 Muhammad was named governor of Shiraz in 1572.He had acquired a reputation as a poet in Herat, one "noted for his education and cognative acuity," according to Sam Mirza, a contemporary biographer of poets.Muhammad brought a retinue of artists and pets with him to Shiraz, a city that had been a center of philosophic inquiry since the late fifteenth century and more recently as a venue for widely regarded manuscription illumination.