Baba Taher

babataher-poem

Baba Taher is known as one of the most revered and respectable early poets in Persian literature. Most of his life is clouded in mystery. He probably lived in Hamadan, the capital city of the Hamedan Province in Iran. His nickname, Oryan (the Naked), suggests that he was a wandering dervish, or mystic. Legend tells that the poet, an illiterate woodcutter, attended lectures at a religious school, where he was not welcome by his fellow-students. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. One source indicates that he died in 1019. If this is accurate, then Baba Taher is a contemporary of Ferdowsi and Pour Sina (Avicenna) and an immediate precursor of Omar Khayyam. Another source reports that he lived between 1000 and 1055, which is most unlikely. Reliable research notes speculate that Baba Taher lived for seventy-five years.

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Baba Taher is known for his dubayti, four line poems that is not the common rubai metre although Persians refer to the quatrains of Baba Taher as rubaiyat. Baba Taher poems are recited to the present day all over Iran accompanied with Sih-tar (three stringed viol or lute). The quatrains (dubeyti or two -beyt metre poems) of Baba Taher are written in local accents such as Mazandarani. They say Pehleviat to these kinds of poems and they are very ancient . Baba Taher songs originally read in Fahlavi, Luri, Kurdish and Hamadani dialects, taking their present form in the course of time. The quatrains of Baba Taher have a more amorous and mystical connotation rather than philosophical. Classical Persian Music is based on Persian Poetry and Baba Thaer’s poems are the weight that carries a major portion of this music. Baba Tahers poetry is the basis for Dastgahe Shoor and in particular Gooshe of Dashtestani, Choopani and Deylaman.

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