Introduction

Some time ago a friend of mine brought me from Chitral two manuscript copies of a booklet which is not uncommon in those localities. It is known under the title of Shish fasl-i Shah Sayyid Nasir, i.e., "(The book of) Six Chapters by Nasir-i Khusraw." I have seen it previously and, in fact, glanced through it very curously many years ago. It then gave me the impression of being spurious, an imitation. Accordingly, in my "Guide to Ismaili Literature," published in 1933, I mentioned it amongst the doubtful works of Nasir (p.95). Having gone carefully through the new copies, which I collated, I felt compelled to revise my earlier opinion, and admit that the work is most probably genuine. The reasons for this are discussed further on.

Having decided to edit the text and prepare a translation, I made up my mind to go through all the known works of Nasir, in the first instance in order to look for any reference to the Shish-fasl, and, secondly, with the object of generally ascertaining its position amongst other works byt he same author. In the process of doing so I came across many references to Nasir's biography, personality, activities, and so forth, chiefly connected with his position in Ismailism. Many of this had already been known to students for a long time. But, owing to very insufficient and erroneous ideas of Ismaili doctrine, and generally of Ismaili affairs of his time, known only through the falsified and distorted accounts of enemies of the movement, it was usually either disregarded or wrongly interpreted. As the connection with Ismailism forms the pivot of the story of Nasir, I believe it would be useful to students to systemize and make accessible such references. I have no ambition to rewrite here Nasir's biography. As for this, I am sure, the time has not yet arrived.

The chief purpose of this note, therefore, is to draw the attention of students to the fact that the traditional view-point upon the subject requires thorough revision. Nasir's bulky Diwan merits further study, with new methods and new orientation. Owing to its peculiar nature, as explained further on, it is more replete with biographical allusion than, perhaps, the diwan's of many Persian poets, especially of Nasir's period.

A moralist, such as Nasir-i Khusraw himself was, might relish citing his case as an example of "reward in life after death." How many talented poets attained recognition, wealth, well-deserved fame and admiration during their life-time only to be soon forgotten? But the unfortunate Nasir, whose life was one of suffering and the misery of exile on a wild place, now, nine hundred years after his death, has become a real celebrity. All his works are being edited and studied, streets are named after him in the capital Persian, and in many other ways is he remembered. Hardly any other Persian author, except perhaps that fictitious collective poet who is known under the name of ‘Umar Khayyam, can rival his case. And yet a cynic may easily prove that all this is as much a play of incidental concatenation of circumstances as in any other instance. The attention of the West was drawn to Nasir not by his poetry, moralization, or faithfulness to the Ismailism, but by his Safar-nama, an account of a journey which he undertook not out of pure love of adventure, and described in the course of the propaganda campaign to glorify the Imam of his time. His poetry, which next attracted attention, evoked the admiration of European scholars not for its artistic perfection, but for quite an incidental reason. At that time in Germany, and more so in early and mid-Victorian England, people were still much under the influence of the Bible. In the crude and rustic poetry and primitive moralizing of Nasir such scholars found, perhaps quite unconsciously, something which to a great extent coincided with their habitual idea of the "real wisdom of the East," really "inspired poetry." While being unable not to appreciate, but often simply to follow, the really great achievements of the poetical art of Persian as too exotic for them, they were quite at home in the primitive, simple writings of the exile of Yamgan. Nasir's fame in Persia is an imported product. It has been brought from Europe together with many other foreign notions. Still in the second half of the last century the name of Nasir merely conveyed to the educated Persian an idea of a super-heretic and super-magician, as he was painted by the legend. His works remained practically unknown except for the two didactic mathnawis and a few qasidas.

We know the best Nasir as the traveller, have some idea of him as poet and moralist, but our hitherto universally accepted ideas of him as an Ismaili appear not only insufficient but mostly incorrect. This paper is intended to some extent to fill this gap. For the sake of brevity I will presume that the reader is sufficiently acquainted with the general biography of Nasir, from the introduction by Sayyid Hasan Taqi-Zada which he prefaced to the Teheran edition of the Diwan (1929), written in Persian, or from the pages devoted to the poet in E.G. Browne's "Literary History of Persia" (which is substantially obsolete now). Taqi-Zada's work, excellent as it is, however, possess a serious drawback against which the reader is to be warned: it does not reject the legend which has already begun to grow around Nasir's name at amazingly early period. It tries to find a way of reconciling and making partial use of it in a biography chiefly based on the analysis of the author's works themselves. Personally, I believe it would be a safer policy not to touch a source of information to which we have no key to understanding. This possibility may not be entirely ruled out that such legends contained grains of truth, but truth distorted and perverted is as useless as plain untruth.

Popular collective fancy and imagination turned Nasir into a super- magician and super-heretic, just as Avicenna became a super-scholar, Hasan b. as- Sabbah a super-assassin, Abdu'l-lah b. Maymun al-Qaddah a diabolical conspirator, and so forth. Popular memory is remarkably inconsistent. While may real heroes and great men are completely forgotten within a comparatively short time, fantastic figures arise, who, once created, live centuries, ad instead of fading out of memory, they increase in stature and acquire more glamour. In the case of Nasir-i Khusraw we may believe that his selection for such an absurd part was made not so much for his own attainments but on account of his close association with Ismailism. The grandeur of the background, against which his solitary figure stood, magnified it immensely, striking popular imagination, and setting it at work. Persians are real poets by nature, but at the same time very conservative and rather inactive in their mental life. They would not be bored by the retelling of the story of Layla and Majnun or Khusraw and Shirin by scores of poets, but would take special interest in the question as to how it was retold. Thus the original theme of Nasir the magician, one invented, was permanently introduced into the field of Persian mythology, and retold with absurd and fantastic details, entirely divorced from historical truth.