“To care for souls and move them should be left to true philosophers and orators”, writes Francesco Petrarca (d. 1374) in one of his epistles. This assertion of the link between truth (philosophy) and poetry (rhetoric) draws from a long-standing concept, discussed by thinkers as varied as Plato, Cicero, al-Farabi, and Ibn Sina, that perceives temporal beauty (Gr. ‘kalos’, Ar. ‘jamal’) as a manifestation and proof of the eternal and sublime Good (‘tò kalon’, ‘jalal’). For poetry to perform its proper function of inspiration, elevation, and guidance, it must be grounded in truth; the harmonious sounds and structures of poetry informed by this truth will mimic the beauty of God’s creation and point to the majesty of God himself. The poet’s position in this scheme is essentially that of a moral philosopher, using his poetry (‘shi`r’) to inspire his audience and orient them along the path of righteousness (‘shar`’), whose underlying truth is demonstrated and substantiated by the beauty of the poem itself. Well-known for its dense interplay of structure and meaning, the Haft Paykar of Nizami Ganjavi (d. 1207) is a first-class example of this conception of poetry, “in which the various ‘levels’ of creation are parallel and analogous and exist in harmony with one another” (Meisami, “Medieval Persian Court Poetry”, 32). Each story is a colorful microcosm, with characters at their full range of dramatic potential and psychological depth (Chelkowsi), embedded in a frame tale that sets it in dialogue with its neighbors as a component of a unified moral-metaphysical system at the macrocosmic level (Krotkoff). This paper seeks to explore how this triangular dialogue between stories and frame may act as a commentary on itself, a meta-voice that fulfills the poetic injunction of moral guidance. Such a moment occurs at the structural center of the Haft Paykar, in which the stories of the Blue, Red, and Turquoise Domes, when read in relation to each other and the frame tale, reveal a vital distinction between three kinds of knowledge: empirical, religious, and esoteric. With knowledge and its interpretation at the literal heart of the story, this distinction suggests a method for reading the work as a whole and comprehending the truth within it. Thus, not only does the frame tale inform our interpretation of the individual stories, but the resulting intra-textual dialogue may guide our interpretation of the frame tale.

Poems, stories, songs, and films that recount the adventures of Layli and Majnun – that archetypal pair of sundered lovers – are now beyond tally. However, there is little doubt that it is none other than the Persian version penned by Nezami Ganjavi at the end of the twelfth century that decisively transformed the Arabic tale into the classic legend which would subsequently capture and hold the literary imaginations of India, Turkey, and even farther lands for centuries. This paper presents a reading of "Layli o Majnun" which casts the masnavi not as a straightforward recapitulation of a timeworn love story only subject to sufi-allegorical interpretations; on the contrary -- it shows that the poetic voice developed by Nezami for Majnun is aesthetically very different from his own, and that all the plot developments and evolutions of Majnun’s poetic style constitute Nezami’s criticism of Majnun for being a mere mystical party-line poet, whose lofty ambitions ultimately drive him to abstraction. The ideal poet – according to Nezami – would never have torn Layli's name from the scrap of paper in favor of some cloud-high, ineffable abstraction; rather, a truly great poet of individual and idiosyncratic genius would have kept Layli in full poetic view, never losing sight of her herself as the true object of adoration and source of inspiration. The "toronj" description of Layli in one of the early chapters – the first instance of Nezami throwing down the gauntlet with his own poetic style – would be an example of such an internal agon. In this battle of styles and voices, Nezami places far greater poetic value upon the particular qualities of an individual, whereas Majnun – and countless other mystical poets of Nezami's time – would rather idealize the sufi ablation of individual characteristics by divine unity (tauhid). The aim of this paper is to suggest an alternative reading of Nezami’s "Layli o Majnun" that goes beyond more familiar sufi interpretations by untangling the distinct and poetic voices of Nezami and Majnun, thereby also illuminating a vital aspect of Nezami’s broader aesthetic stance.

Among the enduring charms of Nezami's Haft Paykar is that it begs to be read in any number of ways. It is not merely a question of different levels of meaning or symbolism, although that certainly exists within the work. In a more basic, structural sense, the Haft Paykar can be examined at varying levels of focus. There are the stories told by Bahram Gur's seven princesses, which form the centerpiece of the poem. Each of these short stories could stand on its own, and yet each is presented within a certain frame by the princess who narrates it. The seven tales could in turn be taken as a collective unit, and yet they are all encased within the frame story of Bahram's reign. Even the tale of Bahram Gur is in some sense framed -- by Nezami himself. Faced with such narrative Chinese boxes, different readers may effectively end up reading very different stories. (For a case in point, see François de Blois' article on the Haft Paykar in Encyclopedia Iranica. He concludes, against other scholars, that the entire point of the seven princesses' stories is that they are a waste of time for Bahram, distractions from the actual work of ruling!) In this paper, I will start with the tale of the Sandal Dome, told by Bahram's Chinese princess, and work my way out. What appears at first to be a simple parable of two characters named Good and Bad may take on a different tone when considered in light of the princess' own commentary. Widening the perspective further, the Sandal Dome can be read alongside the Turquoise Dome, with the two commenting on each other. Finally, the Sandal tale (and its Turquoise cousin) may add perspective to the story of Bahram himself -- especially his later encounter with a shepherd. My primary goal is to show that it is both possible and fruitful to approach the narrative of the Haft Paykar from multiple angles and at multiple levels of focus, even simultaneously.

Like other didactic masnavis, 'Attar’s Mosibat-name recounts a series of narrative anecdotes interspersed with hortatory addresses to the reader and didactic interpretation. These anecdotes and their didactic commentaries are embedded in the frame story of a bewildered seeker (salek) who travels Creation searching for a cure for his existential confusion. This sort of didacticism does not sit well with modern literary tastes, which seem to assume that narratives should speak for themselves and didactic interpolations encroach on the readers’ prerogative to interpret the text. And while scholars of Persianate literature may use these didactic sections to unravel 'Attar’s theological, mystical, and ethical world-views (Ritter and Kermani, et al.), little attention has been paid to their literary function. This paper will examine the literary function of these didactic sections and thus take a step towards the underlying poetics of the Mosibat-name in particular and of moralizing masnavis in general. These didactic sections are not mere extraneous repetitions that re-articulate the obvious “natural” interpretation of the narrative, nor are they authoritative decrees that squash the reader's interpretative process, but they are mediators between reader and narrative. They are identical with neither the characters in the narratives nor 'Attar; instead they function as a sort of “disembodied character” in the poem, reacting to the narratives and producing new meaning in the text. Even when these moralizing voices seem to simply reiterate an obvious interpretation of the story, it is never a simple restatement; they usually address the reader directly in a hortatory mood and with moral generalizations, a drastically different poetic mode from the particularized (yet ahistorical), and often extraordinarily comic, narratives. At times the moralizing sections diverge from the narratives not only in terms of poetic form but also content, offering commentary that seems to go against the “natural” interpretation of the narrative. By offering the reader alternating interpretations for these narratives, the Mosibat-name problematizes unitary understandings, and this interpretative confusion intensifies the theme of bewilderment that the traveling salek attempts to overcome in the frame story of the Mosibat-name. Thus, although these didactic sections may seem to be extraneous and heavy-handed moralizing, they in fact create important meanings through their interplay with particular narratives and are key to the mood of the entire work.