Zu'l Fiqar Shirvani (died c. 1291) 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 ...

poet of the

Ilkhanid The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm ...

-era. His ''

divan A divan or diwan ( fa, دیوان, ''dīvān''; from Sumerian ''dub'', clay tablet) was a high government ministry in various Islamic states, or its chief official (see ''dewan''). Etymology The word, recorded in English since 1586, meanin ...

'' consists of 9,000 verses. Mohammad Dabirsiaqi / ''

Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encycl ...

'' notes that "he was generally recognized as a master of versification".

Biography

Zu'l-Fiqar born to a certain Sadr al-Din Ali. He was patronized by Atabeg Yusofshah I of the Fazluya branch of the Atabegs of Lorestan. Zu'l-Fiqar dedicated several

panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of grc, ...

odes to Yusofshah, and also wrote similar poems for Ilkhanid ruler

Gaykhatu Gaykhatu (Mongolian script:; ) was the fifth Ilkhanate ruler in Iran. He reigned from 1291 to 1295. His Buddhist baghshi gave him the Tibetan name Rinchindorj () which appeared on his paper money. Early life He was born to Abaqa and Nukdan Kha ...

, the Qara-Khitai ''amir'' Jalal al-Din Soyurgatmesh (who ruled in

Kerman Kerman ( fa, كرمان, Kermân ; also romanization of Persian, romanized as Kermun and Karmana), known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in ...

), and

Padishah Khatun Safwat al-Din Khatun (1256–1295), otherwise known as Padishah Khatun, was the ruler of Kirman from 1292 until 1295 as a member of the Mongol vassal Qutlugh-Khanid dynasty in Persia. Life She was born in 1256, as the youngest dau ...

(who succeeded Soyurgatmesh in Kerman). Zu'l-Fiqar Shirvani's tomb is located in

Maqbaratoshoara Maqbarat-o-shoara (Persian: مقبرةالشعرا) or the Mausoleum of Poets (Persian: ''Mazār-e Shāerān'' or ''Mazār-e Sorāyandegān'') is a Maqbara (graveyard) belonging to classical and contemporary poets, mystics and other notable pe ...

, in

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 ...

, northwestern

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 ...

Works

According to Mohammad Dabirsiaqi / ''Encyclopædia Iranica'', Zu'l-Fiqar Shirvani's poems have a "charming, lyrical quality". Among his "more important works", one finds the ''Mafatih ol-kalam va madayeh ol-keram'', dedicated to Khvajeh Mohammad Mastari (a

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

of the Ilkhanid period). In this lengthy panegyric work, Zu'l-Fiqar uses "two opening verses (''matla'') encompassing every possible combination of

meter The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

(''da'era'') and

elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...

(''zehafat''), written in

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

form (''tawsih'')". Dabirsiaqi states that the work is also noted for the fact that in every few lines within the same section (the two opening verses), certain words can be strung together to form new

distich 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 (''abyat'') with different meters.

Biography

Works

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading