Lisani Shirazi

Lisani Shirazi, Wajih al-Din ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, ‘Abd Allah (d. 1533-1535), son of Muhammad Mushkfurush (lit. musk seller). A Shi’i poet with the nom de plume Lisani flourishing in the early Safavid period the first half of the sixteenth century. Although he was born in Shiraz, but he mainly lived in Baghdad and Tabriz, hence his appellation Lisani Tabrizi attested in some biographical sources. Lisani was well-respected for his eulogies to the family of the Prophet. In his Majalis al-Mu’minin, Qazi Nur Allah Shushtari states that Lisani composed about 1,000 couplets of eulogies to the Shi’i Imams. Besides religious eulogies, he had mastery of composing poetry in other forms, like short tarkib-bands. He composed novel poetical compositions in the genre of shahrashub or shahrangiz. He also composed elegant qasidas, quatrains, and ghazals. One of his famous students, Sharif Tabrizi, insulted him by attributing a collection of meaningless and loose poetry to him and entitled it Sahw al-Lisan (Slip of Tongue). In contrast, another student of Lisani, Haydari, composed poetry in defense of his master under the title Lisan al-Ghayb (Tongue of the Unseen). Lisani was a distinguished master who had received his training from the masters flourishing in the fifteenth century. His contemporary poets, particularly Muhtasham, Zamiri, and Wahshi, were impressed by him. Lisani died before the Ottoman Sultan Sulayman’s conquest of Tabriz and was laid to rest at the Surkhab Cemetery in Tabriz. His works include a sharhashub, entitled Majma’ al-Asnaf, comprising of 540 quatrains, devoted to depictions of Tabriz, the artisans of the city, love, and saqi (cup-bearer); Saqinama; Divan of poetry.

Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (5/ 636-641); Majalis al-Mu’minin (541-542).