Episode 3: Sana’i The Logic of the Birds

Professors Nicholas Boylston and Parisa Zahiremami discuss the poetry and legacy of Hakim Sana’i, the seminal Persian Sufi and court poet of the 11th-12th century. His magnum opus, Hadiqat al-Haqiqa (The Garden of Reality), had a tremendous influence on Persian poets and literature after him.







Further Reading:



Parisa Zahiremami, “Sanāʾi’s Hadiqat al-haqiqeh: Between Narrative and Non-narrative.” Iranian Studies 54, no. 3-4 (2021): 485-519.



——, “Cosmopolitanism, Poetry, and Kingship: The Ideal Ruler in Sanāʾī’s (d. 1131 or 1135 CE) Poetry.” PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2022.



Boylston, Nicholas, “Writing the Kaleidoscope of Reality: The Significance of Diversity in the 6 th/12 th Century Persian Metaphysical Literature of Sanā’ī,’Ayn Al-Qudāt and’Attār.” PhD diss..Georgetown University, 2017.



Franklin Lewis, “Reading, Writing, and Recitation: Sana’i and the Origins of the Persian Ghazal” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1995.



JTP De Bruijn, Of Piety and Poetry: The Interaction of Religion and Literature in the Life and Works of Hakīm Sanā‘ī of Ghazna (Leiden: EJ Brill, 1983).



Online Collection of Sana’i’s Poetry (in Persian): https://ganjoor.net/sanaee



Host: Oludamini Ogunnaike



Guests: Nicholas Boylston and Parisa Zahiremami



Edited By Alana Bittner, WJTU