Inimitable Complexity: Amir Khosrow and the Persian Poetics of Wonder

Abstract This article demonstrates the influence of the Arabic “poetics of wonder” on the rhetorical thought and creative psychology of the medieval Persian poet Amir Khosrow (1258–1325), which I reconstruct through close-readings of his neglected prose writings. I argue that Khosrow’s articulation of this poetics to a Persian literary audience should be considered a major component of his legacy, which was not restricted to Persianate South Asia, despite the desire of the poet and more recent critics to distinguish his literary sensibilities as distinctively Indian. I consider the role of nationalist historiographies and twentieth-century editorial practices in marginalizing elements of Khosrow’s work in the modern period, and suggest that his valorization of complexity, intellection, and delayed comprehension as requisites for the experience of literary wonder offers a productive framework for appreciating the self-consciously difficult and abstruse poetics of what has been called the “Indian style ( sabk-e Hendi )” of Persian poetry.