Asifi Haravi

Asifi-yi Hiravi, Asif b. Na'im al-Din Ni'matullah b. 'Ala' al-Din 'Ali Quhistani (1449-1517), one of the best known poets of Herat in Timurid times. His titular name is disputed, as to whether it was Kamal al-Din or Muqim al-Din or something else, according to the sources. As for his poetic nome de plume, Asifi, he seems to have derived it from the position of his father, Khwaja Na'im al-Din Ni'matullah Quhistani, who was minister to the Gurkanid Sultan Abu Sa'id (d. 1468), given that ministers were usually entitled ‘Asif’. Asifi was a companion of Badi' al-Zaman Mirza Shahzada and Amir 'Ali-Shir Nawa'i, and a pupil of the great poet Jami, who had a high regard for him. He was noted for his well-groomed appearance though considered by some to be opinionated and self-satisfied. However, without question his elevated social position, as the son of a minister, had an effect in shaping his behaviour and his character. He has been described as especially level-headed and straightforward, his strength of character in particular being praised by Amir 'Ali-Shir Nawa'i. He shared his contemporary poets’ admiration for and emulation of the likes of Khayyam, Sa'di, Amir Khusraw Dihlawi, Jami, Faghani, Hilali and Sijzi. His ghazals are largely adorned with elegant and well-turned devices, subtle themes and fine turns of phrase, such that he may be considered a precursor of the Indian genre (sabk-i hindi) of Persian poetry [have deleted this statement as redundant]. The historian and anthologist  Dawlatshah Samarqandi terms his language "imaginative and amphibological." Too much indulgence in the latter, despite his delicate motifs and appealing figures of speech, though his indulgence in imaginativeness and amphibology, has tended to deprive his poetry of "love and passion." In contrast to his contemporaries, he avoided composing panegyrics addressed to the great and the good. He was adept in all the forms: ghazals, qasidas, quatrains, and masnawis, including an example of the latter on the model of Nizami's Makhzan al-asrar, though it has not become well-known, whereas some of his verses and hemistiches have become proverbial sayings in their own right. He spent most of his life in his home city, traveling to nearby Balkh, while making his sole long voyage to Mecca. He was buried in Gazurgah, Herat. Sam Mirza and Azar Beygdili claim 1514 to be his death date while later sources have recorded it as 1517.

Asar-afarinan (1, 39); Da'irat al-ma'arif-i buzurg-i Islami (1, 432-433); Farhang-i sukhanvaran (9); Nam-avaran-i farhang (93-94).