Sharaf Jahan Qazvini

Sharaf Jahan Qazwini, Mirza Sharaf al-Din Sayfi Hasani (1506-1560), son of Mir Nur al-Huda Qazi Jahan. A calligrapher, belletrist, and poet with the nom de plume Sharaf. He is reportedly from the distinguished family of Sayfi Sayyids of Qazwin, namely a descendant of Qazi Sayf al-Din Hasani Qazwini. He flourished under the Ilkhanid Mongols and was well-respected by Sultan Uljaytu. His descendants maintained the office of the justice of Qazwin for years. Born in Qazwin, he learned sciences and belles-lettres in his hometown. Then, he departed for Shiraz where he studied intellectual sciences with Amir Ghiyath al-Din Mansur Dashtaki Shirazi and Khwaja Jalal al-Din Mahmud Shirazi. His contemporaries recognized his erudition. Sharaf Jahan exceled his contemporaries in calligraphy, epistolary art, poetry, and even music and vocals. In his calligraphic art he followed the style of Khwaja ‘Abd al-Hayy Munshi, a distinguished calligrapher at the time. Amir Hasan Rumlu states, ‘Mirza Sharaf, son of Qazi Jahan Qazwini, was the authorized representative (Wakil) of Shah Tahmasb, well-versed in all the sciences of his time, possessing all the nobilities and virtues, and truly excelled all the nobilities and abilities attributed to his father. Even, he excelled his father in composition by his vigor and refined talent of poetry. He was unrivalled in poetical compositions. When his father held vizierate, he represented him in the administration of the affairs of people and served as an authorized signatory …’ However, it is reported that Mirza Sharaf hardly served as a royal companion thereby upsetting his father. Nonetheless, he, similar to his family members, served at the Safavid court and was a vizier of Khurasan for a while. He died in Qazwin at the age of 50 and was buried adjacent to the Shrine of Shahzada Husayn. In addition to his elegant compositions and brief, but exquisite ghazals, he created, according to Taqi al-Din Awhadi, a novel style termed as Tarz-i Vuqu’. The latter states, ‘He exceled later and immediately earlier poets by his efforts. Indeed, he was unrivalled in his time and newly fledged poets have made use of his rich compositions.’ Similar to his contemporaries who in the first half of the 16^th century and for long thereafter still composed on the models of the poets flourishing in the late Timurid era, Sharaf endeavored to express his delicate ideas in a simple and clear language. In his Atashkada-yi Azar, Azar Bigdili states, ‘The present humble writer holds that he exceled all poets in Qazwin, and even his contemporaries, by his fluent and elegant diction. In his poetical compositions, he followed the styles of poets like Zamiri. His Divan runs to 2,000 couplets.’ The number of the couplets in his Divan, in the few manuscript copies which are extant, is reported as 2,000; 4,855; and 1,001 by Azar, Fakhr al-Zamani, and Isma’il Pasha. Moreover, he also composed a Saqinama, crowned by eulogizing the Safavid Shah Tahmasb, which is accorded significance for its inclusion of philosophical ideas and its eloquent diction. 

Ahsan al-Tawarikh (416); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (5, 679-691); Tazkira-yi Maykhana (151); Haft Iqlim (3, 169).