Beauty, Love and Wisdom in Persian Poetry: Four Essays

About the book: The aim of this volume is to give the general reader the keys to understanding the works of the great masters of Persian literature. Four discourses exploring the heart and soul of this rich and ancient literary tradition have been collected here.

• The first, entitled ‘Poetics and Aesthetics in the Persian Sufi Literary Tradition’ demonstrates the underlying structure of Persian literature and introduces key ideas to open the doors to understanding this symbolic and mystical world.
• Secondly, ‘Of Scent and Sweetness: ‘Attar and his Legacy in Rumi, Shabistari and Hafiz’, leads the reader through the seven cities of love to taste the nectar of this great poet.
• In the third essay, ‘The Principles of the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry’, the reader will enter the paradisal garden of Hafiz with its four rivers of paradise.
• The fourth essay centres on Rumi and his magic flute, telling tale after tale to lead the listener through the secret sanctuaries of his own soul. ‘The Symphony of Rumi’ embraces a range of sublime mystical ideas often veiled under seemingly heretical or erotic expressions.