Mohammad Taghi Bahar
Mohammad Taghi Bahar (MTB) (محمدتقی بهار in
Persian) (
1886 -
1951), famously known as
Malekoshoara (ملکالشعراء, ), is considered as the greatest Twentieth Century
Iranian (Persian)
poet and
scholar, who was also a
humanist,
politician,
journalist, professor of
literature and
historian. Although he was a
20th century poet, his poems were fairly traditional and strongly nationalistic. Bahar is considered by many scholars as the greatest Iranian poet in the past 200 years. Many Iranian Scholars have strongly emphasized and indicated that Bahar's style of writing and the beauty of his poetry, in addition to his deep passion for his country, does indeed place him on the same platform where other famous Iranian poets and writers such as
Ferdowsi,
Saadi and
Hafez have stood for centuries.
MTB was born on December 8,
1885 in Sarshoor District of
Mashhad, the capital city of Khorasan (a northeastern province of present-day
Iran). MTB began his primary
education when he was 3 years old, and his
mentor was his father, Mohammad Kazem Sabouri (MKS). MKS was a poet
laureate or the official court-poet of
Mozzafar-al-Din Shah (the fifth shah of
Qajar dynasty reigned
1896-
1907), and he was titled as King of Poets (in Persian: Malek-Show-Araa or Malek-o-Shoara). In addition to that private schooling, MTB also attended one of the Traditional Learning Centers (in Persian: Maktab Khaaneh) in Mashhad. It has been documented that MTB could cite by heart a very good portion of
Koran at a very young age. To complete his knowledge of
Persian and
Arabic, he also attended the classes of the literary skilled persons such as Adib Naishabouri and Ali Darehgazi for years.
He composed his first poem at age 8, and chose the name of Bahar as his pen name (in Persian: Takhallos). In fact, MTB chose that pen name after the name of
Bahar Shirvani (BSH), a poet and close friend of MKS, after BSH died. BSH was also a poet who was very famous during
Nasser-al-Din Shah, the fourth shah of Qajar dynasty (reigned
1848-
1896).At 14, MTB could fluently speak
Arabic, and later he was able to learn how to speak and write
French. At 18, he lost his father and started to work as a Muslim preacher and clergy. At the same time he composed a purposeful poem (in Persian: Ghassideh), and sent it to Mozzafar-al-Din Shah Qajar (MDQ). MDQ who was very impressed by that poem, appointed MTB as his new poet laureate and he also titled MTB as a new King of Poets (Malek-Show-Araa) upon a
royal order.
At the onset of the Constitutional Revolution in
Iran (
1906-
1911), MTB resigned as the poet laureate to join the movement for the establishment of a parliamentary system in the country. MTB became an active member of the Mashhad's branch of the Society for Prosperity (in Persian: Anjoman-e-Saadat), which was promoting the establishment of
parliament in
Iran. He published his Journals of Khorasan (with collaboration of Hossein Ardebili), New Spring (in Persian: Nubahaar), and Very New Spring (in Persian: Taazehbahaar) respectively first in Mashhad and later in
Tehran. In his journals, he wrote many articles which played very significant roles to encourage the nation to stand up for the establishment of a parliament and for the new institutions, new forms of expression, and a new social and political order. After the triumph of the constitutional revolution, MTB was repeatedly elected as a member of the parliament which was named as the National Consultative Assembly of Iran (in Persian: Majless-e-Shoraay-e-Melli-e-Iran). In
1918 when
Ahmad Shah Qajar, the seventh and the last ruler of Qajar dynasty, was in power MTB renewed himself. He abandoned the activities as a clergy, he became completely a new man. At the same time, MTB with the collaboration of writer and poet Saeed or
Said Nafisi, poet and historian
Rashid Yasemi, and historian
Abbas Eghbal Ashtiaani founded the Literary
Society of
Faculty (in Persian: Anjoman-e-Adabi-e-Daneshkadeh). Faculty
Magazine (in Persian: Majaleh-e-Daneshkadeh) was the monthly publication of that Society, in which besides prose and verses, very informative and useful articles on "Literary Revolution", "How Other Nations View Us" and "The Literary History of Iran" were also published. In fact, that magazine was MTB's actual mean of propagating the results of his literary
research and introducing the
Western Literature to Iranians. The magazine also played a key role in strengthening and developing the contemporary style of the
Persian Literature.
During
Reza Shah Pahlavi (reigned
1925-
1941), and after the establishment of
Tehran University (
1934), MTB was appointed as a Professor and started to teach Persian Literature at the Faculty of Literature in Tehran University. At the same period, he dedicated most of his times to edit and write various books on Literature and History. Among many great pieces of literary and historical works of MTB, one can recall the History of Sisstan (in Persian: Tarikh-e-Sisstan), A Short History of the Political Parties in Iran (in Persian: Tarikh-e-Mokhtasar-e-Ahzab-e-Siassi), Understanding the Various Styles and Traditions in Persian Prose (in Persian: Sabk Shenaasi), Edited Version of Histories in Short (in Persian: Mojmalal Tavarikh), Edited Version of Anthology of Stories (in Persian: Javamehol Hekayaat) and the two volumes of the collection of his poems.
During
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (reigned
1941-
1979), and in
1945, MTB was asked by the Prime Minister of the time,
Ahmad Ghavam (also known as Ghavam-o-Saltaneh), to serve as the Minister of Culture and Education in his cabinet, which he agreed to but only for a very short time.
In the last years of his life, MTB sadly suffered from the communicable disease of
Tuberculosis and left Iran to seek medical treatment in
Lausanne, a city in the French-speaking part of
Switzerland, situated on the shores of
Lake Geneva. MTB stayed in Lausanne for only a few months and returned home soon after. It was not much longer after his return to
Tehran that his health status turned from bad to worse. He died shortly after on April 21,
1951. His tomb is in
Darband located in
Shemiran, north of
Tehran.
MTB was a 20th century poet, but his poems were quite traditional and firmly patriotic. Many scholars have strongly emphasized and documented that MTB's style of writing and the beauty of his
poetry, in addition to his deep passion for
Iran and his ongoing challenges against
fanaticism, do indeed have made him to be considered as one of the greatest cultural scholars of Iran. Though he worked as a
preacher and
clergy only in his early
career, his first
love had been always to compose poetry, to carry out historical researches, to teach, and to write.Through his literary magazine of Faculty, MTB had a significant role in the development of modern
Persian poetry and literature. It can be argued that almost all advocates of modernism in Persian Poetry and Literature, to varying degrees, were inspired by developments and changes that had occurred in
Western Literature, and particularly in the
European one. Still, such inspirations would not mean blindly copying Western models, but in practice, adaptation of aspects of Western Literature which were then modified to fit the needs of the
Iranian culture. In the MTB's collection of poems, one can find poems with different traditions. He professionally composed poems in almost every tradition of Persian Poetry namely
panegyric (in Persian: Setayeshi or Madiheh),
epic (Hemaasi),
patriotic (Meehani),
mystic (Ramzi or Soophianeh),
romantic (Aasheghaneh),
ethical (Akhlaaghi),
didactic (Aamoozeshi or Pandi),
colloquial (Goftogooii), and
satirical (Tanzi or Hajvi). Some selected poems composed by MTB can be viewed as the
Poetry House of Mohammad Taghi Bahar.
Mohammad Taghi Bahar: A Reference Article on First Iranians by Manouchehr
Saadat Noury.
*
Five-Masters*
History of Iran*
Persian literature*
Bahar: Famous Iranian Poet.
