Critical Remarks in Early Modern Tazkiras: Literary Criticism, Intertextual Dialogue, or a Mere Question of Taste?

Tazkira-writing is one of the most significant genres of Persian literature in the 17th-19th centuries CE. This literary genre had flourished in the early modern Safavid-Mughal era and continued until the Qajar period. Tazkira writers took advantage of older as well as contemporary tazkiras as a primary source for their work, relying on information from earlier works for compiling biographical information about prior generations of poets.
In addition to providing biographical information and selections of poetry from the poets, some of the literati such as Khan Arzu, Azad Bilgrami, Valih Daghistani and others also indulged in presenting their critical opinions about various literary genres, including other tazkiras (which had been used as sources). Reading these texts precisely and relying on their own literary knowledge and taste, they criticized, analyzed, and considered the value of various tazkiras. The tazkira-writers criticized each other’s works with regards to several aspects, such as method of writing, selection and judgement of poetry, accuracy of information, personality, and other factors. This criticism amounted to a form of dialogue between contemporary tazkira¬-writers.
By considering tazkira-writers to be the earliest literary critics in the Persian literary tradition, in this article I explore how relying on ethnic and religious bias, individual beliefs and taste, and personal feelings of superiority negatively impacted or constrained tazkira¬-writers in their works. This paper also compares the critical approaches found in Indian and Iranian tazkiras, identifying salient differences and points of convergence. I illustrate the critical views tazkira-writers held about one another, and argue that tazkiras of the Safavid-Mughal era were more critical than in the subsequent Qajar era through analyzing generic changes that took place in both periods. Finally, I also take up the question of whether the criticism presented in these tazkiras can ultimately be considered precise and scientific according to modern standards, or whether they are more shaped by personal issues and individual taste.