Sufi/Shi’a Poet KHATA’I or SHAH ISMA’IL I (Founder of the Safavid dynasty of Persia): POETRY & LIFE

SUFI/SHI’A Poet KHATA’I or SHAH ISMA’IL I (Founder of the Safavid dynasty of Persia) Poetry & Life. Translation & Introduction Paul Smith. Ismail I (1487 - 1524), also known as Shah Isma’il (takhallas or poetic pen-name Khata’i or Hata’i) was the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, ruling as its King of Kings (Shahanshah) from 1501 to 1524. His reign is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history. Isma’il is considered an important figure in the literary history of Azerbaijani language. Most of his poems are concerned with love, particularly of the mystical Sufi kind, though there are also poems propagating Shi’a doctrine and Safavi politics. This poetry either joined the sword in battle fields, or turned to the sermons of wise elders and sheikhs of sect, or commenter of heart full of love to the world and human. Khata’i’s poems encompass love to heroism, beauty, inner purity, but hatred to evil, ugliness, faithlessness, apostasy, infidelity and ignominy. Khata’i dedicated some his poems to propagation of Sufi views. His poems about Sufism express great humanism. He thought love to be unearth feeling and the way of spiritual eminence. Idealizing the love as ‘bearing power of universe, the poet also wrote the poems glorifying nature’. Isma’il’s greatest legacy was establishing an empire which lasted over 200 years. His poems are of ghazal, qasida, qit’a, murabbe and tarji-band genres. This is the largest translation of his poetry in English in the correct form. Chapters on his Life, Battles, Poems & the Forms he composed in. Selected Bibliography. Three Appendixes on letters to an adversity, Life and poems of Imam ‘Ali & Life & Poems of Imam Husayn. Large Print (14pt) & Large Format (7” x 10”) paperback, 234 pages. Comments on Paul Smith’s Translation Of Hafiz’s ‘Divan’. “It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished..” Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. “Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith.” Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of many mystical works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz’s Divan off by heart. “Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz.” Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author of poems inspired by Hafiz).Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and screenplays. amazon.com/author/smithpa New Humanity Books Read more