BORHĀN-AL-DĪN, ḴᵛĀJA ABŪ NAṢR FATḤ-ALLĀH

 

BORHĀN-AL-DĪN, ḴᵛĀJA ABŪ NAṢR FATḤ-ALLĀH, a vizier eulogized by Ḥāfeẓ in two ḡazals (nos. 374 and 478). He was a descendant of ʿOṯmān and son of the vizier Ḵᵛāja Kamāl-al-Dīn Abu’l-Maʿālī, who founded religious charities and a hospital at Yazd. Amir Mobārez-al-Dīn Moḥammad b. Moẓaffar, the ruler of Yazd, appointed him deputy vizier after the conquest of Kermān in 740/1339 and vizier after his father’s death in 742/1341. He resigned in 752/1351. In 754/1353 Amir Mobārez-al-Dīn conquered Fārs and in 756/1355 Borhān-al-Dīn accepted the two offices of vizier and chief judge (qāżi’l-qożāt) of Shiraz and the whole realm (Faṣīḥī, pp. 58, 62, 85; Kotobī, pp. 20-21). The contemporary historian Kotobī praises his exercise of the religious and temporal authority and his benevolence to the subjects. Ḥāfeẓ, while disliking the régime of Amir Mobāz-al­-Dīn, whom he refers to as moḥtaseb, evidently also thought well of the vizier. According to Kotobī, Borhān-al-Dīn antagonized Amir Mobārez-al-Dīn against his nephew Shah Solṭān, the governor of Isfahan, by accusing him of misappropriation of 700 tūmāns. Amir Mobārez-al-Dīn also became ill-disposed toward two of his sons, Shah Šojāʿ and Shah Maḥmūd, over their conduct in battle at Mīāna on his march to Tabrīz. At Isfahan in Ramażān, 759/1358, conspirators led by these princes kidnapped Amir Mobārez-al-Dīn (whom they later blinded) and at the same moment Shah Solṭān went and killed Ḵᵛāja Borhān-al-Dīn (Kotobī, pp. 56-60). Faṣīḥī, Ḥāfeẓ, Abrū, and Ḵᵛāndamīr give the year 760, and Ḵᵛāndamīr states that Borhān-al-Dīn was imprisoned and died two months later (quoted by Ḡanī, pp. 156-57).

 

Bibliography:

Faṣīḥī Ḵᵛāfī, Mojmal al-tawārīḵ az 701 tā 849, ed. M. Farroḵ, Mašhad, 1339 Š./1960.

Q. Ḡanī, Tārīḵ-eʿaṣr-e Ḥāfeẓ, Tehran, 1321 Š./1943.

Ḥāfeẓ, Dīvān, ed. from mss. dated 813, 822, and 825 by R. ʿAyważī and A. Behrūz, Tabrīz, 2536 = 1356 Š./1977.

M. Kotobī, Tārīḵ-eĀl-e Moẓaffar, ed. ʿA. Navāʾī, Tehran, 1335 Š./1956.

(F. R. C. Bagley)

Originally Published: December 15, 1989

Last Updated: December 15, 1989

This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 4, pp. 370-371

Cite this entry:

F. R. C. Bagley, “BORHĀN-AL-DĪN, ḴᵛĀJA ABŪ NAṢR FATḤ-ALLĀH,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, IV/4, pp. 370-371, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/borhan-al-din (accessed on 30 December 2012).