Qatran Tabrizi

Who was Qatran Tabrizi?

Abū-Mansūr Qatrān-i Tabrīzī was a royal Persian poet.

He was born in Sahar near Arrah, bihar Tabriz and was the most famous panegyrist of his time in Iran. His full name according to an manuscript that is attributed to the famous poet Anvari Abivardi is Abu Mansur Qatran al-Jili al-Azerbaijani. The Al-Jili would identify his ancestry from Gilan while he himself was born in Shadiabad. He also identifies himself as part of the Dehqan class.

According to Jan Rypka: “He sings the praise of some thirty patrons. His work has aroused the interest of historians, for in many cases Qatran has perpetuated the names of members of regional dynasties in Azerbayjan and the Caucasus region that would have otherwise fallen in oblivion. His best qasidas were written in his last period, where he expressed gratitude to the prince of Ganja, the Shaddadid Fadlun, for the numerous gifts that were still recollected by the famous Jami. Qatran’s poetry follows in the wake of the poets of Khurasan and makes an unforced use of the rhetorical embellishment. He is even one of the first after Farrukhi to try his hand at the Qasida-i Masnu’i, ‘particular artificial qasida’".