ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ YAZDĪ, Safavid official and poet skilled in calligraphy, killed at the battle of Čālderān in Raǰab, 920/August, 1514. He was a descendant of the founder of the Neʿmatallāhī order, Nūr-al-dīn Neʿmatallāh (q.v.; 730-834/1330-1431). He has been called the son of Naʿīm-al-dīn Neʿmatallāh Ṯānī, but a different line of descent from Nūr-al-dīn was suggested by Ī. Afšār (Yādgārhā-ye Yazd, Tehran, 1348 Š./1969, I, pp. 412-15; cf. J. Aubin, “Etudes Safavides I. Šāh Ismāʿīl et les notables de l’Iraq persan,” JESHO 2, 1959, pp. 39-40).
Little is known of ʿAbd-al-Bāqī’s life, which apparently was spent largely in the vicinity of Yazd. He succeeded Neʿmatallāh Ṯānī as spiritual and administrative leader of the order in the early 10th/16th century (Bāfqī, Jāmeʿ-e Mofīdī, ed. Ī. Afšār, Tehran, 1340 Š./1961, III, pp. 54-56; Aubin, op. cit., pp. 39-40). He thus commanded wealth and prestige such that Shah Esmāʿīl must have been induced to seek his acquaintance: Ḵᵛāndamār mentions tat ʿAbd-al-Bāqī participated in celebrations at Shah Esmāʿīl’s camp in the spring of 916-17/1511 (Ḥabīb al-sīar [Tehran] IV, p. 517). ʿAbd-al-Bāqī was appointed a ṣadr under Yār Aḥmad Ḵūzānī (Naǰm al-Ṯānī) in Ḏu’l-ḥeǰǰa, 917/February-March, 1512; and after the latter was killed in campaign against the Uzbeks in Ramażān, 918/November 1512, he was appointed vakīl (ibid., IV, pp. 533-34; R. M. Savory, “The Principal Offices of the Safavid State During the Reign of Ismāʿīl I (907-30/1501-24),” BSOAS 23, 1960, pp. 96-97). He thus held the highest civil and military office in the Safavid state until his death at Čālderān (Ḥasan Rūmlū, pp. 146, 149).
ʿAbd-al-Bāqī is said to have written poetry using the taḵalloṣ Bāqī. Examples of his work are preserved (Toḥfa-ye Sāmī, pp. 21-22; Moḥammad Faḵrī Harātī, Laṭāʾefnāma, ed. ʿAlī A. Ḥekmat, Tehran, 1323 Š./1944, no. 387, p. 137). He was skilled in epistolary writing (enšāʾ) and in use of the taʿlīq script—both attainments appropriate to his roles as official and religious leader, since taʿlīq was used in decrees and correspondence. Examples of his calligraphy seen by Qāżī Aḥmad (p. 46; tr., p. 88) were “decrees and documents (asnād) of the shaikhs and inhabitants of Yazd.” An instance of his patronage is recorded; the ḵānegāh at Taft was enlarged by the addition of an ayvān called the Ṣoffa-ye Ṣafā (Jāmeʿ-e Mofīdī III, p. 56).
Bibliography: Given in the text.
(P. P. Soucek)
Originally Published: December 15, 1982
Last Updated: July 14, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 1, pp. 105-106
P. P. Soucek, “Abd-Al-Baqi Yazdi,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/1, pp. 105-106; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-baqi-yazdi-safavid-official-and-poet-killed-at-calderan-august-1514 (accessed on 12 January 2014).
