Astronomy in the Poetry of Ferdowsi — Part One

Astronomy in the Poetry of Hafez

Astronomical phenomena may be counted among the earliest subjects to have invited curious human beings to contemplate them in the silence and solitude of the night. Many people mixed phenomena they could not understand with superstition. Alongside them, many Iranian scholars—as history attests—worked hard to reject or refute such superstitions. Iran can be regarded as one of the important historical centres of this science. One of astronomy's clearest expressions in Iran can be found in Iranian culture, particularly in the poetry of the country's great literary figures.

Examining their works shows that these scholars and poets, although sometimes accepting certain superstitions unquestioningly, also tried explicitly or implicitly to correct mistaken ideas. Among them were Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Zakariya al-Razi, and poets including Hafez, Saadi, Sanai, Khaqani, and Nizami.

Hafez incorporated astronomical ideas and imagery into his work in ways suggesting familiarity with the traditional science of hay'at (astronomy/cosmography), alongside his literary learning. The original article gives a series of examples. [source]

Rejecting astrology: In verses challenging fortune-telling, Hafez says, in effect, to ask one's own eyes what causes one's suffering rather than blaming fate or the stars; elsewhere he warns against attributing good and bad fortune to the influence of Venus and Saturn.

The Turning Vault of the Heavens

Image from the original article

Image credit: Yuri Beletsky

Journeying through the universe fills a person with wonder. As human beings on Earth, in purely physical dimensions we are exceedingly small beside the immensity of creation. If we, Earth, the Solar System, and even the entire Milky Way with its billions of stars were removed from the universe, it would be as though a tiny speck of dust had been wiped away.

It is here that we should laugh at our pride and self-importance. Sheikh Shabestari expresses the thought beautifully in the verses quoted in the original Persian article: beside the vast heavens, the world is likened to a poppy seed upon the sea, inviting us to consider how tiny we ourselves are even in comparison with that seed.

Although we observe the phenomena of the universe from afar, detecting and understanding the motions, approaches, departures, and transformations of planets and stars through their light, colours, and spectra, these motions and transformations carry much the same message for us in the twenty-first century that they carried for the poet Nizami centuries ago. The original article closes with his Persian verse reflecting on the luminous, revolving heavens and the idea of a mover behind what moves.