He is one and there is naught but He (Isfahani Hatif on the summit of Tarjiband)

The celebrated poem of Ahmad Hatif of Isfahn, known in Persian as the Hatef’s Tarjiband is studied in the present paper from a historical point of view to reveal the status of this poet in Persian poetry, as well as its mystical content. First a short history of Tarjiband as a poetic form is revised, then the sixteen poets who have written a mystical Tarjiband are presented. All of these Tarjibands have the same rhythm and the refrain “He is one and there is naught but He” after each strophe. The total number of these Tarjibands is twenty one because some of these sixteen poets have written two Tarjibands. Searching the Persian poetical texts it is found that this kind of Tarjiband was begun from seventh century by Fakhr al-Din ‘Araghi and other poets before Hatif. Forsat al-Dowleh, a poet from Shiraz has continued this tradition. But among all these similar poems it is the work of Hatif that is rested popular and the others are approximately forgotten.