Some Thoughts on the Poetic Career of Ghatran Tabrizi

The eleventh-century poet, Ghatrane Tabrizi is considered the first to compose Dardic poetry in Azerbaijan and Arran. He himself in some verses has expressed his pride in being the precursor of Azerbaijan poets. Even in the fifth century his poetry was surveyed from different viewpoints and, in most hagiographies, he has been praised as a dexterous and influential poet. Another point of view from which Ghatran’s poetry can be analyzed is his influence on the poetry of western Iran. Ghatran composed in Persian. Since Persian was a well-established language at that time and had developed because of its effective basis, it became a regular and significant language at the court of Amirs of western Iran and made vernaculars marginal. This survey traces Ghatran's poetic career and analyzes his literary role in marginalizing Iranian languages.