Qatran Tabrizi
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Qatran Tabrizi ( fa, قطران تبریزی; 1009–1014 – after 1088) 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 ...
writer, who is considered to have been one of the leading poets in 11th-century
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. A native of the northwestern region of
Azarbaijan Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan ( fa, آذربایجان, ''Āzarbāijān'' ; az-Arab, آذربایجان, ''Āzerbāyjān'' ), also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq, Turkey, the Nakhchivan ...
, he spent all of his life there as well as in the neighbouring region of
Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
, mainly serving as a court poet under the local dynasties of the Rawadids and
Shaddadids The Shaddadids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty. who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1199 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal fami ...
.


Background

Qatran was born between 1009 and 1014 in Shadiabad, near the city of
Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...
in the northwestern region of
Azarbaijan Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan ( fa, آذربایجان, ''Āzarbāijān'' ; az-Arab, آذربایجان, ''Āzerbāyjān'' ), also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq, Turkey, the Nakhchivan ...
. Shadiabad is mentioned as his hometown in one of his verses, which dismisses other accounts, which calls him by the ''
nisba The Arabic language, Arabic word nisba (; also transcribed as ''nisbah'' or ''nisbat'') may refer to: * Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba, Nisba, a suffix used to form adjectives in Arabic grammar, or the adjective resulting from this formation **c ...
s'' of Tirmidhi, Jabali, Jili, Urmawi, Ajali. According to the 15th-century
Timurid Timurid refers to those descended from Timur (Tamerlane), a 14th-century conqueror: * Timurid dynasty, a dynasty of Turco-Mongol lineage descended from Timur who established empires in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ** Timurid Empire of C ...
-era biographer
Dawlatshah Samarqandi Dawlatshah Samarqandi ( fa, دولتشاه سمرقندی; – 1495/1507) was a poet and biographer active under the Timurid Empire. He is principally known for composing the ''Tadhkirat al-shu'ara'' ("Memorial of poets"), a Persian biographical ...
, the name of Qatran's father was Mansur, but this is not supported by earlier sources. Qatran is given the epithet of "Adudi" in several sources, which has been suggested to be a corruption of
Azd The Azd ( ar, أَزْد), or ''Al-Azd'' ( ar, ٱلْأَزْد), are a Tribes of Arabia, tribe of Sabaeans, Sabaean Arabs. In ancient times, the Sabaeans inhabited Ma'rib, capital city of the Sabaeans, Kingdom of Saba' in modern-day Yemen. Th ...
i, the name of an
Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
tribe which the ruling
Rawadid dynasty Rawwadid or Ravvadid (also Revend or Revendi) or Banū Rawwād () (955–1071) was a Sunni Muslim Kurdish dynasty, centered in the northwestern region of Adharbayjan (Azerbaijan) between the late 8th and early 13th centuries. Originally of Az ...
was descended from.


Biography

Not much is known about the life of Qatran. As a Western Persian who spoke the Iranian dialect of Azari, Qatran had some difficulties in understanding "Parsi" (i.e.
Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī  ...
), the Eastern Persian dialect of Khurasan. This is mentioned in the ''
Safarnama ''Safarnāma'' () is a book of travel literature written during the 11th century by Nasir Khusraw (1003-1077). It is also known as the ''Book of Travels.'' It is an account of Khusraw's seven-year journey through the Islamic world. He initially ...
'' of the Khurasanian poet
Nasir Khusraw Abu Mo’in Hamid ad-Din Nasir ibn Khusraw al-Qubadiani or Nāsir Khusraw Qubādiyānī Balkhi ( fa, ناصر خسرو قبادیانی, Nasir Khusraw Qubadiani) also spelled as ''Nasir Khusrow'' and ''Naser Khosrow'' (1004 – after 1070 CE) w ...
when he met him in Tabriz in 1046; "He wrote good poetry, but did not know Persian well. He came to me bringing the '' diwan'' of Munjik and
Daqiqi Abu Mansur Daqiqi ( fa, ابومنصور دقیقی), better simply known as Daqiqi (), was one of the most prominent Persian poets of the Samanid era. He was the first to undertake the creation of the national epic of Iran, the Shahnameh, but ...
, which he read with me, questioning me about every passage in which he found difficulty. I told him its meaning and he wrote it down." Dari contained
Eastern Iranian The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from c. the 4th century BC). The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. As opposed to the Middle Western Iranian dial ...
words (such as Sogdian), which were unintelligible to a Western Persian like Qatran. It was seemingly due to this that Qatran composed a lexicon written in Persian, named ''Tafasir fi lughat al-Furs'', which has not survived. His work is mentioned in the preface of the Persian lexicon of his contemporary
Asadi Tusi Abu Nasr Ali ibn Ahmad Asadi Tusi ( fa, ابونصر علی بن احمد اسدی طوسی; – 1073) was a Persian poet, linguist and author. He was born at the beginning of the 11th century in Tus, Iran, in the province of Khorasan, and died i ...
, which was composed for the educated population of Azarbaijan. Asadi never cites any of Qatran's verses in his lexicon, which further underscores that the intention of the work was to clarify the uncommon words used in Eastern Persian. With the reunification of Iran by
Seljuk Empire The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian tradition, Turko-Persian, Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qiniq (tribe), Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total are ...
in the mid 11th-century, eastern Persian literature had a better opportunity to sway the western provinces. Qatran seemingly spent all of his life in Azarbaijan and
Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
, where he served under local rulers. His ''diwan'' was compiled and published by the 20th-century Iranian businessman and collector Hajj Mohammad Nakhjavani (died 1962). It contains 3000–10,000
couplet A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...
s, which mentions about thirty patrons. The majority of the
ode An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...
s in his ''diwan'' are dedicated to the Rawadid rulers of Tabriz,
Abu Mansur Wahsudan Abu Mansur Wahsudan (also spelled Vahsudan; fa, ابو منصور وهسودان) was the penultimate Rawadid amir (ruler) of Azarbaijan from 1025 to 1058/59. He is considered the most prominent ruler of his dynasty. With the assistance of his ...
() and his successor
Abu Nasr Mamlan II Abu Nasr Mamlan II (also spelled Muhammad II) was the last Rawadid ''amir'' (ruler) of Azarbaijan from 1058/9 to 1071. He was the son and successor of Abu Mansur Wahsudan (). He was along with his sons arrested in 1070 by his suzerain, the Seljuk ...
(), as well as the
Shaddadid The Shaddadids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty. who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1199 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal fami ...
rulers of
Ganja Ganja (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for marijuana. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi/Urdu ( hi, गांजा, links=no, ur, , links=no, IPA: aːɲd ...
,
Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl Abu'l-Aswar or Abu'l-Asvar Shavur ibn Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a member of the Shaddadid dynasty. Between 1049 and 1067 he was the eighth Shaddadid ruler of Arran (today in western Azerbaijan) from Ganja. Prior to that, he ruled the cit ...
() and
Fadl ibn Shavur Al-Fadl ibn Shavur or Fadl II was the ninth ruler of the Shaddadids, from 1067 to 1073. He was the son and successor of Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl Abu'l-Aswar or Abu'l-Asvar Shavur ibn Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a member of the Shaddadi ...
(). Other notable patrons include Abu Dulaf-i Dayrani, the ruler of Nakhchivan. Some works have been erroneously attributed to Qatran, such as the ''Qausnama'' ("The Book of Arch"), which was in reality the work of a certain Qatran Tirmidhi, who lived 100 years after him. Some works of the prominent Persian poet
Rudaki Rudaki (also spelled Rodaki; fa, رودکی; 858 – 940/41) was a Persian poet, singer and musician, who served as a court poet under the Samanids. He is regarded as the first major poet to write in New Persian. Said to have composed more tha ...
(died 941) have also erroneously been attributed to Qatran, due to the similarity of their styles, and the names of their patrons, the Samanid ruler Nasr ibn Ahmad () and Abu Nasr Mamlan. Qatran was the first poet from Azarbaijan to compose poetry in Dari. Qatran's work is also an important source in historiography, as many names and events in Azarbaijan and the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
mentioned in his poems would have been otherwise unknown. This includes among other things the
Ghuzz The Oghuz or Ghuzz Turks (Middle Turkic languages, Middle Turkic: ٱغُز, ''Oγuz'', ota, اوغوز, Oġuz) were a western Turkic people that spoke the Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, Turkic language family. In th ...
incursions into Arran and Azarbaijan, and the peace treaty between the Rawadids and Shaddadids in 1040. During his later career, Qatran suffered from
gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensit ...
, possibly an indication of his good welfare. Qatran died in Ganja; the date of his death is uncertain. According to some accounts of writers such as the 19th-century Persian poet
Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat ( fa, رضاقلی خان هدایت; 8 June 1800 – 29 June 1871) was a Persian literary historian, administrator, and poet in 19th-century Qajar Iran. Biography Hedayat was born in Tehran on 8 June 1800 to a renowned fa ...
, Qatran died in 1072. However, one of Qatran's ''
qasida The qaṣīda (also spelled ''qaṣīdah''; is originally an Arabic word , plural ''qaṣā’id'', ; that was passed to some other languages such as fa, قصیده or , ''chakameh'', and tr, kaside) is an ancient Arabic word and form of writin ...
s'' dedicated to Abu Nasr Mamlan indicate that he at least lived till 1088. According to Taqi, Qatran died in 1092.


Legacy

Qatran is considered to have been one of the leading poets in 11th-century Iran. The modern historian De Bruijn calls him the first eminent poet born in the western Iranian provinces.


Notes


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tabrizi, Qatran 11th-century births 11th-century deaths 11th-century Persian-language poets 11th-century writers 11th-century Iranian people Poets from Tabriz Burials in Maqbaratoshoara