Newly Found Poems of Shoorideh Shirazi

Introduction

The complete works of Shoorideh Shirazi, a poet from the latter half of the Qajar era, were published only once in facsimile (photo) format by his son, Hasan Fasihi, known as Ehsan, with the assistance of his grandson, Dr. Khusro Fasihi (son of Ehsan), in the year 2010 by the Publications of the Society for the Promotion of Persian Language and Literature of Iran, issue No. 23, in collaboration with the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Tehran-McGill, Canada. This publication was compiled into two volumes. Over the course of several years, the authors painstakingly observed and recorded poems inscribed on tombstones and epitaphs in cemeteries and sacred places in Shiraz which were attributed to Shoorideh. Furthermore, due to their interest, they also studied the poet's collection and realized that some of these poems remained unpublished. As a result, they decided to introduce these verses to literary enthusiasts in the form of a research article. Our fundamental objective in this article is to demonstrate that by studying non-written documents, one can observe verses by poets that may not be present in their collected works. This was indeed the case with Shoorideh, and we have managed to uncover 113 verses by this poet that are not found in his published collection. Although the authors could have referred solely to the two-volume printed collection of the poet, which currently encompasses the most comprehensive collection of his works, our scholarly rigor prompted us to examine all other works by Shoorideh to ensure that no poem or point escaped our attention. Similarly, this same number of verses was identified on epitaphs in Shiraz, although they were included in the published collection of the poet and their reprinting offered no additional benefit.

Research Background

The exploration of undiscovered verses is considered a necessary, interesting, and indeed beneficial research topic within the realm of literary studies. This aspect is particularly highlighted for poets of the past, especially those who are less recognized. However, contemporary poets can also be included in this subject. The scope of this research is broad enough to even allow for articles on poets such as Avicenna, Khwaja Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, and Amir Ali Shirnavai to be examined.
Mansoor and Shamooshaki (2016) presented an article titled “Undiscovered Verses of Lamei Gorgan”. Imami, Shirmohammadi, and Dehghan (2019) published an analysis of verses by Rudaki Samarqandi. Heydarpour Najafabadi (2022) published an article on Unsuri Balkhi under the same title. Maste Ali Parsa and Kameli (2022) identified undiscovered verses from the ghazals of Jamal al-Din Abd al-Razzaq Isfahani, while Sara Saeidi (2022) discussed undiscovered verses of Rashid Vatvat in her article. Although articles can be found on other aspects of Shoorideh's poetry, no such material was found regarding the understanding of his poetry. This observation provides a promising new perspective for the present article.

Research Methodology

This research was conducted through direct source study, involving considerable effort over several years, mainly focusing on the tombstones of the ancient cemeteries of Shiraz, renowned as Dar al-Salam, from a historical perspective. The inscribed verses were carefully read, corrected, and ultimately compared with the available versions in the poet's collected works (Diwan). Subsequently, these verses were presented as undiscovered poetry. Additionally, the notable figures mentioned and referred to in the verses were identified to the extent possible and introduced beneath the poems.

Conclusion

Shoorideh Shirazi is considered one of the prolific poets of the recent past, having compiled over several thousand lines of poetry in various literary forms within his Diwan. He was born in Shiraz in 1274 (AH) and became blind due to smallpox at the age of seven. Consequently, it is quite evident that a considerable number of his compositions did not reach written completion, as was the case here. In this article, we have discovered and presented 113 verses of his poetry from tombstones or inscriptions on city murals, and as mentioned, this endeavor will introduce several new faces from the cultural and artistic realm. After careful examination and exploration of the discussed inscriptions, several achievements have been made. The most significant achievement is the identification and introduction of over a hundred verses from the poetry of Shoorideh Shirazi. Additionally, the source of a colloquial expression or anecdote from Shiraz (the reason for swearing by the “two oppressed brothers”), whose historical significance was previously unknown, was identified through its narration. Furthermore, the genealogy and works of the Mazhab-Bashi family, which had been briefly mentioned in some texts before, were more comprehensively explored in this research, and even some unidentified tombs of theirs in Dar al-Salam were identified. The narrative of Saber Shirazi's prophecy regarding the reconstruction of the Taheri Mosque and its historical context was also elucidated and introduced for the first time. Moreover, the burial places of several notable figures and artists from Shiraz, along with their precise dates of death, were accurately determined, which had previously been missing from research sources. In conclusion, the importance of epigraphic reading and research demonstrates that discovering new insights and addressing some unknowns in the fields of literature, genealogy, personalities, and folklore is concealed within this domain, which undoubtedly contributes to insightful interdisciplinary research, particularly in the fields of social sciences, history, and literature