Sharaf al-Din Qazvini
Biography
Sharaf al-Din Qazwini, Fazlullah Husayni (1261-1339), a belletrist, poet, and scribe flourishing in the 13th and 14th centuries. Muhammad ibn Badr Jajarmi makes mention of him in his collection as ‘the erudite Imam, the glory of later poets,’ reflecting Sharaf’s poetical renown at the time, though his fame, later on, rested in his well-known work in prose, al-Mu’jam fi Athar Muluk al-‘Ajam. Some have erroneously identified Sharaf al-Din Fazullah and ‘Izz al-Din Fazlullah, Vassaf al-Hazra’s father, though the latter bears the title ‘Izz al-Din and hails from Shiraz and the former bears the title Sharaf al-Din and is from Qazwin. ‘Izz al-Din Fazlullah, Vassaf’s father, died in 1298, 42 years before Sharaf al-Din Fazlullah’s death and the two were not related in the least, but they two shared the nom de plume Sharaf. Sharaf al-Din Fazullah Qazwini was born in Qazwin and he was in his seventies when he, accompanied by Khwaja Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad, was granted audience with Uljaitu in Dasht-i Arzhan in 1331.
Having received his education, Sharaf al-Din entered the services of the Ilkhanid viziers and attached himself to the court of Atabek Nusrat al-Din Ahmad Lur (1295-1329), a distinguished ruler from the Fazliwayh (Fazluya) or the Greater Lur (Lur-i Buzurg) dynasty. His well-known patrons included the said Atabek, Khwaja Ghiyath al-Din, and Khwaja Shams al-Din Baghghal, his contemporary viziers. His most significant work, al-Mu’jam fi Athar Muluk al-‘Ajam, dedicated to Atabek Nusrat al-Din, treats of ancient history of Persia from Kayumarth to Anushirwan. It is written in a florid and adorned prose imbued with Arabic obsolete words and Persian and Arabic verses. Employing a totally scribal style, the writer simply aimed at composing an embellished work, but the work is devoid of historical value. The work was used as a textbook including models of Persian embellished and difficult prose compositions for long in Persia and India because of encompassing literary points and copious material used in scribal compositions. His al-Tarassul al-Nusratiyya, dedicated to Ababek Nusrat al-Din after 1326, is on the epistolary and scribal professions. His eulogies include the qasida, Nuz-hat al-Absar fi Ma’rifa Buhur al-Ash’ar, composed on the model of the well-known qasida by Jamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr Qawami Mutarrazi titled Bada’i’ al-As-har fi Sana’i’ al-Ash’ar. Sharaf’s composition is a long muwashsha’ qasida, eulogizing Shams al-Din Husayn Baghghal, a total of the words used in every four or five couplets produces a couplet in a prosodic meter. Muhammad ibn Badr Jajarmi also cites a bilingual (mulamma’) ghazal by Sharaf whose significance simply rests in its bilingualism. Sharaf’s Divan is extant.
Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (3, 1256-1258); Tarikh-i Mufassal-i Iran, ‘Ahd-i Mughul (521).
