A Review on Kasaei's Life According to a New Reading of the Lamiyye Ode

To research a poet about whose life there is little information does not seem to be easy، especially since in the few researches already done، there are differences and sometimes contradictions between the opinions of the researchers who have expanded the range of Kasaei’s lifetime from the Ghaznavids to the Samanids and his religious affiliations between eulogy of Abbasids to the Shiite Imams. Apparently، researchers like Brown، Ethe، Rypka، Mirzayef، Nafisi، Derakhshan، and others–who have researched Kasaei–were affected by Ufi and his book Lobabol-Albab، and an inaccurate reading of the first distich of the Lamiyye Ode. This resulted in their missing the fact of Kasaei’s contemporaneity with Rudaki.. While if we interpret the life of Kasaei with a new understanding of this distich، many of contradictions of his life will disappear. Contemporaneity of Rudaki and Kasaei، Kasaei’s eulogy for Otba، writing Manqebat Ode after his fiftieth year، the fact that Kasaei and Mahmud Ghaznavi never met، disappearance of poetic epistle between Kasaei and Naser Khosrow، and perhaps attributing an ode to Kasaei which might have been written in consequence of Rudaki’s famous ode، are some of the results of this new understanding of Kasaei’s ode. The position of Kasaei Marvazi and his role as a pioneer in Persian literature and the ambiguities and contradictions of his life، define the importance and necessity of this research. The author wants to highlight some ambiguities about the life and poetry of Kasaei and، to acquire some new results by examining the connections between Kasaei and historical figures and poetry of his time.