Connoisseurs of world literature need to spend some time acquainting themselves with the Divan of Hafiz, one of the foremost collections of Persian verse. Scholars agree this volume has exerted a singularly important influence on Middle Eastern culture, akin to Shakespeare's role in the sphere of Western letters.

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. In this volume we venture to the East. To met a poet who speaks a common language of love and mysticism which continues to convey valuable insights into...

You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen--the seven masks I have fashioined and worn in seven lives, -- I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, "Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves."Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me. And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, "He is madman." I looked up to behold...

Full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance, The Arabian Nights has enthralled readers for centuries. These are the tales that saved the life of Shahrazad, whose husband, the king, executed each of his wives after a single night of marriage. Beginning an enchanting story each evening, Shahrazad always withheld the ending: A thousand and one nights later, her life was spared forever.This volume reproduces the 1932 Modern Library edition, for which Bennett A. Cerf...

This eBook is a short and concise review guide of Othello by William Shakespeare. The review includes a short summary of the whole play, major themes in the play and explanations of those themes relations to the play, a character guide with brief details on the characters, and act reviews written in bullet point that go into more detail than the play summary.

The greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, Rumi has widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout history. Today, Rumi is one of the most read poets of the world, whose wise teachings in ‘The Masnavi’ and exquisite verses of the ‘Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi’ transcend all boundaries in their mystic brilliance. The Delphi Poets Series offers readers the works of literature's finest poets, with superior formatting. This volume presents Rumi’s collected poet...

Drawing from the famous translation of Sir Richard Burton, "The Arabian Nights" is a selection of the voluminous "One Thousand and One Nights", a collection of ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian literature. Many readers will recognize the more famous of these tales: "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor". These exciting and mystical tales can be found in this uncensored and authoritativ...

The Shahnameh, also transliterated as Shahnama (“The Book of Kings”), is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 “distichs” or couplets (2-line verses), the Shahnameh is the world's longest epic poem written by a single poet. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia i...

Bird Parliamentby Farid ud-Din Attar, Translated by Edward FitzgeraldAlso known as the 'Conference of the Birds,' this 12th century Sufi poem is a allegorical journey to the summit of enlightment.This celebrated Sufi poem, also known as Conference of the Birds, by the 12th century Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar, is a tale of a journey of a group of thirty birds to the summit of the world mountain, Qaf. An allegory of the Sufi journey to realization of the nature of ...

A Persian poet's masterpieceWhile better known in his time for his mathematical and astronomical works, eleventh-century Persian philosopher and poet Omar Khayyam is best known today for his romantic poetry collected in the Rubaiyat. This selection presents 365 of the approximately 1,000 quatrains, translated from the original Persian. Khayyam's poetry draws readers in with its lush imagery and timeless observations on the human experience and the metaphy...