Iranian poet and secretary
Fazel Khan Garrusi
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Born
| 29 October 1784
Bijar
, Iran
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Died
| 1 March 1852
Tiflis
,
Russian Empire
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Occupation
| Poet and secretary
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Notable works
| Tadhkara-ye anjoman-e Khaqan
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Fazel Khan Mohammad Garrusi
(
Persian
:
???? ??? ?????
; 29 October 1784 ? 1843) was a poet and secretary under
Fath-Ali Shah Qajar
(
r.
1797?1834
) and
Mohammad Shah Qajar
(
r.
1834?1848
). From 1838, he spent his remaining years in
Tiflis
in the
Russian Empire
, having fled Iran due to the schemes of the vizier of
Mazandaran
, Asadollah Navai.
Biography
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]
Born on 9 October 1784, he was from a branch of the
Turkoman
Bayandur
tribe that lived in
Bijar
, the administrative capital of Garrus.
He had temporarily thought about a career as a cleric in his youth. He made a lot of trips, especially to
Iraq
, where he demonstrated great proficiency in Arabo-Persian
calligraphy
.
In order to seek revenge against the governor of Garrus for his actions, he ultimately went to
Tehran
. There, the
poet laureate
Fath-Ali Khan Saba
noticed Fazel Khan's literary ability, refined calligraphy, and especially his strong memory, and thus invited him to the court. In 1819/20, he was appointed as the chief herald of the court. In the summer of 1829, he was part of the retinue of the Qajar prince
Khosrow Mirza
, who had been dispatched to
Russia
to formally apologize for the killing of the Russian diplomat
Alexander Griboyedov
in Tehran.
Information on Fazel Khan's last post is provided by his later friend, the Russian
orientalist
Nicholas Khanikov. According to him, Fazel Khan worked in the
Mazandaran
as a court poet of the prince
Ardashir Mirza
for several years.
However, Asadollah Navai, the
vizier
of Mazandaran, considered Fazel Khan's influence over Ardashir Mirza to be excessive and sought help from the new
premier
Haji Mirza Aqasi
, who as a result summoned Fazel Khan to Tehran. Fearing the worst, Fazel Khan escaped by sea to
Baku
, where he encountered the new Russian
viceroy
Yevgeny Golovin, and then traveled on to
Tiflis
with him.
Among the other Iranians in Tiflis was the hereditary
shaykh al-Islam
of
Tabriz
, the
mojtahed
Agha Mir Fattah Tabataba'i
, who surrendered Tabriz to the Russians in 1827 during the
war of 1826?1828
and was an opponent of Fath-Ali Shah. In 1842, he returned to Tabriz after losing his position as Paskevich's main Islamic religious authority. Another was the Russian contender for the Iranian throne, the Qajar prince
Bahman Mirza
, who left for Tiflis in 1848, and went to
Shusha
in 1860.
Works
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Fazel Khan's
pen name
was Ravi ("story teller") and Sheyda/Shayda ("madly in love").
He was a prolific poet and epistolary prose writer, although only a portion of his works have survived. His epistolary prose goes against established norms. Together with the statesman and prose writer
Abol-Qasem Qa'em-Maqam
, he played an important role in establishing Persian prose. According to the modern historian Marina Alexidze; "It is obvious from these letters that Garrusi was a highly popular and estimated writer among the Iranian intellectuals of his time."
Fazel Khan has been mostly ignored by Iranian and European scholars, despite having a significant impact on the growth of Persian literature in general and especially modern Persian prose.
Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat
was the first Iranian writer to mention Fazel Khan.
Two works by Fazel Khan has survived; the collection of his letters, which is kept in the
Tabriz National Library
; the biographical work
Tadhkara-ye anjoman-e Khaqan
("The Gathering of Rulers"
), which was finished in 1818/19, and has four chapters on the lives of Fath-Ali Shah, the Qajar princes, and
panegyrists
at Fath-Ali Shah's court along with portions of their poetry. A biography of Fazel Khan is included in the epilogue. The library of the
Sepahsalar Mosque
in Tehran has a manuscript of the work that was copied in 1820/21. Fazel Khan showed his admiration for Fath-Ali Shah by expressing high regard for the panegyrists in the latters court and by placing Saba's
epic poem
Shahanshah-nameh
above the
Shahnameh
by
Ferdowsi
, a remark which Fath-Ali Shah's son
Aliqoli Mirza Qajar
ridiculed.
Fazel Khan is known to have authored a number of textbooks and instructional guides for the Muslim school in Tiflis, such as; the
Persian Grammar
, a compilation of core
Shia Muslim
beliefs; an introduction to the
Arabic language
; and commentary on the
Qur'anic
passages that are complex.
References
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Sources
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