The Shiite Poets Mentioned in the Book of Naqd

Hosein Poursharif [1]

The historical situation of Abd al-Jalil (as an outstanding Shiite scholar and theologian of his time) and the importance and use of his work (which is a book with a mode of argumentation and debate, and therefore not relying on doubtful, weak, ambiguous and disputable materials) have turned his words and book into a creditable historical source for the identification of denominations of a lot of scholars, writers, politicians, judges, … and also poets. Through a careful study of the works authored by recent Shiite writers of Tarajoms (such as: Majalis al-Muminin, Amal al-Amal and its annotations, Riyaz al-Ulama, Rawdat al-Jannat and Qisas al-Ulama), it can be noticed that because of a historical gap, the reports and leniency of the authors in identification of the individuals denominations (and in other words, considering them as Shiites) based on weak, brief and limited documents and proofs is not so much reliable; while the reports by Abd al-Jalil are almost unique because of their historical concurrency. In this article, there is an attempt to present a list of the names of Shiite poets mentioned in the book of Naqd in a historical order; so that we can reveal Abd al-Jalils acquaintance with the field of the Persian and Arabic literature of his own time and before that and also his skill in employing literature and history of literature in theological debates. First, a brief account will be presented on the poets and their works and then samples from their poems will be provided to reveal, to some extent, their thoughts and beliefs and their faith in Shiism.

Key Words: poets, the history of Shiism, Shiite poetry, Naqd.

[1] M.A. holder in Persian Language and Literature, and research assistant of the Research Center of Hadith Sciences and Knowledge.