{"id":3093,"date":"2020-07-28T21:07:15","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T02:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/?p=3093"},"modified":"2023-06-19T05:13:16","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T10:13:16","slug":"the-iwan-of-chosroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/2020\/07\/28\/the-iwan-of-chosroes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Iwan of Chosroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Iwan of Chosroes in Iraq is the only visible structure remaining of the Sassanid capital of Ctesphion (Mad\u0101’in<\/em> in Arabic), about 35 km south of present-day Baghdad. Its Iwan, or arch, the largest vault of unreinforced brickwork in the world, is considered an architectural marvel. Possibly constructed during the reign of Anushirwan (Chosroes I) c 540 AD, the ruins of this palace have served as inspiration for many poets, particularly due to Islamic legends that this Iwan cracked upon the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, signaling the emergence of Islam as a new empire and civilization that would replace that of the Sassanids.<\/p>\n

Below are three of the most famous poems inspired by these ruins. The first, written by the Senegalese Sufi shaykh, Ibrahim Niasse, upon his visit to the site in 1960, references many of the miraculous legends surrounding the Prophet’s birth and life; it is a celebration of the coming of the spiritual reality of the Prophet Muhammad into the world, eclipsing all other temporal power, and representing the miraculous, but inevitable triumph of truth, justice and spiritual authority over seemingly invincible political authority and power. The second, by the Persian poet al-Khaq\u0101n\u012b, inspired by his visit to the site on his way back from \u1e25ajj, is one of the most-celebrated Persian qasidas and takes the ruins as a moralizing reminder of the transience of power, wealth and glory, and the inevitable march of time which tramples all underfoot. The third, and oldest of these poems is by the ‘Abbasid court poet al-Bu\u1e25tur\u012b, and is a complex and vibrant celebration of the glory of the Sassanid kings, an appropriation and alliance of their civilization and time with that of the poet, and a textured reflection on memory, time, decay, and renewal. Whereas al-Bu\u1e25tur\u012b’s poem is largely celebratory of the memory of bygone glory and nobility, Kh\u0101q\u0101ni’s verse emphasizes its transience and evanescence, and the moral renewal such contemplation can provoke (as described in Qur’an 3:137, 6:6, 30:9, 40:21, 40:82, 44:25 etc.), and Niasse’s shorter, more straightforward and repetitive poem takes the ruins as a reminder of the glory of the spiritual reality of the Prophet and the once, future, and always victory of the truth over earthly power. All three poems are filled with literary allusions, creative and evocative imagery, literary devices, and profound musicality, as you can hear in the recordings below.<\/p>\n

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