Tirkamir Azadbakht (, ; ) was a Kurdish poet from Qajar Iran. He lived in the 19th century and was a pioneer of Laki poetry.
Biography According to Hejjat Rashidi, there was little information about the early life of Tirkamir and nothing about the date or place of his birth, but he was likely from one of the villages of the Azadbakht tribe of Laks in the Kuhdasht district of Lorestan province. He would make visits to Kermanshah, and died around 1820.'از «قلعه چهر» کرمانشاه تا «تخت خان» ایلام (توارد محتوایی در مثنوی «بنای کهن» ترکه میر آزادبخت و مثنوی «تخت خان» علی اصغر عباسی آرام)'؛ حجت رشیدی، 2023، نشریه فرهنگ ایلام، 24(78)، ص.125-126. Another study estimated that Tirkamir Azadbakht was born around 1747 and died around 1820.Behrooz Chaman Ara & Cyrus Amiri (2018): Gurani: practical language or Kurdish literary idiom?, pp. 9, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13530194.2018.1430536. Mustafa Dehqan suggested that Tirkamir Azadbakht died around 1815.Dehqan, Mustafa (2008), "Zîn-ə Hördemîr: A Lekî Satirical Verse from Lekistan", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 18 (3), Cambridge University Press: 298, doi:10.1017/S1356186308008523, S2CID 163008614. Muhyiddin Salehi wrote that Tirkamir was born in Delfan and that his tomb was in Qomesh, and that he was from the Azadbakht tribe,محی‌الدین صالحی، سرود بادیه: در احوال و آثار شعرای کرد و لک و لر، ۱۳۸۰، ص. ۶٨. despite some claims that he was from the Mumavand tribe.محی‌الدین صالحی، سرود بادیه: در احوال و آثار شعرای کرد و لک و لر، ۱۳۸۰، ص. ۴.
Tirkamir Azadbakht was a pioneer of Laki poetry and a student of Najaf Kalhuri, and they were known together as "Najaf and Tirkamir", with their poetry often including their long descriptive dialogue. Tirkamir was the mentor of the Laki poet Mohammad Taqi Mumavand, who was greatly affected by his death.محی‌الدین صالحی، سرود بادیه: در احوال و آثار شعرای کرد و لک و لر، ۱۳۸۰، ص. ٩٧.گلزار ادب لرستان (تذکره امرائی)، اسفندیار غضنفری اسفندیاری، غلامحسین رضائی، ص. ١٠٢، تابستان ۱۳۶۴، انتشارات دانش، خرم آباد. Some suggested that Tirkamir promoted Yarsani beliefs in his poetry.از بیستون تا دالاهو، امین گجری، ١٣٨٧، ص. ٢٣١.
Popular lines from the poems of Tirkamir included "haftād ū do dīn žay parvarešt dar, har yak wa nahvī āw ū xwarešt dar" ("You have nurtured seventy-two religions, and You provide sustenance to each of them in Your own way."),گلزار ادب لرستان (تذکره امرائی)، اسفندیار غضنفری اسفندیاری، غلامحسین رضائی، ص. ١٠۴، تابستان ۱۳۶۴، انتشارات دانش، خرم آباد. "hām dīwān ža min sarfān nemaward, ya gešt ke wīyard parī dāx ū dard" ("My fellow poets were unable to outpace me, but all of that has passed and only sorrow remains.")گلزار ادب لرستان (تذکره امرائی)، اسفندیار غضنفری اسفندیاری، غلامحسین رضائی، ص. ١٢٢، تابستان ۱۳۶۴، انتشارات دانش، خرم آباد. and "torkamīr na tork na araw-lafzem, kurd-e kam-sawād hafez-ol-hefzam." ("I am Tirkamir, neither a Turk nor an Arab-speaker, I am a semi-literate Kurd, yet I've memorized the tradition [Quran]".)گلزار ادب لرستان (تذکره امرائی)، اسفندیار غضنفری اسفندیاری، غلامحسین رضائی، ص. ١١٢، تابستان ۱۳۶۴، انتشارات دانش، خرم آباد.
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