AWḤADĪ MARĀḠAʾĪ

 

AWḤADĪ MARĀḠAʾĪ, SHAIKH AWḤAD-AL-DĪN (or ROKN-AL-DĪN) B. ḤOSAYN (born ca. 673/1274-75 in Marāḡa and died there in 738/1338), a poet who flourished in the reign of Abū Saʿīd Bahādor Khan (r. 716/1316-736/1335), the ninth Mongol Il-khan of Iran. He is usually surnamed Marāḡaʾī, but also mentioned as Awḥadī Eṣfahānī because his father hailed from Isfahan and he himself spent part of his life there. He first chose the pen-name Ṣāfī, but changed it to Awḥadī after becoming a devotee of the school of the famous mystic Shaikh Abū Ḥāmed Awḥad-al-dīn Kermānī.

Awḥadī has left a dīvān (ed. A. S. Usha, Madras, 1951) of more than 8,000 verses comprising qaṣīdas, ḡazals, tarjīʿ-bands, and robāʿīs. Most of the qaṣīdas are in praise of Abū Saʿīd and his vizier Ḡīāṯ-al-dīn Moḥammad (son of Rašīd-al-dīn Fażlallāh). Most of the other poems are on mystic, ethical, and religious subjects. Awḥadī is at his best in his marṯīas (elegies) and his ḡazals, where his style prefigures that of Ḥāfeẓ. In addition to the dīvān, he has left two narrative poems, the Dāh-nāma or Manṭeq al-ʿoššāq (about 600 verses, ed. with biographical notes by M. Farroḵ, Mašhad, 1335 Š./1956), which he wrote in 706/1307 for Wajīh-al-dīn Yūsof, a grandson of Ḵᵛāja Naṣīr-al-dīn Ṭūsī, and the Jām-e Jam or Jām-e jahānbīn (ed. Waḥīd Dastgerdī, Tehran, 1307 Š./1928), which he wrote in the manner of Sanāʾī’s Ḥadīqat al-ḥaqīqa in 733/1333 and dedicated to Sultan Abū Saʿīd Bahādor Khan. The Jām-e Jam (Cup of Jamšīd), which runs to approximately 5,000 verses, is a treatise on mysticism but also includes discussions of social, ethical, and educational matters; all considered, it is Awḥadī’s best work. According to Dawlatšāh (ed. Browne, p. 213) the Jām-e Jam won such fame that in the first month 400 manuscripts of it were sold at high prices, but adds that in his own time (later part of the 9th/15th century) it appeared to have lost popularity. Awḥadī died in 738/1338 and is buried at Marāḡa, where his tomb is still in place (Ṣafā Adabīyāt III/2, p. 834). The dates 554/1159 (Majmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ I, p. 249) and 697/1297-98 (Dawlatšāh, loc. cit.) are evidently wrong.

 

Bibliography:

For manuscripts of Awḥadī’s work see Rieu, Pers. Man., supp., p. 258, and Monzawī, Nosḵahā III, pp. 1847, 2242-43; IV, pp. 2735-37, 2818-19.

See also Browne Lit. Hist. Persia III, pp. 141-46.

Ḵayyāmpūr, Soḵanvarān, pp. 69-70.

Nafīsī, Naẓm o naṯr I, pp. 173, 199; II, p. 760.

Rypka, Hist. Iran. Lit., pp. 254-55.

Ṣafā, Adabīyāt III/2, Tehran, 1352 Š./1973, pp. 831-44.

Search terms:

  اوحدی مراغه ای awhadi maraghei ohadi maraghehey ouhady maraghehie

 

(Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh)

Originally Published: December 15, 1987

Last Updated: August 18, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 2, p. 119