Social fabric of Central Asian poets and ‘literary return’ movement
Biographical anthologies from the eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries provide evidence for establishing the connections among individual poets that would later become known as the founders of the ‘literary return’ movement.
In writing about a Central Asian biographical anthology from the Safavid period, Robert McChesney commented that, while the goal of tadhkiras is often ‘to explain in a formal and conventional way individual creativity rather than social relations of individuals and groups’, they nonetheless offer a great deal of information regarding the social, cultural and economic circumstances of the time.
The biographical anthologies of the Zand and Qajar periods do just that, identifying the relationships and connections among poets later known as the founders of the ‘literary return’ movement. They provide a roster of the poets associated with Seyyed Ali Mushtaq Isfahani’s literary society, the affiliations among poets after Mushtaq’s death, the diverse class backgrounds of participants and the lineages of student–instructor relationships that stretch from the movement’s early days in the mid-to-late eighteenth century to poets located at the Qajar court of Fat’h-Ali Shah later on.
There are several categories of affiliations that define the social network among the ‘literary return’ movement from its early gestational form in Mushtaq’s literary society to the movement’s more formal institutionalization at the Qajar court of Fat’h-Ali Shah: instructional relationships between teachers and students, bonds of friendship, and family and professional relationships.
The existence of these multiple, and often overlapping, lines of association helps to delineate the diverse ways in which the poets of a nascent ‘literary return’ movement were connected with one another.
Mushtaq’s student Azar delineates many of the poets affiliated with Mushtaq’s literary society. Azar cites in particular his friendships with Sahba (died in 1777), who, like him, was one of Mushtaq’s early disciples, and with Hatif (died 1784).
The three poets together would later organise Mushtaq’s poetry into a collection (divan) after his death. Also among this early circle of associates was Aqa Muhammad ‘ʿAshiq’ Isfahani, a tailor by profession, and Rafiq Isfahani, a vegetable seller. Their participation too points to the humble professions of some of the circle’s members and the continued practice from Safavid times of poetic production among Isfahan’s urban professionals.
Poets not definitely tied to Mushtaq’s literary society, either as participant or student, also form a part of this larger network, such as Sulayman ‘Sabahi’ Bidguli (d. 1793). Either in Isfahan or in his birthplace of Kashan, Sabahi met Azar and Hatif, leading the three to embark on lifelong friendship.
Indeed, the triumvirate of Azar, Hatif and Sabahi has been heralded by the historian Dunbuli as Mushtaq’s heirs in overthrowing the method of poetry whose meanings had become ‘frigid and tasteless’.
The strong bonds of friendship and close companionship between Azar, Hatif and Sabahi are well-recorded, both in biographical anthologies and in their poetry. Their poems, often in conversation with each other, offer some of the best evidence of how these poets viewed themselves and their surroundings.
The above is a lightly edited version of part of a chapter, ‘Reformation and Reconstruction of Poetic Networks: Isfahan c.1722–1801’, from a book entitled, ‘Remapping Persian Literary History, 1700-1900’, written by Kevin L. Schwartz, published by Edinburgh University Press.