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Shahid Balkhi (or Shuhayd; fa, شهید بلخی, Shahīd-e Balkhī; died 927) was a scribe, philosopher and poet active in the
Chaghaniyan Chaghaniyan (Middle Persian: ''Chagīnīgān''; fa, چغانیان ''Chaghāniyān''), known as al-Saghaniyan in Arabic sources, was a medieval region and principality located on the right bank of the Oxus River, to the south of Samarkand. Histo ...
and
Samanid The Samanid Empire ( fa, سامانیان, Sāmāniyān) also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid amirate, or simply as the Samanids) was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, of Iranian dehqan origin. The empire was centred in ...
courts. He is notable being for one of the first composers of
New Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thr ...
poetry.


Life

The modern historian Francois de Blois has argued that the name of "Shahid" is a misrepresentation of chronicles, stating that during that period the name was only used as a posthumous title for Muslims that had been killed in battle, and thus using it for a living person "would seem ludicrous and indeed sacrilegious." He instead suggests that the proper transliteration is "Shuhayd", a name that has in few occasions been attested, and is a
diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A ( abbreviated ) is a word-form ...
of ''shahd'' (honeycomb). Shahid was born in Jakhudanak, a village near the city of
Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...
, where his father later moved and raised him. Of Persian stock, Shahid was bilingual in his mother tongue as well as
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
. Little is known about him. He was close friends with the polymath
Abu Zayd al-Balkhi Abu Zayd Ahmed ibn Sahl Balkhi ( fa, ابو زید احمد بن سهل بلخی) was a Persian Muslim polymath: a geographer, mathematician, physician, psychologist and scientist. Born in 850 CE in Shamistiyan, in the province of Balkh, G ...
and the
Mu'tazili Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness
f God F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...
); was an Islamic group that appeared in early ...
theologian Abu'l-Qasim al-Balkhi. The three of them, all connected to Balkh, appear jointly in the ''Yatimatu'l-dahr'' of al-Tha'alibi and the ''Mu'jamu'l-udaba'' of
Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...
. Based on this, de Blois suggests that Shahid may have been part of the somewhat pro-
Shi'ite Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...
Mu'tazili environment of his two associates. An adept scribe, Shahid was well-known for his accurate copying skills. Shahid died in 927.


Philosophy

Shahid was a fierce opponent of
Abu Bakr al-Razi Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (full name: ar, أبو بکر محمد بن زکریاء الرازي, translit=Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī, label=none), () rather than ar, زکریاء, label=none (), as for example in , or in . In m ...
, who was from the same philosophical background. Razi had studied under an obscure figure called "al-Balkhi", who may also have been Shahid's teacher, or regardless whose philosophical system Shahid adhered to. Razi is known to have written two
polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topic ...
s (about pleasure and
eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...
, respectively) against Shahid. The ''Siwanu'l-hikma'' of
Abu Sulayman Sijistani Abu Sulayman Muhammad Sijistani, ( fa, ابوسلیمان سجستانی) also called al-Mantiqi (the Logician) (c. 912 – c. 985 CE), named for his origins in Sijistan or Sistan province in present-day Eastern Iran and Southern Afghanistan, becam ...
contains a large excerpt from one of Shahid's books about the "superiority of the pleasures of the soul over those of the body", which may have been what Razi addressed in one of his polemics.


Poetry

Shahid also wrote poetry in Arabic, including two '' qit'as'' that ridicules Ahmad ibn Abi Rabi'a, who served as the
vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...
of the
Saffarid The Saffarid dynasty ( fa, صفاریان, safaryan) was a Persianate dynasty of eastern Iranian origin that ruled over parts of Persia, Greater Khorasan, and eastern Makran from 861 to 1003. One of the first indigenous Persian dynasties to emer ...
ruler
Amr ibn al-Layth Amr ibn al-Layth or Amr-i Laith Saffari ( fa, عمرو لیث صفاری) was the second ruler of the Saffarid dynasty of Iran from 879 to 901. He was the son of a whitesmith and the younger brother of the dynasty's founder, Ya'qub ibn al-Layth a ...
() between 891–900. Shahid wrote a similar poem about the governor
Ahmad ibn Sahl Ahmad ibn Sahl ibn Hashim (died 920) was an Iranian aristocrat who served the Saffarids and later the Samanids. Biography Ahmad belonged to a ''dehqan'' family of Merv known as the Kamkarian family, which claimed descent from the last Sasanian ki ...
, a distinguished governor in
Khurasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plat ...
. This led to Shahid's flight from the angry governor, first returning to Balkh after Ahmad's execution in 920. Shahid is best known for being one of the first composers of
New Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thr ...
poetry. More or less 100 of his verses have survived in the accounts of anthologists and lexicographers. These contain an erotic poem of eight lines, a portion of a ''
qasida The qaṣīda (also spelled ''qaṣīdah''; is originally an Arabic word , plural ''qaṣā’id'', ; that was passed to some other languages such as fa, قصیده or , ''chakameh'', and tr, kaside) is an ancient Arabic word and form of writin ...
'' written for the Samanid ''
amir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
'' (ruler)
Nasr II Nasr ibn Ahmad or Nasr II ( fa, نصر دوم), nicknamed "the Fortunate", was the ruler (''amir'') of Transoxiana and Khurasan as the head of the Samanid dynasty from 914 to 943. His reign marked the high point of the Samanid dynasty's fortunes. ...
(), a poem that uses shifts between Persian and Arabic verses, and a number of
couplet A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...
s from a poem of a story, supposedly romantic-related. A number of the surviving verses mentioned in the dictionaries have a
gnomic Gnomic may refer to: * Gnomic aspect, a grammatical mood or tense expressing a general truth * Gnomic will, a concept in Eastern Orthodox theology * Gnomic poetry, a poetic form * A Gnome (rhetoric) or gnomic saying See also * Gnomon * Gnomonic ...
or philosophical tone. Some of his lines have been hypothesized to have subtle references to the religion of
Manichaeism Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian prophet Mani (A ...
.


Legacy

Shahid's close friend and teacher in poetry,
Rudaki Rudaki (also spelled Rodaki; fa, رودکی; 858 – 940/41) was a Persian poet, singer and musician, who served as a court poet under the Samanids. He is regarded as the first major poet to write in New Persian. Said to have composed more tha ...
(died 941), dedicated an
elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...
to him; Persian poets between the 10th and 12th-centuries mention Shahid in an respectful manner, but after that he fades into obscurity. The modern historian N. N. Negmatov calls Shahid "one of the best court poets of the Samanid Nasr II, and one of the leading scholars of the age." In the ''Prison Feats'' ''
masnavi The ''Masnavi'', or ''Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi'' ( fa, مثنوی معنوی), also written ''Mathnawi'', or ''Mathnavi'', is an extensive poem written in Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi. The ''Masnavi'' is one of the mos ...
'' of the modern Iranian poet
Mohammad-Taqi Bahar Mohammad-Taqi Bahar ( fa, محمدتقی بهار; also romanized as Mohammad-Taqī Bahār; 10 December 1886 in Mashhad – 22 April 1951 in Tehran), widely known as Malek osh-Sho'arā ( fa, ملک‌الشعراء) and Malek osh-Sho'arā Bahā ...
, several historical and fictional anecdotes of historical figures are used, including Shahid. The same work also narrates a fictional scene, where Bahar meets Shahid.


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balkhi, Shahid 927 deaths 10th-century Persian-language poets Year of birth unknown 10th-century Iranian philosophers Samanid-period poets