Abu Najm Aḥmad ibn Qauṣ ibn Aḥmad Manūčihrī (Persian:ابونجم احمد ابن قوص ابن احمد منوچهری دامغانی), a.k.a.Manuchehri Dāmghānī (fl. 1031–1040), was an eleventh-century court poet inPersia and in the estimation of J. W. Clinton, 'the third and last (afterʿUnṣurī andFarrukhī) of the major panegyrists of the earlyGhaznawid court'.[1] Among his poems is "The Turkish harpist".
According to J. W. Clinton, 'very little is known of his life, and that little is derived exclusively from his poetry. Latertadhkira writers have expanded and distorted this modicum of information with a few, readily refuted speculations'.[1]
Manuchehri's epithetDāmghānī indicates that he was fromDamghan inIran, and his poetry shows an encyclopaedic familiarity with Arabic and Persian verse which was presumably acquired in youth.[1]
Manuchehri's activities can only be dated and localised via the dedicatees of his praise-poetry. Around a third of his panegyrics are addressed to Masʿūd. Of the rest, most are to major officials of Masʿūd's court. But some poems mention patrons who cannot be identified or who are not named at all.[1]
in 422-24/1031-33, when he composed poems dedicated to deputies of Sultan Masʿūd, who was at that time based at Ray.[1]
At some point following the death of Aḥmad b. Ḥasan Maymandī, vizier to Masʿūd, in 424/1033, Manuchehri made his way to the court of Ghazna, then under Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad Shīrazī.[1]
Manuchehri's date of death is unknown, but none of his poems seems to postdate his time in the court of Masʿūd in Ghazna; Masʿūd died in 432/1041, following defeat in battle atDandanaqan.[1]
Manuchehri left behind adivan containing fifty-sevenqaṣīdas . He is said to have invented the form ofmusammaṭ (stanzaic poems) in Persian poetry and to have written the best examples of this form; eleven survive. He is also known to have composed a fewrubāʿīs,ghazals, and other short passages. In the view of J. W. Clinton,[1]
Manūčihrī’s poetry has several qualities which distinguish it from the work of his contemporaries. His enthusiasm for Arabic poetry, expressed in imitations ofdjāhiliyya styleḳaṣīdas and frequent allusions to Arab poets, was unknown among the Persian-writing poets of his day. Even more distinctive, however, is his delight and great skill in depicting the paradisial beauty of the royal garden at Nawrūz and Mihrgān, and the romantic and convivial scenes associated with them, in the exordium (naṣīb,tashbīb) of theḳaṣīda. Moreover, he displays a gift for mythic animation in elaborating such concepts as the battle of the seasons (poem 17) and wine as the daughter of the vine (poems 20, 57, 58, 59 and 60). Though it is not unique to him, Manūčihrī’s engaging lyricism is remarked upon by all commentators.
The following are the opening lines of one of his most famousmusammāt, a poem consisting of 35 stanzas of 3 couplets each, with the rhyme schemeaaaaab, cccccb, dddddb etc.:
Metre:
There are 35 stanzas, each of three couplets, with the rhyme schemeaaaaax, bbbbbx, cccccx, etc. The poet plays on the similar sounding words:xīz 'rise',xaz 'fur',xazān 'autumn';razān 'vines' andrang-razān 'dyers'. In addition there isalliteration ofx, x, x, x, x (lines 1–2),b, r, b, r (line 3),r, r, r (line 4), andg, g (line 5), and assonance ofā, ā, ā (line 6).
The metre is 3.3.14 in Elwell-Sutton's classification, which is one of the various metres traditionally known ashazaj.[3] It consists of the familiarionicus a minore rhythm (u u – –), but with the first two syllables missing.[4] (SeePersian metres.)
The British modernist poetBasil Bunting published adaptions of a number of Manuchehri's poems from 1939 onwards, and a little of Manuhehri's sound-patterning seems to have influenced Bunting's English verse.[5]
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