Kamāl al-Dīn Banāʾī’s Bahrām va Bihrūz: A Persian romance qua mirror for princes in light of Aq Qoyunlu history

ABSTRACT This article proposes that Bāgh-i iram, a Persian masnavī by Kamāl al-Dīn Shīr- ʿ Alī Banāʾī, the narrative of which presents a love triangle involving brother-dynasts—hence its alternative title, Bahrām va Bihrūz—is a work of moral and ethical advice. The study posits that Banāʾī composed Bahrām va Bihrūz, which survives only in manuscript form, to honor his deceased patron, Ya ʿ qūb b. Ūzūn Ḥasan, leader of the Aq Qoyunlu, whose reputation as a debauchee-turned-penitent ruler Banā’ī employs to impart advice on avoiding sin and comporting oneself with rectitude. The article sheds light on Banāʾī, but also the statesmen-advisers, Qāżī Ṣafī al-Dīn ʿĪsāʾ and Shaikh Najm al-Dīn Masʿūd, and their involvement in Sulṭān Yaʿqūb's abandonment of venality. The study concludes that Bahrām va Bihrūz is unique within the literary tradition, in that its character-types, twin-brothers, and its focus on the faults of the poet's former patron are subjects not typically encountered in Persian masnavīs.