[1] His grandfather Amir Ghayath Beg was a commander in the Safavid army and had made a mistake that led to the deaths of some of his Donboli soldiers.

He had the honorific title of Ehtesab al-Mamalek ("Censor of the Provinces") and for some time held the governorship of Qom and Kashan.

The Scottish traveller James Baillie Fraser described his encounter with Saba in 1821;[5] "The day following we paid a visit to Futeh Allee Khan, the shah-ul shaer, or malek-ul-shaer, poet laureate of the kingdom.

This very interesting old man, who is descended of an ancient family, for several successive generations governors of Cashan, possesses much genius, a lively imagination, and good taste; he is singularly well informed in, and has a great taste for, mechanics; having constructed several complicated pieces of machinery of his own invention, in a very ingenious manner, and even succeeded in making a printing press, from the plates in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

[6] Since several of Saba's family members were prominent writers throughout the Qajar era, they hold a special position in the history of 19th-century Persian literature.