AḤMAD TABRĪZĪ

 

AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD TABRĪZĪ, Persian poet (first half of the 8th/14th century), known only as the author of the 18,000 verse Šāhanšāh-nāma dedicated to the il-khan Abū Saʿīd (717-36/1317-35). The epic begins with Noah’s son Japheth (Yāfeṯ), relates the genealogy of the Mongols up to Čengiz Khan, mentions Ögedey, Toluy, Jalāl-al-dīn Ḵᵛārazmšāh, Čaḡatay, Güyük, and Möngke, and ends with the founder of the Il-khanid dynasty, Hülegü, and his successors. Its epilogue (ḵātema) explains that it was begun at the order of Abū Saʿīd and completed eight years later in 738/1337-38 after his death. Abū Saʿīd seems to have commissioned the work under the influence of the Il-khanid court at the time of Ḡāzān (694-703/1295-1304), who was interested in ancient Turkic-Mongolian history and epics. It is not known if this Tabrīzī is the same as the author of the Tārīḵ-enawāder mentioned in Kašf al-ẓonūn (Istanbul, 1971, I, p. 308).

Bibliography:

For a description of the unique manuscript, see Rieu, Pers. Man., supp., p. 135; Ḏ. Ṣafā, Ḥamāsa-sarāʾī dar Īrān, Tehran, 1324 Š./1945, pp. 339-40.

See also Tarbīat, Dānešmandān, p. 32.

Browne, Lit. Hist. Persia, III, p. 103.

Storey, I, pp. 270-71.

Ḥ. Naḵǰavānī, Čehel maqāla, Tehran, 1343 Š./1964, p. 97.

(İ. Aka)

Originally Published: December 15, 1984

Last Updated: July 28, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 6, p. 661

Cite this entry:

İ. Aka, “AḤMAD TABRĪZĪ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/6, p. 661; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahmad-b-23 (accessed on 19 March 2014).