AṮĪR OWMĀNĪ, AṮĪR-AL-DĪN ʿABDALLĀH, a poet of the ʿErāqī (western Iranian) school of the 7th/13th century (d. 665/1266).
He came from the village of Owmān near Hamadān, and is said to have been a pupil of the Ḵᵛāja Naṣīr-al-dīn Ṭūsī though firm evidence of this is lacking. He spent most of his career at Baghdad but lived at times in Kordestān and Lorestān and also at Isfahan, where he was friendly with the poet Kamāl-al-dīn Esmāʿīl (d. 635/1237) and the latter’s contemporary, Rafīʿ-al-dīn Lonbānī. His principal patron was the last Ildegizid ruler of Azerbaijan, the atābak Ozbek (r. 607-22/1210-25), son of the atābak Moḥammad Jahān-pahlavān. The poet also wrote eulogies of the prince of the Little Lors (Lor-e Kūček), Ḥosām-al-dīn Ḵalīl b. Badr b. Šojāʿ, while simultaneously courting and praising the latter’s opponent Šehāb-al-dīn Solaymānšāh Īvāʾī, chief of the Kurdish Īvāʾī tribe and a chief minister of the caliph al-Mostaʿṣem Beʾllāh; it was in hope of gaining this man’s favor that Aṯīr Owmānī spent so much time at Baghdad. Solaymānšāh and his son were put to death after Hūlāgū’s (Hülegü) conquest of Baghdad in 656/1258. Aṯīr Owmānī has described the fall of Baghdad and the accompanying slaughter and destruction in a very sorrowful qaṣīda. He died in 665/1266. His dīvān survives and is estimated at about 5,000 verses. He composed poems in Arabic as well as Persian. In poetic technique he tended to follow Anwārī. He attempted to enliven his odes by using a simple, fluent style and a forceful, well-chosen vocabulary, and at the same time, like Anwārī, to create poetic themes by using his knowledge of science, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy, but without going too far in this direction.
Bibliography:
Ḥabīb al-sīar (Tehran) III, pp. 106-07.
Dawlatšāh, ed. Browne, pp. 155, 157, 172-73.
Loṭf-ʿAlī Beg Āḏar (Āẕar Bīgdelī), Ātaškada, Bombay, 1299/1882, pp. 253-54.
ʿA. Eqbāl Aštīānī, Tārīḵ-e mofaṣṣal-e Īrān I: Az ḥamla-ye Čangīz tā taškīl-e dawlat-e teymūrī, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1341 Š./1962, pp. 533-34.
Majmāʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ I, pp. 280-82.
Ṣafā, Adabīyāt III/1, pp. 394-408.
Nafīsī, Naẓm o naṯr I, p. 158.
Ḵayyāmpūr, Soḵanvarān, p. 26.
Dehḵodā, s.v. Aṯīr Owmānī.
Search terms:
| اثیر اومانی | asir owmani | asir omaani | asir owmaani |
(Z. Safa)
Originally Published: December 15, 1987
Last Updated: August 17, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 1, pp. 12-13
