Vali Dashtbayazi

Vali Dashtbayazi, Mirza Muhammad Wali (executed in 1592), a poet with the nom de plume Vali, hailing from Dashtabaz, Qa’in. He departed for Qazwin in early youth in the late reign of the Safavid Shah Tahmasb, where he associated with Zamiri Isfahani, Muhtasham Kashani, Vahshi Bafqi, among other poets. He returned to Khurasan in the reign of Shah Isma’il (1576-1577), where he was a contemporary of poets like Shakibi Isfahani, Thana’i Mashhadi, and Mirza Quli Mayli. A student of Mawlana Nithari Tuni, Muhammad Vali was encouraged by his master and patronized by the Safavid Sultan Ibrahim Mirza (killed in 1576), whom he accompanied in Mashhad, Sabziwar, and Qazwin. Upon his return to his hometown, he traveled to Kashan where he met the author of Khulasat al-Ash’ar. He also traveled to Sistan, where he was well-received by Malik Muhammad. He stayed in Sistan for a year and composed qasidas eulogizing Malik Mahmud. Owing to his strict support for Shi’ism and the severe enmity of his opponents, he was killed in the vicinity of Qa’inat at the behest of the Uzbek Din Muhammad Khan, son of Jan Beyg and the nephew of the Uzbek ‘Abd Allah Khan, and was laid to rest at the village of Karishk, in Dashtbayaz. The date of his death has been variously reported as 1590-1641, though according to some sources, the date 1592 is inscribed on his grave. His works include his divan of poetry. A mathnawi, entitled Khusraw wa Shirin, has been attributed to him in some biographical sources.

Asar-afarinan (6/ 118-119); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (5/ 827-832).