EQBĀL ĀḎAR (EQBĀL-AL-SOLṬĀN), ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN QAZVĪNĪ (b. Alvand, near Qazvīn, ca. 1248/1869, d. Tabrīz, probably 1973), singer of Persian traditional music. After his father, Mollā Mūsā Zāreʿ Qazvīnī, a farmer and mullah, died, Abu’l-Ḥasan, then seven years old, moved to Qazvīn, where he lived until the age of twenty. He then moved to Tabrīz, where he studied traditional Persian music with Ḥājj Mollā Karīm Qazvīnī, one of the best singers of his time and highly esteemed at the court of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1264-1314/1848-96).
Eqbāl’s talent and the beauty and power of his voice soon acquired such repute in Tabrīz that they attracted the attention of the crown prince, Moḥammad-ʿAlī Mīrzā; during the latter’s brief reign (1324-27/1907-9) he was court singer in Tehran. After the shah’s deposition in 1327/1909 Eqbāl returned to Tabrīz at the invitation of the constitutional leader Sattār Khan. Under Aḥmad Shah (1327-44/1909-25) Eqbāl served once again as court singer and received the title Eqbāl-al-Solṭān. After the end of the Qajar dynasty in 1925 Eqbāl again returned to Tabrīz, where he worked for the Ministry of the interior. In 1943 he became mayor of Tabrīz, a post from which he retired in 1949. During the ephemeral rule of the pro-Soviet Autonomous Government of Azerbaijan (December 1945-December 1946; see AZERBAIJAN v) he refused to collaborate with the self-styled Azerbaijani national government.
Eqbāl was not only an eminent singer of traditional Persian music but also one of the most admired performers in taʿzīya (Shiʿite passion play) of his time; his highly personal style was affected to some extent by this background. His students included Reżāqolī Mīrzā Ẓellī, Sartīp Sayf, Ḥājj Shaykh ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Tork, Ebrāhīm Būḏarī, and Molūk Żarrābī.
Eqbāl’s voice, accompanied on the tār by Darvīš Khan (q.v.) and on the kamānča by Bāqer Khan Rāmešgar, was first recorded and issued in Tbilisi in 1332/1914; he made about thirteen other records, on ten of which he was accompanied on tār by ʿAlī-Akbar Šahnāzī, on one by ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Šahnāzī, and on two by the kamānča of Hāykū Nūnīānīs.
The renowned Azerbaijan poet Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Šahrīār eulogized Eqbāl Āḏar in a ḡazal.
For a music sample, see Eqbāl Āḏar, Abu’l Ḥasan Khan Qazvīnī.
Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):
“Abu’l-Ḥasan Eqbāl Āḏar (Eqbāl-e Solṭān),” Majalla-ye mūzīk-e Īrān 1/12, 1332 Š./1953, p. 5.
ʿA.-R. Mīr ʿAlī-Naqī, “Bozorgān-e mūsīqī-e Īrān. Abu’l-Ḥasan Eqbāl Āḏar,” Eṭṭelāʿāt, 7 Mehr 1374 Š./29 September 1995, p. 9.
“Be yād-e Abu’l-Ḥasan Eqbāl Āḏar Qazvīnī,” Majalla talāš , no. 71, 1356 Š./1977, pp. 29-31.
E. Būḏarī, Taʿzīya dar Īrān wa do majles-e ān, Tehran, 1357 Š./1978.
N. Fatḥī, Wāreṯ-e Bārbad yā Eqbāl-al-Solṭān, Tehran, 1338 Š./1959.
M. Jahānbaglū, “Pažūheš-ī dar makāteb-e āvāzī-e Īrān,” in Yād-nāma-ye Ostād Maḥmūd Karīmī, Tehran, 1364 Š./1985, pp. 115-36.
R. Ḵāleqī, Sargoḏašt-e mūsīqī-e Īrān I, Tehran, 1333 Š./1954, pp. 351-53.
M.-T. Masʿūdīya, Mūsīqī-e maḏhabī-e Īrān I: Mūsīqī-e taʿzīa, Tehran, 1367 Š./1988.
Ḥ. Naṣīrīfar, Mardān-e mūsīqī-e sonnatī wa novīn-e Īrān II, Tehran, 1371 Š./1992, pp. 143-47.
“Ostād Abu’l-Ḥasan Eqbāl Āḏar,” Majalla-ye doḵtarān o pesarān no. 988, 1356 Š./1977.
“Ostād Abu’l-Ḥasan Ḵān Eqbāl Āḏar Qazvīnī,” Majalla-ye javānān-e rastāḵīz, no. 108, 1356 Š./1977.
B. Pāzārgād, Koronoložī-e tārīḵ-e Īrān, Tehran, 1345 Š./1967.
S. Sepantā, Tārīḵ-e taḥawwol-e żabṭ-e mūsīqī dar Īrān, Isfahan, 1366 Š./1987, pp. 219, 244.
Idem, Čašmandāz-e mūsīqī-e Īrān, Tehran, 1369 Š./1990, p. 212.
(Moḥammad-Taqī Masʿudiya)
Originally Published: December 15, 1998
Last Updated: December 15, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. VIII, Fasc. 5, pp. 517-518
