IMC 2014: Sessions

In this session, speakers aim to find out whether universal elements could possibly be detected in the life and poetry of famous emperors of the Eastern and Western World. Each of the three emperors gained a crucial importance in the political as well as in the literary history of their nations. Daigo Tenno introduced a new system of government, and at the same time, founded a genuine Japanese tradition of poetry abolishing the literary dominance of the Chinese imperial courts. The German emperor Henry VI, successor of his famous father Frederick I Barbarossa, was harshly criticised by his opponents for his unscrupulous exercise of power; by the end of the 13th century, however, Henry is promoted to the position of an imperial head of classical courtly love poetry: an unexplained contradiction. Likewise, Shāh Ismāʿil undoubtedly belongs to the most powerful rulers of the Oriental world. Of Turkic origin, he founded one of the greatest Persian empires (including Azerbaijan) after the Muslim conquest of Persia, establishing the Shi'a Islam as official religion. In his Azerbaijani poetry however, largely concerned with themes of love of the mystical Sufi type, the emperor vanishes completely behind the poet Khatā'ī, a gap hitherto unexplained that K. Abdulla tried to elucidate in his book The Incomplete Manuscript recently translated into English and German (a Japanese translation is scheduled for 2014).