Khwaju Kermani (
Persian: خواجوی کرمانی; December 1290 – 1349) was a famous
Persian poet and
Sufi mystic from
Iran.[1]
Life
He was born in
Kerman,
Iran on 24 December 1290. His nickname Khwaju is a diminutive of the
Persian word Khwaja which he uses as his poetic penname.[1] This title points to descent from a family of high social status.[1] The nisba (name title) Morshedi display his association with the Persian Sufi master
Shaykh Abu Eshaq Kazeruni, the founder of the Morshediyya order.[1] Khwaju died around 1349 in
Shiraz, Iran, and
his tomb in
Shiraz is a popular tourist attraction today. When he was young, he visited
Egypt,
Syria,
Jerusalem and
Iraq. He also performed the Hajj in
Mecca. One purpose of his travel is said to have been education and meeting with scholars of other lands. He composed one of his best known works Homāy o Homāyun in
Baghdad. Returning to Iranian lands in 1335, he strove to find a position as a court poet by dedicating poems to the rulers of his time, such as the
Il-Khanid rulers
Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan and
Arpa Ke'un, the
MozaffaridMubariz al-Din Muhammad, and
Abu Ishaq Inju of the
Inju dynasty.[1]
Works
List of Poems
Divan (
Persian: دیوان خواجو) - a collection of his poems in the form of Ghazals, qasidas, strophic poems, qeṭʾas (occasional verse), and quatrains
Homāy o Homāyun (
Persian: همای و همایون) The poem relates the adventures of the Persian prince Homāy, who falls in love with the Chinese princess, Homāyun.
Gol o Nowruz (
Persian: گل و نوروز) The poem tells another love story, this time vaguely situated in the time shortly before the advent of Islam.
Rowżat-al-anwār (
Persian: روضة الانوار) In twenty poetic discources, the poet deals with requirements for the mystical path and the ethics of kingship.
Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language of
Iran,
Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of
Afghanistan.