Abstract

Statement of the Problem and Objective: Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī (146–204 AH), celebrated jurist and eponym of the Shāfiʿī school, was also noted for eloquent, morally focused verse. Although he later renounced poetic practice in deference to jurisprudence and never compiled a dīwān, his scattered poems—preserved in biographical and bibliographical works—circulated widely. Their ethical tenor and aphoristic brevity made them fertile sources for later Persian poets. This article examines how core themes in al-Shāfiʿī’s Arabic poetry are reflected—through translation, adaptation, and elaboration—in the works of four major Persian poets associated with the Shāfiʿī tradition: Niẓāmī, Khaqānī, Saʿdī, and Ḥāfeẓ. It identifies shared motifs (e.g., striving, the “four takbīrs,” disclosure of secrets, seeking knowledge in youth, censure of excessive laughter and envy, loyal friendship in hardship, and conduct toward an enemy’s friends) and clarifies the nature and limits of this intertextual reception.
Methodology: Using a library-based, descriptive–analytical approach, the study surveys relevant passages in al-Shāfiʿī’s transmitted verse and traces their Persian counterparts in Khamseh and other works of Niẓāmī, the Dīwān of Khaqānī, Saʿdī’s Golestān and Būstān, and the Dīwān of Ḥāfeẓ. Close readings establish thematic correspondences, modes of transfer (literal translation, paraphrase, thematic echo), and points of agreement or divergence in ethical and theological stance.
Discussion and Analysis: Al-Shāfiʿī’s poetry is largely fragmentary and didactic, eschewing ornate embellishment in favor of lucid moral counsel; this stylistic economy facilitated its migration into Persian. In lyric and gnomic registers alike, Persian poets reframed his ideas within richer figurative and scientific vocabularies, clothing simple Arabic maxims in the “thousand-pattern” aesthetics of Persian poetics. Notably, the well-known Golestān anecdote of the “aged, rag-clad jurist” echoes a Shāfiʿī source; the persona aligns with al-Shāfiʿī himself as an emblem of learned poverty. Likewise, the celebrated hemistich associated with Ḥāfeẓ—“I uttered the four takbīrs over all that exists”—resonates with Shāfiʿī materials, suggesting poetic revoicing from the Arabic dīwān rather than solely from juridical prose. Reception is not monolithic: Niẓāmī often affirms Shāfiʿī’s perspectives, whereas Saʿdī and Ḥāfeẓ occasionally contest or reconfigure them, staging debates over ascetic restraint, sociability, and the limits of disclosure. Across these poets, recurrent Shāfiʿī themes—industry and perseverance; youthful study; tempering laughter; warning against envy; constancy in adversity; prudence toward adversaries—are variously translated, expanded, or ironized, yet remain recognizable as shared ethical capital.
Findings: (1) Al-Shāfiʿī’s verse exerted a substantive, traceable influence on Persian moral-didactic discourse, supplying portable maxims readily naturalized within Persian style. (2) The pathways of transmission include direct translation, thematic paraphrase, and symbolic transposition into Persian narrative and lyric frames. (3) Among the four poets studied, Niẓāmī most consistently endorses Shāfiʿī’s viewpoints; Saʿdī and Ḥāfeẓ, while indebted to his themes, sometimes articulate qualified dissent, thereby enriching the Persian reception with dialogic nuance. (4) Specific correspondences—such as the “four takbīrs,” the portrait of the humble jurist, and admonitions on envy, laughter, and loyal friendship—demonstrate that Persian reworkings are not mere borrowings but creative assimilations that preserve ethical cores while achieving distinctive Persian eloquence.