Baha al-Din Baghdadi ( fa, بها الدین بغدادی; died after 1192) was a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

secretary of the

Khwarazmshahs Khwarazmshah was an ancient title used regularly by the rulers of the Central Asian region of Khwarazm starting from the Late Antiquity until the advent of the Mongols in the early 13th-century, after which it was used infrequently. There were a to ...

, who is notable for his expertise in Persian letter-writing. He served as the head of the ''divan-e insha'' (chancellery) under

Ala ad-Din Tekish Ala ad-Din Tekish (Persian: علاء الدين تكش; full name: ''Ala ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Abul Muzaffar Tekish ibn Il-Arslan'') or Tekesh or Takesh was the Shah of Khwarazmian Empire from 1172 to 1200. He was the son of Il-Arslan. His rule was ...

().

Biography

The background and early life of Baha al-Din is obscure. He was a native of a place called Baghdadak in the Central Asian region of

Khwarazm Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...

, and had a elder brother named

Majd al-Din Baghdadi Abū Saʿīd Sharaf ibn al-Muʾayyad ibn Abī l-Fatḥ al-Baghdādī (1170–1219), best known as Majd al-Din Baghdadi, was an important Sufi shaykh ("master") of the Kubrawiya school of Sufism. Baghdadi's students included Najm al-Din Razi (di ...

, a prominent mystic in the 12th and 13th centuries. Baha al-Din first rose to prominence during the reign of the

Khwarazmshah Khwarazmshah was an ancient title used regularly by the rulers of the Central Asian region of Khwarazm starting from the Late Antiquity until the advent of the Mongols in the early 13th-century, after which it was used infrequently. There were a to ...

(), under whom he served as the head of the ''divan-e insha'' (chancellery). Baha al-Din was jailed twice due to his association with the Khwarazmian court; first for a short time after a disagreement with Tekish's vizier Nizam al-Mulk Shams al-Din Mas'ud Heravi, and later, he was imprisoned at Marv from 1186 to 1189 by Tekish's brother and rival for the throne, Sultanshah. It was during his second imprisonment that he wrote the

prose of ''Risala-ye habsiya'' ("Message from prison"). He was released from jail after the brothers made peace, and rejoined Tekish. According to the ''Haft eqlim'' of

Amin Razi Amin may refer to: People * Amin (name), a masculine given name and also a surname * Al-Amin, the sixth Abbasid caliph, who ruled from 809 to 813 * Amin (Qing dynasty), an Imperial Prince of the Qing Dynasty * Amin, an arbitrator who assessed an ...

(died in the 17th-century), Baha al-Din retained his post during the reign of the next Khwarazmshah, Muhammad II (), which according to the

Iranologist Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

Clifford Edmund Bosworth Clifford Edmund Bosworth Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (29 December 1928 – 28 February 2015) was an English historian and Orientalism, Orientalist, specialising in Arabic studies, Arabic and Iranian studies. Life Bosworth was born on 29 ...

, however, is "hard to verity." Baha al-Din disappears in records after 1192. Baha al-Din distinguished himself as a prominent writer through the quality of prose writings. His work was praised by poets such as

Awfi Sadīd ud-Dīn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad 'Aufī Bukhārī (1171-1242) ( fa, سدید الدین محمد عوفی), also known under the laqab Nour ud-Dīn, was a Persian historian, philologist, and author. Biography Born in Bukhara, Aufi claimed des ...

and Sa'd al-Din Varavini.

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Biography

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Further reading