A study of the Balochi tale and poem of "Bagin Bashkard" and its comparison with the ode of "Boye Joye Moliyan" by Roudaki

Poem and singing have been two integral parts of Iranian culture, poets and singers have been from the elite class of the king's court and they had played an important role in many large courts of the kings and their gatherings. Poem and singing have been very important in the literature of Baloch nation and the effect of these two arts is narrated in different narrations. One of these narrations is the story of Sayadhān and his wife "Fatemeh Bashkardi", and its comparison with the story of Amir Nasr Samani and the ballade "Joye Molian" from Roudaki is the main aim of the present research.  

Aims, method and history of the research:

The method of the research is a field method in the Bagin baškard story and poem. The author has derived the poem from minstrels' songs, and has derived its story from narrators, and after collecting, a comparative study is done with story of Amir Nasr Samani and the ballade "Boye Joye Molian" from Roudaki using the analytical descriptive method. The main aim of the present research is to introduce the anonymous story of Sayadhān and Fatemeh and state its similarities with the story of Amir Nasr and the ballade "Boye Joye Molian" from Roudaki. No research is conducted on Balochi story and poem" Bagin baškard". Its summary is published by Fakeer Shad cited by the minstrels in the book "Miraas" (2016, Pakistan).

Discussion and examination:

Sayad Khan Son of Hossein Khan was one of Makoran powerful Khans in the same period as Qajar dynasty, and Fatemeh was one of noblewomen in Bashkard region. After meeting each other, they fall in love and after being engaged, they are separated from each other. One year later, Fatemeh becomes restless because of being far from her husband, and sends a messenger with presents to Ibrahim Raski to help her husband comes back home. At dawn, Ibrahim writes the famous poem "Bagin baškard". He gives his poem to a minstrel with a nice voice known as "Abdolrahim" to sing it in Khan's gathering using harp. Khan's gathering began and as usual, poem reading and music playing decorated the gathering. The minstrel started singing Ibrahim's poem very sweetly. Sayadhān liked poems and was impressed as he found out about the issue and he immediately rode on his horse to Bashkard without letting his gathering end. Finally, he reached Fatemeh and Ibrahim received precious presents in return for his poem.The story of Sayadhān being provoked by Baloch poet "Ibrahim Raski" to meet and reach his beloved is very similar to the story of Amir Nasr Samani being provoked by Roudaki to go back to Bokhara. This poem describes the beloved and Khan's horse and the road passed by Khan. This poem matches "Boye Joye Molian" from Roudaki in this respect.According to the narration by Nezami Arouzi in the book "Chahar Maghaleh", Nasr Ibn Ahmad Samani once left Bokhara city to Harat and Badghis to spend the summer and for recreation. The king found that it had a nice weather and stayed there for four years and he wanted to stay there more. Because his armies suffered from being far from their family and city, they became upset and went to Roudaki and asked him to make the king leave the city in return for giving him valuable presents. Roudaki accepted and wrote a ballade and it was sung for the king together with harp. Amir Nasr Samani was impressed by Roudaki's poem so much that he immediately rode on his horse to Bokhara, and the armies gifted Roudaki two times what they had promised, i.e. 10,000 Derhams. These two stories and poems are similar in some way, such as: 1. Roudaki is the father of Persian poem, and Ibrahim is one of the greatest Balochi classic poets and both of them were great poets of their time. 2. The court of Nasr Ibn Ahmad Samani was the center of poem and literature and this king was interested in poem and music. Sayad Khan was also interested in poem and Balochi literature. 3. Both Roudaki and Ibrahim made a king go to the place he was expected to go using the poem tool. 4. Encouraged by others, both poets wrote their poems to stimulate the kings to go to a city or a beloved. 5. The poems by Roudaki and Ibrahim Raski were sung for the kings in their gathering. 6. The poets of both poems received precious presents. 7. Both kings immediately rode on their horses to the intended place as they heard the poem. 8. Roudaki's poem is a ballade and Ibrahim's poem structure is like great Persian ballades in terms of stability and dignity although its arrangement is not a real ballade. The ballade "Joye Molian" from Roudaki has 7 to 9 verses, but Ibrahim's poem " Bagin baškard" includes about 70 verses.

The Balochi poem "Bagin baškard" is one of the most important poems of Balochi literature related to the 13th century (AH). Ibrahim Raski wrote this poem to provoke Sayad Khan Naroei to go to his beloved wife being far from him for a long time. The story of Sayadhān and his wife and the poem Bagin baškard are similar to the story of Amir Nasr Samani being provoked by Roudaki to go back to Bokhara in different ways. Relying on comparative literature methods, the relation between both stories and poems can be identified. Since there is a gap for 1000 years between the story of Amir Nasr Samani and Roudaki's poem and the story of Sayadhān and Fatemeh and Bagin baškard poem, and both of them are historical events being narrated in poems, it is not possible that Balochi poem is affected by Roudaki's ballade. Ibrahim and Roudaki were both great poets of their time; both of them interacted with the kings in their courts and were gifted by them. Using their magic poems, they both provoked kings in the feast into going to a place immediately. Bagin baškard poem is more detailed than "Joye Molian" ballade ad includes more poetic descriptions. Both poems are in ramal poetical metre and they are similar in some descriptions, such as addressing "wind" in the first hemistich and describing the destination city and the path and horse ridden by the king.