Do not go to Jerusalem with a Herd of Pigs (Reflection on a Couplet by Khaghani Shirvani)

Introduction Khaghani Shirvani is a well-known poet and one of the leading poets in the history of Persian literature. All through his poetry books, there are numerous references to various scientific and technological terms that were popular at the time. In addition, the lyrics of Khaghani abound with historical and religious allusions. His allusions to Islamic and Quranic narratives indicate that he had many religious traditions in mind and used them when the need aroused. The current article attempts to explore a couplet of an ode by Khaghani which has been composed in praise of Prophet Mohammad. This couplet refers to two historical and religious events. The historical reference embedded in the second line of this couplet has been recognized by almost all the exegetes of Khaghani, but none of the commentators have so far analyzed the historical reference in the first line of this couplet.
Methods In this article, the commentaries of Khaghani's collection of poems (Divan) are explored in a historical order so as to divide all the well-known viewpoints of the exegetes in a number of specific categories. In particular, all of the views of commentators on the above verses have been expressed in three ways. The next step was to explore and criticize these viewpoints. Then, the researchers presented a new vision based on a hadith narrated by the Prophet and approved the viewpoint according to textual evidence and the other poems of Khaghani.
Results In the composition of the above couplet, Khaghani has not considered the historical narratives mentioned by the exegetes and his thoughts were mainly based on a Hadith narrated by Prophet Muhammad about the ending of the world and the revelation of Jesus Christ. According to this Hadith, Jesus Christ will rise up at the end of the world and kill the pigs. This Hadith mentioned in specialized hadith books and interpretation books has been very famous at the time of Khaghani; therefore, the poet has used it in this couplet of his. The elements of this Hadith are also in accordance with the other poems of Khaghani which have a somewhat similar propositional content. Moreover, this view has been first proposed in the commentaries written for some of the couplets of Khaghani.
Achievements All the commentaries of Khaghani’s collection of poems (new or old) have had difficulty with comprehending the true meaning of this couplet and have not presented the necessary evidence for approving their claims. Based on the available poetic and textual evidence, Khaghani has paid considerable attention to the well-known Hadith of Prophet Mohammad about the ending of the worlds in this couplet and other similar verses.