Jabali Ghurjistani

Jibilli Gharjistani, Badi’ al-Zaman ‘Abd al-Wasi’ ibn ‘Abd al-Jami’ ibn ‘Umran ibn Rabi’ (d. 1160), a poet with the nom de plume Jibilli, born into a an ‘Alawid family residing in Gharjistan. Having gained mastery of sciences, particularly in those of belles-lettres, he made his compositions and became the poet par excellence in his times. He eulogized the Ghurid, Seljuk, and Mahmudi kings. Tughril Takin ibn Muhammad who conquered Khwarazm in 1096 and the Ghaznavid Bahram Shah ibn Mas’ud (1020-1157) at whose court he lived for the first four years his reign and was among the rulers for whom he composed eulogies. The latter, owing to instability in his reign requested Sanjar’s aid and Sanjar dispatched an army to Ghaznin in 1116. Jibilli joined Sanjar’s audience and stayed at his court for a while and was well-respected by the king. He eulogized other kings, e.g. Arsalan Shah ibn Kirmanshah, a Seljuk ruler of Kerman. ‘Abd al-Wasi’ Jibilli was one of the avant-gardes of the change in the poetic style in mid-12 century. He was one of the poets whose diction approached the colloquial idiom of the time, though it further intertwined with Arabic. His poetic vigor and mastery of poetry led him to accord particular attention to the ornate diction and superiority of figures of speech over those of meaning and also accord particular significance to poetical devices, e.g. equilibrium (muwazana); identical relations (mumathala); inlay of devices (tarsi’); enumeration (ta’did); and folding and unfolding (laff wa nashr). Consequently, Awfi maintains that he excels other poets by his vigor and mastery and some of his qasidas are such that ‘No scholar has ever assayed such pieces of gold in terms of poetical vigor and none of the eloquent poets have ever exceled his diction.’ As mentioned by Awfi, he was ‘a master of two eloquent talents’ (dhu ‘l-balaghatayn), since had mastery of Arabic poetry and reflected his vigor in consonant qasidas imbued with figurative devices. Some of his bilingual compositions (in Persian and Arabic) are included in Lubab al-Albab. His divan is available.

Atashkada-yi Azar (2, 511-529); Asar-afarinan (2, 186-187); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (2, 650-656).