Mirza Habibollah Shirazi (), known by the pen name Qa'ani (‎20 October 1808 – 4 May 1854; ), was one of the most famous poets of the

Qajar era The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic peoples, Turkic origin,Cyrus G ...

Biography

Habibollah Shirazi was born on 20 October 1808 in

Shiraz Shiraz (; ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the popu ...

, where he attended elementary school. His father, Mirza Mohammad Ali, was a minor poet who wrote under the pen name Golshan. He lost his father at the age of eleven, after which he enjoyed the patronage of Hasan Ali Mirza Shuja' al-Saltana, the governor of Shiraz, who gave him the pen name Qaani. At an early age, Qaani went to

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...

for further study. He wrote a poem to praise Fath Ali Shah Qajar during the former's visit to

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, and called him " Mojtahed of the Poets". He studied Arabic and Persian literature and had great interest in ''hekmat''. He was familiar with French and English and was knowledgeable in mathematics and

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

. He was considered a master of

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

. He died in 1854 in Rey.

Work

The most complete versions of Qaani's ''diwan'' (collection of poetry) consists of over 20,000 verses. This may make up only a fifth of his total oeuvre, the remainder having been lost (Qaani was not meticulous about preserving his writings). He wrote a book named ''Parishan'', in the style of Sa'di's ''Golestan''. He is best known for his numerous ''qasidas'', but he also wrote ''musammats'', ''tarji-bands'', ''ghazals'', '' matnawis'', '' qit'as'', and '' ruba'is''.

Biography

Work

References

Further reading