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Вестник СПбГУ. Востоковедение и африканистика. 2018. Т. 10. Вып. 3
The Persian-Tajik lyrics of the poetess Maknuna of Kokand (second half of 18th — first half of 19th centuries)
Z. S. Abdullazizova
Tajik State University of Commerce (TSUC),
1/2, Dehoti Street, 734055, Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan
For citation: Abdullazizova Z. S. The Persian-Tajik lyrics of the poetess Maknuna of Kokand (second half of 18th — first half of 19th centuries). Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2018, vol. 10, issue 3, pp. 358-373. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2018.306
The article examines the processes of literary life in Central Asia in the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. On the basis of poorly studied original sources the author describes the life, the oeuvre and individual peculiarities of poetic mastership of the outstanding Tajik poetess Maknuna.The poetess's real name was Mohlar, but she is mostly known under her pen names 'Maknuna' (in Persian-Tajik verses), and 'Nadira' and 'Kamila' (in Uzbek verses). In her collected Persian-Tajik poetry (Divan) Maknuna expressed in poetic language a state of sincere rapture toward her lover.The poets literary legacy is defined by considering the number of ghazals in Persian-Tajik attributed to her and by conducting a qualitative analysis of their subject matter: love lyric, devotion to the (yar) beloved, commentary on affairs of state, ghazals dedicated to death of her beloved husband and governor, poems condemning heaven, criticism of the mendacity of nobles and preachers, ethical observations regarding correct usage of time, poems of loyalty, exultations on autumn in the poet's homeland, the place of poet in the society, and response-verses (nazira) typical of Persian-Tajik literature. It has been shown that the literary the poet's mastery lies in the use of traditional poetic acts that amount to responses to classic Persian-Tajik literature. It has also been shown that the masterpiece of the poet is in creating a literal image of the male beloved and that the theme of love is considered to be the main art of Maknuna's poetics and dominates her oeuvre. In the Persian-Tajik Divan, Maknuna expressed in poetic language a state of sincere rapture toward her lover. The genre-related and thematic, the ideological and artistic essence of Makuna's Tajik poetical heritage has been examined as part of the history of Persian-Tajik literature between 1750-1850.
Keywords: Maknuna, Mohlar, Nadira, Kamila, poetess, Central Asia, Kokand, Persian-Tajik poetry, divan.
The poetess Maknuna (real name Mohlar) (1791-1842) is one of the brightest representatives of the Persian-Tajik literature of the second half of the 18th — first half of the 19th centuries, whose literary legacy has not yet been properly studied.
There existed an opinion (not quite true) that in the 18th — 19th centuries, Persian-Tajik literature stagnated. The well-known orientalist Agafangel Krymsky wrote that over the last 400 years Persian literature degraded and the literature in Central Asia was gone, in historical terms [1, p. 193-194].
Studies of recent years indicate that about 50 poetry collections, divans and kulli-yats, as well as single works of Persian-speaking poets of Central Asia of the 18th and 19th
© Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, 2018
centuries have survived until present. Manuscript collections worldwide contain manuscripts of such poets as Kane Nasafi (d. 1786), Mirza Sadiq Munshi (d. 1819), Nasih Hat-lani (d. 1833), Shavki Kattakurgani (d. 1836), Junaidullah Haziq (d. 1843), Habo Darwazi (c. 1750-1800), Farig Ghisari (c. 1750-1800), Muhammad-Rahim Garmi (d. 1865), Hajri Darwazi (18th century).
A number of rather interesting studies are dedicated to the literary circle of the Bukhara Emirate; e.g., the works of U. Karimov [2], A. Abibov [3], etc.
This historical period of the Tajik literature is reviewed in the works of R. Hadizadeh [4], U. Karimov [4], S. Sadiev [4], S. Amirkulov [5], etc. However, the literary life of the Kokand Khanate is still underexplored, though it involved the works of such well-known bilingual poets as Sultanhan Ado (d. 1834), Fano Istaravshani (d. 1845), Madan Pangazi (1761-1846), Nazil Khujandi (1790-1876), Maknuna, and others.
In the late 18th — early 19th centuries, the territory of Maverannahr (Transoxiana) was occupied by three feudal states: Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand which were engaged in a permanent struggle for the expansion and fortification of their territories as well as for the establishment of centralized political and economic domination.
The literary life in the Bukhara Emirate had declined during the reign of Ashtarkha-nids (1605-1747) and revived gradually under the reign of the Mangit (Manghit) dynasty: Daniyal (1758-1785), Shah Murad (1785-1800), Haydar (1800-1827) and Nasrullah Khan (1827-1860).
In the Khorezm Khanate, literature evolved primarily in the Uzbek language and only a few poets' divans included poetry in Tajik. The poets were mainly engaged in translations of the classical heritage of the medieval Persian literature.
In the literary circle of Kokand, poets mostly wrote in two languages. During the reign of Abdulkarimbi (1732-1753), the Kokand Khanate gained independence and even became famous under the reigns of Alim Khan (1799-1809) and Umar Khan (1809-1822). According to Fazli's 'Majmu'a-i Shu'ara', over 75 poets lived and worked in Kokand [6].
Among them, the life and oeuvre of the bilingual Uzbek-Persian (Tajik) poetess Maknuna, who wrote under the pen names of 'Maknuna' (Persian lyrics), 'Nadira' and 'Kamila' (Uzbek poetry), presents special interest. Her creative work is inextricably linked with the socio-political life and literary environment of the Kokand Khanate of the first half of the 19th century, with its complicated socio-political conditions of oppression, tyranny, rampant fanaticism and prejudice.
According to Academician A. Mirzoev, over the last five hundred years, no other poetess in Maverannahr could rival Maknuna by the scale of her work and artistic mastership [2, p. 219].
Our analysis of the genre, stylistic, ideological and artistic features of Maknuna's poetry relied on the experience and works of the former Soviet, Russian, Tajik, and Uzbek researchers, international orientalists and modern literary scholars.
European and Russian scientists, such as A. J. Arberry [7], E. G. Browne [8], Jan Rypka [9], Jiri Becka [9], A.E. Krymsky [1], E. E. Bertels [10], and others, dedicated a number of their scientific works to the history of the Persian-Tajik literature and creative life of many Persian-Tajik poets. These scholars did not mention Maknuna directly, but their merits in studying historical, socio-political, scientific, cultural and literary situations are huge, since lacking the knowledge on the above aspects, we could not reconstruct the biography of this poetess and the characteristic features of her poetic creativity.
The first information about the poetess in the Tajik scientific literature was given by S. Aini [11, p. 95-196]. As evidenced by a comprehensive analysis of scientific sources dedicated to the Kokand literary community of the 19 th century, a number of interesting studies on the poets of this historical period was conducted by well-known Russian and Tajik scholars and writers, such as U. Karimov [2], U. Toji [12], O. Sokhibova [2], U. Na-zirov [13], D. Vahhobzoda [14], and others. Maknuna's creative life was addressed in original articles by U. Todji [15], O. Sokhibova [2], and U. Nazirov [13], as well as in the entire chapter within the dissertation of D. Vakhobzoda [14]. However, the creative life of this poetess was not described in the Tajik scientific literature.
We should give special credit to Uzbek and foreign scholars and writers, A. Qayumov [16], Rashid Utkir [17], O. Sharofiddinov [18], M. Kadyrova [19], E. Grassi [20], R. Sul-tanova [21], I. Adizova [22], N. Davlatova [23], I. Madg'oziyev [24] and others, who conducted research into the life and literary legacy of Mohlar, who wrote her Uzbek poetry under the pen names of Nadira and Kamila.
The Persian-Tajik poetry of Mohlar has not been studied in detail yet, though her Persian-Tajik divan (inventory 7766, Manuscript Collection of the al-Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan) was discovered in 1959 by M. Kadyrova, researcher of the Institute of Language and Literature, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
M. Kadyrova performed a comprehensive study of creative life and analysis of Mo-hlar's Uzbek divan (4182, written under the pen name of Nadira; manuscripts 660, 2090, 4179, and 921 represent its handwritten copies). She did not include the analysis of Mo-hlar's Tajik divan (written under the pen name of Maknuna) in her monograph entitled Nadira. M. Kadyrova noted: 'The discovery of the previously unknown Nadira's divans provided us with the opportunity to study more deeply the creation of this poetess. As is evident, Nadira left a great literary heritage in Tajik as well, but until recently it remained beyond vision of our literary scholars. The study of the Tajik divan, which is very valuable for its ideological and artistic level, is of great importance for a more complete representation of Nadira's work' [19, p. 66-67].
The scientific novelty of the present study is specified as follows:
(1) to highlight unknown aspects of Maknuna's life, (2) to study the texts of Persian-Tajik ghazals of the poetess using the comparative historical method of analysis, (3) to analyze traditional and innovative literary techniques used by her in depicting the image of a man, both as a person, and as a 'gold standard' of male beauty, (4) to reveal her literary mastery.
It should be noted that literary scholars sometimes attribute poets to one or another ethnic community depending on current administrative and political boundaries. However, it was owing to the political climate that bilingual poets and poetesses appeared in the Central Asian region during this period. The Persian-Tajik language was and persisted to be a language of literature — 'the language of the court and scientific community'. Analysis of Maknuna's ghazals proves that she was the most talented bilingual poetess of her time.
Maknuna (Mohlar) was born in 1791, into the family of Rakhmankulibi, the governor of Andijan [25, p. 204b-206b]. In her young years she got a good education. As a very young girl, she was espoused to Umar Khan [25, p. 418a-420a], a brother of the Kokand ruler, who himself was a remarkable poet (writing under the pen name Amiri). Umar
Khan was not only a beloved husband of the poetess he was also her teacher and poetic fetish.
In 1809 Umar Khan's brother, Alim Khan, was killed in internal feudal strife and Umar Khan became the ruler of Kokand. Over the next decade, 1809-1819, Maknuna gave birth to three sons, Muhammadali Khan [25, p. 418b-419a], Abdullasultan and Mahmudsultan [25, p. 445b]. In 1809, Umar Khan, following the rules of Islamic marriage law, married for the second time, and soon — for the third and fourth times. Maknuna was greatly depressed by these circumstances but she did not lose spirits, as she was the senior wife of the Kokand ruler and held a high position in society. She chose fidelity to her husband and all the pain of separation and mental suffering were expressed in her ghazals. Here is a fragment from one of them:
rast goyam roz ta sab be to mesozam zi hajr hasil-i bedart-yam dag-ast-u xab-am atas-ast dar kalam-am nest maknuna ba gayr az soxtan daftar-am majmu 'a-yi dag-u kitab-am atas-ast [26, p. 41a]
To tell the truth — your betrayal burns me night and day: I wake up scorched by anguish and my dreams at night are fire. The words of sad Maknuna are only the flame and nothing more: My grief burns in the paper sheets, divan of my poems is the fire1 [19, p. 70].
Frequent military campaigns and alcoholism undermined the health of Umar Khan and after seventeen days of severe illness, he died prematurely in 1822. The ruler of the Kokand Khanate became his 14-year-old son, Muhammadali Khan. Some researchers, e.g., M. Kadyrova [19], I. Adizova [22], U. Nazirov [13], and Evelin Grassi [20], believe that Maknuna unofficially ruled the state. We consider this opinion to be unsubstantiated. Muhammadali Khan was young, stubborn and spoiled [25, p. 701a, 716b]. When problems in the state governance emerged, Maknuna gave advice toward their solution, but he was always heedless of her advice.
We believe that if Maknuna ruled the state, she would have been involved in all the wicked deeds committed by her son, the ruler. Namely, he ordered the execution of his fourteen-year-old brother Abdullasultan and many high-ranking officials appointed by his father [26, p. 88a ] and he went on to marry his stepmother Hanpasha [25, p. 540a ]. Researcher Evelyn Grassi in her article 'Nadera' asserts that Muhammadali Khan married his mother-in-law, with reference to the book by H. H. Howorth, 'History of the Mongols: From the 9th to the 19th Century, II/2: The so-called Tartars of Russia and Central Asia', London, 1880, p. 827 [20]. Though we could not locate this source, we argue that E. Grassi's arguments are not correct. Our information that Muhammadali Khan married his stepmother [25, p. 540a] is quoted from the primary source, Muhammad Haji Hakim Khan's 'Muntakhab al-tawarikh' [25]. Muhammadali Khan dismissed one of the most influential persons — Masum Khan, Sheikh al-Islam of the state, and sent his son, Hakim Khan (the ruler of the Namangan, Kasansay, Chust and Turakurgan regions), into exile in Russia [25, p. 302-303]. Muhammad Hakim Khan tells in his memoirs about his relationship with Muhammadali Khan: 'I advised not to meddle with Hanpasha...', 'He did not
1 Maknuna's ghazals cited in this article were translated from Tajik by the author.
execute me but did worse — he ruined and disgraced me' [25, p. 559]. 'After this order I am preparing for my way to Russia' [25, p. 648]. The wanderings of Haji Hakim Khan lasted 6 years [27].
The poetess spent most of her life at the court in Kokand. The historical and literary works of Maknuna's contemporaries, for example, Muhammad Hakim Khan [25, p. 540a ], Ishaq Khan Tura [28, p. 31], and others provide evidence that the poetess took an active part in cultural life as a patroness of the arts. She promoted the development of science and literature, contributed to the construction of madrassah buildings, caravan-serais and bazaars.
In his days, Umar-khan gathered around him a whole constellation of poets and endowed generously those most honourable [25, p. 506a ]. The literary circle of Kokand started to dissipate gradually after his death. In order to support creative people, Maknuna invited calligraphers to the palace for copying the divans of the poets. She rendered material support not only to poets, but to all those in need. Maknuna's acts of charity were described in detail by Muhammad Sharif Nadir (b. 1743) in his 'Haft gulshan' masnavi [29, p. 213].
On May 2, 1842, Nasrullah Khan, Emir of Bukhara, launched a crusade to Kokand under the pretext of "protecting the purity of the Islam" [25, p. 714a], which ended in violence and bloodshed.
This campaign resulted in forcible annexion of the Kokand Khanate to the Bukhara Emirate. These tragic events were deeply rooted in the political and economic relations that existed between neighboring states, as well as the domination of the Bukhara Emirate [14, p. 74].
Historical chronicles offer several versions of the events around Maknuna's death. In our view, the most credible is that of the author of 'Munthahab-ut-tawarih' who wrote that after the execution of her sons Muhammadali Khan, Mahmudsultan and her grandson Muhammadamin, women of the harem came sobbing to the place of execution and Mak-nuna cursed Nasrullah Khan. He got furious and ordered the executioner to kill 'this mad woman' [25, p. 731a]. Thus came to a tragic end the life of an outstanding poetess.
In the preface to the book 'Nodira. Devon', its author, researcher M. Kodirova, suggests that the Maknuna's Tajik lyrics comprises more than 5,000 poetic lines (misra) [30, p. 6].
Another researcher, Evelyn Grassi, in her article 'Nadera' [20], claims that Nadira's literary legacy makes 5,000 beyts, though Grassi does not specify the source languages and refers to the study: 'Qayumov, 2001, p. 12'.The list of citations is not numbered, so we failed to identify the exact title and date of this reference publication.
The researcher R. Sultanova in the book 'From Shamanism to Sufism. Women, Islam and Culture in Central Asia' [21] mentions (no reference source provided) that the creative legacy of Nadira both in Uzbek and Tajik languages amounts to as much as 10,000 beyts.
Taking into account that studying Mohlar's oeuvre (aliases: Nadira, Maknuna and Kamila) is continued by scientists, they have not yet reached consensus as to how many beyts the poetess composed and such work is ongoing. But we believe that to date our calculations are correct, since we refer to primary sources.
Thus, Mohlar left us the Persian-Tajik divan (7766) signed under the pen name of Maknuna. It consists of 325 ghazals and 1 mukhammas written as a response to the Bedil's ghazal, a subtotal of 2,429 beyts [26; 31, p. 605-6 19]. Under the pen name Kamila, she composed 8 ghazals in Tajik [31, p. 10], about 64 beyts. Total: 333 ghazals and 1 mukhammas, about 2,493 beyts.
In Uzbek, Mohlar left the Uzbek Diwan (4182) signed under the pen name Nadira. This divan consists of 155 ghazals, 8 mukhammases to the Navoi's ghazal (64 stanzas, five lines each), 1 mussadas (4 stanzas), 2 muthammans (12 stanzas in total), 11 tarji'bands (8 stanzas each), 1 tarqibband (10 stanzas), 1 elegy "Firaq-nama" (10 stanzas) (a total of 1,706 beyts) [31, p. 597-6 04; 32].
Under the pen name of Kamila, she composed 11 ghazals in Uzbek [31, p. 10], approximately 100 beyts.
In 2012, one ghazal authored by Mohlar (7 beyts, written in Uzbek under the pen name of Kamila) was discovered in the Bayeze, inv. No 5045, stored in the museum's fund of the Andijan Regional Library [24].
Ultimately, the creative legacy of the poetess comprises 2,493 beyts in Persian-Tajik, 1,813 beyts — in Uzbek, and her entire oeuvre is above 4,306 beyts.
The Persian-Tajik poems of Maknuna preserved in the manuscript of the divan (7766) are stored in the Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. This manuscript was prepared under direct supervision of the poetess. Manuscript 4182 represents the original writing (protograph) of the Uzbek divan, and manuscripts 660, 2090, 4179, 921 are its copes.
The manuscript of Maknuna's Persian-Tajik divan consists of 132 sheets of Kokand paper; the texts of all poems are written in Arabic lettering, nastaliq handwriting, and are enclosed in gilded green frames. The first ghazal can not be read, due to the damage of the first sheet. The title page displays the seal of Mulla Muhammad Sahhaf and the date of 1329, which proves that Maknuna's divan was restored and rebound in 1911.
Creative works of Maknuna show a rich ideological and thematic diversity. We will focus on the following topics: love lyrics, a eulogy (yar) for the beloved (Umar Khan), commentary on affairs of state, ghazals dedicated to death of her beloved husband and governor, poems condemning heaven, criticism of the mendacity of nobles and preachers, ethical and gnomic observations regarding correct usage of time, poems of loyalty, exultations on autumn in the poet's homeland, and the place of poet in the society, and imitations (replies, or response verses — nazira) to classical poets.
In her Persian-Tajik divan, the poetess expressed in poetic language an enraptured state of great and sincere love for her beloved man. She dedicated many ghazals to the marvelous, happy days of her life when she enjoyed great influence in society and was immensely happy in the 'arms of her moon-faced darling'. Her voice is extremely poetic and she describes very skillfully the graceful figure of her beloved husband:
ay bahar-i jilva xurram az nihal-i qamat-at
dtdaha mahv-i tamasa az visal-i qamat-at
xubt-yu mavzunt-yu azadagt-yu dilkast
hast mazmun-e zi maktub-i maal-i qamat-at [26, p. 40a]
The spring is good, as your body is good, like a young tree, The eyes are amazed at meeting the owner of this slender body, Beauty, harmony, kindness and sweetness — all this Is only one (part) of the message devoted to your body1.
Maknuna was the wife of the ruler Kokand of, the 'first lady' of the Khanate and had a great influence in society. She wrote her ghazals as recommendations for governing the state:
hami-i xalq-i jahan bas ki hayat-i qaza
doxta roz-i azal xilat-i sahi ba bar-at
say farma ki barayad ba nakoyi nam-at
ta buvad nam-i nako hast ba alam asar-at [26, p. 32b]
Be the patron of people, for the tailor of fate
Sewed the mantle of master for you, on the day predestined,
Strive to deserve a good name, because
As long as a good name is honored, your trace will be left in the life.
In addition to the famous elegy 'Firaq-nama' ('Song of Parting', in Uzbek) [31, p. 237], she wrote over 15 ghazals in Persian-Tajik dedicated to the death of her beloved husband. These ghazals describe honourable, meritable behaviour and deeds, virtue, as well as the fair humane policy of Umar Khan. With poetic skill and exquisite delicacy, Maknuna, the loving wife, described the image of the departed male lover, a male ruler who has left for another world, and his qualities and artistic image is revealed from different perspectives:
xalq-est dag-i raftan-at ay sah-i mulk-u din dar matam-i tu zilzila uftad bar zamin dud-i figan-u nala ba gardun kasida sar dar hasrat-i tu soxt zi fargana ba ¿in [26, p. 351a]
People mourn for demise of the right ruler, During bereavement for you, the ground convulsed. Groans and sobs reached the Heavens, People mourned over you, from Fergana to China.
Maknuna was a person ahead of her time. She did not interfere in her ghazals in the particulars of everyday life and mundanity, but reweighs and sets all the values, and shifts the blame for all perceived negative aspects of life onto 'the Heavens', which is unkind to the desires of common people.
davran zabun-u yar sitamgar-u baxt dun
digar kuja rasad havas-i fikr-i xam-i ma
jan mekanem-u boy-i murad-e namerasad
yak bar ham nagast falak bar maram-i ma
maknuna xak bar sar-i davran-u ays-i o
xun sud nasib-i saqi-yi qismat ba jam-i ma [26, p. 9a]
Time is futile, my beloved is hard-hearted, happiness scorned, We are unable to change this, our thinking is weakly aspired. Though we attempt [this], desires are beyond reach, Heavens have never been kind to our desiring. Oh, Maknuna, let the earth swallow this time with its idlesse Since the cupbearer of destiny poured blood into cups, not wine.
In her works, the poetess praised the world, life, beauty of existence and love, reproved the hypocrisy of deceitful sheiks and the so-called preachers who pray and show themselves as profound believers when they mount the minbar (a pulpit in the mosque), but are two-faced and hypocritical in reality. Maknuna believes that lovers may drink wine and enjoy life, if their love is sincere. In the Persian-Tajik literature, 'wine' in most cases denotes the state when a man is absorbed in divine love [15, p. 40-46].
The works of Maknuna reveal the noticeable influence of poetic traditions of the medieval Persian classics, for example, dispraise of the deeds of deceitful sheiks and preachers; but despite this criticism, her lyrics is full of motives of worldly love:
az riya bigrez may xur 'isqbazipesa gtr
zahidan-ra masjid-u mihrab-u minbar afat-ast [26, p. 14a]
Leave the hypocrisy, drink wine, walk the road of love, A mosque, mihrab and pulpit are obsession for ascetics.
In her works, Maknuna, like other poets, paid much attention to the philosophical problem of careful use of time. This theme can be considered dominant in her moral-didactic ghazals.
She urges people to do good, be merciful and to meet the wonderful tomorrow. But time is needed to achieve this goal, and therefore, timely fulfilment of the planned doings is the main prerequisite for achieving the ultimate goal. While protesting against the fate and injustice of fortune, against distressing and sad days, the poetess tries to convince the reader and encourages him to spend time in joy. The poetess says: 'The world is not eternal'; she believes that time is fleeting and requires urgently for its careful use. Here are the beyts of one ghazal, which deserve special attention, in our view:
kar-i xud-ra bavaqt bayad kard
fursat-i rozgar darguzar-ast...
takya natvan ba fursat hastt
hamcu bad-i bahar dar guzar-ast
dahr ayina-est maknuna
har ki gardad ducar dar guzar-ast [26, p. 19b]
Manage your matters on time:
Life time goes away quickly...
Place no hope for the time: our existence
Goes away quickly, the same as the wind in the spring.
The world is like mirror, Maknuna:
Everyone who is reflected in it — goes away quickly.
Maknuna was also inspired by the nature of her native land and devoted it a lot of ghazals, which describe vividly the beauty of her country. Her spirits are in harmony with the pictures of nature. She devoted one of her ghazals to a red flower that blossoms in the spring meadows of the Fergana Valley and brings enjoyment to the human soul and body. But suddenly "red roses", instead of tears, poured from her eyes — gul-i surx-i mtza-yi tar, and "yellow flowers" — gul-i zard — grew from these sad tears. With this lyrical description of the spring nature, Maknuna managed to portray her inner world and the dramatic character of the events she was facing.
navbahar-ast sanavbar zada bar sar gul-i surx
taj-i zarrtn zada bar farq-i sanavbar gul-i surx
har kuja ask fisandam damad anja gul-i zard
tu ba har ja ki niht pay kasad sar gul-i surx
ta ba kay jilva-yi gulzar tamanna kardan
rez maknuna kanun az mtza-yi tar gul-i surx [26, p. 46a]
Spring has come! Cypress decorated its head with red roses,
The golden crown was decorated with the crown of cypress red roses.
Where I shed tears, yellow roses appeared,
But where you step — red roses are blossoming.
How long do [I] beg the flower garden to reveal its beauty?!
Spill now, Maknuna, the roses off your wet eyelashes.
The Persian-Tajik ghazals of Maknuna are a huge, deep and pure ocean of feelings. These are not only for the intimate links between lovers, but also the purity of relationships, sincerity, truthfulness, devotion, and humility. Maknuna believes that a wife should be modest, uncomplaining, harmless, and, most importantly, faithful:
vafa sukuftagul-i mahabbat-ast
ba har tartq tu maknuna dar vafa mebas [26, p. 89b]
Faithfulness is a blooming flower of love, In any case, Maknuna, be faithful.
Maknuna was an outstanding poetess and thus she could not avoid putting in a word about poetry. One of the ghazals tells that the pen complains of its 'black destiny'. Its complaints are the poetess's laments for the oppression and injustice pervading the world. The poetess has only one opportunity to express her thoughts and feelings — that is by an artistic word.
Maknuna compared her verse with weapons and the poetic line — with a sword. In this way, she silently declared war against her enemies:
gavhar-i hayalat-am xun-i xasm merezad
misra'-i buland-i man hamcu zulfiqar amad [26, p. 47b]
The pearl of my fantasy sheds blood of a foe,
My exalted verse is like a Zulfiqar (the sword of Imam Ali).
Maknuna dreams of a better future and calls her contemporaries to that: 'I have a dream that someday the sun of our happiness will rise and the gloom of a dungeon will come to an end'. And, as if summarizing her words about poetic creativity, the love of poetry and about her life, Maknuna says that she should write verses, since this is the best and only thing that she can give to the future generation. Only high poetry makes a person immortal. The following beyt illustrates her view:
saz ba masq-i sir maknuna
gayr-i o yadgar payda nest [26, p. 25b]
Engage in versification, Maknuna, No better monument can be found save that.
So, Maknuna believes that the greatest fortune in this life is the feeling of love "to the beloved, if he is beside you" (yar agar dar kanar meayad) [26, p. 46b]. Her beloved is as slender as a cypress, well-mannered and courteous 'sarv-i xusraftar' [26, p. 125a]. Thus, her lyrics is a declaration of love free from the Islamic manners and customs; it sounds like a song of a revived, pure, blameless, devoted, and tender love of a woman to a man.
When reviewing the cycle of ghazals related to 'advice for the rule of state', we concluded that Maknuna could only give advice to the ruler, since she lived in a period of dark feudalism and her consciousness was not yet developed to take revolutionary ideas. So, she asks the ruler: 'Be the patron of the people' (nyomii halki lyanyon bosh) [26, p. 32b ].
As a virtuous daughter of her land, Maknuna could not stay indifferent to the events of public life, but failing to find their solution, she blames "Heavens", or the "firmament" (falak) in all difficulties of life [26, p. 9a-9b].
Maknuna's favorite season was spring. Spring is a magical world full of florid colors, a powerful force of nature bringing the birth of new life, capable of awakening love in a human being. Maknuna describes very skillfully the graceful body of her beloved in the spring (see Verse 2 in the article). Despite the fact that Maknuna took heavily the death of her husband, she does not withdraw from the external world and continues to live and write ghazals.
Hence it follows that Maknuna's source of inspiration is life. By praising the spring nature of the Fergana Valley, describing her love feelings, her attitude to life and death, she expresses her public stance. Therefore, any of her poems can be regarded as conceptual.
Maknuna's ghazals are multivalent in terms of their content and subject matter. A number of her poems indicate directly that she is steady in following traditions of the great creators of Persian poetry — Saadi, Hafiz, Bedil, and Sayido. This is expressed in the fact that many Maknuna's ghazals reflect such traditional poetic techniques, as nazira, tatabbu', and the response poem, composed in imitation (and in the same verse meter) of the chosen poem by another author. These forms of poetic echoing do not suppress creative personality and originality of the other poet. Therefore, the analysis of poems written in these forms gave us an opportunity to reveal the rare poetic talent and originality of the poetess.
Maknuna's divan contains one ghazal, where the initial beyt sounds like this:
ay hayal-i qamat-at sarv-i gulandam-i dil-am
fikr-i roy-at subh-u yad-i kakul-at sam-i dil-am [26, p. 113a]
Oh, the dream of your body is a cypress in bloom for my soul,
Thoughts of your face are my dawn; those of your locks are the darkness for soul.
This ghazal is written in imitation of Bedil's ghazal with an introductory beyt, as follows:
ay hayal-i qamat-at ah-i za'ifan-ra asa
bar rux-at nazzaraha-ra lagzis az jos-i safa [33, p. 192]
Oh, the dream of your body is support to the sigh of exhausted, Glances are swept over your face; these are the sign of sincerity fuming.
Let us consider these ghazals of Maknuna and Bedil in terms of content and intention, idea and life view, reality of motives, means of artistic representation, creation of images, creative method and style, power of imagination and thinking, size, rhyme, and redif.
In the first beyt of Maknuna's ghazal, the body of her beloved is compared to a "graceful cypress" (sarv-igulandam), his face — to 'dawn' (subh), and his locks — to 'night' (sab). In this couplet, she used the antithesis very skillfully — i.e., sharply counterposed the phenomena 'dawn' (subh) and 'night' (sab).
In Bedil's ghazal, we are facing metaphors: 'cane' (asa) is for the body, 'fuming passion' (jus-i safa) — spirit.
This Bedil's ghazal describes certain life situations in a worldly manner; it is highly artistic, words and expressions are conceptually impeccable.
The poet works out and presents his ghazals to the reader in a tempting and attractive manner. For example, in the first line of the first beyt, the thought of the beautiful and slender body of a beloved woman straightens the bent body of a weakened lover like the cane for an old man. And when these weakened, exhausted lovers sigh, the fume from their sigh becomes straight, like a slender figure of the beloved woman. The cane for weakened lovers is also straight. In this case, the fume from a sigh, the body of the beloved, and the cane of weakened lovers are straight. All these closed allegories, metaphors, symbols and allegories serve to describe the slender and beautiful body of the beloved woman.
The second line of the beyt describes the soul of the beloved woman. She is so beautiful and pure that even the light radiating from the eyes of the lover could not resist its virgin, incredible beauty and slipped away. Actually, this ghazal, from the first to the last beyt, praises, via metaphors and allegories, fine features of the beloved woman's face and beautiful lines of her body. In this way Bedil created a captivating image of the beloved woman.
Thus, metaphoricity and deep poetic penetration make the core of Bedil's ghazal; while in the Maknuna's poem, the determining elements are the metaphor and poetic emotionality. In Bedily's ghazals, the lover is embodied in a man, whereas in Maknuna's ghazal, the woman is the active lover.
The findings of our analysis resulted in the following conclusions:
a) the poetic concept in Bedil's ghazal was implemented via complex combinations of comparisons, metaphors, hyperbolization of symbols, which permeate the poetic imagination by their power;
b) both ghazals keep the same metre (-'v--/-'v--/-'v--/-v-) failatun, failatun, failatun, failun (ramali musammani mahzuf). The rhyme of Bedil's ghazal is built on the only one vowel "o" and in Maknuna's ghazal — the rhyme (-omi), redif (dilam);
c) in conceptual terms, both ghazals are secular (unreligious), in general;
d) in Bedel's ghazals, we can perceive the poet's desire to penetrate with the power of thought into deep truth. Quite another purpose is sought in the poems of Maknuna. Here, we can trace the tendency prevailing in the Tajik poetic community to simplify Bedil's poetic sophistication and bring it closer to a wide range of readers.
Maknuna's divan comes to us as a storage of lyrical images created by a sensitive perception of reality and the skill to translate them into metaphorical images.
In the 17th century, Sayido Nasafi, when praising men's professions — a weaver, or a carpet monger, used the lyrical epithet moh (crescent, moon): mohi bofanda, mohi gilemfurush. In his "Shahroshub", Sayido marked the representatives of labor ranks with the poetic sign nigor (good-looker): a brushwood gatherer, a miller, a surmakash (kajal eye-painter): nigori horkash, nigori osiyebon, nigori surmakash. In praising different occupations — a khalvagar (khalvah-maker), a mason, a shepherd, and a donkey driver, he always preceded the title of occupation with the epithet dilbar (admirable). Praising one handsome young jeweler, along with other artisans, Sayido calls him dilbari zargar (here, in the meaning of a delightful heart stealer):
har ki yak dam hamdam-i an dilbar-i zargar savad sanggirad la'l gardad xak girad zar savad [34, p. 184]
Who, for a moment, becomes the talker to that heart stealer,
Takes a stone in hands — turns it into ruby, takes dust — turns into gold.
Thus, the epithets dilbar, moh, and nigor, that determine professional features of the lyrical characters: a jeweler, a khalvagar, a mason, a shepherd, a weaver, a carpet monger, a brushwood gatherer, a miller, etc. — show clearly that in literary processes, male epithets or signs become gradually replaced by that of female type, such as dilbar, moh, nigor, etc., and during the poetic life of Maknuna they got established as literary canons.
Similar epithetization is observed in differentiating between professional elements in towns, in urban bazaars and laborers shops, as evidenced by the poetry of Maknuna:
vah namedanam ¿i san dar 'isq-i tu tab avaram man giyah-u dilbar-i alijanab-am atas-ast [26, p. 41a]
Oh, I do not know how to endure your love, I am a plant; my magnificent beloved is a flame.
Maknuna is a brilliant master in creating the image of a man-lover (yar). To describe this image, the poetess operates with a set of classical artistic means that were included in a traditional list of beauty phenomena used in the medieval Persian poetry, both of secular and spiritual nature.
Love and faithfulness to the beloved (yar), high and idealistic feelings, were praised by other female poets too, but Maknuna used in her love lyrics such artistic means, as epithet, comparison, metaphor, antithesis, anaphora, epiphorus, which accurately and vividly translate her original vision of a unique, magical and tender feeling for the beloved man. For example, when describing his body, Maknuna most often chooses metaphorical epithets from the set of figurative expressions, such as sarv-i xiraman in beyt 1 (graceful as a cypress); sarv-i dilju in beyt 3 (beloved with a body like a cypress); sarv-i xusxiram in beyt 5 (beloved as graceful as a cypress), sarv-i ravan (graceful as a cypress), etc. Here is one beyt from her ghazal:
ay sarv-i ravan-i gulsan-i naz
husn-i tu bahar-i gulsan-i raz [26, p. 86b]
O graceful cypress from a flower-garden of bliss,
Your beauty is like a spring in a flower-garden of mystery.
In the 18th-19th centuries, the most popular poetic forms in Central Asia included ghazal, mukhammas, musaddas, nazira, muthamman, tarji'band, and tarqibband. Mak-nuna's contemporaries, Sultanhan Ado, Madan Pangazi, Nazil Khujandi and others had a great experience in creating these poetic genres. At the same time, Maknuna was perfectly mastered in these genres too, and managed to create unique works that are very valuable for their ideological and artistic level and are of great importance for a more complete representation of her oeuvre.
In the Persian-Tajik poetry, poets usually glorify in ghazals their love of a beloved (yar) woman, the term 'ghazal' means 'courting a woman'.
In the Persian-Tajik poetry, Maknuna played a great role in creating ghazals praising the image of the beloved (yar) man and she used various unique artistic means with much talent.
Maknuna is merited by enriching the Persian-Tajik poetry with unique metaphors, such as: dildar-i sakarha az dahan-i sirtn in beyt 98 (sweet beloved of honeyed lips); la'l-i zulalamez az surkhi-i pak-i lab-i yar in beyt 100 (a ruby mixed with the pure scarlet of the lover's lips); la'li hamush az surhii lab-i homush in beyt 101 (the silent ruby of scarlet lips); yo^uti ahmar az surhii bonuri lab in beyt 103 (scarlet yakhont of shimmering lips); sirhii lab-i yar ba akiki ahmar in beyt 131 (scarlet lips like red agate), etc., which she used to describe only the lover's lips and create an image (yar) of a man, an ideal of masculine beauty. For example, one beyt from her ghazals reads:
az la'l-i lab-at jilva kunad saz-i takallum
guldasta savad dar qalam andaz-i takallum [26, p. 100b]
My beloved talks pleasantly from scarlet lips, like a ruby, The talk turns into a bouquet under the pen.
So, the poetry of Maknuna was greatly influenced by the works of the Persian-Tajik classics, in particular, those of Bedil, where he used to express himself through enigmatic images, for fear of open judgments. Maknuna mostly took from Bedil's ideological content and developed the motives related to social resentment against despotism. In her poetic activity, Maknuna somewhat simplified the complex poetic representation she borrowed from Bedil and put more emphasis on the moral ghazals. In these works she stated that fidelity, patience, modesty, help, humanity, and other ethical categories are the pillars of Muslim morality.
There is one ghazal in Maknuna's divan, where initial beyt sounds like this:
dila ba isq-i butan talib-i vafa mebas
hamesa bar dar-i ahl-i vafa gada mebas [26, p. 89a]
My heart, be faithful to the beloved,
Be ever a beggar in front of the door of faithful people.
Maknuna was an outstanding poetess and she tried her hand at imitation (response verse, or nazira) of the Persian-Tajik classics (Saadi, Hafiz, Sayido, and Bedil). Traditions of these great predecessors, exactly in such techniques of artistic expression, as epithet, comparison, personification, metaphor, as well as traditional poetic techniques — nazira, tatabbu', response poems, composed in imitation of the chosen sample (the poem of another author), as a response to it and using the same poetic metre.
The most important place in this ideological and thematic diversity of Maknuna's poetry is held by her lyrical thinking and imagination: self-expression of a poetic self, love, the ever-burning flame and pain from parting with the beloved, the praise of sincere faithfulness in love, etc. — demonstrate the anxiety of the loving heart. But the poetry of Maknuna has deep traditional roots in compassion for the surrounding reality; therefore, she expresses her dissatisfaction with the existing world order, human deeds and society in this world. At that time her courage in expressing her indignation openly was considered revolutionary. For example, Maknuna does not interfere with specifics of everyday
life, whether of the household or occupational, but shifts the blame for all accumulated negative aspects of life onto 'the Heavens' — falak': 'falaki kach raftor' (lopsided Heavens), 'falaki donishmandkush' (Heavens — executioner of the enlightened ), charhi zolim' (cruel circle [firmament]), 'sipenri dun' (despicable firmament), to which we can add such global statements as 'zolimi mardum' (oppressor of the mankind), etc. For example, here is the beyt of one of the ghazals:
ay sipihr-i dun ¿i ayin-i jafakari-st baz
in ¿i berahmi-yu zulm-u mardumazari-st baz [26, p. 88a]
Hey, the despicable Heavens, what are the rules (of yours) to cause (people) torment?
Why such atrociousness and violence against suffering people?!
It is quite obvious that we are unable to address fully all the motives and problems raised by Maknuna in her works just in one article. However, we can assert with confidence that all of her oeuvre is unique and unmatched. Love is the main theme in her poetry; the poetess praises real human love, and her ethical and moral views serve the high goals of moral upbringing of the youth, while retaining their value until present.
Maknuna's extensive and most valuable literary heritage provided an honourable contribution to the cultural wealth, development and dissemination of Persian-Tajik language and literature far beyond Asia.
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Received: April 27, 2018 Accepted: June 15, 2018
Author's information:
Zebo S. Abdullazizova — PhD in Philology, Associate Professor; zebo61@mail.ru
Персидско-таджикская лирика азиатской поэтессы Макнуны (1791-1842)
З. С. Абдулазизова
Таджикский государственный университет коммерции, Республика Таджикистан, 734055, Душанбе, ул. Дехоти, 1/2
Для цитирования: Abdullazizova Z. S. The Persian-Tajik lyrics of the poetess Maknuna of Kokand (second half of 18th — first half of 19th centuries) // Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Востоковедение и африканистика. 2018. Т. 10. Вып. 3. С. 358-373. https://doi.org/10.21638/ spbu13.2018.306
В статье исследуются процессы литературной жизни Средней Азии второй половины XVIII — первой половины XIX в. На основе сведений, извлеченных из малоизученных оригинальных источников, описываются жизненный путь, творческое наследие и своеобразие поэтического мастерства выдающейся таджикской поэтессы Макнуны. Настоящее ее имя Мохлар, а Макнуна (в персидско-таджикских стихах), Надира и Ка-мила (в узбекских стихах) — ее псевдонимы. Определено литературное наследие, количество газелей на персидско-таджикском языке, и проведена их классификация по-тематике: любовная лирика, восхваления возлюбленного (ёр), изложение взглядов на управление государством, газели на смерть любимого мужа-правителя, стихи — обвинения «небосвода», критика лживых шейхов и проповедников, этико-назидательные стихи о правильном использовании времени, воспевание весенней природы родного края, стихи о верности, о месте поэта в обществе. Показано художественное мастерство поэтессы в использовании традиционных поэтических приемов подражания (от-веты-назира) классикам персидско-таджикской литературы. Показано творческое мастерство поэтессы в создании образа возлюбленного и мужчины, так как тема любви является основной в творчестве Макнуны и занимает почти полностью и всецело всю ее поэзию. В персидско-таджикском диване Макнуна выразила поэтическим языком удивительное состояние искренней любви к (ёр) возлюбленному. В работе также впервые рассматриваются жанрово-тематические и идейно-художественные особенности таджикского поэтического наследия Макнуны в аспекте поэтических традиций персидско-таджикской литературы второй половины XVIII — первой половины XIX в.
Ключевые слова: Макнуна, Мохлар, Надира, Камила, поэтесса, Средняя Азия, Коканд, персидско-таджикский диван.
Контактная информация:
Абдулазизова Зебо Садуллаевна — канд. филол. наук; zebo61@mail.ru
