New, expanded edition of Elizabeth Gray's translation of Hafez's ghazals

 

I recently came across Elizabeth Grey's website and was happy to find that there is a new, expanded edition of her 1995 book, Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan-i Hafiz-i Shirazi.

For this new edition, Wine & Prayer: Eighty ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz, Dr. Gray has joined with Iraj Anvar, a scholar of Sufism and Persian poetry, to expand the number of poems from fifty to eighty. 

Here is the book's notice on her website, with links to White Cloud Press and  Amazon for review and purchase.

Here is a nice interview with Dr. Elizabeth Gray and Prof. Iraj Anvar in Persian Heritage magazine. (click on image to go to the interview.)

A History of Persian Literature, vol. 2, Lyric Poetry

The second volume in this series presents the reader with an extensive study of some major genres of Persian poetry from the first centuries after the rise of Islam to the end of the Timurid era and the inauguration of Safavid rule in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The authors explore the development of poetic genres, from the panegyric (qaside), to short lyrical poems (ghazal), and the quatrains (roba'i), tracing the stylistic evolution of Persian poetry up to 1500 and examine the vital role of these poetic forms within the rich landscape of Persian literature.

Table of contents

Contributors 
Foreword 
Chapter 1: The Panegyrical Qaside-A Brief Historical Preview (J. T. P. de Bruijn) 
Chapter 2: The Panegyric Qaside In The Eastern Iranian World: Court Poetry In The Samanid And Ghaznavid Periods (Julie Scott Meisami) 
Chapter 3: The Qaside After The Fall Of The Ghaznavids 1100–1500 Ce (J. T. P. De Bruijn) . . .  
Chapter 4: Qasides Of The Khwârazmshâhid Court: Vatvât And Adib Sâber (Alireza Korangy) 
Chapter 5: The Qaside In Western Persia-Persian Poetry Goes West (J. T. P. De Bruijn)
Chapter 6: The Qaside In The Mongol And Timurid Periods (M. Keyvani) 
Chapter 7: Stanzaic Poems (G. Van Den Berg) 
Chapter 8: The Ghazal In Medieval Persian Poetry (J. T. P. De Bruijn) 
Chapter 9: The Flourishing Of Persian Quatrains (A. A. Seyed-Gohrab) 
Chapter 10: Shahrâshub (Sunil Sharma) 
Chapter 11: Hajv And Profane Persian (Paul Sprachman) 
Abbreviations Of Books And Journals Frequently Cited 
Bibliography
Index

Encyclopedia Iranica website

One of the many important resources for the study of Irān is the ongoing project, Encyclopedia Iranica. The image below will take you to iranicaonline.org, but here are some basic facts about the encyclopedia. 

The Wikipedia page for Encyclopædia Iranica gives information about the project, its current status (still publishing volumes), and the role of Columbia University in both this project, and the enormously ambitious History of Persian Literature project, which is discussed in THIS post. 

A note on the word 'turquoise’

 

The suffix -stan in Persian

The Persian suffix -stan ـستان‎, [-stân after a vowel, -estân or -istân after a consonant] has the meaning of “a place abounding in” or “a place where anything abounds.” It appears in the names of many regions in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central and South Asia, as well as in the Caucasus and Russia. The suffix is also used more generally, as in:

rigestân (Persian: ریگستان‎) “place of sand, desert,”

golestân (Persian: گلستان‎) “place of flowers, garden,”

gurestân (Persian: گورستان‎) “graveyard, cemetery,” 

Hindustân (Persian: هندوستان‎) “land of the Indus river” (India).

Khuzestan Province (Persian استان خوزستان‎ Ostān-e Khūzestān) is one of the 31 provinces of modern Irān. 

HERE IS A LINK to the Wikipedia page devoted to a century-by-century discussion of this ancient place. Note that it is part of the alluvial plain that drains the Tigris river. 

Another Important Sufi Poet, Mahmud Shabistari (c. 1288 - c.1340 ce)

Mahmud Shabistari was one of the great Sufi poets of the Persian tradition. His most famous work is the Gulshan-i Raz (The Mystic Rose Garden). I have selected some poems from a 19th century English translation to introduce us to the spiritual poetry Shabistari was known for. Click HERE for a link to the Shabistari page at dianwu.org.