Before leaving Goethe, the great master-mind of Germany we must also speak a word about the effect of Iranian beliefs on his mind. He was attracted by Mithraism and in the last days of his life he confessed to his intimate friend Ackermann that:

Deep down inside me a strong Mithraistic feeling exists. Every time I have seen the Sun I have looked at it with the same respect and adoration that I feel towards the personality of Jesus. Because the Sun is the strongest and the highest emblem of eternal beauty of God that the earthly people can gaze upon. I am praising the creative power of God by worshipping the Sun and the Light that through Mithra “the Radiant” offers to us humans and to all animals and plants of the earth the power of life and action. (S. Shafa, Preface to the translation of West-Ostlicher Diwan)

Fredric Nietzsche also is full of praise for Hafez. He says:

O Hafez thou hast built a tavern of philosophy which is mightier than any other palace in the world, and in it, thou hast prepared a wine full of sweet words that surpasses the power of a world to drink. Who can be the guest in thy tavern but the mythological Simurgh?

It was only through looking at Iranian literature and history that he produced his “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” Although this work has little to do with the prophet of Ancient Iran, still one can find many ideas attributed to Iran from the old classical times as well as many new allegories and ideas he had picked reading Persian literature that was available in German literary circles in his time.

We find the following sentences in Nietzsche’s work:

And if the fault were in your ears, why gave He to us ears that heard Him ill? And if there were uncleanness in our ears, go to, who had put it there?

Too many of his works miscarried this Potter that had not fully learned his trade. But in that He revenged Himself on His Pots and creations for that they turned out ill, He sinned against Good taste. (Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra)

Doesn’t the above reminds one of Omar Khayyam’s verses such as the following:

Why, said another, some there are who tell

Of one who threatens he will toss to Hell,

The luckless Pots he marred in making. Pish,

He’s a good Fellow, and t’will all be well.”

and:

After a momentary silence spake,

Some vessel of a more ungainly Make,

They snare at me for leaning all awry,

What! did the Hand then of the Potter Shake?

The same can be said about many allegories he uses, as when a snake enters the mouth of a sleeping man, which is well known in Persian verses. Hafez and Mowlavi both have verses concerning the need to create a “Real Man” which could have influenced Nietzsche in talking about Superman and Higher man.

Hafez says:

A real Man cannot be found in our earthly world,

We should make a new world and a new Man.

and Mowlavi says:

Yester night a Sheikh was seeking with a lamp all over the town,

Stating that he was tired of devils and wild beasts and was looking for a Man.

I told him that we have already searched everywhere for him, he could not be found

He said I am looking for that who could not be found.

For a time Persian fashion held the field in Germany. The successors of Goethe and Nietzsche who read and translated their Oriental models for themselves went farther. Some, like Ruckert reproduced and imitated Iranian ideas and images, others like Platen went even so far as using Persian metrical forms. Bodenstedt, with his forged “Lieder des Mirza Schaffy” was able to impress the imagination of the public. (Professor Gibb, opt. cit. p.205)

Heine although did not spare his satire on this Oriental influence, nevertheless, could not keep the Oriental note entirely out of his lyric. One can say with Professor Gibb that:

Persian poets had cast their spell over Goethe and the Germans.

However, the case is different when we consider England.

www.mihanfoundation.org/literature/17th.html

Part I Part III