Mas'ud-i Sa'd-i Salmān () was an 11th-century Persian poet of the Ghaznavid empire who is known as the prisoner poet as well as the first poet ever of Lashkari/Lahori (later known as Urdu) as per Amir Khosrow's tribute to him. He lived from ca. 1046 to 1121.

Early life

He was born in 1046 in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

(in today's Pakistan) to wealthy parents from Hamadan, present-day

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. His father Sa'd bin Salman accompanied the Ghaznian Prince Majdûd under the Sultan Mahmûd's orders to garrison Lahore. Mas'ud was born there and he was highly learned in

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

, hippology, calligraphy,

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and also in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and subcontinental languages. His first work of note was as a panegyrist in the retinue of Sultan Ibrâhîm's son Sayf al-Dawla Mahmûd, whose appointment to

governor-general Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

of present-day North India in 1076 Mas'ud marked with a qasideh.

In prison

In 1085, he was imprisoned, in the fortress of Nay, for his complicity with Sultan Ibrâhîm's son, Mahmud.C.E. Bosworth, ''The Later Ghaznavids'', (Columbia University Press, 1977), 66. He was released by the sultan's successor Mas‘ûd III in 1096, who appointed him royal librarian. He came under the patronage of Abu Nasr Farsi, deputy governor of today's North India, and was appointed governor of Jallandar. Two years later, continued political changes resulted in a prison stay of 8 years, with his release in 1106. The last years of his life was spent in high favor, serving four consecutive sultans as librarian and panegyrist.

Poetry

He is known as a great Persian poet and is particularly notable for his use of conventional language and personal tone. Most of his works are written in the qasideh form, in which he followed Unsuri. He has some poems in other styles such as quatrain and qet'eh. During one of his prison stays, he wrote the ''Tristia'', a celebrated work of Persian poetry. He had relationships with some of the Persian poets, including Othman Mokhtari, Abu-al-Faraj Runi, and Sanai. One of his famous qasidehs about the

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

named ای وائی امید ہائے بسیارم: شخصي به هزار غم گرفتارم در هر نفسي بجان رسد كارم *I am fallen person in a thousand sorrows *In each breath my life's looking in end بي ذلت و بي گناه محبوسم بي علت و بي سبب گرفتارم *with no sin I am prisoner *with no reason fallen in trouble خورده قسم اختران به پاداشم بسته كمر آسمان به پيكارم *stars have sworn to hurt me *the sky has come to fight with me امروز به غم فزونترم از دي امسال به نقد كمتر از پارم *today in pains I'm higher than the yesterday *this year my soul's lesser than last year ياران گزيده داشتم روزی امروز چه شد كه نيست كس يارم؟ *I had many selected friends *what has become no one's remain هر نيمه شب آسمان ستوه آيد از ناله سخت و گريه ي زارم *every night the sky's made sad *with my painful sadness crying محبوس چرا شدم نمي دانم دانم كه نه دزدم و نه عيارم *I fell in jail, why? I don't know *I just know: I'm not still nor wicked بسيار اميد بود بر طبعم اي واي اميدهای بسيارم *to much desires I had before *oh alas! where is my lost desires ''Couplet:'' Transliteration: ''Gardou be ranj o dard mara koshteh bud agar!'' ''Peyvand e omr e man ne shodey nazm e janfezay!'' Translation: Had this sky (fate) got me killed with grief and pain (in my imprisoned state)! This patch (of garment) of my life would not have yielded life giving poetry!

References

* Jan Rypka, ''History of Iranian Literature''. Reidel Publishing Company. ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K * Selected Masud Sa'd Salman poems by Dr. Ismail Hakemi, Amir kabir publishing association,

Early life

In prison

Poetry

References

References

See also