Saib Tabrizi

Saib Tabrizi (Persian: صائب تبریزی‎, Ṣāʾib Tabrīzī, میرزا محمّدعلی صائب تبریزی, Mīrzā Muḥammad ʿalī Ṣāʾib, 1601/02-1677) also called Saib Isfahani (Persian: صائب اصفهاني‎, Ṣāʾib Eṣfahānī) was a Persian^[1][2][3][4] poet and one of the greatest masters of a form of classical Arabic and Persian lyric poetry characterized by rhymed couplets, known as the ghazel. In addition to his Persian works, Mīrzā Moḥammad-ʿAlī Ṣāʾeb Tabrīzī wrote 17 ḡazals and molammaʿs in his native Azeri.^[5]

Ṣāʾib was born and educated in city of Eṣfahān and in about 1626/27 he traveled to India, where he was received into the court of Shāh Jahān. He stayed for a time in Kabul and in Kashmir, returning home after several years abroad. After his return, the emperor of Persia (Iran) Shāh ʿAbbas II, bestowed upon him the title King of Poets.

Ṣāʾib's reputation is based primarily on some 300,000 couplets, including his epic poem Qandahār-nāma (“The Campaign Against Qandahār”). His “Indian style” verses reveal an elegant wit, a gift for the aphorism and the proverb, and a keen appreciation of philosophical and intellectual exercise. Saib was especially well known for his Persian panegyric poetry during the reigns of Persian Emperors Safi, Abbas II, and Sulayman.^[6]

A line from Ṣāʾib's poem on Kabul provided the title for Khaled Hosseini's 2007 novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

References

External links

• A poem by Saeb, after his visit from the Kabul city

Sources

• J. Newman, Andrew, Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire, I.B.Tauris, 2006, ISBN 1-86064-667-0, ISBN 978-1-86064-667-6.
• "Ṣāʾib." Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite .(2008)

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