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 family which was descended from the prominent 14th-century lyric-poet
Kamal Khujandi
Kamal Khujandi (1320-1400 AD, fa, کمال خجندی), also Kamal Khojandi, Kamaleddin Khojandi, or Kamal-E Khojandi, was a Persian Sufi and Persian ghazal poet of the 14th century (8th century hijri).
He was born in Khujand, today the capi ...
. In his
autobiographical work, Hedayat sometimes refers to himself as "Hedayat Mazan-darani", "Tabari", or "Tabarestani" due to his father Mohammad-Hadi Khan having served in the entourage of the
Qajar tribal leaders in
Mazandaran. Upon the completion of his education, he entered the service of Prince
Hossein Ali Mirza Farman Farma son of
Fat'h Ali Shah and governor of
Shiraz. He was given the title of Khan and of Amir-ol Sho'ara in 1830, when Fath Ali Shah visited
Shiraz.
In 1838 he came back to
Tehran. Mohammed Shah instructed him to remain at the court and in 1841 selected him as tutor to his son Prince
Abbas Mirza Molk Ara. In 1847 he was appointed governor of
Firuzkuh
Firuzkuh ( fa, فيروزكوه, also Romanized as Fīrūzkūh and Fīrūz Kūh; Tabarian: Pirezcow; also known as Qaşabeh-ye Fīrūz Kūh) is a city and capital of Firuzkuh County, Tehran Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population wa ...
.
In 1851, he was chosen by
Naser al-Din Shah
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar ( fa, ناصرالدینشاه قاجار; 16 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Malek ...
to lead the Embassy to
Khiva
Khiva ( uz, Xiva/, خىۋا; fa, خیوه, ; alternative or historical names include ''Kheeva'', ''Khorasam'', ''Khoresm'', ''Khwarezm'', ''Khwarizm'', ''Khwarazm'', ''Chorezm'', ar, خوارزم and fa, خوارزم) is a district-level city ...
. He was minister of education in 1852 and principal of the newly founded
Dar-ol-fonoon College at
Tehran.
In 1857, he was selected as tutor of
Mozaffar al-Din Shah.
He died from a severe illness in 1871. He has two sons,
Ali Qoli Khan Mokhber ed-Dowleh
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
and
Ja'afar Qoli Khan Nayer-ol-Molk. Reza Qoli Khan was great-grandfather of
Sadeq Hedayat
Sadegh Hedayat ( fa, صادق هدایت ; 17 February 1903 – 9 April 1951) was an Iranian writer and translator. Best known for his novel '' The Blind Owl'', he was one of the earliest Iranian writers to adopt literary modernism in their care ...
.
Works
*''Farhang-e anjomanārā-ye nāṣeri'' (a Persian dictionary)
*''Madārej al-balāḡa dar ʿElm-e Badiʿ'' (on Persian
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
)
*''Majmaʿ al-foṣaḥā'' ("The meeting place of the eloquent")
*''Rawżat al-ṣafā-ye nāṣeri''
*''Riāż al-ʿārefin'' ("The gardens of the Mystics")
*''Tārix-e Rawżat al-ṣafā-ye nāṣeri'' (on history)
He also wrote a
Divan containing 50,000 distichs and six
Mathnawis.
References
Sources
*
Hedayat, Reza Qoli Khan
Hedayat, Reza Qoli Khan
1800 births
Persian-language poets
19th-century Persian-language writers
Iranian governors
19th-century poets
Iranian biographers
People from Mazandaran Province
People of Qajar Iran
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