Afzal’s Biography of Poets (Tadhkirah-ye Afzal) and the Analysis of his Critical Ideas

Afzal Makhdoum Pirmasti is a literary figure, poet, and biography writer from Herat, Bukhara (death: 1916). According to the author in the introduction, he wrote Tadhkirah of Afzal-al-Tazkar fi Zekr-al-Sho’ara va al-Ash’ar, also known as Afzal’s Biography of Poetry, asked by the then- emir of Emirate of Bukhara, Said 'Abd al-Ahad Khan (1886-1910), in 1904 about 137 poets of his time in the literary environment of Bukhara and the Persian speaking regions - who lived in Bukhara - from 1787/1788 until the year of compiling the Tadhkirah. There little is known about this author and his biography writing. The scientific resources in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are not without pitfalls. Thus, this study aims to introduce biography writing in general, and Afzal's Biography and critical ideas in particular. To achieve this aim, content and document analysis is employed focused on this genre to pursue the following questions: who is Afzal Makhdoum and what are his critical ideas in the biography? What is the role of the Afzal's Biography of poets in the literary Persian biography writing and the anthology of Transoxiana? The findings show that Afzal's Biography of Poets is an independent, regional- contemporary prose in the Persian language. His critical ideas could be classified into five categories: historical-interpretive, moral, political-social, rhetoric-aesthetic. The biography plays a significant role in the area and is considered as one of the main resources of the Persian literary anthology of the 19th and 20th centuries in Transoxiana. However, this Tadhkirah was written by the author on the orders of Then-emir, As a result, he interfered with the court and the personal interests of the emir in presenting critical views, Due to the important role he played in reviving the names and works of her contemporary poets in the literary environment of Bukhara,  he immediately attracted the attention of poetry and literature enthusiasts of this period; so that, has always been one of the main sources for researches on literary environment of of Bukhara and its related areas.