Saeb Tabrizi
Saeb 's father was a Tabrizi
merchant who migrated to Esfahan during the reign of Shah Abbas I (1581-1629).
Mirza Mohammad Ali, known as Saeb Tabrizi, was born in Abbas Abad, a village
near Esfahan in1601-2.
After receiving his education in the Safavid capital, he undertook a trip to
Mecca. Later on, (c. 1626) perhaps because of the attitude of the Safavid court
towards poets and the unfavorable intellectual climate at home, he traveled
eastward into Afghanistan and India. Zafar Khan, the governor of Kabol revered
him and, later on, personally presented him at the magnificent court of Shah
Jahan (1605-27), the Mongol emperor of India. Saeb stayed away from Iran for 6
years. His aged father, however, followed him to India and brought him to
Esfahan, where Shah Abbas II (1642-66) appointed him poet laureate. Until his
death in 1676-7, Saeb stayed in Esfahan, but scattered passages in his poetry
indicate that he was unhappy with his circumstances and critical of the power of
mullahs.
Saeb is among many Iranian
poets who, drawn by the wealth and hospitality of the Mongols, especially Akbar,
Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, went to India and became major contribution to a
civilization which found its most eloquent expression in Persian poetry and
Indianized Persian architecture.
Saeb poetry amounts to about 300,000 distichs of which 130,000 are contained in
a masnavi called Ghandehar Nameh. His ghasidehs alone amount to over
11,000 distichs. The epitome of the Indian style, his poetry is characterized by
dexterity in the choice of words, flashes of wit, power of observation,
abundance of practical knowledge, and the ability to create intricate and
ingenious (though at times overstrained) conceits. Saeb knew the works of his predecessors
exceptionally well and had a particular admiration for saadi and Hafez. He is
greatly popular in India, Afghanistan, and Turkey. Like Jami, Orfi and a couple
of other poets, Saeb had a considerable influence on the development of Turkish
poetry, and this is despite the fact that only a negligible part of his poetry
is in Turkish.
