Asir-e Esfahani

17th-century Persian poet

19th-century Indian copy of Asir's divan

Mirza Jalal Mohammad (c. 1620-48), who is best known as Asir-e Esfahani (Asir) and Shahrestani, was a poet in 17th-century Safavid Iran. He was an innovative writer whose oeuvre contains examples of all conventional Persian poetic forms, a grandee at court and a son-in-law of Shah ("King") Abbas the Great (r. 1588-1629).

## Biography

[edit]

Few details about Asir's life are known.[1] Of Persian stock, he was born to Mirza ibn Mo'men in the city Isfahan, Safavid Iran.[2] His family were reputable sayyeds[a] from Shahrestan, a district in eastern Isfahan.[2][1] Asir's marriage to Malek Nisa Begum, a daughter of Safavid Shah ("King") Abbas the Great (r. 1588-1629) cemented the family's high socio-economic status.[2][1] Thereafter, Asir's home became a focal point of Isfahan's lively literary scene.[2][1] Asir studied under the poet Fasihi Heravi (died 1639-40) and was in contact with other prominent, contemporaneous poets such as Salek Qazvini (died 1674) and Saib Tabrizi (died 1676), with whom he often exchanged ghazals (short, lyrical poems consisting of rhyming couplets).[2] Asir's literary output was praised by Kalim Kashani, the Persian poet from Hamadan who flourished in Mughal India, providing evidence Asir's work travelled to India during his own lifetime, even though he did not.[2]

Although wine was commonly drunk in Safavid Iran, according to one of Asir's earliest biographers Mohammad Taher Nasrabadi (c. 1618-79), who was a frequent guest at Asir's house, Asir was addicted to alcohol, which caused his early death.[2][1] According to the third edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam, dates for Asir's death diverge widely from 1630/1 to 1658/9. The earliest authority on Asir, the Safavid historian Vali Qoli Beg (died after 1674), gives the year 1648, which accords well with other known facts of Asir's life.[2]

His pen name "Asir" means "prisoner".[1] Further narrating about this name, the Encyclopedia Iranica adds:

> According to Mohammad-Ali Tarbiat, Mirza Jalal was imprisoned by Shah Safi, along with some of the royal kinsfolk in 1042/1633, and thus he adopted the penname Asir (Prisoner). No evidence has been produced for this. Moreover, no change of pen-name has been found in any of his writings. His pen-name was certainly Asir throughout his career, and his purported imprisonment is probably a myth based on the meaning of the word asir.[1]

## Literary output

[edit]

Asir's extant works contain examples of all conventional Persian poetic forms.[2] His qasidas (panegyrics), tarji-bands and tarkib-bands (strophic poems with and without a refrain, respectively) eulogise the Shia Imams and several of his qit'as (lyrical poems on a single theme) celebrate events that happened during the reign of Shah Safi (r. 1629-1642).[2] Asir alo wrote rubaiyat (quatrains) and several short masnavis (poems in rhyming couplets on any theme).[2] Asir, however, is best known for around a thousand ghazals and ghazal fragments that make up the bulk of his divan (collected poems).[2] These are mostly amatory in theme and are notable for their sophisticated used of poetic imagery.[2]

Asir was referred to by several anthologists and biographers as the creator of the so-called "Indian style" (sabk-e Hendi) in Persian poetry.[1][2] This notion apparently stemmed from the compliments Saib Tabrizi, known as the greatest poet of the "Indian style", paid to Asir by referring to himself as an imitator of Asir's poetry.[1] In Shir Ali Khan Ludi's Mer'āt-ol-khayāl ("Mirror of the imagination") (1691), Asir is referred to as "the founder of khiyal-bandi"—the creation of fanciful, imagistic conceits, a defining feature of the "Indian style" (sabk-e Hendi) in Persian poetry.[2]

The early critic Nasrabadi qualified his praise of Asir by noting the unevenness of his output.[2] The later biographer Walih Daghistani (died 1756/7) said some of Asir's verses "descended into the valley of inanity" and set a reprehensible precedent.[2] Nevertheless, according to the Encyclopedia of Islam, Daghistani acknowledged Asir's good verses were very good and the modern literary historian Zabihollah Safa demonstrates the wealth of meaning Asir at his best could concentrate into a single verse.[2] A critical edition of the ghazals by Sharifi Wildani examines these conflicting claims.[2]

## Notes

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1. ^ Persons claiming descent from the Islamic prophet Mohammad.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Fīrūzkūhī 1987, pp. 765–766.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Losensky 2009.

## Sources

[edit]

* Fīrūzkūhī, K. Amīrī (1987). "ASĪR EṢFAHĀNĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 7. pp. 765–766.
* Losensky, Paul E. (2009). "Asīr-i Iṣfahānī". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.

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Persian literature

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Classical

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900s|

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1000s|

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1100s|

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1200s|

* Abu Tahir Tarsusi
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1300s|

* Ibn Yamin
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1400s|

* Ubayd Zakani
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1500s|

* Vahshi Bafqi (1523–1583)
* Mohtasham Kashani (1500–1588)
* 'Orfi Shirazi

1600s|

* Taleb Amoli
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* Asir-e Esfahani (c. 1620–1648)
* Kalim Kashani
* Hazin Lāhiji (1692–1766)
* Saba Kashani
* Abdul-Qādir Bēdil (1642–1720)
* Naw'i Khabushani
* Mohammad Qoli Salim Tehrani
* Rasa Salim Tehrani

1700s|

* Hatef Esfahani
* Azar Bigdeli (1722–1781)
* Neshat Esfahani
* Abbas Foroughi Bastami (1798–1857)

1800s|

* Yaghma Jandaqi (1782–1859)
* Mirza Ghalib (1797–1869)
* Zayn al-Abidin Shirvani (1779–1837)
* Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat (1800–1871)
* Mirza Mohammad Taqi Sepehr (1801–1880)
* Qaani (1808–1854)
* Mahmud Khan Malek al-Sho'ara (1813–1893)

Contemporary

| Poetry|

| Iran|

* Ahmadreza Ahmadi
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Armenia|

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Afghanistan|

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Uzbekistan|

* Asad Gulzoda

Pakistan|

* Muhammad Iqbal

Novels|

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Short stories|

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Plays|

* Reza Abdoh
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* Mohsen Yalfani
* Bahram Beyzai
* Bahman Forsi
* Amir Reza Koohestani
* Alireza Koushk Jalali
* Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi
* Bijan Mofid
* Hengameh Mofid
* Abbas Nalbandian
* Akbar Radi
* Pari Saberi
* Mirza Aqa Tabrizi
* Mohammad Yaghoubi

Screenplays|

* Saeed Aghighi
* Mohammad Reza Aslani
* Rakhshan Bani-E'temad
* Bahram Beyzai
* Hajir Darioush
* Pouran Derakhshandeh
* Asghar Farhadi
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* Abdolreza Kahani
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* Rasoul Mollagholipour
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* Jafar Panahi
* Kambuzia Partovi
* Fereydoun Rahnema
* Rasul Sadr Ameli
* Mohammad Sadri
* Parviz Shahbazi
* Sohrab Shahid-Saless

Translators|

* Amrollah Abjadian
* Jaleh Amouzgar
* Najaf Daryabandari
* Mohammad Ghazi
* Lili Golestan
* Sadegh Hedayat
* Ramak NikTalab
* Saleh Hosseini
* Ahmad Kamyabi Mask
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* Mohammad Moin
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* Ahmad Tafazzoli
* Abbas Zaryab

Children's literature|

* Samad Behrangi
* Houshang Moradi Kermani
* Babak NikTalab
* Hengameh Mofid
* Poopak NikTalab
* Farhad Hasanzadeh
* Ramak NikTalab

Essayists|

* Aydin Aghdashloo
* Ali Latifiyan
* Mohammad Ebrahim Bastani Parizi
* Ehsan Yarshater
* Ahmad Kasravi

Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language of Iran, Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.
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