Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani

Bust of Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani

Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani, also spelled as Fakhraddin Asaad Gorgani (Persian: فخرالدين اسعد گرگاني‎), was an 11th-century Persian poet. He versified the story of Vis and Rāmin, a story from the Arsacid (Parthian) period. The Iranian scholar Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub, however, disagrees with this view, and concludes that the story has its origins in the 5th-century Sasanian era. Besides Vis and Rāmin, other forms of poetry have been composed by him. For example, some of his quatrains are recorded in the Nozhat al-Majales.

Biography

A native of Gorgan, Gurgani accompanied the Seljuq ruler Tughril during his campaigns in Iran. When Tughril seized the major Iranian city of Isfahan from the Kakuyids in 1051, he appointed a certain Amid Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar as its governor. Gurgani thereafter settled in Isfahan, where he established good relations with its governor, who took him under his protection.[1]

During one day, when Gurgani and Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar were talking, Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar asked the following thing; “What do you say about the tale of Vis and Rāmin?” Gurgani then told him that the story was only written in Middle Persian. Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar then asked Gurgani to versify the story, which he did; during the Mehregan festival, Gurgani presented the poem to him, in which he applause's Tughril, the vizier Abu Nasr Kunduri, and Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar.[1] Gurgani later died in ca. 1058.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Meisami 2002, pp. 162-163.

Sources