‘Ubayd Zakani

‘Ubayd Zakani, Nizam al-Din, Najm al-Din (1300-1368/1369), a writer and poet with the nom de plume ‘Ubayd hailing from the Zakanid family who were descendants of a clan of the Banu Khafaja Arabs. He was born and grew up in Qazwin. He was first a boon companion of the king. He went to Shiraz under Shaykh Jamal al-Din Abu Ishaq Inju and eulogized his vizier, Rukn al-Din ‘Amid al-Mulk. He also made eulogies on the Jalayirid Sultan Uways and Shah Shuja’. He associated for a while with Salman Savaji in Baghdad. Besides his mastery in poetical compositions in different genres, he was also one of the most powerful Persian satirists, criticizing the moral and political milieu of his time in a satirical garb. ‘Abbas Iqbal Ashtiyani was the first scholar who perceived the sociological significance of his works and made mention of it in his introduction to an edition of Ubayd’s works. His works include Mush u Gurba, a satirical composition imbued with criticism; Risala-yi Falnama-yi Mush u Gurba; Risala-yi Dilgusha, including Persian and Arabic anecdotes; Akhlaq al-Ashraf; Sad Pand; Rishnama; Mathnawi ‘Ushshaqnama, and Divan of poetry. His poetical compositions may fall into two categories, satirical and non-satirical. His non-satirical compositions include his collected poetry running to 3,000 couplets composed in the genres of qasida, tarkib-band, tarji’band, ghazal, qit’a, quatrain, and mathnawi. His diction is sweet and pleasant, viz. his prose style is fluent, unadorned, and devoid of redundancy, and his poetical style is fluent, devoid of ambiguity, and rich in selected vocabulary, and vigorous compounds resembling the styles of outstanding poets flourishing in late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. In his qasida, he follows the models of Sana’i and Anwari, in his mathnawi that of Nizami, and in his ghazals he mainly follows Sa’di, but his innovations are numerous such that some of his compositions are innovative in Persian literature. He is indebted for his renown to his astringent satires in which he attacked the corrupt and immoral people of his time. In his satirical compositions, ‘Ubayd plainly unveils the vices of his corrupt and dissimulating society and provides a vivid depiction of his milieu. 

Atashkada-yi Azar (3, 1195-1198); Az Sa’di ta Jami (286); Shakhsiyyat-ha-yi Nami (325-326).