Bayani Kirmani

Khwaja Murwarid, Shihab al-Din ‘Abd Allah Kirmani (1460-1516), son of Shams al-Din Muhammad. He was an administrative secretary, calligrapher, musician, and poet with the nom de plume Bayani who was from the nobility of Kerman and held an administrative office at the Timurid court. In his prime of life he joined the audience of Sultan Husayn Bayqara and was deeply respected by him. Later he was appointed a court official and sealed the decrees as Amir ‘Alishir’s deputy. He retired from public life after Amir ‘Alishir’s death and engaged himself in prayers and copying the Qur’an. Upon the Safavid Shah Isma’il’s conquest of Khurasan, he was offered the vizirate, but he declined and was appointed to versify Tarikh-i Shahi (royal annals). He was well-versed in nearly all sciences and arts and also in composing poetry and prose. He was a calligrapher and an authority in music and cycles (advar) and made changes to the musical instrument qanun. He had studied principle scripts with ‘Abd Allah Tabbakh Hirawi and learned the ta’liq script from Khwaja Taj Salmani. His works include the versified compositions Tarikh-i Shahi; Tarikh-i Manzum; Khusraw u Shirin; Munis al-Ahbab.

Asar-afarinan (2, 340-341); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (2, 172); Tarikh-i Musiqi (1, 230-231).