ʻAlī Akbar Navvāb Shīrāzī

Ali-Akbar Navab Shirazi (; 1773–1847), also known by his pen name Besmel , was a scholar, poet and calligrapher in Qajar Iran.

Biography Navvab Shirazi came from a highly affluent family of scholars originally from Isfahan, who resettled in Shiraz following the fall of the Safavid dynasty. Shiraz was the capital of the Fars province, then ruled by the Zand dynasty, until its conquest by the Qajar dynasty in 1791.

In the Hakim school of Shiraz, both Navvab Shirazi's father Aqa Ali Naqib and uncle Aqa Bozorg worked as teachers. There Navvab Shirazi was educated in Persian and Arabic, grammar, literature, mathematics, science and logic. Learning and teaching were the main focus of his life, which he mainly spent with mystics and spiritual travelers, and also with other intellectuals and artists.

Navvab Shirazi became so well known that when the Iranian king Fath-Ali Shah Qajar was in Shiraz, he visited him to show his respect. Navvab Shirazi had a close relationship with Fath-Ali Shah's son Hossein Ali Mirza, the governor of the Fars province. He was given the title "Navvab" ("deputy") after marrying Hossein Ali Mirza's daughter.

Navvab Shirazi died in 1847 in Shiraz. Like his father and ancestors, he was buried in the cemetery of Seyyed Mir Mohammad. He had three sons, Mirza Abu-Taleb (died 1883/84) and Mirza Ali Sadr-ol-Olama (died 1889), who both became prominent scholars, and Sadra (died 1824) who was killed by an earthquake.

Writings Despite showing some aspects of the Indian style in his poems, Navvab Shirazi is considered to have written in the Iraqi style. He is the author of a divan (collection of poems) written in Persian and Arabic. His most prominent work is the Tazkera-ye delgosha, which contains the biography of 157 poets, as well as some short writings on various topics associated with the Fars province.