Nasir Khusraw

Hakim Pir Nasir Khusraw

Nasir-i Khusraw is acknowledged as one of the foremost poets of the Persian language. Born in the Balkh district of Central Asia In 394/1004. Nasir was inspired from an early age by a tremendous thirst for knowledge. His intellectual abilities brought him much fame, a promising career in government service, and a life of ease and pleasure. But he was always dissatisfied by a lack of meaning and purpose in his life until one day, at the age of 42, he was dramatically transformed by a visionary dream. He converted to ismailism, renounced his worldly life and embarked on his famous seven-year journey to Egypt. Nasir arrived in Cairo in 439/1047, where he stayed for three years and became acquainted with ismaili dignitaries such as Al-Mu’ayyad fi’l-Din al-Shirazi. He was appointed to a high rank in the Fatimid Da’wa organization, and was later regarded as the hujja of greater Khurasan. When he returned to Transoxania, Nasir established his residence at Balkh, from where he bega to propagate the ismaili faith in the surrounding provinces. But Nasir’s success provoked the local people remote to burn down his house and compel him to seek refuge in Yumgan, a remote mountainous region of Badakhshan, today situated on both sides of the Oxus river in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Nasir spent the remainder of his life there, writing his philosophical works and composing poetry until his death 465/1072. He is venerated to this day in Central Asia as a great saint, poet and Philosopher.

Example of Hakim Pir Nasir Khusraw Poetry.

ar jan-i man chu nur-i imam-i zaman bi-taft

Laylu's-sarar budam-u shamsu'd-duha shudam

Nam-i buzurg imam-i zamanast zin qibal

Mas az zamin chu zuhra badu bar sama shudam

When the light of the Imam of the time shone upon my soul,

Even through I was dark as night, I became the glorious sun.

The Supreme Name is the Imam of the Time:

by which i acended, Venus-like, from the earth to heaven

Ay khwandah basi ilm-u jahan gashtah sarasar

tu bar zami-u az barat in charkh-i mudawwar

O widely read and globally travelled one,

You are on the earth and above you is this circular sphere.

Further on in this qasidah, he says:

Ruzi bi-rasidam ba-dar-i shahrikan ra

Ajram-i falak bandah bud afaq musakhkhar

One day I reached the gate of a city to which, The Heavenly bodies are slaves and the world subjugated.

Dastam ba-kaf-i dast-i nabi dad ba-bayat

Zir-i shajar-i alipur-sayah-u Muthmar

He (the Imam of the time) placed my hand into the hand of the Prophet for the bayat

Which took place under the exalted tree with extensive shade and abundant fruit.