Zulali Khwansari

Zulali Khwansari, Muhammad Hasan (d. 1616), a poet with nom de plume Zulali. Born in Khwansar, he was a contemporary and poet laureate of the Safavid Shah ‘Abbas I. he was a student of Mir Muhammad Baqir Damad and eulogized his master, Shaykh Baha’i, the Safavid Shah ‘Abbas, and his vizier, Mirza Habib Allah Sadr.. His is well-known for his seven, extent mathnawis. His works include Shu’lih-yi Didar; Mahmud wa Ayaz; Husn-i Galusuz; Azar u Samandar; Sulayman-namih; Rah u Khurshid; and Miykhanih. These seven mathnawis are well-known as Haft Sayyarih; Haft Ashub; Sab’ih-yi Sayyarih; Sab’ih-yi Zulali; and Haft Ganj. Couplets and samples of his Divan of Qasidas, ghazals, and quatrains have been incorporated in biographical works, though the latter make mention of his seven mathnawis in whose composition Zulali aspired to follow the models of poets like Amir Khusraw Dihlawi, Amir ‘Alishir Nawa’i, and ‘Abd al-Rahman Jami. His mathnawis were posthumously collected and arranged by Shaykh ‘Abd al-Husayn Kamarih’i and Mulla Tughra to which an introduction in prose and verse was written and they were arranged in the following order: Husn-i Galusuz; Shu’lih-yi Didar; Miykhanih; Zarrih wa Khurshid; Azar u Samandar; Sulayman-namih; Mahmud u Ayaz. These mathnawis have been mentioned by Nasrabadi and Azar Bigdili in their biographical works. His lengthiest and latest of his mathnawis is Mahmud u Ayaz. Zulali did not compose his mathnavis in any particular order, but he simultaneously began the composition of most of them. In his introduction, Mulla Tughra thus makes mention of Zulali’s seven mathnawis: Husn-i Galusuz is a mystical composition in verse following the model of Nizami’s Makhzan al-Asrar, running to about 445 couplets, with a preamble by the poet in which he dedicated the work to the Safavid Shah ‘Abbas. Shu’lih-yi Didar was a mystical composition in verse in 200 and some couplets, versified in the meter of Rumi’s Mathnawi, dedicated to Shah ‘Abas to which the poet wrote a preamble in prose. Miykhanih is also a mystical composition in verse in 367 couplets, versified in the meter of Sana’i’s Hadiqat al-Haqiqa, with a preamble in prose by the poet. Zarrih wa Khurshid is an allegory about love between an atom and the sun, versified in the meter of Jami’s Subhat al-Abrar, with a preamble in prose by the poet. Azar u Samand or Gul u Bulbul is a short poetical composition about the love between the fire and a salamander, versified in the meter of Nizami’s Layli u Majnun. Sulayman-namih or Sulayman u Bilqis is about the love between Solomon and queen of Sheba, a frequently used subject by poets versifying in the mathnawi at the time and a successor to the religious, lyrical story of Joseph and Zulaykha. It is versified in 589 couplets in the meter of Nizami’s Iskandarnamih. Mahmud u Ayaz is the most detailed and the most significant of the mathnawis composed by Zulali Khwansari, in which mention is made of the love between the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud (1030) and Ayaz, dedicated to Shah ‘Abbas and composed on the model of Nizami’s Khusraw u Shirin. He began its composition in 1001 and completed it in 1024, thus he devoted most of his poetical career to its composition. The number of its couplets in some manuscript copies is about 4,700. It might have been the earliest of the mathnawis included in his seven mathnawis, simultaneously composing it with other mathnawis. Mahmud u Ayaz has been published in Lucknow (1873) and Tehran (1902). Numerous manuscript copies of his seven mathnawis are extant. Zulali was an innovative poet in the narrow sense of the word in expressing his ideas, thus creating novel compositions of words which are at times in need of annotations and interpretations. In addition to his similes and metaphors, his allusions and metonymies lie in the waves of his far-fetched imagination and remote amphibologies, which are at times unrivalled in terms of appeal. 

Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (5/ 965-976); Farhang-i Sha’iran-i Zaban-i Parsi az Aghaz ta Imruz (1/ 255).