ADĪB NĪŠĀBURĪ

 

ADĪB NĪŠĀBURĪ, SHAIKH ʿABD-AL-JAWĀD, Persian litterateur and poet. Son of a farmer, Mollā ʿAbbās Nīšābūrī, he was born in Nīšābūr in 1281/1864-5 (or 1284/1867-8). At the age of four he was blinded in one eye by smallpox and his other eye was seriously impaired. Despite his physical weakness and his father’s opposition, he was encouraged by his great love for learning and prodigious memory to spend the first sixteen years of his life in study. Then in 1297/1880, he went to Mašhad, where he lived successively in the Ḵayrātḵānī, Fāżel Khan and Nawwāb madrasas. Here, in accordance with the custom of the day, he studied the literary arts and Arabic classics. He developed a profound knowledge of Arabic letters and expertise in traditional philosophy, Sufism, mathematics, medicine, feqh, oṣūl and biography. Thus qualified, he remained a long time in Mašhad as a teacher, living abstemiously and never marrying. He had a great enthusiasm for education; many learned men of Khorasan were his direct or indirect pupils.

His works include a treatise on the connection between Persian and Arabic prosody, another commenting on the seven Moʿallaqāt, and a number of short pieces summarizing the commentary of Ḵaṭīb Tabrīzī on the Ḥamāsa of Abū Tammām; these have not been published. He was also a poet; his published dīvān, entitled Laʾālī-e maknūn (Mašhad, 1333 Š./1954), contains approximately 5,000 bayts in the form of qaṣīdas, qeṭʿas, and robāʿīs. Initially he adopted the poetic style of Qāʾānī, but later he followed more strictly the Khorasanian style. He also approved of the styles of Ḥabīb Ḵorāsānī and Ṣafā-e Eṣfahānī. There is only a single political poem in his dīvān, written in criticism of the 1907 Anglo-Russian Treaty dividing Iran into two separate spheres of influence. Adīb

Nīšābūrī died in Mašhad on 12 Ḏu’l-qaʿda 1344/24 May 1926. 

Bibliography:

Y. Āryānpūr, Az Ṣabā tā Nīmā, Tehran, 1350 Š./1971, vol. 2.

Dehḵodā, Dāʾerat al-maʿāref-e fārsī.

D. J. Īrānī, Soḵanvarān-e dowrān-e Pahlavī, Calcutta, 1313 Š./1934. Farhang-e fārsī.

(J. Matīnī)

Originally Published: December 15, 1983

Last Updated: July 22, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 5, p. 460

Cite this entry:

J. Matīnī, “ADĪB NĪŠĀBURĪ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/5, p. 460; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/adib-nisaburi-shaikh-abd-al-jawad-persian-litterateur-and-poet (accessed on 7 February 2014).