Biography of Qatran Tabrizi, a great poet of the 5th century

Taran Tabrizi's photo

Qatran Tabrizi is one of the poets of the 5th century AH who lived in the Shadadi and Ravadian periods. This precious poet is praised in Naser Khosrow's Safarnameh. In the following, we will discuss the biography of Qatran Tabrizi.

Summary of the biography of Qatran Tabrizi:

Full name: Sharaf al-Zaman Hakim Abu Mansour Qatran Azdi Tabrizi

Position: Poet

Born: 5th century Hijri

Place of birth: Shadbad Mashaikh village, Tabriz

Date of death: 465 AH

Burial place: Maqbar al-Shaara in Koi Sorkhab, Tabriz

Biography of Qatran Tabrizi:

Sharaf al-Zaman Hakim Abu Mansour Qatran Azdi of Tabriz was born at an unknown time in the village of Shadbad Mashaikh of Tabriz. He is one of the poets of the 5th century, who is known as a contemporary of Shadadiyan and Ravadiyan. His mother tongue in Qatran was Azeri or Pahlavi, common in Azerbaijan, but he could sing Persian-Dari poetry very beautifully.

Nasser Khosrow Qabadiani, the oldest writer who wrote about him in a trip he had with him in Tabriz in 438 lunar year, says:

“In Tabriz, I saw Qatran, the name of a poet. He wrote good poetry, but he did not know Persian language well. He came to me to bring a Diwan Manjik and a Diwan Zajik and read it to me, and he asked me about any difficult meaning, I told him and he wrote the explanation and he recited his poems to me.

In fact, the poems that Qatran wrote overlapped with the elements and principles of the Turkish language.

The reason for Qatran's lack of familiarity with the Persian language is due to his mother tongue, Azari (Pahlavi). He could not recognize some Eastern words and expressions that were part of their local language.

As mentioned, Qatran was born in the Shadbad village of Mashaikh, but there are doubts about this, but Qatran himself in one of his poems introduces himself as a resident of Shadabad, who is from the areas near Tabriz:

I will serve you to the city, I will mourn for my soul, even though God made my life happy

Qatran was from the peasant class and from this class he became a poet who says in this regard:

I became a poor peasant, you turned me from being a poet to a peasant

Tabrizi tar statue

Works and compositions of Qatran Tabrizi:

One of Taran Divan's works is his poems which include; There are ghazals, tarjiats, odes and quatrains and it has more than eight thousand verses. In addition to its poetic and literary value, Diwan Qatran also has historical value because this valuable book is the only source that identifies the unknown leaders, kings, and ministers of history in the region.

Seyyed Hasan Taqizadeh writes in this context: “Diwan Qatran is full of historical references on the one hand and old and eloquent Persian words on the other hand, the benefits of which are indescribable. In fact, if it were not for Qatran and his characteristic poems, Abu Nasr Mamlan, what news had reached us in the book of history (except a little) and in fact, as Atabak Abu Bakr bin Saad Shirazi was immortalized by Saadi's poetry. Mamlan and Fazloun and some other emirs of Azerbaijan… Tar is also alive.

Among the most famous kings in that period who have been praised and praised by Qatran Tabrizi are; Amir Saif al-Dawlah and Sharafmullah Abu Mansour and Shusdan bin Muhammad Rawadi, who was one of the most famous kings of Rawadi and Qatran was in his service when he returned from Ganja, Amir Abu al-Hassan Ali, known as Lashkar, who was the ruler of Ganja from 435 to 440 AD, Abu Nasr Muhammad, the son of Abi Abu Mansour Vahsudan, known as “Mamlan”, Fazlun bin Abi al-Swar and Abu Dolf is one of the kings of Nakhchivan, whose race was Arab and is considered to be from the Shibani family.

Another work written by this poet in addition to Divan Taish and Majid Shahan, which is very valuable; It is a dictionary or “commentaries in the Fars language”. Qatran had started his literary activity since he was young and at the height of his youth, he put his prosperity, talent and effort in the way of word order. The book of Haji Khalifa is the book in which the original name of the Tartan book is mentioned for the first time. Based on the information provided by this book, the name of Qatran's book has been introduced as “Tafaseer Fi El-Lagha Al-Fars”. Based on the research in the later periods, the name of the Qatran book was shortened from the word Qatran or “Tafaseer Fi El-Laghga Al-Fars” and was called “Tafaseer”. Of course, today it is not possible to find a trace of the Qatran dictionary, even though this book is one of the oldest dictionary books that was written, as far as we can tell, Asadi Toosi wrote “Loghat Fars” from this dictionary book. Qatran Tabrizi has made an adaptation and has taken a look at it.

During the time that Qatran lived in Balkh, he compiled the Qosnameh poem under the name of Amir Ahmed bin Qamaj, who was one of the rulers of Balkh, among the amirs of Sultan Sanjar.

The selected works of Qatran Tabrizi were translated and printed in Azeri language in 2013 with the cooperation of Cultural Consultancy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Baku. Mirjalal Zaki; A learned researcher, poet and translator of the Republic of Azerbaijan translated these works in the form of rhymes and poetry into Azeri language and published them in the form of poems in 212 pages in Nafta Press Baku publishing house. In the preface of the book written by the same author, there is information from such as; Life, views of thinkers, style of poems, etc. are written by Qatran Tabrizi. This author has used the writings of Iranian scholars and writers such as Saeed Nafisi, Forozanfar, Begdali, etc. in the compilation of this book, and at the end of the book, the end of the Persian and Arabic vocabulary book has been used.

The style of Qatran Tabrizi's poems

Poetry style of Qatran Tabrizi:

The style that this poet uses to write his poems is like; The poems of Rudaki, Farrokhi and elemental, it should also be noted that three events are mentioned in his divan, which include the following:

• The war that took place between Amir Vahsudan and Lieutenant General Moghan.
• Ghazan's invasion of Azerbaijan
• The terrible earthquake that happened in Tabriz in 434 AH.

Like all the poets who lived in that period, Qatran was well versed in literary techniques and probably had a background in wisdom, but his soul was less influenced by this philosophical information. In general, the influence of poetic ideas in Qatran He had more expression, that's why his thoughts were more simple and their depth was less.

Qatran's poems are generally smooth and due to his activity in various industries, especially ode writing, less damage has been done to his eloquence than his contemporaries. Mamdouh Qatran's name is due to his closeness to Rodaki, many times with Rodaki's poems; The father of Persian poetry has been misunderstood.

Tabrizi tar burial place

Death of Qatran Tabrizi:

Qatran Tabrizi passed away in 465 AH and was buried in Al-Shaarai Tomb in Surkhab Koi, Tabriz. Badi-ul-Zaman Forozanfar, quoting Majmaal al-Fasha, wrote about the year Qatran Tabrizi died; “From the poems that Qatran sings in praise of Fazlun and referring to his return from Estrabad, which took place during the reign of Malik Shah between 465 and 485, we can understand that he was still alive after this year.”

One of the poems of this great poet is as follows:

Oh my heart, I didn't tell you to be careful in love

Let the good people pass by their love

Because you have seen a good face, Faraz has not seen it

When the arrow of love rains, shield shame and wisdom

My command is not a battle

You thought that I would say make it better every hour

Every step in love is a hundred kinds of pain and suffering

If you have to be safe, beware of love

You failed me, you stayed in the trap of love

how are you Let us know

Now don't wait for the result

Zain Chare Bazamani, change the remedy

compilation: Cover biographical section