Haj Gawhar-Khanum (Gawhar)
Biography
Gawhar Qajar, Hajiyya Gawhar Khanum (19th and 20th centuries), daughter of the Qajar Musa Khan. An astronomer and poet bearing the titles Shams al-Shu’ara’ or Shamsat al-Shu’ara’. Her mother, Tighun Khanum, was the daughter of the Qajar Fath’ali Shah. She lived in Isfahan and was acquainted with astronomy. Further, she was a skillful poet and particularly composed qasidas and had learned qasida composition from Qa’ani. In her qasidas, she mainly followed the models of Sa’di and at times Hafiz. Some of her qasidas are eulogies to the Shi‘ite Imams, Nasir al-Din Shah (1847-1895), and her mother and some of her daughters. Her divan of poetry, Gawhariyya, includes 6,000 couplets of qasidas, ghazals, quatrains, qit’as, mathnawis, and one poetical piece composed on the model of a ghazal by Sa’di.
Asar-afarinan (5, 87-88); Mashahir-i Zanan (200-201).
