Hajji Lotf-Ali Beg Azar Bigdeli, better known as Azar Bigdeli (; "Azar" was his pen name; 1722–1781), was an Iranian anthologist and poet. He is principally known for his biographical anthology of some 850 Persian-writing poets, the Atashkadeh-ye Azar (), which he dedicated to Iranian ruler Karim Khan Zand (1751–1779). Written in Persian, the Persian studies academic J.T.P. de Bruijn considers it "the most important Persian anthology of the eighteenth century". Azar was a leading figure of the bazgasht-e adabi () movement, which sought to return the stylistic standards of early Persian poetry.
Life
Azar was born on 7 February 1722 in Isfahan, the royal capital of Safavid Iran, during a time of chaos and instability. The year he was born, the Safavid state had entered the final stages of collapse and the rebellious Afghans had reached Isfahan. Azar and his family were forced to move from Isfahan to Qom, where they owned property, and he lived there for 14 years. Azar's family descended from the Bigdeli branch of the Turkoman Shamlu tribe. His ancestors and other Shamlu-tribe members moved from Syria to Iran in the 15th century during the last few years of Timur's reign and settled in Isfahan, where they served the rulers of Iran. Many of Azar's relatives were prominent in the late Safavid era and during the subsequent reign of Nader Shah (1736–1747) as diplomats and bureaucrats.
Around 1735 or 1736, Azar's father Agha Khan Bigdeli Shamlu was appointed governor of Lar and the coastal areas of Fars Province by Nader Shah and Azar, and his family moved to Shiraz, the provincial capital of Fars. In 1737 or 1738, after the death of his father, Azar made pilgrimages to Mecca and the Shi'ite shrines in Iran and Iraq. His subsequent arrival in Mashhad coincided with Nader Shah's return from his successful Indian campaign. Azar subsequently enlisted in Nader's army and accompanied his troops to Mazandaran, Azerbaijan, and Persian Iraq. After Nader's death in 1747, Azar served his nephews and successors Adel Shah (1747–1748) and Ebrahim Shah (1748), and the Safavid pretenders Ismail III and Suleiman II before retiring to his modest manor in Qom.
When Karim Khan Zand (1751–1779) ascended to the throne, Azar decided to devote his time to scholarly pursuits and returned to Isfahan, where he and other poets of the bazgasht-e adabi movement benefitted from the peaceful conditions under Karim Khan's rule and the support of the cities' Zand governor Mirzā ʿAbd ol-Vahhāb (died 1760), who was a patron of the arts. The city was sacked by Ali Mardan Khan Bakhtiari in 1750, and Azar reportedly lost about 7,000 of his early written verses; however, he was still a respected poet during his lifetime. In 1774 or 1775, Azar was forced to leave Isfahan again, due to misrule by Zand governor Hājji Mohammad Ranāni Esfahāni (in office; 1760–1765). He and his friend Hatef Esfahani (died 1783), who was also a native of Isfahan and a member of the bazgasht-e adabi movement, eventually ended up at Kashan, where their mutual friend Sabahi Bidgoli (died 1803) had lived most of his life. The friendship of Azar, Hatef and Sabahi is attested in many of their poems in which they declare their admiration of and devotion to one another. Azar was at Kashan when the 1778 Kashan earthquake struck, in which he lost his brother and his house. Thus he was forced to move once again, most likely to Qom, where he died three years later in 1781.
Literary career
Atashkadeh-ye Azar
Azar is principally known for his Persian anthology (tazkereh) of some 850 Persian-writing poets, the Atashkadeh-ye Azar ("Azar's Fire Temple"), which he started writing in 1760/1 and which is considered "the most important Persian anthology of the eighteenth century" by the Persian studies academic J.T.P. de Bruijn. Its chapter titles are based metaphorically on "fire". The Persian studies academic Jalal Matini explains that Azar chose such titles to underline his mission to defend Persian poetry as a member of the bazgasht-e adabi movement.