Majd Hamgar Shirazi

Majd Hamgar Yazdi, Khwaja Majd al-Din ibn Ahmad (1210-1287), a writer, calligrapher, and poet with the noms de plume Rahi and Majd, bearing the title Malik al-Shu’ara’ (Poet Laureate), also known as Ibn Hamgar and Majd Hamgar. He recurrently makes mention of himself by the name Majd and his father Ahmad, known as Hamgar (mender of clothes). According to biographical sources he was born in Yazd or Shiraz or Fars, hence his name Majd Hamgar Shirazi or Parsi. His father, Ahmad Hamgar Yazdi was a notable scholar and poet and as mentioned by his son, he was well-respected by sultans who granted him rewards. He was seemingly an inhabitant of Yazd and his son might have called him Majd Parsi for their long stay in Shiraz. It is worthy of note that he mainly lived in Shiraz hence his appellation Shirazi. Majd Hamgar regarded himself as a descendant of the Sasanid Khusraw Anushirawan. A contemporary of Abaqa Khan, Imami Hirawi, and Sa’di Shirazi, he was well-respected by the Atabaks of Fars and served as the poet laureate of the Atabak Muzaffar al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Sahl ibn Zangi and eulogized Abu Bakr and the son of Sa’d. following the fall of the Atabaks, he departed Shiraz for Kirman, served as a companion of the Qarakhita’id kings, eulogized the ruler of that region, and lived in their patronage until the fall of the Qarakhita’ids. Then, he traveled to Isfahan and composed eulogies to the Juwani house, particularly Baha’ al-Din Muhammad Sahib Diwan, the son of Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad. Following the fall of the Juwayni house and the execution of Shams al-Din Sahib Diwan, he composed a quatrain as an elegy to him. His students included Badr al-Din Jajarmi and Farid al-Din Ahwal (lit. the cross-eyed). He led the life of a recluse late in life until his death. Majd al-Din Hamgar was a prose stylist as well. He was the most distinguished master of the Khurasani style of poetry and served as an arbiter in literary matters. He mainly followed the Khurasani poets and wrote elegantly and rapidly such that he transcribed the entire Saljuqnama at the behest of Baha’ al-Din ibn Shams al-Din Muhammad Sahib Diwan, the governor of Isfahan, on a Monday in the month of Ramadan in the year 1270. He transcribed Qabusnama by ‘Unsur al-ma’ali Kaykawus in 1274 for the library of Baha’ al-Din Juwayni. He also copied Kalila wa Dimna for Shams al-Din Mhammad ibn Ahmad Kishi in the same year. His divan of poetry runs to about 3,000 couplets. He was a poet of vigor flourishing in the thirteenth century who had received his education at the turn of the century. He composed elegant and fluent poetry in the forms of qasida, ghazal, and quatrain. His delicate ideas and themes are significant and some of his numerous and delicate lyrics include didactic and social themes.

Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (3/ 523-545); Danishmandan wa Sukhansarayan-i Fars (4/ 328-339).