Literary activity of the Persian poet Anvari (1170s)

Timeline

1. 1170–1179Cities of Khurasan · KhurasanAfter Sanjar's death Anvari lost his most generous court patron and turned to writing for lesser patrons such as Khwarazm and regional emirs. In the 1170s his poetry collections are full of sharp satire at patrons' stinginess and laments over the poet's fate, his style shifting from early ornate panegyrics to more personal, philosophical expression, reflecting the common plight of literati after the Seljuk Empire's fragmentation.
2. 1170–1189Balkh · KhurasanAnvari claimed mastery of astronomy, geometry, logic and music, and his poems are dense with allusions, extremely difficult for later readers. His Divan gathers panegyrics, lyrics, quatrains and long narrative poems, among them 'Tears of Khurasan' mourning the disaster of the 1153 Oghuz invasion, still widely recited in the 1170s. In his later years he disdained the life of a court poet, living a quiet, reclusive scholar's life near Balkh until his death.