ABŪ ṬĀLEB TABRĪZĪ (pen name ṬĀLEB), poet and physician, d. 1015/1606-07. Born into a noble family of Tabrīz (which was taken by the Ottomans in 993/1585), Abū Ṭāleb studied medicine and literature in Tabrīz and in Qazvīn, where he established his practice (Tarbīat, Dānešmandān, p. 243). He was a skilled writer of ḡazals, and he held literary soirees with his fellow poets (ibid.). He returned to Tabrīz in the troubled period following the death of the Safavid king Ṭahmāsp I (984/1576) and found a patron in the local governor, Jaʿfar Pāšā (Šams-al-dīn Sāmī, Qāmūs al-aʿlām, Istanbul, 1308-16/1890-99, III, p. 1819). He traveled further into Ottoman territory after hearing of the literary inclinations of the sultan Morād III (see ibid., VI, p. 4254) and may have made anti-Safavid statements. In any case he was denounced after he returned to Tabrīz and the Safavids reoccupied the city in 1012/1603 (on this event, see Eskandar Beg, tr. Savory, pp. 829-30), and was executed by order of Shah ʿAbbās I (Moḥammad-Ṭāher Naṣrābādī, Taḏkera-ye šoʿarāʾ, ed. W. Dastgerdī, Tehran, 1317 Š./1938, pp. 68-69). No dīvān of Abū Ṭāleb’s poetry is known, but scattered verses are quoted in various taḏkeras (e.g., ʿArafāt al-ʿāšeqīn, on which see Storey, I/2, pp. 810-11).
Bibliography: Given in the text.
(ʿA. Kārang)
Originally Published: December 15, 1983
Last Updated: July 21, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 4, p. 390
ʿA. Kārang, “ABU ṬĀLEB TABRIZI,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/4, p. 390; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abu-taleb-tabrizi (accessed on 31 January 2014).
