The 1st Annual International Symposium on: 

Sey-yed Nourod-din Shah Nematollah Vali 

October 11-12, 2002

Morris Dailey Auditorium

  San Jose State University (SJSU), San Jose, California, USA

SSNV PAPER:   Shâh Ni`matu 'llâh Walî's Poetic Commentary on a Ghazal of Mowlânâ

                                Jalâlu 'd-dîn al-Balkhî ar-Rûmî

A very brief autobiography of Dr. Ibrahim Gamard:

Dr. Ibrahim Gamard is an American amateur Rumi scholar. He taught himself to read Persian 20 years ago in order to read Mawlânâ's poetry in the original. Professionally, he is a licensed psychologist. He has been collaborating for many years with an Afghan scholar, Dr. Ravan Farhadi, in a transltion of the Quatrains (robâ`iyât) of Rumi (not yet published). He has been active on the Internet for the past five years, and his website is www.dar-al-masnavi.org.

A glance at Dr. Gamard's speech:

In the "Collected Poetic Works" (Kolliyât-e Ash`âr) of Shâh Ni`matullâh Valî, there is a very interesting interpretation of a ghazal by Mawlânâ Jalâluddîn Rûmî. Shâh Ni`matullâh quotes two verses of Mawlânâ's ghazal, then adds two verses of his own commentary in the same meter and rhyme, etc. There are differences between the text of Mawlânâ's ghazal which Shâh Ni`matullâh used, when compared to Forûzânfar's edition, based on the earliest manuscripts of Mawlânâ's Dîvân, which is quoted herein. Textual differences are analyzed in detail (in the complete paper), and Shâh Ni`matullâh's mystical commentary is discussed.