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Though he lived at a distance from the palace, Mohtasham stayed in close touch with the royal family and courted its patronage throughout his life. He dedicated many poems in various genres to the praise of Shah Tahmasp I and his successors Esmaʿil II (r. 1576-77) and Mohammad Khodabanda (r. 1578-88). However, in the political chaos that followed Tahmasp’s death in 1576, kingship was only rarely synonymous with power, and allegiances changed rapidly. Mohtasham’s collected works suggest a frantic attempt to stay afloat on these shifting and dangerous political currents. He addressed poems to the main princely contenders for the throne, Haydar Mirza Ṣafavi and Ḥamza Mirza, to administrators such as Mirza Salman Jaberi and Mirza Lotf-Allah Sharif, and to a variety of Qezelbash tribal leaders like Mohammad Khan Torkoman and Morshed-Qoli Khan Ostajlu. Perhaps in an effort to find a safe haven in India, as a number of his younger contemporaries did, Mohtasham also dedicated poems to the ʿAdelshahis and Nezamshahis, the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605), and ʿAbd-al-Rahim Khan-e Khanan. Whether or not these poems reached their addressees, Mohtasham remained in Persia; he lived long enough to celebrate the arrival of Prince ʿAbbas in Qazvin, but not to enjoy the stability and prosperity the young king would bring to the country. | Though he lived at a distance from the palace, Mohtasham stayed in close touch with the royal family and courted its patronage throughout his life. He dedicated many poems in various genres to the praise of Shah Tahmasp I and his successors Esmaʿil II (r. 1576-77) and Mohammad Khodabanda (r. 1578-88). However, in the political chaos that followed Tahmasp’s death in 1576, kingship was only rarely synonymous with power, and allegiances changed rapidly. Mohtasham’s collected works suggest a frantic attempt to stay afloat on these shifting and dangerous political currents. He addressed poems to the main princely contenders for the throne, Haydar Mirza Ṣafavi and Ḥamza Mirza, to administrators such as Mirza Salman Jaberi and Mirza Lotf-Allah Sharif, and to a variety of Qezelbash tribal leaders like Mohammad Khan Torkoman and Morshed-Qoli Khan Ostajlu. Perhaps in an effort to find a safe haven in India, as a number of his younger contemporaries did, Mohtasham also dedicated poems to the ʿAdelshahis and Nezamshahis, the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605), and ʿAbd-al-Rahim Khan-e Khanan. Whether or not these poems reached their addressees, Mohtasham remained in Persia; he lived long enough to celebrate the arrival of Prince ʿAbbas in Qazvin, but not to enjoy the stability and prosperity the young king would bring to the country. | ||
==Literary Legacy== | ==Literary Legacy== | ||
Mohtasham’s fame today rests almost entirely on a single poem—his elegy in twelve strophes (davazdah-band) on the [[martyrdom]] of Imam Hussain at [[Karbala]], beginning baz in che shureshi-st ke dar khalq-e ʿalam ast / baz in che nowha o che ʿaza o che matam ast.<ref>“What is this tumult now among the world’s creatures? / What now is this wailing, this mourning, this lamentation?” Haft divan, I, pp. 460-68</ref> This poem achieved renown even during the poet’s lifetime; the contemporary literary biographer Awhadi Balyani writes that “if his poetry were limited to this one work, it would be enough”.<ref>Golchin-e Maʿani, p. 477</ref> This judgment was prescient; at the beginning of the 20th century, E. G. Browne<ref>IV, p. 172</ref> praises the “true pathos and religious feeling” expressed in the “extraordinarily simple and direct” language of the poem, and even a Marxist critic like Jan Rypka <ref>p. 298</ref> is taken by its “charm of genuine sincerity and intimacy.” Recently, Karen Ruffle has pointed out how Mohtasham integrated the pre-Islamic Arabic tradition of women’s elegy ([[marthiya]]) into the context of the [[Muharram]] ceremonies that had received a new impetus under the Shiʿite dispensation of the Safavid state. The poem reached the peak of its popularity during the Qajar period, generating dozens of responses and imitations. Mohtasham’s elegy remains one of the best-known works of classical poetry up to the present day and is often pressed onto long pieces of cloth that drape entire cities in Iran during Muharram ceremonies. | Mohtasham’s fame today rests almost entirely on a single poem—his elegy in twelve strophes (davazdah-band) on the [[martyrdom]] of Imam Hussain at [[Karbala]], beginning baz in che shureshi-st ke dar khalq-e ʿalam ast / baz in che nowha o che ʿaza o che matam ast.<ref>“What is this tumult now among the world’s creatures? / What now is this wailing, this mourning, this lamentation?” Haft divan, I, pp. 460-68</ref> This poem achieved renown even during the poet’s lifetime; the contemporary literary biographer Awhadi Balyani writes that “if his poetry were limited to this one work, it would be enough”.<ref>Golchin-e Maʿani, p. 477</ref> This judgment was prescient; at the beginning of the 20th century, E. G. Browne<ref>IV, p. 172</ref> praises the “true pathos and religious feeling” expressed in the “extraordinarily simple and direct” language of the poem, and even a Marxist critic like Jan Rypka <ref>p. 298</ref> is taken by its “charm of genuine sincerity and intimacy.” Recently, [[Karen G. Ruffle|Karen Ruffle]] has pointed out how Mohtasham integrated the pre-Islamic Arabic tradition of women’s elegy ([[marthiya]]) into the context of the [[Muharram]] ceremonies that had received a new impetus under the Shiʿite dispensation of the Safavid state. The poem reached the peak of its popularity during the Qajar period, generating dozens of responses and imitations. Mohtasham’s elegy remains one of the best-known works of classical poetry up to the present day and is often pressed onto long pieces of cloth that drape entire cities in Iran during Muharram ceremonies. | ||
The affective power and critical renown of this poem has colored the perception of Mohtasham’s career, his other works, and even Safavid literary patronage as a whole. In a famous episode from the ʿAlamara-ye ʿabbasi, the historian Eskandar Beg Monshi tells how Mohtasham submitted a panegyric ode (qasida) dedicated to Shah Tahmasp through the princess Parikhan Khanom; the king reproached the poet for polluting his tongue with the praises of temporal rulers and directed him to turn his talents to extolling the virtues of the Imams. Mohtasham responded with a seven-strophe poem (haft-band) in praise of [[Ali ibn Abi Talib|ʿAli b. Abi Taleb]] <ref>Haft divan, I, pp. 288-98</ref> closely modeled on an earlier work by Mawlana Hasan Kashani (fl. early 14th cent.). The regal payment that Mohtasham received led to a flood of further imitations by other poets.<ref>Eskandar Beg, tr. Savory, I, pp. 274-75</ref> Browne, followed by most modern scholars, mistakenly identified this poem with the elegy on Karbala, resulting in a misleading exaggeration of the importance of the anecdote itself. It came to be regarded as an expression of the attitude of the Safavid dynasty toward poetry and the literary arts in general, “whereas it probably only points to a personal change of heart of one monarch”.<ref>de Bruijn, 1995, p. 775a</ref> | The affective power and critical renown of this poem has colored the perception of Mohtasham’s career, his other works, and even Safavid literary patronage as a whole. In a famous episode from the ʿAlamara-ye ʿabbasi, the historian Eskandar Beg Monshi tells how Mohtasham submitted a panegyric ode (qasida) dedicated to Shah Tahmasp through the princess Parikhan Khanom; the king reproached the poet for polluting his tongue with the praises of temporal rulers and directed him to turn his talents to extolling the virtues of the Imams. Mohtasham responded with a seven-strophe poem (haft-band) in praise of [[Ali ibn Abi Talib|ʿAli b. Abi Taleb]] <ref>Haft divan, I, pp. 288-98</ref> closely modeled on an earlier work by Mawlana Hasan Kashani (fl. early 14th cent.). The regal payment that Mohtasham received led to a flood of further imitations by other poets.<ref>Eskandar Beg, tr. Savory, I, pp. 274-75</ref> Browne, followed by most modern scholars, mistakenly identified this poem with the elegy on Karbala, resulting in a misleading exaggeration of the importance of the anecdote itself. It came to be regarded as an expression of the attitude of the Safavid dynasty toward poetry and the literary arts in general, “whereas it probably only points to a personal change of heart of one monarch”.<ref>de Bruijn, 1995, p. 775a</ref> | ||