ʿASJADĪ

 

ʿASJADĪ, ABŪ NAẒAR ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ B. MANṢŪR MARVAZĪ, a poet of the first half of the 5th/11th century. Reżā-qolī Khan Hedāyat (Maǰmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ II, p. 870) gives his nesba as Marvazī Qazvīnī, while Dawlatšāh (ed. Browne, p. 47) refers to him as Heravī; but the nesba Marvazī given by ʿAwfī (Lobāb, p. 50) is most likely to be correct. Hedāyat gives the date of ʿAsǰadī’s death as 432/1040-41, while Ṣādeq b. Ṣāleḥ (Šāhed-e Ṣādeq, apud S. Nafīsī, see below) gives it as 434/1042-43; the second date is more probable because the poet was still living in the reign of the Ghaznavid sultan Mawdūd b. Masʿūd (432/1041-440/1050; see Kaykāvūs b. Eskandar, Qābūs-nāma, ed. Saʿīd Nafīsī, Tehran, 1347 Š./1968, p. 238; Ṣafā, Adabīyāt I, p. 577-78).

ʿAsǰadī was one of the group of famous poets at the court of the Ghaznavid Sultan Maḥmūd and his son Masʿūd. According to a well-known story, quoted in the prefaces of many Šāh-nāma manuscripts and often depicted in miniatures, he was one of the three court poets (ʿOnṣorī, ʿAsǰadī, Farroḵī whom Ferdowsī met at Ḡaznīn on his first visit. ʿAsǰadī was known as a master poet (see, e.g. Bayhaqī, 2nd ed., p. 372; Neẓāmī ʿArūżī, Čahār maqāla, ed., M. Qazvīnī, Leiden, 1909, p. 27), but all that is extant of his dīvān, which is said to have comprised qaṣīdas, ḡazals, qeṭʿas, and satirical pieces (heǰāʾ), is a total of just over 200 verses scattered in taḏkeras, anthologies, and dictionaries (see S. Nafīsī, ed., Qābūs-nāma, p. 237-47; Ṭāherī Šehāb, ed., Dīvān-e ʿAsǰadī, Tehran, 1324 Š./1945).

 

Bibliography:

See also M. A. Amīn, “Āṯār-e ʿAsǰadī Marvazī,” Armaḡān 24, 1328 Š./1949, pp. 152-61, 309-15.

ʿAwfī, Lobāb II, pp. 50-53.

Dawlatšāh, ed. Browne, p. 51.

B. Forūzānfar, Soḵan wa soḵanvarān, 2nd ed., 1350 Š./1971, pp. 152-53.

Ḵayyāmpūr, Soḵanvarān, p. 391.

Ṭāherī Šehāb, “Ostād ʿAsǰadī,” Armaḡān 24, 1328 Š./1949, pp. 48-55.

Search terms:

عسجدی asjadi asjady

 

(Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh)

Originally Published: December 15, 1987

Last Updated: August 16, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. II, Fasc. 7, pp. 766-767