A critical study of the sources on the life and poetry of Ruh al-Amin Shahrestani

Mir Mohammad Amin Shahrestani of Esfahan, with the nom de plume Ruh -al-Amin and known as Mir Jomleh is one of the 11th /17th - century poets. His poetic compositions consist of a Divan of ghazals (called Golestān-e Nāz) and lyric collections in imitation of Nezami of Ganje. In early youth, like many of his contemporary poets, he travelled to India where he attained the position of premiership. After a few years, he went back to his hometown, Esfahan, and later again he set out for the Subcontinent where he lived until he died. Some of the sources that have recorded his life story and poetry have made mistakes regarding the poet’s patrons eulogized by him, and his works. This article intends to point out these mistakes according to the evidences present in the poet’s own poetry as well as what the credible historians have reported. It demonstrates, for example, that Mir Mohammad Amin failed to finish his Khamseh (quintuplet) managing to compose only four of them. The article also shows that the Javāhernāmeh is not a separate composition of his.