leaving not only magnificent poetry and prose, but also the beautiful Dari language (New Persian language), which gave rise to no less great poets and writers such as Firdowsi, Khayyam, Saadi, Hafiz, Rumi , Nizami, Jami, Nasir Khosrov, Kamol Khujandi, Samarkandi, Bedil and many others who made a huge contribution to the development of the literature of Greater Iran (Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan) Rudaki led a galaxy of poets at the court of the Samanid rulers of Bukhara for over 40 years, achieving great fame .
From the literary heritage of Rudaki (according to legend - more than 130 thousand couplets; another version - 1300 thousand - is implausible) barely a thousand couplets have come down to us. The qasida "Mother of Wine" (933), the autobiographical qasida "Complaint of old age", as well as about 40 quatrains (rubai) have survived in their entirety. The rest are fragments of works of panegyric, lyrical, philosophical and didactic content, including excerpts from the poem "Kalila and Dimna" (translated from Arabic, 932), and five other poems.
Along with the laudatory and anacreontic themes in Rudaki's poems, there is faith in the power of the human mind, a call for knowledge, virtue, and active influence on life. The simplicity of poetic means, the accessibility and brightness of the image in the poetry of Rudaki and his contemporaries characterize the Khorasan, or Turkestan style created by them, which was preserved until the end of the 12th century.

Rudaki Abu Abdallah Ja'far (c. 860-941)

Tajik and Persian poet. Born into a peasant family. In his youth, he became popular due to his beautiful voice, poetic talent and masterful playing on musical instrument- ore. Rudaki was invited by Nasr II ion Ahmad Samanid (914-943) to the court, where he spent most life. As Abu-l-Fazl Balami says, "Rudaki was the first among his contemporaries in the field of poetry, and neither the Arabs nor the Persians have anything like him."

He was considered not only a master of verse, but also an excellent performer, musician, singer
Rudaki brought up young poets and helped them, which further raised his authority.
However, in his old age he suffered great hardships. The aged and blind poet, or perhaps forcibly blinded, according to some sources (possibly due to his friendship with Balami), was expelled from the court and returned to his homeland.

After that, he did not live long.
No more than 2000 lines from the works of Rudaki have survived to our time. The surviving poems testify to his high skill in all poetic genres of that era. He wrote solemn odes, lyrical ghazals, large didactic poems (collection famous fables from the cycle "Kamila and Dimna", etc.), satirical verses and mourning dedications. Rudaki was not a court odographer of the usual type. His odes begin with vivid descriptions of nature, singing the joys of life and love, reason and knowledge, nobility and life's adversity, reverence for man and his work.

The poet has almost no religious motives. Many verses bear the seal of deep philosophical reflection. With his work, Rudaki laid the foundations of all Tajik-Persian poetry, developed the main genres and genre forms; almost all poetic dimensions and systems of images crystallized in his poems. The poet's poems became a model for subsequent generations of Tajik poets. Rudaki is a recognized founder of classical poetry, which, spreading in the X-XV centuries. among the Tajiks and Persians, gave the world such luminaries as Firdowsi, Khayyam, Saadi and others. The classics of this poetry fondly recalled Rudaki, considering him their teacher.

Rudaki, Abu Abdallah Jafar ibn Mohammad ibn Hakim ibn Abdarrahman (c. 860-950) - the founder of Persian-Tajik classical poetry, wrote in Farsi, laid the foundations of genres and forms of Persian poetry, developed the basic dimensions of Persian versification. The “nightingale of Khorasan”, Rudaki, was born near Samarkand, already in his youth he was close to the court of the Samanids in Bukhara - Persian rulers patronized the development of poetry in the local language and generously encouraged the work of poets praising them. The creative heritage of Rudaki was huge, but about a thousand incomplete bayts (poems) extracted from medieval sources have come down to us, and only two qasidas are complete: Mother of Wine and Elder.

For centuries, the legend about the origin of Persian-Tajik poetry has been passed from mouth to mouth among the people. According to one of the legends, the “crowned” Shah Bakhrom Gur Sasanid (5th century), declaring his love for his beloved, the marvelous beauty Dilaram, suddenly spoke with his “joy of the heart” in verse. According to another legend, a young man, wandering through the narrow streets of Samarkand, heard an unusual song sung by a boy playing nuts with his comrades: “Rolling, rolling, he will roll to the hole ...”. Fascinated by children's poetic creativity, the young man did not notice how he, soundlessly moving his lips, began to utter with inspiration musical, melodic rubies about the charms of his native Samarkand, about the beauty of his native home in the mountains of Zarafshan. The legend says that this young man was none other than Rudaki, the founder of classical poetry in Farsi. The real name of the world-famous poet was Jafar, the son of Muhammad.

Jafar spent his childhood and youth in the small village of Rudak (now the village of Panjrud) in the Penjikent region of the Sughd region of the Republic of Tajikistan, not far from the famous settlement of Penjekent. Young Jafar's teachers were folk songs and folk music. And he was inspired to work by the beauty of his native nature, the wisdom and spiritual beauty of his mountain people. The famous poet expresses his love and devotion to his native land not only in his poems, but in the fact that he chose the name of his native village, Rudaki, as his poetic pseudonym. Before becoming famous at the court of the Samanids, Rudaki was already known in his region as a folk singer and an unsurpassed talented musician. A great folk poet, an unsurpassed creator and performer, he understood that in order for the poet's voice to reach the descendants, his oral poetry must have its written embodiment. Therefore, Rudaki appears in the Samanid palace, where he is surrounded by honor, splendor and wealth.

The place of Rudaki in poetry is very high. He was considered the most famous poet of the Samanid period and the first Persian poet. He was the first poet to establish certain laws in Persian poetry. He developed in poetry such forms and genres as dastan, ghazal, madh (ode), moueze (instruction), marsie (elegy). He was the strongest poet of that time and was the first poet to compose a divan of his poems, consisting of two volumes. For these reasons, he was honored with such titles as "Father of Persian Poetry", "Master of Persian Poetry" and "Sultan of Persian Poetry". One of the important merits of Rudaki is that he translated the famous book "Kalina va Dimne" into verse. Rudaki left a great poetic legacy - about one million three hundred thousand poetic lines, although only a part of them has come down to us. He worked in the period of the early Middle Ages, his poems are not yet shackled by the conventionality of form, the complexity of metaphors, the pomp and pretentiousness of the palace panegyric, which are so characteristic of the poetic searches of the later Middle Ages. Rudaki's poetry is almost free from mystical, religious motifs; the poet sings of life as it is, earthly human love, the beauty of relationships, the charms of nature. Of course, Rudaki's lyrics are multifaceted and multifaceted, but its main directions can also be distinguished.

Rudaki's poems cover various topics. The themes of love, edification, motives of grief and compassion, praise, mystical solitude are the main themes of Rudaki's work.

About refraining from envy and greed towards others, the poet writes as follows:

Life gave me advice to my question in response -

Thinking about it, you will understand that all life is advice:

“Don’t you dare envy someone else’s happiness.

Are you not the object of envy for others?

Rudaki was also a master of lyrical ghazals. The modern form and style of qasid writing was also developed by Rudaki. He began his qasida with tashbiba and tagazzol (bringing love lines at the beginning of the qasida). Next, the praise of the mamdukh (amir or other person) begins, and at the end, bayts are given in which the poet prays for the health of the mamdukh and wishes him to be strengthened in office and happiness. A lot of space in the work of Rudaki is occupied by the theme of the struggle between good and evil. The poet cannot help but worry about this question: “Why does the life of a kite last two hundred years, and swallows - no more than a year?” Although he often proclaims: “Joyfully live with the black-eyed, joyfully,” and then “whatever happens,” his worldview is not so simple. He acts as a champion of justice, goodness, and sees social inequality in society, although he does not know the means of fighting against it. Apparently, that is why his moaning is so frequent: “Well, fate is insidious!”, “We are sheep, the world is a corral”, “Where the honest should sit ...”, “The temptations of the body are money”. Rudaki had a sofa consisting of two volumes. There are different opinions about the number of rows of this sofa. But this divan has not reached our days, and in our time about one thousand bayts (two thousand lines) from Rudaki's work have been published. The sofa (collection of poems) of the Persian poet included such poetic forms as qasida, kyta, ghazal, rubai, mesnevi.

Abu Abdallah Rudaki is considered the founder of the new Farsi-language literature. Because by giving up Arabic, who dominated for two centuries (VII-VIII), he did not like people who used alien words in their speech foreign words. "The many-voiced nightingale" (as he called himself) Rudaki, who wrote in various genres, remained devoted to his Persian language. The poet did not return to the old Iranian, Pahlavi language, which served as a literary language before the Arab conquest. Rudaki created in the modern pure Persian Dari (Farsi-Dari) Tajik language (by another name - "Persian Dari"). Rudaki's poetry is natural, sincere, humanistic. The poet sings of his native land, native nature, uses in his works contemporary national life material. He writes about a person, his time and about himself. Many of his works reflect real facts, events, and autobiographical features are obvious.

Rudaki reworked and created in the Dari-Farsi language all the known poetic genre forms of Eastern (Arabic-Iranian, in particular) literature: rubai, ghazal, qasida, mesnevi, kitga, etc. These genre forms existed in different language systems even before Rudaki. However, it was he who brought them on his mother tongue using national material to perfection. These genre forms later became classical. The poetic traditions of Rudaki were picked up and enriched by his followers. Moreover, his work became a poetic source for the professional (palace), and for the Sufi, and for the freedom-loving trends in the literature of the entire period of the Iranian Middle Ages.

After a rich and magnificent life at the court of the emir, the time of "staff and scrip" came. Medieval chroniclers preserved the news that Rudaki fell into disgrace and was expelled from the palace. According to this version, the poet was not blind from birth. Disgraced, but still loved by his countrymen great poet died in his native village. The date of Rudaki's death, as well as the year of birth, is not known. It is said that he died in his native village of Rudak in one of these years: 329/940-41, 339/950-51 or 343/954-55. But if we keep in mind that Nasr ibn Ahmed ruled until 331/943-44, we can conclude that the date of Rudaki's death should also be 339/950-51 or 343/954-55.

persian versification khayyam poem