Links> Witry's Guide to the East

The Corn-Shucking Cracker's Guide to the Literature of the Mysterious East*

*(not to be confused with the Mysterious Easter Bunny)

• With Chinese and Japanese names, the first name is the family name, so if the answer is "Mishima Yukio," buzz in and say "Mishima" so they won't prompt you.
• This guide only deals with dead authors. For live guys, look elsewhere.

• Confucius, philosopher. Major work: Analects. Big fan of filial piety, civil service. Also know his biggest proponent, Mencius.
• I Ching. "Book of Changes". 64 hexagrams, used for fortune telling.
• The Art of War. By Sun Tzu. Guide to battle strategy. Emphasizes importance of tricking the other army.
• How to pronounce Pinyin (Communist) transliterations: "X" is pronounced "Sh", "Q" is pronounced "Ch", "C" is pronounced "Ts", and a "J" is a "J", not a "Zh"

• A.K.A. Shijing, Shih Ching, Book of Songs, Book of Odes.
• Anthology of China's earliest poems and songs, dating from 10th to 6th cent. BC.
• According to legend, edited by Confucius from 3,000 poems down to 310.

• A.K.A. Shujing, Shu Ching, Shang Shu.
• Court documents and essays from the Shang dynasty (1766-1040 BC) and the Western Zhou dynasty (1040-770)
• Contains myths about early godlike kings.
• Introduces the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to justify the Zhou overthrowing the Shang.

• A.K.A. Tao-te ching.
• Attributed to Laozi (Lao-tzu), but it was probably just some guy inventing a sage to pass his stuff off as smart.
• Main principle is wuwei (non-action): don't ever do anything about anything, and the Dao will take care of everything.
• Not written in any specific order: some groups have the book arranged so the "De" part comes before the "Dao" part (they call it the Dedao Jing).

• Poet, 365-427 AD.
• Wrote mostly of farm life, and how great it is.
• Kept taking government jobs, then quitting them and going back to the farm.
• Poems include: "Returning to My Old Home," "At the Beginning of Spring in the Year Kuei-Mao," "Returning to Live in the Country," "Return Home!," (do you see a theme here?) and "Peach Blossom Font," about a utopian farm community.

• Poet, 699-760 AD.
• "The Quiet Poet."
• Imagistic and economical writer.
• Big fan of Buddhism
• Poems include: "Hibiscus Hill," "Bamboo Lodge," "Deer Park."

• Poet, 701-762 AD.
• Wrote in an anachronistic style.
• Lovable drunk - supposedly drowned while trying to hug the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
• Lots of poems about the inevitability of change, and the peace one gets from solitude.
• Poems include: "Quiet Night Thoughts," "Ancient Airs," "The Road to Shu Is Hard," "Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon."

• Poet, 712-770 AD.
• Moved frequently, due to a succession of government jobs.
• Wrote about plight of the poor, his family (first major Chinese poet to do so).
• Generally regarded as the best Chinese poet by other Chinese poets.
• Poems include: "Ballad of Pengya," "Ballad of the Army Carts," "The Separation of an Old Man," "Autumn Wastes."

• A.K.A. Shuihu zhuan, Outlaws of the Marsh.
• Written by Shi Naian and/or Luo Guanzhong, c. 1400 AD.
• Novel, in colloquial language, about a group of bandits, lead by Song Jiang, who commit crimes because they were driven to it by a corrupt government (China's version of The A-Team).
• Based loosely on historical events
• Group is amoral, deeply committed to gang mentality
• (Mis)translated by Pearl Buck as All Men Are Brothers (Song Jiang would certainly disagree with Buck's sentiments).

• Attributed to Luo Guanzhong (1330-1400)
• First published version: 1522
• Historical novel, covering the period 168 AD (fall of the Han dynasty) to 280 AD (beginning of the Jin dynasty)
• The Three Kingdoms are Shu Han (led by Liu Bei), Wei (led by Cao Cao), and Wu (led by Sun Quan)
• Shu Han are the good guys, including the righteous Liu Bei, smart advisor Zhuge Liang, mighty warrior Zhang Fei, and brave general Guan Yu (probably the "hero" of the whole novel)
• Cao Cao is the bad guy, rising from prime minister of the Han to run his own kingdom. He's completely evil, and gets his in the end
• Go check out the video game version (available for SNES emulator at www.plasticman.org/emu/snesstrategy.html

• Written by Wu Chengen (1500-1582)
• First published version: c. 1592
• Episodic novel in 100 chapters, written in colloquial Chinese
• Based loosely on a historical event
• Tale of Tripitaka, a monk heading from China to India to pick up some Buddhist lit
• Has three companions: Monkey (a big show-off who has lotsa powers and wants to rule the universe), Pigsy (who just wants food, drink, and women), and Sandy (a ruthless killer)
• Satirical novel - Wu himself was a bit of a cynic

• Written under the pseudonym of "Xiao Xiao Sheng of Lanling" ("The Laughing Laughing Scholar of Lanling")
• Composed 1590's, first complete published version 1610
• Another 100 chapter novel, taking place 1112-1127 (during Sung dynasty)
• Story of Ximen Qing, a social climber who gets laid a lot
• Ximen and his wild wives all die young, a sign that you'll be punished for being decadent
• Also comes in another version without the sex scenes
• Feminists love this one, because it has some fairly ambitious women (who, incidentally, are all tramps - you can't win 'em all)

• Written by Cao Xueqin (1715-1763)
• First published version: 1792
• Semi-autobiographical novel, 120 chapters this time
• Tells of the slow decline of the Jia family, aristocrats in 18th-century Beijing
• Also about Jia Baoyu's love for Daiyu, when his family wants him to marry Baochai
• Baoyu is kinda effeminate, which doesn't go over well with his family - he wants to marry frail, neurotic Daiyu instead of robust, cheerful Baochai
• Baoyu was born with a jade pendant in his mouth - later, a Daoist monk finds Baoyu's life story carved on it

• Lu Xun (1881-1936), who thought that Chinese people were spiritually sick and generally a bunch of bastards, works include Call to Arms, Wandering, Wild Grass, The Grave, And That's That, short stories "Medicine," "Diary of a Madman," "The True Story of Ah Q"
• Xiao Hong (1911-1942), a female writer who wrote a lot about peasants, and was also a Hairy Stinking Wide-Eyed Bomb-Throwing Flaming Bolshevik, died Tragically Before Her Time of TB, short stories include "The Death of Wang Asao," "Hands," "Bridge," "Spring in a Small Town," novels include Field of Life and Death, Market Street, Tales of Hulan River, and the unfinished Ma Bole
• Lao She (1899-1966), another pro-peasant, pro-woman, pro-Hairy Stinking Wide-Eyed Bomb-Throwing Flaming Bolshevik writer (but Mao had him offed for going to America during the Civil War), novels include The Two Mas, Cat Country, Rickshaw Boy, plays include The Face Issue, The Dragon Beard Ditch, Teahouse, operas include Spring Wind, Fifteen Strings of Cash, Wang Baochuan, short stories include "The Grand Opening," "Mr. Jodhpurs," "An Old and Established Name"

• Metrical poetry and scriptural hymns, composed c. 1500 BC to c. 800 BC
• 1,028 hymns in 8 books
• Proto-Hindu writings - important gods are Indra (the war god and the weather god, gets a quarter of the hymns addressed to him) and Varuna (oversees moral behavior, punishes sin, sees everything under the Sun, kinda like an all-powerful Santa Claus)
• Everything is subject to rita (the Vedic equivalent of dharma, i.e. the order of the universe)
• Not strictly polytheistic, because the gods don't really have specific domains

• Supposedly written by Valmiki, sometime between 750 and 500 BC
• Divided into 7 books, 638 cantos, and 24,000+ verses
• Story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya and avatar of Vishnu
• Rama marries Sita (the perfect woman), gets exiled by an evil stepmother (but brother Bharata agrees to rule in his name), Sita gets kidnapped, and Rama and good brother Lakshmana team up with Sugriva the monkey king to rescue her
• Full of emphasis on tapas (voluntary suffering in the performance of one's duties)

• Originally written by Rishi Vyasa, but was repeatedly embellished between 400 BC and 400 AD
• Anybody who says they read the whole thing is probably lying: it's eight times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined
• Story of a family feud over succession to the throne of Kurulshetra
• The good guys are the Pandavas, children of Pandu, featuring Arjuna and cousin Krishna (another avatar of Vishnu)
• The bad guys are the Kauravas, children of Dhritarshtra, led by Duryodhana
• Pandavas follow the order of the universe (the aformentioned dharma), but the Kauravas don't (that's called adharma)
• The wife of the Pandavas, Draupadi, gets taken by the Kauravas as a prize in a dice game
• It's OK to lie, cheat, and steal if it's in the service of dharma

• Part of the Mahabharata, this bit written between 400 and 100 BC
• 700 verses long
• Arjuna prepares for battle, but is faces with the moral dilemma of killing his kinsmen - charioteer Krishna helps him resolve his doubts
• Goal of life: perfect union with God
• Comes out strongly in support of dharma
• Defines the castes: Brahmins are the priests, Vaisyas are the merchants, Sudras are the serfs, and Kshatriyas are warriors, and you always gotta do what your caste demands (this is called karma yoga)

• Translates to "The Path of Righteousness"
• Sayings attributed to the Buddha, probably written c. 400 BC
• 423 sayings, in 26 chapters - about 34 pages long
• The most important work for practicing Buddhists
• Be like the Buddha, and you'll be free from suffering
• Basically a summary of all of Buddhist thought. If you don't know what that is, look elsewhere, 'cause I'm not telling you

• Upanishads written between 600 and 300 BC - ambiguous, non-systematic, and generally not very coherent
• Vendanta Sutras (a.k.a. Brahma Sutras) written c. 200 BC to clear all this up
• Very, very, very compact statements, so compact that you'll need a commentary in order to understand it
• Brahman is the ultimate reality, and the cause of everything around us
• Your goal is moksha (release), where your soul gets to run free and become godlike
• Moksha requires an ethical discipline and wisdom: prayer isn't enough

• Rammohun Roy (1772-1833), nationalist essayist, tried to reconcile differences among religions, opposed caste system and inequality of women: works include A Gift to Deists, Translation of an Abridgement of the Vedanta, The Precepts of Jesus
• Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894), "father of modern Indian literature". Bengali novelist, pro-Hindu and vaguely anti-Muslim, supported social conventions, but was somewhat critical of British rule: works include Rajmohan's Wife, The Poison Tree, Indira, Krishnakanta's Will, Abbey of Bliss
• Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), author of over 1,000 poems, 2,000 songs, 38 plays, 12 novels, and 200 short stories. 1913 Nobel laureate. Another Bengali (hailed from Calcutta). Believed that the infinite manifests itself in the finite, that human love is a prelude to love for the Universe, and humans attain their highest good by transcending their egos. His songs are national anthems for two countries, India and Bangladesh. Works include: Gitanjali, The Gardener, The Crescent Moon in English, and Morning Songs, The Message of the Forest, The Newly Born in Bengali.
• Jaishankar Prasad (1887-1937), author of Kamayani, an epic poem about the Flood. This time, the survivors ar Manu (the human psyche), Shraddha (love) and Ida (rationality). Manu knocks up Shraddha and runs, but he later gets forgiven and goes with Shraddha to meet Shiva.

• Written by Ki Tsurayuki, c. 935 AD
• Written in Japanese instead of Chinese, to try to promote written Japanese
• 56 poetic diary entries, covering the ex-governor of Tosa's trip back home
• Uses a series of presenters, including (gasp!) women
• Celebrates the journey and the homecoming

• Written by Sei Shonagon, c. 993-1010 AD
• Sei is the other famous woman writer of medieval Japan - Lady Murasaki's diary describes her as a real bitch
• Mostly a meandering bunch of personal essays, lists, and poems
• Lots of nasty satire here
• Sei thinks that aesthetics are the only way to judge people, and the people of the court society are the only ones who are any good
• Women can be educated, too, and men are generally fools (Doesn't she sound like Dorothy Parker?)

• Written by Murasaki Shikibu, c. 1003 AD
• Really long - 54 chapters, covers 3 generations and 4 imperial reigns, and has over 400 characters
• Written in the vernacular
• Genji is a nobleman who gets a lot of chicks, including his stepmother Fujitsubo (they have a son, Reizei, who eventually become emperor), the Akashi Lady (the daughter of an ambitious monk), and his true love Murasaki (no relation to the author: Genji has to kidnap her to take her)
• Genji also strikes out a lot
• Doesn't really have a conclusion: when Genji dies, we follow his grandson Niou, until the tale just runs out of steam
• Sins are always paid back, humans are always linked to nature, and beauty always fades away

• Unknown author, written c. 1400
• Contains both fictional and non-fiction stories about the end of the courtly Heian period (784-1185) and the beginning of the feudal era (1185-1600)
• Story of the Heike (the Taira clan), who basically control Japan for about 20 years in the late 12th century, and how the Genji (the Minamoto clan) drive them from power
• The main character is the villain Taira Kiyomori, the boss of the Taira clan - he's arrogant, nasty, and gets his in the end
• His son Shigemori and grandson Koremori are nicer guys, but the Minamotos overthrow them anyway
• Nothing is permanent, and the Buddhist law of the universe (mappo) will always prevail
• The Taira clan loses because Kiyomori was so evil
• The winner, Minamoto Yoritomo, becomes the first shogun, so remember his name

• Urabe Kenko (1283-1352) - major work is Essays in Idleness, which are just that. Lotsa stuff about Buddhism and the medieval aesthetic. The Japanese love it, but it's not widely known in the West
• Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693) wrote ukiyo-e ("floating world" or escapist) novels, full of sex, humor, more sex, and even gay sex, targeted at townspeople instead of the nobility for once: works include The Life of an Amorous Man, The Life of an Amorous Woman, and The Great Mirror of Male Love
• Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) and Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827) were the two big haiku authors: Basho did the one about the old frog jumping into the pond, and Issa was the one who wrote colloquially

• Novelist, 1886-1965
• A bit of a hedonist, imitates Oscar Wilde in his early works
• Later focuses on changes in Japanese society, but still has some taboo themes
• Naomi (1926) is about a young woman who undergoes a Pygmalion-type transformation from traditional Japanese woman to Westerner (as demanded by bossy husband Toji)
• Some Prefer Nettles (1926) covers a modern couple, Kaname and Misako, who are constantly on the verge of divorce. Kaname gets charmed by his father-in-law's mistress, O-hisa, and starts to act more Japanese
• The Makioka Sisters (1948) are an upper-middle-class family who try to maintain their position despite modernization: they learn to cope because their Japanese values help them adjust to the new world - there's not really a plot, except for finding a husband for the selective Yukiko

• Fiction author, 1899-1972 (Nobel laureate, 1968)
• Inspired by free association and stream-of-consciousness, but didn't write in that style, since he thought stream-of-consciousness neglected the real world too much
• Lots of stuff about humanity being linked to nature and the power of the human senses
• Snow Country (1948) is about Shimamura, a middle-aged Tokyo guy, who keeps going to an inn on the snowy west coast of Japan, and keeps dallying with Komako - but he really wants the young, pure virgin Yoko (the most pure kind of love is love from a distance). Colors red, white, and black keep showing up
• The Sound of the Mountain (1954) focuses on Shingo Ogata, an old man on the brink of death, who idealizes and fantasizes about his daughter-in-law Kikuko. Lots of dreams here, of death, sex, and senility
• Other works: Palm of the Hand Stories, Thousand Cranes, Dancing Girl, House of the Sleeping Beauties, Beauty and Sadness

• Novelist, 1925-1970
• Lots of experimental works, loaded with irony
• Major theme is the contrast between traditional values and the modern lack of spirituality
• Very Westernized himself, but felt guilty about it, and was attracted to nationalist movements - on 11/25/1970, he and members of a private army broke into Japanese Self-Defense Forces HQ in Tokyo and committed seppuku (ritual suicide)
• Confessions of the Mask (1949): a pseudo-autobiography, covers his disappointment because his homosexual tendencies prevent him from getting chicks and because he expects to die gloriously when Japan loses the war, only to find himself still alive
• Thirst for Love (1950), short novel about neurotic old widow Etsuko who falls in love with simple farmer Saburo. When Saburo admits he loves her, she goes nuts and kills herself
• The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956), based loosely on actual event, features a young Buddhist monk who burns down a famous temple because he can't attain an inner sense of religion and beauty to match the temple: stylistically similar to Greek tragedy and Thomas Mann
• Nationalist works include Patriotism, The Voices of Dead Heroes, and tetralogy The Sea of Fertility

• Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), novelist. Early works are satires on Japanese intellectuals, but later deals with Social Darwinist themes (people are always in conflict with each other, and once detached from values, it becomes impossible to love). More self-liberating Buddhist stuff, too. Works include (early) I Am A Cat, Botchan, (late) Red Poppy, Kokoro, Darkness and Light
• Yosano Akiko (1878-1942), poet. Top female author between the wars, and a feminist (but not a Hairy Stinking Wide-Eyed Bomb-Throwing Flaming Bolshevik). Believed poetry should be all about feelings, individuality, and personal strengths (the prototype for teenage poets everywhere) - but wrote in old, traditional forms for contrast. Works include Tangled Hair and Verses in Idle Moments
• Nagai Kafu (1879-1959), novelist. Eccentric, with a big emphasis on personal freedoms. Wrote mostly about life during the Tokugawa shoguns (1603-1867), with praise for the common man and implicit criticism of the modernization of Japan. Works include The River Sumida, Geisha in Rivalry, A Strange Tale from East of the River, A Daily Account of the Calamity
• Shiga Naoya (1883-1971), novelist and short-story writer. Sometimes called "the God of the Japanese novel," but is a difficult read and an acquired taste. Nearly all works are semi-autobiographical, because he felt that would hold the most sincerity. Simple style, with emphasis on the goodness of nature and emotion. Novels include Otsu Junkichi, Reconciliation, A Dark Night's Passing and short stories include "The Razor," "Seibei and His Gourds," "Gray Moon"
• Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927), short-story author. A.k.a. "the Edgar Allen Poe of Japan." Lots of grotesque and exotic tales of old Japan (like the 12th century, when the Heian court was in decay, and the 16th century, when the Christian missionaries first showed up). Kurosawa's Rashomon is based on two of his short stories: "Rashomon" (an unemployed guy who hides from the rain under the dilapidated Rasho Gate sees a woman collecting hair from corpses to sell, so he steals her kimono and runs away) and "In the Grove" (a bandit robs a couple and kills a man, and we hear the story from 7 points of view). Went mad and committed suicide. Other works include "Yam Gruel," "The Bandits," "The Spirder's Thread," "The Hell Screen," "Death of a Martyr," "Christ in Nanking," "Cogwheels"
• Ibuse Masuji (1898-1992), novelist and short-story author. Wrote in many styles, from humorous to bitter, mostly about the lives of commoners. Satirized Japan's war efforts in Waves: A War Diary and Lieutenant Lookeast. A native of Hiroshima, he also wrote a lot about the effects of the atomic bomb, like Black Rain (deals with prejudice against survivors, interwoven with diary entries from 1945). Inspired Oe Kenzaburo. Other works: "Salamander," "Tajinko Village," "A Geisha Remembers," John Manjiro: A Castaway's Chronicle

• Pak Chiwon, essayist and short story author (1737-1805). Sought social progress by learning from the Chinese. Also a critic of the nobility, since they got all the privileges but didn't produce anything. Works include Jehol Diary, The Story of Master Ho, A Tiger's Reprimand

• Attributed to Allah via Muhammed (570-632)
• First published c. 650 (the "Uthmanic" version, named for the third caliph, Uthman)
• 6,252 verses, divided into 114 suras (chapters)
• Not a narrative, just some sayings (c.f. the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament)
• Worship Allah alone - elevating anything else to the level of god is idolatry (known here as - no kidding - shirk)
• Only humans have the choice not to be Muslim ("one who surrenders to Allah"). If they don't yield to God, it's because they're ingrates who see all the signs of Allah but choose to ignore Allah's gifts
• Important Biblical figures who show up here are Noah, Abraham, Lot, Joseph, Jonah, Job, David, Solomon, Moses, Zacharias, John the Baptist, Mary, and Jesus, showing that Allah will save you from danger (saved Noah from the flood, Moses from the Pharoah, Jesus from crucifixion)
• Societal rules are harsh by modern standards, but a big improvement on the generally barbaric pre-Islamic society
• Other spiritual guidance comes from the Hadith (which is Muhammed talking, not Allah, and which pretty much everybody believes to be a forgery)
• Pretty much untranslatable

• Group of stories from various oral traditions (Indian, Greek, Mesopotamian, Persian, Egyptian, Arabic), compiled and written down c. 1100 AD
• Not really a big part of Arabic literary tradition, but the Europeans loved it
• The Euros were the first to try to put together 1,001 of them - 1,001 to the Arabs was close enough to infinity that they didn't care how many there were
• Frame story is about Shahrayar, who gets cuckolded and a valuable ring stolen from him by a princess, so he gets really mad and decides to wed a virgin every night and lop off her head in the morning - grand vizier (chief advisor)'s daughter Scheherazad decides to wed Shahrayar, tell a story every night, then cut off at a key point at dawn, so the king keeps delaying the execution
• Lots of supernatural stuff, but you already knew that
• Also a lot of crime stories, exposing the gritty underside of society
• You already know about Aladdin (he's Chinese, by the way), Ali Baba, and Sindbad - add to them tragic lovers Aziz and Aziza, rogues-turned-cops Ahmed al-Danaf and Hasan Shuman, Abbasid king Harun al-Rashid (the real-life king when the Nights were compiled), and the glamorous and completely dead City of Brass

• Literary genre, flourished 900-1200 AD, featuring glib-tongued con-men who deliver lectures and get paid to tell stories
• The big guys in this genre are al-Hamadhani (969-1008) and al-Hariri (1054-1122): al-Hamadhani wrote satires about prankster al-Iskandari, while al-Hariri covers a similar guy named a-Saruji, but al-Hariri is a bit of a literary showoff
• Genre was later adapted by Spaniards from Cordova (possibly influencing the picaresque novel), Jews (Judah ben Solomon Harizi wrote some in Hebrew) and modern Arabic writers, who use them as satires

• Taha-Husayn (1889-1973), an Egyptian with Western sympathies, wrote essays, narratives, and lit crit urging Egypt to modernize and learn from the West, separate church from state, and try not to forget their Arabic cultural heritage: works include On Pre-Islamic Poetry, The Future of Culture in Egypt, The Call of the Karawan
• Tawfiq al-Hakim (1898-1987), novelist and playwright, an elitist (indeed, he wrote a book of essays called "From the Ivory Tower") who believed that artists and thinkers were really great and should guide everybody else, works include novels The Return of the Spirit, Bird from the East, and The Diary of a Rural Prosecutor, and plays The Men of the Cave, Shahrazad, Pygmalion, Muhammed, Soft Hands, Journey to the Future
• Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972), premiere Palestinian author, focuses on democratic and peaceful liberation for Palestine, urges compassion for refugees, and cooperation with Israelis (naturally, he got blowed up by a car bomb in Beirut): works include Men in the Sun, All That's Left to You, Return to Haifa, Umm Sa'ad

• Scientist and doctor Avicenna (980-1037), writer of Canon of Medicine and The Cure (a commentary on Aristotle), considered a skeptic
• Travel author Ibn Batuta (1304-1377), who went to Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia (now mainly Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan), India, Indonesia, and China and wrote about them in Rihla
• Historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), with remarkably modern views of the rise and fall of civilizations. Wrote about North African history in Muqaddama, Vol. 1 of the 7 volume Universal History - Toynbee, for one, loved him

• "The Book of Kings", written by Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi (934-1020), completed 1010
• Persia's national epic, 50,000 lines long, starting with the creation of the world and running to the first Islamic rulers
• Was not politically a smart thing to write, since it praised the Samanid dynasty (the last Zoroastrian dynasty) - which had been overthrown by the Ghaznavids, who were still in power when Ferdowsi wrote the epic
• Begins with the legendary Kayanian dynasty, who always fight the evil Turkish Turanians, and who segue into the Achaemenids (the last Kayanian is Dara, a.k.a. Darius, the last of the Achaemenids)
• Cameo by Eskandar (Alexander the Great), then skips the Seleucids and Parthians, going straight to the Sasanians, who fight the Romans, and the Samanids, who finally lose out to Islam

• "Rubaiyat" means "quatrains", and lots of other writers have done them, too
• Khayyam (1048-1131) is generally considered a minor poet in Iran (the big guys are Fardowsi, Hafez, and Sa'di), but a big-time scholar: wrote about algebra, astronomy, and philosophy, and reformed the Persian calendar in 1079
• Big-time skeptic and fan of Avicenna. Not exactly an observant Muslim (after all, the Quran forbids that "jug of wine")
• Somewhat hedonistic, urges people to live for the moment and look beyond religious beliefs (just trust in God, he says, and you'll be fine)
• Quatrains are all separate, but famous English translator Edward FitzGerald turned it into a story, and makes it somewhat more maudlin than Khayyam intended
• May be one of the few works that is better in translation than the original

• Sufis are Islamic mystics (and heretics, if you ask most Muslims), but you already knew that - the big guy here is Ibn Araby
• Farid ud-Din Attar (1120?-1193?) wrote The Conference of the Birds (1177) about a bunch of birds who find out they have a king, Simorgh, and with the aid of their guide, a hoopoe, they discover that they are the King - now you figure out the allegory here
• Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) wrote Masnavi, a long poem full of smaller allegorical anecdotes, and which promotes freeing the soul from the confines of the world
• Jami (1414-1492), author of prose and verse. A Sufi, but a really conservative one (one of the last famous Sunni Muslims in Iran). Wrote two famous poems - "Salaman and Absal" (a love story about a Greek kid who falls in love with his nurse, but the parents hate the match, so they both fling themselves into a fire - but only Absal dies: Salaman comes out purified and becomes king) and "Joseph and Zuleikha" (a lot like the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in the Bible, so go read that)

• Narrative poet (1213-1292), often writes about the instability of human life and the elusiveness of absolute morality
• Ought to know about instability - wrote poems in praise of the last Abbasid (750-1258) caliph, then wrote in praise of Hulagu, the Mongol conqueror who had the caliph murdered
• The Orchard, a collection of verse anecdotes, is divided into ten books, and every anecdote has a moral - but those morals often contradict (he recommends both showing mercy to evildoers and showing no mercy), with the overall message that circumstances must modify behavior
• The Rose Garden, also verse anecdotes, this time in eight books, and very ethically relative - sometimes there's no moral. Generally advocates being nice to the other guy (unless he's Jewish, Christian, or Hindu). Wildly sophisticated (my guide compares it to "some of the excessively emotional passages in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy", and I'll take his word for it)
• Also wrote verse, but that's untranslatable and therefore not of concern to us

• Poet (1325-1390)
• Works are compiled in Divan (c. 1380)
• Writes about the fickleness of fortune, the fleetingness of earthly glory, and the limitations of reason, almost always in a form of sonnet called ghazal (5 to 12 lines, each line has a couplet, with rhyme scheme a-a, b-a, c-a, d-a, etc.)
• Served as a court poet to the Mozaffarids (a minor dynasty - Hafez didn't like the religious zealotry of Shah Mobarez, but loved his son, Shah Shoja)
• In one of his famous poems, he offers Tamerlane's two biggest cities, Samarkand and Bukhara, as a love offering. Legend has it Tamerlane confronted him about the cavalier use of his cities, and Hafez said it was precisely that foolish generosity that had ruined him. Didn't happen - Tamerlane didn't conquer Shiraz until 1393

• Author of novels, short stories, and plays (1903-1951)
• Mopey, depressing type: hung out with Jean-Paul Sartre a lot
• Satirized the middle class from a safe distance (Paris)
• Most of his main characters commit suicide, go insane, or do both
• Believed all faith, morals, and religions were products of hypocrisy
• Stuck his head in the oven in 1951
• The important work here is The Blind Owl (1937), with a weird narrator who gives two accounts of his life, one in the fantasy world of the past, the other in the present