Two Divans on the description of foods from the 9th /15th century Shiraz

Fakhr al-Din Ahmad At’ema of Shiraz (d. 850 H./1446), one of the imitators of Bushāq-e At’ema, by using names of foods and drinks and kitchen terminology, have composed poetry in the manner of Bushaq’s parodies. Due to the similarity of name and literary style, these two poets were until recently taken as one and the same poet, this leading to a whole variety of arguments. With respect to a newfound manuscript of Ahmad At’ema’s poetry (at the National Library, N. 38894) our findings presented in this article leave no doubt whatsoever that there existed two poets in the 9th century Shiraz. This manuscript contains over 400 distiches of Ahmad At’ema in which some important information can be obtained regarding the life story and poetry of several of Ahmad At’ema’s contemporaries and the persons he eulogized; information not referred to in other sources. The newly discovered MS also includes the introduction to Ahmad’s Divan, written by Mohammad Qāri, Za’farāni. The text of this introduction will be presented at the end of this article.