Aishī’s ʿIshrat-nāma: a Dah-nāma with Unexpected Messengers

Abstract

In the first part of this article I presented an edition with a short introduction of ʿAishī Shīrāzī’s ʿIshrat-nāma, a poem belonging to the dah-nāma genre. In this second part I discuss the messengers who convey the messengers between the two lovers. At the request of his patron, ʿInāyat, an amir of the Aq-Quyūnlū Khalīl b. Uzun Ḥasan, instead of the usual messenger, the wind, ʿAishī chose for ten musical instruments. I argue that the choice of these instruments, and the way they are decribed, are not accidental but subtly convey the evolution of the protagonists’ feelings.

Keywords

• Dah-nāma. Mathnawī. Messenger motif. Musical instruments. ʿAishī Shīrāzī. ʿIshrat-nāma