Shirin, Khusrau and Farhad

Shirin was the daughter of an Armenian king. She was known all over for her fabulous beauty. Khusrau, the king of Persia, fell in love with her. He sent his messenger to Shirin with a proposal of marriage with her. She accepted the proposal but with an extremely difficult condition that Khusrau should get a river of milk dug through the mountains for the benefit of the Persian people. Although this was an almost impossible condition to be met with, he accepted the condition nevertheless. Khusrau, thus, assigned this challenging task to a sculptor called Farhad.

After assigning this task to Farhad, he got into a marital bond with Shirin. Completely oblivious of the consequences, he called for Farhad one day and introduced him to Shirin as one who was going to undertake this task as per her wishes. On seeing her, Farhad got stunned by her beauty. He remained totally preoccupied with her thoughts even while he pursued his job. One day, when Shirin came to inspect the progress of Farhad’s work, he could not control himself and expressed his love for her rather spontaneously. Shirin rebuked him and left in ager. Farhad, however, continued digging the river of milk as she desired. Since he was continuously obsessed with her thoughts, he chose to tell Khusrau about his uncontrollable love for Shirin. An enraged Khusrau reached for his sword to kill him but his minister kept him from doing so. The minister thought of an ingenious plan. Knowing that Farhad would never be able to dig the river, he told him that Shirin would be given to him in marriage if he could realy accomplish the job assigned to him. Farhad accepted his word and got into completing his task with greater vigour and vitality thanbefore. In the meanwhile, Shirin started getting impressed by his love for her. When Khusrau found that the digging of the river was about to be completed, he got worried about losing Shirin. He hitched a nefarious plan and informed Farhad that Shirin had committed suicide. This was something that proved unbearable for him. Unable to bear this heartbreaking news, Farhad banged his head against the stones and killed himself. When Shirin got to know of this terrible news, she reached the place where Farhad lay dead. When she came to know of Khusrau’s wicked plan, she refused to go back to the palace and fell dead on Farhad’s feet.

There are several variations on Farhaad’s story with many portraying him as an army commander. Some versions even maintain that Shirin had fallen in love with Farhaad despite the class difference and it was her father who set the condition of carving a channel through the mountain before he allowed him to marry his daughter. The story of Shirin and Farhad has been immortalised by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. It found different versions in different literary and cultural traditions that relate with fine arts, theatre, film, and folklore etc.

Reference: Geh sarguzasht un ne Farhaad ki nikaali/Majnoon ka gaahe qissa baithha kaha kare hai (Meer Taqi Meer), Kaav Kaave sakht jaani hai tanhai na poocch?Sub’h karkna shaam ka laana hai joo-i-sheer ka (Ghalib), Tu na Shirin na main Farhad magar yoon to milein/Ham rahein ya na rahein apni kahaani to rahe (Jafar Shirazi), Murgh zeerak aql ka hai ishq ka sayyad shauq/Aql hai bisyaar Shirin, ishq ka Farhad shauq (Alimullah). Also see:https://www.rekhta.org/nazms/farhaad-mustafa-zaidi-nazms?lang=urhttps://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/shirin-farhad-ebooks

https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/masnavi-sheereen-o-khusrau-ameer-khusrau-ebooks

https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/khusrau-sheerin-nizami-ebooks

Shirin was the daughter of an Armenian king. She was known all over for her fabulous beauty. Khusrau, the king of Persia, fell in love with her. He sent his messenger to Shirin with a proposal of marriage with her. She accepted the proposal but with an extremely difficult condition that Khusrau should get a river of milk dug through the mountains for the benefit of the Persian people. Although this was an almost impossible condition to be met with, he accepted the condition nevertheless. Khusrau, thus, assigned this challenging task to a sculptor called Farhad.

After assigning this task to Farhad, he got into a marital bond with Shirin. Completely oblivious of the consequences, he called for Farhad one day and introduced him to Shirin as one who was going to undertake this task as per her wishes. On seeing her, Farhad got stunned by her beauty. He remained totally preoccupied with her thoughts even while he pursued his job. One day, when Shirin came to inspect the progress of Farhad’s work, he could not control himself and expressed his love for her rather spontaneously. Shirin rebuked him and left in ager. Farhad, however, continued digging the river of milk as she desired. Since he was continuously obsessed with her thoughts, he chose to tell Khusrau about his uncontrollable love for Shirin. An enraged Khusrau reached for his sword to kill him but his minister kept him from doing so. The minister thought of an ingenious plan. Knowing that Farhad would never be able to dig the river, he told him that Shirin would be given to him in marriage if he could realy accomplish the job assigned to him. Farhad accepted his word and got into completing his task with greater vigour and vitality thanbefore. In the meanwhile, Shirin started getting impressed by his love for her. When Khusrau found that the digging of the river was about to be completed, he got worried about losing Shirin. He hitched a nefarious plan and informed Farhad that Shirin had committed suicide. This was something that proved unbearable for him. Unable to bear this heartbreaking news, Farhad banged his head against the stones and killed himself. When Shirin got to know of this terrible news, she reached the place where Farhad lay dead. When she came to know of Khusrau’s wicked plan, she refused to go back to the palace and fell dead on Farhad’s feet.

There are several variations on Farhaad’s story with many portraying him as an army commander. Some versions even maintain that Shirin had fallen in love with Farhaad despite the class difference and it was her father who set the condition of carving a channel through the mountain before he allowed him to marry his daughter. The story of Shirin and Farhad has been immortalised by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. It found different versions in different literary and cultural traditions that relate with fine arts, theatre, film, and folklore etc.

Reference: Geh sarguzasht un ne Farhaad ki nikaali/Majnoon ka gaahe qissa baithha kaha kare hai (Meer Taqi Meer), Kaav Kaave sakht jaani hai tanhai na poocch?Sub’h karkna shaam ka laana hai joo-i-sheer ka (Ghalib), Tu na Shirin na main Farhad magar yoon to milein/Ham rahein ya na rahein apni kahaani to rahe (Jafar Shirazi), Murgh zeerak aql ka hai ishq ka sayyad shauq/Aql hai bisyaar Shirin, ishq ka Farhad shauq (Alimullah). Also see:https://www.rekhta.org/nazms/farhaad-mustafa-zaidi-nazms?lang=urhttps://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/shirin-farhad-ebooks

https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/masnavi-sheereen-o-khusrau-ameer-khusrau-ebooks

https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/khusrau-sheerin-nizami-ebooks