Manuchehri

For places in Iran, see Manuchehri, Iran.

Abu Najm Ahmad ibn Ahmad ibn Qaus Manuchehri (Persian: ابونجم احمد ابن احمد ابن قوص منوچهری دامغانی‎‎), a.k.a. Manuchehri Damghani, was a royal poet of the 11th century in Persia.

He was from Damghan in Iran and he is said to invent the form of musammat in Persian poetry and has the best ones too. He traveled to Tabarestan and was admitted to the court of King Manuchihr of Ziyarid dynasty and that's where he got his pen name. He later was a royal poet in the court of Sultan Shihab ud-Dawlah Mas'ud I of Ghazni son of Mahmud of Ghazna.

He has left behind a divan. His works were extensively studied by A. de Biberstein-Kazimirski in 1886.

He died in 1040 CE.

Sample Poetry

The following is the opening lines of one of his most famous musammat:

خیزید و خز آرید که هنگام خزان است

باد خنک از جانب خوارزم وزان است

آن برگ رزان بین که بر آن شاخ رزان است

گویی به مثل پیرهن رنگرزان است

دهقان به تعجب سرانگشت گزان است

کاندر چمن و باغ نه گل ماند و نه گلنار

Get up and bring fur clothes as Autumn is here

A cold wind is blowing from the Khawrazm yonder

Look at that vine leaf hanging on the vine bough

It looks like the shirt of dyers

The farmer is biting his finger with wonder

As in the lawn or garden is left no more rose or lavender

References used

• E.G. Browne. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998. ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
• Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K

See also

• List of Persian poets and authors

External links

• His biography in Persian