When the blood of his thirsty throat fell on the ground, turmoil arose
from the earth to the summit of God's high Throne.
The Temple of Faith came nigh to ruin through the many fractures
inflicted on the Pillars of Religion.
They cast to the ground his tall palm-tree
*
even as the thorn-bush;
a deluge arose from the dust of the earth to heaven.
The breeze carried that dust to the Prophet's Tomb: dust arose from
Madína to the seventh heaven.
When tidings of this reached Jesus dwelling in the heavenly sphere,
he forthwith plunged his garments in indigo
*
in the vat of heaven.
Heaven was filled with murmuring when the turn to cry out passed
from the Prophets to the presence of the Trusted Spirit.
Mistaken imagination fancied that this dust
*
had [even] reached
the skirts of the Creator's glory,
For although the Essence of the All-glorious is exempt from vexation,
He dwells in the heart, and no heart remains unvexed.
I am afraid that when they record the punishment of his murderer,
they may forthwith strike the pen through the Book of Mercy.
I am afraid that the Intercessors on the Resurrection Day may be
ashamed, by reason of this sin, to speak of the sins of mankind.
When the People of the House shall lay hands on the People of
Tyranny, the hand of God's reproach shall come forth from its
sleeve.
Alas for the moment when the House of 'Alí, with blood dripping
from their winding-sheets, shall raise their standards from the
dust like a flame of fire!
Alas for that time when the youths of that Holy House shall dash
together their crimson shrouds on the Resurrection Plain!
That company, whose ranks were broken by the strife of Karbalá,
at the Resurrection in serried ranks will break the ranks of the
uprisen.
What hopes from the Lord of the Sanctuary
*
can those worthless
ones entertain who wounded with their swords the quarry
*
of
the Sanctuary?
Then [finally] they raise on a spear-point that Head
*
from whose
locks Gabriel washes the dust with the water of Salsabíl.”*
Whether or no this be accounted good poetry (and of course it loses much of its beauty in a bald prose translation Genuine feeling manifested in this class of poetry. encumbered with notes on expressions familiar to every Persian though strange to a foreigner and a non-Muslim) it at least reveals something of that deep emotion which the memory of the unforgettable tragedy of Karbalá never fails to arouse in the breast of even the least devout and serious-minded Persian. It has, like the poetry of Náṣir-i-Khusraw, who lived nearly five centuries before Muḥtasham, the great merit of sincerity, and consequently has a claim to be regarded as genuine poetry which we seek in vain in the elaborately artificial and rhetorical compositions of many Persian poets who enjoy in their own country a far higher reputation.
One other marthiya, or elegy on the death of the Imám Ḥusayn, I cannot refrain from quoting, both on account of Qá'ání's elegy on the death of the Imám Ḥusayn. the originality of its form and the generally irreligious character of its author, the poet Qá'ání (died A.D. 1853), one of the greatest and the least moral of the modern poets of Persia. The text is taken from a lithographed collection of such poems published, without title or indication of place or date, in Persia, containing 220 unnumbered pages, and comprising the work of six poets, namely Wiṣál, Wiqár, Muḥtasham, Qá'ání, Ṣabáḥí and Bídil.
<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>
“What rains down? Blood! Who? The Eye! How? Day and Night!
Why?
From grief! What grief? The grief of the Monarch of Karbalá!
What was his name? Ḥusayn! Of whose race? 'Alí's!
Who was his mother? Fáṭima! Who was his grandsire? Muṣṭafá!
How was it with him? He fell a martyr! Where? In the Plain of
Máriya!
When? On the tenth of Muḥarram! Secretly? No, in public!
Was he slain by night? No, by day! At what time? At noontide!
Was his head severed from the throat? No, from the nape of the
neck!
Was he slain unthirsting? No! Did none give him to drink? They
did!
Who? Shimr! From what source? From the source of Death!
Was he an innocent martyr? Yes! Had he committed any fault?
No!
What was his work? Guidance! Who was his friend? God!
Who wrought this wrong? Yazíd! Who is this Yazíd?
One of the children of Hind! By whom? By bastard origin!
*
Did he himself do this deed? No, he sent a letter!
To whom? To the false son of Marjána!
Was Ibn Ziyád the son of Marjána? Yes!
Did he not withstand the words of Yazíd? No!
Did this wretch slay Ḥusayn with his own hand?
No, he despatched an army to Karbalá!
Who was the chief of the army? 'Umar ibn Sa'd!
Did he cut down Fáṭima's dear folk? No, shameless Shimr!
Was not the dagger ashamed to cut his throat?
It was! Why then did it do so? Destiny would not excuse it!
Wherefore? In order that he might become an intercessor for man-
kind!
What is the condition of his intercession? Lamentation and weeping!
Were any of his sons also slain? Yes, two!
Who else? Nine brothers! Who else? Kinsmen!
Had he no other son? Yes, he had! Who was that?
‘The Worshipper’ (Sajjád)!
*
How fared he? Overwhelmed with
grief and sorrow!
Did he remain at his father's Karbalá? No, he went to Syria!
In glory and honour? No, in abasement and distress!
Alone? No, with the women of the household! What were their
names?
Zaynab, Sakína, Fáṭima, and poor portionless Kulthúm!
Had he garments on his body? Yea, the dust of the road!
Had he a turban on his head? Yea, the staves of the wicked ones!
Was he sick? Yes! What medicine had he? The tears of his eyes!
What was his food after medicine? His food was heart's blood!
Did any bear him company? Yes, the fatherless children!
Who else was there? The fever which never left him!
What was left of the women's ornaments? Two things,
The collar of tyranny on their necks, and the anklet of grief on their
feet!
Would a pagan (gabr) practise such cruelty? No! A Magian or a
Jew? No!
A Hindoo? No! An idolater? No! Alas for this harshness!
Is Qá'ání capable of such verses? Yes!
What seeks he? Mercy! From whom? From God! When? In the
ranks of recompense!”
Besides these maráthí (singular marthiya), or threnodies
of the classical type, the contemplation of the sufferings
More popular
religious poetry.
and misfortunes of the Imáms has inspired a
copious literature, both in verse and prose, of
a more popular kind. The mourning proper to
the month of Muḥarram finds expression not only in the
actual dramatic representations of this cycle of tragedies, of
which there are at least forty (a few of which, however, are
connected with prophets and holy men antecedent to Islám),
but in recitations of these melancholy events known as
Rawḍa [Rawẓa]-Khwání. These latter are said to derive
this name from one of the earliest and best-known books
of this kind, the Rawḍatu [Rawẓatu]'sh-Shuhadá (“Garden
of the Martyrs”) of Ḥusayn Wá'iẓ-i-Káshifí,
*
so that these
functions are called “Rawẓa-readings,” whether the readings
be taken from this or from some similar work, such as the
Ṭúfánu'l-Buká (“Deluge of Weeping”) or the Asráru'sh-