Azar Bigdeli

Hajji Lotf-Ali Beg Azar Bigdeli,[lower-alpha 1] better known as Azar Bigdeli ("Azar" was his pen name; 1722–1781), was an Iranian anthologist and poet.[1][3] He is principally known for his biographical anthology, the Atashkadeh-ye Azar (Azar's Fire Temple), which he dedicated to Iranian ruler Karim Khan Zand (r. 1751–1779). Written in Persian, it is considered "the most important Persian anthology of the eighteenth century".[1] Azar was a leading figure of the bazgasht-e adabi ("literary return") movement.

Azar Bigdeli
Born7 February 1722[1]
Isfahan, Safavid Empire
Died1781
Pen nameAzar[1]
OccupationAnthologist, poet
RelativesAgha Khan Bigdeli Shamlu (father), died 1737 or 1738[2]
Isḥāq Beg ʿUdhrī (brother), died 1771 or 1772[1]
Wali Mohammad Khan Bigdeli (paternal uncle), died 1763[2]

Life

Azar's family was descended from the Bigdeli branch of the Turkoman Shamlu tribe.[1][2][4] His ancestors and other Shamlu-tribe members moved from Syria to Iran in the 15th century (during the last few years of Timur's reign) and settled in Isfahan, where they served the rulers of Iran.[1][2] Many of Azar's relatives were prominent in the late Safavid era and during the subsequent reign of Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747) as diplomats and bureaucrats.[2][1]

Azar was born in Isfahan, the Safavid royal capital, during a time of chaos and instability.[2][1] In 1722 (the year of his birth), the Safavid state had entered the final stages of collapse and the rebellious Afghans had reached Isfahan.[2][1] Azar and his family were forced to move to Qom, where they owned property[1] and where he lived for fourteen years.[2] Around 1735 or 1736, his father was appointed governor of Lar and the coastal areas of Fars Province and Azar and his family moved to Shiraz (the provincial capital of Fars).[2] In 1737 or 1738, after the death of his father, Azar made pilgrimages to Mecca and the Shi'ite shrines in Iran and Iraq.[2] He then moved to Mashhad, where he enlisted in Nader Shah's army and accompanied his troops to Mazandaran, Azerbaijan and Persian Iraq.[1][2] After Nader's death in 1747, Azar served his nephews and successors Adel Shah (r. 1747–1748) and Ebrahim Shah (r. 1748) and the Safavid pretenders Ismail III and Suleiman II before retiring to his modest manor in Qom.[2] When Karim Khan Zand (r. 1751–1779) ascended the throne, Azar decided to devote his time to scholarly pursuits and returned to Isfahan.[1][2] The city was sacked by Ali Mardan Khan Bakhtiari in 1750, and Azar reportedly lost about 7,000 written verses.[2] In 1774 or 1775 Azar was forced to leave Isfahan again due to misrule by Zand governor Mohammad Runani, and he died in 1781.[2][1]

Literary work

Azar is principally known for his anthology, the Atashkadeh-ye Azar (Azar's Fire Temple), considered "the most important Persian anthology of the eighteenth century".[1][2] Its chapter titles are based metaphorically on "fire".[1][2] Azar dedicated the Atashkadeh-ye Azar, completed shortly before his death, to Iranian ruler Karim Khan Zand.[1][2] Although the work primarily deals with poets, it also contains information on the history of Iran since the Afghan invasion of 1722, a brief autobiography and a selection of Azar's poems.[1][2]

When Isfahan was sacked in 1750, a number of Azar's early poems were destroyed.[1] However, he was still a respected poet during his lifetime.[1] Azar's teacher, Mir Sayyed Ali Moshtaq Esfahani (died 1757 or 1758), began a "literary return" movement (bazgasht-e adabi) to the stylistic standards of early Persian poetry.[1][2][3] The Atashkadeh, like much other contemporary poetry from Isfahan and Shiraz, was an example of the bazgasht-e adabi of which Azar was a leading figure.[1][2][5] The movement rejected what was considered excessive "Indian style" (sabk-e Hendi) in Persian poetry and sought, according to Ehsan Yarshater, "a return to the simpler and more robust poetry of the old masters as against the effete and artificial verse into which Safavid poetry had degenerated".[6][1] Persian poetry which originated during the Timurid period and was perfected in the courts of Mughal India was called "Indian"; it later spread back to Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey, where it was prominent in the 17th and (to some degree) 18th centuries.[7][8][9][10][lower-alpha 2]

Azar praises his teacher, Mir Sayyed Ali Moshtaq Esfahani, in the Atashkadeh:[2][3]

After he [Moshtaq] had broken the chain of verse that for years had been in the unworthy grip of poets of the past, with great effort and indescribable exertions he repaired it. Having destroyed for contemporary poets the foundation of versifying, he renewed the edifice of poetry built by the eloquent ancients.

De Bruijn notes that in addition to his divan, four extant masnavis have been attributed to Azar:[1] Yusof o Zolaykha (fragments appear in the Atashkadeh); Masnavi-e Azar, a short love poem mirroring Suz-u godaz ("Burning and Melting"), a poem by Agha Mohammad Sadeq Tafreshi which was popular in Azar's time; Saqi-nameh ("Book of the Cup-bearer"), and Moghanni-nameh ("Book of the Singer"). Azar may have also written the Ganjinat ol-haqq ("The Treasury of Truth", a work in the style of Saadi Shirazi's Golestan) and the Daftar-e noh aseman ("The Book of the Nine Skies"), an anthology of contemporary poetry.[1] Azar was also influenced by his paternal uncle, Wali Mohammad Khan Bigdeli (died 1763).[2]

Notes
  1. Also spelled "Lutf-Ali Beg Adhar Begdili".[1]
  2. "Indian-style" Persian poetry ended in Iran during the mid-18th century.[6] Noteworthy Ottoman poets who wrote in the "Indian style" (Turkish: Sebk-i Hindi) or whose work was influenced by this style include Na'ili (died 1666), Yusuf Nabi of Urfa (died 1712), Nahifi (died 1738) and Şeyh Galip (1757–1799).[8][11][9]

References
  1. de Bruijn 2011.
  2. Matini 1987, p. 183.
  3. Hanaway 1989, pp. 58–60.
  4. Doerfer 1989, pp. 251–252.
  5. Parsinejad 2003, p. 21.
  6. Yarshater 1986, p. 966.
  7. Yarshater 1986, pp. 956, 965.
  8. Ágoston & Masters 2009, p. 338.
  9. Greene et al. 2012, p. 1472.
  10. Andrews, Black & Kalpakli 2006, p. 147.
  11. Algar 2018, p. 95.

Sources
  • Ágoston, Gábor; Masters, Bruce (2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 978-1438110257.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Algar, Hamid (2018). "Jāmī and the Ottomans". In d'Hubert, Thibaut; Papas, Alexandre (eds.). Jāmī in Regional Contexts: The Reception of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī's Works in the Islamicate World, ca. 9th/15th-14th/20th Century. Brill. ISBN 978-9004386600.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Andrews, Walter G.; Black, Najaat; Kalpakli, Mehmet, eds. (2006). Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0295800936.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • de Bruijn, J.T.P. (2011). "Ādhar, Ḥājjī Luṭf ʿAlī Beg". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
  • Doerfer, Gerhard (1989). "BĪGDELĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 3. pp. 251–252.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Greene, Roland; Cushman, Stephen; Cavanagh, Clare; Ramazani, Jahan; Rouzer, Paul, eds. (2012). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4 ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400841424.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Hanaway, William L., Jr. (1989). "BĀZGAŠT-E ADABĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 1. pp. 58–60.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Matini, Jalal (1987). "ĀẔAR BĪGDELĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 2. p. 183.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Parsinejad, Iraj (2003). A History of Literary Criticism in Iran, 1866–1951: Literary Criticism in the Works of Enlightened Thinkers of Iran--Akhundzadeh, Kermani, Malkom, Talebof, Maragheʼi, Kasravi, and Hedayat. Ibex Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-1588140166.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Yarshater, Ehsan (1986). "Persian Poetry in the Timurid and Safavid Periods". In Jackson, Peter; Lockhart, Laurence (eds.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521200943.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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