A Biographical Account by Husayn Hazin, or A Panorama of the Province of Burujird

حزین بروجردی، حسین. "تذکره حسین حزین" یا "دورنمایی از شهرستان بروجرد" حاوی شرح حال دانشمندان، شعرا، نویسندگان گذشته و معاصر، تاریخ و جغرافیای بروجرد به ضمیمه ی عکس هایی از اماکن تاریخی. قم: انتشارات مجمع متوسلین به آل محمد (ص)، ١٣٨٠، ٧٧٠ص.

 

Hazin Burujirdi, Husayn. Tazkirah-yi Husayn Hazin, ya, Durnumaʾi az Shahristan-i Burujird: Havi-yi, Sharh-i Hal-i Danishmandan, Shuʻaraʾ, Nivisandigan-i Guzashtah wa Mu‘asir, Tarikh wa Jugrafia-yi Burujird bi Zamimah-yi ‘Aksha‘i az Amakin-i Tarikhi. Qum: Intisharat-i Majmaʻ-yi Mutavassilin bi Al-i Muhammad, 2001, 770pp.

 

ABSTRACT

 

A Biographical Account by Husayn Hazin, or A Panorama of the Province of Burujird

 

"تذکره حسین حزین" یا "دورنمایی از شهرستان بروجرد"

 

A tazkirah is a book containing the biographies of eminent personalities and poets, along with samples of their works or poems. The tazkirah or bibliographical account of Husayn Hazin, (apart from the first two hundred pages of the book, which could be named Burujird’s City Bulletin) focuses on the biographies of Burujird’s eminent personalities and poets of the past and present, including the writer himself.

 

The first two chapters, dealing with the geography, history, customs and rituals of the province of Burujird, aim to familiarise the reader with the social and political environment in which the eminent personalities of the city grew up. However, it should be noted that the account of Burujird’s political history stops at the end of Nasir al-Din Shah’s period of reign.

 

The material for this work was collected over a 40-year period which came to an end in 1971 (1350 Solar Hijri), thirty years before the book’s first publication. Due to the relatively dated style of its writing and/or the writer’s death before the book’s publication, there is no precise listing of sources and references. The book is mainly a primary anthropological source as the greater part of the information collected here comes from the writer’s personal experiences as an eyewitness. One of the most prominent characteristics is the writer’s focus on the provenance of the tombs of famous figures and the process by which they were converted into the holy shrines that are now located in Burujird and its environs. The work also contains accounts of the formation of some twenty shrines, together with their images, visited by pilgrims, and a collection and analysis of about thirty customs, rituals and old games of Burujird.

 

The other sections of the book focus only on the biographies and works of poets, jurisprudents and other great personalities of the city of Burujird. The writer, who was himself a member of Burujird’s Literary Society, does not provide literary analysis of any works or poems, and it is quite possible that he may have omitted some poets altogether. Except for one poem written in free verse, the book contains no samples of modernist poetry. The section “The Lives and Works of Contemporary Poets” contains a number of poems composed in the character and poetic style of Hazin Burujirdi; however, these are not necessarily representative samples of the writer’s style. In addition, very few poems in the local dialect are included.

 

The book’s main readership is anthropologists and those interested in the culture of the people of Loristan and the Western Iranian Plateau. Researchers of holy shrines will also find valuable information in this book.

 

Iradj Esmailpour Ghouchani

Translated by Sofia A. Koutlaki

 

Esmailpour Ghouchani, Iradj. “English abstract of 'A Biographical Account by Husayn Hazin, or A Panorama of the Province of Burujird'". Translated by Sofia A. Koutlaki. In Cities as Built and Lived Environments: Scholarship from Muslim Contexts, 1875 to 2011, by Aptin Khanbaghi. 145. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.

Muslim Civilisations Abstracts - The Aga Khan University