Nasrallah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Hamid Shirazi (), better known as Abu'l-Ma'ali Nasrallah (ابوالمعالی نصرالله), was a
Persian poet and statesman who served as the ''
vizier
A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...
'' of the
Ghaznavid Sultan
Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...
Khusrau Malik.
Biography
Nasrallah was born in
Ghazni
Ghazni (, ), historically known as Ghaznayn () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana (), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan with a population of around 190,000 people. The city is strategica ...
; he was the grandson of
Abd al-Hamid Shirazi, a prominent
Ghaznavid vizier, who himself was the son of the prominent Ghaznavid vizier
Ahmad Shirazi, who was the son of
Abu Tahir Shirazi, a secretary under the
Samanids, whose family was originally from
Shiraz
Shiraz (; ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the popu ...
in
southern Iran. Nasrallah later became a secretary at the Ghaznavid court, and also became a poet.
Kalila wa Dimna
Between 1143 and 1146, Nasrallah translated the
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
translated Indian fable story ''
Kalila wa Dimna'' to
Persian, and dedicated it to Sultan
Bahram-Shah.
During the reign of the Bahram-Shah's grandson, the last Ghaznavid Sultan Khusrau Malik, Nasrallah was appointed as his vizier, but later fell into disfavor and was imprisoned, and then executed.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Abul-Maali Nasrallah
12th-century deaths
12th-century births
12th-century Iranian people
Ghaznavid viziers
Poets from the Ghaznavid Empire
Panchatantra