Juan Cole
On Christmas Day, I like to recall the significance
of Jesus and the nativity for Muslims. I’ve talked about Rumi, Attar, and other
mystics. Today it is Nezami’s turn.
The great Persian poet Nezami (1141-1209) was from
the city of Ganja in northwestern Iran when it was ruled by the Seljuk Empire.
That was the era of the Crusades and Richard Lionheart, though the Crusader
kingdoms were far from Iran and Nezami only once left home, to see the king. In
his Treasury of Mysteries, this Muslim poet refers to Christian themes several
times.
The most famous reference is an anecdote clearly
rooted in folk culture, though it captures something of Jesus’ love for the
despised humble folk (courtesans and tax-collectors). Here is my hurried, loose
rendering:
The feet of Christ, which traced the
world,
passed by a small market one day.
A dog big as a wolf lay fallen.
Like Joseph, the coat of its beauty was
bloodied.
A crowd of spectators gathered at the
scene,
like vultures circling the carcass.
One said, “This gruesome sight poisons
the mind, the way a breath blows out a
lamp.”
Another said, “It is a pure blight —
It is blindness for the eye, a plague on
the heart.
All expressed their own opinion,
heaping scorn each in turn.
When came the turn of Jesus to speak,
he eschewed blame and went straight to
the truth of the matter.
He said, “How fine was its bodily form,
and no white pearl can compare to its
teeth.”
Unlike the others around him, Jesus is here depicted
as finding something to admire even in the disgusting, putrid carcass of a dead
dog, according to this mystical teaching story. Nezami goes on to advise people
not to focus on the faults of others and preen about their own virtues. He
warns against being too full of admiration for yourself when you look in a
mirror. He says that decking yourself out in finery fresh as the spring is
dangerous. Fate is out there, looking for prey to devour, and you don’t want to
attract attention to yourself.
Here is an Iranian artist’s rendering of the scene
from the Safavid period, early 1600s:
“Folio from a
Makhzan al-asrar (Treasury of secrets) by Nizami (d.1209); verso: Jesus and the
dead dog; recto: text: The tenth article.” National Museum of Asian Art .
Creative Commons 0.
Nezami adds in Sufi fashion,
The entirety of this world, old or new,
is fleeting, and not worth two barley
grains.
Do not grieve for this world, but rise,
sir,
and if you do grieve, pour out some wine
for Nezami.
Nezami’s story is an illustration of Matthew 7:3-5
3 Why do you see the speck in your
neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say
to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in
your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then
you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. (New Revised
Standard Version Updated Edition).
The Gospels also show Jesus as reminding people that
they are in no position most of the time to judge others for their flaws, as
when he defended the woman accused of adultery from being stoned in John 8:7
7 When they kept on questioning him, he
straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be
the first to throw a stone at her.” (New Revised Standard Version Updated
Edition)
Muslim poets and story-tellers told lots of
anecdotes about Jesus that are not in the Gospels. He was a figure of wisdom
and self-denial, and the Persian mystics used him to symbolize the potential of
the soul for spiritual growth.
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