Qatran Tabrizi | |
|---|---|
 TheMaqbaratoshoara inTabriz, Iran, where Qatran is buried | |
| Native name | قطران تبریزی |
| Born | 1009–1014 Shadiabad,Azarbaijan,Rawadid dynasty |
| Died | after 1088 |
Qatran Tabrizi (Persian:قطران تبریزی; 1009–1014 – after 1088) was aPersian[1] writer, who is considered to have been one of the leading poets in 11th-centuryIran. A native of the northwestern region ofAzarbaijan, he spent all of his life there as well as in the neighbouring region ofTranscaucasia, mainly serving as a court poet under the local dynasties of theRawadids andShaddadids.
Qatran was born between 1009 and 1014 inShadiabad, near the city ofTabriz in the northwestern region ofAzarbaijan.[2] Shadiabad is mentioned as his hometown in one of his verses, which dismisses other accounts, which calls him by thenisbas of Tirmidhi, Jabali, Jili, Urmawi, Ajali. According to the 15th-centuryTimurid-era biographerDawlatshah Samarqandi, the name of Qatran's father was Mansur, but this is not supported by earlier sources. Qatran is given the epithet of "Adudi" in several sources, which has been suggested to be a corruption ofAzdi, the name of anArab tribe which the rulingRawadid dynasty was descended from.[1]
Not much is known about the life of Qatran.[1] As a Western Persian who spoke the Iranian dialect ofAzari,[2][a] Qatran had some difficulties in understanding "Parsi" (i.e.Dari), the Eastern Persian dialect ofKhurasan. This is mentioned in theSafarnama of the Khurasanian poetNasir Khusraw when he met him in Tabriz in 1046; "He wrote good poetry, but did not know Persian well. He came to me bringing thediwan ofMunjik andDaqiqi, which he read with me, questioning me about every passage in which he found difficulty. I told him its meaning and he wrote it down." Dari containedEastern Iranian words (such asSogdian), which were unintelligible to a Western Persian like Qatran.[1][4] It was seemingly due to this that Qatran composed a lexicon written in Persian, namedTafasir fi lughat al-Furs, which has not survived.[1] His work is mentioned in the preface of the Persian lexicon of his contemporaryAsadi Tusi, which was composed for the educated population of Azarbaijan. Asadi never cites any of Qatran's verses in his lexicon, which further underscores that the intention of the work was to clarify the uncommon words used in Eastern Persian.[1][5][6] With the reunification of Iran bySeljuk Empire in the mid 11th-century, eastern Persian literature had a better opportunity to sway the western provinces.[7][b]
Qatran seemingly spent all of his life in Azarbaijan andTranscaucasia, where he served under local rulers.[2] Hisdiwan was compiled and published by the 20th-century Iranian businessman and collectorHajj Mohammad Nakhjavani (died 1962).[9] It contains 3000–10,000couplets, which mentions about thirty patrons. The majority of theodes in hisdiwan are dedicated to the Rawadid rulers of Tabriz,Abu Mansur Wahsudan (r. 1019–1059) and his successorAbu Nasr Mamlan II (r. 1058/9–1070), as well as theShaddadid rulers ofGanja,Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl (r. 1022–1067) andFadl ibn Shavur (r. 1067–1073). Other notable patrons include Abu Dulaf-i Dayrani, the ruler ofNakhchivan.[10][2] Some works have been erroneously attributed to Qatran, such as theQausnama ("The Book of Arch"), which was in reality the work of a certain Qatran Tirmidhi, who lived 100 years after him. Some works of the prominent Persian poetRudaki (died 941) have also erroneously been attributed to Qatran, due to the similarity of their styles, and the names of their patrons, theSamanid rulerNasr ibn Ahmad (r. 914–943) and Abu Nasr Mamlan.[1][2] Qatran was the first poet from Azarbaijan to compose poetry in Dari.[1] He also compiled a Persian dictionary called,Tafāsīr fī lughat al-furs, of which there are no known copies left in existence.[11]
Qatran's work is also an important source in historiography, as many names and events in Azarbaijan and theCaucasus mentioned in his poems would have been otherwise unknown.[2] This includes among other things theGhuzz incursions into Arran and Azarbaijan, and the peace treaty between the Rawadids and Shaddadids in 1040.[8][12] During his later career, Qatran suffered fromgout, possibly an indication of his good welfare.[2] Qatran died in Ganja;[2] the date of his death is uncertain. According to some accounts of writers such as the 19th-century Persian poetReza-Qoli Khan Hedayat, Qatran died in 1072. However, one of Qatran'sqasidas dedicated to Abu Nasr Mamlan indicate that he at least lived till 1088.[1] According to Taqi, Qatran died in 1092.[10]
Qatran is considered to have been one of the leading poets in 11th-century Iran.[1] The modern historian De Bruijn calls him the first eminent poet born in the western Iranian provinces.[7]
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