DĀʿĪ ŠĪRĀZĪ, AL-DĀʿĪ ELAʾLLĀH SAYYED NEẒĀM-AL-DĪN MAḤMŪD (810-70/1407-65), known as Shah Dāʿī, poet, preacher, and leader of the Neʿmat-Allāhī Sufi order in Fārs. He was a descendent of Ḥasan b. Qāsem, known as al- Dāʿī al-Ṣaḡīr, the fourth dāʿī (304-16/916-28) of the ʿAlid dynasty of Ṭabarestān (see ʿalids); hence his title Dāʿī elaʾllāh. In poetry he used the pen name Dāʿī and sometimes Neẓāmī or Neẓāmī-e Ṯānī.
After receiving the customary education in religious sciences, Dāʿī joined the Neʿmat-Allāhī Sufis of Shiraz. Later, probably with the encouragement of Shaikh Moršed-al-Dīn Abū Esḥāq Bahrānī, leader of the order in Shiraz, he traveled to Māhān in Kermān and received a “robe of guidance” from the founder of the order, Nūr-al-Dīn Moḥammad Neʿmat-Allāh Walī (d. 834/1431). After returning to Shiraz Dāʿī continued as a follower of Shaikh Moršed-al-Dīn, becoming leader of the order in Fārs after the latter’s death in 851/1447.
Dāʿī was the author of several treatises in Arabic and Persian in which he treated a variety of mystical themes. They included Šarḥ-e Maṯnawī, a commentary on the Maṯnawī of Jalāl-al-Dīn Rūmī; Nasāʾem al-asḥār, a commentary on Shaikh Maḥmūd Šabestarī’s Golšan-e rāz; Taḥrīr al-wojūd al-moṭlaq; Maʿrefat al-nafs; al-Fawāʾed fi’l-naql al-aqāʾed; Neẓām o saranjām; and Kašf al-marāteb. His poetry, in Persian, Arabic, and the old dialect of Shiraz, was collected during his lifetime, in 865/1460, five years before his death. The collection was organized into six maṯnawīs, entitled respectively Mašāhed, Ganj-e ravān, Čehel ṣabāḥ, Čahār čaman, Čašma-ye zendagānī, and ʿEšq-nāma, and three dīvāns of qaṣīdas, ḡazals, robāʿīs, stanzas, and fragments entitled respectively Qodsīyāt, Wāredāt, and Ṣāderāt (also called Kān-e malāḥat). The later poems were compiled in two collections entitled Soḵan-e tāza and Fayż-e mojaddad. All these works are included in the edition of his complete dīvān (ed. M. Dabīrsīāqī, 2 vols., Tehran, 1339 Š./1960). Dāʿī’s poems were generally on mystical themes, written in simple, prosaic language lacking the refinement of the best Persian poetry. Nevertheless, his Kān-e malāḥat and the Maṯnawī-e se goftār appended to it, both in the old Shiraz dialect, are valuable sources for students of Iranian linguistics and philology. Dāʿī died in 870/1465 and was buried just outside the southern gate of Shiraz, which came to be known as Darvāza-ye Šāh Dāʿī (Shah Dāʿī gate). His tomb is still there.
Bibliography:
Ḥ. Farzām, “Neẓām-al-Dīn Maḥmūd Dāʿī Šīrāzī,” Našrīa-ye Dāneškada-ye adabīyāt wa ʿolūm-e ensānī-e Eṣfahān 4/7, 1346 Š./1968, pp. 21-32.
Fasāʾī, II, p. 146.
Moḥammad-Naṣīr Mīrzā Āqā Forṣat Šīrāzī, Āṯār-e ʿajam, 2nd ed., Bombay, 1354/1935, pp. 485-89.
Reżāqolī Khan Hedāyat, Rīāż al-ʿārefīn, Tehran, 1316 Š./1937, pp. 119-25.
ʿA.-A. Ḥekmat, introduction, Shah Dāʿī, Dīvān, ed. M. Dabīrsīāqī, 2 vols., Tehran, 1339 Š./1960.
Ḵayyāmpūr, Soḵanvarān, p. 202. Majmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ IV, pp. 33-35.
Moḥammad-Maʿṣūm Šīrāzī (Maʿṣūm-ʿAlīšāh), Ṭarāʾeq al-ḥaqāʾeq III, Tehran, 1316-19/1898-1901, pp. 22-23.
Nafīsī, Naẓm o naṯr I, pp. 169, 311; II, pp. 742, 787.
Ṣafā, Adabīyāt IV, pp. 333-42.
(Ḏabīḥ-Allāh Ṣafā)
Originally Published: December 15, 1993
Last Updated: November 11, 2011
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Vol. VI, Fasc. 6, p. 598
