The history of
modern European powers in the East dates back to the Renaissance
period. Ariana was one of the earliest countries to have come into
contact with the West. At first it was the Christian missionaries who
set foot on Muslim lands with a view to propagating their religion.
They were, thus, introduced to the rich treasure of advanced sciences
that had accumulated there through centuries but were unknown to the
West. They learnt the Arabic and the Dari languages it order to
acquaint themselves with the rich philosophical thought and the
subtle beauties and artistries of Dari literature. At first works of
Dari classics were rendered into Latin and soon after these were
published in some other prominent European languages such as French,
English, German, and Italian.
The earliest Dari
work to have been translated into a European language was Oulist~m of
Sa'di. Gradually, the works of Firdausi, Iiafiz,,'UmarKhayyam,
Nizami, Jami, Jalal al-Din Ri mi, Farid
al-Din `Attar, Nasir Khusrau, and others were also translated. These
eminent stars on the firmament of Dari literature are now regarded in
all Western countries as amongst the great immortals of world
literature. It was the dissemination of their thought which provided
stimulus to numerous European poets and writers of the
thirteenth/nineteenth century to take inspiration from Dari writers.
This influence was at times fully revealed in their works and at
others was reflected in their thought. One of the earliest amongst
them was Dante, the Italian
poet, who was
inspired to write his Divine Comedy in which he describes his
spiritual flight into heavens and the next world under the influence
of Aryan literature. Next it was the great
German poet Goethe who was thrilled
by the sheer beauty of Dari literature
through German translations of Dari poetry, and who bad even pursued
for some time the study of Dari language in order to have a fuller
appreciation of its literature. He even dedicated to it one of his
famous works West-ostlicher Divan, and gave to a section of this book
the title of "Kitab-i Hafiz." The well-known English poet
Edward
Fitzgerald also
published a small collection known as Ruba'iyat-i 'Umar Khayyam which he
claimed to have translated from the Dari collection of Khayyam's
quatrains. Actually, however, not all these quatrains are by Khayyam himself;
some of these are the work of other Dari poets. As such, this
collection reflects the thought of a number of Aryan philosophers.
Many of the European poets and writers
who acquainted themselves with the thought of Dari poets through
translations in Western languages have produced delightful works associated
with Dari literature. Mainly, however, they have come under the spell
of Khayyam, Sa'di, and Hafizz.