ABŪ SALĪK GORGĀNĪ

 

ABŪ SALĪK (SOLAYK, according to Forūzānfar) GORGĀNĪ, Persian poet, contemporary of ʿAmr b. Layṯ the Saffarid (265-88/879-901). The taḏkeras Maǰmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ and Lobāb al-albāb have preserved two fragments from his work in four bayts. In the first fragment, written in ramal meter (-ᴗ--/-ᴗ--/-ᴗ-), the established traditions of written poetry can be felt, evidence of the fact that the verses have been subjected to literary reworking in the process of repeated copying. The second fragment, although written in the form of the classical ḵafīf meter (-ᴗ--/ᴗ-ᴗ-/ᴗᴗ-), has a rhythm and images which reveal its roots in oral folk poetry.

Six other bayts (in hazaǰ, moǰtaṯṯ, możāreʿ and raǰaz meters) of Abū Salīk were discovered by Saʿīd Nafīsī in various sources (Farhang-e Jahāngīrī, Farhang-e Šoʿūrī, Farhang-e Rašīdī, al-Moʿǰam of Šams-e Qays); two of these attributed also to Šāker Boḵārī (Rūdakī in other sources). These verses use, for the first time in Persian poetry, some metaphors and poetic symbols which were widely used in the poetry of the 10th century: e.g., šaman-bot (shaman idol) and nabīd-e ḡāṛčī (morning wine). In one instance the poet compares the patron and the heavenly firmament ( carḵ) to a hawk (čarḵ) and a quail.

Bibliography:

B. Forūzānfar, Soḵan va soḵan-varān, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1350 Š./1971, p. 16.

Ṣafā, Adabīyāt I, p. 182.

S. Nafīsī, Aḥwāl va ašʿār-e Rūdakī, Tehran, 1319 Š./1940, pp. 1139-40.

Browne, Lit. Hist. Persia I, p. 453.

ʿAwfī, Lobāb I, pp. 10-11.

Lazard, Premiers poètes II, pp. 21-22.

Šams-e Qays, al-Moʿǰam fī maʿāyīr ašʿār al-ʿaǰam, ed. M. Qazvīnī and Modarres Rażawī, Tehran, n.d., pp. 285, 307.

A. Mirzoev, Ašʿār-e ham-ʿaṣrān-e Rūdakī, Stalinabad, 1958, pp. 21-22.

(M. N. Osmanov)

Originally Published: December 15, 1983

Last Updated: July 21, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 4, p. 384

Cite this entry:

M. N. Osmanov, “ABŪ SALĪK GORGĀNĪ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/4, p. 384; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abu-salik-solayk-according-to-foruzanfar-gorgani-persian-poet-contemporary-of-amr-b (accessed on 31 January 2014).