Hajji Lotf-Ali Beg Azar Bigdeli, better known as Azar Bigdeli, was an Iranian anthologist and poet. He is principally known for his biographical anthology, the Atashkadeh-ye Azar, which he dedicated to Iranian rulerKarim Khan Zand. Written in Persian, it is considered "the most important Persian anthology of the eighteenth century". Azar was a leading figure of the bazgasht-e adabi movement.
Life
Azar's family was descended from the Bigdeli branch of the TurkomanShamlu tribe. His ancestors and other Shamlu-tribe members moved from Syria to Iran in the 15th century and settled in Isfahan, where they served the rulers of Iran. Many of Azar's relatives were prominent in the late Safavid era and during the subsequent reign of Nader Shah as diplomats and bureaucrats. Azar was born in Isfahan, the Safavidroyal capital, during a time of chaos and instability. In 1722, the Safavid state had entered the final stages of collapse and the rebellious Afghans had reached Isfahan. Azar and his family were forced to move to Qom, where they owned property and where he lived for fourteen years. Around 1735 or 1736, his father was appointed governor of Lar and the coastal areas of Fars Province and Azar and his family moved to Shiraz. In 1737 or 1738, after the death of his father, Azar made pilgrimages to Mecca and the Shi'ite shrines in Iran and Iraq. He then moved to Mashhad, where he enlisted in Nader Shah's army and accompanied his troops to Mazandaran, Azerbaijan and Persian Iraq. After Nader's death in 1747, Azar served his nephews and successors Adel Shah and Ebrahim Shah and the Safavid pretendersIsmail III and Suleiman II before retiring to his modest manor in Qom. When Karim KhanZand ascended the throne, Azar decided to devote his time to scholarly pursuits and returned to Isfahan. The city was sacked by Ali Mardan Khan Bakhtiari in 1750, and Azar reportedly lost about 7,000 written verses. In 1774 or 1775 Azar was forced to leave Isfahan again due to misrule by Zand governor Mohammad Runani, and he died in 1781.
Literary work
Azar is principally known for his anthology, the Atashkadeh-ye Azar, considered "the most important Persian anthology of the eighteenth century". Its chapter titles are based metaphorically on "fire". Azar dedicated the Atashkadeh-ye Azar, completed shortly before his death, to Iranian ruler Karim Khan Zand. Although the work primarily deals with poets, it also contains information on the history of Iran since the Afghan invasion of 1722, a brief autobiography and a selection of Azar's poems. When Isfahan was sacked in 1750, a number of Azar's early poems were destroyed. However, he was still a respected poet during his lifetime. Azar's teacher, Mir Sayyed Ali Moshtaq Esfahani, began a "literary return" movement to the stylistic standards of early Persian poetry. The Atashkadeh, like much other contemporary poetry from Isfahan and Shiraz, was an example of the bazgasht-e adabi of which Azar was a leading figure. The movement rejected what was considered excessive "Indian style" in Persian poetry and sought, according to Ehsan Yarshater, "a return to the simpler and more robust poetry of the old masters as against the effete and artificial verse into which Safavid poetry had degenerated". Persian poetry which originated during the Timurid period and was perfected in the courts of Mughal India was called "Indian"; it later spread back to Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey, where it was prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries. Azar praises his teacher, Mir Sayyed Ali Moshtaq Esfahani, in the Atashkadeh: De Bruijn notes that in addition to his divan, four extant masnavis have been attributed to Azar: Yusof o Zolaykha ; Masnavi-e Azar, a short love poem mirroring Suz-u godaz, a poem by Agha Mohammad Sadeq Tafreshi which was popular in Azar's time; Saqi-nameh, and Moghanni-nameh. Azar may have also written the Ganjinat ol-haqq and the Daftar-e noh aseman, an anthology of contemporary poetry. Azar was also influenced by his paternal uncle, Wali Mohammad Khan Bigdeli.
