What is this revolt again? / And what is this mourning in the population of the world?
This verse is the beginning of a poem that has been inscribed on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Iran.
This literary work was created by Kamaluddin Mohtasham Kashani. He was born in Kashan, and his father was a mercer and also a weaver.
Mohtasham was engaged in the same job at first, before turning from weaving to poetry.
In the beginning, he was a court poet, writing poetry in praise of Shah Tahmasp, the Safavid ruler.
He was so well-known and influential that the poets of Kashan, if they wanted to send poetry to the court, they had to first get his approval.
However, his religious inclinations and beliefs made him the most famous elegy writer in Iran, and his most popular work is a poem consisting of 12 parts, in his divan (a collection of poems).
It is said that Mohtasham was very sad and mournful after receiving the news of the death of Abdolghani, his brother, during a trip to Mecca, until one night, in his dream, he saw the first Imam of the Shiites, who asked Mohtasham to write an elegy about his son (Imam Husayn) and the event of Ashura.
Mohtasham hears the first verse in the dream, and when he wakes up, he writes the rest of the poem.
Yet, when he reaches the phrase “even though God never experiences suffering,” he cannot complete it. This time, the twelfth Imam of the Shiites comes to him in another dream and completes the verse as “he is in the hearts and no heart is void of suffering.”
Mohtasham wakes up, and his poetic composition is complete.
This elegy has made a profound impact on the written and oral culture and literature of Iran during the next four and a half centuries.
Numerous poets have imitated it, and the poem is widely used in mourning signs, symbols, flags, banners and inscriptions, and also architectural decorations of places specially used for mourning during the month of Muharram and other occasions of religious mourning.
Mohtasham died in 1588 AD (996 AH). In your trip to Kashan, you can visit his tomb in Sesouk Passage, Mohtasham Neighbourhood, close to the Aqabozorg Mosque.
