Partaw Shirazi

Partawi Shirazi (d. 1521), a physician, astronomer, mystic, and poet flourishing in the ninth and early 10^th centuries, who according to all biographers, even his contemporaries, e.g. Amir ‘Alishir and Sam Mirza, to have hailed from Shiraz. According to some sources, he hailed from Lahijan, but departed for Shiraz in his prime of life. Some sources make mention of two poets – Partawi Lahiji and Partawi Shirazi. His precise date of birth is unknown and biographers are not unanimous in this respect, some of whom have regarded his death at the age of 71 in 1534 and his burial place in Baghdad. Nonetheless, it is not true, since he died in Shiraz in 1521 and was buried adjacent to Sa’di’s tomb. He was a contemporary of Shahidi Qumi and Ahli Shirazi. Having led a life of pleasure and irresponsibility in his youth, he repented his sins late in life. He studied intellectual sciences with Jalal al-Din Muhammad Davvani and became particularly well-versed in Sufism and treading the path of intuitive knowledge, such that Davvani praised his exalted mystical position. Partawi Shirazi lived under Ibrahim Khan Abu al-Fawaris, but spent 21 years of his life in the reign of the Safavid Shah Isma’il. He was erudite in medicine and astronomy and wrote an astrological calendar in the name of the Safavid Shah Isma’il (1499-1523) in which he prognosticated the incident of Chaldiran, Shah Isma’il’s defeat, and the Ottoman Sultan Salim’s conquest of Tabriz, leading to Shah Isma’il’s flight and change of the name of the sovereign in Friday prayer sermons and coinage. He made numerous journeys to Mecca as a pilgrim. He was a distinguished poet in his times and a master of composing in different genres. Therefore, most of his contemporary biographers have extolled him for his mastery in poetry. His divan includes 4,000 couplets composed in the genres of ghazal and qasidas. He also composed a mathnavi late in life following the model of Sana’i’s Hadiqat al-Haqiqa, though it did not win him fame. He is well-known for composing his Saqinama, attributed by some biographers to Firdawsi, saying that the latter used the nom de plume Partawi in the beginning. The work is in 281 couplets in the meter of mutaqarib muthamman maqsur or mahdhuf. About 125 couplets of the work have been incorporated in ‘Arafat al-‘Ashiqin, though the work has been included in its entirety in Tadhkira Maykhana. It is particularly well-known for expanding the themes of common poems composed in the same genre as well as expression of different poetical and mystical feelings, such that later poets have mainly followed his style. In this work, Partawi tries to distance himself from a florid style. He also eulogizes Imam ‘Ali. Different manuscript copies of the work are extant. In his annotations of the edition of Tadhkira-yi Maykhana, Gulchin Ma’ani includes three ghazals by Partawi and other biographers have also included some of his couplets in their works. Some of his poems have been attributed to fabricated poetesses, e.g. Bibi Arzu Samarqandi and Partawi Talakash, to the latter Awhadi attributes a ghazal by Partawi opening with the hemistich:

I am the one reticent of expressing the vicissitudes of the world.

The same Talakash turned into Bibi Partawi in time and finally into a fabricated poetess by the name of Partawi Tabrizi to whom the aforesaid ghazal was attributed. There were other poets with the nom de plume Partawi, e.g. Partawi Isfarayini, though reliable material is unattested concerning them and the extant material about them is not to be trusted.

Asar-afarinan (2/ 18); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (5/ 648-653); Da’irat al-Ma’arif-i Buzurg-i Islami (13/ 580-581).