BAHMANYĀR, AḤMAD (DEHQĀN), scholar, educator, and man of letters, b. 1301/1884 in Kermān, d. 1334 Š./1955 in Tehran (Figure 1). Bahmanyār received his first education from his father Āqā Moḥammad-ʿAlī, himself a scholar, and from his brother. He soon became proficient in Arabic and Persian literature and at sixteen could teach Arabic grammar and literature and write a commentary on one of his father’s scholarly works.
Two periods can be distinguished in his life. During the first one (1289-1308 Š./1910-29) he joined the Constitutional Movement of 1285 Š./1906, published the weekly paper Dehqān in Kermān (1st issue Šawwāl, 1329/October, 1911) and the Fekr-e āzād in Mašhad (1301-02 Š./1922-23) and Tehran (1303 Š./1924). In 1294 Š./1915, due to his political involvements, he was exiled by the British from Kermān to Fārs, where he was jailed for more than fourteen months. While in jail he learned Ottoman Turkish and translated a few Turkish poems into Persian. He also studied astronomy with a fellow prisoner. Upon his release he went to Tehran where he was in bad financial straits. Finally he entered the government service, serving the Ministries of Finance, Education, and Justice in a number of cities for about nine years. During the second period (from 1308 Š./1929 until his death in 1334 Š./1955), Bahmanyār became a high-school teacher in Tehran (1308 Š./1929), a faculty member at the Dār al-Moʿallemīn (Teachers’ college; 1310 Š./1931), professor of Arabic and Persian at Tehran University (1314 Š./1935), and a permanent member of the Farhangestān-e Īrān (Academy of Iran; 1321 Š./1942).
His work is characterized by clarity and simplicity of language. It includes Toḥfa-ye aḥmadīya, a two-volume commentary on the Alfīya of Ebn Mālek (Kermān, 1330/1912), a biography of Ṣāḥeb b. ʿAbbād (Tehran, 1344 Š./1965), Dāstān-nāma-ye bahmanyārī (Tehran, 1357 Š./1978), and critical editions of Moḥammad b. Monawwar’s Asrār al-tawḥīd (Tehran, 1314 Š./1935), Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Moḥammad Baḡdādī’s al-Tawassol ela ’l-tarassol (Tehran, 1315 Š./1936), Ebn Fondoq’s Tārīḵ-eBayhaq (Tehran, 1317 Š./1938), Abū Manṣūr’s Ketāb al-abnīa ʿan ḥaqāʾeq al-adwīa (Tehran, 1346 Š./1967), some resālas by Ḥājj Moḥammad-Karīm Kermānī, and a number of articles. His Majmaʿ al-amṯāl is yet to be published. Bahmanyār also wrote some poetry, all along traditional lines. He seems to have left a memoir, a part of which (“Yāddāšt-e ayyām-e āvāragī”) was used by Bāstānī Pārīzī (p. 109).
Bibliography:
Ī. Afšār, “Aḥmad Bahmanyār,” FIZ 3, 1334 Š./1955, pp. 293-95.
J. Homāʾī, “Dargoḏašt-e marḥūm Aḥmad Bahmanyār,” MDAT 3/2, 1334 Š./1955, pp. 52-80.
M. Ṣadr Hāšemī, Tārīḵ-ejarāʾed o majallāt-e Īrān, 4 vols., Isfahan, 1327-32 Š./1948-53, II, pp. 308-10; IV, pp. 82-84.
M. Moʿīn, Farhang-e fārsī V, Tehran, 1345 Š./1966, p. 306.
M.-E. Bāstānī Pārīzī, “Dāstān-nāma-ye bahmanyārī,” in his Jāmeʿ al-moqaddamāt, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984, pp. 61-141.
(J. Matīnī)
Originally Published: December 15, 1988
Last Updated: August 24, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 5, p. 501
J. Matīnī, “BAHMANYĀR, AḤMAD,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/III, Fasc. 5, p. 501, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bahmanyar-ahmad-scholar (accessed on 30 December 2012).
