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LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


• 


Social  Sciences  &  Humanities  Library 

University  of  California,  San  Diego 
ease  Note:  This  item  is  subject  to  recall. 

Date  Due 


1  7  2002] 


Cl  39  (5/97) 


UCSD  Lib. 


A  HISTORY 

OF  PERSIAN  LITERATURE 
UNDER  TARTAR  DOMINION 

(A.D.  1265—1502) 


CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

C.  F.  CLAY,  MANAGER 
LONDON   :  FETTER  LANE,  E.G.  4 


NEW  YORK  :  THE  MACMILLAN  CO. 

BOMBAY      \ 

CALCUTTA  I  MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  LTD. 

MADRAS      j 

TORONTO   :  THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF 

CANADA,  LTD. 
TOKYO:  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


HULAGU 


Add.  18803  (Brit.  Mus.),  f.  19 


Frontispiece 


A   HISTORY 
OF  PERSIAN  LITERATURE 

UNDER  TARTAR  DOMINION 

(A.D.  1265-1502) 


BY 

EDWARD  G.  BROWNE 

M.A.,  M.B.,  F.B.A.,  F.R.C.P. 

SIR  THOMAS  ADAMS'S  PROFESSOR  OF  ARABIC 

AND  FELLOW  OF  PEMBROKE  COLLEGE  IN  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE 


CAMBRIDGE 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1920 


I  DEDICATE  THIS  VOLUME  TO  MY  WIFE,  TO 

WHOSE  PERSUASION  AND  ENCOURAGEMENT 

ITS  COMPLETION  IS  CHIEFLY  DUE 


(Imdmi:  see  pp.  116-117.) 


PREFACE 

"T7OURTEEN  years  have  elapsed  since  the  second 
JL  volume  of  my  Literary  History  of  Persia1,  of  which 
the  present  work  is  in  fact,  if  not  in  name  and  form,  a  con- 
tinuation, was  published.  That  the  appearance  of  this 
continuation,  which  comprises  the  period  between  Sa'di  and 
Jam/,  and  extends  from  the  death  of  Hulagu  the  Mongol  to 
the  rise  of  the  Safawi  dynasty  (A.D.  1265-1502),  has  been  so 
long  delayed  is  due  to  a  variety  of  causes,  at  one  of  which, 
operative  for  five  or  six  years  (A.D.  1907-12),  I  have  hinted 
in  the  Preface  (p.  xx)  to  my  Persian  Revolution  of  1905-9. 
While  Persia  was  going  through  what  repeatedly  appeared 
to  be  her  death-agony,  it  was  difficult  for  anyone  who  loved 
her  to  turn  his  eyes  for  long  from  her  present  sufferings  to 
her  past  glories.  Often,  indeed,  I  almost  abandoned  all 
hope  of  continuing  this  work,  and  that  I  did  at  last  take  up, 
revise  and  complete  what  I  had  already  begun  to  write  was 
due  above  all  else  to  the  urgency  and  encouragement  of  my 
wife,  and  of  one  or  two  of  my  old  friends  and  colleagues, 
amongst  whom  I  would  especially  mention  Dr  T.  W.  Arnold 
and  Mr  Guy  le  Strange. 

The  delay  in  the  production  of  this  volume  has  not, 
however,  been  altogether  a  matter  for  regret,  since  it  has 
enabled  me  to  make  use  of  materials,  both  printed  and 
manuscript,  which  would  not  have  been  available  at  an  earlier 
date.  In  particular  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  acquire 

1  Of  these  two  volumes,  published  by  Mr  T.  Fisher  Unwin  in  the 
"  Library  of  Literary  History,"  the  full  titles  are  as  follows  :  A  Literary 
History  of  Persia  from  the  earliest  times  until  Firdaivst  (pp.  xvi  +  521), 
1902  ;  and  A  Literary  History  of  Persia  from  Firdawsi  to  Saldi 
(pp.  xvi +  568),  1906.  In  the  notes  to  this  volume  they  are  referred  to 
as  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  i  or  vol.  ii. 


viii  PREFACE 

two  very  fine  collections  of  Persian  and  Arabic  manu- 
scripts which  have  yielded  me  much  valuable  material, 
namely,  at  the  beginning  of  1917*,  some  sixty  manuscripts 
(besides  lithographed  and  printed  books  published  in  Persia) 
from  the  Library  of  the  late  Sir  Albert  Houtum-Schindler, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  1920  another  forty  or  fifty  manu- 
scripts of  exceptional  rarity  and  antiquity  collected  in 
Persia  and  Mesopotamia  by  Hajji  'Abdu'l-Maji'd  Belshah. 
So  many  Persian  works  of  first-class  importance  still  remain 
unpublished  and  generally  inaccessible  save  in  a  few  of  the 
great  public  libraries  of  Europe  that  the  possession  of  a 
good  private  library  is  essential  to  the  student  of  Persian 
literature  who  wishes  to  extend  his  researches  into  its  less 
familiar  by-paths. 

I  regret  in  some  ways  that  I  have  had  to  produce  this 
volume  independently  of  its  two  predecessors,  and  not  in 
the  same  series.  Several  considerations,  however,  induced 
me  to  adopt  this  course.  Of  these  the  principal  ones  were 
that  I  desired  to  retain  full  rights  as  to  granting  permission 
for  it  to  be  quoted  or  translated,  should  such  permission  be 
sought ;  and  that  I  wished  to  be  able  to  reproduce  the 
original  Persian  texts  on  which  my  translations  were  based, 
in  the  numerous  cases  where  these  were  not  accessible  in 
printed  or  lithographed  editions,  in  the  proper  character. 
For  this  reason  it  was  necessary  to  entrust  the  printing  of 
the  book  to  a  press  provided  with  suitable  Oriental  types, 
and  no  author  whose  work  has  been  produced  by  the 
Cambridge  University  Press  will  fail  to  recognize  how  much 
he  owes  to  the  skill,  care,  taste  and  unfailing  courtesy  of  all 
responsible  for  its  management. 

I  hope  that  none  of  my  Persian  friends  will  take  ex- 
ception to  the  title  which  I  have  given  to  this  volume, 


1  See  my  notice  of  this  collection  in  iheJ.lf.A.S.  for  October  1917, 
pp.  657-694,  entitled  The  Persian  Manuscripts  of  the  late  Sir  Albert 
Houtum-Schindler,  K.C.I. E. 


PREFACE  ix 

"A  History  of  Persian  Literature  under  Tartar1  Dominion." 
I  have  known  Persians  whose  patriotism  has  so  far  outrun 
their  historical  judgment  as  to  seek  to  claim  as  compatriots 
not  only  Timur  but  even  Chingiz  and  Hulagu,  those  scourges 
of  mankind,  of  whom  the  two  last  mentioned  in  particular  did 
more  to  compass  the  ruin  of  Islamic  civilization,  especially 
in  Persia,  than  any  other  human  beings.  When  we  read  of 
the  shocking  devastation  wrought  by  the  Mongols  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Central  and  Western  Asia,  we 
are  amazed  not  so  much  at  what  perished  at  their  hands  as 
at  what  survived  their  depredations,  and  it  says  much  for 
the  tenacity  of  the  Persian  character  that  it  should  have 
been  so  much  less  affected  by  these  barbarians  than  most 
other  peoples  with  whom  they  came  in  contact.  The  period 
covered  by  this  volume  begins  with  the  high  tide  of  Mongol 
ascendancy,  and  ends  with  the  ebb  of  the  succeeding  tide 
of  Turanian  invasion  inaugurated  by  Timur.  Politically, 
during  its  whole  duration,  Turan,  represented  by  Tartars, 
Turks  and  Turkmans,  lorded  it  over  Iran,  which,  neverthe- 
less, continued  to  live  its  own  intellectual,  literary  and  artistic 
life,  and  even  to  some  extent  to  civilize  its  invaders.  It  is 
my  hope  and  purpose,  should  circumstances  be  favourable, 
to  conclude  my  survey  of  this  spiritual  and  intellectual  life 
of  Persia  in  one  other  volume,  to  be  entitled  "A  History 
of  Persian  Literature  in  Modern  Times,"  covering  the  last 
four  hundred  years,  from  the  rise  of  the  great  Safawf 
dynasty,  which  restored  the  ancient  boundaries  and  revived 
the  national  spirit  of  Persia,  to  the  present  day. 

There  remains  the  pleasant  duty  of  expressing  my  thanks 
to  those  of  my  friends  and  fellow-students  who  have  most 
materially  helped  me  in  the  preparation  of  this  work.  Nearly 
all  the  proofs  were  carefully  read  by  two  Government  of 

1  I  have  yielded  to  the  common  usage  in  adopting  this  form  instead 
of  the  more  correct  "Tatar."  The  later  and  less  accurate,  though 
more  familiar,  form  "  Tartar "  owes  its  origin,  as  indicated  on  pp.  6-7 
infra,  to  a  popular  etymology  which  would  connect  it  with  Tartarus. 


x  PREFACE 

India  Research  Students  of  exceptional  learning,  ability  and 
industry,  Muhammad  Shaft'',  a  member  of  my  own  College 
and  now  Professor  of  Arabic  in  the  Panjab  University,  and, 
on  his  departure,  by  Muhammad  Iqbal,  a  young  scholar  of 
great  promise.  To  both  of  these  I  owe  many  valuable 
emendations,  corrections  and  suggestions. 

Of  the  twelve  illustrations  to  this  volume  four  (those 
facing  pp.  8,  66,  74  and  96)  have  already  appeared  in  the 
edition  of  the  Tarikh-i-Jahdn-gushd  published  in  1912  by 
the  "E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial  Trust "  (vol.  xvi,  I,  pp.  Ixxxvii, 
147,  154  and  222),  and  are  reproduced  here  by  the  kind 
permission  of  my  fellow  trustees.  To  my  old  friend  Pro- 
fessor A.  V.  Williams  Jackson,  of  Columbia  University,  and 
to  Messrs  Macmillan,  his  publishers,  I  am  indebted  for 
permission  to  reproduce  the  photograph  of  the  Tomb  of 
Hafiz  at  Shfraz  which  originally  appeared  in  his  Persia, 
Past  and  Present  (p.  332),  and  here  appears  facing  p.  310. 
The  facsimile  of  J  ami's  autograph  facing  p.  508  of  this 
volume  is  reproduced  from  vol.  iii  (1886)  of  the  Collections 
Scientifiques  de  I'Institut  des  Langues  Orientales  du 
Ministere  des  Affaires  Etrangeres  a  St  P^tersbourg:  Manu- 
scrits  Per  sans,  compiled  with  so  much  judgment  by  the  late 
Baron  Victor  Rosen,  to  whose  help  and  encouragement  in 
the  early  days  of  my  career  I  am  deeply  indebted.  The 
six  remaining  illustrations,  which  are  new,  and,  as  I 
think  will  be  generally  admitted,  of  exceptional  beauty 
and  interest,  were  selected  for  me  from  manuscripts  in 
the  British  Museum  by  my  friends  Mr  A.  G.  Ellis  and 
Mr  Edward  Edwards,  to  whose  unfailing  erudition  and 
kindness  I  owe  more  than  I  can  say.  Three  of  them,  the 
portraits  of  Sa'di,  Hafiz  and  Shah-rukh,  are  from  Add.  7468 
(ff.  19,  34  and  44  respectively),  while  the  portraits  of  Hulagu 
and  Timur  are  from  Add.  18,803,  f.  19,  and  Add.  18,801, 
f.  23.  The  colophon  of  the  beautifully  written  Quran 
transcribed  at  Mawsil  in  A.H.  710  (A.D.  1310-1 1)  for  Uljaytii 
(Khuda-banda)  and  his  two  ministers  Rashidu'd-Din 


PREFACE  xi 

Fadlu'llah  and  Sa'du'd-Dm  is  from  the  recently  acquired 
Or.  4945 1.  All  these  have  been  reproduced  by  Mr  R.  B. 
Fleming  with  his  usual  taste  and  skill. 

Lastly  I  am  indebted  to  Miss  Gertrude  Lowthian  Bell, 
whose  later  devotion  to  Arabic  has  caused  her  services  to 
Persian  letters  to  be  unduly  forgotten,  for  permission  to 
reprint  in  this  volume  some  of  her  beautiful  translations  of 
the  odes  of  Hafiz,  together  with  her  fine  appreciation  of  his 
position  as  one  of  the  great  poets  not  only  of  his  own  age 
and  country  but  of  the  world  and  of  all  time. 

EDWARD  G.  BROWNE. 

April  5,  1920. 

1  See  the  first  entry  in  the  Descriptive  List  of  the  Arabic  Manu- 
scripts acquired  by  the  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum  since  1894,  by 
Mr  A.  G.  Ellis  and  Mr  Edward  Edwards  (London,  1912). 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE vii 

BOOK  I 

THE  MONGOL  IL-KH^NS  OF  PERSIA,  FROM  THE  DEATH 
OF  HtJLAGtJ  TO  THE  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  DYNASTY 

(A.H.  663-737  =  A.D.  1265-1337) 

CHAP. 

I.  The  Mongol  Il-khans  of  Persia  (A.D.  1265-1337)  .        .  3 

II.  The  Historians  of  the  Il-khani  Period    ....          62 

III.  The  Poets  and  Mystics  of  the  Il-khanf  Period       .        .         105 

BOOK  II 

FROM  THE  BIRTH  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  TfMUR-I-LANG, 
COMMONLY  CALLED  TAMERLANE  (A.H.  736-807  = 
A.D.  1335-1405) 

IV.  The  Period  of  Tfmur 159 

V.  The  Poets  and  Writers  of  the  Time  of  Tfmur         .        .         207 

BOOK  III 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  TfMt/R  TO  THE  RISE  OF  THE 
SAFAWf  DYNASTY  (A.H.  807-907  =  A.D.  1405-1502) 

VI.  History  of  the  Later  Tfmurid  Period      ....         379 
VII.   Prose  Writers  of  the  Later  Tfmurid  Period    .         .        .        421 

VIII.  Poets  of  the  Later  Tfmurid  Period 461 

INDEX 549 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

I.  Hiilagu.   (Phot,  by  Mr  R.  B.  Fleming)     .         .       Frontispiece 

II.  Batu's  court  on  the  Volga         .        .        .  To  face  page    8 

III.  Colophon  of  oldest  MS.  of  the  Tcfrikh-i- 

Jahdn-giishd  ......  „  „  66 

IV.  Enthronement  of  Ogotay  ....  „  ,,  74 

V.  Colophon  of  Qur'an  transcribed  for  Uljaytii, 

Rashidu'd-Din  and  Sa'du'd-Di'n.     (Phot. 

by  Mr  R.  B.  Fleming)   ....  „  „  78 

VI.  Mongol  siege  of  a  Chinese  town       .  „  „  96 

VII.   Timur-i-Lang  (Tamerlane).    (Phot,  by  Mr 

R.  B.  Fleming) „  „  180 

VIII.    Hafiz  and  Abu  Ishaq.   (Phot,  by  Mr  R.  B. 

Fleming) „  „  274 

IX.  The  Hafiziyya  or  Tomb  of  Hafiz       .         .  „  „  310 

X.  Shah-rukh.   (Phot,  by  Mr  R.  B.  Fleming)  „  „  382 

XI.  Sa'di.   (Phot,  by  Mr  R.  B.  Fleming)         .  „  „  484 

XII.  Jamfs  autograph „  „  508 


ERRATA 

p.  60,  last  line,  read  Matla'u's-Sa'dayn. 

p.  1 10,  1.  25,  for  speed  read  speech. 

p.  in,  1.  23,  for  bfajmthtsk-SkttarA  read  Majmcfrfl-FusahA. 

p.  311,  1.  ii.     The  date  given  is  evidently  wrong,  for  Karim  Khan 
reigned  from  A.H.  1163-1193  (A.D.  1750-1779). 

p.  398,  11.  28  and  31,  for  Bdyazid  III  read  Bdyaztd  II. 

pp.  411, 1.  1 6,  and  412, 1.  26.    One  of  the  two  dates  (A.D.  1472  and  1474) 
here  given  is  wrong,  but  I  do  not  know  which. 


BOOK  I. 

THE  MONGOL  IL-KHANS  OF  PERSIA, 
FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  HULAGU  TO 
THE  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  DYNASTY 

(A.H.  663-737  =  A.D.  1265-1337). 


B.  P. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  MONGOL  IL-KHANS  OF  PERSIA. 

Although  to  the  student  every  period  in  the  history  of 
every  nation  is  more  or  less  interesting,  or  could  be  made 
Great  epochs  in  so  w^tn  sufficient  knowledge,  sympathy  and 
Persian  history,  imagination,  there  are  in  the  history  of  most 

and  their  con-  ,  -          ,  . 

nection  with  peoples  certain  momentous  epochs  of  upheaval 
world-history  an(j  reconstruction  about  which  it  behoves  every 
educated  person  to  know  something.  Of  such  epochs  Persia, 
for  geographical  and  ethnological  reasons,  has  had  her  full 
share.  A  glance  at  the  map  will  suffice  to  remind  the  reader 
that  this  ancient,  civilized  and  homogeneous  land,  occupying 
the  whole  space  between  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the  Persian 
Gulf,  forms,  as  it  were,  a  bridge  between  Europe  and  Asia 
Minor  on  the  one  hand  and  Central  and  Eastern  Asia  on 
the  other,  across  which  bridge  from  the  earliest  times  have 
passed  the  invading  hosts  of  the  West  or  the  East  on  their 
respective  paths  of  conquest.  The  chief  moments  at  which 
Persian  history  thus  merges  in  World-history  are  as  follows  : 
(i)  The  Persian  invasion  of  Greece  by  the  Achaemenian 
kings  in  the  fifth  century  before  Christ. 
Enumeration  of  (2)  Alexander's  invasion  of  Persia  on  his 

seven  of  these      way  to  India  in  the  fourth  century  before  Christ, 
resulting  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Achaemenian 
dynasty  and  the  extinction  of  Persia  as  a  Great  Power  for 
five  centuries  and  a  half. 

(3)  The  restoration  of  the  Persian  Empire  by  the  House 
of  Sasan  in  the  third,  and  their  often  successful  wars  with  the 
Romans  in  the  fourth  and  following  centuries  after  Christ. 

(4)  The  Arab  invasion  of  the  seventh  century  after 
Christ,  which  formed  part  of  that  extraordinary  religious 
revival  of  a  people  hitherto  accounted  as  naught,  which  in 


4  THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

the  course  of  a  few  years  carried  the  standards  of  Islam 
from  the  heart  of  desert  Arabia  to  Spain  in  the  West  and 
the  Oxus  and  Indus  in  the  East. 

(5)  The  Mongol  or  Tartar  invasion  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  which  profoundly  affected  the  greater  part  of  Asia 
and  South-eastern  F^urope,  and  which  may  be  truly  described 
as  one  of  the  most  dreadful  calamities  which  ever  befel  the 
human  race. 

(6)  The  second  Tartar  invasion  of  Tamerlane  (  Timtir- 
i-Lang  or  "  Limping  Ti'mur")  in  the  latter  part  of  the  four- 
teenth century. 

(7)  The  Turco-Persian  Wars  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  which  gave  Persia  at  that  time  so  great  an 
importance  in  the  eyes  of  Europe  as  a  potential  check  on 
Turkish  ambitions,  and  caused  her  friendship  to  be  so  eagerly 
sought  after  by  the  chief  Western  nations. 

Of  these  seven  great  epochs  in  Persian  history  the  fourth 
and  fifth  are  the  most  important  and  have  had  the  greatest 
The  Arab  and  and  most  profound  influence.  In  all  points  save 
Mongol  inva-  one)  however,  the  Arab  and  Mongol  invasions 
compared  and  were  utterly  dissimilar.  The  Arabs  came  from 
contrasted  the  South-west,  the  Tartars  from  the  North- 

east; the  Arabs  were  inspired  by  a  fiery  religious  enthusiasm, 
the  Tartars  by  mere  brutish  lust  of  conquest,  bloodshed  and 
rapine;  the  Arabs  brought  a  new  civilization  and  order  to 
replace  those  which  they  had  destroyed,  the  Tartars  brought 
mere  terror  and  devastation.  In  a  word,  the  Tartars  were 
cunning,  ruthless  and  bloodthirsty  marauders,  while  the 
Arabs  were,  as  even  their  Spanish  foes  were  fain  to  admit, 
"  Knights... and  gentlemen,  albeit  Moors." 

The  one  point  of  resemblance  between  the  two  was  the 
scorn  which  their  scanty  equipment  and  insignificant  ap- 
pearance aroused  in  their  well-armed  and  richly-equipped 
antagonists  before  they  had  tasted  of  their  quality.  This 
point  is  well  brought  out  in  that  charming  Arabic  history 
the  Kitdbu'l-Fakhri,  whose  author  wrote  about  A.D.  1300, 
some  fifty  years  after  the  Tartars  had  sacked  Baghdad  and 


CH.  i]          EFFECTS  OF  MONGOL  INVASION  5 

destroyed  the  Caliphate.  After  describing  the  Arab  inva- 
sion of  Persia  and  the  merriment  of  the  Persian  satraps 
and  officers  at  the  tattered  scabbards,  slender  lances  and 
small  horses  of  the  Arabs,  he  relates,  a  propos  of  this,  the 
account1  given  to  him  by  one  of  those  who  "  marched  out 
to  meet  the  Tartars  on  the  Western  side  of  Baghdad  on  the 
occasion  of  its  supreme  catastrophe  in  the  year  656/1258," 
and  tells  how  to  meet  one  of  their  splendidly  appointed 
champions  in  single  combat  there  rode  forth  from  the 
Mongol  ranks  "a  man  mounted  on  a  horse  resembling  a 
donkey,  having  in  his  hand  a  spear  like  a  spindle,  and 
wearing  neither  uniform  nor  armour,  so  that  all  who  saw 
him  were  moved  to  laughter."  "  Yet  ere  the  day  was  done," 
he  concludes,  "  theirs  was  the  victory,  and  they  inflicted  on 
us  a  great  defeat,  which  was  the  Key  of  Evil,  and  after  which 
there  befell  us  what  befell  us." 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  exaggerate  either  the  historical 

importance  or  the  horror  of  this  great  irruption  of  barbarians 

out  of  Mongolia,  Turkistan  and  Transoxiana  in 

Terrible  charac-        •\c\-\cr\\-  i  A 

ter  and  lasting  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Amongst 
effects  of  the  fa  results  were  the  destruction  of  the  Arabian 

Mongol  invasion 

Caliphate  and  disruption  of  the  Muhammadan 
Empire,  the  creation  of  the  modern  political  divisions  of 
Western  Asia,  the  driving  into  Asia  Minor  and  subsequently 
into  Europe  of  the  Ottoman  Turks,  the  stunting  and  bar- 
barizing of  Russia,  and  indirectly  the  Renaissance.  As 
regards  the  terror  universally  inspired  by  the  atrocious 
deeds  of  the  Tartars,  d'Ohsson  in  his  admirable  Histoire 
des  Mongols  observes2  that  we  should  be  tempted  to  charge 
the  Oriental  historians  with  exaggeration,  were  it  not  that 
their  statements  are  entirely  confirmed  by  the  independent 
testimony  of  Western  historians  as  to  the  precisely  similar 
proceedings  of  the  Tartars  in  South-eastern  Europe,  where 

1  For  the  full  translation  of  this  passage  see  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia, 
vol.  i,  pp.  197-8. 

3  Vol.  i,  p.  vii :  "  On  croirait  que  1'histoire  a  exagdre  leurs  atrocite"s, 
si  les  annales  de  tous  les  pays  n'etaient  d'accord  sur  ce  point." 


6  THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

they  ravaged  not  only  Russia,  Poland  and  Hungary,  but 
penetrated  to  Silesia,  Moravia  and  Dalmatia,  and  at  the 
fatal  battle  of  Liegnitz  (April  9,  1241)  defeated  an  army 
of  30,000  Germans,  Austrians,  Hungarians  and  Poles  com- 
manded by  Henry  the  Pious,  Duke  of  Silesia.  Already 
two  years  before  this  date  the  terror  which  they  inspired 
even  in  Western  Europe  was  so  great  that  the  contempo- 
rary chronicler  Matthew  Paris,  writing  at  St  Albans,  records 
under  the  year  A.D.  1238  that  for  fear  of  the  Mongols 
the  fishermen  of  Gothland  and  Friesland  dared  not  cross 
the  North  Sea  to  take  part  in  the  herring-fishing  at  Yar- 
mouth, and  that  consequently  herrings  were  so  cheap  and 
abundant  in  England  that  year  that  forty  or  fifty  were  sold 
for  a  piece  of  silver,  even  at  places  far  from  the  coast.  In 
the  same  year  an  envoy  from  the  Isma'ilis  or  Assassins  of 
Alamiit  by  the  Caspian  Sea  came  to  France  and  England 
to  crave  help  against  those  terrible  foes  by  whom  they 
were  annihilated  twenty  years  later.  He  met  with  little 
encouragement,  however,  for  the  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
having  heard  his  appeal,  replied :  "  Let  these  dogs  devour 
each  other  and  be  utterly  wiped  out,  and  then  we  shall  see, 
founded  on  their  ruins,  the  Universal  Catholic  Church,  and 
then  shall  truly  be  one  shepherd  and  one  flock  ! " 

The  accounts  given  by  Ibnu'l-Athfr,  Yaqut  and  other 
contemporary  Muhammadan  historians  of  the  Mongol  in- 
vasion have  been  cited  in  part  in  a  previous 
pLrifcLd  volume1  and  need  not  be  repeated  here,  but 
it  is  instructive  to  compare  them  with  what 
Matthew  Paris  says  about  those  terrible  Tatars,  who,  for 
reasons  which  he  indicates,  through  a  popular  etymology 
connecting  them  with  the  infernal  regions,  became  known  in 
Europe  as  "  Tartars."  Under  the  year  A.D.  1 240  he  writes 
of  them  as  follows2: 

"  That  the  joys  of  mortal   man  be  not  enduring,  nor 

1  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  426  et  seqq. 

2  Vol.  iv,  pp.  76-78,  cited  in  the  Introductory  Note  to  vol.  iv  of  the 
Second  Series  of  the  Hakluyt  Society's  publications  (London,  1900). 


CH.  i]  MONGOL  CHARACTERISTICS  7 

worldly  happiness  long  lasting  without  lamentations,  in 
this  same  year  a  detestable  nation  of  Satan,  to  wit  the 
countless  army  of  Tartars,  broke  loose  from  its  mountain- 
environed  home,  and,  piercing  the  solid  rocks  (of  the  Cau- 
casus) poured  forth  like  devils  from  the  Tartarus,  so  that 
they  are  rightly  called  'Tartars'  or  'Tartarians.'  Swarming 
like  locusts  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  they  have  brought 
terrible  devastation  to  the  eastern  parts  (of  Europe),  laying 
them  waste  with  fire  and  carnage.  After  having  passed 
through  the  land  of  the  Saracens,  they  have  razed  cities, 
cut  down  forests,  overthrown  fortresses,  pulled  up  vines, 
destroyed  gardens,  killed  townspeople  and  peasants.  If 
perchance  they  have  spared  any  suppliants,  they  have  forced 
them,  reduced  to  the  lowest  condition  of  slavery,  to  fight  in 
the  foremost  ranks  against  their  own  neighbours.  Those 
who  have  feigned  to  fight,  or  have  hidden  in  the  hope 
of  escaping,  have  been  followed  up  by  the  Tartars  and 
butchered.  If  any  have  fought  bravely  for  them  and  con- 
quered, they  have  got  no  thanks  for  reward  ;  and  so  they 
have  misused  their  captives  as  they  have  their  mares.  For 
they  are  inhuman  and  beastly,  rather  monsters  than  men, 
thirsting  for  and  drinking  blood,  tearing  and  devouring  the 
flesh  of  dogs  and  men,  dressed  in  ox-hides,  armed  with 
plates  of  iron,  short  and  stout,  thickset,  strong,  invincible, 
indefatigable,  their  backs  unprotected,  their  breasts  covered 
with  armour ;  drinking  with  delight  the  pure  blood  of  their 
flocks,  with  big,  strong  horses,  which  eat  branches  and  even 
trees,  and  which  they  have  to  mount  by  the  help  of  three 
steps  on  account  of  the  shortness  of  their  thighs.  They  are 
without  human  laws,  know  no  comforts,  are  more  ferocious 
than  lions  or  bears,  have  boats  made  of  ox-hides  which  ten 
or  twelve  of  them  own  in  common ;  they  are  able  to  swim 
or  manage  a  boat,  so  that  they  can  cross  the  largest  and 
swiftest  rivers  without  let  or  hindrance,  drinking  turbid  and 
muddy  water  when  blood  fails  them  (as  a  beverage).  They 
have  one-edged  swords  and  daggers,  are  wonderful  archers, 
spare  neither  age,  nor  sex,  nor  condition.  They  know  no 


8  THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

other  language  but  their  own,  which  no  one  else  knows; 
for  until  now  there  has  been  no  access  to  them,  nor  did 
they  go  forth  (from  their  own  country);  so  that  there  could 
be  no  knowledge  of  their  customs  or  persons  through  the 
common  intercourse  of  men.  They  wander  about  with  their 
flocks  and  their  wives,  who  are  taught  to  fight  like  men. 
And  so  they  come  with  the  swiftness  of  lightning  to  the 
confines  of  Christendom,  ravaging  and  slaughtering,  striking 
everyone  with  terror  and  incomparable  horror.  It  was  for 
this  that  the  Saracens  sought  to  ally  themselves  with  the 
Christians,  hoping  to  be  able  to  resist  these  monsters  with 
their  combined  forces." 

So  far  from  such  alliance  taking  place,  however,  it  was 
not  long  before  the  ecclesiastical  and  temporal  rulers  of 
Eari  Euro  an  Christendom  conceived  the  idea  of  making  use 
envoys  to  the  of  the  Tartars  to  crush  Islam,  and  so  end  in 
their  favour  once  and  for  all  the  secular  struggle 
of  which  the  Crusades  were  the  chief  manifestation.  Com- 
munications were  opened  up  between  Western  Europe  and 
the  remote  and  inhospitable  Tartar  capital  of  Qaraqorum ; 
letters  and  envoys  began  to  pass  to  and  fro;  and  devoted 
friars  like  John  of  Pian  de  Carpine  and  William  of  Rubruck 
did  not  shrink  from  braving  the  dangers  and  hardships  of 
that  long  and  dreary  road,  or  the  arrogance  and  exactions 
of  the  Mongols,  in  the  discharge  of  the  missions  confided 
to  them.  The  former,  bearing  a  letter  from  the  Pope  dated 
March  9,  1245,  returned  to  Lyons  in  the  autumn  of  1247 
after  an  absence  of  two  years  and  a  half,  and  delivered 
to  the  Pope  the  written  answer  of  the  Mongol  Emperor 
Kuyuk  Khan.  The  latter  accomplished  his  journey  in  the 
years  1253-5  a°d  spent  about  eight  months  (January- 
August,  1254)  at  the  camp  and  capital  of  Mangu  Khan, 
by  whom  he  was  several  times  received  in  audience.  Both 
have  left  narratives  of  their  adventurous  and  arduous 
journeys  which  the  Hakluyt  Society  has  rendered  easily 
accessible  to  English  readers1,  and  of  which  that  of  Friar 

1  Second  Series,  vol.  iv,  London,  1900,  translated  and  edited  by 
W.  W.  Rockhill. 


II 


Batii,  the  grandson  of  Chingiz,  holds  his  Court  on  the  Volga 


From  an  old  MS.  of  the 
Jdmi'iit-Tawdrikh  in  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale 


CH.  i]      MONGOL  RELATIONS  WITH  EUROPE  9 

William  of  Rubruck  especially  is  of  engrossing  interest 
and  great  value.  These  give  us  a  very  vivid  picture  of 
the  Tartar  Court  and  its  ceremonies,  the  splendour  of  the 
presents  offered  to  the  Emperor  by  the  numerous  envoys  of 
foreign  nations  and  subject  peoples,  the  gluttonous  eating 
and  drinking  which  prevailed  (and  which,  as  we  shall  see, 
also  characterized  the  Court  of  Ti'mur  1 50  years  later),  and 
the  extraordinary  afflux  of  foreigners,  amongst  whom  were 
included,  besides  almost  every  Asiatic  nation,  Russians, 
Georgians,  Hungarians,  Ruthenians  and  even  Frenchmen. 
Some  of  these  had  spent  ten,  twenty,  or  even  thirty  years 
amongst  the  Mongols,  were  conversant  with  their  language, 
and  were  able  and  willing  to  inform  the  missionaries  "most 
fully  of  all  things"  without  much  questioning,  and  to  act 
as  interpreters1.  The  language  question,  as  affecting  the 
answer  to  the  Pope's  letter,  presented,  however,  some  diffi- 
culties. The  Mongols  enquired  "whether  there  were  any 
persons  with  the  Lord  Pope  who  understood  the  written 
languages  of  the  Ruthenians,  or  Saracens,  or  Tartars,"  but 
Friar  John  advised  that  the  letter  should  be  written  in 
Tartar  and  carefully  translated  and  explained  to  them,  so 
that  they  might  make  a  Latin  translation  to  take  back 
with  the  original.  The  Mongol  Emperor  wished  to  send 
envoys  of  his  own  to  Europe  in  the  company  of  Friar  John, 
who,  however,  discountenanced  this  plan  for  five  reasons, 
of  which  the  first  three  were:  (i)  that  he  feared  lest,  seeing 
the  wars  and  dissensions  of  the  Christians,  the  Tartars  might 
be  further  encouraged  to  attack  them ;  (2)  that  they  might 
act  as  spies;  (3)  that  some  harm  might  befall  them  in  Europe 
"as  our  people  are  for  the  most  part  arrogant  and  hasty," 
and  "  it  is  the  custom  of  the  Tartars  never  to  make  peace 
with  those  who  have  killed  their  envoys  till  they  have 
wreaked  vengeance  upon  them."  So  Friar  John  and  his 

1  M.  Le"on  Cahun  in  his  Introduction  a  I '  Histoire  de  FAsie,  p.  353, 
n.  2  ad  calc.,  puts  forward  the  ingenious  suggestion  that  the  German 
Dolmetsch  is  derived  from  the  Turco- Mongol  Tilmdj\  both  words 
meaning  "  Interpreter." 


io         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

companions  came  at  last  to  Kieff  on  their  homeward  journey, 
and  were  there  "congratulated  as  though  they  had  risen 
from  the  dead,  and  so  also  throughout  Russia,  Poland  and 
Bohemia." 

The  history  of  the  diplomatic  missions1  which  passed 
between  Europe  and  Tartary  in  the  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth centuries  has  been  admirably  illustrated 

Diplomatic  re-  •«»•«>»  •      «  •  i          •       \    *n 

lations  of  the  by  Abel-Remusat  in  his  two  classical  Memoir es 
Bur??  Wkh  sur  les  Relations  politiques  des  Princes  Chretiens, 
et  particulierement  les  Rois  de  France,  avec  les 
Empereurs  Mongols.  Fac-similes  are  here  given,  with 
printed  texts  and  in  some  cases  Latin  or  French  trans- 
lations, of  nine  Mongol  letters  conveyed  by  different  envoys 
at  different  periods  to  the  French  Court.  The  originals  of 
these,  measuring  in  some  cases  more  than  six  feet  in  length, 
may  still  be  seen  in  the  Archives  in  Paris.  The  arrogance 
of  their  tone  is  very  noticeable ;  still  more  so  the  occurrence 
in  the  Latin  version  of  a  letter  to  the  Pope  from  Bachu 
Nuyan  of  a  very  ominous  and  characteristic  phrase  which  is 
also  noticed  by  the  contemporary  Persian  historian  Juwayni. 
"  Si  vultis  super  terram  vestram,  aquam  et  patrimonium 
sedere,"  runs  the  letter,  "oportet  ut,  tu  Papa,  in  propria 
persona  ad  nos  venias,  et  ad  eum  qui  faciem  totius  terrae 
continet  accedas.  Et  si  tu  praeceptum  Dei  stabile  et  illius 
qui  faciem  totius  terrae  continet  non  audieris,  illud  nos 
nescimus  Deus  scitz"  So  Juwayni  says*  that,  unlike  other 
great  rulers  and  conquerors,  they  never  indulged  in  violent 
and  wordy  threats  when  demanding  submission  or  sur- 
render, but  "as  their  utmost  warning  used  to  write  but  this 
much:  'If  they  do  not  submit  and  obey,  what  do  we  know 
[what  may  happen}?  the  Eternal  God  knows" 7"  As  to  what 
would  inevitably  happen  if  the  Tartars  were  resisted  (and 

1  Published  in  the  Mdmoires  de  I'Acade'mie  Royale  des  Inscriptions 
et  Belles- Lettres  in  1821  and  1822,  vol.  vi,  p.  396  and  vol.  vii,  p.  335. 

2  See  pp.  421-2  of  the  second  memoir  mentioned  above. 

3  Tctrikh-i-Jahdn-gushd  ("  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial "  Series,  vol.  xvi, 
i,  1912)  Part  I,  p.  18,  1.  11. 


CH.I]  MONGOL  ENVOYS  TO  ENGLAND  n 

often  even  if  they  were  not  resisted)  men  were  not  long 
left  in  doubt.  "Wherever  there  was  a  king,  or  local  ruler, 
or  city  warden  who  ventured  to  oppose,  him  they  annihi- 
lated, together  with  his  family  and  his  clan,  kinsmen  and 
strangers  alike,  to  such  a  degree  that,  without  exaggera- 
tion, not  a  hundred  persons  were  left  where  there  had  been 
a  hundred  thousand.  The  proof  of  this  assertion  is  the  ac- 
count of  the  happenings  in  the  various  towns,  each  of  which 
has  been  duly  recorded  in  its  proper  time  and  place1." 

Whether  any  such  letters  exist  in  the  records  of  this 

country   I   do  not   know,  but   in    1307,  shortly  after  the 

death  of  Edward  I  (to  whom  they  had  been  accredited), 

two    Mongol    ambassadors,    whose    names    are    given    as 

Mamlakh  and  Tuman2,  came  to  Northampton 

Mongol   envoys  -111-11  r 

visit  Edward  ii  and  carried  back  with  them  an  answer  from 
at  Northampton  Edward  II  written  in  Latin  and  dated  Oc- 

in  1307 

tober  1 6,  1307.  The  principal  object  of  this 
and  previous  missions  was  to  effect  an  alliance  between 
the  Mongols  and  the  European  nations  against  the  Mu- 
hammadans,  especially  the  Egyptians.  To  attain  this  end 
the  wily  Mongols  constantly  represented  themselves  as  dis- 
posed to  embrace  the  Christian  religion,  a  deceitful  pretence 
which  the  more  readily  succeeded  because  of  the  belief  pre- 
valent in  Europe  that  there  existed  somewhere  in  Central  or 

Eastern  Asia  a  great  Christian  emperor  called 

'Presterjohn  °  r  / 

"Prester  John,"  generally  identified  with  Ung 
Khan  the  ruler  of  the  Kari'ts  (or  Kera'its),  a  people  akin 
to  the  Mongols,  with  whom  at  the  beginning  of  his  career 
Chingi'z  Khan  stood  in  close  relations,  and  who  had  been 
converted  to  Christianity  by  Nestorian  missionaries3.  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact  Islam  had  been  the  official  religion  of 

1  Juwaynf,  op.  tit.,  p.  17. 

2  Called  elsewhere  "  Thomas  Ildaci  "  or  "  louldoutchi  "  (Yoldiichi). 

3  This  identification  is  explicitly  made  byAbu'l-Faraj  Bar-Hebraeus 
(Beyrout  ed.  of  1890,  p.  394).     See  also  d'Ohsson's  Hist,  des  Mongols, 
vol.  i,  pp.  48-9  and  52-3  with  the  footnotes,     fag  or  Ong  Khdn  was 
converted  by  popular  etymology  into  Yokhnan=Johan. 


12         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

the  Mongol  rulers  of  Persia  for  at  least  ten  years  before 
the  above-mentioned  ambassadors  obtained  audience  of 
Edward  II. 

The  contemporary  Oriental  histories  of  the   Mongols 

are  singularly  full  and  good1,  and  include  in  Arabic  Ibnu 

'1-Athir's  great  chronicle,  which  comes  down 

Excellence  and  ,  .     _  ,  Of   .,    ,,      ,  ,    T-.,       -,        ,.,. 

abundanceof  to  the  year  O28/I23I;  Shihabud-Dm  Nasais 
materials  for  very  fuu  biography  of  his  master  Jalalu'd-Uin 

Mongol  history  J  °  J  J 

Mankobirm,  the  gallant  Prince  of  Khwarazm 
who  maintained  so  heroic  and  protracted  a  struggle  against 
the  destroyers  of  his  house  and  his  empire;  the  Christian 
Abu'l-Faraj  Bar-Hebraeus,  whose  Arabic  history  (for  he 
wrote  a  fuller  chronicle  in  Syriac)  comes  down  to  683/1284, 
two  years' before  his  death;  and  Yaqut  the  geographer,  most 
of  which  have  been  discussed  and  quoted  in  a  previous 
volume.  Of  the  three  chief  Persian  sources,  the  Tarikh-i- 
Jahdn-gushd  of  Juwayni,  the  Tarikh-i-  Wassaf,  and  the 
Jdmi'iJt-Tawdrikh,  a  good  deal  will  be  said  in  the  next 
chapter,  but  one  may  be  permitted  to  express  regret  that 
the  last-mentioned  history,  one  of  the  most  original,  ex- 
tensive and  valuable  existing  in  the  Persian  language,  still 
remains  for  the  most  part  unpublished  and  almost  inac- 
cessible2. 

Of  the  three   best-known    European    histories  of  the 
Mongols,  and  of  the  point  of  view  represented   by  each, 
Euro  an  his-      something  must  needs  be  said  here.    First  there 
tones  of  the        is  Baron  d'Ohsson's  admirable  Histoire  des  Mon- 
gols, depuis  Tchinguiz  Khan  jusqit a  Timour  Bey 
ou  Tamerlan3,  a  monument  of  clear  exposition 
based  on  profound  research.     While  recognizing,  as  every 

1  They  are  admirably  enumerated  and  described  by  d'Ohsson,  op. 
tit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  x-lxvi. 

2  I  have  discussed  the  materials  available  for  a  complete  text  of  this 
important  work  in  an  article  published  in  the/.  R.A.  S.  for  1908,  vol.  xl, 
pp.  17-37,  entitled  Suggestions  for  a  complete  edition  of  the  Jami'u't- 
Tawarikh  of  Rashidifd-Din  Fadhflldh. 

5  Published  in  four  volumes  at  the  Hague  and  Amsterdam,  1834-5. 


CH.  i]  HISTORIANS  OF  THE  MONGOLS  13 

student  of  the  subject  must  recognize,  the  immense  im- 
portance and  far-reaching  effects  of  the  Mongol  conquests, 
he  finds  this  people  utterly  detestable:  "their  government," 
he  says,  "was  the  triumph  of  depravity:  all  that  was  noble 
and  honourable  was  abased ;  while  the  most  corrupt  per- 
sons, taking  service  under  these  ferocious  masters,  obtained, 
as  the  price  of  their  vile  devotion,  wealth,  honours,  and  the 
power  to  oppress  their  countrymen.  The  history  of  the 
Mongols,  stamped  by  their  savagery,  presents  therefore 
only  hideous  pictures  ;  but,  closely  connected  as  it  is  to 
that  of  several  empires,  it  is  necessary  for  the  proper 
understanding  of  the  great  events  of  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries1." 

Next  in  point  of  time  is  Sir  Henry  Howorth's  great 
History   of  the    Mongols    in    four    large    volumes2.      His 

view  of  the  Tartars  differs  somewhat  from 
Howorth"1  d'Ohsson's,  for  he  sees  in  them  "one  of  those 

hardy,  brawny  races,  cradled  amidst  want  and 
hard  circumstances,  in  whose  blood  there  is  a  good  mix- 
ture of  iron,  which  are  sent  periodically  to  destroy  the 
luxurious  and  the  wealthy,  to  lay  in  ashes  the  arts  and 
culture  which  only  grow  under  the  shelter  of  wealth  and 
easy  circumstances,  and  to  convert  into  a  desert  the  para- 
dise which  man  has  painfully  cultivated.  Like  the  pestilence 
and  the  famine  the  Mongols  were  essentially  an  engine  of 
destruction ;  and  if  it  be  a  painful,  harassing  story  to  read, 
it  is  nevertheless  a  necessary  one  if  we  are  to  understand 
the  great  course  of  human  progress3."  After  enumerating 
other  luxurious  and  civilized  peoples  who  have  been  simi- 
larly renovated  by  the  like  drastic  methods,  he  asserts 
that  this  "was  so  to  a  large  extent,  with  the  victims  of  the 
Mongol  arms ;  their  prosperity  was  hollow  and  pretentious, 

1  Op.  laud.,  vol.  i,  pp.  vii-viii. 

2  Published  in  London  1876-1888  and  divided  into  three  parts,  of 
which  part  2  forms  vols.  ii  and  iii.     Part  3  (vol.  iv)  deals  with  the 
Mongols  of  Persia. 

3  Op.  latid.,  part  I,  p.  x. 


14         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

their  grandeur  very  largely  but  outward  glitter,  and  the 
diseased  body  needed  a  sharp  remedy;  the  apoplexy  that 
was  impending  could  probably  only  be  staved  off  by  much 
blood-letting,  the  demoralized  cities  must  be  sown  with 
salt  and  their  inhabitants  inoculated  with  fresh  streams  of 
vigorous  blood  from  the  uncontaminated  desert1."  With 
more  justice  he  insists  on  the  wonderful  bringing  together 
of  the  most  remote  peoples  of  the  East  and  West  which 
was  the  most  important  constructive  effect  of  the  Mongol 
conquest,  and  concludes:  "I  have  no  doubt  myself. ..that 
the  art  of  printing,  the  mariner's  compass,  firearms,  and 
a  great  many  details  of  social  life,  were  not  discovered  in 
Europe,  but  imported  by  means  of  Mongol  influence  from 
the  furthest  East." 

The  third  book  which  demands  notice,  chiefly  on  account 

of  its  influence  in  Turkey  in  generating  the   Yeni  Ttirdn, 

or  Pan-Turanian  movement,  of  which  it  is  not 

(3)  L£on  Cahun 

yet  possible  exactly  to  appraise  the  political 
importance,  is  M.  Leon  Cahun's  Introduction  a  I'Histoire 
de  rAsie:  Turcs  et  Mongols,  des  Origines  a  1405*.  This 
writer  goes  very  much  further  than  Howorth  in  his  admi- 
ration of  the  Mongols  and  the  various  kindred  Turkish 
peoples  who  formed  the  bulk  of  their  following.  A  note 
of  admiration  characterizes  his  description  of  their  military 
virtues8,  their  "  culte  du  drapeau,  la  glorification  du  nom 
turc,  puis  mongol,  le  chauvinisme4" ;  their  political  com- 
binations against  the  Sasanian  Persians5,  and  later  against 
the  Islamic  influences  of  which  Persia  was  the  centre  ;  their 
courage,  hardihood,  discipline,  hospitality,  lack  of  religious 
fanaticism,  and  firm  administration.  This  book,  though 
diffuse,  is  suggestive,  and  is  in  any  case  worth  reading 
because  of  its  influence  on  certain  chauvinistic  circles  in 
Turkey,  as  is  a  historical  romance  about  the  Mongols  by 


1  Op.  laud.,  p.  ii.  2  Paris,  1896. 

3  Op.  laud.,  p.  ix.  4  Ibid.,  p.  79. 

5  Ibid.,  pp.  111-118. 


CH.  i]        THE  "PAN-TURANIAN"  MOVEMENT  15 

the  same  author,  translated  into  English  under  the  title  of 
The  Yeni  The  Blue  Banner.  Of  the  Yeni  Turdn  movement 

THrdn,  or  j   nave  spoken  briefly  elsewhere1,  and  this  is 

nian"  Move-        hardly  the  place  to  discuss  it  more  fully,  though 


ment 


it  has  perhaps  a  greater  significance  than  I  was 
at  that  time  disposed  to  think.  On  the  literary  side  it 
aims  at  preferring  Turkish  to  Arabic  and  Persian  words, 
idioms  and  vehicles  of  expression,  and  at  combating  Arabic 
and  Persian  influences  and  traditions ;  while  on  the  political 
side  it  dreams  of  amalgamating  in  one  State  all  the  Turkish 
and  kindred  peoples  west  and  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea  (in- 
cluding the  Mongols  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Bulgarians 
on  the  other),  and  of  creating  a  great  Turkish  or  Turanian 
Empire  more  or  less  coextensive  with  that  of  Chingiz  Khan. 
The  ideas  of  this  school  were  chiefly  embodied  in  a  fort- 
nightly publication  entitled  Turk  Yurdu  (the  "Turkish 
Hearth")  inaugurated  in  December,  1911. 

It  is  not,  however,  with  the  Mongol  Empire  as  a  whole, 
but  with  Persia  under  Mongol  dominion  that  we  are  here 
state  of  Persia  chiefly  concerned,  nor  is  it  necessary  to  record 
under  the  Mon-  in  detail  the  history  of  the  Mongol  Il-khdns  who 

succeeded  Hulagu,  which  can  be  read  in  full  in 
the  pages  of  d'Ohsson  and  Howorth.  Considering  what 
Persia  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Tartars,  it  is  wonderful 
how  much  good  literature  was  produced  during  this  period. 

Generally  speaking  the  South  of  Persia,  lying 

Relative  immu-  *  >     J       o 

nity  of  South  apart  from  the  main  track  of  conquest  to  the 
West,  suffered  much  less  than  the  North,  West 
and  Centre.  Isfahan  suffered  a  massacre  in  which  one 
famous  poet  at  least  perished2,  but  Shi'raz,  owing  to  the 
timely  and  prudent  submission  of  its  ruler,  escaped  almost 
scatheless,  a  fact  to  which  Sa'di  ingeniously  alludes  in  the 


1  The  Press  and  Poetry  of  Modern  Persia,  p.  xxxix.  An  interesting 
article  on  this  subject,  written,  I  understand,  by  Mr  Arnold  Toynbee, 
also  appeared  in  the  Times  for  Jan.  3,  5  and  7,  1918. 

-  See  Lit,  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  541-2. 


16         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

panegyric  on  his  patron  prefixed  to  the  Bustdn,  where  he 
says1  : 


"  Alexander,  by  means  of  a  Wall  of  brass  and  stone,  narrowed  the 
road  of  Gog  from  the  world  : 

Thy  barrier  to  the  Gog  of  Paganism  is  of  gold,  not  of  brass  like 
the  Wall  of  Alexander." 

"By  the  'Gog  of  Paganism,'"  says  the  commentator, 
"  Chingi'z  Khan  is  meant.  The  King-Atabek  made  peace 
with  him  by  money,  so  that  the'Musulmans  of  Shi'raz  were 
saved  from  the  hands  of  his  tyranny.  The  author  ascribes 
pre-eminence  to  his  patron  because,  says  he,  'Alexander 
barred  Gog's  advance  with  a  brazen  barrier,  but  thou  didst 
check  the  advance  of  the  Gog  of  Paganism  with  gold.'  " 

Twenty-five  years  before  Sa'di  wrote  this,Shamsu'd-Di'n 
Muhammad  ibn  Qays  of  Ray,  flying  before  the  first  fury  of 
the  Tartar  irruption,  had  found  at  Shi'raz  a  haven  of  refuge 
wherein  to  complete  his  interrupted  work  on  the  Ars  Poetica 
and  prosody  of  Persia2;  and  the  life  of  Shi'raz  seems  to  have 
gone  on  fairly  tranquilly  and  suffered  relatively  little  dis- 
turbance during  those  stormy  days. 

Another  point  to  be  noted  is  that,  while  all  learning 
suffered  from  the  wholesale  massacres  of  scholars  and  des- 
why  certain  struction  of  mosques,  libraries,  and  other  pious 
branches  foundations,  some  branches  of  learning  suffered 

oflearning  * 

suffered  less        much  less  than  others.    For  theology  and  philo- 

sophy, for  example,  the  pagan  Mongols  naturally 

cared  little  ;  but  they  attached  considerable  importance  to 

medicine,  botany,  astronomy  and  other  natural  sciences, 

1  See  Graf's  edition,  last  line  on  p.  22  and  first  line  on  p.  23.    The 
Bustdn  was  written  in  665/1257,  a  year  before  the  Gulistdn. 

2  See  the  English  Preface  (pp.  xv-xviii)  to   MirzA  Muhammad's 
edition  of  his  Mu'jam  fi  Mcfdyiri  Asfcdri  'l-'Ajam,  published  in  the 
"  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series,  vol.  x,  1909. 


CH.  i]  ABAQA  KHAN  (A.D.  1265-1282)  17 

were  especially  desirous  that  their  achievements  should  be 
fully  and  accurately  recorded  by  competent  historians,  and 
were  not  altogether  indifferent  to  the  praises  of  poets.  At 
no  other  period,  as  will  be  pointed  out  more  fully  in  the  next 
chapter,  were  so  many  first-rate  histories  written  in  Persian ; 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  writers  were,  as  a  rule, 
men  whose  education  reposed  on  the  more  scholarly  tradi- 
tion of  pre-Mongol  days,  and  that  such  historical  works  as 
the  T<Jrikh-i-Jahdn-gushd  of  Juwaynf  and  the  Jdmi'rft- 
Tawdrikh  of  Rashfdu'd-Di'n  Fadlu'llah  were  isolated  phe- 
nomena, hardly  approached  in  excellence  in  later  days. 
The  Tarikh-i-Guzida  is  as  inferior  to  the  latter  as  it  is 
superior  to  the  over-estimated  histories  of  Mirkhwand  and 
Khwandami'r  which  will  be  discussed  in  the  concluding 
chapter  of  this  volume.  On  the  whole,  then,  it  may  be  safely 
said  that,  allowing  for  the  terrible  crisis  through  which  Persia 
was  passing,  when  heathen  rulers  dominated  the  land,  and 
Christians  and  Jews  lorded  it  over  Muslims,  the  period  of 
Mongol  ascendancy,  from  the  death  of  Hulagu  Khan  on 
February  8,  1265,  until  the  death  of  the  last  Mongol  Il-khan, 
Musa,  in  1337,  was  wonderfully  rich  in  literary  achievements. 
Before  passing  to  the  detailed  consideration  of  these 
achievements,  a  brief  sketch  must  be  given  of  the  external 
history  of  this  period,  which  is  divided  into  two  nearly  equal 
halves  by  the  reign  of  Ghazan,  who,  though  not  the  first 
Mongol  Il-khan  to  embrace  the  religion  of  Islam,  was  the 
first  to  restore  it  to  its  position  of  supremacy  and  to  purge 
the  land  of  Mongol  heathenism. 

i.    ABAQA  (A.D.  1265-1282). 

The  first  successor  of  Hulagu  was  his  son  Abaqci  (or 

Abaqa),  who  was  crowned  on  June  19,  1265,  a  date  chosen  as 

auspicious  by  the  famous  astronomer  and  philo- 

Abdqa,A.D.         sopher   Nasfru'd-Din   of  Tus,   whose   brilliant 
1265-1282  _r 

scientific   and    dubious  political  achievements 
have  been  discussed  in  a  previous  volume1.    His  life  was  now 

1  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  484-6,  etc. 
B.  P.  2 


i8         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

drawing  towards  its  close,  but  we  hear  of  him  once  again  five 
years  later,  in  669/1 270-1,  when  he  was  called  in 

Last    days    and       J  T  '  ' 

death  of  Nasiru  to  treat  Abaqa,  who  had  been  gored  by  a  wild  cow 
on  one  of  his  hunting  expeditions.  The  wound 
suppurated  and  an  abscess  formed  which  none  of  thell-khan's 
other  medical  advisers  dared  to  open.  Nasiru'd-Di'n  suc- 
cessfully performed  the  operation.  He  died  in  the  following 
year  at  the  age  of  seventy-five.  Bar-Hebraeus  gives  him  a 
brief  but  laudatory  notice  in  his  Mukhtasarud-Duwal1, 
describing  him  as  "the  Keeper  of  the  Observatory  at  Maragha 
and  a  man  of  vast  learning  in  all  branches  of  philosophy." 
"  Under  his  control,"  he  continues,  "  were  all  the  religious 
endowments  in  all  the  lands  under  Mongol  rule.  He  com- 
posed many  works  on  logic,  the  natural  sciences  and  meta- 
physics, and  on  Euclid  and  the  Almagest.  He  also  wrote 
a  Persian  work  on  Ethics2  of  the  utmost  possible  merit 
wherein  he  collected  all  the  dicta  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  on 
practical  Philosophy,  confirming  the  opinions  of  the  ancients 
and  solving  the  doubts  of  the  moderns  and  the  criticisms 
advanced  by  them  in  their  writings." 

Abaqa  was  thirty-one  years  of  age  when  he  became  ruler 
of  Persia,  and  whether  or  no  there  was  any  truth  in  the  rumour 
that  he  was  actually  baptised  into  the  Christian 
Zs5  Church  at  the  desire  of  his  bride  Despina,  the 
natural  daughter  of  Michael  Palaeologus3,  he 
consistently  favoured  the  Christians,  and,  indeed,  appears 
to  have  owed  his  elevation  to  the  throne  to  their  influence, 
exercised  through  Doquz  Khatun,  the  widow  of  his  father 
and  predecessor  Hulagu,  who  survived  her  husband  about 
a  year,  and  who  never  failed  to  befriend  her  co-religionists 
in  every  possible  way4.  Abaqa's  diplomatic  relations  with 

1  Beyrout  ed.  of  A.D.  1890,  pp.  500-1. 

2  I.e.  the  well-known  Akhldq-i-Ndsiri,  one  of  the  three  Persian 
works  on  this  subject  which  are  most  read  even  at  the  present  day. 
See  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  220,  456,  485. 

3  See  Howorth,  op.  cit.,  pt.  3,  p.  223. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  218.     She  belonged  to  the  Christian  tribe  of  Kera'it  (or 


CH.  i]  ABAQA  KHAN  (A.D.  1265-1282)  19 

the  Popes  and  Christian  kings  of  Europe  are,  however,  in  all 
probability  to  be  ascribed  rather  to  political  than  religious 
motives.  He  was  in  correspondence  with  Clement  IV,  who 
wrote  him  a  letter  from  Viterbo  in  1267;  Gregory  X  in  1274; 
and  Nicolas  III,  who  in  1278  sent  to  him  and  to  his  over- 
lord the  great  Qubilay  ("  Kubla  ")  Khan  an  embassy  of  five 
Franciscan  monks.  One  of  his  embassies  even  penetrated 
as  far  as  England  and  was  apparently  received  by  Edward  I, 
but  the  records  of  it  seem  to  be  scanty  or  non-existent1.  The 
political  object  of  these  negotiations  was  to  arrange  for  a 
combined  attack  on  the  still  unsubdued  Muslims  of  Egypt 
and  Syria,  the  natural  and  deadly  foes  of  the  Mongols;  and 
the  inducement  held  out  to  the  Christians  was  the  possession 
of  the  Holy  Land  for  which  they  had  so  long  striven. 
Fortunately  for  the  Muhammadans,  Islam  possessed  in  the 
Mamluk  Sultan  Baybars,  called  al-Malik  az-Zahir,  a  doughty 
champion  well  qualified  to  meet  the  double  peril  which 
menaced  his  faith  and  his  country.  Already  in  1 260,  before 
he  was  elected  king,  he  had  driven  Hulagu's  Mongols  out 
of  Ghaza  and  routed  them  at  'Ayn  Jalut,  driven  back  the 
Crusaders  in  Syria,  and  broken  the  power  of  the  Syrian 
branch  of  the  Assassins  ;  and  in  April,  1277,  he  inflicted  on 
the  Mongols  another  great  defeat  at  Abulustayn,  leaving 
nearly  7000  of  them  dead  on  the  field  of  battle2.  When 
Abaqa  subsequently  visited  the  battle-field,  he  was  deeply 
moved,  even  to  tears,  by  the  numbers  of  the  Mongol  slain. 

Karit)  and  was  the  granddaughter  of  their  ruler  Ung  or  Wang  Khan, 
the  original  of  the  "Prester  John"  of  mediaeval  legend.  Bar-Hebraeus 
in  recording  her  death  (pp.  cit.,  p.  497)  describes  her  as  "  great  in  her 
judgement  and  wisdom." 

1  See  Howorth,  op.  laud.,  pp.  278-281,  and  on  the  whole  subject 
Abel-Rdmusat's  classical  Memoires  sur  les  Relations  politiques  des 
Princes  Chretiens... avec  les  Empereurs  Mongols  in  the  Me"m.  de  FAcad. 
Royale  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles- Lettres,  vols.  vi  and  vii,  pp.  396  and 
335  respectively. 

2  See  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  p.  446  ;  S.  Lane-Poole's  admirable 
little  History  of  Egypt,  pp.  262  and  270  ;  and  Howorth,  op.  cit.  pp. 
257-9- 


20         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

Bitter  hatred  subsisted  during  all  this  period  between  the 
Mongol  Il-khans  and  the  Egyptian  Mamluks,  and  no  more 
dangerous  or  damaging  charge  could  be  preferred  against 
a  subject  of  the  former  than  an  accusation  of  being  in  com- 
munication with  the  latter.  Every  Muslim  subject  of  the 
Mongols  must  needs  walk  very  warily  if  he  would  avoid 
such  deadly  suspicion,  and,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  the 
favourite  method  of  ruining  a  hated  rival  was  to  denounce 
him  to  the  Mongol  government  as  having  relations  with 
Egypt. 

From  our  present  point  of  view  we  are  less  concerned 

with  the  Mongol  rulers  and  generals  than  with  the  Persian 

functionaries  whom  they  found  indispensable  in 

The  juwayni        the  ^jj  servjce  nfce  the  Arabs  in  earlier  times), 

family 

and  amongst  whom  were  included  men  of  remark- 
able talents.  Conspicuous  amongst  these  was  the  Juwayni 
family,  notably  Shamsu'd-Din  Muhammad  the  Sdhib- 
Dtwdn,  his  brother  'Ala'u'd-Dm  'Ata  Malik,  and  his  son 
Baha'u'd-Din.  The  Sdhib-Diwdn 's  grandfather,  also  en- 
titled Shamsu'd-Din,  but  distinguished  by  the  epithets 
Biizurg  ("the  Great")  and  Miiy-dirdz  ("the  long-haired"), 
had  been  Prime  Minister  to  Qutbu'd-Di'n  Khwarazmshah, 
while  his  father,  Baha'u'd-Din,  had  held  the  office  of 
Mustawfil-Mamdlik  (approximately  equivalent  to  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer).  He  himself  had  held  the  office 
of  Prime  Minister  for  ten  years  under  Hulagii  Khan,  and 
was  continued  in  this  position  by  Abaqa.  His  brother, 
'Ala'u'd-Din  is  chiefly  interesting  to  us  as  one  of  the  finest 
historians  whom  Persia  ever  produced,  and  in  this  capacity 
he  will  be  considered  in  the  next  chapter;  but  he  was  also 
a  great  administrator,  and  was  for  twenty-four  years  gover- 
nor of  Baghdad1.  His  son  Baha'u'd-Din  was  governor  of 
Persian  'Iraq  and  F£rs,  while  another  son  Sharafu'd-Din 

1  He  was  appointed  by  Hiildgu  in  657/1259,  one  year  after  the 
capture  of  the  city  by  the  Mongols.  See  the  Introduction  to  Mfrz£ 
Muhammad's  edition  of  the  Tdrikh-i-Jahdn-gushd  in  the  "  E.  J.  W. 
Gibb  Memorial"  Series,  vol.  xvi,  i  (1912),  pp.  xxviii. 


CH.  I]  THE  JUWAYNf  FAMILY  21 

Harun  was  a  poet  and  a  patron  of  poets1.  A  full  and  critical 
account  of  this  talented  family,  based  on  researches  equally 
extensive  and  minute,  is  given  by  Mirza  Muhammad  of 
Qazwfn,  one  of  the  finest  and  most  critical  Persian  scholars 
whom  I  ever  met,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Tdrikh-i- 
Jahdn-gushd  (vol.  i,  pp.  xix-xcii),  to  which  the  reader  may 
refer  for  much  detailed  information  which  considerations 
of  space  render  it  impossible  to  reproduce  here.  The 
Juwayni  family,  alike  in  their  love  of  literature  and  learning, 
their  princely  generosity,  their  administrative  capacity,  and 
their  tragic  fate,  irresistibly  recall  to  one's  mind  another 
great  Persian  family  of  statesmen,  the  celebrated  House  of 
Barmak  or  Barmecides  of  "the  Golden  Prime  of  good 
Haroun  Alraschid2."  Their  influence  was  great  and  wide- 
spread ;  their  connection  with  literature,  both  as  writers  and 
as  patrons  of  poets  and  men  of  learning,  extensive ;  and 
the  jealousy  of  less  fortunate  rivals  which  embittered  their 
lives  and  finally  brought  about  their  destruction  commen- 
surate with  the  power  and  high  positions  which  they  so 
long  enjoyed.  The  first  to  die  of  those  mentioned  above, 
and  one  of  the  few  who  was  fortunate  enough  to  die  a 
natural  death,  was  Baha'u'd-Dfn,  son  of  the 

Death  and  char- 
acter of  Baha'u   SdJub-Dzwdn  and   governor  of   Persian  'Iraq. 

waynf  His  death  took  place  in  678/1279  at  the  early 
age  of  thirty.  He  was  a  terribly  stern  governor,  who 
inspired  the  utmost  terror  in  the  hearts  of  his  subjects,  and 
whose  ferocity  went  so  far  that  he  caused  his  little  son,  and 
he  a  favourite  child,  to  be  put  to  death  by  his  executioner 
because  in  play  he  had  caught  hold  of  his  beard.  The 
historian  Wassaf  gives  many  other  instances  of  his  implac- 
able sternness,  of  which  a  selection  will  be  found  in  Howorth's 
History  of  the  Mongols*;  but  it  is  fair  to  add  that  under  his 

1  His  Diwdn  is  very  rare,  but  there  is  a  MS.  (Or.  3647)  in  the 
British  Museum.     See  Rieu's  Pers.  Suppl.  Cat.,  No.  254,  pp.  166-7. 

2  Cf.  Mfrza  Muhammad's  Introduction  to  the  Jahdn-gushd,  p.  4. 

3  Pt.  3,  pp.  221-2,  and  the  Tdrikh-i-  Wassdf  ( Bombay  lith.),  pp.  60 
et  seqq. 


22         THE  MONGOL  T.L-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

stern  administration  the  utmost  security  prevailed  in  the 
provinces  which  he  administered,  while  he  eagerly  cultivated 
the  society  of  poets,  scholars  and  artists.  His  father  the 
Sdkib-Diwdn  mourned  his  death  in  the  following  verse: 


!L»     '  CjLJk   .^XAs 


j 


"  Muhammad's  son  !     Thy  slave  is  Heaven  high  ; 
One  hair  of  thee  the  Age's  Mart  might  buy  ; 
Thy  Sire's  support  wert  thou  :  bereft  of  thee 
His  back  is  bent  as  brow  o'er  beauty's  eye." 

The  following  verse  was  composed  by  Hindushah  to  com 
memorate  the  date  of  his  death  : 


jL&w  oto  jt  .i^j  a.±=> 


"  On  the  eve  of  Saturday  the  seventeenth  of  Sha'ban's  month 
In  the  year  three  score  and  eighteen  and  six  hundred  from  the  Flight1 
From  the  world  Baha'u'd-Din,  that  great  wazir,  in  Isfahdn 
Fled.     Ah,  when  on  such  another  ruler  shall  Time's  eyes  alight  ?  " 

This  was  the  first  of  the  misfortunes  which  befel  the 

Juwaynf  family,  and  which  were  largely  due  to  their  un- 

grateful protege  Majdu'1-Mulk  of  Yazd.  whose 

Misfortunes  r  ° 

of  juwayni         ambition  led  him  to  calumniate  both  the  Sdhib- 
family  Diwdn    and    his    brother    'Ala'u'1-Mulk'  'Ata 

Malik.    While  still  subordinate  to  the  Sdhib-Dlwdn,  Majdu 
'1-Mulk  addressed  to  him  the  following  quatrain  : 


1  Sha'ban  17,  678  =  Dec.  23,  1279. 


CH.  i]  ABAQA  KHAN  (A.D.  1265-1282)  23 

"  I  said,  'I'll  ever  in  thy  service  be, 

intrigues  of      Not  come  like  larch  and  go  like  willow  tree'1  : 
Majdu'l-Mulk     He  who  despairs  is  bold  and  sharp  of  tongue  ; 
Cause  me  not,  Friend,  thus  desperate  to  be  !  " 

By  traducing  the  Sdhib-Diwdn  to  Abaqa,  he  finally  induced 
that  monarch  to  associate  him  in  the  government  with  his 
rival,  and  this  dual  control  gave  rise  to  endless  friction  and 
recriminations.  On  one  occasion  he  sent  another  quatrain 
to  the  Sdhib-Diwdn  as  follows  : 


"  Into  the  Ocean  of  thy  grief  I'll  dive, 
And  either  drown,  or  pearls  to  gather  strive  ; 
'Tis  hard  to  fight  with  thee,  yet  fight  I  will, 
And  die  red-throated,  or  red-cheeked  survive2." 

To  this  the  Sdhib-Diwdn  sent  the  following  answer 


"  Since  to  the  King  complaints  thou  canst  not  bear 
Much  anguish  to  consume  shall  be  thy  share. 
Through  this  design  on  which  thou  hast  embarked 
Thy  face  and  neck  alike  shall  crimson  wear." 

1  I  suppose  the  writer's  meaning  is,  that  he  wishes  to  be  a  permanent 
and  honoured  associate  of  the  minister,  not  liable  to  reprimand,  humili- 
ation or  dismissal,  coming  in  erect  as  the  larch  or  cypress,  and  going 
out  after  some  rebuff  bowed  down  with  humiliation  like  the  weeping 
willow. 

2  "Die  red-throated,"  i.e.  by  decapitation.  "Red-cheeked"  or  "red- 
faced"  means  "  honoured,"  the  opposite  of  "black-faced." 


24         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

Ultimately  Majdu'1-Mulk  succeeded  in  arousing  Abaqa's 

suspicions  against  the  Sahib  -Diwdris  brother,  'Ala'u'1-Mulk 

'Ata  Malik-i-Juwayni,whowas  arrested,  paraded 

Disgrace  and  i    '  i        i  /•   T»        i     i  y  i  i  i 

punishment  of      through  the  streets  ot  Baghdad,  tortured,  and 
•Ata  Maiik-i-        forced  to  pav  large  sums  of  money  which  he 

Juwayni  .  . 

was  alleged  to  have  misappropriated.  Matters 
might  have  gone  yet  worse  with  him  had  not  Abaqa's  sudden 
death  on  April  i,  1282,  put  an  end  to  his  persecution  and 

brought  about  his  release  from   prison,  while 

Release   of    'Ata  a  r 

Malik  and  death  soon  afterwards  his  enemy  Majdu'1-Mulk  fell  a 

Majdu'l-Mulk 


pieces  by  the  mob,  his  dismembered  limbs  being  publicly 
exhibited  in  the  chief  cities  of  Persia.  On  this  well-merited 
punishment  of  the  old  and  inveterate  foe  of  his  family  'Ata 
Malik-i-  Juwayni  composed  the  following  quatrain  : 


"  For  some  brief  days  thy  guile  did  mischief  wreak; 
Position,  wealth  and  increase  thou  didst  seek  : 
Now  every  limb  of  thine  a  land  hath  ta'en  : 
Thou'st  over-run  the  kingdom  in  a  week  !  " 

'Ata  Malik,  however,  did  not  long  survive  his  foe,  for  he  too 

Death  of  'Ata         died  '  »»  the  Spring  of  1283. 

Maiik-i-juwayni          In  one  curious  particular  connected  with 

Abaqa's  death  all  the  historians  agree.     He  had, 

in  the  usual  Mongol  fashion,  been  drinking  deeply  with  his 

favourites  and  boon-companions.     Feeling  uneasy,  he  had 

withdrawn  from  them  for  a  moment  into  the 

Death  of  Abaqa  ,  ,  ,  111-1  1 

palace  garden  when  he  suddenly  cried  out  that 
a  large  black  bird  was  threatening  him,  and  ordered  some 
of  his  servants  to  shoot  it  with  arrows.  The  servants  hastened 
to  him  in  answer  to  his  call,  but  no  bird  was  to  be  seen,  and 


CH.  i]  AHMAD  TAKtfDAR  (A.D.  1282-1284)  25 

while  they  were  still  searching  for  it,  Abaqa  fell  down  in  a 
swoon  from  which  he  never  awoke1. 

A  few  other  events  of  Abaqa's  reign  merit  a  brief  men- 
tion. The  Assassins,  in  spite  of  all  they  had  suffered  at 
Renewed  the  hands  of  the  Mongols,  so  far  recovered 

activity  of  themselves  as  to  attempt  the  life  of  'Ata  Malik- 

i-Juwaynf  in  670/1271-2,  while  four  years  later, 
in  674/1275-6,  they  actually  succeeded,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  son  of  their  last  Grand  Master  Ruknu'd-Din 
Khurshah,  in  regaining  possession  of  Alamut,  though  they 
internecine  were  shortly  afterwards  subdued  and  destroyed 
warsofMon-  by  Abaqa.  Internecine  wars  between  various 

gol  princes  n/r  i  •  u  i-  i 

Mongol  princes  began  to  be  prevalent  in 
Abaqa's  reign,  as,  for  instance,  that  between  Yushmut  and 
Nogay  at  Aq-sii  in  663/1264-5,  the  year  of  Abaqa's  ac- 
cession, and  that  between  Abaqa  and  Nikudar  the  son  of 
Chaghatay  in  667/1268-9.  Further  turmoil  was  caused  by 
the  repeated  raids  of  the  Nikudarfs,  and  by  the  revolt  of 

Buraq  in  Khurasan.     The  defeat  of  the  latter 

Revolt  of  Burdq  ,  ,          ,  . 

by  Abaqa  s  troops  was  due  almost  entirely  to 
the  valour  of  Subutay,  in  allusion  to  which  a  contemporary 
poet  says: 

O"*   L^'r    IP 


"'Gainst  the  army  of  thy  love  not  one  could  stand  save  only  I, 
As  against  Burdq  of  all  Abaqa's  captains  Subuta"y." 

AHMAD  TAKUDAR2  (A.D.  1282-1284). 

On  the  death  of  Abaqa  two  rival  candidates  appeared 
on  the  scene,  his  brother  Takudar2  (who,  on  his  conversion 

1  Abu'l-Faraj  Bar-Hebraeus  (Beyrout  ed.  of  1890,  p.  505)  says  that 
this  happened  at  Ramadan  in  the  house  of  a  Persian  named  Bihndm 
who  gave  a  banquet  in  Abdqd's  honour.  He  does  not  explicitly  mention 
the  black  bird,  but  says  that  Ab£qa  "began  to  see  phantoms  in  the  air." 

-  This  name  is  sometimes  given  as  Nikudar  or  Nigudar,  but  the 
Armenian  form  Tongudar  given  by  Haithon  seems  decisive.  See 
Howorth,  op.  «'/.,  pp.  310-11. 


26         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

to  Islam  took  the  additional  name  of  Ahmad)  and  his 
Ahmad  Takudar  son  Arghun.  A  majority  of  the  Mongol  nobles 
A.H.  681-683  preferred  the  former,  and  he  was  accordingly 
*  proclaimed  on  May  6,  1282,  under  the  title  of 
Sultan  Ahmad  Takudar.  One  of  his  earliest  public  acts 
was  to  show  his  devotion  to  the  religion  which  he  had 
adopted  by  letters  addressed  to  the  doctors  of  Baghdad1 
and  to  Qala'un,  Sultan  of  Egypt2,  in  which  he  expressed 
his  desire  to  protect  and  foster  the  religion  of  Islam  and 
to  live  on  terms  of  peace  and  amity  with  all  Muslims. 
His  letter  to  Qald'un,  dated  Jumada  I,  A.H.  68 1  (August, 
1282),  was  entrusted  to  two  special  envoys,  Qutbu'd-Din-i- 
Shi'razi  and  the  Atabek  Pahlawdn,  and  Qala'un's  answer 
was  dated  the  beginning  of  Ramadan  of  the  same  year 
(December  3,  1282). 

However  gratified  the  Muslims  may  have  been  at  the 
conversion  of  Ahmad  Takudar  and  the  evidences  of  sin- 
cerity afforded  by  his  conduct,  the  Mongols 

Ahmad  Takudar  J  '  .  ' 

defeated,  cap-  were  far  from  sharing  this  satisfaction,  and  in 
in  the  following  year  (682/1283-4),  a  formidable 
conspiracy  of  Mongol  nobles  to  depose  Ahmad 
Takudar  and  place  his  nephew  Arghun  on  the  throne  came 
to  light.  Qunquratay,  one  of  the  chief  conspirators,  with  a 
number  of  his  accomplices,  was  put  to  death  on  January  18, 
1284,  but  Arghun  successfully  revolted  against  his  uncle, 
whom  he  ultimately  captured  and  put  to  death  on  Au- 
gust 10  of  the  same  year,  and  was  proclaimed  King  on 
the  following  day. 

1  See  d'Ohsson's  Hist,  des  Mongols,  vol.  iii,  pp.  553  et  seqq. 

2  See  the  Tdrikh-i-Wassdf,  Bombay  lithographed  edition  of  A.H. 
1269,  pp.  113-115,  and,  for  Qala'un's  answer,  pp.  115-118  of  the  same. 
Also  Abu'l-Faraj  Bar-Hebraeus  (Beyrout  ed.  of  1890),  pp.  506-510  and 
510-518.     English  translations  of  both  letters  are  given  by  Howorth, 
op.  cit.,  pp.  260-296. 


CH.  i]  DEATH  OF  THE  SA#IB-DlWAN  27 

ARGHUN  (A.D.  1284-1291). 

One  of  Arghun's  first  acts  was  to  make  his  son  Ghazan 
governor  of  Khurasan,  Mazandaran,  Ray  and  Qumis.  His 
Rei  nofAr  hun  f°rmal  recognition  as  Il-khan  of  Persia  by  his 
A. H.  683-690  over-lord  Qubilay  Khan  ("  Kubla  Khan")  was 
brought  from  China  in  the  following  year  by 
Urdugaya. 

During  the  reign  of  Ahmad  Takiidar  the  fortunes  of 
the  Sdhib-Dtwdn  and  his  family,  threatened  for  a  while 
The.svrt#-  ky  the  intrigues  of  Majdu'1-Mulk,  revived 
z>/™«'«Putto  once  more,  but  they  were  finally  eclipsed  by 
the  accession  of  Arghun.  On  the  death  of 
his  master,  Shamsu'd-Din  Muhammad  the  Sdhib-Diwdn, 
fearing  Arghun's  anger,  fled  to  Qum,  where  he  was  over- 
taken by  Arghun's  messengers,  brought  back,  and  finally 
put  to  death  at  a  place  called  Mu'ma  near  Ahar  on  Sha'ban 
4  or  5,  683  (October  16  or  17,  I284)1.  Before  submitting 
himself  to  the  headsman's  hands  he  craved  a  brief  respite, 
which  was  granted  him.  After  performing  the  ablution,  he 
took  an  augury  from  a  Qur'dn  which  belonged  to  him,  and 
then  wrote  the  following  letter  to  the  lulamd  of  Tabriz : 

"When  I  sought  an  augury  from  the  Qur'an,  these  were 

the  words  which  came2:  '  Verily  those  who  said  ''God  is  our 

Lord"  and  then  were  steadfast,  unto  them  do 

The  Sdhib-Dt-  .  ,  .  r          .        n    J  .    . 

mdn's  letter  to  the  angels  afscaut  [sayingj  :  rear  not,  neither 
Tab  '"la"'4  °f  be  afraid.  Receive  good  tidings  of  the  Paradise 
which  ye  were  promised!"  Since  the  Creator, 
exalted  is  He,  hath  well  maintained  his  servant  in  this 
perishable  world,  and  hath  not  withheld  from  him  any 
wish,  it  hath  pleased  Him  even  in  this  world  to  give  him 
glad  tidings  of  the  World  Eternal.  Therefore  he  hath 
deemed  it  incumbent  on  himself  to  convey  these  glad 
tidings  to  Mawlana  Muhiyyu'd-Din,  Mawlana  Afdalu'd- 

1  This  is  the  last  event  recorded  by  Bar-Hebraeus  in  his  history 
(pp.  521-2  of  the  Beyrout  ed.  of  1890). 

2  Qur'dn,  xli,  30. 


28         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

Din,  Mawlana  Shamsu'd-Din,  Mawlana  Humamu'd-Din 
and  those  other  great  divines  whom  time  and  the  circum- 
stances do  not  permit  me  to  mention  by  name,  that  they 
may  know  that  we  have  severed  all  ties  and  so  departed. 
Let  them  assist  me  with  their  prayers1!" 

He  also  addressed  the  following  farewell  letter  and 
testament  to  his  sons2: 

"Salvation  and  greeting  to  my  sons  and  dear  ones,  may 
God  Almighty  preserve  them !  Let  them  know  that  I  en- 
trust them  to  God,  Mighty  and  Glorious  is  He : 
tohiiKMu  verily  God  doth  not  suffer  that  which  is  en- 

trusted to  Him  to  sustain  loss.  It  was  in  my 
mind  that  perhaps  a  meeting  might  be  possible,  whereat 
my  last  wishes  might  be  communicated  orally,  but  my 
days  are  ended,  and  my  business  is  now  with  the  world 
to  come.  Do  not  fall  short  in  the  care  of  my  children ; 
incite  them  to  study,  and  on  no  account  suffer  them  to 
have  aught  to  do  with  the  service  of  the  State;  let  them 
rather  be  content  with  that  which  God  Most  High  hath 
assigned  to  them.  If  my  son  Atabek  and  his  mother  wish 
to  return  home,  they  have  my  permission  so  to  do.  Let 
Nawruz,  Mas'ud  and  their  mother  remain  with  Bulqan 
Khatun,  and  should  she  grant  them  estates,  let  them  ac- 
cept them  and  be  content  therewith.  Whither  can  my  chief 
wife  go  from  Tabriz  ?  Let  her  then  remain  there  near  the 
grave  of  me  and  my  brothers.  If  they  can,  let  them  make 
their  dwelling  in  the  monastery  of  Shaykh  Fakhru'd-Din 
and  repair  thither.  Mumina  hath  received  little  satisfaction 
from  us :  if  she  wishes  to  marry  again,  let  her  do  so.  Let 
Farrukh  and  his  mother  remain  with  Atabek.  Let  them 
leave  Zakariyya  with  the  crown  lands  and  other  estates 
which  I  have  given  over  to  Amir  Buqa.  Let  them  petition 
[on  his  behalf]:  if  some  land  should  be  granted  to  him,  well 
and  good:  if  not,  let  him  rest  content.  May  the  Almighty 

1  Ta!rikh-i-Wassdf,v-  HI. 

2  The  text  of  this  is  given  in  the  Mujmal  of  Fasihi  of  Khwdf, 
ff.  468b-469a  of  the  MS.  belonging  to  the  Gibb  Trustees. 


CH.  I]  FATE  OF  THE  JUWAYNf  FAMILY  29 

Creator  have  mercy  upon  us,  and  bless  all  of  them.  At 
this  hour  my  mind  is  fixed  on  the  Divine  Presence,  and 
I  can  write  no  more  than  this.  Deal  kindly  with  all,  bond 
and  free,  and  forget  us  not  on  the  nights  when  you  remember 
the  absent." 

The  Sdhib-Diwdn  did  not  perish  alone.  Four  of  his 
sons,  Yahya,  Faraju'llah,  Mas'iid  and  Atabek,  were  put 
to  death  soon  after  him,  and  a  little  later  another  son, 
Harun.  "Two  brothers  and  seven  sons,"  according  to  the 
Ta'rikh-i-  Wassaf1,  constituted  the  sacrifice  demanded  by 
Mongol  ferocity,  ever  ready  to  visit  the  sins  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  and  little  disposed  to  leave  alive  poten- 
tial avengers.  Added  to  these  losses  were  the  deaths  in  the 
years  immediately  preceding  of  'Ala'u'1-Mulk  'Ata  Malik-i- 
Juwayni  and  Baha'u'd-Dm,  already  mentioned,  so  that  in 
the  course  of  five  or  six  years  this  great  family  of  states- 
men was  practically  effaced  from  the  page  of  history. 

Fasihi,  in  his  Mujmal  (f.  469),  quotes  the  two  following 
quatrains  composed  by  the  Sdhib-Diwdn  in  his  last  mo- 
ments : 


"  O  Hand  of  Fate,  which  doth  my  heart's  steps  stay, 
My  heart  submits  to  thy  desire  to  slay  : 
With  all  my  heart  I  offer  thee  my  life  ; 
For  this  throughout  my  life  my  heart  did  pray." 


"  Look,  thou  who  caused'st  life's  bright  lamp  to  die, 
Two  hundred  worlds  thou  seest  extinguished  lie, 
Yet  do  the  slain  eternal  life  attain, 
And  those  in  chief  who  are  by  heathens  slain." 

1  P.  142. 


30         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

His  death  was  universally  lamented,  even  in  towns  like 
Shiraz  where  he  was  known  only  by  his  charities  and  good 
works,  and  which  he  had  never  visited.  Amongst  the  verses 
composed  on  his  death  are  the  following: 

\ 


"The  Night  in  grief  hath  dyed  her  cloak,  and  Morn, 
Heaving  cold  sighs,  appears  with  collar  torn  : 
The  Sun's1  departure  stains  the  sky  with  gore  : 
The  Moon  is  veiled,  the  locks  of  Venus  shorn." 


"  That  minister  whose  head  o'ertopped  the  skies 
Hath  earned,  in  truth,  of  martyrdom  the  prize  ; 
The  Sdhib-Dtwdn,  who  for  thirty  years 
Hath  kept  the  world  secure  from  hurts  and  fears. 
O  cruel  heavens  such  a  life  to  ban  ! 
O  cruel  earth,  to  slay  so  great  a  man  !  " 

There  were,  however,  others  who  regarded  the  Sdhib- 
Diwdris  fate  as  well  deserved,  on  account  of  the  part  he  had 
played  in  respect  to  his  unlucky  predecessor  Majdu'1-Mulk. 
This  point  of  view  is  represented  in  the  following  verses, 
cited  in  the  Tcf  rikh-i-Guzida  : 


1  Shamsu'd-Dfn,  "  the  Sun  of  Religion,"  was  the  Sdhib-Diivdris 
name,  to  which  allusion  is  here  made. 


CH.  i]  ARGHtiN  KHAN  (A.D.  1284-1291)  31 

aU  5i  j  JL- 


"  Since  Majdu'1-Mulk,  by  God-sent  destiny, 
A  martyr  in  Naw  Shahr's  plain  did  die, 
By  the  Sdhib-Diwdn  Muhammad's  spite, 
Who  ruled  the  land  with  unrestricted  might, 
Two  years,  two  months,  two  weeks  went  by,  and  lo, 
Fate  bade  him  drain  in  turn  the  cup  of  woe. 
Beware  how  in  this  world  thou  workest  harm  ; 
Fate's  scales  hold  equal  weight  of  bane  and  balm  !  " 

A  violent  death  was,  however,  the  common  end  of 
those  who  were  rash  enough  to  act  as  ministers  to  Mongol 
sovereigns.  Thus  Jalalu'd-Dm  Simnani,  who  succeeded  the 
Sdhib-Diwdn,  was  executed  in  August,  1289;  Sa'du'd-Dawla, 
who  succeeded  him,  was  put  to  death  at  the  end  of  February, 
1291  ;  Sadru'd-Dm  Khalidi,  who  acted  as  minister  to  Gay- 
khatu,  suffered  the  same  fate  in  May,  1298;  and  Rashidu'd- 
Din  Fadlu'llah,  the  most  accomplished  of  all,  was  executed 
in  July,  1318. 

Arghun  reigned   over    Persia    for   nearly   seven   years 

(August,  1284-May,  1291).    The  embassies  which  he  sent  to 

Europe,  and  especially  that  of  1287-1288,  of 

Sa'du'd-Dawia,     which  one  of  ^Q  envoys,  Rabban  Sawma,  has 

theJewisha/aszV  '  • 

left  us  an  account  in  Synac1,  mark  a  revival  of 
Abaqa's  policy,  which  had  been  reversed  by  Ahmad  Takudar. 
During  the  latter  part  of  Arghun's  reign  Sa'du'd-Dawla 
the  Jew  was  his  all-powerful  minister.  This  man,  originally 
a  physician,  was  detested  by  the  Muslims,  who  ascribed 
to  him  the  most  sinister  designs  against  Islam.  He  was 
originally  a  native  of  Abhar,  and  afterwards  practised 
medicine  at  Baghdad.  He  was  recommended  to  Arghun 
by  some  of  his  co-religionists,  and,  according  to  the  7V- 
rikh-i-  Wassdf",  gained  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  that 
prince  not  only  by  his  knowledge  of  the  Mongol  and 

1  See  that  most  interesting  book  Histoire  de  Mar  Jabalaha  ///...<?/ 
du  moine  Rabban  Cauma..*traduit  du  Syriaque  et  annotee  par  J.-B. 
Chabot  (Paris,  1895).  2  p.  236. 


32         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

Turkish  languages,  but  also  by  the  skilful  manner  in  which 
he  played  on  Arghun's  avarice  by  the  schemes  for  re- 
plenishing the  treasury  which  he  unfolded.  In  the  realiza- 
tion of  these  schemes  in  Baghdad  he  showed  such  ability 
that  he  was  entrusted  by  Arghun  with  the  financial  control 
of  the  whole  kingdom.  His  co-religionists,  hitherto  despised 
and  repressed,  began  to  benefit  by  his  ever-increasing  power, 
and  to  fill  many  offices  of  state  ;  so  much  so  that  a  con- 
temporary poet  of  Baghdad  wrote  as  follows1: 


"  The  Jews  of  this  our  time  a  rank  attain 
To  which  the  heavens  might  aspire  in  vain. 
Theirs  is  dominion,  wealth  to  them  doth  cling, 
To  them  belong  both  councillor  and  king. 
O  people,  hear  my  words  of  counsel  true  : 
Turn  Jews,  for  heaven  itself  hath  turned  a  Jew  ! 
Yet  wait,  and  ye  shall  hear  their  torment's  cry, 
And  see  them  fall  and  perish  presently." 

Sa'du'd-Dawla's  boldness  and  open  hostility  to  Islam 
increased  with  his  power,  until  he  not  only  induced  Arghun 
to  exclude  the  Muslims  from  all  high  civil  and  military 
posts2,  but  endeavoured  to  compass  the  destruction  of  their 
religion.  To  this  end  he  sought  to  persuade  Arghun  that 
the  prophetic  function  had  passed  from  the  Arabs  to  the 
Mongols,  who  were  divinely  commissioned  to  chastise  the 
disobedient  and  degenerate  followers  of  Muhammad,  and 
proposed  to  turn  the  Ka'ba  into  an  idol-temple.  He  began 
to  prepare  a  fleet  at  Baghdad  to  attack  Mecca,  and  sent  his 
co-religionist  Khwaja  Najibu'd-Din  Kahhal  into  Khurasan 
with  a  black  list  of  some  two  hundred  notable  and  influential 

1  Tctrikh-i-Wassdf,  p.  238.  2  Ibid.,  p.  241. 


CH.  i]  THE  MINISTER  SA'DU'D-DAWLA  33 

Muslims  whose  death  he  desired  to  compass.  A  similar  but 
shorter  list,  containing  the  names  of  seventeen  notable 
divines  and  theologians  of  Shiraz,  was  also  prepared  for  him. 
"It  is  related,"  says  the  author  of  the  Tdrtkh-i-Wassdf, 
"  that  when  Arghun  Khan  first  ascended  the  royal  throne  he 
greatly  disliked  bloodshed,  so  that  one  day,  during  the  pro- 
gress of  a  banquet,  he  looked  at  the  number  of  sheep  slain, 
and,  moved  by  excessive  compassion,  said,  'Hardness  of  heart 
and  a  cruel  disposition  alone  can  prompt  man  to  sacrifice 
so  many  innocent  beasts  for  the  pleasures  of  the  table.' 
Yet  this  minister  (Sa'du'd-Dawla)  so  constantly  applauded 
evil  and  represented  wrong  as  right,  urging  that  to  clear  the 
garden  of  empire  from  the  thorns  of  disaffection,  and  to 
purify  the  wells  of  endeavour  from  the  impurity  of  suspects 
was  required  alike  by  prudence  and  discretion..., that  finally, 
through  his  evil  promptings  and  misleading  counsels,  the 
Il-khan's  heart  became  as  eager  to  kill  the  innocent  as  are 
the  infidel  glances  of  the  fair  ones  of  Khutan,  so  that  on  the 
least  suspicion  or  the  slightest  fault  he  would  destroy  a 
hundred  souls.  Such  is  the  effect  produced  by  intercourse 
with  an  evil  companion  and  the  society  of  wicked  persons1." 
But  just  when  Sa'du'd-Dawla's  influence  was  at  its 
highest  and  his  schemes  were  approaching  maturity,  Arghun 
fell  grievously  sick  at  Tabriz.  The  minister, 
lasf  nines  realizing  that  he  would  certainly  not  long  sur- 

vive his  master,  became  a  prey  to  the  most  acute 
and  overpowering  distress:  he  was  unremitting  in  his  atten- 
dance, and  also,  with  the  view  of  propitiating  Heaven,  gave 
away  vast  sums  of  money  in  charity,  thirty  thousand  dinars 
being  distributed  in  Baghddd  and  ten  thousand  amongst  the 
poor  of  Shiraz.  He  also  liberated  many  captives  and  renewed 
or  extended  many  benefactions.  Some  of  the  Mongol  priests 
declared  that  the  execution  of  Qaranqay,  Huldju,  Jushkab 
and  other  Mongol  princes  had  brought  this  sickness  on 
Arghun  ;  others  that  he  had  been  bewitched  by  one  of  his 
wives.  Sultan  Idajf,  who  was  alleged  to  have  instigated 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  242-3. 
B.  P.  3 


34         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

the  former  deed,  was  sacrificed  in  expiation,  and  also  Jush- 
kab's  niece  Tuqjaq,  who  was  suspected  of  the  ensorcelment 
of  the  king  ;  but  naught  availed  to  stay  the  progress  of  his 
malady,  and  towards  the  end  of  February,  1291,  his  condition 
was  so  critical  that  none  were  allowed  to  approach  him  save 
Jushf  and  Sa'du'd-Dawla.  The  latter  secretly  sent  mes- 
sengers to  Ghazan,  bidding  him  be  ready  to  claim  the  throne 
so  soon  as  Arghun  should  have  breathed  his  last,  but  nothing 
could  now  avail  to  save  him  from  his  foes,  and  he  was  put 
to  death  a  few  days  before  his  master  expired,  on  March  9, 

I29I1. 

The  death  of  Sa'du'd-Dawla  was  the  signal  for  a  general 

persecution  of  the  Jews,  who  were  plundered  and  in  many 

cases  slain.     In   Baghdad  alone  more  than   a 

Persecution         hundred  of  their  chief  men  were  killed.     The 

ot  the  Jews 

collapse  of  thejewish  ascendancy  was  celebrated 
by  Zaynu'd-Din  'All  b.  Sa'id  the  preacher  in  the  following 
Arabic  qasida?,  composed  in  the  same  metre  and  rhyme  as 
that  quoted  on  p.  32  supra  : 


0  f     1       1  10*0  111 


JXUJI    d-o~.L> 


— ,  ~  4 

0*9  '•  ,  i          -  -          J    i     x>       j    j        ^    Oi 

i^TVJUj  ^3  U  JUU  ^>Xi       '  liwl       "^La-Lc      4JLJI     ^JkUC^I       5 

6 

0<0      X  X      0X5     , 

7 


ji.1    LJ     9 


1  See  Howorth,  op.  cit.,  p.  345. 

2  Cited  from  the  Tcfrikh-i-  Wass&f,  p.  247. 


CH.  i]  ANTI-JEWISH  POEMS  35 

'  \j-£>j3  &  jLi 


ijb  UJ  13 

H 


L55iL"     bj-f*-*1*   l6 

^"^ 


-liJ9         17 

jxx    e 

18 

il  19 


>    JL5    j>^    ^J  23 


1  "  His  Name  we  praise  who  rules  the  firmament ! 

These  apish  Jews  are  done  away  and  shent. 

2  111  luck  hath  whelmed  the  Fortune  of  their  State1  ; 
Throughout  the  lands  they're  shamed  and  desolate. 

3  God  hath  dispersed  their  dominant  accord, 
And  they  are  melted  by  the  burnished  sword. 

4  How  long  they  ruled  in  fact,  though  not  in  name, 
And,  sins  committing,  now  are  put  to  shame. 

1  Scfdrfd-Dawla  means  the  "  Fortune,"  or  "  Good  Luck  of  the 
State."  There  is  an  antithesis  between  Safd,  which  applies  to  the  fortu- 
nate influence  of  the  auspicious  planets,  and  Nafys,  the  maleficent 
influence  of  the  unlucky  planets. 

3—2 


36         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

5  God  made  them  wail  in  woe  right  speedily, 
After  that  in  their  days  they  laughed  with  glee. 

6  Grim  captains  made  them  drink  Death's  cup  of  ill, 
Until  their  skulls  the  blood-bathed  streets  did  fill, 

7  And  from  their  dwellings  seized  the  wealth  they'd  gained, 
And  their  well-guarded  women's  rooms  profaned. 

8  O  wretched  dupes  of  error  and  despair, 

At  length  the  trap  hath  caught  you  in  its  snare  ! 

9  Vile,  carrion  birds,  behold,  in  open  ground 
The  nets  of  ruin  compass  you  around  ! 

10  O  foulest  race  who  e'er  on  earth  did  thrive, 
And  hatefulest  of  those  who  still  survive, 

1 1  The  Calf  you  served  in  place  of  God ;  and  lo, 
Vain,  vain  are  all  your  goings  to  and  fro  ! 

12  They  doomed  to  death  your  '  Cleanser1 '  and  thereby 
A  host  of  sinful  souls  did  purify, 

13  What  time  they  gathered  round  his  head  upraised 
Midst  dust  and  stench,  and  on  its  features  gazed. 

14  God  sped  the  soul  of  him  who  was  their  chief 
To  hell,  whose  mirk  is  dark  despair  and  grief. 

15  In  molten  torments  they  were  prisoned, 

In  trailing  chains  they  to  their  doom  were  led. 

16  Take  warning,  from  this  doom  without  reprieve  ; 
Recite  the  verse :  "  How  many  did  they  leave  2  /  " 

17  Tughachar,  prince  fulfilled  with  strength  and  zeal, 
Hath  caused  the  pillars  of  their  power  to  reel. 

1 8  His  flashing  falchion  on  their  flesh  did  feed, 
And  none  would  hold  him  guilty  for  the  deed. 

19  Our  Shaykh's  prediction  found  fulfilment  there, 
What  time  he  saw  them  rob  him  of  his  share  ; 

20  That  holy  man,  our  lord  Jamalu'd-Din3, 
Aided  by  God,  endowed  with  angel's  mien, 

21  Devoted,  walking  ever  in  the  way 
Of  Him  the  fishes  in  their  seas  obey. 

22  I  penned  this  satire,  hoping  to  attain 

The  Eternal  Gardens'  lake-encompassed  plain, 

23  And  to  refute  that  poet's  words  untrue 

Who  said,  '  Turn  Jews,  for  Heaven  hath  turned  a  Jew.' " 

1  This  word  Muhadhdhib  ("  Purifier")  probably  forms  part  of  some 
such  title  as  Muhadhdhibu'd-Dawla  borne  by  one  of  the  victims. 

2  "  How  many  gardens  and  fountains ..  .did  they  leave  behind  them  /" 
Qur'an,  xliv,  24. 

3  Perhaps  Jamdlu'd-Dfn  Muhammad  ibn  Sulaymdn  an-Naqfb  al- 
Maqdisf  (d.  698/1298-9)  is  meant. 


CH.  i]  PAPER  CURRENCY  RIOTS  37 

GAYKHATU  (A.D.  1291-1295). 

Arghun  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Gaykhatu,  whose 
coronation  did  not  take  place  till  July  22,  1291,  four  months 

and  a  half  after  his  predecessor's  death.  During 
Gaykhatu  this  interval,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Tughachdr 

(A.D^  1291-         ancj  other  chiefs  of  the  Mongols  had  hastened  to 

appoint  governors  in  the  different  provinces, 
anarchy  was  rampant,  and  Afrasiyab,  of  the  House  of 
Hazarasp,  which  had  ruled  over  Luristdn  since  the  middle 
of  the  twelfth  century,  broke  out  in  an  abortive  revolt  and 
for  a  while  held  Isfahan. 

Gaykhatu,   whom    the   author   of    the   Habibu's-Siyar 
describes  as  "  the  most  generous  of  the  children  of  Hulagu," 

chose  Sadru'd-Din  Ahmad  Khalidi  of  Zanjan, 

Dissolute  and          ,  ',  r>     j      •    T    i  *  i   • 

extravagant         better  known  as  Sadr-i-Jahan,   as  his  prime 
character  of         minister.     Both  the  monarch  and  his  minister 

Gaykhatu 

were  disposed  to  extravagance  and  prodigality, 
and  the  former  at  any  rate  to  the  pleasures  of  the  table  and 
other  less  reputable  enjoyments.  Thus  it  soon  happened 
that  the  treasury  was  empty,  and,  money  being  urgently 

required,  Sadr-i-Jahdn  determined  to  introduce 

Introduction  of  + 

paper  money  the  ckao,  or  paper  money,  which  was  current  in 
the  Chinese  Empire.  To  this  end  establishments 
for  manufacturing  the  chao  were  erected  in  all  the  principal 
towns,  and  stringent  laws  were  enacted  to  restrict  the  use 
of  the  precious  metals  as  far  as  possible.  Full  descriptions  of 
the  projected  paper  money  are  preserved  to  us  in  the  Tartkh- 
i-  Wassdf1  and  other  histories  of  the  period.  The  notes 
consisted  of  oblong  rectangular  pieces  of  paper  inscribed 
with  some  words  in  Chinese,  over  which  stood  the  Muham- 
madan  profession  of  faith,  "There  is  no  god  but  God, 
Muhammad  is  the  Apostle  of  God,"  in  Arabic.  Lower  down 
was  the  scribe's  or  designer's  name,  and  the  value  of  the  note 
(which  varied  from  half  a  dirham  to  ten  dinars)  inscribed 
in  a  circle.  A  further  inscription  ran  as  follows:  "The  King 

1  Pp.  272-3. 


38         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

of  the  world  issued  this  auspicious  chao  in  the  year  A.H.  693 
[A.D.  1294].  Anyone  altering  or  defacing  the  same  shall 
be  put  to  death,  together  with  his  wife  and  children,  and  his 
property  shall  be  forfeited  to  the  exchequer."  Proclamations 
were  also  sent  to  Shi'raz  and  other  towns  explaining  the 
advantages  of  the  new  currency,  answering  imaginary  objec- 
tions against  it,  and  declaring  that  : 


"  If  in  the  world  this  chao  gains  currency, 
Immortal  shall  the  Empire's  glory  be," 

and  that  poverty  and  distress  would  entirely  disappear. 
One  ingenious  provision  in  the  laws  affecting  the  chao  was 
that  notes  worn  and  torn  by  circulation  were  to  be  returned 
to  the  chao-khdna,  or  Mint,  and  new  notes,  less  by  ten  per 
cent,  than  the  amount  thus  refunded,  were  to  be  given  to 
the  person  so  returning  them. 

The  issue  of  the  chao  in  Tabriz  was  fixed  for  the  month 
of  Dhu'l-Qa'da,  693  (Sept.-Oct,  1294).     In  three  days  the 

bazaars  of  Tabriz  were  closed  and  business 
SntheP^ity  was  practically  at  a  standstill,  for  no  one  would 

accept  the  chao,  and  gold  and  silver  had  been 
withdrawn  from  circulation.  The  popular  rage  was  largely 
directed  against  'Izzu'd-Din  Muzaffar,  who  had  been  in- 
strumental in  introducing  the  hated  paper  money,  and  such 
verses  as  the  following  were  composed  about  him  : 


"  Pride  of  the  Faith1,  Protection  of  the  Land, 
Would  that  thy  being  from  the  world  were  banned  ! 

1  This  is  the  meaning  of  Ilzzu'd-Dtn. 


CH.  i]  BAYDti  (APRIL-OCTOBER,  1295)  39 

Hence  Muslim,  Guebre  and  Jew  first  magnify 
God,  and  declare  His  Power  and  Unity  ; 
Then,  humbly  praying,  bow  them  in  the  dust, 
And  thus  invoke  the  Judge  All-wise  and  Just : — 
'  Lord,  send  him  not  victorious1,  we  pray  : 
Cause  all  his  schemes  and  plans  to  go  astray ! '  " 

Similar  disturbances  broke  out  at  Shi'raz  and  in  other 

cities,  and,  yielding  to  the  representations  of  the  Mongol 

nobles  and  others,  Gaykhatu  finally  consented 

withdraw  *°  recall  the  obnoxious  chao  and  abolish  the 

paper  currency  which  had  intensified  instead  of 

ameliorating  the  financial  crisis. 

Shortly  after  this  untoward  experiment,  Gaykhatu,  in 

one  of  those  drunken  orgies  which  were  habitual  to  him, 

grossly  insulted  his  cousin  Baydu.  a  grandson 

Gaykhatu 

insults  his  of  Hulagu,  and  caused  him  to  be  beaten  by  one 

of  his  retainers.  Next  morning,  when  he  came 
to  his  senses,  he  repented  of  his  action,  and  endeavoured  to 
conciliate  Baydu  by  means  of  gifts  and  honours.  Baydu, 
for  reasons  of  expediency,  concealed  his  resentment  for  the 
time,  but  soon  afterwards,  encouraged  by  certain  disaffected 
Mongol  nobles,  he  openly  revolted  against  Gaykhatu,  who, 
betrayed  by  his  general  Tughachar,  was  taken  prisoner  and 
put  to  death  at  Muqan,  on  Thursday,  6  Jumada  II,  694 
(April  23,  1295). 

BAYDTJ  (APRIL-OCTOBER,  1295). 

Baydu  was  crowned  soon  after  this  at  Ramadan,  and 

after  celebrating  his  accession  in  the  usual  drunken  fashion 

of  the  Mongols2,  proceeded  to  appoint  Tugha- 

Baydii  (April-     charcommander-in-chief,dismiss  the  late  premier 

Oct.,  A.D.  1295) 

Sadr-i-Jakdn,  and  replace  him  by  Jamalu'd-Din 
Dastajirdanf.  He  did  not,  however,  long  enjoy  the  high 
position  which  he  had  gained,  for  six  months  after  his 

1  "  Victorious  "  is  the  meaning  of  Muzaffar. 

2  Habibu's-Siyar  (Bombay  lithographed  ed.  of  1857),  vol.  iii,  pt.  i, 
p.  81. 


4o         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

accession  he  was  overcome  by  Ghazan,  the  son  of  his  cousin 
Arghun,  and,  in  the  words  of  Khwandamir1,  "quaffed  a  full 
cup  of  that  draught  which  he  had  caused  Gaykhatu  to  taste." 

GHAZAN  (A.D.  1295-1304). 

The  accession  of  Ghazan,  the  great-grandson  of  Hulagii, 

marks  the  definite  triumph  of  Islam  over  Mongol  heathenism, 

and  the  beginning  of  the  reconstruction  of  Per- 

Ghdz4n  (A.D.  sjan  independence.  He  was  born  on  December 
1295-1304) 

4,  1271,  and  was  therefore  not  twenty-four  years 

of  age  when  he  assumed  the  reins  of  government.  At  the 
youthful  age  of  seven  he  accompanied  his  grandfather  Abaqa 
on  his  hunting  expeditions,  and  at  the  age  of  ten  his  father 
Arghun  made  him  governor  of  Khurasan,  under  the  tutelage 
of  the  Amir  Nawruz,  the  son  of  Arghun  Agha,  who  for 
thirty-nine  years  had  governed  various  Persian  provinces 
for  Chingiz  Khan  and  his  successors.  The  Amir  Nawruz  had 
GhAzdn's  embraced  Islam,  and  it  was  through  him  that 

conversion  Ghazan  was  converted  to  that  faith,  for  at  the 
beginning  of  his  struggle  with  his  rival  Baydu 
he  had  been  persuaded  by  Nawruz  to  promise  that,  if  God 
should  grant  him  the  victory,  he  would  accept  the  religion 
of  the  Arabian  Prophet.  This  promise  he  faithfully  fulfilled ; 
on  Sha'ban  4,  694  (June  19,  1295),  he  and  ten  thousand 
Mongols  made  their  profession  of  faith  in  the  presence  of 
Shaykh  Sadru'd-Din  Ibrahim2,  the  son  of. the  eminent 
doctor  Sa'du'd-Din  al-Hamawi.  Nor  did  Ghazan  lack  zeal 
for  his  new  convictions,  for  four  months  after  his  conversion 
he  permitted  Nawruz  to  destroy  the  churches,  synagogues 
and  idol-temples  at  Tabriz.  He  also  caused  a  new  coinage 
bearing  Muhammadan  inscriptions  to  be  struck,  and  by  an 
edict  issued  in  May,  1299,  prohibited  usury,  as  contrary  to 
the  Muhammadan  religion.  In  November,  1297,  the  Mon- 

1  Habibds-Siyar  (Bombay  lithographed  ed.  of  1857),  vol.  iii,  pt.  i, 
p.  81. 

2  So  the  Habibrfs-Siyar  and  Dawlatshdh  ;   but,  according  to  the 
Mujmal  of  Fasihi,  Shaykh  Ibrahim  al-Juwaynf. 


CH.  i]  GHAZAN  (A.D.  1295-1304)  41 

gol  amirs  adopted  the  turban  in  place  of  their  national 
head-dress. 

There  was  still,  however,  a  considerable  section  of  Mon- 
gols, princes,  nobles  and  others,  which  regarded  Ghazan's 
_.  „.  .  conversion  with  active  dislike.  This  led  to 

Disaffection  of 

the  old-fashioned  sundry  rebellions  and  intrigues,  which,  however, 
were  sternly  repressed  ;  and  in  the  course  of 
one  month,  according  to  the  Habibu's-Siyar  (loc.  cit.,  p.  85), 
no  fewer  than  five  Princes  and  thirty-seven  amirs  of  the 
Mongols  were  put  to  death  by  Ghazan  and  Nawriiz.  Naw- 
ruz  himself,  however,  in  spite  of  all  that  Ghazan  owed  him, 
was  suspected  by  his  master  of  secretly  intriguing  with  the 
Sultan  of  Egypt?  and,  though  he  fled  to  Herat  and  sought 
refuge  with  Malik  Fakhru'd-Dm  Kurt,  he  was  taken  and 
put  to  death.  Shortly  afterwards  Jamalu'd-Dm  Dastajir- 
dani,  the  Sadr-i-Jahdn*  and  his  brother  Qutb-i-Jahdn,  were 
also  put  to  death,  and  the  great  historian  and  physician 
Rashfdu'd-Din  Fadlu'llah  was  made  prime  minister.  Ghazin 
was  a  stern  ruler;  "his  reign,"  as  Sir  Henry  Howorth  ob- 
serves2, "was  marked  by  a  terrible  roll  of  executions,  and, 
as  d'Ohsson  says,  there  is  hardly  a  page  of  Rashfdu'd-Din 
at  this  time  without  a  notice  of  the  execution  of  some  public 
functionary." 

During  a  considerable    portion  of  his   reign,  Ghazan 
was  at  war  with  Egypt.     His  first  campaign,  which  was 
in  the  winter  of  1299-1300,  culminated  in  the 
Mongol  victory  at  Majma'u'l-Muruj  near  Hims 
(Emessa),  where  the  Egyptians,  outnumbered 
by  three  or   four  to  one,  were  completely  routed.     The 
Mongols  occupied  Damascus  and  other  portions  of  Syria 
for  a  hundred  days,  during  which  Ghazan's  name  was  in- 
serted in  the  khutba.      In    spite    of  Ghazan's    reassuring 
proclamation  of  December  30,  1299,  Syria  suffered  heavily 
from  the  cruelties  and  depredations  of  the  Mongols3.     In 

1  On  April  30,  A.D.  1298.  See  Howorth's  Hist,  of  the  Mongols, 
pt.  3,  pp.  426-7. 

-  Howorth,  loc.  tit.,  p.  421.  3  Ibid.,  pp.  444~5- 


42         THE  MONGOL  I'L-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

the  following  winter  (1300-1301)  Ghazan  again  prepared 
to  invade  Syria,  but  was  forced  to  retreat  owing  to  floods 
and  bad  weather.  In  the  following  May  he  despatched  a 
letter  to  the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  the  answer  to  which,  written 
in  October,  was  delivered  to  him  by  his  envoys  in  De- 
cember, 1 30 11.  Rather  more  than  a  year  later,  at  the 
end  of  January,  1303,  Ghazan  again  marched  against  the 
Egyptians.  Having  crossed  the  Euphrates  at  the  date 
above  mentioned,  he  visited  Karbala,  a  spot  sanctified  to 
him  by  his  strong  Shi'ite  proclivities,  and  bestowed  on  the 
shrine  and  its  inmates  many  princely  favours.  At  'Ana, 
whither  he  next  proceeded,  Wassaf,  the  court- 

The  historian  .  t     «  «  •  i       '  i         f  i 

Wassaf  is  pre-      historian,  presented  him   with  the  first  three 
sentedtoGhd-      volumes  (out  of  five)  of  the  history  on  which 

zan  in  A.D.  1303  '          .  ' 

he  was  engaged,  and  which  has  been  so  otten 
quoted  or  mentioned  in  these  pages.  Ghazan  accompanied 
his  army  for  some  distance  further  towards  the  West,  and 
then  recrossed  the  Euphrates  to  await  the  result  of  the 
campaign  at  Kashf,  two  days'  journey  westwards  from 
Ardabi'K  This  campaign  proved  as  disastrous  to  the 
Mongols  as  the  previous  one  had  been  fortunate,  for  they 

were    utterly   defeated    by   the    Egyptians   in 

Defeat  of  the  '    „ 

Mongols  at          March,  1303,  at  Marju  s-Suffar  near  Damascus. 
Marju's-Sufiar      -phe  Egyptian  victory  was  celebrated  by  gene- 

m  A.D.  1303  .     .    .  .        c        . J  ,    „  \\  c 

ral  rejoicings  in  Syria  and  Egypt,  especially,  01 
course,  at  Cairo,  where  every  house  was  decorated  and  every 
point  of  vantage  crowded  to  see  the  entry  of  the  Sultan  with 
his  victorious  troops,  preceded  by  1600  Mongol  prisoners, 
each  bearing,  slung  round  his  neck,  the  head  of  one  of  his 
dead  comrades,  while  a  thousand  more  Mongol  heads  were 
borne  aloft  on  lances,  accompanied  by  the  great  Mongol 
war-drums  with  their  parchment  rent3.  Ghdzan's  vexation 
was  commensurate  with  the  Egyptian  Sultan's  exultation, 
and  was  increased  by  a  scornful  and  railing  letter  addressed 
to  him  by  the  victor4.  Condign  punishment  was  inflicted 

1  For  the  contents  of  these  letters,  see  Howorth,  loc.  cit.>  pp.  458-461 . 

2  Ibid.,  p.  467.  3  Ibid.)  p.  474.  4  Ibid.,  pp.  476-8. 


CH.  i]  CHARACTER  OF  GHAZAN  43 

by  him  on  the  Mongol  generals  and  captains  who  were  sup- 
posed to  have  been  responsible  for  this  disaster.     Ghazan's 
health  seems  to  have  been  undermined  by  the  distress  re- 
sulting from  this  reverse  to  his  arms,  which  was  perhaps 
still  further  increased  by  the  abortive  conspiracy  to  depose 
him  and  place  his  cousin  Alafrank  the  son  of 
GaykMtu  on  the  throne,  and  he  died  at  the 
early  age  of  thirty-two  on  May  17,  1304. 
The  mourning  for  his  death  throughout  Persia  was  uni- 
versal, and  appears  to  have  been  sincere,  for  he  had  restored 
Islam  to  the  position  it  occupied  before  the  in- 

Ghazan's  •  /•    /~<i   •         ,       -ir-\    /  i 

character  vasion  oi  Lhingiz  Khan,  repressed  paganism, 

and  reduced  chaos  to  order.  In  spite  of  his 
severity,  he  was  merciful  compared  to  his  predecessors,  and 
had  the  reputation  of  disliking  to  shed  blood  save  when 
he  deemed  it  expedient  or  necessary.  He  was,  moreover, 
a  generous  patron  of  science  and  literature  and  a  liberal 
benefactor  of  the  pious  and  the  poor.  Though  ill-favoured 
and  of  mean  and  insignificant  appearance,  he  was  brave, 
assiduous  in  all  things,  and  gifted  with  unusually  wide  in- 
terests and  keen  intelligence.  He  was  devoted  alike  to 
arts  and  crafts  and  to  the  natural  sciences, 
IdencT*  especially  to  architecture  on  the  one  hand,  and 

to  astronomy,  chemistry,  mineralogy,  metal- 
lurgy and  botany  on  the  other.  He  was  extraordinarily 
well  versed  in  the  history  and  genealogy  of  the  Mongols, 
and,  besides  Mongolian,  his  native  tongue,  was  more  or 
less  conversant  with  Persian,  Arabic,  Chinese, 
attainders'0  Tibetan,  Kashmiri,  and,  it  is  said,  Latin.  Some- 
thing also  he  knew  more  than  his  predecessors 
of  the  lands  and  peoples  of  the  West,  a  knowledge  chiefly 
derived  from  the  numerous  envoys  of  different  nations 
who  sought  his  capital  in  Adharbayjcin,  and  reflected,  as 
Ho  worth  remarks  (p.  487),  in  the  work  of  the  great  his- 
torian Rashidu'd-Dm,  who  acted  as  his  prime  minister 
during  the  latter  portion  of  his  reign,  and  who  was  aware, 
for  instance,  that  the  Scotch  paid  tribute  to  the  English  and 


44         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

that  there  were  no  snakes  in  Ireland1.  Amongst  the  envoys 
who  visited  Ghazan's  court  were  represented  the  Chinese, 
the  Indians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Spaniards  (by  Solivero  of 
Barcelona),  the  English  (by  Geoffrey  de  Langley),  and  many 
other  nations. 

Ghazan  was  also  well  grounded  in  Islam,  the  faith  of 

his  adoption,  and  showed  a  marked   predilection  for  the 

Shf'ite  form  of  that  religion2.    How  he  enriched 

tjharan  s  parti-  o 

aiityforthe  Karbala  we  have  already  seen,  and  the  shrine 
of  the  eighth  Imam  'All  ar-Rida  at  Mash-had 
also  benefited  by  his  charity.  How  far  he  was  influenced 
in  his  conversion  by  sincere  conviction  and  how  much  by 
political  expediency  is  a  matter  open  to  discussion,  but  his 
conversion  was  in  any  case  a  blessing  for  Persia.  A  harsh 
government  is  always  an  evil  thing  for  those  subject  to  its 
sway;  more  evil  if  it  be  administered  by  a  foreign,  domi- 
nant caste;  most  evil  if  the  administrators  be  also  of  an 
alien  religion  hostile  to,  or  unsympathetic  towards,  the  faith 
of  their  subjects.  The  Mongol  dominion  had  hitherto  been 
of  this  last  and  cruellest  type;  by  Ghazan's  conversion  it 
was  ameliorated  at  once  to  the  second,  which  again  pre- 
pared the  way  for  a  return  to  the  first.  "When  Ghazan 
became  a  Muhammadan,"  says  Howorth  (p.  486),  "he  defi- 
nitely broke  off  his  allegiance  to  the  Supreme  Khan  in 
the  furthest  East.  Hitherto  the  Il-khans  had  been  mere 
feudatories  of  the  Khaqan  of  Mongolia  and  China.  They 
were  now  to  become  independent,  and  it  is  natural  that 
the  formulae  on  the  coins  should  accordingly  be  changed." 
Henceforth  Shamans  and  Buddhist  monks  could  no  longer 
domineer  over  the  Muslim  lulamd\  their  monasteries  and 
temples  gave  place  to  colleges  and  mosques.  Muslim 

1  See  f.  3i2a  of  the  India  Office  MS.  of  the  Jdmi'tft-Taivdrikh 
(Persian,  3524  =  2828  of  Ethels  Catalogue). 

2  Sayyid  Niiru'llah  of  Shiishtar  includes  him  in  the  list  of  Shi'ite 
rulers  given  in  the  sixth  Majlis  of  his  Majdlisdl-MiVminin.      The 
pages  of  the  lithographed  Tihran  edition  of  this  work  published  in 
1268/1851-2  are  unfortunately  not  numbered,  so  that  no  more  exact 
reference  can  be  given. 


CH.  i]  CHARACTER  OF  GHAZAN  45 

learning,  enriched  in  some  directions  though  impoverished 
in  others,  was  once  more  honoured  and  encouraged.  Nor 
were  material  improvements,  tending  greatly  to  benefit 
the  hitherto  oppressed  subjects  of  the  Il-khans,  wanting. 
Ghazan  was  at  all  times  stern  and  often  cruel,  but  he  had 
far  higher  ideals  of  his  duties  towards  his  subjects  than 
any  of  his  predecessors,  and  he  adopted  practical  means  to 
give  effect  to  these  ideals.  "  Be  sure,"  he  says1,  "that  God 
has  elevated  me  to  be  a  ruler,  and  has  confided  his  people 
to  me  in  order  that  I  may  rule  them  with  equity.  He  has 
imposed  on  me  the  duty  of  doing  justice,  of  punishing  the 
guilty  according  to  their  crimes.  He  would  have  me  most 
severe  with  those  who  hold  the  highest  rank.  A  ruler 
ought  especially  to  punish  the  faults  of  those  most  highly 
placed,  in  order  to  strike  the  multitude  by  example."  An 
account  of  the  reforms  which  he  effected  in  the  collection 
of  taxes,  the  prevention  of  extortion,  the  repression  of  the 
idle  and  baneful  extravagances  of  the  dominant  Mongols, 
the  restoration  of  confidence  and  security  where  the  lack  of 
these  had  previously  reduced  prosperous  towns  to  ruined 
and  deserted  hamlets,  and  withal  the  restoration  of  the 
finances  of  the  country  to  a  sound  and  healthy  condition 
would  be  out  of  place  here,  especially  as  the  matter  is  fully 
discussed  by  Howorth  in  his  great  history  (loc.  tit.,  pp.  487- 
530).  The  institution  of  the  new  Era,  called  Il-khanf  or 
Ghazani,  which  began  on  Rajab  13,  701  (March  14,  1302), 
was  also  dictated,  at  any  rate  in  part,  by  a  desire  to  put 
an  end  to  sundry  irregularities  which  had  crept  into  the 
finance.  To  Ghazan 's  credit  must  also  be  set  his  efforts  to 
suppress  or  at  least  minimize  prostitution,  and  the  example 
he  himself  gave  of  a  morality  far  higher  than  that  generally 
prevalent  amongst  his  countrymen  at  that  time. 

Previous  Mongol  sovereigns  had,  in  accordance  with  the 
custom  of  their  nation,  always  taken  measures 

onazan  s  mauso-  * 

leum  and  chant-  to  have  the  place  of  their  burial   concealed. 
Ghazan,  on  the  other  hand,  specified  the  place 
1  Howorth,  loc.  «'/.,  p.  491. 


46         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  I 

where  he  should  be  buried,  and  spent  large  sums  in  erecting 
and  endowing  round  about  his  mausoleum  a  monastery 
for  dervishes,  colleges  for  the  Shafi'i  and  Hanaff  sects,  a 
hospital,  a  library,  an  observatory,  a  philosophical  academy, 
a  residence  for  sayyids,  a  fountain,  and  other  public  build- 
ings. Annual  endowments  amounting  to  over  a  hundred 
tdtndns,  or  a  million  pieces  of  money,  were  provided  for 
the  maintenance  of  these  establishments,  and  every  possible 
precaution  was  taken  to  secure  these  revenues  to  their  ori- 
ginal use.  Round  about  the  mausoleum  and  its  dependent 
buildings  grew  up  the  suburb  of  Ghazaniyya,  which  soon 
rivalled  Tabriz  itself  in  size  and  surpassed  it  in  beauty. 


KHUDA-BANDA  (A.D.  1305-1316). 

Ghazan  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Uljaytu  the  son 

of  Arghun,  who  was  crowned  on  July  21,  1305,  under  the 

name  of  Uljaytu   Muhammad    Khuda-banda, 

Reign  of  Ul-  J    • 

jaytu(A.n.  being  at  the  time  twenty-four  years  of  age. 
1305-1316)  As  a  child  he  had)  at  the  desire  of  his  mother 

Uruk  Khatun,  been  baptised  into  the  Christian  church 
under  the  name  of  Nicolas,  but  later  he  was  converted 
to  Islam  by  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married  at  a  very 

early  age.  In  his  youth  he  had  received  the 
?L!Sirme  curious  name  of  Khar-banda  ("ass-servant,"  i.e. 

ass-herd  or  muleteer),  which  was  afterwards 
changed  to  Khuda-banda  ("  servant  of  God  ").  On  the 
former  name  Rashi'du'd-Din  has  the  following  verses  in 
the  preface  to  vol.  i  of  his  great  history  : 


CH.  i]  KHUDA-BANDA  (A.D.  1305-1316)  47 


The  point  of  these  verses,  which  are  hardly  worth  trans- 
lating in  their  entirety,  is  that  the  sum  of  the  numerical 
values  of  the  nine  letters  constituting  the  words  Shah  Khar- 
banda  («jcjj^.  ali)  is  equivalent  to  that  of  the  fifteen  letters 
in  the  words  Sdya-i-Khds-i-Afartnanda  («jUijjjl  ±jo\±.  px»L»), 
for  the  first  gives  300  +  I  +  5+600+200+2  +  50+4  +  5  =  1 167, 
and  the  second  60  +  i  +  10  +  5  +  600  +1+90  +  1  +  80  +  200 
+  10+50 +50 +  4+5  =  1 167.  Since  in  the  Muhammadan, 
as  in  the  Jewish  view,  words  giving  the  same  numerical 
equivalent  are  in  some  sense  identical,  the  King's  name, 
Khar-banda,  is  shown  to  be  equivalent  to  Sdya-i-Khds-i- 
Afarinanda,  the  "Special  Shadow  (i.e.  Protection)  of  the 
Creator."  According  to  Dawlatshah1  (an  author  on  whose 
uncritical  statements  no  reliance  whatever  can  be  placed), 
"  when,  on  the  death  of  Arghun  Khan,  Ghazan  Khan  be- 
came king,  Uljaytu  Khan  fled  from  him,  and  for  some  years 
wandered  with  the  ass-herds  in  the  district  of  Kirman  and 
Hurmuz,  on  which  account  he  was  called  Khar-banda,  'the 
Ass-herd.'  But  others  say  that  this  is  not  so,  but  that  the 
parents  of  a  very  beautiful  child  give  him  an  ugly  name, 
so  that  the  evil  eye  may  not  affect  him,  and  that  on  this 
account  he  was  called  Khar-banda*" 

1  P.  217  of  my  edition. 

2  For  another  explanation   see  the    Travels  of   Ibn   Batuta  (ed. 
Defremery  and  Sanguinetti),  vol.  ii,  p.  115. 


48         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

Even  before  Uljaytu  was  crowned,  it  was  deemed  expe- 
dient to  get  rid  of  his  cousin  Alafrank  as  a  possible  claimant 

to  the  throne,  and  he,  as  well  as  the  general 
to  death  "  Harqadaq,  was  accordingly  assassinated  by 

three  Mongol  officers.  Uljaytu's  first  act  was  to 
confirm  the  laws  of  his  predecessor  Ghazan,  and  to  ordain 
the  strict  observance  of  the  S/iarf'at,  or  Canon  Law  of 
Islam;  and  he  appointed  Rashi'du'd-Dfn  the  historian  and 
physician,  and  Sa'du'd-Di'n  of  Sawa  as  joint  Chancellors  of 
the  Exchequer,  with  absolute  authority  over  his  Persian  as 
opposed  to  his  Mongolian  subjects.  He  visited  the  cele- 
brated observatory  of  Maragha,  and  installed  Asflu'd-Din, 
the  son  of  the  eminent  Nasiru'd-Din  of  Tus  (who,  as  already 
mentioned,  had  died  in  1272-3),  as  Astronomer-royal1. 
Abu  Sa'i'd,  the  son  and  successor  of  Uljaytu,  was  born  in  the 
year  of  the  latter's  accession,  and  in  the  same  year  was  de- 
posed Shah  Jahan,  the  last  sovereign  of  the  Qara-Khita'i 
dynasty  of  Kirman.  In  the  same  year  was  founded  the 

royal  city  of  Sultaniyya2,  near  Zanjan,  which 

Sultaniyya  i     ,t  •       ,  •  ,  • 

founded  soon  assumed  the  most  majestic  proportions. 

Now  it  is  an  almost  uninhabited  ruin,  conspicu- 
ous only  for  its  magnificent  though  dilapidated  mosque; 
but  the  name  of  the  royal  founder  is  still  remembered  in 
the  following  doggerel,  which  I  heard  from  an  old  man 
who  accompanied  me  round  the  mosque  when  I  visited  it 
in  November,  1887: 


"  O  Shah  Khuda-banda,  worker  of  injustice,  two  fowls  for  one  village  !  " 

The  last  line  is  Turkish,  but  I  have  never  been  able  to 
ascertain  to  what  it  alludes. 

1  The  death  of  Asflu'd-Din  is  recorded  in  the  MujmatofFusihi  under 
the  year  A.  H.  7  1  4  (A.D.  1  3  1  4-  1  5).  Abu'l-Faraj  Bar-  H  ebraeus  gives  the  date 
of  Nasfru'd-Din's  death  as  675/1  276-7  (Beyrouted.  of  1890,  pp.  500-501). 

2  Tafrtkh-i-Waffdfi  pp.  477-8.     The  author  gives  a  long  poem  by 
himself  on  this  event,  at  the  end  of  which  he  mentions  "  the  day  of 
Anfran  in  the  month  of  Farwardfn  in  the  year  A.H.  710"  as  the  date 
when  his  poem  was  completed  (March-April,  A.D.  1311). 


CH.  i]  CLJAYTC'S  EMBASSIES  49 

Two  months  after  Uljaytu's  succession  he  received  em- 
bassies from  three  of  the  Mongol  rulers  (of  whom  Ti'mur 
Oa'an,  Emperor  of  China,  was  the  most  im- 

Ambassadors  i   •    i      i        i     • 

received  and        portant)  to  announce  the  truce  which  had  just 
^es?f,t.c,hec!          been  concluded  between  them.    Three  months 

by  Uljaytu 

later  arrived  an  embassy  from  Tuqtay,  and 
shortly  afterwards  Uljaytu  despatched  ambassadors  to 
Egypt,  to  assure  Sultan  Ndsir  of  his  friendly  disposition. 
He  was  also  in  correspondence  with  Philip  le  Bel,  Edward 
the  Second,  and  Pope  Clement  V.  The  bearer  of  the  II- 
khan's  letters  to  and  from  these  potentates  was  Thomas 
Ildouchi1,  who,  as  d'Ohsson  observes  (vol.  iv,  pp.  590-8), 
evidently  concealed  from  the  European  courts  to  which  he 
was  accredited  the  fact  that  his  master  Uljaytu  had  em- 
braced Islam;  for  the  letters  on  both  sides  are  extant,  and 
both  Edward  II  (in  a  letter  dated  Nov.  30,  1307)  and 
Pope  Clement  V  (in  a  letter  dated  March  i,  1308)  assume 
explicitly  that  Uljaytu  would  help  them  in  extirpating 
what  they  describe  as  "  the  abominable  sect  of  Mahomet." 
Uljdytu,  meanwhile,  was  preoccupied  with  devising  some 
test  whereby  he  might  prove  the  sincerity  of  the  numerous 
Jews  who  at  this  time  desired  to  profess  Islam.  This  was 
finally  effected  by  the  learning  of  Rashidu'd-Din,  who,  as 
his  history  shows,  was  thoroughly  conversant  with  Jewish 
tradition  and  doctrine,  and  was  even  accused  by  his  ene- 
mies of  being  a  Jew,  or  of  regarding  Judaism  with  undue 
favour.  The  intending  proselyte  was  bidden  to  partake  of 
camel's  flesh  seethed  in  milk,  and  the  sincerity  of  his  con- 
version was  judged  by  his  readiness  to  eat  this  doubly- 
unlawful  food.  It  was  about  this  time  also  (April  14, 
1306)  that  the  aforesaid  Rashidu'd-Din  presented  the 
finished  portion  of  his  great  historical  work,  the  Jdmi'u't- 
Tawdrikh  to  Uljaytu. 

The  chief  wars  of  Uljaytu's  reign  were  the  conquest  of 
Gilan  in  the  early  summer  of  1307  and  the 
capture  of  Herat  in  the  latter  part  of  the  same 

1  Cf.  p.  1 1  supra,  and  n.  2  ad  calc. 
B.  P.  4 


50         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

year.  In  both  campaigns  a  gallant  resistance  was  made,  and 
success  was  not  achieved  by  the  Mongols  without  serious 
losses.  In  the  defence  of  Herat  especially  the  most  con- 
spicuous courage  and  resource  were  shown  by  the  Ghuri 
captain,  Muhammad  Sam,  to  whose  charge  the  city  had 
been  entrusted  by  Fakhru'd-Dm  Kurt.  He 

Executions  1-111  i 

was,  however,  ultimately  taken  by  treachery 
and  put  to  death.  Amongst  other  notable  persons  who 
suffered  death  in  Uljaytu's  reign  were  Musa  the  Kurd,  who 
claimed  to  be  the  Mahdi  or  appointed  Saviour  of  Islam ; 
Sa'du'd-Dm,  the  associate  and  later  the  rival  of  Rashfdu'd- 
Di'n,  who  was  executed  on  a  charge  of  peculation  from  the 
treasury;  and  Taju'd-Din  Awaji,  an  extreme  Shi'ite,  who 
had  tried  to  convert  Uljaytu  to  his  doctrines.  But  what  the 
unfortunate  Taju'd-Dm  failed  to  accomplish  nevertheless 

was  brought  about  by  other  means.  Uljaytu  be- 
s  '  longed  to  the  Hanafi  sect,  the  doctors  of  which, 

relying  on  the  royal  favour,  waxed  arrogant, 
until  the  King  was  induced  by  his  minister  Rashidu'd- 
Din  to  incline  to  the  Shafi'f  doctrine.  Thereupon  violent 
disputes  took  place  in  Uljaytu's  presence  between  the  repre- 
sentatives of  these  two  Sunni  schools,  who,  in  the  heat  of 
controversy,  brought  against  each  other  such  abominable 
accusations  that  Uljaytu  was  greatly  annoyed  with  both,  and 
even  the  Mongol  nobles,  who  were  by  no  means  squeamish, 
professed  disgust,  and  began  to  ask  whether  it  was  for  this 
that  they  had  abandoned  the  faith  of  their  ancestors,  to 
which  they  now  called  on  Uljaytu  to  return.  The  Il-khan 
was  further  alarmed  by  a  violent  thunder-storm  by  which 
he  was  overtaken  about  this  time,  and  which,  according  to 
the  Mongols  and  their  bakshis  or  priests  (who,  expelled  by 
Ghazan,  would  appear  to  have  returned  to  Persia  under  his 
successor,  unless,  as  d'Ohsson  implies,  they  were  brought 
back  ad  hoc)  was  a  signal  of  the  Divine  displeasure1.  For 
some  time  he  was  distracted  with  doubt,  until  at  length  he 
was  persuaded  by  the  Amir  Taramtaz  to  follow  Ghazan's 
1  D'Ohsson,  vol.  iv,  pp.  536-541. 


CH.  i]  ABtJ  SA'fD  (A.D.  1317-1334)  51 

example  and  adopt  the  Shf'ite  creed.  This  he  ultimately 
did1,  after  he  had  visited  'All's  tomb  and  there  seen  a  vision 
which  convinced  him  that  the  homage  of  the  faithful  was  due, 
after  the  Prophet,  to  'All  ibn  Abi  Talib  and  his  descendants. 
Uljaytu  conducted  one  campaign  against  Syria,  of  which 
the  chief  event  was  the  siege  of  Rahbat,  which,  however,  the 

Mongols  were  obliged  to  raise  when  the  town 
^nTtT'ria  was  reduced  to  the  last  extremity  on  account 

of  the  heat  and  the  scarcity  of  provisions.  As 
the  result  of  dissensions  between  the  brothers  of  the  house 
of  Qatada  who  ruled  Mecca  alternately  according  to  the 
fortune  of  war,  Uljaytu's  name  was  for  a  while  substituted 
in  public  prayer  in  the  Holy  City  for  that  of  the  Egyptian 
Sultan  Nasir. 

Uljaytu  died  at  Sultaniyya  from  the  sequelae  of  an  attack 
of  gout  on  December  16,  1316,  at  the  comparatively  early 

age  of  thirty-five.     He  is  described  as  "virtuous, 

Death  of  J 

uijaytu  in  liberal,  not  readily  influenced  by  calumny  ;  but, 
like  all  Mongol  princes,  addicted  to  spirituous 
drinks,  and  chiefly  occupied  with  his  pleasures."  His  funeral 
obsequies  were  celebrated  with  great  pomp,  and  he  was 
mourned  by  his  subjects  for  eight  days.  He  had  twelve 
wives,  who  bore  him  six  sons  and  three  daughters,  but  five 
of  the  former  and  one  of  the  latter  died  in  childhood. 
His  surviving  son,  Abu  Sa'id,  succeeded  him ;  his  two 
surviving  daughters  were  married  to  the  Amir  Chuban,  and 
one  of  them,  Sati  Beg,  subsequently  held  for  a  short  time 
the  position  of  queen  in  the  year  1339. 

ABU  SA'ID  (A.D.  1317-1334). 

Abu  Sa'id,  who  was  in  Mazandaran  at  the  time  of  his 
father's  death,  was  crowned  in  April,  1317,  being  then  under 
Reign  of  Abu      thirteen  years  of  age.     The  Amir  Chuban  was 
Sa'id  (A.D.  1317    made  Amiru'l-  Umard,  while  'Ah'-shah  was  asso- 
ciated  with    Rashidu'd-Din   Fadlu'llah  in  the 

1  The  inscription  on  one  of  his  coins  affords  proof  of  this.    See 
d'Ohsson,  vol.  iv,  p.  541  ad  calc. 

4—2 


52         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

wazirate.  Between  these  two  ministers  there  existed  a 
great  rivalry,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  one  or  other 
must  succumb.  The  victim  was  Rashidu'd-Di'n,  whose 
greater  scrupulousness  and  honour  placed  him  at  a  disad- 
vantage. By  the  intrigues  of  his  rival  he  was  deposed  in 
October,  1317,  and  the  death  of  the  powerful  Amir  Savinj 
in  January,  1318,  deprived  him  of  his  chief  protector.  The 
Amir  Chuban  was  anxious  to  reinstate  him  in  office,  but 
though  he  pleaded  his  advanced  age  and  desired  only  to 
be  allowed  to  live  out  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  peace  and 
retirement,  his  rival  'Ali-shah  took  alarm,  renewed  his  in- 
trigues, and  succeeded  in  persuading  Abu  Sa'id  that  Rashidu 
'd-Din  and  his  youthful  and  comely  son  Khwaja  Ibrahim 
were  guilty  of  poisoning  the  late  ruler  Uljaytu.  Both  were 
condemned  to  death  and  executed  on  July  18, 

Execution  of  <->      T->       ^   >  i     >  •<    -r^>       i  ^1 

Rashfdu'd-Dm      I3i8,  Rashidu  d-Din  being  then  over  seventy 
and  his  son  in      years  °f  age-    His  body  was  outraged,  his  houses 

and  possessions  plundered,  and  his  relatives  and 
connections  subjected  to  all  sorts  of  persecution.  More 
will  presently  be  said  of  his  character,  learning,  charity  and 
literary  achievements. 

About  a  month  after  this  sad  event  (August,  1318)  began 
the  rebellion  of  Yasawur,  whose  ambition  led  him  to  covet 

the  province  of  Khurasan.      He  succeeded  in 

Rebellions 

compassing  the  death  of  Yasa  ul,  and,  having 
made  himself  master  of  Khurasan,  invaded  and  ravaged 
Mazandaran,  but  retired  before  Abu  Sa'fd's  general,  Amir 
Husayn  into  the  Garm-sir,  or  hot  region  bordering  on  the 
Persian  Gulf.  About  the  same  time  a  formidable  conspiracy 
of  Mongol  captains,  such  as  Iranchin1,  Tuqmaq  and  Isen- 
buq£  was  formed  against  Chuban,  but  the  latter,  supported 
by  Abu  Sa'fd,  utterly  defeated  them  near  Ujan  in  June, 
1319,  and  those  of  the  rebel  leaders  who  did  not  perish  in 
the  battle  were  put  to  death  with  every  circumstance  of 

1  Or  Irinjin,  the  nephew  of  Doquz  KMtun.     See  Chabot's  Hist,  de 
Mar  Jabalaha  III,  p.  141  adcalc. 


CH.  i]  ABti  SA'fD  (A.D.  1317-1334)  53 

ignominy  and  cruelty  at  Sultaniyya.  Amongst  the  victims 
was  Kinjik  (or  Kikhshik,  or  Kichik),  the  grand-daughter  of 
Abaqa  and  wife  of  Iranchin,  who  had  fought  with  con- 
spicuous bravery  in  the  battle  to  avenge  the  death  of  her 
son  Shaykh  'Ah',  and  was  now,  according  to  Nuwayri's 
account1,  trampled  to  death  by  horses  at  the  command  of 
Abu  Sa'id.  Two  months  later  Chuban  was  rewarded  by 
being  given  in  marriage  Satf  Beg,  the  king's  sister,  while 
the  king,  to  commemorate  his  valour  in  this  battle,  took  the 
title  of  Bahadur  Khan. 

The  years   1318-1319  were    remarkable   for   grievous 
famines  in  Asia  Minor  and  elsewhere,  followed  in  1320  by 
terrific  hail-storms.     Abu  Sa'id,  much  alarmed, 
LTstorm1?         consulted  the  theologians  as  to  the  cause  of  these 
calamities.     They  ascribed  them  to  the  laxity 
which    prevailed    about    wine-drinking    and    prostitution, 
taverns  and  brothels  being  in  many  cases  situated  close  to 
mosques  and  colleges.    Abu  Sa'id  thereupon  closed  all  dis- 
orderly houses,  and  caused  an  enormous  quan- 
Suppression         tjt     Qf     •       to  b     destroyed,  but  he  allowed 

of  taverns  *  * 

one  wine-shop  to  remain  for  the  use  of  travellers 
in  each  district.  These  measures  produced  a  very  good 
impression  in  Egypt,  and  facilitated  the  conclusion  of  a 
treaty  between  Abu  Sa'id  and  Sultan  Nasir,  the  Egyptian 
ruler,  who  had  recently  carried  his  hostility  against  the 

Mongols  so  far  as  to  send  thirty  assassins  of  the 

Assassins  em-  °  . 

ployed  against  Isma'ili  sect  from  Syria  to  attempt  the  life  ot 
Qara  Sunqur.  Although  this  attempt  mis- 
carried, it  greatly  alarmed  the  Mongols,  and  both  sides  were 
thus  prepared  to  come  to  terms  and  to  set  aside  their 
ancient  feuds.  A  treaty  was  ultimately  concluded  in  1323 
between  the  two  states,  after  a  Mongol  princess2  (a  grand- 

1  D'Ohsson,  vol.  iv,  pp.  636  and  641  ad  calc.  According  to  another 
account  she  perished  in  the  battle,  while  WassaT  (p.  645)  says  she  was 
stoned  to  death,  and  her  body  cast  naked  into  the  street. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  655-6.  The  princess's  journey  from  Sardy  to  Alex- 
andria, where  she  arrived  in  April,  1320,  occupied  nearly  six  months. 


54         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

daughter  of  Batu)  had  been  given  in  marriage  to  Sultan 
Nasir  in  1320. 

In  1322  Timur-Tash  the  son  of  Chuban  revolted  in  Asia 
Minor  and  declared  himself  to  be  the  expected  Mahdi  or 
Revolt  of  Messiah,  but  he  was  overcome  by  his  father,  par- 

Tfmur-Tash  doned,  and  ultimately  reinstated  in  his  govern- 
ment by  Abu  Sa'id.  About  the  same  time  Armenia  was  de- 
Armenia  vastated  by  the  Egyptians,and  Popejohn  XXII 

devastated  endeavoured  to  stir  up  the  European  powers  on 
their  behalf;  to  which  end  he  wrote  a  letter  (dated  July  12, 
I322)1  to  Abu  Sa'id  asking  him  to  aid  them,  and  exhorting 
him  at  the  same  time  to  embrace  the  Christian  faith.  He 
also  appointed2  a  Dominican  named  Fra^ois  de  Peruse 
archbishop  of  Sultaniyya. 

Early  in  1324  died  the  prime  minister  'Ali-shah,  who 
was  chiefly  remarkable  as  the  first  Mongol  wazir  to  die  a 
Abu  Sa'id  natural  death.  He  was  succeeded  by  Ruknu'd- 

becomes  Din  Sa'in,  who  enjoyed  the  support  of  the 

impatient  J    J  rr 

great  Amir  Chuban.     The  power  of  this  Amir, 


power  however,  began  to  arouse  the  jealousy  of  Abu 

Sa'id,  now  about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  an  open 
rupture  was  precipitated  by  Abu  Sa'id's  passion  for  Baghdad 
Khatun,  the  daughter  of  Chuban  and  wife  of  Shaykh  Hasan 
Jala'ir,  and  by  the  intrigues  of  the  ungrateful  Ruknu'd-Dm 
against  his  benefactor.  A  threatened  invasion  of  Khurasan 
by  the  Mongols  of  Transoxiana  obliged  Chuban  and  his  son 
Husayn  to  be  present  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the  empire, 
while  another  son  named  Dimashq  Khwaja,  against  whom 
Abu  Sa'id  was  already  incensed,  remained  at  the  court, 
which  returned  from  its  winter  quarters  at  Baghdad  to 
Sultaniyya  in  the  spring  of  1327.  Abu  Sa'id,  growing  daily 
more  impatient  of  Dimashq  Khwaja's  arrogance  and  im- 
morality, only  awaited  a  reasonable  excuse  to  destroy  him. 

1  A  translation  of  this  letter  is  given  by  d'Ohsson,  vol.  iv,  pp.  662-3. 

2  D'Ohsson,  vol.  iv,  p.  664.     This  appointment  was  made  on  May  i, 
1318.     The  first  archbishop  resigned  in  1323,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Guillaume  d'Ada. 


CH.  i]  DEATH  OF  AMfR  CHtfBAN  55 

Nor  had  he  to  wait  long,  for  about  this  time  it  was  discovered 
that  Dimashq  was  engaged  in  an  intrigue  with  one  of 
Uljaytu's  former  concubines.  Finding  himself  detected,  he 

endeavoured  to  escape,  but  was  overtaken  and 
Kh™*jaqput  put  to  death,  and  his  head  was  exhibited  over 
to  death  in  one  of  the  gates  of  Sultaniyya.  This  took  place 

on  August  25,  I3271.  He  left  four  daughters, 
of  whom  the  most  notable  was  Dilshdd  Kh^tun.  She  was 
married  first  to  Abu  Sa'i'd,  to  whom  she  bore  a  posthumous 
daughter  who  died  in  infancy,  and  afterwards  to  Shaykh 
Hasan  Il-khanf,  to  whom  she  bore  Sultan  Uways  and  another 
son.  This  Sultan  Uways  reigned  at  Baghdad  from  1356- 
1374,  and  was,  as  we  shall  see,  a  notable  patron  of  poets 
and  men  of  letters  and  learning. 

Abu  Sa'i'd,  having  taken  this  decisive  step,  resolved  to 
exterminate  Chuban  and  his  whole  family.    Chuban,  warned 

of  the  king's  intention,  first  put  to  death  the 
Death  of  wazir,  Ruknu'd-Dm  Sa'in,  and  then  collected 

Chubdn  • 

his  troops,  to  the  number  of  seventy  thousand, 
and  marched  westwards,  first  to  Mashhad  and  then  to 
Simnan,  whence  he  sent  the  venerable  Shaykh  'Ala'd-Di'n 
to  intercede  for  him  with  Abu  Sa'i'd.  The  Il-khan  was  not 
to  be  moved,  and  Chuban  continued  his  advance  westwards 
until  he  arrived  within  a  day's  march  of  Abu  Sa'i'd.  All 
seemed  to  be  in  Chuban's  favour,  until  some  of  his  most 
important  amirs  deserted  to  the  king,  taking  with  them 
some  thirty  thousand  men.  Thereupon  Chuban  retreated, 
first  to  Savva,  where  he  left  his  wives  Karduchi'n  and  Sati 
Beg,  and  then  to  Tabas.  His  followers  continued  to  desert 
him  until  he  was  finally  left  with  only  seventeen  persons. 
He  then  decided  to  take  refuge  at  Herat  with  Ghiyathu'd- 
Din  Kurt,  who,  however,  betrayed  him,  and  caused  him  and 
his  chief  officers  to  be  strangled.  His  body  was,  by  the 
Il-khan's  order,  conveyed  to  al-Madfna  with  great  pomp, 

1  Ibn  Batiita  gives  a  full  account  of  the  death  of  Dimashq  Khwaja. 
See  vol.  ii,  pp.  117-119. 


56         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

and  there  buried  in  the  tomb  which  he  had  prepared  for 
himself1. 

Abu  Sa'i'd  was  now  free  to  marry  Baghdad  Khatun,  but, 

though  she  soon  acquired  a  great  influence  over  him,  he  did 

not  cease  persecuting  her  family.     Another  of 

Fate  of  Chuban  s  » 

son  Timtir-Tash,  Chuban's  sons,Ti'mur-Tash,  who  was  governor  of 
Asia  Minor,  took  refuge  at  the  Egyptian  court, 
where  he  arrived  on  January  21,  1328.  He  was  at  first  well 
received,  sumptuously  entertained,  and  given  an  allowance 
of  1500  dinars  a  day;  but  the  urgent  demands  of  Abii  Sa'i'd 
for  his  extradition,  combined  with  the  intrigues  of  the 
Egyptian  Sultan's  courtiers,  soon  decided  the  latter  to  get 
rid  of  him.  For  a  while  he  hesitated  between  the  extradi- 
tion and  the  execution  of  his  once  powerful  guest,  but  finally 
he  decided  to  kill  him,  fearing  lest,  if  he  were  sent  to  Abu 
Sa'i'd,  the  intercession  of  his  sister  Baghdad  Khatun  and  his 
old  friend  Ghiyathu'd-Din,  the  son  of  the  great  Rashi'du'd- 
Di'n,  now  himself  prime  minister,  might  induce  the  f  1-khan 
to  forgive  him,  and  that,  should  this  happen,  he  would 
certainly  seek  to  revenge  himself  on  the  Egyptians.  Timur- 
Tash  was  therefore  put  to  death  in  prison  on  the  night  of 
Thursday,  August  22,  1328,  and  his  head,  embalmed  and 
placed  in  a  casket,  was  sent  to  Abu  Sa'i'd. 

Of  the  waztr  Ghiyathu'd-Din  b.  Rashidu'd-Di'n  the  con- 
temporary historian  Hamdu'llah  Mustawfi  ofQazwin  speaks 
in  enthusiastic  terms  in  his  Ta'rikh-i-Giizida, 

Ministry  of  Ghi-  /-.    i  T  T  •  »        i   •    i     •       i      i-  i  i   • 

yathu'd-Dinb.  or  Select  History,  which  is  dedicated  to  him. 
Rashidu-d-Dm  «<That  minister  of  good  repute,"  he  says,  "like 

his  illustrious  father,  made  the  most  admirable  efforts  to 
secure  the  order  of  the  world  ;  and  inasmuch  as  to  pardon 
when  one  has  power  to  injure  is  the  extreme  of  human 
perfection,  and  all  the  greatest  of  former  ages  have  followed 
this  path,  and  thus  'obtained,  by  their  virtuous  conduct,  the 
highest  honour  and  an  enduring  name,  so  this  minister  of 
angelic  temperament,  inspired  by  the  certainty  of  his  con- 
victions, did  even  more  than  this,  for,  instead  of  punishing 

1  See  Ibn  Batiita,  vol.  ii,  pp.  119-121. 


CH.  i]     THE  KURT  RULERS  OF  HERAT       57 

those  who  had  wrought  towards  his  noble  family  ill  deeds 
whereof  the  recapitulation  would  disgust  the  hearts  of  my 
hearers,  he  drew  the  pen  of  forgiveness  through  the  record 
of  their  crimes,  recompensed  their  evil  actions  with  good, 
and  made  each  one  of  them  an  exemplar  of  the  prosperity 
of  this  Empire,  raising  them  to  the  highest  ranks,  and  en- 
trusting to  them  the  most  important  functions,  so  that  each 
now  beholds  with  his  own  eyes  that  which  he  did  most 
ardently  desire1." 

This  complaisance  of  Ghiyathu'd-Din  nearly  caused  his 
destruction  when  the  rebellious  Amir  Nan'n  Buqa  sought  his 
intercession  with  Abu  Sa'id  at  the  very  moment  when  he 
was  plotting  the  minister's  assassination.  On  this  occasion, 
however,  the  king,  prompted  by  his  wife  Baghdad  Khatun, 
who  hated  Nan'n  Buqa  as  the  destroyer  of  her  father  and 
brothers,  intervened,  and  caused  the  rebel  and  his  con- 
federate Tash-Timur  to  be  executed  on  October  5,  1327. 

The  last  years  of  AbuSa'i'd's  reign  saw  numerous  changes 

in  the  Kurt  kings  of  Herat    Ghiyathu'd-Din  died  in  October, 

1329,  and    was    succeeded   by  his  eldest  son 

Kurt  rukrs          Shamsu'd-Di'n,  who  was  so  much  addicted  to 

of  Herat 

drink  that  it  was  said  that  during  a  reign  of  ten 
months  he  was  only  sober  for  ten  days.  He  was  succeeded 
by  his  younger  brother  Hafiz,  a  gentle  scholar,  who  was 
assassinated  in  1332,  and  replaced  by  his  infant  brother 
Mu'izzu'd-Din,  whose  election  was  approved  by  Abu  Sa'id. 
He  enjoyed  a  long  reign  of  forty  years,  and  was  followed 
by  his  son,  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Pir  'All,  in  whose  time  the 
dynasty,  which  had  endured  since  1245,  was  extinguished 
by  Tamerlane. 

In  August,  1335,  Abu  Sa'id,  having  learned  that  Uzbek, 

the  Khan  of  the  Golden  Horde,  intended  an  invasion  of  his 

Death  of  dominions,   was    preparing   to    take   the   field 

Abu  Sa'rd  against  him  when  he  fell  ill,  and  died  at  Qara- 

bagh  near  Arrdn  on  Nov.  30  of  that  year.     He 

1  See  p.  611  of  the  fac-simile  edition  of  the  Tc?rtkh-i-Guzida  pub- 
lished in  the  "  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial "  Series,  vol.  xiv,  i. 


58         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

is  described  by  Ibn  Taghribardi  as  "  a  brave  and  brilliant 
prince  of  majestic  appearance,  generous  and  witty."  He 
was  a  good  calligraphist,  composer  and  musician,  and  is 
praised  by  this  historian  not  only  for  his  good  moral 
character  and  for  his  suppression  of  the  drink  traffic,  but 
also  for  his  destruction  of  the  Christian  churches.  It  is 
suggested  by  Mirkhwand  and  positively  asserted  by  Ibn 
Batuta1  that  Abu  Sa'fd  was  poisoned  by  Baghdad  Khatun, 
who  was  jealous  of  the  ascendancy  obtained  by  her  younger 
rival  Dilshad  Khatun  over  the  f  1-khan2.  At  any  rate,  whether 
guilty  or  not,  Baghdad  Khatun  was  put  to  death3. 

With  Abu  Sa'id's  death  the  dynasty  of  the  Il-khans  of 
Persia,  founded  by  Hulagii  Khan,  practically  came  to  an 
end,  and  a  period  of  anarchy  ensued  which  lasted  until 
another  great  wave  of  conquest  from  the  land  of  Turan 
swept  over  Persia  and  Asia  Minor  thirty-five  years  later, 
led  by  the  ruthless  and  irresistible  conqueror  Timur-i-Lang 
("  Limping  Timur  "),  or,  as  he  is  commonly  called  in  Europe, 
Tamerlane.  By  a  strange  coincidence,  noticed  in  the 
Matla'u's-Sa'dayn*,  the  year  of  Timur's  birth  was  the  same 
as  that  of  Abu  Sa'i'd's  death,  and  the  chronogram  lawdh 
(±£  =  "  refuge  !  ")5  has  been  devised  for  it,  since  this  word 
gives  the  date  (A.H.  736)  according  to  the  Muhammadan 
computation,  and  men  might  well  seek  refuge  with  God 
from  this  double  calamity — the  death  of  Abu  Sa'i'd  and  the 
birth  of  Ti'mur — which  this  year  brought. 

On  the  death  of  Abu  Sa'i'd,  who  left  no  sons,  Arpa,  or 

Arpaga'un,    a   descendant   of    Arik-buqa,   the 

^Arpl0"  brother   of   Hulagu,  was,    at    the    instance   of 

the  minister  Ghiyathu'd-Din  b.  Rashfdu'd-Din, 

1  Ibn  Batuta,  vol.  ii,  p.  123. 

'2  See  Howorth's  History  of  the  Mongols,  pt.  3,  p.  624.  In  the 
first  line  of  this  page,  Nov.  30,  1334,  is  given  as  the  date  of  Abu  Sa'i'd's 
death.  This  error  is  apparently  due  to  a  careless  perusal  of  the  last 
paragraph  in  d'Ohsson's  Hist,  des  Mongols,  vol.  iv,  p.  716. 

3  The  manner  of  her  death  is  related  by  Ibn  Batuta,  vol.  ii,  p.  123. 

4  See  Rieu's  Persian  Catalogue,  p.  182. 

5  See  Howorth's  History  of  the  Mongols,  pt.  3,  p.  634. 


CH.  i]  COLLAPSE  OF  THE  fL-KHANS  59 

chosen  as  his  successor.  To  strengthen  his  position,  he 
married  Sati  Beg,  the  widow  of  Chuban  and  sister  of  Abu 
Sa'fd.  He  then  marched  against  Uzbek  and  defeated  him. 
But  meanwhile  Amir  'All  Padishah  and  other  amirs,  dis- 
approving of  Arpa's  election,  set  up  a  rival 
frivliSant  f  1-khan  in  the  person  of  Musa,  a  descendant  of 
Hulagu.  A  battle  took  place  between  the  two 
rivals  near  Maraghaon  April  29,  1336.  Arpa  was  defeated, 
and  both  he  and  the  wazir  Ghiyathu'd-Di'n  were  put  to 
death  shortly  afterwards.  Musa,  however,  was  not  suffered 
to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  victory  for  long :  another  rival, 
Muhammad  Shah,  also  descended  from  Hulagu,  was  set  up 
against  him  by  Shaykh  Hasan  the  Jala'ir  (called  Buznrg, 
"the  Great").  Another  battle  was  fought  at  Ala-Tagh  near 
the  town  of  Naw-Shahr,in  which,  by  the  treachery  of  Shaykh 
Hasan  Buzurg,  Musa  was  routed  and  'All  Padishah  killed. 
Yet  another  claimant  was  set  up  in  the  person  of  Tughay- 
Ti'mur,  who  joined  forces  with  Musa,  and  fought  another 
battle  with  Shaykh  Hasan  Buzurg  near  Maragha  in  June, 
1337,  in  which  Musa  was  taken  prisoner  and  put  to  death 
(July,  1337),  while  Tughay-Timur  fled  to  Bistam.  Shaykh 
Hasan,the  son  of  Timur-Tash,the  son  of  Chuban,now  added 
to  the  confusion  by  producing  a  pretender  whom  he  asserted 
to  be  his  father  Timur-Tash,  whose  execution  by  the  Sultan 
of  Egypt  has  been  already  mentioned.  A  battle  finally  took 
place  at  Nakhjuwan  on  July  10,  1338,  between  the  two 
Hasans,  in  which  Hasan  "the  Greater"  was  defeated,  while 
his  protege  Muhammad  Shah  was  taken  prisoner  and  put  to 
death.  Shaykh  Hasan  "the  Less"  (the  grandson  of  Chuban) 
now  quarrelled  with  the  pretended  Ti'mur-Tash,  and  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  princess  Sati  Beg,  the  sister  of  the  late 
king  Abu  Sa'fd  and  widow  of  his  grandfather  Chuban. 
She  was  proclaimed  queen  in  739  (i  338-9),  and  a  reconcilia- 
tion was  effected  between  the  two  Hasans. 

It  is  hardly  worth  following  these  intrigues  further. 
Those  who  desire  fuller  information  about  them,  and  about 
the  tortuous  policy  of  Shaykh  Hasan  "  the  Less,"  will  find 


60         THE  MONGOL  fL-KHANS  (A.D.  1265-1337)      [BK  i 

it  in  the  pages  of  d'Ohsson  and  Howorth.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  Tughay-Ti'mur  was  betrayed  by  the  astute  Shaykh 
Hasan  "  the  Less,"  who  then  set  up  another  puppet,  Sulay- 
man  Khan,  a  descendant  of  Hulagu,  and  gave  him  Sati  Beg 
in  marriage,  while  Hasan  "  the  Greater  "  set  up  as  a  rival  a 
descendant  of  Abaqa  named  Shah  Jahan  Tfmur.  A  battle 
took  place  between  the  two  factions  near  Maragha  in  1  340. 
Hasan  "the  Greater"  was  defeated,  retired  to  Baghdad, 
deposed  his  puppet  Shah  Jahan  Ti'mur,  and,  proclaiming 
himself  king,  founded  the  dynasty  —  more  important  in 
literary  than  in  political  history  —  of  the  Jala'irs,  who  reigned 
until  1411  over  Western  Persia  and  Mesopotamia,  with 
Baghdad  as  their  capital.  As  for  Hasan  "  the  Less,"  the 
grandson  of  Chuban,  he  was  murdered  in  1343,  while  march- 
ing to  attack  his  rival,  by  his  wife  'Izzat  Malik,  who  expiated 
her  crime  by  a  most  cruel  and  ignominious  death.  On  this 
event  the  contemporary  poet  Salman  of  Sawa  (who,  being 
a  protege  of  the  rival  Shaykh  Hasan,  was  delighted  at  the 
death  of  Chuban's  grandson)  has  the  following  verses1, 
which  hardly  bear  translation  : 


O-      *** 

The  Mongol  ascendancy  in  Persia  was  now  at  an  end, 
and,  until  Timur's  hordes  swept  over  the  country  (1384- 
I393)»  ^  was  divided  into  at  least  four  kingdoms,  those  of 
the  Jala'irs,  the  Muzaffan's,  the  Kurts  and  the  Sar-ba-dars, 
whose  history  will  be  considered  in  another  chapter. 

1  Habibrfs-Siyar,  vol.  iii,  p.  131  (Bombay  lithographed  ed.  of  A.D. 
1857).  I  cannot  find  these  lines  in  the  Bombay  lithographed  edition 
of  Salmon's  poems,  but  they  are  given  in  the  Matla<ln's-Saidayn. 


CH.  i]  END  OF  MONGOL  ASCENDANCY  61 

Besides  the  travels  of  Ibn  Batuta,  repeatedly  cited  in  the 
notes,  much  light  is  thrown  on  this  period  by  the  travels  in 
Persia  of  Friar  Odoric  of  Pordenone  about  A.D.  I3I81;  the 
particulars  given  about  "  Bousaet  "  or  "  Boussay  "  (i.e.  Abu 
Sa'fd)  and  his  kingdom  by  the  Archbishop  of  Sultaniyya 
in  a  tract  written  about  A.D.  1330;  and  the  narratives  of 
the  consuls  who  represented  Venetian  interests  in  Tabriz 
and  other  Persian  towns  between  the  years  A.D.  1305  and 
I3322. 

1  A  fine  edition  of  this  work,  edited  by  M.  Henri  Cordier,  was 
published  by  Leroux  of  Paris  in  1891. 

2  See  Howorth,  op.  cit.,  pt.  3,  628-633. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  HISTORIANS  OF  THE  IL-KHANI  PERIOD. 

The  period  of  about  seventy  years  which  we  are  now 

considering  is  chiefly  remarkable,  from  the  literary  point  of 

view,  for  the  large  number  of  eminent  Persian 

pre-eminently       historians  which  it  produced.    At  least  eight  of 

that  of  the          these  deserve  somewhat  detailed  notices,  besides 

great  historians 

a  rather  larger  number  of  notable  poets,  whose 
number  might  easily  be  increased  if  those  of  the  second 
rank  were  included.  Before  considering  these  Persian 
writers,  however,  a  few  words  must  be  said  about  the 
Arabic  literature  of  this  period  of  which  it  behoves  even 
students  whose  primary  interest  is  in  Persian  letters  to  have 
at  least  some  general  idea. 

So  long  as  the  Caliphate  endured  and  Baghdad  remained, 
in  theory  at  least,  the  metropolis  of  all  orthodox  Muslims, 

the  Arabic  language  held  throughout  those  wide 
Arabic  literature  Domains  a  position  analogous  to  that  of  Latin 

in  this  period 

in  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages ;  that  is  to 
say  it  was  not  only  (what  it  still  remains)  the  language  of 
theology,  philosophy  and  science,  but  also  to  a  large  extent 
of  diplomacy,  polite  society  and  belles  lettres.  The  over- 
throw of  the  Caliphate  by  the  Mongols  greatly  impaired  its 
position  and  diminished  its  prestige,  but  this  decline  did 
not  become  very  conspicuous  so  long  as  those  survived 
whose  education  had  been  completed  before  Islam  suffered 
this  great  disaster,  that  is  to  say  for  some  fifty  or  sixty 
years  after  the  fall  of  Baghdad.  In  the  later  periods  which 
we  have  to  consider  a  knowledge  of  contemporary  Arabic 
literature,  though  always  important,  becomes  less  essential 
to  the  student  of  Persian  history  and  letters,  but  at  this 


BK  I  CH.  n]  ARABIC  LITERATURE  63 

period  it  is  still  vital,  especially  in  the  domains  of  history, 
biography  and  travel,  not  to  mention  theology,  philosophy 
and  science,  where  it  continues  to  be  indispensable. 

The  Arabic  literature  with  which  we  are  here  concerned 

falls  into  three  classes.    First,  the  Arabic  works  of  bilingual 

Persians  whose  Persian  writings  entitle  them  to 

Three  classes  of  ment  jon  jn  the  literary  history  of  their  country. 

Arabic  literature 

important  to  the  Of  this  class  the  Qadi'l-Qudat  (Chief  Justice) 
student  of  Per-  N^iru'd-Dfn  al-Bayddwf  may  be  taken  as  an 
example.  Al-Bayda  ("the  White"),  from  which 
he  derived  his  cognomen,  is  the  Arabic  name  of  a  place  in 
Fars  so  called  on  account  of  a  white  tomb  (turbat-i-safidy 

(1)  Arabic  works    which  renders  it  conspicuous.     Al-Baydawi  is 
of  bilingual         best  known  as  the  author  of  the  famous  com- 
feaere mention    mentary  on  the  Quran  entitled  Asrdru't- Tamil, 
on  account  of       vvhich  is  written  in  Arabic2;  but  he  also  wrote 
tions  to  Persian    in  Persian  a  history  of  Persia  entitled  Nizdmu't- 
Hterature  Tawdrikh,  whereof  mention  will  be  made  in  the 
course  of  this  chapter.     To  speak  of  him  merely  as  a  his- 
torian of  the  second  rank  and  to  ignore  his  far  more  impor- 
tant work  as  a  commentator  would  be  to  do 

(2)  Arabic  works     ,    .  .     .          .  f,  ,.         .         ,   .  , 

which  profoundly  him  a  great  injustice,  secondly,  Arabic  works 
influenced  Per-  ^y  non-Persians  which  have  profoundly  in- 

sian  thought  .  ir->/ 

fluenced  Persian  thought,  such  as  the  Fusiisu  l- 
Hikam  and  other  writings  of  Shaykh  Muhiyyu'd-Din  ibnu'l- 
'Arabi,  and  the  writings  of  Shaykh  Sadru'd-Dm  of  Qonya 

(Iconium),  which  were  the  sources  whence  such 

(3)  Arabic  histori-  .        ,  T-II          >  i    T^/       «T     '      >    J       •        J 

cai,  geographical  mystical  poets  as  Fakhru  d-Din  Iraqi  derived 
and  biographical  tnejr  inspiration.  Thirdly,  and  most  important, 
Arabic  historical,  geographical  and  biographical 
works  which  throw  light  on  the  persons,  places,  circum- 
stances and  ideas  which  we  shall  meet  with  in  the  course 
of  our  investigations.  Amongst  these  special  mention 
must  be  made  of  the  lives  of  physicians  (  Tabaqatu'l-Atibbd) 

1  See  Nuzhattfl-Quliib  (ed.   G.  le    Strange),  vol.    xxiii,   I    of  the 
"  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series,  p.  122,  11.  21  et  seqq. 

-  See  Brockelmann's  Gesch.  d.  Arab.  Lift.,  vol.  i,  pp.  416-418. 


64        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

by  Ibn  Abi  Usaybi'a1  (d.  668/1270);  the  great  biographical 
work  of  Ibn  Khallikan  (d.  681/1282)  entitled  Wafaydtu'l- 
A'ydn*;  the  Athdru'l-Bildd  ("Monuments  of  the  Lands") 
of  Zakariyya  b.  Muhammad  al-Qazwinf3  (d.  682/1283)  ;  the 
general  history,  especially  important  for  the  Mongol  period, 
entitled  Mukhtasant  d-Duwal  of  Abu'l-Faraj  Bar-Hebraeus 
(d.  July  30,  1289)*;  the  well-known  history  of  Abu'1-Fida, 
Prince  of  Hamat  (d.  732/1331),  entitled  Al-Mukhtasar  f{ 
Ta  rikh? l-Bashar* ;  and  the  illuminating  travels  of  Ibn 
Batuta6  (d.  779/1377),  which  extended  over  a  period  of 
24  years  (1325-1349)  and  included  not  only  Persia  but  the 
greater  part  of  Asia  from  Constantinople  to  India  and 
China,  and  from  Arabia  to  Afghanistan  and  Transoxiana. 
The  student  of  Persian  history  and  literature  who  ignores 
these  books  is  cut  off  from  some  of  the  richest  sources  of 
trustworthy  information,  yet  they  are  constantly 
Value  of  the  neglected  even  by  experts  who  write  authorita- 

Atharul-Bilad  J 

tively  on  the  Persian  poets  and  other  kindred 
topics.  Take  only  the  "  Monuments  of  the  Lands "  of 
al-Qazwi'm  above  mentioned,  consider  the  following  list  of 
eminent  Persian  poets  to  whom  reference  is  made  under  the 
towns  wherein  they  were  born  or  where  they  spent  their 
lives,  and  see  how  much  information  about  them  is  given 
which  is  vainly  sought  in  the  Persian  tadhkiras  or  "  Memoirs  " 
commonly  consulted  on  such  matters7: — Anwari  (p.  242), 

1  Brockelmann's  Gesch.  d.  Arab.  Litt.,  vol.  i,  pp.  325-6.     The  text 
was  printed  at  Cairo  in  2  vols.,  1299/1882. 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  326-8.     This  work  is  accessible  to  the  English 
reader  in  the  excellent  translation  of  the  Baron  McGuckin  de  Slane, 
4  vols.,  London  and  Paris,  1843-1871. 

3  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  481-2  ;  published  by  Wiistenfeld  together  with 
the  better  known  but  less  valuable  'Aja'ibTi'l-Makhluqdt,  or  "  Wonders 
of  Creation  "  of  the  same  author  at  Gottingen  in  1818. 

4  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  349-350.      I  have  not  used   Pococke's  edition 
(Oxford,  1663),  but  the  text  printed  at  Beyrout  in  1890. 

5  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  44-46. 

6  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  256-7  ;    edited  with  a   French  translation  by 
Defre"mery  and  Sanguinetti  in  4  vols.  (Paris,  1853-1858, and  1869-1879). 

7  The  references  are  to  the  pages  of  Wiistenfeld's  edition,  which  is 


CH.  n],  TA'RlKH-I-JAHAN-GUSHA  65 

'Asjadf  (p.  278),  Awhadu'd-Din  Kirmani  (p.  164),  Fakhrf  of 
Jurjan  (p.  351),  Farrukhi  (p.  278),  Firdawsf  (pp.  278-9  and 
a  verse  from  the  Shdhndma  quoted  on  p.  135),  Jalal-i-Tabi'b 
(p.  257),  Jalal-i-Khwarf  (p.  243),  Khaqani  (pp.  272-3, 
where  3  bayts  of  his  poetry  are  cited,  and  p.  404),  Abu 
Tahir  al-Khatuni  (p.  259),  Mujfr  of  Baylaqan  (p.  345), 
Nizami  (pp.  351-2),  Nasir-i-Khusraw  (pp.  328-9),  Abu 
Sa'fd  ibn  Abi'l-Khayr  (pp.  241-2),  Sana'i  (p.  287),  Shams-i- 
Tabasi  (pp.  272-3),  'Umar-i-Khayyam  (p.  318),  'Unsuri 
(p.  278)and  Rashidu'd-Din  Watwat  (pp.  223-4).  Here, then, 
we  have  notices,  some  fairly  full  and  containing  matter  not 
to  be  found  elsewhere,  of  19  important  Persian  poets  who 
flourished  before  or  during  the  thirteenth  century,  these 
being  in  many  cases  the  oldest  notices  extant1,  since  the 
Lubdbul-Albdb  of  'Awfi  and  the  Chahdr  Maqdla,  "Four 
Discourses,"  of  Nizami-i-'Arudi  of  Samarqand  are  almost 
the  only  Persian  works  of  greater  antiquity  which  treat 
more  or  less  systematically  of  the  lives  of  Persian  poets. 
And  this  is  only  one  subject  out  of  many  interesting  to  the 
student  of  Persian  dealt  with  in  this  most  entertaining  work. 

We  must  now  pass  to  the  historians,  who,  as  I  have 
already  said,  are  by  far  the  most  important  writers  of  this 
period,  for,  while  other  periods,  both  earlier  and  later,  have 
produced  poets  alike  more  numerous  and  more  celebrated, 
none  have  produced  historians  comparable  in  merit  to  these. 

Of    'Ata    Malik-i-Juwaym"s    Tdrikh-i-Jahdn-guslid   or 

"  History  of  the  World-Conqueror "  (i.e.  Chingiz   Khan), 

repeated    mention  was    made  in  a   preceding 

The  Ta'rikh-i-     voiume2  but  something  more  must  be  added 

Jahan-gushd 

here.     It  was  completed  in  658/1260,  but  con- 

the  standard  one.  The  work  has  not  been  translated,  so  far  as  I  know, 
into  any  European  language. 

1  On  p.  334  of  the  AthdruH-Bildd  the  author  tells  us  that  he  met 
Shaykh  Muhiyyu'd-Din  ibnu'l-'Arabf  in  630/1232-3,  while  the  author's 
autograph  copy  of  the  book  is  dated  674/1275-6,  so  that  its  composition 
lies  between  these  limits. 

2  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  where  the  chief  references  are  pp.  434, 
435.  443  and  473- 

B.  P.  5 


66        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

eludes  with  the  events  of  the  year  655/1257,  notably  the 
destruction  of  the  Assassins  by  the  author's  master  and 
patron  Hulagu  Khan.  Some  few  MSS.  contain  an  Appendix 
describing  the  sack  of  Baghdad,  which  took  place  in  the 
following  year,  but  this  is  probably  an  addition  by  a  later 
hand.  The  work  comprises  three  parts,  of  which  the  first 
deals  with  the  history  of  Chingfz  Khan  and  his  ancestors, 
and  his  successors  down  to  Chaghatay  ;  the  second  relates 
the  history  of  the  Khwarazm-shahs,  especially  of  the  two 
last  rulers  of  this  dynasty,  Qutbu'd-Di'n  Muhammad  and 
his  son  Jalalu'd-Dfn  ;  while  the  third  treats  of  the  Isma'i'lf 
sect  and  especially  of  Hasan-i-Sabbah  and  his  successors, 
the  Assassins  of  Alamut.  The  work  is  therefore  not  a 
general  history,  but  a  historical  monograph  on  Chingfz 
Khan  and  his  predecessors  and  successors,  to  which  are 
added  accounts  of  the  two  chief  dynasties  with  which  he 
came  in  conflict  in  Persia  and  Mesopotamia.  Further  par- 
ticulars about  this  most  valuable  and  original  history  are 
given  in  an  article  which  I  contributed  to  the  J.R.A.S.  for 
January,  1904,  pp.  1-17,  and  the  first  and  second  of  the 
three  volumes  which  it  comprises  have  already  appeared 
(in  1912  and  1916  respectively)  in  the  "  E.  J.  W.  Gibb 
Memorial  "  Series  (xvi,  I  and  xvi,  2),  edited  by  my  learned 
friend  Mirza  Muhammad  ibn  'Abdu'l-Wahhab  of  Qazwin, 
who  has  prefixed  to  the  first  volume1  a  full  and  critical 
account  of  the  work  and  its  author,  and  of  the  family  of 
statesmen  to  which  he  belonged,  He  died  in  March  1283. 
His  brother  Shamsu'd-Dfn  the  Sdhib-Dzwdn  wrote  this 
verse  on  his  death  : 


"He  and  I,  thou  wouldst  say,  were  two  lamps  which  in  unison  shone  ; 
One  lamp  burneth  still,  but  alas  !  for  the  other  is  gone  !  " 


1  English  Introduction,  pp.  xv-xcii  ;  Persian  ditto,  ^.£5 — -^. 


Ill 


^>U^%tu!  r  /  ffij^b&Jj^t^jtf&jUj^ 
jw^J^ttu^^ 


j^oy 


tj^U*D>vJ 

»^f>cC^l**t/J 
'>&Jj&^w^ 

bj*i$^>.»yfajQj^ 

7^;A  6^  J^M^ii^2J!nI^^ 

W^>^^frfc^^&»j$jJ\^£  bUtjLu&J 

tM^j&j&b  -^bxjbJ^//^-^  U^L^ 


Colophon  of  the  oldest  MS.  of  the  Tdrikh-i-Jahdn-gushd  in  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale,  dated  A.H.  689  (A.D.  1290) 


To  face  p.  66 


CH.  n]  TA'RIKH-I-WASSAF  67 

The  following  chronogram  on  his  death  was  composed 
by  Sadru'd-Dm  'All,  the  son  of  Nasiru'd-Dm  of  Tus1  : 


O        J*  -5 

The   Tarikh-i-  Wassdf  was  intended,  as  its  author  in- 

forms us,  to  be  a  continuation  of  the  above-mentioned  his- 

tory, and  may  therefore  most  conveniently  be 

mentioned  next,  although  it  is  of  slightly  later 

date  than  the  Jdmi'u't-  Tawdrikh,  of  which  we 

shall  next  speak.     Its  proper  title  is  Tajziyatu'l-A  msdr  wa 

Tazjiyatiil-A'sdr  (the  "Allotment  of  Lands  and  Propulsion 

of  Ages"),  and  its  author,  though  commonly  known  simply  as 

Wassdf  (the  "  Panegyrist  ")or  Wassdf-i-Hadrat(\he  "Court 

Panegyrist  "),  was  properly  named  'Abdu'llah  ibn  Fadlu'llah 

of  Shiraz.     He  was  employed  in  the  collection  of  revenue 

for  the  Mongol  Government,  and  was  a  protege  of  the  great 

minister  Rashidu'd-Din,  who  presented  him  and  his  book  to 

Uliaytu.  as  he  himself  relates2,  at  Sultaniyya  on 

Dr  Rieu's  esti-  J    *  TT-I-  "T-.-H 

mate  of  its  merits    June    I,  A.D.    1^12.       HlS    history,    as    RlCU     Well 

says3,  "contains  an  authentic  contemporary 
record  of  an  important  period,  but  its  undoubted  value  is 
in  some  degree  diminished  by  the  want  of  method  in  its 
arrangement,  and  still  more  by  the  highly  artificial  character 
and  tedious  redundance  of  its  style.  It  was  unfortunately 
set  up  as  a  model,  and  has  exercised  a  baneful  influence  on 
the  later  historical  compositions  in  Persia."  That  these 
criticisms  are  fully  justified  will  be  denied  by  no  one  who 
has  occasion  to  use  the  work,  and  indeed  the  author  himself 

1  Both  these  verses  are  taken  from  the  Mujmal  of  Fasihf,  f.  466  of 
the  Raverty  MS.,  sub  anno  68  1. 

2  Pp.  544  etseqq.  of  the  fine  Bombay  lithograph  of  1269/1852-3. 

3  Cat.  of  Pers.  MSS.  in  Brit.  Mus.,  p.  162. 

5—2 


68        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

declares  that  to  write  in  the  grand  style  was  his  primary 
object,  and  that  the  historical  events  which  he  records 
served  merely  as  the  material  on  which  he  might  embroider 
the  fine  flowers  of  his  exuberant  rhetoric.  Uljaytii,  we  are 
told,  was  unable  to  understand  the  passages  read  aloud  to 
him  by  the  author  on  the  occasion  of  his  audience  ;  and  the 
reader  who  is  not  a  Persian  scholar  may  form  some  idea  of 
his  pompous,  florid  and  inflated  style  from  the  German 
translation  of  the  first  volume  published  with  the  text  by 
Hammer  in  1856.  We  could  forgive  the  author  more 
readily  if  his  work  were  less  valuable  as  an  original 
authority  on  the  period  (1257-1328)  of  which  it  treats, 
but  in  fact  it  is  as  important  as  it  is  unreadable.  It  com- 
prises five  volumes,  of  which  the  contents  are  summarily 
stated  by  Rieu  (op.  cit.,  pp.  162-3),  and  there  is,  besides  the 
partial  edition  of  Hammer  mentioned  above,  an  excellent 
lithographed  edition  of  the  whole,  published  at  Bombay  in 
Rajab,  1269  (April,  1853). 

Here,  perhaps,  mention  should   be  made  of  a  quasi- 
historical  work  similar  in  style  but  far  inferior  in  value 
to  that   just  mentioned,  I   mean  the  Mu'jam 

Mu'jam  ft  ,  J.  .,  .  . 

AthdriMuiukii-  fi  Athdri  Mtilukt I- lAjam,  a  highly  rhetorical 
account  of  the  ancient  Kings  of  Persia  down 
to  Sasanian  times,  written  by  Fadlu'llah  al-Husayni  and 
dedicated  to  Nusratu'd-Din  Ahmad  b.  Yusuf-shah,  Atabek 
of  Lur-i-Buzurg,  who  reigned  from  1296  to  about  1330. 
This  book,  which  is  vastly  inferior  to  the  other  histories 
mentioned  in  this  chapter,  has  been  lithographed  at  Tihran, 
and  manuscripts  of  it  are  to  be  found  in  most  large  Oriental 
libraries1. 

We    now    come   to   the    great  fdmfu't-Tawdrikk,    or 

"Compendium  of  Histories,"  of  which  incidental  mention 

has  been  made  in  the  last  chapter  in  con nee - 

™e-^iv'~      tion  with  its  illustrious  author  Rashfdu'd-Dfn 

/  awarlKn 

Fadlu'llah,  equally  eminent  as  a  physician,  a 

1  See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  p.  811  ;  Ethe*'s  Bodleian  Cat.,  No.  285  ; 
Ethels  India  Office  Cat.,  Nos.  534-5. 


CH.  n]  RASHfDU'D-DfN  FADLU'LLAH  69 

statesman,  a  historian,  and  a  public  benefactor.  Of  his 
public  career  and  tragic  fate  we  have  already  spoken,  but 
something  more  must  be  said  not  only  of  the  scope  and 
contents  of  his  history,  but  of  his  private  life  and  literary 
activity.  His  history,  unfortunately,  has  never  yet  been 
published  in  its  entirety, and  manuscripts  of  it  are  compara- 
tively rare,  but  amongst  the  published  portions  is  his  life  of 
„  .  ,  Hiilasru  Khan,  edited  by  Quatremere  at  Paris 

Quatremere  s  J      •*-' 

critical  account     in  1836,  with  a  French  translation  and  many 

valuable  notes,  under  the  title  of  Histoire  des 

Mongols  de  la  Perse,  ecrite  en  per  s  an  par  Raschid-eldin, 

publiee,  traduite  en  franqais,  accompagnee  de  notes  et  dun 

memoire  sur  la  vie  et  les  outrages  de  Cauteur.     From  this 

excellent  memoir,  to  which  those  who  desire  fuller  and  more 

detailed  information  are  referred,  the  following  salient  facts 

of  Rashidu'd-Dm's  life  and  works  are  chiefly  taken.     He 

was  born  at  Hamadan  about  A.D.  1247,  and  was 

His  birth  in  1247  111-  •  i  i  /- 

asserted  by  his  enemies  to  have  been  of  Jewish 
origin.  His  grandfather  Muwaffaqu'd-Dawla  'Alf  was, 
with  the  astronomer  Nasiru'd-Din  Tusi  and  Ra'isu'd-Dawla, 
an  unwilling  guest  of  the  Assassins  of  Alamut  when  that 
place  was  taken  by  Hulagu  in  the  very  year  of  our  author's 
birth,  and  was  at  once  received  into  Hulagu's  service.  As 
court-physician  Rashi'du'd-Din  enjoyed  considerable  in- 
fluence and  honour  during  the  reign  of  Abaqa,  but  it  was 
in  the  reign  of  Ghazan,  whose  accession  took  place  in  A.D. 
1295,  that  his  many  merits  were  first  fully  recognized,  and 

three  years  later,  on  the  dismissal  and  execution 

He  becomes  * 

Prime  Minister  of  the  prime  minister  Sadru'd-Din  Zanjdni, 
zaniQI298  called  Sadr-i-Jakdn,  he  was  chosen  by  Ghazan, 
conjointly  with  Sa'du'd-Din,  to  succeed  him.  In  A.D.  1303 
Rashi'du'd-Din  accompanied  Ghazan  as  Arabic  secretary  in 
the  campaign  against  the  Syrians,  and  it  was  during  this 
period,  while  the  Mongol  court  was  established  at  'Ana  on 
the  Euphrates,  that  he  presented  to  Ghazan  the  author  of 
the  Tarikh-i-  Wassdf,  as  has  been  already  mentioned  (p.  42), 
on  March  3,  1303. 


70        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

During  the  reign  of  Uljaytu(or  Khuda-banda)Rashidu'd- 

Dfn  enjoyed  the  same  high  position  as  under  his  predecessor, 

and  received  from  the  new  king  several  singular 

add  increaMd"*  marks  of  favour  and  confidence.     He  also  built 

honour  under       jn  Sultanivya,  the  new  capital,  a  fine  suburb, 

Khuda-banda  / J 

named  after  him  Rashidiyya,  containing  a 
magnificent  mosque,  a  college,  a  hospital  and  other  public 
buildings,  and  some  thousand  houses.  In  December,  1307, 
he  was  instrumental  in  establishing  the  innocence  of  two 
Shafi'ite  doctors  of  Baghdad,  Shihabu'd-Din  Suhrawardi  and 
Jamalu'd-Din,whohadbeen  accused  of  carrying  on  a  treason- 
able correspondence  with  Egypt1.  Some  two  years  later  he 

built  another  beautiful  little  suburb,  near  Ghaza- 

He  founds  and  -  ,  t  i   •    i      i       j  i 

endows  the          niyya,   the  town  which  had   grown   up   round 
suburb  called       Ghazan's  mausoleum,   to  the  East  of  Tabriz, 

Rab'-i-Rashfdt 

and,  at  great  expense,  brought  thither  the 
river  Saraw-rud  through  channels  hewn  in  the  solid  rock'-. 
Immense  sums  of  money  were  required  for  these  and  other 
admirable  works  of  piety  and  public  utility,  but  Rashi'du'd- 
Din,  as  he  himself  declares,  had  received  from  the  generous 
Uljaytvi  such  sums  as  no  previous  sovereign  had  ever 
bestowed  on  minister  or  courtier.  On  the  transcription, 
binding,  maps  and  illustrations  of  his  numerous  literary 
works  he  had,  according  to  the  Ta'rikh-i-  Wassdf,  expended 
no  less  a  sum  than  60,000  dinars  (^36,000). 

Early  in  the  year  1312  Rashidu'd-Din's  colleague  Sa'du'd- 
Di'n  of  Sawa  fell  from  power  and  was  put  to  death,  the  prime 

mover  in  the  intrigue  of  which  he  was  the  victim 
SS^  being  the  clever  and  unscrupulous  'Ali-shah, 

who  at  once  succeeded  the  dead  minister  in  his 
office.  Soon  afterwards  a  dangerous  intrigue  was  directed 
against  Rashidu'd-Di'n,  but  happily  it  recoiled  on  its  authors 
and  left  him  unscathed.  Whether  he,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  responsible  for  the  barbarous  execution  of  SayyidTaju'd- 

1  Quatremere,  Hist,  des  Mongols,  pp.  xvi-xvii.     The  Shihabu'd-Din 
here  mentioned  is  not,  of  course,  Sa'df's  teacher,  who  died  632/1234-5. 

2  See  G.  le  Strange's  Lands  of  the  Eastern  Caliphate,  pp.  162-3. 


CH.  n]   FALL  AND  DEATH  OF  RASHfDU'D-DfN          71 

Din,  the  Naqibn'l-Ashrdf,  or  "  Dean  of  the  Shan'fs  "  (i.e.  the 
descendants  of  'Ah')  is  a  doubtful  question,  which  Quatremere 
answers  in  the  negative. 

In  1315  such  acrimonious  disputes  broke  out  between 
Rashidu'd-Din  and  'Ah'-shah,  as  to  who  was  responsible  for 
Fan  and  death  of  thejack  of  money  to  pay  the  troops,  that 
Rashidu'd-Din  Uljaytu'  assigned  to  the  management  of  each 
one  different  provinces  of  Persia  and  Asia  Minor. 
Nevertheless  'Ah'-shah  continued  his  campaign  of  calumny 
against  his  colleague,  who  succeeded  only  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  in  saving  himself  from  disaster.  The  same  rivalry 
and  intrigue  continued  after  the  death  of  Uljaytu  and  the 
accession  of  Abu  Sa'id,  until  finally  Rashi'du'd-Din,  having 
succumbed  to  the  attacks  of  his  traducers,  was  deprived  of 
his  office  in  October,  1317,  and  ultimately,  on  July  18,  1318, 
at  the  age  of  over  seventy  years,  was  put  to  death  with  his 
son  Ibrahim,  a  lad  of  sixteen  years  of  age,  on  a  charge  of 
having  poisoned  the  late  king.  His  property  was  confiscated, 
his  relatives  were  persecuted  and  despoiled,  his  pious  founda- 
tions were  robbed  of  their  endowments,  and  the 
his  foundations  Rab'-i-Rashidi,the  suburb  which  he  had  founded, 
and  desecration  was  given  over  to  rapine.  He  was  buried  in  the 
mausoleum  which  he  had  prepared  for  his  last 
resting-place,  but  his  body  was  not  suffered  to  rest  there  in 
peace,  for  about  a  century  later  Mi'ranshah  the  son  of  Timur- 
i-Lang,  in  one  of  his  fits  of  insane  brutality,  caused  it  to  be 
exhumed  and  buried  in  the  Jews'  cemetery.  'Ah'-shah,  in 
order  to  testify  his  joy  at  his  rival's  fall,  presented  magnifi- 
cent presents  to  the  Sanctuary  at  Mecca,  and,  escaping  the 
retribution  which  overtook  most  of  his  accomplices,  died 
peaceably  in  his  bed  six  years  later  (in  1324),  being,  as 
already  remarked,  the  first  minister  of  the  Mongol  Il-khans 
who  had  the  good  fortune  to  die  a  natural  death.  Of  Rashi- 
du'd-Din's  son  Ghiyathu'd-Din,  who  resembled  him  in  virtue 
and  learning,  as  well  as  in  his  public  career  and  his  sad  end 
(for  he  too  was  ultimately  put  to  death  in  the  spring  of  1336) 
mention  has  been  already  made  in  the  preceding  chapter. 


72        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

For  the  conception  of  the  Jdmi'u't-  Tawdrikh  the  credit, 

in  Quatremere's  opinion1,  belongs  to  Ghazan  Khan,  who, 

foreseeing  that  the  Mongols  in  Persia,  in  spite 

ande^ecudon       °f  their  actual  supremacy,  would  in  course  of 

ofttejdmfv        time  inevitably  be  absorbed  by  the  Persians. 

'  t-Tawdrikh  J 

desired  to  leave  to  posterity  a  monument  ot 
their  achievements,  in  the  shape  of  a  faithful  record  of  their 
history  and  conquests,  in  the  Persian  language.  For  the 
accomplishment  of  this  great  task  he  chose  (and  no  better 
choice  could  have  been  made)  Rashidu'd-Di'n,  at  whose 
disposal  were  placed  all  the  state  archives,  and  the  services 
of  all  those  who  were  most  learned  in  the  history  and 
antiquities  of  the  Mongols.  The  minister,  though  engrossed 
by  the  state  affairs  of  a  vast  empire,  yet  succeeded  in  finding 
time  to  prosecute  his  researches  and  commit  them  to  writing, 
though,  according  to  Dawlat-shah2,  the  only  time  at  his 
disposal  for  this  purpose  was  that  which  intervened  between 
the  morning  prayer  and  sunrise. 

Before   Rashidu'd-Din's  history   of    the  Mongols  was 

completed,  Ghazan  died  (May  17,  1304),  but  his  successor 

Uljaytu  ordered  it  to  be  finished  and  dedicated, 

contents  of  the     as  originally  intended,  to  Ghazan  ;  whence  this 

a-       portion  of  the  work,  generally  called  the  first 

•  ,.•  •*•*,!  j  </>   -/,/   •  r,  -   '    • 

volume,is  sometimesentitled  la  nkh-i-Ghazam, 

the  "  Ghazanian  History."  Uljaytu  also  ordered  the  author 
to  write  a  companion  volume  containing  a  general  history 
of  the  world  and  especially  of  the  lands  of  Islam,  and  a 
third  volume  dealing  with  geography.  This  last  has  either 
perished,  or  was  never  actually  written,  but  only  projected, 
so  that  the  work  as  we  now  know  it  comprises  only  two 
volumes,  the  first  on  the  history  of  the  Mongols,  written  for 
Ghazan,  the  second  on  general  history.  The  whole  work 
was  completed  in  710/1310-11,  though  two  years  later  the 
author  was  still  engaged  on  his  supplementary  account  of 
Uljaytu's  reign. 

1  Hist,  des  Mongols,  p.  Ixviii. 

2  P.  217  of  my  edition. 


CH.  n]  THE  jAMPU'T-TAWARfKH  73 

The  contents  of  this  great  history  are  briefly  as  follows : 

VOL.  I,  ch.  i.     History  of  the  different  Turkish  and  Mongol 

tribes,  their  divisions,  genealogies,  pedigrees,  legends, 

etc.,  in  a  Preface  and  four  sections. 

„      ch.  ii.     History  of  Chingfz  Khan,  his  ancestors  and 

successors,  down  to  Ghazan  Khan. 
VOL.  II,  Preface.    On  Adam  and  the  Patriarchs  and  Hebrew 

Prophets. 
Part  i.      History  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Persia  before 

Islam,  in  four  sections. 

Part  2.  History  of  the  Prophet  Muhammad  and  of  the 
Caliphate,  down  to  its  extinction  by  the  Mongols  in 
1258;  of  the  post-Muhammadan  Persian  dynasties 
of  Persia,  viz.  the  Sultans  of  Ghazna,  the  Seljuqs, 
the  Khwarazmshahs,  the  Salgharid  Atabeks  of  Fars, 
and  the  Isma'i'lis  of  the  West  and  of  the  East ;  of 
Oghuz  and  his  descendants,  the  Turks ;  of  the 
Chinese ;  of  the  Jews ;  of  the  Franks  and  their 
Emperors  and  Popes  ;  and  of  the  Indians,  with  a 
long  and  full  account  of  Sakyamuni  (Buddha)  and 
of  the  religion  which  he  founded. 

The  above  is  the  arrangement  actually  adopted  in  the 

manuscripts  of  the  India  Office  and  the  British  Museum,  but 

the  divisions  proposed  by  the  author  in  his  Intro- 

rangem^of       duction  are  slightly  different,  for  he  intended  to 

tbe/dmi'ut-       begin  the  second  volume  with  the  history  of 

Tawdrlkh  °  /  7 

the  reigning  king  Uljaytu  from  his  birth  until 
706/1306-7,  and  to  add  a  supplement  at  the  end  of  the  same 
volume  continuing  the  history  of  this  monarch  year  by  year. 
This  confusing  arrangement  is  not  actually  observed  in  most 
manuscripts,  which,  if  they  contain  Uljaytu's  reign  at  all, 
put  it  in  its  natural  place,  at  the  end  of  vol.  i,  after  Ghazan. 
Few  if  any  of  the  extant  manuscripts  are,  however,  complete, 
though  every  part  of  the  history  is  contained  in  one  or  other 
of  them.  In  the  J.R.A.S.  for  January,  1908  (pp.  17-37)  I 
have  given  a  fuller  analysis  of  the  contents,  together  with  a 
scheme  for  the  complete  edition  which  is  so  much  needed. 


74        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  IL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

Ignoring  the  complicated  and  confusing  divisions  made  by 
Scheme  for  a  tne  author,  I  proposed  to  publish  the  whole 
complete  edition  book  in  seven  volumes,  of  which  the  first  three, 

of  the  Jam? u't-  .     . 

TawMkh  in        containing  the  history  of  the  Turks  and  Mon- 

seven  volumes         gojg>  WQuld    correspond  to  yol     j  Qf  the  original, 

and  the  last  four  to  vol.  ii,  as  follows  : 

Series  L     Special  history  of  the  Mongols  and  Turks. 

VOL.  I,  from  the  beginning  to  the  death  of  Chingfz  Khan. 

VOL.  II,  from  the  accession  of  Ogotay  to  the  death  of  Timur 
(Uljaytu),  the  grandson  of  Qubilay  Khan1. 

VOL.  in,  from  the  accession  of  Hulagu 2  to  the  death  of 
Ghazan,  including  the  continuation  of  the  history  of 
the  later  Il-khans  down  to  Abu  Sa'i'd  compiled  as  a 
supplement  to  this  portion  of  Rashi'du'd-Din's  work 
in  the  reign  of  Shah  Rukh  and  by  his  command. 

Series  II.     General  history. 

VOL.  IV.  The  Introduction,  the  history  of  the  ancient  kings 
of  Persia  down  to  the  fall  of  the  Sasanian  dynasty, 
and  the  biography  of  the  Prophet  Muhammad. 

VOL.  V.  The  entire  history  of  the  Caliphate,  from  Abu 
Bakr  to  al-Musta'sim. 

VOL.  VI.  The  history  of  the  post-Muhammadan  dynasties 
of  Persia  (Ghaznawis,  Seljuqs,  Khwarazmshahs,  Sal- 
ghan's  and  Isma'ilis). 

VOL.  VII.  The  remainder  of  the  work,  comprising  the  history 
(from  their  own  traditions  and  statements)  of  the 
Turks,  Chinese,  Israelites,  Franks  and  Indians. 

The  Jdmi'ut-Tawdrikh  is  remarkable  not  only  for  the 
extensive  field  which  it  covers  and  the  care  with  which  it 
has  been  compiled  from  all  available  sources,  both  written 

1  This    is   the   portion   which    M.  Blochet  has   published  in  the 
"  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial "  Series,  vol.  xviii. 

2  The  portion  of  this  volume  dealing  with  Hulagu  was,  as  already 
stated,  published  by  Quatremere  under  the  title  Q{ Histoire  des  Mongols 
de  la  Perse,  vol.  i  (Paris,  1836). 


IV 


Enthronement  of  Ogotay,  the  son  and  successor  of  Chingiz,  from  an  old 
MS.  ot  tiae  fdmfiit-Tawdrikh  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 


To  face  p.  74 


CH.  n]       OTHER  WORKS  BY  RASHfDU'D-DfN  75 

and  oral,  but  for  its  originality.  It  is  doubtful  whether  any 
Persian  prose  work  can  be  compared  to  it  in  value,  at  any 
rate  in  the  domain  of  history,  and  it  is  the  more  to  be  re- 
gretted that  it  remains  unpublished  and  almost  inaccessible. 
"  I  will  dwell  no  longer,"  says  Quatremere1,  "  on  the  proofs 
of  the  extreme  importance  of  Rashfdu'd-Din's  compilation  ; 
this  excellent  work,  undertaken  in  the  most  favourable  cir- 
cumstances, and  with  means  of  performing  it  never  before 
possessed  by  any  single  writer,  offered  for  the  first  time  to 
the  peoples  of  Asia  a  complete  course  of  universal  history 
and  geography."  The  same  writer  illustrates  the  thorough- 
ness of  Rashidu'd-Di'n's  work  by  indicating  the  extent  to 
which  he  drew  on  Chinese  sources,  written  and  oral,  in 
writing  that  portion  of  his  history  which  bore  reference  to 
Khata  (Cathay)2,  and  expresses  a  regret,  which  all  must 
share,  that  the  geographical  portion  of  his  work  is  lost,  or 
at  least  still  undiscovered.  Perhaps,  as  Quatremere  conjec- 
tures3,it  perished  in  the  destruction  and  looting  of  the  Rab'-i- 
Rashidi  which  immediately  followed  Rashidu'd-Di'n's  death. 
Rashidu'd-Din  composed  numerous  other  works  besides 
the  Jdmi'iit-  Tawdrikk,  and  of  these  and  their  contents  a 
detailed  account  is  given  by  Quatremere4. 
Sthehr7°fnby  Amongst  them  is  the  KitdbiM-Ahyd  wcil-Athdr 

Rashidu  d-Din  •-' 

(the  "Book  of  Animals  and  Monuments"),  which 
comprised  twenty-four  chapters  treating  of  a  variety  of 

matters  connected  with  meteorology,  agricul- 
Kitdbu'i-Ahyd  tu  arboriculture,  apiculture,  the  destruction 

wa  l-Athar 

of  noxious  insects  and  reptiles,  farming  and 
stock-breeding,  architecture,  fortification,  ship-building,  min- 
ing and  metallurgy.  This  work  is  unhappily  lost. 

Another  of  Rashidu'd-Di'n's  works  was  the  Tawdihdt, 
or   "  Explanations,"  a  theological  and   mystical   work,  of 
which  the  contents  are  arranged  under  a  pre- 
face and  nineteen  letters.    It  was  written  at  the 

1  Op.  laud.,  p.  Ixxiv.  2  Ibid.,  p.  Ixxviii. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  Ixxxi.  4  Ibid.,  pp.  cxii-cxlvi. 


76        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

request  of  Uljaytu,  and  is  described  by  Quatremere  from  a 
manuscript  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 

This  was  followed  by  another  theological  work  entitled 
Miftdhu't-Tafdsir,  the  "  Key  of  Commentaries,"  treating  of 
the  divine  eloquence  of  the  Qur'dn,  its  com- 
'         mentators  and  their  methods,  Good  and  Evil, 
rewards  and  punishments,  length  of  life,  Pro- 
vidence, Predestination  and  the  Resurrection  of  the  Body. 
To  these  topics  are  added  a  refutation  of  the  doctrine  of 
Metempsychosis,  and  a  definition  of  sundry  technical  terms. 
"  The    Royal    Treatise "    (ar-Risdlatus-Siiltdniyya)    is 
another   similar   work,    undertaken   on    Ramadan    9,    706 
(March  14,  1307),  as  the  result  of  a  discussion 
ar-Risdiatu's-     Qn  theological  matters  which  had  taken  place 

Sultdmyya  o  , 

in  the  presence  of  Uljaytu. 

The  Latd'ifu'l-Haqaiq,  or  "  Subtle  Truths,"  comprises 
fourteen  letters,  and  begins  with  an  account  of  a  vision  in 

which  the  author,  on  the  night  preceding  Ra- 
&%e£l~  madan  26,  705  (April  11,  1306),  dreamed  that 

he  was  presented  to  the  Prophet.  Its  contents 
also  are  theological.  This  and  the  three  preceding  works 
are  all  written  in  Arabic,  and  together  form  what  is  known 
as  the  Majmrta-i-Rashtdiyya,  or  "  Collection  of  the  works 
of  Rashi'du'd-Din,"  of  which  a  beautiful  manuscript,  dated 
710/1310-11,  exists  at  Paris.  Another  manuscript  of  the 
same  library1  contains  a  Persian  translation  of  the  Latd 
'ifitl-Haqd'iq,  and  there  are  also  preserved  there  two  copies 
of  an  attestation  of  the  orthodoxy  of  Rashidu'd-Din's 
theological  views,  signed  by  seventy  leading  doctors  of 
Muslim  theology.  This  attestation  was  drawn  up  in  con- 
sequence of  accusations  of  heterodoxy  made  against  Rashid 
by  a  malicious  fellow  whose  enmity  had  been  aroused  by 
the  frustration  of  his  endeavours  to  appropriate  an  emolu- 
ment from  a  benefaction  for  scholars  and  men  of  learning 
made  by  Ghazan  Khan  on  his  death. 

Another  of  Rashfd's  works,  of  which,  unhappily,  only 

1  Ancien  Fonds  Persan,  No.  107,  fif.  1-70. 


CH.  n]          RASHfD'S  CARE  FOR  HIS  BOOKS  77 

the  general  nature  of  the  contents  is  known,  is  the  Baydnu'l- 
Haqd'tq,  or  "  Explanation  of  Verities,"   com- 

BHaq™ql~          prising  seventeen  letters,  dealing  mostly  with 
theological  topics,  though  other  subjects,  such 

as  the  small-pox  and  the  nature  and  varieties  of  heat,  are 

discussed. 

The  elaborate  precautions  (precautions  which,  alas !  in 

the  event  proved  inadequate)  taken  by  Rashidu'd-Din  to 
preserve  and  transmit  to  posterity  the  fruits  of 

Precautions  J 

taken  by  his  literary  labours  are  very  fully  detailed  by 

Kashidu'd-  ,-*.  \  ,  i        i_        i_    •    n  •. 

Din  for  the  Quatremere,  and  can  only  be  briefly  recapitu- 
preservation  lated  in  this  place.  First,  he  caused  several 
copies  of  each  of  his  works  to  be  made  for  lending 
to  his  friends  and  to  men  of  letters,  who  were  freely  permitted 
to  transcribe  them  for  their  own  use.  Then  he  caused 
Arabic  translations  of  all  his  Persian,  and  Persian  transla- 
tions of  all  his  Arabic  works  to  be  prepared,  and  of  both 
versions  he  caused  numerous  copies  to  be  deposited,  for  the 
use  of  anyone  who  might  desire  to  read  or  copy  them,  in 
the  mosque-library  of  the  quarter  called  after  him  Rab'-i- 
Rashidi.  He  also  caused  one  large  volume,  containing  all 
of  his  treatises  with  the  necessary  maps  and  illustrations, 
to  be  prepared  and  deposited  in  the  above-mentioned  public 
library,  giving  it  the  title  of  Jdnritit-tasdnifir-Rashidi1,  or 
"Complete  collection  of  the  works  of  Rashidu'd-Din."  Of 
four  more  works  treating  of  Medicine  and  the  Mongol  system 
of  government  he  caused  trilingual  versions,  in  Chinese, 
Arabic  and  Persian,  to  be  prepared.  He  further  accorded 
the  fullest  liberty  to  anyone  who  desired  to  copy  any  or  all 
of  these  books,  and,  not  content  with  this,  assigned  a  certain 
yearly  sum  from  the  revenues  with  which  he  had  endowed 
his  mosque  in  order  to  have  two  complete  transcripts  of  his 

1  That  this  is  the  correct  title  appears  from  the  text  of  this  docu- 
ment, published  by  Quatremere  together  with  the  translation.  See  his 
Hist,  des  Mongols,  p.  cxlix,  1.  3.  The  Majmu'a  contained  four  treatises 
only  (see  the  preceding  page),  while  the  Jdmi1  contained  everything 
Rashfd  had  written. 


78        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

works,  one  in  Arabic  and  one  in  Persian,  made  every  year, 
and  presented  to  one  of  the  chief  towns  of  the  Muhammadan 
world.  These  copies  were  to  be  made  on  the  best  Baghdad 
paper  and  in  the  finest  and  most  legible  writing,  and  to  be 
carefully  collated  with  the  originals.  The  copyists  were  to  be 
carefully  chosen,  having  regard  both  to  the  excellence  and  the 
speed  of  their  work,  and  were  to  be  lodged  in  the  precincts 
of  the  mosque,  as  the  administrators  of  the  bequest  might 
direct.  Each  copy,  when  finished,  bound  and  ornamented, 
was  to  be  carried  into  the  mosque  and  placed  on  a  book- 
rest  between  the  pulpit  and  the  mihrdb,  and  over  it  was  to 
be  repeated  a  prayer  for  the  author,  composed  by  himself, 
and  conceived  in  the  following  terms1: 

"(9  God,  who  revealest  the  most  hidden  secrets,  and  gives t 
knowledge  of  history  and  traditions  !     As  Thou  hast  graci- 
ously guided  thy  servant  Rashid  the  Physician, 
Rashidu'd-          who  standeth  in  need  of  Thine  Abundant  Mercy, 

Dm  sprayer 

in  the  composition  of  these  works >  which  comprise 
investigations  supporting  the  fundamental  dogmas  of  Islam, 
and  minute  researches  tending  to  elucidate  philosophical  truths 
and  natural  laws,  profitable  to  those  who  meditate  on  the  in- 
ventions of  Art,  and  advantageous  to  such  as  reflect  on  the 
^vonders  of  Creation,  even  so  hast  TJiott  enabled  him  to  con- 
secrate a  portion  of  his  estates  to  pious  foundations,  on  condition 
that  from  these  revenues  should  be  provided  sundry  copies  of 
these  books,  so  that  the  Muslims  of  all  lands  and  of  all  times 
may  derive  profit  therefrom.  Accept,  O  God,  all  this  from 
him  with  a  favourable  acceptance,  and  cause  his  efforts  to  be 
remembered  with  thanks,  and  grant  forgiveness  for  all  sins, 
and  pardon  all  those  who  shall  help  to  accomplish  this  good 
work,  and  those  who  shall  read  or  consult  these  works  and 
put  in  practice  the  lessons  which  they  contain.  And  bestow 


1  The  original  of  this  prayer  is  given  by  Quatremere  on  p.  clxx  of 
his  Hist,  des  Mongols,  and  the  translation,  which  is  more  elegant  than 
literal,  on  pp.  cxl-cxli.  The  translation  here  given  is  from  the  Arabic 
original. 


V 


faii*&£&-'Js& 


Colophon  of  Qiir'an  transcribed  for  Uljaytd,  Rashidu'd-Din 
and  Sa'du'd-Din  in  A.H.  710  (A. D.  1310-11) 

Or.  4945  (Brit.  Mus.),  f.  ia  To/ace />.  7s 


CH.  n]  ELABORATE  PRECAUTIONS  79 

on  him  a  good  recompense,  both  in  this  world  and  the  next ! 
Verily  Thou  art  worthy  of  fear,  yet  swift  to  forgive  !  " 

This  prayer  was  also  to  be  inscribed  at  the  end  of  each 
copy  so  completed,  and  was  to  be  followed  by  a  brief 
doxology,  also  formulated  by  Rashidu'd-Din,and  a  colophon 
penned  by  the  administrator  of  the  bequest,  stating  at  what 
epoch  and  for  what  town  each  copy  had  been  made,  and 
giving  his  own  name  and  genealogy,  so  that  he  also  might 
be  remembered  in  the  prayers  of  the  faithful.  Finally  the 
completed  copy  was  to  be  submitted  to  the  qddis,  or  judges, 
of  Tabriz,  who  should  certify  that  all  the  formalities  pre- 
scribed by  the  author  had  been  duly  carried  out ;  and  it  was 
then  to  be  sent  to  the  town  for  which  it  was  destined,  and 
deposited  in  a  public  library  where  it  could  be  freely  used 
by  all  students,  and  even  borrowed  against  a  bond  for  such 
sum  as  the  librarian  might  deem  suitable.  A  copy  of  the 
Arabic  version  of  the  MajmiVa-i-Rashidiyya,  together  with 
the  Baydnul-Haqd'iq  and  the  Kitdbu'l-Ahyd  wal-Athdr,  was 
also  to  be  made  for  one  of  the  Professors  on  the  foundation, 
who  was  daily  to  read  and  expound  to  the  students  some 
portion  of  the  contents.-  Besides  this,  each  lecturer  on  the 
foundation  was  obliged  to  make  a  copy  of  one  of  these 
\vorks,either  in  Arabic  or  Persian,during  the  period  occupied 
by  his  course  of  lectures,  failing  which  he  was  to  be  dismissed 
and  replaced  by  one  more  diligent  than  himself.  The  copy, 
when  made,  was  to  be  his  own,  to  sell,  give  away,  or  keep 
as  he  pleased.  All  facilities  were  to  be  accorded  to  persons 
desirous  of  copying  any  of  these  works  in  the  library,  but 
they  were  not  allowed  to  be  removed  from  its  walls.  In 
conclusion  the  successive  administrators  of  the  funds  were 
exhorted  to  carry  out  zealously  and  literally  the  wishes  of 
the  benefactor,  and  curses  were  invoked  on  any  administrator 
who  should  fail  to  do  so. 

Yet,  as  Quatremere  observes1,  in  spite  of  all  these  elabo- 
rate precautions,  "  we  have  lost  the  greater  part  of  the  works 
of  this  learned  historian,  and  all  the  measures  which  he  took 
1  Op.  laud.,  p.  cxlv. 


8o        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

have  not  had  a  more  fortunate  success  than  the  precautions 
devised  by  the  Emperor  Tacitus  to  secure  the  preservation 
of  his  illustrious  relative's  writings.  The  action  of  time  and 
the  vandalism  of  man,  those  two  scourges  which  have  robbed 
us  of  so  many  masterpieces  of  antiquity,  have  also  destroyed 
numerous  other  productions,  less  brilliant  without  doubt, 
but  not  less  useful;  and  while  worthless  compilations  are 
spread  abroad  in  all  directions  and  load  the  shelves  of  our 
libraries,  we  are  left  to  lament  bitterly  a  number  of  important 
works,  of  which  the  loss  is  irreparable." 

Of  one  such  work,  however,  not  apparently  known  to 
Quatremere,  I  am  the  fortunate  possessor.     This  is  a  col- 
lection  of  Rashi'du'd-Di'n's  letters,  mostly  on 

A  MS.  collection  f 

of  Rashidu-d-  political  and  financial  matters,  addressed  to 
his  sons  and  others  who  held  various  offices 
under  the  Mongol  government,  and  collected,  arranged  and 
edited  by  his  secretary  Muhammad  of  Abarquh.  For  two 
manuscripts  of  this  work,  one  old,  the  other  a  modern  copy 
of  the  first,  made,  apparently,  for  Prince  Bahman  Mi'rza 
Bahd'u'd-Dawla,  I  am  indebted  to  the  generosity  of  my 
friend  Mr  G.  le  Strange,  who  obtained  them  from  the  late 
Sir  Albert  Houtum-Schindler1.  A  third  manuscript  volume, 
in  English,  is  entitled  in  Mr  le  Strange's  hand :  Summary 
of  the  Contents  of  the  Persian  MS.  Despatches  of  Rashiditd- 
Din:  copied  from  notes  supplied  by  Sir  A.  H.  Schindler,  and 
afterwards  corrected  by  him:  Dec.  1913.  In  view  of  the  ex- 
treme rarity  of  this  work  and  the  interest  of  its  contents, 
a  list  of  the  53  despatches  and  letters  which  it  contains  and 
the  persons  to  whom  they  are  addressed  is  here  appended. 

1.  Preface  of  the  editor  Muhammad  of  Abarquh,  de- 
fective at  beginning. 

2.  Letter  from  Rashidu'd-Dfn  to  Majdu'd-Din  Isma'il 
Falf. 

3.  Answer  to  the  above. 

4.  From  Rashidu'd-Dfn  to  his  son  Amir  'All,  Governor 

1  See  my  article  on  the  Persian  Manuscripts  of  the  late  Sir  Albert 
Houtum-Schindler,  K.C.I. E.,  in  ihzJ.R.A.S.  for  Oct.  1917,  pp.  693-4. 


CH.  n]  LETTERS  OF  RASHfDU'D-DfN  81 

of  £Iraq-i-'Arab,  ordering  him  to  punish  the  people  of  Basra 
for  rebellious  conduct. 

5.  From  the  same  to  his  son  Amir  Mahmud,  Governor 
of  Kirman,  reprimanding  him   for  oppressing  the  people 
of  Bam. 

6.  From  the  same  to  his  servant  Sunqur  Bawarchi, 
Governor  of  Basra,  instructing  him  as  to  the  policy  he 
should  pursue. 

7.  From  the  same  to  his  sister's  son  Khwaja  Ma'ruf, 
Governor  of  'Ana,  Haditha,  Hit,  Jibba,  Na'usa,  'Ash£ra(?), 
Rahba,  Shafatha  (?)    and   Baladu'l-'Ayn,   appointing   him 
Governor  of  Rum.     Written  from  Sultdniyya  in  690/1291 
(or  possibly  696/1296-7). 

8.  From  the  same  to  the  Na'ibs  of  Kdshan  concerning 
the  pension  of  2000  dinars  assigned  to  Sayyid  Afdalu'd- 
Din  Mas'ud  out  of  the  revenues  of  Kdshan. 

9.  From  the  same  to  his  son  Amir  Mahmud  (see  No.  5 
supra)  ordering  the  distribution  of  food  to  the  poor  of  Bam, 
Khabi's,  etc. 

10.  From  the  same  to  his  son   Khwdja   Sa'du'd-Dfn, 
Governor  of  Antioch,  Tarsus,  Sus,  Qinnasrfn,  the  'Awasim 
and  the  shores  of  the  Euphrates,  giving  him  fatherly  advice 
as  to  the  methods  of  administration  he  should  adopt,  and 
warning  him  against  sloth,  wine-drinking,  and  over-fondness 
for  music  and  dissipation. 

11.  From  the  same  to  his  son  'Abdu'l-Mu'min,  Governor 
of  Simnan,  Damghan  and  Khwar,  ordering  him  to  appoint 
the  Qadi  Shamsu'd-Din  Muhammad  b.  Hasan  b.  Muham- 
mad  b.  'Abdu'l-Kan'm  of  Simnan    Chief  Judge   of  that 
district. 

12.  From  the  same  to  Shaykh  Sadru'd-Dm  b.  Shaykh 
Bahd'u'd-Di'n  Zakariyya  condoling  with  him  on  the  death 
of  a  son. 

13.  From  the  same  to  Mawlana  Sadru'd-Din  Muham- 
mad Turka'i  concerning  a  revised  and  emended  scale  of 
taxation  to  be  applied  to  the  people  of  Isfahan  and  other 
places. 

B.P.  6 


82        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

14.  Proclamation  from  the  same  to  his  son  Amir  'Ah', 
Governor  of  Baghdad,  and  to  the  people  of  that  city,  small 
and  great,  concerning  the  appointment  of  Shaykh  Majdu'd- 
Din  as  Shaykhu'l-Islam  and  the  provision  to  be  made  for 
the  professors,  officers  and  students  of  the  khdnqdh  of  the 
late  Ghazan  Khan. 

1 5.  From  the  same  to  Amir  Nusratu'd-Din  Sitay,  Go- 
vernor of  Mawsil,  and   Sinjar,   concerning  Sharafu'd-Din 
Hasan  Mustawfi. 

1 6.  Answers  from  the  same  to  philosophical  and  reli- 
gious questions  propounded  by  Mawlana  Sadr-i-Jahan  of 
Bukhara. 

17.  Letter  from  the  same  to  his  son    Khwaja  Jalal, 
asking  for  40  young  men  and  maidens  of  Rum  to  be  sent 
to  him  at  Tabriz  to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  population  for 
one  of  the  five  villages  he  has  included  in  his  park  in  the 
Rab'-i-Rashi'di. 

1 8.  From  the  same  to  Khwaja  'Ala'u'd-Din  Hindu  re- 
questing him  to  obtain  and  send  various  medicinal  oils  for 
the  hospital  in  the  Rab'-i-Rashidi. 

19.  From  the  same  to  his  son  Amir  'Ah',  Governor  of 
Baghdad,  concerning  allowances  and  presents  to  various 
theologians. 

20.  From  the  same  to  his  son  Khwaja  'Abdu'l-Lati'f, 
Governor  of  Isfahan,  giving  him  good  advice. 

21.  From  the  same  to  his  son   Khwaja  Jalalu'd-Dfn, 
Governor  of  Rum,  also  giving  good  advice,  and  ordering 
various  quantities  of  different  herbs  and  drugs  for  his  hos- 
pital at  Tabriz. 

22.  From  the  same  to  his  son  Amir   Shihabu'd-Dfn, 
then  Governor  of  Baghdad,  giving  him  good  advice,  and 
summarizing  the  revenues  of  Khuzistan. 

23.  From  the  same  to  Mawlana  Majdu'd-Din  Isma'fl 
Fall,  inviting  him  to  be  present  at  the  marriages  which  he 
has  arranged  for  nine  of  his  sons  with  various  noble  ladies. 

24.  From  the  same  to  Qara-Buqa,  Governor  of  Kayff 
and  Palu. 


CH.  n]  LETTERS  OF  RASHfDU'D-DfN  83 

25.  From  the  same  to  Mawlana  'Afifu'd-Dm  Baghdad*. 

26.  From  the  same  in  answer  to  a  letter  from  the  Mawlds 
of  Qaysariyya  (Caesarea)  in  Rum. 

27.  From  the  same  to  his  son  Amir  Ghiyathu'd-Din 
Muhammad  on  his  appointment  as  Inspector  of  Khurasan 
by  Khuda-banda  Uljaytu. 

28.  From  the  same  to  the  people  of  Si'was  concerning 
the  Alms-house  for    Sayyids  founded    there    by  Ghazan 
{Ddrus-Siyddat-i-Ghdzdnf)  and  the  necessity  of  its  proper 
maintenance. 

29.  From  the  same  from  Multan  in  Sind  to  Mawlana 
Qutbu'd-Dm  Mas'ud  of  Shiraz,  giving  an  account  of  the 
journey  to  India  which  he  undertook  at  the  Il-khan's  com- 
mand to  greet  the  Indian  kings  and  bring  back  various 
drugs  and  spices  not  obtainable  in  Persia. 

30.  From  the  same  to  Takhtakh  Inju  as  to  complaints 
of  his  tyranny  made  by  the  people  of  Fars,  concerning 
which  he  is  sending  his  son  Ibrahim  to  report. 

31.  From  the  same  concerning  Mawlana  Muhammad 
Rumi,  and  the  teaching  in  the  college  at  Arzanjan,  of  which 
he  has  been  appointed  Master. 

32.  From  the  same  to  Shirwan  Shah,  ruler  of  Shabaran 
and  Shamakhi,  inviting  him  to  visit  the  Garden  of  Fath- 
abad  which  he  has  made. 

33.  From  the  same  to  the  revenue  officers  of  Khuzistan, 
concerning  various  financial  and  administrative  matters,  and 
the  sending  of  Khwaja  Siraju'd-Dm  of  Dizful  to  audit  the 
accounts,  make  investigations,  and  report. 

34.  From  the  same  to.  his  son  Khwaja  Majdu'd-Dm, 
ordering  him  to  collect  stores  for  the  army  destined  for  the 
occupation  of  India. 

35.  From  the  Seljuq  ruler  of  Arzanjan,  Malik  Jalalu'd- 
Din  Kay-Qubad  b.  'Ala'u'd-Din  Kay-Qubad,  asking  advice 
on  sundry  matters;  with  Rashidu'd-Dfn's  replies. 

36.  Rashi'du'd-Din's  reply  to  a  letter  from  Mawlana  Sa- 
dru'd-Din  Muhammad  Turka'i,  written  duringa  dangerous  ill- 
ness and  containinghis  last  will  and  testament  as  to  thedivision 

6—2 


84        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

amongst  his  children  of  his  numerous  and  extensive  estates 
and  other  property.  To  the  Rab'-i-Rashidi  he  bequeaths 
a  library  of  60,000  volumes  of  science,  history  and  poetry, 
including  1000  Qur'dns  by  various  excellent  calligraphers, 
of  which  10  were  copied  by  Yaqiit  al-Musta'simf,  10  by  Ibn 
Muqla  and  200  by  Ahmad  Suhrawardi.  He  enumerates 
by  name  his  14  sons,  viz.  (i)  Sa'du'd-Di'n,  (2)  Jalalu'd-Di'n, 
(3)  Majdu'd-Din,  (4)  'Abdu'l-Lattf,  (5)  Ibrahim,  (6)  Ghi- 
yathu'd-Din  Muhammad,  (7)  Ahmad,  (8)  'All,  (9)  Shaykhi, 
(10)  Pi'r  Sultan,  (n)  Mahmud,  (12)  Humam,  (13)  Shihabu 
'd-Di'n,  (14)  'Ah'-shah ;  and  his  4  daughters,  viz.  (i)  Farman- 
Khand,  (2)  Ay  Khatun,  (3)  Shahf  Khatiin,  (4)  Hadiyya 
Malik. 

37.  Rashfdu'd-Dfn  to  the  same,  concerning  a  book  which 
he  had  written  and  dedicated  to  him,  and  sending  him  a 
present  of  money,  choice  garments,  a  horse  and  various 
food -stuffs. 

38.  From  the  same  to  the  people  of  Diyar  Bakr  con- 
cerning the  digging  of  a  new  canal  to  be  called  after  him- 
self, and  the  establishment  and  population  of  14  villages  on 
both  sides  of  it,  with  names  and  plan  of  the  new  villages, 
which  are  for  the  most  part  named  after  his  14  sons. 

39.  From  the  same  to  his  son  Jalalu'd-Di'n,  Governor 
of  Rum,  concerning  the  digging  of  a  new  canal  from  the 
Euphrates  to  be  called  after  his  late  lord  Ghazan  Khan, 
and  the  foundation  of  10  villages,  of  which  the  plan  and 
names  are  again  given. 

40.  From  the  same  to  his  agent  Khwaja  Kamalu'd-Din 
Siwasi,  Mustawfi  of  Rum,  ordering  him  to  send,  by  means 
of  a  merchant  named  Khwaja  Ahmad,  certain  presents  in 
cash  and   in   kind  to  ten  learned  men  in  Tunis  and  the 
Maghrib  (names  given)  in  return  for  ten  books  (titles  given) 
in   36  volumes  which  they  had   sent  to  the  Minister,  of 
whose  generosity  they  had  heard. 

41.  From  the  same  to  the  authorities  at  Shi'raz  ordering 
them  to  make  certain  specified   presents  in  cash  and  in 
kind   to   Mawlana   Mahmud    b.  Ilyas  who   had  written  a 


CH.  nj  LETTERS  OF  RASHfDU'D-DfN  85 

book   entitled    Lataif-i-Rashidiyya    and    dedicated    it   to 
Rashfdu'd-Dm. 

42.  From  the  same  to  the  authorities  at  Hamadan  con- 
cerning the  maintenance  of  the  Pharmacy  (Ddrti-khdnd) 
and  Hospital  (Ddru'sh-Shifd)  which  he  had  founded  there, 
and  which  he  is  sending  a  physician  named  Ibn  Mahdf  to 
inspect  and  report  on.    Written  from  Caesarea  (Qaysariyya) 
in  690/1291. 

43.  From  the  same  to  his  son   Ami'r   Mahmud,  Go- 
vernor of  Kirman,  recommending  to  his  care  and  assist- 
ance Khwaja  Mahmud  of  Sawa,  whom  he  is  sending  on  a 
mission  to  India,  to  Sultdn  'Ala'u'd-Dm,  and  also  to  collect 
money  due  to  Rashidu'd-Din  from  his  estates  there. 

44.  From  the  same  to  his  son  Pir  Sultan,  Governor  of 
Georgia,  concerning   the    King's  projected  expedition  to 
Syria  and   Egypt,  and   an  intended    punitive  expedition 
of  120,000  men   under  ten   Mongol  amirs  (names  given) 
which  is  to  pass  through  Georgia  to  chastise  the  rebellious 
people  of  Abkhaz  and  Trebizonde,  and  which  Pir  Sultan  is 
to  accompany,  leaving  the  government  of  Georgia  in  the 
hands  of  his  deputy  Khwaja  Mu'i'nu'd-Dm. 

45.  From  the  same  to  Shaykh  Safiyyu'd-Dm  of  Ardabil 
giving,  after  many  compliments,  a  list  of  the  supplies  of 
meat,  fowls,  rice,  wheat,  butter,  honey,  mast,  perfumes  and 
money   which    he    proposes    to    supply   to   the  aforesaid 
Shaykh's  monastery  (khdnqdh)  for  the  festival  to  be  held 
there  in  commemoration  of  the  Prophet's  birthday. 

46.  Letter  from  Malik  Mu'mu'd-Din,  Parwana  of  Rum, 
to  Rashfdu'd-Dm,  complaining  of  Turkman  depredations 
in  his  province. 

47.  Letter  from  Malik  'Ala'u'd-Din  accompanying  the 
presents  of  precious  stuffs,  aromatic  drugs,  animals,  con- 
serves, spices,  dried  fruits,  carpets,  oils,  plate,  rare  timber, 
ivory,  etc.,  which  he  is  sending  from  India  by  way  of  Basra 
to  Rashidu'd-Dm. 

48.  Letter  from  Rashidu'd-Din  to  his  son  Amir  Mahmud, 
then  engaged  in  studying  Sufiism  in  Kirman. 


86        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

49.  Letter  from  the  same  to  his  son  Amir  Ahmad,  at 
that  time  Governor  of  Ardabfl,  containing  seven  recom- 
mendations (wasiyyat\   and  expressing  regret  that   he  is 
occupying  himself  with  Astrology. 

50.  Letter  of  condolence  from  the  same  to  Mawlana 
Sharafu'd-Din  Tabasf  on  the  death  of  his  son,  and  ordering 
Shamsu'd-Di'n  Muhammad  of  Abarquh  to  supply  him  yearly 
with  certain  specified  provisions. 

51.  Letter  from  the  same  to  his  son  Sa'du'd-Din,  Go- 
vernor of  Qinnasn'n,  describing  the  completion  of  the  Rab'-i- 
Rashidi  at  Tabriz,  with  its  24  caravansarays,  1 500  shops  and 
30,000  houses;  its  gardens,  baths,  stores,  mills,  workshops, 
paper-mills  and  mint;  its  workmen  and  artisans,  brought 
from  every  town  and  country,  its  Qnr'dn-readers,  muadh- 
dhins  and  doctors  of  theology,  domiciled  in  the  Kticha-i- 
'Ulamd  ("Rue  des  Savants");  its  6000  or  7000  students; 
its  50  physicians  from  India,  China,  Egypt  and  Syria,  each 
of  whom  is  bound  to  give  instruction  to  ten  pupils;  the 
hospital  (Ddru'sh-Shifd)   with    its  oculists,  surgeons  and 
bone-setters,  to  each  of  whom  are  assigned  as  pupils  five 
of  the  writer's  servants;  and  the  allowances  in  kind  and  in 
money  made  to  all  of  them. 

52.  Letter  from  the  same  to  his  son  Khwaja  Ibrahim, 
Governor  of  Shiraz,  describing  the  campaign  against  Kabul 
and  Si'stan,  and  demanding  various  arms  and  munitions  of 
war  in  specified  quantities. 

53.  Letter  from  the  same  to  several  of  his  sons  con- 
cerning the  attributes  of  learning,  clemency,  reason  and 
generosity.     The  MS.  breaks  off  abruptly  in  the  middle  of 
this  letter. 

These  letters,  which  ought  to  be  published,  are  of  extra- 
ordinary interest  on  account  of  the  light  they  throw  on  the 
character  and  manifold  activities  of  this  most  remarkable 
man,  at  once  statesman,  physician,  historian  and  patron  of 
art,  letters  and  science.  We  have  already  noticed  the  tragic 
fate  which  overtook  him  and  to  a  large  extent  brought  to 
naught  his  careful  and  elaborate  plans  for  the  preserva- 


CH.  n]  HAMDU'LLAH  MUSTAWFf  87 

tion  of  his  books  and  the  beneficent  institutions  which  he 
founded  for  the  promotion  of  learning  and  charity;  and  the 
least  we  can  do  in  pious  memory  of  a  truly  great  scholar  is 
to  perpetuate  what  is  left  of  his  writings. 

But  if  Rashidu'd-Di'n  failed  to  secure  the  immortality  of 
all  his  works,  he  set  a  fruitful  example  to  other  historians, 

Hamdu'iiah  so  t^iat  **  *s  ^arSe^y  due  to  him  that  this  period 
Mustawfi  of  is  so  conspicuous  for  merit  in  this  field  of  know- 
ledge. We  have  seen  how  he  helped  Wassaf 
and  brought  him  to  the  Il-khan's  notice.  We  shall  now  con- 
sider the  work  of  his  most  illustrious  follower,  Hamdu'iiah 
Mustawfi'  of  Qazwfn.  Of  his  life  little  is  known  save  what 
he  tells  us  incidentally  in  his  works.  He  professed  to  be 
of  Arab  origin,  tracing  his  pedigree  to  Hurr  b.  Yazid  ar- 
Riyahi,  but  his  family  had  long  been  settled  in  Qazwin. 
His  great-grandfather,  Amfnu'd-Din  Nasr,  was  Mustawfi 
of  'Iraq,  but  later  adopted  the  ascetic  life,  and  was  finally 
slain  by  the  Mongols.  His  brother,  Zaynu'd-Dfn  Muham- 
mad, held  office  under  Rashidu'd-Dm,  and  he  himself  was 
appointed  by  the  same  minister,  about  1311,  superintendent 
of  the  finances  of  Qazwin,  Abhar,  Zanjan  and  Tarumayn. 
For  the  rest,  he  tells  us  that  he  had  from  his  youth  upwards 
eagerly  cultivated  the  society  of  men  of  learning,  especially 
that  of  Rashidu'd-Di'n  himself,  and  had  frequented  many 
learned  discussions,  especially  on  history;  so  that,  though 
not  by  training  a  historian,  he  resolved  to  employ  his  leisure 
in  compiling  a  compendious  universal  history.  Three  of 
his  works,  the  Tdrikh-i-Gttzida,  or  "  Select  History,"  the 
Zafar-ndma,  or  "  Book  of  Victory,"  and  the  Nus-hatti'l- 
Qulub,  or  "  Heart's  Delight,"  have  come  down  to  us.  Of 
these,  the  first  two  are  historical,  the  third  geographical. 

The  Tarikh-i-Guzidavjz.s  composed  in  730/1330,  and  is 
Ta'rtkh-  dedicated  to  Rashfdu'd-Di'n's  son  Ghiyathu'd- 

Din  Muhammad,  who  was  made  Prime  Minister 
in  May,  1328,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  was  put  to  death  in 
sources  of  May,  1336.  The  author  enumerates  about  two 

i-Gu^da  l         dozen  of  his  sources,  which   include   (i)  the 


88        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  r 

Siratun-Nabi,  or  Biography  of  the  Prophet  (probably 
Ibn  Hisham's1);  (2)  the  Qisasu'l-Anbiyd  (probably  ath- 
Tha'labfs2) ;  (3)  the  Risdla-i-Qushayriyyd*;  (4)  the  Tadh- 
kiratul-Awliyd  (probably  Farfdu'd-Din  'Attar's4);  (5)  the 
Tadwin  of  Imamu'd-Di'nal-Yafi'i5;  (6) the  Tajdribu' l-Umam* 
(probably  of  Ibn  Miskawayhi);  (7)  the  Mashdribu't-Tajd- 
rib\  (8)  the  Diwdnu'n-Nasab"1 ;  (9)  the  Chronicle  of  Muham- 
mad Jan'r  at-Taban'8;  (10)  the  history  of  Hamza  of  Isfahan9; 
(n)  the  Tcirikhul-Kdmil  of  Ibnu'l-Athir10;  (12)  the  Zub- 
datu't-Tawdrikh  of  Jamalu'd-Din  Abu'l-Qasim  of  Kashan; 
(13)  the  Nizdmiit-Tawdrikh  of  the  Qadi  Nasiru'd-Din 
al-Baydawi11;  (14)  the  '  Uyiinu't-  Tawdrikh  of  Abu  Talib 
'AH  al-Khazin  al-Baghdadi;  (15)  the  Kitdlml-Mctdrif 
of  Ibn  Qutayba12;  (16)  the  Tarikh-i-Jahdn-gushd  of  'Ata 
Malik-i-Juwayni13;  (17)  Abu  Sharaf  Jarbadhaqani's  Persian 
translation  of  a.\-(Uibi"sKztd&u7-Yamfnf1*;  (18)  the  Siydsat- 

1  Edited  by  Wiistenfeld,   Gottingen,  1858-1860;    German  trans- 
lation by  Weil,  Stuttgart,  1864. 

2  Printed   at    Cairo    in    1312/1894-5,    with    the    Abridgement    of 
al-Ya"fi'i's  Rawditr-Raydhin  in  the  margins. 

3  Printed  at  Bulaq,  1284/1867-8. 

4  Edited  by  Dr  R.  A.  Nicholson  in  my  Persian  Hist.  Text  Series, 
vols.  iii  and  v. 

5  See  Hajji  Khalifa  (ed.  Fliigel),  vol.  ii,  p.  254,  No.  2773,  where 
623/1226  is  given  as  the  date  of  the  author's  death. 

6  Vols.  i,  5  and  6  have  been  published  in  fac-simile  in  the  "  E.  J.  W. 
Gibb  Memorial "  Series,  (vii,  i ;  vii,  5 ;  vii,  6). 

7  Probably  one  of  the  works  on  Genealogy  entitled  Kitdbtfl-Ansdb. 

8  Published  at  Leyden  in  15  vols.  (1879-1901)  by  an  international 
group  of  eminent  Arabic  scholars  presided  over  by  the  late  Professor 
de  Goeje. 

9  Edited  with  Latin  translation  by  Gottwaldt,  Leipzig,  1844-1848. 

10  Ed.  Tornberg,  14  vols.,  Leyden,  1851-1876  ;  Cairo,  12  vols.,  1290- 
1303/1873-1886. 

11  This  work  and    its  author  will  be  discussed  further  on  in  this 
chapter. 

12  Ed.  Wiistenfeld,  Gottingen,  1850. 

13  The  first  two  of  the  three  vols.  constituting  this  work,  edited  by 
Mirzd  Muhammad  of  Qazwin,  have  appeared  in  the  "E.  J.  W.  Gibb 
Memorial"  Series,  xvi,  i  and  xvi,  2. 

14  The  Arabic  original  was  lithographed  at  Dihlf  in  1847,  and  printed 


CH.  n]  THE  TA'RfKH-I-GUZIDA  89 

ndma  (here  called  Siyarul-Muluk)  of  Nizamu'1-Mulk1; 
(19)  the  Shdhndma  of  Firdawsf2;  (20)  the  Saljuq-ndma  of 
Zahiri  of  Nishapur;  (21)  the  Majma'u  Arbdbil-Maslak  of 
Qadi  Ruknu'd-Dm  Juwayni ;  (22)  the  Istizhdru'l-Akhbdr 
of  Qadi  Ahmad  Damghani;  and  lastly  (23)  the  Jdmtu't- 
Tawdrikh*  of  the  author's  late  martyred  master  and  patron 
Rashidu'd-Dm  Fadlu'llah. 

After  the  enumeration  of  his  sources,  most  of  which,  as 
will  appear  from  the  foot-notes,  are  directly  accessible  to 
„.„  us.  the  author  describes  the  different  eras  used 

Different  eras 

used  in  com-  by  different  peoples,  some  of  whom  date  from 
Adam,  others  from  the  Deluge,  others  from 
Abraham  or  Moses,  others  from  the  destruction  of  Pharaoh, 
others  from  the  building  of  the  Ka'ba  or  the  Abyssinian  in- 
vasion of  Yaman,  while  the  Greeks  date  from  Alexander,  the 
Copts  from  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  the  pre-Islamic  Quraysh 
from  the  year  of  the  Elephant.  He  then  discusses  the 
confusion  in  chronology  arising  from  these  differences  as  to 
the  terminus  a  quo,  which  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  the 
philosophers  deny  that  the  world  had  a  beginning,  while  the 
theologians  assert  that  it  had  a  beginning  and  will  have  an 
end,  but  decline  to  define  or  specify  either.  The  learned  men 
of  India,  China  and  Europe  assert  that  Adam  lived  about 
a  million  years  ago,  and  that  there  were  several  Adams, 
each  of  whom,  with  his  descendants,  spoke  a  special  lan- 
guage, but  that  the  posterity  of  all  save  one  (viz.  the  Adam 
of  the  Hebrews)  died  out.  Most  of  the  Muslim  doctors  of 
Persia,  on  the  other  hand,  reckon  the  period  between  Adam 
and  Muhammad  as  six  thousand  years,  though  some  say 
more  and  some  less.  Astronomers  reckon  from  the  Deluge, 
since  which,  at  the  time  of  writing  (viz.  in  the  year  698  of 

in  Cairo  with  al-Manmi's  commentary  in  1286/1869-70.  Jarbadhaqani's 
Persian  translation  was  lithographed  in  Tihran  in  1272/1855-6. 

1  Edited  and  translated  by  Schefer  (Paris,  1891,  1893). 

2  The  three  printed  editions  are  Turner  Macan's  (Calcutta,  1829), 
Jules  Mohl's  (Paris,  1838-1878)  and  Viillers  and  Landauer's  (Strass- 
burg,  1877-1884,  3  vols.,  ending  with  Alexander  the  Great). 

3  See  above,  pp.  68-9,  72-5. 


90        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

the  Era  of  Yazdigird,  i.e.  about  A.D.  1330)  4432  years  are 

considered  to  have  elapsed. 

The  Ta  rtkh-i-Guzida comprises  an  Introd\iction(Fattha), 

Contents  of         s^x  cnapters  (Bdb),  each  of  which  is  divided 

the  ra'rtkh-        into  numerous  sections  (Fas/),  and  a  conclusion 
(Khdtima),  as  follows: 

Introduction.    On  the  Creation  of  the  Universe  and  of  Man. 

Chapter  /,  in  two  sections.  (i)  Major  Prophets,  and 
(2)  Minor  Prophets,  and  Sages,  who,  not  being  Pro- 
phets, yet  worked  for  the  cause  of  true  religion. 

Chapter  II.  The  Pre-Islamic  Kings  of  Persia,  in  four  sec- 
tions, viz. : 

1 i )  Pishdadiyan,  eleven  Kings,  who  ruled  2450  years. 

(2)  Kayaniyan,  ten  Kings,  who  ruled  734  years. 

(3)  Mulukut-Tawd'if     (Parthians),     twenty -two 
Kings,  who  ruled  318  years1. 

(4)  Sasaniyan,  thirty-one  Kings,  who  reigned  527 
years2. 

Chapter  III.  The  Prophet  Muhammad  and  his  Companions 
and  Descendants,  in  an  introduction  and  six  sections, 
viz. : 

Introduction,  on  the  pedigree,  genealogy  and  kin  of 
the  Prophet. 

(1)  Life  of  the  Prophet,  his  wars,  his  wives,  secre- 
taries, relations  and  descendants. 

(2)  The   Orthodox   Caliphs,  who  are  reckoned   as 
five,  al-Hasan   being  included.      Duration,  from 
10  Rabi"  I,  A.H.  ii  to  13  Rabi"  I,  A.H.  41  (June  6, 
632-July   17,  661),  when   al-Hasan  resigned  the 
supreme  power  to  Mu'awiya  the  Umayyad. 

1  The  period  between  Alexander  the  Great  and  the   fall  of  the 
Parthians  (really  about  5 50  years)  is  always  under-estimated  byMuham- 
madan  writers,  with  the  one  exception  (so  far  as  I  know)  of  Mas'udi, 
who,  in  MisKitdbdt-  Tanbih  wa!l-Ishrdf(pp.  97-9),  explains  the  political 
and  religious  motives  which  led  the  founder  of  the  Sasanian  Dynasty, 
Ardashir-i-Bdbakan,  to  reduce  it  deliberately  by  about  one  half. 

2  This  period  is  over-estimated  by   more  than  a  century.     The 
duration  of  the  dynasty  was  from  A.D.  226  to  652. 


CH.  n]  THE  TA'RIKH-I-GUZIDA  gi 

(3)  The  remainder  of  the  twelve  Imams,  excluding 
'Ah'  and  his  son  al- Hasan,  who  was  poisoned  in 
49/669-70.     Duration,  215  years  and  7  months, 
from    4    Safar,    A.H.  49   to    Ramadan,    A.H.    264 
(March  14,  669-May,  878). 

(4)  Notices  of  some  of  the  chief  "Companions"  (As- 
hdb)  and  "Followers"  (Tdbi'un)  of  the  Prophet. 

(5)  The  Umayyad  "  Kings "  (not  regarded  by  the 
author  as  Caliphs),  fourteen   in   number.     Dura- 
tion, 91  years,  from  13  Rabi'  I,  A.H.  41  to  13  Rabi'  I, 
A.H.  132  (July  17,  66i-Oct  30,  749). 

(6)  The  'Abbasid  Caliphs,  thirty-seven  in  number. 
Duration,  523  years,  2  months  and  23  days,  from 
13  Rabf  i,  A.H.  132  to  6  Safar,  A.H.  656  (Oct.  30, 
749- Feb.  12,  1258). 

Chapter  IV.    Post-Islamic  Kings  of  Persia,  in  twelve  sec- 
tions, viz. : 

(1)  Saffarids,  three   Kings,  who  reigned   35  years, 
from  253/867  to  287/900,  after  which  date  their 
posterity  continued   for  some  time  to  rule  over 
Sistan. 

(2)  Samanids,  nine  Kings,  who  reigned   102  years 
and  6  months,  from  Rabi"  II,  A.H.  287  to  Dhu'l- 
Qa'da,  A.H.  389  (April,  900  to  Oct.-Nov.  999). 

(3)  Ghaznawis, fourteen  Kings,  who  reigned  155  years 
(30  years  over  most  of  Persia,  and  the  remaining 
years  in  Ghazna),  from  390/1000  to  545/1150-1. 

(4)  Ghun's,  five  Kings,  who  reigned  for  64  years,  from 
545/1150-1  to  609/1212-13. 

(5)  Daylamis    (or    House    of    Buwayh),   seventeen 
Kings,  who  reigned  for  127  years,  from  321/933 
to  448/1056-7. 

(6)  Seljuqs,  in  three  groups,  viz.: 

(a)  Of  Persia,  fourteen  Kings,  who  reigned   for 
161  years,  from  429/1037-8  to  590/1194. 

(b)  Of  Kirman,  eleven   Kings,  who  reigned   for 
150  years,  from  433/1041-2  to  583/1187-8. 


92        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

(c)   Of  Asia  Minor,  eleven  Kings,  who   reigned 
for  220  years,  from  480/1087-8  to  700/1300-1. 

(7)  Khwarazmshahs,  nine   Kings,  who  reigned  for 
137  years,  from  491/1098  to  628/1230-1. 

(8)  Atabeks,  in  two  groups,  viz.: 

(a)   Of  Diyar  Bakr  and  Syria,  nine  Kings,  who 

reigned  for  120  years,  from  481/1088-9  to  6oi/ 

1204-5. 
(b}   Of  Pars  (also  called  Salgharids),  eleven  Kings, 

who  reigned  for  120  years,  from  543/1148-9  to 

663/1264-5. 

(9)  Isma'ih's,  in  two  groups,  viz.: 

(a)   Of  North   Africa  and    Egypt  (the    Fatimid 
Caliphs),  fourteen  anti-Caliphs,  who  reigned  for 
260  years,  from  296/908-9  to  556/1160. 
(b}    Of  Persia  (the  Assassins  of  Alamut),  eight 
pontiffs,  who  ruled    for    171   years,  from  483/ 
1090-1  to  654/1256. 
(10)   Qara-Khita'i's  of  Kirman,  ten  Kings,  who  reigned 

for  85  years,  from  621/1224  to  706/1306-7. 
(i  i)   Atabeks  of  Luristan,  in  two  groups,  viz.: 

(a)  Of  Lur-i-Buzurg,  seven  rulers,  who  reigned 
for  1 80  years,  from  550/1155-6  to  730/1329- 
30. 

(b)  Of  Lur-i-Kuchak,  eleven  rulers,  who  reigned 
150  years,  from  580/1184-5  to  730/1329-30. 

(12)  Mongol  Il-khans  of  Persia,  thirteen  Kings,  who 
had  reigned  at  the  time  of  writing  131  years,  from 
599/1202-3  to  730/1329-30.  "Hereafter,"  adds 
the  author,  "  let  him  who  will  write  the  con- 
tinuation of  their  history." 

Chapter  V.     Account  of  men   notable  for  their  piety  or 
learning,  in  six  sections,  viz.: 

(1)  Imams  and  Mujtahids  (12  are  mentioned). 

(2)  "  Readers"  of  the  Quran  (9  are  mentioned). 

(3)  Traditionists  (7  are  mentioned). 

(4)  Shaykhs  and  Sufi's  (about  300  are  mentioned). 


CH.  n]  THE  TA'RIKH-I-GUZIDA  93 

(5)  Doctors  of  Divinity,  Law  and  Medicine  (about 
70  are  mentioned). 

(6)  Poets,  of  whom  about  5  Arabic  and  87  Persian 
poets  are  mentioned.    The  biographies  of  the  latter 
have  been  translated  and  published  by  me  in  the 
J.R.A.S.  for  October  1900  and  January  1901,  and 
as  a  separate  reprint. 

Chapter  VI.    Account  of  Qazwin,  the  author's  native  town, 
in  seven  sections,  viz.: 

(1)  Traditions  concerning  Qazwin.     Some  40  are 
given,  of  which  36  are  said  to  be  from  an  auto- 
graph copy  of  the  Tadwin  of  ar-Rafi'i1.     Nearly 
all  these  agree  in  describing  Qazwin  as  one  of  the 
"Gates  of  Paradise." 

(2)  Etymology  of  the  name  of  Qazwfn. 

(3)  Notable  buildings  of  Qazwin ;  its  nine  quarters 
and  architectural  history  from  the  time  of  Shapur  I, 
who  was  its  original  founder;  its  conquest  by  the 
Arabs,  and  conversion  to  Islam. 

(4)  Its  environs,  rivers,  aqueducts  (qandts),  mosques, 
and  tombs.     Some  of  its  inhabitants  are  said  still 
to  profess  secrstly  the  religion  of  Mazdak. 

(5)  Notable  men  who  have  visited  Qazwin,  including 
"Companions"  and  "Followers"  of  the  Prophet, 
Imams  and  Caliphs,  Shaykhs  and  'ulamd,  Kings 
and  wazirs,  khdqdns  and  amirs. 

(6)  Governors  of  Qazwin. 

(7)  Tribes  and  leading  families  of  Qazwin,  including 
Sayyids;  lulamd;  Iftikharis  (of  whom  the  actual 
representative,  Malik  Sa'fd   Iftikharu'd-Dfn  Mu- 
hammad b.  Abu  Nasr,  had  learned  the  Mongol  and 
Turki  languages  and  writing",  and  had  translated 

1  See  G.  le  Strange's  ed.  and  translation  of  our  author's  Nuz- 
hatu'l-Qulub  ("E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series,  vols.  xxiii,  I,  pp. 
56-8  and  xxiii,  2,  pp.  62-3),  where  many  of  these  traditions  are  given 
on  the  same  authority.  See  also  p.  88  supra,  n.  5  ad  calc. 


94        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  I 

Kalila  and  Dimna  into  the  first,  and  the  Sindibdd- 
ndma  into  the  second);  Bazdaris  or  Muzaffaris; 
Bishan's  ;  Durham's  ;  Hanafis  ;  Hulwanis  ;  Kha- 
lidi's;  Khali'Hs ;  Dabfran  ;  Rafi'fs ;  Zakam's  ;  Zu- 
bayn's  ;  Zadanis  ;  Shirzads  ;  Tausi's  ;  'Abbasfs  ; 
Ghaffarfs  ;  Fi'lwagushan  ;  Qadawis  ;  Qarawuls  ; 
Tamfmfs;  Karajfs  or  Dulafis  (one  of  whom  was 
the  cosmographer  and  geographer  Zakariyya  b. 
Muhammad  b.  Mahmud) ;  Kiyas  or  Kaysfs  ; 
Makanis  ;  Mustawfis  (the  author's  own  family, 
said  to  be  descended  from  Hurr  b.  Yazid  ar- 
Riyahi) ;  Mu'minan  ;  Mukhtaran  ;  Mu'afiyan  or 
Mu'afaniyan  ;  Marzubanan  ;  Nfshapuriyan  ;  and 
Bula-Ti'muris  or  Tababakan. 

Conclusion.  A  tree  of  dynasties,  or  genealogical  tree,  based 
on  that  devised  by  Rashi'du'd-Dfn,  but  improved.  This 
tree  is,  however,  omitted  in  all  the  manuscripts  which 
I  have  seen. 

Having  regard  to  the  extent  of  the  field  covered  by  the 
Tarikh-i-Guzida,  and  its  comparatively  modest  size  (some 
170,000  words),  it  is  evident  that  it  is  of  the  nature  of  a 
compendium,  and  that  no  great  detail  can  be  expected 
from  it.  It  is,  however,  a  useful  manual,  and  contains  many 
interesting  particulars  not  to  be  found  elsewhere,  while  for 
contemporary  history  it  is  of  first-rate  importance,  so  that 
the  need  for  a  complete  edition  of  the  text  had  long  been 
felt.  Until  the  year  1910  the  only  portions  accessible  in 
print  were : 

(1)  The  whole  of  chapter  iv,  on  the  Post- Islamic  dy- 
nasties of  Persia,  edited  in  the  original,  with  French 
translation,  by  M.  Jules  Gantin  (Paris,  1903).     Pp. 
ix  +  623. 

(2)  The  whole  of  chapter  vi,  except  the  first  section  on 
the  Traditions,  containing  the  account  of  Qazwin, 
translated  into  French  by  M.  Barbier  de  Meynard, 
and   published   in  the  Journal  Asiatique  for    1857 
(Ser.  v,  vol.  10,  pp.  257  et  seqq.}. 


CH.  n]  THE  ZAFAR-NAMA  95 

(3)  Section  6  of  chapter  v,  the  account  of  the  Persian 
poets,  translated  by  myself  in  the  J.R.A.S.  for 
October  1900  and  January  1901. 

In  1910,  however,  a  fac-simile  of  a  fairly  accurate  and 
ancient  MS.  (transcribed  in  857/1453)  was  published  in  the 
"E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series  (vol.  xiv,  i),  and  this  was 
followed  in  1913  by  an  abridged  English  translation,  with 
full  Indices,  by  myself  and  Dr  R.  A.  Nicholson  (vol.  xiv,  2), 
so  that  the  whole  work  is  now  accessible  to  scholars,  who 
can  form  their  own  opinion  of  its  value. 

In    the    preface  of  the    Tdrikh-i-Guzida,    Hamdu'llah 
Mustawfi  speaks  of  a  great  historical  poem  on  which  he 
was  then  engaged,  and  of  which  he  had  at  that 
ndma  time  (/3O/I33O)  completed  fifty  and  odd  thou- 

sand couplets  out  of  a  total  of  75,000.  This 
poem,  entitled  Zafar-ndma,  the  "  Book  of  Victory,"  was 
actually  completed  five  years  later.  It  is  essentially  a 
continuation  of  Firdawsf's  Shdh-ndma,  and  the  only  known 
manuscript  (Or.  2833  of  the  British  Museum,  a  huge  volume 
of  779  folios,  transcribed  in  Shiraz  in  807/1405,  and  bought 
in  Persia  by  Mr  Sidney  Churchill  for  the  Museum  about 
I8851)  contains  besides  the  Zafar-ndma  the  revised  text 
of  the  Shdh-ndma  on  which  the  author  had  spent  six  years. 
The  Zafar-ndma  begins  with  the  life  of  the  Prophet 
Muhammad,  and  comes  down  to  the  author's  own  time, 
viz.  to  the  year  732/1331-2,  when  Abu  Sa'id  was  still 
reigning.  It  comprises,  as  already  said,  75,000  couplets, 
10,000  couplets  being  assigned  by  the  author  to  each  of 
the  seven  and  a  half  centuries  of  which  he  treats,  or,  ac- 
cording to  the  main  chronological  divisions  of  the  work, 
25,000  couplets  to  the  Arabs,  20,000  to  the  Persians,  and 
30,000  to  the  Mongols.  The  author  was  forty  years  of  age 
when  he  began  it,  and  spent  fifteen  years  on  its  composition, 
so  that  he  must  have  been  born  about  680/1281-2.  From 

1  For  full  description  of  this  precious  MS.  see  Rieu's  Persian  Sup- 
plement, No.  263,  pp.  172-174,  and  also  the  Athenaeum  for  1885,  p.  314. 


96        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  iL-KHANl  PERIOD     [BK  i 

Dr  Rieu's  description,  it  is  evident  that  the  historical  value 
of  this  work  is  by  no  means  to  be  neglected:  "the  author," 
he  says  (loc.  cit.,  p.  173),  "is  very  precise  as  to  facts  and 
dates,  and  his  third  book  will  be  found  valuable  for  the 
history  of  the  Mongol  period.  He  gives,  for  instance,  on 
f.  5i2a,  a  very  vivid  description  of  the  wholesale  slaughter 
wrought  by  the  Mongols  in  his  native  place,  Qazwfn.  His 
information  was  partly  derived  from  his  great-grandsire, 
Ami'n  Nasr  Mustawfi,  who  was  ninety-three  years  old  at 
the  time."  The  following  extract  from  this  portion  may 
serve  as  a  specimen : 


d'    JkJ 


****'  j""* 

JU  6J*\  rt,7,t,.f-.  A^A 

-  3  ^  J 


VI 


*u 


Mongol  siege  of  a  Chinese  town,  from  an  old  ws..o{  t\\eJdmilu't-Taivdrikh 
in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale 


To  face  p.  96 


CH.  ii]  THE  ZAFAR-NAMA  97 


ljJb   jt    j^j-ilj    jJiLJ     ^5**^      'j^J   tjt  «^ 
O 


J 


j 

jJ    AJbj       '  jLiXJ    4jl5l    jjut     JJU 


"Thence1  to  the  town  of  Qazwfn,  Subutdy2 
Like  raging  tiger  came  right  speedily. 
The  tale  of  years  at  six,  one,  seven  stood 
When  that  fair  town  became  a  lake  of  blood, 
And  Sha'bdn's  month  had  counted  seven  days3 
When  it  was  filled  with  woe  and  sore  amaze. 
The  governor  who  held  the  ill-starred  town 
Muzaffar  named,  a  ruler  of  renown, 
Was,  by  the  Caliph's  most  august  command, 
Set  to  control  the  fortunes  of  the  land. 

When  came  the  hosts  of  war  and  direful  fate 
Firm  as  a  rock  they  closed  the  city  gate. 
Upon  the  wall  the  warriors  took  their  place, 
And  each  towards  the  Mongols  set  his  face. 
Three  days  they  kept  the  ruthless  foe  at  bay, 
But  on  the  fourth  they  forced  a  blood-stained  way. 

1  I.e.  from  Zanjdn. 

2  The  MS.  has  ^U*~»  (n  for  b\  but  see  the  TcHrikh-i-Jahdn-gushd 
("E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series,  xvi,  i),  p.  115,  1.  17. 

3  Sha'bdn  7,  A.M.  6i7  =  October  7,  A.D.  1220. 

B.  p.  7 


98        HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

Fiercely  the  Mongols  entered  Qazwin  Town 

And  heads  held  high  before  were  now  brought  down. 

No  quarter  in  that  place  the  Mongols  gave  : 

The  days  were  ended  of  each  chieftain  brave. 

Nothing  could  save  the  townsmen  from  their  doom, 

And  all  were  gathered  in  one  common  tomb. 

Alike  of  great  and  small,  of  old  and  young, 

The  lifeless  bodies  in  the  dust  they  flung  : 

Both  men  and  women  shared  a  common  fate  : 

The  luck-forsaken  land  lay  desolate. 

Many  a  fair  one  in  that  fearful  hour 

Sought  death  to  save  her  from  th'  invaders'  power  : 

Chaste  maidens  of  the  Prophet's  progeny 

Who  shone  like  asteroids  in  Virtue's  sky, 

Fearing  the  lust  of  that  ferocious  host 

Did  cast  them  down,  and  so  gave  up  the  ghost. 

Much  in  that  land  prevails  the  Shafi'ite  ; 

One  in  a  thousand  is  a  Hanafite1 ; 

And  yet  they  counted  on  that  gory  plain 

Twelve  thousand  Hanafites  amongst  the  slain  ! 

In  heaps  on  every  side  the  corpses  lay, 

Alike  on  lonely  path  and  broad  high-way. 

Uncounted  bodies  cumbered  every  street : 

Scarce  might  one  find  a  place  to  set  one's  feet. 

In  terror  of  the  Mongol  soldiery 

Hither  and  thither  did  the  people  fly, 

Some  seeking  refuge  to  the  Mosque  did  go, 

Hearts  filled  with  anguish,  souls  surcharged  with  woe. 

From  that  fierce  foe  so  sore  their  straits  and  plight 

That  climbing  forms  the  arches  hid  from  sight. 

The  ruthless  Mongols  burning  brands  did  ply 

Till  tongues  of  flame  leapt  upwards  to  the  sky. 

Roof,  vault  and  arch  in  burning  ruin  fell, 

A  heathen  holocaust  of  Death  and  Hell !  " 

Yet  a  third  work  produced  by  this  industrious  writer  is 
the  well-known  geographical  and  cosmographical  treatise 
entitled  the  Nuz-hatul-Qulub,  or  "  Heart's  De- 
light."     Manuscripts  of  it  are  fairly  common, 
but  until  1915  the  text  was  only  generally  ac- 
cessible in  the  indifferent  lithographed  edition  published 

1  Cf.  Nuz-hatu? l-Qulub  (Gibb  Series,  xxiii,  i),  p.  59,  last  line. 


CH.  n]  THE  NUZ-HATU'L-QULUB  99 

at  Bombay  in  1311/1893-4.  In  1915,  however,  a  critical 
edition  of  the  text  was  brought  out  by  Mr  G.  le  Strange 
in  the  "  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series  (vol.  xxiii,  i),  and 
the  English  translation  (vol.  xxiii,  2),  which  is  now  in  the 
Press,  will  shortly  follow. 

'T'he.Nuz-hatu'l-Qulub  was  composed  five  years  later  than 
the  Zafar-ndma,  during  the  period  of  anarchy  which  suc- 
ceeded Abu  Sa'id's  death,  to  which  the  author  alludes  with 
feeling.  He  was  persuaded,  he  says,  to  undertake  the  work 
at  the  request  of  certain  friends,  who  felt  the  want  of  a 
Persian  work  on  geography,  most  of  the  works  on  that  sub- 
sources  of  the  Ject  Demg  in  Arabic.  He  enumerates  amongst 
Nuz-katu'i.  his  sources  the  following  works,  which  he  has 
supplemented  from  his  own  observations  during 
his  travels  through  Persia:  the  Suwaru'l-AqdUm  of  Abu 
Zayd  Ahmad  b.  Sahl  al-Balkhf1;  the  Tibydn  of  Ahmad  b. 
Abi  'Abdi'llah;  the  Road-book  (Masdlik  wa'l-Mamdlik)  of 
Abu'l-Qasim  'Abdu'llah  ibn  Khurdadhbih2;  and  a  work 
entitled  the  Jahdn-ndma;  besides  nineteen  other  works, 
of  which  the  enumeration  will  be  found  in  Rieu's  Persian 
Catalogue,  pp.  418-419.  The  work  is  primarily  divided  into 
an  Introduction  (Fdtihd),  three  Discourses  (Maqdla),  and 
an  Appendix  (Khdtima).  The  third  Maqdla  is  the  impor- 
tant part  of  the  work:  all  that  precedes  this  deals  with 
cosmography,  the  heavens,  the  earth,  the  three  kingdoms, 
and  man.  This  third  Maqdla,  which  contains  the  geo- 
graphical portion  of  the  work,  deals  first  with  the  geography 
of  the  two  holy  cities  of  Arabia  and  of  Jerusalem;  then 
with  the  geography  of  Persia,  Mesopotamia  and  Asia 
Minor,  with  an  appendix  on  the  physical  geography  of 
Persia;  then  with  the  countries  bordering  on  Persia,  and 
some  other  lands  never  included  in  the  Persian  Empire. 

1  This  author  is  perhaps  identical  with  the  "  Ibnu'l-Balkhi "  whose 
Fdrs-ndma  Mr  G.  le  Strange  intends  to  publish  in  the  Gibb  Series. 

-  He  wrote  about  230-4/844-8.  See  Brockelmann,  vol.  f,  pp.  225-6. 
The  text  is  included  in  de  Goeje's  valuable  Bibliotheca  Geographorum 
Arabicoruin. 

7—2 


ioo      HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

The  Conclusion  treats  of  the  wonders  of  the  world,  espe- 
cially of  Persia.  The  book  is  of  considerable  value  for  a 
knowledge  of  the  geography  and  condition  of  mediaeval 
Persia,  and  was  largely  used  by  Mr  G.  le  Strange  in  the  com- 
pilation of  his  Lands  of  the  Eastern  Caliphate  before  he 
published  the  edition  mentioned  on  the  preceding  page. 

Mention  has  been  already  made  at  the  beginning  of  this 

chapter  (p.  63  supra)  of  a  small  historical  manual  entitled 

Nizdmu't-Tawdrikh  (the  "Order  of  Histories" 

Al-  rsaydawi  s 

or  "  Dates  ")   by   the  well-known   judge   and 


0«rW»-commentator  Nasiru'd-Din  al-Baydawi, 
whose  father  held  the  same  office  under  the  Atabek  Abu 
Bakr  b.  Sa'd-i-Zangi,  the  patron  of  the  great  poet  Sa'di. 
This  dull  and  jejune  little  book,  compiled  in  the  year  6/4/ 
1275,  with  a  continuation,  apparently  added  by  the  author, 
down  to  683/1284-5,  and  a  further  continuation,  probably 
by  another  hand,  to  694/1294-5,  contains  an  outline  of 
general  history  from  the  time  of  Adam  to  the  date  last 
mentioned.  It  has  not  been  published,  and  is  probably 
not  worth  publishing,  since  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  con- 
tains anything  new  or  valuable,  and  whether  it  is  calculated 
to  add  to  the  fame  which  its  author  enjoys  as  a  juriscon- 
sult, theologian  and  commentator1. 

Another  still  unpublished  historical  manual  of  this  period 
is  that  properly  entitled  Rawdatu  Ulil-Albdb  fi  tawdrikhil- 
Akdbir  wa'l-Ansdb  (the  "Garden  of  the  Intelligent,  on  the 

histories  of  the  great,  and  on  genealogies")  com- 
faJkl^'  Piled  in  717/1317  by  Abu  Sulayman  Da'ud  of 

Banakat  (or  Fanakat)  in  Transoxiana2.  It  is 
better  known  as  the  Tdrikh-i-Bandkati,  is  obviously  and 
indeed  admittedly  inspired  by  Rashidu'd-Din's  great  work, 

1  For  further  particulars  see  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  pp.  832-4. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  79-80.     The  only  copy  to  which  I  have  access  is  a  MS. 
(unfortunately  defective  at  beginning  and  end)  from  the  Library  of  the 
late  Sir  A.  Houtum-Schindler.      It  formerly  belonged  to  that  great 
bibliophile  Prince  Bahman  Mirzd  Bahd'u^d-Dawla. 


CH.  n]  THE  TA'RJKH-I-BANAKATI  101 

and  comprises  nine  sections,  called  qism,  as  follows:  (i)  Pro- 
phets and  Patriarchs;  (2)  ancient  Kings  of  Persia;  (3)  the 
Prophet  Muhammad  and  the  Caliphs;  (4)  Persian  dynas- 
ties contemporary  with  the'Abbasid  Caliphs;  (5)  the  Jews; 
(6)  the  Christians  and  Franks;  (7)  the  Indians;  (8)  the 
Chinese;  (9)  the  Mongols.  In  one  respect  it  shows  very 
clearly  the  influence  of  Rashidu'd-Din's  wider  conception 
of  history,  for  more  than  half  the  book  is  devoted  to  the 
non-Muslim  peoples  mentioned  in  the  headings  of  the  last 
five  qisms,  to  wit  the  Jews,  the  European  nations,  including 
the  Roman  Emperors  and  the  Popes,  the  Indians,  the 
Chinese  and  the  Mongols.  The  accounts  given  of  these 
nations,  though  for  the  most  part  brief  and  dry,  show  some 
real  knowledge  of  the  chief  facts,  while  the  statements  of 
non-Muslim  religious  doctrines  are  fair  and  devoid  of  acri- 
mony or  fanaticism.  Baydawi,  on  the  other 

Contrast  be-  J  .  , 

tweenthe  hand,  like  most  Persian  historians  not  directly 

SSwild  inspired  by  Rashi'du'd-Dfn,  practically  ignores 
Banakati,  and  all  history  except  that  which  is  connected  with 

Islam  and  the  Muhammadan  peoples,  the  an- 
cient Kings  of  Persia,  and  the  Hebrew  Prophets  and  Patri- 
archs. This  contrast  between  these  two  historical  manuals 
is  probably  in  large  measure  due  to  the  fact  that  Baydawi 
lived  in  Ears,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  lay  outside  the  great 
stream  of  communication  between  East  and  West  set  in 
motion  by  the  Mongol  dominion,  while  the  author  of  the 
Tdrikh-i-Bandkati  was  from  Transoxiana,  and,  as  poet- 
laureate  of  Ghazan  Khan  (70 1/1301  -2),  was  doubtless  familiar 
with  the  Mongol  court  and  the  many  foreigners  from  distant 
lands  who  frequented  it.  His  information  about  the  Jews, 
Christians,  Indians,  Chinese  and  Mongols,  though  largely 

directly  borrowed,  often   in   the  same  words, 

Wider  range  . 

of  Banakatfs  from  the  pages  of  Rashidu  d-Dm,  was  never- 
SerS?e  and  theless  undoubtedly  supplemented  by  what  the 
author  learned  orally  from  representatives  of 
the  peoples  in  question.  In  no  Persian  history  before 
the  Mongol  period  and  in  few  after  it  do  we  find  so  many 


102      HISTORIANS  OF  THE  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

references  to  places,  people,  and  historical  events  beyond 
the  ken  of  most  Muslim  writers ;  places  like  Portugal, 
Poland,  Bohemia,  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Catalonia, 
Lombardy,  Paris  and  Cologne ;  people  like  the  Roman 
Emperors  from  Romulus  downwards,  and  the  Popes  from 
St  Peter  to  the  Pope  contemporary  with  the  author,  who  is 
said  to  be  the  two  hundred  and  second  in  succession ;  and 
events  like  the  different  Church  Councils,  the  Conversion 
of  Britain  to  Christianity  in  the  time  of  Pope  Eleutherius, 
the  Nestorian  heresy,  and  the  like.  As  a  specimen  of  one 
of  the  more  interesting  passages  the  following  account  of 
printing  from  wood  blocks  in  China  is  worthy  of  atten- 
tion. Having  described  the  care  with  which  the  Chinese 
transcribe  historical  and  other  passages  from  their  ancient 
books,  he  says : 

"  Then,  according  to  a  custom  which  they  have,  they  were 
wont  and  still  continue  to  make  copies  from  that  book  in 
Account  of  such  wise  that  no  change  or  alteration  can  find 
Chinese  print-  fts  wav  jn{O  the  text.  And  therefore  when  they 

ing  from  the  i       •          t  11  •     •  r 

Ta'r{kk-i-  desire  that  any  book  containing  matter  of  value 
BanUatt  to  them  should  be  well  written  and  should  re- 

main correct,  authentic  and  unaltered,  they  order  a  skilful 
calligraphist  to  copy  a  page  of  that  book  on  a  tablet  in  a 
fair  hand.  Then  all  the  men  of  learning  carefully  correct  it, 
and  inscribe  their  names  on  the  back  of  the  tablet.  Then 
skilled  and  expert  engravers  are  ordered  to  cut  out  the 
letters.  And  when  they  have  thus  taken  a  copy  of  all  the 
pages  of  the  book,  numbering  all  [the  blocks]  consecutively, 
they  place  these  tablets  in  sealed  bags,  like  the  dies  in  a 
mint,  and  entrust  them  to  reliable  persons  appointed  for 
this  purpose,  keeping  them  securely  in  offices  specially  set 
apart  to  this  end  on  which  they  set  a  particular  and  defi- 
nite seal.  Then  when  anyone  wants  a  copy  of  this  book  he 
goes  before  this  committee  and  pays  the  dues  and  charges 
fixed  by  the  Government.  Then  they  bring  out  these  tab- 
lets, impose  them  on  leaves  of  paper  like  the  dies  used  in 
minting  gold,  and  deliver  the  sheets  to  him.  Thus  it  is 


CH.  n]  OTHER  MINOR  CHRONICLES  103 

impossible  that  there  should  be  any  addition  or  omission  in 
any  of  their  books,  on  which,  therefore,  they  place  complete 
reliance;  and  thus  is  the  transmission  of  their  histories 
effected." 

A  third  minor  history  of  this  period  is  the  Majmctu'l- 

Ansdb  ("Collection   of  Genealogies")  of  Muhammad   ibn 

'Ah'  of  Shabankara,  who,  like   Fakhr-i-Bana- 

^An™bajm°™1'  katf>  was  a  P°et  as  wel1  as  a  historian.  Of  this 
book  there  seem  to  have  been  two  editions,  the 
first  issued  in  733/1332-3,  the  second  three  years  later  and 
one  year  after  the  death  of  Abu  Sa'i'd.  This  work  contains 
a  summary  of  general  history  from  the  Creation  to  the  time 
of  writing,  but  I  have  unfortunately  been  unable  to  obtain 
or  read  a  copy,  and  am  indebted  for  these  meagre  par- 
ticulars to  Rieu's  admirable  Persian  Catalogue,  pp.  83-4. 
According  to  Ethe1  the  original  edition  perished  when  the 
house  of  Rashidu'd-Dm's  son  Ghiyathu'd-Dm  Muhammad 
was  pillaged,  and  the  author  rewrote  the  book  from  memory, 
completing  this  second  edition,  according  to  Ethe,  in  743/ 
1342-3. 

Two  rhymed  chronicles  of  this  period  also  deserve  notice, 
the  Shdhinshdh-ndma  ("Book  of  the  King  of  Kings"),  or 
Chingiz-ndma  ("  Book  of  Chingiz"),  of  Ahmad  of  Tabriz, 
containing  the  history  of  the  Mongols  down  to  738/1337-8 
in  about  18,000  verses,  and  dedicated  to  Abu  Sa'i'd;  and 
the  Ghdzdn-ndma  of  Nuru'd-Dm  ibn  Shamsu'd-Dm  Mu- 
hammad, composed  in  763/1361-2.  Both  works  are  very 
rare.  Rieu  has  described  a  MS.  of  the  first,  copied  in  8oo/ 
1397-8,  acquired  by  the  British  Museum  at  the  sale  of  the 
Comte  de  Gobineau's  library  in  i8852;  and  I  possess  a  fine 
MS.  of  the  latter,  copied  at  Tabriz  in  873/1468-9  for  the 
Royal  Library  of  Abu'n-Nasr  Hasan  Beg  Bahadur  Khan, 
and  given  to  me  in  August,  1909,  by  Dr  Rida  Tawfi'q,  then 

1  India  Office  Pers.  Cat.,  cols.  10 — 11,  Nos.  21  and  22. 

2  Persian  Suppl.  Cat.,  No.  201,  p.  135. 


104      HISTORIANS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i  CH.  n 

Deputy  for  Adrianople  in  the  Turkish  Parliament.  Both 
works  are  written  in  the  same  metre  (the  mutaqdrib)  as  the 
Shdh-ndma  of  Firdawsi,  of  which  they  are  imitations,  but 
the  second  is  only  about  half  the  length  of  the  first  (some- 
thing between  9000  and  10,000  couplets)1.  Neither  of  these 
two  works  appears  to  be  of  any  exceptional  merit  either 
as  history  or  poetry,  though  useful  information  about  the 
period  of  which  they  treat  could  no  doubt  be  extracted 
from  them  by  patient  examination. 

1  In  the  short  prose  preface  describing  how  the  poem  came  to  be 
written  for  Sultan  Uways,  who  had  restored  the  pension  enjoyed  by 
the  author,  then  fifty  years  of  age,  under  Ghazan  Khan,  the  number  of 
verses  is  stated  as  10,000. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  POETS  AND  MYSTICS   OF  THE   IL-KHANI  PERIOD. 

From  the  literary  point  of  view  the  period  which  we 
are  now  considering  is,  as  we  have  seen,  chiefly  remarkable 
for  the  quality  and  quantity  of  historical  writers 
which  it  produced.  That  it  was  also  rich  in 
poetical  talent  cannot  be  disputed,  but  this  is 
less  remarkable,  since  at  hardly  any  period  was  there  a 
dearth  of  poets  in  Persia.  Almost  every  well-educated 
Persian  can  produce  moderately  good  verses  on  occasion, 
and  it  would  be  a  hopeless  and  useless  task  even  to  mention 
all  of  those  who,  transcending  the  rank  of  mere  versifiers, 
can  fairly  claim  to  be  poets.  Severe  selection  is  necessary 
but  not  easy,  for  on  the  one  hand  due  regard  must  be  paid 
to  the  judgement  of  the  poet's  own  countrymen,  even  when 
it  does  not  entirely  accord  with  our  own  ;  and  on  the  other 
hand  care  must  be  taken  not  to  overlook  any  poet  of 
originality  and  talent  merely  because  he  has  not  found 
favour  with  the  Persian  biographers,  who,  especially  in 
their  treatment  of  contemporaries,  are  apt  to  be  swayed  by 
personal,  political,  and  even  religious  prejudices  and  pre- 
dilections. 

In  the  period  with  which  we  are  now  dealing  there  lived 
at  least  a  score  of  poets  whose  claims  to  consideration 
The  two  greatest  cannot  be  denied.  The  two  greatest  by  far 
poets  whosur-  were  Jalalu'd-Din  Rumf  and  Sa'di  of  Shfraz,  of 
pTriod^aiaiu'd.  whom  the  former  died  in  672/1273  at  the  age  of 
DmRumiand  55  an(j  the  latter  about  690/1291  at  the  very 

Sa'di,  discussed  } 

in  a  previous        advanced  age,  as  is  generally  asserted,  of  no 

lunar  years.    Both  these  poets,  therefore,  belong 

rather  to  the  period  preceding  this,  and  have  accordingly 


106     POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

been  already  discussed  in  a  previous  volume1,  to  which  the 
reader  is  referred.  They  might  with  equal  justice  have 
been  included  in  this  volume,  which  is  the  poorer  for  their 
omission,  since  their  literary  activity  extended  into  the  period 
which  it  covers,  and  both  poets  came  into  relations  with 
some  of  its  leading  personages,  Sa'di  with  the  Sdhib-Diwdn 
and  his  brother  'Ala'u'd-Din  of  the  great  Juwayni  family,  and 
even  with  Abaqa  Khan  himself2,  and  Jalalu'd-Di'n  Rumi 
with  the  unfortunate  Parwana  of  Rum,  Mu'inu'd-Dm,  who 
was  put  to  death  by  Abaqa  for  suspected  complicity  with 
the  Egyptians  in  675/I276-/3.  It  would  be  easy  to  devote 
many  pages  to  each  of  them  in  this  place  without  repeating 
anything  that  has  been  said  before,  but  the  difficulty  is  to 
limit  rather  than  to  extend  the  scope  of  this  chapter,  and, 
in  spite  of  all  temptations  to  the  contrary,  they  must  there- 
fore be  omitted  here. 

For  similar  reasons  I  shall  content  myself  with  a  very 

brief  mention  of  three  other  poets  of  this  time  whom  many 

Persian  students,  especially  such  as  have  pur- 

Oimssion  of  poets  .      «      .  T          .        T      ,. 

who,  though  they  sued  their  studies  in  India,  would  place  next 
wrote  m  Persian,  t  ^  ^  great  poets  mentioned  above ;  I  mean 

were  not  of  Per- 
sian race  or  resi-   Amir  Khusraw  and  Hasan  of  Dihli  and  Badr- 

i-Chach,  all  of  whom  are  highly  esteemed  in 
India,  but  none  of  whom,  so  far  as  is  known,  ever  visited, 
much  less  resided  in  Persia.  To  reduce  the  subject-matter 
of  this  book  within  any  reasonable  limits,  it  becomes  more 
and  more  necessary  to  exclude  the  great  and  increasing 
number  of  Indian  writers  of  Persian.  Two  considerations 

besides  that  of  space  seems  to  me  to  justify  this 

Grounds  for  ex-  _  .  .  . 

eluding  Indian-  procedure.  The  first  is  that,  owing  to  the  greater 
Persian  literature  jnt-eresf-  jn  india  which  naturally  prevails  in 

1  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  515-539. 

2  See  the  English  Introduction  to  vol.  xvi,  i,  of  the  "  E.  J.  W.  Gibb 
Memorial"   Series   (the  Jahdn-gushd   of  Juwayni,  edited  by   Mirzci 
Muhammad),  pp.  lii-liv. 

3  See  Bar-Hebraeus'  Mukhtasardd-Duival  (Beyrout  ed.  of  1890), 
pp.  501-3. 


CH.  in]  INDIAN  WRITERS  EXCLUDED  107 

England,  far  more  has  been  written  about  these  Indian- 
Persian  authors,  whether  poets  or  historians,  than  about 
the  purely  Persian  men  of  letters.  The  second  is  that,  so 
far  as  a  foreign  student  may  be  permitted  to  express  an 
opinion  on  matters  of  literary  taste,  this  Persian  literature 
produced  in  India,  has  not,  as  a  rule,  the  real  Persian  flavour, 
the  tjtdf  as  the  Irish  call  it,  which  belongs  to  the  indigenous 
product.  Without  making  any  invidious  comparisons,  it 
will  hardly  be  contested  that  there  is  just  as  good  reason  for 
treating  the  abundant  Persian  literature  produced  in  India 
from  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  to  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  as  a  separate  subject  as  for  a  similar 
procedure  in  the  case  of  the  English  literature  produced  in 
England  and  that  produced  in  America;  and  that  therefore 
the  omission  of  Amir  Khusraw  from  this  chapter  is  as  justi- 
fiable as  the  omission  of  Walt  Whitman  from  a  modern 
English  literary  history,  especially  as  a  very  long  notice  of 
the  former  is  given  in  Elliot's  History  of  India1.  The  same 
observation  applies  in  lesser  degree  to  the  Persian  writings 
produced  in  Afghanistan  and  Turkey  respectively,  though 
Persian  still  remains  the  natural  speech  of  a  large  number 
of  Afghans,  and  Turkish  Sultans  (notably  the  great  Sah'm 
"  the  Grim2 ")  have  not  disdained,  even  when  at  war  with  the 
Persians,  to  make  use  of  their  language  for  literary  purposes. 
Exceptions  will  be  made,  however,  especially  in  the  period 
succeeding  that  included  in  this  volume,  in  the  case  of 
native-born  Persians  who,  attracted  by  the  munificence  of 
the  Moghul  Emperor  of  Dihlf,  emigrated  to  India  in  the 
hopes  of  disposing  of  their  intellectual  wares  more  profitably 
than  was  possible  in  their  own  country. 

The  attention  of  those  who  read  Urdu  should  be  called 

1  Vol.  iii,  pp.  524-566. 

2  A  most  sumptuous  edition  of  this  Persian  Diwdn  of  Sultdn  Sah'm, 
edited  by  the  late  Dr  Paul  Horn  of  Strassburg,  was  printed  by  com- 
mand of  the  German  Emperor  for  presentation  to  the  late  Sultdn 
'Abdu'l-Hamid  in  1904.    Of  this  rare  and  beautiful  work  I  am  fortunate 
enough  to  possess  a  copy. 


io8    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

to  a  very  excellent  modern  book  entitled  Shi'rul-Ajam 
Note  on  a  good  ("  Poetry  of  the  Persians")  by  the  late  Shibli  Nu- 
modem  Urdu  'mam,  lithographed  at  'AH-garh  in  two  volumes 

work  containing  ... 

critical  studies  of  in  or  about  1325/1907,  and  containing  critical 
Persian  poets  studies  of  about  a.  score  of  the  classical  poets  of 
Persia  from  Firdawsi  arid  his  predecessors  to  Hafiz.  Amongst 
these  a  long  notice1  is  devoted  to  Amir  Khusraw  of  Dihli, 
which  contains  incidentally  a  good  deal  of  information 
about  his  friend,  contemporary  and  fellow-poet  Hasan  of 
Dihli.  Those  who  do  not  read  Urdu  may  be  referred  to 
another  excellent  and  scholarly  work  produced  by  Indian 
scholarship  under  the  auspices  of  my  friend  Sir  Edward 
Denison  Ross,  the  Catalogue  of  the  Arabic  and  Persian 
Manuscripts  in  the  Oriental  Public  Library  at  Bankipore,  of 
which  the  first  volume,  containing  the  Persian  poets  from 
Firdawsi  to  Hafiz,  was  published  at  Calcutta  in  1908. 
Twenty  pages  of  this  volume  (pp.  176-195)  are  devoted  to 
Amir  Khusraw  and  his  various  works,  and  the  four  following 
pages  to  his  friend  Amir  Hasan.  Both  were  disciples  of  the 
great  Saint  Nizamu'd-Di'n  Awliya,  who  died  in  725/1324, 
only  seven  months  before  Amir  Khusraw,  who  was  buried 
beside  him.  Amir  Hasan  only  survived  them  a  few  (pro- 
bably two)  years. 

Amir  Khusraw,  not  less  notable  as  a  musician  than  as 

a  poet,  was  of  Turkish  race,  his  father  Amir  Sayfu'd-Dfn 

Mahmud  having  fled  before  the  Mongols  from 

Brief  account  of   the  region  of  Balkh  to  India,  where  he  finally 

Amir  Khusraw  » 

settled  at  Patyali.  There  the  poet  was  born  in 
651/1253.  He  was  therefore  seventy-one  years  old  when 
he  died,  and  "  lived  to  enjoy  the  favour  of  five  successive 
kings  of  Dihli."  He  was  enormously  productive  ;  Dawlat- 
shah  credits  him  with  nearly  half  a  million  verses.  Of 
these  "  Mirza  Baysunqur,  after  ceaseless  efforts,  succeeded 
in  collecting  120,000,"  but  having  subsequently  discovered 
2000  more  from  his  ghazals,  he  "  concluded  that  it  would  be 

1  Op.  laud.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  107-195. 


CH.  HI]  AMfR  KHUSRAW  OF  DIHLf  109 

very  difficult  for  him  to  collect  the  complete  work  of  the 
poet,  and  gave  up  the  idea  for  ever1." 

Although,  for  the  reasons  given  above,  I  do  not  propose 
to  speak  at  length  of  Amir  Khusraw,  yet,  in  accordance 
with  the  well-known  Arabic  saying2  of  which  the  gist  is 
that  what  cannot  be  fully  included  need  not  therefore  be 
wholly  omitted,  I  shall  give  here  "  for  good  luck  and  a 
blessing"  (tayammunan  wa  tabarruk*"}  one  short  extract  from 
his  Layld  wa  Majmin  in  which  he  mourns,  with  a  remark- 
able touch  of  feeling,  the  death  of  his  mother  and  younger 
brother,  both  of  whom  died  in  698/1298-9.  The  poet's  love 
for  his  mother,  which  is  in  strong  contrast  with  his  lack  of 
appreciation  of  his  daughter,  is  one  of  the  most  attractive 
features  of  his  character3. 


1  See  the  Bankipore  Catalogue  mentioned  above,  vol.  i,  pp.  176-7, 
and  my  edition  of  Dawlat-shah,  p.  240. 

2  '  4JL£>    Jjlj    -N)    J^    jj  jj    N)    U 

3  The  five  verses  addressed  to  his  daughter,  who  appears  to  have 
been  called  'Afifa,  will  be  found  on  p.  125  of  vol.  ii  of  the  Shfritl- 
'Ajam,  and  the  verses  to  his  mother  on  pp.  126-7. 


no     POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 


"A  double  radiance  left  my  star  this  year  : 
Amir  Khusraw's  Gone  are  my  brother  and  my  mother  dear. 

lament   on   his       .,  _,.  j  j  i_  • 

mother's  death     My  two  ""'  moons  have  set  and  ceased  to  shine 
In  one  short  week  through  this  ill  luck  of  mine. 
By  double  torture  I  am  racked  of  Fate, 
By  double  blow  doth  Heaven  me  prostrate. 
Double  my  mourning,  double  my  despair  ; 
Alas  that  I  this  double  grief  must  bear  ! 
Two  brands  for  one  like  me  is't  not  a  shame  ? 
One  fire's  enough  to  set  the  stack  aflame. 
One  breast  a  double  burden  should  not  bear, 
One  head  of  headaches  cannot  hold  a  pair. 
Beneath  the  dust  my  mother  lieth  dead  ; 
Is't  strange  if  I  cast  dust  upon  my  head  ? 
Where  art  thou  mother  mine,  in  what  strange  place  ? 
Canst  thou  not,  mother,  show  me  thy  dear  face  ? 
From  heart  of  earth  come  smiling  forth  once  more, 
And  take  compassion  on  my  weeping  sore  ! 
Where'er  in  days  gone  by  thy  feet  did  fall 
That  place  to  me  doth  Paradise  recall. 
Thy  being  was  the  guardian  of  my  soul, 
The  strong  support  which  kept  me  safe  and  whole. 
Whene'er  those  lips  of  thine  to  speed  were  stirred 
Ever  to  my  advantage  was  thy  word. 
To-day  thy  silence  makes  its  dumb  appeal, 
And  lo,  my  lips  are  closed  as  with  a  seal  !  " 

Badr-i-Chach,  another  poet  of  Transoxiana,  has  a  con- 
siderable reputation  in  India  but  is  practically  unknown  in 
Persia.  The  town  of  Ch£ch  or  Sh£sh  of  which 
he  claimed  to  be  the  "  Full  Moon  "  (Badr)  is 
the  modern  Tashkand.  His  poetry,  which  I  have  never  read, 
but  of  which  Sir  H.  Elliot  has  translated  specimens  in 
his  History  of  India1,  is  reputed  very  difficult,  a  common 
characteristic  of  the  Persian  poetry  produced  by  men  of 
Turkish  race  or  writing  under  Turkish  influence  and  patron- 
age, but  not  in  itself,  from  our  point  of  view,  a  reason  for 
including  him  in  this  survey. 

1  Vol.  iii,  pp.  567-573. 


CH.  in]  QANI'f  AND  PtiR-I-BAHA  in 

Mention  may  here  be  made  of  a  little-known  poet  called 

Qani'i,  who  fled  from  his  native  town  of  Tus  in  Khurasan 

before  the  terrible  Mongol  invasion,  escaped  to 

Qani'i 

India,  and  thence  made  his  way  westwards  by 
Aden,  Mecca,  Medina  and  Baghdad  to  Asia  Minor,  where 
he  attached  himself  to  the  court  of  the  Seljuq  rulers  of 
Qonya  (Iconium),  for  whom  he  composed  an  immense  versi- 
fied history  of  the  dynasty  on  the  model  of  the  Shdh-ndma, 
and  a  metrical  rendering  of  the  celebrated  Book  of  Kalila 
and  Dimna,  of  which  a  manuscript  (Add.  7766)  belonging 
to  the  British  Museum  is  described  by  Rieu1,  from  whom 
these  particulars  are  taken.  In  virtue  of  these  and  other 
poetical  productions,  of  which  he  boasted  that  they  filled 
thirty  volumes  and  amounted  to  300,000  bayts,  he  received 
the  title  of  Maliku'sh-Shtfard  ("  King  of  Poets  "  or  Poet 
Laureate),  and  he  lived  long  enough  to  compose  an  elegy 
on  the  death  of  the  great  Jalalu'd-Din  Rumi,  who  died, 
as  already  mentioned,  in  672/1273. 

Another  early  but  little-known  poet  of  this  period  is 

Pur-i-Baha-yi-Jami',to  whomDawlat-shah2  devotes  an  article 

containing  but  few  facts  about  his  life,  to  which 

pur-i-Baha-yi-      other   biographical  works,  such   as    the   Haft 

Jami  / 

Iqlim,  Atash-kada,  Majma'u'sh-ShiJ'ard,  etc. 
add  but  little.  His  original  patron  was  Khwaja  Wajihu'd- 
Dm  Zangi'(Dawlat-shah)or  Tahir-i-Faryumadf  (//#/?  /<7/z'#z), 
but  he  afterwards  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  the  great  Sahib 
Diwdn.  He  seems  to  have  been  fond  of  quaint  conceits 
and  tours  de  force,  and  Dawlat-shah  cites  an  ingenious  poem 
of  his,  containing  28  bayts,  in  which  he  made  use  of  as 
many  Mongol  and  Turkish  words  and  technical  terms  as 
possible,  as  when  he  says3  : 


1  Rieu's  Brit.  Mus.  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  582-4.       2  Pp.  181-5  of  my  edition. 
3  Loc.  tit.,  p.  182,  lines  22-3. 


ii2    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANi  PERIOD     [BK  i 

"  The  wizards  of  thy  tresses,  like  the  pens  of  the  bakhshis, 
Have  practised  on  thy  cheek  the  Uyghiir  writing1." 

The  following  quatrain,  addressed  to  a  friend  who  had 
lost  a  tooth,  is  also  rather  neat. 


._* 


"  If  a  pearl  is  missing  from  thy  sweet  casket 
Thy  dignity  is  in  no  wise  diminished  in  the  matter  of  beauty. 
A  hundred  moons  shine  from  the  corners  of  thy  cheek 
What  matter  if  one  star  be  missing  from  thy  Pleiades  ?" 

The  two  following  poems  by  Pur-i-Baha,  written  in 
the  grand  style  cultivated  by  court  poets,  and  filled  with 
elaborate  word-plays  and  far-fetched  metaphors,  are  chiefly 
interesting  because  they  can  be  exactly  dated.  The  first 
refers  to  the  destruction  of  Nishapiir  by  an  earthquake  in 
666/1267-8,  and  the  second  to  its  restoration  in  669/1270-1 
by  order  of  Abaqa.  Both  are  taken  from  that  rare  work 
the  Mujmal  of  Fasi'hi  of  Khwaf  2. 


1  See  d'Ohsson,  vol.  i,  p.  17,  who  defines  "les  Games  "  (Qdmdri)  as 
"ministres  de  leur  culte   grossier,  qui  e"taient  a  la  fois  magiciens, 
interpretes  des  songes,  augures,  aruspices,  astrologues  et  mddecins." 
The  bakhshis  were  the  scribes  who  wrote  the  old  Uyghur  character, 
which  continued  to  be  used  in  Turkistan  until  the  fifteenth  century  of 
our  era. 

2  Only  four  MSS.  of  this  work  are  known  to  exist,  two  in  Petrograd 
and  two  in  Cambridge.    See  my  article  on  this  rare  book  in  the  number 
of  the  Muston  published  at  the  Cambridge  University  Press  for  the 
exiled  Belgian  professors  in  1915,  pp.  48-78. 


CH.  in]  PtiR-I-BAHA  113 


j     t 

'  U)  (^I 


"  Through  the  shakes  and  knocks  of  the  earthquake  shocks  it  is  upside 

down  and  awry, 
So  that  'neath  the  Fish  is  Arcturus1  sunk,  while  the  Fish  is  raised  to 

the  sky. 
That  fury  and  force  have  run  their  course,  and  its  buildings  are  over- 

thrown, 

And  riven  and  ruined  are  whole  and  part,  and  the  parts  asunder  strown. 
Not  in  worship,  I  ween,  are  its  chapels  seen  with  spires  on  the  ground 

low  lying, 
While  the  minarets  stoop  or  bend  in  a  loop,  but  not  at  the  bedesmen's 

crying. 

The  libraries  all  are  upside  down,  and  the  colleges  all  forsaken, 
And  the  Friday  Mosque  in  ruins  is  laid,  and  the  pulpits  are  shattered 

and  shaken. 

Yet  do  not  suppose  that  this  ruin  arose  from  the  town's  ill  destiny, 
But  ask  of  me  if  thou  fain  wouldst  see  the  wherefore  of  this  and  the  why. 

1  Arcturus  (SimdK)  is  accounted  one  of  the  highest  stars  in 
heaven.  In  the  popular  cosmogony  of  the  less  educated  Muslims,  the 
earth  is  supposed  to  be  supported  by  a  great  fish  (Samak  in  Arabic, 
Mdhi  in  Persian)  which  swims  in  a  vast  ocean  contained  by  banks  of 
cloud.  Hence  the  Arabic  expression  minds-  Samak  ila's-Stmdk  ("from 
the  Fish  to  Arcturus"),  corresponding  to  the  Persian  az  mdh  td  bi-mdhi 
("from  the  Moon  to  the  Fish"),  meaning  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest. 

B.  P.  8 


n4    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  r 

'Twas  because  the  Lord  had  such  high  regard  for  this  old  and  famous 

place 
That  He  turned  His  gaze  ou  its  fashions  and  ways  with  the  eyes  of 

favour  and  grace, 
And  such  was  the  awe  which   His  glance  inspired,  and  His  Light's 

effulgent  rays 

That  with  shaking  feet  to  earth  it  fell  for  fear  of  that  awful  blaze. 
For  did  not  the  Mountain  of  Sinai  once  fall  down  and  crumble  away 
Where  Moses  stood,  and  the  Face  of  God  to  behold  with  his  eyes  did 

pray  ?  " 


"  The  buildings  of  Nishapur  Time  had  striven  to  displace 
And  Ruin  wide  from  every  side  had  thither  turned  its  face. 
God  willed  that  men  should  once  again  its  buildings  strive  to  raise 
In  the  reign  of  just  Abdqa,  the  Nushirwan  of  our  days. 
Of  all  the  world  the  lord  is  he,  of  all  the  earth  the  king, 
Foe-binder,  world-subduer  he,  all  kingdoms  conquering. 
It  happened  in  the  year  six-hundred  and  three-score  and  nine 
That  from  its  ruins  rose  again  this  city  famed  and  fine. 


CH.  in]  IMAMf  OF  HERAT  115 

Venus  and  Sol  in  Taurus,  Ramadan  was  ending  soon  ; 

In  Gemini  stood  Mercury,  in  Pisces  stood  the  Moon. 

May  this  new  town's  foundation  to  thee  a  blessing  bring, 

And  every  desert  in  thy  reign  bear  towns  as  flourishing  ! 

By  thy  good  luck  Nishapiir  old  is  now  grown  young  again, 

Like  to  some  agdd  dotard  who  his  boyhood  doth  regain. 

Three  things,  I  pray,  may  last  for  aye,  while  earth  doth  roll  along  : 

The  Khwaja's1  life,  the  city's  luck,  and  Pur-i-Baha's  song  !  " 

Not  very  much  need  be  said,  or  indeed,  is  known,  about 

Imami  of  Herat,  whose  full  name,  according  to  the  author 

of  the   Tarikh-i-Guzida,  was   Abu  'Abdi'llah 

Imami  of  Herdt       •««•,  11        A  i    /    T-»     1        i        TT« 

Muhammad  b.  Abu  Bakr  b.  'Uthman.  He  was 
the  panegyrist  of  the  rulers  and  ministers  of  Kirman,  and 
died,  according  to  the  Majmctul-Fusahd'*'  in  667/1268-9. 
An  extraordinarily  complicated  acrostic  on  his  own  name, 
composed  by  him  according  to  the  terminology  of  the  state 
accountants,  will  be  found  in  the  Guzida3.  The  highest 
compliment  which  he  ever  received  was  probably  that  paid 
him  by  his  contemporary  Majdu'd-Din  Hamgar,  in  reply  to 
a  versified  question  addressed  to  the  latter  poet  by  Mu'inu'd- 
Din  the  Parwana,  Malik  Iftikharu'd-Din,Nuru'd-Din  Rasadi, 
and  the  Sdhib-Diwdn  Shamsu'd-Din,  enquiring  his  opinion 
as  to  the  respective  merits  of  himself,  Sa'di  and  Imami'4. 
His  reply  was  as  follows  : 


"  Though  I  in  song  am  like  the  tuneful  birds, 
Fly-like  I  sip  the  sweets  of  Sa'di's  words  ; 
Yet  all  agree  that  in  the  arts  of  speech 
Sa'di  and  I  can  ne'er  Imami  reach." 

1  Probably  the  Sdhib-Diwdn  is  meant.  a  Vol.  i,  p.  98. 

:i  See  my  translation  of  this  section  of  the  work  (ch.  v,  §  6)  in  the 
J.R.A.S.  for  Oct.  1900  and  Jan.  1901,  pp.  13-15  of  the  separate  reprint. 

4  These   verses    are    given  by   Dawlatshah,  p.   166,  1.  24  —  p.  167, 
11.  1-9  of  my  edition. 

8—2 


n6    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

To  this  Imami  replied  in  the  following  complimentary 
quatrain1  : 


"Though  throned  in  power  in  eloquence's  fane, 
And,  Christ-like,  raising  song  to  life  again, 
Ne'er  to  the  dust  of  Majd-i-Hamgar's  door, 
That  Sahbdn  of  the  Age2,  can  I  attain." 

Sa'di,  on   the   other   hand,  vented    his   spleen    in    the 
following  verse  : 


"  Whoe'er  attaineth  not  position  high 
His  hopes  are  foiled  by  evil  destiny. 
Since  Hamgar  flees  from  all  who  pray  or  preach, 
No  wonder  he  '  can  ne'er  Imami  reach3.'  " 

The  poems  of  Imami,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  have  never 
been  published,  nor  are  manuscripts  of  them  common.  In 
my  necessarily  limited  investigations  I  have  made  use  of 
the  British  Museum  manuscript  Or.  2847.  One  of  the 
prettiest  of  his  poems  which  I  have  met  with  occurs  on 
f.  Q8a  of  that  manuscript,  and  runs  as  follows  : 


ii 


s*o  I 


1  British  Museum  MS.  Or.  3713,  f.  179''. 

3  Sahbdn  ibn  Wa'il,  an  ancient  Arab,  whose  eloquence  is  proverbial. 

3  There  is  an  untranslateable  pun  here,  for  fmdmi  means  the  posi- 
tion of  an  Imdm,  or  leader  in  prayer,  as  well  as  being  the  poet's  nom 
de  guerre. 

4  MS.>»**»»>  which  I  have  emended  on  account  of  the  metre. 


CH.  in]  IMAMf  OF  HERAT  117 


"  We  celebrate  the  New  Year's  Feast  but  once  in  all  the  year  ; 

A  Feast  perpetual  to  me  affords  thy  presence  dear. 

One  day  the  roses  hang  in  clusters  thick  upon  the  tree  ; 

A  never-failing  crop  of  roses  yield  thy  cheeks  to  me. 

One  day  I  gather  violets  by  the  bunch  in  gardens  fair, 

But  violets  by  the  sheaf  are  yielded  by  thy  fragrant  hair. 

The  wild  narcissus  for  a  single  week  the  field  adorns  ; 

The  bright  narcissus  of  thine  eye  outlasts  three  hundred  morns. 

The  wild  narcissus  must  its  freshness  lose  or  vigil  keep1: 

To  thy  narcissus-eyes  no  difference  waking  makes  or  sleep. 

Fragrant  and  fair  the  garden  jasmine  is  in  days  of  Spring, 

But  round  thy  hyacinths2  the  jasmine-scent  doth  ever  cling. 

Nay,  surely  from  thy  curls  the  hyacinths  their  perfume  stole, 

These  are  the  druggist's  stock-in-trade  and  those  food  for  the  soul. 

Those  from  a  ground  of  silver3  spring,  and  these  from  heaps  of  stone  ; 

Those  crown  a  cypress-form,  while  these  adorn  some  upland  lone. 

There  is  a  garden-cypress  which  remains  for  ever  green, 

Yet  by  thy  cypress-stature  it  appears  uncouth  and  mean." 

Imami  was  for  some  time  patronized  by  Fakhru'1-Mulk 

1  A  flower  "keeps  vigil"  when  it  is  fully  open. 

2  "  Hyacinth  "  (sunbtit)  is  a  common  poetical  metaphor  for  hair. 

3  Meaning  the  fair,  silver-like  skin. 


u8     POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  I 

of  Khurasan1,  who  on  one  occasion  submitted  to  him  the 
following  versified  enquiry2 : 

"  What  says  that  master  of  the  Law,  chief  scholar  of  our  land, 
Our  guide  in  doctrine  and  belief,  to  this  which  we  demand  : 
Suppose  a  cat  at  dead  of  night  feloniously  should  steal 
A  cage  of  pigeons  or  of  doves,  and  make  therefrom  a  meal, 
Would  Retribution's  Law  revealed  the  owner  justify 
If  he  in  vengeance  for  the  birds  should  doom  the  cat  to  die  ?'; 

To  this  enquiry,  Imami  answered  as  follows : 

"A  subtle  question  this  indeed  !     The  palate  of  the  mind 
Therein  thy  nature's  fragrance  fair  and  reason  rare  doth  find  ! 
No  vengeance  falls  upon  the  cat,  for  nowhere  hath  implied 
Our  Prophet  in  his  Holy  Law  that  such  is  justified. 
Have  cats  which  hunt  for  birds  less  right  than  catkins3  on  the  tree  ? 
Their  claws  upon  the  branch  they  spread  whene'er  a  bird  they  see. 
So,  if  his  own  white  arm  he  seeks  to  keep  secure  from  pain, 
Let  him  avoid  with  Pussy's  blood  his  hand  and  arm  to  stain. 
If  he  the  pigeon  seeks  to  save,  the  dove  to  keep  alive, 
To  hang  their  cages  out  of  reach  he  surely  could  contrive  !  " 

Poetical  interrogations  of  this  sort  seem  to  have  been 
the  fashion  at  this  time,  for  certain  people  of  Kashan 
addressed  a  similar  versified  question  as  to  the  respective 
merits  of  the  poets  Anwari  and  Zahir  of  Faryab  to 
Majdu'd-Di'n  Hamgar,  and  to  this  same  question  Imami  also 
thought  good  to  reply  in  verse.  The  text  and  trans- 
lation of  this  correspondence,  including  the  question  and 
the  two  answers,  all  in  verse,  are  given  in  the  Tarikk-i- 
Guztda*,  to  which  the  curious  reader  is  referred.  Majdu'd- 
Dm  Hamgar's  reply  contains  the  date  when  it  was  written, 
viz.  the  end  of  Rajab,  674  (Jan.  19,  1276),  and  both  he 
and  Imami  agree  in  preferring  Anwari  to  Zahir,  a  judge- 
ment in  which  nearly  all  competent  critics  will  concur. 

1  Apparently  that  same  minister  Fakhru'1-Mulk  Shamsu  'd-Dawla, 
to  whom  several  of  Imami's  poems  are  dedicated. 

2  For  the  original  verses,  which  it  would  be  superfluous  to  reprint 
here,  see  my  edition  of  Dawlatshdh,  p.  169. 

3  Catkins  are  called gurba-i-bid,  "willow-cats,"  in  Persian. 

4  See  pp.  60-64  of  the  separate  reprint  of  my  translation  of  this  por- 
tion (ch.  v,  §  6)  published  in  \heJ.R.A.S.  for  Oct.  1900  and  Jan.  1901. 


CH.  in]  MAJDU'D-DfN  HAMGAR  119 

Majdu'd-Din's  claim  to  prefer  Imami's  poetry  not  only  to  his 
own  but  to  Sa'di's,  on  the  other  hand,  cannot  be  taken 
seriously,  and  must  have  been  prompted  by  some  personal 
motive,  such  as  a  desire  to  please  Imami  or  to  annoy  Sa'df. 
All  Persian  writers  who  have  noticed  this  matter  at  all 
have  expressed  amazement  at  the  view  which  Majdu'd-Dm 
Hamgar  saw  fit  to  advance;  for  in  truth  Imami's  poetry,  so 
far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  specimens  given  by  Dawlat- 
.shah1  and  in  the  Atash-Kada"-  and  the  Majma'u'l-Fusakd*, 
has  no  special  distinction  or  originality,  while  Sa'di's  claim 
to  be  reckoned  among  the  half-dozen  greatest  poets  of  his 
country  has  never  been  disputed, 

Majdu'd-Di'n  Hamgar  was,  according  to  the  Tarikh-i- 

Guzida,  a  native  of  Yazd,  and  a  protege  of  Baha'u'd-Din 

Juwayni,  the  high-handed  governor  of  Fars,  who 

Majdu'd-Dm       died  •     678/I27Q4.     When  the  poet  came  from 

Hamgar  •      I         '  •? 

Yazd  to  Isfahan,  he  left  his  elderly  wife  behind 
him,  but  she  soon  followed  him.  News  of  her  arrival  was 
brought  to  the  poet  by  one  of  his  pupils,  who  said,  "  Good 
news  !  Your  lady  has  alighted  in  the  house."  "  Good 
news,"  replied  Majdu'd-Din,  "  would  rather  be  that  the 
house  had  alighted  on  her  !  "  The  lady,  to  whom  this 
speech  was  reported,  reproached  her  husband  for  his  unkind 
words,  quoting  the  quatrain  of  'Umar  Khayyam  beginning  : 


"  Days  changed  to  nights  ere  thou  wert  born,  or  I  5." 

"  Before  me,  perhaps,"  replied  Majdu'd-Dm,  "but  Heaven 

forbid  that  day  and  night  should  have  existed  before  thee!" 

According  to  Dawlatshah6,  Majdu'd-Dm  Hamgar  boast- 

ed descent  from  Nushfrwan  the  Sasanian,  and  was  on  this 

1  Pp.  167-170  of  my  edition. 

'*  P.  137  of  the  lithographed  edition  of  1277/1860-1. 

:!  Vol.  i,  pp.  98-101.  4  See  p.  21  supra. 

5  See  E.  H.  Whinfield's  text  and  translation  in  Triibner's  Oriental 
Series  (1883),  No.  33  (pp.  24-5). 

6  P.  176  of  my  edition. 


120    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

account  a  somewhat  privileged  person  at  the  courts  which 
he  frequented.  To  this  alleged  genealogy  the  poet  alludes 
in  the  following  verses1  : 

'JUj 

'  J'J 


^>w 


1  Cited  in  the  Afajffiaiu'/-Fusa/ui,  vol.  i,  p.  596. 


CH.  in]  MAJDU'D-DfN  HAMGAR  121 

"  My  virtues  all  a  cruel  age  hath  made  for  me  a  bane  ; 

My  youthful  blood  the  aged  Sphere  hath  shed  in  grief  and  pain. 

The  envious  Mercury1  hath  plucked  the  pen  from  out  my  hand, 

The  arching  Heaven  hath  drawn  a  bow  to  smite  me  where  I  stand. 

O  Sphere,  what  vvould'st  thou  of  me,  a  poor,  bare-footed  thing  ? 

O  Time,  what  seek'st  thou  from  me,  a  bird  with  broken  wing  ? 

Make  of  the  falcon's  eyes  a  dish  to  satisfy  the  owl  : 

Make  of  the  lion's  thighs  the  food  for  which  the  jackals  prowl. 

In  no  wise  like  the  noisy  drum  will  I  his  blows  bewail, 

Although  his  lashes  on  my  back  descend  as  falls  the  flail. 

O  foot  of  trouble's  elephant,  prithee  more  gently  press  ! 

O  hand  of  this  ignoble  Sphere,  increase  my  dire  distress  ! 

Through  tribulations  bravely  borne  my  heart  hath  grown  more  bright, 

As  mirrors  gain  by  polishing  in  radiancy  and  light. 

What  time  the  rose-bush  from  the  dust  doth  raise  its  flowering  head, 

The  sapling  of  my  luck  (what  luck  !)  hath  withered  and  is  dead. 

My  fault  is  this,  that  I  am  not  from  some  base  seed  upgrown  : 

My  crime  is  this,  that  noble  is  the  pedigree  I  own. 

The  sons  of  Sas£n,  not  Tigin,  my  ancestors  I  call  ; 

I'm  of  the  race  of  Kisrd,  not  the  household  of  InaT3. 

My  verse  is  sweet  and  exquisite  as  union  with  the  fair  : 

My  pen  in  picture-painting  hath  the  gifts  of  fancy  rare. 

No  eye  hath  seen  an  impulse  mean  impede  my  bounty's  flow  : 

The  ear  of  no  petitioner  hath  heard  the  answer  '  No  ! ' 

When  youth  is  gone,  from  out  the  heart  all  love  of  play  is  cast : 

And  lustre  fadeth  from  the  sun  which  hath  the  zenith  passed." 

Majdu'd-Di'n  Hamgar  wrote  poems  in  praise  of  Shamsu'd- 

Din  Muhammad  the  Sdhib-Diwdn  as  well  as  of  the  Atabek 

Sa'd  b.  Abu  Bakr.     Manuscripts  of  his  poems 

Quatrains  of  afe  fa    fc          fi  jj    manuscrjpt   (Qr.    3713) 

Majd-i-Hamgar  >  «J/     «" 

in  the  British  Museum,  transcribed  in  the  years 
A.D.  1293-8  by  the  poet's  grandson,  contains  a  number 
of  his  quatrains.  Unlike  the  quatrains  of  'Umar  Khay- 
yam, Abu  Sa'i'd  b.  Abi'l-Khayr,  and  other  masters  of  this 
style  of  verse,  Majdu'd- Din's  quatrains  deal  less  with 

1  Mercury  is  the  planet  which  presides  over  the  destinies  of  authors, 
scribes  and  poets. 

*  Tigin  or  Tagin  is  a  suffix  of  Turkish  names  (e.g.  Subuk-tigin, 
Alp-tigin,  etc.}  and  Indl  is  another  common  Turkish  name  or  title. 
Kisra  is  the  Arabic  form  of  Khusraw  ("  Chosroes  "),  the  proper  name 
of  Nushirwdn  and  Parwiz,  and  the  generic  name  for  all  the  kings  of  the 
Royal  House  of  Susan. 


122    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

mystical  and  philosophical  ideas  than  with  concrete  things 
and  persons.  Some  are  merely  abusive  epigrams,  such  as 
the  following  : 


"  Born  of  a  mother  of  accursed  womb 
From  Ganja's  town  to  Abkhdz  thou  didst  come, 
Where  that  dog-training  swineherd  nurse  of  thine 
Fed  thee  on  dog's  milk  and  the  blood  of  swine." 

The  following,  expressing  the  poet's  love  of  travel,  is  too 
ingenious  in  its  word-plays  to  admit  of  adequate  translation  : 


->*      J^ 

"  O  heaven,  never  turn  aside  my  reins  from  wandering  : 
Give  me  my  bread  from  Sarandfb  (Ceylon),  my  water  from  Sarab: 
Grant  me  each  evening  (shdni)  a  loaf  of  bread  from  Bamiyan, 
And  every  morning  (bam}  give  me  a  draught  of  water  from  Sham 
(Damascus)1." 

In  the  two  following  quatrains  he  laments  his  advancing 
age: 


J—  ' 


1  Sarandzb,  from  the  Sanskrit  Sivarna-dipa,  is  the  name  given  by 
the  Arab  geographers  to  Ceylon,  and  Sardb  is  a  town  in  Adharbayjan. 
There  is  a  kind  of  word-play  between  these  two  names,  but  a  much  more 
complete  one  in  the  second  half  of  the  quatrain  between  bam  (morning) 
and  Bdmiydn  (north-west  of  Afghanistan)  on  the  one  hand,  and 
shiim  (evening)  and  Sham  (Damascus)  on  the  other.  The  last  is  an 
example  of  the  "  complete  word-play." 


CH.  in]  MAJDU'D-DfN  HAMGAR  123 

"  Fiery  and  fluent,  once  my  heart  did  hurl 
Spontaneous  verses  forth,  each  verse  a  pearl  : 
Then  Love,  Desire  and  Youth  were  mine.     These  three 
Not  e'en  in  dreams  I  now  can  hope  to  see  !  " 


"  This  foot  of  mine  no  more  the  stirrup  suits  ; 
For  me  no  more  are  spurs  and  riding-boots. 
Oppressed  by  aches  and  age,  there  now  remains 
No  foot  for  stirrup  and  no  hand  for  reins." 

Here  is  another  very  insulting  quatrain,  but  again  no 
record  remains  of  the  person  to  whom  it  was  addressed  : 


"  Compared  to  thee  a  pig's  a  pretty  sight  : 
Beside  thy  face  an  ape's  the  heart's  delight. 
Thy  temper's  uglier  than  e'en  thy  face, 
Compared  to  it  thy  face  is  fair  and  bright." 

Some  of  the  quatrains  are  acrostics  on  names,  as,  for 
example,  the  following  : 


"  The  [sum  of  the]  numbers  of  the  letters  in  that  graceful  charmer's 

name 

Is  exactly  three  hundred  and  sixty,  like  the  divisions  of  the  heavens. 
The  third  letter  is  one-ninth  of  the  fourth  letter, 
While  the  first  letter  is  one-sixth  of  the  second  letter." 


124    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 


The  name  appears  to  be  Nashdt  (J»UJ),  for  ,j  =  50, 
CH=  300,  t  =  i,  and  J»  =  9,  which  yields  a  total  of  360  and 
fulfils  the  two  other  conditions. 

The  following  is  addressed  to  his  sweetheart  : 


aj 


"No  means  have  I  by  thee  to  pitch  my  tent, 
Nor  money  in  thy  street  a  house  to  rent : 
My  ears  and  eyes  serve  only  to  this  end, 
To  hear  thy  voice  and  on  thee  gaze  intent." 

That  Majdu'd-Dfn  Hamgar  reached  an  advanced  age  is 
suggested  by  some  of  the  quatrains  just  cited,whilein  another 
he  describes  himself  as  over  eighty,  but  I  have  not  been 
able  to  ascertain  the  precise  dates  of  his  birth  and  death. 

Mention  must  now  be  made  of  a  poet  of  far  greater 
talent  and  originality  than  those  of  whom  we  have  spoken 
above,  namely  Fakhru'd-Dm  Ibrahim  of  Hama- 
dan,  better  known  by  his  poetical  nom  de  guerre, 
or  takhallus,  of  'Iraqi.  Notices  of  his  life  are  found  in 
most  of  the  later  biographies  of  mystics  and  poets,  notably 
in  the  Nafakdtu'l-Uns  of  Jami'1  and  in  the  Majdlisu'l- 
'Ushshdq  of  Husayn  Mirza  Bayqara  ;  but  in  the  absence  of 
contemporary  testimony  the  particulars  there  given  must 
be  received  with  a  certain  reserve,  while  from  his  writings, 
almost  entirely  of  a  mystical  and  erotic  character,  little  or 
nothing  is  to  be  gleaned  as  to  his  personal  adventures.  He 
is  the  typical  qalandar,  heedless  of  his  reputation,  and  seeing 
in  every  beautiful  face  or  object  a  reflection,  as  in  a  mirror, 
of  the  Eternal  Beauty.  "  Love,"  as  one  of  his  biographers 
says,  "  was  predominant  in  his  nature,"  and  hence  his  ghazals 
have  an  erotic  character  which  has  exposed  him  to  very 
harsh  strictures  on  the  part  of  some  European  critics,  notably 

1  Pp.  700-704  of  Nassau  Lees's  edition. 


CH.  in]  'IRAQI'  125 

Sprenger1,  who   find  scandalous  in  a  Persian   sentiments 
which  in  Plato  they  either  admire  or  ignore. 

According  to  Jami,  'Iraqi  was  born  at  Hamadan,  and  in 
childhood  learned  the  Qur'dn  by  heart  and  could  recite  it 
melodiously  and  accurately.  When  he  was  about  seventeen 
years  of  age,  a  party  of  qalandars,  amongst  whom  was  a 
very  beautiful  youth,  came  to  Hamadan,  and,  when  they 
left,  'Iraqi,  attracted  by  the  beauty  of  the  young  dervish, 
followed  them  to  India.  At  Multan  he  became  the  disciple 
of  Shaykh  Baha'u'd-Dm  Zakariyya,  of  whom  he  says  in  one 
of  his  poems  : 


"  If  thou  shouldst  ask  of  the  world  '  Who  is  the  guide  of  men  ?' 
Thou  wilt  hear  from  heaven  no  other  answer  than  '  ZakariyyaV" 

Soon  after  his  arrival  there  the  discipline  of  a  chilla,  or 
forty  days'  retirement  and  meditation,  was  imposed  upon 
him,  but  on  the  tenth  day  the  other  dervishes  came  to  the 
Shaykh  and  complained  that  instead  of  meditating  in  silence 
he  was  singing  a  ghazal  or  ode  which  he  had  composed,  and 
which  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  was  in  the  mouths  of  all  the 
revellers  in  the  city,  who  were  singing  it  in  the  taverns  to 
the  accompaniment  of  the  harp  and  zither.  This  ghazal, 
which  is  one  of  'Iraqi's  best-known  poems,  is  as  follows  : 


1  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of  the  King  of  Oude,  pp.  440-1. 


iz6    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 


"  The  wine  wherewith  the  cup  they  first  filled  high 
Was  borrowed  from  the  Sdqi's  languorous  eye. 
Since  self-possessed  the  revellers  they  found 
The  draught  of  selflessness  they  handed  round. 
The  loved  one's  wine-red  lips  supplied  the  cup  : 
They  named  it  '  Lover's  wine,'  and  drank  it  up. 
No  rest  the  hair  of  those  fair  idols  knows, 
So  many  a  heart  it  robs  of  its  repose. 
For  good  and  bad  a  place  within  our  hall 
They  found,  and  with  one  cup  confounded  all. 
They  cast  the  ball  of  Beauty  on  the  field, 
And  at  one  charge  compelled  both  worlds  to  yield. 
The  drunken  revellers  from  eye  and  lip 
The  almond  gather,  and  the  sugar  sip. 
But  that  sweet  lip,  desired  of  all,  most  fair, 
Maketh  harsh  words  the  helpless  lover's  share. 


CH.  in]  'IRAQf  127 

They  loosen  and  set  free  their  locks  of  jet 

That  they  therewith  for  hearts  a  snare  may  set. 

A  hundred  messages  their  glances  dart ; 

Their  eyebrows  signal  secrets  to  the  heart. 

They  speak  in  confidence  and  silence  claim, 

And  then  their  secrets  to  the  world  proclaim. 

Where'er  in  all  the  world  is  grief  and  gall 

They  mix  them  up,  the  mixture  '  Love'  they  call. 

Why  should  they  seek  to  hurt  'Iraqi's  fame, 

Since  they  themselves  their  secrets  thus  proclaim  ?  " 

When  Shaykh  Baha'u'd-Dm  heard  the  last  couplet,  he 
said,  "  This  finishes  his  business  ! "  He  then  called  to 
'Iraqi  in  his  cell,"  Do  you  make  your  supplications  in  wine- 
taverns?  Come  forth!"  So  'Iraqi  came  forth,  and  the 
Shaykh  clothed  him  in  his  own  khirqa  or  dervish-cloak, 
raised  him  from  the  ground  to  which  he  had  cast  himself, 
and  subsequently  gave  him  in  marriage  his  daughter,  who 
afterwards  bore  him  a  son  named  Kabfru'd-Din. 

Twenty-five  years  passed,  and  Shaykh  Baha'u'd-Din 
died,  naming  'Iraqi  as  his  successor.  The  other  dervishes, 
however,  disapproved  of  this  nomination,  and  complained 
to  the  King  of  'Iraqi's  antinomianism.  He  thereupon  left 
India  and  visited  Mecca  and  al-Madina,  whence  he  proceeded 
to  Asia  Minor.  At  Qonya  (Iconium)  he  attended  the 
lectures  of  the  celebrated  Shaykh  Sadru'd-Din  of  that  city 
on  theFustis  of  Shaykh  Muhiyyu'd-Din  ibnu'l-'Arabi1,  and 
composed  his  most  celebrated  prose  work,  the  Lamctdt 
("  Flashes  "  or  "  Effulgences  "),  which  was  submitted  to  the 
Shaykh  and  won  his  approval.  The  powerful  nobleman 
Mu'fnu'd-Din  the  Parwana  was  'Iraqi's  admirer  and  disciple, 
and  built  for  him,  it  is  said,  a  khdnqdh  or  monastery  at 
Tuqat,  besides  showing  him  other  favours.  On  his  death, 
'Iraqi  left  Asia  Minor  for  Egypt,  where  also  he  is  said  to 
have  been  well  received  by  the  reigning  Sultan,  whose  favour 
he  retained,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  his  enemies  to 
traduce  him.  In  Syria,  whither  he  subsequently  proceeded, 
he  met  with  an  equally  good  reception,  and  there,  after  six 

1  See  vol.  ii  of  my  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  pp.  497-501. 


ia8    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

months'  sojourn,  he  was  joined  by  his  son  Kabiru'd-Din 
from  India.  There  also  he  died,  on  the  8th  of  Dhu'l-Qa'da, 
688  (Nov.  23,  1289)  and  was  buried  in  the  Salihiyya 
Cemetery  at  Damascus,  beside  the  great  mystic  Shaykh 
Muhiyyu'd-Di'n  ibnu'l-'Arabi,  who  had  predeceased  him  by 
50  years,  and  whose  influence  in  Persia,  still  prevalent  even 
in  our  days,  was  largely  due  to  'Iraqi,  Awhadu'd-Di'n  of 
Maragha,  and  others  of  the  same  school. 

The  following  poems  from   'Iraqi's  Diwdn  may  serve 
besides  that  already  given,  as  typical  of  his  style : 


CH.  m]  'IRAQI  129 

"  From  head  to  feet  thou  art  gracious,  pleasant  and  sweet,  O  Love  ! 

Thee  to  prefer  to  life  'twere  right  and  meet,  O  Love  ! 

To  thee  doth  aspire  the  heart's  desire  of  all,  O  Love  ! 

A  hunter  of  hearts  art  thou  to  hold  us  in  thrall,  O  Love  ! 

To  mine  eyes  appear  thy  features  fair  and  dear,  O  Love  ! 

Awake  or  asleep  like  a  crystal  stream  so  clear,  O  Love  ! 

Though  Beauty's  wine  doth  incarnadine  thy  cheek,  O  Love  ! 

Bear  with  thy  comrades,  nor  causeless  quarrels  seek,  O  Love  ! 

They  melt  in  air,  hope's  promises  false  and  fair,  O  Love  ! 

Excuses,  I  ween,  you'll  find  enough  and  to  spare,  O  Love  ! 

Kisses  sip  from  thine  own  fair  lip.  and  behold,  O  Love  ! 

The  Water  of  Life  with  its  savour  so  sweet  and  so  cold,  O  Love  ! 

In  the  dust  hard  by  thy  path  I  die  at  thy  door,  O  Love  ! 

That  a  draught  of  wine  on  this  dust  of  mine  thou  mayst  pour,  O  Love  ! 

Jewels  of  speech  on  all  and  each  thou  dost  hurl,  O  Love  ! 

So  that  every  soul  in  its  ear  may  wear  a  pearl,  O  Love  ! 

None  do  I  see  in  grace  like  thee,  and  I'm  sure,  O  Love  ! 

Thou  art  soul  incarnate  and  spirit  essential  and  pure,  O  Love  ! 

In  mine  eyes  and  heart  thou  hast  thy  part  and  share,  O  Love  ! 

Thou  dost  hide  or  appear,  now  dark  and  dim,  now  clear,  O  Love  ! 

Never  a  moment  on  earth  from  North  to  South,  O  Love  ! 

May  'Irdqi  aspire  to  have  his  desire  of  thy  mouth,  O  Love  !  " 

The  following  is  the  first  strophe  of  a  very  fine  Tarji1- 
band: 


B.  P. 


130    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 


"  Cups  are  those  a-flashing  with  wine, 
Or  suns  through  the  clouds  a-gleaming  ? 
So  clear  is  the  wine  and  the  glass  so  fine 
That  the  two  are  one  in  seeming. 
The  glass  is  all  and  the  wine  is  naught, 
Or  the  glass  is  naught  and  the  wine  is  all  : 
Since  the  air  the  rays  of  the  sun  hath  caught 
The  light  combines  with  night's  dark  pall, 

For  the  night  hath  made  a  truce  with  the  day, 
And  thereby  is  ordered  the  world's  array. 
If  thou  know'st  not  which  is  day,  which  night, 
Or  which  is  goblet  and  which  is  wine, 
By  wine  and  cup  divine  aright 
The  Water  of  Life  and  its  secret  sign  : 

Like  night  and  day  thou  mayst  e'en  assume 
Certain  knowledge  and  doubt's  dark  gloom. 
If  these  comparisons  clear  not  up 
All  these  problems  low  and  high, 
Seek  for  the  world-reflecting  cup 
That  thou  mayst  see  with  reason's  eye 
That  all  that  is,  is  He  indeed, 
Soul  and  loved  one  and  heart  and  creed." 

Here  is  a  fragment  of  another  ode  : 


CH.  m]  'IRAQf 


131 


"  Forth  from  the  Veil  came  that  fair  Cup-bearer,  in  hand  the  cup  ; 
He  tore  our  veils  asunder,  and  our  vows  forthwith  broke  up  ; 
Showed  us  His  visage  fair,  and  straightway  us  of  sense  bereft, 
Then  sat  Him  down  beside  us,  when  of  us  no  trace  was  left. 
His  locks  the  knots  unloosed  ;  our  spirits'  bonds  were  cast  aside; 
Our  souls  abjured  the  world,  and  to  His  curls  their  fortunes  tied. 
There  in  His  fragrant  tresses  we  remained  in  frenzy  fine, 
Intoxicated  with  the  proffered  cup  of  ruby  wine. 
Lost  at  His  hands,  our  hearts  for  refuge  clung  unto  His  hair, 
E'en  as  the  drowning  man  will  catch  at  straws  in  his  despair. 
And  when  His  tresses'  chains  became  the  bonds  of  hearts  that  raved, 
From  their  own  being  they  escaped  and  from  the  world  were  saved." 

Of  the  following  ode  a  spirited  translation  was  made, 
but  not  published,  by  my  friend  Sir  E.  Denison  Ross.  The 
translation  here  given  resembles  and  is  suggested  by  his, 
but  is  not  identical  with  it,  for  I  cannot  lay  my  hands  on 
the  copy  which  I  received,  nor  can  I  remember  it  in  detail. 


Lo 


9—2 


The  ' 

nttma 


1  32    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

"  Save  love  of  thee  a  soul  in  me  I  cannot  see,  I  cannot  see  ; 
An  object  for  my  love  save  thee  I  cannot  see,  I  cannot  see. 
Repose  or  patience  in  my  mind  I  cannot  find,  I  cannot  find, 
While  gracious  glance  or  friendship  free  I  cannot  see,  I  cannot  see. 
Show  in  thy  face  some  sign  of  grace,  since  for  the  pain  wherewith  I'm 

slain 

Except  thy  face  a  remedy  I  cannot  see,  1  cannot  see. 
If  thou  wouldst  see  me,  speed  thy  feet,  for  parted  from  thy  presence  sweet, 
Continued  life  on  earth  for  me  I  cannot  see,  I  cannot  see. 
O  friend,  stretch  out  a  hand  to  save,  for  I  am  fallen  in  a  wave 
Of  which  the  crest,  if  crest  there  be,  I  cannot  see,  I  cannot  see. 
With  gracious  care  and  kindly  air  come  hither  and  my  state  repair  ; 
A  better  state,  apart  from  thee,  I  cannot  see,  I  cannot  see. 
Some  pathway  to  'Iraqi  teach  whereby  thy  gateway  he  may  reach, 
For  vagrant  so  bemused  as  he  I  cannot  see,  I  cannot  see.1' 

Besides  his  lyric  poetry  'Iraqi  composed  a  mathnawi 
poem  entitled  the  'UshsJidq-ndina,  or  "  Book  of  Lovers,"  but 
this  I  have  not  read,  nor  is  a  copy  of  it  at  present 
.  accessible  to  me.  I  therefore  pass  to  his  most 
notable  prose  work,  the  Lama'dt  ("  Flashes,"  or 
"  Effulgences  "),  a  mystical  treatise  inspired,  as  already 
mentioned,  by  the  teachings  of  "  the  most  great  doctor"  (ash- 
Skaykhtil-akbar)  Muhiyyu'd-Din  ibnu'l-'Arabi,  by  origin  of 
the  famous  Arabian  tribe  of  Tayy,  and  by  birth  a  Moor  of 
Andalusia. 

The  Lamddt  is  a  comparatively  small  book,  containing, 

perhaps,  between  7000  and  8000  words,  and,  though  written 

in  prose,  includes  numerous  pieces  of  verse.  The 

The  Latna'dt  .  .      .  .  .  .      _  ,        ,          r 

many-sided  and  talented  Jami,  of  whom  we 
shall  speak  in  a  later  chapter,  wrote  a  commentary  on  it, 
entitled  Ashfatul-Lama'dt1  ("  Rays  of  the  Flashes  "),  in  the 

preface  to  which  he  says  that  he  began  by  being 
ilTworT1"10"  °f  prejudiced  against  the  work  and  its  author,  but, 

being  requested  by  one  of  his  spiritual  guides 
to  study  and  collate  the  text,  he  found  it  to  consist  of 
"graceful  phrases  and  charming  suggestions,  verse  and 
prose  combined  together  and  subtleties  in  Arabic  and 
Persian  intermingled,  wherein  the  signs  of  [human]  know- 

1  Lithographed,  with  other  Sufi  tracts,  at  Tihran  in  1303/1885-6. 


CH.  in]  'IRAQI'S  LAMA'  AT  133 

ledge  and  [superhuman]  gnosis  were  apparent,  and  the  lights 
of  rapture  and  ecstasy  manifest,  so  that  it  would  awaken  the 
sleeper,  cause  him  who  was  awakened  to  apprehend  secret 
mysteries,  kindle  the  fire  of  Love,  and  put  in  motion  the 
chain  of  Longing."  The  book  is  divided  into  28  "  Flashes" 
(Lam'a),  probably  in  correspondence  with  the  number  of 
letters  in  the  Arabic  alphabet.  As  a  specimen  I  give  the 
opening  pages,  down  to  the  end  of  the  first  Lam'a,  the  prose 
portion  in  translation  only,  the  verses  both  in  translation  and 
in  the  original. 

"In  the  Name  of  God,  the  Merciful,  the  Forgiving. 
"  Praise  be  to  God  who  illuminated  the  countenance  of 
His  Friend  with  the  Effulgence  of  Beauty,  so  that  it  gleamed 
with  Light  ;  and  made  visible  therein  the  limits  of  Perfec- 
tion, and  rejoiced  therein  with  joy  ;  and  raised  him  up  by 
His  hand  and  chose  him  out  while  Adam  was  not  yet  a 
thing  mentioned,  nor  had  the  Pen  written,  nor  the  Tablet 
been  inscribed.  [His  friend,  who  was]  the  Treasure-house 
of  the  treasures  of  Being,  the  Key  of  the  Store-houses  of 
Bounty,  the  Qibla  of  Desire  and  the  Desired  One,  the 
Possessor  of  the  Standard  of  Praise  and  the  Laudable 
Station,  the  tongue  of  whose  high  degree  declares  : 


'  Though  in  outward  form  I  seem  one  of  Adam's  progeny, 
Yet  the  underlying  truth  claims  for  me  paternity  V 


1  This  verse,  as  J<lmi  tells  us,  is  from  the  Td'iyya,  or  qastda  rhyming 
in  /*,  of  Ibnu'l-Farid.  Though  outwardly  the  Prophet  is  descended 
from  Adam,  he  is  in  reality  the  Object  and  Cause  of  Creation,  so  that 
Adam  exists  through  and  because  of  him,  not  he  through  Adam.  The 
Muslims  represent  God  as  saying  to  the  Prophet,  "  But  for  thee,  I 
had  not  created  the  Heavens." 


i34    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 


'  Although  in  form  of  Adam's  race,'  said  he, 

'  Higher  by  far  than  his  is  my  degree. 

My  beauty  mirrored  in  a  glass  I  see, 

And  all  the  world  a  picture  seems  of  me. 

Creation's  Sun  am  I  :  doth  it  amaze 

If  each  created  atom  me  displays  ? 

The  holy  Spirits  make  my  Essence  plain, 

And  human  forms  my  Attributes  retain. 

The  boundless  Sea's  a  sprinkling  of  my  grace  ; 

The  radiant  light's  a  reflex  of  my  face. 

From  Throne  to  Footstool  all  is  but  a  mote 

Which  in  the  radiance  of  my  Sun  doth  float. 

The  Veil  of  Attributes  aside  is  hurled, 

And  my  bright  Essence  brightens  all  the  world. 

The  stream  which  Khidr's  ebb  of  life  did  stop 

Was  of  my  Kawthar-  stream  a  single  drop. 

That  breath  wherewith  Christ  loosed  the  thralls  of  Death 

Was  but  a  blast  of  my  soul-saving  breath. 


CH.  in]  'IRAQI'S  LAM  A'  AT  135 

My  Essence  all  the  Names  doth  manifest  ; 
I  am  of  Names  the  greatest  and  the  best  !  ' 
(  May  God  bless  and  hail  Him  /) 

But  to  proceed.  A  few  words  on  the  degrees  of  Love, 
dictated  by  the  mood  of  the  moment,  are  here  set  down  in 
the  manner  of  the  Sawdnih1,  that  they  may  be  for  every 
lover  a  mirror  to  display  the  Beloved  ;  though  the  rank  of 
Love  is  too  high  for  anyone  to  approach  the  pavilion  of  its 
glory  by  dint  of  understanding  or  explanation,  or  to  gaze  on 
the  perfection  of  its  true  nature  with  the  eyes  of  discovery 
and  observation. 


Exalted  high  is  Love  o'er  men's  ambition, 

And  o'er  ideas  of  union  or  partition  ; 

For  when  a  thing  transcends  all  thought  and  mention 

'Tis  freed  from  likeness  and  from  comprehension. 

It  is  veiled  by  the  Veil  of  Glory  and  isolated  in  its  Per- 
fection. Its  Attributes  are  the  Veils  of  its  Essence  and 
implicit  in  that  Essence.  Its  Splendour  is  the  Lover  of  its 
Beauty,  which  is  involved  in  that  Splendour.  For  ever  it 
makes  love  to  itself,  and  concerns  itself  not  with  aught  else. 
Every  moment  it  casts  aside  the  Veil  from  the  face  of  some 
loved  one,  and  every  instant  it  raises  a  new  song  in  the 
way  of  loverhood. 


>U3I  &}jj  oW  j'   ^  Jl) 


Within  the  Veil  Love  sings  its  air: 
Where  is  the  lover  to  hear  it,  where  ? 

1  This  is  the  title  of  a  treatise  by  Shaykh  Ahmad  Ghazzali  on  Love, 
the  Lover,  and  the  Beloved. 


136    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

Each  moment  it  chants  a  different  lay, 
And  ever  some  melody  fresh  doth  play. 
All  the  Universe  echoes  its  song: 
Who  hath  heard  such  an  anthem  long? 
Its  secret  out  from  the  world  doth  leap: 
How  can  an  Echo  its  secret  keep  ? 
I  tell  no  tales,  but  loud  and  clear 
From  the  tongue  of  each  atom  its  secret  hear. 

Every  moment  with  every  tongue  it  tells  its  secret  to 
its  own  ear  ;  every  instant  with  all  its  ears  it  hears  its 
speech  from  its  own  tongue  ;  every  minute  with  all  its 
eyes  it  flashes  its  beauty  on  its  own  vision  ;  every  second 
in  every  aspect  it  presents  its  being  to  its  own  notice.  Hear 
from  me  its  description  as  it  really  is  : 


It  speaks  with  me  through  speaking  and  through  speechless1  ; 
Through  lowered  eyelashes  and  glancing  eyes. 

Knowest  thou  what  it  whispers  in  my  ears  ? 


I  am  Love,  for  the  which  in  these  worlds  there  is  found  not  a  place  : 
The  'Anqd  am  I  of  the  West2,  who  hath  never  a  trace. 

1  I.e.  through  articulate  and  inarticulate   creatures,  through    the 
organic  and  the  inorganic. 

2  The  true  explanation  o^Anqd-yi-Mughrib  is  doubtful.    See  Lane's 
Arabic-  English  Lexicon,  s.v. 


CH.  in]  'IRAQI'S  LAMA'AT  137 

By  my  glance  and  my  eyebrow  the  world  I  have  captured,  I  trow, 
Heed  not  that  I  do  not  possess  either  arrow  or  bow. 
Revealed  in  the  face  of  each  atom  am  I,  like  the  sun  ; 
So  apparent  am  I  that  my  form  is  apparent  to  none. 
I  speak  with  all  tongues,  and  with  every  ear  do  I  hear 
Though,  strange  as  it  seems,  I  have  neither  a  tongue  nor  an  ear. 
I  am  all  that  exists  in  all  worlds,  so  'tis  patent  and  clear 
That  neither  in  this  world  nor  that  have  I  rival  or  peer. 

FOREWORD. 

Know  that  in  each  '  Flash  '  of  these  '  Flashes  '  some  hint 
is  given  of  that  Reality  which  transcends  differentiation, 
whether  you  call  it  Love  or  Attraction,  since  there  is  no 
dearth  of  words ;  and  some  suggestion  is  made  as  to  the 
manner  of  its  progress  in  diverse  conditions  and  cycles, 
of  its  journey  through  the  degrees  of  dissociation  and  es- 
tablishment, of  its  manifestation  in  the  form  of  ideas  and 
realities,  of  its  emergence  in  the  garb  of  Beloved  and  Lover, 
and  finally  of  the  absorption  of  the  Lover  in  the  Beloved 
formally,  of  the  inclusion  of  the  Beloved  in  the  Lover 
ideally,  and  of  the  comprehension  of  both  together  in  the 
Majesty  of  its  Unity.  There  divergences  are  reconciled, 
ruptures  are  made  whole,  the  Light  is  concealed  within  the 
Light,  and  the  Manifestation  lies  latent  within  the  Mani- 
festation, while  from  behind  the  pavilions  of  Glory  is  cried: 

'  JJ*L»  4DT  y±  U  ^  J£»  ^1 
O,  is  not  all  save  God  hollow  and  vain  ? 

The  identity  [of  each]  disappears  [in  the  other],  leaving 
neither  sign  nor  trace,  and  they  merge  in  God,  the  One,  the 
All-compelling. 

FIRST  FLASH, 

Setting  forth  the  pre-existence  of  Love  to  both  Beloved  and 

Lover,  and  the  manner  of  their  production  by  it, 

which  takes  place  in  the  First  Differentiation  ; 

and  setting  forth  that  wherein  each  stands 

in  need  of  the  other. 

The  derivation  of  both  Lover  and  Beloved  is  from  Love, 
which,  in  its  Abode  of  Glory,  is  exempt  from  differentiation, 


138    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

and,  in  the  Sanctuary  of  its  own  Identity,  is  sanctified  from 
inwardness  and  outwardness.  Yea,  in  order  to  display  its 
perfection,  in  such  way  as  is  identical  with  its  Essence  and 
[equally]  identical  with  its  Attributes,  it  shows  itself  to  itself 
in  the  Mirror  of  Loverhood  and  Belovedness,  and  reveals  its 
Beauty  to  its  own  Contemplation  by  means  of  the  Seer  and 
the  Vision.  Thus  the  names  of  Loverhood  and  Beloved- 
ness  appeared,  and  the  description  of  the  Seeker  and  the 
Quest  became  manifest.  It  showed  the  Outward  to  the 
Inmost,  and  the  Voice  of  Loverhood  arose  :  it  showed  the 
Inmost  to  the  Outward,  and  the  name  of  Belovedness  was 
made  plain. 


J^U  ^j  jAU» 


No  atom  doth  exist  apart  from  It,  that  Essence  single: 
'Tis  when  Itself  it  doth  reveal  that  first  those  '  others  '  mingle. 
O  Thou  whose  outward  seeming  Lover  is,  Beloved  thine  Essence, 
Who  hitherto  e'er  saw  the  Object  Sought  seek  its  own  presence  ? 

Love,  by  way  of  Belovedness,  became  the  Mirror  of  the 
Beauty  of  Loverhood,  so  that  therein  it  might  behold  its 
own  Essence,  and  by  way  of  Loverhood  the  Mirror  of 
Belovedness,  so  that  therein  it  might  contemplate  its  own 
Names  and  Attributes.  Although  but  one  object  is  beheld 
by  the  Eye  of  Contemplation,  yet  when  one  face  appears 
in  two  mirrors,  assuredly  in  each  mirror  a  different  face 
appears. 

*   *  ftio     „    a    5  ,       *   tot      *  iSti   *  6  '       r>          '      H       J  t  f  tie    ,     * 

U>«JI  O^jkfi  cuil  !>l       '  <xjl  j*e.  j^-tj  ^1  Ao-^JI  U  3 


The  Face  is  only  one,  yet  multiple 
When  thou  in  many  mirrors  see'st  it. 


CH.  in]  AWHADU'D-DfN  OF  KIRMAN  139 

O  how  can  '  Otherness '  appear  when  whatsoe'er  existeth  here 
In  essence  is  that  Other  One  becoming  to  our  vision  clear  ?" 


Shaykh   Abu    Hamid   Awhadu'd-Din  of  Kirman  was, 

like  'Iraqi,  a  follower,  and,  indeed,  as  it  would  appear  from 

the  Majma'ttl-Fusahd1,  a  personal  friend  or  dis- 

KiS,U'd"Dtn  °f  ciPle  of  the  Sreat  Sha7kh  Muhiyyu'd-Din  ibnu'l- 
'Arabi,  and  had  met  (according  to  the  same 
authority)  that  wild  mystic  Shams-i-Tabriz,  the  inspirer  of 
Jalalu'd-Din's  Mathnawi  and  Diwdn.  He  was  also  ac- 
quainted, as  some  assert,  with  Awhadi  of  Maragha  and  with 
'Iraqi  himself,  whom,  in  his  heedlessness  of  appearances  and 
passionate  admiration  of  beauty,  he  somewhat  resembles. 
Shaykh  Shihabu'd-Din,  who,  for  chronological  reasons, 
cannot  be  the  famous  Suhrawardi,  strongly  disapproved  of 
him,  called  him  a  "  heretical  innovator,"  and  refused  to 
admit  him  to  his  presence,  on  hearing  which  Awhadu'd- 
Din  recited  the  followin  Arabic  verse2: 


i 

"  I  mind  not  that  bad  names  thon  dost  me  call  : 
I'm  glad  that  thou  shouldst  mention  me  at  all." 

Jami  apologizes  for  him  for  "contemplating  the  Truth 
through  the  medium  of  its  Manifestations  in  Phenomena, 
and  beholding  Absolute  Beauty  in  finite  forms,"  and  adds 
that,  being  asked  by  Shams-i-Tabriz  what  he  was  doing,  he 
replied,  "  I  am  contemplating  the  Moon  in  a  bowl  of  water," 
meaning  the  Beauty  of  the  Creator  in  the  beauty  of  the 
creature  ;  to  which  Shams-i-Tabriz  replied,  "  Unless  you 
are  afflicted  with  a  carbuncle  on  the  back  of  your  neck, 

1  See  the  Tihran  lithographed  edition,  vol.  i,  pp.  89-94,  and  J£mi's 
Nafahdt,  p.  685. 

2  See  Jami,  Nafahdtu'l-Uns,  ed.  Nassau  Lees,  pp.  684-689.     This 
verse  is  ascribed  by  Badi'u'z-Zaman  al-Hamadhanf  to  a  poet  named 
Dumayna  (Rascfil,  ed.  Beyrout,  1890,  p.  96  and  n.  8  ad  calc.*).     In  its 
original  form  it  was  addressed  to  a  woman  and  runs  :  — 


140    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

why  do  you  not  look  at  the  Moon  in  the  sky?"  Similarly 
Mawlana  Jalalu'd-Din  Rumi,  being  told  that  Awhadu'd- 
Din  sought  the  society  of  the  beautiful,  but  with  purity  of 
purpose,  exclaimed,  "  Would  rather  that  his  desires  had 
been  carnal,  and  that  he  had  outgrown  them  !  "  Awhadu'd- 
Din  expresses  his  own  point  of  view  in  the  following 
quatrain  : 


jj  JA    Juj 

"  Therefore  mine  eyes  insistent  gaze  on  forms 
Because  the  Idea  itself  displays  in  forms  : 
We  live  in  forms  ;  this  World's  the  formal  World  : 
The  Idea  we  thus  must  needs  appraise  in  forms." 

Apart  from  a  few  quatrains  cited  in  the  Nafahdtul-  Uns  of 
Jami,  the  Majma'ul-Fusahd  of  Rida-quli  Khan,  and  other 
biographical  works,  Awhadu'd-Din  seems  to  have  left  little 
save  a  mathnawi  poem  entitled  "  The  Lamp  of  Spirits  " 
(Misbdhu'l-Ai"wdh),  from  which  long  extracts  are  given  in 
the  Majmctu'l-Fusahd  and  the  following  eight  couplets  in 
the  Nafahdt  (pp.  688-9)  : 


CH.  in]  AWHADf  OF  MARAGHA  141 

"  While  the  hand  moves,  the  shadow  moveth  too  : 
What  else,  indeed,  can  the  poor  shadow  do? 
'Tis  but  the  hand  which  makes  the  shadow  fall, 
The  shadow,  then,  no  substance  hath  at  all. 
To  call  '  existent '  what  no  Being  hath, 
Save  through  another,  is  not  Wisdom's  Path. 
Absolute  Being  only  wise  men  call 
Being,  and  naught  save  God  exists  at  all. 
That  which  existent  but  through  God  became 
Is  NOT  in  truth,  but  only  is  in  name. 
And  yet  the  Artist  loves  His  work,  'tis  clear  ; 
There's  none  but  He,  so  be  thou  of  good  cheer. 
Himself  at  once  the  Truth  doth  hear  and  tell 
The  Face  He  shows  He  doth  perceive  as  well, 
Know,  then,  by  Allah,  for  a  certainty 
That  nothing  else  existence  hath  save  He." 


Mention  should  also  be  made  of  Awhadu'd-Din's  disciple, 

Awhadi  of  Maragha,also  called  of  Isfahan, because, though  a 

native  of  the  former  place,  he  passed  a  consider- 

Awhadiof  bj    portion  of  his  life  and  died  at  the  latter1. 

Maragha 

Little  seems  to  be  known  to  the  biographers 
of  his  circumstances,  but  the  prevalent  opinion  is  that  he 
died  in  738/1337-8.  His  chief  poem  is  an  imitation  of  the 
Hadiqa  of  Sana'i  entitled  Jdm-i-Jam  (the  "Cup  of  Jamshfd," 
also  known  as  the  "  World-displaying  Glass "),  of  which 
copious  extracts  are  given  by  the  biographers,  and  of  which 
I  possess  a  good  manuscript2.  Dawlatshah,  followed  by 
the  Haft  Iqlim,  states  that  this  poem  was  so  popular  that 
within  a  month  of  its  production  four  hundred  copies  of  it 
were  made  and  sold  at  a  good  price,  but  adds  that  in  his 
time  (892/1487)  it  was  seldom  met  with  and  little  read.  This 
seems  to  have  been  the  only  mathnawi  poem  he  wrote,  but 
he  also  left  a  diwdn,  estimated  by  Rida-qulf  Khan,  the  author 
of  the  Majmalt?l-Fusahd,  to  contain  six  or  seven  thousand 

1  See  my  edition  of  Dawlatshah,  pp.  210-215  ;  Majma>'u'l-Fusahd, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  94-98  ;  Haft  Iqlim,  under  Isfahdn,  etc.     Jamf,  however, 
(Nafakdt,  p.  707)  reverses  the  roles  of  these  two  cities. 

2  Dated  916/1510-11.     The  text  comprises  about  4500  couplets. 


i42    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

verses1,  including  qasidas  and  quatrains,  of  which  a  selection 
is  given  by  the  biographers.  The  following  may  serve  as 
examples  of  his  style  : 

(Part  of  a  qasida  taken  from  the  Haft  Iqltm}. 


Jj      lw     J      C*O     J>     IJJ  'J^!  (^5-** 

"  How  long  wilt  pride  in  beard  and  turban  take  ? 
That  Friend  adopt  as  friend  :  all  else  forsake. 
With  stir  and  movement  fill  thy  heart  with  pain  : 

1  Dawlatsh<ih  (p.  210  of  my  edition)  says  10,000. 


CH.  in]  AWHADf  OF  MARAGHA  143 

The  soul  in  rest  and  quiet  strength  doth  gain. 

All  scent  and  hue  of  self  do  thou  efface, 

That  HE  may  clasp  thee  tight  in  His  embrace. 

Till  thou  art  contrite  vainly  shalt  thou  seek 

In  truth  the  beauty  of  that  lovely  cheek. 

If  thou  canst  do  what  He  enjoins  on  thee 

He'll  do  what  thou  dost  ask  assuredly. 

He's  kin  enough  :  all  else  forsake  forthwith  : 

When  wilt  thou  free  thyself  from  kin  and  kith  ? 

Ask  of  thyself,  when  from  thyself  set  free, 

God-vexer,  where  and  who  thy  God  may  be  ? 

Who  is't  in  thee  who  speaks  of  '  us  '  and  '  me  '  ? 

Who  fixed  the  evil  and  the  good  for  thee  ? 

If  there  are  '  others,'  prithee  point  them  out  : 

Art  thou  alone  ?     Then  wherefore  '  others  '  flout  ? 

To  be  united  is  not  as  to  see  : 

In  this  my  speech  is  no  hypocrisy. 

Were  sight  and  union  one  in  fact  and  deed 

The  eye  on  looking  at  the  thorn  would  bleed. 

A  cup  he  gives  thee  :  spill  not,  drink  it  up  ! 

Hold  fast  when  I  bestow  another  cup  ! 

One  is  the  Master's  Face  :  pluralities 

From  Mirror  and  from  Mirror-holder  rise. 

One  the  King's  portrait  and  the  coining-die  : 

Numbers  in  gold  and  silver  coinage  lie. 

One  sap  supplies  the  flower  which  doth  adorn 

The  rose-bush,  and  the  sharp  and  cruel  thorn. 

Orange  and  fire  alike1  their  hue  derive 

From  that  life-giving  sun  whereon  they  thrive. 

A  thousand  circles  issue  from  the  point 

What  time  the  compass  doth  enlarge  its  joint. 

The  world  entire  reveals  His  Vision  bright  : 

Seek  it,  O  ye  who  are  endowed  with  sight  : 

All  things  His  praises  hymn  in  voices  still, 

Sand  in  the  plain  and  rocks  upon  the  hill." 

The  following  fragment  is  possessed  of  some  beauty, 
but  is  imitated  from  one  of  Sa'df's2. 


1  Or  "  Orange  and  pomegranate,''  for  ndr  has  both  meanings. 

2  See  the  Calcutta  edition  of  1795,  vo1-  i'»  ff-  238a-239b. 


144    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  I 


e.    OJ  j    ^rb    j^-o    J^-i 

3  OJ  L»  tt  er' 


"  Think  O  thou  who  dost  inherit,  yet  didst  labour  ne'er, 
Who  was  he  whose  wealth  was  thine,  and  who  art  thou,  the  heir? 
He  amassed  but  did  not  spend  it,  so  'twas  left  behind  : 
Use  it  well,  that  when  thou  flittest,  others  good  may  find. 
Gold  a  goblin  is,  and  woman  for  the  neck  a  chain  : 
Chained  and  goblin-haunted's  he  who  greatly  loves  the  twain. 
Over-anxious  for  thy  offspring  be  not,  for  the  Lord 
Knoweth  better  than  the  servant  how  to  guard  his  ward. 
Dally  not  with  lust  and  passion,  which  do  curses  bring, 
Curses  which  thou  shalt  not  'scape  with  Flying  Ja'far's1  wing. 
This  thy  lust  and  this  thy  craving  are  a  sea  of  strife  : 

1  I.e.  Ja'far  ibn  Abi  Talib,  the  Prophet's  cousin,  who  was  killed  by 
the  Romans  in  the  Battle  of  Mu'ta  (September,  A.D.  629),  and  of  whom 
the  Prophet  said,  "  I  saw  Ja'far  yesterday  in  a  group  of  the  angels, 
having  two  wings  whereof  the  pinions  were  stained  with  blood." 
(Ibnu'l-Athir,  ed.  Tornberg,  vol.  ii,  p.  181).  Hence  he  was  called  the 
"Winged  (or  "Flying")  Martyr."  (Muir's  Life  of  Mahomet,  new  and 
abridged  edition  of  1828,  p.  410  ad  calc.} 


CH.  in]  AWHADf  OF  MARAGHA  145 

Canst  thou  swim  not  ?    Wherefore  venture  in  the  waves  thy  life  ? 

Washing  of  the  coat  and  turban  naught  can  profit  you  : 

Wash  thy  hands  of  worldly  longings  :  this  is  washing  true  ! 

On  the  evil  wrought  by  others  never  wilt  thou  dwell 

If  upon  the  deeds  thou  doest  thou  shouldst  ponder  well. 

Truth  there  lacks  not  in  the  sayings  Awhadi  doth  say  : 

He  who  hearkens  to  his  counsel  wins  to  Fortune's  way  !  " 

The  following  ode  is  another  favourable  specimen  of 
Awhadfs  work  : 


JtU.    Ji    jlj! 

Ojl-A-a*.-.* 


"  Many  a  Spring  shall  Autumn  follow  when  thou'rt  passed  away  ; 
Many  an  evening,  many  a  morning,  many  a  night  and  day. 
To  the  World  thy  heart  incline  not,  though  it  seemeth  fair  ; 
Deem  it  not  a  faithful  friend  who  for  its  friends  doth  care. 
Thou  to-day  who  like  a  scorpion  everyone  dost  sting, 
Snakes  shall  be  thy  tomb's  companions,  shame  to  thee  shall  bring. 
Comfort  some  afflicted  spirit  ;  that  is  worth  thy  while  ; 
Else  to  vex  thy  fellows'  spirits  easy  is  and  vile. 
Look  not  on  earth's  humble  dwellers  with  a  glance  so  proud  : 
Knowing  not  what  Knight  is  hidden  midst  the  dusty  cloud." 

The  following  fragment  must  conclude  our  citations  from 
Awhadi  : 


jl^Jlwl       U 

B.  P.  10 


146    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 


"  These  suppliant  suitors  hold  in  slight  esteem  ; 
Hold  thou  their  vows  as  frailer  than  a  dream. 
Honours  which  meanness  winneth  for  thy  name 
Regard,  if  honour  toucheth  thee,  as  shame. 
When  Fortune's  cup  into  your  hands  doth  pass 
Think  of  the  headache  as  you  raise  the  glass. 
Like  ill-bred  camel  seems  thy  restive  soul  ; 
Put  on  the  leading-rein  or  lose  control  !  " 

The  village  of  Shabistar  (or  Chabistar)  near  Tabriz,  in 

Adharbayjan,  gave  birth  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 

century  of  the  Christian  era  (seventh  of  the 

Mahmfid-i-          hijra)  to  another  notable  mystic,  Sa'du'd-Di'n 

Shabistan  / 

Mahmud,  generally  called,  after  his  native  place, 
Shabistarf.  Little  is  known  of  his  life,  which  seems  to  have 
been  passed  quietly,  and,  so  far  as  those  stirring  times 
allowed,  uneventfully,  at  or  near  Tabriz,  where  he  died 
about  720/1320.  He  was  by  no  means  a  voluminous  writer, 
but  his  Gulshan-i-Rdz,  or  "  Rose-Garden  of  Mystery,"  a 
mathnawi  containing  about  one  thousand  couplets,  is  one 
of  the  best  and  most  compendious  manuals  of  the  mystical 
doctrine  of  the  Sufis,  and  enjoys  even  at  the  present  day  a 
high  reputation.  It  has  been  edited  with  a  translation, 
Introduction,  and  valuable  notes,  by  Mr  E.  Whinfield1,  who 
gives  in  his  Introduction  the  few  particulars  known  about  the 
author  and  the  history  of  the  poem.  This  attracted  the 
attention  of  European  travellers  as  early  as  A.D.  1700, 
reached  certain  Western  libraries  during  the  succeeding 

1  Published  by  Triibner,  London,  1880. 


CH.  in]  MAHMtiD-I-SHABISTARf  147 

century,  was  utilized  by  Dr  Tholuck  in  his  Ssufismus  in 
1821  and  was  partly  translated  into  German  by  the  same 
writer  in  his  Bluthensammlung  aus  der  M  orgenlandischen 
Mystik  in  1825,  and  was  edited  with  a  complete  versified 
translation  in  German  by  Hammer-Purgstall  in  1838.  The 
poem  was  composed,  as  the  poet  himself  informs  us,  in  the 
month  of  Shawwal,  710  (Feb.-March,  1311)  in  reply  to 
a  series  of  fifteen  questions  on  mystical  doctrine  propounded 
by  an  enquirer  from  Khurasan  named  Amir  Husaynf.  These 
questions,  which  are  included  in  the  poem,  are  briefly  as 
follows : 

(i)     As  to  the  nature  of  thought. 

The  fifteen 

questions  (2)     Why  is  thought  sometimes  a  sin,  some- 

answered  in  the  tjmes  a  dut       and  what  sort    of  thought 

Guhhan-i-Raz  J  ' 

is  incumbent  on  the  mystic? 

(3)  What  am  "  I  "  ?    What  is  meant  by  "  travelling  into 

one's  self"? 

(4)  What  is  meant  by  "  the  Pilgrim,"  and  what  by  "  the 

Perfect  Man  "  ? 

(5)  Who  is  the  Gnostic  ('Arif)  who  attains  to  the  Secret 

of  Unity  ? 

(6)  "If  Knower  and  Known  are  one  pure  Essence, 
What  are  the  inspirations  in  this  handful  of  dust  ?  " 

(7)  "  To  what  Point  belongs  the  expression,  '  I  am  the 

Truth '  ? " 

(8)  "  Why  call  they  a  creature  '  united  '  ? 

How  can  he  achieve  '  travelling '  and  '  journey '  ? " 

(9)  "  \Vhat  is  the  union  of '  Necessary'  and  '  Contingent'? 
What  are  '  near '  and  '  far,'  '  more '  and  '  less  '  ?  " 

(10)     "  What  is  that  Sea  whose  shore  is  speech  ? 

What  is  that  pearl  which  is  found  in  its  depths  ?  " 
(i  i)     "  What  is  that  Part  which  is  greater  than  its  Whole? 

What  is  the  way  to  find  that  Part  ?  " 

(12)  "  How  are  Eternal  and  Temporal  separate  ? 
Is  this  one  the  World  and  the  other  God  ? " 

(13)  "What  means  the  mystic  by  those  [allegorical]  ex- 

pressions of  his  ? 


148    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

What  does  he  indicate  by  '  eye '  and  '  lip '  ? 

What  does  he  intend  by  '  cheek/  '  curl,'  '  down  '  and 

'  mole '  ? 
(He,  to  wit,  who  is  in  '  Stations '  and  '  States.') " 

(14)  "What  meaning  attaches  to  'Wine,'  'Torch'   and 

'  Beauty '  ? 
What  is  assumed  in  being  a  haunter  of  Taverns  ?  " 

(15)  "  Idols,  girdles  and  Christianity  in  this  discourse 
Are  all  infidelity  ;  if  not,  say  what  are  they  ?  " 

The  book  contains  not  only  the  answers  to  these  ques- 
tions, but  a  number  of  incidental  illustrations,  parables  and 
digressions,  and  is  on  the  whole  one  of  the  best  manuals  of 
Sufi  Theosophy  which  exist,  especially  when  taken  in  con- 
junction with  the  excellent  commentary  of  'Abdu'r-Razzaq 
al-Lahijf. 

Since  the  whole  of  this  work  is  accessible  to  the  English 
reader  in  Whinfield's  excellent  translation,  the  following 
short  specimen  may  suffice  here  : 

Question  X. 

From  the  "  What  Sea  is  that  whereof  the  shore  is  speech? 

Gulshan-i-Raz       What  pearl  from  out  its  depths  our  hands  can  reach  ? " 

Answer  X. 

"  The  Sea  is  Being  ;  speech  its  shore  ;  the  shell 

Words,  and  its  pearls  Heart's  Wisdom,  wot  thee  well. 
Each  wave  a  thousand  royal  pearls  doth  pour 
Of  text,  tradition  and  prophetic  lore. 
Each  moment  thence  a  thousand  waves  are  tossed, 
Yet  ne'er  a  drop  therefrom  is  ever  lost. 
Knowledge  is  gathered  from  that  Sea  profound  : 
Its  pearls  enveloped  are  in  words  and  sound. 
Ideas  and  mysteries  descending  here 
Need  some  similitude  to  make  them  clear." 

Illustration. 

"  In  April's  month,  thus  was  it  told  to  me, 
The  oysters  upwards  float  in  'Umman's  sea. 
Up  from  the  depths  unto  the  Ocean's  brim 
Ascending  open-mouthed  they  shorewards  swim. 


CH.  in]  THE  GULSHAN-I-RAZ  149 

Mists  from  the  sea  arise  and  veil  the  land, 

And  then  in  rain  dissolve  by  God's  command. 

Into  each  oyster-mouth  a  rain-drop  creeps  : 

The  shell  doth  close,  and  sinketh  to  the  deeps. 

With  heart  fulfilled  it  sinketh  down  again  ; 

A  pearl  is  formed  from  every  drop  of  rain. 

Into  the  depths  himself  the  Diver  hurls, 

And  to  the  shore  brings  back  the  lustrous  pearls. 

Being's  the  sea :  the  shore  our  human  frames  : 

God's  Grace  the  mist  :  the  rain  God's  Holy  Names : 

Wisdom's  the  diver  in  this  mighty  deep, 

Who  'neath  his  cloak  a  hundred  pearls  doth  keep. 

The  Heart's  the  vase  wherein  is  Wisdom  found : 

Heart's  wisdom's  shell  the  letters,  words  and  sound. 

The  moving  breath  like  lightning  doth  appear, 

And  thence  words  fall  upon  the  hearer's  ear. 

Break,  then,  the  shell :  bring  forth  the  royal  pearl : 

The  kernel  keep  :  the  husk  on  ash-heap  hurl. 

Lexicon,  grammar  and  philology 

All  these  mere  accidents  of  letters  be. 

Whoe'er  on  things  like  these  his  life  doth  spend 

Doth  waste  his  life  without  an  aim  or  end." 

Shaykh  Mahmud  Shabistari  cannot,  like  so  many  Persian 
poets,  be  charged  with  writing  too  much,  for  the  Gulshan-i- 
Rdz  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  his  only  poem,  while  his  only  other 
works  are  the  Haqqiil-  Yaqin  ("  Certain  Truth "),  and  the 
Risdla-i-ShdJiid  ("  Tract  of  the  Witness  ").  The  former  is 
fairly  common,  and  has  been  lithographed  at  Tihran  with 
other  Sufi  tracts :  the  latter  I  have  never  met  with.  The 
full  title  of  the  better-known  treatise  is  "  Certain  truth  on 
the  Knowledge  of  the  Lord  of  the  Worlds,"  and  it  contains 
eight  chapters,  corresponding  with  the  eight  Gates  of 
Paradise,  and  dealing  with  the  following  topics  : 

(1)  The  Manifestation  of  the  Divine  Essence. 

(2)  The  Manifestation  of  the  Divine  Attributes,  and 
the  Statioii  of  Knowledge. 

(3)  The  Manifestation  of  the  Degrees  thereof,  and  the 
explanation  of  the  Origin. 

(4)  On  the  Necessity  of  the  Divine  Unity. 

(5)  On  Contingent  Being  and  Plurality. 


150    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

(6)  On  Differentiation  of  movement,  and  the  continual 
renovation  of  Differentiations. 

(7)  On  the  Philosophy  of  obligation,  compulsion,  pre- 
destination and  conduct. 

(8)  Explaining  the  Return  and  the  Resurrection,  and 
Annihilation  and  Permanence. 

The  poet  Rabf'f  of  Bushanj,  the  panegyrist  of  Fakhru'd- 
Din  Kurt  of  Herat,  is  little  known,  but  a  long  notice  of  him 
is  given  in  that  rare  and  valuable  work  the 
Mujmal  ("  Compendium  ")  of  Fasihf  of  Khwaf1, 
under  the  year  702/1399-1400  in  which  he  was 
put  to  death.  He  was  a  great  drinker  of  wine,  while 
Fakhru'd-Dm  was  addicted  to  bang  ;  a  fact  to  which  refer- 
ence is  made  in  these  two  quatrains  : 


"When  I  wax  cheerful  with  .the  green-hued  seed2 
I'm  ready  to  bestride  the  heaven's  green  steed  ; 
With  verdant  youths  on  lawns  the  green2  I  eat 
Ere  like  the  grass  the  earth  on  me  shall  feed." 


U 

"  The  toper,  e'en  if  rich,  is  harshly  blamed, 
While  by  his  rioting  the  world's  inflamed. 

1  The  MS.  which  I  have  used  formerly  belonged  to  Colonel  Raverty, 
and  was  bought  by  the  trustees  of  the  "  E.  ].  W.  Gibb  Memorial  Fund  " 
on  his  death.    A  second  MS.,  now  in  my  possession,  is  from  the  Library 
of  the  late  Sir  Albert  Houtum-Schindler.     There  is  a  third  MS.  at  St 
Petersburg.     There  is,  unfortunately,  a  large  lacuna  comprising  the 
years  A.H.  718-840  (A.D.  1318-1436)  in  the  Raverty  MS. 

2  I.e.  Indian  hemp  (Cannabis  Indica)  or  bang,  the  green  colour  of 
which  is  also  alluded  to  in  its  nicknames  Aqd-yi-Sayyid  ("  Master 
Sayyid  ")  and  Tuti-yi-Sabz  (the  "  Green  Parrot  "). 


CH.  m]  RABM  OF  BtlSHANJ  151 

In  ruby  casket  emeralds  I  pour1, 

And  blinding  snake-eyed  sorrow,  grieve  no  more." 

While  in  prison  Rabf'f  composed  a  poem  called  the  Kdr- 
ndma  ("Book  of  Deeds")  and  other  poems,  wherein  he  sought 
but  failed  to  move  the  King's  pity.  Of  these  some  seventy 
couplets  are  cited  in  the  Mujmal  of  Fasi'hi,  of  which  the 
following  may  serve  as  specimens  : 

(From  the  Kdr-ndma.) 


a^fc. 


'^tj^  ^  ;  .0  ,> 
'»>« 


"  The  Empire's  Lord,  King  of  these  realms  so  fair, 
Prince  Fakhru'd-Di'n  the  Kurt,  great  Jamshid's  heir, 
Had  fetters  fashioned  for  the  culprit's  heel 
Most  strongly  wrought  of  iron  and  of  steel. 
Therewith  my  feet  they  bound  by  his  command  : 
Bow  to  the  will  of  him  who  rules  the  land  ! 
The  other  captives  all  he  did  set  free  : 
Of  Heaven's  wheel  behold  the  tyranny  ! 

1     This  seems  to  point  to  the  smoking  of  hemp,  the  hemp  being 
compared  to  the  emerald  and  the  fiery  pipe-bowl  to  the  ruby  casket. 


1  52    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BKI 

Thus  I  myself  in  grievous  fetters  found, 

As  Ka'iis  in  Mazandaran  was  bound. 

With  feet  in  fetters,  heart  weighed  down  with  care, 

How  long  shall  I  in  every  sorrow  share  ? 

Nor  men  nor  demons  are  my  comrades  here  : 

My  soul  cries  out  at  such  companions  drear. 

No  heart  on  earth  through  them  doth  gladness  feel  : 

Hard  as  their  hearts  no  iron  is,  nor  steel. 

The  Devil's  but  a  joke  when  they  are  there  ; 

Their  pupil,  only  fit  for  blows,  the  bear. 

Their  custom  is  to  hang,  torment  and  bind  ; 

Bloodshed  and  slaughter  occupy  their  mind. 

Their  life-long  work  is  outrage,  curse  and  blow  : 

To  Khaysar1  and  to  Ghur  each  year  they  go. 

They're  highland  robbers  all,  in  battle  proved, 

Themselves  like  mountains  which  God's  power  hath  moved. 

Ten  of  these  wretches  now  control  my  fate  : 

Alas  for  my  condition  desolate  !  " 

In  another  qastda,  composed  during  his  imprisonment, 
the  poet  says  that  he  was  thirty-one  years  of  age  at  the 
time  of  writing,  and  that  of  this  period  he  had  spent  seventeen 
years  in  the  King's  service  and  fourteen  in  the  Holy  Sanc- 
tuaries (Mecca  and  Medina)  : 


A  third  poem  in  the  same  strain  and  composed  under 
the  same  conditions  (a  mathnawt'\v\  this  case)  is  also  recorded 
in  the  Mujmal,  but  all  appeals  were  unavailing,  and  the 
unfortunate  poet  died  in  prison,  none  knows  in  what  manner. 

Humamu'd-Din  of  Tabriz  is  another  poet  of  this  period 

who  merits  a  brief  mention.     According  to  the 

Humam  of         Mujmal  he  died  in  714/1314,  at  the  age  of  1  16, 

while  a  well-known  anecdote2  brings  him  into 

1  Khaysar  is  a  fortress  in  Khurasan,  not  far  from  Herat  (Yaqiit, 
vol.  ii,  p.  507)  ;    and  Ghur  a  mountainous  district  in  Afghanistan. 
Perhaps,  like  Kaldt-i-Nadiri  at  the  present  day,  they  were  formerly 
used  as  penal  settlements. 

2  See  Sir  Gore  Ouseley's  Biographical  Notices  of  Persian  Poets 
(London,  1846),  pp.  14-15. 


CH.  in]  HUMAMU'D-DfN-I-TABRrzf  153 

contact  with  the  great  Sa'di  (died  690/1291),  with  whom 
he  engaged  in  a  wordy  duel,  not  conspicuous  for  refinement, 
in  which  he  was  signally  worsted.  No  other  particulars  of 
his  life  are  known  to  me,  except  that  he  also  was  one  of  the 
panegyrists  of  the  Sahib  Diwdn1.  The  following  specimens 
of  his  verse  (which  is  said  to  have  been  greatly  influenced 
by  that  of  Sa'di)  are  taken  from  the  Haft  Iqlim. 


"  On  the  day  of  life's  surrender  I  shall  die  desiring  Thee  : 
I  shall  yield  my  Spirit  craving  of  thy  street  the  dust  to  be. 
On  the  Resurrection  Morning,  when  I  raise  my  head  from  sleep, 
I  shall  rise  desiring  Thee,  and  forth  to  seek  for  Thee  shall  creep. 
I  will  smell  not  blooms  of  Eden,  nor  of  Heavenly  Gardens  speak, 
Nor,  desiring  Thee  alone,  shall  I  Celestial  Houris  seek." 


3*-          J  3 


JL» 


3  <4^  3  ****  3  J3J  ij*     O3 

"  When  the  parting  from  country  and  friends  to  my  vision  appears 
The  stages  I  tread  are  fulfilled  with  the  flood  of  my  tears. 
In  parting  one  moment,  one  breath  like  ten  centuries  seems  : 
How  weary  the  days  and  the  weeks  and  the  months  and  the  years  !" 


1  See  p.  1  of  the  English  introduction  to  Part  I  of  JuwaynPs 
Ta'rikh-i-jahdn-gusM,  edited  by  Mirza  Muhammad  ("  E.  J.  W.  Gibb 
Memorial  Series,"  vol.  xvi,  i). 


154    POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD     [BK  i 

"  That  day  of  parting  seemed  the  Day  of  Doom  : 
How  were  it  if  our  friendship  had  been  less  ? 
Make  much,  then,  of  your  friends  while  they  are  here, 
For  this  false  sphere  is  fraught  with  faithlessness." 


^J  to 

"  Last  night  to  tell  my  tale  I  did  prepare 
Unto  my  Friend,  and  forth  from  every  hair 
Flowed  speech.     Night  passed,  unended  was  my  song  ; 
Blame  not  the  night  ;  the  tale  was  over-long  !  " 

A  good  many  other  poets  of  this  period,  such  as  Afdal- 
i-Kashf,  Athir-i-Awmani,  Sayfu'd-Dfn-i-Isfarangf,  Rafi'u'd- 

Din-i-Abhari,Farid-i-Ahwal("  the  squint-eyed") 
2*  prer°odS  °f  and  Niz^rf  of  Quhistan  might  be  mentioned,  did 

space  allow,  but  as  in  most  cases  their  works  are 
inaccessible  to  me  save  in  the  brief  extracts  given  by  the 
biographers,  it  has  seemed  better  to  pass  them  over  for  the 

present.  Of  the  last-named,  however,  a  few 
Quhlltdn  words  must  be  said,  for  a  MS.  of  his  poems 

(Or.  7909)  has  been  acquired  by  the  British 
Museum  since  the  publication  of  the  Supplement  to  the 
Persian  Catalogue,  and  of  this  MS.  a  transcript  was  made 
for  me  in  the  autumn  of  1913  by  an  Indian  copyist,  Mawlawi 
Isma'il  'Alf.  This  transcript  I  desired  because  of  the  strong 
probability  that  Nizari  belonged  to  the  sect  of  the  Isma'ilis, 
Malahida,  or  Assassins,  and  I  hoped  that  his  poems  might 
afford  proof  of  this  fact,  and  perhaps  reveal  a  genius  com- 
parable to  that  of  the  one  great  Isma'i'li  poet  hitherto  known, 
Nasir-i-Khusraw1.  That  Nizari  of  Quhistan  belonged  to 
the  Isma'flf  sect  is  not  merely  suggested  by  his  pen-name 
and  place  of  origin,  but  is  asserted  or  hinted  at  by  most 
of  the  biographers.  On  the  death  of  al-Mustansir,  the 
eighth  Fatimid  or  Isma'ili  Caliph  (A.D.  1035-1094),  there 
ensued  a  struggle  for  the  succession  between  his  two  sons 
al-Musta'H  and  Nizar2,  in  which  the  latter  lost  his  life  and 

1  See  vol.  ii  of  my  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  pp.  218-247. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  199,  20  1,  203,  204,  206,  etc. 


CH.  in]  NIZARf.—  SULTAN  WALAD  155 

his  throne,  but  continued  to  be  regarded  by  the  Eastern  or 
Persian  Isma'ilfs  (including  the  derived  Syrian  branch)  as 
the  legitimate  Imam.  It  was  from  him,  no  doubt,  that  the 
poet  took  his  nom  de  guerre,  for  the  other  suggestion,  that 
it  was  derived  from  the  Persian  adjective  nizdr  ("thin," 
"  weak  ")  is  quite  untenable.  Quhistan,  moreover,  was  a 
stronghold  of  the  Assassins1,  especially  the  towns  of  Qayin 
and  Birjand  to  which  he  particularly  alludes  in  one  of  his 
poems,  where  he  says  : 


"  I  am  seated  over  my  treasure,  whether  I  be  in  Birjand  or  Qdyin  ; 
O  Nizdri,  henceforth,  free  and  untroubled,  thou  hast  the  treasure  of 
poverty  and  a  safe  corner." 

The  MS.  of  Nizarfs  poems  alluded  to  above  contains 
only  ghazals  or  odes,  and  these,  though  spirited  enough, 
appear  for  the  most  part  to  be  of  the  usual  Bacchanalian 
type,  and  to  give  little  or  no  indication  of  the  poet's  religious 
views  or  general  circumstances.  It  is  in  qasidas  and  math- 
nawis  that  such  indications  are  generally  to  be  found,  and, 
unfortunately,  neither  of  these  classes  of  poems  are  repre- 
sented in  the  MS.  in  question.  According  to  Sprenger2, 
Nizarf  died  in  720/1320,  and  left  two  mathnawis,  one  of 
which,  entitled  Dastiir-ndma,  he  describes  as  "  very  witty 
and  amusing,"  but  I  have  never  seen  it.  Nizarfs  writings 
would  probably  repay  further  study. 

In  conclusion  a  few  words  must  be  said  about  Sultan 

Walad  (or  Veled,  according  to  the  Turkish  pronunciation), 

the  son  and  ultimately  the  spiritual  successor 

Sultan  Walad  ' 

(or  Veied)  and      of  the  great  Mawlana  Jalalu'd-Dm  Rumi.     He 

his  Rab&b-n&ma     ^  bom  ^  j^^  jyjj^  ^  L£randa  (thg  mOdem 

Qaraman)  in  623/1226  when  his  father  was  only  nineteen 
years  of  age,  and  his  proper  name  was  Baha'u'd-Dm  Ahmad. 

1  See  G.  le  Strange's  Lands  of  the  Eastern  Caliphate,  pp.  354-5. 

2  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of  the  King  of  Oude,  vol.  i,  p.  524. 


156  POETS  &  MYSTICS  OF  fL-KHANf  PERIOD  [BK  i  CH.III 

His  best-known  work  is  a  mathnawi  poem,  entitled  Rabdb- 
ndma  (the  "  Book  of  the  Rebeck  "),  which,  though  mostly 
written  in  Persian,  contains  1 56  verses  in  Turkish,  which  Gibb 
describes  as  "  the  earliest  important  specimen  of  West- 
Turkish  poetry  that  we  possess."  These  archaic  verses 
have  attracted  the  attention  of  Von  Hammer,  Wickerhauser, 
Bernhauer,  Fleischer,  Salemann1  and  Radloff,  and  Gibb 
has  very  fully  discussed  them  and  their  author  in  the  first 
volume  of  his  great  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  pp.  149-163. 
"To  Sultan  Veled,"  he  says  (loc.  cit.,  pp.  156-7),  "belongs 
not  only  the  honour  due  to  the  pioneer  in  every  good  work, 
but  the  credit  which  is  justly  his  who  successfully  accom- 
plishes an  arduous  enterprise.  To  have  inaugurated  the 
poetry  of  a  nation  is  an  achievement  of  which  any  man 
might  be  proud."  Thus  even  so  great  an  admirer  of 
Turkish  poetry  as  Gibb  is  constrained  to  admit  that  it 
chiefly  owes  its  inception  to  a  Persian,  and  is  in  fact,  in  a 
sense,  a  branch  of  Persian  poetry,  to  which  for  five  centuries 
and  a  half  (A.D.  1300-1850)  it  owed  its  inspiration.  At  all 
events  the  rise  of  both  the  Ottoman  State  and  Turkish 
literature  belong  to  the  period  which  we  have  discussed  in 
this  and  the  preceding  chapters,  and  henceforth  it  will  be 
necessary  to  allude  to  both  with  increasing  frequency. 

1  For  references  see  Gibb's  Hist,  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  i,  p.  157 
ad  calc.  Radloff's  article,  which  he  does  not  mention,  is  entitled  Uber 
Alt-Tiirkische  Dialekte.  i.  Die  Seldschukischen  Verse  im  Rebdbndmeh. 
It  was  published  in  1890  in  vol.  x,  Livraison  I,  of  the  Melanges 
Asiatiques  at  St  Petersburg. 


BOOK   II. 

FROM  THE  BIRTH  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  Tl'MUR- 
I-LANG,  COMMONLY   CALLED   TAMERLANE. 

(A.H.  736-807  =  A.D.  1335-1405.) 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  PERIOD  OF  TIMUR. 

The  power  of  the  Mongols  in  Persia  practically  came 
to  an  end  on  the  death  of  Abu  Sa'i'd  (13  Rabf  II,  A.H.  736 
~  ,  . .  ,  =  Nov.  30,  1335),  and  some  eight  months  later  in 

Definition  of  the  j     •>      Jjj/i  ^  t> 

period  about  to    the  same  year  of  the  Jiijra  (Sha'ban  25  =  April  8, 

be  considered          ^^  ^^  bom  Tfnuir>  called  L(mg  («the  Hmp_ 

ing"),  and  generally  known  in  the  West  as  "  Tamerlane," 
who  was  destined  to  become  in  his  turn  almost  as  great  a 

o 

scourge  to  the  Muslims  of  Western  and  Central  Asia  as 
Chingiz  Khan.  The  approximate  coincidence  of  the  death 
of  the  last  great  Mongol  ruler  of  Persia  with  the  birth  of  this 
new  organizer  of  Tartar  depredations  has  been  remarked  by 
the  author  of  the  Matla'tis-Sa'dayn1,  and  makes  this  date  a 
convenient  starting-point  for  the  period  of  seventy  years 
which  we  are  now  about  to  consider;  a  period  which,  in  spite 
of  the  anarchy  wherewith  it  began  and  the  bloodshed  where- 
with it  ended,  is  remarkable  alike  for  the  quantity  and  the 
quality  of  the  poets  and  writers  which  it  pro- 

oflrperi2erS  duced-  Of  the  former  were  Salman  of  Sawa, 
Khwajii  of  Kirman,  'Ubayd-i-Zakani,  'Imdd  of 
Kirman,  'Assar  of  Tabriz,  the  two  Jalals,  known  respectively 
as  'Adudi  and  Tabtb  ("  the  physician  "),  Kamal  of  Khujand, 
Maghribi,  Bushaq,  Ibn-i-Yamm,  and  last  but  not  least  the 
incomparable  Hafiz  of  Sm'raz;  of  the  latter  were  the  historians 
of  Ti'mur,  Nizam -i-Shami  and  Sharafu'd-Din  'Ah'  Yazdf, 
and  Mu'fnu'd-Din  Yazdf,  the  historian  of  the  House  of 
Muzaffar  which  perished  at  Tfmur's  hands,  not  to  mention 
others  who,  though  Persians,  wrote  chiefly  in  Arabic,  such 
as  the  Sayyid-i-Shan'fof  Jurjan,  Sa'du'd-Dfn  Taftazani,  and 
'Adudu'd-Di'n  al-Iji. 

1  See  Rieu's  Persian  Catalogue,  p.  182. 


160  THE  PERIOD  OF  TIMtiR  [BK  n 

Timur's  first  invasion  of  Persia  took  place  in  A.D.  1380, 

when  he  subdued  Khurasan,  Si'stan  and  Mazandaran  ;  his 

.  second  in  A.D.  1384-5,  when  he  again  invaded 

invasions  of        Mazandaran  and  extended  his  operations  into 

Adharbayjan,  'Iraq-i-'Ajam  and  Georgia,  finish- 
ing up  with  the  subjugation  of  Shiraz  and  a  massacre  of 
70,000  persons  at  Isfahan  ;  and  his  third  and  last  in 
A.D.  1392,  when  he  again  subdued  Fars  and  extirpated  the 
Muzaffari  dynasty,  having  already  destroyed  the  Sarbadars 
of  Sabzawar  (in  1381)  and  the  Kurts  of  Herat  (in  1389). 
During  the  45  years  succeeding  Timur's  birth  and  Abu 
Sa'id's  death  (A.D.  1335-1380)  Persia  was,  however,  left  to  its 

own  devices,  and  was  divided  between  four  or  five 
The  minor  petty  dynasties,  of  which  the  Muzaffaris,  ruling 

dynasties  Jr        J       J  .  » 

destroyed  by        over  Fars,  'Iraq-i-'Ajam  and  Kirman,  were  the 

Timur  / 

most  important  ;  then  the  Jala  irs  (or  Il-khanis) 
of  Baghdad  and  Adharbayjan  ;  and  lastly  the  Sarbadars  of 
Sabzawar  and  the  Kurts  of  Herat,  both  in  the  North-East. 
The  history  of  these  dynasties  is  very  intricate,  and,  perhaps, 
hardly  worth  a  detailed  study  ;  while  the  territories  over 
which  each  held  control  were  indeterminate,  and  their  fron- 
tiers (if  such  existed)  constantly  shifting,  and  often  —  indeed 
generally  —  civil  war  prevailed  between  members  of  the  same 
dynasty,and  their  heritage  was  divided  amongst  rival  brothers 
or  cousins.  What  is  remarkable,  however,  is  that  it  is  pre- 

cisely duringsuch  periods  of  anarchy  and  division 
t^rfmosfflour-  of  Power  that  Persian  literature  has  flourished 
in  troubled  most  ;  so  that,  for  example,  while  a  dozen  first- 

class  poets  lived  in  the  brief  period  of  45  years 
now  under  discussion,  the  whole  Safawi  period,  which  in 
all  lasted  234  years  (A.D.  1502-1736),  and  in  which  Persia 
reached  a  degree  of  power,  splendour  and  consolidation  un- 
equalled in  modern  times,  hardly  produced  half  that  number 
of  poets  of  more  than  local  fame,  though  arts  flourished 
and  theology  reached  its  zenith.  The  cause  of  this  curious 
phenomenon  will  be  further  discussed  when  we  come  to 
speak  of  the  Safawi  period  ;  but  it  would  seem  that  the 


CH.  iv]  THE  MUZAFFARf  DYNASTY  161 

existence  of  numerous  small  courts,  rivals  to  one  another, 
and  each  striving  to  outshine  the  others,  was  singularly 
favourable  to  the  encouragement  of  poets  and  other  men  of 
letters,  who,  if  disappointed  or  slighted  in  one  city,  could 
generally  find  in  another  a  more  favourable  reception. 

Before  speaking  of  Ti'mur,  then,  it  is  necessary  to  give 

some  account  of  the  petty  dynasties  which  flourished  in 

Persia  during  this  half-century's  interregnum. 

Muzaffaris  _°.  ...       , 

Of  these  the  Muzaffaris  werethe  most  important, 
both  on  account  of  the  position  and  extent  of  their  realms, 
and  by  reason  of  the  eminent  poets — notably  Hafiz  of 
Shiraz — who  frequented  their  courts.  Next  to  them  we 

may  place  the  Jala'ir  or  Il-khani  princes  who 
jaia-irsor  ruled  Qver  Baghdad  and  jabrfz  as  the  direct 

Il-khanis 

heirs  of  the  shrunken  Mongol  power,  and  under 

whose  aegis  likewise  many  eminent  poets  flourished.     The 

Sarbadars  (or  Sarbadals)  of  Sabzawar  seem  to 

Sarbadars 

have  held  sway  over  a  very  restricted  territory, 
and  were  in  fact  (as  their  name,  "  Head-on-the-gallows," 
implies)  little  better  than  successful  outlaws  and  highway- 
robbers;  while  the  Kurts  of  Herat,  though  more 
civilized,  greater  patrons  of  letters,  and  more 
stable  in  character  (they  ruled  for  144  years,  from  A.D.  1245 
to  1389),  were  established  in  a  domain  which  is  no  longer 
included  in  Persia,  but  now  forms  part  of  Afghanistan,  and 
were  themselves, perhaps, of  Afghan  or  semi-Afghan  descent. 
Of  each  of  these  dynasties  some  brief  account  must  now  be 
given. 

THE  MuzAFFARfs. 

Apart  from  the  general  histories,  such  as  the  Raivdatus- 

Safd,  with  which  every  student  of  Persian  is  familiar,  there 

exists  a  monograph  on  the  House  of  Muzaffar 

Authorities 

for  history  of        by  a  contemporary   scholar  of  some   repute, 
Mu'i'nu'd-Di'n  of  Yazd,  who  was  made  professor 
at  one  of  the  colleges  of  Kirman  in  755/1354.    This  history 
exists  only  in  manuscript1,  and  I  have  been  able  to  consult 
1  See  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  p.  168,  and  Persian  Supp!.,  p.  33. 
B.  P.  II 


1 62  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

it  in  an  old  copy  belonging  to  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum  at 
Cambridge1,  dated  7/8/1376-7,  and,  since  January,  1917,  in 
two  MSS.,one  written  in  the  author's  life-time,  from  the  library 
of  the  late  Sir  A.  Houtum-Schindler.  It  comes  down  only 
to  the  year  767/1365-6,  and  so  omits  the  last  thirty  years 
of  the  dynasty  ;  and  it  is,  moreover,  written  in  a  very  stilted 
and  artificial  style.  So  difficult,  indeed,  was  it  that  a  certain 
Mahmud  Kutbi,  while  engaged  in  transcribing  the  Tartkh- 
i-Guzida  in  823/1420,  thought  good  to  add  to  that  history 
an  independent  account  of  the  Muzaffari  dynasty  from  his 
own  pen.  This  account  is  contained  in  the  fac- simile  of  an 
old  MS.  of  the  Guztda  published  in  the  Gibb  Memorial 
Series  (vol.  xiv,  I,  pp.  6i3~755)2,  and  carries  the  history  of 
the  dynasty  down  to  its  extinction  in  Rajab,  795  (May, 
I393)-  This,  and  the  account  contained  in  the  modern 
Fdrs-ndma-i-Ndsiri*  Q{  Hajji  Mirza  Hasan  (pp.  49-66),  have 
been  chiefly  used  in  compiling  the  following  brief  account 
of  the  dynasty,  but  I  should  like  also  to  acknowledge  my 
indebtedness  to  an  excellent  and  most  readable  sketch  of 
its  history  contained  in  the  Introduction  to  Miss  Gertrude 
Lowthian  Bell's  Poems  from  the  Divan  of  Hafiz*  (pp.  8-28). 
The  ancestors  of  the  House  of  Muzaffar  are  said  to  have 
come  to  Persia  from  Arabia  in  the  early  days  of  the  Mu- 
hammadan  conquest,  and  to  have  settled  near 

Origin  of  the  l  ' 

Muzaffari  Khwaf  in  Khurasan,  whence  Amir  Ghiyathu'd- 

Dfn  Hajji  Khurasani,  the  grandfather  of  Mu- 
bdrizu'd-Din  Muhammad,  the  first  king  of  the  dynasty, 
migrated  to  Yazd  during  the  period  of  the  Mongol  invasion. 
One  of  his  three  sons,  Abu  Bakr,  with  300  horsemen,  accom- 
panied Hulagu's  expedition  against  Baghdad,  and  was 
subsequently  killed  in  Egypt  by  Arabs  of  the  Banu  Khafaja 
tribe.  His  brother  Muhammad  succeeded  him  as  deputy  to 
the  Governor  of  Yazd,  but  died  without  issue.  The  third  son, 

J  Frank  McClean  Collection,  No.  198. 

2  See  also  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  p.  82. 

3  Lithographed  at  Tihran  in  A.H.  1313/1895-6. 
*  London  :  Heinemann,  1897. 


CH.  iv]  THE  MUZAFFARf  DYNASTY  163 

Jalalu'd-Din  Mansur,  lived  at  Maybud,  near  Yazd,  and  like- 
wise left  three  sons,  Sharafu'd-Di'n  Muzaffar,  Zaynu'd-Din 
'All,  and  Mubarizu'd-Din  Muhammad.  The  first  is  said  to 
have  been  notified  in  a  dream  of  the  distinction  to  which 
his  family  was  destined,  and  while  still  young  distinguished 
himself  by  destroying  a  band  of  robbers  from  Pars  who 
were  committing  depredations  in  his  province.  In  685/1286 
he  went  to  Kirman  and  entered  the  service  of  Surghatmish 
Qara-Khita'f.  Later  he  served  the  four  Mongol  sovereigns 
Arghun,  Gaykhatu,  Ghazan  and  Uljaytu  Khuda-banda, 
to  the  last-named  of  whom  he  was  presented  at  Khaniqin 
in  711/1311,  and  who  conferred  on  him  a  more  extensive 
government.  He  died  in  713/1313,  leaving  to  succeed  him 
his  son  Mubarizu'd-Dfn  Muhammad,  then  only  thirteen 
years  of  age,  who  was  confirmed  in  his  father's  offices  by 
Uljaytu  (died  Dec.  16,  1316).  At  the  age  of  29  he  married  as 
his  second  wife  Banu  Jahan,  the  grand-daughter  of  Surghat- 
mish. He  had  five  sons,  Sharafu'd-Din  Muzaffar  (born 
725/1325,  died  of  a  wound  in  754/1353);  Shah  Shuja' 
(born  733/1333);  Qutbu'd-Dfn  Mahmud  (born  737/1336); 
and  two  others  named  Ahmad  and  Bayazid. 

Mubarizu'd-Din  Muhammad  is  generally  reckoned  the 

first  of  the  Muzaffan  dynasty,  the  duration  of  which,  from 

his  accession  in  A.D.  1313  to  the  extirpation  of 

Mubarizu'-d-Din     ,11  i          T-'       /  i 

Muhammad  the  dynasty  by  Timur  in  A.D.  1393,  covered  a 
period  of  80  years.  His  original  governmen^ 
as  we  have  seen,  was  the  little  town  of  Maybud  near  Yazd, 
but  in  A.D.  1319  the  latter  town  was  added  to  his  jurisdiction. 
In  A.D.  1340  Kirman  also  fell  to  his  share,  though  the 
previous  ruler,  Qutbu'd-Dfn,  invoked  and  received  help  from 
the  Kurt  kings  of  Herat,  and  offered  a  stubborn  resistance.  In 
A.D.  1353,  after  a  still  more  prolonged  struggle,  he  succeeded 
in  wresting  the  province  of  Pars  with  its  capital  Shiraz  from 
Abu  Ishaq  Inju,  whose  little  son,  'Ali  Sahl,  aged  ten,  was 
taken  prisoner  and  cruelly  put  to  death  by  Shah  Shuja'  at 
Rafsinjan.  One  of  Mubarizu'd-Din's  first  measures  was  to 
enact  severe  laws  against  wine-drinking  and  other  forms  of 


164  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtiR  [BK  11 

dissipation  prevalent  amongst  the  pleasure-  loving  Shirazfs, 
concerning  which  his  son  Shah  Shuja'  composed  the  following 
quatrain  : 


A.*"-. 

"  Closed  are  the  taverns  now  throughout  the  land; 
Zither  and  harp  and  tambourine  are  banned  ; 
Banned  is  wine-worship  to  the  libertine  ; 
Only  the  proctor's1  drunk,  though  not  with  wine  !" 

In  the  following  year,  A.D.  1354,  whether  in  consequence 
of  this  unpopular  measure  or  not,  Shiraz  was  seized  by 
rebels  against  the  Muzafifaris,  but  was  soon  retaken.  About 
this  time  Mubarizu'd-Di'n  declared  his  allegiance  to  the 
titular  Caliph  al-Mu!tadid2,  whose  name  he  caused  to  be 
inserted  in  the  khutba.  In  A.D.  1357  Isfahan  was  attacked 
and  ultimately  taken,  and  its  ruler  Shaykh  Abu 
Isl?dcl  InJu  was  captured,  brought  to  Shiraz, 
and  there  put  to  death  at  Mubarizu'd-Din's 
command  by  Amfr  Qutbu'd-Dm,  the  son  of  Sayyid  Amir 
Hajji  Darrab,  who  had  suffered  death  by  order  of  Abu 
Ishaq.  It  is  said  that  just  before  his  death  Abu  Ishaq 
recited  the  two  following  quatrains  : 


9~*TfJ 

1  The  Muhtasib,  here  rendered  "  proctor,"  was  an  officer  whose 
function  it  was  to  maintain  public  order  and  morality  and  ensure  that 
the  goods  sold  by  tradesmen   should  both  in  quantity  and  quality 
maintain  a  proper  standard. 

2  Abu'1-Fath  Abu  Bakr  al-Mu'tadid  bi'llah,  son  of  al-Mustakff,  one 
of  the  titular  'Abbasid  Caliphs  who  exercised  a  merely  nominal  sway 
in  Egypt  after  the  sack  of  Baghdad    until   the    Ottoman   conquest 
(A.D.    1262-1517),   succeeded   his    brother   al-Hakim   bi-amri'llah   in 
753/1352-3  and  died  in  763/1362.    See  as-Suyuti's  Tdrlkhrfl-Khitlafa 
(ed.  Nassau  Lees,  Calcutta,  1857),  p.  516. 


CH.  iv]  THE  MUZAFFARf  DYNASTY  165 


"  No  hope  in  kin  or  stranger  doth  remain, 
Nor  to  the  bird  of  Life  one  single  grain  ; 
Of  all  we  said  throughout  our  life,  alas  ! 
Naught  will  survive  us  save  an  echo  vain  !  " 

"  Depart  and  quarrel  not  with  Fortune's  spite  ; 
Depart,  nor  strive  with  circling  Heaven's  might  : 
Drain  with  a  smile  the  poison-cup  of  Death 
And  pour  libations  ere  you  take  your  flight" 

After  capturing  Isfahan,  Mubarizu'd-Din  marched  on 
Tabriz,  which  also  he  occupied,  after  two  engagements  with 
the  troops  of  Akhi  Juq,  whom  his  sons  pursued  as  far  as 
Nakhjuwan.  Finally,  however,  his  fortune  turned  against 
him,  for  his  sons  Mahmud  and  Shuja',  apprehensive  of  his 
intentions  towards  them,  seized  and  blinded  him  when  they 
reached  Isfahan  on  the  homeward  march,  and  imprisoned 
him  first  in  the  castle  of  Tabarak  and  then  in  the  Qal'a-i- 
Safid  in  Fars,  where  he  succeeded  in  winning  over  the 
warden  to  his  interests.  Some  sort  of  reconciliation  was 
eventually  effected  between  him  and  his  rebellious  sons, 
but  it  did  not  long  endure,  and  Mubarizu'd-Din  finally  died 
in  prison  at  Bam  in  Rabf  I  (December,  1363),  at  the  age 
of  sixty-five1. 

1  His  severity  was  such  that,  according  to  one  of  his  intimates, 
Lutfu'llah  b.  Sadru'd-Dm  'Iraqi  (cited  in  the  Fdrs-ndma-i-Nasiri},  he 
would  often  lay  aside  the  Qur'dn  which  he  was  reading  to  decapitate 
some  criminal  brought  before  him  for  judgement,  and  then  calmly 
resume  the  perusal  of  the  Sacred  Book. 


1  66  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

SnAn  SHUJA'  (759-786=1357-1384). 

Mubarizu'd-Din  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Shah  Shuja', 

whose  chief  claim  to  fame  is  that  he  was  the  patron  of  the 

immortal  Hafiz.     He  himself  was  not  devoid  of 

Shdh  Shujd'  ,     '  .  ,         ,      .         .         ,   . 

poetic  talent,  and  wrote  verses  both  in  Arabic 
and  Persian,  specimens  of  which  are  given  by  Mahmud 
Kutbi1.  Nor  did  his  intellectual  attainments  end  here  :  he 
knew  the  Qzir'dn  by  heart  when  he  was  nine  years  of  age  ; 
could  remember  eight  verses  of  Arabic  poetry  after  hearing 
them  read  once  ;  was  famous  for  his  epistolary  style,  wrote 
a  fine  hand,  and  was  skilled  in  all  martial  exercises.  He 
was  also  a  great  patron  of  men  of  learning,  and  at  one  time 
used  to  attend  the  lectures  of  Mawlana  Qiwamu'd-Din, 
while  he  appointed  the  eminent  Sayyid-i-Sharif-i-Jurjani 
professor  in  the  Daru'sh-Shifa  College  which  he  had  founded 
at  Shiraz.  Nor  did  his  reign  lack  military  glory  of  the 
somewhat  barren  kind  prevalent  at  that  time,  for  he  retook 
Shiraz  from  his  brother  Mahmud,  who  had  ousted  him  from 
it  by  a  trick,  and  Kirman,  which  had  been  seized  by  Dawlat- 
shah  ;  and,  on  the  death  of  Sultan  Uways  Jala'ir  at  Tabriz 
in  March,  1375,  occupied  not  only  that  city,  but  also  Nakh- 
juwan,  Qarabagh,  Awjan,  Sultaniyya,  Shushtar  and  even 
Baghdad,  so  that  he  became  for  a  while  the  master  of  the 
greater  part  of  Persia. 

In  his  family  relations  he  was  not  happier  than  the  rest 
of  his  House.  His  brother  Mahmud,  who  had  strangled  his 
wife,  the  daughter  of  Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq,  about  A.D.  1368, 
died  in  1375  at  the  age  of  38.  On  hearing  of  his  death 
Shah  Shuja'  wrote  the  following  quatrain  : 


1  See  pp.  683-4  of  the  fac-simile  of  an  old  MS.  of  the  Tdrikh-i- 
Guztda  published  in  the  Gibb  Series  (vol.  xiv,  i). 


CH.  iv]  THE  MUZAFFARf  DYNASTY  167 

"  My  brother  Mahmud,  lion-like  crouched  low, 
For  crown  and  ring  was  my  relentless  foe. 
At  length  we  shared  the  earth  that  men  might  rest : 
I  took  the  surface,  he  the  realm  below." 

He  was  also  troubled  by  the  real  disloyalty  of  one  son, 
Sultan  Uways,  and  the  fancied  disloyalty  of  another,  Sultan 
Shibli,  whom  in  a  fit  of  anger,  intensified  by  drink,  he 
caused  to  be  blinded,  and  only  repented  of  his  rash  act 
when  it  was  too  late.  This  happened  in  A.D.  1383,  a  year 
before  his  death,  which  took  place  on  October  9,  1384,  he 
being  then  53  years  of  age  and  having  reigned  27  years. 
On  his  death-bed  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the  great  Ti'mur1, 
setting  forth  his  devotion  and  loyalty,  and  commending 
to  his  care  his  sons  and  brothers,  especially  his  successor 
Zaynu'l-'Abidin.  How  much  effect  this  letter,  with  its, 
admonitions  that  "  loyalty  to  promises  is  a  part  of  Faith," 
produced  on  Ti'mur  was  shown  nine  years  later  when  he  made 
a  massacre  of  the  whole  family.  The  body  of  Shah  Shuja' 
was  conveyed  to  Medina  for  burial,  or,  according  to  another 
account,  buried  in  a  place  called  Kiih-i-Chahil  Maqdm  (the 
'•  Mountain  of  Forty  Stations  ")  a  little  to  the  North-east  of 
Shi'raz.  The  date  of  his  death  is  given  by  the  chronogram  : 
cla^w  olwjt  \jLfA.  ("Alas  for  Shah  Shuja' ! "),  the  numerical 

equivalents  of  the  component  letters  of  which  add  up  to 
(A.H.)  786  (=  A.D.  1384). 

ZAYNU'L-'ABIDIN  (786-789=  1384-1387). 

Zaynu'l-'Abidin's  reign   was  both  short  and  troubled, 
for  not  only  was  it  marred  by  those  family  feuds  and  fratri- 
cidal strifes  which   were  characteristic  of  this 

Muj&mdu  d-Din 

•AiiZaynu'i-  dynasty,  but  the  menace  of  Ti'mur  and  his  Tar- 
tars hung  ever  more  threateningly  over  the  land. 
Soon  after  his  accession  Zaynu'l-'Abidin  was  attacked  by 
his  cousin  Shah  Yahya,  and  shortly  after  this  arrived  Ti'mur's 
envoy  Qutbu'd-Din  and  required  the  insertion  in  the  khutba 

1  The  text  of  this  letter  will  be  found  on  pp.  730-733  of  the  fac- 
simile of  the  Td'rikh-i-Guzida  (Gibb  Series,  vol.  xiv,  i) 


1 68  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

of  his  master's  name,  which  was  tantamount  to  recognizing 
him  as  over-lord.  In  789/1387  Timur  himself  made  his 
first  entry  into  'Iraq  and  Pars.  From  Isfahan,  which  was 
governed  by  Majdu'd-Din  Muzaffar,  the  uncle  of  Zaynu'd- 
Din,  he  demanded  a  large  sum  of  money,  in  collecting 
which  his  agents  showed  so  harsh  and  arrogant  a  disposition 
that  the  inhabitants  rose  against  them  and  killed  them. 
Tfmur  took  a  terrible  revenge  on  them,  for  he  ordered  a 
general  massacre,  in  which  70,000  persons1  are  said  to  have 
perished.  He  then  advanced  on  Shiraz,  but  Zaynu'l-'Abidm 
did  not  await  his  arrival,  and  fled  to  Shushtar,  where  he 
was  treacherously  seized  by  his  cousin  Shah  Mansur,  who 
thereupon  marched  to  Shiraz  and  drove  out  his  brother 
Yahya,  who  fell  back  on  Yazd.  The  next  six  years  (A.D. 
1387-1393)  passed  in  continual  strife  between 
Frrauric™a '  sJr*e  the  three  Muzaffarf  princes  Shah  Mansur  (who 

of  the  Muzaffans  •  r  •          V 

reigned  over  Fars  and  Isfahan),  his  brother 
Shah  Yahya  (who  ruled  at  Yazd),  and  his  cousin  Shah 
Ahmad  (who  held  Kirman),  until  in  795/1393  Tfmur  for 
the  second  time  descended  on  these  distracted  provinces. 
He  first  took  the  Qal'a-i-Safid  ("White  Castle"),  killed  the 
garrison,  and  released  and  restored  to  the  throne  Zaynu'l- 
'Abidin,  and  then  continued  his  march  on  Shiraz,  whence 
Shah  Mansur  fled  to  Pul-i-Fasa.  Of  some  of  the  Shirazis 
who  had  followed  him  thither  he  enquired  what  the  people 
of  Shiraz  were  saying  of  him.  "  Some  say,"  they  replied, 
"  that  those  who  wielded  maces  weighing  ten  maunds  and 
carried  quivers  weighing  seventeen  maunds  have  fled  like 
goats  before  a  pack  of  wolves  and  have  left  their  families 
as  an  easy  prey  to  the  foe."  On  hearing  this  Shah  Mansur, 
moved  alike  by  shame  and  compassion,  resolved  to  go  back 

to  Shiraz  and  face  the  inevitable  death  which  a 

Shah  Mansur 

gives  battle  to      conflict  with  Timur's  hosts  involved.     He  had 

with  him  only  3000  men,  of  whom  2000  fled 

soon  after  the  battle  began,  while  the  Tartar  army  "were 

1  This  is  the  number  given  in  the  Fdrs-ndma-i-NdsiH,  but  the 
Tdrikh-i-Guztda  (p.  739  of  fac-simile)  raises  the  number  to  200,000. 


CH.  iv]  THE  MUZAFFARf  DYNASTY  169 

more  numerous  than  ants  and  locusts,"  yet  with  such  valour 
and  desperation  did  he  engage  the  enemy  that  more  than 
once  he  forced  his  way  almost  to  within  striking  distance 
of  Timur,  until  at  last,  wounded  in  the  neck  and  shoulder, 
he  turned  in  flight  towards  Shiraz.  He  was  overtaken  by 
some  of  Shah  Rukh's  soldiers,  who  dragged  him 
Death  of  shah  from  m's  horse  and  severed  his  head  from  his 

Mansur 

body.     The   year   of  his  death  (795/1393)  is 

»  01 

given  by  the  chronogram  c~l&  JUU  ("he  relinquished  the 

kingdom")1.  The  other  Muzaffari  princes  (Ahmad  'Imadu'd- 

Dm  and  Sultan  Mahdi,  son  of  Shah  Shuja',  from  Kirman  ; 

Nusratu'd-Din   Shah  Yahya  and  his  sons  Mu'izzu'd-Dfn 

^  ,    .        Jahangi'r  and  Sultan  Muhammad  from  Yazd  : 

Muzanari  princes     • 

put  to  death  by  and  Sultan  Abu  Ishaq,  son  of  Sultan  Uways, 
son  of  Shah  Shuja',  from  Sirjan)  surrendered 
themselves  to  Ti'mur  and  were  at  first  treated  honourably, 
but  were  finally  put  to  death  at  Qumishah,  a  little  to  the 
south  of  Isfahan,  on  Rajab  10,  795  (May  22,  1393),  a  date 
commemorated  in  the  following  verses  : 


Only  two  were  spared,  Zaynu'l-'Abidin  and  Shiblf,  both  of 
whom  had  been  blinded,  the  one  by  his  cousin  Mansur,  the 
other  by  his  father  Shah  Shuja'.  These  were  taken  by 
Ti'mur  to  Samarqand,  his  capital,  where  they  spent  the 
remainder  of  their  days  in  tranquillity.  So  ended  the 
Muzaffari  dynasty,  which  for  eighty  years  had 
L,ltcJaZ  tas^s  ,  held  sway  over  the  greater  part  of  southern 

of  the  Muzaffaris  J  . 

and  central   Persia.     Several  of  their  princes 
1  This  works  out  at  40  +  30  +  20  +  5  +  300+400  =  795. 


170  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtf  R  [BK  n 

were  distinguished  alike  by  their  taste  and  their  talents, 
and  their  patronage  of  learning  and  letters  drew  to  their 
court  not  only  numerous  poets  of  distinction,  including  the 
incomparable  Hafiz,  but  savants  such  as  'Adudu'd-Din  al-Iji 
and  Mu'inu'd-Din  Yazdi.  Materially  they  did  little  to 
benefit  their  subjects,  save  for  the  building  of  a  few  colleges; 
while  even  in  Eastern  history  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a 
household  so  divided  against  itself  and  so  disposed  to  those 
fratricidal  wars  and  savage  mutilations  or  destruction  of  their 
kinsmen  which  constitute  the  greater  part  of  their  history. 

THE   JALA'IRS1,    IL-KHANIS,   OR   fLKANIS. 

During  the  period  of  the  disruption  of  the  Mongol  Empire 
two  Shaykh  Hasans  play  a  prominent  part,  the  one  known 

as  "the  Great"  (Buzurg),  the  other  as  "the Little" 
fikL/Dynrs'ty  (Ktichctk\  The  latter  was  the  grandson  of  the 

great  Amir  Chuban,  whose  power  and  influence 
were  still  further  increased  by  his  marriage  in  719/1319 
with  Satf  Beg,  the  daughter  of  Uljaytu  and  sister  of  Abu 
Sa'i'd,  who  bore  him  three  sons,  besides  the  six  sons  and  one 
daughter  (Baghdad  Khatun)  born  to  him  by  another  wife. 
Of  these  ten  children  the  most  celebrated  were  Amir  Hasan, 
Timur-Tash,  Dimashq  Khwaja,and  Baghdad  Khatun.  Amir 
Hasan  and  his  three  sons,Talish,  Hajji  Beg  and  GhuchHusayn, 
all  died  violent  deaths  about  727-8/1327-8.  Timur-Tash 
rebelled  and  fled  to  Egypt,  where  he  was  at  first  well  received 
by  al-Malik  an-Nasir,  who,  however,  becoming  alarmed  at 
his  increasing  influence  and  evident  ambition,  put  him  to 
death  in  728/1 328.  He  was  the  father  of  the  above-mentioned 
Shaykh  Hasan -\-Kuchak  ("  the  Little  "),  also  called  after  his 
grandfather  "  Chubani,"  and  of  Malik-i-Ashraf.  Dimashq 
Khwaja,  the  third  of  Amir  Chuban's  sons,  was  put  to  death 
by  Abu  Sa'i'd  in  727/1327  (a  year  very  fatal  to  this  family) 

1  Concerning  the  Jald'irs,  a  tribe  cognate  to  the  Mongols,  see  the 
History  of  the  Moghuls  of  Central  Asia  by  N.  Elias  and  E.  Denison 
Ross  (London,  1898),  p.  88*. 


CH.  iv]  THE  fL-KHANfS  OR  JALA'IRS  171 

on  a  charge  of  carrying  on  an  intrigue  with  one  of  the 
widows  of  the  late  king  Uljaytu.  His  daughter  Dilshad 
Khatun  and  her  aunt  Baghdad  Khatun  were  both  ladies  of 
considerable  note,  and,  extraordinary  as  it  appears,  both 
were  married  at  one  time  in  their  lives  to  the  Sultan  Abu 
Sa'fd  and  at  another  to  the  rival  Shaykh  Hasan,  called  "the 
Great "  (Buzttrg).  Baghdad  Khatun  is  said  to  have  been 
remarkable  for  her  beauty,  and  was  married  in  723/1323  to 
Shaykh  Hasan-i-Busurg,  but  unfortunately  Abu  Sa'i'd  saw 
her,  was  smitten  by  her  charms,  and  conceived  so  violent  a 
passion  for  her  that  in  727/1325  he  compelled  her  husband 
to  divorce  her  so  that  he  might  marry  her  himself.  On 
Abu  Sa'fd's  death  in  736/1335-6  and  the  elevation  to  the 
throne  of  Arpa,  she  was  put  to  death  privily  by  the  new 
Sultan  on  suspicion  of  having  poisoned  her  late  husband, 
and  Shaykh  Ha.sa.n-i-Itusurg'  compensated  himself  by  appro- 
priating the  late  monarch's  other  widow  Dilshad  Khatun1. 
She  bore  him  Sultan  Uways,  whose  power  she  subsequently 
shared,  and,  like  him,  was  the  subject  of  many  panegyrics 
on  the  part  of  the  poet  Salman  of  Sawa. 

Shaykh  Hasan  "  the  Great"  was  the  son  of  Husayn,the 
son  of  Aq-Bugha,  the  son  of  Aydakan,  and  claimed  descent 
from   Hulagu,  whence,  I   suppose,  the  title  of 

llMnf  (L^1'  not  J>^-\>  Il-khani,  though 
probably  a  mere  variant  of  it)  by  which,  as  well 
as  Jala'ir  (the  tribal  name)  the  dynasty  was  known.  For 
about  eight  years  (736-744/1335-1343)  after  the  death  of 
Abu  Sa'fd  the  history  of  Persia  consists  largely  in  the 
struggles  and  intrigues  of  these  two  houses  (of  Chuban  and 
Jala'ir)  for  the  supreme  power,  their  ambitions  being  thinly 
masked  by  the  puppet-princes  of  the  race  of  Hulagu  whom 
they  successively  raised  to  a  nominal  and  generally  very 

1  The  author  of  the  Hakt'bu's-Siyar,  Khwandamfr,  endeavours  to 
explain  the  illegality  of  Abu  Sa'fd's  marriage  with  Baghdad  Khatun 
and  her  niece  Dilshad  KMtun  by  assuming  that  he  divorced  the 
former  before  marrying  the  latter.  He  also  asserts  that  Baghdad 
Khatun  avenged  this  slight  by  poisoning  Abu  Sa'fd. 


172  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

brief  sovereignty.  By  737/1337  Shaykh  Hasan-i-Buzurg 
was  in  possession  of  Baghdad  and  Tabriz,  the  two  capitals 
of  the  Mongol  Il-khans  and  afterwards  of  the  Jala'irs,  who 
would  therefore  appear  to  have  represented  most  directly 
the  older  dynasty ;  but  his  tenure  only  became  relatively 
secure  on  Rajab  27,  744  (Dec.  15,  1343),  when  his  rival 

Shaykh  Hasan-i-Ktic/tak  was  murdered  by  his 
Shaykh  Hasan-  unfaithful  wife  in  a  very  horrible  manner,  which 
\-Kuckak  by  nevertheless  called  forth  a  savage  and  untrans- 

lateable  epigram  from  Salman  of  Sawa,  the 
panegyrist  of  the  Jala'irs,  of  which  the  text  has  been  already 
given  on  p.  60,  supra. 

Thejala'iror  Il-kham'dynasty  founded  by  Shaykh  Hasan- 
\-Bnzurg  endured  for  some  75  years,  and,  though  much 
harassed  by  Ti'mur  during  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years 
of  its  existence,  was  never  entirely  crushed  by  him  like  the 
Muzaffaris.  Shaykh  Hasan  and  hisson  Shaykh Uways,  whose 
mother  was  DilshadKhatun,  each  reigned  about  twenty  years 
(A.H.  736  or  737  to  757  and  A.H.  757  to  776  respectively) ;  and 
all  three  seem  to  owe  much  of  their  fame  and  good  repute  to 
their  indefatigable  panegyrist  Salman  of  Sawa,  most  of  whose 
poems  are  consecrated  to  their  praise.  The  portrait  of  them 
presented  by  most  historians  and  biographers  is  therefore 
a  very  flattering  one,  and,  though  their  virtues  may  -have 
been  exaggerated,  there  seems  no  reason  to  believe  that  it 
is  altogether  unfounded.  After  the  death  of  Sultan  Uways, 
however,  on  the  2nd  of  Jumada  I,  776  (Oct.  9,  1374),  the 
fortunes  of  the  dynasty  began  to  decline.  On  that  same 
day  the  late  ruler's  eldest  son  Hasan  was  put  to  death  by 
the  nobles,  and  the  younger  son  Husayn  was  placed  on  the 
vacant  throne  at  Tabriz,  whence  he  was  driven  out,  after  a 
successful  war  with  the  Turkmans,  for  a  space  of  four  months 
by  Shah  Shuja'  the  Muzaffarf.  Shortly  after  this  his  authority 
was  resisted  by  his  brother  'Ah',  and  finally  in  Safar,  784 
(April-May,  1 382),he  was  killed  by  another  brother,  Ahmad, 
who  in  turn  was  proclaimed  king,  and  became  involved 
almost  immediately  in  a  fratricidal  conflict  with  yet  another 


CH.  iv]  THE  fL-KHANfS  OR  JALA'IRS  173 

brother  named  Bayazi'd.  A  partition  of  the  kingdom  was 
finally  effected,  Adharbayjan  being  assigned  to  Ahmad  and 
'Iraq  to  Bayazi'd,  but  soon  fresh  conflicts  occurred  between 
the  two  brothers  in  which  the  aid  of  Shah  Mansur  the 
Muzaffari  was  invoked  first  by  one  and  then  by  the  other. 
These  unedifying  squabbles  were  brought  to  an  end  by  the 
approach  of  Timur's  army,  which,  after  a  protracted  resist- 
ance on  the  part  of  Ahmad,  finally  compelled  him  and 
Qara-Yusuf  the  Turkman  to  seek  refuge  with  the  Turkish 

Sultan  Bayazi'd,  known  as  Yildirim,  "the 
suhdn'^azid  Thunder-bolt."  Thence  they  passed  to  Egypt, 
"the Thunder-  the  ruler  of  which  country  was  preparing  to 

make  his  peace  with  Timur  by  surrendering 
them  to  him  when,  fortunately  for  them,  news  arrived  that 
that  sanguinary  conqueror  was  dead.  Shortly  afterwards 
Ahmad's  bad  faith  led  to  a  rupture  between  him  and  Qara- 
Yusuf,  who  defeated  him  near  Tabriz  on  the  25th  of  Rabi'  II, 
812  (Sept.  6,  1409).  The  same  night  he  was  captured  and 
put  to  death,  after  a  troubled  and  turbulent  reign  of  twenty- 
seven  years,  by  his  conqueror,  and  with  him  practically 
ended  the  Il-khdni  or  Jala'ir  dynasty,  though  its  final  extinc- 
tion at  the  hands  of  the  Qara-qoyunlu  or  "  Black  Sheep  " 
Turkmans  did  not  take  place  until  a  year  or  two  later. 

THE  KuRTS1. 

We  pass  now  to  the  Kurt  dynasty  which  ruled  over 
extensive  territories  in  the  N.E.  of  Persia  and  the  adjacent 
countries  with  their  capital  at  Herat.  The  most  detailed 
account  of  them  which  I  have  met  with  is  contained  in  a 
still  unpublished  history  of  Herat  entitled  Rawddtu'l-Janndt 
ft  tcHrikhi  madinati  Herat  ("  Gardens  of  Paradise :  on  the 
history  of  the  city  of  Herat  "),  composed  by  Mawland  Mu'i'n 
of  Isfizar.  This  history,  which  comes  down  to  the  year  8/5/ 

1  The  name  is  generally  spelt  Kart  by  English  Orientalists,  but  in 
the  carefully-written  MS.  of  the  History  of  Herat,  which  will  be  men- 
tioned immediately,  it  is  repeatedly  pointed  Kurt,  which  pronunciation 
I  have  therefore  adopted. 


174  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtiR  [BK  n 

1473-4  or  thereabouts,  is  based  on  the  older  works  of  Abu 
Ishaq  Ahmad  b.  Ya-Sin  ;  Shaykh  'Abdu'r-Rahman  Farm  ; 
Sayfi  of  Herat ;  and  the  Kurt-ndma  of  Rabi'f1  of  Bushanj ; 
and  is  divided  into  26  Rawdas^  Gardens  "),  each  containing 
two  or  more  Chimans  ("Parterres").  Of  these,  Rawdas  vii-x 
deal  with  the  period  and  dynasty  now  under  review.  I  am 
indebted  to  Mr  A.  G.  Ellis,  Assistant  Librarian  of  the  India 
Office,  for  the  loan  of  an  excellent  MS.  of  this  work,  tran- 
scribed in  1 073/1 662-3  and  superior  in  accuracy  and  legibility 
to  either  of  the  British  Museum  codices2.  Another  work 
which  supplies  some  useful  information  about  this  dynasty 
is  the  very  rare  Mujmal  of  Fasihi  of  Khwaf3,  from  which  the 
poems  of  Rabi'i  cited  in  the  last  chapter  are  taken.  Some 
account  of  the  dynasty  is,  of  course,  also  contained  in  all 
general  histories  of  Persia  of  a  later  date,  such  as  the 
Rawdatus-Safd,  Habibu's-Siyar,  Matltfus-Sctdayn,  etc. 

The  ancestor  of  the  Kurts  was  a  certain  Taju'd-Din 
'Uthman-i-Marghim,  whose  brother,  'Izzu'd-Di'n  'Umar-i- 
Marghim,  was  the  powerful  Wazir  of  Sultan  Ghiyathu'd-Din 
Muhammad-i-Ghuri  (d.  599/1202-3).  Taju'd-Din  was  made 
Warden  of  the  Castle  of  Khaysar,  and  on  his  death  his  son, 
Malik  Ruknu'd-Din  Abu  Bakr,  married  the  daughter  of  the 
above-mentioned  Sultan.  Their  son  Shamsu'd- 
shamsu'd-Din  Dfn  succeeded  his  father  in  643/1245-6,  joined 
Sail  Noyan  in  an  invasion  of  India  in  the 
following  year,  and  met  the  great  Shaykh  Baha'u'd-Dfn 
Zakariyya  (the  spiritual  director  of  the  poet  'Iraqi)  at 
Multan  in  645/1247-8.  Later  he  visited  the  Mongol  ruler 
Mangu  Qa'an  (646-655/1248-1257)  who  placed  under 

1  Rabi'f,  called  Khatib,  of  Bushanj,  was  killed,  according  to  the 
Mujmal  of  Fasfhf,  in  702/1302-3.     He  was  court-poet  to  Fakhru'd- 
Dm  Kurt. 

2  Add.  22380  and  Or.  4106. 

3  See  p.  150  supra,  ad  calc.,  where  the  MSS.  are  enumerated.     The 
St  Petersburg  MS.  is  No.  271  of  the  Institttt  des  Langues  Orientates 
du  Ministtre  des  Affaires  Etrangeres.      See    Baron  Victor   Rosen's 
Manuscrits  Per  sans,  pp.  111-113. 


CH.  iv]  THE  KURT  DYNASTY  175 

his  sway  Herat,  Jam,  Bushanj,  Ghur,  Khaysar,  Firuz-Kuh, 
Gharjistan,  Murghab,  Merv,  Faryab  (up  to  the  Oxus), 
Isfizar,  Farah,  Si'stan,  Kabul,  Tirah,  and  Afghanistan  up  to 
the  Indus.  In  662/1263-4,  after  having  subdued  Si'stan,  he 
visited  Hulagu,  and  three  years  later  his  successor  Abaqa, 
whom  he  accompanied  in  his  campaign  against  Darband 
and  Baku.  He  again  visited  Abaqa,  accompanied  by 
Shamsu'd-Din  the  Sahib  Dtwdn,  in  675/1276-7,  and  this 
time  the  former  good  opinion  of  the  Mongol  sovereign  in 
respect  to  him  seems  to  have  been  changed  to  suspicion, 
which  led  to  his  death,  for  he  was  poisoned  in  Sha'ban,  676 

(January,  1278),  by  means  of  a  water-melon  given 
p^one/"1  to  him  while  he  was  in  the  bath  at  Tabriz. 

Abaqa  even  caused  his  body  to  be  buried  in 
chains  at  Jam  in  Khurasan.  Mawlana  Waji'hu'd-Dm  Nasafi 
commemorated  the  date  of  his  death  in  the  following  verses  : 


The  allusion  is  to  the  verse  in  the  Qur'an  (si'ira  Ixxxi,  i) 
"  When  the  sun  is  rolled  up"  for  the  title  of  the  deceased 
ruler,  Shamsu'd-Din,  signifies  the  Sun  of  the  Faith. 

The  title  of  Malik  (which  means  King  in  Arabic,  but  in 
Persia  at  this  period  meant  no  more  than  Prince  or  Amir) 
seems  to  have  been  first  taken  by  Ruknu'd-Din,  but  already 
the  Shaykh  Thiqatu'd-Di'n  Farm  had  given  the  higher  title 
of  Shah  to  his  uncle  'Izzu'd-Din  'Umar  in  the  following 
verse  : 


176  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtiR  [BK  n 

The  title  of  Malik  was,  however,  that  borne  by  all  the  suc- 
ceeding members  of  this  house. 

Shamsu'd-Din  was  succeeded  in  677/1278-9  by  his  son 

Ruknu'd-Din,  who  thereupon  assumed  his  father's  title  with 

the  adjective  Kihin  ("  the  Younger  ").     He  died 

Ruknu'd-Din  J  or 

succeeds  his  at  Khaysar  on  Safar  12,  705  (Sept.  3,  1305),  but 
father  under  seems  at  a  much  earlier  date  to  have  been 

the  title  of 

shamsu'd-Din-     practically  set  aside  by  his  son  Fakhru'd-Di'n, 

who,  having  been  imprisoned  by  his  father  for 

seven  years,  was  released  at  the  intercession  of  the  Mongol 

,  general  Nawruz,  whom  he  ill  requited  by  be- 

He  is  superseded  ... 

by  his  son  traying  him  in  696/1296-7  to  Ghazan  Khan, 

Fakhm'd-DJn  against  whom  Nawruz  had  revolted.  Three 
years  later  Fakhru'd-Din  himself  fought  against  Ghazan's 
brother  Khuda-banda,  who  succeeded  Ghazan  in  705/1305-6, 
and  in  the  following  year  sent  an  army  of  10,000  men  under 
Danishmand  Bahadur  against  Herat,  of  which  the  fortifica- 
tions had  been  greatly  strengthened  by  Fakhru'd-Din. 
Danishmand  was,  however,  killed  by  a  treacherous  stratagem 
after  he  had  been  allowed  to  occupy  Herat,  together  with 
many  of  his  men,  and  Fakhru'd-Din  then  returned  from 
Aman-Kuh,  whither  he  had  fled,  and  reoccupied  the  city. 
Soon  afterwards  he  died  on  Sha'ban  22, 706  (Feb.  26, 1307). 
He  was  a  great  patron  of  literature.  Sayfi  says  that  forty 
poets  of  note  were  his  panegyrists,  and  that  he  himself 
had  composed  eighty  qastdas  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
muqattctdt  in  his  praise.  On  the  other  hand  his  rule  was 
austere :  he  forbade  women  to  walk  abroad,  and  sternly 
repressed  wine-drinking  and  public  mourning. 

Fakhru'd-Din  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Ghiyathu'd- 
Din,  who  soon  afterwards  had  a  quarrel  with  his  brother 
'Ala'u'd-Di'n,  and  went  to  lay  his  case  before 
2CetdsU'd'Din    the  Mongo1  sovereign  Khuda-banda,  who  ac- 
corded him  a  gracious  reception.     On  his  return 
to  Herat  in  708/1308-9  he  extended  his  power  over  Ghur, 
Khaysar  and  Isfizar.   'Ala'u'd-Din  Hindu's  intrigues  against 
him  compelled  him  again  to  visit  Shah  Khuda-banda  in 


CH.  iv]  THE  KURT  DYNASTY  177 

714/1314-15,  and  it  took  him  some  time,  aided  by  the 
intercession  of  Shaykh  Nuru'd-Din  'Abdu'r-Rahman  of 
Isfara'in,  to  regain  that  monarch's  confidence.  On  his  return 
he  was  confronted  first,  in  718/1318-19,  with  an  invasion 
of  Khurasan  by  Prince  Yasur1  the  Nikudan  and,  in  the 
following  year,  with  the  hostility  of  Qutbu'd-Dm  of  Isfizar 
and  the  people  of  Si'stan,  on  which  latter  war  Pur-i-Baha 
of  Isfizar  has  the  following  verses  : 


"  O  King,  do  not  again,  supported  [only]  by  the  weak  Sistanis, 

Venture  to  give  battle  to  the  army  of  the  Persians. 
The  people  of  Sistan  are  nothing  more  than  beards  and  moustaches  ; 
Beware  lest  thou  place  thy  reliance  on  felt  and  cords  !  " 

In  720/1320  Prince  Yasur  was  killed  and  the  Nikudaris 
dispersed,  and  in  Rajab  of  that  year  (August,  1320) 
Ghiyathu'd-Dm  set  out  to  perform  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca, 
leaving  his  son  Malik  Shamsu'd-Din  Muhammad  to  act  as 
Viceroy.  In  729/1329  Ghiyathu'd-Di'n  died,  leaving  four 
sons,  the  above  Shamsu'd-Din  who  succeeded  him  ;  Hafiz 
and  Mu'izzu'd-Dfn  who  successively  ascended  the  throne  ; 
and  Baqir. 

On  the  date  of  Shamsu'd-Din's  accession  the  following 
Arabic  chronogram  was  composed  by  Jamalu'd-Din  Mu- 
hammad ibn  Husam  : 


The  words  Khullida  mulkuhn  ("  May  his  rule  be  eternal- 
ized!") give,  according  to  the  abjad  reckoning,  the  date  729  ; 
but   unhappily   so   slight  was   their  appropriateness   that 
1  See  Howorth's  Hist,  of  the  Mongols,  Part  iii,  pp.  590-1. 

B.  P.  12 


178  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtiR  [BK  n 

Shamsu'd-Din  died  two  months  after  his  accession,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  brother  Hafiz,  who  in  turn,  after  a  brief  and 
troubled  reign  of  about  two  years,  was  succeeded  by  the  third 
brother  Abu'l-Husayn  Malik  Mu'izzu'd-Di'n. 

The  accession    of  Mu'izzu'd-Dm  in    732/1331    almost 

synchronized  with  three  important  events,  the 

Accession  of        death  of  Abu  Sa<{d  /which  practically  marked 

JVlu  izzu  d-JUin  v  • 

the  end  of  the  Mongol  dominion  over  Persia) ; 
the  birth  of  Tfmur  ;  and  the  rise  of  the  Sarbadar  Dynasty. 

THE  SARBADARS. 

The  history  of  this  dynasty,  so  far  as  it  need  be  discussed 
here,  may  well  be  considered  in  connection  with  that  of  the 

Kurts.  It  is  well  summarized  by  Stanley  Lane- 
DynSybad4r  Poole1,  who  says  that  they  held  Sabzawar  and 

the  neighbouring  district  for  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury, "during  which  period  twelve  successive  chiefs  assumed 
the  command,  nine  of  whom  suffered  violent  deaths."  It 
may  be  added  that  no  one  of  them  reigned  more  than  six 
or  seven  years,  and  that  they  were  enthusiastic  adherents 
of  the  Shf'a  doctrine,  while  in  Nishapur  and  Herat  the 
Sunni  doctrine  predominated.  Nevertheless  Khwaja  'All 
Mu'ayyad,  the  last  of  the  line,  succeeded  in  taking  Bistam 
and  Farhadjird  and  winning  over  Nishapur,  which,  how- 
ever, was  recaptured  by  the  Kurts  in  777/1375-6.  The 
revolt  which  gave  rise  to  this  dynasty — if  such  it  can  be 
called — took  place  on  Sha'ban  12,  737  (March  16,  1337), 
when  Amir  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  of  Bayhaq,  a  disciple  of  Shaykh 
Husayn  Juri  (whose  murids  or  disciples  formed  an  im- 
portant element  in  the  forces  of  this  little  kingdom)  first 
raised  the  standard  of  rebellion,  saying,  "  A  gang  of  evil- 
doers dominates  and  oppresses  the  people.  By  God's  grace 
we  will  do  away  with  the  oppression  of  these  tyrants, 

failing  which  we  will  see  our  heads  on  the 
^amTsarbaddr  gibbet  (sar-ba-ddr),  since  we  can  no  longer 

endure  these  tyrannical  aggressions,"  and  it 
1  Mohammadan  Dynasties,  p.  251. 


CH.  iv]  THE  SARBADAR  DYNASTY  179 

was  to  this  expression  that  the  dynasty  owed  its  name1. 
One  notable  poet,  Ibn-i-Yamin,  is  associated  with  the  Sar- 
badars,  but  after  the  battle  of  Zawa,  in  which  Shaykh 
Husayn  Juri  was  killed  and  the  Sarbadar  forces  routed,  he 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Malik  Mu'izzu'd-Din  Kurt,  by  whom 
he  was  well  received  and  treated  with  honour. 

Mu'izzu'd-Din  Kurt  reigned  for  forty  years,  not  in- 
gloriously,  though  not  without  occasional  acts  of  barbarity 
Death  of  Malik  wmcn  were,  unhappily,  characteristic  of  that 
Mu'izzu'd-Dm  time,  as  when,  after  the  capture  of  Badghis, 
he  erected,  in  the  style  later  made  familiar 
by  Timur,  two  towers  or  minarets  of  the  heads  of  his 
enemies.  Finally  he  sickened  and  died  in  771/1369-70, 
a  date  expressed  in  the  following  chronogram  : 

\ 


He  was  buried  at  Herat  by  the  side  of  the  Ghuri  monarch 
Sultan  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Muhammad  Sam  and  of  his  own 
father  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Muhammad-i-Kurt,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Pir  'All. 

It  was   about   this   time   that   the    shadow   of  Timur 

(Tamerlane)  began  to  fall  over  the  land,  but  as  usual  his 

first  advances  were  of  a  friendly  character,  and 

of^mT^       he   Save   his    niece    SevinJ    Qutluq    Agha    in 

marriage  to  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Pir  'Alf's  son  Pir 

Muhammad  in  or  about  the  year  778/1376.     Five  years 

1  The  original  words  (Rawddtu'l-Janndt,  Mr  Ellis's  MS.,  f.  147)  are 
as  follows  : 


i8o  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfJVItiR  [BK  n 

later,  in  the  spring  of  A.D.  1381,  early  in  his  first  Persian 
campaign,  Ti'mur  occupied  Herat,  placed  it  and  the  adjacent 
territories  under  the  control  of  his  son  Mfran-shah,  and 
carried  off  the  Kurt  ruler  Ghiyathu'd-Di'n  Pir  'All  and  his 
eldest  son  Pir  Muhammad  to  Samarqand,  where  he  im- 
ir  *•  .•  f  ,1,  prisoned  them,  while  two  other  members  of  the 

Extinction  oi  the     • 

Kurt  Dynasty  family,  Amir  Ghuri  and  Malik  Muhammad, 
were  similarly  imprisoned  at  Andakan.  Soon 
afterwards,  however,  an  abortive  rebellion  at  Herat  in 
A.D.  1389  furnished  their  captor  with  an  excuse  for 
putting  them  to  death,  and  so  ended  the  Kurt  dynasty,  a 
year  after  the  extinction  of  their  rivals  the  Sarbadars. 

Amongst  the  four  dynasties   whose  history  has  been 

briefly  sketched  above  was  Persia  for  the  most  part  divided 

when,  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighth  century 

Comparison  of  '  1  J 

Timur  with  of  the  kijra  and  the  fourteenth  of  the  Christian 
Chingiz  Khdn  er^  ^imfa  burst  upon  the  land  and  ravaged  it 
as  Chingiz  Khan  had  done  some  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before.  Between  the  two  Central  Asian  conquerors  there 
are  many  points  of  resemblance  ;  both  had  to  begin  by  con- 
solidating their  power  and  destroying  rivals  amongst  their 
own  people;  both  had  passed  the  age  of  forty  when  they 
embarked  on  their  invasions  of  Persia ;  and  both  were  re- 
sponsible for  incalculable  bloodshed  and  suffering.  Two 
circumstances  chiefly  differentiate  them,  the  fact  that  Chingiz 
Khan  was  a  heathen  while  Ti'mur  was,  in  name  at  least,  a 
Muhammadan ;  and  the  fact  that,  while  Chingiz  Khan  was 
confronted  with  the  great  empire  of  the  Khwarazmshahs, 
Ti'mur  found  Persia,  as  we  have  seen,  parcelled  out  amongst 
a  number  of  petty  rulers  whose  dominions  had  no  fixed 
frontiers,  and  who  were  constantly  at  war  with  one  another 
and  even  with  ambitious  members  of  their  own  families. 
That  Ti'mur  v/as  a  Muhammadan  certainly  tended  to  miti- 
gate in  some  measure,  so  far  as  Persia  and  other  Muslim 
lands  were  concerned,  a  natural  savagery  not  inferior  to 
that  of  Chingiz,  for  he  at  least  showed  more  respect  for 


VII 


TIMUR 


Add.  18801  (Brit.  Mus.),  f.  23 


To  face  p.  180 


CH.  iv]  TfMtiR'S  BIOGRAPHERS  181 

shrines  and  sacred  edifices,  and  for  men  reputed  holy  or 
learned.  Yet  we  must  not  be  misled  by  panegyrists  like 
Sharafu'd-Dm  'Ah'  Yazdf,  author  of  theZafar-nama  ("Book 
of  Victory  ")1,  who  wrote  under  the  patronage  and  for  the 
pleasure  of  the  conqueror  ;  though  we  need  not,  on  the  other 
hand,  endorse  all  the  abusive  language  employed  by  the 
Arabic  writer  Ahmad  ibn  'Arabshah  in  h.\slAjaibu'l-Maqdtir 
fi  akhbdri  Timiir  ("  Marvels  of  Destiny  in  the  History  of 
Timur")2,  where  the  conqueror  is  habitually  described  as 
"  this  traitor,"  "  this  criminal,"  "  this  mad  dog,"  and  the  like. 
But  Sharafu'd-Din's  fulsome  flattery  is  less  tolerable  than 
Ibn  'Arabshah's  abuse,  for  though  he  is  unable  to  omit  all 
mention  of  Timur' s  massacres  and  pyramids  of  skulls,  he 
does  not  scruple  to  declare3  that  "  his  generous  personality 
manifested  the  boundless  grace  of  God,  while  the  purest 
virtue  and  philanthropy  were  concealed  in  his  light-seeking 
mind  ;  and  such  acts  of  wrath  and  retribution  as  were 
ostensibly  committed  in  the  initial  stages  [of  his  conquests] 
by  some  of  his  world -endowed  followers  and  partisans,  as 
will  be  presently  set  forth,  were  prompted  only  by  the  exi- 
gencies of  conquest  and  the  necessities  of  world-empire." 
As  specimens  of  those  acts  mention  may  be  made  of  his 
massacre  of  the  people  of  Si'stan  in  785/1383-4,  when  he 
caused  some  two  thousand  prisoners  to  be  built  up  in  a  wall; 
his  cold-blooded  slaughter  of  a  hundred  thousand  captive 
Indians  near  Dihlf  in  801  (December,  1398);  his  burying 
alive  of  four  thousand  Armenians  in  803/1400-1,  and  the 
twenty  towers  of  skulls  erected  by  him  at  Aleppo  and 
Damascus  in  the  same  year ;  and  his  massacre  of  70,000 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Isfahan  in  789  (November,  1387),  to 
quote  only  a  few  out  of  many  similar  instances  of  his  callous 
indifference  to  bloodshed  and  human  suffering.  Sir  John 

1  Published  in  two  volumes  at  Calcutta  in  the  Bibliotheca  Indica 
Series  in  1887-8.     This  history,  which  comprises  in  this  edition  some 
1560  pages,  is  prolix,  tedious,  florid  and  fulsome. 

2  Published  at  Leyden,  1636;  Calcutta,  1818;  Cairo,  A.H.  1285,  etc. 

3  Pp.  15-16  of  the  Bibl.  Ind.  edition. 


1 82  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

Malcolm's  judgements  of  Tfmur  will  command  the  assent 
of  all  fair-minded  students  not  blinded  by  a  misplaced  hero- 
worship  of  great  conquerors,  such  as  Alexander,  Chingiz, 
Ti'mur  or  Napoleon,  who  deemed  no  price  of  human  suffering 
too  great  for  the  gratification  of  their  ambitions.  "  Such  a 
leader  as  Timour,"  says  Malcolm,  in  his  excellent  History 
of  Persia1,  "must  have  been  idolized  by  his  soldiers  ;  and, 
with  an  army  of  six  or  seven  hundred  thousand  men  attached 
to  his  person,  he  was  careless  of  the  opinion  of  other  classes 
in  the  community.  The  object  of  this  monarch  was  fame 
as  a  conqueror ;  and  a  noble  city  was  laid  in  ashes,  or  the 
inhabitants  of  a  province  massacred,  on  a  cold  calculation 
that  a  dreadful  impression  would  be  made  which  would 
facilitate  the  purposes  of  his  ambition.  He  pretended  to  be 
very  religious,  was  rigid  in  performing  his  sacred  duties,  and 
paid  attention  to  pious  men  ;  who,  in  return  for  his  favour, 
used  to  assure  him  that  God  had  given  the  countries  of  other 
monarchs  to  his  victorious  sword.  The  parade  which  he 
made  of  these  prophecies  proves  that  he  either  believed  in 
them,  or  that  he  thought  they  might  produce  an  effect 
favourable  to  his  designs." 

"  From  what  has  been  said,"  observes  this  judicious 
historian  a  little  further  on2,  "we  may  pronounce  that 
Timour,  though  one  of  the  greatest  of  warriors,  was  one  of 
the  worst  of  monarchs.  He  was  able,  brave  and  generous  ; 
but  ambitious,  cruel  and  oppressive.  He  considered  the 
happiness  of  every  human  being  as  a  feather  in  the  scale, 
when  weighed  against  the  advancement  of  what  he  deemed 
his  personal  glory  ;  and  that  appears  to  have  been  measured 
by  the  number  of  kingdoms  which  he  laid  waste,  and  the 
people  that  he  destroyed.  The  vast  fabric  of  his  power  had 
no  foundation,  it  was  upheld  by  his  individual  fame  ;  and 
the  moment  that  he  died,  his  empire  dissolved.  Some 
fragments  of  it  were  seized  by  his  children  :  but  it  was  in 
India  alone  that  they  retained  dominion  for  any  length  of 
time.  In  that  country  we  yet  perceive  a  faint  and  expiring 
1  London,  1815,  pp.  482-3.  2  Op.  laud.,  p.  484. 


CH.  iv]  TfMtiR'S  BIOGRAPHERS  183 

trace  of  the  former  splendour  of  the  Moghul  dynasty  ;  a 
pageant,  supported  by  the  British  nation,  still  sits  upon  a 
throne  at  Delhi1;  and  we  view  in  him  the  gradual  decline 
of  human  greatness,  and  wonder  at  the  state  to  which  a  few 
centuries  have  reduced  the  lineal  descendants  of  the  great 
Timour." 

Besides  the  two  histories  of  Timur  already  mentioned, 
the  Persian  Zafar-ndma  of  Sharafu'd-Dm  'All  Yazdi  and 
the  Arabic  'Ajaibul-Maqdiir  Q{  Ibn  'Arabshah, 
SorTof  Ttaflr  there  exists  a  third  contemporary  history,  un- 
published, and,  so  far  as  is  known,  represented 
only  by  the  unique  MS.  Add.  23,980  of  the  British  Museum. 
This  history,  also  written  in  Persian,  and  also  entitled 
Zafar-ndma,  was  undertaken  at  Timur' s  command  in  8o4/ 
1401-2  by  Nizam-i-Shami,  and  was  concluded  and  presented 
to  Timur  in  806/1403-4,  just  a  year  before  his  death. 
The  author  was  living  in  Baghdad  when  it  was  taken  by 
Ti'mur  in  795/1393,  and  was  the  first  person  who  came  out 
to  greet  him.  "God  have  mercy  on  thee,"  said  Ti'mur,  "for 
thou  wert  the  first  person  to  come  forth  from  this  city  before 
me!2"  This  history,  conciser  and  less  florid  than  the 
homonymous  work  of  Sharafu'd-Dm,  appears  to  deserve 
publication,  and  seems  to  have  formed  the  basis  of  the  later 
work.  In  writing  this  chapter  I  have  had  at  my  disposal 
not  only  my  own  brief  notes  on  its  contents,  taken  during 
spare  hours  in  the  British  Museum,  but  also  a  complete 
transcript  made  for  me  by  my  friend  Dr  Ahmad  Khan. 

Reference  must  also  be  made  to  the  so-called  "Memoirs" 

and  "Institutes"  of  Ti'mur  (Malfiizdt  and  Tuziikdt-i-Timtirt), 

which,  though  translated  into  English  from  the 

"Memoirs" and    Persian  and  widely  quoted  and  used  by  Euro- 

" institutes"  of     pean   writers,  are  now  generally,  and  I  think 

Timur  .    V 

properly,  regarded  by  the  best  judges  as  apocry- 

1  Sir  John  Malcolm's  History  was  published  in  1815,  long  before 
the  Indian  Mutiny,  which  led,  among  other  results,  to  the  final  ex- 
tinction of  the  dynasty  of  Ti'mur,  commonly  known  as  the  "Great 
Moghuls."  2  -MS.,  f.  99. 


1 84  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

phal1.  The  Persian  version  of  this  book  was  first  produced 
in  the  seventeenth  century  of  our  era,  in  the  reign  of  Shah 
Jahan  (1628-1659),  by  a  certain  Abu  Talib  al-Husayni,  who 
professed  to  have  translated  it  from  a  Turki  original  dis- 
covered by  him  in  the  library  of  a  certain  Ja'far  Pasha, 
governor  of  Yaman  (Arabia  Felix).  Of  the  existence  of 
this  Turki  original  no  evidence  whatever  exists  save  this 
statement  of  Abu  Talib's,  and  it  appears  much  more  likely 
that  he  himself  compiled  the  Persian  work,  in  imitation  of 
Bcibur's2  authentic  autobiography,  with  the  aid  of  the  Zafar- 
ndma  and  other  histories  of  Ti'mur.  A  manuscript  of  this 
work  was  brought  to  England  by  Major  Davy  in  1779,  and 
on  his  death  in  1784  passed  into  the  possession  of  his  son. 
In  1779  he  wrote  to  Dr  White,  then  Laudian  Professor  of 
Arabic  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  a  high  appreciation  of 
this  book  and  a  vehement  defence  of  its  authenticity3,  and 
in  1783  both  the  text  and  translation  of  the  "Institutes"  were 
published  in  collaboration  by  these  two.  In  1787  Professor 
Langles  produced  a  French  translation  with  the  following 
cumbrous  title  :  Instituts  politiques  etmilitaires  de  Tamerlan, 
proprement  appelle  Timour,  ecrits  par  lui-meme  en  Mongol,  et 
traduits  en  Francois,  sur  la  version  Persane  d'Abou-Taleb 
Al-Hosse'ini,  avec  la  Vie  de  ce  Conquerant,  d'apres  les  meilleurs 
Auteurs  Orientaux,  des  Notes,  et  des  Tables  Historique,  Gfo- 
graphique,  &c.  In  1830  Major  Charles  Stewart  published 
an  English  translation  of  the  Malfiizdt  or  [pseudo]  auto- 
biographical Memoirs. 

Not  only  as  one  of  the  greatest  conquerors  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  but  as  the  ancestor  of  the  so-called  Moghul 
dynasty  in  India,  Ti'mur  has  attracted  the  attention  of  many 

1  See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.   177-180,  where   several  very  cogent 
reasons  against  the  authenticity  of  the  book  are  given. 

2  That  this,  not  Bdbar,  is  the  correct  form  has  been  shown  by 
Sir  E.  Denison  Ross,  in  his  interesting  article  on  A  Collection  of  Poems 
by  the  Emperor  Bdbur  published  on  Oct.  26,  1910,  as  an  extra  number 
to  vol.  vi  of  the  J.A.S.of  Bengal,  pp.  iv-vi  of  the  Introduction. 

3  See  pp.  ix-xiii  of  Major  Charles    Stewart's   translation  of  the 
Malfuz 


CH.  iv]  TfMtfR'S  EARLY  CAREER  185 

European  (especially  English)  as  well  as  Asiatic  historians, 
and  has  furnished  a  subject  for  many  writers.  For  the 
purposes  of  this  book,  in  which  the  historical  portion  of  the 
subject  is  necessarily  subordinated  to  the  literary,  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  his  career,  based  chiefly 
on  the  Zafar-ndma  and  Ibn  'Arabshah,  especially  that 
portion  of  it  which  is  connected  with  Persia. 

Timur  (a  name  which  in  Turkish  signifies  "  Iron")  was 
born  at  Kash  in  Transoxiana  on  Sha'ban  28,  736  (April  1 1, 

1336).  As  usual  in  the  case  of  men  who  after- 
Birth  of  Timur  ,  ,  -  ,  , 

wards  became  famous,  attempts  are  made  by 
his  panegyrists  on  the  one  hand  to  affiliate  him  (through 
Qarachar  Noyan)  to  the  Mongol  Royal  House  of  Chingiz 
Khan,  and  on  the  other  to  surround  his  birth  with  all  manner 
of  portents  indicative  of  his  future  greatness.  Ibn  'Arab- 
shah,  on  the  other  hand,  merely  gives  the  names  of  his  father 
(Taraghay)  and  his  grandfather  (Abghay),  says  that  "he 
and  his  father  were  herdsmen,  belonging  to  a  gang  of  rascals 
devoid  alike  of  intelligence  and  religion,"  and  ascribes  the 
limp  to  which  he  owed  his  sobriquet  of  "  the  Lame  "  (Lang) 
to  a  wound  received  while  engaged  in  stealing  sheep.  His 
early  adventures  and  the  steps  by  which  he  gradually 
attained  the  leading  position  amongst  his  people  need  not 
here  detain  us,  and  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  he  first  became 
prominent  at  the  age  of  24  in  761/1360;  received  the  title 
of  Sdhib-Qirdn  ("Lord  of  the  Auspicious  Conjunction") 
ten  years  later  when  he  succeeded  in  killing  his  rival  Sultan 
Husayn  in  Sha'ban,  771  (March,  1370) ;  spent  six  or  seven 
years  after  this  in  consolidating  his  power  in  Transoxiana, 

and  did  not  seriously  turn  his  attention  to  Persia 

First  Persian  ^jj    ^    sprmg    Qf  AfD.    1381,  when    he    Was    45 

campaign  011381  •*  ~J 

years  of  age.  In  this  first  campaign,  which 
lasted  only  for  the  inside  of  a  year,  his  attention  was  con- 
fined to  Khurasan.  At  Andakhiid  he  paid  his  respects  to  a 
more  or'less  crazy  dervish  known  as  Baba  Sangu1,  and,  with 
that  superstition  which  was  so  strangely  blended  with  his 
1  Zafar-ndma,  i,  p.  310. 


186  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtf  R  [BK  n 

ferocious  energy,  interpreted  as  a  presage  of  victory  the 
piece  of  meat  which  that  holy  but  demented  personage 
threw  at  his  head.  Sarakhs  surrendered  to  him,  and,  after 
visiting  another  holy  man,  Zaynu'd-Din  Abu  Bakr,  at 
Tayabad,  he  captured  and  destroyed  Bushanj.  The  reduction 
of  Herat  and  submission  of  Ghiyathu'd-Dm  Pfr  'All,  the 
Kurt  ruler,  followed  ;  and  thereafter  came  the  turn  of  Tus, 
Isfara'in  (which  was  levelled  with  the  ground  and  many  of 
its  inhabitants  slain),  and  Kalat.  He  then  returned  to 
Samarqand  and  Bukhara  for  the  winter. 

In  the  spring  of  the  following  year  (A.D.  1382)  he  con- 
tinued his  operations  against  Persia.     At  Kalat,  where  he 
encamped,  he  was  joined  by  his  son  Miran-shah 
Pe.rs.an  cam-        from  Sarakhs  and  by  the  now  submissive  Ghi- 

paign  of  1382 

yathu'd-Di'n  Kurt  from  Herat ;  and,  having 
established  a  blockade  of  this  strong  place,  he  passed  on  to 
Turshiz,  which  also  surrendered  to  him.  Here  he  received 
an  ambassador  from  Shah  Shuja',  the  Muzaffari  ruler  of  Pars, 
whose  daughter  he  demanded  in  marriage  for  his  grandson 
Pir  Muhammad.  Having  received  the  submission  of  Amir 
Wall,  the  ruler  of  Mazandaran,  Ti'mur  returned  for  the  winter 
to  Samarqand,  his  capital,  where  he  was  for  a  while  plunged 
in  sorrow  by  the  death  of  his  wife  Dilshad  Agha  and  her 
elder  sister  Qutlugh  Turkan  Agha. 

In  the  autumn  of  A.D.  1383,  after  despatching  an  expe- 
dition against  the  heathen  Mongols  to  pursue  Qamaru'd-Dm, 
Ti'mur  again  set  out  on   a  campaign  against 

Third  Persian 

campaign  of  Mazandaran  and  Sfstan.  Towards  the  end  of 
1383-4  October  he  attacked  Sabzawar,  undermined  and 

destroyed  the  citadel,  and  took  captive  some  two  thousand 
persons,  whom  "he  piled  alive  one  on  another,  compacted  them 
with  bricks  and  clay,and  erected  minarets,  so  that  men, being 
apprised  of  the  majesty  of  his  wrath,  might  not  be  seduced 
by  the  demon  of  arrogance,  and  so  cast  themselves  into  the 
pit  of  wailing  and  destruction1."  Having  received  the  sub- 
mission of  Farah,  he  attacked  Zirih,  which  was  fiercely 
1  Zafar-ndma,  i,  p.  360. 


CH.  iv]        TfMtfR'S  CAMPAIGNS  (A.D.  1383-7)  187 

defended  by  some  five  thousand  men,  most  of  whom  were 
slain,  and  their  heads  built  up  into  minarets.  In  December 
Si'stan  fell  before  his  onslaught,  and  "  whatever  was  in  that 
country,  from  potsherds  to  royal  pearls,  and  from  the  finest 
fabrics  to  the  very  nails  in  the  doors  and  walls,  was  swept 
away  by  the  winds  of  spoliation,  while  the  lightning  of 
rapine,  comprehending  alike  the  greater  and  the  less  of  that 
land,  consumed  moist  and  dry  together1."  After  reducing 
two  or  three  other  fortresses,  and  constructing  more  pyramids 
of  the  skulls  of  his  enemies,  Ti'mur  captured  Qandahar, 
hanged  the  commander  of  the  garrison,  and  returned  to  his 
capital  Samarqand,  where  he  allowed  himself  a  period  of 
repose  lasting  three  months. 

It  would  be  tedious,  and,  in  a  work  of  this  character, 
out  of  place  to  describe  in  detail  the  almost  annual  cam- 
paigns which  occupied  the  remaining  twentyyears  of  Timur's 
life,  but  in  brief  they  were  as  follows : 

In  786/1384-5  Ti'mur  invaded  Mazandaran  and  Adhar- 
bayjan,  wintered  at  Ray,  continued  his  campaign  in  the 
spring  of  1385,  and,  having  reduced  the  Caspian  provinces 
and  the  North  of  Persia  as  far  as  Sultaniyya,  returned  to 
his  capital  Samarqand  for  the  winter. 

In  788/1386-7  Ti'mur,  seeing  the  distracted  state  of 
Persia,  determined  to  effect  its  total  subjugation,  and  set 
out  on  a  three  years'  campaign  against  that  country.  He 
first  marched  against  Malik  'Izzu'd-Di'n,  the  ruler  of  Luristan, 
sacked  Burujird  and  Khurramabad,  and  caused  many  of 
his  opponents  to  be  cast  alive  over  precipices.  He  next 
marched  on  Tabriz,  where  Sultan  Ahmad  Jala'ir  had  col- 
lected an  army  to  oppose  him,  but  on  his  approach  the 
latter,  deeming  discretion  the  better  part  of  valour,  retreated 
to  Nakhjuwan,  and,  after  a  fierce  battle,  succeeded  in  making 
good  his  escape.  Ti'mur  spent  the  summer  at  Tabriz,  and 
despatched  thence  to  Samarqand  a  selection  of  the  most 
skilful  artificers  and  craftsmen  whom  he  could  find  in  the 
conquered  city.  In  the  autumn  he  crossed  the  Araxes, 
1  Ibid.)  pp.  368-9. 


1 88  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

pushed  forward  towards  Nakhjuwan,  and,  having  subdued 
the  strong  fortress  of  Qars,  proceeded  to  devastate  Gurjistan 
(Georgia).  Having  captured  Tiflis,  and,  indulged  in  a  great 
hunting-expedition,  in  which  the  game  slain  was  so  abundant 
that  most  of  it  was  left  to  rot  on  the  ground1,  he  returned 
to  winter  quarters  in  Qara-Bagh. 

In  the  spring  of  A.D.  1387  (A.H.  789)  Timur  renewed 
his  campaign  in  Asia  Minor,  subdued  the  cities  of  Bayazi'd, 
Erzeroum,  Erzinjan,  Mush,  Akhlat  and  Van,  and  received 
the  submission  of  Salmas  and  Urmiya,  and  in  the  autumn, 
in  consequence  of  the  refusal  of  the  Muzaffarf  prince 
Zaynu'l-'Abidm  to  appear  before  him,  he  marched  against 
Pars.  On  the  way  thither  he  entered  Isfahan,  and  levied  a 
heavy  contribution  on  the  people  of  that  city.  This  pro- 
voked a  riot,  in  which  a  good  many  of  Timur's  tax-collectors 
and  agents  were  killed,  and  Timur  took  a  terrible  revenge, 
making  a  general  massacre  of  the  people,  in  which  it  is 
computed  that  70,000  perished,  whose  heads  were  counted 
and  afterwards  built  up  into  minarets.  This 
happened  on  Monday,  Nov.  i8%!3872.  Ti'mur 
then  continued  his  march  to  Shiraz,  which  sub- 
mitted to  him  in  the  following  month  (Dec.  1387),  and  it  is 
on  this  occasion  that  the  legendary  interview  between  the 
great  conqueror  and  the  poet  Hafiz  is  supposed  to  have 
taken  place.  Dawlatshah,  who  relates  the  anecdote3,  with 
characteristic  inaccuracy  assigns  this  meeting  to  the  year 
795/1392-3,  when  Hafiz  had  been  dead  for  four  years. 
The  story,  which  is  probably  entirely  apocryphal,  is  that 
Timur  summoned  Hafiz  to  his  presence  and  upbraided  him 
for  the  well-known  verse  in  which  he  says : 

"  If  that  unkindly  Shirdz  Turk  would  take  my  heart  within  her  hand, 
I'd  give  Bukhara"  for  the  mole  upon  her  cheek,  or  Samarqand." 

"  With  the  blows  of  my  lustrous  sword,"  exclaimed  Timur, 
"have  I  subjugated  most  of  the  habitable  globe,  and  laid 

1  Zafar-ndma,  i,  p.  404. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  435. 

3  See  pp.  305-6  of  my  edition. 


CH.  iv]  TfMtfR  AND  HAFI?  189 

waste  thousands  of  towns  and  countries  to  embellish  Samar- 
qand  and  Bukhara,  my  native  towns  and  the  seats  of  my 
government ;  and  you,  miserable  wretch  that  you  are,  would 
sell  them  both  for  the  black  mole  of  a  Turk  of  Shi'raz  ! " 
"  Sire,"  replied  Hafiz,  with  a  deep  obeisance,  "  it  is  through 
such  prodigality  that  I  have  fallen  on  such  evil  days ! " 
Timur  is  said  to  have  been  so  much  delighted  by  this  quick 
rejoinder  that  he  not  only  refrained  from  punishing  the 
poet  but  gave  him  a  handsome  present.  There  is  a  variant 
of  the  story,  which  I  have  heard  in  Persia  but  not  met  with 
in  any  book,  according  to  which  Hafiz  replied,  "  They  have 
misquoted  me :  what  I  really  wrote  was  not 

Bi-khdl-i-hinduwash  bakhsham  Samarqand  u  Bukhdrd-rd 
but — 

Bi-khdl-i-hinduwash  bakhsham  du  man  qand  u  si  khurmd-rd 

I  would  give  for  the  mole  on  her  cheek  two  maunds  of  sugar  and 
three  dates." 

No  mention  of  any  such  meeting  occurs  in  contemporary 
biographers  of  Timur,  such  as  Sharafu'd-Dm  'Ah'  of  Yazd, 
nor  have  I  met  with  any  trustworthy  evidence  in  support 
of  it. 

To  return  to  Tfmur's  invasion  of  Fars.  Zaynu'l-'Abidin, 
the  Muzaffari  prince,  had  fled  to  his  cousin  Shah  Mansiir, 
governor  of  Shushtar  in  the  S.W.  of  Persia,  who,  violating 
alike  the  bonds  of  kinship  and  claims  of  hospitality,  cast 
him  into  prison.  Most  of  the  other  princes  of  the  House 
of  Muzaffar,  as  well  as  the  Atabeks  of  Luristan  and  other 
petty  rulers,  waited  on  Timur  at  Shi'raz  and  tendered  their 
submission.  But,  even  in  the  moment  of  his  triumph,  news 
was  brought  to  the  conqueror  by  a  messenger,  who  had 
accomplished  the  long  journey  from  Samarqand  to  Shi'raz 
in  the  incredibly  short  space  of  seventeen  days,  that  a 
fresh  revolt  of  the  stiff-necked  Tuqatmish  required  the 
presence  of  Timur  to  defend  his  own  realms.  Thereupon, 
in  February,  1388,  he  at  once  set  out  for  Samarqand,  bearing 
with  him,  as  part  of  his  spoils,  the  learned  Sayyid-i-Shan'f-i- 


1 90  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

Jurjini,  and  appointing  the  Muzaffari  princes  Shah  Yahya, 
Sultan  Muhammad,  Sultan  Ahmad  and  Sultdn  Abu  Ishaq 
governors  of  Shiraz,  Isfahan,  Kirman  and  Sirjan  respectively. 

For  the  next  four  years  and  a  half  Timur  was  engaged 
in  warfare  against  Tuqatmish,  the  Mongols,  the  realm  of 
Khwarazm  or  Khiva,  and  other  northern  peoples,  and 
Persia  enjoyed  a  brief  rest  from  his  attentions,  though  a 
rebellion  which  broke  out  in  the  summer  of  1389  in  Khu- 
rasan (apparently  prompted  by  reports  of  his  defeat  at  the 
hands  of  Tuqatmish)  was  put  down  in  the  usual  bloody 
and  barbarous  fashion  by  Miranshah,  especially  at  Tiis, 
where  some  ten  thousand  persons  were  massacred,  and  their 
heads  built  up  into  pyramids  or  minarets. 

On  the  last  day  of  July,  1392,  Tfmur,  after  some  delay 
occasioned  by  a  serious  illness,  once  again  crossed  the  Oxus 
on  another  of  his  devastating  campaigns  in  the  South. 
This,  known  as  the  "  Five  Years'  Campaign "  ( Ytirish-i- 
panj-sdla1)  included  the  Caspian  provinces,  Fars  (where  he 
exterminated  the  princes  of  the  Muzaffari  dynasty,  as  already 
described  at  p.  169  supra},  Armenia,  Georgia,  Mesopotamia, 
and  South  Russia.  In  Gurgan  and  Mazandaran  he  came  in 
contact  with  certain  heretical  Sayyids,  many  of  whom  he 
slew, "delivering  those  regions  from  the  mischievous  influence 
of  those  misguided  communists2."  Sharafu'd-Din's  account 
of  their  tenets  is  neither  clear  nor  detailed,  but  it  appears 
highly  probable  that  they  belonged  to  the  heretical  Hurufi 
sect,  whose  founder,  Fadlu'llah,  appeared,  preached  his 
doctrines,  and  suffered  death  in  Tfmur's  reign,  and  was 
a  native  of  Astarabad.  We  shall  have  more  to  say  about 
him  and  his  doctrine  presently. 

In  the  latter  part  of  December,  1392,  Tfmur,  having 
received  a  visit  from  his  wives  and  family,  set  out  for  South 
Persia,  travelling  by  way  of  Damghan,  Samnan,  Ray, 
Qazwin,  Sultaniyya,  Kurdistan,  and  Burujird  (which  he 
reached  on  February  14,  I3933),  and  putting  to  death  on 

1  Zafar-nAma,  \,  pp.  561  et  seqq.  2  Ibid.,  pp.  576-7. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  587. 


CH.  iv]  TfMUR  OCCUPIES  BAGHDAD  191 

his  way  many  of  the  Lurs.  He  reached  Dizful  on  March  2 
and  Shushtar  a  day  or  two  later,  and  thence  set  out  for 
Shiraz.  On  his  way  thither  he  captured  the  strong  fortress 
of  Qal'a-i-Saffd  and  released  the  blinded  captive  prince 
Zaynu'l-'Abidin,  whom  he  treated  with  honour  and  promised 
vengeance  on  Shah  Mansur.  Nor  was  this  vengeance  long 
delayed,  for,  as  already  narrated,  Shah  Mansur  was  slain  in 
battle  a  few  days  later,  while  most  of  the  remaining  princes 
of  the  House  of  Muzaffar  were  put  to  death  by  Timur's 
order  on  May  22,  1393.  "  All  the  most  skilful  of  the  crafts- 
men and  artisans  of  the  provinces  of  Pars  and  'Iraq  "  were, 
according  to  Sharafu'd-Din  'All  of  Yazd,  transferred  by 
Tfmur  to  Samarqand 1. 

On  August  10  Timur,  who  was  approaching  Baghdad, 
was  visited  by  Shaykh  Nuru'd-Din  'Abdu'r-Rahman  of 
Isfara'in,  who  came  as  an  ambassador  from  Sultan  Ahmad 
Jala'ir  to  make  his  excuses  for  not  waiting  on  Ti'mur  in 
person.  His  excuses  were  ill  received  by  Ti'mur,  who 
nevertheless  treated  the  Shaykh  with  the  respect  which, 
according  to  the  Zafar-ndma  (p.  629),  he  habitually  accorded 
to  learned  and  pious  men.  Shortly  afterwards  he  entered 
Baghdad  and  occupied  the  palace  of  Sultan  Ahmad,  who 
fled  before  him.  Some  of  Timur's  amirs  went  in  pursuit, 
overtook  the  fugitives  near  Karbala,  and  captured  much 
spoil  and  some  of  the  wives  and  sons  of  Sultan  Ahmad, 
who,  however,  succeeded  in  making  his  escape.  His  son 
'Ala'u'd-Dawla,  together  with  his  wives,  a  selection  of  the 
most  skilful  artisans  of  Baghdad, and  the  celebrated  musician 
Khwaja  'Abdu'l-Qadir,  were  sent  to  Samarqand  by  Tfmur, 
who  also  despatched  an  ambassador  to  Barquq  al-Maliku'z- 
Zahir,  the  ruler  of  Egypt,  with  a  view  to  concluding  a  treaty 
of  friendship  and  commercial  intercourse  with  him. 

Timur's  next  exploit  was  the  reduction  of  the  strong 

fortress  of  Takn't,  which  was  gallantly  defended.     Finally, 

however,  the  defenders  were  overcome  and  put  to  death,  and 

their  heads  built  up  into  minarets.     Continuing  his  march 

1  Ibid.,  p.  619. 


i92  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtf  R  [BK  n 

northwards  he  passed  by  Karkiik,  Arbil,  Mawsil  (Mosul)  and 
Rawha,  where,  in  March,  1 394,  he  was  overtaken  by  stormy 
and  rainy  weather,  and  compelled  by  this  and  the  disobedi- 
ence of  Malik  'Izzu'd-Din  to  return  to  Mesopotamia.  Having 
in  a  brief  space  of  time  dealt  with  this  rebellious  chieftain, 
Ti'mur  again  turned  northwards  and  reduced  the  fortress  of 
Mardi'n.  Luckily  for  the  garrison,  news  had  just  reached 
Ti'mur  of  the  birth,  at  Sultaniyya,  on  March  22,  1394,  of  a 
grandson,  the  afterwards  celebrated  Ulugh  Bey,  son  of  Shah- 
rukh,  and  this  put  Ti'mur  in  such  good  humour  that  he 
spared  their  lives,  which  would  otherwise  have  certainly 
been  forfeited1.  Amid  (Diyar  Bakr)  next  succumbed  to  his 
victorious  arms  in  April,  but  he  had  to  abandon  his  attempt 
to  raze  the  fortifications  on  account  of  their  extraordinary 
strength  and  solidity2.  He  then  passed  on  to  Si'was,  Mush, 
Bitli's,  Akhlat  and  Aydfn,  halting  for  a  while  in  the  Plain 
of  Ala-dagh  to  receive  his  wives  and  younger  children,  who 
came  to  visit  him  from  Sultaniyya,  and  despatching  an 
army  in  pursuit  of  his  enemy  Qara  Yusuf  and  his  Turkman 
followers.  At  the  end  of  July,  1 394,  he  captured  the  fortress 
of  Avnfk,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Araxes,  and  sent  its 
defender,  Misr  the  son  of  Qard  Yusuf,  to  Samarqand,  to- 
gether with  Sultan  'Isa,  the  ex-governor  of  Mardi'n.  He 
next  invaded  Georgia  and  occupied  Tiflis. 

Fortunately  for  Persia,  a  fresh  menace  on  the  part  of 
his  old  enemy  Tuqatmish  compelled  Ti'mur  at  this  juncture, 
towards  the  end  of  February,  I39S3,  to  march  northwards 
to  defend  his  own  territories,  and  this,  with  the  ensuing 
campaign  in  Southern  Russia,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
penetrated  as  far  as  Moscow4,  kept  him  occupied  for  more 
than  a  year.  During  and  in  consequence  of  his  absence 
several  revolts  broke  out  in  Persia,  such  as  that  of  Qard 
Yiisuf  the  Turkman  in  Adharbayjan5;  of  Gudarz  (probably 
a  Zoroastrian)  at  Sirjan6 ;  of  Sultan  Muhammad,  son  of 

1  Zafar-ndma,  \.  p.  680.  2  Ibid.,  p.  684. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  735.  4  Ibid.,  p.  761. 

5  Ibid.,  p.  757.  6  Ibid.,  pp.  784-5- 


CH.  iv]  TfMtfR'S  INVASION  OF  INDIA  193 

Abu  Sa'id  of  Tabas,  and  some  Khurasani  soldiers  who  had 
formerly  been  in  the  service  of  the  Muzaffari  dynasty 
at  Yazd  ;  and  of  Buhliil  at  Nihawand.  All  these  revolts 
were  quickly  and  sternly  repressed,  and  the  ringleader  of 
that  last  mentioned,  Buhlul,  was  burned  alive1.  The  en- 
suing month  of  Ramadan  was  passed  by  Ti'mur  at  Ramadan 
"  in  obedience  and  devotion  to  the  Divine  Benefactor,  and 
in  the  observance  of  the  obligations  of  fasting  and  vigils 
and  of  every  kind  of  religious  rite  and  ceremony."  He 
then,  having  ordered  his  generals  to  subdue  the  whole 
Persian  shore  of  the  gulf  from  Khuzistan  to  Hurmuz,  set 
out  on  July  18,  1396,  for  Samarqand. 

On  this  occasion  Ti'mur  remained  quiet  at  his  capital 
for  a  longer  period  than  usual,  and  devoted  a  good  deal  of 
attention  to  beautifying  it  and  its  environs  by  the  labours 
of  "  the  expert  engineers  and  skilful  architects  who  had 
been  gathered  to  the  Royal  Metropolis  from  every  clime 
and  country  from  East  to  West2."  He  also  gave  a  series 
of  gorgeous  banquets,  of  which  one  of  the  chief  was  to 
celebrate  the  conferring  of  the  kingdom  of  Khurasan,  in- 
cluding Si'stan  and  Mazandaran,  from  Firuzkuh  to  Ray,  on 
his  son  Shah-rukh,  which  happened  in  May,  I3973.  Less 
than  a  year  later,  in  the  spring  of  1398,  he  set  out  on  his 
Indian  campaign,  instigated  thereto,  as  asserted  in  the 
Zafar-ndma*,  by  his  desire  to  promote  Islam  and  crush 
idolatry,  and  by  the  accounts  which  reached  him  of  the 
toleration  shown  by  the  Muslim  rulers  towards  their  Hindu 
subjects  and  neighbours.  After  some  preliminary  opera- 
tions against  the  Afghans  (or  Awghans)  of  the  Sulayman 
Kuh  and  the  Siydh-piish  ("  Black-robed")  heathen  of  Kafir- 
istan,  he  crossed  the  Indus  on  Muharram  12,  801  (Sept.  24, 
1398)  and  proceeded  to  carry  fire  and  sword  into  India.  It 
is  unnecessary  for  our  purpose  to  follow  these  operations  in 
detail.  They  were  characterized  by  the  usual  bloodshed 
and  barbarities,  amongst  the  worst  of  which  was  the  massacre 

1  Ibid.,  i,  p.  788.  2  Ibid.,  ii,  p.  6. 

3  Ibid.,  i,  pp.  803-4.  *  Ibid.,  ii,  p.  15. 

B.  P.  13 


194  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtiR  [BK  n 

in  cold  blood  of  100,000  Indian  prisoners  near  Dihlf  on 
December  12,  I3981.  Compared  to  this  monstrous  crime 
the  horrors  enacted  a  few  days  later  at  Dihlf,  and  the 
massacre  of  10,000  persons  a  month  earlier  at  Batnfr  sink 
into  insignificance. 

Reports  of  troubles  in  Persia  (especially  in  Adharbayjan, 
where  his  son,  Mfranshah,  to  whom  the  government  of  this 
important  province  had  been  entrusted,  was  courting  disaster 
by  his  insane  vagaries,  generally  ascribed  to  an  injury  to  his 
head  caused  by  a  fall  from  his  horse)  impelled  Timur  to  cut 
short  his  Indian  campaign  early  in  the  year  A.D.  1399,  and 
to  hasten  homewards.  He  crossed  the  Indus  on  his  return 
journey  on  March  8  of  that  year,  five  months  and  seventeen 
days  after  he  had  crossed  it  at  the  beginning  of  his  campaign, 
and  the  Oxus  three  weeks  later.  On  April  7  he  reached 
his  native  town  of  Kash  or  Shahr-i-Sabz  (the  "Green  City"), 
and  entered  Samarqand,  his  capital,  on  April  27.  A  fort- 
night later  (May  9,  1399)  he  laid  the  foundation-stone  of 
the  magnificent  mosque  (Masjid-i-Jdm?)  which  he  had  long 
intended  to  erect  for  the  embellishment  of  his  metropolis. 

On  September  9,  1399,  Timur  again  quitted  Samarqand 
for  Adharbayjan,  where  the  erratic  conduct  of  his  son 
Mfranshah,  of  which  fresh  accounts  continued  to  reach 
him,  urgently  demanded  his  attention.  At  Aywanak,  near 
Ray,  he  was  joined  by  his  son  Shah-rukh  and  by  another 
army  which  he  had  despatched  by  way  of  Mazandaran. 
Mfranshah  was  induced  to  come  to  his  father's  camp  to 
render  account  of  his  misconduct,  which  included  the  waste 
or  embezzlement  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  revenues,  the 
putting  to  death  on  mere  suspicion  of  certain  men  of  conse- 
quence against  whom  he  had  conceived  a  spite,  the  wanton 
destruction  of  certain  historic  buildings,  and  the  exhuma- 
tion of  the  eminent  Minister  and  historian  Rashidu'd-Dfn 
Fadlu'llah,  whose  body  he  caused  to  be  re-interred  in  the 
Jews'  cemetery.  Mfranshah  was  punished  by  his  father's 
displeasure  and  the  virtual  transference  of  the  authority  he 
1  Zafar-ndma,  ii,  p.  92. 


CH.  iv]  DISGRACE  OF  MfRANSHAH  195 

had  misused  to  his  son  Abu  Bakr,  but  Timur's  fiercest 
wrath  fell  upon  certain  minstrels  and  poets  who  had  been 
Miranshah's  boon-companions,  and  who  were  alleged  to 
have  corrupted  his  principles  and  encouraged  his  extrava- 
gances. Several  of  these,  namely  Mawlana  Muhammad  of 
Quhistan,  "  who,  together  with  a  complete  mastery  of  the 
technicalities  of  the  various  sciences,  was  unique  in  his  age 
and  the  marvel  of  his  time  in  verse  and  prose  composition, 
both  serious  and  frivolous1,"  Qutbu'd-Di'n  Na'f,  Habib-i- 
'Udf  and  'Abdu'l-Mu'min  the  rhapsodist,  were  condemned 
to  death  on  this  charge  and  hanged  at  or  near  Qazwfn. 
According  to  Dawlatshah2,  Muhammad  of  Quhistan  must 
needs  indulge  his  propensity  for  jesting  even  on  the  scaffold. 
Turning  to  Qutbu'd-Dm,  one  of  his  fellow-  victims,  he  said, 
"  You  had  precedence  in  the  King's  company  :  precede 
me,  therefore,  here  also."  "  O  unlucky  heretic,"  replied  the 
other,  "  do  you  bring  matters  to  this  pass,  and  cannot  you 
cease  jesting  yet  ?  "  When  it  came  to  Muhammad's  turn 
to  die,  he  recited  the  following  punning  verse  : 


"  'Tis  the  end  of  the  matter  and  the  last  round,  O  heretic  ! 
Whether  thou  goest  or  not,  the  choice  is  no  longer  in  thy  hand  ! 
If  they  lead  thee,  like  Mansiir3,  to  the  foot  of  the  gibbet  (pd-yi-ddr\ 
Stand  firm  (pdy-ddr)  like  a  man,  for  the  world  is  not  enduring  (pdy- 
ddr)  \  " 

1  Zafar-ndma  ii,  pp.  213-214. 

2  Pp.  330-1  of  my  edition.     In  the  very  rare  Mujmal  of  Fasihf, 
under  the   year  A.H.   802,  two   other  victims   are   enumerated,  viz. 
Ardashir-i-Changi  ("  the  harper  "),  and  Khwaja  Yahyd-yi-Narrad  ("  the 
backgammon-player  ")• 

3  The  celebrated  mystic  who  was  hanged  or  crucified  in  the  tenth 
century  of  our  era  at  Baghdad  for  exclaiming  Ancil-Haqq  !  ("  I  am  the 
Truth  !  "  i.e.  God).     His  real  name  was  Husayn  ibn  Mansur  al-Hallaj 
("  the  wool-carder").     See  my  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  i,  pp.  428-437. 

13—2 


196  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtiR  [BK  n 

The  campaign  on  which  Timur  was  now  embarked,  and 
which  included  some  of  his  most  remarkable  achievements, 
is  called  by  Sharafu'd-Din  'All  Yazdi  (ii,  206)  the  "  Seven 
Years'  Campaign."  As  it  began  about  Muharram  8,  802 
(Sept.  10,  1399),  and  as  Tfmur  returned  to  his  capital, 
Samarqand,  in  Muharram,  807  (July,  1404),  this  appellation 
must  be  regarded  as  a  misnomer.  Even  the  abridged 
account  of  the  many  bloody  battles  and  brilliant  victories 
included  in  this  period  which  is  given  in  Price's  Chrono- 
logical Retrospect^  fills  166  quarto  pages,  and  in  this  place 
it  must  suffice  to  indicate  only  its  chief  events. 

The  winter  of  A.D.  1399-1400  was  spent  by  Ti'mur  in 
Qarabagh  near  the  Araxes,  and  ere  spring  had  melted  the 
snows  he  once  more  invaded  Georgia,  devastated  the  country, 
destroyed  the  churches  and  monasteries,  and  slew  great 
numbers  of  the  inhabitants.  In  August,  1400,  he  began  his 
march  into  Asia  Minor  by  way  of  Avni'k,  Erzeroum,  Erzinjan 
and  Sfvas.  The  latter  place  offered  a  stubborn  resistance, 
and  when  it  finally  capitulated  Ti'mur  caused  all  the  Arme- 
nian and  Christian  soldiers  to  the  number  of  four  thousand 
to  be  buried  alive;  but  the  Muhammadans  he  spared2. 
Meanwhile  an  animated  correspondence  was  taking  place 
between  him  and  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Bayazid,  called  Yil- 
dirim  (the  "  Thunder-bolt "),  from  whom  Ti'mur  demanded 
the  surrender  of  Sultan  Ahmad  of  Baghdad  and  Qara 
Yusuf  the  Turkman.  This  Bayazid  refused,  as,  until  a  very 
recent  occasion,  the  Turks  have  ever  been  wont  to  refuse 
such  betrayal  of  guests ;  and,  moreover,  as  must  be  admit- 
ted, and  as  will  presently  be  seen,  he  couched  his  refusal  in 
language  little  calculated  to  appease  his  great  rival.  With 
the  Sultan  of  Egypt  also  (al-Maliku'n-Nasir  Faraj)  Ti'mur 
became  embroiled  by  reason  of  the  unlawful  detention  of 
his  ambassador  at  Cairo,  and  thus  the  campaign  became 
diverted  not  only  against  the  territories  over  which  the  two 

1  Published  in  London  in  4  vols.,  1811-1821.   The  portion  to  which 
reference  is  here  made  is  vol.  iii,  Part  i,  pp.  297-463. 

2  Zafar-ndma,  ii,  p.  269. 


CH.  iv]  TfMtiR'S  SYRIAN  CAMPAIGN  197 

fugitive  kings  had   reigned   respectively,  but   against  the 

Ottoman  and  Egyptian,  and  incidentally  the  Syrian  lands. 

After   taking   'Ayntab,  Timur    besieged   and    reduced 

Aleppo  in  October,  1400,  and  there  captured  and  sent  with 

other  spoils  of  war  to  Samarqand  his  future 
Dam«cu"  historian  Mawland  Nizdmu'd-Di'n  called  Shdmi 

d  by         (the  "  Syrian  ").    Having  next  subdued  in  turn 

Hama,Hims(Emessa)  and  Ba'labakk  (Baalbek) 
he  proceeded  to  invest  Damascus.  Here  an  assassin,  insti- 
gated by  al-Maliku'n-Nasir,  Sultan  of  Egypt,  attempted  his 
life,  but  failed  and  was  put  to  death.  Damascus  surrendered, 
but  again  revolted,  and  was  again  subdued  in  March,  1401, 
when  it  finally  submitted,  and  suffered  Tfmur's  name  to  be 
inserted  in  the  khutba,  after  it  had  suffered  the  horrors 
of  Tartar  incendiarism  and  looting.  Another  portion  of 
Ti'mur's  army  ravaged  the  Syrian  coast  as  far  south  as 
'Akka. 

Timur    next    turned    his    attention    to    Baghdad,  the 
capital    of    the   recalcitrant   Sultan   Ahmad   Jala'ir,   and, 

having  taken  it,  made,  on  June  20,  1401,  a 
ba°Timikaghdad  Sreat  massacre,  in  revenge  for  the  many  notable 

officers  of  his  army  who  had  perished  in  the 
siege.  Each  soldier  was  ordered  to  bring  a  head1,  and  in 
the  words  of  Sharafu'd-Dfn  'Alf  Yazdi,  "the  market  of 
retribution  became  so  brisk  that  the  broker  of  death  sold 
at  one  price  the  old  man  of  eighty  and  the  child  of  eight, 
while  the  oven  of  wrath  was  so  enkindled  that  it  consumed 
in  like  manner  the  corporeal  vestiture  of  the  wealthy 
plutocrat  and  the  wretched  pauper2." 

Having  left  Baghdad  a  smoking  charnel-house,  Ti'mur 
again  turned  his  attention  to  the  unfortunate  Georgians, 

until  the  approach  of  winter  drove  him  in 
Angola"1'  November,  1401,  into  his  winter  quarters  at 

Qarabagh.     About   the   middle   of  February, 

1  According  to  Ibn  'Arabshah  the  number  of  Ti'mur's  soldiers  on 
this  occasion  was  20,000,  and  each  v.'cs  ordered  to  bring  two  heads. 

2  Zafar-ndma,  ii,  p.  367. 


198  THE  PERIOD  OF  TIMtf  R  [BK  n 

1402,  he  prepared  to  attack  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Bayazi'd, 
from  whom  he  had  received  another  defiant  letter  which 
goaded  him  to  fury.  On  July  20,  1402,  was  fought  the 
memorable  battle  of  Angora,  in  which  the  Ottoman  Turks 
were  utterly  defeated  and  their  Sultan,  Bayazi'd,  "the 
Thunderbolt,"  taken  prisoner.  The  well-known  story  that 
The  story  of  Ti'mur  confined  him  in  a  cage  and  carried  him 
Bayazid  and  about  with  him  wherever  he  went  is  now  gene- 
rally discredited1.  No  mention  of  this  is  made, 
I  think,  by  Sharafu'd-Din  'Ah'  of  Yazd  and  other  Persian 
historians  of  Ti'mur,  and  the  story  may  have  arisen  from  an 
expression  used  by  Ibn  'Arabshah,  who,  as  already  mentioned, 
hated  Ti'mur,  and  sought  always  to  represent  his  actions  in 
the  worst  light.  The  expression  in  question  is  : 


"  The  son  of  'Osman  fell  into  a  hunter's  snare,  and  became  confined 
like  a  bird  in  a  cage  " — 

a  phrase  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  take  literally,  and  which 
may  well  have  been  employed  metaphorically  and  to  fulfil 
the  exigencies  of  the  rhymed  prose  in  which  Ibn  'Arabshdh's 
work  is  composed.  Sharafu'd-Din  explicitly  says2  that 
when  Bayazi'd,  with  hands  bound,  was  brought  before  Ti'mur, 
the  latter,  after  reproaching  him  for  his  previous  contumacy, 
expressing  his  regret  at  having  been  compelled  to  make  war 
on  a  fellow-believer  who  had  rendered  such  signal  services 
to  Isl£m,  and  reminding  him  how  he  would  have  probably 
behaved  to  the  conquered  had  their  respective  positions  been 
reversed,  concluded  by  saying  that  "  in  gratitude  for  the 
victory  and  help  vouchsafed  to  him  by  the  mercy  of  God  " 
he  would  do  naught  but  good  to  his  captive  and  the  other 
Turkish  prisoners. 

1  It  is,  however,  accepted  by  Professor  H.  A.  Gibbons  in  his  very 
interesting  work  on  the  Foundation  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  (Oxford, 
1916).    See  his  long  foot-note  on  p.  255,  where  the  matter  is  very  fully 
discussed. 

2  Zafar-ndma,  vol.  ii,  pp.  438-9. 


CH.  iv]          SPANISH  EMBASSY  TO  TfMtfR  199 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  campaign  against  the  Ottoman 
Turks  continued  ;  royal  Broussa  and  "infidel"  Smyrna  were 
attacked  and  made  desolate,  the  latter  in  December,  1402; 
and  a  little  later,  on  February  26,  1403,  the  unfortunate 
Bayazi'd  died  in  captivity. 

Seeing  what   had  befallen    the   Turks,  the   Egyptian 
Sultan,    al-Maliku'n-Nasir   Faraj,  abandoned   his  former 
attitude  of  defiance,  released   Timur's  ambas- 
f      sador,  and  sent  his  submission  to  the  victor 


Suitin  ai-  Of  Angora  by  an  embassy  which  was  graciously 

Maliku'n-NSsir  .    b  TA  jo 

received.  In  August  and  September,  1403, 
Ti'miir  again  raided  Georgia,  and,  having  wintered  once 
more  at  Qarabagh,  reached  Rayon  May  10  and  Samarqand 
about  the  end  of  July,  1404.  Here  a  month  later  arrived 

the  Spanish  Mission  headed  by  Ruy  Gonzalez 
£TtaiembasSy  de  Clavijo,  who  has  left  us  an  entertaining 

account  of  his  journey  from  Spain  to  Samar- 
qand and  back,  and  of  his  impressions  of  Tfmur,  of  which 
account  an  English  translation,  edited  by  Sir  Clements  R. 
Markham,  was  published  by  the  Hakluyt  Society  in  1859. 
Clavijo  sailed  from  Seville  in  company  with  an  envoy, 
Muhammad  al-Qadi,  whom  Ti'mur  had  sent  to  Spain, 
accompanied  by  Gomez  de  Salazar  and  an  ecclesiastic 
named  Fray  Alonzo  Paez  de  Santa  Maria.  Travelling  by 
way  of  Constantinople,  Trebizond,  Erzeroum,  Khuy,  Tabriz, 
Tihran  and  Mashhad,  the  Spanish  envoys  reached  Samar- 
qand on  August  31,  1404,  in  company  with  the  ambassador 
of  "  the  Sultan  of  Babylon,"  and  were  received  by  Ti'mur 
on  Monday,  September  8.  He  "  was  seated  in  a  portal,  in 
front  of  the  entrance  of  a  beautiful  palace  ;  and  he  was 
sitting  on  the  ground.  Before  him  there  was  a  fountain, 
which  threw  up  the  water  very  high,  and  in  it  there  were 
some  red  apples.  The  lord  was  seated  cross-legged,  on 
silken  embroidered  carpets,  amongst  round  pillows.  He  was 
dressed  in  a  robe  of  silk,  with  a  high  white  hat  on  his  head, 
on  the  top  of  which  there  was  a  special  ruby,  with  pearls 
and  precious  stones  round  it."  The  ambassadors  were 


200  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtlR  [BK  n 

brought  close  before  him  that  he  might  see  them  better ; 
for  his  eyesight  was  bad,  he  being  so  old  that  the  eyelids  had 
fallen  down  entirely.  He  received  them  graciously,  en- 
quiring, "  How  is  my  son  the  king  ?  Is  he  in  good  health?  " 
and  then  turned  to  the  nobles  who  stood  round  him,  saying, 
"  Behold !  here  are  the  ambassadors  sent  by  my  son  the 
King  of  Spain,  who  is  the  greatest  King  of  the  Franks,  and 
lives  at  the  end  of  the  world.  The  Franks  are  truly  a  great 
people,  and  I  will  give  my  benediction  to  the  King  of  Spain, 
my  son.  It  would  have  sufficed  if  he  had  sent  you  to  me 
with  the  letter,  and  without  the  presents,  so  well  satisfied 
am  I  to  hear  of  his  health  and  prosperous  state." 

The  Spanish  envoys  were  subsequently  entertained  at 
several  banquets,  of  which  Clavijo  gives  detailed  descrip- 
ciavijo-s  de-  tions,  and  saw  Timur  several  times.  They  seem 
scriptionof  to  have  been  much  struck  by  the  quantities  of 

Timur's  Court,  .  ,  .        .          r 

his  banquets  and  meat  and  wine  consumed,  and  the  frequent 
his  "justice"  drunkenness.  "The  drinking,"  says  Clavijo 
(p.  148),  "was  such  that  some  of  the  men  fell  down  drunk 
before  her"  (Cano,  wife  of  Timur) ;  "and  this  was  con- 
sidered very  jovial,  for  they  think  there  can  be  no  pleasure 
without  drunken  men."  On  another  occasion  (Oct.  9,  1404), 
besides  the  banquet,  they  were  treated  to  an  exhibition  of 
Timur's  "  justice,"  for  "  in  the  place  where  the  traders  had 
pitched  their  tents,  he  ordered  a  great  number  of  gallows  to 
be  set  up ;  and  declared  that,  in  this  festival,  he  knew  how 
to  be  merciful  and  kind  to  some,  and  how  to  be  severe  to 
others."  On  these  gallows  he  forthwith  hanged  several 
persons  of  quality,  besides  "  certain  traders  who  had  sold 
meat  for  more  than  it  was  worth,"  and  some  shoemakers. 
"  The  custom  is,"  adds  Clavijo,  "  that,  when  a  great  man  is 
put  to  death,  he  is  hanged  ;  but  the  meaner  sort  are  be- 
headed " — a  curious  inversion  of  the  mediaeval  practice  in 
England. 

The  ambassadors  do  not  seem  to  have  seen  Ti'mur  after 
November  I,  1404,  on  the  morrow  of  which  day  "  he  did  not 
come  out  of  his  tent,  because  he  felt  ill."  They  were  bidden 


CH.  iv]  CLAVIJO  AT  TfMUR'S  COURT  201 

by  the  Mirzas,  or  Secretaries  of  the  Court,  to  depart,  but 
this  they  at  first  declined  to  do  until  they  should  receive 
theirdismissal  from  Timur  and  his  messages  and  compliments 
to  their  own  King.  Finally,  however,  they  were  compelled 
to  leave  without  another  audience  (Timur  being  then,  as  they 
were  led  to  believe,  sick  unto  death)  and  quitted  the  city 
on  November  18  with  the  "  ambassadors  from  Turkey  "  and 
"  the  ambassador  from  the  Sultan  of  Babylon."  After  re- 
maining for  three  days  in  a  garden  outside  the  town,  they 
started  on  their  homeward  journey  on  November  21,  1404. 
They  reached  Tabriz  on  February  28,  1405,  and  were 
delayed  there  and  at  the  camp  of  'Umar  Shaykh  Mi'rza 
in  Qarabagh  for  six  months,  not  leaving  Tabriz  on  their 
homeward  march  until  August  22.  After  passing  through 
Armenia,  of  whose  inhabitants  Clavijo  says  that  "  the  Chris- 
tian Armenians  are  an  evil  race,  who  would  not  let  the 
ambassadors  pass  until  they  had  given  up  some  of  their 
property,"  they  reached  Trebizond  on  September  17,  Con- 
stantinople on  October  22,  1405,  Genoa  on  January  3,  1406, 
and  San  Lucar  in  Spain  on  March  i  of  the  same  year,  after 
an  absence  of  nearly  three  years. 

But  few  notices  of  this  Embassy  occur  in  the  Persian 
historians,  though  mention  is  made  of  it  by  Sharafu'd-Din 
'Ah'  of  Yazd,  who  says1:  "At  this  juncture  there  arrived  an 
ambassador  from  the  ruler  {farmdn-diJt)  of  the  Frankish 
realms,  who  presented  many  fine  gifts  and  presents,  and  a 
variety  of  offerings  and  oblations,"  amongst  which  "certain 
tissues  adorned  with  designs  and  pictures  which  would  have 
filled  Manes  with  despair"  specially  aroused  the  author's 
admiration.  He  also  mentions  on  the  next  page  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Spaniards  at  one  of  the  banquets  given  by 
Timur,  adding  that  "  even  chaff  finds  its  way  into  the  sea," 
and,  a  few  pages  lower2,  chronicles  their  departure. 

By  this  time  Timur  was  apparently  recovered  from  his 
indisposition,  tired  of  the  settled  life,  and  eager  for  fresh 

1  Zafar-ndma,  ii,  p.  598. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  633. 


202  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtJR  [BK  n 

adventures,   and    he   resolved   to    undertake   a   campaign 
against  China  in  order  to  destroy  the  temples 

T imur  prepares  °  J     _  L 

for  a  campaign  of  the  heathen,  spread  the  true  faith,  and  in- 
against  china  Dentally  enrich  himself  and  his  army  with  the 
spoils  of  that  spacious,  ancient  and  wealthy  land.  After 
making  all  necessary  arrangements  for  the  campaign  and  for 
the  administration  of  his  vast  territories  during  his  absence, 
he  set  out  from  Samarqand  on  his  eastward  march  on 
November  27,  1404.  The  winter  was  exceptionally  severe, 
and  the  army,  after  suffering  much  from  the  cold,  crossed 
the  Jaxartes  (Slktiri)  on  the  ice,  and  reached  Utrar  on 
January  14,  1405.  A  month  later  Ti'mur  fell  ill, 

Illness  and  death     *  r 

of  Timuron  and,  though  treated  by  Mawlana  Fadlu'llah  of 
•et>.  18, 1405  Tabriz,  who  was  accounted  one  of  the  most 
skilful  physicians  of  his  age,  his  sickness  increased  and 
complications  set  in  until  he  finally  succumbed,  a  week  after 
the  first  attack,  on  February  18,  1405,  being  then  seventy-one 
[lunar]  years  of  age,  and  having  reigned  thirty-six  years. 
His  mind  remained  clear  to  the  last,  and  having  nominated 
his  grandson  Pi'r  Muhammad-i-Jahangfr  to  succeed  him  as 
ruler  of  his  vast  empire,  he  embodied  his  last  wishes  in  a 
discourse  which  is  fully  reported  by  Sharafu'd-Dm1,  and 
died  with  the  profession  of  the  faith  of  Islam  on  his  lips. 

The  character  of  Ti'mur  has  been  differently  appraised 

by  those  who  are  dazzled  by  his  military  achievements  on 

the  one  hand,  and  those  who  are  disgusted  by 

Various  views  .  _  °  J 

of  Timur's  his  cruelty  and  utter  disregard  of  human  life 
on  the  other.  One  factor  in  such  judgement 
is  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  the  much  discussed  and 
quoted  Tuztikdt,  or  "  Institutes,"  which  profess  to  contain 
Timur's  own  philosophy  of  Empire.  Thus  Gibbon  says,  in 
a  foot-note  in  ch.  Ixv,  that  though  he  "  did  not  expect  to 
hear  of  Tfmour's  amiable  moderation  "...he  "can  excuse  a 
generous  enthusiasm  in  the  reader,  and  still  more  in  the 
editor,  of  the  Institutions"  though  in  the  corresponding 
portion  of  the  text,  he  criticizes  him  pretty  severely,  and 
1  Op.  tit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  656-7. 


CH.  iv]  CHARACTER  OF  TfMtfR  203 

admits  that  "  perhaps  we  shall  conclude  that  the  Mogul 
Emperor  was  rather  the  scourge  than  the  benefactor  of  man- 
kind." Sir  John  Malcolm's  very  judicious  observations  have 
been  already  cited1.  Sir  Clements  R.  Markham2  says  that, 
although  Timur's  conquests  were  the  cause  of  much  suffer- 
ing to  the  human  race,  yet  "he  certainly  was  not  the 
remorseless  tyrant  he  is  represented  by  [Ibn]  'Arabshah 
and  his  other  enemies,"  and  that  "  there  is  evidence  that  he 
had  loftier  aims  than  the  mere  gratification  of  his  lust  for 
conquest."  He  adds3  that  though  "  the  name  of  Tfmur  is 
frequently  coupled  with  that  of  Chingi'z  Khan,  yet  the  latter 
was  a  rude  uncultivated  barbarian,  while  there  is  evidence 
that  the  former  was  versed  in  all  the  knowledge  of  his  age 
and  country."  As  regards  the  facts  of  Ti'mur's  life,  there 
is  little  difference  of  opinion  :  his  massacres  and  pyramids  of 
skulls  are  equally  chronicled  by  his  panegyrists,  Sharafu'd- 
Din  'Ah'  of  Yazd  and  Nizam-i-Shamf,  and  his  detractor  Ibn 
'Arabshah,  though  the  former  affect  to  regard  them  as 
"  manifestations  of  the  Divine  Attributes  of  Wrath  "  (Sifdt- 
i-Jaldliyya  or  Qahriyyd),  and  the  latter  as  the  outcome  of 
diabolic  malignity.  The  latter  view  appears  to  me  the 
more  reasonable  and  natural ;  and  as  for  the  "  Institutes," 
which  supply  a  quasi-philosophic  basis  for  this  policy  of 
"  frightfulness,"  I  incline  to  the  reasoned  opinion  expressed 
by  Rieu4  that  they  are  spurious. 

Before  closing  this  brief  account  of  Tfmur,  some  refer- 
ence should  be  made  to  certain  despatches  which  passed 
_^  „  between  him  and  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Bayazfd 

Firidun  Bey  s  .  * 

collection  of  and  others,  of  which  the  texts  are  preserved  in 
an  important  collection  of  State  Papers  known 
as  the  Munsha  dt-i-Firidun  Bey,  of  which  a  good  edition  was 
printed  at  Constantinople  in  Jumada  II,  A.H.  1274  (February, 
1858).  The  compiler  of  this  work,  Ahmad  Firidun,  known 
as  Tawqfi  (Tevqfi),  flourished  in  the  middle  of  the  tenth 

1  See  pp.  182-3  supra.  *  History  of  Persia,  p.  219. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  220,  and  the  Introductory  Life  of  Timur  prefixed  to 
Clavijo's  Embassy  to  the  Court  of  Tzmur,  p.  li.        4  Pers.  Cat.,  p.  178. 


204  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtfR  [BK  n 

century  of  the  Muhammadan  (sixteenth  of  the  Christian) 
era,  and  composed,  besides  the  Munsha'dt  (compiled  in 
982/1574-5),  a  history  entitled  Nuz-hatu'l-Akhbdr.  The 
first  volume  of  the  Munshddt  comprises  State  Papers 
ranging  in  date  from  the  time  of  the  Prophet  (seventh 

century  of  the  Christian  era)  to  the  middle  of 
n-       tne  sixteenth  century.     It  contains  626  large 
nectedwith         pages,  of  which  pp.  118-142  contain  letters  to, 

from,  or  about  Ti'mur,  as  follows : 

(i)  Letter  from  Qara  Yusuf  to  Sultan  Bayazfd,  written 
in  Persian  and  undated,  complaining  of  the  aggressions  of 
Tfmur,  whom  the  writer  describes  as  "  that  quickener  of  the 
fire  of  evil  and  trouble  and  agitator  of  the  chain  of  mischief 
and  insolence,  Ti'mur  the  object  of  Divine  Wrath  (may  God 
destroy  and  crush  him !),"  and  demanding  help  from  Bayazi'd 
(pp.  118-119). 

(2)  Bayazi'd's   answer  to  the   above,  also  written    in 
Persian  and  undated  (p.  119). 

(3)  Letter  from  Tfmur  to  Bayazi'd,  written  in  Arabic 
and   undated,  requiring  in   peremptory  language  that  no 
shelter  shall  be  afforded  to  Qara  Yusuf  and  Sultan  Ahmad, 
and  warning  the  Ottoman  Sultan  against  disobedience  to 
this  command  (pp.  120-1). 

(4)  Bayazi'd's   answer   to   the   above,  also  written   in 
Arabic  and  undated.     This  begins  (after  the  doxology), 
"  Know,  O  ravening  dog  named  Tfmur,"  and  hurls  defiance 
at  the  invader,  daring  him  to  advance  (p.  121). 

(5)  Letter  from  Sultan  Ahmad  Jala'ir  of  Baghdad  to 
Sultan  Bayazfd,  written  in  Persian  and  undated.    The  writer 
describes  how,  after  the  capture  of  Baghdad  and  the  two 
'Iraqs  by  Tfmur,  he  withdrew  to  Malatya  and  Si  was  to 
await  the  arrival  of  Qara  Yusuf,  according  to   Bayazi'd's 
instructions,  and  how  in  conjunction  they  attacked,  routed 
and  annihilated  the  Uzbeks  who  formed  the  vanguard  of 
Tfmur's  army,  but  were  awaiting  with  certainty  an  attack 
from  his  main  army  so  soon  as  news  of  this  disaster  should 
reach  him  (pp.  124-5). 


CH.  iv]  TfMtiR  AND  BAYAZfD  205 

(6)  Bayazi'd's  answer  to  the  above,  announcing  that,  in 
consequence  of  the  news  received    from  Sultan   Ahmad, 
he  has  concluded  peace  with  the  "  Tekfur,"  or  Byzantine 
Emperor,  and  has  advanced  to  Toqat  to  aid  in  checking 
the  invasion  of  Timur  (p.  125).     Dated  Sha'ban,  798  (May, 
1396). 

(7)  Second  letter  from  Ti'mur  to  Bayazfd,  written  in 
Persian  and  undated.     It  begins  with  a  "  salutation  tem- 
pered with  reproach "    (saldm-i-itdb-dmiz),  describes  the 
writer's  forty  years'  career  of  conquest,  and  how  he  has 
now  advanced  to  Si'was,  and  taunts  his  adversaries  with 
their  failure  to  capture  Malatya  and  Sinope.     He  is  still, 
however,  ready  to  come  to  terms,  since  he  is  unwilling  that 
the  dissensions  of  Muslims  should  afford  fresh  opportunity 
to  the   "  Prankish    infidels "   to  pursue  their   schemes  of 
aggression.     In  conclusion  he  describes  himself  as  of  the 
family  of  the  Il-khdnis,  and  demands  a  speedy  and  con- 
ciliatory answer  to  his  overtures  (pp.  126-7). 

(8)  Bayazid's  answer  to  the  above,  also  in  Persian  and 
undated.     The  writer  boasts  of  the  martial  prowess  of  the 
Turks,  reminds  Ti'mur  how  his  ancestor  Er-Toghril  with 
300  horsemen  routed  10,000  "  Tartar  and  Mongol  heathens," 
and  rehearses  other  like  glorious  deeds  of  his  predecessors. 
He  claims  to  be  the  protector  of  the  Muslims,  and  declares 
that  "hitherto  not  one  of  the  House  of  'Othman  has  sought 
by  flattery  to  turn  aside  an  enemy,  or  has  had  recourse  to 
deceit  or  guile"  (pp.  127-8). 

(9)  Ti'mur's  third  letter  to  Bayazi'd,  written  in  Persian 
and  undated,  acknowledging  a  letter  sent  by  means  of  the 
Qadi  Fan'du'd-Di'n  and  a  person  named  Najashi,  and  ex- 
pressing a  desire  for  friendship  and  alliance.    Timur  alludes 
to  his  Syrian  campaign,  objects  to  the  Sultans  of  Egypt 
calling    themselves    "  Kings    of  the   two    Holy   Shrines " 
(Sultdnul-Haramayn),   and    complains   of   the   return    of 
Sultan  Ahmad  Jala'ir  to  Baghdad  (pp.  128-131). 

(10)  Bayazid's  answer  to  the  above,  written  in  Persian. 
It  is  couched  in  much  politer  language  than  his  previous 


206  THE  PERIOD  OF  TfMtiR         [BK  11  CH.  iv 

letters,  but  declines  absolutely  to  surrender  Sultan  Ahmad 
Jala'ir  and  Qara  Yusuf,  which,  says  the  writer,  would  be 
entirely  incompatible  with  the  Ottoman  traditions  of  hospi- 
tality. He  alludes  to  the  continuance  in  Egypt  of  the 
lawful  descendants  of  the  'Abbasid  Caliphs,  and  calls  on 
Tfmur,  if  his  intentions  are  really  peaceful,  to  surrender 
Sfwas  (pp.  131-2). 

(i  i)  Tfmur's  fourth  letter  to  Bayazfd.  In  this  letter  he 
boasts  his  orthodoxy  and  adherence  to  the  Sunni  creed, 
denounces  the  actions  of  Sultan  Ahmad  Jala'ir  and  Qard 
Yusuf,  and  demands  their  banishment  from  Ottoman  terri- 
tory, and  an  apology  from  Bayazid  (pp.  132-4). 

(12)  Bayazfd's  answer  to  the  above  (pp.  134-5). 

(13)  Letters  from  Shah  Mansur,  the  nephew  of  Shah 
Shuja'  the  Muzaffarf  ruler  of  Shfraz,  to  Bayazid,  written 
in  Persian  after  Dhu'l  Qa'da,  802  (June — July,  1400),  de- 
scribing the  mischief  wrought  by  "  the  accursed  ones  of 
Chaghatay,"  and  the  deceitfulness  and  cunning  of  "  that 
sinner  and  rebel  "  Tfmur  (pp.  135-9). 

(14)  Bayazid's  answer  to  the  above.    He  abuses  Tfmur, 
alludes  to  the  depredations  wrought  by  him  in  Fars  and  at 
Shfraz,  and  states   that,  though  actually  engaged  in  an 
attempt   to   capture   Constantinople,   he   is   preparing   to 
abandon  this  in  order  to  attack  Tfmur  (pp.  139-140). 

(15)  Tfmur's   fifth   letter   to    Bayazfd,   written    from 
Maragha    in    Persian,  but    undated.      He   alludes   to   his 
capture  of  Baghdad,  and,  after  quoting  a  verse  to  the  effect 
that  to  win  the  whole  world  it  is  not  worth  vexing  even 
an  ant,  indulges  in  veiled  threats  as  to  what  he  will  do  if 
Bayazfd  still  refuses  to  listen  to  his  demands  (pp.  140-2). 

Here  ends  the  correspondence  between  Tfmur  and 
Bayazfd  preserved  by  Firfdun  Bey. 

It  only  remains  to  be  added  that  Tfmur's  corpse  was 
conveyed  across  the  frozen  Khujand  River  on  the  night  of 
Feb.  19,  1405,  and  interred  four  days  later  at  Samarqand, 
while  the  Chinese  campaign — happily  for  that  people — was 
finally  abandoned. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  POETS  AND  WRITERS  OF  THE  TIME  OF  TIMUR. 

Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  curious  but 

indisputable  fact  that  in  Persia,  at  any  rate,  periods  of  great 

turmoil  and  disorder  have  generally  produced 

Stable  govern-  .  ,,  ,   .,  .      ,  .. 

ment  not  neces-  the  finest  poetry,  while  periods  of  relative 
lVe  ProsPerity>  when  the  country  was  under  a  strong 
and  stable  government,  have  generally  been 
singularly  barren  in  this  respect1.  In  comparatively  modern 
times  Persia  has  never  been  more  strong,  united  and  pros- 
perous than  under  the  Safawi  dynasty  (A.D.  1502-1736), 
more  particularly  during  the  sixteenth  century  ;  yet,  though, 
not  only  in  military  strength,  national  unity  and  commerce, 
but  also  in  the  arts  (especially  architecture  and  painting) 
and  the  sciences  (especially  theology),  this  period  was 
particularly  brilliant,  it  hardly  produced  a  single  poet  of  com- 
manding genius  or  wide-spread  reputation  ;  a  phenomenon 
of  which  the  causes  will  be  discussed  when  we  come  to 
speak  of  the  epoch  in  question.  The  period  with  the  literary 
aspects  of  which  we  are  now  about  to  deal  is,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  will  have  been  sufficiently  apparent  from  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  one  of  anarchy,  misery  and  bloodshed ;  yet 
it  would  be  hard  to  indicate  any  period  of  seventy  years 
(A.D.  1335-1405)  which  produced  so  many  remarkable  poets, 
a  galaxy  of  talent  in  which  the  great  Hafiz  is  merely  the 
brightest  of  many  brilliant  stars.  Probably  the  existence  of 
numerous  little  courts,  each  anxious  to  rival  and  excel  the 
others,  is  favourable  to  the  development  of  poetical  talent, 
since  the  poet  who  fails  to  win  appreciation  from  one  royal 
patron  can  easily  find  another  who  may  prove  more  sus- 
ceptible to  his  song ;  while,  when  there  is  but  one  capital 

1  Cf.  pp.  1 60- 1  supra. 


2o8        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME      [BK  n 

and  one  court,  he  who  fails  there  (not  necessarily  from  lack 
of  talent  so  much  as  from  lack  of  opportunity,  ill  fortune, 
or  the  machinations  of  jealous  rivals)  is  likely  to  be  perma- 
nently discouraged,  or  at  least  to  remain  unknown  outside 
his  own  immediate  circle. 

From  this  point  of  view,  Persia,  immediately  after  the 

collapse  of  the  Mongol  power,  and  before  the  irruption  of 

Timur  the  Tartar,  was  an  ideal  field  for  the 

ditfo'n  o'fpersil"     wandering  poet.    In  the  North-East,  with  their 

from  the  extinc-    capjtal  at   Herat,  were  the  Kurt  princes;  at 

tion  of  the  •*  l 

Mongol  power  Sabzawar  and  the  neighbourhood  the  little 
Timflrrise  °f  Sarbadar  dynasty  (if  such  it  can  be  called)  held 

sway;  the  Il-kham's,Shaykh  Hasan-i-Buzurg,his 
son  Sultan  Uways,  and  their  descendants,  ruled  over  a 
curious  elliptical  domain  which  had  its  northern  capital 
at  Tabriz  and  its  southern  capital  at  Baghdad ;  while 
Southern  Persia  was  divided  amongst  princes  of  the  House 
of  Muzaffar,  often  independent  of,  and  even  at  war  with,  one 
another,  with  Shiraz,  Isfahan,  Yazd  and  Kirman  as  their 
seats  of  government.  There  were  no  hard  and  fast  frontiers 
to  these  little  states,  and  no  map  could  be  made  showing 
the  divisions  of  these  fluid,  ever-shifting  kingdoms  ;  rather, 
if  we  wish  to  reconstruct  the  political  geography  of  Persia 
at  that  period,  we  must  conceive  of  some  seven  or  eight 
centres  whence  radiated,  in  ever-varying  strength,  the 
influence  of  as  many  petty  warrior-princes,  whose  truculent 
activities  were  oftener  than  not  combined  with  a  fine 
literary  taste. 

Of  the  poets  of  this  period  some  ten  at  least  deserve 
mention,  either  on  account  of  their  evident  originality  and 

beauty,  or  because  of  the  reputation  which  they 
fenTnbceerof  thT  enJoy  in  their  own  country.  These  two  things 
poets  of  this  do  not  necessarily  go  together,  but  either  of 

period  ° 

them  seems  to  me  to  entitle  a  poet  at  any  rate 
to  honourable  mention  ;  for  a  foreign  critic  must  always 
entertain  some  mistrust  of  his  judgements,  and  must  re- 
member that,  strive  as  he  may,  he  can  hardly  hope  to 


CH.V]  CANONS  OF  CRITICISM  209 

develop  the  fine  and  discriminating  taste  of  the  cultivated 
native  critic,  and  that  the  mere  fact  that  a  poet 

By  what  cn- 

terions  poets  has  maintained  his  reputation  amongst  his  own 
b^I  fordgif5  countrymen  for  several  centuries  entitles  him  at 
critic  least  to  some  respectful  consideration.  This 

applies  to  lyrical  poets  like  Khwaju  and  'Imad  of  Kirman 
and  Kamal  of  Khujand,  of  whom  one  is  apt  to  think  as 
mere  dim  reflections  of  the  incomparable  Hafiz,  devoid  of 
any  salient  originality  ;  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  first  died  37  and  the  second  18  years  before  him,  and 
that  they  may  therefore  well  have  prepared  the  way  for  his 
greater  achievements,  while  the  eminence  of  the  third,  who 
was  his  contemporary,  is  to  a  certain  extent  certified  by 
Hafiz  himself  in  the  verse  — 


JujXi 

which  is  translated  by  Rosenzweig-Schwannau1  — 

"Wenn  er  erst  Hafisens  Lieder  horet, 
Die  als  zart  und  lieblich  Jeder  kennt, 
Wird  sich  selbst  Kemal  nicht  unterfangen 
Dichtend  aufzutreten  in  Chodschend." 

On  the  other  hand  poets  like  'Ubayd-i-Zakani  and 
Bushaq  (Abu  Ishaq)  are  so  original  that,  whether  appreciated 
or  not  in  their  own  country,  they  cannot  be  ignored  by  any 
student  of  Persian  literature. 

I   propose,   therefore,   to   discuss  in   this   chapter   the 

following  poets,  and,  that  priority  may  be  duly  considered 

in  relation  to  actual    merit,   in   chronological 

Untrustworthi-  ,  r^,   .        ,  11  j      i 

ness  of  most  of     order.      1  his,  however,  can  only  be  regarded  as 
the  Persian  Wo-     approximate,  since  in  most  cases  the  date  of 

graphers  of  poets        Ai  . 

death  only  is  recorded  (and  that  often  uncer- 
tainly), and  we  often  do  not  know  whether  the  poet  died 
young  or  at  an  advanced  old  age.  Indeed,  notwithstanding 
the  numerous  biographies  of  poets  given  by  Dawlatshah, 

1  Hafts,  Dtwdn,  vol  i,  pp.  328,  329,  11.  13-14  of  text. 
B.  P.  14 


210        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

and  in  the  Atash-kada,  Haft  Iqltm  and  other  similar  well- 
known  works,  the  lack  of  authentic  particulars  as  to  the 
lives  and  characters  of  these  poets  is  a  very  discouraging 
feature  in  our  quest.  Most  of  the  anecdotes  given  in  these 
books  are  trivial  or  fictitious,  and,  save  for  what  can  be 
gleaned  from  their  verses  (where  again  we  are  often 
hampered  by  the  lack  of  anything  approaching 
Lack  of  crmcai  a  crjtfcai  edition),  we  are  finally  driven  to  admit 

editions  •"  * 

that  we  know  very  little  indeed  about  most  of 
them.  They  were  generally  poor  men,  often  socially  obscure, 
and  as  such  were  completely  ignored  by  contemporary 
historians,  while  all  that  later  generations,  who  appreciated 
their  merit,  could  do  was,  as  a  rule,  to  string  together  a  few 
more  or  less  trivial  anecdotes,  evidently  constructed  in  many 
cases  to  explain  or  illustrate  passages  in  their  poems.  An 
exception  must  be  made  in  favour  of  one  rare  manuscript 
work,  the  Mujmal  ("  Compendium  ")  of  Fasihf  of  Khwaf1,  a 
chronicle  of  some  thousand  pages  compiled  in  845/1441-2 
and  containing  many  valuable  details  not  to  be  found  else- 
where, especially  in  what  concerns  the  province  of  Khurasan 
in  general,  and  the  city  of  Herat  in  particular. 

The  poets  of  this  period  whom  I  propose  to  discuss  are 
the  following : 

(i)  Ibn-i-Yamin  (d.  745/1345  according  to 
be  discussed  in  Dawlatshdh2,  or  /69/ 1 368  according  to  the  more 
this  chapter  authoritative  Mujmal}  was  associated  with  the 
Sarbadar  dynasty. 

1  So  far  as  I  know,  only  three  MSS.  of  this  work  exist  in  Europe. 
One,  in  St  Petersburg,  is  described  by  the  late  Baron  Victor  Rosen  at 
pp.  111-113  of  his  Collections  Scientifiques,  vol.  iii,  Manuscrits  Persans 
(No.  271)  and  by  Dorn  in  vol.  ii  of  the  Bulletin  de  la  classe  historico- 
philologique  de  V Academic  Imperiale  des  Sciences  de  St  Pdtersbourg, 
pp.  i  et  seqq.     The  second  (marred  by  an  extensive  lacuna  comprising 
the  years  A.H.  718-840)  formerly  belonged  to  the  late  Colonel  Raverty, 
and  is  now  the  property  of  the  "E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial  Trust."    The 
third,  modern  but  complete,  belonged  to  Sir  Albert  Houtum-Schindler 
and  is  now  in  my  possession.     See  also  p.  150  supra,  n.  i  ad  calc. 

2  See  p.  276,  11.  12-13  of  my  edition. 


CH.  v]  IBN-I-YAMfN  211 

(2)  Khwdjii  of  Kirmdn  (d.  753/1352,  or,  according  to 
Dawlatshah,  742/1341-2). 

(3)  'Ubayd-i-Zdkdni,  the   great  satirist  and  parodist 

(d.  772/1371). 

(4)  llmdd  of  Kirmdn  (d.  773/1372). 

(5)  Salman  of  Saw  a  (d.  779/1378),  the  panegyrist  of 
Sultan  Uways. 

(6)  fififo  of  Shirdz  (d.  791/1389). 

(7)  Kamdl  of  Khujand  (d.  793/1 39  r ,  or  803/1400). 

(8)  Maghribi,  the  mystic  (d.  809/1407). 

(9)  Bushaq  (Abu  Ishaq)  of  Shirdz,  the  gastronomic 
poet  (d.  814/1416). 

(10)  Nizdmud-Din  Mahmiid  Qdri  of  Yazd,  the  poet 
of  clothes. 

Of  each  of  these  poets  I  shall  now  proceed  to  speak  in 
detail. 

I.     Ibn-i-Yamin 
(Amir  Mahmiid  ibn  Amir  Yaminu'd-Din  Tughrdi\ 

Although  notices  of  this  poet  and  his  father  Yaminu'd- 
Din  (from  whom  he  derives  the  name  Ibn-i-Yamin — "son 
of  Yamin" — by  which  he  is  commonly  known)  occur  in 
Dawlatshah1,  the  Haft  Iqlim,  Atash-kada*,  Majma'u'l- 
Fusahd*  and  other  biographical  works,  the  few  particulars 
about  him  which  are  known  to  us  are  chiefly  derived  from 
the  rare  Mujmal  of  Fasihi.  In  this  work  Ibn-i-Yamin  is 
thrice  mentioned,  under  the  years  743/1342-3,  and  769/ 
1367-8,  the  year  of  his  death. 

The  first  of  these  two  notices,  so  far  as  it  concerns 
Ibn-i-Yamin,  runs  as  follows  : 

"War  of  Malik  Mu'izzu'd-Dfn  Abu'l-Husayn 

ibn-i-vLnin        Muhammad-i-AT«r/  with  Khwaja  Wajihu'd-Dfn 

™i?l£?jmal     W-*5'u6.-\-Sarbaddr  and   Shaykh   Hasan-i-Juri 

between  Zawa  and  Khwaf,  and  death  of  Shaykh 

1  Pp.  272,  275-7  and  359  of  my  edition. 

2  P.  7  of  the  Bombay  lithographed  ed.  of  A.H.  1277. 

3  Vol.  ii,  pp.  2-5  of  the  Tihr£n  lithograph. 

14 — 2 


212        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

Hasan-i-Juri  at  the  hands  of  Khwaja  Wajihu'd-Din  Mas'ud's 
men  on  the  I3th  of  Safar  [A.H.  743  =  July  18,  1342],  and 
flight  of  Khwaja  Wajihu'd-Din. 

"Loss  of  the  Diwdn  (complete  poetical  works)  of  the 
late  Amir  Fakhru'1-Haqq  wa'd-Dm  Mahmud  ibn-i-Yamin 
the  Mustawft  (government  accountant)  of  Faryumad,  which 
was  looted  in  the  battle  mentioned  above.  Here  is  the 
fragment  [in  which  Ibn-i-Yami'n  refers  to  this  event]  : 


'It  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  spoilers,  and  thereafter  no  trace  of  it  was 
found.' 

"The  above-mentioned  Amir  Fakhru'd-Din  Mahmud 
[Ibn-i-Yamfn]  sent  the  following  fragment  which  he  had 
composed  from  Sabzawar  to  Malik  Mu'izzu'd-Dm  Abu'l- 


'  O-*   Ol*!*    '^te  J9*~>>  j 


<**  I*  _ 

j\  a 

-  f  •  \ 

J  Ji 

-^"       V     ^*^^  *^^       ^  J 

c *-**-— -^  Lj 

^  *<IIMI  «l^'        »^  _  _  _ 

X  ^ 

JU. 


CH.  v]  IBN-I-YAMfN  213 


'  C*..«^.«   b   ijt^^Uj    .**:**    OW? 


ib    jul    U 


"  Seek  as  they  might  his  Dtwdn  was  not  to  be  found,  so 
he  made  a  [fresh]  compilation  from  the  anthologies  of  the 
Masters  [of  this  art],  and  from  what  each  [amateur  of  verse] 
remembered  by  heart,  and  from  what  he  himself  subsequently 
composed  : 

'jb  j 


'So  that  my  verses,  scattered  like  the  Seven  Thrones1, 
Might  be  again  co-ordinated  like  the  Pleiades.'" 

1  I.e.  the  Great  Bear,  also  called  "the  Seven  Brothers"  (Haft  Bira- 
dardri],  and  by  the  Arabs  Bandtu'n-Na'-sh,  "the  Daughters  of  the 
Bier,"  or  "  Pall-bearers." 


214        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

This  ends  the  first  notice  of  Ibn-i-Yamm  in  the  Mujmal> 
but,  before  passing  on  to  the  second,  I  should  give  a  trans- 
lation of  the  fourteen  couplets  quoted  above,  which,  if  not 
remarkable  as  poetry,  are  of  interest  on  account  of  the  data 
which  they  afford. 

( Translation} 

"If  Heaven,  by  a  trick,  snatched  my  Diwdn  out  of  my  hands, 
Thanks  be  to  God  !  He  who  made  the  Dtwdn1  is  still  with  me  ! 
And  if  Fate  plucked  from  me  a  string  of  pearls  fit  for  a  king, 
Yet  I  grieve  not  at  its  loss,  since  the  remedy  is  with  me. 
And  if  the  wind  tore  a  flower  from  a  branch  of  the  rose-bush  of  my 

talent, 

A  garden  full  of  anemones,  eglantine  and  basil  is  still  with  me. 
And  if  one  of  my  shells  of  brilliant  pearls  was  emptied, 
I  still  have  a  mind  filled  with  pearls  like  the  sea  of  'Ummdn. 
What  matters  it  if  a  few  drops  of  the  sputterings  of  my  pen  are  lost  ? 
There  still  remains  with  me  a  talent  bountiful  as  the  April  cloud  ! 
If  the  sweet  water  of  my  verse  has  been  cast  to  the  winds  like  dust 
It  matters -little,  for  with  me  is  the  Fountain  of  the  Water  of  Life. 
And  though  my  heart  is  grieved  at  the  loss  of  my  Diwan, 
Why  should  I  grieve  at  this,  since  my  pearl-producing  genius  re- 
mains ? 
And  if  the  praise  of  the  King  of  the  World  is,  like  the  fame  of  his 

justice, 
Spread  abroad  throughout  the  earth,  the  praise-producing  talent  is 

mine ! 

Although  I  could  compile  another  Diwan,  yet 
My  life's  work  is  wasted,  and  regret  for  this  remains  with  me. 
If  this  vile  Age  is  unkind  to  me,  what  matter 
If  the  favours  of  the  King  of  the  Age  are  mine  ? 
That  just  Prince  Mu'izziSd-Dtn,  whose  virtue  cries, 
4  Whatever  of  glory  can  enter  the  Phenomenal  World  is  mine.' 
The  chief  of  the  favours  which  in  all  circumstances 
The  King  of  the  Age  doth  show  me  amongst  all  my  peers 
Is  this,  that  by  his  favour  one  of  noble  rank  says  to  me 
'Rejoice,  O  Ibn-i-Yamm,  for  the  constituent  parts  of  the  Diwan 

are  in  my  possession  ! ' 

Life  has  passed  :  may  he  continue  successful  until  Eternity, 
And  may  the  daily  portion  of  me  his  servant  be  prayers  for  the 
King  so  long  as  life  remains  to  me  ! " 

1  I.e.  my  genius,  myself. 


CH.  v]  IBN-I-YAMfN  215 

The  second  entry  in  the  Mujmal  is  very  brief,  and 
merely  records  the  death  of  Ibn-i-Yamin  on  the 

ibn-i-Yamm's  8th  of  Jumada  ii,  769  (Jan.  30,  1368),  this  date 
being  further  commemorated  in  the  following 

chronogram  : 


This  is  followed  by  a  quatrain1  said  to  have  been  uttered 
by  the  poet  a  little  before  his  death: 


"  Regard  not  Ibn-i-Yamm's  heart  of  woe  ; 
See  how  from  out  this  transient  world  I  go. 
Qur'an  in  hand  and  smiling,  forth  I  wend 
With  Death's  dread  messenger  to  seek  the  Friend." 

Dawlatshah  devotes  an  article  to  the  poet's  father  as 
well  as  to  himself  (Nos.  6  and  7  of  the  fifth  Tabaqa\  but 
Particulars  given  contributes  few  material  or  trustworthy  facts, 
by  Dawlatshah  though  he  cites  one  fine  poem  of  14  couplets 

concerning  ^  ^        r  t  1111  i 

ibn-i-Yanim  by  the  former,  whose  death  he  places  in  the  year 
and  his  father  724/1324.  According  to  him  Amfr  Yaminu'd- 
Di'n,  the  father  of  our  poet,  was  of  Turkish  origin  ;  settled 
as  a  landowner  at  Faryumad,  where  his  son  was  born,  in 
the  reign  of  the  Mongol  Sultan  Khuda-banda;  and  enjoyed 
the  favour  and  patronage  of  Khwaja  'Ala'u'd-Din  Muham- 
mad, who  was  in  the  fiscal  service  of  Sultdn  Abu  Sa'fd, 

1  Given  also  with  very  slight  variations  by  Dawlatshdh,  p.  276, 
11.  15-18  of  my  edition. 


216        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

and  who  was  killed  near  Astarabad  by  the  Sarbadars  in 
7  37  11  336-7.  Concerning  the  son,  Ibn-i-Yamm,  he  tells  us 
little,  save  that  he  was  the  panegyrist  of  the  Sarbadars, 
which  is  doubtful,  and  that  he  died  in  745/1344-5,  which 
is  almost  certainly  incorrect  ;  but  he  endeavours  to  make 
up  for  this  dearth  of  information  by  a  digression  of  ten 
pages  on  the  history  of  the  little  Sarbadar  dynasty,  which 
lasted  about  fifty  years  and  was  finally  extinguished  by 
Timur  about  788/1386.  The  Haft  Iqlzm,  Atash-kada  and 
Majma'u'l-Fusahd  practically  yield  no  further  information, 
except  that  the  last-named  work  states  that  Ibn-i-Yamin 
was  the  panegyrist  of  Tugha-Timur.  Owing  to  the  loss  of 
his  Dtwdn,  as  described  above,  it  is  impossible  to  determine 
with  certainty  who  were  his  patrons  and  to  whom  his 
panegyrics  were  chiefly  addressed. 

Ibn-i-Yamfn's  extant  work  consists  of  his  Muqattctdt, 
or  "  Fragments,"  most  of  which  are  of  a  philosophical,  ethical 

or  mystical  character.  An  edition  of  them  was 
fb^Yamin  s  °f  printed  at  Calcutta  in  1865,  and  I  also  possess 

a  pretty  and  carefully-written  manuscript  dated 
Rajab  5.  88  1  (Oct.  24,  1476).  A  German  rendering  of  many 
of  these  poems  by  Schlechta-Wssehrd  has  also  been  pub- 
lished1. The  following  fine  verses  on  the  evolution  of  the 
soul  are  amongst  the  best  and  most  celebrated  of  Ibn-i- 
Yamin's  poems  : 


1  Ibn   Jemiris  Bruchstucke,  Vienna,   1852,   pp.    191.     It    contains 
translations  of  164  "Fragments." 


CH.  v]  IBN-I-YAMfN  217 


The  following  is  a  rather  free  translation  of  the  above  : 
"From  the  void  of  Non-Existence  to  this  dwelling-house  of  clay 
I  came,  and  rose  from  stone  to  plant  ;  but  that  hath  passed  away  ! 
Thereafter,  through  the  working  of  the  Spirit's  toil  and  strife, 
I  gained,  but  soon  abandoned,  some  lowly  form  of  life  : 

That  too  hath  passed  away  ! 

In  a  human  breast,  no  longer  a  mere  unheeding  brute, 
This  tiny  drop  of  Being  to  a  pearl  I  did  transmute  : 

That  too  hath  passed  away  ! 

At  the  Holy  Temple  next  did  I  foregather  with  the  throng 
Of  Angels,  compassed  it  about,  and  gazed  upon  it  long  : 

That  too  hath  passed  away  ! 

Forsaking  Ibn-i-Yamin,  and  from  this  too  soaring  free, 
I  abandoned  all  beside  Him,  so  that  naught  was  left  but  HE  : 

All  else  hath  passed  away  !  " 

The  same  ideas  have  been  equally  well  expressed,  how- 
A  parallel  ever,  by  the  great  mystical  poet  Jalalu'd-Dm 

passage  on  the      Rumf,  who  lived  a  century  earlier,  in  a  very 

evolution  of  the  y  • 

soul  from  the       well-known  passage  of  the   Mathnawi  which 

Mathnant 


2i  8        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

"  I  died  from  mineral  and  plant  became  ; 
Died  from  the  plant,  and  took  a  sentient  frame  ; 
Died  from  the  beast,  and  donned  a  human  dress  ; 
When  by  my  dying  did  I  e'er  grow  less  ? 
Another  time  from  manhood  I  must  die 
To  soar  with  angel-pinions  through  the  sky. 
'Midst  Angels  also  I  must  lose  my  place, 
Since  ''Everything  shall  perish  save  His  Face.' 
Let  me  be  Naught  !  The  harp-strings  tell  me  plain 
That  '  unto  Him  do  we  return  again1  !  '" 


(Another  Fragment) 


"  Only  for  one  of  reasons  twain  the  wise 
Possession  of  this  varied  world  do  prize  : 
Either  to  benefit  their  friends  thereby, 
Or  else  to  trample  down  some  enemy. 
But  he  who  seeketh  wealth  upon  this  earth, 
And  knoweth  not  wherein  consists  its  worth 
Is  as  the  gleaner,  who  with  toil  doth  bind 
His  sheaf,  then  casts  the  harvest  to  the  wind. 
Naught  but  a  weary  soul  and  aching  back 
Accrue  to  those  who  understanding  lack." 

The  following  is  typical  in  its  Manichaean  and  Malthu- 
sian  pessimism  : 


V  'ajudl 


>»     >*°!~3 


1  Compare  Tennyson  in  Locksley  Hall : 
"  Love  took  up  the  harp  of  Life,  and  smote  on  all  the  chords  with 

might ; 
Smote  the  chord  of  Self,  that,  trembling,  pass'd  in  music  out  of  sight." 


CH.  v]  IBN-I-YAMfN  219 

"  Knowest  thou  wherefore  the  child  no  gratitude  bears 
E'en  to  the  father  who  makes  him  the  chief  of  his  heirs? 
'  'Twas  thou,5  he  seems  to  say,  '  who  my  peace  didst  mar 
By  bringing  me  into  a  world  where  such  miseries  are  !'" 

The  fragment  next  following  also  represents  a  line  of 
thought  common  with  Ibn-i-Yamm  and  others  of  his  school  : 


'  C..IM.A  Jjbt  A*.   Jiai  ...o   ^,-vsfc-ct   A*. 


"  That  God  who  on  Creation's  Primal  Day1 
The  first  foundations  of  thy  soul  did  lay, 
Who  in  His  Wisdom  did  for  forty  morns 
Fashion  the  house  of  clay  thy  soul  adorns2, 

1  The  Ruz-i-Alast,  or  "Day  of  'Am  I  not'  [your  Lord]?"  is  the 
day  at  the  beginning  of  time  when  God  thus  addressed  the  souls  which 
He  had  created,  A  -lastu  bi-Rabbikum?  "Am  I  not  your  Lord?" 

'2  It  is  said  in  the  traditions  "  God  Most  High  kneaded  Adam's  clay 
for  forty  days."  See  Tabari,  I,  91. 


220        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME      [BK  n 

Who  bade  the  Pen1  inscribe  upon  thy  brow 

Whate'er  betided  thee  from  then  till  now, 

It  ill  beseems  Him  on  the  Judgement-Day 

'This  was  well  done,  and  that  done  ill'  to  say  ! 

For  he  who  sows  the  camel-thorn  can  ne'er 

Expect  the  aloe-tree  to  blossom  there. 

Since,  then,  the  Muslim  and  the  Christian  stand 

Subject  alike  to  His  supreme  command, 

'  Why  should  He  give,'  in  wonder  ask  the  wise, 

'To  this  one  Hell,  to  that  one  Paradise?'" 


(Another  Fragment} 


f^  ^  " 

-\^    LJ      '<t-\Jt 

"  Whoe'er  he  be,  wherever  he  may  dwell 
A  man  should  strive  to  guard  his  honour  well  ; 
Conceit  and  folly  he  should  put  aside, 
And  turn  his  back  on  arrogance  and  pride  ; 
Should  so  behave  that  none  through  him  should  e'er 
Endure  vexation  equal  to  a  hair  ; 
None  should  despise  for  lack  of  power  or  pelf, 
And  deem  each  neighbour  better  than  himself; 
Then  all  his  energies  and  wealth  should  spend 
That  so  perchance  he  thus  may  gain  a  friend." 

(Another  Fragment) 


1  According  to  another  tradition  (Tabarf,  i,  29)  the  Prophet  said  : 
"  The  first  thing  which  God  created  was  the  Pen,  and  He  commanded 
it  to  write  down  everything"  (i.e.,  as  is  explained  in  other  traditions, 
everything  predestined  to  happen). 


CH.  v]  IBN-I-YAMfN  221 


jb  jl  >swj 

l/o*  jt  ju 


"  A  corner  which  no  stranger  can  explore, 
Where  no  one  bores  you,  and  you  no  one  bore, 
A  sweetheart,  lute  and  song,  a  friend  or  two  — 
At  most  a  party  not  exceeding  four  ; 
A  harp,  a  zither,  roasted  meats  and  wine, 
A  cup-bearer  who  is  a  friend  of  thine, 
Reason,  which  doth  distinguish  good  and  ill, 
Regarding  not  thy  ploy  with  eyes  malign  ! 

Whoever  doth  disparage  such  affair 
Is  in  the  spirit-  world  devoid  of  share  ; 
To  Ibn-i-Yamm  should  such  luck  accrue 
For  no  one  in  this  world  or  that  he'd  care  !" 

The  following  fragment  is  practically  a  paraphrase  of 
some  very  well-known  Arabic  verses  ascribed  to  Qdbus  ibn 
Washmgi'r,  Prince  of  Tabaristan  (reigned  A.D.  976-1012), 
which  are  quoted  in  the  Story  of  the  Merchant  and  the 
Jinni'm  the  Arabian  Nights1: 


1  See  W.  H.  MacNaghten's  edition  (Calcutta,  1839),  vol.  i,  p.  11, 
11.  1-8. 


222        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  n 


"  Not  as  I  would,  O  friends,  the  world  doth  go  : 
Of  men  of  genius  'tis  the  constant  foe. 
Though  fickle  Fortune  trouble  me,  what  then  ? 
Trouble's  the  portion  of  all  noble  men. 
The  sky  holds  countless  stars,  of  which  not  one 
Suffers  eclipse,  except  the  moon  and  sun. 
'Tis  custom  now  that  he  who  wants  for  wits 
Ever  above  the  man  of  talent  sits, 
As  on  the  sea  the  dust  and  rubbish  swim 
While  pearls  lie  sunk  in  its  abysses  dim." 

2.     Khwdjti.  of  Kirmdn 
(Kamdlud-Din  Abu'l-Atd  Mahmdd  ibn  'Alt  ibn  Mahmtid}. 

Although  nearly  all  the  well-known  biographies,  such 

as    Dawlatshah1,   the   Haft   Iqlhn,   the    Atash-kada\   the 

Majma'u'l-Fusahd3,    etc.,    contain    notices    of 

Khwaju  of  Kirman,  they  are  singularly  jejune 

and    lacking    in    precise    information,    while 

such   precise    information    as    is    given    is    often    demon- 

strably   incorrect      Indeed    the    carelessness    with   which 

these  works  are  compiled  and  copied   is  deplorable.     To 

take  one  instance  only,  Rida-qulf  Khan,  in  spite  of  his 

undeniable   attainments  as   a   poet,  a   lexicographer  and 

a  historian,  states  in  the  Majmctul-Fusahd  that  Khwaju 

was    the    panegyrist    of    Sultan    Abu    Sa'i'd    Khan,    who 

1  Pp.  249-253  of  my  edition. 

2  Pp.  109-110,  Bombay  lith.  of  A.  H.  1277. 

3  Vol.  ii,  pp.  15-18  of  the  Tihra"n  lithographed  edition. 


CH.  v]  KHWAjtf  OF  KIRMAN  223 

reigned  from  716-736/1316-1335,  and  immediately  after- 
wards gives  the  year  of  his  death  as  503/1109-1110,  which 
is  evidently  a  careless  mistake  for  753.  Dawlatshah,  who 
gives  742/1341-2  as  the  year  of  his  decease,  describes 
him  as  belonging  to  a  good  family  in  Kirman,  where, 
however,  he  spent  but  a  small  part  of  his  life,  though  in 
some  verses  quoted  on  the  same  page1,  and  evidently 
composed  at  Baghdad,  he  speaks  of  his  native  town  with 
longing  and  affection: 


•***.  O!P  A;'*  <*^    'L^'J-*  O^*  Ah*  O'  ^ 


„  "  Pleasant  the  fragrant  and  sweet-scented  blast 

Verses  showing 

his  love  of  his  Which  o'er  the  earth  of  Kirman  late  hath  passed  ! 

native  place  Pleasant  the  days  of  that  sweet  Philomel 

Which  in  its  groves  and  gardens  fair  doth  dwell  ! 
What  fault  was  mine  that  Heaven  did  decree 
From  that  pure  land  I  must  an  exile  be  ? 
Wherefore  in  Baghdad  city  must  I  dwell 
That  tears  like  Tigris  from  mine  eyes  may  well2?" 

During  his  travels,  according  to  the  Haft  Iqltm,  Khwaju 
made  the  acquaintance  of  many  of  his  contemporaries 
amongst  the  poets  and  men  of  letters,  and  became  the 
disciple  of  the  eminent  and  pious  Shaykh  Ruknu'd-Dm 
'Ala'u'd-Dawla  of  Simnan,  with  a  sketch  of  whose  life 
Dawlatshah  seeks  to  compensate  us  for  the  exiguity  of 
his  information  about  the  proper  subject  of  his  biography. 
Rieu3  quotes  some  verses  in  which  a  little-known  con- 
temporary poet  named  Haydar  of  Shiraz  fiercely  attacks 

1  Loc.  cit.,  p.  249,  11.  1  8-2  1. 

2  Literally,  "Where  naught  but  the  Tigris  comes  into  my  eyes." 
This  may  either  mean  "Where  my  eyes  serve  only  to  shed  rivers  of 
tears,"  or,  "Where  I  can  see  nothing  but  the  Tigris." 

3  British  Museum  Pers.  Cat.,  p.  623. 


224        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

Khwaju,  whom    he  calls   "a    Kabuli   thief  from    Kirman 
town,"  as  a  plagiarist.     He  says  : 

.    "  Do  not  mention  the  name  of  Khwaju  before  a  poet, 

Khwajfi  accused  ,  * 

of  plagiarism  For  he  is  a  thief  from  the  Diivan  of  Sa  di. 

by  Haydar  of          Since  he  cannot  compete  in  verse  even  with  me 

Shiraz 


I   can  find  no  mention  of  Khwaju  in  the  Mujmal  of 

Fasihi,  but  Hamdu'llah  Mustawfi  of  Qazwin  accords  him 

a  brief  notice  and  cites  one  of  his  poems  in 

KwSaTn'the     the    Tctrikk-i-Guzida,  which    was    completed 

chief  biographies  jn    730/1  33O1,    so   that   even    during   his    life- 

time he  was  evidently  well-known  throughout 

Persia.     He  is  also  mentioned  in  the  Majdlisu'l-Mu'mimn, 

that  late  but  extensive  biographical  work  on  the  ornaments 

of  the  Shi'a  sect  of  Islam,  which,  however,  in  this  case  does 

little  more  than  copy  Dawlatshah. 

It  may  be  laid  down  as  a  general  principle  that  the 

only  satisfactory  method  of  writing  the  lives  of  Persian 

poets,  with  the  possible  exception  of  some  of 

Von  Erdmann's         ,  ,  ,  .          .  .         .    ,       -  ,         _  r 

critical  study       the  older  ones,  who   lived  before  the  Mongol 
of  Khwaju's         Invasion  had  destroyed  the  scientific  spirit  of 

life  and  works  ....  . 

historical  criticism  in  Persia,  is  to  collect  and 
collate  such  particulars  as  can  be  derived  from  their  own 
works  as  preserved  in  old  and  correct  manuscript  copies, 
since  little  confidence  can  be  placed  in  some  of  the  modern 
lithographed  editions.  This  method  has  been  followed  in 
the  case  of  many  of  the  older  poets,  such  as  Firdawsf, 
Nizami,  Anwari,  Khaqani,  etc.,  and  in  this  respect  Khwaju 
is  more  fortunate  than  many  of  his  contemporaries,  for  so 
long  ago  as  1848  Dr  Franz  von  Erdmann  published2  a 
short  account  of  him,  in  which,  after  quoting  and  translating 
Dawlatshah's  article,  he  gives  a  brief  description  of  a  manu- 

1  P.  818  of  \htfac-simile  edition  published  in  the  "E.  J.  W.  Gibb 
Memorial"  Series,  xiv,  i.    See  also  pp.  29-30  of  the  reprint  of  an  article 
on  the  Biographies  of  Persian  Poets  contained  in...  the  Tdrtkh-i-Guzida 
which  I  contributed  to  the  J.R.A.S.  for  Oct.  1900  and  Jan.  1910. 

2  Z.D.M.G.  for  1848,  vol.  ii,  pp.  205-215. 


CH.  v]  KHWAjtf  OF  KIRMAN  225 

script  of  his  Kkamsa,  or  five  longer  mathnawi  poems, 
adding  some  useful  particulars  derived  from  them  and 
from  his  Diwdn.  These  particulars  I  shall  here  sum- 
marize, together  with  the  additional  details  contributed 
by  Rieu1. 

According  to  his  own  statement,  in  his  poem  Naw-riiz 
u  Gul  ("  New  Year's  Day  and  the  Rose  "),  he  was  born  on 
Shawwal  15,  679  (Feb.  7,  1281).  He  began  his  poetical 
career  by  attaching  himself  to  the  court  of  one  of  the 
Muzaffarf  princes,  probably  Mubarizu'd-Dm  Muhammad, 
the  founder  of  that  dynasty,  at  Yazd.  Later  he  fre- 
quented the  court  of  Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq  (reigned  742- 
754/1341-1353)  at  Shi'raz,  and,  as  may  be  gathered  from 
the  dedications  of  some  of  his  qasidas  (panegyrics)  given 
by  von  Erdmann,  the  courts  of  Shirwan-shah  and  Qizil 
Arslan,  Prince  of 'Iraq,  while  the  poem  already  cited  shows 
that  he  also  spent  some  time  at  Baghdad.  In  short  he 
would  seem  to  have  wandered  through  the  greater  part 
of  Persia,  and  cannot  be  regarded,  like  some  of  his 
contemporaries,  as  essentially  the  poet  of  one  particular 
dynasty. 

Khwaju's  poems  comprise  the  five  romantic  mathnawis 

which  constitute  the  Kkamsa,  or  "  Quintet "  (of  which  no 

copy  is  accessible  in   Cambridge,  though  the 

E/'a,nt ?.°,ems       British  Museum  possesses  a  fine  copy2  made 

of  Khwiju  rv 

in  798/1396),  and  a  Diwdn  containing  qasidas 
(some  religious,  but  mostly  panegyrics),  ghazals  (odes), 
muqatta'dt  (fragments),  rubd'iyydt  (quatrains),  etc.  Of  the 
Diwdn  I  possess  two  manuscripts,  one  quite  modern,  and 
the  other,  bought  at  the  sale  of  the  Fiott-Hughes  library 
about  twenty  years  ago,  copied  by  "  Darwish  Hafiz  of 
Shi'raz "  (not,  of  course,  the  great  Hafiz,  who  died  more 
than  a  century  earlier)  in  899/1493-4.  A  former  owner  of 
the  last-mentioned  manuscript  has  computed  the  number 
of  verses  which  it  contains  at  about  four  thousand. 

1  British  Museum  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  620-3. 

2  Add.  18,113,  to  which  Rieu's  remarks,  where  cited,  refer. 

B.  P.  15 


226        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  n 

The  five  poems  which  constitute  the  Khamsa  are  : 

(1)  Naw-rtiz  u  Gul  ("New  Year's  Day  and  the  Rose"), 

of  which  the   contents   are   briefly  stated  by 
^thMw^r       von    Erdmann,   who    says    that   it    comprises 
2615  verses  (bayf). 

(2)  Humdy  u  Hutndyun,  dedicated,  apparently,  either 
to  Sultan  Abu  Sa'id  (716-736/1316-1335)  or  to  his  minister 
Ghiyathu'd-Din  Muhammad,  and  containing  3203  verses. 
This  poem,  as  Rieu  has  shown,  was  composed  at  Baghdad 
in  732/1331-2. 

(3)  Kamdl-ndma   (the  "  Book    of  Perfection  "),   com- 
posed in  744/1343-4,  and  dedicated  to  Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq, 
Prince  of  Fars,  who  had  ascended  the  throne  only  two 
years  previously. 

(4)  The  Rawdatu'l-Anwdr  ("Garden  of  Lights"),  a 
mystical  poem  composed  at  the  shrine  of  Shaykh  Abu 
Ishaq  Ibrahim,  the  patron  saint  of  Kazarun  in  Fars,  in 
743/1342-3,  a  year  before  the  poem  last  mentioned. 

(5)  Another  mystical  poem  of  the  title  of  which  I  am 
uncertain.    The  whole  Khamsa,  or  "Quintet,"  is  apparently 
an  imitation  of  the  celebrated  Khamsa  of  Nizamf  of  Ganja, 
and  was  concluded  in  744/1343-4. 

In  spite  of  the  comparative  celebrity  which  Khwaju 
enjoys,  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  any  striking 
beauty  or  conspicuous  merit  in  his  odes  (ghazals},  of 
which  I  have  read  some  seventy-five.  The  following 
may  serve  as  a  fairly  favourable  specimen  : 


U 


CH.  v]  KHWAjC  OF  KIRMAN 


{Translation) 

"  Pass  us  not  by,  for  our  thought  is  set  on  thy  constancy, 
Our  heart  on  the  hope  of  thy  promise,  and  our  soul  on  thy  faith  ! 
If  it  be  thy  pleasure  to  thwart  our  pleasure,  that  matters  little  ; 
Our  object  in  this  world  and  the  next  is  thy  pleasure. 
Hereafter,  since  we  have  staked  our  head  in  following  thee, 
Drive  us  not  from  thy  presence,  for  our  heart  follows  after  thee. 
I  put  my  neck  under  the  yoke  and  bow  my  head  in  service  : 
Forgive  me,  if  thou  wilt,  or  slay  me  :  it  is  for  thee  to  judge. 
He  who  is  thy  slave  becomes  freed  from  all  : 
He  who  is  thy  friend  becomes  a  stranger  to  his  own  kin. 
O  thou  who  art  dearer  to  my  heart  than  the  soul  which  is  in  the  body, 
That  soul  which  is  in  my  body  exists  but  for  thee  ! 
This  sad-hearted  victim  who  aspires  to  thy  love, 
His  rightest  oath  is  by  thy  heart-entrancing  stature. 
Khwaju,  who  is  passing  away  through  thy  cruelty  and  harshness, 
His  heart  is  still  set  on  thy  love  and  loyalty  !  " 

Besides  odes  (ghazals)  and  the  above-mentioned  math- 
nawis,  Khwaju  has  several  tarkib-bands,  one  or  two 
"  fragments  "  (muqatta'dt),  and  a  few  quatrains,  including 
one  about  the  dove  crying  "  Ku,  kti  ?  "  ("  Where,  where  " 
are  the  great  ones  of  yore  departed  ?),  generally  ascribed 
to  'Umar  Khayyam. 

15—2 


228        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  n 

The  following  mustazdd  is  not  without  grace  : 

^Uj  o+s-s  U 
j\~»-j  cA3'  >v 

v*y*  -fb  j* 

^J^A  Ji-UiLo 
^UJ  C^lXJl 

l^W    J-*^  >" 

^L*-Jj£      ^jl^a-1  'jLwjAJ     A£S     jJl>b 

LS51^  5  J-"  L5^  J1 
Jllft  "Oj-J  jt 

^1^3  ii^-Jb  jl 
O'^-*^  J*J> 
L551^  J3J  A: 


(  Translation) 

"Is  there  none  to  say  from  me  to  that  Turk  of  Cathay  (Khat£) 

'  If  any  fault  (khata)1  has  been  committed 
Come  back,  for  we  hope  from  thee  for  ourselves 
Fidelity  to  promises. 

1  This  is  a  very  common  word-play,  e.g.  in  the  well-known  verse  : 


The  Turks  of  Cathay  or  Chinese  Tartary  are  celebrated  in  Persia  for 
their  fair  complexions  and  beauty. 


CH.V]  KHWAjti  OF  KIRMAN  229 

Do  not  cast  pepper  in  the  name  of  me,  the  heart-consumed, 

On  the  fire  of  thy  cheek1, 
For  because  of  that  musky  grain  of  thine  I  have  fallen,  O  friend, 

Into  the  snare  of  misfortune. 
Today  I  am,  like  the  curve  of  thine  eyebrow,  in  the  city 

Like  unto  the  crescent  moon2, 
Since  I  have  seen  that  face  of  signal  beauty 

The  cynosure  of  every  eye. 
Come  back,  that  I  may  lay  down  my  head  at  thy  feet,  and  my  life 

At  the  feet  of  thy  horse, 
Since  the  hand  of  poor  indigent  me  cannot  provide 

Anything  more  than  '  hoof-money3.' 
Is  it  a  rule  in  your  city  not  to  enquire 

Into  the  condition  of  poor  strangers? 
After  all,  what  hurt  could  befall  the  realm  of  thy  beauty 

From  one  so  helpless  [as  me]  ? 
How  long,  O  sweet-voiced  minstrel,  wilt  thou  play  out  of  tune 

The  'Lover's  Air'? 
Soothe  me,  the  poor  and  portionless,  for  once 

By  a  song  of  substance  ! 
After  all,  how  much  longer  can  I  keep  hidden 

In  my  heart  the  grief  of  separation  ? 
O  Beloved,  I  am  sure  that  this  grief  will  spread 

One  day  somewhither. 
Through  regret  for  thy  ruby  lip  I  am  in  the  Darkness  of  Alexander4 

Like  Khwaju, 
But  what  can  I  do,  since  the  Kingdom  of  Darius. 

Is  not  meet  for  a  beggar?" 

These  few  specimens  of  Khw^ju's  poems  will  perhaps 
suffice  to  show  that  his  verse,  while  graceful  and  pleasing, 
lacks  any  conspicuous  distinction  or  excellence. 

1  Rue  (sipand]  and  pepper  (filfif)  are  burned  in  incantations  against 
the  Evil  Eye.     The  black  mole  (khdl)  or  beauty-spot  on  the  red  cheek 
of  a  beautiful  person  is  often  compared  by  the  Persian  poets  to  rue  on 
the  fire. 

2  I.e.  bent  with  grief  and  disappointment. 

3  Na'-l-bahd,  or  "  hoof-money,"  is  money  paid  to  invading  troops  to 
induce  them  to  abstain  from  looting. 

4  This  alludes  to  Alexander's  quest  for  the  Water  of  Life  in  the 
Land  of  Darkness. 


230        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TIMOR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

3.     '  Ubayd-i-Zdkdni 
(Nizdtmtd-Din  '  Ubaydiilldh). 

'Ubayd-i-Zakani    is,    perhaps,    the    most    remarkable 

parodist   and    satirical    writer    produced    by    Persia,   and 

though,  like  most  Persian,  Arabian  and  Turkish 

'Ubayd-i-Zikdni  '    . 

satirists,  his  language  is  frequently  so  coarse 
as  to  render  a  large  part  of  his  writings  unfit  for  trans- 
lation, his  Akkldqu'l-Askrdf,  or  "Ethics  of  the  Aristocracy," 
is,  where  not  so  marred,  a  fine  piece  of  irony,  while  some 
of  his  serious  poems  (which  have  been  too  much  ignored 
by  most  of  his  biographers)  are  of  singular  beauty.  Of 
his  life,  as  usual,  little  is  known,  save  that  he  was  originally 
from  Qazwi'n  (for  which  city  he  seems  to  have  had  little 
affection,  since  he  is  constantly  gibing  at  the  stupidity  of 
its  inhabitants),  lived  at  Shfraz  (to  which,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  several  of  his  poems  show,  he  was  much  attached) 
during  the  reign  of  Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq  Inju  (who  was  killed 
in  747/1346-7),  abandoned  serious  writing  for  a  ribaldry 
more  in  accord  with  the  taste  of  the  great  men  of  that 
time,  but  none  the  less  (as  several  of  his  poems  and  a  well- 
known  anecdote  about  his  death  indicate)  suffered  much 
from  penury  and  debt,  and  finally  died  about  772/1371. 
Another  well-known  anecdote  describes  his  quarrel  and 
reconciliation  with  his  contemporary  Salman  of  Sawa1, 
and  he  appears  to  have  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  Sultan 
Uways  at  Baghdad  or  Tabriz,  or  both.  Dawlatshah2  con- 
secrates a  long  but  not  very  informative  article  to  him, 
most  of  which  (with  fuller  quotations  from  his  poems)  is 
reproduced  in  the  Haft  Iqltm.  The  notice  in  the  Atash- 
kada  is  very  meagre,  and  no  mention  of  him  is  made  in 
the  Mujmal  of  Fasihi  or  in  the  modern  Majmctul-Fusahd. 
His  satirical  mathnawi  of"  the  Mouse  and  the  Cat"  (Mtisk 
u  Gurba)  has  been  lithographed,  with  quaint  woodcuts,  at 

1  See  005616/5  Notices  of  Persian  Poets,  pp.  125-128. 

2  Pp.  288-294  of  my  edition. 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  231 

Bombay,  without  date1 ;  and  a  selection  of  his  Faceticz,  to 
which  is  prefixed  a  Persian  preface,  probably  by  the  late 
Mirza  Habib  of  Isfahan,  followed  by  another  of  M.  Ferte", 
was  printed  at  Constantinople,  at  the  Press  of  Ebu'z-Ziya 
Tevffq  Bey,  in  I3O3/I885-62.  As  these  two  prefaces 
contain  most  that  is  to  be  said  about  'Ubayd-i-Zakanf,  I 
here  append  a  translation,  omitting  only  a  few  unsuitable 
passages. 

"  Preface. 

"  That  most  witty  poet  'Ubayd-i-Zakdni  was  of  the  village  of  Zakan3 
near  Qazwfn,  and  was  one  of  the  notabilities  of  the  eighth  century  of  the 
Flight4.  He  was  a  man  of  talent  and  learning,  one  of  the  masters  of 
style  and  sound  taste.  Although  some  reckon  him  as  one  of  the  ribald 
writers,  it  is  only  fair  to  state  that,  though  jests,  ribaldry  and  satire 
occur  in  his  poems,  he  deserves  to  rank  as  something  more  than  a 
mere  satirist,  being,  indeed,  conspicuous  amongst  the  older  poets  for 
his  grace  and  wit,  and  in  these  respects  approached  by  few.  He  was 
particularly  skilful  in  incorporating  in  his  poems  and  investing  with  a 
ludicrous  sense  the  serious  verses  of  other  poets,  an  achievement  in 
which  he  left  no  ground  unturned.  His  own  serious  poems,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  incomparable  in  fluency  of  diction,  sweetness  and  dis- 
tinction, and  are  unrivalled  in  grace  and  subtlety. 

"'Ubayd-i-Zakani  pursued  his  studies  at  Shirdz  in  the  reign  of 
Shcih  Abu  Ishaq,  and  became  one  of  the  most  accomplished  men  of 
letters  and  learning  of  his  time,  acquiring  complete  proficiency  in  every 
art,  and  compiling  books  and  treatises  thereon.  He  subsequently 

1  There  is  also  a  cheap  English  rendering,  with  the  same  woodcuts, 
of  which  I  once  picked  up  a  copy  at  the  railway  bookstall  of  Llandudno 
Junction. 

2  It  comprises  128  pp. 

3  Hamdu'llah  Mustawfi  of  Qazwin  in  his  Tdrikh-i-Guztda  (Gibb 
Memorial  Series,  vol.  xiv,  i,  pp.  845-6)  speaks  of  the  Zdkdnts  as  one 
of  the  notable  tribes  or  families  of  Qazwin,  says  that  they  were  de- 
scended from  the  Arabian  tribe  of  Khafaja,  and  quotes  in  the  original 
Arabic  a  rescript  (manshtir}  addressed  to  them  by  the  Prophet  Mu- 
hammad.    At  the  end  of  this  article  he  mentions  our  poet  as  follows : 
"  Of  them  is  that  honoured  gentleman  Master  [Khivdja\  Niz^mu'd-Din 
'Ubaydu'lldh,  who  has  some  fine  poems  and  incomparable  writings." 
This  book  was  written  in  730/1330,  and  as  'Ubayd-i-Zakdm  was  then 
already  a  man  of  note  in  his  own  city  of  Qazwin,  he  cannot  have  been 
born  much  later  than  700/1300. 

4  Fourteenth  of  the  Christian  era. 


232         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME      [BK  11 

returned  to  Qazwfn,  where  he  had  the  honour  of  being  appointed  to  a 
Judgeship,  and  was  chosen  as  the  tutor  and  teacher  of  sundry  young 
noblemen.  At  that  time  the  Turks  in  Persia  had  left  no  prohibited  or 
vicious  act  undone,  and  the  character  of  the  Persian  people,  by  reason 
of  association  and  intercourse  with  them,  had  become  so  changed  and 
corrupted  that  'Ubayd-i-Zakani,  disgusted  at  the  contemplation  thereof, 
sought  by  every  means  to  make  known  and  bring  home  to  them  the 
true  condition  of  affairs.  Therefore,  as  an  example  of  the  corrupt 
morals  of  the  age  and  its  people,  he  composed  the  treatise  known  as 
the  'Ethics  of  the  Aristocracy'  (Akhldqitl-Ashrdf\  which  was  not 
intended  as  mere  ribaldry,  but  as  a  satire  containing  serious  reflections 
and  wise  warnings.  So  likewise,  in  order  to  depict  the  level  of  intelli- 
gence and  degree  of  knowledge  of  the  leading  men  of  Qazwin,  each 
one  of  whom  was  a  mass  of  stupidity  and  ignorance,  he  included  in 
his  'Joyous  Treatise'  (Risdla-i-Dilgushd)  many  anecdotes  of  which 
each  contains  a  lesson  for  persons  of  discernment.  As  a  measure  of 
his  accomplishments,  experience,  learning  and  worldly  wisdom,  his 
'  Tract  of  a  Hundred  Counsels  '  (Risdla-i-Sad  Pand)  and  his  '  Defini- 
tions' (  Ta'rtfdt}  are  a  sufficient  proof.  Moreover,  even  those  who  speak 
of  him  as  a  mere  ribald  satirist  admit  that  he  composed  a  treatise  on 
Rhetoric  (^Ilm-i-Maidni  u  Baydri)  which  he  desired  to  present  to  the 
King.  The  courtiers  and  favourites,  however,  told  him  that  the  King 
had  no  need  of  such  rubbish.  Then  he  composed  a  fine  panegyric, 
which  he  desired  to  recite,  but  they  informed  him  that  His  Majesty  did 
not  like  to  be  mocked  with  the  lies,  exaggerations  and  fulsome  flattery 
of  poets.  Thereupon  'Ubayd-i-Zdkanf  said,  'In  that  case  I  too  will 
pursue  the  path  of  impudence,  so  that  by  this  means  I  may  obtain  access 
to  the  King's  most  intimate  society,  and  may  become  one  of  his 
courtiers  and  favourites,'  which  he  accordingly  did.  Then  he  began 
recklessly  to  utter  the  most  shameless  sayings  and  the  most  unseemly 
and  extravagant  jests,  whereby  he  obtained  innumerable  gifts  and 
presents,  while  none  dared  to  oppose  or  contend  with  him. 

"It  is  said  that  after  'Ubayd-i-Zdkam  had  despaired  of  entering  the 
King's  assembly,  he  extemporized  the  following  quatrain  : 


f 

1  The  Farhang-i-Ndsiri  explains  e^_i£»  as  <ti&-  i£y»  ij-ot,  with  a 
reference  to  Sa'df's  Khabithdt  (Calcutta  ed.  of  1795,  vol.  ii,  f.  4;ob,  1.  4)  ; 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  233 

'  In  arts  and  learning  be  not  skilled  like  me, 
Or  by  the  great  like  me  despised  thou'llt  be. 
Wouldst  earn  applause  from  this  base  age  of  thine  ? 
Beg  shamelessly,  play  lute  and  libertine  !  ' 

"  One  of  his  acquaintances,  hearing  this,  expressed  astonishmen  t 
that  one  so  talented  and  accomplished  could  abandon  learning  and 
culture  in  favour  of  ribaldry  and  lewd  utterances.  To  him  'Ubayd-i- 
Zdkani  sent  the  following  verse  : 

o  13 


5  j^  j 

'  Keep  clear  of  learning,  Sir,  if  so  you  may, 
Lest  you  should  lose  your  pittance  for  the  day. 
Play  the  buffoon  and  learn  the  fiddler's  skill  : 
On  great  and  small  you  then  may  work  your  will1  !'. 

"  It  is  said  that  Salmdn-i-Sawaji,  a  contemporary  poet,  wrote  these 
verses  satirizing  'Ubayd-i-Zakanf,  whom  he  had  never  seen  : 


"Ubayd-i-Zdk4nf,  the  rhymester,  whose  damnable  satirist  pen 
Hath  made  him  accursed  before  God,  and  obnoxious  to  men  ; 
He's  an  ignorant  oaf  from  the  country,  and  not  a  Qazwinf  at  all, 
Though  him,  and  that  not  without  reason,  "Qazwi'm"  they  call2.' 

"The  point  of  this  verse  is  that  Persian  wits  affect  to  regard  the 
people  of  Qazwin  as  fools,  just  as  they  dub  the  Khurasdnfs  '  asses,'  the 


as  a  very  importunate  type  of  beggar,  who  continues  to  make  an 
intolerable  noise  outside  a  house  until  the  householder  gives  him  money 

ff?0 

to  go  away;  andj.\_i£»  as  an  Indian  musical  instrument. 

1  Here  follow  some  very  coarse  verses  on  a  lady  named  Jahan- 
Khdtun  whose  hand  had  been  sought  in  marriage  by  Khwaja  Aminu'd- 
Din,  one  of  Shdh  Abu  Ishaq's  ministers.    She  also  was  a  poetess,  and 
I  possess  a  MS.  of  her  poems,  the  only  copy  I  ever  met  with. 

2  The  people  of  Qazwin  are  reputed  (very  unjustly)  to  be  the 
stupidest  in  Persia. 


234         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

people  of  Tus  '  cows,'  those  of  BukMrd  '  bears,'  and  those  of  Trans- 
oxiana  '  Mashhadis,'  that  is,  heretics  (Rdfidh\  all  of  which  attributions 
are  of  the  nature  of  disparagement. 

"As  soon  as  'Ubayd-i-Zdkam  heard  this  verse,  he  at  once  set  out 
for  Baghdad.  On  his  arrival  there,  he  found  Salmdn,  surrounded  with 
great  pomp  and  circumstance,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  occupied 
with  pleasure  and  diversion  and  the  society  of  learned  and  accom- 
plished men.  When  by  some  means  he  succeeded  in  entering  the 
circle,  Salmon  had  just  composed  this  hemistich  descriptive  of  the 
Tigris  : 


'  With  drunken  frenzy  and  fury  fierce  this  year  the  Tigris  flows  '  — 

which  he  asked  the  bystanders  to  complete.     Thereupon  'Ubayd-i- 
Zdkani  extemporized  the  following  complementary  hemistich  : 


'  With  its  foaming  lips  and  its  feet  in  chains,  'twere 
mad,  you  might  suppose.' 

"  Salman  was  delighted,  and  enquired  whence  he  came.  He  re- 
plied, '  From  Qazwin.'  In  the  course  of  the  ensuing  conversation 
Salman  asked  him  whether  his  name  was  known  or  any  of  his  verse 
familiar  in  Qazwin,  or  not.  'Ubayd-i-Zdkdni  replied,  '  The  following 
fragment  of  his  poetry  is  very  well  known  : 


»-J*    3*. 

"  A  frequenter  of  taverns  am  I,  and  a  lover  of  wine, 
Besotted  with  drink  and  desire  at  the  Magians'  shrine. 
Like  a  wine-jar  from  shoulder  to  shoulder  amongst  them  I  pass, 
And  go  from  one  hand  to  another  like  goblet  or  glass."  ' 

"  '  Now  although  Salmdn  is  an  accomplished  man,'  added  'Ubayd, 
'  and  these  verses  may  perhaps  be  truly  ascribed  to  him,  yet  in  my 
opinion  they  were  most  probably  composed  by  his  wife1.' 

"  Salmdn  perceived  from  this  witty  speech  that  this  was  none  other 
than  'Ubayd  himself,  whereupon  he  made  much  of  him,  apologized  for 
his  satire,  and  so  long  as  'Ubayd  remained  in  Baghdad,  fell  short  in 
no  service  which  he  could  render  him.  And  'Ubayd  used  often  to  say  to 

1  The  implication  is,  of  course,  that  his  wife  was  a  woman  of  loose 
morals  and  bad  character. 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  235 

him,  'O  Salman,  fortune  favoured  you  in  that  you  so  speedily  made  your 
peace  with  me,  and  so  escaped  from  the  malice  of  my  tongue  ! '" 

Then  follows  as  a  postscript  the  short  Introduction 
ascribed  to  M.  Ferte,  who  describes  therein  his  devotion  to 
Oriental  and  especially  Persian  literature,  his  desire  to  con- 
tribute something  to  a  fuller  knowledge  of  it,  and  his  ap- 
preciation of  the  works  of  'Ubayd-i-Zakani,  a  manuscript  of 
which  happened  to  come  under  his  notice.  From  this  manu- 
script he  made  the  selections  (amounting  to  about  three- 
quarters  of  the  whole  contents)  contained  in  this  volume. 
These  include  : 

(1)  The  Akhldqu'l-Ashrdf,  or  "Ethics  of  the  Aristo- 
cracy" (prose),  composed  in  740/1340. 

(2)  The  "  Book  of  the  Beard  "  (Rtsh-ndma),  in  mixed 
prose  and  verse,  undated. 

(3)  The  "Book  of  a  hundred  Counsels"  (Risdla-i-Sad 
pand),  composed  in  750/1350  (prose). 

(4)  The  "Definitions"  (Ta'rtfdt),  or  "Ten  Sections" 
(Dah  Fasl),  undated  (prose). 

(5)  Poems  of  different  kinds,  mostly  obscene,  including 
parodies. 

(6)  The  "Joyous  Treatise"  (Risdla-i-Dilgushd),  divided 
into  two  parts,  the  one  containing  Arabic,  the  other  Persian 
anecdotes  and/acetttz. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  omitted  from  these  selections 
all  'Ubayd's  serious  poems  and  panegyrics,  as  well  as  the 
"Book  of  Lovers"  (^Ushshdq-ndma),  "Book  of  Omens"  (Fdl- 
ndma),  etc.  Of  the  three  MSS.  of  this  poet's  works  which  I 
have  examined  in  the  British  Museum  (Or.  2947,  Or.  5738, 
and  Or.  6303)  the  last  contains  the  largest  selection  of  poetry, 
including  panegyrics  on  Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq,  Sultan  Uways, 
Ruknu'd-Din  'Amidu'1-Mulk,  etc.  Among  these  one  of  the 
prettiest  is  the  following  : 


236         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

U 
»•  CHJ  '  L^P  JJ-*    CHJ   L£»'yfc    CHJ 


ji  'ju     djUa 


-A    u*>»-      'u^^*-  W  Ji 


(  Translation) 

"Once  again  a  passion  has  entered  my  head  ;  again  my  heart  inclines 

in  a  certain  direction. 
He  is  of  Royal  birth,  I   am  of  the  dust  ;  he  is  a  King,  and  I  am 

portionless. 
One  tall  of  stature,  with  locks  like  lassoes,  an  autocrat  descended 

from  Sultan  Husayn  : 
One  with  eyebrows  like  bows  and  slender  waist,  one  unkind,  fair  and 

deceitful. 
Such  a  charmer  of  hearts,  such  a  graceful  cypress-tree,  such  a  shower 

of  oats  and  seller  of  barley1  ! 
Without  him  the  sun  gives  no  light  ;  without  him  the  world  has  no 

lustre. 

Wherever  his  ruby-lip  smiles,  there  sugar  is  of  no  account. 
Everywhere  the  heart  holds  with  his  vision  pleasant  speech  and 

sweet  discourse 
Thou  wouldst  say  that  I  come  to  the  house  of  a  physician,  that  perhaps 

I  may  procure  a  remedy  for  my  heart. 

Everyone  else  complains  of  a  foe,  but  our  complaint  is  of  a  friend. 
Should  the  eyes  of  'Ubayd  not  look  their  fill  upon  him,  then  his  eyes 

do  not  regard  any  other  misfortune  !  " 

Another  fine  manuscript  of  the  works  of  'Ubayd-i-Zakani, 
bearing  the  class-mark  Suppl.persan  824,15  in  the  possession 

1  "To  show  oats  and  sell  barley"  means  to  make  specious  promises 
which  one  cannot  fulfil,  to  let  one's  practice  fall  short  of  one's 
promises,  etc. 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  237 

of  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  at  Paris.  It  was  transcribed 
in  Muharram,  834  (Sept.  —  Oct.,  1430),  comprises  1  1  1  leaves, 
and  contains  besides  the  poems,  serious  and  flippant,  the 
"  Book  of  Lovers  "  ('  Ushshdq-ndma),  in  verse  and  partly  in 
dialect;  the  "Ethics  of  the  Aristocracy"  (Akhldqul-Ashrdf), 
the  "Book  of  the  Beard"  (Risk-ndma),  and  the  "Ten  Chap- 
ters "  (Dak  Fas/).  The  most  striking  feature  of  the  serious 
poems  is  the  constant  references  to  Fars  and  its  capital 
Shiraz,  which  evidently  held  the  affection  of  the  poet  far 
more  than  his  native  city  Qazwin.  Thus,  to  quote  a  few 
examples,  he  says  (f.  I3b): 


"  By  the  auspicious  justice  of  that  King  who  is  so  gracious  to  his 
servants  the  region  of  Shiraz  has  become  an  earthly  Paradise." 

So  again  he  says  (f.  23a): 

JUU  jJi 


"  By  the  favour  of  the  Creator  the  Kingdom  of  Pdrs  hath  become 
pleasanter  than  the  Courts  of  Paradise  and  gayer  than  the  Spring." 

And  again  (f.  28a)  he  says: 


"  The  victorious  standard  of  the  King  who  is  so  gracious  to  his 
servants  hath  reached  with  glee  and  happiness  the  region  of  Shirdz  : 

Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq,  that  world-conqueror  of  youthful  fortune,  our 
liege-lord  who  slayeth  opponents  and  maketh  the  fortune  of  his  loyal 
supporters." 

The  following  verse,  again  (f.  35b),  is  strongly  reminiscent 
of,  and  was  probably  inspired  by,  a  very  well-known  verse 


238        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME      [BK  n 

of  Sa'dfs  occurring  in  a  poem  quoted  in  vol.  ii  of  my  Literary 
History  of  Persia,  p.  535,  lines  13-15: 


"  The  gentle  breeze  of  MusaM  and  the  stream  of  Ruknabad  cause 
the  stranger  to  forget  his  own  native  land." 

The  following  verse  occurring  in  a  poem  in  which  'Ubayd 
bids  farewell  to  Shiraz  affords  further  testimony  of  his  attach- 
ment to  that  place  : 


"  I  leave  the  region  of  Shfraz,  being  in  peril  of  my  life  : 
Alas,  how  full  of  anguish  is  my  heart  at  this  inevitable  departure  !  " 

As  in  the  case  of  Hafiz  so  also  in  'Ubayd's  Diwdn  we 
find  one  disparaging  allusion  to  Hurmuz  (Ormuz)  in  the 
Persian  Gulf  which  would  seem  to  show  that  our  poet  had 
once  visited  that  place  : 


j\ 

"  I  am  thus  cast  away  in  Hurmuz  in  grief  and  sorrow,  isolated  from 
the  companionship  of  friends  and  patrons." 

Amongst  the  serious  poems  is  one  (f.  3Ob)  in  praise  of 
the  Sdhib-Diwdn  'Amfdu'1-Mulk,  while  amongst  the  satires 
are  two  (ff.  54b  and  55a)  directed  against  Kamalu'd-Din 
Husayn  and  Shihabu'd-Din  Haydar1.  One  of  the  religious 
poems  at  the  beginning  of  the  volume  (f.  ib),  containing  the 
praise  of  God,  the  Prophet,  and  the  Four  Orthodox  Caliphs, 
indicates  that  'Ubayd  was  a  Sunni,  but,  apart  from  his 
disreputable  facetia,  the  following  verse  shows  clearly 
enough  that  he  neither  claimed  nor  desired  to  lead  a  vir- 
tuous life  : 


I  have  not  been  able  to  identify  these  persons. 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  239 

"God,  of  Thy  grace  one  special  hope  I  nourish, 
That  Thou  wilt  cause  my  pleasure-realm  to  flourish, 
And  turn  from  me  the  Doom  of  Abstinence, 
And  save  me  from  the  Plague  of  Penitence  !  " 

As  regards  'Ubayd's  facetice  (fazaliyyai),  which  are 
practically  the  only  poems  contained  in  the  Constantinople 
edition  of  his  works,  they  are,  as  already  stated,  almost  with- 
out exception  unfit  for  translation,  and  are  regarded  with 
disapproval  or  disgust  by  all  respectable  Persians  at  the 
present  day.  Their  only  point,  moreover,  lies  in  the  skilful 
turning  to  base  uses  of  the  serious  verses  of  earlier  or  con- 
temporary poets,  who  are  thus  held  up  to  ridicule  and  made 
to  afford  material  for  ribaldry  by  the  unscrupulous  'Ubayd- 
i-Zakani.  Amongst  the  lighter  poems  which  are  unobjection- 
able, however,  the  following  may  be  cited  : 

A      \ 


"  Something  at  least  from  my  small  property 
Was  wont  to  reach  me  in  the  days  gone  by, 
And  when  friends  came  to  cheer  my  loneliness 
A  crust  of  bread  they  found,  a  dish  of  cress, 
And  sometimes  wine  withal,  when  some  new  flame 
Or  some  old  crony  me  to  visit  came. 
But  now,  alas  !  all  that  I  reckoned  on, 
Solid  or  liquid,  from  my  table's  gone, 
And  only  I  am  left,  nor  would  remain 
If  my  removal  were  another's  gain  !  " 

That  poverty  and  debt  were  our  poet's  usual  lot  appears 
from  other  verses,  such  as  the  following1  : 


1  Pp.  6  1  -2  of  the  Constantinople  edition. 


240        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtJR'S  TIME     [BK  n 


J— v^ 

"  Others  rejoice  in  merriment,  while  I  am  afflicted  with  debt ; 
Everyone  has  his  affairs  and  business,  while  I  am  in  the  misfortune 

of  debt. 

My  duty  towards  God  and  my  debts  to  His  creatures  bow  my  neck; 
Shall  I  discharge  my  duty  towards  God,  or  my  debts  ? 
My  expenses  are  more  than  usual,  and  my  debts  beyond  bounds  : 
Shall  I  take  thought  for  my  expenses  or  for  my  debts  ? 
I  complain  of  no  documents  save  summonses  for  debt, 
And  I  fear  no  one  save  the  witnesses  to  my  indebtedness. 
I  have  debts  in  the  town  and  debts  in  the  suburb, 
Debts  in  the  street  and  debts  in  the  store. 
From  morning  until  evening  I  continue  in  anxiety 
As  to  where  I  may  incontinently  beg  a  loan. 
Other  people  flee  from  the  hands  of  debt,  while  I, 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  241 

After  prayer  and  supplication,  pray  for  a  loan  from  God1. 
My  honour,  like  that  of  beggars,  is  cast  to  the  winds, 
So  often  have  I  sought  a  loan  from  the  door  of  every  beggar. 
If  the  Master  does  not  bespeak  for  me  the  King's  favour 
How  can  poor  'Ubayd  finally  discharge  his  debts  ?  — 
Master  iAld'u'd-Dunyd  ivrfd-Dtn,  except  whose  hand 
None  other  in  the  world  hath  given  Debt  its  deserts  !  " 

Other  poems  to  the  same  purport  will  be  found  on  pp.  58 
(11.  18-23)  and  61  (11.  16-20)  of  the  Constantinople  edition, 
and  whether  or  no  the  well-known  story2  about  'Ubayd-i- 
Zakani's  death-bed  practical  joke  on  his  children  be  true, 
it  certainly  accords  alike  with  his  character  and  his  circum- 
stances. 

The  following  epigram  on  a  physician  is  worth  quoting  : 

OJjJfc 


JUJU 

^\      )    O^jf   JUU 


"  To  this  fool-doctor  no  man  need  apply 
For  treatment  if  he  does  not  wish  to  die. 
At  last  to  him  the  Death-Angel  appears 
Saying,  '  Buy  now  the  goods  you've  sold  for  years  ;  !  " 

"  The  Mouse  and  the  Cat  "  (Mush  u  Gurba}  is  a  short 
mathnawi  poem  of  174  verses,  and  in  the  Bombay  litho- 
graphed edition,  with  the  numerous  quaint  woodcuts  which 
illustrate  it,  comprises  only  18  pages.  It  opens  with  a  de- 
scription of  the  voracious,  keen-eyed,  "  lion-hunting  "  cat, 
with  eyes  like  amber  and  sharp  claws,  feet  like  a  scorpion, 
a  forehead  like  an  eagle,  a  belly  like  a  drum,  a  breast  of 
ermine,  eyebrows  like  bows,  and  sharp  teeth  : 

t 


1  I.e.  while  others  fear  to  become  debtors,  I  pray  that  I  may  have 
the  chance  of  borrowing  money  and  so  becoming  a  debtor. 

2  See  my  Year  amongst  the  Persians,  pp.  115-116. 

B.  P.  l6 


242         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 


J.J 

This  cat,  being  in  need  of  a  meal,  goes  to  a  wine-tavern 
and  conceals  itself  behind  a  wine-jar.  Presently  a  mouse 
appears,  leaps  on  to  the  edge  of  one  of  the  jars,  and  begins 
to  drink  the  wine,  until,  filled  with  the  arrogance  engendered 
by  alcohol,  and  ignorant  of  the  proximity  of  its  formidable 
foe,  it  begins  to  boast  its  prowess,  saying  :  "  Where  is  the 
cat,  that  I  may  wring  its  neck  and  bear  its  head  to  the 
market-place  ?  In  the  day  of  my  munificence  at  the  time  of 
conferring  benefits  I  would  distribute  the  heads  of  a  hundred 
cats  !  Cats  are  but  as  dogs  in  my  sight,  were  I  to  meet  them 
in  the  open  field!" 


Suddenly  the  cat  leaps  out  upon  it,  seizes  it,  and  cries, 
"  O  miserable  mouse,  how  wilt  thou  save  thy  life  ?  " 


The  mouse,  effectively  sobered  now,  adopts  a  tone  of 
piteous  entreaty,  saying,  "  I  am  thy  slave  :  pardon  me  these 
sins  !  If  I  ate  dirt  (i.e.  talked  nonsense)  I  was  drunk,  and 
drunkards  eat  much  dirt  !  I  am  your  slave,  your  devoted 
slave...": 


The  cat,  however,  pays  no  heed  to  the  mouse's  supplica- 
tions, kills  and  eats  it,  and  then  goes  to  the  mosque  to  pray 
and  repent  of  its  mouse-eating: 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  243 


Another  mouse  which  was  hiding  in  the  pulpit  of  the 
mosque  hears  these  edifying  utterances  and  hastens  to  bear 
the  good  news  of  the  cat's  repentance  to  the  other  mice, 
saying,  in  a  verse  which  has  become  proverbial  and  is 
alluded  to  by  Hafiz1: 


"Good  tidings,  for  the  cat  has  become  devout,  an  ascetic,  a  true 
believer,  a  Musulman  !  " 

The  mice  thereupon  decide  to  express  their  satisfaction 
by  sending  to  the  cat  a  deputation  of  seven  mice  bearing 
suitable  presents  of  wine,  roasted  meats,  sweets,  nuts,  fruits 
and  sherbets.  The  cat  invites  them  to  approach,  and  then 
seizes  five  of  them,  one  in  its  mouth  and  one  in  each  of  its 
four  paws,  while  the  two  survivors  escape  and  carry  the  sad 
news  of  the  cat's  unchanged  nature  to  the  other  mice.  After 
a  week's  mourning  for  their  lost  comrades,  the  mice,  330,000 
in  number,  under  the  command  of  their  king,  march  out  to 
do  battle  with  the  cats.  After  a  fierce  struggle,  the  cats 
are  defeated,  and  the  chief  offender,  taken  captive,  is  brought 
before  the  king  of  the  mice,  who  condemns  it  to  die  on  the 
gibbet,  but  at  the  end  the  cat  breaks  away  from  its  captors, 

1  See  my  Literary  History  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  p.  78,  on  the  figure 
called  talmih  or  "  allusion." 

16  —  2 


244        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

kills  the  king  of  the  mice,  and  scatters  or  slays  his  followers. 
The  poem  ends  : 


x  x 

"This  strange  and  wonderful  story  is  a  memento  of  'Ubayd-i- 
Zakam." 

Passing  now  to  'Ubayd-i-Zakam"s  prose  works,  we  shall 
first  consider  his  "  Ethics  of  the  Aristocracy  " 
'  Ethics  (Akhldqul-Ashrdf),  which  is  a  very  bitter  satire 
of  the  Aristo-  on  fae  morals  of  his  time,  composed  in  740/1  340, 
and  comprising  a  Preface  and  seven  chapters, 
each  of  which  deals  with  one  of  the  virtues  in  the  following 
order:  (i)  Wisdom  ;  (2)  Courage  ;  (3)  Chastity;  (4)  Justice; 
(5)  Generosity  ;  (6)  Clemency  and  Fidelity  ;  (7)  Modesty, 
Mercy,  etc.  In  each  chapter  the  author  treats  first  of  the 
old  or  "  abrogated  "  conception  of  the  virtue  in  question 
(madh-hab-i-manstikh),  and  then  of  the  new  or  "  adopted  " 
view  (madh-hab-i-mukhtdr)  of  the  moderns,  whom  he  ironi- 
cally extols  for  their  discovery,  that,  for  instance,  Courage 
is  not  really  a  virtue,  as  the  ancients  taught,  but  a  very 
dangerous  and  harmful  quality.  Concerning  the  purpose 
of  his  book  he  thus  speaks  in  the  Preface  : 

"Just  as  the  physicians  have  expended  their  energies  on  removing 
the  ailments  of  the  body  and  maintaining  its  health,  so  likewise  the 
prophets  have  concentrated  their  attention  on  removing  the  maladies 
and  misfortunes  of  the  spirit,  so  that  they  may  bring  it  out  of  the 
perilous  gulfs  and  whirlpools  of  ignorance  and  imperfection  to  the 
shores  of  salvation  and  perfection.  When  the  wise  man  regards  with 
attentive  gaze,  it  will  become  plain  to  him  that  the  object  of  the  mission 
of  those  on  whom  has  devolved  the  Prophet's  trust  is  the  refining  of 
the  qualities  and  purification  of  the  attributes  of  God's  servants,  a  truth 
thus  enunciated  in  the  words  of  the  poet  : 

&    £    AJjt  j    Jul    jJ  j£ 


'  Whether  or  no  a  Prophet  comes,  be  thou  virtuous  in  conduct, 
For  he  whose  conduct  is  virtuous  will  not  go  to  Hell.' 

"His  Holiness  the  Prophet  himself  has  removed  the  veil  from  the 
virgin  face  of  this  idea,  and  has  revealed  the  beauty  implicit  therein 


CH.  v]         "  ETHICS  OF  THE  ARISTOCRACY  "  245 

on  the  bridal  throne  of  this  assurance  —  '  /  have  been  sent  to  complete 
virtuous  qualities}  while  learned  men  of  former  times  have  com- 
mitted to  writing,  in  lengthy  treatises,  most  of  which  the  defective 
intelligence  of  this  humble  writer  fails  to  comprehend,  the  laws  of  this 
science,  known  as  '  Ethics  '  or  '  Practical  Philosophy,'  whereby,  in  the 
best  and  safest  way,  human  nature  may  be  perfected.  From  the 
auspicious  time  of  the  pure  Adam  until  these  days  the  noblest  of  man- 
kind, with  much  trouble  and  extreme  endeavour,  have  made  the  most 
strenuous  efforts  to  acquire  the  four  cardinal  virtues  of  Wisdom,  Courage, 
Chastity  and  Justice,  which  they  account  the  chief  means  to  happiness 
in  this  world  and  salvation  in  the  world  to  come,  and  concerning  which 
they  say  : 


>«> 
.I  Ju  5  XM  j  <V 

'  Of  whatever  creed  thou  art,  be  a  well-doer  and  a  giver, 
For  Infidelity  combined  with  good  character  is  better  than  Isldm 
combined  with  immorality.' 

"  But  now  in  this  age,  which  is  the  cream  of  all  the  ages  and  the 
crown  of  all  times,  the  nature  of  the  leaders  of  mankind  has  been  subli- 
mated, and  great  and  powerful  thinkers  have  appeared  who  have  con- 
centrated their  luminous  thoughts  and  salutary  meditations  on  all 
matters  appertaining  to  this  life  and  the  next,  and  in  their  clear  vision  the 
ancient  laws  and  practices  appeared  contemptible  and  unsubstantial. 
Moreover,  by  the  lapse  of  ages  and  passage  of  time,  most  of  these  rules 
had  become  obsolete,  and  the  observance  of  these  ethical  principles 
and  practices  proved  burdensome  to  the  powerful  minds  and  luminous 
intellects  of  these  people.  Therefore  they  manfully  trampled  under 
foot  these  principles  and  practices  ;  adopted  instead,  for  their  guidance 
in  this  life  and  the  next,  the  method  now  current  amongst  the  great 
and  noble  (to  the  elucidation  of  some  portion  of  which  this  epitome  is 
devoted)  ;  and  based  on  it  their  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  this  world  and 
the  next.  The  portals  of  thought  being  thus  opened  and  the  chain  of 
speech  extended,  let  us  enter  upon  the  matter  in  hand. 

"It  is  now  some  time  since  this  humble  writer  'Ubayd-i-Zakdm 
conceived  the  ambition  of  writing  a  compendious  treatise  dealing  with 
certain  ethical  conceptions  of  the  ancients,  which  the  people  of  our  time 
regard  as  '  obsolete,'  and  some  portion  of  the  principles  and  practices 
of  the  leaders  of  thought  in  this  age,  which  they  regard  as  '  adopted,' 
in  order  that  this  treatise  might  benefit  students  of  this  science  and 
neophytes  in  this  path.  Now  at  last,  in  this  year  740  of  the  Flight 
(A.D.  1339-1340)  he  hath  hastily  penned  this  epitome,  entitled  'Ethics 
of  the  Aristocracy,'  dividing  it  into  seven  chapters,  each  of  which 


246         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtJR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

contains  two  views,  first  the  'obsolete'  view,  in  accordance  with  which 
our  forefathers  regulated  their  lives  ;  and  second  the  'adopted'  view, 
now  discovered  by  our  great  thinkers,  whereby  they  regulate  their 
affairs  here  and  hereafter.  And  although  this  treatise  borders  on 
ribaldry,  yet  — 


<c~~5u^  u  cii«  a£>  jjb    '  casua  jyt,  j  **=>  y~£*    \ 

'  He  who  is  familiar  with  the  city  will  know  whence  our  goods  are 
obtained.' 

"The  humble  author's  hope  in  striving  to   complete   this    brief 
treatise  is  that  — 


'  Perchance  somewhere  and  somewhen  some  man  of  heart 
May  utter  a  prayer  on  behalf  of  this  poor  fellow.'  " 

After  these  preliminary  remarks,  the  author  proceeds 
to  discuss  in  turn  each  of  the  seven  virtues  already  enu- 
merated, beginning  in  each  case  with  the  "  obsolete  view  " 
(which  is  exactly  modelled  on  what  is  set  forth  at  greater 
length  in  such  well-known  treatises  on  Ethics  as  the  earlier 
Akhldq-i-Ndsiri  or  the  later  Akhldq-i-Jaldli  or  Akhldq-i- 
Mu/tsmf),  and  then  passing  on  to  the  "  adopted  "  view  of 
his  contemporaries.  As  a  specimen  we  may  take  the  first 
chapter,  which  is  less  ribald  than  most. 

"  First  Chapter.     On  Wisdom. 

"  Philosophers  in  defining  Wisdom  say  that  this  consists  in  ''seeking 
to  perfect  the  human  soul  in  its  intellectual  and  practical  aptitudes; 
First  chapter  of  "whereof  the  former  is  effected  by  an  apprehension  of  the 
the  "Ethics  of  true  nature  of  things  as  they  really  arc,  and  the  latter  by 
the  Aristocracy,"  ifa  acquisition  of  a  psychical  habit  or  faculty,  ivhereby  the 
soul  is  able  to  perform  "virtuous  actions  and  to  abstain 
from  evil  actions,  which  is  called  Character.'  In  other  words1,  there 
are  centred  in  the  Rational  Soul  two  faculties,  on  the  perfecting  of 
which  its  perfection  depends  ;  one,  the  speculative  faculty,  the  other 
the  practical  faculty.  The  first  is  that  which  craves  after  the  appre- 
hension of  knowledge  and  the  acquisition  of  science,  so  that,  impelled 
by  its  promptings,  the  soul  acquires  a  power  of  knowing  things  as  they 
truly  are,  whereby  eventually  it  attains  the  felicity  of  knowing  that  true 

1  The  preceding  words  in  italics  are  in  the  original  in  Arabic.  In 
what  follows  they  are  explained  in  Persian. 


CH.V]         "  ETHICS  OF  THE  ARISTOCRACY  "  247 

Object  of  all  Search  and  Universal  Goal  Who  (Exalted  and  Holy  is 
He  !)  is  the  Consummation  of  all  Existences.  So,  guided  by  this  know- 
ledge, the  soul  attains  to  the  Realm  of  Unity,  nay,  even  to  the  Pre- 
cincts of  Union,  and  becomes  tranquil  and  composed  (for  '•are  not 
hearts  composed  by  the  remembrance  of  Godl?'\  while  the  dust  of  doubt 
and  the  rust  of  uncertainty  are  cleansed  from  the  visage  of  its  mind 
and  the  mirror  of  its  heart,  even  as  the  poet  says  : 


'  Wherever  Certainty  entered,  Doubt  departed.' 

"  Now  as  for  the  Practical  Faculty,  it  is  that  which  coordinates  and 
arranges  the  powers  and  actions  of  the  soul,  so  that  they  cooperate  and 
agree  with  one  another,  by  virtue  of  which  equipoise  and  accord  its 
qualities  become  pleasing  in  God's  sight.  And  when  such  knowledge 
and  practice  are  combined  in  this  degree  in  any  person,  he  may  fitly 
be  entitled  the  'Perfect  Man'  and  'Vicar2  of  God,'  and  his  rank  becomes 
the  highest  attainable  by  the  human  race,  even  as  God  Most  High 
hath  said  :  '//<?  giveth  Wisdom  to  whom  He  will,  and  whosoever  is 
given  Wisdom  hath  been  given  abundant  good??  Moreover  his  spirit, 
after  its  separation  from  the  body,  becomes  fitted  to  dwell  in  Paradise, 
to  enjoy  everlasting  happiness,  and  to  become  receptive  of  God's 
grace... 

"  Thus  far  is  the  view  of  the  ancient  philosophers." 

The  writer  now  passes  immediately  to  the 
"Adopted  View. 

"When  the  great  and  wise  men  of  subtle  understanding,  with  whose 
honoured  persons  the  face  of  the  earth  is  now  adorned,  reflected  on  the 
perfecting  of  the  human  soul  and  its  future  destiny,  and  examined  the 
practices  and  opinions  of  the  famous  men  of  former  times,  they  soon 
formulated  a  complete  and  categorical  denial  of  all  these  beliefs.  They 
say  :  '  It  has  been  revealed  to  us  that  the  "  Rational  Soul"  is  a  thing 
of  no  consideration  ;  that  its  continuance  absolutely  depends  on  the 
continuance  of  the  body,  and  that  its  destruction  is  involved  in  the 
destruction  of  the  body.'  They  further  say  :  '  What  is  asserted  by  the 
Prophets  as  to  its  having  perfections  and  defects,  and  as  to  its  sub- 
sisting and  continuing  in  itself  after  its  separation  from  the  body  is 
impossible,  as  is  also  the  Resurrection.  Life  consists  in  the  just 

1  Qur'dn,  xiii,  28. 

2  Khalifa  ("Caliph"),  or  Representative,  alluding  to  God's  saying, 
when  He  created  man  (Qur'dn,  ii,  28),  "  Verily  I  am  placing  a  Repre- 
sentative (or  Vice-Gerent)  on  Earth." 

3  Qur'dn,  ii,  272. 


248        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME      [BK  n 

equipoise  of  the  elements  comprising  the  body,  and  when  this  is 
decomposed  its  owner  becomes  for  ever  extinct  and  null.  What  is 
intended  by  the  joys  of  Paradise  and  the  torments  of  Hell  must  be  in 
this  world,  as  the  poet  says  : 


'jut   o 

'  He  to  whom  they  give  receives  his  gift  even  here, 
And  he  who  has  nothing  [here]  is  put  off  with  promises  for  "to- 
morrow1."' 

"  Consequently  our  leaders  of  thought  are  entirely  unconcerned  with 
such  matters  as  the  Resurrection,  Future  Punishment,  Nearness  to  or 
Remoteness  from  God,  the  Divine  Approval  or  Wrath,  Perfection  and 
Imperfection,  and  the  like  ;  and  the  result  of  this  conviction  is  that 
they  spend  every  day  of  their  life  in  satisfying  their  lusts  and  pursuing 
their  pleasures,  saying  : 


'O  Final  Outcome  of  the  Seven  and  Four2, 
Who  by  the  Four  and  Seven  art  vexe'd  sore, 
Drink  wine  !  A  thousand  times  Pve  told  thee  this  — 
When  once  thou'rt  gone,  thou  shalt  return  no  more  !  ' 

"  While  they  commonly  inscribe  this  quatrain  on  their  fathers'  tomb- 
stones : 


'  No  mansions  lie  beyond  this  earth  and  sea  ; 
No  reason  dwells  outside  of  me  and  thee  : 
That  Nothing  which  is  deemed  by  some  men  All, 
O  pass  it  by  ;  'tis  but  vain  phantasy  !  ' 

1  I.e.  promises  of  a  future  life. 

2  I.e.  the  Seven  Planets  and  the  Four  Elements  called  the  "Seven 
Celestial  Fathers  "  and  the  "  Four  Mundane  Mothers." 


CH.  v]          "  ETHICS  OF  THE  ARISTOCRACY  "  249 

"And  it  is  for  this  reason  that  in  their  eyes  attacks  on  men's  lives, 
property  and  honour  seem  insignificant  and  of  small  account. 


1  To  such  one  draught  of  wine  in  hue  like  fire 
Outweighs  the  blood  of  brethren  or  of  sire.' 

"In  truth  our  applause  is  the  just  meed  of  these  our  great  and  favoured 
guides  to  whom  matters  which,  notwithstanding  the  cultivation  of  the 
reasoning  powers,  remained  hidden  for  several  thousand  years  have 
been  made  plain  without  trouble." 

So  in  like  manner  'Ubayd-i-Zakani  deals  with  the  other 
virtues.  Thus  in  speaking  of  the  "adopted"  or  current 
view  about  Courage,  which  is  the  subject  of  the  second 
chapter,  he  says  : 

"  Our  teachers  say  that  when  one  confronts  a  dangerous  enterprise, 
or  engages  in  combat  and  conflict  with  another,  one  of  two  things  will 
'Ubayd-i-  happen  :  either  his  adversary  will  prevail  and  slay  him, 

Zakani  on  or  the  contrary.     If  he  slays  his  adversary,  he  will  have 

on  his  neck  the  burden  of  innocent  blood,  and  as  a 
consequence  thereof  will  undoubtedly  sooner  or  later  be  overtaken  by 
punishment.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  his  adversary  prevails,  that  person 
will  assuredly  go  the  road  to  Hell.  How,  then,  can  a  wise  man  under- 
take an  action  presenting  such  alternatives  ?  What  proof,  indeed,  is 
clearer  than  this,  that  whenever  there  is  a  wedding,  or  a  dance,  or  any 
social  function  where  delicate  meats,  sweets,  robes  of  honour  and  money 
are  in  evidence,  rakes,  effeminate  persons,  minstrels  and  jesters  are 
invited  there,  while  when  arrows  and  spears  are  the  entertainment  pro- 
vided, some  stupid  fool  is  persuaded  that  he  is  a  man,  a  hero,  a  defeater 
of  armies,  a  captain  courageous,  and  is  thus  induced  to  confront  the 
swords,  so  that  when  the  poor  wretch  is  slain  in  battle  the  rakes  and 
effeminates  of  the  town  wag  their  tails,  saying  : 


'  Scant  attraction  have  arrow  and  axe  and  spear  for  me  ; 
Minstrels,  wine  and  delicate  meats  far  better  agree  !  '  " 

The  third  chapter,  dealing  with  Chastity,  hardly  lends 
itself  to  translation,  but  the  "  adopted  view  "  concerning 
Justice  in  the  fourth  chapter  is  worth  quoting. 

"  The  view  of  our  teachers  is  that  this  quality  is  the  worst  of  all 
attributes,  and  that  Justice  involves  much  loss  ;  a  thesis  which  they 
have  proved  by  the  clearest  arguments.  For  they  say  :  '  The  founda- 


250        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  n 

tion  of  sovereignty,  lordship  and  mastery  is  punishment,  since  men 
Ubayd-i-  w'^  not  °bev  any  one  until  they  fear  him  ;  all  will  feel 

ZakAnfon  themselves  equal  ;  the  foundations  of  administration  will 

be  undermined,  and  the  order  of  public  business  dis- 
organized. He  who  practices  Justice  (which  God  forbid!)  refrains 
from  beating,  killing  and  fining  any  one,  and  does  not  intoxicate  him- 
self and  quarrel  or  be  angry  with  his  subordinates,  him  none  will  fear. 
Then  the  people  will  not  obey  their  kings,  nor  sons  their  sires,  nor 
servants  their  masters,  while  the  affairs  of  the  lands  and  the  people 
will  lapse  into  chaos.  Hence  it  is  that  they  say: 


'  Kings  to  gain  a  single  object  oft  will  slay  a  hundred  souls.' 
"  And  they  further  say  :  ''Justice  bequeaths  disaster? 

What  proof,  indeed,  can  be  more  convincing  than  this,  that  so  long 
as  the  Kings  of  Persia  played  the  tyrant,  like  Dahhak  the  Arabian  and 
Yazdigird  'the  Sinner'  (who  now  confer  distinction  on  the  chief  seats 
of  Hell,  together  with  other  later  potentates  who  followed  them),  their 
Empire  increased  and  their  realm  flourished  ;  but  when  the  reign  of 
Khusraw  Amisharwan  came,  who,  by  reason  of  his  weak  judgement 
and  the  policy  of  his  feeble-minded  ministers  chose  the  attribute  of 
Justice,  in  a  little  while  the  pinnacles  of  his  Palace  fell  to  the  ground,  the 
Fire  Temples,  which  were  their  places  of  worship,  were  extinguished, 
and  all  trace  of  them  disappeared  from  the  face  of  the  earth1.  The 
Commander  of  the  Faithful  and  Confirmer  of  the  Laws  of  Religion 
'Umar  ibnu'l-Khattdb  (may  God  be  well  pleased  with  him),  who  was 
noted  for  his  justice,  made  bricks  and  ate  barley-bread,  while  his  cloak, 
as  they  relate,  weighed  seventeen  maunds.  Mu'awiya,  by  the  blessing 
of  Injustice,  wrested  the  kingdom  from  the  hands  of  the  Imam  'All  (may 
God  ennoble  his  countenance).  Nebuchadnezzar  did  not  establish  his 
authority,  nor  become  eminent  in  both  worlds,  nor  did  his  empire  in- 
crease, until  he  slew  twelve  thousand  innocent  prophets  in  the  Holy 
City  and  cast  into  bondage  many  thousand  more.  Chingfz  Khan,  who 
to-day,  in  despite  of  his  enemies,  stands  supreme  in  the  lower  depths 
of  Hell  as  the  exemplar  and  guide  of  all  the  Mongols,  ancient  and 
modern,  did  not  attain  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  world  until  with 
ruthless  sword  he  had  destroyed  millions  of  innocent  persons. 

"  Anecdote. 

"  It  is  recorded  in  the  histories  of  the  Mongols  that  when  Baghdad 
was  conquered  by  Hulagii  Khan  he  ordered  the  remnant  of  the  in- 

1  These  were  some  of  the  portents  said  to  have  heralded  the  Arab 
Invasion  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Sasanian  Empire. 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  251 

habitants  who  had  escaped  the  sword  to  be  brought  before  him.  He 
then  enquired  into  the  circumstances  of  each  class,  and,  when  he  was 
acquainted  with  them,  he  said  :  'Artisans  are  indispensable,'  and  gave 
them  permission  to  go  about  their  business.  To  the  merchants  he 
commanded  that  some  capital  should  be  given,  so  that  they  might  trade 
for  him.  From  the  Jews  he  was  content  to  take  a  poll-tax,  declaring 
them  to  be  an  oppressed  people  ;  while  the  effeminates  he  consigned 
to  his  gyncecia.  He  then  set  apart  the  judges,  shaykhs,  Sufis,  Hajjis, 
preachers,  persons  of  note,  beggars,  religious  mendicants,  wrestlers, 
poets  and  story-tellers,  saying,  '  These  are  superfluous  creatures  who 
waste  God's  blessings,'  and  ordered  all  of  them  to  be  drowned  in  the 
Tigris,  thus  purifying  the  face  of  earth  from  their  vile  existence.  As  a 
natural  consequence  sovereignty  continued  in  his  family  for  nearly 
ninety  years,  during  which  time  their  Empire  daily  increased ;  until, 
when  poor  Abu  Sa'fd  conceived  in  his  mind  a  sentimental  passion  for 
Justice,  and  branded  himself  with  the  stigma  of  this  quality,  his  Empire 
shortly  came  to  an  end,  and  the  House  of  Hiilagu  Khdn  and  all  his  en- 
deavours were  brought  to  naught  through  the  aspirations  of  Abu  Sa'fd... 
"Blessings  rest  on  those  great  and  well-directed  persons  who  guided 
mankind  out  of  the  dark  delusion  of  Justice  into  the  light  of  right 
guidance ! " 

The  "  Book  of  the  Beard "  (Rtsh-ndma)  is  a  fantastic 

dialogue    between    'Ubayd-i-Zakani    and    the 

^filar'd"  °f      beard  considered  as  the  destroyer  of  youthful 

beauty. 

The  "Hundred  Counsels"  (Sad  Pand}  was  composed 
in  750/1350,  and,  as  its  name  implies,  comprises  a  hundred 
aphorisms,  some  serious,  such  as :  "  O  dear 
Sun'l£"ndred  friends,  make  the  most  of  life";  "Do  not 
defer  until  to-morrow  the  pleasure  of  to-day"; 
"  Profit  by  the  present,  for  life  will  not  return  a  second 
time " ;  and  some  ironical  and  ribald,  such  as :  "  So  far 
as  you  are  able,  refrain  from  speaking  the  truth,  so  that 
you  may  not  be  a  bore  to  other  people,  and  that  they 
may  not  be  vexed  with  you  without  due  cause " ;  "  Do 
not  believe  the  words  of  pious  and  learned  men,  lest  you 
go  astray  and  fall  into  Hell " ;  "  Do  not  take  lodgings  in 
a  street  where  there  is  a  minaret,  so  that  you  may  be  safe 
from  the  annoyance  of  cacophonous  mu  adhdhins" ;  "Despise 
not  ribaldry,  nor  regard  satirists  with  the  eye  of  scorn." 


252        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

The  "Definitions"  (Ta'rifdt\  or  "  Ten  Sections"  (Dak 
Fasl}   is.  like   the  "Hundred    Counsels"   just 

'Ubayd-j-  . 

zdkanfs  mentioned,  a  tract  of  only  a  few  pages.     A 

few  specimens  from  it  will  suffice  to  show  its 
character. 

"  First  Section  :  on  the  World  and  what  is  therein. 

"  The  World.     That  place  wherein  no  creature  can  enjoy  peace. 
The  Wise  Man.     He  who  does  not  concern  himself  with  the  world 

and  its  inhabitants. 

The  Perfect  Man.     He  who  is  not  affected  by  grief  or  gladness. 
Thought.     That  which  wearies  men  to  no  purpose. 
The  Man  of  Learning.     He  who  has  not  sense  enough  to  earn  his 

own  livelihood. 
The  Ignorant  Man.     Fortune's  favourite. 


"  Second  Section :  on  the  Turks  and  their  friends. 

'  Gog  and  Magog.      The  Turkish  tribes  when  they  set  out  for  a 

country. 

The  Infernal  Guards.     Their  leaders. 
Famine.     The  result  of  their  advent. 

The  Constable.    He  who  robs  by  night  and  demands  payment  from 
the  shop-keepers  by  day. 


"  Third  Section :  on  the  Judge  and  his  appanages. 
"  The  Judge.     He  whom  all  men  curse. 
The  Advocate.     He  who  renders  the  truth  of  no  effect. 
Bribery.     That  which  does  the  business  of  the  helpless. 
The  Lucky  Man.     He  who  never  sees  the  Judge's  countenance. 
The  Preacher.     An  ass. 
The  Prelector.     An  ass's  tail. 
The  Poet.     A  greedy  coxcomb. 


"  Fourth  Section :  on  Shaykhs  and  their  dependents. 

"  The  Shaykh.     Iblfs  (the  Devil). 
The  Devils.     His  followers. 

The  Sufi.     He  who  eats  what  he  has  not  earned. 
The  Hdjji.     He  who  swears  falsely  by  the  Ka'ba. 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  253 

"  Fifth  Section :  on  the  Gentry. 

"  Boasting  and  impudence.     The  Gentry's  stock-in-trade. 
Nothing.     Their  existence. 
Hollow.     Their  politeness. 
Vanity  and  folly.     Their  talk. 

Fault-finding^  greed,  avarice  and  envy.     Their  characteristics. 
The  Fool.     He  who  hopes  any  good  of  them. 

*  *  *  * 

"  Sixth  Section  :  on  Artisans  and  Officials. 
"  The  Shopman.     He  who  fears  not  God. 
The  Druggist.     He  who  wants  to  make  everyone  ill. 
The  Doctor.     An  executioner. 
The  Liar.     The  astrologer. 
The  Athlete.     An  idle  rogue. 

The  Broker.     The  chartered  thief  of  the  market-place. 
One  per  cent.     What  does  not  reach  the  landlord  from  his  crops. 
Complaint.     What  is  carried  to  the  landlord. 

*  •  *  *  * 

"  Seventh  Section :  on  Wine  and  its  appurtenances. 
"  Wine.     The  source  of  disturbance. 

Backgammon,  beauties,  candles  and  desert.     Its  instruments. 
The  Harp,  Lute  and  Dulcimer.     Its  music. 
Soup  and  roasted  meat.     Its  food. 
The  Garden  and  Parterre.     Its  appropriate  place. 
The  '  Destroyer  of  Joys?     Ramadan. 
The  '  Night  of  Worth:    The  eve  of  the  festival. 

*  *  *  * 

"  Eighth  Section :  on  Bang  and  its  accessories. 

"  Bang.     That  which  fills  the  Sufi  with  ecstasy. 
The  Bejewelled,  or  the  Noble  on  both  sides.    He  who  indulges  simul- 
taneously in  bang  and  wine. 
The  Disappointed.     He  who  enjoys  neither. 


"  Ninth  Section  :  the  Householder  and  what  appertains  to  him. 

"  The  Bachelor.     He  who  laughs  at  the  world's  beard. 
The  Unfortunate.     The  householder. 

The  Two-horned  (Dhu'l-Qarnayn).     He  who  has  two  wives. 
The  most  unfortunate  of  the  unfortunate.     He  who  has  more. 
The  Futile.     The  householder's  life. 


254         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME    [BK  n 

The  Wasted.     His  time. 
The  Dissipated.     His  wealth. 
The  Distracted.     His  mind. 
The  Bitter.     His  life. 
The  Abode  of  Mourning.     His  house. 
The  Enemy  in  the  House.     His  son. 
The  Ill-starred.     He  who  is  afflicted  with  a  daughter. 
The  Adversary.     His  brother. 
The  Kinsman.     His  deadly  foe. 
Joy  after  sorrow.     The  triple  divorce. 

*  *  *  * 

"  Tenth  Section:  on  the  true  nature  of  Men  and  Women. 

"  The  Lady.     She  who  has  many  lovers. 
The  House-wife.     She  who  has  few. 
The  Virtuous.     She  who  is  satisfied  with  one  lover. 
The  Maiden.     A  name  denoting  what  does  not  exist." 


The  "Joyous  Treatise"  (Risdla-i-Diiguskd)  is  a  col- 
lection of  short  Arabic  and  Persian  stories  and 

'Ubayd-i- 

Zakani's  "joyous  facetiae,  mostly  of  a  somewhat  ribald  character, 
preceded  by  a  short  Preface.    A  few  specimens 
of  both  parts  are  here  appended. 

(Arabic  Stories.} 

"  Julia"  once  went  to  al-Kindsa  ('the  Dust-heap ')  to  buy  a  donkey. 
A  man  met  him  and  asked  him  where  he  was  going.  He  replied,  '  To 
al-Kindsa  to  buy  a  donkey.'  'Say,  "Please  God,"'  answered  the 
other.  'There  is  no  "Please  God"  about  it,'  responded  Julia"  :  'the 
donkey  is  in  the  market  and  the  money  is  in  my  sleeve.' 

"  Now  when  he  entered  the  market,  some  pickpockets  fell  upon 
him  and  stole  his  money.  And  as  he  returned,  the  man  met  him 
again,  and  enquired  whence  he  came.  He  replied,  '  From  the  market, 
Please  God.  My  money  has  been  stolen,  Please  God.  So  I  did  not 
buy  the  donkey,  Please  God.  And  I  am  returning  to  my  house  dis- 
appointed and  despoiled,  Please  God.' " 

"  A  certain  man  met  another  riding  on  a  sorry  ass,  and  enquired 
of  him,  'Whither  away?'  He  replied,  'To  try  to  reach  the  Friday 
prayer.'  '  Out  on  thee  ! '  exclaimed  the  other  ;  '  To-day  is  Tuesday  ! ' 
'  I  shall  be  lucky,'  answered  the  rider,  'if  my  ass  gets  me  to  the  mosque 
by  Saturday  ! ' " 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  255 

"A  man  came  to  I  yds  ibn  Mu'awiya  and  asked  him  :  '  If  I  should 
eat  dates,  would  it  harm  me  ? '  He  replied,  '  No.'  '  What  would 
happen,'  he  continued,  '  if  I  were  to  eat  fennel  with  bread  ?  '  '  Nothing 
would  happen,'  he  answered.  'And  if  I  then  drank  a  little  water?'  he 
asked.  'What  forbids?'  replied  the  other.  Said  the  questioner,  '  Date- 
wine  is  compounded  of  these  things  :  how  then  can  it  be  unlawful?' 
'  If  I  threw  some  earth  at  you,'  said  lyas,  'would  it  hurt? '  '  No,'  said 
the  man.  'And  if  a  little  water  was  poured  upon  you,  would  any  of 
your  bones  be  broken  ?'  continued  lyas.  'No,'  said  the  man.  'But 
if,'  said  I  yds,  'out  of  the  earth  and  the  water  I  made  a  brick,  and  dried 
it  in  the  sun,  and  then  struck  you  on  the  head  with  it,  how  would  it  be  ?' 
'  It  would  kill  me,'  answered  the  other.  Said  I  yds,  'This  case  is  like 
that.'" 

{Persian  Stories.} 

"  A  certain  Shi'ite  entered  a  mosque  and  saw  the  names  of  the  [four] 
Companions1  written  up  on  the  wall.  He  wished  to  spit  on  the  names 
of  Abii  Bakr  and  'Umar,  but  his  spittle  fell  on  the  name  of  'All.  He 
was  greatly  annoyed  at  this,  and  exclaimed,  '  This  is  only  what  you 
deserve  for  keeping  such  company  ! ' " 

"A  certain  man  claimed  to  be  God.  He  was  brought  before  the 
Caliph,  who  said  to  him,  '  Last  year  someone  here  claimed  to  be  a 
prophet,  and  he  was  put  to  death.'  '  It  was  well  done,'  replied  the  man, 
'  for  I  did  not  send  him.' " 

"  Juha.  in  his  childhood  was  apprenticed  for  some  days  to  a  tailor. 
One  day  his  master  brought  a  jar  of  honey  to  the  shop.  Desiring  to 
go  out  on  some  business,  he  said  to  Juhd,  '  There  is  poison  in  this  jar : 
beware  lest  you  partake  of  it,  or  you  will  perish  ! '  Said  Juha,  '  What 
have  I  to  do  with  it?'  When  his  master  had  gone,  Juha  gave  a  piece 
of  cloth  to  a  money-changer  and  bought  a  piece  of  baker's  bread, 
which  he  ate  with  all  the  honey.  When  his  master  returned,  he 
demanded  the  piece  of  cloth.  'Don't  beat  me,'  said  Juhd,  'so  that  I 
may  tell  you  the  truth.  A  thief  stole  the  piece  of  cloth  while  I  was 
not  paying  attention.  I  was  afraid  that  when  you  came  back  you 
would  beat  me,  so  I  said  to  myself  that  I  would  take  poison,  so  that 
when  you  returned  I  should  be  dead.  So  I  ate  all  the  poison  which 
was  in  the  jar,  but  I  am  still  alive.  The  rest  you  know.'" 

"  A  Qazwini  armed  with  an  enormous  shield  went  out  to  fight  the 
Heretics2.  A  stone  fired  from  their  stronghold  struck  him  and  broke 

1  I.e.  the  four  Orthodox  Caliphs,  Abii  Bakr,  'Umar,  'Uthmdn  and 
'All,  of  whom  the  Shi'ites  regard  the  first  three  as  usurpers. 

2  Maldhida,  i.e.  the  Assassins,  whose  chief  fortress,  Alamut,  was 
situated  near  Qazwin. 


256        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

his  head.  He  was  much  annoyed  and  exclaimed,  '  O  fellow,  are  you 
blind  that  you  cannot  see  so  large  a  shield  and  must  needs  hit  me  on 
the  head?'" 

"  The  son  of  a  certain  Qazwmi  fell  into  a  well.  '  O  my  dear  boy,' 
he  exclaimed,  'don't  move  from  where  you  are  until  I  go  and  fetch  a 
rope  and  pull  you  out ! ' " 

"A  certain  mu'adhdhin  was  running  along  shouting  the  call  to 
prayer.  They  asked  him  why  he  was  running.  He  replied,  'They  tell 
me  that  my  voice  sounds  best  from  a  distance,  so  I  am  running  away 
from  it  to  see  if  this  is  true.' " 

"  Sultan  Mahmiid  saw  a  feeble  old  man  carrying  on  his  back  a  load 
of  firewood.  Being  moved  to  pity,  he  said,  '  Old  man,  would  you 
prefer  that  I  should  give  you  two  or  three  gold  dindrs,  or  a  donkey, 
or  two  or  three  sheep,  or  a  garden,  so  that  you  may  be  delivered  from 
this  misery?'  'Give  me  money,'  said  the  old  man,  'so  that  I  may  put 
it  in  my  girdle,  and  ride  on  the  donkey,  and  drive  the  sheep  before  me, 
and  go  to  the  garden,  and  rest  there,  through  your  favour,  for  the  rest 
of  my  life.'  The  Sulta'n  was  pleased  at  his  reply,  and  gave  orders  that 
this  should  be  done." 

"A  man  said  to  his  friend,  '  My  eye  hurts  me.  What  should  I  do  ? ' 
'  Last  year,'  replied  his  friend,  'one  of  my  teeth  hurt  me  and  I  pulled 
it  out.'" 

"A  bald  man  coming  out  from  the  bath  found  that  his  hat  had 
been  stolen,  and  had  a  violent  altercation  with  the  bathman,  who 
declared  that  he  had  no  hat  on  when  he  came.  '  O  Musulmans  ! ' 
exclaimed  the  man,  'is  mine  the  kind  of  head  which  goes  about 
hatless?'" 

"A  certain  Qazwmf  was  asked  if  he  knew  about  'All,  the  Commander 
of  the  Faithful.  '  Of  course  I  know  about  him,'  he  replied.  '  Which 
of  the  Caliphs  was  he  in  order?'  they  asked.  '  I  know  nothing  about 
Caliphs,'  he  answered,  'but  it  was  he  whom  Husayn  caused  to  die  a 
martyr's  death  on  the  Plain  of  Karbala1  ! ' " 

"A  certain  gipsy  reproached  his  son,  saying,  'You  do  nothing,  and 
spend  your  life  in  idleness.  How  often  must  I  tell  you  that  you  should 

1  'All,  the  first  Imdm  of  the  Shf'ites  and  Fourth  Caliph  of  the 
Sunnites,  was  assassinated  by  Ibn  Muljam  in  A.D.  661.  His  younger 
son,  Husayn,  the  third  Imam,  called  by  the  Persians  "the  Chief  of 
Martyrs,"  was  slain  at  Karbald  by  Yazfd's  myrmidons  some  twenty 
years  later.  The  anecdote  is  intended  to  illustrate  the  stupidity  and 
ignorance  of  the  Qazwfnis.  For  a  similar  anecdote  given  by  Zamakh- 
shari  see  the  English  Preface  to  the  Chahdr  Maqdla  ("E.  J.  W.  Gibb 
Memorial"  Series,  Vol.  xi),  pp.  xxi-xxii. 


CH.  v]  'UBAYD-I-ZAKANf  257 

learn  to  turn  somersaults,  make  dogs  jump  through  hoops,  or  walk  on 
the  tight-rope,  so  that  you  may  derive  some  profit  from  life.  If  you 
won't  listen  to  me,  by  Heaven,  I  will  send  you  to  college  to  learn  their 
moth-eaten  science  and  to  become  a  learned  man,  so  that  all  your  life 
you  may  continue  in  abasement,  poverty  and  evil  fortune,  and  be  un- 
able to  earn  a  single  barleycorn  anywhere.'  " 

"  A  certain  Qazwini  was  returning  from  Baghdad  in  the  summer. 
They  asked  him  what  he  was  doing  there.  He  replied,  '  Sweating.'  " 

With  the  "Joyous  Treatise,"  from  which  the  few 
anecdotes  given  above  are  taken,  the  printed  edition  of 
'Ubayd-i-Zakani's  works  ends,  except  for  two  letters  — 
models  of  unintelligible  vulgarity  and  full  of  solecisms  — 
ascribed  to  Shaykh  Shihabu'd-Din  Qalandar  and  Mawlana 
Jalalu'd-Dm  b.  Husam  of  Herat,  but  no  doubt  written  by 
'Ubayd  himself  in  order  to  hold  them  up  to  ridicule. 

I  have  devoted  to  'Ubayd-i-Zakani  more  space  than  he 
may  be  deemed  by  many  students  of  Persian  literature 
Reasons  for  to  deserve,  but,  in  spite  of  his  coarseness  and 
devoting  so  cynicism,  his  strong  originality  and  boldness 

much  space  to  c  .  ««i_i      »• 

of  speech  appear  to  me  to  entitle  him  to  more 


consideration  than  he  has  hitherto  received. 
His  "  Ethics  of  the  Aristocracy  "  is  valuable  for  the  light 
it  throws  on  the  corrupt  morals  of  his  age,  and  it  is  at 
least  conceivable  that,  as  'Ubayd's  biographer  suggests, 
it  was  really  written  with  serious  purpose  to  awaken  his 
countrymen  to  the  lamentable  deterioration  in  public  and 
private  life  which  had  taken  place  in  Persia  during  the 
Mongol  ascendancy.  In  style  and  subject-matter  'Ubayd- 
i-Zakani  stands  almost  alone  amongst  the  older  poets, 
though  he  bears  some  resemblance  to  his  predecessor 
Suzani,  and  to  his  successors  Abu  Ishaq  (Bushaq)  of 
Shi'raz,  the  parodist  and  poet  of  the  kitchen,  and  Mah- 
mud  Qari  of  Yazd,  the  poet  of  clothes.  Amongst  the 
moderns,  the  learned  Mi'rza  Habib  of  Isfahan,  the  editor 
of  his  books,  who  died  in  Constantinople  towards  the  end 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  rivals  and  even  surpasses  him 
in  hazaliyydt  or  ribald  poems. 

B.  P.  17 


258        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME      [BK  n 


4.     'Imddu'd-Din  Faqih  (the  Jurisconsult}  of  Kirmdn, 

Such  fame  as  this  poet  enjoys  arises  chiefly  from  the 
fact  that  he  was  a  rival  of  the  great  Hafiz,  and 

'Imdd  of  Kirm£n     .  1.1  •  i       .    •  -  \  '  -L.    r   i 

is  supposed  to  be  aimed  at  in  a  rather  spiteful 
poem1  by  the  latter,  especially  in  the  verse  : 


"  O  gracefully-walking  partridge,  whither  goest  thou  ?    Stop  ! 
Be  not  deceived  because  the  zealot's  cat  says  its  prayers  !  " 

The  story  is2  that  'I  mad  stood  high  in  the  favour  of 
Shah  Shuja'  the  Muzaffarf,  with  whom,  on  the  other  hand, 
Hafiz  was  by  no  means  a  persona  grata.  'Imad,  who,  as 
his  title  Faqih  indicates,  was  a  theologian,  had  a  tame 
cat  which  he  had  taught  to  go  through  the  appropriate 
postures  and  genuflections  when  he  prayed,  and  this  art 
of  mimicry  was  regarded  by  the  Prince  as  miraculous,  but 
by  Hafiz  as  a  piece  of  hypocritical  cunning. 

Notices  of  'Imad  are  given  by  Dawlatshah3  and  Jami 
(in  the  Bahdristdn,  chapter  vii),  and  in  the  Atash-kada*  , 
the  Haft  Iqlim  and  the  Habibiis-Siyar  (as  mentioned 
above),  and  most  other  biographies  of  poets,  but  these 
contain  very  little  indeed  about  his  life.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  highly  respected  at  Kirman,  and  to  have  had 
a  college  or  retreat  there.  "  He  was  wont,"  says  Jami, 
"to  recite  his  verses  to  all  who  visited  the  rest-house 
(khdnqdh),  requesting  them  to  criticize  and  amend  them, 
whence  it  is  that  they  say  that  his  poetry  is  really  the 

1  See  Rosenzweig-Schwannau's  edition  of  the  Diwdn  of  Hdfiz, 
vol.  i,  pp.  316-317,  in  the  note  to  which,  however,  the  allusion  is  other- 
wise explained.     See  also  p.  243,  n.  i  supra. 

2  See  Habibit's-Siyar,  vol.  iii,  pt.  2,  p.  37  ;  and  the  Haft  Iqlim. 

3  Pp.  254-6  of  my  edition. 
'      *  P.  no. 


CH.  v]  'IMAD-I-KIRMANf  259 

poetry  of  all  the  people  of  Kirman."  Dawlatshah  quotes 
the  opinion  of  Adhari,  author  of  the  "  Gems  of  Mysteries  " 
(Jawdhiru'l-Asrdr),  who  says  : 

"  Critical  scholars  hold  that  some  redundancy  ('  stuffing ' — Jiashw) 
is  to  be  observed  at  times  in  the  poetry  of  all  the  ancients  and  moderns 
except  in  that  of  Khwaja  'Imdd-i-Faqih,  in  which,  as  they  agree,  there 
is  absolutely  no  such  lapse,  either  in  words  or  ideas." 

'Imad's  extant  work  comprises  a  Dlwdn  of  lyric  poetry, 
of  which  copies  are  not  common1,  and  at  least  five  mathnawi 
poems,  of  which  the  earliest,  entitled  Mahabbat-ndma-i- 
Sdhib-dildn,  was  composed  in  722/1322,  and  the  latest, 
the  Mtinisu'l-Abrdr,  in  766/1364.  According  to  Dawlat- 
shah, he  died  in  773/1371-2,  evidently  at  a  fairly  advanced 
age.  The  following  is  a  translation  of  the  first  of  the  two 
odes  of 'Imad  quoted  by  this  biographer2: 

"The  poor  patient  in  the  hospital   of  Religion  who  details  his 

symptoms  to  the  physicians  who  sit  by  the  road, 
What  cares  he  for  the  road,  the  pain,  the  trouble  and  the  sickness 

Who  has  Khidr  for  his  friend  and  Christ  for  his  companion  ? 
On  the  first  day  of  Eternity  Past  I  inscribed  on  the  Tablet  of  my  Soul 

Of  the  words  of  my  father  (may  his  tomb  be  fragrant !)  these  : 
'  O  child,  if  thou  meetest  with  one  who  is  fallen, 

Do  not  mock  him,  nor  look  on  him  with  the  eyes  of  scorn  ! ' 
For  this  reason  did  the  great  religious  leaders  ride  on  lions, 

Because  they  trod  the  earth  more  gently  than  ants. 
If  no  heart  in  the  world  is  cheered  by  thee, 

At  least  do  not  so  act  that  any  spirit  may  be  saddened  by  thee. 
O  'Imdd,  one  cannot  seek  for  any  friend  but  God  : 

Help,  O  Helper  !  'From  Thee  do  we  seek  assistance3'!" 

1  See  the  excellent  Bankipore  Catalogue,  prepared  under  the  super- 
vision of  Sir  E.  Denison  Ross  by  Mawlawi'Abdu'l-Muqtadir,and  printed 
at  Calcutta  in  1908.    ("Persian  Poets,"  Firdawsf  to  Hdfiz,  pp.  217-219.) 

2  See  p.  254,  1.  14,  to  p.  255,  1.  4,  of  my  edition  for  the  text. 

3  The  last  words  are  from  the  opening  sura  of  the  Qur'an,  v.  4. 


17 — 2 


260        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

5.     Salman  of  Sdwa 

(Jamdlu'd-Din  Muhammad  Salman  b.  'Ald'itd-Dtn 
Muhammad). 

Salman  of  Sawa,  who  has  been  already  mentioned  in 
connection   with  'Ubayd-i-Zakani,  is  another 

'  Salman  of  Sdwa  ,  .  ,  ,  .  _      .     . 

poet  whose   eminence   has   been  certified   by 
the  great  Hafiz  in  the  following  verse  : 


"  Dost  thou  know  who  is  the  chief  of  the  scholars  of  this  age 
In  the  way  of  truth  and  certainty,  not  in  the  way  of  doubt  and 

falsehood  ? 

That  monarch  of  the  accomplished  and  king  of  the  realm  of  verse 
That  ornament  of  Church  and  State  (Jamdlu'd-Diri),  the  Master 

of  the  World  Salman." 

He  was  essentially  a  court-poet  and  panegyrist,  and 
was  attached  during  the  greater  part  of  his  long  life  to 
the  Il-khani  or  Jala'ir  dynasty,  his  special  patrons  being 
Shaykh  llas&n-t-Busurg,  the  founder  of  that  dynasty,  his 
consort  Dilshad  Khatun,  and  their  son  Shaykh  Uways. 
Apart  from  the  notices  of  him  given  by  the  biographers 
cited  throughout  this  chapter1,  attention  should  be  called 
to  two  excellent  biographies  by  Indian  scholars,  one  in 
English  and  the  other  in  Urdu.  The  first,  in  the  Catalogue 
of  ...the  Oriental  Public  Library  at  Bankipore,  Fir  daw  si  to 
Hafiz  (pp.  219-225),  is  by  Mawlawi  'Abdu'l-Muqtadir,  and 
gives  a  very  good  critical  summary  of  the  data  furnished 
by  the  Persian  biographers.  The  second  is  contained  in 
an  admirable  collection  of  studies  of  some  twenty  eminent 

1  See  Dawlatshdh  (my  edition),  pp.  257-263;  Atash-kada  (lith.  ed., 
A.H.  1277),  pp.  208-211  ;  Habibifs-Siyar  (Bombay  lith.  ed.,  A.D.  1857), 
vol.  iii,  pt.  I,  pp  130,  135,  137  ;  J  ami's  BahAristdn,  ch.  vii,  etc. 


CH.  v]  SALMAN-I-SAWAjf  261 

Persian  poets  by  Shibli  Nu'mdni  entitled  Shi'ru'l-'Ajam 
("Poetry  of  the  Persians")1,  compiled  in  1324-5/1906-7, 
and  lithographed  at  'Aligarh. 

That  Salman  was  born  in  or  about  the  year  700/1300 
is  proved,  as  pointed  out  by  Mawlawi  'Abdu'l-Muqtadir, 
,,  .  .  ,  by  a  verse  in  the  Firdq-ndma  ("  Book  of 

Materials  for  the        J 

biographyof  Separation"),  composed  in  761/1360,  in  which 
the  poet  says  that  his  age  had  then  passed 
sixty-one ;  and  the  same  scholar  gives  good  reason  for 
believing  that  he  died  on  Monday,  Safar  12,  778  (July  i, 
1376).  He  composed  two  mathnawl  poems,  the  above- 
mentioned  Firdq-ndma  and  another  entitled  Jamshid  u 
Khurshid,  and  a  number  of  odes  (ghazaliyydf),  fragments 
(muqatta'dt),  and  quatrains  (rubd'iyydi),  but  it  is  as  a 
qasida-vrntoex  and  panegyrist  that  he  excels,  often  sur- 
passing, as  Jami  says,  the  earlier  masters,  such  as  Kamal 
Isma'il,  Zahfr  of  Faryab,  Athir-i-Awmani,  Sana'f,  etc., 
„  . . .  whom  he  took  for  his  models.  Of  his  odes 

Jarm  s  criticism 

of  Salman's  {gJiazaliyydf)  Jami  says  that  they  too  are  very 
agreeable  and  highly  finished,  but  that,  "  being 
devoid  of  the  savour  of  love  and  passion  which  is  the 
essence  of  the  ghazal,  they  are  not  very  highly  esteemed 
by  men  of  taste."  In  the  Bombay  lithographed  edition 
of  Salman's  Kiilliyydt,  the  qastdas,  with  two  tarjf -bands, 
fill  the  first  135  pages,  the  ghazals  pp.  136-230,  and  the 
quatrains  the  last  six  pages. 

Salman's  earliest  poems,  as  'Abdu'l-Muqtadir  observes, 
are  apparently  his  elegies  on  the  death  of  Sultan  Abu  Sa'id 
(Nov. — Dec.,  1335),  and  of  his  great  minister  Khwaja 
Ghiyathu'd-Din  Muhammad,  who  was  put  to  death  on 
Ramadan  21,  736  (May  3,  1336).  In  this  same  year 
Shaykh  \$asax\.-i-Busttrg  established  the  dynasty  known 
as  Il-khani,  with  its  capital  at  Baghdad,  and  thither  Salman, 
attracted  by  the  fame  of  that  ruler's  generosity  to  men  of 
letters,  made  his  way,  probably  soon  after  the  cruel  and 

1  The  notice  of  Salmdn  is  in  the  second  part  of  this  work,  pp.  196- 
211. 


262        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  n 

violent  death  of  his  earlier  patron  Ghiyathu'd-Di'n.  It  is 
related  by  Dawlatshah  and  other  writers  that  he  first  won 
Shaykh  Hasan's  favour  by  the  following  verses  which  he 
extemporized  on  some  occasion  when  that  Prince  was 
exhibiting  his  skill  with  the  bow1  : 

"When  the  King  lifted  his  Chichi2  bow 
Thou  would'st  have  said  that  the  Moon  was  in  the  Sign  of 

Sagittarius. 

I  saw  the  two  'crows'  of  the  bow  and  the  three-winged  eagle3 
Bring  their  heads  together  in  one  corner4. 
They  laid  their  heads  on  the  King's  shoulder  : 
I  know  not  what  they  whispered  in  the  King's  ear. 
When  the  King  loosed  the  bow-string  from  the  finger-stall 
From  every  side  arose  the  twang  of  the  string. 
O  King,  the  arrow  is  subject  to  thy  schemes, 
And  fortune  follows  the  flight  of  thy  arrow. 
In  thy  time  complaints  arise  from  none 
Save  from  the  bow,  which  it  is  but  right  should  lament. 
For,  in  the  reign  of  this  auspicious  Sultan 
None  does  violence  save  to  the  bow." 

It  was,  however,  according  to  the  biographers,  chiefly 
to  the  beautiful  and  accomplished  Queen  Dilshad  Khatun, 
and  to  the  amiable  Prince  Uways,  that  Salman  owed  the 
favours  which  he  enjoyed  at  the  Il-khani  court,  of  which 
he  says  : 


"Through  the  auspicious  fortune  of  this  House  I  have  captured  the 

world  with  the  sword  of  my  tongue. 
To-day  from  the  East  to  the  West  I  am  more  famous  than  the  Sun." 

Shaykh  Uways  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  757/1356 
and   reigned    nearly  twenty   years,  and    to   him    a   great 

1  For  the  text,  see  my  edition  of  Dawlatshah,  p.  257,  11.  15-21. 

2  Chach,  or  Shdsh,  the  modern  Tashkand,  is  a  place  in  Turkistan 
celebrated  for  its  bows. 

3  Each  of  the  two  horns  or  tips  of  a  bow  is  called  zdgh,  "crow." 
The  "three-winged  eagle"  is  the  arrow. 

4  This  indicates  metaphorically  the  full  drawing  of  the  bow. 


CH.  v]  SALMAN-I-SAWAjf  263 

number  of  Salman's  qasidas  are  addressed,  while  anecdotes 
given  by  Dawlatshah  and  reproduced  by  Ouseley  in  his 
Biographical  Notices  of  the  Persian  Poets1  show  the  intimacy 
which  prevailed  between  the  two.  This  prince  is  said  by 
Dawlatshah  to  have  been  of  such  striking  beauty  that  when 
he  rode  out  the  people  of  Baghdad  used  to  flock  into  the 
streets  to  gaze  upon  a  countenance  which  seemed  to 
reincarnate  the  legendary  comeliness  of  Joseph.  When 
overtaken  by  untimely  death,  he  is  said  to  have  composed 
the  following  fine  verses  : 


3  *. 


b 


"  From  the  spirit-world  one  day  to  the  realms  of  Body  and  Sense  did 

I  roam  ; 

I  sojourned  here  for  a  few  brief  days,  and  now  I  am  going  home. 
The  servant  was  I  of  a  mighty  Lord,  and  I  fled  from  my  Liege  and 

Lord, 
Whom  now  in  shame  I  am  going  to  meet  with  a  winding-sheet  and 

a  sword2. 

Comrades  of  mine,  I  leave  you  now  to  joys  which  I  may  not  share, 
And  that  you  may  enjoy  this  banquet  long  is  my  parting  hope  and 

prayer  !  " 

As  is  usually  the  case  with  panegyrists,  many  of 
Salman's  qasidas  refer  to  definite  historical  events,  and 
can  therefore  be  dated.  Mawlawi  'Abdu'l-Muqtadir  gives 
a  list  of  ten  such  poems,  with  their  dates  and  the  occasions 

1  Pp.  117  et  seqq. 

2  A  fugitive  and  repentant  slave,  to  show  his  readiness  to  surrender 
himself  unconditionally  and  submit  to  even  the  extremest  punishment, 
goes  back  to  his  master  bearing  a  sword,  wherewith  he  may  be  slain, 
and  a  winding-sheet  for  his  burial. 


264        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TrMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

which  called  them  forth,  from  the  Habtbus-Siyar1.  The 
earliest  of  them,  composed  in  739/1338  on  the  occasion  of 
the  flight  of  Shaykh  Hasan-i-Buzurg-  to  Baghdad,  begins2  : 


'jlo  jljdu  Jxi  U 

"  It  is  the  time  of  morning,  and  the  brink  of  the  Tigris,  and  the  breath 

of  Spring  ; 
O,  boy,  bring  the  wine-boat  to  the  estuary  of  Baghdad  !  " 

The  two  latest,  composed  in  7/7/1375,  celebrate  a 
victory  of  Shah  Shuja'  in  Adharbayjan3.  The  second  of 
them,  which  won  that  Prince's  high  approval,  begins4: 


J 

and  it  was  after  hearing  it  that  Shah  Shuja'  observed  : 
"  We  had  heard  the  fame  of  three  notable  persons  of  this 
country,  and  found  them  differing  in  their  circumstances. 
Salman  exceeded  all  that  was  said  in  his  praise  ;  Yiisuf 
Shah  the  minstrel  agreed  with  his  reputation;  and  Shaykh 
Kajahanf  fell  short  of  his." 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  of  Salman's  qasfdas,  how- 
ever, was  written  to  commemorate  the  death  of  Shaykh 
Uways,  which  took  place  in  Jum^da  ii,  776  (November, 
1374).  It  begins5  : 


*%* 


1  Bankipore  Catalogue,  pp.  222-3. 

2  This  poem  will  be  found  on  pp.  87-8  of  the  lithographed  edition 
of  the  Kulliyydt  of  Salmon. 

3  Habibifs-Siyar,  vol.  iii,  pt  2,  p.  35. 

4  See  pp.  57-8  of  the  lithographed  edition. 

6  It  does  not  seem  to  be  included  in  the  lithographed  edition. 


CH.  v]  SALMAN-I-SAWAjf 


"  O  Heaven,  go  gently  !     It  is  no  slight  thing  that  thou  hast  done  : 
Thou  hast  made  desolate  the  land  of  Persia  by  the  death  of  the  King. 
Thou  hast  brought  down  a  heaven  from  its  zenith, 
And  hast  cast  it  on  the  earth  and  made  it  level  with  the  dust. 
If  thou  walkest  with  truth,  this  is  no  insignificant  matter  : 
Thou   hast  attacked  the   life  and  property  and  honour  of  every 
Musulma"n  !  " 

As  already  stated,  Salman  probably  died  in  778/1376, 
a  year  after  the  composition  of  two  of  the  qasidas  mentioned 
above,  so  that  he  evidently  continued  to  write  poetry  until 
the  end  of  his  long  life,  and  did  not,  as  stated  by  Dawlat- 
shah1,  actually  retire  into  seclusion,  though  he  implies  his 
desire  and  intention  of  so  doing  in  an  interesting  poem  cited 
by  Shibli  Nu'mani  in  his  Shi'nil-Ajam  (vol.  ii,  pp.  198-200). 
In  this  poem  he  says  that  for  nearly  forty  years  he  has 
celebrated  his  Royal  patron's  praises  in  the  East  and  in 
the  West  ;  that  he  is  now  old  and  feeble,  lame,  and  weak 
of  sight,  and  wishes  to  retire  from  Court  and  spend  the 
remainder  of  his  days  in  praying  for  the  King  ;  that  having 
been  the  master  of  the  realm  of  poets,  he  desires  to  become 
the  servant  of  the  poor  ;  that  he  has  no  doubt  that  the 
King  will  continue  his  allowance,  but  that  he  would  like 
its  source  and  amount  to  be  definitely  fixed  ;  and  finally 
that  he  owes  considerable  sums  of  money  which  he  cannot 
pay,  and  prays  the  King  to  discharge  these  debts  for  him. 
In  reply  the  King  is  said  to  have  written  two  couplets  on 
the  poet's  versified  petition,  in  the  first  of  which  he  orders 
his  allowance  to  be  continued  as  heretofore,  while  in  the 
second  he  assigns  him  the  revenues  of  the  village  of  In'n 
near  Ray. 

Shibli  Nu'mani  concludes  his  notice  of  Salmon  with 
a  fairly  detailed  and  wholly  favourable  appreciation  of  his 
skill  in  the  different  forms  of  verse.  His  skill  is  chiefly 

1  P.  261,  1.  21,  of  my  edition. 


266        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

apparent  in  his  qasidas,  which  are  remarkable  for  grace  and 
fluency  of  language,  and  for  a  felicity  of  diction  possessed 
by  none  of  the  earlier  poets,  and  peculiar  to  those  of  this 
middle  period,  between  which  two  groups  Salman  marks 
the  transition.  Shiblf  gives  the  following  examples  to 
illustrate  his  assertion  : 


"  Thy  mouth  smiled,  and  produced  a  jar  of  sugar  : 
Thy  lip  spoke,  and  revealed  glistening  pearls. 
Thy  waist  was  undiscoverable1,  but  thy  girdle 
Deftly  clasped  it  round,  and  revealed  it  in  gold. 
Cast  aside  the  veil  from  thy  face,  for  those  black  tresses 
Have  affected  the  fairness  of  thy  cheeks." 


1  On  account  of  its  extreme  slenderness. 


CH.  v]  SALMAN-I-SAWAjf  267 


"The  breeze  of  the  Naiv-rtiz1  brings  the  aroma  of  the  beautiful  rose, 
[And]  brings  the  dust  of  the  musk  of  Tartary  from  the  borders  of 

the  desert. 
The  garden  has  decked  the  branch  with  the  patterns  of  a  peacock's 

tail; 

The  wind  hath  fashioned  the  bud  into  the  likeness  of  a  parrot's  head. 
The  [red]  anemone  hath  displayed  from  the  mountain-slopes  the 

fire  of  Moses  ; 

The  branch  hath  brought  forth  'the  White  Hand'  from  its  bosom2. 
The  sweet-voiced  nightingale,  for  the  [delectation  of  the]  Rose-Prince, 
Hath  contributed  the  strains  of  Barbad  and  the  songs  of  Nikfsd3. 
The  zephyr-breeze  hath  conferred  high  rank  on  the  cypress  ; 
The  sweetness  of  the  air  hath  endowed  the  anemone  with  a  noble 

robe." 

Shibli  next  gives  examples  of  Salmon's  skill  in  inventing 
those  graceful  and  subtle  conceits  in  which  the  poets  of 
the  middle  and  later  periods  take  pride.  The  following 
specimens  may  suffice  : 


1  The  Persian  New  Year's  Day,  or  Naw-niz,  falls  on  March  21  and 
corresponds  with  the  Vernal  Equinox. 

2  "  The  White  Hand  "  is  the  hand  that  Moses  drew  forth  from  his 
garment  "as  white   as   snow."     Here  the  allusion  is   to   the  white 
blossoms. 

3  Baibad  was  the  famous  minstrel  of  Khusraw  Parwi'z  the  Sasdnian, 
and  Nikfsa  his  harper. 


268        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  n 

"  The  cornelian  of  thy  lip  placed  the  coin  of  life  in  a  casket  of  pearls  ; 
It  was  a  precious  stuff,  so  it  put  it  in  a  hidden  place1. 
Thy  lips  put  a  ruby  lock  on  the  lid  of  that  casket  ; 
Thy  mole,  which  was  of  ambergris,  set  a  seal  upon  it. 
A  subtle  thought,  finer  than  a  hair,  suddenly  came 
Into  the  heart  of  thy  girdle,  and  named  it  'waist2'." 

(  »»««...J   ( 


"  Henceforth  make  your  rosary  from  the  knots  of  the  Magian's  tresses; 
Henceforth  take  as  your  mihrdb  the  arch  of  the  idols'  (fair  ones') 

eyebrows. 
Arise  joyous  like  the  bubbles  from  the  rose-red  wine,  and  base  no 

hopes 
On  this  bubble-like  revolving  dome  [of  sky]." 


"  For  some  while  the  revolution  of  this  circle  parted  us  from  one 
another  like  the  [points  of  a]  compass,  but  at  last  brought  us  together 
[once  more]." 


"  The  Zephyr  found  the  rose-bud  laughing  before  thy  mouth,   " 
And  smote  it  so  sharply  in  the  mouth  that  its  mouth  was  filled  with 
blood." 


1  This  means  that  the  life  of  the  lover  is  in  his  sweetheart's  mouth, 
which,  on  account  of  the  brilliant  teeth,  he  compares  to  a  casket  of 
pearls,  and,  on  account  of  its  smallness,  to  "  a  hidden  place." 

2  A  slender  waist  and  a  small  mouth  are  accounted  amongst  the 
chief  charms  of  Persian  beauties.    Both  are  here  described  in  the  most 
exaggerated  terms. 


CH.  v]  SALMAN-I-SAWAjf  269 

"  I  will  not  set  my  foot  one  hair's  breadth  outside  this  circle1, 
Even  though  they  should  split  me  like  a  compass  into  two  halves 
from  head  to  foot." 

Other  points  in  Salman's  poetry  noted  by  Shibli  Nu'mani 
are  his  skill  in  the  successful  manipulation  of  difficult  rhymes 
and  awkward  refrains.  Thus  he  has  long  qastdas  in  which 
each  verse  ends  with  such  words  as  dost  ("  hand  "),  pay 
("  foot  "),  rti  ("  face  "),  bar  sar  ("  on  the  head  ")  preceded  by 
the  rhyming  word,  yet  which  maintain  an  easy  and  natural 
flow  of  words  and  ideas. 

Shibli  Nu'mani  next  deals  with  the  poet's  "  fragments  " 
(muqatta'dt},  or  occasional  verses,  which,  as  usual  with  this 
class  of  verse,  are  connected  with  various  incidents  in  his 
life,  and  therefore  have  a  more  personal  note  than  the 
odes  (ghazaliyydt)  and  elegies  (qasd'td"),  but  which  are  un- 
fortunately omitted  from  the  Bombay  lithographed  edition. 

On  one  occasion  the  King  gave  Salman  a  black  horse, 
which  he  did  not  like  and  wished  to  exchange  for  one  of 
another  colour,  but  the  Master  of  the  Horse  apparently 
would  not  permit  this.  Thereupon  he  wrote  as  follows  to 
his  patron  : 

*"*  !>•* 


1  My  friend  Muhammad  Iqbal  has  called  my  attention  to  the  follow- 
ing parallel  verse  by  Han"?,  from  which  it  appears  that  the  circle  formed 
by  the  down  on  the  cheeks  is  here  intended  : 


See  Rosenzweig-Schwannau's  edition  of  the  Dtwdn,  vol.  i,  p.  510. 


270        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 


"  O  King,  thou  didst  promise  me  a  horse  :  no  further  discussion  is 

possible  about  the  word  of  Kings. 
They  gave  me  an  old,  black  horse,  and  I  am  of  opinion  that  no  more 

aged  black  is  to  be  found  in  the  world. 
I  gave  back  that  horse  so  that  I  might  get  another  in  such  wise  that 

none  should  have  knowledge  of  this  secret. 
I  gave  back  a  black  horse,  but  they  would  not  give  me  one  of  another 

colour;  yes,  indeed,  'There  is  no  colour  beyond  black1  !'" 

Salman    further    satirized    this    unfortunate    horse    as 
follows  : 


"  O  King,  I  had  hopes  that,  through  thy  good  fortune,  I  might  mount 

a  tall,  young  and  ambling  horse. 
They  give  me  an  old,  lazy,  undersized  horse,  not  such  a  horse  as  I 

can  ride. 
It  is  a  horse  black,  feeble  and  lean  as  a  pen  :  it  would  be  the  height 

of  folly  to  mount  such  a  beast. 
In  truth  it  must  be  thirty  years  older  than  myself,  and  it  is  dis- 

respectful to  sit  upon  one's  elders." 

In  another  fragment  Salman  excuses  his  absence  from 
the  Court  on  the  plea  that  his  eyes  are  bad,  and  that  though 
the  dust  of  the  King's  threshold  is  a  collyrium,  yet  the  evil 
eye  must  be  kept  far  from  him  : 

J3JJ    jL^    Jl         'C^l^    y»    Ajp     JU. 


1  This  is  a  common  proverbial  saying  in  Persian. 


CH.  v]  SALMAN—  HAFIZ  271 


On  another  similar  occasion  he  pleads  the  pain  in  his 
feet  (probably  gout),  to  which  he  elsewhere  alludes  in  his 
poems,  as  the  cause  of  his  absence,  wittily  observing  that 
foot-ache  prevents  him  from  giving  the  King  headache, 
which  in  the  Persian  idiom  means  trouble  : 


Finally  Shibli  Nu'mani  speaks  of  the  innovations  intro- 
duced by  Salman,  and  especially  of  his  skilful 

Shibhs  summing  t  ,  . 

upofSaimdn's  use  of  the  figure  called  {ham  or  "ambiguity." 
The  general  conclusion  seems  to  be  that  Salman 
deserves  to  be  ranked  amongst  the  great  panegyrists  and 
goftita-writcrs  ;  that  he  was  an  ingenious,  skilful  and  to  a 
certain  extent  original  poet,  but  that  he  lacks  the  fire,  passion 
and  conviction  which  make  a  poet  great  and  famous  beyond 
the  limits  of  his  own  time  and  country. 

6.     Hdfiz  of  Shirdz 
(Shamsu'd-Din  Muhammad  Hdfiz). 

What  has  been  already  said  generally  at  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter  as  to  the  extraordinary  dearth 

Hjifi?  of  Shiraz  *,        .     -  .  , 

of  trustworthy  information  concerning  the  poets 
of  this  period  applies  especially  to  the  most  eminent  and 
famous  of  them,  and  indeed  of  all  the  poets  of  Persia,  the 
immortal  and  incomparable  Hafiz  of  Shiraz,  entitled  by 
his  admirers  Lisdnu  l-Ghayb  ("the  Tongue  of  the  Unseen") 
and  Tarjumdnul-Asrdr  ("the  Interpreter  of  Mysteries"). 
Notices  of  him  naturally  occur  in  all  the  numerous  bio- 


272        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

graphics  of  poets  composed  subsequently  to  his  death, 
beginning  with  Dawlatshah,  who  wrote  just  a  century  after 
this  event,  down  to  quite  modern  compilations,  like  Rida- 
quli  Khan's  Majma'ul-Fusahd  and  Riyddu'l-'Arifin ;  but 
these  contain  few  trustworthy  biographical  details,  and  con- 
sist for  the  most  part  of  anecdotes  connected  with  certain 
verses  of  his  poems,  and  probably  in  most  cases,  if  not  all, 
invented  to  explain  or  illustrate  them.  The  only  con- 
temporary mention  of  Hafiz  with  which  I  am  acquainted 
is  contained  in  the  Preface  of  his  friend  and  the  collector 
and  editor  of  his  poems,  Muhammad  Gulandam,  who,  after 
expatiating  on  the  poet's  incomparable  genius,  his  catholic 
sympathy,  and  the  celebrity  attained  by  his  verse  even  in 
his  lifetime,  not  only  in  Persia,  from  Fars  to  Khurasan  and 
Adharbdyjan,  but  in  India,  Turkistan  and  Mesopotamia, 
proceeds  as  follows : 

"  However,  diligent  study  of  the  Qur'dn,  constant  attendance  to  the 
King's  business,  the  annotation  of  the  Kashshdf1  and  the  Misbdh*,  the 
Muhammad  perusal  of  the  Matdli^  and  the  Miftdh*,  the  acquisition 
Guiandam's  of  canons  of  literary  criticism  and  the  appreciation  of 
account  of  Arabic  poems  prevented  him  from  collecting  his  verses 

and  odes,  or  editing  and  arranging  his  poems.  The 
writer  of  these  lines,  this  least  of  men,  Muhammad  Gulandam,  when 
he  was  attending  the  lectures  of  our  Master,  that  most  eminent  teacher 
Qiwamu'd-Din  'Abdu'llah,  used  constantly  and  repeatedly  to  urge,  in 
the  course  of  conversation,  that  he  (Hafiz)  should  gather  together  all 
these  rare  gems  in  one  concatenation  and  assemble  all  these  lustrous 
pearls  on  one  string,  so  that  they  might  become  a  necklace  of  great 
price  for  his  contemporaries  or  a  girdle  for  the  brides  of  his  time. 
With  this  request,  however,  he  was  unable  to  comply,  alleging  lack  of 
appreciation  on  the  part  of  his  contemporaries  as  an  excuse,  until  he 
bade  farewell  to  this  life. ..in  A.H.  791"  (A.D.  1389). 

1  The  celebrated  commentary  on  the  Qur'dn  of  az-Zamakhshari. 

2  Of  the  many  works  of  this  name  that  of  al-Mutarrizi  (d.  610/1213) 
on  Arabic  grammar  is  probably  intended. 

3  The  MatdliWl-Anzdr  of  al-Bayddwi  (d.  683/1284)  is  probably 
meant. 

4  The  MiftAhu'l^Ulum  of  as-Sakkaki  (d.  626/1229)  is  probably 
intended. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  273 

The  notice  of  Hafiz  contained  in  that  agreeable  work  of 
Sir  Gore  Ouseley,  the  Biographical  Notices  of 
Persian  Poets1,  gives  most  of  the  anecdotes 
connected  with  verses  in  his  Diwdn  to  which  I 
have  already  alluded  ;  while  an  admirable  account  of  the 
times  in  which  he  lived  and  the  general  character  of  his 
poetry  is  to  be  found  in  the  Introduction  to  Miss  Gertrude 
Lowthian  Bell's  Poems  from  the  Divan  of  Hafiz  (London, 
1897),  which  must  be  reckoned  as  the  most  skilful  attempt 
to  render  accessible  to  English  readers  the  works  of  this 
poet.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  best  and 
most  comPlete  critical  study  of  Hafiz  with 
which  I  am  acquainted  is  contained  in  Shibli 
Nu'mani's  Urdu  work  on  Persian  Poetry  entitled  Skt'rul- 
'Ajam2,  already  repeatedly  quoted  in  this  chapter.  I  feel 
that  I  cannot  do  better  than  summarize  at  any  rate  that 
portion  of  this  notice  which  deals  with  the  poet's  life,  and 
the  few  facts  concerning  his  personal  circumstances  and 
relations  with  his  contemporaries  which  can  be  deduced 
from  his  poems,  indicating  at  the  same  time  the  Persian 
biographical  sources  to  which  the  learned  author  refers. 
Amongst  these  he  specially  mentions  the  well-known 
Habibrfs-Siyar  of  Khwandamfr3  and  the  May-khdna 
("Wine-tavern")  of 'Abdu'n-Nabi  Fakhru'z-Zaman  (com- 
piled in  1036/1626-7,  in  the  reign  of  Jahangi'r),  of  which 
latter  I  have  no  copy  at  hand.  The  Persian 

Persian 

biographies  biographical  works  which  I  have  consulted,  and 
which  yield  but  scanty  results  (since,  as  Shibli 
points  out,  they  generally  copy  from  one  another  and  often 
make  statements  not  merely  unsupported  by  any  respect- 
able evidence  but  mutually  destructive)  are  Dawlatshah's 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Poets" ;  Jdmi's  Bakdristdn*  and  Nafakdtu'l- 

1  Pp.  23-42. 

'2  Vol.  ii,  pp.  212-297. 

3  See  vol.  iii,  pt  2,  p.  37  of  the  Bombay  lithographed  edition  of 
1857. 

4  P.  90  of  the  Constantinople  printed  ed.  of  1294/1877. 

B.  P.  i 8 


274        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtJR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

Uns1 ;  Lutf  'Alt'  Beg's  Atash-kada  ("  Fire-temple  "),  which 
mainly  follows  Dawlatshah ;  the  Haft  Iqlim  ;  and  the  quite 
modern  Majma'ul-Fusahd  ("  Assembly  of  the  Eloquent "), 
which  gives  several  fresh  particulars  of  doubtful  authenticity, 
such  as  that  Hafiz  came  originally  from  Tuysirkan  and  that 
he  composed  a  commentary  on  the  Qur'dn. 

Shibli  Nu'mani  arranges  his  matter  systematically,  be- 
ginning with  an  account  of  the  poet's  parentage 

Parentage  and        »  b 

childhood  of  and  education  derived  from  the  above-men- 
tioned May-khdna,  to  which,  however,  he 
apparently  attaches  little  credence.  According  to  this 
account,  the  father  of  Hafiz,  who  was  named  Baha'u'd-Din, 
migrated  from  Isfahan  to  Shi'raz  in  the  time  of  the  Atabeks 
of  Pars,  and  there  enriched  himself  by  commerce,  but  died 
leaving  his  affairs  in  confusion,  and  his  wife  and  little  son 
in  penury,  so  that  the  latter  was  obliged  to  earn  a  livelihood 
by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  Nevertheless  he  found  time  and 
means  to  attend  a  neighbouring  school,  where  he  obtained 
at  least  a  respectable  education  and  learned  the  Qur'dn  by 
heart,  in  consequence  of  which  he  afterwards  adopted  in  his 
poems  the  nom  de  guerre  of  "Hafiz"  ("Rememberer"),  a 
term  commonly  applied  to  those  who  have  committed  to 
memory  and  can  recite  without  error  the  sacred  book  of 
Islam.  He  soon  began  to  compose  and  recite  poems,  but 
with  small  success  until  in  a  vigil  at  the  shrine  of  Baba 
Kuhi  on  a  hill  to  the  north  of  Shi'raz  he  was  visited  by  the 
Imam  'All,  who  gave  him  to  eat  some  mysterious  heavenly 
food  and  told  him  that  henceforth  the  gift  of  poetry  and 
the  keys  of  all  knowledge  should  be  his. 

Shibli  Nu'mani  next  passes  to  the  enumeration  of  the 
several   kings  and   princes  whose  favour   and 

Patrons  of  Hafi? 

patronage  Hafiz  enjoyed.  Of  these  the  first 
was  Shall  (or  Shaykh)  Abu  Ishaq  Inju,  the  son  of  Mahmud 
Inju2  who  was  appointed  governor  of  Pars  in  the  reign  of 

1  W.  Nassau  Lees'  Calcutta  printed  ed.  of  1859,  p.  715. 

2  According  to  the  Fdrs-ndma  he  was  put  to  death  by  Arpa  (in 
736/1335-6),  who  was  in  turn  put  to  death  by  his  son  Mas'iid  Inju. 


VIII 


HAFI£  (left)  and  ABU  ISHAQ  (right) 


Add.  7468  (Brit.  Mus.),  f-  34b 


To  face  p.  274 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  275 

Ghdzan  Khan.     This  Abu  Ishaq1  was  a  poet  and  friend  of 

poets,  heedless,  pleasure-loving,  and  so  negligent 

isS'Ui'"       of  the  affairs  of  state  that  when  he  was  at  last 

induced  by  his  favourite  Shaykh  Amfnu'd-Din 

to  fix  his  attention  on  the  Muzaffarf  hosts  who  were  invest- 

ing his  capital,  he  merely  remarked  that  his  enemy  must 

be  a  fool  to  waste  the  delicious  season  of  Spring  in  such 

fashion,  and  concluded  by  reciting  the  verse  : 


"Come,  let  us  make  merry  just  for  this  one  night, 
And  let  us  deal  tomorrow  with  tomorrow's  business." 

Concerning  Abu  Ishaq's  brief  but  genial  reign  at  Shiraz, 
Hafiz  says  : 


"In  truth  the  turquoise  ring  of  Abu  Ishdq 
Flashed  finely,  but  it  was  a  transitory  prosperity." 

The  following  verses,  commemorating  five 

The  five  orna-  ° 

meats  of  Shaykh  of  the  chief  ornaments  of  Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq's 

Abulshaq'scourt 


1  According  to  the  Fdrs-ndma  he  captured  Shiraz  in  743/1342-3, 
was  besieged  there  by  Mubarizu'd-Dfn  Muhammad  b.  Muzaffar  in 
753/1352-3,  when,  after  losing  his  little  son  'AH  Sahl,  he  was  driven 
back  to  Isfahdn,  and  was  finally  captured  and  put  to  death  by  his  rival 
in  758/1357. 

1  8—  2 


276       POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME    [BK  n 


'  Ji    Wj 

»»   Jja^t  jl    A-^ 

dj     ^.j^i.    j.  ,  Jjj  ,) 


fJ.     3     >fi 

"  During  the  period  of  Shah  Shaykh  Abii  Ishaq's  rule 
The  kingdom  of  Fdrs  throve  wondrously  through  five  persons. 
First,  a  king  like  him,  a  giver  of  governments, 
Who,  thou  would'st  say,  snatched  preeminence  by  justice,  bounty  and 

equity. 

Secondly,  that  Remnant  of  the  Abddl1,  Shaykh  Aminu'd-Din, 
Who  was  numbered  amongst  the  '  Poles  '  and  was  the  meeting-place 

of  the  Avutdd1. 

Thirdly,  one  like  that  just  judge  Asilu'l-Millat  wa'd-Dfn, 
Than  whom  Heaven  remembers  no  better  judge. 
Again  one  like  that  accomplished  judge  'Adudtyd-Dm  «/-/;/]  2, 
Who  dedicated  his  explanation  of  the  Mawdqifto  the  King. 
Again  one  so  generous  as  Hajji  Qiwam3,  whose  heart  is  as  the  Ocean, 
Who,  like  Hatim,  invited  all  men  to  partake  of  his  bounty. 
These  departed,  leaving  none  like  unto  themselves  : 
May  God  most  Great  and  Glorious  forgive  them  all  !  " 

1  The  Abddl  ("Substitutes"),  Aqt&b  ("Poles"),  and  Awtdd  (literally 
"Tent-pegs")  are  three  classes  of  the  Rijdlrfl-Ghayb,  or  "  Men  of  the 
Unseen  World,"  who  are  supposed  by  the  Sufis  to  watch  over  the  order 
of  the  world  and  the  welfare  of  mankind.    Their  number  and  functions 
are  discussed  in  the  "Definitions"  (TcSrifdf)  of  ash-Sharff  al-Jurjani, 
who  was  appointed  by  Shah  Shuja'  to  a  Professorship  in  Shi'raz,  and 
must  have  been  acquainted  with  Hafiz.     He  died  in  816/1413. 

2  'Adudu'd-Din   'Abdu'r-Rahmdn   b.   Ahmad  al-Iji    composed    a 
number  of  works  on  theology,  ethics,  philosophy,  etc.,  amongst  which 
the  Mawdqif  ft  ^IlmVl-Kaldm  (on  which  al-Jurjanf,  mentioned  in  the 
preceding  note,  wrote  a  commentary)  is  the  most  celebrated.    He  died 
in  756/1355.     See  Brockelmann,  Gesch.  d.  Arab.  Litt.,  ii,  pp.  208-9. 

3  Hajji  Qiwdm  is  celebrated  by  Hafiz  in  other  poems,  as  in  the  well- 
known  verse  : 


He  died,  according  to  the  Fdrs-ndma,  in  753/1352. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  277 

Mubarizu'd-Dm  Muhammad  b.  Muzaffar,  who  ruled 
over  Fars  from  754/1353  to  759/1357,  was  of 

kStS£'Dfn  a  very  different  type  to  his  pleasure-loving 
predecessor  and  victim.  Harsh,  stern  and 

ascetic  in  character,  he  had  no  sooner  taken  possession 
of  Shiraz  than  he  caused  all  the  taverns  to  be 

Closing  of  the 

taverns  in  his       closed,  and   put  a  stop,  as  far  as  possible,  to 
the  drinking  of  wine,  to  the  great  annoyance 
of  Hafiz,  who  refers  to  these  lean  days  in  the  following 
amongst  other  passages  of  his  poems  : 


"  Though  wine  gives  delight  and  the  wind  distils  the  perfume  of  the 

rose, 

Drink  not  wine  to  the  strains  of  the  harp,  for  the  constable1  is  alert. 
Hide  the  goblet  in  the  sleeve  of  the  patch-work  cloak, 
For  the  time,  like  the  eye  of  the  decanter,  pours  forth  blood. 
Wash  your  dervish-cloak  from  the  wine-stain  with  tears, 
For  it  is  the  season  of  piety  and  the  time  of  abstinence." 

L»f 


•*  .  «*      fr  I      • 

X 

*«•*  O^j1*-  ^ 

1  Muhtasib,  a  police  officer  charged  with  the  superintendence  of  the 
weights,  measures  and  morals  of  a  town.  His  activities  in  certain 
aspects  correspond  with  those  of  a  University  Proctor. 


278       POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

l_j!«X_» 


'  jLoUJu  t  ju*.  j^>  jt  *£>  j 

"  O  will  it  be  that  they  will  reopen  the  doors  of  the  taverns, 
And  will  loosen  the  knots  from  our  tangled  affairs  ? 
Cut  the  tresses1  of  the  harp  [in  mourning]  for  the  death  of  pure  wine, 
So  that  all  the  sons  of  the  Magians2  may  loosen  their  curled  locks! 
Write  the  letter  of  condolence  for  the  [death  of  the]  Daughter  of  the 

Grape3, 
So  that  all  the  comrades  may  let  loose  blood  [-stained  tears]  from 

their  eyelashes. 

They  have  closed  the  doors  of  the  wine-taverns  ;  O  God,  suffer  not 
That  they  should  open  the  doors  of  the  house  of  deceit  and  hypocrisy  ! 
If  they  have  closed  them  for  the  sake  of  the  heart  of  the  self-righteous 

zealot 
Be  of  good  heart,  for  they  will  reopen  them  for  God's  sake  !  " 

Shah  Shuja',  who  succeeded  his  father  Mubarizu'd-Din 
relaxed  his  oppressive  restrictions,  com- 


aiiows  the  taverns  posed    the    following    quatrain    on   the   same 

to  be  reopened  ,   . 

subject  : 


"In  the  assembly  of  the  time  the  concomitants  of  wine-bibbing  are 

laid  low ; 

Neither  is  the  hand  on  the  harp,  nor  the  tambourine  in  the  hand. 
All  the  revellers  have  abandoned  the  worship  of  wine 
Save  the  city  constable,  who  is  drunk  without  wine." 

1  I.e.  strings  or  chords. 

2  The  sale  of  wine  in  Muhammadan  countries  is  carried  on  by  non- 
Muslims,  Jews,  Christians,  or  Zoroastrians.     With  Hdfiz  and  his  con- 
geners the  "Elder  of  the  Magians"  (/>/>-/'- Mughdii)  and  the  "Magian 
boys"  (Mugh-bacha-hd]  are  familiar  concomitants  of  the  tavern. 

3  I.e.  Wine,  similarly  called  by  the  Arabs  Bintu  'l-'lnab. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  279 

The  reopening  of  the  taverns  is  celebrated  by  Hafiz  in 
the  following  verses : 


UaJlo-    ^ 

"At  early  dawn  good  tidings  reached  my  ear  from  the  Unseen  Voice  : 
'It  is  the  era  of  Shdh  Shujd4  :  drink  wine  boldly  !  ' 
That  time  is  gone  when  men  of  insight  went  apart 
With  a  thousand  words  in  the  mouth  but  their  lips  silent. 
To  the  sound  of  the  harp  we  will  tell  those  stories 
At  the  hearing^  of  which  the  cauldron  of  our  bosoms  boiled. 
Princes  [alone]  know  the  secrets  of  their  kingdom  ; 
O  Hafiz,  thou  art  a  beggarly  recluse  ;  hold  thy  peace  !  " 

In  another  poem  Hafiz  says  : 


*-*=> 

"  I  swear  by  the  pomp  and  rank  and  glory  of  Sh£h  Shuja.' 
That   I   have  no  quarrel  with  anyone  on  account  of  wealth  and 

position. 

See  how  he  who  [formerly]  would  not  permit  the  hearing  of  music 
Now  goes  dancing  to  the  strains  of  the  harp." 

In  another  poem  he  says  : 


280       POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  n 


"The  harp  began  to  clamour  '  Where  is  the  objector?' 
The  cup  began  to  laugh  '  Where  is  the  forbidder  ?  ' 
Pray  for  the  King's  long  life  if  thou  seekest  the  world's  welfare, 
For  he  is  a  beneficent  being  and  a  generous  benefactor, 
The  manifestation  of  Eternal  Grace,  the  Light  of  the  Eye  of  Hope, 
The  combiner  of  theory  and  practice,  the  Life  of  the  World,  Shah 
Shuja'." 

In  spite  of  this  and  other  verses  in  praise  of  Shah 
Shuja',  the  relations  between  the  Prince  and  the  Poet  are 

said  to  have  been  somewhat  strained.  Shah 
jealous  ofJHdfi?  Shuja'  had  a  great  opinion  of  a  poet  named 

'•\rs\iA-\-Faqih  ("the  Jurisconsult")  of  Kirman, 
who  is  said  to  have  taught  his  cat  to  follow  him  in  its 
genuflections  when  he  performed  his  prayers.  This  achieve- 
ment was  accounted  by  the  Prince  almost  a  miracle,  but  by 
Hafiz  a  charlatan's  trick,  concerning  which  he  said  : 


d  b 


"The  Sufi  hath  made  display  of  his  virtues  and  begun  his  blandish- 

ments ; 

He  hath  inaugurated  his  schemings  with  the  juggling  heavens. 
O  gracefully-moving  partridge  who  walkest  with  so  pretty  an  air, 
Be  not  deceived  because  the  cat  of  the  ascetic  hath  said  its  prayers  l  !  " 

1  The  reference  in  this  line  is  otherwise  explained  on  p.  243  supra. 
Cf.  also  p.  258.  The  text  given  in  Rosenzweig-Schwannau's  edition 
(vol.  i,  p.  316:  No.  8  in  i)  differs  somewhat  from  that  adopted  by 
Shibli  which  is  here  given. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  281 

The  scorn  expressed  by  Hafiz  for  'Imad  is  said  to  have 
been  the  original  cause  of  Shah  Shuja^'s  dislike  for  him, 
Contempt  of  but  the  Prince  himself  was  his  not  very  suc- 


?  for  'imad    cessful  rival  in  the  field  of  poetry,  and  jealousy 

of  Xirman  .  ,  .    ...  _^ 

appears  to  have  increased  that  dislike.  On  one 
occasion  the  Prince  criticized  Hafiz's  verse  on  the  ground 
of  its  many-sided  aspects  :  no  one  motive,  he  complained, 
inspired  it  ;  it  was  at  one  moment  mystical,  at  another 
erotic  and  bacchanalian  ;  now  serious  and  spiritual,  and 
again  flippant  and  worldly,  or  worse.  "  True,"  replied 
Hafiz,  "but  in  spite  of  all  this  everyone  knows,  admires 
and  repeats  my  verses,  while  the  verses  of  some  poets 
whom  I  could  name  never  go  beyond  the  city  gates." 

Shah  Shuja'  was  greatly  incensed  at  this  answer,  and 
soon  afterwards  came  across  the  following  verse  of  Hdfiz 
which  seemed  to  deliver  the  poet  into  his  hands  : 


"  If  Muhammadanism  be  that  which  Hafiz  holds, 
Alas  if  there  should  be  a  to-morrow  after  to-day  !  " 

Hafiz,  being  warned  that  this  verse  was  to  be  made  the 

ground  of  a  charge  of  heresy  or  agnosticism  against  him, 

went  in  great  perturbation  to  Mawlana  Zaynu'd- 

Hafiz  ingenious-     ._.        «  «    »   T»    i       «-r«  /        ,    /  i  /         «        <  i  < 

ly  extricates        Dm  Abu  Bakr  Tayabadi,  who  happened  at  that 
h!mselffr°uraa      time  to  be  in  Shi'raz,  and  asked  his  advice. 

charge  of  heresy 

The  latter  recommended  him  to  add  another 
verse  placing  the  words  to  which  exception  was  taken  in  the 
mouth  of  another,  on  the  principle  that  "the  reporting  of 
blasphemy  is  not  blasphemy."  Thereupon  Hafiz  prefixed 
the  following  verse  to  the  one  cited  above  : 


"  How  pleasant  to  me  seemed  this  saying  which  at  early  morn 
A  Christian  was  reciting  at  the  door  of  the  tavern  with  tambourine 
and  flute:" 


282        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TIMER'S  TIME     [BK  n 

On  being  charged  with  atheism  he  produced  this  verse 
along  with  the  other,  and  said  that  he  was  not  responsible 
for  the  opinions  expressed  by  a  Christian1. 

Shah  Shuja'  died  in  785/1383-4  or  786%  and  was  suc- 

ceeded  by   his    son    Zaynu'l-'Abidin,  who,   however,   was 

deposed  and   imprisoned  by  his  cousin  Shah 

Mansur    in    789/1387.      Hafiz   celebrated    his 

triumph  in  a  poem  beginning  : 


~3 

"  Come,  for  the  standard  of  King  Mansur  has  arrived  ; 
The  good  tidings  of  conquest  and  victory  have  reached  the  Sun  and 
the  Moon." 

The  deposed  ruler  Zaynu'l-'Abidm  (who  was  subse- 
quently blinded)  had  accepted  the  suzerainty  of  Timur, 
received  his  ambassador,  Qutbu'd-Dm,  and  inserted  his 
name  in  the  khutba  and  on  the  coins,  and  Tfmur  himself 
entered  Shfraz  in  789/1387,  some  time  before  Zaynu'l- 
'Abidm's  deposition.  It  must  have  been  at 

The  alleged 

meeting  between   this  time,  if  at  all,  that  the  meeting  between 
Timur  and  H4fi?   •ffafa  and  j^^  described  by  Dawlatshah3 

and  those  who  follow  him  in  connection  with  Ti'mur's  second 
entry  into  Shfraz  in  795/1393,  three  or  four  years  after 
the  poet's  death,  actually  took  place.  The  story,  which  is 
more  celebrated  than  authentic,  has  been  already  given  on 
pp.  188-189  supra.  Dawlatshah,  with  characteristic  in- 
accuracy, first  gives  the  date  of  this  supposed  meeting  as 
795/1393,  and  then  states  (incorrectly)  that 
^fi?  died  in  the  Previous  year,  794/1392-  As 
a  matter  of  fact  he  died  in  791/1389,  or  possibly 
in  the  following  year.  The  former  date  is  that  given  by 

1  This  anecdote  is  given  by  the  Habibu's-Siyar,  vol.  iii,  pt  2,  pp.  37 
et  seqq. 

2  The  latter  is  the  date  given  by  the  Mujmal  of  Fasi'hf  in  the 
chronogram  cUJ!»  alw  j\  wAg*. 

3  See  pp.  305-306  of  my  edition. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  283 

the  chronogram  on  his  tombstone,  so   ingeniously  para- 
phrased by  Herman  Bicknell1  as  follows: 


"  On  spiritual  man  the  lamp  of  Hafiz  gleamed  ; 
'Mid  rays  from  Glory's  Light  his  brilliant  taper  beamed  ; 
Musalla  was  his  home  :  a  mournful  date  to  gain. 

Thrice  take  thou  from  MOSALLA'S   EARTH    ITS    RICHEST 

»  *  •  *  *  * 

GRAIN." 


The  sum  of  the  letters  composing  the  words 
is  791,  and  the  same  date  is  obtained  by  subtracting  three 
times  cm  (=  309)  from  MLL  (=  i  ioo)2.  The  same  date 
is  given  by  Muhammad  Gulandam,  the  editor  of  Hafiz's 
Dtwdn  ;  while  the  following  year  (792)  is  given  by  Jami  in 
the  Nafahdtul-  Uns,  by  Khwandamir  in  the  Habibus-Siyar, 
and  by  Fasfhi  of  Khwaf  in  his  Mujmal  or  Compendium  of 
History  and  Biography. 

Mention    has    already   been    made   of   the 

Celebrity  of  * 

Hafi?  during        celebrity  achieved   by  Hafiz   even  during  his 
lifetime.     As  he  himself  says  : 


"The  black-eyed  beauties  of  Cashmere  and  the  Turks  of  Samarqand 
Sing  and  dance  to  the  strains  of  Hafiz  of  Shfraz's  verse." 

In  another  passage3  he  says,  speaking  of  a  poem  he  had 
just  composed  : 


1  Hdfiz  of  Shirdz  :  Selections  from  his  Poems,  translated  from  the 
Persian  by  Herman  Bicknell  (Triibner  and  Co.,  London,  1875),  p.  xvi. 

2  See  my  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  76-7. 

3  Ed.  Rosenzweig-Schwannau,  vol.  i,  p.  416. 


284       POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME    [BK  n 


"All  the  parrots  of  India  become  sugar-breakers 
Through  this  Persian  candy  which  is  going  to  Bengal. 
Behold  the  annihilation  of  space  and  time  in  the  pilgrimage  of  Poetry, 
For  this  infant,  though  but  one  night  old,  is  going  on  a  year's 
journey  !  " 

Not  only  with  the  Muzaffarf  rulers  of  Shfraz,  but  with 
many  other  contemporary  princes,  Hafiz  entered  into  re- 
lations. Sultan  Ahmad  ibn  Uways-i-Jala'ir,  the  accom- 
plished t  l-khani  ruler  of  Baghdad,  himself  a  poet,  musician, 
painter  and  artist,  repeatedly  strove  to  induce  Hafiz  to  visit 
his  court,  but,  as  the  poet  himself  sang  : 


"  The  zephyr-breeze  of  MusaM  and  the  stream  of  RuknaMd 
Do  not  permit  me  to  travel  or  wander  afield." 

However  he  composed  verses  in  this  Prince's  praise, 
amongst  others  the  following  : 


A  •  A  t  .  .  i    •      I  r    .1 

~J     15— -£-^      A-*"-*  'g   vO-S— >J^    J-^  J1 


"  I  praise  God  for  the  justice  of  the  King 
Ahmad  the  son  of  Shaykh  Uways  the  son  of  Hasan  Il-khani  ; 
A  Khdn  and  the  son  of  a  Khan,  a  King  of  kingly  descent, 
Whom  it  were  meet  that  I  should  call  the  Soul  of  the  World. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  285 

No  rose-bud  of  delight  bloomed  for  me  from  the  earth  of  Fars  : 
O  for  the  Tigris  of  Baghdad  and  the  spiritual  wine  ! 
Curl  your  locks  in  Turkish  fashion,  for  in  thy  fortune  lie 
The  Empire  of  Khusraw  and  the  status  of  Chingiz  Khan." 

But,    though    Hafiz    never    achieved    the   journey    to 
Baghdad,  he  seems  often  to  have  thought  of  it  : 


JaJU.   A£»  jjj   , 

"  In  Shfraz  we  did  not  find  our  way  to  our  goal  ; 
Happy  that  day  when  Hdfiz  shall  take  the  road  to  Baghdad  !  " 

Two   kings   of   India  also   sought  to   persuade  Hafiz 

to  visit  their  courts.     One  of  these  was   Mahmud  Shah 

Bahmani  of  the  Deccan,  a   liberal  patron  of 

Invitations  to  *• 

Hdfi?  to  visit  poets,  who,  through  his  favourite  Mir  Fadlu'llah, 
invited  Hafiz  to  his  capital,  and  sent  him  money 
for  his  journey.  Hafiz  spent  a  considerable  portion  of  this 
sum  before  leaving  Shfraz,  and  on  arriving  at  Lar  on  his 
way  to  the  Persian  Gulf  met  with  a  destitute  friend  to 
whom  he  gave  the  remainder.  Two  Persian  merchants, 
Khwaja  Zaynu'd-Dm  of  Hamadan,  and  Khwaja  Muham- 
mad of  Kazarun,  who  were  on  their  way  to  India,  offered 
to  defray  the  poet's  expenses  in  return  for  the  pleasure 
of  his  company.  He  went  with  them  as  far  as  the  port  of 
Hurmuz,  where  a  ship  was  waiting  to  convey  him  to  India, 
but  a  tempest  which  arose  just  as  he  was  embarking  caused 
him  such  lively  consternation  that,  abandoning  his  intention, 
he  returned  to  Shfraz  and  sent  to  Mahmud  Shah  the  poem 
beginning  : 


u 


Ul  w 


286        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME    [BK  n 


A  verse-translation  of  the  whole  of  this  poem  (though 
the  verses  stand  in  an  order  different  from  that  given  above) 
will  be  found  amongst  Miss  Gertrude  Lowthian  Bell's 
graceful  renderings  of  Poems  from  the  Divan  of  Hafiz1 
(No.  xxi,  pp.  91-93),  in  which  the  stanzas  corresponding 
to  the  four  couplets  cited  above  are  as  follows  : 

"  Not  all  the  sum  of  earthly  happiness 
Is  worth  the  bowed  head  of  a  moment's  pain, 
And  if  I  sell  for  wine  my  dervish  dress 
Worth  more  than  what  I  sell  is  what  I  gain  ! 

*  *  *  * 
The  Sultan's  crown,  with  priceless  jewels  set, 
Encircles  fear  of  death  and  constant  dread  ; 
It  is  a  head-dress  much  desired  —  and  yet 
Art  sure  'tis  worth  the  danger  to  the  head  ? 

*  *  *  * 
Down  in  the  quarter  where  they  sell  red  wine 
My  holy  carpet  scarce  would  fetch  a  cup  — 
How  brave  a  pledge  of  piety  is  mine, 
Which  is  not  worth  a  goblet  foaming  up  ! 

*  *  *  * 
Full  easy  seemed  the  sorrow  of  the  sea 
Lightened  by  hope  of  gain  —  hope  flew  too  fast  ! 
A  hundred  pearls2  were  poor  indemnity, 

Not  worth  the  blast3." 

Another  Indian  king,  Sultan  Ghiyathu'd-Din  ibn  Sultan 
Sikandar  of  Bengal,  stated  by  Shibli  Nu'mani  (who  is 

1  London  :  William  Heinemann,  1897. 

2  This  translation  corresponds  with  the  alternative  reading  J^AI 
in  place  of  jj  £>*  *X-oj. 

3  This  story  rests  on  the  authority  of  the  historian  of  India,  Mu- 
hammad Qasim  Firishta  of  Astarabad,  who  wrote  in  1015/1606-7. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  287 

responsible  for  the  story1)  to  have  ascended  the  throne  in 
768/1366-7,  is  said  to  have  corresponded  with  Hafiz,  who 
wrote  for  him  the  ode  beginning : 


"  O  cup-bearer  there  is  talk  of  the  cypress,  the  rose  and  the  anemone, 
And  this  discussion  goes  on  with  'the  three  cleansing  draughts2.' 
All  the  parrots  of  India  will  crack  sugar 
Through  this  Persian  candy  which  is  going  to  Bengal. 
O  Hafiz,  be  not  heedless  of  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Court  of  Sultan 

Ghiyathu'd-Dm, 
For  thy  affair  will  be  furthered  by  thy  lamentation." 

Having  spoken  of  Hafiz's  relations  with  contemporary 
princes,  we  pass  now  to  the  little  that  is  known  or  con- 
jectured as  to  his  personal  circumstances.     For 

Domestic  J  r 

circumstances  the  statement  that  he  fell  in  love  with  and 
ultimately  married  a  girl  called  Shdkh-i-Nabdt 
("  Branch  of  Sugar-cane  ")  there  is  no  weighty  authority, 
nor  are  such  domestic  particulars  to  be  expected  from 
Persian  biographers,  in  view  of  their  reticence  on  all 

1  In  Mawlawi  'Abdu'l-Muqtadir's  excellent  Bankipore  Catalogue 
(Persian  Poets  :  Firdawsi  to  H£fiz  :  pp.  253-4)  the  King  in  question  in 
this  anecdote  is  the  same  as  in  the  last,  viz.  Mahrmid  Shah  Bahmanf, 
who  reigned  780-799/1378-1396,  and  the  anecdote  assumes  a  different 
and  fuller  form. 

2  This  is  generally  explained  as  meaning  three  draughts  of  wine 
taken  in  the  morning  after  a  debauch  to  "  break  the  headache  "  caused 
by  previous  excess.    The  author  of  the  Catalogue  cited  in  the  last  note 
makes  it  refer  to  three  of  the  Sultan's  handmaidens  called  respectively 
Cypress,  Rose,  and  Anemone,  and  named  collectively,  for  reasons  which 
he  gives,  "  the  three  washerwomen." 


288        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME    [BK  n 

matrimonial  matters.  That  he  married  and  had  several 
children  is  probable.  To  the  death  of  his  wife  he  is  supposed 
to  allude  in  a  poem  beginning1  : 


"  That  sweet-heart  through  whom  our  home  was  Fairyland, 
And  who,  from  head  to  foot,  was  like  a  fairy,  free  from  blemish," 

but  there  is  nothing  in  the  poem  to  show  that  his  wife 
is  the  person  referred  to.  There  is,  however,  a  clearer 
reference  to  the  premature  death  of  a  son  in  the  following 
verses  : 


j—  »  j-J    ^ 

"  O  heart,  thou  hast  seen  what  that  clever  son 
Has  experienced  within  the  dome  of  this  many-coloured  vault  : 
In  place  of  a  silver  tablet2  in  his  bosom 
Fatd  hath  placed  a  stone  tablet3  on  his  head." 

The  following  fragment4,  also  believed  to  refer  to  the 
death  of  this  or  another  son,  gives  the  date  of  this  loss  as 
Friday,  6th  of  Rabi"  i,  764  (Dec.  24,  1362)  : 


'  J5|j 


1  Ed.  Rosenzweig-Schwannau,  vol.  i,  pp.  596-8,  and  note  on  p.  819. 

2  Corresponding  to  a  slate   on   which   a  child   does   sums  and 
exercises. 

3  I.e.  a  tombstone. 

4  Ed.  Rosenzweig-Schwannau,  iii,  p.  280. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ 


"  It  was  the  morning  of  Friday  and  the  sixth  of  the  first  Rabt1 
When  the  visage  of  that  moon-faced  one  declined  from  my  heart. 
In  the  year  seven  hundred  and  sixty  four  of  the  Flight 
This  difficult  story  became  clear  to  me  like  [limpid]  water. 
How  can  regret,  grief  or  sorrow  profit 
Now  that  life  has  passed  in  vanity  without  result  ?  " 

According  to  a  biography  of  poets  entitled  Khizdna-i- 
'Amira,  composed  in  India  by  Mir  Ghulam  'All  Khan  Azdd 
in  1176/1762-3,  a  son  of  Hafiz  named  Shah  Nu'man  came 
to  India,  died  at  Burhanpur,  and  is  buried  in  the  Asir-Garh. 

As  regards  Hafiz's  intellectual  attainments,  his  bilingual 

intellectual         poems  alone  show  that  he  had  a  good  know- 

attainments         ledge  of  Arabic,  apart  from  the  statements  of 

his  editor,  Muhammad   Gulandam1,  as  to  his 

more  scientific  work  in  the  language.     He  himself  says  : 


"  No  one  of  the  Hdfizes*  in  the  world  hath  combined  as  I  have 
The  aphorisms  of  the  Philosophers  with  the  Scripture  of  the  Qur'dn.^ 

That  he  knew  the  Quran  by  heart  is  proved  by  the 
verse  : 

<>£=> 

"  I  have  never  seen  any  poetry  sweeter  than  thine,  O  Hafiz, 
[I  swear]  by  that  Qur'dn  which  thou  keepest  in  thy  bosom." 

Mawlawi  Shibli  Nu'mani  points  out  that  the  oft-made 

assertion  that  Hafiz  was  indifferent  to  the  favour  of  kings 

Hafi  not  anc*  Prmces  ^  not  borne  out  by  his  poems,  in 

indifferent  to       which  there  occur  incidentally  praises  of  the 

majority  of  contemporary  rulers,  including  Shah 

1  See  p.  272  supra. 

2  I.e.  those  who  have  learned  the  Qur'dn  by  heart. 

B.  P.  19 


290        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME    [BK  n 

Shuja',  Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq,  Sultan  Mahmud,  Shah  Mansur, 
and  the  rulers  of  Yazd  and  Hurmuz : 


"The  King  of  Hurmuz  did  not  see  me,  yet  showed  me  a  hundred 
favours  without  a  word  [of  praise  on  my  part]  ; 

The  King  of  Yazd  saw  me,  and  I  praised  him,  but  he  gave  me 
nothing. 

Such  is  the  conduct  of  Kings  :  be  not  thou  vexed,  O  Hafiz  ; 

May  God,  the  Giver  of  daily  bread,  vouchsafe  them  His  Grace  and 
Aid!" 

To  the  King  of  Yazd's  failure  to  reward  him,  he  again 
alludes  in  a  very  famous  and  beautiful  ode1  : 


'^.j  to  j\  }jj  ^i   tjU^L/  b 


These  lines  are  thus  rendered  by  Herman  Bicknell2  : 

"  Many  a  year  live  on  and  prosper,  Sdqis*  of  the  Court  of  Jam4, 
E'en  though  I,  to  fill  my  wine-cup,  never  to  your  circle  come  : 
East-wind,  when  to  Yazd  thou  wingest,  say  thou  to  its  sons  from  me  : 
'  May  the  head  of  every  ingrate  ball-like  'neath  your  mall-bat  be  ! 
'  What  though  from  your  da'is  distant,  near  it  by  my  wish  I  seem  ; 
'  Homage  to  your  King  I  render,  and  I  make  your  praise  my  theme.'" 

1  Ed.  Rosenzweig-Schwannau,  vol.  i,  pp.  4-7. 

2  Op.  tit.,  pp.  6-7.  3  Cup-bearers. 

4  Jam  or  Jamshid,  a  legendary  king  of  Persia,  whose  reign  is 
associated  with  much  glory.  He  corresponds  to  the  mythical  Yima  of 
the  Avesta.  The  king  of  Yazd  and  his  courtiers  are  here  alluded  to. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ 


291 


The  difference  between  Hafiz  and  most  Persian  pane- 
gyrists is,  however,  as  Mawlawi  Shibli  Nu'manf 

Wherein  H4fi?  ,,  ...  , 

differs  from  well  points  out,  that,  unlike  even  such  great 
gy'rtsT"6"  P°ets  as  Anwarf,  Zahi'r  of  Faryab  and  Salman 
of  Sdwa,  he  never  employs  mean  and  despicable 
methods  to  extort  money,  or  has  recourse  to  satire  when 
panegyric  fails. 

We  have  already  seen  how  devoted  Hafiz  was  to  Shi'raz, 
and  he  never  wearies  of  singing  the  stream  of  Ruknabad 
and  the  rose-gardens  of  Musalla  : 


"  Bring,  Cup-bearer,  all  that  is  left  of  thy  wine  ! 
In  the  Garden  of  Paradise  vainly  thou'lt  seek 
The  lip  of  the  fountain  of  Rukndbad 
And  the  bowers  of  Musalld  where  roses  twine1." 


And  again  : 


4i»  U  v   ^ 

"  There  is  a  difference  between  the  Water  of  Khidr,  which  dwells  in 

the  Darkness2, 
And  our  water,  of  which  Allahu  Akbar3  is  the  source." 

Although  it  is  chiefly  of  the  Spring,  the  Rose,  the 
Nightingale,  Wine,  Youth  and  Beauty  that  Hafiz  sings, 
and  at  times  of  the  Eternal  Beauty  of  which  all  fair  and 
desirable  things  are  but  the  pale  reflection,  he  sometimes 

1  Miss  G.  L.  Bell's  Poems  from  the  Divan  of  Hafiz,  pp.  71-2. 

2  I.e.  the  Water  of  Life,  said  to  be  situated  in  the  Land  of  Darkness. 
It  was  sought  in  vain  by  Alexander  the  Great,  but  found  by  his  saintly 
companion  and  guide  Khidr  (sometimes  identified  with  Ilyas  or  Elias), 
who  drunk  of  it  and  became  immortal. 

3  The    Tang-i-Alldhu   Akbar  is   the   narrow  defile   whence    the 
traveller  approaching  from  the  North  first  sees  Shirdz.     See  the  plate 
on  p.  xxi  of  Herman  Bicknell's  translation  of  Hdfiz. 

19  -  2 


292        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  n 

makes  incidental  mention  of  various  statesmen  and  scholars 
whose  favour  and  patronage  he  has  enjoyed1.  Amongst 
these  are  Hajji  Qiwam,  Qiwamu'd-Din  Hasan2,  Khwaja 
Jalalu'd-Di'n,  Shah  Yahya  Nusratu'd-Din  and  others,  be- 
sides the  kings  and  princes  already  mentioned.  And  though 
he  wrote  mathnawis,  "  fragments  "  (muqatta'dt),  qasidas  and 
quatrains  (rubd'iyydt},  it  is  in  the  ode  or  ghazal  that  he 
especially  excels.  To  his  incomparable  skill  in  this  branch 
of  verse  many  of  his  successors  have  borne  testimony, 
amongst  them  Sa'ib,  Salfm  and  'Urfi3;  but  no  one  has 
better  expressed  it  than  Sir  Gore  Ouseley,  who  says4: 

"  His  style  is  clear,  unaffected  and  harmonious,  displaying  at  the 
same  time  great  learning,  matured  science,  and  intimate  knowledge  of 
S'  G  reOuselev  *^e  hidden  as  well  as  the  apparent  nature  of  things;  but 
on  the  genius  above  all  a  certain  fascination  of  expression  unequalled 

Of    H4fi? 


It  is,  however,  to  Miss  Gertrude  Lowthian  Bell  that  we 
are  indebted  for  the  best  estimate  of  Hafiz,  at  once  critical, 
sympathetic,  and  full  of  insight.  In  particular  she  compares 
and  contrasts  him  in  the  most  illuminating  manner  with  his 
elder  contemporary  Dante,  after  characterizing  whose  poetry 
she  says5: 

"  To  Hafiz,  on  the  contrary,  modern  instances  have  no  value  ;  con- 

temporary history  is  too  small  an  episode  to  occupy  his  thoughts. 

During  his  life-time  the  city  which  he  loved,  perhaps 

Miss  Gertrude  ' 

Lowthian  Bell  as  dearly  as  Dante  loved  Florence,  was  besieged  and 
on  H4fi?  and  taken  five  or  six  times  ;  it  changed  hands  even  more 
often.  It  was  drenched  with  blood  by  one  conqueror, 
filled  with  revelry  by  a  second,  and  subjected  to  the  hard  rule  of 
asceticism  by  a  third.  One  after  another  H£fiz  saw  kings  and  princes 
rise  into  power  and  vanish  'like  snow  upon  the  desert's  dusty  face.' 
Pitiful  tragedies,  great  rejoicings,  the  fall  of  kingdoms  and  the  clash 

1  The  verses  in  question  are  given  by  Shiblf  on  p.  232  of  vol.  ii  of 
his  Shfru'l-'Ajam. 

2  See  the    Introduction   to    Miss   G.    L.   Bell's   Divan   of  Ha/iz, 
pp.  xxii-iii. 

3  See  p.  234  of  Shibli's  above-mentioned  work. 

4  Biographical  Notices  of  Persian  Poets  (London,  1826),  p.  23. 
6  Op,  tit.,  pp.  58-60. 


CH.  v]  HAFIZ  293 

of  battle — all  these  he  must  have  seen  and  heard.  But  what  echo 
of  them  is  there  in  his  poems?  Almost  none.  An  occasional  allusion 
which  learned  commentators  refer  to  some  political  event ;  an  ex- 
aggerated effusion  in  praise  first  of  one  king,  then  of  another ;  the 
celebration  of  such  and  such  a  victory  and  of  the  prowess  of  such  and 
such  a  royal  general — just  what  any  self-respecting  court-poet  would 
feel  it  incumbent  upon  himself  to  write  ;  and  no  more. 

"  But  some  of  us  will  feel  that  the  apparent  indifference  of  Hafiz 
lends  to  his  philosophy  a  quality  which  that  of  Dante  does  not  possess. 
The  Italian  is  bound  down  within  the  limits  of  his  philosophy,  his 
theory  of  the  universe  is  essentially  of  his  own  age,  and  what  to  him 
was  so  acutely  real  is  to  many  of  us  merely  a  beautiful  or  a  terrible 
image.  The  picture  that  Hdfiz  draws  represents  a  wider  landscape, 
though  the  immediate  foreground  may  not  be  so  distinct.  It  is  as  if 
his  mental  eye,  endowed  with  wonderful  acuteness  of  vision,  had 
penetrated  into  those  provinces  of  thought  which  we  of  a  later  age  were 
destined  to  inhabit.  We  can  forgive  him  for  leaving  to  us  so  indistinct 
a  representation  of  his  own  time,  and  of  the  life  of  the  individual  in  it, 
when  we  find  him  formulating  ideas  as  profound  as  the  warning  that 
there  is  no  musician  to  whose  music  both  the  drunk  and  the  sober  can 
dance." 

Shibli  Nu'mani  ascribes  the  perfecting  of  \heghazal  and 
what  the  ^Q  extension  of  its  scope  to  Hafiz,  and  in  a 

gkazai,  or  ode,  lesser  degree  to  his  contemporaries  Salman  and 

Khwaju.  With  the  earlier  masters,  such  as  Sa'di, 
Amir  Khusraw  and  Hasan  of  Dihli,  its  almost  invariable 
theme  was  love.  Khwaju  sang  of  other  matters  as  well, 
such  as  the  transitoriness  of  the  world,  while  Salman  ex- 
celled in  rhetorical  artifices  and  novel  comparisons  and 
similes.  Hafiz  combined  the  merits  of  all,  adding  to  them 
a  charm  all  his  own,  and  often  it  pleased  him  to  take  from 
their  Diwdns  a  couplet  or  hemistich  and  modify  it  so  as  to 
add  to  its  beauty.  In  the  case  of  Sa'di  I  have  given  some 

instances  of  this  in  the  second  volume  of  my 

Parallel  passages  ^  » 

of  Hafiz  and        Literary  History  of  Persia^,  and  Shibli  Nu'mani 

gives  others  as  between  Hafiz  and  Khwaju  and 

Salman  respectively.  Amongst  these  latter  are  the  following: 

1  Pp.  536-9.  See  Mawlawi  'Abdu'l-Muqtadir's  remarks  on  this  at 
p.  255  of  the  Bankipore  Catalogue  (Firdawsf  to  Hafiz). 


294       POETS  &  WRITER'S  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 


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CH.  v]        HAFIZ  AND  HIS  COMMENTATORS  299 

his  predecessor  or  contemporary.  This,  of  course,  is  quite 
different  from  parody,  such  as  that  indulged  in  by  'Ubayd- 
i-Zakani  and  Bushaq,  where  the  object  is  not  to  surpass  but 
to  deride. 

The  number  of  commentaries  on  the  poems  of  Hafiz, 

not  only  in  Persian  but  also  in  Turkish,  and 

commentators      possibly  in  Urd^  also>  is  very  considerable,  but 

few  of  those  which  I  have  had  occasion  to 
examine  are  either  very  critical  or  very  illuminating.  The 
three  best-known  Turkish  commentaries  are  those  of  Sururi, 
Shem'f  and  Sudi,  of  which  the  last  is  the  most  accessible1 
and  the  most  useful,  since  the  author  very  wisely  confines 
himself  to  the  elucidation  of  the  literal  meaning,  and  avoids 
all  attempts  at  allegorical  interpretation  and  the  search  for 
the  "  inner  meaning."  That  many  of  the  odes  are  to  be 
taken  in  a  symbolic  and  mystical  sense  few  will  deny;  that 
others  mean  what  they  say,  and  celebrate  a  beauty  not 
celestial  and  a  wine  not  allegorical  can  hardly  be  questioned ; 
that  the  spiritual  and  the  material  should,  as  Shah  Shuja' 
complained,  be  thus  mingled  will  not  surprise  any  one  who 
understands  the  character,  psychology  and  Weltanschauung 
of  the  people  of  Persia,  where  it  is  common  enough  to  meet 
with  persons  who  in  the  course  of  a  single  day  will  alternately 
present  themselves  as  pious  Muslims,  heedless  libertines, 
confirmed  sceptics  and  mystical  pantheists,  or  even  incarna- 
tions of  the  Deity2.  The  student  of  Hafiz  who  cannot  decide 
for  himself  which  verses  are  to  be  taken  literally  and  which 

1  His  commentary  on  the  first  80  odes  is  included  in  Brockhaus's 
Leipzig  edition  of  the  Diwdn  (1854-6),  and  the  whole  has  been  printed 
with  the  text  and  another  Turkish  commentary  at  Constantinople  about 
1870.    The  English  reader  who  desires  to  acquaint  himself  with  Sudi's 
methods  may  consult  W.  H.  Lowe's  Twelve  Odes  of  Hafiz  done  literally 
into  English  together  with  the  corresponding  portion  of  the  Titrkish 
Commentary  of  Siidi,  for  the  first  time  translated  (Cambridge,  1877, 
pp.  80).     See  also  Lieut.-Col.  H.  Wilberforce  Clarke's  English  prose 
translation  (2  vols,  London,  1891). 

2  I  have  endeavoured  to  depict  this  type  of  Persian  in  the  chapter 
of  my  Year  amongst  the  Persians  entitled  "Amongst  the  Qalandars." 


300       POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

symbolically  is  hardly  likely  to  gain  much  from  a  com- 
mentator who  invariably  repeats  that  Wine  means  Spiritual 
Ecstasy,  the  Tavern  the  Sufi  Monastery,  the  Magian  elder 
the  Spiritual  Guide,  and  so  forth.  To  the  English  reader 
who  desires  to  pursue  this  method  of  study,  however,  Lieut- 
Colonel  H.  Wilberforce  Clarke's  complete  prose  translation 
of  the  Dtwdn  of  Hafiz  "with  copious  notes  and  an  ex- 
haustive commentary1 "  may  be  recommended.  On  the  sym- 
bolical meaning  of  the  erotic  and  Bacchanalian  phraseology 
of  the  mystic  or  pseudo-mystic  poets  of  Persia  generally 
E.  H.  Whinfield's  excellent  edition  and  annotated  transla- 
tion of  Mahmud  Shabistarf's  Gulshan-i-Rdz  ("Rose-garden 
of  Mystery")  and  the  late  Professor  E.  H.  Palmer's  little 
work  on  Oriental  Mysticism  may  be  consulted  with  ad- 
vantage. On  the  origin,  doctrines  and  general  character  of 
Suffism  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  chapter  xiii  (pp.  416-444) 
of  the  first  volume  of  my  Literary  History  of  Persia. 

One  little  Persian  treatise  on  Hafiz,  to  which  my  atten- 
tion was  first  called  by  Mr  Sidney  Churchill, 
GhayHyyaoi  formerly  Oriental  Secretary  of  the  British  Le- 
ofDaarTad  gation  at  Tihran,  deserves  a  brief  mention, 
chiefly  because  it  formulates  and  subsequently 
endeavours  to  refute  certain  adverse  criticisms  on  his  poetry 
made  by  some  of  his  compatriots.  This  little  book  is  en- 
titled Latifa-i-Ghaybiyya  and  was  written  by  Muhammad 
b.  Muhammad  of  Darab,  concerning  whose  life  and  date 
I  have  been  unable  to  learn  anything.  It  comprises  127 
pages  of  small  size,  was  lithographed  at  Tihran  in  I3O4/ 
1886-7,  and  chiefly  consists  of  explanations  of  different 
verses.  The  three  hostile  criticisms  which  it  seeks  to  refute 
are  stated  as  follows  on  p.  5  : 

(i)    That  some  of  his  verses  are  meaningless,  or  that,  if 
they  have  any  meaning,  it  is  very  far-fetched 

Defence  of  Han?  J  J  °'  * 

against  his          and  enigmatical.      The  following   instance  is 

critics 

given : 

1  See  n.  i  on  the  preceding  page. 


CH.V]  HAFIZ  CRITICIZED  301 

-   4^  T  Jb 


"  Cease  your  recriminations  and  return,  for  the  pupil  of  my  eye 

Hath  pulled  off  the  cloak  over  its  head  and  burned  it  as  a  thank- 
offering1." 

(2)  That  some  of  his  verses  are  evidently  secular  and 
profane,  and  refer  to  the  pleasures  of  the  senses  in  a  manner 
which  cannot  be  explained  as  allegorical,  as  for  instance  : 


"  My  heart,  in  love  with  Farrukh's  face,  is  agitated  like  Farrukh's  hair." 
And  again  : 


"A  thousand  blessings  be  on  the  red  wine  which  hath  removed  the 
sallow  complexion  from  my  face  !  " 

(3)  That  many  of  his  verses  smack  of  the  Ash'arf 
(Sunni)  doctrines,  which  are  repudiated  and  execrated  by 
the  Imami  (Shi'a)  doctors,  e.g.  : 

j      j^    tjU 


"  They  did  not  suffer  me  to  pass  through  the  street  of  good  repute  : 
If  thou  dost  not  approve,  then  change  Destiny2." 


"  This  borrowed  life  which  the  Friend  hath  entrusted  to  Hafiz  — 
One  day  I  shall  see  His  Face  and  shall  yield  it  up  to  Him3." 

1  For  Sudi's  explanation  of  this  verse,  see  Rosenzweig-Schwannau's 
edition  of  Hafiz,  vol.  i,  No.  26  in  O,  p.  769  in  the  notes.    It  is  not  very 
convincing,  and  I  have  never  met  with  any  other  allusion  to  the  custom 
there  alleged. 

2  It  is  worth  noting  that  the  extreme  Fatalism  commonly  regarded 
in  Europe  as  characteristic  of  Islam  is  repudiated  by  Muslims  of  the 
Shi'a  sect. 

3  The  doctrine  called  Ruyatdlldh  ("The  Vision  of  God")  belongs, 
I  think,  especially  to  the  Hanbalf  sect,  but  is  held  in  detestation  by  the 
Shi'a. 


302        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf R'S  TIME     [BK  u 

Although  manuscripts  of  Hafiz  offer  as  many  variants 

as  is  usually  the  case  with  Persian  texts,  there  exists  of 

this  poet's  works  an  established  and  generally 

Why  the  Turks  ,  ' 

are  better  editors     accepted    text    which    WC     OWC,    I    think,    to    the 

of  Persian  poetry   Turkish   commentator    Sudi,  and    which    has 

than  the  Indians 

been  popularized  in  Europe  by  the  editions  of 
Brockhaus  and  Rosenzweig-Schwannau,  so  that  it  is  usual 
to  refer  to  the  odes  of  Hafiz  by  the  numbers  they  bear  in 
the  latter  edition.  Turkish  editions  of  Persian  poetry,  such 
as  the  Mathnawioi.  Jalalu'd-Din  Rumi,  the  Diwdn  of  Hafiz, 
etc.,  are  generally  more  accurate  and  trustworthy  than  those 
produced  in  India,  which  commonly  contain  many  spurious 
and  interpolated  lines  composed  by  the  editors,  lines  which 
a  Persian  would  be  ashamed  and  a  Turk  unable  to  produce ; 
for  the  Persian  editor  has  in  most  cases  enough  taste 
(dhawq)  to  know  that  he  cannot  produce  verses  likely 
to  be  accepted  as  those  of  the  master  whom  he  is  editing ; 
while  the  Turkish  editor  is  generally  conscientious  and 
laborious,  but  incapable  of  producing  any  Persian  verses 
at  all.  The  Indian  editor,  on  the  other  hand,  often  has 
a  certain  facility  of  versifying  without  much  critical  taste. 

This  "authorized  version"  of  the  Diwdn  of  Hafiz  (which 
could  probably  be  much  improved  by  a  fresh  and  careful 
collation  of  all  the  best  and  oldest  manuscripts) 
contains  in  all  693  separate  poems  ;  to  wit,  573 
odes  (ghazaliyydf)  ;  42  fragments  (muqattctdt)  ; 
69  quatrains  (rubdliyydt)\  6  mathnawts;  2  qasidas,  and  one 
"  five-some"  or  mukkammas.  Of  all  of  these  poems  German 
verse-translations  are  given  by  Rosenzweig-Schwannau,  and 
English  prose  translations  by  Wilberforce  Clarke.  There 
exist  also  many  translations  of  individual  odes  or  groups 
of  odes  in  English,  German,  Latin,  French,  etc.,  either  in 
verse  or  prose1.  Of  English  verse  translations  the  largest 
and  most  sumptuous  collection  is  that  of  Herman  Bicknell, 

1  For  a  list  of  the  chief  of  these,  see  Dr  H.  Ethd's  Catalogue  of  the 
Persian  MSS  in  the  India  Office,  No.  1246  (col.  720),  and  the  Banki- 
pore  Catalogue  (Firdawsf  to  Hdfiz),  pp.  256-7. 


CH.  v]  TRANSLATIONS  OF  HAFIZ  303 

who  was  born  in  1830,  studied  Medicine  at  St  Bartholo- 
mew's Hospital  and  took  the  degree  of  M.R.C.S.  in  1854, 
entered  the  Army  Medical  Service,  went  through  the 
Indian  Mutiny,  travelled  widely  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa 
and  America,  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  under  the 
name  of  'Abdu'l-Wahfd  in  1862,  and  spent  some  time  at 
Shi'raz  "  with  the  object  of  clearing  up  doubtful  points  [in 
the  Diwdri\,  and  of  becoming  personally  acquainted  with 
the  localities  mentioned  by  the  Poet."  He  died  in  1875, 
and  his  posthumous  work  was  brought  out  with  loving 
care  by  his  brother,  A.  S.  Bicknell,  in  the  same  year.  It 
contains,  besides  the  Preface,  Introduction,  Appendix  and 
Indices,  and  nine  illustrations,  translations,  complete  or 
partial,  of  189  ghazaliyydt,  all  the  42  muqatta'dt  and  69 
rubd'iyydt,  2  out  of  the  6  mathnawis,  and  the  one  muk- 
hammas. 

Of  most  of  these  translations  of  Hafiz,  from  the  Latin 
renderings  of  Meninski  (1680),  Thomas  Hyde  (1767)  and 
Revisky  (1771);  the  French  (1799)  and  English  (1792) 
versions  of  Sir  William  Jones ;  the  numerous  German 
versions  from  Wahl  (1791)  to  Bodenstedt  (1877);  and  the 
later  English  efforts  of  Payne,  Justin  McCarthy  and  Wilber- 
force  Clarke,  I  do  not  propose  to  speak  here ;  but  I  shall 
say  something  of  three  of  the  English  verse-translations 
which  seem  to  me  the  most  worthy  of  attention.  Of  the 
oldest  of  these  three,  that  of  Herman  Bicknell,  published 
in  1875,  I  have  already  spoken  above.  The  next  in  point 
of  time  is  that  of  Miss  Gertrude  Lowthian  Bell  (London, 
1897),  which  contains,  besides  an  admirable  Introduction 
on  the  life,  times  and  character  of  the  poet,  verse-translations 
of  43  of  the  odes.  These,  though  rather  free,  are,  in  my 
opinion,  by  far  the  most  artistic,  and,  so  far  as  the  spirit 
of  Hafiz  is  concerned,  the  most  faithful  renderings  of  his 
poetry.  Lastly,  in  1898  Mr  Walter  Leaf  published  28 
"Versions  from  Hafiz,"  in  which  he  endeavoured  to  re- 
produce the  form  as  well  as  the  sense  of  the  original 
poems,  with  as  much  success,  probably,  as  is  attainable 


304        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME    [BK  n 

under  these  conditions.  The  existence  of  these  three 
versions  exonerates  me  from  attempting,  as  I  have  done 
in  the  case  of  other  less  known  Persian  poets,  to  produce 
versions  of  my  own.  In  their  different  ways  they  are  all 
good  :  Herman  Bicknell's  are  accurate  as  regards  the 
sense,  and  often  very  ingenious,  especially  the  chrono- 
grams ;  Walter  Leaf's  give  an  excellent  idea  of  the  form  ; 
while  Miss  Bell's  are  true  poetry  of  a  very  high  order, 
and,  with  perhaps  the  single  exception  of  FitzGerald's 
paraphrase  of  the  Quatrains  of  'Umar  Khayydm,  are 
probably  the  finest  and  most  truly  poetical  renderings  of 
any  Persian  poet  ever  produced  in  the  English  language  ; 
for,  though  some  of  Sir  William  Jones's  verse-translations 
are  pretty  enough,  they  can  hardly  be  dignified  by  the 
name  of  poetry,  and  are,  moreover,  so  free  that  they  can 
scarcely  be  called  translations. 

For  the  sake  of  comparison  I  gave  elsewhere1  five 
different  English  verse-translations  of  one  of  the  best- 
known  of  the  odes  of  Hafiz,  that  beginning2  : 

'  IjU  J>  * 


which  has  been  rendered  into  English  verse  by  Sir  William 
Jones,  Herman  Bicknell,  Miss  Bell,  Walter  Leaf,  and  myself. 
I  cannot  find  so  many  English  verse-renderings  of  any  other 
of  the  odes  of  Hafiz,  for,  though  many  of  those  translated 
by  Miss  Bell  are  also  to  be  found  in  Herman  Bicknell's 
translation,  only  three  or  four  of  the  former  are  included 
amongst  the  28  published  by  Walter  Leaf.  The  one  fault 
to  be  found  with  Miss  Bell's  versions  is  that  they  are  not 
arranged  in  any  order,  nor  is  any  indication  given  of  the 
opening  words  of  the  original,  nor  reference  to  its  position  in 
the  text  of  Rosenzweig-Schwannau  which  she  has  followed  ; 

1  In  a  lecture  on  the  Literature  of  Persia  delivered  to  the  Persia 
Society  on  April  26,  1912,  and  afterwards  published  for  that  Society  by 
John  Hogg,  13,  Paternoster  Row,  London,  E.G.,  price  one  shilling. 

2  See  Rosenzweig-Schwannau's  ed.,  vol.  i,  p.  24  (No.  8  in  alif}. 


CH.  V] 


ENGLISH  VERSIONS  OF  HAFIZ 


305 


and  only  after  I  had  succeeded,  with  considerable  labour, 
in  identifying  the  originals  of  all  but  nine  or  ten  of  her 
translations  did  I  ascertain  that  my  friend  Mr  Guy  le 
Strange  possessed  an  annotated  copy  of  her  book  con- 
taining all  the  references  I  required  save  one  (No.  xv), 
which  was  wrongly  given,  and  which  I  am  still  unable  to 
identify.  For  the  convenience,  therefore,  of  other  readers 
of  her  admirable  book,  I  give  below  the  reference  to  each 
original  in  Rosenzweig-Schwannau's  edition, 
specifying  the  volume,  page,  and  number  under 
each  rhyming  letter,  and  adding  a  reference 
to  Bicknell  and  Leaf  in  cases  where  an  ode 
has  also  been  rendered  by  them. 


Comparative 

table  of  odes 
translated  by 
Miss  Bell  and 
other  translators. 


(No.  in  Miss  Bell's 
transl.) 

1No.  i  (p.  67) 
No.  ii  (p.  68) 
No.  iii  (p.  69) 
No.  iv  (p.  70) 
2No.  v  (p.  71) 
No.  vi  (p.  73) 
No.  vii  (p.  74) 
No.  viii  (p.  75) 
No.  ix  (p.  76) 
3  No.  x  (p.  78) 
No.  xi  (p.  79) 
No.  xii  (p.  80) 
No.  xiii  (p.  81) 
No.  xiv  (p.  83) 
No.  xv  (p.  84) 
No.  xvi  (p.  85) 
No.  xvii  (p.  86) 
No.  xviii  (p.  88) 
No.  xix  (p.  89) 
No.  xx  (p.  90) 

1  See  also 

2  W.  Leaf, 

3  W.  Leaf, 

B.  P. 


(Reference  to  H. 
Bicknell's  transl.) 

No.  i  (p.  3) 
No.  Ii  (p.  83) 
No.  liv  (p.  85) 


(Reference  to  original  in 
Rosenzweig's  ed.) 

vol.  i,  p.  2  (\  i) 
vol.  i,  p.  194  (O  58) 
vol.  i,  p.  204  (O  63) 
vol.  i,  p.  100  (O  19) 
vol.  i,  p.  24  (t  8) 
vol.  ii,  p.  86  (^  6) 
vol.i,  p.  152  (O  41) 
vol.  i,  p.  no  (O  24) 
vol.  i,  p.  8  (I  3) 
omitted 

vol.  i,  p.  138  (O  36) 
vol.  i,  p.  32  (I  12) 
vol.  i,  p.  276  (O  90) 
vol.  i,  p.  302  (i  3) 

VOl.  i,  p.  222   (O   69) 

vol.  i,  p.  148  (O  40) 
vol.  i,  p.  360  (i  23) 
vol.  i,  p.  368  (i  26) 
vol.  ii,  p.  1 8  (j  6) 

Palmer's  Song  of  the  Reed,  pp.  53-4. 
No.  iv,  pp.  27-8. 
No.  i,  p.  23  ;  Palmer,  pp.  49-50. 


No.  viii  (p.  20) 
No.  cxxvi  (p.  172) 


No.  xxxi  (p.  60) 
No.  iii  (p.  9) 
No.  clxxii  (p.  240) 
No.  xxxix  (p.  71) 
No.  xii  (p.  29) 
No.  Ixv  (p.  99) 
No.  Ixx  (p.  107) 

No.  Ivi  (p.  88) 
No.  xliii  (p.  75) 


20 


(Reference  to  H. 
Bicknell's  transl.) 


No.  Ixxx  (p.  122) 
No.  ciii  (p.  147) 


No.  xc  (p.  133) 


306       POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  ii 

(No.  in  Miss  Bell's 
transl.) 

No.  xxi  (p.  91) 
No.  xxii  (p.  93) 
No.  xxiii  (p.  94) 
No.  xxiv  (p.  95) 
No.  xxv  (p.  97) 
*No.  xxvi  (p.  98) 
No.  xxvii  (p.  100) 
No.  xxviii  (p.  10 1 ) 
No.  xxix  (p.  102) 
No.  xxx  (p.  103) 
No.  xxxi  (p.  104) 
No.  xxxii  (p.  1 06) 
No.  xxxiii  (p.  107) 
No.  xxxiv  (p.  1 08) 
No.  xxxv  (p.  109) 
No.  xxxvi  (p.  no) 
No.  xxxvii  (p.  in) 
No.  xxxviii  (p.  112) 
No.  xxxix  (p.  114) 
No.  xl  (p.  115) 
No.  xli  (p.  1 1 6) 

No.  xlii  (p.  117) 
No.  xliii  (p.  1 1 8) 


(Reference  to  original  in 
Rosenzweig's  ed.) 

vol.  i,  p.  374  (>  28) 
vol.  i,  p.  410  (^  41) 
vol.  i,  p.  596  (i  113) 
vol.  iii,  p.  86  (^  31) 
vol.  i,  p.  502  (i  78) 
vol.  i,  p.  520  (j  85) 
vol.  i,  p.  256  (O  82) 
vol.  i,  p.  490  (>  73) 
vol.  ii,  p.  8  (j  3) 
vol.  ii,  p.  104  (^i  7) 
vol.  i,  p.  560  (>  99) 
vol.  ii,  p.  32  (j  ii) 
vol.  i,  p.  576  (i  105) 
vol.  i,  p.  584  (i  1 08) 
vol.  i,  p.  662  (i  139) 
vol.  ii,  p.  78  (^  2) 
vol.  ii,  p.  68  (j  10) 
vol.  i,  p.  650  (>  135) 
vol.  i,  p.  416  (>  44) 
vol.  ii,  p.  120  (^i  15) 
vol.  iii,  p.  296  (git'a 

No.  33) 

vol.  i,  p.  586  (j  109) 
vol.  ii,  p.  398  (j>  74) 


No.  cxv  (p.  158) 
No.  cxxviii  (p.  176) 
No.  xcvii  (p.  140) 
No.  cxvii  (p.  162) 


No.  ci  (p.  144) 
No.  cvii  (p.  151) 


No.  cxxi  (p.  1 66) 


No.  Ixxxi  (p.  123) 


Qit'a  xxxiii  (p.  292) 


No.  clxiii  (p.  227) 


As  already  noted,  only  three  or  four  of  the  odes  have 
been  rendered  in  English  verse  by  Miss  Bell,  Herman 
Bicknell  and  Walter  Leaf,  and  of  one  of  them  {Agar  an 
Turk-i-Shirdzi...)  the  parallel  renderings  were  published 
in  my  paper  on  Persian  Literature,  to  which  reference  has 
been  already  made,  together  with  others.  Another  ode 
rendered  by  the  three  writers  above  mentioned  is  that 
beginning1 : 

J~b  O 


1  See  Rosenzweig-Schwannau's  ed.,  vol.  i,  p.  1 10,  No.  24  in  O  ; 
Miss  Bell,  No.  viii,  pp.  75-6;  Bicknell,  No.  xxxi,  p.  60;  and  Walter 
Leaf,  No.  v,  p.  29. 


CH.  v]  ENGLISH  VERSIONS  OF  HAFIZ  307 

Of  this  also,  for  the  sake  of  comparison,  I  here  reprint  the 
three  versions,  beginning  with  Herman  Bicknell's,  which  is 
as  follows : 

Bickneirs  translation  (No.  xxxi,  p.  60). 

(1)  "In  blossom  is  the  crimson  rose,  and  the  rapt  bulbul  trills  his  song ; 

A  summons  that  to  revel  calls  you,  O  Sufis,  wine-adoring  throng  ! 

(2)  The  fabric  of  my  contrite  fervour  appeared  upon  a  rock  to  bide  ; 
Yet  see  how  by  a  crystal  goblet  it  hath  been  shattered  in  its  pride. 

(3)  Bring  wine  ;  for  to  a  lofty  spirit,  should  they  at  its  tribunal  be, 
What  were  the  sentry,  what  the  Sultan,  the  toper  or  the  foe  of  glee  ? 

(4)  Forth  from  this  hostel  of  two  portals  as  finally  thou  needst  must  go, 
What  if  the  porch  and  arch  of  Being  be  of  high  span  or  meanly  low  ? 

(5)  To  bliss's  goal  we  gain  not  access,  if  sorrow  has  been  tasted  not; 
Yea,  with  Alastu's1  pact  was  coupled  the  sentence  of  our  baleful  lot. 

(6)  At  Being  and  Not-being  fret  not,  but  either  with  calm  temper  see : 
Not-being  is  the  term  appointed  for  the  most  lovely  things  that  be. 

(7)  Asaf  s  display,  the  airy  courser,  the  language  which  the  birds  em- 

ployed, 

The  wind  has  swept ;  and  their  possessor  no  profit  from  his  wealth 
enjoyed2. 

(8)  Oh  !  fly  not  from  thy  pathway  upward,  for  the  winged  shaft  that 

quits  the  bow 
A  moment  to  the  air  has  taken,  to  settle  in  the  dust  below. 

(9)  What  words  of  gratitude,  O  Hifiz, 
Shall  thy  reed's  tongue  express  anon, 
As  its  choice  gems  of  composition 
From  hands  to  other  hands  pass  on  ?  " 

1  "  It  is  maintained  by  certain  interpreters  of  the  Koran  that  Adam 
and  the  whole  of  his  future  race  appeared  before  their  Creator  on  the 
first  day  of  the  world.    God  said  to  them  :  '  A-lastu  bi- Rabbi- kum,' '  Am 
I  not  your  Lord  ? '     All  responded  '  Bald]  '  Yes.'     But  the  word  '  bald ' 
has  the  additional  signification  of  '  bale '  or  '  evil.'    Hence  the  sentence 
of  bale,  or  evil,  was  annexed  to  the  pact  of  the  '  Day  of  Alast]  and  was 
constituted  a  condition  of  existence." 

2  "  How  vain  were  the  glories  of  Solomon  !     Asaf  was  his  minister, 
the  East-wind  his  courser,  and  the  language  of  birds  one  of  his  accom- 
plishments ;  but  the  blast  of  Time  has  swept  them  away." 


3o8      POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME       [BK  n 

Walter  Leaf's  translation  (No.  v,  p.  29). 

(1)  "Aflame  with  bloom  is  the  red  rose,  the  bulbul  drunk  with  Spring; 

What  ho,  adorers  of  Wine !  Hear  the  call  to  mirth  that  they  fling. 

(2)  The  corner-stone  of  repentance  that  seemed  a  rock  firm-set 
Is  rent  and  riven  asunder  by  touch  of  glasses  a-ring. 

(3)  Fill  high  the  bowl  with  the  red  wine,  for  here  is  Liberty  Hall, 
The  sage  is  one  with  the  toper,  the  ploughman  e'en  as  the  king. 

(4)  From  out  this  Hostel  of  Two  Doors  the  signal  calls  us  away, 
Alike  if  low  be  the  roof-tree  or  lofty  dome  upspring. 

(5)  We  conquer  only  through  anguish  the  resting-place  of  delight ; 
To  life,  by  bond  of  Atast-vow,  the  long  '•Alas''  must  cling1. 

(6)  With  is  and  IS  NOT  annoy  not  thy  heart ;  be  merry  of  soul, 
For  is  NOT  is  but  the  last  end  of  every  perfect  thing. 

(7)  The  fame  of  Asaph,  the  wind-steed,  the  speech  with  birds  of  the  air 
As  wind  have  passed ;  to  their  master  no  more  avail  shall  they 

bring. 

(8)  No  pinion  heavenward  soaring  desire  ;  the  arrow  aloft 
Shall  sink  to  dust  in  the  end,  howsoe'er  it  leap  on  the  wing. 

(9)  What  thanks  and  praises,  O  HAnz,  shall  yield  the  tongue  of  thy 

pen, 
That  all  the  songs  of  thy  singing  from  mouth  to  mouth  men  sing  ?" 

Miss  Bell's  translation  (No.  viii,  p.  75). 

(1)  "The  rose  has  flushed  red,  the  bud  has  burst, 

And  drunk  with  joy  is  the  nightingale — 

Hail,  Sufis,  lovers  of  wine,  all  hail  ! 

For  wine  is  proclaimed  to  a  world  athirst. 

(2)  Like  a  rock  your  repentance  seemed  to  you  ; 
Behold  the  marvel !  Of  what  avail 

Was  your  rock,  for  a  goblet  has  cleft  it  in  two  ! 

(3)  Bring  wine  for  the  King  and  the  slave  at  the  gate  ! 
Alike  for  all  is  the  banquet  spread, 

And  drunk  and  sober  are  warmed  and  fed.  ) 

(4)  When  the  feast  is  done  and  the  night  grows  late, 
And  the  second  door  of  the  tavern  gapes  wide, 
The  low  and  the  mighty  must  bow  the  head 
'Neath  the  archway  of  Life,  to  meet  what... outside? 

1  See  note  i  on  previous  page.     Mr  Leaf  has  here  sought  to  para- 
phrase the  word-play  on  bald  ('  Yea ')  and  bald  (Woe)  in  the  original. 


CH.  v]  ENGLISH  VERSIONS  OF  HAFI?  309 

(5)  Except  thy  road  through  affliction  pass, 
None  may  reach  the  halting-station  of  mirth  ; 
God's  treaty  :  Am  I  not  Lord  of  the  earth  ? 
Man  sealed  with  a  sigh  :  Ah  yes,  alas  ! 

(6)  Nor  with  IS  nor  IS  NOT  let  thy  mind  contend  ; 
Rest  assured  all  perfection  of  mortal  birth 

In  the  great  IS  NOT  at  the  last  shall  end. 

(7)  For  Assaf's  pomp,  and  the  steeds  of  the  wind, 
And  the  speech  of  birds  down  the  wind  have  fled, 
And  he  that  was  lord  of  them  all  is  dead  ; 

Of  his  mastery  nothing  remains  behind. 

(8)  Shoot  not  thy  feathered  arrow  astray  ! 

A  bow-shot's  length  through  the  air  it  has  sped, 
And  then.  ..dropped  down  in  the  dusty  way. 

(9)  But  to  thee,  oh  Hafiz,  to  thee,  oh  tongue 

That  speaks  through  the  mouth  of  the  slender  reed, 
What  thanks  to  thee  when  thy  verses  speed 
From  lip  to  lip,  and  the  song  thou  hast  sung  ?  " 

This  one  example  of  three  parallel  translations  will 
suffice  to  show  generally  the  style  of  work  of  the  three 
translators.  Miss  Bell's  is  the  least  literal,  but  by  far 
the  most  poetical,  and  is  a  wonderful  interpretation  of  the 
spirit  of  the  original.  Walter  Leaf  aims  especially  at 
exactly  reproducing  the  form  (both  as  regards  rhyme 
and  metre),  as  well  as  the  sense,  of  the  original.  Herman 
Bicknell  steers  a  middle  course,  making  each  verse  of  his 
translation  correspond  with  its  original,  but  not  attempting 
to  preserve  the  same  rhyme  throughout  the  poem. 

In  view  of  these  and  other  excellent  translations  of 
Hafiz  into  verse  and  prose  in  English  and  other  European 
languages,  I  will  content  myself  with  quoting  here  the 
renderings  by  Miss  Bell  and  Herman  Bicknell  of  one  more 
ode  of  Hafiz,  which  has  a  certain  special  interest  because 
it  is  engraved  on  his  tombstone1,  and  which  begins  : 


1  For  a  complete  translation  of  the  inscription  on  the  tombstone,  see 
the  plate  facing  p.  xvi  of  Herman  Bicknell's  work  above  mentioned. 


3io        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME      [BK  11 

BickneWs  translation  (p.  227,  No.  clxiii). 

"  Where  doth  Thy  love's  glad  message  echo  for  my  rapt  soul 

To  rise  ? 
This  sacred  bird  from  the  world's  meshes  yearns  to  its  goal 

To  rise. 

I  swear,  wilt  Thou  Thy  servant  name  me,  by  all  my  love  sublime 
Higher  than  my  desire  of  lordship  o'er  space  and  time 

To  rise. 

Vouchsafe,  Lord,  from  Thy  cloud  of  guidance  to  pour  on  me  Thy 

rain, 
Ere  Thou  command  me  as  an  atom  from  man's  domain 

To  rise. 

Bring  minstrels  and  the  wine-cup  with  thee,  or  at  my  tomb  ne'er  sit : 
Permit  me  in  thy  perfume  dancing  from  the  grave's  pit 

To  rise. 

Though  I  am  old,  embrace  me  closely,  be  it  a  single  night : 
May  I,  made  young  by  thy  caresses,  at  morn  have  might 

To  rise! 

Arouse  thee  !  show  thy  lofty  stature, 
Idol  of  winning  mien : 
Enable  me,  as  soul-reft  H£fiz, 
From  Nature's  scene 

To  rise!" 

Miss  Bell's  translation  (No.  xliii,  pp.  118-119). 

"  Where  are  the  tidings  of  union  ?  that  I  may  arise — 
Forth  from  the  dust  I  will  rise  up  to  welcome  thee ! 
My  soul,  like  a  homing  bird,  yearning  for  Paradise, 
Shall  arise  and  soar,  from  the  snares  of  the  world  set  free. 
When  the  voice  of  love  shall  call  me  to  be  thy  slave, 
I  shall  rise  to  a  greater  far  than  the  mastery 
Of  life  and  the  living,  time  and  the  mortal  span : 
Pour  down,  oh  Lord  1  from  the  clouds  of  Thy  guiding  grace 
The  rain  of  a  mercy  that  quickeneth  on  my  grave, 
Before,  like  dust  that  the  wind  bears  from  place  to  place, 
I  arise  and  flee  beyond  the  knowledge  of  man. 
When  to  my  grave  thou  turnest  thy  blessed  feet, 
Wine  and  the  lute  shalt  thou  bring  in  thy  hand  to  me, 
Thy  voice  shall  ring  through  the  folds  of  my  winding-sheet, 
And  I  will  arise  and  dance  to  thy  minstrelsy. 
Though  I  be  old,  clasp  me  one  night  to  thy  breast, 
And  I,  when  the  dawn  shall  come  to  awaken  me, 
With  the  flash  of  youth  on  my  cheek  from  thy  bosom  will  rise. 


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CH.V]  THE  TOMB  OF  HAFI?  311 

Rise  up  !  let  mine  eyes  delight  in  thy  stately  grace  ! 

Thou  art  the  goal  to  which  all  men's  endeavour  has  pressed, 

And  thou  the  idol  of  Hdfiz's  worship  ;  thy  face 

From  the  world  and  life  shall  bid  him  come  forth  and  arise  !" 

The  tomb  of  Hdfiz  is  in  a  beautiful  garden,  called  after 
him  the  "  Hafiziyya,"  situated  near  Shiraz.     It  was  much 
beautified  by  Abu'l-Qasim  Babur1,  the  great- 
Hafiz°n  grandson  of  Timur,  when  he  conquered  Shiraz 

in  856/1452,  the  work  being  entrusted  by  him 
to  Mawlana  Muhammad  Mv'amiHd'i*.  At  a  later  date 
(1226/1811)  it  was  further  embellished  by  Kan'm  Khan- 
i-Zand,  one  of  the  best  rulers  that  Persia  has  ever  had3, 
by  whom  the  present  tombstone,  a  slab  of  fine  alabaster, 
was  contributed.  The  Hafiziyya  is  much  honoured  and 
much  frequented  by  the  people  of  Shiraz  and  by  visitors 
to  that  city,  and  the  poet's  grave  is  surrounded  by  the 
graves  of  many  others  who  have  sought  proximity  to  those 
illustrious  ashes,  so  that  his  own  words  have  been  fulfilled 
when  he  said  : 


"  When  thou  passest  by  our  tomb,  seek  a  blessing,  for  it  shall  be- 
come a  place  of  pilgrimage  for  the  libertines  of  all  the  world." 

Before  passing  on  to  the  mention  of  other  poets,  some- 

thing must  be  said  as  to  the  practice  of  taking  an  augury 

(tafaul}  from  the  Diwdn  of  Hafiz  which  is  so 

1  aking  auguries     \     •/  / 

from  the  Diwdn  prevalent  in  Persia,  where  the  only  other  book 
used  for  this  purpose  (and  that  much  more 
rarely)  is  the  Quran  itself,  just  as  the  ancient  Romans 
used  to  use  Vergil  (Sortes  Vergiliance).  It  has  been  already 
mentioned  that  Hafiz  is  often  entitled  Lisdnu'  l-Ghayb 

1  Not  the  great  Babur  who  was  the  great-great-great-grandson  of 
Timur,  and  who  founded  the  so-called  "  Mogul  Dynasty"  in  India. 

2  See  Dawlatshah,  p.  308  of  my  edition. 

3  See  Sir  John  Malcolm's  History  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  p.  147. 


3 12         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME    [BK  n 

("The  Tongue  of  the  Unseen")  and  Tarjumdmil-Asrdr 
("The  Interpreter  of  Mysteries"),  and  it  is  generally  be- 
lieved by  his  fellow-countrymen  that,  in  case  of  doubt  as 
to  the  course  of  action  to  be  pursued,  valuable  indications 
may  be  obtained  by  opening  the  Diwdn  at  random,  after 
the  utterance  of  suitable  invocations,  and  taking  either  the 
first  verse  on  which  the  eye  falls,  or  the  last  ode  on  the  open 
page,  with  the  first  line  of  the  succeeding  ode.  Tables, 
called  Fdl-ndma,  comprising  a  number  of  squares  (always 
a  multiple  of  some  number  such  as  7  or  9)  each  containing 
one  letter  are  also  employed  for  the  same  purpose ;  and 
one  of  these,  with  instructions  for  its  use,  is  often  prefixed 
to  Oriental  editions  of  the  Diwdn1.  These  tables,  however, 
in  spite  of  their  mysterious  and  impressive  appearance, 
only  give  a  very  limited  number  of  answers — seven  when 
the  squares  are  a  multiple  of  seven,  nine  when  they  are  a 
multiple  of  nine,  and  so  on  ;  and  as  Lane  has  well  observed, 
in  speaking  of  similar  squares  used  by  the  Egyptians,  in 
consequence  of  the  view  prevailing  in  the  East  generally 
that,  if  in  doubt,  it  is  better,  as  a  rule,  to  refrain  from 
action,  a  majority  of  the  answers  provided  for  are  generally 
distinctly  discouraging  or  of  a  negative  character,  and  only 
a  few  encouraging. 

The  table  referred  to  in  the  last  foot-note  comprises 

15  x  15  =  225  squares,  each  containing  one  letter.     Nine 

hemistichs  each  containing  25  letters  are  chosen 

fdSdm? a       (9  x  25  also  =225).     In  the  first  square  is  placed 

the  first  letter  of  the  first  hemistich ;    in  the 

second  square  the  first  letter  of  the  second  hemistich,  and 

so  on  to  the  ninth  square,  in  which  is  placed  the  first  letter 

of  the  ninth  hemistich.     Next  follow  the  second  letters  of 

each  hemistich  in  the  same  order,  the  second  letter  of  the 

first  hemistich  in  the  tenth  square,  the  second   letter  of 

the  second  hemistich  in  the  eleventh  square,  and  so  on, 

1  A  specimen  of  these  tables  will  be  found  on  p.  233  of  the  Banki- 
pore  Catalogue,  in  the  volume  consecrated  to  Persian  Poetry  from 
Firdaws{  to  Hdfiz. 


CH.  v]  AUGURIES  FROM  HAFIZ  313 

until  the  table  concludes  at  the  225th  square  with  the 
last  (25th)  letter  of  the  last  (ninth)  hemistich.  In  using 
the  table,  the  finger  is  placed  at  random  on  one  of  the 
225  squares,  and  the  letter  it  contains  is  written  down, 
and  after  it,  in  a  circle,  the  24  letters  obtained  by  taking 
each  Qth  square  from  the  point  of  departure  until  the  cycle 
is  completed.  By  beginning  at  the  proper  point,  these 
25  letters  give  the  first  hemistich  of  one  of  the  odes,  which 
can  then  be  readily  found  in  the  D{wdn.  The  table  in 
question  gives  the  following  nine  hemistichs,  to  each  of 
which  I  have  added  the  second  hemistich  (not  included  in 
the  table,  but  needed  to  complete  the  verse),  the  reference 
to  Rosenzvveig's  edition,  and  the  English  translation. 

i.     No.  17  in  cA     R.-Schw.,  vol.  ii,  p.  121. 


"  We  have  tried  our  fortune  in  this  city  ;  we  must  withdraw  our 
gear  from  this  gulf." 

This  would  supply  an  answer  to  one  who  was  hesitating 
as  to  whether  he  should  emigrate  from  the  place  where  he 
was,  or  not. 

2.     No.  62  in  j».     R.-Schw.,  vol.  ii,  p.  364. 


"  Welcome,  O  bird  of  auspicious  advent  and  fortunate  message  ! 
Good  is  thy  arrival  !   What  news  ?   Where  is  the  Friend  ?   Which  is 
the  road  ?  " 

3.     No.  57  in  j>.     R.-Schw.,  vol.  ii,  p.  352. 
AiU. 


"  If  I  go  home  from  this  abode  of  exile,  then,  when  I  go  thither,  I 
shall  go  wisely  and  sensibly." 


POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

This  would  supply  an  answer  to  a  traveller  or  exile 
who  was  wondering  whether  he  would  not  do  well  to  return 
home. 

4.     No.  i  in  o.     R.-Schw.,  vol.  ii,  p.  160. 


"  Should  my  lucky  star  aid  me,  I  will  lay  hold  on  his  skirt  ; 
Should  I  pluck  it,  O  the  delight  !    And  should  he  slay  me,  O  the 
honour  !  " 

5.     No.  4  in  >     R.-Schw.,  vol.  ii,  p.  12. 


"  Show  thy  face  and  take  away  from  my  memory  all  thought  of  my 

own  existence  ; 
Bid  the  wind  bear  away  all  the  harvest  of  those  who  are  burned  out  !" 

6.     No.  80  in  i.     R.-Schw.,  vol.  i,  p.  508. 

'jLjl  J-J     Osfrfr    UA^vOjb    £  JtS-  J&J& 

'  juT  jj  J>\  U*^  $£,  ^>«  »U  A^  ^u^ 

"  I  said,  '  I  have  longing  for  thee  !  '  She  replied,  'Thy  longing  will  come 

to  an  end.' 
I  said,  'Be  thou  my  Moon!'  She  replied,  'If  it  comes  off!'" 

7.     No.  19  in  ^A     R.-Schw.,  vol.  ii,  p.  128. 


"  O  Lord,  that  fresh  and  smiling  rose  which  Thou  didst  entrust  to  me 
I  now  entrust  to  Thee  from  the  envious  eye  of  the  flower-bed." 

8.     No.  8  in  j.     R.-Schw.,  vol.  ii,  p.  64. 

LoJ  jl  jc«L5  ^j 


CH.V]  AUGURIES  FROM  HAFIZ  315 

"  My  desire  hath  not  yet  been  fulfilled  in  respect  to  my  craving  for 

thy  lip  ; 

In  the  hope  of  the  ruby  goblet  [of  thy  mouth]  I  am  still  a  drainer 
of  dregs." 

9.     No.  24  in  j>.     R.-Schw.,  vol.  ii,  p.  270. 

i  jt 


"Arise,  that  we  may  seek  an  opening  through  the  door  of  the  tavern, 
That  we  may  sit  in  the  Friend's  path  and  seek  [the  fulfilment  of  ]  a 
wish  !  " 

As  will  be  seen,  the  answers  supplied  by  these  vague 

oracles  are  often  of  a  somewhat  uncertain  na- 

approp'riatf         ture,  besides  being  limited  in  number  to  nine. 

auguries  drawn     j^e  other  method  of  opening  the  Dtwdn  at 

from  Hafiz  r  *f 

random  gives,  of  course,  much  richer  results,  and 
there  stands  on  record  many  a  remarkable  response,  which 
si  non  /  vero  e  ben  trovato.  Six  of  these  are  recorded  at  the 
end  (pp.  122-7)  of  the  little  treatise  entitled  Latifa-i-Ghay- 
biyya  which  has  been  already  mentioned1. 

The  first  refers  to  Shah  Isma'il  the  Great,  the  founder 
of  the  Safawi  dynasty,  who  made  the  Shi'a  doctrine  the 
official  creed  of  Persia,  and  carried  his  energy  so  far  in  this 
endeavour  that  he  ordered  the  tombs  of  persons  of  suspected 
orthodoxy  or  of  known  Sunni  proclivities  to  be  destroyed. 
One  day,  accompanied  by  a  certain  ignorant  and  fanatical 
priest  known  as  Mulla  Magas2,  he  visited  the  tomb  of  Hafiz, 
and  Mulla  Magas  urged  him  to  have  it  destroyed,  alleging 
(as  had  been  alleged  by  the  poet's  contemporaries)  that  he 
was  unorthodox  in  belief  and  dissolute  in  life.  The  King 
thereupon  announced  his  intention  of  taking  an  augury 
from  the  Dtwdn  of  Hafiz,  which  opened  at  the  following 
verse  : 


"  At  dawn  Orion  displayed  his  belt  before  me, 
As  though  to  say,  '  I  am  the  King's  slave,  and  this  I  swear.'" 

1  See  p.  300  supra.  2  Magas  is  the  Persian  for  "  a  fly." 


3i6        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

This,  it  is  to  be  supposed,  Shah  Isma'fl  took  as  an  ex- 
pression of  the  deceased  poet's  loyalty  to  himself,  and  there- 
upon, well  pleased,  he  again  opened  the  book  at  random  and 
was  confronted  by  the  following  verse,  which  was  even 
more  evidently  intended  for  his  ecclesiastical  companion  : 


"O  fly  (magas}  \  the  presence  of  the  Simurgh1  is  no  fit  place  for  thy 

evolutions  : 
Thou  dost  but  dishonour  thyself  and  vex  us  !  " 

After  this  it  may  be  assumed  that  Mulla  Magas  effaced 
himself! 

The  story  referred  to  above,  but  not  given  in  the  Lattfa- 
i-Ghaybiyya,  is  that,  when  Hafiz  died,  some  of  his  detractors 
objected  to  his  being  buried  in  the  Muslim  equivalent  of 
consecrated  ground,  but  that,  on  an  augury  being  taken 
from  his  poems  to  decide  the  question,  the  following  very- 
appropriate  verse  resulted  : 


"  Withhold  not  thy  footsteps  from  the  bier  of  Hdfiz, 
For,  though  he  is  immersed  in  sin,  he  will  go  to  Paradise  !" 

The  second  instance  given  by  the  Latifa-i-Ghaybiyya 
refers  to  another  king  of  the  same  dynasty,  Shah  Tahmasp2, 
who  one  day,  while  playing  with  a  ring  which  he  valued 
very  highly,  dropped  it,  and,  though  he  caused  an  exhaustive 
search  for  it  to  be  made  under  the  carpets  and  cushions, 

1  A  mythical  bird  of  great  size  and  wisdom  and  almost  or  quite 
immortal,  which  is  supposed,  like  its  Arabian  equivalent  the  'Angd,  to 
dwell  in  the  Mountains  of  Qaf  or  of  the  Alburz,  and  which  played  an 
important  part  in  the  legend  of  S£m  and  Zdl  (the  grandfather  and 
father  of  Rustam  respectively)  as  recounted  in  the  Shdh-n&ma  of 
Firdawsf. 

2  There  were  two  Safawi  kings  of  this  name.     The  first  reigned 
A.D.  1524-1576;  the  second  1722-1731. 


CH.  v]  AUGURIES  FROM  HAFIZ  317 

could  not  find  it.     An  augury  taken  from  Hafiz  gave  the 
following  result  : 


"  What  cares  a  heart  which  mirrors  the  Unseen  and  possesses  the 
Goblet  of  Jamshid  for  a  ring  which  is  mislaid  for  a  moment1  ?" 

The  king  clapped  his  hands  on  his  knees  in  admiration  for 
the  appositeness  of  this  verse,  and  immediately  felt  the  ring 
in  a  fold  of  his  robe  into  which  it  had  accidentally  slipped. 

The  third  anecdote  refers  to  yet  another  Safawf  King, 
Shah  'Abbas  the  Second  (A.D.  1642-1667),  who  obtained 
the  following  augury  as  to  a  campaign  which  he  was  medi- 
tating against  the  province  of  Adharbayjan,  of  which  Tabriz 
is  the  capital2: 


£>  to 

"  Thou  hast  captured  'Iraq  and  Fdrs  by  thy  verse,  O  H£fiz  : 
Come,  for  it  is  now  the  turn  of  Baghdad  and  the  time  for  Tabriz." 

This  decided  the  king  in  favour  of  the  campaign,  which 
turned  out  completely  successful. 

The  fourth  anecdote  refers  to  the  same  king  as  the  last. 
He  had  a  servant  named  Siyawush,  whom  his  fellow-servants, 
through  jealousy  and  malice,  desired  to  destroy,  so  that  they 

1  The  original  reference  is,  of  course,  to  Solomon,  whose  ring, 
engraved  with  "the  Most  Great  Name"  of  God,  whereby  he  exercised 
authority  over  birds,  beasts,  fishes,  the  winds,  men,  and  the  Jinn,  was 
stolen  for  a  while  by  the  Jinni  Sakhr.     The  Persians  often  seek  to 
identify  their  legendary  King  Jamshid  or  Jam  (the  Yima  of  the  Avesta) 
with  Solomon,  and  attribute  to  the  latter  the  "World-  showing  Goblet" 
(Jdm-t-Jahdn-numd)  of  the  former,  which,  like  Alexander's  Mirror 
(A'ina-i-Sikandar\  revealed  to  its  possessor  all  that  was  passing  in  the 
world. 

2  This  story  is  more  often  told  of  Nadir  Shah.    See  the  Bankipore 
Catalogue  (Persian  Poetry:  Firdawsi  to  Hafiz),  p.  235. 


3i8        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME      [BK  n 

were  constantly  striving  to  convince  the  King  that  he  was 
worthy  of  death.  The  result  of  an  augury  from  the  Diwdn 
of  Hafiz  was  this  verse  : 


t 

"  The  King  of  the  Turks  hearkens  to  the  speech  of  the  accusers  : 
May  he  be  ashamed  of  the  wrong  of  [shedding]  the  blood  of  Siya- 
wush1!" 

The  fifth  instance  is  from  the  author's  own  experience. 
In  1052/1642-3  he  reached  Ahmad-abad,  then  the  capital 
of  Gujerat  in  India,  and  there  made  the  acquaintance  of  a 
certain  Kan'an  Beg,  one  of  the  notables  of  the  place,  who 
had  a  brother  named  Yusuf  Beg.  The  latter,  who  was  in 
the  army  of  Gujerat,  had  a  little  time  previously  been  re- 
ported missing  in  a  battle  fought  near  Ahmad-abad  against 
a  hostile  force.  His  brother,  Kan'an  Beg,  was  greatly 
disquieted  until  the  following  augury  from  Hafiz  assuaged 
his  anxiety,  which  was  soon  afterwards  dispelled  by  his 
brother's  safe  return  : 

jut  jU    *I 


"  Lost  Joseph  (  Yusuf)  will  return  to  Canaan  (Kan'dri)  :  grieve  not  ! 
The  house  of  sorrows  will  one  day  become  a  rose-garden  :  grieve  not  !  " 

The  sixth  and  last  instance  refers  to  a  certain  Fath-'Ali 
Sultan,  the  son  of  Imam-quli  Khan,  a  youth  remarkable 
for  his  beauty,  who  was  the  author's  contemporary.  One 
day,  flushed  with  wrine,  and  clad  in  a  green  coat  (qaba) 
embroidered  with  gold,  he  visited  the  tomb  of  Hafiz  on  the 
day  specially  set  apart  for  this,  which  falls  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  month  of  Rajab,  and  while  there  took  an  augury  from 
the  Diwdn,  which  gave  the  following  verse  : 

1  See  ed.  Rosenzweig-Schwannau,  vol.  i,  p.  620,  and  the  note  on 
p.  823,  which  explains  the  allusion  to  the  old  legend  in  question. 


CH.  v]  AUGURIES  FROM  HAFIZ  319 


U^u>j  JiiU.  j  JJ 


"  When  thou  passest  by,  drunk  with  wine  and  clad  in  a  gold-embroidered 

coat, 
Vow  one  kiss  to  H£fiz  who  is  clad  in  wool1  !  " 

"  What  is  one  kiss  ?  "  exclaimed  Fath-'Alf  ;  "  I  promise 
two  kisses  !  "  A  week  passed  ere  he  revisited  the  tomb, 
and  took  another  augury,  which  was  as  follows  : 


^ew 

"Thou  didst  say,  '  I  will  get  drunk  and  give  thee  two  kisses'  : 
The  promise  has  passed  its  limit  [of  time],  and  we  have  seen  neither 
two  nor  even  one." 

"  What  are  two  kisses  ?  "  cried  the  lad  ;  "  I  promise  three 
kisses  !  "  And  again  he  went  away  without  discharging  his 
vow,  and  did  not  return  until  another  week  had  elapsed, 
when  he  again  took  an  augury,  and  received  the  following 
answer  : 


"Those  three  kisses  which  thou  didst  assign  to  me  from  thy  two  lips, 
If  thou  dost  not  pay  them,  then  thou  art  my  debtor  !  " 

Thereupon  Fath-'Ali  Sultan  leapt  from  his  seat  and  im- 
printed kiss  after  kiss  upon  the  poet's  tombstone. 

Other  instances  of  omens  taken  from  the  Diwdn  of 
Hafiz  by  the  Moghul  Emperor  Jahangfr,  and  recorded  in 
his  own  handwriting  in  the  margins  of  a  manuscript  formerly 
in  his  possession,  are  given  in  the  Bankipore  Catalogue 
(Persian  Poetry:  Firdawsf  to  Hafiz),  pp.  231-52. 

1  Pashmfna-push  ("  clad  in  wool  ")  is  the  Persian  equivalent  of  the 
Arabic  Sufi.     See  vol.  i  of  my  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  p.  417. 


320        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

7.     Kamdl  of  Khujand 
(Kamdlu  'd-Din  b.  Mas'tid}. 

Not  much  is  known  concerning  this  poet,  who,  however, 

since  his  verses  won  the  admiration  of  Hafiz, 

Kamiiof  cannot  be  passed  over.    Tami  says1  that  he  was 

Khujand  *  J 

a  great  saint,  and  that  if  he  deigned  to  write 
verse  it  was  to  conceal  the  fullness  of  his  saintly  nature  and 
spiritual  attainments,  to  prevent  the  complete  suppression 
of  his  exoteric  by  his  esoteric  life,  and  to  maintain  the 
position  of  "servitude"  to  God  against  an  overmastering 
tendency  to  be  merged  in  the  Deity;  an  assertion  in  support 
of  which  he  quotes  Kamal's  verse  : 


"  These  efforts  of  mine  in  my  poetry  are  my  'Speak  to  meO  Humayrd'2  !" 

Kamal's  spiritual  guide  was  a  certain  Khwaja  'Ubaydu- 
'llah  who  resided  for  some  time  at  Shash2,  a 
K^maT'lTfe^  place  situated  like  Khujand  in  Transoxiana. 
At  an  unknown  but  probably  fairly  early  period 
of  his  life  Kamal  migrated  to  Tabriz,  where  he  made  his 
home,  and  for  which  he  conceived  a  great  affection.  The 
Jala'irf  Sultan  Husayn,  son  of  Uways  (776-784/1374-1382) 
showed  him  much  favour  and  built  for  him  a  monastery  or 
rest-house.  Jamf  says  that  when  after  Kamal's  death  they 
entered  his  private  room  in  this  rest-house,  they  found  in  it 
no  furniture  save  a  mat  of  coarse  reeds  on  which  he  used  to 
sit  and  sleep,  and  a  stone  which  served  him  for  a  pillow. 
In  Tabriz,  where  he  obtained  a  great  reputation  for  sanctity, 

1  Nafahdtu'l-uns,  pp.  712-13. 

2  The  Prophet  Muhammad,  when  recovering  from   the  state  of 
exhaustion  into  which  he  used  to  fall  after  receiving  a  revelation,  was 
wont  to  summon  his  wife  'A'isha  to  come  to  his  side  and  talk  to  him, 
with  the  words  Kallimi-ni  yd  Humayrd,  "  Speak  to  me  O  little  red 
one!" 

3  Or  Chdch,  the  modern  Tashkand  and  ancient  Bandkat  or  Fanakat. 
Cf.  pp.  i  oo  and  no  supra. 


CH.  v]  KAMAL  OF  KHUJAND  321 

he   came   under    the   influence   of    Shaykh    Zaynu'd-Din 
Khwafi1. 

^787/1385  Tuqtamish,Khanof  Qipchaq,  raided  Tabriz, 
and,  after  the  fashion  of  Ti'mur  and  other  conquerors  of 
those  days,  carried  off  Kamal  amongst  other  learned  and 
pious  persons  to  his  own  capital,  Saray.  There  he  remained 
for  four  years2,  at  the  end  of  which  period  he  returned  to 
Tabriz  where  he  died8,  according  to  most  authorities,  in 
803/1400-1.  Dawlatshah  places  his  death  in  792/1390,  a 
date  which  Rieu  shows  reason  for  regarding  as  much  too 
early.  A  still  later  date  (808/1405-6)  is  given  by  the 
Majdlisiil-'Ushshdq.  On  the  poet's  tomb  was  inscribed 
the  verse  : 


"  O  Kamal  !  Thou  hast  gone  from  the  Ka'ba  to  the  door  of  the  Friend  : 
A  thousand  blessings  on  thee  !  Thou  hast  gone  right  manfully  !  " 

During  his  second  sojourn  at  Tabriz  Kamal  was  patron- 
ized by  Timur's  son  Miranshah,  who  was  then  governor  of 
Adharbayjan,  and  who  is  said  to  have  given  the  poet,  in 
return  for  some  fruit  which  he  or  his  soldiers  had  eaten 
from  his  garden,  a  sum  of  a  thousand  dinars  wherewith  to 
discharge  his  debts. 

The  Diwdn  of  Kamal  of  Khujand  has  never,  so  far  as 
I  know,  been  published,  and  is  not  common  in  manuscript, 
though  copies  are  to  be  found  in  most  of  the  larger  collec- 
tions of  Persian  books.  I  possess  an  undated  but  well-written 
and  fairly  ancient  manuscript,  from  which  the  following 
selections  are  taken. 

(1) 

djLo 


1  See  pp.  569-72  of  Jami's  Nafahdt  and  Ibn  'Arabshdh's  'Ajd'ibu'l- 
Maqdur,  p.  34  of  the  Calcutta  ed.  of  1818. 

2  See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  632-3. 

3  The  Atash-kada  alone  says  that  he  died  at  Yazd. 

B.  P.  21 


322         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TIMOR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

"  O  Kamal,  have  thy  tears  from  every  eye-lash  assumed  the  hue  of 

Salmon 

Because  he  hath  stolen  from  other  people's  poetry  his  brilliant 
ideas?" 

(2) 


OX>  f  J         J 

*        *     '      *  ' 

"  The  breeze  combed  the  tresses  of  my  Friend  ;  may  God  keep  him  in 

health  for  ever ! 
So  long  as  thou  art  upright  in  figure  like  an  a/if,  we  are  like  a  lam 

in  the  midst  of  woe J  ! 
The  moist  eye  is  best  [laid]  on  thy  lips,  for  sweet-meats  are  best 

[eaten]  with  what  is  moist. 
The  wounded  heart  is  so  filled  with  the  pain  of  thy  love  that  the 

very  idea  of  healing  cannot  enter  it. 
Vex  not  thy  heart  with  grief  for  the  Friend,  O  Kamal :  his  mouth  is 

the  Water  of  Life  wherein  is  healing." 

(3) 


"  Hardly  can  the  artist  draw  the  picture  of  thy  two  eyebrows  ; 
They  cannot  easily  draw  a  double  bow  !  " 


1  A  graceful  upstanding  figure  is  compared  to  the  letter  alif  (I), 
one  bent  with  age  or  sorrow  to  Idm  (J)  or  ddl  (>).  Ldm  is  the  middle 
letter  of  the  word  bald  ^),  "  woe." 


CH.  v]  KAMAL  OF  KHUJAND  323 

i,Ju£j 


"  What  company,  what  paradise,  what  resting-place  are  here  ! 
Lasting  life,  the  lip  of  the  cup-bearer,  the  brim  of  the  goblet  are  here ! 
That  Fortune  which  fled  from  all  [others]  did  not  pass  by  this  door  ; 
That  joy  which  escaped  all  is  here  a  servant ! 
When  thou  enterest  our  joyous  abode  with  sorrow  in  thy  heart 
All  say,  '  Indulge  not  in  sorrow,  for  it  is  forbidden  here  !' 
We  are  on  the  roof  of  heaven  :  if  thou  passest  by  us 
Go  gently,  for  here  is  the  glass  and  the  edge  of  the  roof1! 
In  our  audience-chamber  there  is  neither  seat  of  honour  nor  thres- 
hold2 ; 

Here  King  and  dervish  know  not  which  is  which  ! 
Like  wood  of  aloes  we  are  all  hot-footed  and  burning, 
Save  the  ice-cold  ascetic,  who  is  here  [accounted]  raw. 
How  often,  O  Kamal,  wilt  thou  ask,  '  What  station  is  this  which  thou 

possessest  ? 
Whose  station  is  this  ? '  For  here  is  neither  abode  nor  lodging  ! " 

1  A  proverbial  expression  for  what  is  very  precarious.     "A  glass  in 
a  stone-swept  way  "  is  another  similar  idiom. 

2  Saff-i-nfdl  ("the  shoe-row")  is  at  the  lower  part  of  the  room, 
where  the   servants  stand,  and  visitors  kick  off  their  shoes  before 
stepping  on  to  the  raised  and  carpeted  dais. 

21 — 2 


324        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

(5) 


"  O  Moon  of  mine,  the  Festival1  is  come  :  may  it  bring  thee  happiness  ! 
What  wilt  thou  give  as  a  festal-gift  to  thy  lovers  ? 
Thy  cheek  is  at  once  our  festal-gift  and  our  Festival  : 
Without  thy  cheek  may  our  Festival  be  no  Festival  ! 
Thou  hast  said  :  '  I  will  ask  after  thee  next  Festival'  : 
Alas  !  for  this  promise  is  of  long  standing  ! 
Deliver  my  soul  from  grief  since  the  Festival  hath  come, 
For  at  the  Festival  they  set  free  captives. 
The  Festival  is  come  :  cease  to  threaten  Kamdl  ; 
At  the  festal  season  they  make  glad  the  hearts  of  all  !  " 


"  Blessings  on  thy  power  of  expression,  O  Kamal  ! 
Thou  hast,  indeed,  no  choice  as  to  approval. 
The  fruit  which  they  bring  from  Khujand 
Is  not  so  sweet  and  so  luscious  !" 

(7) 

lUwljj  jl  *4  £  *J* 

*^     **     *J*-iJ* 
AJiti   U 

1  The  great  Persian  festival  is  the  Nawruz,  or  New  Year's  Day, 
which  corresponds  with  the  vernal  equinox  (March  21).  The  two  great 
festivals  of  Islam  are  the  '•Idu'l-Fitr  at  the  end  of  Ramaddn,  and  the 
'•idu'l-Adhd  on  the  loth  of  Dhu'l-Hijja,  the  month  of  the  Pilgrimage. 


CH.  v]  KAMAL  OF  KHUJAND 


"  Thy  pain  is  better  than  balm,  O  Friend  ! 
Thy  sorrow  enlargeth  the  soul,  O  Friend  ! 
He  who  begs  of  thee  at  thy  door 
Seeks  naught  but  pain  and  calamity,  O  Friend  ! 
Notwithstanding  that  through  poverty  I  have  not 
Aught  which  is  worthy  of  thine  acceptance,  O  Friend. 
I  will  lay  before  thee  my  two  bright  eyes, 
I  will  say,  '  It  is  the  gaze  of  sincerity,  O  Friend  !  ' 
Thou  didst  say,  '  I  will  slay  thee,'  but  this  is  not  right  : 
Is  it  right  that  a  friend  should  slay,  O  Friend? 
Whatever  the  heart  said  in  praise  of  thy  stature 
God  brought  true  (or  straight),  O  Friend  ! 
Straight  have  I  made  this  ode  to  thy  stature  : 
Write,  '  It  is  by  Kamal,'  O  Friend  !  " 

Kamdl  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  only  poet  who  endeavours 
as  far  as  possible  to  make  all  his  odes  of  a  uniform  length, 
namely  seven  verses,  as  he  expressly  declares  in  the  two 
following  fragments  : 

(8) 
•^Lj  J 


9  0 


"  My  odes  are  for  the  most  part  seven  verses, 
Not  forgotten  like  the  utterance  of  Salman. 
When  Hafiz  recites  them  in  'Irdq 

Fluently  and  aloud,  [they  are]  like  'the  seven  hard  ones1'; 
All  seven  [are]  like  heaven  in  their  foundation, 
And  of  such  sort  'Imad  [of  Kirman]  has  not  a  single  verse." 

1  The  "  Seven  Lean  Years  "  are  so  called  in  the  Suratu  Yusuf 
(Our1  an,  xii,  48).  In  another  passage  (Ixxviii,  12)  the  same  expression 
is  used  of  the  Seven  Heavens,  which  is  the  meaning  intended  here. 


326        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

(9) 


"  The  odes  of  Kamil  are  seven  verses  ; 

Of  the  grace  thereof  the  '  Five  Treasures1  '  are  but  a  tenth  part. 
There  exist  also  poems  of  seven  verses  by  some  of  my  friends, 
Each  one  of  which  is  limpid  and  fluent  and  charming, 
But  of  every  seven  of  them  there  should  be  erased 
Four  verses  from  the  beginning  and  three  from  the  end  !  " 


(10) 


JaJU 


"When  the  Diwdn  of  Kamal  falls  into  thine  hand 
Copy  of  his  poetry  as  much  as  thou  wilt. 
If  thou  wishest  to  understand  aright 
His  rare  ideas  and  expressions  and  words 
Do  not  pass  swiftly  over  each  word  like  the  pen, 
But  dive  down  into  every  letter  like  the  ink." 

1  This  (Panj  Ganj}  is  the  title  given  to  the  Five  Romantic  Poems 
of  Nizami  of  Ganja. 


CH.  v]  KAMAL  OF  KHUJAND  327 

(11) 


"  There  are  two  Kamals  famous  in  the  world, 
One  from  Isfahan1  and  one  from  Khujand. 
This  one  is  incomparable  in  the  ode, 
And  that  one  unrivalled  in  the  elegy. 
Between  these  two  Kamals,  in  a  manner  of  speaking, 
There  is  no  more  than  a  few  hairs'  breadths'  difference  !" 


"  Salman  requested  from  me  a  poem,  saying,  '  In  my  album  there  is 

no  specimen  of  that  verse.' 
I  gave  him  those  answering  words  like  unto  which  [in  value]  is  no 

pearl  in  [the  Sea  of]  Aden. 
I  wrote  them  for  thee,  but  his  words  are  naught  in  my  sight." 

(13) 


"  That  Sufi  with  his  nose  cut  off  hath  nothing  for  us  but  helplessness 

and  humility  ; 

One  cannot  accuse  him  of  the  fault  of  self-conceit  (khud-blni\ 
For  the  poor  wretch  hath  not  even  a  nose  (khud  bini  na-ddrad}  2  !  " 

1  Some  account  of  Kamalu'd-Din  of  Isfahan,  called  "the  Creator 
of  [new]  ideas"  (KhalldquU-Mctdni),  will  be  found  in  vol.  ii  of  my 
Literary  History  of  Persia  (pp.  540-42). 

2  The  whole  point  of  this  verse  lies  in  the  untranslateable  word-play 
on  khud-bini. 


328        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

Two  or  three  "  fragments  "  are  addressed  to  a  certain 
Hdfiz,  who,  however,  appears  to  be  a  minstrel  or  harper  of 
that  name,  not  the  celebrated  poet  of  Shiraz.  The  following, 
however,  almost  certainly  alludes  to  the  contemporary  poet 
'Assar  of  Tabriz1  : 

(14) 


"  At  length  poor  'Assar  died  and  departed  :  he  took  upon  his  neck 
the  blood  of  the  courts2  and  departed." 

(15) 

The  following  fragment,  to  which  Rieu  refers3,  contains 
an  allusion  to  an  historical  event,  viz.  the  invasion  of  Tuq- 
tamish  : 


Chi' 


"  Our  Farhad  said  to  Mir  Wall,  '  Let  us  restore  the  Rashidiyya4  quarter  ; 
Let  us  give  gold  to  the  Tabrizis  for  bricks  and  stone  for  this  building.' 
The  poor  fellow  was  busy  with  his  hill-piercing  when,  more  numerous 
than  the  ants  of  the  mountain  and  the  plain, 

1  Some  account  of  him  will  be  found  in  Ousele/s  Notices  of  the 
Persian  Poets,  pp.  201-226,  and  another  notice  by  Fleischer  in  the 
Z.D.M.G.,  xv,  389-396.     The  date  of  his  death  is  variously  given  as 
A.H.  779  and  784  (A.D.  1377-8  and  1382-3). 

2  I  do  not  understand  these  words,  which  suggest  that  'Assar  was 
put  to  death. 

3  Pers.  Cat.,  p.  633. 

4  This  was  the  quarter  of  Tabriz   originally  built  by  the  great 
minister  and  historian  Rashidu'd-Din  Fadlu'llah.    See  pp.  70-71  supra. 


en.  v]  KAMAL  OF  KHUJAND  329 

The  army  of  King  Tuqtdmish  arrived,  and  the  Unseen  Voice  thus 

cried  : 

'  Shirin's  ruby  [lip]  became  the  portion  of  Khusraw  [Parwfz], 
While  Farhad  vainly  pierces  the  rock1  !'" 

The  following  fragment  refers  to  the  poet  Humam  of 
Tabriz  (a  contemporary  of  Sa'df)  and  contains  an  "insertion" 
(  Tadmiii}  or  citation  from  his  poems  : 


"  I  said,  '  From  the  region  [or  Egypt]  of  ideas  I  will  send  thee 
A  few  sweet  trifles  which  will  be  like  sugar  in  thy  mouth'  : 
Again  I  feared  this  criticism,  that  thou  mightest  say  like  Humam 
'  Do  not  again  bring  sugar  from  Egypt  to  Tabriz  !  '  " 

Other  fragments  contain  allusions  to  Nizami  and  Sa'df, 
while  one  is  addressed  to  a  poet  named  Ma'jari  of  Samarqand, 
and  the  following  to  another  (presumably  a  contemporary 
rival)  called  Ma'adhi  : 


"  This  is  my  petition  in  my  every  private  prayer,  '  O  my  Succour  and 

my  Refuge, 

Save  all  people  of  taste  and  lovers  of  music  from  the  harp  of  Malawi 
and  the  poetry  of  Ma'adhi  !  " 

1  The  allusion  in  the  last  verse  is  to  the  well-known  romance  of 
Khusraw  and  Shirin. 


330        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

(18) 
The  following  is  a  rather  original  and  pretty  conceit  : 


"  Knowest  thou  what  is  the  cause  of  chuckling  of  the  wine-bottles  ? 
They  are  laughing  at  the  beard  of  the  town-constable  !  " 

(19) 

The  following  fragment  seems  to  show  that  Kamal's 
odes  were  not  collected  into  a  Dtwdn  until  after  his  death  : 


»      '   '(. 


"  A  certain  man  of  discernment  said  to  me,  '  Why  is  it 
That  thou  hast  [composed]  poetry,  yet  hast  no  Diwdn  ?  ' 
I  replied,  '  Because,  like  some  others, 
My  verse  is  not  copious  and  abundant.' 
He  said,  '  Although  thy  verse  is  scanty  [in  amount] 
It  is  not  less  [in  value]  than  their  utterances.'  " 

As  is  so  often  the  case  with  Persian  poets,  Kamal's 
fragments  are  much  more  intimate  and  personal,  and  con- 
tain more  allusions  to  contemporary  events  and  persons 
(though  for  lack  of  fuller  knowledge  these  allusions  must 
often  remain  obscure)  than  his  odes  ;  and  for  this  reason  I 
have  here  quoted  them  to  a  disproportionate  extent. 

8.     Maghribt 
(Muhammad  Shinn  Maghribt  of  Tabriz), 

Of  the  life  and  circumstances  of  Maghribi,  one  of  the 
most  thorough-going  pantheistic  poets  of  Persia, 
little  is  known,  though  notices  of  him  are  given 


CH.  v]  MAGHRIB!  33i 

by  most  of  the  biographers1.  He  is  generally  stated  to  have 
died  in  809/1406-7  at  Tabriz  at  the  age  of  sixty  years,  so 
that  he  must  have  been  born  about  750/1349-1350;  but  by 
a  minority  of  the  biographers  his  death  is  placed  two  years 
earlier.  The  learned  modern  historian  Rida-quli  Khan  states 
that  he  was  born  at  Na'in,  near  Isfahan,  and  buried  at 
Istahbanat  in  Fars,  but  he  is  generally  reckoned  a  native 
of  Tabrfz.  His  poetical  name  Maghribi  is  said  to  be  due 
to  the  fact  that  he  travelled  in  the  Maghrib  (N.W.  Africa), 
where  he  was  invested  with  the  dervish  cloak  (khirqd)  by 
a  Shaykh  who  traced  his  spiritual  pedigree  to  the  great 
Maghribf  mystic  Shaykh  Muhiyyu'd-Din  ibnu'l-'Arabi, 
whose  thought  even  at  the  present  day  has  a  great  influence 
in  Persia,  and  whose  Persian  disciples,  poets  like  'Irdqi, 
Awhadu'd-Di'n,  Maghribi  and  even  the  later  Jami,  are  con- 
spicuous for  their  thorough-going  pantheism.  Of  Maghribi 
Rida-qulf  Khan  truly  says  in  his  Majma'u'l-Fusakd: 

O JJ   jL>jJLt> 


"  His  doctrine  is  the  Unity  of  Being  (Pantheism),  and  his  inspiration 
the  rapture  of  Vision2,  nor  can  one  find  throughout  all  his  verse  aught 
save  this  one  idea.  His  tarji^-bands  andghazals  are  all  filled  with  the 
verities  of  the  true  Unitarianism3." 

Maghribi  is  said  by  Jami  and  other  biographers  to  have 
been  personally  acquainted  with  the  poet  last  discussed, 
Kamal  of  Khujand,  which  is  probable  enough,  since  the 

1  Jcimfs  Nafahdtu'l-uns,   p.   713  ;    Atash-kada   and   Haft  Iqlim, 
under    Tabrfz ;    Habfbu 's-Styar,   vol.    iii,    pt.    3,   p.   91  ;    Majmalu'l- 
Fusahd,  vol.  ii,  p.  30  ;  Riyddu'l-iAriftn,  pp.  134-5.     There  is  no  men- 
tion of  Maghribi  in  Dawlatshdh's  Memoirs  of  the  Poets. 

2  I.e.  of  beholding  the  infinite  manifestations  of  the  Divine  Beauty 
in  the  beautiful  things  of  the  Phenomenal  World. 

3  Formal  or  exoteric  Unitarianism  is  the  declaration  that  there  is 
only  One  God  ;  esoteric  Unitarianism  is  the  conviction  that  there  is 
only  One  Being  who  really  exists. 


332        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME      [BK  n 

two  were  contemporaries  and  spent  at  any  rate  a  consider- 
able part  of  their  lives  at  Tabriz.  On  one  occasion  he  is 
said  to  have  found  fault  with  the  following  verse  of  Kamal's 
on  the  ground  that  it  evidently  referred  to  material  charms, 
and  was  not  susceptible  of  a  mystical  interpretation1  : 


"  If  eyes  be  such,  and  eyebrows  such,  and  charm  and  coquetry  such, 
Farewell,  abstinence  and  piety  !  Good-bye,  reason  and  religion  !  " 

Kamdl,  hearing  this,  sought  an  interview  with  Maghribi, 
and  said  :  "  [The  Persian]  chashm  is  [equivalent  to  the 
Arabic]  'ayn2;  so  it  maybe  that  in  the  language  of  allusion 
it  is  to  be  interpreted  as  the  Eternal  Essence  ('Ayn-i-Qadtm), 
which  is  the  Divine  Personality.  So  also  [the  Persian]  abni 
is  [equivalent  to  the  Arabic]  hdjib*,  so  it  may  be  that  it  may 
be  taken  as  alluding  to  the  Divine  Attributes,  which  are 
the  veil  of  the  Essence."  Maghribi,  on  hearing  this  ex- 
planation, apologized  and  withdrew  his  criticism.  If  it  be 
true,  however,  as  stated  by  Rieu4,  that  Kamal  superseded 
Maghribi  in  the  favour  of  Tfmur's  son  Miranshah,  the  Go- 
vernor of  Adharbayjan,  it  is  possible  that  the  relations  of  the 
two  poets  were  not  of  the  most  cordial  character. 

As  the  above  particulars  practically  exhaust  the  little 
we  know  of  Maghribi"  s  life,  we  may  now  pass  on  to  his 
poetry,  which  is  represented  by  a  comparatively  small 
Diwdn,  comprising  for  the  most  part  odes  (ghazaliyydf) 
with  a  few  tarji1  -bands  and  quatrains.  It  has  been  several 
times  lithographed  in  Persia5,  and  I  also  possess  a  good  and 
well-written,  but  undated,  manuscript.  The  lithographed 

1  Nafahdt,  p.  714. 

2  Both  mean   "eye,"  but   layn  in  Arabic  also  means  the  exact 
counterpart  of  a  thing,  or  its  essence. 

3  Both  mean  "  eyebrow,"  but  hdjib  also  means  a  veil  or  curtain. 
*  Pers.  Cat.,  p.  633. 

5  I  have  two  editions,  dated  A.H.  1280  and  1287  (A.D.  1863-4  and 
1870-1)  respectively. 


CH.  v]  MAGHRIBf  333 

edition  comprises  153  smallish  pages  each  containing  17 
lines,  and  the  total  number  of  verses  may  be  estimated 
at  about  2300.  The  poems,  so  far  as  I  have  examined 
them,  are  entirely  mystical,  and  contain  no  allusions  to  the 
poet's  life  and  times.  The  following  specimens  are  typical: 


3 


X*.  UJ^t      'JL^     j-AUi-o 


"  When  the  Sun  of  Thy  Face  appeared,  the  atoms  of  the  Two  Worlds 

became  manifest. 
When  the  Sun  of  Thy  Face  cast  a  shadow,  from  that  shadow  Things 

became  apparent. 
Every  atom,  through  the  Light  of  the  Sun  of  Thy  Countenance,  be- 

came manifest  like  the  Sun. 
The  atom  owes  its  existence  to  the  Sun,  while  the  Sun  becomes  mani- 

fest through  the  atom. 


334        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TIMOR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

The  Ocean  of  Being  was  tossed  into  waves  ;   it  hurled  a  wave  to- 
wards the  shore. 

That  wave  sunk  and  rose  in  some  heart-delighting  raiment  and  form. 
Like  violets  the  Ideas  sprung  up  like  the  pleasant  down  on  some  fair 

beauty's  face. 
The  anemones  of  the  [Eternal]  Realities  blossomed  ;  a  thousand  tall 

cypresses  appeared. 
What  were  all  these  ?  The  counterpart  of  that  Wave  ;  and  what  was 

that  Wave?   Identical  [in  substance]  with  the  Ocean. 
Every  particle  which  exists  is  identical  with  the  whole  ;  then  is  the 

whole  altogether  the  parts. 
What  are  the  parts  ?    The  manifestations   of  the  All  ;    what  are 

things  ?   The  shadows  of  the  Names. 
What  are  the  Names  ?   The  revelation  of  the  Sun,  the  Sun  of  the 

Beauty  of  the  Supreme  Essence. 
What  is  the  Shore?    The  land  of  Contingent  Being,  which  is  the 

Book  of  God  Most  High. 
O  Maghribi,  cease  this  discourse  :  do  not  make  plain  the  Mystery  of 

the  Two  Worlds  !  " 


(2) 


CH.  v]  MAGHRIBf  335 


"  O  Thou  in  whose  life-giving  Face  all  the  Universe  is  manifest, 
And  O  Thou  whose  Countenance  is  apparent  in  the  Mirror  of  the 

Universe  ! 

Since  the  Darling  of  Thy  Beauty  looked  in  the  Mirror 
And  saw  the  reflection  of  his  face,  he  became  wild  and  mad  [with 

love]. 

Every  instant  Thy  Countenance  displays  the  beauty  of  its  features 
To  its  own  eyes,  in  a  hundred  fair  vestments. 
It  looked  forth  from  lovers'  eyes 
So  that  it  beheld  Its  Beauty  in  the  faces  of  Idols1. 
Thy  Face  wrought  a  Mirror  for  Its  self-display, 
And  called  that  Mirror  '  Adam  and  Eve? 
He  beheld  the  Beauty  of  His  Face  in  every  face  through  him2, 
Therefore  hath  he2  become  the  Mirror  of  all  the  Names. 
O  Thou  whose  Beauty  hath  shone  forth  to  Thine  own  eyes, 
And  who  hast  plainly  seen  Thy  Face  in  Thine  own  eyes, 
Since  Thou  art  at  once  the  Seer  and  the  Seen,  there  is  none  other 

than  Thee  : 

Wherefore,  then,  hath  all  this  strife  become  apparent  ? 
O  Maghribi,  the  horizons  are  filled  with  clamour 
When  my  King  of  Beauty  pitches  His  tent  in  the  Plain  !  " 

1  I.e.  beautiful  persons.  Both  sanam  ("  idol  ")  and  nigdr  ("picture") 
are  constantly  used  in  this  sense.  The  same  idea  is  also  expressed  in 
the  following  well-known  quatrain  attributed  to  'Umar-i-Khayyam  :  — 

'  Ls    juU 

'  U    Jua-L,     *rtT..t..< 


2  In  both  cases  Adam  is  meant. 


336        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

(3) 


"  O  Centre  and  Pivot  of  Being,  and  Circumference  of  Bounty, 
O  Fixed  as  the  Pole,  and  Fickle  as  the  Sphere! 
If  I  send  greetings  to  Thee,  Thou  art  the  greeting, 
And  if  I  invoke  blessings  on  Thee,  Thou  art  the  blessing  ! 
How  can  any  one  give  Thee  to  Thyself?  Tell  me  now, 
O  Thou  who  art  Thine  own  alms-giver  and  Thine  own  alms  ! 
O  Most  Comprehensive  of  Manifestations,  and  Most  Perfect  in 

Manifestation, 

O  Gulf  of  gulfs,  and  O  Combiner  of  diversities  ! 
O  most  Beauteous  of  the  beautiful,  and  O  most  Fair  of  the  fair, 
O  most  Gracious  of  the  graceful,  O  most  Subtle  of  subtleties  ! 
Thou  art  at  once  both  the  Bane  and  the  Balm,  both  Sorrow  and  Joy, 
Both  Lock  and  Key,  both  Prison  and  Deliverance  ! 


CH.  v] 


MAGHRIBf 


337 


Thou  art  both  the  Treasure  and  the  Talisman,  both  Body  and  Soul, 
Both  Name  and  Named,  both  Essence  and  Attribute  ! 
Thou  art  both  Western  (Maghribt)  and  West,  both  Eastern  and  East, 
Alike  Throne,  and  Carpet,  and  Element,  and  Heavens,  and  Space!" 


B.  P. 


338        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

"  O  [Thou  who  art]  hidden  from  both  worlds,  who  is  He  who  is 

apparent  ? 
And  O  [Thou  who  art]  the  Essence  of  the  Apparent,  who  then  is  the 

Hidden  One? 

Who  is  that  One  who  in  a  hundred  thousand  forms 
Is  apparent  every  moment? 

And  who  is  that  One  who  in  a  hundred  thousand  effulgences 
Showeth  forth  His  Beauty  every  moment? 
Thou  sayest,  '  I  am  hidden  from  the  Two  Worlds '  : 
Who  then  is  He  who  appeareth  in  each  and  all  ? 
Thou  didst  say,  '  I  am  always  silent '  : 
Who  then  is  He  who  speaketh  in  every  tongue? 
Thou  didst  say,  '  I  stand  outside  body  and  soul ' : 
Who  then  is  He  who  clothes  himself  in  the  garment  of  body  and 

soul? 

Thou  didst  say,  '  I  am  neither  this  one  nor  that  one'  : 
Who  then  is  He  who  is  both  this  one  and  that  one  ? 

0  Thou  who  hast  withdrawn  apart, 

1  conjure  Thee  by  God  tell  me  who  is  in  the  midst  ? 
Who  is  He  whose  effulgence  shines  forth 

From  the  beauty  and  comeliness  of  the  charmers  of  hearts  ? 

And  who  is  He  who  hath  shown  His  beauty 

And  who  hath  cast  turmoil  into  the  world  ? 

O  thou  who  remainest  in  doubt, 

Not  knowing  certainly  who  lurks  in  thy  doubt, 

Be  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  Maghribi, 

And  see  who  is  apparent  through  his  eyes  !  " 


(5) 

The  opening  lines  of  the  following  poem  strike  an  almost 
Christian  note : 


CH.  v]  MAGHRIBf  339 

•l_r.=>  ^b  <x£»  <x5jJ?  C 

'Jti    I^X*.    AJU.    ^    ^    JL«T    ulj^xfc.     f4JU. 


-3 


"  That  One  who  was  hidden  from  us  came  and  became  us, 
And  He  who  was  of  us  and  you  became  us  and  you. 
The  King  of  the  topmost  throne  of  Sovereignty  condescended, 
And,  notwithstanding  that  there  is  no  King  save  Him,  became  a 

beggar. 

He  who  is  exempted  from  poverty  and  wealth 
Came  in  the  garb  of  poverty  in  order  to  show  forth  [true]  riches. 
Who  hath  ever  heard  aught  stranger  than  this,  that  one  and  the  same 

person 

Became  both  his  own  house  and  his  own  householder? 
That  pure  substance  and  that  peerless  pearl 
When  it  germinated  became  earth  and  heaven. 
Into  the  raiment  of  'how-ness  '  and  '  why-ness  '  one  cannot  say 
How  and  why  that  'how-less'  and  'why-less'  Charmer  of  hearts 

entered. 

His  eyebrow  revealed  itself  from  the  eyebrows  of  the  beautiful, 
Until  it  was  pointed  at  by  every  ringer,  like  the  new  moon. 
In  the  garden  of  the  Universe,  like  the  straight  cypress  and  the 

anemone, 

He  became  both  red-capped  and  green-robed. 
That  Sun  of  the  Eternal  Sphere  shone  forth 
So  that  it  became  Western  (Maghribi)  and  Eastern,  Sun  and  Light." 

22  -  2 


340        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

(6) 


J^r 


i   ^*^  -5  >-*•*  J^'  J 

JU   jU 


Ask  not  the  road  to  the  College  or  the  customs  of  the  Monastery; 

Pass  by  road  and  custom  ;  ask  not  about  way  and  road. 

Adopt  the  path  of  [religious]  Poverty  and  Annihilation,  and  be  happy  ; 

Look  not  behind  thee,  and  ask  not  save  of  what  lies  before. 

When  thou  steppest  forth  from  the  narrow  cell  of  the  body 

Ask  not  save  of  the  Holy  Precincts  and  of  the  King. 

Ask  about  the  delights  of  Poverty  and  Annihilation  from  those  who 

have  tasted  them  ; 
Ask  not  of  him  who  is  the  slave  of  wealth  and  rank. 


CH.  v] 


MAGHRIBf 


341 


When  the  Royal  Umbrella  appears,  acclamation  arises  : 
Ask  no  longer  then  about  the  King  from  the  army  and  the  host  ! 
When  thou  hast  stepped  forth  in  sincerity  and  staked  thy  head, 
Ask  not  of  thy  cap,  if  they  steal  it  of  thee. 
Since  my  state,  O  Friend,  is  not  hidden  from  thee 
Do  not  again  enquire  of  my  state  from  witnesses. 
Wipe  out  the  sin  of  his  existence,  since  thou  thyself  art  obliterated; 
Do  not  again  ask  of  sin  concerning  the  sin  of  his  existence  ! 
O  Friend,  since  Maghribi  hath  come  to  Thee  to  make  his  excuses 
Overlook  in  Thy  Grace,  and  ask  not  concerning  the  sin  of  him  who 
apologizes  !  " 


»  ij  -I;M>* 


342         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

"We  have  escaped  from  the  Monastery,  the  Chapel  and  the  College, 
And  have  settled  in  the  quarter  of  the  Magians  with  Wine  and  the 

Beloved. 

We  have  cast  aside  the  prayer-mat  and  the  rosary, 
We  have  girt  ourselves  with  the  pagan  girdle1  in  the  service  of  the 

Christian  child. 
On  the  benches  [of  the  Wine-house]  we  have  torn  up  the  dervish- 

cloak  of  hypocrisy  ; 

In  the  taverns  we  have  broken  our  hypocritical  repentance. 
We  have  escaped  from  counting  the  beads  of  the  rosary  ; 
We  have  sprung  forth  from  the  snares  of  virtue,  piety  and  asceticism. 
In  the  quarter  of  the  Magians  we  became  annihilated  from  all  exist- 

ence : 
Having  become  annihilated  from  all  existence,  we  have  become  all 

existence. 

Hereafter  seek  not  from  us  any  knowledge  or  culture, 
O  wise  and  sensible  friend,  for  we  are  lovers  and  intoxicated  ! 
Thanks  be  to  God  that  from  this  worship  of  self 
We  are  wholly  delivered,  and  are  now  worshippers  of  wine. 
We  are  drunkards,  wastrels,  seekers  of  wine, 
And  we  are  most  at  ease  with  him  who  is,  like  ourselves,  drunk  and 

ruined. 

Since  Maghribi  has  removed  his  baggage  from  our  assembly 
And  has  departed  (for  he  was  the  barrier  in  our  path),  we  are  free  !" 

(8) 

*'J    k    * 


by 


LJ  j 

1  The  Zunn&r  (Zonarium),  regarded  by  the  Muslim  poets  as  the 
symbol  of  misbelief,  represents  the  Kushti,  or  "  Kosti,"  of  the  Zoro- 
astrians,  the  sacred  thread  of  the  Brahmins,  and  presumably  the  cord 
worn  round  the  waist  by  Christian  monks. 


CH.  v]  MAGHRIBf  343 

'^    ^t    OUl    3 

>      *})     jl      .3     *5'     Jl       »;      i      * 


LJ^t 


"Thou  art  but  a  drop  :  talk  not  of  the  depths  of  the  Ocean  ; 
Thou  art  but  a  mote  :  talk  not  of  the  high  Sun  ! 
Thou  art  a  man  of  to-day  :  talk  then  of  to-day  ; 
Do  not  talk  of  the  day  before  yesterday  and  yesterday  and  to-morrow  ! 
Since  thou  knowest  not  earth  and  heaven 
Talk  no  more  of  below  and  above  ! 
Since  thou  hast  not  the  elements  of  musical  talent 
Talk  not  of  tand,  nd  and  tdnd  l  ! 
Cease,  O  my  son,  from  denial  and  affirmation  ; 
Talk  not  of  '•except'1  and  l  no'2  ! 
If  they  bid  thee  lay  down  thy  life, 
Go,  lay  down  thy  life,  and  talk  not  ! 
Until  thou  knowest  who  '  I  '  and  'We  '  are 
Be  silent  !  talk  not  of  I'  and  '  We  '  ! 

Until,  like  Adam,  thou  receivest  from  God  the  Science  of  the  Names 
Do  not  talk  about  the  Names  ! 

He  who  hath  become  the  Counterpart  of  all  Things 
Hath  said  to  Maghribi,  '  Speak  not  of  Things  !  '  " 

The  above  specimens  should  suffice  to  give  a  fair  idea 
of  Maghribfs  thought  and  style.  He  belongs  essentially  to 
the  same  class  of  mystical  poets  as  Sana'i,  Shams-i-Tabriz 

1  Or,  as  we  might  say,  "  of  sol,  fa,  re,"  or  "  ta,  ta-at,  ta-te,"  or  "  of 
crotchets,  minims  and  quavers." 

2  Ld  ("No")  and  illd  ("except")  is  the  Muhammadan  profession 
of  faith,  Ld  ildha  illa'lldh  ("  There  is  no  god  but  God"). 


344         POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME     [BK  11 

(i.e.  Jalalu'd-Dfn  Rumi),  and  'Iraqi,  and,  as  he  asserts,  Fari- 
du'd-Din  'Attar  : 


"  From  His  waves1  arose  'Irdqi  and  Maghribf, 
And  from  His  ferment  came  Sand'i  and  'Attdr." 

Yet  though  of  the  same  category  as  these,  he  seldom 
reaches  their  level. 


9.     Abti  Ishdq  ("  Bushaq  ")  called  "  At'ima  " 
(Fakhru'd-Din  Ahmad-i-Halldj  of  Shirdz). 

Although  there  are  several  other  poets  of  this  period 
who  are  not  undeserving  of  notice,  such  as  'Assar  of  Tabriz, 
Jalal-i-'Adudi,  Jalal-i-Tabib,  etc.,  this  chapter 
has  already  reached  so  considerable  a  length 
that  I  shall  make  mention  of  only  one  other, 
Abu  Ishaq  of  Shfraz,  the  poet  of  foods,  hence  called  At'ima, 
who  offers  the  greatest  possible  contrast  to  Maghribf,  the 
mystic  and  pantheist. 

Of  Abu  Ishaq's  life,  as  usual,  very  little  is  known, 
except  that  he  appears  to  have  spent  the  greater  part 
of  it  at  Shfraz,  where  he  enjoyed  the  favour  of  the  great, 
and  especially  of  Tfmur's  grandson  Iskandar  ibn  'Umar 
Shaykh  Mfrza,  who  governed  Fars  and  Isfahan  from 
A.H.  812  to  817  (A.D.  1409-1415).  Dawlatshah  consecrates 
a  long  article  to  him2,  which,  however,  chiefly  consists  of 
quotations  from  his  poems  and  an  account  of  the  ambitious 
designs  and  tragic  fate  of  his  patron  Iskandar,  who  was 
deprived  of  his  sight  by  his  uncle  Shah-rukh  on  the  2nd 
of  Jumada  i,  817  (July  20,  1414),  and  died  the  following 

1  I.e.  God,  considered  as  the  Ocean  of  Being,  whose  waves  are 
phenomena. 

2  Pp.  366-71  of  my  edition. 


CH.  v]  "  BUSHAQ  "  OF  SHfRAZ  345 

year.  By  trade  Abu  Ishaq  was,  as  his  title  Halldj  indicates, 
a  carder  of  cotton.  On  one  occasion,  when  he  had  been 
absent  for  several  days  from  Prince  Iskandar's  receptions, 
the  latter  asked  him,  when  he  reappeared,  where  he  had 
been  ;  to  which  he  replied,  "  I  card  cotton  for  a  day,  and 
then  spend  three  days  in  picking  the  cotton  out  of  my 
beard."  Short  notices  of  Abu  Ishaq  are  given  in  the 
Atash-kada,  the  Haft  Iqlim  and  the  Majma'"u'l-Fusahd 
(vol.  ii,  p.  10),  but  they  add  nothing  to  the  little  recorded 
by  Dawlatshah,  save  a  brief  anecdote  in  the  last  named, 
according  to  which  Abu  Ishaq  considered  himself  the 
,  disciple  and  admirer  of  Shah  Ni'matu'iiah, 

Bushaq  and  Shah 

Ni'matu'iiah  the  mystical  poet  of  Mahan,  a  little  village 
near  Kirman,  where  he  is  still  commemorated 
in  a  handsome  shrine  served  by  dervishes  of  the  order  which 
he  founded.  Abu  Ishaq's  admiration  took  the  dubious  form 
of  parodying  Ni'matu'llah's  mystical  rhapsodies  in  profane 
poems  addressed  to  various  culinary  delicacies.  Thus 
Ni'matu'iiah  has  a  poem  quite  in  the  style  of  Maghribi, 
beginning  : 

U 


Ijt  j^.    A£>  '  Lo  jj  ^  J^l    v>JjU    U 

"  We  are  the  pearl  of  the  shoreless  Ocean  ;  sometimes  we  are  the  Wave 

and  sometimes  the  Sea  ; 

We  came  into  the  world  for  this  purpose,  that  we  might  show  God 
to  His  creatures." 

Bushaq  parodied  this  as  follows  : 


"  We  are  the  dough-strings  of  the  bowl  of  Wisdom  ;  sometimes  we  are 

the  dough  and  sometimes  the  pie-crust  ; 

We  came  into  the  kitchen  for  this  purpose,  that  we  might  show  the 
fried  meat  to  the  pastry." 

When    subsequently    Sayyid    Ni'matu'iiah    met    Abu 
Ishaq,  he  said,  "Are  you  the  'dough-strings  of  the  bowl 


346        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

of  Wisdom  '  ?  "  To  which  the  latter  replied,  "  Since  I  am 
not  in  a  position  to  talk  about  God  {Allah},  I  talk  about 
God's  bounty  (Ni'matu'lldh)." 

Manuscripts  of  Abu  Ishaq's  works  are  not  common. 
The  British  Museum  possesses  a  copy  of  one  of  them,  the 
Kanzu'l-Ishtihd  ("  Treasure  of  Appetite  ")*,  and  I  once  had 
the  opportunity  of  examining  an  excellent  and  very  com- 
Dr  wolfs  plete  manuscript  from  the  collection  of  the  late 
MS.  of  the  Dr  Wolf  of  Bukhara  fame,  to  whom  it  was 

Dtwdn-i-At'ima.        .  .  .        ......    .TT,,          ,        ,T  .        ,  ,    •T~.  . 

given  by  a  certain  Hajji  'Uthman  Nuru  d-Din, 
and  by  whom  it  was  left  to  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  Christianity  amongst  the  Jews.  This  manuscript  was 
copied  in  970/1562-3,  contains  162  ff.  of  22.4  x  12.7  c.  and 
17  lines  to  the  page,  and  is  written  in  a  small,  neat  ta'liq 
hand  between  blue  and  gold  lines.  It  is  remarkable  for 
containing  (on  ff.  137-8  and  160-61)  some  half  dozen 
poems  in  dialect,  comprising  in  all  44  couplets.  The  book, 

however,  would  have  remained  hardly  known 

The  Constant!-        .  ri  11  i  •    •  •  11 

nopie  printed  but  tor  the  excellent  edition  printed  by  the  late 
edition  of  the  learned  and  indefatigable  Mi'rza  Habib  of  Is- 

Dlwdn  ° 

fahan  at  Constantinople  in  1303/1885-6.  This 
volume,  which  comprises  184  pages,  begins  with  an  extract 
from  Dawlatshah's  notice  of  the  author,  and  ends  with  a 
vocabulary  of  the  culinary  terms  occurring  in  the  course 
of  the  work,  many  of  which  are  now  obsolete  in  Persia, 
often  representing  dishes  no  longer  prepared,  of  which  the 
exact  nature  must  in  many  cases  remain  doubtful.  The 
actual  text  of  Abu  Ishaq's  works  begins  with  the  Kanzul- 
Ishtihd  ("Treasure  of  Appetite"),  to  which  is  prefixed  a 
short  prose  Preface.  Then  follow  the  poems,  mostly 
parodies,  in  which  almost  every  variety  of  verse  (qasida, 
tarjf-band,  ghazal,  git1  a,  rubd'i  and  mathnawt)  is  repre- 
sented; and  these  in  turn  are  followed  by  several  treatises 
in  mixed  prose  and  verse,  to  wit  "The  Adventure  of  the 
Rice  and  the  Pie-crust"  (bughra),  "Abu  Ishaq's  Dream," 
the  "  Conclusion  "  (Khdtimd),  and  a  "  Glossary  "  (Farhang), 

1  See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  p.  634. 


CH.  v]  "  BUSHAQ  "  OF  SHfRAZ  347 

by  the  author,  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  vocabulary 
above  mentioned,  which  was  added  by  the  Editor,  who 
also  supplements  Dawlatshah's  account  of  the  poet  with 
a  few  observations  of  his  own.  In  these  he  emphasizes 
the  philological  and  lexicographical  value  of  Abu  Ishaq's 
works,  and  adds  that  though  they  have  been  printed  or 
lithographed  several  times  in  Persia,  these  editions  are  so 
marred  by  errors  that  they  are  almost  valueless.  He  adds 
that  he  discovered  two  MSS.  at  Constantinople,  and  that, 
though  both  were  defective,  he  succeeded  from  the  two 
in  constructing  what  he  hopes  and  believes  to  be  a  fairly 
complete  and  trustworthy  edition. 

The  poems,  filled  as  they  are  with  the  strange  and  ob- 
solete culinary  terminology  of  mediaeval  Persia,  and  deriving 
such  humour  as  they  possess  from  being  parodies  of  more 
serious  poems  familiar  to  the  author's  contemporaries,  do 
not  lend  themselves  to  translation.  In  the  Preface  to  the 
"Treasure  of  Appetite"  (Kanzu'l-Ishtihd)  he  claims  to  have 
written  it  to  stimulate  the  failing  appetite  of  a  friend,  just 
as  Azraqf  in  earlier  times  wrote  his  Alfiyya  Shalfiyya  to 
quicken  the  sexual  desires  of  his  royal  patron,  Tughanshah 
the  Seljuq1.  Here  is  a  translation  of  this  Preface,  omitting 
the  doxology : 

'•'•But  to  proceed.  Thus  saith  the  weakest  of  the  servants  of  God 
the  All- Provider,  Abu  Ishaq,  known  as  the  Cotton-carder  (Halldj), 
Bushaq's  Preface  may  ^'s  comf°rts  endure  !  At  the  time  when  the  tree  of 
to  the  "Treasure  youth  was  casting  its  shadow,  and  the  branch  of  gladness 
was  heavy  with  the  fruit  of  hopes,  a  few  verses,  of  an 
extemporized  character  and  appropriate  to  every  topic,  were  produced 
by  me.  I  thought  within  myself,  'The  wisest  course  is  this,  that  I 
should  in  such  wise  guide  the  steed  of  poetry  through  the  arena  of 
eloquence,  and  so  spread  the  banquet  of  verse  on  the  table  of  diction, 
that  those  who  partake  at  the  board  of  pleasure  should  obtain  the  most 
abundant  helping  ;  and  that  the  masters  of  eloquence  should  be  filled 

1  See  vol.  ii  of  my  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  p.  323,  and,  besides  the  refer- 
ences there  given,  J£mi's  Bahdristdn,  Const,  ed.  of  A.M.  1294,  pp.  78-9 
(near  the  beginning  of  chapter  vii) ;  and  a  note  by  Von  Hammer  in 
the  Journal  Asiatique  for  1827,  vol.  x,  p.  255. 


348        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

with  admiration  therefor,  so  that  this  may  conduce  to  my  greater  fame 
and  popularity.'     For  I  had  heard  this  verse  which  says  : 


'  Whatever  verse  I  may  utter,  others  have  uttered  it  all, 
And  have  penetrated  all  its  domain  and  territory.' 

"  For  some  days  my  thoughts  ran  in  this  channel  :  'having  regard 
to  the  epic  narrative  of  Firdawsi,  the  salt  of  whose  speech  is  the 
flavouring  of  the  saucepan  of  every  food  ;  and  the  mathnawis  of 
Nizamf,  the  sugar  of  whose  verses  is  the  dainty  morsel  of  sweet-tongued 
parrots  ;  and  the  tayyibdt  of  Sa'df,  which,  by  general  accord,  are  like 
luscious  honey  to  the  palate  of  the  congenial  ;  and  the  odes  of  Khwaja 
Jamalu'd-Dfn  Salmon,  which  take  the  place  of  milk  and  honey  in  the 
mouths  of  philologists  ;  and  the  products  of  the  genius  of  Khwajii  of 
Kirmdn,  the  carroway-syrup  of  whose  utterances  is  a  cure  for  the 
melancholies  of  the  fetters  of  verse  ;  and  the  subtle  sayings  of  'Imad-i- 
Faqfh,  whose  sweet  utterances  are  as  fragrant  spices  and  delicious 
potions  ;  and  the  fluent  phraseology  and  well-weighed  thoughts  of 
Hafiz,  which  are  a  wine  fraught  with  no  headache  and  a  beverage 
delicious  to  the  taste  ;  and  other  poets,  each  of  whom  was  the  celebrity 
of  some  city  and  the  marvel  of  some  age,  what  fancies  can  I  concoct 
whereby  men  can  be  made  glad?' 

"  While  I  was  thus  meditating,  on  a  favourable  morning,  when  ac- 
cording to  my  wont  and  habit,  the  smoke  of  an  unfeigned  appetite  rose 
up  from  the  kitchen  of  the  belly,  there  suddenly  entered  through  the 
door  my  silver-bosomed  sweetheart,  my  moon-faced  darling,  whose  eyes 
are  like  almonds,  whose  lips  are  like  sugar,  whose  chin  is  like  an  orange, 
whose  breasts  are  like  pomegranates,  whose  mouth  is  like  a  pistachio- 
nut,  smooth-tongued,  melodious  of  utterance,  lithe  as  a  fish,  sweet- 
voiced,  with  a  mole  like  musk  ;  even  as  the  poet  says  : 

\ 


••      i 

'  By  reason  of  the  sweet  smiles  of  the  salt-cellar  of  her  mouth  1 
Blood  flows  from  the  heart,  as  from  a  salted  kabdb? 

"  Said  she,  '  I  have  quite  lost  my  appetite,  and  suffer  from  a  feeling 
of  satiety  ;  what  is  the  remedy  ?  '  I  replied,  '  Just  as  in  the  case  of  that 
person  who  went  to  a  physician,  complaining  that  he  was  impotent,  and 

1  A  particular  kind  of  charm  or  beauty  is  called  maldhal  (from 
milk,  "salt"),  which  may  be  rendered  as  "piquancy"  or  "spiciness," 
and  it  is  in  reference  to  this  that  a  saucy  and  provocative  mouth  is 
compared  to  a  salt-cellar. 


CH.  v]          THE  "  TREASURE  OF  APPETITE  "  349 

the  physician  thereupon  composed  for  him  the  [book  entitled]  Alfiyya 
Shalfiyya^,  which  when  he  had  perused  he  at  once  took  to  his  em- 
braces a  virgin  girl,  so  will  I  compose  for  thee  a  treatise  on  the  table, 
such  that  when  thou  hast  once  read  it,  thy  appetite  will  return.'  So  for 
her  sake  I  girded  up  the  loins  of  my  soul,  and  cooked  a  meal  garnished 
with  verbal  artifices  and  rhetorical  devices,  and  baked  in  the  oven  of 
reflection  with  the  dough  of  deliberation  a  loaf  which  rivalled  the  orb 
of  the  sun  in  its  conquest  of  the  world  ;  so  that  I  can  proudly  exclaim  : 


Jut    <*£ 

'  I  have  spread  a  table  of  verse  from  Qaf  to  Qdf  2  : 
Where  is  a  fellow-trencherman  who  can  rival  me  ?  ' 

"  I  have  entitled  this  table  '  the  Treasure  of  Appetite  '  (Kanzu'l- 
Ishtihd},  because  the  day  was  the  Ildu'l-Fitrs  ;  and  the  cause  of  the 
revelation  of  this  book  is  commemorated  in  the  following  fragment4." 


1  See  note  on  p.  347  supra. 

2  The  Mountains  of  QaY  are  supposed  to  form  the  boundaries  of  the 
habitable  globe. 

3  The  Festival  of  the  breaking  of  the  Fast,  called  by  the  Turks 
Sheker  Bayrdm. 

*  As  this  merely  repeats  the  substance  of  the  prose  preface  trans- 
lated above,  I  give  the  text  only  without  translation. 


A.      J 


The  whole  poem  is  divided  into  ten  sections  (fas/), 
comprises  108  verses  with  the  same  rhyme  throughout,  and 
is  a  parody  on  Sa'di's  qasida  beginning1  : 


The  first  verse  of  the  parody  is 


The  "Treasure  of  Appetite"  is  followed  by  a  qasida 
entitled  Afdq  u  An/us  ("Horizons  and  Souls")  in  praise  of 
Remaining  Shah  Sayfu'd-Din,  and  this  in  turn  by  parodies 
contents  of  the  of  qasidas  by  Zahiru'd-Din  Faryabi,  Khwaju  of 
Kirman,  Najmi/Imad-i-Faqih  of  Kirman,  Hafiz, 
Salman  of  Sawa,  Hasan  of  Dihli,  Mawlana  'All  Dur-duzd, 
Sa'di,  Jalalu'd-Di'n  Rumi,  Jalal-i-'Adud,  Sadru'd-Din  Qay- 
ruwani,  Kamal  of  Khujand,  Sa'du'd-Dfn  Nasfr,  Anwari, 
Shaykh  Faridu'd-Din  'Attar,  Kamalu'd-Dm  of  Kashan, 
Shah  Ni'matu'llah  of  Kirman,  Aminu'd-Din,  Muhammad 
Jawhari,  'Iraqi,  Abu  Nasr-i-Farahf,  Adhari,  'Ubayd-i-Zakanf, 
Jalal-i-Tabfb,  Firdawsf,  Nizami  of  Ganja,  etc.  These  are 

1  See  the  Calcutta  printed  edition  of  1795,  v°l-  ">  ff-  223-224. 


CH.  v]  THE  POET  OF  CLOTHES  351 

followed  by  the  two  prose  treatises  already  mentioned,  the 
"Conclusion"  (Khdtima),  the  "Glossary"  (Farkang),  a  qasida 
in  praise  of  Kajri  ("  Kedgeree  "),  and  the  Editor's  Vocabu- 
lary of  Culinary  Terms  which  fills  twelve  pages. 

For  the  reasons  already  given  it  is  practically  impossible 
to  translate  these  poems  so  as  to  preserve  any  of  their 
point,  and  it  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to  note  that  Abu 
Ishaq,  with  his  predecessor  'Ubayd-i-Zakanf  (already  dis- 
cussed earlier  in  this  chapter)  and  his  successor  Nizamu'd- 
Di'n  Mahmud  Qarf  of  Yazd,  represents  a  definite  school  of 
satire  and  parody. 

10.     NizdmiJd-Din  MaJnmid  Qdri  of  Yazd. 

Of  the  last-named  poet,  who  took  for  his  subject  clothes, 
as  Abu  Ishaq  had  taken  foods,  we  have  an  excellent  edition 
^y  t^ie  same  Mfrza  Habib  who  edited  the  works 
of  the  two  other  poets  of  the  group,  all  three 


volumes  being  uniform  in  size  and  style.  In 
the  short  preface  prefixed  to  the  Diwdn-i-Albisa,  which 
contains  the  sartorial  poems  of  Mahmud  Qari  of  Yazd, 
the  learned  editor  says  that  he  believes  the  manuscript 
on  which  his  text  is  based  to  be  unique,  and  that  he  had 
never  met  with  another  copy  in  any  of  the  numerous 
libraries  in  Persia  and  at  Constantinople  which  he  had 
examined,  nor  had  he  found  any  mention  of  the  author 
or  his  date  in  any  biographical  or  historical  work  except 
in  one  Indian  tadhkira  (neither  named  nor  cited  by  him), 
and  a  single  verse  of  his  cited  in  evidence  in  the  well-known 
Persian  dictionary  entitled  Burhdn-i-Jdmi11. 

The  Diwdn-i-Albisa  was  avowedly  inspired  by  the 
Diwdn-i-Atima,  which,  in  style  and  arrangement,  it  closely 
follows.  There  is  a  prose  preface,  which,  unfortunately, 
throws  no  light  on  the  author's  date  ;  a  qasfda-i-Afdq  u 

1  This  excellent  and  concise  dictionary  ("the  Comprehensive 
Proof")  is  essentially  an  abridgement  of  the  better-known  Burhdn- 
i-Qdtf,  or  "  Decisive  Proof."  The  former  has  been  well  lithographed 
at  Tabriz  in  Shawwdl,  1260  (Oct.-Nov.  1844). 


352        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  11 

An/us;   a  mock-heroic  account  of  the  war  between  cloth 

and  cotton  (Jang-ndma-z-Miiina  u  Kattdti) ;  a  poem  on  the 

"Mysteries  of  Silk";   parodies  of  Awhadi,  Khwaju,  Sa'di, 

Sayyid  Hasan  of  Tirmidh.Sana'i.  Kamalu'd-Din 

Poets  *  * 

parodied  by  Isma'il  of  Isfahan,  Zahir  of  Faryab,  'Imad-i- 
MahmddQari  p^  of  jg^fa.  H£fi?>  <A1{  Dur-duzd,  Kamal 

of  Khujand,  Muhammad-i-Firuzabadi,  Nayyir  of  Kirman, 
Sayyid  Ni'matu'llah,  Amir  Khusraw,  Jalalu'd-Dm  Rumi, 
Salman  of  Sawa,  Sayyid  Jalal-i-'Adud,  Sa'du'd-Dm  Nasi'r, 
Sadru'd-Dfn  Jawharf,  Amini,  Amir  Hasan  of  Dihlf,  Jama- 
lu'd-Din,  Shaykh  Faridu'd-Din  'Attar,  Katibi,  Nasir  of 
Bukhara,  Sultan  Abu  Sa'i'd,  Humam  of  Tabriz,  Amir 
Khusraw  of  DihH,  Darwish  hs\xz.{-\-Namad-push,  'Ubayd- 
i-Zakani,  and  Jalal-i-Tabib.  Nearly  all  the  chief  varieties 
of  verse  are  represented,  including  a  certain  number  of 
poems  in  dialect  (Fahlawiyydt  and  Shtrdziyydt),  and  the 
volume  concludes  with  several  prose  treatises,  to  wit  a 
Dispute  between  Food  and  Clothes,  the  Dream 

Further  contents  I  _  . 

of  Mahmud  of  the  Bath,  Eulogies  of  the  chief  Persian  poets 
OArfs/wto*.  in  terms  of  clothes  and  stuffS)  the  story  of  the 

clothes-thief,  Wool's  letter  to  Satin,  and  other  similar 
letters  and  official  documents,  the  Ardyish-ndma  ("Book 
of  Adornment"),  the  Book  of  Definitions  entitled  Dah 
Wasl,  containing,  as  its  name  implies,  ten  sections,  the 
treatise  entitled  Sad  Wctz  ("  A  Hundred  Counsels "),  a 
mock-heroic  mathnawt  in  the  style  of  the  Shdk-ndma  on 
the  battle  between  Wool  and  "  Cincob "  (Kamkhd)  en- 
titled Mukhayyat-ndma,  and  finally  a  Glossary  (Farhang) 
of  articles  of  clothing.  The  only  indication  of  the  author's 

date  which  I  can  find  is  supplied  by  the  list 
MatSdQari0'  of  contemporary  poets  occurring  at  the  end  of 

the  Eulogies  of  Poets  (pp.  138-9  of  the  text), 
which  includes  Qasim[u'l- Anwar],  who  died  837/1433-4; 
'Ismat  [of  Bukhara],  d.  829/1425-6  ;  Katibi,  d.  838/1434-5  ; 
Khay all  [of  Bukhara],  d.  circd  850/1 446-7 ;  Shahf, d.  8  5 // 1 45  3 ; 
and  Adharf,  d.  866/ 1 46 1  -2.  We  must  therefore  conclude  that 
Mahmud  Qan  of  Yazd  wrote  subsequently  to  the  date  last 


CH.  v]  AT-TAFTAzANf  353 

given,  so  that  he  really  belongs  to  a  later  period  than  that 
which  we  are  now  considering,  though  it  seemed  convenient 
to  mention  him  here  on  account  of  his  close  literary  affinity 
with  Abu  Ishaq,  to  whom  his  work  evidently  owed  its  chief 
inspiration.  Sayyid  Ni'matu'llah,  on  the  other  hand,  who 
is  one  of  the  poets  parodied  by  Abu  Ishaq,  should,  strictly 
speaking,  be  included  in  this  place,  but  since  he  survived 
until  834/1430-1,  and  this  chapter  has  already  grown  to  an 
inconvenient  length,  I  shall  defer  his  consideration,  with 
that  of  'Ismat,  Katibi  and  others,  to  a  later  section  of  this 
book. 

ARABIC  PROSE-WRITERS  OF  THIS  PERIOD. 

Although  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak  at  nearly  the  same 

length  about  the  prose-writers  of  this  period  as 

SsSSoders°f    about  the  poets,  some  at  least  of  them  deserve 

at  any  rate  a  passing  mention,  including  one 

or  two  who  wrote  chiefly  or  exclusively  in  Arabic. 

Ti'mur  resembled  another  great  Eastern  conqueror  of 
Turkish  origin  who  lived  four  centuries  before  him,  namely 
Sultan  Mahmud  of  Ghazna,  in  his  passion  for  collecting 
and  carrying  off  to  his  capital  eminent  scholars  from  the 
towns  which  he  conquered,  and  thus  endeavouring  to  in- 
crease the  splendour  of  his  Court  and  his  own  reputation 
as  a  patron  of  letters1.  Amongst  those  whom  Ti'mur  thus 
abducted  the  most  celebrated  were  Sa'du'd-Din  Taftazani 
and  as-Sayyid  ash-Sharif  al-Jurjam'2. 

I.    Sa'du'd-Din  Mas'iid  ibn  ' Umar  at- Taftdsdni. 

This  eminent  scholar,  who  was  described  by  the  con- 
temporary 'ulamd  of  Transoxiana  as  "at  the 
^Taft^i        present  time  the  chief  man  of  learning  in  the 
world,  and  the  exemplar  of  scholars  amongst 

1  For  an  instance  of  this,  see  my  translation  of  the  Chahdr  Maqdla, 
p.  1 19  of  the  tirage-a-part. 

2  See  the  Habibu's-Siyar  (vol.  iii,  pt  3,  pp.  87-90),  which  devotes  a 
long  notice  to  him. 

B.  P.  23 


354        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

the  sons  of  men,"  and  of  whose  works  sixteen  are  enumerated 
by  Brockelmann1,  was  born  at  Taftazan  near  Nasa  in  Khu- 
rasan in  722/1322,  and  is  said  to  have  written  his  first  book 
(a  commentary  on  az-Zanjam"s  Arabic  Grammar)  at  the 
early  age  of  sixteen.  Another  of  his  works,  the  Mutawwal, 
he  is  said  to  have  dedicated  to  Malik  Mu'izzu'd-Dm  Husayn- 
i-Kurt  (who  reigned  at  Herat  from  A.D.  1331  to  1370).  He 
then  settled  at  Khwarazm,  at  that  time  a  great  centre  of 
learning,  where  he  composed  his  Mukktasar,  which  he  de- 
dicated to  Jam'  Beg  Khan  of  the  Golden  Horde,  a  descendant 
of  Batu  the  Mongol,  who  reigned  in  Western  Qipchaq  from 
A.D.  1340  to  1357.  When  Ti'mur  captured  Khwarazm  he 
allowed  Malik  Muhammad  of  Sarakhs,  the  youngest  son  of 
the  above- mentioned  Malik  Mu'izzu'd-Din,to  take  Taftazani 
with  him  to  Sarakhs, where  he  was  given  a  professorship;  but 
later,  learning  how  great  was  his  reputation  as  a  scholar,  he 
summoned  him  to  his  own  capital  Samarqand,  where  he 
remained  for  some  years,  greatly  honoured  by  all.  He  died 
in  791/1389  (in  the  same  year  as  the  poet  Hafiz),  or,  ac- 
cording to  others,  in  797/1 394-5 2,  and  was  buried  at  Sarakhs. 
He  left  a  son  named  Mawlana  Muhammad  who  died  of  the 
plague  at  Herat  in  838/1434-5,  and  concerning  whom  an 
anecdote  is  related  in  the  Habibus-Siyar  which  reflects  but 
little  credit  either  on  his  filial  piety  or  his  sincerity. 

Of  Taftazanf  s  works  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak  in  detail, 
for  not  only  are  they  written  in  Arabic,  but  they  do  not  even 
fall  into  the  category  of  belles  lettres,  being  for  the  most  part 
on  logic,  Arabic  grammar,  philosophy,  theology,  exegesis 
and  jurisprudence.  I  am  not  aware  that  he  wrote  anything 
in  Persian,  but,  by  virtue  of  a  Turkish  metrical  trans- 
lation of  Sa'df's  Bustdn  which  he  composed,  he  is  included 
by  the  late  Mr  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  in  his  History  of  Ottoman 
Poetry*. 

1  Gesch.  d.  Arabisch.  Lift.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  215-16. 

2  According  to  the  Mujmal  of  Fasfhf  in  787/1385. 

3  Vol.  i,  pp.  202-3. 


CH.V]  AL-JURjANf—  IBN  'ARABSHAH  355 

2.    'Ali  ibn  Muhammad  as-Sayyid  ash-Sharif  al-Jurjdni. 

As-Sayyid    ash -Sharif,    chiefly    known    to    European 
scholars  by  his  book  of  "  Definitions  "  (ta'rifdf) 

As-Sayyid  *  / 

ash-Sharif  of  technical  and  especially  Sufi  terms,  was  born, 

as  his  title  al-Jtirjdni  indicates,  in  the  Caspian 
province  of  Gurgan  or  Jurjan,  near  Astarabad,  in  740/1339. 
In  779/1377  he  was  presented  by  Sa'du'd-Din  Taftazani  to 
the  Muzaffari  prince  Shah  Shuja'  who  was  then  residing  at 
Qasr-i-Zard,  and  who  took  him  with  himself  to  Shiraz,  where 
he  became  a  professor  at  the  Ddru'sh-Shifd.  In  789/1387 
Ti'mur  conquered  Shiraz  and  transported  him  to  Samarqand, 
where  he  again  foregathered  with  Taftazani,  with  whom  he 
had  many  scientific  controversies.  On  the  death  of  Tfmur 
in  807/1405  he  returned  to  Shiraz,  where  he  died  in  816/1413 
at  the  age  of  76.  Brockelmann  enumerates  3 1  of  his  works, 
all  of  which  are  in  Arabic1.  Three  Persian  works,  a  well- 
known  Arabic  grammar  commonly  known  as  Sarf-i-Mtr, 
a  treatise  on  Logic  (al-Kubrd  fil-Mantiq),  and  another  on 
the  Degrees  of  Existence,  written  by  or  ascribed  to  him, 
are  mentioned  in  Rieu's  Persian  Catalogue2,  but  he  seems 
to  have  composed  but  little  in  his  mother-tongue. 

3.    Ibn  'Arabshdk. 

A  third  but  much  younger  writer  of  note  who  was  carried 
off  by  Ti'mur  from  his  native  place,  Damascus, 

Ibn  'Arabshah  .  ,  ,  .  , 

m  803/1400,  when  he  was  only  twelve  years  of 
age,  together  with  his  mother  and  brothers,  was  Abu'l-' Abbas 
Ahmad  ibn  Muhammad  ibn  'Abdu'llah  ibn  'Arabshah, 
chiefly  famous  for  the  bitterly  hostile  biography  of  Tfmur 
which  he  composed  under  the  title  of  'Ajd'ibu'l-Maqdur  f{ 
nawd'ibi  Timur,  and  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in 
the  last  chapter3.  He  studied  at  Samarqand  with  the  above - 

1  See  Brockelmann's  Gesch.  d.  Arabisch.  Lift.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  216-17, 
and  the  Habibrfs-Siyar,  vol.  iii,  pt  3,  p.  89. 

2  Pp.  522,  812,  864,  etc. 

3  See  Brockelmann's  Gesch.  d.  Arabisch.  Litt.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  28-30, 
where  five  of  his  works  are  described. 

23—2 


356        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

mentioned  al-Jurja'nf,  mastered  the  Turkish  and  Persian 
languages,  translated  from  the  latter  into  Arabic  the  Mar- 
zubdn-ndma  of  Sa'du'd-Dfn  Warawfnf1,  travelled  widely, 
visiting  Khatd  (Chinese  Tartary),  Khwarazm,  Dasht,  As- 
trachan  and  Adrianople  (where  he  became  for  a  time  private 
secretary  to  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Muhammad  I).  He  returned 
to  his  native  town,  Damascus,  in  825/1422,  made  the  pil- 
grimage to  Mecca  seven  years  later,  settled  in  Cairo  in 
840/1436,  and  died  in  854/1450.  The  undisguised  hatred 
of  Timur  revealed  in  every  page  of  his  history  forms  a 
piquant  contrast  to  the  fulsome  flattery  of  Sharafu'd-Di'n 
'AH  Yazdf  and  other  Persian  biographers.  Of  Ibn  'Arab- 
shah's  other  works  the  best  known  is  the  Fdkihatul-Khulafd. 

4.    'Adudu'd-Din  al-lji. 

Of  Arabic  writers  of  this  period  who  had  no  connection 
with  Persia,  such  as  al-Yafi'i  and  as-Safadi,  to  both  of  whom 
we  are  indebted  for  valuable  biographical  and  historical 
material,  I  do  not  propose  to  speak  here,  but  two  other 
Arabic-writing  Persians  deserve  at  least  a  brief  mention. 
The  first  of  these,  'Adudu'd-Dm  'Abdu'r- 
Rahman  ibn  Ahmad  al-lji,  who  died  in  /56/ 
1355,  wrote  in  Arabic  a  good  many  books2  on 
philosophical,  religious  and  ethical  subjects,  of  which  the 
Mawdqif  is  the  most  celebrated ;  but  it  is  chiefly  on  account 
of  his  connection  with  the  Muzaffari  dynasty  that  he  is 
mentioned  here,  for  though  his  birthplace  was  in  Fars  at 
Ij,  a  place  between  Darabjird  and  Nayn'z3,  he  seems  to  have 
written  little  or  nothing  in  his  mother-tongue,  though,  as  we 
have  seen  above4,  he  is  celebrated  by  Hdfiz  as  one  of  the 
chief  intellectual  ornaments  of  Shi'raz.  He  was  a  Shafi'i 
jurisconsult,  a  judge  (qddi),  and  a  mystic ;  but  he  was  also 

1  A  good  and  critical  edition  of  this  book  by  Mirzd  Muhammad  is 
included  in  the  "E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series,  vol.  viii,  1909. 

2  Brockelmann  (pp.  tit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  208-9)  enumerates  eleven. 

3  See  G.  le  Strange's  Lands  of  the  Eastern  Caliphate,  p.  289. 

4  See  p.  276  supra,  and  n.  2  ad  calc. 


CH.  v]  AL-fjf— AL-FfRtiZABADf  357 

employed  at  times  in  a  diplomatic  capacity,  for  we  learn 
from  the  Fdrs-ndma-i-NdsirP  that  he  was  sent  by  Shaykh 
Abu  Ishaq,  at  that  time  ruler  of  Shiraz,  in  753/1352-3,  to 
the  Amir  Mubarizu'd-Di'n  Muhammad  the  Muzaffarf,  who 
was  then  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Kirman,  to  endeavour  to 
dissuade  him  from  attacking  Shiraz.  In  this  mission  he 
failed  ;  but  he  was  well  received  by  Mubarizu'd-Dm,  whom 
he  had  to  entertain  for  three  days  at  his  native  town  of  Ij, 
and  had  the  honour  of  reading  and  explaining  the  com- 
mentary on  the  Mufassal  (a  well-known  work  on  Arabic 
grammar  by  az-Zamakhsharf)  to  the  Amir's  son  Shah  Shuja', 
afterwards  ruler  of  Shirdz  and  alternately  patron  and  rival 
of  the  poet  Hafiz. 

5.    Al-Firtizdbddi. 

Another  Persian  man  of  learning  who  met  and  received 
favours  from  Ti'mur  was  the  great  Arabic  scholar 

Al-Finizabddi  j    1        •  i  i        .     i  i         i_  • 

and  lexicographer,  best  known  by  his  monu- 
mental dictionary  the  Qdmtis,  or  "  Ocean,"  Abu't-Tahir 
Muhammad  ibn  Ya'qub  ash-Shi'razi  al-Firuzabadi2.  He 
was  born  in  729/1326  at  Firuzabad  in  Fars,  and  studied 

first  at  Shiraz,  then  at  Wasit  in  Mesopotamia, 
Steeistensive  then  at  Baghdad  (745/1344),  and  afterwards 

(75°/I349-I35°)  at  Damascus,  where  he  at- 
tended the  lectures  of  as-Subki,  whom  he  accompanied  to 
Jerusalem.  There  he  lectured  for  some  ten  years,  after  which 
he  set  out  again  on  his  travels,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
visited  Asia  Minor,  Cairo,  Mecca  (770/1368),  where  he  re- 
mained fifteen  years,  and  India,  where  he  spent  five  years  in 

1  This  copious  and  valuable  account  of  the  province  of  Fars,  which 
contains   some    372    large    pages,   was   lithographed    at  Tihran    in 
1313/1895-6. 

2  See  Brockelmann,  op.  tit.,  ii,  pp.  181-3,  from  whom  the  particulars 
here  given  are  taken.    Al-Firuz£badf  is  also  mentioned  in  six  or  seven 
places  in  al-Khazrajf  s  History  of  Yaman.     See  the  second  half  of  the 
Arabic  text  ("E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series,  iii,  5),  pp.  264-5,  2?8, 
286,  290,  297,  303-4,  and  311,  where  mention  is  made  of  him  in  every 
year  from  796/1393-4  to  802/1399-1400. 


358        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME      [BK  n 

Dihlf.  He  then  returned  to  Mecca,  where  he  spent  another 
ten  years.  In  794/1392  he  visited  the  court  of  the  Jala'ir 
Sultan  Ahmad  ibn  Uways  at  Baghdad  ;  and  he  also  visited 
Tfmur  at  Shfriz,  probably  in  795/1393,  and  was  received 
with  much  honour.  Thence  he  went  by  way  of  Hurmuz  on 

the  Persian  Gulf  to  Yaman,  where  he  arrived  in 
"Yaman1505"'0"  the  following  year  (796/1394),  and  remained  at 

Ta'izz  for  fourteen  months.  He  was  then  made 
Chief  Judge  (Qddi'l-quddt)  of  Yaman,  and  received  in 
marriage  the  daughter  of  the  Sultan  al-Malik  al-Ashraf. 
In  802/1400  he  again  visited  Mecca,  where  he  established 
a  small  college  of  Maliki  jurisprudence  :  and,  after  visiting 
al-Madina,  returned  to  Zabi'd  in  Yaman,  and  died  there  in 
817/1414. 

Of  the  five  Arabic  writers  mentioned  above  all  save  Ibn 
'Arabshah  (who  is  included  on  account  of  his  connection 
with  Timur)  were  Persians  ;  and,  for  reasons  which  I  have 
elsewhere  given1,  I  consider  that  no  literary  history  of  the 
Persians  which,  confining  itself  to  what  is  written  in  Persian, 
ignores  the  immense  amount  of  valuable  work  produced  by 
Persians  in  Arabic,  can  be  regarded  as  adequate  in  its  scope, 
or  just  to  this  talented  people. 

PERSIAN  PROSE-WRITERS  OF  THIS  PERIOD. 

The  period  which  we  are  now  considering  is  far  less  rich 
in  notable  prose-writers  than  in  poets,  and  not  more  than 
four  or  five  need  detain  us  here. 

I.     Shamsu'd-Din  Muhammad  b.  Sa'id-i-Fakhr  of  Isfahan. 

The  first  writer  who  deserves  mention  is  Shams-i-Fakhrf, 
whose  full  name  is  given  above.     He  compiled 

Shams-i-Fakhri        .  _         . 

in  745/1 344  a  very  excellent  work  on  the  Persian 
language  entitled  Mi'ydr-i-Jamali,  which  he  dedicated  to 
the  amiable  and  talented  but  unfortunate  Shaykh  Abu 
Ishaq  Inju2.  It  is  divided  into  four  parts  as  follows : 

1  Literary  History  of  Persia,  vol.  i,  pp.  445-7. 

2  See  p.  164  supra. 


CH.  v]         SHAMS-I-FAKHRf—  MU'fN-I-YAZDf  359 

Part  i,  in  9  chapters,  on  Poetry  and  Prosody. 

Part  ii,  in  5  chapters,  on  Rhyme,  the  different  varieties 
of  Poetry,  etc. 

Part  iii,  on  Rhetorical  Devices,  Tropes  and  Figures  of 
Speech,  etc. 

Part  iv,  on  the  Persian  language  and  its  rare  and  archaic 
words. 

The  fourth  part,  which  is  of  most  interest  to  philologists, 
was  printed  at  Kazan  in  1885  by  Carl  Salemann.  I  possess 
a  good  MS.  of  the  whole  work  (except  for  one  leaf  missing 
at  the  beginning)  which  was  given  to  me  by  my  friend 
Dr  Riza  Tevffq  in  August,  1909.  The  date  of  composition 
is  given  in  a  poem  of  1  1  bayts  in  praise  of  "  the  son  of 
Mahmud  Shah"  (  i.e.  Shay  kh  Abu  Ishaq  Inju)  in  the  following 
lines  : 


The  rare  Persian  words  explained  in  this  fourth  part 
are  arranged  under  the  final  letter,  and  each  group  is  worked 
up  into  a  qasfda,  of  which  they  constitute  the  rhymes,  in 
praise  of  the  author's  royal  patron.  The  first  three  (un- 
published) parts  of  the  book,  though  good,  are  relatively  of 
less  value  than  the  fourth,  since  the  matters  of  which  they 
treat  are  more  fully  discussed  in  such  older  books  as  the 
Mifjam  ft  Ma'dyiri  Asfcdri'l-'Ajam1  of  Shams-i-Qays,  and 
the  Hadd'iqiis-Sihr  of  Rashidu'd-Din  Watwat. 

2.    Mtfinu'd-Din-i-  Yazdi. 

Nearly  all  that  is  known  of  this  writer  is  recorded  by 

Rieu2  in  his  notice  of  one  of  the  British  Museum 

Y^d"shuto"y      Mss-  °f  tne  Mawdhib-i-Ildkt,  a  historical  mono- 

°^e  H°use        graph  on  the  House  of  Muzaffar  from  its  origin 

of  Mu?affar 

until  the  battle  fought  at  Shiraz  in  767/1365-6 

1  Published  in  the  "E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial"  Series,  vol.  x  (1909). 

2  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  168-9. 


360        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME      [BK  n 

between  Shah  Shuja'  and  his  brother  and  rival  Shah  Mah- 
mud. Mu'mu'd-Din  is  described  by  his  fellow-townsman 
Mufid  in  the  Jdmi'-i-Mufidi (composed  in  1082-1090/1671- 
79) x  as  the  greatest  of  the  'ulamd  of  his  day.  His  lectures 
were  crowded  with  students,  and  occasionally  honoured  by 
the  presence  of  his  patron  Shah  Shuja'  the  Muzaffarf,  at 
whose  instigation  and  encouragement,  seconded  by  that  of 
his  father  Mubarizu'd-Dm  Muhammad,  Mu'm  began  the 
composition  of  his  history  at  Isfahan  in  757/1356,  though, 
as  indicated  above,  he  did  not  complete  it  until  ten  years 
later.  Two  years  earlier,  in  755/1354,  according  to  the 
abstract  of  his  history  included  in  some  manuscripts  of  the 
Tarikh-i-Guzida?,  he  was  made  professor  at  a  college  at 
Kirman.  He  died  in  789/1387. 

The  Mawdhib-i-Ildhi,  of  which  I  possess  two  MSS.  from 
the  late  Sir  A.  Houtum-Schindler's  library3,  besides  having 
access  to  a  manuscript  belonging  to  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum 
at  Cambridge,  is  a  disappointing  book,  written,  as  Rieu 
justly  remarks,  like  the  History  of  Wassaf,  mainly  "  with  a 
view  to  rhetorical  display."  It  is  in  fact  intolerably  florid  and 
bombastic,  a  fault  which  we  might  more  readily  excuse  but 
for  the  undoubted  value  of  the  information  which  it  contains. 
Happily  the  simplified  abstract  of  its  contents  mentioned  at 
the  end  of  the  last  paragraph  dispenses  us  in  large  measure 
from  the  necessity  of  reading  it  in  its  unabridged  form. 

3.     Shaykh  Fakhrud-Din  Abitl-Abbds  Ahmad  of  Shirdz. 

This  author,  a  grandson  of  the  famous  Shaykh  Zarkub 
of  Shfraz,  deserves  mention  on  account  of  a  monograph  on 
his  native  town,  entitled  Shirdz-ndma,  which 
Idm*"  he  composed  in  744/1343-4,  and  which  is  de- 

scribed by  Rieu4.     Manuscripts  of  this  work, 

1  See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  207-8. 

2  This  abstract,  by  a  certain  Mahmud  Kutbi  (?),  is  included  in  the 
MS.  published  in  fac-simile  in  the  "  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial "  Series 
(vol.  xiv,  pp.  613-755  ;  and  vol.  xiv,  2,  pp.  151-207). 

3  See  my  list  of  these  MSS.  in  the/.-ff.AS.  for  Oct.  1917,  pp.  670-1. 

4  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  204-5. 


CH.  v]  NIZAM-I-SHAMf  361 

which  has  never  been  published,  are  rare ;  and  it  is  a 
matter  of  regret  that  the  author  has  devoted  his  attention 
in  the  biographical  portion  of  the  work  so  much  more  to 
Shaykhs  and  holy  men  than  to  poets. 

4.     Mawldnd  Nizdmu'd-Din  Shdmi. 

This  writer,  called  Shamb-i-Ghazani  after  a  mausoleum 

erected  for  his  own  sepulture  by  the  Mongol  Ghazan  Khan 

two  miles  to  the  S.W.  of  Tabriz,  is  notable  as 

Nizam-i-Shdmi,  ., 

the  earliest  the  author  of  the  only  known  history  of  I  imur 
^Timdr'510"2111  compiled  during  his  life-time.  This  history,  en- 
titled, like  the  later  and  much  more  celebrated 
book  of  Sharafu'd-Dm  'Ah'  of  Yazd,  Zafar-ndma  ("  The 
Book  of  Victory"),  is  extremely  scarce,  the  only  manuscript 
which  I  know  of  being  the  British  Museum  codex  (Add. 
23,980),  of  which  I  possess  a  copy  made  for  me  by  my 
friend  Dr  Ahmad  Khan.  Our  knowledge  of  Nizam-i-Shami 
is  chiefly  derived  from  incidental  remarks  occurring  in  his 
history,  some  of  which  are  copied  by  his  successor  Shara- 
fu'd-Din  'All,  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  (in  the  Matla'us-Sa'dayri), 
Mirkhwand  and  Khwandami'r.  Rieu  has  admirably  sum- 
marized all  that  is  known  about  this  author1.  He  was 
living  at  Baghdad  when  it  was  conquered  by  Timur  in 
795/1392-3,  and  was  amongst  the  first  who  came  out  to 
do  homage  to  the  conqueror,  by  whom  he  was  graciously 
received;  and  he  describes  the  impression  made  on  him 
by  the  Tartar  attack.  In  803/1400-1  he  was  detained  as 
a  prisoner  at  Aleppo,  and  describes  an  attack  on  the  citadel 
of  which  he  was  a  witness.  In  804/1401-2  Timur  summoned 
him  to  his  presence  and  ordered  him  to  write  the  history 
of  his  reign  and  his  conquests,  placing  at  his  disposal  the 
necessary  records,  memoranda  and  official  papers2,  and 
bidding  him  especially  avoid  bombast  and  rhetoric,  and 

1  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  170-2  and  1081.     Cf.  p.  183  supra. 

2  As  has  been  already  pointed  out,  the  absence  of  any  mention  of 
the  so-called  Institutes  of  Timur  in  this  place  is  one  of  the  strongest 
arguments  against  their  authenticity.     See  pp.  183-4  supra. 


362        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

write  in  a  simple  and  straightforward  style  which  ordinary 
people  could  understand.  In  806/1403-4  he  preached  a 
homily  before  Timur  in  his  camp  near  Ardabi'l  on  the 
occasion  of  the  'Id  or  Festival  at  the  end  of  the  Ramadan 
fast  (April  12,  1404).  Soon  afterwards  Ti'mur  set  out  for 
his  capital  Samarqand,  and  allowed  Nizam-i-Shami  to 
return  "home"  (apparently  to  Tabriz),  furnishing  him  with 
letters  of  recommendation  to  his  grandson  Prince  'Umar 
Bahadur,  son  of  Miran-shah,  who  had  just  been  appointed 
Governor  of  Persia;  a  post  which  he  held  until  808/1405-6, 
when  he  was  dispossessed  by  his  brother  Prince  Abu  Bakr. 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  history  was  continued  beyond 
the  year  806/1404,  when  Ti'mur,  having  enjoyed  a  brief 
period  of  repose  after  his  last  Georgian  campaign,  set  out 
on  his  last  return  journey  to  his  capital  Samarqand,  which 
he  quitted  on  December  28, 1404,  on  his  projected  campaign 
against  China.  This  campaign  was  rendered  abortive  by 
Timur's  death  on  March  19,  1405.  Particulars  of  the  last 
year  of  his  life,  therefore,  are  not  included  in 
zafar^dma of  Nizam-i-Shami's  work,  but  must  be  sought  for 
sharafu-d-Din  jn  the  homonymous  Zafar-ndma  of  Sharafu'd- 

AH  Yazoi  " 

Din  'Ah'  Yazdf,  who  wrote  in  828/1424-5  and 
died  thirty  years  later.  Although  he  strictly  belongs,  there- 
fore, to  the  period  which  will  be  discussed  in  the  next 
chapter,  it  will  be  more  convenient  to  consider  him  here 
in  connection  with  the  author  of  the  original  Zafar-ndma, 
of  which  his  later  Zafar-ndma  is  essentially  a  more  florid 
and  verbose  enlargement,  garnished  with  many  more  verses, 
and  increased  in  bulk  by  about  fifty  per  cent. 

5.    Sharafu 'd-Din  'Alt  Yazdi. 

All  that  is  known  about  this  historian,  either  from  his 
own  statements  or  from  such  books  as  the  Jdmi'-i-Mufidt, 
Matla'ds-Sa'dayn,  Haft  Iqlim,  Tdrikh-i-Rashtdi,  Habtbu's- 
Latd'if-ndma,  and  Dawlatshah's  "Memoirs  of  the 

1  Vol.  iii,  pt  3,  p.  148. 


CH.  v]  SHARAFU'D-DfN  'ALf  OF  YAZD  363 

Poets1,"  is,  as  usual,  admirably  summarized  by  Rieu2.  It 
is  as  a  poet  writing  under  the  nom  de  guerre  of  Sharaf, 
and  with  a  special  skill  in  versifying  riddles  and  acrostics 
(mu'ammd)  that  he  is  mentioned  by  Dawlatshdh,  who  also 
speaks  in  terms  of  exaggerated  praise  of  his  history  of 
Timur,  the  Zafar-ndma,  on  which  his  fame  chiefly  rests, 
though  its  style  is  intolerably  inflated  and  bombastic,  and 
its  facts — in  spite  of  the  author's  implication  that  he  col- 
lected them  from  original  documents  and  orally  from  old 
men  who  had  taken  part  in  the  events  described — appear 
to  have  been  mostly  borrowed  with  little  or  no  acknow- 
ledgement from  his  predecessor  Nizam-i-Shami,  to  whom 
he  is  even  indebted  for  many  of  his  citations  from  the 
Quran  and  from  the  poets.  His  work,  however,  has  entirely 
eclipsed  that  of  his  predecessor.  It  has  been  published  at 
Calcutta  in  the  Bibliotheca  Indica  Series  in  two  volumes 
(1887-8),  and  translated  into  French  by  Petis  de  la  Croix 
(1722)  'and  from  the  French  into  English  by  J.  Darby 
(1723).  The  author  of  the  Haft  Iqlim  calls  Sharafu'd-Dfn 
"  the  noblest  of  the  scholars  of  Persia  in  his  time,  and  the 
subtlest  of  the  doctors  of  that  period;  luminous  in  ex- 
position, sharp-tongued,  conspicuous  in  merit,  the  illuminator 
of  every  assembly,  the  adorner  of  every  company  " ;  and,  in 
speaking  of  his  Zafar-ndma,  says  that  "  no  book  so  elegant 
has  ever  been  written  in  Persian  on  the  science  of  history." 
He  adds  that  it  was  composed  in  828/1424-5,  a  date  ex- 

*  rt  J 

pressed  by  the  chronogram  j\j~*  ^  \J^a  ("  It  was  composed 

Other  works  b  m  Shiraz  "),  and  that  the  author  also  wrote  a 
sharafu'd-Din  treatise  on  riddles  and  acrostics;  a  commentary 
on  the  celebrated  Arabic  poem  in  praise  of  the 
Prophet  entitled  al-Burda  ("  The  Mantle ")  by  al-Busm  ; 
a  book  on  magical  squares  and  lucky  numbers,  entitled 
Kunhu'l- Murdd  dar  'Ilm-i-Wafq-i-A'ddd;  and  a  number 
of  odes,  quatrains  and  mathnawi  poems,  of  which  he  gives 
only  one  short  specimen. 

1  Pp.  378-81  of  my  edition.  2  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  173-5. 


364        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtiR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

"Sharafu'd-Di'n,"  says  Rieu,  "attained  a  position  of  great 
eminence,  no  less  by  his  learning  and  piety  than  by  the  rare 
elegance  of  his  style,  and  was  for  a  long  time  the  favourite 
companion  of  Shah-rukh  and  of  his  son  Mi'rza  Ibrahim 
Sultan.  It  is  related  in  the  Tarikh-i-Rashidi^  that  the  former 
entrusted  to  his  keeping  and  able  tuition  Yunus  Khan,  the 
young  Khan  of  the  Moghuls,  who  had  been  captured  in 
832/1428-9  by  Mi'rza  Ulugh  Bey,  and  who  stayed  with 
Sharafu'd-Din  till  the  latter's  death.  In  846/1442-3  Mi'rza 
Sultan  Muhammad,  who  had  been  appointed  Governor 
of  'Iraq  and  established  his  residence  in  Qum,  invited 
Sharafu'd-Di'n,  who  was  then  teaching  crowds  of  pupils 
in  his  native  city,  to  his  court,  and  kept  him  there  as  an 
honoured  guest  and  trusted  adviser.  When  some  years 
later,  in  850/1446-7,  the  Prince  having  raised  the  standard 
of  rebellion,  Shah-rukh  came  with  an  army  to  Isfahan  to 
enforce  his  submission,  and  ordered  several  of  his  ill-advised 
councillors  for  execution,  Sharafu'd-Di'n,  who  was  also  ac- 
cused of  haying  incited  the  Prince  to  revolt,  was  rescued 
from  danger  by  the  timely  interference  of  Mi'rza  'Abdu'l- 
Lati'f,  who,  on  the  plea  that  his  father,  Mi'rza  Ulugh  Bey, 
required  the  Mawlana's  assistance  for  his  astronomical 
observations,  despatched  him  to  Samarqand.  After  the 
death  of  Shah-rukh,  Sultan  Muhammad,  then  master  of 
Khurasan,  gave  him  leave  to  go  back  to  Yazd.  Sharafu'd- 
Di'n  returned  to  his  birthplace  in  853/1449-1450,  and 
settled  in  the  neighbouring  village  of  Taft.  He  died  there 
in  858/1454,  and  was  buried  in  the  precincts  of  a  college 
built  by  himself  and  called  after  him  Sharafiyya" 

Some  manuscripts  of  the  Zafar-ndma  contain  "an  Intro- 
duction treating  of  the  genealogy  of  the  Turkish  Khans  and 
of  the  history  of  Chingiz  Khan  and  his  descendants  down 
to  the  time  of  Timur2."  This  was  compiled  in  822/1419, 

1  See  Erskine's  History  of  India,  vol.  i,  pp.  45  and  49 ;  and  the 
History  of  the  Moghuls  of  Central  Asia,  by  N.  Elias  and  E.  D.  Ross, 
p.  74  (ch.  xxxvi),  and  pp.  84-5  and  155. 

2  Rieu,  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  174-5. 


CH.  v]  THE  HURtiFt  HERESY  365 

six  years  earlier  than  the  Zafar-ndma.  It  is  instructive  to 
compare  parallel  sections  of  the  histories  of  Nizamu'd- 
Dfn  Shami  and  Sharafu'd-Din  'AH  Yazdi,  so  as  to  see  how 
the  latter  has  amplified  and  embroidered  the  work  of  his 
predecessor ;  and,  did  space  allow,  it  would  not  be  without 
interest  to  offer  side  by  side  translations  of  such  parallel 
passages,  e.g.  the  account  of  the  Battle  of  Angora  (June  16, 
1402),  which  resulted  in  the  overthrow  and  capture  of  the 
Ottoman  Sultan  Bayazi'd,  called  "  the  Thunder-bolt "  (  Yil- 
dirini).  Since  Sharafu'd-Di'n's  later  work,  for  all  its  faults 
of  taste  and  style,  probably  contains  all  or  nearly  all  the 
matter  chronicled  by  Nizam-i-Shamf,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
the  work  of  the  latter,  though  more  desirable  in  itself  on 
account  of  its  priority,  as  well  as  of  its  greater  simplicity 
and  concision,  will  ever  be  published. 

THE  HURUFI  SECT  AND  ITS  FOUNDER,  FADLU'LLAH 
OF  AST  ARAB  AD. 

Before  concluding  this  chapter,  it  is  necessary  to  say 
something  about  the  strange  heretical  sect  of 
the  ffurjiffs  («  Literalists  ")  invented  and  pro- 
pagated by  a  certain  Fadlu'llah  of  Astarabad 
in  the  reign  of  Timur ;  a  sect  worthy  of  attention  not  only 
on  account  of  its  extraordinary  doctrines  and  considerable 
literature  (including  not  a  little  poetry,  especially  in  Turkish), 
but  on  account  of  events  of  some  historical  importance,  per- 
secutions on  the  one  hand  and  assassinations  on  the  other, 
to  which  it  gave  rise.  The  sect  does  not  seem  to  have  main- 
tained its  position  long  in  Persia,  but  it  passed  over  into 
Turkey  and  there  found  a  suitable  medium  for  its  develop- 
ment in  the  order  of  the  Bektashi  dervishes,  who  are  at  the 
present  day  its  chief  if  not  its  only  representatives. 

Concerning  this  sect  and  its  founder  the  Persian  historians 
of  the  period  are  unaccountably  silent,  and  the  only  reference 
to  it  which  I  have  met  with  occurs  in  the  Mujmal  of  Fasihi 
of  Khwaf  under  the  year  829/1426,  and  in  a  fuller  form  in 


3 66        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

the  Habibu's-Siyar1,  which  places  the  event  described  a  year 
later.  On  the  23rd  Rabf  ii,  829  (March  4,  1426),  or  on  the 
same  day  of  the  month  of  the  following  year  (Feb.  21,  1427), 
a  certain  Ahmad-i-Lur,  described  as  "  a  disciple  (murtct)  of 
Mawlana  Fadlu'llah  of  Astarabad,"  on  the  usual  pretence 
of  presenting  a  petition  to  Shah-rukh,  Timur's  son  and  suc- 
cessor, stabbed  him  in  the  stomach  as  he  was  leaving  the 
mosque  at  Herat,  without,  however,  inflicting  a  mortal 
wound.  The  would-be  assassin  was  killed  on  the  spot  by 
one  of  the  King's  servants  named  'AH  Sultan  Quchin  ;  a 
fortunate  thing  for  him,  as  he  was  undoubtedly  saved 
thereby  from  torture,  but  subsequently  a  matter  of  regret  to 
Mirzd  Baysunqur  and  the  nobles  charged  with  the  investiga- 
tion of  the  matter,  who  were  thus  deprived  of  a  valuable 
clue.  However,  they  found  in  the  dead  man's  pocket  the 
key  of  a  certain  house,  the  tenants  of  which  being  examined 
cast  suspicion  on  a  certain  Mawlana  Ma'ruf,  a  notable  calli- 
graphist,  scholar  and  wit,  who  had  formerly  been  in  the 
service  of  Sultan  Ahmad-i-Jala'ir  at  Baghdad,  and  after- 
wards in  that  of  Mirza  Iskandar  of  Shi'raz,  whence  Shah-rukh 
had  brought  him  to  Herat.  Here  he  had  associated  with 
many  men  of  letters,  dervishes  and  others,  and  apparently 
amongst  them  with  Ahmad-i-Lur.  Baysunqur  Mfrza,  who 
had  a  private  grudge  against  him,  wished  to  put  him  to 
death,  but,  after  he  had  been  brought  beneath  the  gallows 
several  times,  he  was  finally  imprisoned  in  a  dungeon  of  the 
Castle  of  Ikhtiyaru'd-Dfn.  Others,  more  unfortunate,  were 
put  to  death  and  their  bodies  burned.  Amongst  these  was 
Khwaja  'Adudu'd-Din,  the  grandson  of  Fadlu'llah  of  Astar- 
abad the  Hurufi.  The  poet  Sayyid  Qasimu'l-Anwar,  of 
whom  we  shall  speak  in  another  chapter,  also  incurred  some 
suspicion,  and  was  expelled  from  Herat  by  Mi'rz&  Bay- 
sunqur. 

1  Vol.  iii,  pt  3,  pp.  127-8.  I  have  published  a  full  translation  of  the 
passage  in  the  Mujmal  in  the  special  number  of  the  Mus/on  pub- 
lished by  the  Cambridge  University  Press  in  1915,  pp.  48-78.  See 
also  Price's  Retrospect,  vol.  iii,  pt  2,  pp.  546-7. 


CH.  v]  THE  gURUFf  HERESY  367 

One  of  the  few  notices  of  Fadlu'llah  "al-Hurufi"  which 
Account  of  I  have  met  with  occurs  in  the  Inbd  of  Ibn  Hajar 
JuWnnNbn6  al-'Asqalani  (died  852/I448-9)1  and  runs  as 

Hajar's  Inbd  folloWS  : 

"  Fadlu'llah,  the  son  of  Abu  Muhammad  of  Tabriz,  was  one  of  those 
innovators  who  subject  themselves  to  ascetic  discipline.  Imbued  with 
heretical  doctrine,  he  finally  evolved  the  sect  known  as  the  Huriifis, 
pretending  that  the  Letters  \_Hur&f\  of  the  alphabet  were  metamor- 
phoses of  men,  together  with  many  other  idle  and  baseless  fancies.  He 
invited  the  Amir  Timur  the  Lame  [Tamerlane]  to  adopt  his  heresies, 
but  he  sought  to  slay  him.  This  came  to  the  knowledge  of  his  [Timur's] 
son  [Mfranshdh]  with  whom  he  [Fadlu'lldh]  had  sought  refuge,  and  he 
struck  off  his  head  with  his  own  hand.  When  this  was  made  known 
to  Timur,  he  demanded  his  head  and  body  and  burned  them  both  in 
this  year  804/1401-2." 

The  doctrines  of  Fadlu'llah  were  originally  set  forth  in 
a  most  extraordinary  book,  written  partly  in  Arabic,  partly 

in  Persian,  and  partly  in  a  dialect  of  Persian, 
5^lT*'fn  entitled  Jdwiddn-i-Kabir  ("  the  Great  Eternal "), 

of  which  manuscripts  exist  in  the  library  of 
St  Sofia  at  Constantinople,  at  Leyden,  in  the  British  Museum 
(Or.  5957),  in  the  Cambridge  University  Library  (EE.  i.  27), 
and  in  my  own  collection.  The  first  European  description 
of  this  curious  book  was,  I  believe,  the  brief  notice  of  the 
Leyden  MS.  contained  in  vol.  iv  (p.  298)  of  the  old  Leyden 
Catalogue  of  1866,  the  author  of  which  observes  "alternum 
exemplar  non  vidi  obvium."  A  much  fuller  account  of 
the  work  was  published  by  M.  Clement  Huart  in  the  Journal 
Asiatique  for  iSSp2  under  the  title  Notice  d'un  manuscrit 
pehlevi-musulman,  and  was  based  on  the  Constantinople  MS., 
which  was  apparently  labelled  not  by  its  proper  title  but  as 
"Questions  connected  with  the  Qur'dn."  M.  Huart  did  not 
concern  himself  with  the  contents  so  much  as  with  the 
language  of  this  manuscript,  which  he  did  not  at  that  time 

1  This  book  is  not  accessible  to  me,  but  the  passage  in  question  is 
cited  by  Fliigel  at  pp.  vii-viii  of  the  preface  to  vol.  ii  of  his  edition  of 
Hajji  Khalffa's  Kashfu'z-Zunun. 

2  viiie  SeVie,  t  xiv,  pp.  238-70. 


368        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtfR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

recognize  as  the  Jdwiddn-i-Kabir,  or  as  the  chief  text-book 
of  the  Hurufis,  or  as  the  work  of  Fadlu'llah  of  Astarabad. 
In  my  Catalogue  of  the  Persian  Manuscripts  in  the  Library 
of  the  University  of  Cambridge^  published  in  1896,  I  devoted 
a  long  notice  (pp.  69-86)  to  our  excellent  copy  of  the 
Jdwiddn-i-Kabir,  which  was  "bought  at  Constantinople, 
Oct.  1 68 1,  price  ten  Lion  dollars."  A  feature  of  special 
interest  in  this  manuscript  is  an  appendix  containing  ac- 
counts, written  in  a  dialect  of  Persian  explained  to  some 
extent  by  interlinear  glosses  in  red,  of  a  series  of  dreams 
seen  presumably  by  Fadlu'llah  himself.  Many  of  these  are 
dated,  the  earliest  in  765/1363-4,  "at  a  time  before  the 
explanation  of  visions  and  interpretation  of  dreams  was 
vouchsafed";  the  latest  in  796/1393-4.  They  thus  cover 
a  period  of  thirty  years,  and  contain  references  to  a  number 
of  places  and  persons.  Amongst  the  former  are 

Persons  and  r  ° 

places  mentioned  Astarabad,  Baghdad,  Baku,  Burujird,  Damghan, 

in  connection  ,     ,       .    , ,          _     .          T     .   ,     . 

with  Fadiu'iiah's  Kgypt,  r  iruz-kuh,  Iraq,  Isfahan  (especially  a 
buildingtherecalled 'Imdrat-i- TukhjiQr  Tuqcht), 
Khwarazm,  Mesopotamia  (Jazfra),  Qazwin,  Samarqand, 
Tabriz,  and  the  two  celebrated  strongholds  of  the  Assassins, 
Rudbar  (near  Astarabad)  and  the  Fortress  of  Gird-i-Kuh. 
Amongst  the  latter  are  Amir  Tfmur  (Tamerlane),  "  King  " 
Uways1,  Tuqtamish  Khan2,  Pir  Pasha,  Sayyid  'Imadu'd- 
Din  (i.e.  the  Turkish  Hurufi  poet  Nesimi3),  Sayyid  Shamsu 
'd-Dfn,  Sayyid  Taju'd-Din,  Khwaja  Fakhru'd-Dfn,  Khwaja 
Hasan,  Khwaja  Bayazi'd,  Mawlana  Kamalu'd-Dfn,  Mawlana 
Mahmud,  Mawlana  Majdu'd-Din,  Mawlana  Qiwamu'd-Din, 
Mawlana  Sadru'd-Din,  Shaykh  Hasan,  Shaykh  Mansur, 
Malik  'Izzu'd-Din,  Amir  Shams,  Darwfsh  Tawakkul,  Dar- 
wish  Musafir,  Darwish  Kamalu'd-Din,  'Abdu'r-Rahim,  'Ab- 
du'1-Qadir,  Husayn  Kiya,  'Umar-i-Sultaniyya,  and  Yusuf 
of  Damghan. 

1  Presumably  Shaykh  Uways  the  Jald'ir,  who  reigned  757-777/1356- 
1375.  2  See  p.  321  supra. 

3  See  Gibb's  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  i,  pp.  343-68.  He 
was  flayed  alive  for  heresy  in  820/1417-18. 


CH.  v]  TURKISH  HURUFf  POETS  369 

The  accounts  of  these  dreams,  even  with  the  aid  of  the 
interlinear  glosses  which  explain  most  of  the  words  in  dialect, 
are  very  elliptical  and  difficult  to  understand,  being  ap- 
parently mere  memoranda  sufficient  to  recall  the  vision  to 
the  memory  of  the  writer.  They  seem  to  form  no  part  of 
the  Jdwiddn-i-Kabir,  and  do  not,  I  think,  occur  in  most 
copies  of  it. 

On  Oct.  23,  1896,  soon  after  the  publication  of  my 
Catalogue,  my  friend  the  late  Mr  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  called  my 
attention  in  a  letter  to  the  fact  that  in  several  Turkish  bio- 
graphies of  poets  (such  as  those  of  Lati'fi  and  '  Ashiq  Chelebi) 
the  Turkish  poet  Nesimf  mentioned  in  the  last  paragraph 
but  one  is  described  as  "the  Hurufi,"  and  his  connection 
with  Fadlu'llah  is  established  by  some  of  his  own  verses,  e.g.: 


"  If  thou  would'st  gain  knowledge  of  wisdom's  lore,  come  hither,  O  sage  ; 
Hearken  to  the  speech  of  Nesimi  and  behold  the  Grace  of  God" 
[Fadlu'llah]  ! 

Mr  Gibb,  following  up  this  clue,  devoted  a  chapter  (the 

seventh,  pp.  336-388)  in  the  first  volume  of  his 

Sifthe'hutot65  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry  to  the  Hurufis,  and 

of  the  Turkish      especially  to  two  of  the  Turkish  Hurufi  poets, 

Hurufis  r  J 

Nesimi1  and  Refi'i,  of  whom  the  latter  was  a 
disciple  of  the  former.  Mr  Gibb  was  unable  to  trace  the 
Hurufis  beyond  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  but 
gives  (pp.  381  et  seqq.}  two  interesting  extracts  from  Turkish 
chronicles  showing  the  fierce  persecution  of  which  the  sect 
was  on  several  occasions  the  object.  The  first  extract  (from 
the  Memoirs  of  Turkish  Divines  entitled  Shaqd'iqu'n-Nu'- 
mdniyya,  which  Gibb  renders  as  "the  Crimson  Peony") 

1  Nesimi,  who  was  a  native  of  Baghdad,  was  bilingual,  and  his 
Diivdn  includes  a  Persian  as  well  as  a  Turkish  section.  Both  were 
printed  at  Constantinople  in  one  thin  volume  in  1298/1881.  Mr  Gibb 
calls  Nesfmi  "  the  first  true  poet  of  the  Western  Turks,  the  only  true 
poet  of  this  far-off  period." 

B.  P.  24 


370        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TIMOR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

relates  how  the  Persian  Mufti  of  Constantinople,  Fakhru'd- 
Din-i-'Ajami,  a  pupil  of  as-Sayyid  ash-Sharif  al-Jurjani1, 
seized  and  caused  to  be  burned  to  death  as  heretics  certain 
Hurufis  who  had  succeeded  in  gaining  the  confidence  and 
favour  of  the  reigning  Sultan  Muhammad  II,  the  "Conqueror" 
of  Constantinople,  who,  apparently,  for  all  his  power,  was 
unable  to  protect  them  from  the  fury  of  the  'ulamd  and  the 
fanaticism  of  the  orthodox.  It  is  even  related  that  the  Mufti 
was  so  carried  away  by  his  religious  zeal  that,  in  blowing  the 
fire  kindled  for  his  victims,  he  singed  the  long  beard  for 
which  he  was  conspicuous.  The  second  extract  (from 
Latffi's  Biographies  of  Turkish  poets)  denounces  the  heresies 
and  "  blasphemous  nonsense  "  of  a  Huruff  poet  named  Ta- 
manna'i,  who  with  others  of  the  sect  was  put  to  death  by 
sword  and  fire  in  the  reign  of  Sultan  Bayazid,  who,  as  we 
have  seen  above2,  was  defeated  by  Ti'mur  at  the  Battle  of 
Angora  in  804/1402  and  died  soon  after.  As  it  was  in  this 
same  year  that  Fadlu'llah  the  Huruff  was  put  to  death3,  it 
is  evident  that  his  doctrines  had  become  widely  diffused 
(from  Astarabad  to  Adrianople)  even  during  his  life-time, 
and  that  they  aroused  the  fiercest  execration  of  the  orthodox. 
Mr  Gibb  says  that  as  he  had  failed  to  discover  any  record  of 
later  movements  on  the  part  of  the  Hurufis,  he  was  inclined 
to  think  that  the  activity  of  the  sect  did  not  extend  much 
beyond  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century ;  and  that  such 
organization  as  it  may  have  possessed  was  probably  de- 
stroyed in  the  persecutions  to  which  it  was  sub- 

The  BektAshi  .  j    •       1.1  •  c  TH  '  i       T>     .1 

Order  of  der-       jected  in  the  reign  of  Bayazid.    But  as  a  matter 
vishesisthe         Qf  fact  their  activity  continues  down   to  the 

present  reposi-  » 

tory  of  Hunifi      present  day,  the  Bektashi  dervishes  being  still 

doctrines  .  _ ° 

the  representatives  and  repositonesof  the  Hurufi 

1  See  p.  355  supra. 

2  Pp.  197-9  supra.     Gibb  thinks  that  Bayazfd  II  (reigned  886- 
918/1481-1512)  is  meant,  since  in  his  reign,  in  897/1492,  there  was, 
according  to  the  historian  Sa'du'd-Dm,  a  fierce  persecution  of  "the 
Qalandars  "  in  consequence  of  an  attempt  on  the  Sultan's  life  made  by 
one  of  them. 

3  See  p.  367  supra,  but  compare  also  p.  374. 


CH.  v]     HURUFfS  AND  BEKTASHfS  DENOUNCED     371 

doctrines.  As  lately  as  1291/1874-5  there  was  published 
a  Turkish  denunciation  of  the  sect  entitled  "  the  Revealer 
of  Mysteries  and  Repeller  of  Miscreants :  a  Refutation  of 
the  Doctrines  and  Practices  of  the  Hurufis  and  Bektashis," 
by  Ishaq  Efendi,  who  is  very  well  informed  concerning  the 
matters  about  which  he  writes  and  gives  a  clear  and  accurate 
account  of  the  doctrines  which  he  denounces.  He  divides 
his  treatise  into  three  chapters,  of  which  the  first  treats  of 
the  origin  of  Fadl[u'llah]  the  Hurufi',  and  the  principles  and 
laws  of  certain  of  the  Bektashis ;  the  second  of  the  blas- 
phemies of  Firishta-zada's  Jdwiddn ;  and  the  third  of  the 
blasphemies  contained  in  the  other  Jdwiddns.  He  men- 
tions a  persecution  of  the  Bektashis  by  Sultan  Mahmud  in 
1241/1825-6,  in  which  the  Turkish  poet  'Arif  Hikmat  Bey 
acted  as  chief  inquisitor ;  and  says  that  he  was  moved  to  the 
compilation  and  publication  of  his  work  by  the  impudence 
of  the  Bektashis  in  daring  to  print  and  publish  the  'Ishq-ndma, 
or  "  Book  of  Love,"  of  Firishta-zada  ('Abdu'l-Majfd  ibn 
Firishta  Tzzu'd-Din)  in  1288/1871-2.  He  says  that  "the 
books  which  these  persons  (i.e.  the  Bektashis  or  Hurufis) 
call  Jdwiddn  are  six  in  number,  of  which  one  was  composed 
by  their  original  misleader  Fadlu'llah  the  Hurufi,  while  the 
other  five  are  the  works  of  his  Khaltfas"  (Vice-gerents  or 
Successors).  "In  these  five  books,"  he  adds,  "their  heresies 
and  blasphemies  are  very  evident,  and  they  are  wont  to 
teach  and  study  them  secretly  amongst  themselves  " ;  but 
"  Firishta-zada  in  his  Jdwiddn,  entitled  'Ishq-ndma,  did  in 
some  measure  conceal  his  blasphemies." 

"  After  a  while,"  continues  the  author,  "  the  evil  doctrines  of  those 
heretics  became  known  amongst  men,  and  the  son  of  Timur  \yiz. 
Mfrinshah]  caused  Fadl  the  Hurufi  to  be  put  to  death,  after  which  he 
tied  a  rope  to  his  legs,  had  him  dragged  publicly  through  the  streets 
and  bazaars,  and  rid  this  nether  world  of  his  vile  existence. 

"  Thereupon  his  Khalifas  (vicars  or  lieutenants)  agreed  to  disperse 
themselves  through  the  lands  of  the  Muslims,  and  devoted  themselves 
to  corrupting  and  misleading  the  people  of  Islam.  He  of  those  Khalifas 
who  bore  the  title  of  al-'Ali  al-A'ld  ('the  High,  the  Supreme')  came  to 
the  monastery  of  Hajji  Bektash  in  Anatolia  and  there  lived  in  seclusion, 

24—2 


372      POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtf  R'S  TIME       [BK  n 

secretly  teaching  the  Jdividdn  to  the  inmates  of  the  monastery,  with 
the  assurance  that  it  represented  the  doctrine  of  Hajji  Bektash  the 
saint  (waif).  The  inmates  of  the  monastery,  being  ignorant  and  foolish, 
accepted  the  Jdividdn,  notwithstanding  that  its  obvious  purport  was 
the  denial  of  all  divine  obligations  and  the  pandering  to  the  lusts  of  the 
flesh  ;  named  it  'the  secret' ;  and  enjoined  the  utmost  reticence  concerning 
it,  to  such  a  degree  that  if  anyone  enters  their  order  and  afterwards 
reveals  '  the  secret,'  they  consider  his  life  as  forfeit.  By  this  their  so- 
called  '  secret'  are  meant  certain  blasphemous  passages  in  \h&Jdwiddn, 
hinted  at  by  detached  letters  like  alif  (1),  vudw  (*),jim  (~,),  and  zayn  ( ;), 

for  the  interpreting  of  which  symbols  they  have  compiled  a  treatise 
entitled  'the  Key  of  Life'  (Miftdhu'l-Haydt).  This  they  name  'the 
Secret,'  and  should  one  possess  it  he  understands  the  Jdwiddn,  which 
without  this  aid  is  unintelligible.  They  were  thus  careful  to  conceal 
their  secret  for  fear  lest  the  doctors  of  religion  (^ulama)  should  obtain 
some  inkling  of  its  nature  and  should  suppress  it ;  and  thus,  since 
800/1397-8,  they  have  succeeded  in  secretly  seducing  many." 

The  author  then  goes  on  to  expose  and  denounce  the 
different  tricks  and  stratagems  by  which  they  strive  to  win 
men,  both  Muslims  and  non-Muslims,  to  their  heresies,  and 
adds  : 

"  From  all  this  it  is  plain  that  these  people  [the  Bektashis]  are  not 
really  Shf'ites,  but  are  essentially  a  polytheistic  sect  [Mushrikuri^  who, 
though  unable  to  win  over  to  themselves  the  Jews  and  Christians,  how- 
ever much  they  affirm  their  doctrines,  do  attract  some  of  those  Muslims 
who  are  partial  to  the  Shi'ite  doctrine.  So  when  I  questioned  certain 
Bektashi  neophytes,  they  declared  themselves  to  be  of  the  Ja'fari  [i.e. 
the  Imami  or  Shi'a]  sect,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  mysteries  of  the 
Jdividdn,  imagining  themselves  to  be  of  the  Shf'a.  But  when  I  enquired 
of  a  learned  Persian  traveller  named  Mi'rza  Safa  his  opinion  concerning 
the  Bektashis,  he  replied,  '  I  have  associated  much  with  them,  and  have 
carefully  investigated  their  religion,  and  they  deny  [the  necessity  of] 
actions  prescribed  by  the  Holy  Law.'  He  thus  decisively  declared 
their  infidelity.  We  take  refuge  with  God  from  their  ignorance  ! " 

During  the  Easter  Vacation  of  1897 1  had  the  opportunity 
of  examining  with  some  care  two  Hurufi  manuscripts  be- 
longing to  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  at  Paris1,  which  I 
described  in  the  J.R.A.S.  for  1898  (pp.  61-94)  in  an  article 

1  They  bear  the  class-marks  Ancien  Fonds  Persan  24,  and  Suppl. 
Persan  107. 


The  Istiiud- 
ntima 


CH.  v]  HURtiFf  MSS.  DISCOVERED  373 

entitled  "  Some  Notes  on  the  Literature  and  Doctrines  of 
the  Hunan'  Sect."     One  of  these  MSS.,  dated  970/1562-3, 
contains  the  Istiwd-ndma  of  Amir  Ghiyathu'd- 
Dfn,  a  mathnawi poem  in  Persian  on  Alexander 
the  Great's  quest  after  the  Water  of  Life,  and 
a  glossary  of  the  dialect  words  occurring  in  the  Jdwiddn-i- 
Kabtr.   The  other,  dated  895/1489-90,  contains 
the  Mahabbat-ndma,  of  which  there  is  reason 
to   believe    that    Fadlu'llah    himself   was   the 
author. 

Nine  years  later,  in  the  J.R.A.S.  for  1907,  I  published 
another  article  on  this  subject  entitled  "  Further  Notes  on 
the  Literature  of  the  Hurufis  and  their  connection  with  the 
Bektashf  Order  of  Dervishes,"  in  which  I  described  43  Hu- 
rufi MSS.  recently  acquired  by  the  British  Museum,  the 
Cambridge  University  Library,  and  myself.  Concerning 
the  manner  in  which  these  MSS.  were  obtained  I  then  wrote 
as  follows  : 

"The  connection  of  the  Hurufis  with  the  Bektashis  first  became 
known  to  me  in  the  following  manner.  About  three  years  after  the 
publication  of  the  article  to  which  I  have  referred  above,  a  certain 
dealer  in  Oriental  manuscripts  in  London,  a  native  of  Baghdad,  from 
whom  I  had  already  purchased  a  number  of  MSS.,  invited  me  to  furnish 
him  with  a  list  of  my  desiderata,  in  order  that  he  might  submit  the  same 
to  his  correspondents  in  the  East.  I  did  so,  and  mentioned  in  my  list 
the  JdwidAn-ndma  or  any  other  Hurufi  books.  Shortly  afterwards  (in 
Feb.-March,  1901)  he  forwarded  to  me  a  parcel  of  manuscripts  in 
which  was  included  a  copy  of  this  work  (now  in  the  British  Museum, 
marked  Or.  5957)  besides  some  other  books  of  the  sort  in  question. 
The  prices  set  on  these  MSS.  were  high,  but  some  half-dozen  were 
secured  by  the  Cambridge  University  Library,  while  five  or  six  more 
were  purchased  by  the  British  Museum,  and  now  bear  the  class-marks 
Or-  5957-Or-  5Q6i- 

"  The  comparatively  high  prices  realized  by  these  MSS.  seem  to  have 
stimulated  the  search  for  other  similar  ones,  and  gradually,  as  the 
supply  not  only  continued  but  increased,  it  became  clear  that  these 
Hurufi  books  existed  in  considerable  quantities,  and  were  still  widely 
read  and  copied  in  the  East,  especially  in  Turkey.  Prices  consequently 
fell  rapidly,  and  latterly  few  of  these  MSS.  have  fetched  more  than  £2 
or  ^3  in  the  limited  market  where  the  demand  for  them  existed.  Nor 


374        POETS  &  WRITERS  OF  TfMtJR'S  TIME     [BK  n 

was  it  long  before  we  discovered  that  it  was  from  the  Bektashf  dervishes 
that  they  were,  in  almost  all  cases,  directly  or  indirectly  derived,  and 
that  it  is  amongst  the  members  of  this  Order  that  the  Hurufi  doctrines 
flourish  at  the  present  day." 

Amongst  the  MSS.  described  in  this  article  are  two  or 
three  treatises  dealing  with  the  biography  and  teachings  of 
Hajji  Bektash,  from  whom  the  Order  in  question  derives 
its  name,  and  who  died  in  73 8/ 13 37-8 1,  two  years  before 
the  birth  of  Fadlu'llah  the  Huruff.  This  latter  date,  with 
five  others  connected  with  the  early  history  of  the  sect,  is 
recorded  on  the  fly-leaf  of  one  of  the  British  Museum  MSS. 
(Or.  6381)  as  follows  : 

(l).   Birth  of  Fadlu'llah,  740/1339-1340. 

(2)  Manifestation  or  annunciation  of  his  doctrine,  788/ 
1386-7. 

(3)  Martyrdom  of  Fadlu'lldh,  796/1 393-4,  aged  56  lunar 
years. 

(4)  Death   of  his  Khalifa  "  Hadrat-i-'Aliyyu'l-A'la," 
822/1419. 

(5)  Death  of  Timur's  son  Mi'ranshah  (whom  the  Hurufis 
called  "Antichrist,"  Dajjdl,  and  "  the  King  of  Snakes,"  Md- 
rdn-shdh\  who  slew  Fadlu'llah,  803/1400-1. 

From  a  verse  on  the  same  page  it  would  appear  that 
Fadlu'llah  performed  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  in  775/1373-4. 
On  a  page  of  another  of  these  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum 
(Or.  6380,  f.  24)  is  inscribed  a  curious  document  which 
appears  to  be  Fadlu'llah's  last  Will  and  Testament.  From 
this,  of  which  the  text  and  translation  are  printed  in  full  in 
the  article  in  question2,  it  would  appear  that  he  was  put  to 
death  at  Shirwan.  The  article  concludes  with  a  complete 
index  of  all  the  books  and  persons  mentioned  in  it.  The 
titles  of  most  of  the  books,  whether  Persian  or  Turkish,  end 
in  ndma;  e.g.  Adam-ndma  ("the  Book  of  Adam "),  Akhirat- 

1  The  authority  for  this  date  is  Mu'allim  Najf  (Esdmt,  p.  106).    By 
a  curious  coincidence  this  date  is  yielded  by  the  sum  of  the  letters 
composing  the  word  Bektdshiyya,  the  name  of  the  order. 

2  Pp.  9-10  of  the  separate  reprint  from  the  J.  JR.  A.  S.  for  July,  1907. 


CH.  v]     A  FRENCH  WORK  ON  THE  HURtfFfS         375 

ndma  ("the  Book  of  the  Hereafter"),  'Arsh-ndma  ("the 
Book  of  the  Throne  "),  Bashdrat-ndma  ("  the  Book  of  Good 
Tidings  "),  etc. 

In  1909  there  was  published  in  the  "E.  J.  W.  Gibb 
Memorial "  Series  a  volume  (vol.  ix)  containing  translations 
into  French  of  several  Hurufi  treatises,  with  explanatory 
notes,  etc.,  by  M.  Cle'ment  Huart,  followed  by  a  study  of 
the  Hurufi  doctrines  (also  in  French)  by  Dr  Riza  Tevfiq, 
commonly  known  in  Turkey  as  "  Feylesiif  Rizd  "  or  "  Riza 
the  Philosopher,"  a  man  remarkable  for  his  attainments  in 
the  learning  of  both  East  and  West,  and  an  adept  in  all 
that  appertains  to  the  various  Dervish  Orders  of  Turkey, 
especially  the  Bektashi's.  This  volume,  by  far  the  most 
important  independent  work  on  the  subject,  is  a  rich  mine 
of  information  on  the  strange  and  fantastic  doctrines  of  a 
sect  which,  though  its  very  name  seems  to  have  been  un- 
known in  Europe  twenty  years  ago,  played  a  not  unimportant 
part  in  the  history  of  Western  Asia.  Its  characteristic 
doctrines,  equally  ingenious  and  grotesque,  are  pretty  fully 
discussed  in  the  books  and  articles  mentioned  above,  to 
which  such  as  desire  fuller  knowledge  of  them  may  be 
referred. 


BOOK  III. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  TfMUR  TO  THE 
RISE  OF  THE  SAFAWf  DYNASTY 

(A.H.  807-907  =  A.D.  1405-1502). 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  LATER  TIMURID  PERIOD. 

The  century  which  we  are  now  about  to  consider  is  in  its 
latter  part  one  of  those  chaotic  and  anarchical  periods  which, 
character  of  the  m  Persian  history,  commonly  follow  the  death  of 
century  which  a  great  conqueror  and  empire-builder.  It  in- 
forms the  subject  11.1  •  /-^ITTLI  •T- 

of  the  remainder  eludes  the  rise  of  the  Uzbek  power  m  Trans- 
of  this  volume  oxiana ;  the  gradual  decay  and  disruption  of  the 
vast  empire  built  up  by  Tfmur  at  so  great  a  cost  of  blood 
and  suffering;  the  successive  domination  of  two  Turkman 
dynasties  known  as  the  "Black"  and  "White  Sheep"  (Qdra- 
qoyiinlii  and  Aq-qoyiinlii) ;  and  the  appearance  and  triumph 
of  the  Safawis,  the  greatest  of  modern  Persian  dynasties, 
who  may  be  regarded  in  a  certain  sense  as  the  creators,  or 
at  least  the  restorers,  of  Persian  national  sentiment  in 
modern  times.  It  begins  with  the  death  of  Ti'mur  in  8o7/ 
1405,  and  ends  with  the  Battle  of  Shurur,  in  907/1501-2,  in 
which  Shah  Isma'il  the  Safawi  utterly  defeated  the  "White 
Sheep"  Turkmans,  made  Tabriz  his  capital, and  was  crowned 
king  of  Persia;  though  it  took  him  some  years  to  extend 
his  sway  over  the  whole  country,  until,  as  Stanley  Lane- 
Poole  says,  "his  dominions  stretched  from  the  Oxus  to  the 
Persian  Gulf,  from  Afghanistan  to  the  Euphrates." 

When  examined  more  closely,  this  period  of  a  century 
is  seen  to  fall  naturally  into  two  unequal  halves,  divided  by 
The  death  of  tne  death  of  Tfmur's  third  son  Shah-rukh  in 
Snah-rukhin  850/1446-7.  As  long  as  he  lived  and  reigned, 

1446  divides  this      .  .      .      .  .„  e  .^ 

period  into  two  he  succeeded,  in  spite  of  numerous  revolts  on 
dissimilar  pans  ^g  part  of  hjs  kinsmen,  in  maintaining  almost 
in  its  integrity  the  empire  conquered  by  his  father,  which, 
however,  after  his  death  underwent  rapid  disintegration  at 
the  hands  first  of  the  "Black"  and  then  of  the  "White  Sheep" 


380       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

Turkmans,  and  lastly  of  the  Uzbeks,  until  these  in  their 
turn,  together  with  the  remnants  of  the  House  of  Timur, 
were  swept  aside  by  the  victorious  Shah  Isma'il  the  Safawi. 
But  though  the  House  of  Timur  was  driven  out  of  Persia, 
The  Timurids  it  was  still  destined  to  play  a  splendid  part  in 
after  their  expui-  India,  where  Zahiru'd-Din  Muhammad  Babur, 

sion  from  Persia,       ,  ,  '   r  _, .        ,        ,    . 

play  a  brilliant  «*C  great-great-great-grandson  of  I  imur,  driven 
pan  in  India  out  by  the  Uzbeks  from  his  own  principality  of 
Farghana,  founded  the  dynasty  commonly  known  in  Europe 
as  the  "  Great  Moguls,"  which  endured  there  for  more  than 
three  centuries  and  finally  disappeared  in  the  great  Mutiny 
of  1857.  With  the  "Great  Moguls"  of  India  we  are  not 
directly  concerned  in  this  book,  save  in  so  far  as  they  came 
into  relations  with  the  Persian  Safawis ;  but  though  the 
political  importance  of  the  later  Tfmurids  in  Persia  con- 
tinually decreased  after  the  death  of  Shah-rukh,  the  courts 
of  their  diminished  realms  continued  to  be  a  centre  of 
literary  activity,  enriched  by  the  presence  of  numerous  cele- 
brated poets  and  men  of  letters,  while  several  princes  of 
this  House,  notably  Sultan  Abu'l-Ghazi  Husayn  b.  Mansur 
b.  Bayqara,  Ulugh  Beg,  Baysunqur  and  the  great  Bibur  him- 
self, made  notable  contributions  to  literature  or  science,  and 
Mfr 'Ah'  ShirNawa'f,  Ministerof  Sultan  Abu'l-Ghazi  Husayn, 
was  at  once  a  notable  poet  (especially  in  the  Turki  tongue) 
and  a  generous  patron  of  men  of  letters,  so  that  the  literary 
splendour  of  Herat  under  the  later  Timurids  is  comparable 
to  that  of  Ghazua  under  Sultan  Mahmud. 

From  the  political  point  of  view  the  most  important 
representatives  of  the  dynasties  mentioned  above  were 
Shah-rukh  of  the  House  of  Ti'mur ;  Qara  Yusuf  of  the 
"Black  Sheep"  Turkmans;  Uzun  Hasan  of  the  "White 
Sheep"  Turkmans;  Shaybani  Khan  of  the  Uzbeks;  and, 
chief  of  all,  Shah  Isma'il  the  founder  of  the  great  Safawi 

dynasty.     Of  Uzun  ("Tall"  or  "Long")  Hasan 
to^zd^HasaiT    we  Possess  contemporary  European  accounts 

in    the   narratives    of  Caterino    Zeno,   Josafa 
Barbaro  and  Ambrosio  Contarini,  ambassadors  from  Venice 


CH.VI]          VENETIAN  ENVOYS  IN  PERSIA  381 

to  this  great  ruler  (whom  they  variously  call  "Ussun 
Cassano"  and  "Assambei"),  whose  assistance  against  the 
increasingly  formidable  power  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  they 
desired  to  gain.  They  successively  visited  Persia  for  this 
purpose  between  the  years  A.D.  1471  and  1478,  and  their 
narratives,  full  of  interest  and  life-like  touches  seldom  found 
in  the  pages  of  Persian  historians  of  this  period,  have  been 
published  in  English  by  the  Hakluyt  Society  in  a  volume 
entitled  Six  Narratives  of  Travel  in  Persia  by  Italians  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries^. 

Before  considering  in   greater   detail    these    Turkman 

dynasties  of  the  "Black"  and  "White  Sheep,"  the  history 

of  the  House  of  Ti'mur,  so  far  as  its  connection 

Timiir's  sons  ?.«•»»••  i  i       «     •    «  i 

with  Persia  is  concerned,  must  be  briefly  traced. 
Ti'mur  had  four  sons  and  a  daughter.  Of  his  sons  the  eldest, 
Jahangir,  predeceased  his  father  by  thirty  years;  and  the 
second,  'Umar  Shaykh  Mi'rza,by  ten  years.  The  third,  Mfrdn- 
shah,  survived  him  by  three  years,  but  fell  into  disgrace  and 
appears  to  have  become  affected  in  his  reason.  The  fourth 
was  Shah-rukh,  who  practically  succeeded  his  father,  and 
had  a  long  and  prosperous  reign  of  forty-three  years  (807- 
850/1404-1447).  Ti'mur's  intention  was  that  Jahdngir's  son 
Pir  Muhammad  should  succeed  him,  but  he  was  defeated 
by  his  cousin  Khalil  Sultan, son  of  Mi  ran  shah,  who  succeeded 

in  taking  possession  of  Samarqand  and  gaining 
Kham'suitdn  *^e  suPPort  of  several  powerful  nobles,  and  was 

finally  murdered  two  years  after  his  grandfather's 
death  by  his  trusted  minister  'All  Taz  or  Pir  'All.  Khalil 
Sultdn,  though  not  without  parts,  was  undone  by  his  infatua- 
tion for  the  courtesan  Shad  Malak,  whose  extravagant  whims 
he  was  ever  ready  to  gratify,  to  the  disgust  of  his  nobles 
and  officers,  who,  headed  by  the  two  Khuda-dads  and  Bardi 

1  The  three  other  narratives  are  the  Discourse  of  Giovan  Battista 
Ramusio  on  the  "writings  of  Giovan  Maria  Angioletto...in  which  are 
narrated  the  life  and  deeds  of  Ussun  Cassano;  the  Travels  of  a  Merchant 
in  Persia  (in  the  time  of  Shah  Isma'fl)  ;  and  the  Narrative  of  Vincentio 
tf  Allesandri,  Venetian  Ambassador  to  Shdh  Tahmasp. 


382       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD   [BK  m 

Beg,  presently  rose  against  him,  deposed  him,  and  banished 
him  to  Kashghar.  Thereupon  his  uncle  Shah-rukh  marched 
in  and  took  possession,  but  had  sufficient  kindliness  to  re- 
unite the  unhappy  Khah'l  to  his  beloved  Shad  Malak,  who 
showed  her  appreciation  of  his  devotion  by  stabbing  herself 
with  a  poniard  when  he  died.  The  two  were  buried  together 
in  the  same  tomb  at  Ray1.  Khah'l  Sultan  was  not  only  a 
generous  patron  of  poets  but  himself  wrote  verse,  of  which 
several  specimens  are  recorded  by  Dawlatshah2. 

Shah-rukh,  who  now  succeeded  to  the  throne,  was  born 

in  779/1377,  and  was  therefore  28  years  of  age  at  the  time 

of  his  accession.     He  had  been  made  governor 

ShAh-rukh 

(reigned  A.D.  of  Khurasan  in  his  twentieth  year  (799/1396-7), 
1404-1447)  ancj  wag  ajreacjy  practically  absolute  in  that 
province  and  struck  coins  in  his  own  name.  His  dominions 
were  successively  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  Mazandar^n 
(809/1406-7),  Transoxiana(8n/i4o8-9),Fars(8i7/i4i4-5), 
Kirman  (819/1416-7)  and  Adharbayjan  (823/1420).  The 
attempt  on  his  life  by  Ahmad-i-Lur,  alluded  to  in  the  last 
chapter3,  was  made  in  830/1427,  and  he  finally  died  at  Ray 
in  850/1447,  after  a  reign  of  43  years  at  the  age  of  72.  He 
waged  successful  wars  against  the  rulers  of  the  "Black 
Sheep"  dynasty,  Qara  Yiisuf  and  his  son  Iskandar,  but  on 
the  whole,  as  Sir  John  Malcolm  says4,  "he  desired  not  to 
extend,  but  to  repair,  the  ravages  committed  by  his  father. 
He  rebuilt  the  walls  of  the  cities  of  Herat  and  Merv,  and 
restored  almost  every  town  and  province  in  his  dominions 
to  prosperity.  This  Prince  also  encouraged  men  of  science 
and  learning,  and  his  Court  was  very  splendid.  He  culti- 
vated the  friendship  of  contemporary  monarchs,  and  we  read 
in  the  pages  of  his  historian  a  very  curious  account  of  some 

1  This  is  Sir  John  Malcolm's  version  (Hist,  of  Persia,  ed.  1815, 
vol.  i,  p.  486),  for  which  his  authority  is  De  Guignes.     Dawlatshah, 
however  (p.  354),  says  that  the  rebellious  nobles  cut  off  Shdd  Malak's 
ears  and  nose,  and  makes  no  mention  of  her  reunion  with  Khah'l 
Sultan. 

2  Pp.  355-6  of  my  edition. 

3  See  p.  366  supra.  4  Op.  tit.,  \,  p.  487. 


X 


SHAH-RUKH 


Add.  7468  (Brit.  Mus.),  f.  44 


To  face  p.  382 


CH.  vi]  CHARACTER  OF  SHAH-RUKH  383 

embassies  which  passed  between  him  and  the  Emperor  of 
China1." 

With  this  estimate  of  Shah-rukh's  character  the  most 
recent  native  historian  of  Persia,  Mirza  Muhammad  Husayn 
Khan  Zukaul-Mulk,  poetically  surnamed  Fu- 
charaoeriJ  rAghijs  in  complete  agreement2.  "  After Timur," 
depicted  by  he  says,  "his  son  Mirza  Shah-rukh  sat  in  the 
place  of  his  father.  He  was  a  successor  who 
was  the  exact  opposite  of  his  predecessor,  a  peaceful  and 
placable  man,  never  prone  to  war  and  contention,  save  with 
seditious  rebels  and  such  as  sought  means  to  create  dis- 
turbances in  the  empire,  whom  he  deemed  it  necessary  to 
suppress.  In  brief,  the  Empire  founded  by  Timur  was 
refined  by  the  efforts  of  Mirza  Shah-rukh,  who  during  a 
long  period  busied  himself  in  repairing  the  devastation 
wrought  by  his  father,  and  in  informing  himself  as  to  the 
condition  of  his  subjects  and  compassing  their  happiness. 
It  is  an  extraordinary  fact  that  the  son  of  one  so  hard- 
hearted should  be  so  kindly,  amiable,  gracious  and  friendly 
to  learning,  showing  favour  and  courtesy  to  all,  especially 
to  scholars  and  men  of  parts.  Ogotay  Khan,  the  son  of 
Chingiz  Khan,  had  a  somewhat  similar  disposition  and 
practice,  and  in  particular  he  has  left  on  the  page  of  history 
a  great  reputation  for  generosity,  so  that  he  has  been  entitled 
'the  Hatim3  of  later  days';  and  we  have  met  with  many 
anecdotes  concerning  his  liberality  and  tenderness  of  heart 
in  the  pages  of  former  writers." 

Dawlatshah4  is  equally  flattering,  and,  with  his  usual 
exaggeration,  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  "  from  the  time  of 

1  He  received  an  embassy  of  Khidr  Kh£n  from  India  in  824/1421, 
and  sent  one  to  the  Turkish  Sultdn  Mura"d  (Amurath)  II  in  839/1435-6. 
(Munajjim-ba'shfs    Sahtfifu'l-Akhbdr^    vol.    iii,   pp.    56-7.)      Further 
mention  of  the  embassies  to  China  and  India  will  be  made  later  on 
in  this  chapter. 

2  Tdrikh-i-frdn,  lith.  Tihrdn,  A.H.  1323  (1905),  pp.  266-7. 

3  Hitim  of  the  tribe  of  Tayy  was  celebrated  amongst  the  old  Arabs 
for  his  generosity. 

4  Pp.  336-8  of  my  edition. 


384       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMttRID  PERIOD   [BK  in 

Adam  until  this  our  day  no  age,  period,  cycle  or  moment 
can  be  indicated  in  which  the  people  enjoyed  such  peace 
The  same  an<^  tranquillity  as  they  did  in  his  [Shah-rukh's] 

according  to  days."  He  adds  that  such  were  the  virtues  of 
this  Prince  that  he  was  credited  with  miraculous 
gifts  and  knowledge  of  the  Unseen.  Of  the  two  instances 
of  this  which  Dawlatshah  gives,  one  rests  on  the  authority 
of  his  father,  who  was  one  of  his  familiar  attendants.  Ulti- 
mately,however,accordingtothis  writer,  Shcih-rukh  incurred 
the  Divine  displeasure  by  putting  to  death  three  learned 
and  pious  men  of  Isfahan  whom  he  suspected  of  having 
encouraged  his  grandson  Sultan  Muhammad  Baysunqur  in 
his  revolt  against  him.  These  cursed  him  ere  they  died, 
and  "the  doors  of  Heaven  being  open,  the  prayers  of  those 
innocent  and  illustrious  victims  were  answered ;  the  seed  of 
that  highly-placed  king  was  cut  off,  and  the  sovereignty 
returned  to  its  original  source."  Amongst  the  many  artists, 
poets  and  men  of  learning  contemporary  with  Shah-rukh 
Dawlatshah1  mentions  four  in  particular  as  conferring  special 
lustre  on  his  court,  namely  'Abdu'l-Qadir  of  Maragha  the 
musician  (who  is  mentioned  by  Munajjim-bdshi^  as  one  of 
the  eminent  victims  of  the  plague  which  afflicted  Herat  in 
838/1434-5),  Yusuf  of  Andakan  the  minstrel,  Qiwamu'd- 
Dfn  the  engineer  and  architect,  and  Mawlana  Khah'l  the 
painter,  who  in  skill  was  "second  only  to  Mam"  (Manes). 

The  Turkish  historian  Munajjim-bdshP  speaks  not  less 

favourably  than  the  writers  already  cited  of  Shah-rukh's 

character.     "  He  was,"  says  he,  "  a  wise,  just, 

The  same  .  . 

according  to        prudent  and  benevolent  king,  prone  to  forgive 
Munajjim-bashi    and  tQ  do  sood^  devout)  temperate  and  pious, 

so  that  alike  at  home  and  on  the  march,  nay,  even  in  time 

1  P.  340  of  my  edition. 

2  Sah£ifitl-Akhbdr,vQ\.  iii,p.  57  (Constantinople,  A.H.  1285).   This 
useful   history  was  originally  composed  in  Arabic  by  Ahmad-Dede 
Efendi  ibn  Lutfu'llah,  and  comes  down  to  1083/1672.      The  Turkish 
translation  was  made  in  1132/1720  by  Ahmad  b.  Muhammad  Nadfm 
for  the  Grand  Wazir  Damad  Ibrahim  Pasha. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  58. 


CH.  vi]  SHAH-RUKH  AND  BAYSUNQUR  385 

of  war  and  battle,  he  never  neglected  the  morning,  noon  and 
evening  prayers,  while  on  '  white  days '  and  on  the  first  day 
of  each  month  he  used  to  fast,  and  on  the  eve  of  Fridays, 
Mondays  and  Thursdays  he  used  to  assemble  those  who 
knew  the  QuSdn  by  heart  and  cause  them  to  recite  the  entire 
scripture  in  his  presence.  During  the  whole  period  of  his 
life  he  never  knowingly  committed  a  major  sin.  He  con- 
tinually sought  the  society  of  learned  and  pious  men,  on 
whom  he  conferred  the  greatest  benefits  and  favours.  He 
never  suffered  defeat,  but  was  always  favoured  by  fortune 
and  victorious.  To  whatever  land  he  went,  he  first  of  all 
used  to  visit  any  shrine  which  might  exist  there."  His 
empire,  in  the  words  of  the  same  writer,  extended  "  from 
the  confines  of  China  to  the  frontiers  of  Rum  (Turkey  in 
Asia),  and  from  the  remotest  parts  of  Turkistan  to  the  limits 
of  India." 

Of  Shah-rukh's  five  sons1  only  one,  Ulugh  Beg,  survived 

to  succeed  him.     Of  the  other  four  Baysunqur,  who  died  of 

drink  (the  curse  of  this  family)  in  837/1433  at 

Baysunqur  Mirzd  .. 

the  age  of  37,  was,  perhaps,  the  most  talented2, 
and  the  greatest  patron  of  art  and  learning,  to  whose  court 
flocked  poets,  artists,  scholars,  calligraphists,  miniature- 
painters,  book-binders  and  illuminators  from  'Irdq,  Fdrs, 
Adharbayjan,  and  all  parts  of  Persia.  In  connection  with 
Persian  literature  he  is  chiefly  associated  with  the  preface 
prefixed  to  the  Shdh-ndma  of  Firdawsi  in  his  name  and 
composed  for  him  in  829/1426.  The  following  chronogram 
of  his  death  is  given  in  the  Habibu's-Siyar: 

j\J   A&9   Ui£ 


1  The  remaining  three  sons  were  Abu'1-Fath  Ibrahim  (^838/1434-5), 
who  was  the  patron  of  the  historian  Sharafu'd-Dm  'AH  of  Yazd  ; 
Suyurghatmish  (d.  830/1426-7) ;  and  Muhammad  Juki  (d.  848/1444-5). 

2  Habibu's-Siyar,  vol.  iii,  part  3,  p.  131  ;  Munajjim-bashfs  Sahd- 
'iftfl-Akhbdr,  vol.  iii,  p.  66.    He  was  especially  interested  in  calligraphy. 

B.  P.  25 


386       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtJRID  PERIOD    [BK  in 

"  In  the  morning  that  august  prince  B^ysunqur  said  to  me, 
'  Tell  tidings  of  me  to  the  people  of  the  world  : 
I  am  gone,  and  this  is  the  date  of  my  death  — 
May  my  father's  life  be  long  in  the  world1!'" 

Shah-rukh  died  near  Ray  on  March  13,  1447,  and,  as 

stated  above,  was  succeeded,  though  not  peaceably,  by  his 

son  Ulugh  Beg,  who  had  during  his  father's 

UlughBeg  ,     * 

life-time  been  governor  or  1  uran  or  1  urkistan. 
It  was  during  this  period,  in  824/1421,  that  he  built  at 
Samarqand  his  celebrated  observatory,  where,  with  the  col- 
laboration of  four  eminent  men  of  learning,  Salahu'd-Dm 
Musa,  called  Qadi-Zada-i-Rumi  ("the  Turkish  Judge's  son")  ; 
Mulla  'Ala'u'd-Di'n  'All  Qiishjf,  the  commentator  of  the 
Tajrid;  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Jamshid;  and  Mu'inu'd-Din  of 
Kashan,  he  compiled  the  notable  astronomical  tables  known 
as  the  Zij-i-  Ulugh  Beg,  or  Zij-i-jadid-i-Sultdni,  which  were 
probably  completed  in  841/1437-8,  and  concerning  which 
full  particulars  are  given  by  Rieu2. 

Ulugh  Beg,  as  already  indicated,  did  not  at  once  succeed 

in  establishing  his  supremacy,  which   was   contested    by 

'Ala'u'd-Dawla,   who    seized    Herat   and   cast 

Ulugh  Beg  is 

murdered  by  his  '  Abdu'l-Latif,  the  son  of  Ulugh  Beg,  into  prison. 
Nor  did  his  authority,  when  established,  endure 
long,  for  he  was  killed  at  the  instigation  of  his  son,  the 
above-mentioned  'Abdu'l-Latif,  on  Ramadan  10,853  (October 
27,  1449)  by  a  certain  'Abbas,  the  year  of  this  tragic 
event  being  given  by  the  chronogram  '  'Abbas  killed  \hini\ 


'Abdu'l-Latif,  not  content  with  the  murder  of  his  father, 

also  murdered  his  brother  'Abdu'l-'Aziz,  but  did  not  long 

profit  by  his  crime,  for  he  in  turn  was  murdered 

'Abdu'l-Latif          .,-  ,.    •      •n./uj' 

in  the  ensuing  year,  854/1450,  by  a  certain  Joaba 

1  The  sum  of  the  letters  composing  this  hemistich  gives  837,  the 
date  of  Baysunqur's  death. 

2  Persian  Catalogue,  pp.  455-7,  where  the  European  editions  and 
translations  of  this  work  are  enumerated.   See  also  Clements  Markham's 
History  of  Persia,  p.  224  ad  calc. 


CH.  vi]        ULUGH  BEG  AND  'ABDU'L-LATfF  387 

Husayn,  this  date,  curiously  enough,  being  given  by  the 
chronogram  Bdbd  Husayn  killed  \hini\  (c-JL^s  O*~*>  ^)- 
Mfrkhwand,  in  recording  this  event,  cites  the  well-known 
dictum  of  the  poet  Nizami  as  to  the  short-lived  prosperity 
of  royal  parricides  : 


"The  parricide  is  unworthy  of  sovereignty: 
[Even]  if  he  attains  it,  he  will  not  survive  more  than  six  months." 

"This'Abdu'l-Latff,"  says  the  Turkish  historian  Munajjim 
Bdsht1,  "was  a  talented  and  accomplished  man,  but  very 
impetuous,  blood-thirsty  and  pitiless,  so  that  men's  hearts 
were  turned  aside  from  him.  With  his  death  the  succession 
of  Ulugh  Beg  came  to  an  end  in  Transoxiana." 

From  this  period  onwards  until  its  extinction  in  Persia 

the  House  of  Tfmur  rapidly  declined  in  power,  cohesion 

and  territorial  possessions,  and  even  the  suc- 

'Abdu'llahb.  .  f         ,  •  u 

ibrahimSuitanb.   cession  of  rulers  is  somewhat  uncertain,  or,  to 

be  more  precise,  it  is  uncertain  which  should  be 

accounted  supreme  and  which  subordinate.     Thus  Stanley 

Lane-Poole2  regards  'Abdu'llah,  the  son  of  Ibrahim  Sultan, 

the  son  of  Shah-rukh,  as  the  successor  of  'Abdu'l-Latif  ; 

while   Mfrkhwand    substitutes   Mfrza    Abu'l-Qasim   Babur 

(not  the  great  Babur),  the  son  of  Baysunqur,  the  son  of 

Shah-rukh.    He  died  in  861/1456-7.  having  lost 

Abu'l-Qasim  '  ° 

Babur  b.  'Iraq,  Fars  and  Kirman  four  years  previously 

Baysunqur  ^  Jah£nsh£hj  SQn  Qf  Qar£  YUSUf  of  the  "  Black 

Sheep  "  Turkmans,  and  killed  his  brother  Sultan  Muham- 
mad, the  expelled  ruler  of  Fars,  in  battle. 

Mfrza  'Ala'u'd-Dawla,  another  son  of  Baysunqur,  was 
acting  as  governor  of  Herat  at  the  time  of  his  grandfather 

Shah-rukh's  death,  but,  after  a  certain  show  of 
b^Mysunq^13     opposition,  he  made  peace  with  Ulugh  Beg  and 

Babur,  and  contented  himself  with  the  govern- 
ment of  a  district  extending  from  Khabushan  in  Khurasan 

1  Op.  tit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  65. 

2  Mohammadan  Dynasties,  p.  268. 

25—2 


388       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

to  Astarabad  and  Damghan.  In  852/1448-9  he  was  defeated 
by  Ulugh  Beg  near  Herat  and  driven  into  Badakhshan  and 
the  Plain  of  Qipchaq.  After  various  vicissitudes,  including 
sundry  wars  with  his  brothers  and  a  period  of  allegiance  to 
Jahan-shah,  the  "Black  Sheep"  Turkman  and  enemy  of  his 
House,  he  finally  died  in  875/1470-1.  His  son  Ibrahim, 
having  escaped  from  the  custody  of  his  uncle  Abu'l-Qasim 
Babur,  fled  to  Murghab  and  there  collected  a  considerable 

army.  He  occupied  Herat  and  defeated  his 
^AidVcUDawia  cousm  Mfrz£  Shah  Mahmud,  whom  he  was 

preparing  to  crush  at  Astardbad  when  be  was 
suddenly  attacked  by  the  redoubtable  "Black  Sheep"  Turk- 
man Jahanshah.  Abandoning  Herat  he  fled  before  the 
invader,  but  returned  on  the  withdrawal  of  the  latter,  only 
to  suffer  defeat  at  the  hands  of  Sultan  Abu  Sa'i'd.  He  died 
in  863/1458-9  on  the  march  from  Damghan  to  Mashhad, 
and  his  cousin  and  rival,  the  above-mentioned  Mfrza  Shah 
Mahmud,  was  killed  in  the  same  year. 

Sultan  Abu  Sa'fd,  the  grandson  of  Miranshah,is  described 
by  Mirkhwand  in  the  Rawdatus-Safd  as  "  supreme  amongst 

the  princes  of  the  House  of  Timur  in  high  em- 

Sultan  Abu 

Sa'id  b.  Sultan     prise,  lofty  rank  and  perfect  discernment.     He 

Muhammad  b.  r  •        J          J  c        i      i  ^11- 

was  a  iriend  and  patron  of  scholars,  theologians 


Timur  ancj  men  Of  letters,  and  during  the  period  of 

his  rule  the  lands  of  Turkistan,  Turan,  Khurasan,  Zabulistan, 
Sfstan  and  Mazandaran  attained  the  zenith  of  prosperity." 
He  had  in  early  life  been  attached  to  the  court  of  his  ac- 
complished kinsman  Ulugh  Beg,  whose  son  'Abdu'l-Latif, 
after  murdering  his  father  as  already  related,  cast  Abu  Sa'fd 
into  prison,  whence,  owing  to  the  negligence  of  the  sentries, 
he  escaped  to  Bukhara.  When  'Abdu'l-Latif  in  turn  was 
killed,  he  marched  out  from  Bukhara,  and,  after  giving 
battle  to  his  kinsman  Abu  Bakr,  made  himself  supreme  in 
Turkistan  and  Turan.  In  861/1456-7  he  captured  Herat 
and  put  to  death  Gawhar  Shad  Khatun.  In  862/1457-8 
Jahanshah  invaded  Khurasan  and  occupied  Herat,  but 
afterwards  relinquished  it  to  Abu  Sa'i'd.  Ten  years  later, 


CH.  vi]      ABtf  SA'fD  SLAIN  BY  tfZtfN  HASAN          389 

in  872/1467-8,  when  Jahanshah  was  defeated  and  slain  by 
Uzun  Hasan,  of  the  rival  clan  of  the  "White  Sheep"  Turk- 
mans, Abu  Sa'i'd,  hoping  to  profit  by  this  circumstance,  and 
encouraged  by  representations  from  'Iraq,  Fars,  Kirman, 
Adharbayjan  and  other  lost  provinces,  marched  westwards 
against  his  new  rival  Uzun  Hasan,  by  whom  he  was  finally 
defeated  and  taken  prisoner  near  Mayana.  After  three 
days  his  captor,  having  decided  on  his  destruction,  handed 
him  over  to  Yadigar  Muhammad,  who  put  him  to  death  to 
avenge  the  blood  of  his  grandmother  Gawhar  Shad  Khatun. 
The  philosopher  Jalalu'd-Din  Da  warn,  author  of  the  well- 
known  ethical  manual  entitled  Akhldq-i-Jaldti,  commem- 
orated his  death  in  the  following  chronogram1  : 


By  the  Venetian  travellers  of  this  period,  to  whom  we 

are  indebted  for  much  interesting  information  and  indepen- 

,  dent  chronological  details,  Abu  Sa'i'd  is  called 

Abu  Sa'id  called  /  ' 

"Busech"bythe  "Busech";  while  Uzun  Hasan  is  called  "Ussun 
Cassano,"  "Assimbeo,"  or  "Assambei"  (i.e. 
Hasan  Beg),  and  Jahdnshah  "Giansa."  The  towns  of  'Urfa, 
Isfahan,  Kashan,Qum,Yazd  and  Kharput  appear  as  "Orphi," 
"Spaham"  or  "  Spaan,"  "  Cassan,"  "  Como,"  "Jex"  and 
"  Carparth."  It  should  be  noted  also  that,  apart  from  such 
well-known  general  histories  as  the  Rawdatu's-Safd  and 
Habibus-Siyar,  the  hitherto  unpublished  Matlctu's-Sctdayn 
„.  ,  ,  of  Kamalu'd-Din  'Abdu's-Razzaq,  a  monograph 

Historical  value  » 

ottheMatia'u'f-  on  the  reigns  of  "the  two  Fortunate  Planets," 

i.e.  the  two  Abu  Sa'i'ds  (the  Il-khanf  Mongol, 

reigned  716/1316  —  736/1335,  and  the  Tfmurid  of  whom  we 

1  Given  in  the  Rawdatds-Safd.  The  sum  of  the  letters  composing 
the  last  four  words  (40  +  100  +  400  +  30  +  60  +  30  +  9+1  +  50+1  +  2 
+  6  +  60  +  70+10  +  4)  gives  the  year  of  his  death  873  (=  A.D.  1468-9). 


390       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

are  now  speaking),  which  was  completed  in  875/1470-1,  only 
two  years  after  the  later  Abu  Sa'id's  death,  affords  a  great 
wealth  of  material  for  the  history  of  this  period. 

Abu  Sa'id  was  succeeded  by  two  of  his  sons,  Ahmad 

and  Mahmud,  who  are  accounted  by  Stanley  Lane-Poole 

the  last  (eighth  and  ninth)  rulers  of  the  House 

M'a'hmudTthe       of  Timur  in  Persia  and  Central  Asia.     Of  these 

sons  of  Suitan       the  first  ruled  in  Transoxiana  with  Samarqand 

Abii  Sa'id 

for  his  capital,  and  the  second  in  Badakhshan, 
Khatlan,  Tirmidh,  etc.  Both  died,  the  latter  by  violence 
at  the  hands  of  the  Uzbek  Shaybani  Khan,  in  the  last  years 
of  the  fifteenth  century  (899/1493-4  and  905/1499-1500 
respectively). 

Much  more  important  than  the  two  princes  last  men- 
tioned, from  the  literary  if  not  from  the  political  point  of 
o  ,  *  TI  v  view,  was  Sultan  Husayn  b.  Mansur  b.  Bayqara\ 

Sultan  Husayn  b.  J  •  J  n 

Mansur  b.  whose  court  at   Herat  was   one   of  the  most 

brilliant  centres  of  letters,  art  and  learning 
which  ever  existed  in  Persia.  This  prince,  originally  at- 
tached to  and  protected  by  Ulugh  Beg,  was,  on  the  death 
of  this  ruler  and  his  son  'Abdu'l-Latif,  cast  into  prison  by 
Abu  Sa'id,  but  escaped,  joined  Abu'l-Qasi'm  Babur,  and  fled 
to  Khwarazm  or  Khiva.  In  862/1457-8  he  captured  Astar- 
abdd,  the  capital  of  the  province  of  Gurgdn  or  Jurjan  (the 
ancient  Hyrcania)  and  was  there  crowned,  but  recognized 
Abu  Sa'id  as  his  suzerain  and'  placed  himself  under  his 
protection.  A  year  later  Abu  Sa'id  again  compelled  him 
to  take  refuge  in  Khwarazm  and  occupied  Astarabad,  which, 
however,  he  shortly  afterwards  recovered,  together  with  the 
rest  of  the  provinces  of  Gurgan  and  Mazandaran.  On  the 
death  of  Abu  Sa'id,  Sultan  Husayn  captured  Herat,  and 
was  crowned  there  on  Ramadan  10,  872  (April  3,  1468), 
which  date  is  regarded  by  Munajjim-bdshi  as  the  beginning 
of  his  38  years'  reign,  terminated  by  his  death  at  the  age  of 
seventy  years  on  Monday,  1 1  Dhu'l-Hijja,9i  I  (May  5,  1506). 
During  the  last  20  years  of  this  period  he  was  partly  para- 
lysed. His  talented  minister  Mir  'All  Shfr  Nawa'f,  who, 


CH.  vi]  BABUR,  FIRST  OF  THE  "  GREAT  MOGULS  "  391 

like  his  master,  was  not  only  a  great  patron  of  men  of 
learning  and  letters  but  himself  a  writer  of  distinction,  both 
in  prose  and  verse,  especially  in  the  Turkf  language,  died 
on  the  1 2th  of  Jumada  ii,  906  (January  3,  1501)  at  the  age 
of  62.  An  excellent  monograph  on  his  life  and  literary 
activities  was  published  by  M.  Belin  in  the  Journal  A  siatique 
for  1861,  and  reprinted  in  the  form  of  a  separate  pamphlet1. 
Sultan  Husayn,  besides  his  literary  tastes,  had  a  great  passion 
for  pigeons,  fighting-cocks  and  other  birds,  and,  like  so  many 
of  his  House,  was  much  addicted  to  wine. 

It  still  remains  to  mention  one  of  the  most  notable  of 
all  the  descendants  of  Timur,  namely  Zahiru'd-Din  Muham- 
mad Babur,  who,  though  he  never  ruled  in 
£tTd"D'n  Persia,  was  the  founder  of  a  new  and  splendid 
Tfmurid  empire  in  India,  the  representatives 
of  which,  commonly  known  in  Europe  as  the  "  Great 
Moguls,"  included  such  noble  princes  as  Humayun,  Akbar, 
Jahangir,  Shah-Jahan  and  Awrang-Zfb  'Alamgfr,  and  which, 
though  gradually  shorn  alike  of  its  glories  and  its  virtues, 
continued  to  exist  until  the  great  Indian  Mutiny  in  1857. 
Until  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  their  magnifi- 
cent court  at  Delhi  continued  to  attract  a  great  number  of 
eminent  Persian  poets  and  men  of  letters  during  a  period 
when  fuller  appreciation  and  more  liberal  patronage  of 
talent  was  to  be  found  at  Dihlf  than  at  Isfahan. 

Of  the  life  of  Babur  we    possess  singularly  full  and 

authentic  details  in  the  autobiographical  memoir  generally 

known  as  the  Bdbur-ndma,  or  "Book  of  Babur" 

JiphySaUt0bi°~  which  he  composed  in  the  Turkf  or  Chaghatay 
language.  Of  the  original  Turkf  text  of  this 
remarkable  work  a  printed  edition  was  published  by  Ilminsky 
at  Kazan  in  i85/2;  while  a  fac-simile  of  the  then  newly- 
discovered  Haydarabad  codex  was  edited  by  Mrs  Beveridge 

1  Notice  biographique  et  litte"raire  sur  Mir  Ali-Chir  Nfodii,  suivie 
(C  ex  traits  tire's  des  ceu-vres  du  meme  auteur^  par  M.  Belin,     It  com- 
prises 158  pages. 

2  The  text  comprises  506  pages 


392       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD    [BK  in 

for  the  trustees  of  the  "  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial  Fund  "  in 
I9O51.  This  Turki  text  has  been  translated  into  French 
by  M.  Pavet  de  Courteille,  and  was  published  at  Paris  in 
1 87 1 .  There  also  exists  a  Persian  translation  of  the  original, 
known  as  the  Wdqi'dt  (or  Ttizuk}-i-Bdbari,  made  at  the 
request  of  the  great  Emperor  Akbar,  Babur's  grandson, 
by  his  accomplished  general  Mi'rzd  'Abdu'r-Rahi'm  Khan- 
Khanan  in  998/1  SSg-QO2,  on  which  Dr  John  Leyden  and 
Mr  William  Erskine's  well-known  English  version,  published 
in  London  in  1826,  is  based.  Besides  this  notable  and 
most  authoritative  work,  we  have  the  very  valuable  and 
illuminating  Memoir  of  Babur's  cousin  Mi'rza 

Mirza  Hayaar  ° 

Dughiat's  Haydar  Dughlat,  now  accessible  to  the  English 

reader  in  Sir  E.  Denison  Ross's  translation, 
edited,  with  Preface,  Introduction,  Commentary,  Notes  and 
a  Map,  by  the  late  Mr  Ney  Elias,  formerly  H.B.M.  Consul- 
General  for  Khurasan  and  Si'stan,  and  published  in  London 
in  1898  with  the  title  A  History  of  the  Moghuls  of  Central 
Asia,  being  the  Ta'rikh-i-Rashi'di  of  Mirzd  Muhammad 
Haydar  Dughldt,  This  book,  which,  as  its  title  implies, 
has  a  much  larger  scope  than  the  Bdbur-ndma,  of  which  the 
author  made  use3  in  its  compilation,  greatly  supplements 
and  illuminates  the  earlier  work4.  Apart  from  these  two 
works,  which  are  worthy  of  special  notice  on  account  of  the 
high  position  of  their  authors  and  their  active  participation 
in  the  making  of  the  history  which  they  narrate,  the  historical 
sources  for  this  period  are  unusually  full  and  trustworthy. 

Of  Babur's  life,  which  can  be  studied  in  detail  in  the 
above-mentioned  and  numerous  other  works8,  it  is  sufficient 

1  It  contains  382  ff.  of  text,  107  pp.  of  Indices,  and  an  English 
Preface  of  10  pages. 

2  See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  244  et  seqq. 

3  See  p.  23  of  the  Introduction  to  Mr  Ney  Elias's  book. 

4  The  Bdbur-ndma  comes  down  to  the  year  936/1529-30,  while  the 
Tctrikh-i-Rashtdi  ends  with  the  year  948/1541. 

5  The  best  and  fullest  account  I  know  of  is  W.  Erskine's  History 
of  India  under  the  two  first  Sovereigns  of  the  House  of  Taimur,  Bdber 
and  Humdyun  (2  vols.,  London,  1854). 


CH.  vi]         VICISSITUDES  OF  BABUR'S  LIFE  393 

to  say  here  that  it  falls  broadly  into  three  periods,  of  which 
the  first  was  passed  in  the  little  principality  of  Farghana, 

where  he  was  born  in  A.D.  1482  and  whence 
e         he  was  expelled  by  Shaybani   Khan  and  his 

Uzbeks  about  1504.  During  the  second  period 
(A.D.  1 504-1 525)he  ruled  over  Afghanistan  and  Badakhshan. 
Finally  he  decided  on  the  invasion  of  India,  and  the  founda- 
tion of  the  "Great  Mogul"  Dynasty  in  that  country  dates 
from  his  brilliant  victory  at  Panipat  over  Sultan  Ibrahim 
Lodi  of  Dihli  on  April  20,  1 526,  and  the  occupation  of  Agra 
and  Dihli  and  northern  India  from  the  Indus  to  Bengal. 
This  third  and  shortest  period  was  brought  to  a  close  by 
his  death  on  December  26,  1530,  when  he  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Humayun.  The  narrative  of  the  Bdbttr-ndma 
extends  from  Ramadan  899/June  1494  (the  year  of  Babur's 
accession  at  the  early  age  of  twelve  tothethrone  of  Farghana) 
to  936/1529-30,  the  year  preceding  his  death.  There  are, 
however,  certain  lacunae,  to  wit  the  years  915-924  (1509- 
1518)  and  927-931  (1521-1525). 

We  have,  however,  overshot  the  limits  of  the  period 
dealt  with  in  this  chapter;  for,  so  far  as  Persia  is  concerned, 
the  House  of  Tfmur  disappears  from  it  before  the  year  1 500. 
The  great  empire  founded  by  Tfmur,  that  ruthless  man  of 
blood,  was  maintained  in  Persia  by  his  gentler  and  more 
enlightened  son  Shah-rukh  until  his  death  in  850/1447. 
What  follows  is  mainly  a  dismal  record  of  fratricidal  strife 
and  invasions  of  Uzbeks  and  other  barbarians,  redeemed  by 
brilliant  galaxies  of  poets,  artists  and  men  of  letters  and 
science  whom  the  lavish  bounty  and  undeniable  taste  of 
these  truculent  and  quarrelsome  princes  continued  to  at- 
tract to  their  various  courts,  in  particular  to  Herat.  The 
details  of  these  wars,  set  out  at  great  length  by  Mirkh- 
wand,  Khwandamfr  and  'Abdu'r-Razzaq,  and  in  English 
by  Erskine1,  are  somewhat  wearisome,  being  not  so  much 

1  History  of  India  under  the  first  two  Sovereigns  of  the  House  of 
Tatmur,  etc.  See  the  preceding  foot-note.  Vincent  A.  Smith's  Akbar 
the  Great  Mogul,  1542-1605  (Oxford,  1917)  forms  a  worthy  continuation. 


394       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

between  different  peoples  or  principles,  as  between  ambitious 
members  of  one  family.  Happily  for  our  present  purpose 
we  need  not  go  much  beyond  Sir  John  Malcolm's  excellent 
summary  of  this  period  of  Persian  history.  "  After  the  death 
of  Ulugh  Beg,"  says  he1,  "we  discover  a  crowd  of  the 
descendants  of  Ti'mur  contending  for  the  provinces  of  his 
empire;  and  so  great  was  the  respect  which  men  entertained 
for  the  blood  of  the  hero  that  everyone  who  could  boast  of 
it  in  his  veins  found  adherents  who  enabled  him  either  to 
obtain  a  throne  or  an  honourable  grave." 

To  the  literary  and  artistic  gifts  and  tastes  of  these 
princes,  on  the  other  hand,  that  great  authority  on  Persian 
painting  and  miniatures,  Dr  F.  R.  Martin, bears  the  following 
eloquent  testimony  in  his  monumental  work  on  The  Minia- 
ture Painting  and  Painters  of  Persia,  India  and  Turkey*. 

"The  Tfmurids  soon  began  to  lead  a  life  compatible 

with  the  wealth  their  fathers  and  forefathers  had  amassed 

during  their  wars,  and  tried  to  squander  it  as 

Dr  Martin  on 

Persian  painting    quickly  as  possible.    History  constantly  repeats 

at  this  period  j^f        The     nfe     Qf    ^^     ^^     fo^     &     ^^ 

epic.  They  recall  to  mind  the  old  Paladins  in  the  Chansons 
de  Gestes,  passing  in  the  space  of  a  short  time  from  the 
splendours  of  a  throne  to  a  position  of  the  utmost  decay. 
They  were,  however,  the  most  artistic  princes  that  ever 
reigned  in  Persia.  If  the  conquering  armies  of  Ti'mur 
destroyed  many  a  work  of  art,  his  successors  brought  into 
being  works  of  art  that  would  otherwise  never  have  been 
created.  Does  not  Samarqand  redeem  the  loss  of  many  a 
town  destroyed  by  Ti'mur  ?  What  he  destroyed  was  already 
of  itself  destined  to  fall,  and  Ti'mur  simply  gave  the  mortal 
thrust.  He  was  not  the  destroyer  we  are  accustomed  to 
consider  him,  but  the  master  who  arranged  matters  with  an 
iron  hand.  He  formed  a  link  in  the  chain  of  natural  develop- 
ment, and  from  his  realm  arose  the  Persia  of  later  times, 
his  successors  bringing  Persian  art  to  its  most  flourishing 

1  Vol.  i,  p.  488  n  the  1815  edition.     Ulugh  Beg  died  in  853/1449. 

2  Quaritch,  1912,  vol.  i,  pp.  35-6. 


CH.  vi]          DR  MARTIN  ON  TfMtfRID  ART  395 

stage.  These  Tfmurids  were  no  barbarians;  indeed  every- 
thing goes  to  show  that  they  were  highly  civilized  and 
refined  men,  real  scholars,  loving  art  for  the  sake  of  art 
alone,  and  without  ostentation.  In  the  intervals  between 
their  battles  they  enjoyed  thinking  of  their  libraries  and 
writing  poetry,  many  of  them  having  composed  poetry  that 
far  excels  that  of  their  court  poets.  Sultdn  Husayn  Mirza 
was  no  bad  poet,  and  his  odes,  written  in  Turki,  are  far 
better  than  those  of  many  celebrated  poets.  He  also  wrote 
in  Arabic  and  competed  with  the  celebrated  Jami.  The 
most  refined  style  of  life  prevailed,  in  certain  respects  calling 
to  mind  that  of  the  European  princes  of  the  same  time,  or 
that  of  France  during  the  i8th  century,  although  it  was  far 
more  literary  than  either. 

"Baysunghur,  Sh£h-rukh,Ulugh  Beg  and  Sultan  Husayn 
Mirza  were  bibliophiles  not  surpassed  by  the  Dukes  of 
Burgundy,  or  by  King  Rene  of  Anjou,  their  contemporaries, 
and  were  far  more  illustrious  than  the  celebrated  French 
and  Italian  book-lovers  of  the  i6th  and  I7th  centuries. 
Not  only  did  they  collect  books,  but  they  created  them. 
Baysunqur  and  Husayn  Mirza  were  to  Persia  what  William 
Morris  was  to  England  four  hundred  years  later.  They 
created  a  new  style  of  book,  but  theirs  was  infinitely  more 
aristocratic,  solid  and  artistic.  The  very  finest  European 
books  and  manuscripts  cannot,  except  in  a  very  few  isolated 
instances,  bear  comparison  with  those  of  the  Orientals  as 
regards  the  fineness  of  their  work. 

"Bdysunqur  was  the  son  of  Shah-rukh  and  grandson 

to  Tamerlane;  he  died  in  837/1433,  when  37  years  of  age, 

at  Astarabad,  where  he  was  governor.     He  was 

oft^^eLest"6  the  founder  of  the  most  elegant  style  of  book- 

bibiiophiies  of      production   in  Persia,  and  well  deserves  to  be 

the  world" 

remembered  as  one  of  the  greatest  bibliophiles 
of  the  world.  Under  his  auspices  forty  artists  were  em- 
ployed in  copying  manuscripts  under  the  guidance  of 
Mawlana  Ja'far  of  Tabriz,  himself  a  pupil  of  'Abdu'llah  son 
of  Mir  'All.  By  paying  large  salaries  and  making  princely 


396       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

presents  he  retained  in  his  service  the  cleverest  masters  of 
the  period,  who  executed  the  finest  work  in  the  production 
of  their  splendid  volumes.  The  paper  was  unsurpassed, 
the  illuminations  of  extreme  delicacy,  and  the  covers  are 
unequalled  to  the  present  day.  Books  from  his  vast  library 
are  now  dispersed  over  the  entire  world,  and  wherever  found 
should  possess  a  place  of  honour. 

"  It  was  during  the  reigns  of  the  Ti'murids  and  not  during 

that  of  Shah  'Abbas  that  the  finest  carpets  were  produced  in 

Persia.     The  finest  arms  and  armour,  and  ivory- 

Culmination  of  .  J 

other  arts  at  work  of  a  minuteness  surpassing  all  examples 
this  period  produced  by  other  countries,  were  made  at 
their  court.  All  specimens  of  Persian  art  that  exhibit  the 
most  refined  taste  and  workmanship  emanate  from  their 
time  or  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Safawf  dynasty. 

"  All  art  produced  in  the  East  is  the  direct  result  of  an 

impulse  given  by  the  monarch.     But  for  Bdysunqur  and 

Sultan  Husayn  Mirza  we  should  not  have  had 

"  All  real  art  in  J 

the  East  is  that  lovely  miniature  art  their  artists  created, 
for  it  was  to  adorn  and  illustrate  their  own 
writings  that  they  welcomed  artists  from  all  parts  of  their 
kingdom.  But  for  Shah  'Abbds  we  should  not  have  had 
the  splendid  figured  velvet,  and  but  for  Sulayman  the  Mag- 
nificent there  would  be  no  magnificent  Turkish  faience  from 
Izm'q,  and  but  for  Sultan  Ahmad  we  should  not  have  had 
the  wonderful  manuscripts  of  the  Qur'dn,  by  which  their 
aesthetic  tastes  are  still  perpetuated.  All  real  art  in  the 
Orient  is  court  art,  or  is  dependent  on  a  Maecenas.  It  was 
so  in  the  'Abbasid  court  at  Baghdad  in  the  ninth  century  ; 
it  was  so  in  Egypt  and  Spain  ;  it  was  so  everywhere.  This 
fact  must  be  remembered,  as  it  explains  much  that  would 
otherwise  be  incomprehensible. 

"  That  an  art  so  brilliant  should  entirely  disappear  with 

the  ruler  was  not  to  be  expected.     The  princes  died,  but 

the  artists  survived  and  entered  the  service  of 

Survival  of  this 

art  into  the  six-     another.  The  impulse  derived  from  theTimurids 

teenth  century  SQ  powerml  that  ft    lasted    through    a    great 


CH.  vi]      EMBASSIES  TO  INDIA  AND  CHINA  397 

partof  thesixteenth century.  It  was  notonly  the  newrulers  of 
Persia,  the  Safawfs,  but  also  princes  whose  names  are  almost 
unknown  to  history,  who  continued  the  fashion  and  had 
manuscripts  executed  that  were  more  costly  than  anything 
of  the  kind  produced  in  Europe." 

It  is  necessary  to  remind  the  reader,  who  may  be  apt  to 

think  of  far-reaching  international    relations  as   in  large 

measure  a  product  of  modern  times  and  an  out- 

Commumcations 

between  Persia,  come  of  modern  facilities  of  communication, 
china  and  India  ^Qw  conquerable  was  the  intercourse  in  the 
time  which  we  are  considering  between  Asiatic  (not  merely 
Muslim)  states  far  removed  from  one  another.  The  inter- 
esting extracts  from  that  valuable  but  hitherto  unpublished 
history,  the  Matla'u's-Sa'dayn  of  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  of  Samar- 
qand,  published  in  French  by  Quatremere  in  I8431,  include 
the  accounts  of  two  embassies  from  the  court  of  Herat,  the 
one  to  China,  the  other  to  India,  narrated  in  each  case  by 
one  who  had  headed  or  accompanied  the  mission.  The 
mission  to  China,  described  by  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Naqqdsh 
("the  Painter"),  left  Herat  on  December  4,  1419,  reached 
Pekin  (Khdn-bdligh  or  "  Cambaluc  ")  a  year  and  ten  days 
later,  and  returned  to  Herat  on  September  2,  1422*.  The 
mission  to  India,  confided  to  and  narrated  by  the  above- 
mentioned  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  himself,  started  on  January  13, 
1442,  and  landed  once  more  on  Persian  soil  at  Hurmuz  in 
the  Persian  gulf  on  April  20,  1444 3.  The  activity  and  cos- 
mopolitan character  of  that  port  are  well  indicated  by  the 
ambassador  in  the  following  descriptive  paragraph : 

"  This  Hurmuz,  which  they  also  call  Jarun,  is  a  port  on 

the  open  sea  '  which  has  no  equal  on  the  face  of  the  earth.' 

Thither  betake  themselves  merchants  from  the 

Abdu  r-Razzaq  s 

description  of       seven  climes  ;  from  Egypt,  Syria,  Asia  Minor, 
Adharbayjan,  Arabian  and  Persian  'Iraq,  the 

1  Notices  et  Extraits  des  Manuscrits  de  la  BibliothZque  du  Rot, 
vol.  xiv,  pp.  1-473. 

2  Loc.  tit.,  pp.  387-426. 

3  Loc.  tit.,  pp.  427-473. 


398       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

provinces  of  Pars,  Khurdsan,  Transoxiana,  Turkistdn,  the 
Qipchaq  Plain,  the  territories  of  the  Calmucks  and  all  the 
realm  of  China  and  [its  capital]  Pekin  (Khdn-bdligh}. 
Thither  coast-dwellers  from  the  confines  of  China,  Java, 
Bengal,  Ceylon  and  the  cities  of  Zfrbad,  Tanasurf,  Shahr-i- 
Naw,  the  Islands  of  Di'wa-Mahall,  as  far  as  Malabar,  Abys- 
sinia, and  Zanzibar,  the  ports  of  Bi'janagar,Gulbarga,  Gujarat, 
and  Kanba'it  (Cambay),  the  coasts  of  the  Arabian  peninsula 
as  far  as  Aden,  Jeddah  and  Yanbu'  bring  rare  and  precious 
things  to  which  the  sun  and  moon  and  fertilizing  virtue  of 
the  clouds  have  given  lustre  and  beauty,  and  which  can  be 
brought  by  sea  to  that  country.  To  that  land  come  travellers 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  whatever  they  bring  they 
find  in  that  city,  without  over-much  search,  the  equivalent 
value  thereof  in  whatever  form  they  desire,  whether  by  sale 
or  exchange.  The  officials  levy  a  ten  per  cent,  ad  valorem- 
duty  on  everything  except  gold  and  silver.  In  that  city 
are  many  adherents  of  all  manner  of  diverse  religions,  in- 
cluding heathens  ;  yet  do  they  not  deal  otherwise  than 
fairly  with  any  creature,  for  which  reason  men  call  the  city 
Ddrul-Amdn  ('the  Abode  of  Security').  The  people  of 
that  country  combine  the  winning  manner  of  the  people  of 
'Iraq  with  the  profound  cunning  of  the  Indians." 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  correspondence 
between  Shah-rukh  and  his  successors  and  the  Ottoman 
Relations  Sultans  Muhammad  I  (1402-1421),  Murad  II 

betweenthe  (i42i-i45i),  Muhammad  II  (1451-1481)  and 
Semo±annd  Bsiyazfd  III  (1481-1512) ;  but  that  this  corre- 
Sultans  spondence  was  not  confined  to  princes  and 

politics  is  shown  by  letters  preserved  by  Firidun  Bey1  ex- 
changed between  Bayazi'd  III  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
poet  Jamf,  the  philosopher  Jalalu'd-Din  Dawani  and  the 
theologian  Ahmed  Taftazani  on  the  other.  To  the  first  of 
these  the  Ottoman  Sultan  sent  a  gift  of  a  thousand  and  to 
the  second  five  hundred  florins,  accompanied  by  all  manner 

1  MunsMat,  Constantinople,  A.H.  1274/1858,  vol.  i,  pp.  361-5. 


CH.VI]       THE  "BLACK  SHEEP"  TURKMANS  399 

of  gracious  and  courtly  compliments1.  It  was  at  Constan- 
tinople, moreover,  that  Sultan  Husayn's  son,  Badi'u'z-Zaman, 
fleeing  from  the  murderous  Uzbeks,  found  a  final  refuge  and 
a  last  resting-place. 

Having  described  the  waning  of  the  House  of  Tfmur, 
we  must,  before  tracing  the  growth  of  the  Safawi  power, 

consider  briefly  the  intermediate  Turkman 
™LT"BSk"  dynasties  of  the  «  Black  "  and  "  White  Sheep," 
and  "White  who  were  so  much  akin  in  race  and  character 

that  Josafa  Barbaro  is  probably  justified  in 
comparing  them  to  the  rival  Italian  factions  of  the  Guelphs 
and  Ghibellines,  or  the  "  Bianchi "  and  "  Neri"2.  The 
"  Black  Sheep  "  (Qara-qoyunlu,  or  "  Caracoilu  "  as  Barbaro 
calls  them)  came  first.  In  the  time  of  Tfmur  they  were 
established  in  the  Persian  province  of  Adharbayjan,  and  a 

certain  chief  amongst  them,  Bayram  Khwdja 

Bayram  Khwdja  .    /. 

of  the  Baharlu  tribe,  attached  himself  to  the 
service  of  Sultan  Uways  the  Jala'irf,  after  whose  death  he 
possessed  himself  of  Mawsil  (Mosul),  Sinjar  and  Arjfsh. 
In  782/1380-1  he  died  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Qara 

Muhammad,  who  similarly  attached  himself  to 
Qara  Muham-  thg  'service  of  Sultan  Ahmad,  the  son  of  the 

above-mentioned  Sultan  Uways,  and  ultimately 

fell  in  battle  in  Syria  in  792/1390.     He  was  succeeded  by 

his  son  Oara  Yusuf,  who  was  the  first  of  the 

QaraYiisuf  r         -i  •         i  .    .  r  . 

family  to  attain  the  position  of  an  independent 
sovereign  with  his  capital  at  Tabriz.  After  repeated  conflicts 
with  Ti'mur,  he  took  refuge  with  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Bayazid 
"the  Thunderbolt,"  and  succeeded  in  capturing  Baghdad, 
whence,  however,  he  was  shortly  expelled  by  Tfmur's  grand- 
son Abu  Bakr,  and  fled  to  Egypt  with  a  thousand  of  his 
followers.  The  Sultan  of  Egypt,  fearing  Tfmur's  wrath, 
imprisoned  him ;  but  on  Tfmur's  death  he  was  released,  and, 

1  Concerning  the  enormous  influence  exercised  by  Jdmf  and  Mir 
'AH  Shir  Nawd'i  on  Ottoman  literature,  especially  poetry,  see  the  late 
Mr  E.  J.  W.  Gibb's  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  ii,  pp.  7-11. 

2  P.  85  of  the  Hakluyt  volume  above  mentioned. 


400       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

having  been  rejoined  by  his  scattered  followers,  took  Diyar 
Bakr,  and  soon  afterwards,  in  809/1406-7,  defeated  Abu 
Bakr  at  Nakhjuwan,  reoccupied  Tabrfz,  and  took  possession 
of  the  province  of  Adharb£yj  £n.  Four  years  later  he  defeated 
and  put  to  death  near  Tabriz  his  old  master  and  fellow- 
captive  in  Egypt,  Sultan  Ahmad  Jala'irf.  In  822/1419  he 
captured  the  three  important  Persian  cities  of  Sawa,  Qazwi'n 
and  Sultdniyya,  and  died  in  the  following  year  at  the  age 
of  65,  after  a  reign  of  14  years,  leaving  five  sons,  of  whom 
two,  Iskandar  and  Jahanshah,  succeeded  him  on  the  throne. 
Mention  has  been  already  made  in  a  previous  chapter 
of  the  important  collection  of  State  Papers  connected  with 
the  diplomacy  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  which 
are  contained  in  the  Munshd'dt  of  Fin'dun  Bey  \ 
A  good  many  of  these  refer  to  the  period  we 
are  now  considering.  Thus  we  have  a  letter  to  Sultan 
Bayazid  "the  Thunderbolt"  from  Sultan  Ahmad  Jala'irf, 
written  in  798/1396,  describing  his  flight  before  Tfmur's 
advancing  hordes,  and  the  answer  to  it ;  numerous  letters 
which  passed  between  Sultan  Muhammad  I  (805-824/1402- 
1421)  and  Shdh-rukh,  Qara  Yusuf,  Iskandar  and  Sultan 
Khah'l  of  Shirwan ;  letters  between  Sultan  Murad  II  (824- 
855/1421-1451)  and  Shah-rukh;  letters  between  Sultan 
Muhammad  II  " Fdtih"  (855-886/1451-1481)  and  Jahan- 
shah, Ulugh  Beg,  Baysunqur,  Bahman  Shah  of  India,  Uzun 
Hasan,  and  Husayn  b.  Mansiir  b.  Bayqara ;  and  later  a 
voluminous  correspondence  with  the  Safawf  kings  Shah 
Isma'il  and  Shah  Tahmasp.  These  letters  are  interesting 
not  only  for  the  light  they  throw  on  the  historical  events 
to  which  they  refer,  but  as  indicating  the  relations  which 
prevailed  between  these  rulers  respectively.  Thus,  for 
example,  in  a  letter  from  Shah-rukh  to  the  Ottoman  Sultan 
Muhammad  I  in  818/1416  the  arrogance  of  tone  is  very 
noticeable,  both  in  respect  to  the  comparative  poverty  of 
titles  accorded  and  the  reproaches  addressed  to  the  Sultan 
for  having  put  to  death  his  rebellious  brothers  Sulaymdn, 
1  Printed  at  Constantinople  in  1274/1858,  pp.  626. 


CH.  vi]          FIRfDtiN  BEY'S  STATE  PAPERS  401 

Musa  and  'Isa,  which,  though  "conformable  to  Ottoman 
practice,"  is  branded  as  "  improper  according  to  the  Il-khani 
custom  " ;  and  in  the  peremptory  demand  that  Qara  Yusuf 
shall  not  be  allowed  to  take  refuge  in  Ottoman  territory, 
should  he  seek  to  do  so.  Sultan  Muhammad's  reply,  on 
the  other  hand,  in  not  only  conciliatory  in  tone,  but  even 
humble.  He  accords  to  Shah-rukh  a  whole  string  of  high- 
sounding  titles ;  apologizes  for  killing  his  brothers  by 
quoting  Sa'di's  well-known  dictum  that  "  ten  dervishes  can 
sleep  in  one  blanket,  but  two  kings  cannot  be  contained  in 
a  continent"1;  and  expresses  his  fear  that  if  he  exasperates 
Qara  Yusuf  by  refusing  him  entry  into  his  dominions,  he 
may  endeavour  to  stir  up  trouble  amongst  the  neighbouring 
rulers  of  the  Qaramani,  Hami'di,  Isfandiyari,  Turghudi  and 
Dhu'l-Qadari  dynasties,  and  even  with  the  Sultan  of  Egypt. 
In  the  case  of  the  Ottoman  Sultan  and  the  "  Black  Sheep  " 
Turkman  rulers,  Qara  Yusuf  and  Qara  Iskandar,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  contrary  holds  good,  the  Sultan  writing  as 
to  inferiors  and  the  Turkman  princes  as  to  a  superior.  The 
numerous  letters  and  dispatches  contained  in  this  interesting 
volume  would  well  repay  a  fuller  examination  than  can  here 
be  accorded  to  them,  but  reference  will  be  made  to  them 
from  time  to  time,  as  occasion  arises2. 

Amir  Iskandar  Qara-qoyunlu  inaugurated  his  reign  by 

an  attack  on  Shah-rukh,  in  which  he  was  defeated,  but  soon 

afterwards  he  re -occupied  Adharbayjan.       In 

828/1425  Shamsu'd-Din,  the  ruler  of  Akhlat, 

and  in  830/1427  Sultan  Ahmad  the  ruler  of  Kurdistan  and 

'Izzu'd-Di'n  Shir  fell  victims  to  his  warlike  prowess,  and  the 

towns  of  Shirwan  and  Sultaniyya  passed  into  his  hands.    In 

832/1429  he  and  his  brother  Jahanshah,  in  spite  of  the  valour 

which  they  showed,  were  again  defeated  by  Shah-rukh.    Six 

1  Gutistdn,  ed.  Platts,  p.  16. 

2  Firidun  Bey's  Collection  of  State  Papers  has  been  used  by  Pro- 
fessor H.  A.  Gibbons  in  his  interesting  work  on  the  Foundation  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire  (Oxford,  1916),  but  only  to  a  limited  extent.     It  is 
also  enumerated  by  Hammer-Purgstall  amongst  his  sources. 

B.  P.  26 


402       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD   [BK  in 

years  later,  in  838/ 1434-5,  Shdh-rukh  again  advanced  against 
Iskandar  as  far  as  Ray,  where  he  was  joined  by  Iskandar's 
brother  Jahanshah  and  his  nephew  Shah  'AH.  Iskandar 
fled,  and  Shah-rukh  bestowed  his  territories  on  his  brother 
Jahanshah  as  a  reward  for  his  submission.  Iskandar  took 
refuge  in  a  fortress,  but  while  preparing  to  resist  a  siege  he 
was  murdered  by  his  son  Qubad,  at  the  instigation  of  his 
concubine  Layla. 

Jahanshah,  with  the  support  and  approval  of  Shah-rukh, 

now  succeeded  to  the  throne  vacated  by  his  brother's  death 

in  839/1435-6,  and  considerably  enlarged  the 

Jahanshah  1-11        i        i    •     i        « 

realm  which  he  had  inherited.  In  856/1452  he 
overran  'Irdq-i-'Ajam,  made  a  massacre  of  the  people  of 
Isfahan,  and  invaded  Pars  and  Kirman.  In  862/1457-8  he 
conquered  Khurasan,  and  in  the  month  of  Sha'ban  in  that 
year  (June-July,  1458),  was  enthroned  at  Her£t,  and 
remained  there  for  six  months,  when  Sultan  Abu  Sa'id, 
the  great-grandson  of  Ti'mur,  prepared  to  attack  him.  At 
the  same  time  news  reached  him  that  his  son  Hasan,  who 
was  imprisoned  in  Adharbayjan,  had  escaped  and  was  in 
rebellion  against  him,  so  he  was  compelled  to  make  peace 
with  Abu  Sa'id  and  hasten  westwards  at  the  average  rate 
of  twelve  parasangs  (some  forty-five  miles)  a  day,  losing  in 
this  forced  march  20,000  camels  and  10,000  horses.  Having 
subdued  and  expelled  his  son  Hasan,  he  dismissed  his  other 
son  Pir  Budaq  from  the  government  of  Fars  and  transferred 
him  to  Baghdad,  where  he  also  shortly  revolted.  Jahanshah 
thereupon  besieged  Baghdad  for  a  whole  year,  and  finally 
succeeded  in  killing  Pir  Budaq  and  replacing  him  by  another 
son,  Muhammad  Mi'rza,  after  which  he  returned  to  Adhar- 
bdyj£n.  His  realms  now  extended  from  the  Turkish  frontier 
on  the  west  to  the  two  'Iraqs,  Kirman  and  the  shores  of  the 
Persian  Gulf,  thus  including  nearly  the  whole  of  Persia 

except  Khurasan  and  the  Caspian  provinces. 
idiied  by  uzun  In  871/1466-7  he  attacked  Hasan  Bayandarf, 
Hasan  in  A.D.  better  known  as  Uzun  Hasan,  intending  to  con- 

1467 

quer  his  realm  of  Diyar  Bakr,  but  was  surprised 


CH.  vi]     OVERTHROW  OF  THE  "  BLACK  SHEEP  "     403 

and  slain  by  the  latter  while  tarrying  behind  his  army  on 
a  hunting  expedition.  His  two  sons  were  taken  prisoners 
and  most  of  his  principal  nobles  slain.  This  disaster  is 
commemorated  in  the  following  verses  : 


"  The  army  of  Jahanshdh  Bahddur  Niiydn,  notwithstanding  all  the 

materials  of  mastery  and  strength, 

On  the  twelfth  of  the  month  of  the  second  Rabf  perished,  and  the 
date  [of  the  year  was]  '  Hasan  Beg  slew  \hitri\  '  1." 

Of  the  character  of  Jahanshah  the  Turkish  historian 

Munajjim-bdshi,  from  whom  the  above  sketch  of  the  Qdra- 

qoyunlu   dynasty  is  taken2,  gives  a  most  un- 

character  of        favourable  account.   According  to  this  writer,  he 

Jahanshah 

was  "  a  dissolute,  immoral,  blood-thirsty  tyrant, 
a  malignant  inclined  to  heresy  and  atheism,  who  paid  no 
heed  to  the  Sacred  Law,  passed  his  nights  until  dawn  in 
revelry  and  vice,  and  slept  like  a  dog  during  the  day  ;  for 
which  reason  he  was  called  '  the  Bat.'"  He  died  at  the  age 
of  70  after  a  reign  of  32  years,  was  buried  at  Tabriz,  and 

was  succeeded  by  Hasan  'Alf,  the  son  whom  he 

Hasan  'Ali  ,        ,  ....  ,         ,         ,        ,     ' 

had  cast  off,  and  who  had  at  one  time  been 
protected  by  Uzun  Hasan.  This  son,  whose  mind  is  said 
to  have  been  disordered  by  his  captivity,  reigned  but  a 
short  while  in  Tabriz  ere  he  was  driven  thence  by  Uzun 
Hasan  to  Hamadan,  whither  he  was  pursued  and  put  to 
death  by  Uzun  Hasan's  son  Oghurlu  Muhammad  in 

873/1468-9.     With   him   the  Dynasty  of  the 

Extinction  of  the         „.  o,  „  ~  ,  . 

"  Black  sheep"       Black  Sheep,    or  Qara-qoyunlu,  came  to  an 
Dynasty  encj    ancj  was  replaced  by  that  of  the  "  White 

873/1468-9  '     „  ,    ,, 

oheep,    or  Aq-qoyunlu. 

1  The  words  Hasan  Beg  bi-kusht  ("  Hasan  Beg  slew  ")  yield  in 
the  abjad  notation  the  number  872,  and  the  I2th  of  Rabi'  ii  jn  that  year 
corresponds  with  November  10,  1467. 

2  Sahd'ifu'l-Akhbdr,  Constantinople  edition  of  A.H.  1285,  vol.  iii, 
PP-  I5<>-154- 

26  -  2 


404       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD   [BK  m 

Diyar  Bakr  was  the  original  centre  of  activity  of  the 

"White  Sheep"  or  Bayandarf  Turkmans,  of  whose  amirs 

Baha'u'd-Din  Oara  'Osman,  known  as  Qdra  link 

Ine     White  ~< 

sheep" Dynasty,  ("the  Black  Leech")  from  his  greedy  and  blood- 
Qara  'Osman  thirsty  character,  was  the  first  to  achieve  fame. 
Having  defeated  Qara  Yusuf  of  the  rival  "  Black  Sheep  " 
Turkmans,  he  was  driven  by  the  envy  of  his  less  capable 
brothers  Ahmad  and  Pir  'All  to  seek  service  with  Qadi 
Burhanu'd-Din1  at  Sfwas.  In  800/1397-8  Qara  'Osman 
killed  his  host  and  seized  his  territory,  but  retired,  on 
learning  that  an  Ottoman  army  under  Prince  Sulayman 
was  advancing  on  Sfwas,  to  Erzinjan.  He  joined  Tfmur  in 
his  campaign  against  Asia  Minor  and  Syria,  and  received 
as  a  reward  for  his  services  the  town  of  Diyar  Bakr.  Shortly 
afterwards  Qdra  Yusuf,  the  "  Black  Sheep '''  Turkman, 
escaped  from  Egypt  and  made  war  on  Qara  'Osman,  but 
died,  as  already  mentioned,  in  Dhu'l-Hijja  823  (December 
1420),  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Iskandar,  who  suffered 
defeat  at  the  hands  of  Shah-rukh  in  the  following  year. 
Qara  'Osman  died  in  838/1434-5,  and  was 
'AKBegb.  succeeded  by  his  son  'All  Beg,  who  was  com- 
pelled by  a  revolt  of  his  brother  Hamza  to  take 
refusre  for  a  time  with  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Murad  II. 

o  • 

'All  Beg  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Jahangfr,  who  was 

soon  displaced  (857/1453)  by  his  more  resolute  and  capable 

brother  Uzun  Hasan  (the  "  Ussun  Cassano  "  or 

Jahangir. 

Uzun  Hasan  "Assambei  "  of  Josafa  Barbaro),  who  was  by  far 

C'Ussun  the  most  powerful  and  celebrated  of  the  "White 

" A^sTmber  of  Sheep"   Dynasty.     He  was   the   grandson   of 

the  Venetian  «  ^g  Black  Leech,"  and  succeeded  to  the  throne 

ambassadors)  f       •«    XT«»  ••*»•»    4  .  \    •          1 

at  Amid  (Diyar  Bakr)  in  the  year  mentioned 
above,  which  was  the  year  in  which  the  Ottoman  Turks 

1  A  full  account  of  this  remarkable  warrior-poet  is  given  by  the  late 
Mr  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  in  his  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  i,  pp.  204-224. 
Mention  of  him  (under  the  form  "  Wurchanadin  ")  is  also  made  by 
Schiltberger  in  ch.  ix  of  his  Bondage  and  Travels,  published  in 
English  translation  by  the  Hakluyt  Society  in  1879,  an<i  in  the  same 
work  there  are  several  references  to  Qara  'Osman  ("  Otman  "). 


CH.  vi]   THE  "  EASTERN  QUESTION  "  IN  A.D.  1453     405 

captured  Constantinople.  To  the  fear  inspired  in  Europe, 
and  especially  in  Italy,  by  this  fresh  evidence  of  Ottoman 
power  and  prowess  were  due  the  efforts  made  by  successive 
Venetian  ambassadors  to  Persia  to  win  the  support  of 
Uzun  Hasan  against  the  Turks,  whom  it  was  hoped  he 
might  harass  on  their  Eastern  frontier  and  so  distract  their 
attention  from  further  conquests  in  the  West.  Thus  once 
again  since  the  Mongol  Court  at  Q^ra-qorum  had  attracted 
emissaries  from  Rome  with  a  similar  object,  the  "  Eastern 
Question"  assumed  a  new  importance,  and  the  good  will 
of  Persia  began  to  be  assiduously  sought  after  by  European 
Powers.  These  Venetian  ambassadors  have  left  descrip- 
tions of  their  voyages  and  adventures  which  shed  a 
welcome  side-light  on  the  condition  of  Persia  and  the 
character  of  Uzun  Hasan,  of  whom  Ramusio,  in  his  Preface 
to  Caterino  Zeno's  Travels,  speaks  in  the  highest  terms,  even 
declaring  that  "  amongst  all  the  kings  of  the  East,  who 
existed  since  the  government  was  taken  away  from  the 
Persians  and  transferred  to  the  Greeks,  there  have  been 
none  who  equalled  the  glory  of  Darius  Hystaspes  and 
Ussun  Cassano."  "  It  is  to  be  regretted,"  he  adds,  "  that 
some  Eastern  kings,  great  in  power  and  intellect,  have  not 
had  historians  to  celebrate  their  deeds,  since  among  the 
Sultans  of  Egypt  and  among  the  Kings  of  Persia  there 
have  been  men  most  excellent  in  war,  and  worthy  not  only 
of  being  compared  with  ancient  barbarian  kings  famous  in 
arms  but  even  with  the  great  Greek  and  Roman  commanders 
in  all  those  things  which  constitute  able  generals  of  armies1." 
He  further  speaks  with  admiration  of  "  the  manner  in  which 
this  Ussun  Cassano,  a  poor  nobleman  and  the  weakest  in 
condition  of  many  brothers,... not  possessing  more  than 
thirty  soldiers,  besides  a  small  castle,  afterwards  raised  him- 
self to  such  grandeur  that  he  had  the  courage  to  dispute 
the  empire  of  all  Asia  with  the  Ottoman  House,  which 
under  Muhammad  II  (A.D.  1451-1481)  was  a  terror  to  the 

1  P.  2  of  the  Hakluyt  Society's  Narrative  of  Italian  Travels  in 
Persia  in  the  xvi  and  xvii  Centuries  (1873). 


406 

East."      Contarinij  who  was  with  Uzun  Hasan  in  1474-5, 
says   that   he   "always   drank   wine   with   his 

Contanm  s  * 

description  of  meals,"  and  "  appeared  to  be  a  good  liver,  and 
took  pleasure  in  inviting  us  to  partake  of  the 
dishes  which  were  before  him."  "  There  were  constantly 
present,"  he  continues1,  "a  number  of  players  and  singers, 
to  whom  he  commanded  whatever  he  wished  to  be  played 
or  sung,  and  His  Majesty  appeared  to  be  of  a  very  merry 
disposition.  He  was  tall  and  thin,  and  had  a  slightly  Tartar 
expression  of  countenance,  with  a  constant  colour  on  his  face. 
His  hand  trembled  as  he  drank.  He  appeared  to  be  seventy 
years  of  age2.  He  was  fond  of  amusing  himself  in  a  homely 
manner  ;  but  when  too  far  gone  was  sometimes  dangerous. 
Take  him  altogether,  however,  he  was  a  pleasant  gentleman." 

No  such  vivid  portrait  of  this  remarkable  man  is  to  be 
found  in  the  pages  of  any  Oriental  historian  with  whom  I 
am  acquainted,  but  the  following  estimate  of  his  character 
by  Munajjim-bdshi  is  worth  quoting3: 

"  He  Was  a  wise,  just,  brave,  pious,  religious  and  devout 

King,  a  friend  of  learned  and  godly  men,  charitable  and  a 

public  benefactor.     He  built  many  buildings 

Munajjtm-  J 

descrip-     for  pious  uses.     As  has  been  mentioned,  with 


but  a  small  army  he  overcame  two  such  mighty 
kings  as  Jahanshah  and  Abu  Sa'fd;  took  tribute  from 
Georgia;  and  ruled  over  Adharbayjan,  the  two  'Iraqs, 
Kirman,  Pars,  Diyar  Bakr,  Kurdistan  and  Armenia." 

Concerning  his  patronage  of  learned  men  the  same 
historian  remarks  on  the  preceding  page:  "He  adopted 
Uzun  Hasan's  Tabriz  as  his  capital,  and  there  assembled  from 
patronage  of  men  the  surrounding  lands  and  provinces  many 

learned  men  and  doctors,  who  received  favours 
and  honours  beyond  anything  which  could  be  expected." 

1  Contarini's  Travels  to  Tana  and  Persia  in  the  Hakluyt  Society's 
translation  of  1873,  PP-  I32~3- 

2  He  must  have  looked  older  than  his  actual  age,  which  is  given 
by  Munajjim-bdsht  as  only  54  at  his  death,  two  years  later  (A.D.  1477-8). 

3  SaM'ifu'l-Akhbdr,  vol.  iii,  p.  165. 


CH.  vi]  tf Ztf N  HASAN  407 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  of  those  men  of  learning  who 
received  honour  and  rewards  at  his  hands  was  'All  Qiishjf, 
who  passed  through  his  territories  on  his  way  home  from 
the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca. 

Uzun  Hasan,  while  still  a  young  man  and  only  Prince 
of  Diyar  Bakr,  married  a  Christian  wife,  to  wit  the  beautiful 
DespinaKMtun  ("LadyDespina"),  daughter  of 
Kalo  Joannes1,  the  last  Christian  Emperor  of 
Trebizond,  of  the  noble  family  of  the  Comneni. 
She  bore  him  a  son  and  three  daughters,  one  of  whom, 
named  Marta,  was  given  in  marriage  to  Shaykh  Haydar, 
the  father  of  Shah  Isma'il  the  founder  of  the  Safawi  dynasty. 

The  fullest  account  of  Uzun  Hasan's  reign  to  which  I 
have  had  access  is  that  contained  in  the  Sahd'iful-Akhbdr 
of  Munajjim-bdshi'*,  while  another  Turkish  source  from 
which  much  information  is  to  be  gleaned  is  the  collection 
of  State  Papers  (Munshadf)  of  Firidun  Bey3,  though  the 
paucity  of  dates  in  the  dozen  despatches  interchanged  be- 
tween Uzun  Hasan  and  Sultan  Muhammad  Fdtih  ("  the 
Conqueror  ")  is  a  matter  for  regret.  The  narratives  of  the 
Italian  ambassadors  and  travellers  already  referred  to  are 
also  of  great  value.  The  accounts  of  the  Qara-qoyunlu  and 
Aq-qoyunlu  dynasties  given  by  Mi'rkhwand  and  other 
Persian  historians  are  for  the  most  part  very  meagre  and 
inadequate. 

The  first  three  or  four  years  of  Uzun  Hasan's  reign 
(A.D.  1453-1456-7)  were  chiefly  filled  by  repeated  revolts 
of  his  brothers,  especially  Jahangir,  against  his  authority. 
The  scene  of  these  struggles,  which  were  repeatedly  com- 
posed by  Saray  Khatun,  the  mother  of  the  contending 
brothers,  lay  for  the  most  part  outside  Persia,  round  about 

1  See  the  Travels  of  a  Merchant  in  Persia  in  the  already  cited 
volume  of  the  Hakluyt  Society,  pp.  178-9.     He  describes  "Despina- 
caton  "  as  "  very  beautiful,  being  considered  the  most  beautiful  woman 
of  that  time,  and  throughout  Persia  was  spread  the  fame  of  her  loveli- 
ness and  grace." 

2  SahaHftfl-Akhbdr,  vol.  iii,  pp.  157-164. 

3  Vol.  i,  pp.  274-286. 


408       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtlRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

Diyar  Bakr,  Mosul  and  especially  Mardm,  which  suffered 
terrible  devastation.  Jahangir  did  not  hesitate  to  invoke 
the  help  of  the  rival  House  of  the  "Black  Sheep"  Turkmans, 
represented  by  Jahanshah1.  Once  during  this  period  Uzun 
Hasan  set  out  on  an  expedition  against  Khurasan,  but  was 
obliged  to  turn  back  to  deal  with  a  revolt  organized  by  his 
brother  Jahangi'r  aided  by  Jahanshah,  who  sent  one  of  his 
generals,  Rustam  Beg,  to  his  support.  The  rebels  suffered 
a  severe  defeat  at  the  hands  of  Uzun  Hasan  near  the 
Euphrates,  in  which  many  of  the  fugitives  were  drowned, 
while  five  hundred  prisoners,  including  Rustam  Beg,  were 
beheaded  by  Uzun  Hasan,  who,  however,  at  the  intercession 
of  his  mother,  again  pardoned  his  brothers  Jahangir  and 
Uways,  but  took  'All  Khan,  the  son  of  the  former,  as  a 
hostage  to  Erzinjan. 

After  this  victory  (851/1456-7)  Uzun  Hasan's  power  and 
prestige  were  greatly  increased,  and  many  amirs  of  Asia 
Minor  and  Syria  submitted  to  him.  About  864/1459-60 
he  wrested  from  the  Ayyubi  dynasty  the  fortress  of  Hisn 
Kayf,  where  he  installed  his  son  Khalilu'llah  Mirza  as 
governor.  In  the  same  year  Jahanshah's  son  Hasan  'All 
rebelled  against  his  father  and  took  refuge  with  Uzun  Hasan, 
who,  however,  after  a  while  drove  him  away  on  account  of 
certain  heretical  opinions  ascribed  to  him.  In  or  before 
A.D.  1461  Uzun  Hasan  sent  his  nephew  Murad  Bey2  on  an 
embassy  to  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Muhammad  II 

Uzun  Hasan  J 

sends  an  "  the  Conqueror  "  to  request  him  not  to  molest 

Embassy  to  the     hj     father-in-law    Kalo   Joannes,    Emperor  of 

Ottoman  Sultan  * 

Muhammad         Trebizond.     To  this  request  the  Turkish  Sultan 

paid  no  attention,  but  attacked  and  subdued 

Trebizond  (where  David  Comnenas  had  recently  succeeded 

his  elder  brother  Kalo  Joannes)  and  carried  off  this  last 

1  The  "  Giansa  "  of  the  Venetian  travellers. 

2  In   'Abdu'r- Rahman    Bey  Sheref's   History,   entitled    Tcfrikh-i- 
Devlet-i-''Aliyya  (p.  161),  Uzun  Hasan  is  said  to  have  sent  his  mother 
Sara  Khatiin,  who   is   evidently  the  same   as  the  "  Sardy  KMtun " 
mentioned  at  the  bottom  of  the  preceding  page  (p.  407). 


CH.  vi]    JAHANSHAH  DEFEATED  AND  SLAIN          409 

representative  of  Byzantine  power  to  Constantinople,  where, 
according  to  Giovan  Maria  Angioletto,  "he  was  treated 
honourably  enough,  but  died  before  a  year  was  over,  in 
1462  V 

Thechronologyof  the  wars  waged  by  Uziin  Hasan  against 
the  Ottoman  Turks  is  somewhat  confused.  Munajjim-bdshi 
speaks  of  a  short  contest  immediately  preceding  Uzun 
Hasan's  first  invasion  of  Georgia  in  871/1466—7,  and  of  an 
embassy  headed  by  Khurshfd  Beg  which  he  sent  to  Sultan 
Muhammad  II  "the  Conqueror"  requesting  him  not  to 
attack  Trebizond,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  already 
fallen  to  the  Ottomans  in  A.D.  1461.  On  the  first  of  Rabf  ii, 
872  (Oct.  30,  1467),  however,  he  defeated  the  "  Black  Sheep  " 
Turkmans  near  Khuy  in  Adharb^yjdn,  and, 
delTtfdl^put  taking  their  king  Jahanshah  off  his  guard  while 
to  death  by  he  was  away  from  his  army  on  a  hunting  expedi- 

Uzun  Hasan  .  /-r  i   •      i  i  i  .    •  ,   ,       .1        «-r-r       /    •  i 

tion,  cut  off  his  head  and  sent  it  to  the  Timund 
Sultan  Abu  Sa'fd,  while  suffering  his  body  to  be  buried  in 
the  grave  of  his  father  Qara  Yusuf.  He  then  occupied 
'Iraq  and  Adharbayjan  and  besieged  Baghdad.  The  first 
despatch  from  Uzun  Hasan  to  Sultdn  Muhammad  II  re- 
corded by  Fin'dun  Bey2  refers  to  this  victory.  It  is  couched 
in  very  respectful  terms  (unlike  some  later  despatches),  but 
seems  to  have  received  no  acknowledgement 

The  second  despatch  from  Uzun  Hasan  to  "the  Con- 
queror "  (which,  unfortunately,  is  undated)  refers  to  the  next 
important  event  in  his  career,  namely  the  defeat  of  Jahan- 
shah's  son  Hasan  'All  at  Marand.  This  prince,  who,  as 
already  mentioned,  had  taken  refuge  with  him  some  seven 
years  previously,  now  attacked  him  to  avenge  the  death  of 
his  father  Jahanshah.  Uzun  Hasan  invoked  the  help  of 
the  Timurid  Abu  Sa'fd,  urging  the  constant  loyalty  of  his 
own  House  of  the  "  White  Sheep  "  to  the  House  of  Ti'mur, 
and  the  disloyalty  of  the  rival  "  Black  Sheep."  He  also 

1  See  this  part  of  the  Hakluyt  Society's  volume  above  mentioned, 
p.  74  and  note  2  ad  calc. 

2  MunsM'df,  vol.  i,  pp.  274-5. 


4io       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMURID  PERIOD   [BK  m 

offered,  in  return  for  help,  to  cede  'Iraq  to  Abi'i  Sa'fd,  pro- 
vided he  might  keep  Adharbayjan.     Abu  Sa'fd,  so  far  from 
accepting  this  proposal,  immediately  marched  against  Uzun 
Hasan  to  avenge  Jahanshah's  death,  but  was 

Sultan  Ab<3  Sa'id  .   . '        . 

("BusecVof  defeated  and  captured,  together  with  his  sons 
the  Venetians)  Muhammad  and  Shah-rukh,  and  handed  over  to 

taken  prisoner 

and  put  to  death  Yadigar  Muhammad,  who  killed  him  to  avenge 
by  uz<in  Hasan  the  death  Qf  his  grandmOther  Gawhar  Shad 

Khatun.  When  the  Venetian  Contarini  was  received  by 
Uzun  Hasan  in  his  palace  at  "  Spaan  "  (Isfahan)  on  Nov.  6, 
1474,  he  noticed  "a  painting,  representing  the  decapitation 
of  Sdltan  Busech  (i.e.  Abu  Sa'fd),  and  showing  how  he  was 
brought  by  a  rope  to  execution  by  Curlumameth  (i.e.  Uzun 
Hasan's  son  Oghurlu  Muhammad),  who  had  caused  the 
chamber  to  be  made1."  Abu  Sa'fd's  body  was  sent  in  the 
charge  of  his  mother  (who  had  also  been  captured)  to  Khur- 
asan with  all  honour  and  respect.  In  the  same  despatch 
in  which  Uzun  Hasan  announces  to  Sultan  Muhammad 
"  the  Conqueror  "  the  defeat  and  death  of  Hasan  'Alf  and 
"  some  3000  of  his  men,"  he  announces  his  capture  of  Adhar- 
bayjan, 'Iraq,  Fars  and  Kirman,  and  his  intention  henceforth 
to  fix  his  capital  at  Tabriz.  This  despatch  appears  to  have 
been  sent  by  the  hands  of  an  ambassador,  Sayyid  Ahmad 
Toghan-oghlu. 

The  third  despatch  from  Uzun  Hasan  is  still  less  re- 
spectful in  its  form  of  address  than  the  preceding  one,  and 
is  also  undated.  It  mentions  the  arrival  of  an  Ottoman 
envoy  named  Amir  Bey,  and  then  proceeds  to  narrate  his 
negotiations  and  conflict  with,  and  victory  over  the  Tfmurid 
Sultan  Husayn  [b.  Mansur  b.]  Bayqara,  and  the  manner  in 
which  he  had  divided  up  and  assigned  his  domains.  He 
also  announces  his  conquest  of  Khurram-abad  in  Luristan. 

In  a  fourth  despatch,  also  undated,  in  which  the  great 
Ottoman  conqueror  is  insultingly  addressed  as  the  "  most 
puissant  ^m/r...Shamsu'd-Dfn  Muhammad  Bey,"  while 
Shfraz,  which  he  had  recently  conquered,  is  described  as 

1  P.  131  of  the  Hakluyt  volume  already  cited. 


CH.  vi]     tiZtiN  HASAN  AND  THE  OTTOMANS         411 

having  become  "  the  Seat  of  the  Throne  of  Sovereignty  and 
the  Station  of  the  Caliphate,"  he  further  announces  the  sub- 
jugation of  Khuzistan.  This  at  last  calls  forth  a  reply 
which  reveals  a  high  degree  of  exasperation  :  the  Ottoman 
"Sultdn  Muhammad,  son  of  Murad,  son  of  Muhammad, 
son  of  Bayazfd  "  addresses  his  arrogant  correspondent  as 
"  thou,"  warns  him  not  to  be  puffed  up  by  temporary  good 
fortune,  and  threatens  to  march  against  him  in  the  ensuing 
month  of  Shawvval.  About  the  same  time  he  despatched 
a  letter  to  his  sort,  Prince  Mustafa,  governor  of  Qaraman, 
ordering  him  to  attack  Uzun  Hasan,  whom  he  describes  as 
"  deserving  of  the  gibbet  and  the  rope  "  ("  mustahiqq-i-ddr 
u  rasan  oldn  Uztin  Hasan ")  ;  and  to  this  letter  we  have 
Prince  Mustafa's  reply,  describing  how.  aided  by  his  tutor 
Gedik  Ahmad  Pasha,  he  defeated  Uzun  Hasan's  army 
near  Qonya  on  Saturday,  I4th  of  RaW  i,  877  (August  19, 
1472),  and  killed  his  sons  Yusuf,  Zaynal  and  'Umar.  The 
two  last  of  this  series  of  documents  given  by  Firfdun  Bey1 
contain  Shaykh  Aq  Shamsu'd-Dm's  interpretation  of  two 
dreams  about  Uzun  Hasan,  and  are  written  in  Arabic. 

The  accounts  of  Uzun  Hasan's  conflict  with  the  Ottomans 
given  by  Caterino  Zeno2,  Giovan  Maria  Angioletto3,  and 
Causes  of  hos-  the  author  of  the  Travels  of  a  Merchant  in 
tiiity  between  Persia*,  in  conjunction  with  those  of  Munajjim- 
gpvemihent  and  bdshi  and  'Abdu'r- Rahman  Sheref  Bey,  though 
uzvin  Hasan  not  rich  jn  chronological  details,  make  the 
causes  and  course  of  the  struggle  pretty  clear.  Apart  from 
the  growing  arrogance  of  Uzun  Hasan,  as  revealed  in  the 
despatches  to  which  reference  is  made  above,  the  Ottoman 
Sultan  had  against  his  neighbour  four  principal  causes  of 
complaint,  to  wit:  (1)  his  negotiations  with  Venice  for  a 
conjoined  attack  on  Turkey  from  both  East  and  West ; 

1  Munsha'at,  vol.  i,  pp.  280-2.    The  date  here  given  (877/1472)  does 
not  accord  with  that  (A.D.  1474)  given  on  the  next  page  (line  26), 
which  seems  to  be  the  more  correct. 

2  See  the  above-mentioned  Hakluyt  Society's  volume,  pp.  14-31. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  74-96.  4  Ibid.,  pp.  180-182. 


412       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD    [BK  in 

(2)  his  attacks  on  Jahanshah  the  "  Black  Sheep  "  Turkman, 
whom  he  not  only  conquered  but  put  to  death,  and  on 
Sultan  Husayn  Bayqara  the  Ti'murid,  both  of  whom  were 
in  friendly  relations  with  Sultan  Muhammad  Fdtih  ;  (3) 
his  promise  to  support  the  Christian  Emperor  of  Trebizond 
against  Ottoman  aggression  ;  and  (4)  his  protection  of  Pir 
Ahmad  (the  "  Pirameto  "  of  Zeno)  and  other  princes  of  the 
Qaraman  dynasty,  who  were  the  ancient  and  bitter  foes  of 
the  House  of  'Osman. 

The  ensuing  war,  which  began  in  877/1472-3  and  ended 
in  878/1473-4,  presented  two  phases,  in  the  first  of  which 

the  victory  was  to  the  Persians  and  in  the 
TuTks  ami6"  second  to  the  Turks.  The  first  battle,  which 
Persians  took  place  on  the  Euphrates  near  Malatya,  was 

lost  chiefly  through  the  rashness  of  Murad  Pasha 
Palaeologus,  the  young  Beyler-bey  of  Rumelia  (the  "  Asmu- 
rat "  of  Angioletto).  Many  Turks  were  drowned  in  the  "whirl- 
pools" of  the  river,  besides  those  who  were  killed,  and  twelve 
thousand  men,  "  among  whom  were  several  persons  of  note," 
were  missing  when  the  muster  was  called  in  the  evening1. 
"  Having  suffered  this  defeat,"  says  Angioletto  (who  was 
with  the  Turkish  army),  "  the  Turk  became  very  apprehen- 
sive, and  determined  to  lead  his  army  back  to  his  country 
by  the  shortest  route."  They  therefore  retired  towards 
Trebizond,  in  a  valley  near  which  place  a  second  great 
battle  was  fought  towards  the  end  of  August,  1474,  in  which 

Uzun  Hasan  was  decisively  defeated  and  his 

Defeat  of  Uzun  * 

Hasan  by  the  son  Zaynal  killed,  while  much  spoil  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  victors.  Prince  Mustafa  dis- 
tinguished himself  greatly  in  this  battle.  "  If  Ussun  Cassano 
had  remained  content  with  his  first  victory,"  says  Angioletto, 
"the  Turk  would  have  gone  away  ignominiously,  and  he 
would  not  have  lost  the  territories  he  did1."  "  This  battle," 
says  'Abdu'r-Rahman  Sheref  Bey2,  "  upset  the  cup  of  Uzun 

1  See  ch.  vii  of  G.  M.  Angioletto's  narrative  in  the  Hakluyt  Society's 
volume,  p.  88. 

2  Ta!rtkk-i-Devlet-i-lAltyya,  p.  173. 


CH.  vi]   REBELLION  OF  OGHURLU  MUHAMMAD    413 

Hasan's  fortune,  and  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  assured 
the  safety  of  the  Sultan's  eastern  frontier." 

Uzun  Hasan  now  retired  to  Tabriz,  "  where  he  caused 
games  and  rejoicings  to  be  held,  not  caring  much  for  his 
reverse,  as  he  had  lost  none  of  his  dominions."  His  ease 
was,  however,  soon  troubled  by  the  rebellion  of  his  son 
Oghurlu  Muhammad1,  who  seized  Shiraz,  and,  on  hearing 
that  his  father  was  advancing  against  him  with  a  great 
army,  fled  to  Constantinople,  where  he  was  received  with 
much  honour  by  the  Ottoman  Sultan,  who  promised  "to 
make  him  king  of  Persia  in  the  room  of  his  father,  who  was 
his  enemy."  Uzun  Hasan,  meeting  filial  ingratitude  with 
cunning,  first  feigned  illness  and  then  caused  a  rumour  of 
his  death  to  be  circulated. 

"  While  thus  dissembling,"  says  Angioletto2,  "  a  report 

was  spread  abroad  to  Constantinople  that  Ussun  Cassano 

had  fallen  dangerously  ill  from  melancholy,  on 

The  stratagem  .  . 

whereby  Uzun  account  of  the  rebellion  of  his  son,  and,  a  rumour 
onhackJtQ8 '  °f ^s  having  got  worse  having  been  whispered 
Persia  and  puts  about,  some  of  his  most  faithful  adherents,  as 
had  been  arranged,  announced  his  death,  while 
messengers  were  sent  to  Ugurlimehemet  with  letters  and 
tokens,  as  is  customary,  giving  information  of  the  death  of 
his  father,  and  begging  him  to  return  and  take  possession 
of  the  throne  before  either  of  his  brothers  Halul  or  Jacob3 
could  do  so.  And  in  order  to  give  greater  semblance  to 
the  affair,  funeral  rites  were  paid,  and  his  death  was  really 
believed  in  throughout  the  country.  Ugurlimehemet  having 
received  three  different  messengers  with  secret  messages, 
such  as  are  used  in  affairs  of  state,  thought  it  safe  to  go  to 
Tauris.  He  arrived  there  in  a  few  days  with  a  small  escort, 
and,  on  going  to  the  palace  to  make  himself  sovereign,  was 

1  Called  "Ugurlimehemet"  by  Angioletto,  and  "  Ungermanmet " 
by  Zeno. 

2  End  of  ch.  ix,  p.  96. 

3  I.e.  Khalil  and  Ya'qiib,   who  actually  succeeded  in  turn  to  the 
throne. 


4i4       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD   [BK  m 

taken  to  where  his  father  was  in  perfect  health,  who  ordered 
him  to  be  confined,  and  afterwards  put  to  death,  without 
showing  any  consideration  for  his  being  his  son." 

For  his  defeat  by  the  Ottomans  Uzun  Hasan  was  in 
some  degree  compensated  by  a  victory  over  the  Egyptians, 
who  had  taken  and  ravaged  'Urfa,  and  a  successful  cam- 
paign  in  Georgia,  from  which  he  obtained   a  tribute  of 
16,000  ducats  and  the  surrender  of  the  city  of  Tiflis.     He 
finally  died  in  882/1477-8,  and  was  succeeded 
by   his  son   Khah'l,   who,   however,   had   only 
reigned  six  months  when  he  was  attacked  and  killed  by 
his  brother  Ya'qub1  near  Khuy.     This  prince  reigned  for 
about  thirteen  years,  in  the  course  of  which  period  he  killed 
Shaykh   Haydar  son  of  Shaykh    Tunayd   the 

Ya'qiib's  perse-  r        ,     /    *i  •  i      •     n 

cutionofthe  Safawi  (whose  growing  power  and  influence 
caused  him  alarm)  and  interned  his  children 
(including  Isma'il,  the  future  founder  of  the  Safawi  dynasty) 
at  the  old  Sasanian  capital  of  Istakhr.  Munajjim-bdshi 
says  that  he  built  the  beautiful  summer  palace  of  the  Hasht 
Bihisht,  or  "Eight  Paradises"  (the  "Astibisti"  of  the  Vene- 
tians) outside  Tabriz,  but  the  Italian  merchant-traveller2 
ascribes  its  construction  to  Uzun  Hasan.  Finally,  according 
to  the  same  authority3  (for  the  fact  is  not  mentioned  by 
Mfrkhwand  or  Munajjim-bdshi\  he  was  poisoned  by  his 
wife  under  the  following  circumstances. 

"  He  took  as  his  wife  a  high-born  lady,  daughter  of  a 

Persian  noble,  but  a  most  licentious  woman  :  having  fallen 

in  love  with  a  great  lord  of  the  Court,  this  wicked 

How  Ya'qub 

was  poisoned       woman  sought  means  to  kill  Jacob  Sultan  her 
husband,  designing  to  marry  her  paramour  and 

1  According  to  Munajjim-bdshi  (SahcCiftfl-Akhbdr,  vol.  iii,  p.  165) 
Khalfl  put  to  death  his  brother  Maqsud,  and  thereby  alienated  and 
alarmed  his  other  brothers. 

2  Travels  of  a  Merchant  in  Persia,  in  the  Hakluyt  Society's  oft- 
cited  volume,  ch.  viii,  "  Description  of  the  Royal   Palace  built  by 
Assambei  outside  the  city  of  Tauris,"  pp.  173-8. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  183-4. 


CH.  vi]  DEATH  OF  YA'QtiB  415 

make  him  king,  as,  being  closely  related  to  Jacob,  he  would 
become  so  by  right  in  default  of  children.  Having  arranged 
matters  with  him,  she  prepared  an  insidious  poison  for  her 
husband,  who,  having  gone  into  a  perfumed  bath,  as  was 
his  custom,  with  his  young  son,  aged  eight  or  nine  years, 
remained  there  from  the  twenty-second  hour  until  sunset. 
On  coming  out  he  went  into  the  harem,  which  was  close  to 
the  bath,  where  he  was  met  by  his  wicked  wife  with  a  cup 
and  a  gold  vase  containing  the  poison,  which  she  had  got 
ready  while  he  was  in  the  bath,  knowing  that  it  was  his 
custom  to  have  something  to  drink  on  coming  out  of  the 
bath.  She  caressed  him  more  than  usual  to  effect  her 
wicked  purpose ;  but  not  having  sufficient  command  over 
her  countenance,  became  very  pale,  which  excited  the  sus- 
picion of  Jacob,  who  had  already  began  to  distrust  her  from 
some  of  her  proceedings.  He  then  commanded  her  to 
taste  it  first,  which,  although  she  knew  it  was  certain  death, 
she  could  not  escape  and  drank  some;  she  then  handed  the 
gold  cup  to  her  husband  Jacob,  who,  with  his  son,  drank 
the  rest.  The  poison  was  so  powerful  that  by  midnight 
they  were  all  dead.  The  next  morning  the  news  was  circu- 
lated of  the  sudden  death  of  Jacob  Sultan,  his  son  and  wife. 
The  great  lords,  hearing  of  their  king's  decease,  had  quarrels 
among  themselves,  so  that  for  five  or  six  years  all  Persia 
was  in  a  state  of  civil  war,  first  one  and  then  another  of  the 
nobles  becoming  Sultan.  At  last  a  youth  named  Alumut, 
aged  fourteen  years,  was  raised  to  the  throne,  which  he  held 
till  the  succession  of  Sheikh  Ismail  Sultan1." 

Munajjim-bdshi  describes  Ya'qub  as  "  disposed  to  drink 
and  a  merry  life,  and  very  fond  of  poetry."    "  Many  poets," 
he  adds,  "  gathered  at  his  court  from  all  quarters,  and  com- 
posed resonant  qasidas  in  his  praise."     He  was 

Bdysunqur 

b.  Ya'qub  succeeded  by  his  son  Baysunqur,  who  reigned 

Rustamb.  a  year   and   eight    months,  when  he  was  re- 

Maqsud  placed  by  his  cousin  Rustam,  the  son  of  Maqsiid- 

1  Munajjim-bdshi  merely  says  (vol.  iii,  p.  166)  that  Ya'qub  died  in 
Muharram,  896  (Nov.-Dec.   1490). 


4i 6       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TrMtfRID  PERIOD   [BK  m 

He  marched  against  Badi'u'z-Zaman  the  Ti'murid,  but  ere  a 
battle  had  taken  place  in  Khurasan  was  compelled  to  turn 
his  attention  to  Isfahan,  the  governor  of  which  city  had 
revolted  against  his  authority.  On  his  approach  the  governor 
fled  to  Qum,  but  was  pursued  and  killed,  and  his  severed 
head  brought  to  Rustam.  In  the  same  year,  898/1492-3, 
he  sent  an  expedition  against  Shi'rwan,  which  celebrated  its 
success  in  the  Ti'murian  fashion  by  building  pyramids  of 
skulls.  From  these  same  Shfrwanis,  however,  Baysunqur 
raised  an  army  for  the  invasion  of  Adharbayjan,  whereupon 
Rustam  released  Sultan  'All  and  the  other  Safawi 
Release  of  the  prisoners  at  Istakhr  and  sent  them  to  avenge 

Safawi  captives 

the  death  of  their  father,  Shaykh  Haydar,  who 
had  been  slain  by  Baysunqur's  father  Ya'qub.  Sultan  'All 
and  his  followers  were  hospitably  received  at  Tabriz  by 
Rustam,  and  proceeded  thence  to  Ahar,  where  they  defeated 
and  killed  Baysunqur.  Rustam,  relieved  of  this  anxiety, 
now  grew  jealous  of  Sultan  'All's  increasing  power  and 
influence,  and  determined  to  destroy  him.  He  sent  one  of 
his  generals  with  4000  horsemen  after  him,  and  a  fierce 
battle  ensued,  wherein  the  Safawi's,  though  only  700  in 
number,  fought  valiantly — "like  lions,"  says  Angioletto1 — 
but  were  eventually  defeated  and  Sultan  'All  slain,  after 
nominating  his  young  brother  Isma'i'l  as  his  successor.  He 
and  his  brother  Ibrahim  fled  to  Gilan  and  Mazandaran,  and 
remained  in  hiding  for  some  time  at  Lahfjan  and  Lishta- 
Nisha,  whence  Ibrahim  presently  made  his  way  in  disguise 
to  his  mother  at  Ardabi'l.  Isma'i'l  remained  in  Gflan,  pro- 
tected by  its  governor  Kar  Kiya  Mi'rza  'Ah',  and 

Activity  of  *  ,J 

isma'iithe          an  active  and  successful  Shi'ite  propaganda  was 

carried  on  amongst  the  inhabitants,  amongst 

whom  the  number  of  "Sufi's  of  Lahijan"  or  "Red-heads" 

1  See  p.  101  of  the  Hakluyt  volume  already  so  often  cited.  Caterino 
Zeno  (Ibid.,  p.  46)  says  that  the  Safawi  troops,  though  few,  performed 
prodigies  of  valour,  and  there  was  not  one  who  was  not  dead  or 
mortally  wounded.  The  Venetians  throughout  confuse  Sultan  'AH 
with  his  father  Shaykh  Haydar  ("  Secheaidare,"  "  Sechaidar"). 


CH.VI]  BATTLE  OF  SHURtiR  417 

(Qizil-bds/i),   as  they  were  called1,  continued    steadily  to 
increase. 

In  905/1499-1500  Isma'il,  then  only  thirteen  years  of 

age2,  marched  forth  on  his  career  of  conquest  with  the  nine 

tribes  which  owed   him  allegiance,  to  wit  the 

Beginning  of  ,  , 

isma'ii's  career     Ustajlu,Shamlu,Takalu,  Rumlu,  Warsaq,  Dhu'l- 

Of  conquest 


bagh  ;  and,  after  formally  visiting  the  tombs  of  his  illustrious 
ancestors  at  Ardabil,  and  seeking  the  blessing  of  his  aged 
mother,  advanced  by  way  of  Qara-bagh,  Gukcha  Deniz  and 
Erzinjan  on  Shirwan.  By  this  time  news  had  spread  abroad 
that  the  "  Shaykh's  son  "  was  about  to  claim  his  rights,  and 
his  disciples  flocked  to  his  standard  from  Syria,  Diyar  Bakr 
and  Siwds,  so  that  he  now  found  himself  at  the  head  of 
7000  men.  Crossing  the  river  Kur  he  attacked  Farrukh 
Yasar,  the  king  of  Shirwan  and  slayer  of  his  father,  near 
Gulist^n  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Shamdkha,  killed  him, 
completely  routed  his  army,  and  occupied  Shirwan,  where 
he  possessed  himself  of  the  royal  treasure.  He  passed  the 
winter  at  Mahmud-abad  near  that  place,  and  appointed  the 
AmirShamsu'd-DinZakariyyahis  first  WasirjChfi,  theologian 
Shamsu'd-Di'n  Gilani  his  Chancellor  (Sadr),  and  Husayn 
Beg  Shamlu  and  Abdal  Beg  his  counsellors. 

At  this  juncture,  in  907/1  501-2,  when  he  had  taken  Bdku 
and  was  besieging  the  fortress  of  Gulistan,  news  reached 

him  that  Alwand  Beg,  son  of  Yusuf  Beg  of  the 
Thejjattie  of  «  white  Sheep"  Turkman  dynasty,had  advanced 

against  him  to  Nakhjuwan,  whither  he  at  once 
turned  his  victorious  banners.  A  great  battle  took  place  at 
Shurur,near  Nakhjuwan,  between  the  "  White  Sheep  "  Turk- 
mans, commanded  by  Amir  'Osmdn  ('Uthman)  of  Mawsil 
(Mosul),  and  the  Safawi  army,  commanded  by  Pin'  Beg 

1  Munajjim-bdshi,  p.  181.     The  red  caps  from  which  they  derived 
their  second  name  are  here  said  to  have  been  first  given  by  Shaykh 
Haydar  to  his  followers  when  he  attacked  Shirwan. 

2  According  to  Munajjim-bdshi  he  was  born  in  Rajab  892  (June- 
July,  1487). 

B.  P.  27 


4i8       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD  [BK  m 

Qajar.  The  Turkmans  were  utterly  defeated  and  their 
general  captured  and  put  to  death.  Alwand  Beg  fled  to  Diyar 
Bakr,  and  Isma'il  occupied  Tabriz,  where  he  was  crowned 
King.  In  the  following  year,  908/1502-3,  he  invaded  'Iraq 
and  routed  Murad  Beg,  the  last  ruler  of  the  "White  Sheep" 
dynasty,  who  fled  to  Shiraz,  which,  together  with  Kazarun, 
Kirman  and  Yazd,  submitted  to  the  victorious  Shdh  Isma'il 
Safawi  in  the  course  of  the  next  year  or  two.  He  spent 
the  winter  of  A.D.  1504—5  at  Isfahan,  destined  to  become 
the  glorious  capital  of  the  dynasty  of  which  he  had  by  now 
so  truly  and  firmly  laid  the  foundations,  and  here  he  received 
an  ambassador  from  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Bayazi'd  II.  The 
fuller  history  of  the  origin,  development  and  decline  of 
this  great  and  truly  national  dynasty  will  form  the  subject 
of  the  next  volume. 

The  relations  between  the  Timurids  and  the  Safawfs, 

first  between  Babur  and  Shah  Isma'il  and  later  between 

Humayun  and  Shah  Tahmasp,  will  also  be  more 

between5  fully  considered  in  the  next  volume.     On  the 

Timurids  whole  these  relations  were  singularly  friendly, 

and  Safawis  .  .  ...          i  •  /v  /-    i  •  1-1 

in  spite  of  the  difference  of  doctrine  which  con- 
tributed so  much  to  isolate  Persia  from  her  Sunni  neighbours 
after  the  rise  of  the  Safawi  power  and  the  definite  adoption 
of  the  Shi'a  creed  as  the  national  faith.  Babur  and  Shah 
Isma'il  were  united  by  a  common  fear  and  hatred  of  Shay- 
bam  Khan  and  his  terrible  Uzbeks,  at  whose  hands  the 
House  of  Timur  suffered  so  much  during  its  last  days  in 
Khurasan  and  Transoxiana.  The  years  1 501-7  were  marked 
by  a  series  of  triumphs  on  the  part  of  Shaybani  Khan, 
who  successively  seized  Samarqand,  Farghana,  Tashkand, 
Khwarazm,  and  finally  Khurasan.  Sultdn  Husayn,  of 
whose  brilliant  court  at  Herat  we  have  already  spoken,  died 
in  1506,  and  the  weakness  and  lack  of  unity  of  his  sons  and 
younger  kinsmen  made  them  an  easy  prey  to  Shaybani 
Khan,  who,  in  the  course  of  1507,  succeeded  in  defeating 
and  killing  all  of  them  with  the  exception  of  Sultan  Husayn's 
son  Badi'u'z-Zaman,  who  fled  for  protection  first  to  Shah 


CH.  vi]  DEFEAT  OF  SHAYBANf  KHAN  419 

Isma'fl  and  later  to  the  Ottoman  court  at  Constantinople, 

where  he  died.     In  1510,  however,  Shah  Isma'il  marched 

into  Khurasan  against  the  Uzbeks  and  utterly 

Shah  Isma'il's  J , 

victory  over  the    defeated  them  at  the  battle  of  Merv.     Shaybam 

Uzbeks  at  Merv       j^^    ^    amongst    the    slam          Ris    body    was 

dismembered  and  his  limbs  distributed  amongst  different 
cities  ;  his  skull,  set  in  gold,  was  made  into  a  drinking-cup 
for  Shah  Isma'il ;  the  skin  of  his  head,  stuffed  with  straw, 
was  sent  to  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Bayazi'd  at  Constantinople; 
and  one  of  his  hands  constituted  the  gruesome  credentials 
of  an  envoy  sent  to  one  of  his  vassals,  the  ruler  of  Mazan- 
daran1.  Babur's  sister,  Khan-zada  Begum,  who  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  Uzbeks  ten  years  before,  was  delivered 
from  her  long  captivity  by  Shah  Isma'il,  and  was  sent  with 
all  honour  to  her  brother,  who  in  his  Memoirs2  gives  an 
interesting  account  of  their  meeting.  Friendly  embassies 
were  interchanged  between  the  two  monarchs  (for  Babur 
had  already  in  1508  formally  assumed  the  title  of  Padishah 
or  Emperor),  and  as  Babur's  final  abandonment  of  Trans- 
oxiana  a  year  or  two  later,  followed  in  1526-9  by  his 
successful  invasion  of  India,  which  thenceforth  became  the 
seat  of  his  government,  removed  all  likelihood  of  friction 
between  him  and  the  Persians,  the  friendship  thus  formed 
was  fairly  stable,  and  was  renewed  in  the  next  generation 
by  Shah  Tahmasp's  hospitality  to  Humayun  when  he  was 
temporarily  expelled  from  his  kingdom  and  driven  into 
exile.  Indeed  the  complaisance  shown  by  Babur  towards 
the  strong  religious  views  of  Shah  Isma'il  at  one  time  con- 
siderably impaired  his  popularity  amongst  his  subjects 
Literary  inter-  beyond  the  Oxus,  who  then,  as  now,  were 
course  between  remarkable  for  their  extreme  devotion  to  the 
during'the  "  Sunni  doctrine,  which  Shah  Isma'il  relentlessly 
safawi  period  persecuted3.  Nor  were  the  relations  between 
Persia  and  India  confined  to  their  rulers,  for  during  the 

1  See  W.  Erskine's  History  of  India,  etc.,  vol.  i,  pp.  303-4. 

2  Ed.  Ilminsky,  p.  n. 

3  Erskine,  Hist,  of  India,  vol.  i,  p.  321. 

27 — 2 


420       HISTORY  OF  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

whole  Safawi  period,  and  even  beyond  it,  we  shall,  in  a 
subsequent  volume,  meet  with  a  whole  series  of  Persian 
poets,  including  some  of  the  most  eminent  of  later  days, 
who  emigrated  from  their  own  country  to  India  to  seek 
their  fortune  at  the  splendid  court  of  the  so-called  Mogul 
Emperors,  where,  until  the  final  extinction  of  the  dynasty 
in  the  Indian  Mutiny,  Persian  continued  to  hold  the  posi- 
tion not  only  of  the  language  of  diplomacy  but  of  polite 
intercourse. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PROSEJWRITERS  OF  THE  LATER  TIMURID  PERIOD. 

The  literary  and  artistic  wealth  of  the  period  now  under 
review  has  been  already  summarily  indicated  in  the  pre- 
„  ceding  chapter,  and  it  will  be  our  business  in 

tnormous 

literary  activity  this  chapter  to  discuss  in  greater  detail  the 
work  of  some  of  its  most  eminent  representa- 
tives in  the  world  of  letters.  To  attempt  to  treat,  even  in 
the  briefest  manner,  of  all  its  notable  poets  and  men  of 
learning  would  be  impossible  in  any  moderate  compass. 
Thus  the  Habibiis-Siyar,  a  history  specially  valuable  on 
account  of  the  biographies  of  notable  writers  and  poets 
added  as  an  appendix  to  each  reign  or  historical  period, 
enumerates  no  less  than  211  persons  of  this  class  who 
flourished  during  the  Ti'murid  period,  of  whom  all  save  23, 
who  belong  to  the  reign  of  Timur  himself,  represent  the 
period  now  engaging  our  attention1.  The  city  of  Herat 
during  the  reign  of  Sultan  Abu'l-Ghazi  Husayn  (A.H.  878- 
912  =  A.D.  1473-1506)  may  be  regarded  as  the  culminating 
point  of  this  brilliant  period,  and  it  derives  an  additional 
importance  from  the  great  influence  which  it  exercised  on 
the  development  of  Ottoman  Turkish  literature,  a  fact  duly 

1  These  biographical  notices  all  occur  in  vol.  iii,  part  3,  on  the 
following  pages  of  the  Bombay  lithographed  edition  of  1857  :  pp.  85- 
92  (reign  of  Ti'miir);  pp.  142-150  (reign  of  Sh£h-rukh) ;  pp.  151-161 
(reign  of  Ulugh  Beg);  pp.  171-174  (reign  of  Abu'l-Qasim  Bdbur) ; 
pp.  196-201  (reign  of  Abu  Sa'id);  pp.  334-350  (reign  of  Sultdn  Abu'l- 
Ghazi  Husayn  b.  Bayqara).  To  these  must  be  added  some  of  those 
persons  who  flourished  contemporaneously  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Turkmans  of  the  "  White  Sheep"  (Aq-qoyunlu)  and  early  Safawis 
(vol.  iii,  part  4,  pp.  110-118),  who  raise  the  total  number  of  separate 
biographical  notices  to  274. 


422  PROSE  WRITERS:  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD  [BKIII 

emphasized  and  fully  illustrated  by  the  late  Mr  E.  J.  W. 
Gibb  in  the  second  volume  of  his  monumental  History  of 
Ottoman  Poetry. 

"  This  school,"  he  says  (pp.  7-8),  speaking  of  what  he 

denotes  as  "  the  Second  Period,"  "  which  cultivated  chiefly 

lyric  and  romantic  poetry,  and  which  was  dis- 

Innuence  of  *  f  • 

jami,  Mir'Aii  tinguished  by  its  love  of  artifice,  reached  its 
0SnhotfomWatietC'  meridian  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth 
Turkish  Htera-  century  at  the  brilliant  court  of  the  scholarly 
and  accomplished  Sultan  Husayn  [ibn]  Bay- 
qara  of  Herat.  Here  its  spirit  and  substance  were  gathered 
up  and  summarized  in  their  manifold  works  by  the  two 
greatest  men  of  letters  of  the  day,  the  poet  Jamf  and  the 
statesman  Mir  'All  Shir  Nawa'i.  As  these  two  illustrious 
writers  were  the  guiding  stars  of  the  Ottoman  poets  during 
the  whole  of  the  Second  Period  (A.D.  1450-1600),  it  will  be 
well  to  look  for  a  moment  at  their  work." 

After  a  brief  account  of  these  two  eminent  men,  and  an 
admirable  characterization  of  the  school  which  they  repre- 
sent, Mr  Gibb  (pp.  12-13)  summarizes  its  chief  features  as 
"subjectivity,  artificialness,  and  conventionality,  combined 
with  an  ever-increasing  deftness  of  craftsmanship  and 
brilliance  of  artistry."  "This  all-absorbing  passion  for 
rhetoric,"  he  adds,  "  was  the  most  fatal  pitfall  on  the  path 
of  these  old  poets  ;  and  many  an  otherwise  sublime  passage 
is  degraded  by  the  obtrusion  of  some  infantile  conceit,  and 
many  a  verse,  beautiful  in  all  else,  disfigured  by  the  presence 
of  some  extravagant  simile  or  grotesque  metaphor." 

The  high  esteem  in  which  the  poet  Jami  was  held  in 
Turkey  and  at  the  Ottoman  Court  is  proved  by  two  Persian 
letters  addressed  to  him  by  Sultan  Bayazid  II 
otto-6  (A.D.  148  1-15  1  2}  and  printed  in  the  Munshd'dt 


man  Sultan         of  Firi'dun  Bey1.    The  first,  which  is  in  a  highly 

Bayazid  II  7 

complimentary  strain,  was,  as  we  learn  from 

Jami's  answer,  written  "  for  no  special  reason  and  without 

the  intervention  of  any  demand,  out  of  pure  grace  and 

1  Constantinople,  Jumada  ii,  1274  (Feb.  1858),  vol.  i,  pp.  361-364. 


CH.  vn]        PERSIAN  INFLUENCE  IN  TURKEY  423 

favour,  and  sincere  virtue  and  gratitude."  In  his  second 
letter  Sultan  Bayazid  expresses  his  gratification  at  receiving 
the  poet's  letter  and  informs  him  that  he  is  sending  a  gift 
of  one  thousand  florins1,  which  gift  is  gratefully  acknow- 
ledged by  the  poet  in  a  second  letter  sent  by  the  hand  of 
a  certain  darwish  named  Muhammad  Badakhshi,  who,  with 
some  others,  was  setting  out  on  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca. 
Unfortunately  none  of  these  four  letters  are  dated.  Two 
other  Persian  scholars,  the  philosopher  Jalalu'd- 
menofiettan  Din  Dawanf  and  the  theologian  Farfdu'd-Din 
honoured  by  Ahmad-i-Taftazani,  were  similarly  honoured  by 

Bayazid  II  ,'  ,->i/i  -11  T-     r   /     /     ? 

the  same  Sultan,  but  m  the  last  case  Taftazam 
took  the  initiative  (October  25,  1505),  while  the  Sultan's 
answer  was  not  written  until  July  13,  1507.  The  great 
NawaTs  influence  exerted  on  Ottoman  poetry  by  J  ami's 

influence  in  illustrious  patron,  the  Minister  Mir  'All  Shir 

Nawa'i,  who  was  equally  distinguished  in  prose 
and  poetry,  both  in  Eastern  Turkish  and  Persian,  is 
emphasized  by  Mr  E.  J.  W.  Gibb2;  who  also  describes3  how 

the  eminent  Ottoman  jurisconsult  Mu'ayyad- 
'Abdu'r-Rahman  Chelebf  (afterwards  in 


seven  years  in      the  reign  of  Sultan   Bayazid  II  famous  as  a 

study  at  Shiraz 

generous  patron  of  letters  and  collector  of 
books)  being  compelled  in  A.D.  1476-7  to  flee  from  his 
country,  spent  seven  years  at  Shiraz  studying  with  the 
above-mentioned  philosopher  Jalalu'd-Dfn  Dawani.  It  was, 
in  short,  during  this  period  which  we  are  now  considering 
that  Persia  began  to  exercise  over  Ottoman  Turkish  litera- 
ture the  profound  influence  which  in  the  next  period  she 
extended  to  India. 

From  these  general  considerations  we  must  now  pass  to 
a  more  particular  examination  of  the  most  eminent  prose 

1  "The  Ottoman  florin  was  a  gold  coin  of  the  approximate  value 
of  9  shillings."     Gibb's  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  ii,  p.  26,  ad  calc. 

2  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  i,  p.  128  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  10-11,  p.  48 
and  note,  ad  calc. 

3  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  29-31. 


424  PROSE  WRITERS :  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD  [BKIII 

writers  of  this  period,  deferring  the  consideration  of  the 
poets  to  another  chapter. 

HISTORIANS  AND  BIOGRAPHERS. 

In  this,  as  in  the  preceding  period,  history  and  biography 
are  well  represented,  and  at  least  nine  or  ten  writers  on 
these  subjects  deserve  at  any  rate  a  brief  men- 
SoSpheT"  tion.  Speaking  generally  they  are  distinctly 
inferior  in  quality  to  their  predecessors  in  the 
Mongol  period,  for,  while  their  style  is  often  almost  as  florid 
as,  though  less  ingenious  than,  that  of  Wassdf-i-Hadrat, 
they  fall  far  short  of  him  in  wealth  of  detail,  breadth  of 
treatment,  and  citation  of  documents  of  historic  value, 
while  they  compare  even  more  unfavourably  with  the  great 
historical  writers  'Ala'u'd-Din  'At£  Maltk-i-Juwaym  and 
Rashfdu'd-Dm  Fadlu'llah.  We  shall  now  consider  them 
briefly  in  chronological  order. 

(i)     Hdfiz  Abrti. 

Almost  all  that  is  known  about  this  historian,  whose 
name  is  more  familiar  than  his  works,  which  remain  un- 
published and  are  very  rare  even  in  manuscript, 

H4fi?Abru  .         .    .       _.       .    '  .  _          ,  _f. 

is  contained  in  Kieu  s  Persian  Catalogues1.  His 
proper  name  (though  otherwise  given  elsewhere,  as  we  shall 
presently  see)  is  generally  assumed  to  have  been  Khwaja 
Nuru'd-Dfn  Lutfu'llah.  He  was  born  in  Herat2,  but  in  what 
year  is  not  recorded,  and  educated  in  Hamadan.  After 
the  death  of  Ti'mur,  who  showed  him  marked  favour,  he 
attached  himself  to  the  court  of  his  son  and  successor 
Shah-rukh,  and  of  his  grandson  Prince  Baysunqur,  for 
whom  he  wrote  his  great  history.  This  history,  generally 
known  as  Zubdatu't-Tawdrikh  ("the  Cream  of  Histories") 

1  See  pp.  421-424  for  his  geography,  and  pp.  16-18  of  the  Supple- 
ment for  his  history.     A  long  and  careful  account  of  three  MSS.  of  the 
latter  is  also  given  by  Baron  Victor  Rosen  in  his  Collections  Scientifiques 
( Manuscrits  persans),  vol.  iii,  pp.  52-111. 

2  Or  Khwaf,  according  to  Fasihi.     See  p.  426  infra. 


CH.  vii]  HAFIZ  ABRti  425 

but  called  by  Fasihi  of  Khwaf  Majma'ut-Tawdrikh  as- 
Sultdni  ("the    Royal    Compendium    of    Histories"),   was 
concluded  in  A.H.   829  or  830  (A.D.   1426  or  1427)*,  only 
three  or  four  years  before  the  author's  death.    It  comprised 
four  volumes,  of  which,  unfortunately,  the  third  and  fourth, 
dealing  with  the  post-Muhammadan  Persian  dynasties  down 
to  the  date  of  composition,  appear  to  be  lost2.    Manuscripts 
of  the  first  and   second  volumes  exist  at   St  Petersburg 
and  are  fully  described  by  Baron  V.  Rosen8;    a  copy  of 
vol.  i,  formerly  in  the  collection  of  the  Comte  de  Gobineau, 
is  now  in  the  British  Museum  and  is  numbered  Or.  2774  ; 
and  I  myself  possess  a  very  fine  copy  of  vol.  ii  (containing 
the  history  of  Muhammad  and  the  Caliphate  down  to  its  ex- 
tinction) dated  Friday,  15  Sha'ban,  829  (June  22,  1426),  and 
copied  in  Herat  in  the  very  year  of  the  work's  completion. 
Besides  this  history,  Hafiz  Abrii  also  compiled  a  great 
geographical  work,  of  which  the  first  volume  is  represented 
by  a  manuscript  (Or.  1577)  in  the  British  Museum  (fully 
described  by  Rieu4),  and  another  in  St  Petersburg5.     From 
this  work,  composed  in  820-823/1417-1420  for  Shah-rukh, 
Rieu  has  succeeded  in  gleaning  many  particulars  of  the 
author's  life,  and  especially  of  his  very  extensive  travels. 
He  accompanied  Timur  in  several  of  his  campaigns,  and 
was  with  him  at  the  taking  of  Aleppo  and  Damascus  in 
803/1400-1401.     When  Shah-rukh  succeeded  to  the  throne 
he  settled  down  in  Herat  to  a  life  of  letters  not  later  than 
818/1415-1416,  but  died   at  Zanjan  while  returning  with 
the  royal  cavalcade  from  Adharbayjan,  and  is  buried  there. 
Notice  of  Hifi?      The    following   short  obituary  notice  of  him 
Abni  in  Fasihfs    occurs  in  the  rare  Mujma/  (" Compendium")  of 
Fasihf  of  Khwaf  under  the  year  833/1429-1430, 
in  which  (contrary  to  most  authorities,  who  give  the  following 
year6)  his  death  is  placed  by  this  writer : 

1  See  Rteu's  Pers.  Cat.,  p.  422 a.          *  See  Rosen,  loc.  at.,  p.  53. 

3  See  the  first  foot-note  on  the  preceding  page. 

4  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  421-4.  5  Rosen,  loc.  at.,  p.  in. 

6  See  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  p.  422,  and  the  chronogram  there  cited. 


426  PROSE  WRITERS :  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

"  Death  of  Mawlani  Shihabu'd-Dfn  'Abdu'llah  of  Khwaf1,  known 
as  Hafiz  Abrii,  the  compiler  of  the  Royal  Compendium  of  Histories, 
on  Sunday  the  3rd  of  Shawwal,  at  Sarjam,  at  the  time  of  the  return  of 
His  Supreme  and  Imperial  Majesty  from  Adharbayjan.  He  is  buried 
at  Zanjan  near  the  tomb  of  the  Divine  Doctor  Akhu  Abi'1-Faraj-i- 
Zanjanf2." 

Free  use  was  made  of  the  Zubdatiit-Tawdrlkh  by  the 
author's  younger  contemporary  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  of  Samar- 
qand,  of  whom  we  shall  shortly  have  to  speak,  and  half  of 
the  geographical  work  mentioned  above  consists  of  a  his- 
torical summary  of  post-Muhammadan  Persian  history, 
which  becomes  very  detailed  in  the  latter  part,  down  to 
Ramadan  822  (October,  1419).  The  author's  style,  so  far 
as  can  be  judged  from  vol.  ii  of  the  Zubdatut-Tawdrikh 
(the  only  portion  of  his  work  to  which  I  have  access)  is 
very  simple  and  direct,  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that 
his  works,  so  far  as  they  are  available,  should  be  published. 

(2)     Fasihi  of  Khwdf. 

This  notable  historian  and  biographer  is  known  to  us 

only   by   one   book,  the   Mujmal,  or  "  Compendium "  of 

History  and  Biography,  of  which,  so  far  as  I 

Fasihi  of  KhwAf     ,  '  '      7        »  ~r     , 

know,  only  three  manuscripts  exist.  Oi  these 
three  MSS.  one,  belonging  to  the  Institut  des  Langues  Orien- 
tates du  Ministere  des  Affaires  Etrangeres  de  St  Petersbourg 
is  described  by  Baron  V.  Rosen3,  whose  description  is 
supplementary  to  the  fuller  and  earlier  one  of  Dorn.  One 
of  the  two  others  belonged  to  the  late  Colonel  Raverty, 
the  Pushtu  scholar,  from  whose  widow  it  was  purchased  in 
1907  by  the  trustees  of  the  "  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial." 
The  third  was  given  to  me  by  my  excellent  friend  Mr  Guy 
le  Strange,  who  bought  it  from  the  late  Sir  Albert  Houtum- 

1  The  discrepancy  between  the  name  and  birthplace  as  given  here 
and  elsewhere  has  been  already  noticed  on  p.  424  supra. 

2  See  Jami's  Nafahdtu'l-Uns,  ed.  Nassau  Lees,  p.  166,  where  he  is 
called  Akhi  Faraj-i-Zanjanf,  and  is  said  to  have  died  in  457/1065. 

3  Collections     Scientifiques    de    FInslitut ... Manuscrits    persans, 
pp.  111-113. 


CH.  vn]  THE  MUJMAL  OF  FASfHf  427 

Schindler.  It  is  much  more  modern  than  the  Raverty  MS., 
but  is  accurate  and  well-written,  and  has  a  lacuna  of  only 
ten  years  (A.H.  834-844  =  A. D.  1430-1440)  instead  of  the 
hundred  and  twenty-two  (A.H.  71 8-840  =  A.D.  1318-1437) 
which  are  wanting  in  the  other. 

In  1915  the  expatriated  Belgian  professors  of  oriental 
languages  temporarily  resident  in  Cambridge  brought  out 
Descri  tion  at  t^le  University  Press  there  a  number  of  the 
ofFasihi's  Museon,  to  which,  at  their  kind  invitation,  I 

contributed  an  article  of  thirty  pages  on  this 
interesting  work,  with  numerous  extracts,  based  on  the 
two  English  manuscripts,  both  of  which  were  then  in  my 
keeping.  The  Mujmal,  as  I  there  pointed  out,  consists  of 
an  Introduction,  two  Discourses,  and  a  Conclusion.  The 
Introduction  epitomizes  the  history  of  the  world  from  its 
creation  to  the  birth  of  the  Prophet  Muhammad.  The  first 
Discourse  continues  the  history  down  to  the  hijra,  or  flight 
of  the  Prophet  from  Mecca  to  al-Madina.  The  second 
Discourse,  which  is  by  far  the  largest  and  most  important 
part  of  the  book,  contains  the  history  of  the  years  A.H.  1-845 
(A.D.  622-1442).  The  Conclusion,  which  is  unfortunately 
missing  in  all  known  manuscripts,  contains  an  account  of 
the  city  of  Herat,  the  author's  birth-place  and  home,  and 
its  history  in  pre-Muhammadan  times. 

All  that  we  know  of  the  author,  Fasi'hi  of  Khwaf,  is 

derived  from  this  book,  and  I  have  found  no  mention  of 

him  elsewhere.     Rosen  says  that  he  was  born 

Bu>graphyof  in     ^/^^    ^     j     have     ^     been     aWe    ^ 

verify  this  statement  from  the  Mujmal.  In 
807/1404-5  he  was  employed  with  three  other  persons 
whom  he  names  on  business  connected  with  the  Treasury. 
In  818/1415-6  he  accompanied  Shah-rukh  to  Shiraz  to 
subdue  the  rebellious  activities  of  the  latter's  nephew  Prince 
Bayqara.  In  825/1422  he  was  sent  to  Kirman  on  business 
connected  with  the  Treasury.  In  827/1424  he  returned 
thence  to  Badghis.  In  828/1424-5  he  obtained  favourable 
notice  and  State  employment  from  Prince  Baysunqur. 


428  PROSE  WRITERS :  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD  [BK  m 

Under  the  year  841/1437-8  he  cites  some  verses  by 
Shihabu'd-Din  'Azi'zu'llah  of  Khwaf  commemorating  the 
birth  of  a  son  on  the  24th  of  Dhu'l-Hijja  (June  18,  1438). 
In  842/1438-9  he  mentions  the  birth  of  his  grandson 
Mughfthu'd-Din  Abu  Nasr  Muhammad  ibn  Mahmud  on 
the  loth  of  Dhu'l-Qa'da  (April  24,  1439).  In  843/1439-40 
he  had  the  misfortune  to  offend  and  to  be  imprisoned  by 
Gawhar  Shad  Aqa,  and  he  was  again  imprisoned  in  845/ 
1441-2,  with  which  year  the  chronicle  ends  (though  the 
date  849/1445  is  mentioned  in  a  verse  with  which  one  of 
the  MSS.  concludes),  and  it  was  apparently  in  that  year,  on 
the  1 5th  of  Dhu'l-Hijja  (April  26,  1442),  that  he  presented 
his  book  to  Shah-rukh. 

The  detailed  account  of  Fasihi's  Mujmal  which  I  pub- 
lished in  the  Cambridge  number  of  the  Museon  to  which 
reference  has  been  already  made  absolves  me 

Characteristics  * 

of  Fasihi's  from  the  necessity  of  enlarging  on  its  contents 
in  this  place.  Its  two  chief  features  are  a  great 
simplicity  of  style  and  a  special  attention  to  matters  of 
literary  interest1.  It  is  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  chronicle, 
the  events  of  each  year,  including  the  deaths  of  eminent 
persons  of  all  sorts,  being  grouped  together  under  that  year, 
and  in  the  necrological  part  it  is  remarkable  how  large  is 
the  proportion  of  poets  and  men  of  letters,  more  especially, 
of  course,  of  such  as  belonged  to  Khurasan  and  Transoxiana. 
Moreover  it  is  evident  that  Fasihi  drew  his  information  to 
a  large  extent  from  sources  other  than  those  employed  by 
later  and  better  known  biographers  and  historians,  which 
fact  gives  a  special  value  to  his  work. 

(3)     Kamdlud-Din  lAbdn!r-Razzdq  of  Samarqand. 

Though  born  at  Herat  in  8 16/141 32,  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  is 
called  "  of  Samarqand,"  which  was  the  native  place  of  his 
father  Mawland  Jalalu'd-Din  Ishaq,  a  judge  and  chaplain  in 

1  See  pp.  57-8  of  my  article  in  the  Muston. 

2  The   Habibrfs-Siyar  gives  the  date  of  his  birth  as  the  I2th  of 
Sha'ban  in  this  year  (Nov.  7,  1413). 


CH  .  vii]  THE  MA  TLA'  U'S-SA'DA  YN  429 

Shah-rukh's  army.     At  the  age  of  25,  in  841/1437-8,  after 

his  father's  death,  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  attracted  the  notice  of 

that  monarch  by  a  grammatical  treatise  which 

•Abdur-Razzaq    he  had  composed  and  dedicated  to  him.    Four 

or  .Samarqanu 

years  later,  in  845/1441-2,  he  was  sent  to  India 
on  a  special  mission  to  the  king  of  Bijanagar,  which  lasted 
three  years,  and  of  which  he  gives  a  detailed  narrative  in 
his  history.  In  850/1446-7  he  was  sent  on  a  mission  to 
Gi'lan ;  and,  on  the  death  of  Shah-rukh  in  this  same  year, 
he  was  successively  attached  to  the  service  of  Mirza  'Abdu'l- 
Lati'f,  'Abdu'llah,  Abu'l-Qasim  Babur,  and  lastly  of  Abu 
Sa'fd.  He  afterwards  retired  into  private  life,  became 
Shaykh  of  the  monastery  or  Khdnqdh  of  Shah-rukh  in 
Herat  in  867/1463,  and  died  there  in  887/1482.  All  these 
particulars  are  taken  from  Rieu's  Persian  Catalogue^,  and 
are  for  the  most  part  derived  either  from  the  historian's 
own  statements  or  from  the  notice  of  him  contained  in  the 
Habibu's-Siyar*.  The  fullest  account  of  his  life  and  work 
is  that  given  by  Quatremere  in  the  Notices  et  Extraits  des 
Manuscrits  de  la  Bibliotheque  Nationale*,  and  other  references 
will  be  found  in  Rieu's  Catalogue. 

So  far  as  is  known,  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  produced  only  one 
great  work,  to  wit  the  history  entitled  Matla'u's-Sa'dayn 

("  the  Dawn  of  the  two  Auspicious  Planets  "), 

'Abdu'r-Razzaq's         1*1  •  i  j 

history,  the  which  comprises  two  volumes  and  covers  a 
Matin's-  period  of  170  years  extending  from  the  birth 
of  the  last  Mongol  ruler  of  Persia,  Abu  Sa'fd,  in 
704/1304-5  to  the  death  of  his  namesake  the  great-grand- 
son of  Timur4,  these  two  Abu  Sa'fds  being,  presumably,  the 
"two  Auspicious  Planets."  The  first  volume  ends  with  the 
death  of  Timur  in  807/1405.  Reference  has  been  already 

1  Pp.  181-3. 

2  Vol.  iii,  part  3,  p.  335. 

3  Vol.  xiv,  pp.  1-514. 

4  Abu  Sa'fd  the  Tfmurid  (the  "Busech"  of  the  Venetian  ambas- 
sadors to  Persia)  was  captured  and  put  to  death  by  Uziin  Hasan  in 
873/1468-9,  and  the  history  is  continued  a  year  or  two  beyond  this  to 
875/H70-I. 


430  PROSE  WRITERS :  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

made  to  the  curious  coincidence,  noticed  by  the  author  of 
the  Matlctus-Sctdayn,  that  the  date  of  the  death  of  the 
last  great  Mongol  ruler  of  Persia,  Abu  Sa'i'd,  corresponds 
almost  exactly  with  the  birth  of  Timur,  the  founder  of  the 
next  great  Tartar  Empire  in  Central  Asia1. 

Manuscripts  of  the  Matlctus-Sctdayn,  though  not  very 
common,  are  to  be  found  in  most  large  collections,  and,  so 
value  of  the  far  as  I  have  seen,  are  generally  above  the 
Matia'us-  average  in  point  of  excellence  and  accuracy2. 

Sa'dayn,  and  .  ,          , 

need  of  an  The   work,   though    based    to   a   considerable 

edition  extent  on    the   Zubdatut-Tawdrikh  of  Hafiz 

Abru,  is  of  great  importance,  and  a  critical  edition  of  it  is 
much  needed,  for  it  deals  in  a  very  detailed  manner  with  a 
very  important  period  of  Persian  history,  and  is  the  work 
of  one  who  wrote  at  first  hand  and  took  an  active  part  in 
many  of  the  events  which  he  describes. 

(4)     Mu'inud-Din  Muhammad  of  Isfizdr. 

Mu'inu'd-Din-i-Isfizarf  is  chiefly  notable  on  account  of 

his  monograph  on  the  history  of  Herat  entitled  Rawdatu'l- 

Janndt  fi  Tdrtkhi  Madinati  Herat,  written  for 

Mu'mu'd-Dm-i-    sult£n  Rusayn  Abu'l-Ghazi,  and  carried  down 

Isfizan  ' 

to  the  year  875/1470-1  ;  but  he  was  also  skilled 
in  the  epistolary  style  (tarassul)  of  the  Court  and  of  Diplo- 
macy, on  which  he  compiled  a  manual,  and  was  besides 
MSS  of  his  something  of  a  poet3.  Three  MSS.  of  the  History 
History  of  of  Herat  are  preserved  in  the  British  Museum4; 

another,  belonging  to  Mr  A.  G.  Ellis,  copied  in 
1073/1663,  has  been  generously  placed  at  my  disposal  by 
the  owner ;  and  yet  another,  belonging  to  the  late  Sir 
A.  Houtum-Schindler,  came  into  my  possession  in  Jan. 

1  See  p.  1 59  supra. 

2  There  is  a  MS.  of  the  work  in  2  vols.  (Or.  267  and  268)  in  the  Cam- 
bridge University  Library,  and  a  much  better  one  (Dd.  3.  5),  dated 
989/1582,  in  the  Library  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge. 

3  JJabtbu's-Siyar,  vol.  iii,  part  3,  p.  342. 

4  See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  206-7,  and  his  Supplement,  p.  64. 


CH.  vii]  MfRKHWAND  431 

1917.  A  detailed  account  of  this  important  work,  written 
in  French  by  the  late  M.  Barbier  de  Meynard,  was  published 
in  the  Journal  Asiatique,  5th  Series,  vol.  xvi,  pp.  461-520. 
It  is  divided  into  26  Rawdas  or  "  Gardens,"  of  which  i-vi 
treat  of  the  city  of  Herat,  its  environs,  topography  and 
excellence,  and  its  earlier  rulers  in  Muhammadan  times ; 
vii-viii  of  the  Kurt  dynasty  and  its  overthrow  by  Ti'mur ; 
and  the  remainder  of  the  history  of  Ti'mur  and  his  suc- 
cessors down  to  the  second  accession  of  Sultan  Husayn 
Abu'l-Ghazi.  The  name  of  the  month  of  Safar  (>*o  JK&}, 
in  which  the  book  was  completed,  yields  by  the  abjad 
computation  the  date  of  completion,  875  (August,  1470). 
The  author  enumerates  amongst  his  sources  the  histories 
of  Abu  Ishaq  Ahmad  b.  Ya-Sin,  Shaykh  'Abdu'r-Rahman 
Farm',  and  Sayfi  of  Herat,  as  well  as  the  Kurt-ndma,  or 
"  Book  of  the  Kurt  Dynasty  "  of  Rabi'i  of  Bushanj.  He 
also  cites  the  above-mentioned  Matlctu's-Sctdayn  in  at  least 
one  place  (in  Rawda  xiii). 

(5)     Muhammad  b.  Khdwand  Shah  b.  Mahmud, 
commonly  called  Mirkhwdnd. 

Mi'rkhwand's  voluminous  general  history,  the  Rawdatus- 

Safd,  is  perhaps  the  best-known  work  of  this  sort  in  Persia, 

and    has  attracted  a  quite  undue  amount  of 

Mirkhwdnd  .  T1  -  11-11-         1-1 

attention.  It  has  been  published  in  litho- 
graphed editions  at  Bombay  (1271/1854-5)  and  Tihran 
(1270-4/1854-8),  while  a  Turkish  translation  was  printed 
at  Constantinople  in  1258/1842.  A  number  of  separate 
portions,  dealing  with  particular  dynasties,  have  been 
printed,  with  or  without  translations,  in  Europe;  and  of  an 
English  translation  of  the  earlier  portion  by  Mr  Rehatsek 
three  or  four  volumes  were  published  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Royal  Asiatic  Society.  These,  it  must  be  admitted 
with  regret,  are  of  no  great  value,  for,  apart  from  the  fact 
that  any  student  desirous  of  acquainting  himself  with  the 
ideas  of  the  Muslims  as  to  the  prophets,  patriarchs  and 


432  PROSE  WRITERS  :  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

kings  of  olden  time  would  prefer  to  seek  his  information 
from  earlier  and  more  trustworthy  sources,  the  translation 
itself  is  both  inaccurate  and  singularly  uncouth,  nor  is  it  to 
be  desired  that  English  readers  should  form  their  ideas 
even  of  the  verbose  and  florid  style  of  Mirkhwand  from  a 
rendering  which  is  needlessly  grotesque.  The  esteem  in 
which  this  history  is  still  held  in  Persia,  however,  is  suffi- 
ciently shown  by  the  fact  that  one  of  the  greatest  Persian 
Ridd-qui;  writers  of  modern  times,  Rida-quli  Khan  Ldld- 


's  Supple-     bdshi,  poetically  surnamed  Hiddyat,  thought  it 

ment  to  the  11-1  110  i  t_    •        • 

Rawdatu's-         worth  while  to  add  a  Supplement  bringing  the 


narrative  down  to  his  own  time,  a  few  years 
after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  This  Supple- 
ment is  a  valuable  source  of  information  for  the  history  of 
modern  Persia,  including  the  rise  of  the  Babf  religion  and 
the  civil  wars  and  persecutions  connected  therewith,  but 
its  consideration  naturally  belongs  to  a  later  period. 

Of  Mirkhwand's  life  not  much  is  recorded,  even  by  his 
admiring  grandson  Khwandamir,  the  author  of  the  Habibits- 

Siyar.  His  father  Sayyid  Burhanu'd-Din,  a 
Bjog«phy  of  natjve  of  Bukhara,  migrated  to  Balkh,  where 

Mirkhwdnd 

he  died.  Mirkhwand  spent  most  of  his  life  at 
Herat  under  the  protection  and  patronage  of  that  Maecenas 
of  the  age  Mir  'All  Shir  Nawa'i,  and  died  there,  after  a  long 
illness,  on  the  2nd  of  Dhu'l-Qa'da,  903  (June  22,  1498)  at 

the  age  of  sixty-six1.     Of  the  seven  books  into 

Contents  of  the  ' 

Rawdatu's-  which  the  historical  part  of  the  Rawdatu's-Safd 
is  divided,  the  first  contains  the  history  of 
the  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  pre-Muhammadan  kings  of 
Persia  ;  the  second,  that  of  the  Prophet  Muhammad  and 
the  Four  Orthodox  Caliphs  ;  the  third,  that  of  the  Twelve 
Imams  and  the  Umayyad  and  'Abbasid  Caliphs  ;  \hefourtk, 
that  of  the  post-Muhammadan  dynasties  of  Persia  down  to 
the  irruption  of  Tfmur  ;  the  fifth,  that  of  the  Mongols  and 

1  See  tfabibit's-Siyar,  part  3,  vol.  iii,  p.  339  ;  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat., 
pp.  87-8  ;  S.  de  Sacy's  Notice  sur  Mirkhond  in  his  Mtmoire  sur  les 
Antiquite's  de  la  Perse,  and  other  references  given  by  Rieu. 


CH.  vii]  THE  RAWDATU'S-SAFA  433 

Tartars  down  to  Ti'mur ;  the  sixth,  that  of  Timur  and  his 
successors  to  873/1468-9  ;  while  the  seventh,  which  has  been 
continued  by  another  hand  (probably  the  author's  grandson 
Khwandami'r)  to  a  period  several  years  later  than  Mfrkh- 
wdnd's  death,  is  wholly  devoted  to  the  life  and  reign  of  his 
patron  Abu'l-Ghazf  Sultan  Husayn,  who  died  in  912/1506-7. 
The  two  last  books  (vi  and  vii),  which  deal  with  the  author's 
own  time,  are  naturally  of  much  greater  worth  and  authority 
than  the  earlier  portions,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  the  attention 
of  students  of  this  history  has  not  been  more  concentrated 
on  them.  The  style  employed  by  Mi'rkhwand  is  much  more 
florid  and  bombastic  than  that  of  the  preceding  historians 
mentioned  in  this  chapter,  and  in  this  respect  is  typical  of 
much  that  was  written  about  this  time.  This  style,  im- 
ported into  India  by  Babur,  continued  to  flourish  at  the 
court  of  the  "Great  Moguls"  and  gave  rise  to  the  prevalent 
idea  that  this  floridity  and  bombast  are  essentially  Persian, 
which  is  far  from  the  truth,  for  both  in  earlier  and  later 
times  many  notable  works  were  written  with  a  simplicity 
and  sobriety  which  leave  little  to  be  desired.  It  was  under 
Tartar,  Turkish,  Indian,  and  other  non-Iranian  patronage 
that  this  inflated  rhetoric  especially  flourished,  and  the 
Ottoman  Turks  in  particular  developed  it  to  a  very  high 
degree.  Sir  Charles  Eliot  in  his  Turkey  in  Europe  (new 
edition,  1908,  p.  106)  has  described  it  in  words  so  admirable 
that  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  them  here : 

"  The  combination  of  dignity  and  fatuity  which  this  style  affords 
is  unrivalled.     There  is  something  contagious  in  its  ineffable  compla- 
cency,  unruffled  by  the  most  palpable  facts.    Everything 
on  the  natural       is   sublime,  everybody  magnanimous   and   prosperous. 
inclination  of  the   We  move  among  the  cardinal  virtues  and  their  appro- 
priate rewards  (may  God  increase  them!),  and,  secure  in 
the  shadow  of  the  ever-victorious  Caliph,  are  only  dimly 
conscious  of  the  existence  of  tributary  European  powers  and  ungrateful 
Christian  subjects.     Can  any  Western  poet  transport  his  readers  into 
a  more  enchanted  land  ? " 


R  P.  28 


434  PROSE  WRITERS :  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD  [BK  m 

(6)     Khwdndamtr, 

One  is  much  tempted  to  include  amongst  the  historians 

of  this  epoch  Mirkhwand's  grandson  Khwandami'r,  on  the 

threefold  ground  that  he  also  was  one  of  the 

Khwindamir  .  .  11- 

many  writers  and  artists  who  owed  his  success 
in  large  measure  to  the  enlightened  patronage  of  Mir  'All 
Shir  Nawa'i ;  that  he  belonged  not  merely  to  the  same 
circle  as  Mirkhwand,  but  was  his  disciple  as  well  as  his 
grandson  ;  and  lastly,  that  his  first  work,  the  Khuldsatu'l- 
Akhbdr,  or  "Quintessence  of  Histories,"  was  not  only  in 
essence  an  abridgement  of  the  Rawdatu's-Safd,  but  was 
actually  written  in  905/1499-1500,  two  years  before  the 
end  of  the  period  with  which  this  chapter  deals.  His 
greater  work,  however,  the  Habibu's-Siyar,  so  often  cited 
in  this  and  the  preceding  chapter,  was  not  written  until 
929/1523,  and  he  lived  until  941/1534-5,  so  that  "he  really 
belongs  more  properly  to  the  next  period,  and  may  be  more 
appropriately  considered  in  connection  with  the  founder  of 
the  Safawi  dynasty,  Shah  Isma'il,  with  a  long  account  of 
whose  reign  the  Hablbu's-Siyar  concludes. 

BIOGRAPHICAL  WORKS. 

After  the  historians  come  the  biographers,  of  whose 
works  five  or  six  deserve  notice,  to  wit  Dawlatshah's 
"Memoirs  of  the  Poets"  (Tadhkiratu'sh-Shtfard);  Mir  'AH 
Shir  Nawa'i's  Majdlisu'n-Nafd'is  (which,  however,  is  in  the 
Turki,  not  the  Persian  language) ;  Jami's  "  Lives  of  the 
Saints"  (Nafahdtu'l-Uns)\  Abu'l-Ghazi  Sultan  Husayn's 
"Assemblies  of  Lovers"  (Majdlisu!l-'Ushshdq)\  Husayn 
Wa'iz-i-Kashiffs  "Mausoleum  of  Martyrs"  (Ra^vdatusk- 
Shuhadd)  and  the  Rashahdt  of  his  son  'AH.  Each  of  these 
works  will  be  briefly  considered  here  ;  but  as  Nawa'f,  Jami, 
and  Husayn  Wa'iz-i-Kashiff  are  more  celebrated  in  other 
capacities  than  as  biographers,  their  lives  will  be  more 
appropriately  sketched  when  we  come  to  speak  of  writers 
belonging  to  other  categories. 


CH.VII]  jAMf'S  NAFAHATU'L-UNS  435 


(i)     J ami's  NafaJidtu'l-Uns  and  Bahdristdn. 

Mulla  Nuru'd-Di'n  'Abdu'r-Rahman  Jami,  who  derives 
his  last  and  best-known  name,  which  he  uses  in  his  poems 
jami'sA^/a-  as  h's  tdkhallus  or  nom-de-guerre,  from  the 
Aatu 'i-uns  and  town  of  Jam  in  Khurasan  where  he  was  born 
on  November  7,  1414*,  was  equally  remarkable 
for  the  quality  and  the  quantity  of  his  literary  work.  He 
is  often  described  (wrongly,  in  my  opinion,  for  reasons 
which  will  be  given  later)  as  "  the  last  great  classical  poet 
of  Persia,"  and  it  is  as  a  mystical  poet  of  remarkable  grace 
and  fertility  of  imagination  that  he  is  chiefly  known.  Like 
his  great  predecessor  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Shaykh 
Faridu'd-Din  'Attar,  who  even  excelled  him  in  fecundity, 
though  he  fell  short  of  him  in  grace,  he  composed,  besides 
his  numerous  poems,  a  great  Biography  of  Mystic  Saints 
entitled  Nafa/tdtu'l-Uns,  or  "  Breaths  of  Fellowship."  This 
book,  of  which  a  good  edition  was  printed  at  Calcutta  in 
1859,  with  an  excellent  notice  of  the  author  by  W.  Nassau 
Lees,  comprises  740  pages,  contains  the  lives  of  6n  Sufi 
saints,  male  and  female,  and  is  one  of  the  most  useful  and 
easily  available  sources  of  information  on  this  subject.  It 
was  written  in  881/1476,  and  contains,  besides  the  bio- 
graphical notices,  which  are  arranged  more  or  less  in 
chronological  order,  and  conclude  with  the  poets  Hafiz, 
Kamal  of  Khujand,  Maghribi,  and  others  who  flourished  at 
the  end  of  Timur's  and  beginning  of  Shah-rukh's  reign,  an 
Introduction  of  34  pages  dealing,  in  nine  sections,  with 
various  matters  connected  with  the  doctrine,  practice  and 
history  of  the  Sufi's  or  Muhammadan  mystics. 

The  book  is  written  in  the  simple  and  direct  style 
suitable  to  such  a  work ;  and  indeed  Jamf's  taste  was  too 
good  and  his  sincerity  too  great  to  allow  him  to  fall  into 
the  verbosity  and  bombast  which  mar  so  many  books  of 
this  period. 

1  Sha'bdn  23,  A.H.  817. 

28—2 


436  PROSE  WRITERS:  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BKIII 

Another  of  Jami's  prose  works,  the  Bahdristdn,  or 
"  Spring-land,"  of  which  the  form  seems  to  have  been  sug- 
gested by  Sa'di's  Gulisldn  or  "  Rose-garden," 
contains  some  biographical  matter  in  chapter  i, 
dealing  with  the  sayings  of  the  saints,  and 
chapter  vii,  on  poetry  and  poets.  This  work,  however,  is 
designed  rather  to  yield  amusement  and  instruction  than 
accurate  biographical  information.  In  style  it  is  distinctly 
more  ornate  than  the  Nafahdtul-Uns.  An  English  transla- 
tion was  published  by  the  so-called  "Kama-Shastra  Society." 

(2)     Dawlatshah's  Tadhkiratu'sh-Shu'ard. 

Amir  Dawlatshah,  son  of  'Ala'u'd-Dawla  Bakhti'shab 

Ghazi   of  Samarqand,  is   the  author  of  the  best  known 

"Memoirs  of  the  Poets"  existing  in  Persian,  and 

Dawlatshdh  .         ,   .     _ 

is  chiefly  responsible,  through  his  interpreter  to 
the  West,  Von  Hammer1,  for  the  perspective  in  which  the 
Persian  poets  stand  in  European  eyes.  His  "Memoirs"  are 
divided  into  seven  Tabaqdt  or  Generations,  each  containing 
accounts  of  some  twenty  more  or  less  contemporary  poets 
and  the  princes  under  whose  patronage  they  flourished. 
There  is  also  an  Introduction  on  the  art  of  Poetry,  and  a 
Conclusion  dealing  with  seven  poets  contemporary  with  the 
author  and  the  virtues  and  accomplishments  of  his  royal 
patron  Abu'l-Ghazf  Sultan  Husayn.  This  is  an  entertaining 
but  inaccurate  work,  containing  a  good  selection  of  verses 
and  a  quantity  of  historical  errors  which  have  in  some  cases 
misled  even  such  good  and  careful  scholars  as  Rieu.  The 
book  was  lithographed  in  Bombay  in  1887  and  published 
by  me  from  a  selection  of  the  best  available  manuscripts 
in  1901  as  the  first  volume  of  my  short-lived  "Persian  His- 
torical Texts  Series."  A  Turkish  version  by  Sulayman 
Fahmi  was  also  published  in  Constantinople  in  1259/1843 
under  the  title  of  Safinatu'sh-Shu'ard. 

1  Geschichte  der  schonen  Redekiinste  Persiens,  mit  einen  Bliithen- 
lese  aus  zweihundert  persischen  Dichtern  (Vienna,  1818). 


CH.VII]  DAWLATSHAH'S  TADHKIRA  437 

The  oldest  account  of  Dawlatshah  is  that  given  by  his 
contemporary  Mir  'AH  Shir  Nawa'i  in  his  Majdlisu'n- 

Nafa'is,  which  will  be  mentioned  directly.  A 
DawiaS,4hf  notice  is  devoted  to  him  in  chapter  vi  of  that 

work,  dealing  with  "sundry  gentlemen  and 
noblemen  of  Khurasan  and  other  places  whose  ingenuity 
and  talent  impelled  them  to  write  poetry,  but  who,  by 
reason  of  their  high  estate  and  exalted  rank,  did  not 
persevere  therein."  He  is  there  described  as  "  a  wholly 
excellent  youth,  unassuming  and  of  good  parts,"  who  relin- 
quished worldly  pomp  and  power  for  a  life  of  seclusion  and 
study,  and  "  composed  a  Corpus  Poetarum  on  the  very  same 
subject  which  is  treated  in  this  manual."  After  praising 
this  work,  Nawa'i  adds  that  news  had  recently  been  received 
of  his  death,  which  the  Mirdtu's-Safd,  according  to  Rieu1, 
places  in  900/1494-5.  This  does  not  agree  with  the  state- 
ment of  Nawa'i,  who  wrote  in  896/1490-1,  unless  the 
report  of  Dawlatshah's  death  which  reached  him  was  false. 
Dawlatshah's  "Memoir"  was  composed  in  892/1487,  when 
he  was  about  fifty  years  of  age.  Of  the  living  contemporary 
poets  whom  he  mentions  Jami  is  by  far  the  most  eminent, 
and  I  believe  that  the  notion  prevalent  amongst  Persian 
students  in  Europe  that  he  is  "  the  last  great  classical  poet 
of  Persia  "  arises  ultimately  from  the  fact  that,  directly  or 
indirectly,  they  derive  their  ideas  from  Dawlatshah2. 

(3)     Mir  'Ali  Shfr  NawaTs  Majdlisun-Nafais. 

Of  Mir  'AH  Shir  Nawa'i,  the  patron  of  a  whole  circle  of 
poets,  writers  and  artists,  and  himself  a  poet  of  no  mean 
The  Ma  -diisu'n-  or(^er>  something  has  been  said  already,  and 


of  Mir     more  remains  to  be  said.     For  the  moment  we 
are  only  concerned  with  his  biographical  work, 
the  Majdlisun-Nafd'is,  written  in  the  Eastern   Turk{  or 

1  Pers.  Cat.,  p.  354. 

2  Of  the  meagre  information   about  Dawlatshdh  which   can   be 
deduced  from  his  book,  an  epitome  will  be  found  in  my  edition  of  his 
"  Memoirs,"  p.  15  of  the  Preface. 


438  PROSE  WRITERS:  LATER TfMtiRID PERIOD  [BKIII 

Chaghatay  dialect  of  Turkish  which  he  did  so  much  to 
popularize  and  refine.  This  work,  of  which  I  possess  a  fine 
manuscript,  transcribed  in  937/1530-1  at  Samarqand,  was 
composed  in  896/1490-1,  and  comprises  an  Introduction 
and  eight  books. 

Book  i  treats  of  poets  who  died  while  the  author  was 
still  young  and  whom  he  never  had  the  good  fortune  to 
meet,  of  whom  the  first  and  most  important  is  Qasimu'l- 
Anwar,  who  actually  died  in  835/1431-2,  nine  years  before 
'All  Shir  was  born.  Other  celebrated  poets  mentioned  in 
this  chapter  are  Adhari  of  Isfara'in,  Katibi,  Khayali,  Bisati, 
Sibak,  Qudsi,  Tusi,  Baba-Sawda'i,  Badakhshi,  Talib  of 
Jajarm,  'Ariff,  Masihi,  Shahi  of  Sabzawar,  etc. 

Book  ii  treats  of  poets  whom  the  author  had  known 
personally,  but  who  were  dead  at  the  time  his  book  was 
written.  Of  these  the  first  and  most  celebrated  is  Sharafu'd- 
Din  'AH  of  Yazd,  the  author  of  the  well-known  history  of 
Ti'mur  known  as  the  Zafar-ndma. 

Book  Hi  treats  of  poets  who  were  flourishing  when  the 
author  wrote  and  with  whom  he  was  personally  acquainted, 
such  as  Amir  Shaykhum  Suhayli,  Sayff,  Asafi,  Banna'f  and 
Ahlf  of  Turshi'z. 

Book  iv  treats  of  eminent  and  pious  men  who,  though 
not  primarily  poets,  wrote  occasional  verses,  such  as  Husayn 
Wa'iz-i-Kashifi,  the  historian  Mfrkhwand,  etc. 

Book  v  treats  of  Princes  and  members  of  the  Royal 
Family  in  Khurasan  and  elsewhere  who  wrote  occasional 
verses. 

Book  vi  treats  of  scholars,  poets  and  wits,  not  natives  of 
Khurasan,  who  shewed  poetic  talent. 

Book  vii  treats  of  Kings  and  Princes  who  have  either 
composed  verses,  or  cited  the  verses  of  others  so  appro- 
priately as  to  entitle  them  to  rank  with  poets.  Amongst 
the  rulers  mentioned  in  this  chapter  are  Ti'mur  himself, 
Shah-rukh,  Khali'l  Sultan,  Ulugh  Beg,  Baysunqur  Mi'rza, 
'Abdu'l-Latif  Mi'rza,  and  other  Princes  of  the  reigning 
house  of  Ti'mur. 


CH.  vii]        NAWA'f'S  MA/ALISU'N-NAFA'IS  439 

Book  viii  treats  of  the  virtues  and  talents  of  the  reigning 
King  Abu'l-Ghazi  Sultan  Husayn  ibn  Bayqara,  to  the 
political  events  of  whose  reign,  as  M.  Belin  observes  in  the 
monograph  on  Mir  'All  Shir  which  will  be  mentioned 
immediately,  Mfrkhwand  devotes  the  seventh  book  of  his 
Rawdatiis-  Safd1. 

The  monograph  mentioned  in  the  last  sentence,  which 
contains  the  best  account  of  Mir  'All  Shfr  and  his  works 
with  which  I  am  acquainted,  was  published  in  the  Journal 
Asiatique  for  1861  and  also  as  a  tirage-a-part  comprising 
158  pages.  It  is  entitled  Notice  biographique  et  litte'raire 
sur  Mir  Ali-Chir  Ne'vdii,  suivie  d'extraits  tires  des  ceuvres 
du  nieme  auteur,  par  M.  Belin,  Secretaire-Interprete  de 
VAmbassade  de  France  a  Constantinople.  The  extracts  from 
the  Majdlisu'n-Nafais  (or  "  Galerie  des  Poetes "  as  Belin 
translates  it)  include  the  text  and  translations  of  the  Intro- 
duction and  Book  vii.  These  suffice  to  give  an  adequate 
idea  of  the  style  and  scope  of  the  work,  which,  apart  from 
the  fact  that  it  is  written  in  Turki  instead  of  in  Persian, 
differs  from  Dawlatshah's  Memoirs  in  being  much  smaller 
in  extent,  and  in  dealing  only  with  contemporary  poets. 
It  is  worth  noting  that  while,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
Nawa'f  exercised  a  great  influence  over  the  development  of 
Ottoman  Turkish  poetry,  the  Ottoman  poets  seem  to  have 
been  entirely  unknown  to,  or  at  least  ignored  by,  him. 

(4)     Abu'l-Ghazi'  Sultan  Husayn's  Majdlisul-Usfohdq. 

But  for  the  principle  embodied  in  the  well-known  Arabic 
saying,  "  the  Words  of  Kings  are  the  Kings  of  Words,"  and 
the  fact  that  another  royal  biographer,  Sam 
'1'    M{rz^  the  Safawi,  has  described  it  as  supplying 
adequate  proof  of  its  author's  literary  gifts2, 
this  book,  "the  Conferences  of  Lovers,"  compiled  by  Sultan 
Husayn  in  908-9/1502-3,  hardly  deserves  to  be  mentioned 

1  See  p.  433  supra. 

2  See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  351-3. 


440  PROSE  WRITERS  :  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD  [BK  m 

as  a  serious  biographical  work.  Beginning  with  a  flowery 
Preface,  filled  with  citations  from  the  mystical  poets,  on 
"  real  "  (i.e.  ideal)  and  "  metaphorical  "  (i.e.  material)  love, 
and  the  latter  considered  as  a  bridge  to  the  former1,  the 
author  proceeds  to  give  76  (or  in  some  MSS.  77)  articles, 
each  entitled  Majlis  ("  Conference  "  or  "  Stance  "),  and  each' 
containing  a  more  or  less  romantic  account  of  some  saintly 
or  royal  personage,  and,  in  most  cases,  of  some  Platonic 
love-affair  in  which  he  was  concerned.  As  Rieu  has  pointed 
out,  the  first  55  articles  follow  a  chronological  order,  be- 
ginning with  the  Imam  Ja'far  as-Sadiq  (d.  151/768),  and 
ending  with  the  author's  contemporary  the  eminent  poet 
Jami  (d.  898/1492-3).  The  last  notice  in  the  book  is 
devoted  to  the  author  himself  "  Sultan  Husayn  ibn  Sultan 
Mansur  ibn  Bayqara  ibn  'Umar  Shaykh  ibn  Timur  Kurkan." 
The  title  of  the  book,  Majdlisul-'Ushshdq,  is  given  in  the 
following  verse  : 


The  only  copy  of  this  book  which  I  have  been  able  to 
consult  is  a  modern  but  clearly  written  manuscript  bearing 
the  class-mark  Or.  761  recently  acquired  by  the  Cambridge 
University  Library,  but  I  am  informed  that  a  lithographed 
edition  has  been  published  at  Lucknow. 

It  should  be  added,  however,  that  the  great  Babur 
disputes  the  authorship  of  this  book  (Bdbur-ndma,  ed. 
Ilminsky,  p.  221),  which  he  criticizes  very  harshly,  and 
which  he  declares  was  really  written  by  Kamalu'd-Din 
Husayn  Gazargahi,  one  of  the  pseudo-Sufis  who  frequented 
the  society  and  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  Mir  'All  Shir 
Nawa'{.  To  this  point  I  shall  recur  in  discussing  the  work 
in  question. 

1  According  to  the  well-known  saying  of  the  Sufi  mystics  :  "  Al- 
Majdzu  qantaratrtl-Haqiqat"  ("the  Phenomenal  is  the  Bridge  to  the 
Real"). 


CH.  vn]     HUSAYN  WA'IZ  AND  HIS  SON  'ALf  441 

(5)     Husayn  Wa'iz-i-Kashiffs  Rawdatiish-Shuhadd. 

Husayn-i-Kashifi,  surnamed  Wd'iz  ("  the  Preacher  "),  is 
better  known  as  the  author  of  that  famous  but  over-esti- 
mated work  the  Anwdr-i-Suhayli,  of  which  we 
shall  speak  presently  ;    but  his  "  Mausoleum  " 


of  Husayn          /or  "Garden")  "of  Martyrs,"  which  depicts  in  a 

Wd'iz-i-K4shifi       \  * 

rhetorical  manner  the  persecutions  and  martyr- 
doms of  the  Prophets  and  Imams,  especially  of  the  Prophet 
Muhammad's  grandson  Husayn,  the  third  Imam  of  the 
Shf'ites,  and  the  vengeance  which  overtook  their  perse- 
cutors, though  of  no  great  account  from  a  historical  point 
of  view,  deserves  mention  in  this  place.  It  is  fully  described 
by  Rieu1,  and  has  been  lithographed  at  Lahore  in  I28// 
1870-1.  It  was  translated  into  Turkish  by  the  poet  Fuduli 
of  Baghdad2,  with  some  additions,  about  half  a  century  after 
its  original  composition. 

(6)     The  Rashahdt-i-lAynul-Haydtt  by  the 
son  of  Husayn-i-Kashifi. 

This  work,  though  composed  in  909/1503-4  (a  date 
indicated  by  the  first  word  of  its  title  Rashakdt,  or  "Sprink- 

lings") and  therefore  falling  just  outside  the 
5j£5JjJJSf  period  dealt  with  in  this  chapter,  had  best  be 

considered  here,  since  its  author  'All  was  the 
son  of  Husayn-i-Kashifi,  the  author  of  the  work  last  men- 
tioned, while  it  was  based  on  notes  taken  in  Dhu'l-Qa'da 
889  (Nov.-Dec.  1484)  and  Rabi"  ii  893  (March-  April,  1488) 
on  the  occasion  of  the  writer's  visits  to  Khwaja  'Ubay- 
du'llah  (better  known  as  Khwaja  Ahrar),  the  great  Naqsh- 
bandi  Shaykh,  whose  predecessors,  life,  teachings,  miracles 
and  disciples  form  its  subject-matter.  A  manuscript  of 
this  book  is  preserved  in  the  British  Museum  and  is  fully 
described  by  Rieu3,  but  it  is  not  common,  and,  so  far  as  I 
know,  has  never  been  published  in  its  original  form,  though 

1  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  152-3. 

2  See  E.  J.  W.  Gibb's  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  iii,  p.  90. 
Fuduli  died  in  963/1555-6. 

3  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  353-4. 


442  PROSE  WRITERS  :  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BK  HI 

a  Turkish  translation  was  printed  at    Constantinople  in 
1236/1820-1. 

RELIGION,  MYSTICISM  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

Less  numerous  and  important  in  this  period  than  the 
histories  and  biographies  above  enumerated  are  the  works 
belonging  to  the  above  categories,  but  there  are  one  or  two 
of  each  class  which  deserve  at  least  a  brief  notice. 

(l)     Husayn-i-Kashifi"s  Mawdhib-i-Aliyya^. 

Husayn-i-Kashif{,  who  has  been  already  mentioned  as 

the  author  of  the  Rawdatu'sh-  Shuhadd,  also  compiled  for 

Mfr  'Ah'  Shfr  a  Persian   Commentary  on  the 

The  Ma-zvdhib-        /^       ,  ,  u  •    l-     •          11-  u*  ' 

Qur  an,  which,  in  allusion  to  his  patron  s  name, 


commentary  on  ne  entitled  Mawdhib-i-  AUyya.  His  original 
plan  had  been  to  write  in  four  volumes  a  much 
larger  and  more  detailed  Commentary,  entitled  Jawdhiru't- 
Tafsir  li-Tuhfati'l-Amir  ("  Gems  of  Exegesis  for  a  Gift  to 
the  Amfr"),  but  after  finishing  the  first  volume  he  resolved 
to  moderate  his  ambitions  and  write  a  much  smaller,  simpler 
and  more  concise  work  on  the  same  subject,  to  wit  the 
Mawdhib,  or  "Gifts,"  which  he  completed  in  899/1493-4, 
eleven  years  before  his  death.  Manuscripts  of  this  book 
are  not  rare,  but  it  is  not  often  heard  of,  much  less  studied, 
at  the  present  day  in  Persia.  In  India,  however,  I  am 
informed  that  it  is  still  widely  read,  and  that  it  has  been 
published  there,  though  I  have  never  seen  a  printed  or 
lithographed  edition. 

(2)  Akhldq-i-Jaldli  and  (3)  Akhldq-i-Muhsini. 

Of  the  older  manuals  of  Ethics  in   Persian,  the  two 

best  known  and   most  popular  after  the  Akhldq-i-Ndsiri 

(written   about  the    middle   of  the  thirteenth 

pop^LrtreTtists    century  of  the  Christian  era  by  the  celebrated 

on  Ethics  in        astronomer     Nasiru'd-Din-i-Tusi'2)     are     the 

Akhldq-i-Jaldli  (properly  entitled  Lawdmi'u'l- 

1  See  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  pp.  9-11. 

2  See  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  pp.  441-2,  and  vol.  ii  of  my  Literary 
History  of  Persia,  pp.  220,  456  and  485. 


CH.  vii]  WORKS  ON  ETHICS  443 

Ishrdq  ft  Makdrimi  l-Akhldq)  composed  by  the  philosopher 
Jalalu'd-Din  Dawani  between  A.D.  1467  and  1477,  and 
dedicated  to  Uzun  Hasan  of  the  Aq-qoyunlu  or  "  White 
Sheep  "  dynasty ;  and  the  Akhldq-i-Muhsini  compiled  by 
the  already  mentioned  Husayn-i-Kashiff,  "the  Preacher,"  in 
900/1494-5,  and  dedicated  to  Abu'l-Ghazi  Sultan  Husayn 
ibn  Bayqara.  All  three  books  are  available  in  printed  or 
lithographed  editions,  which  are  enumerated  by  Rieu,  and 
of  that  last  mentioned  both  the  text  (A.D.  1823  and  1850) 
and  the  translation  (A.D.  1851)  have  been  printed  at  Hert- 
ford, for  this  book  was,  like  its  author's  other  work  the 
Anwdr-i-SukayUy  formerly  popular  (especially  as  a  text- 
book for  examinations)  amongst  Anglo-Indian  officials. 

It  is  to    Metaphysics   and    Mysticism   rather  than  to 
Ethics  that  the  Persian  genius  turns,  and  none  of  these 
three  books  can  be  regarded  as  having  any 

,  ,      .        .  ,         ,     .. 

great  value,  except  incidentally,  as  throwing 
light  on  Persian  customs,  institutions  and  ways 
of  thought.  The  Akhldq-i-Jaldlt  is  much  the 
most  florid  in  style,  and  used  formerly  to  be  regularly  pre- 
scribed in  the  second  or  advanced  part  of  Persian  in  the 
Oriental  (formerly  Indian)  Languages  Tripos  at  Cambridge, 
on  account  of  its  supposed  difficulty,  which,  however,  lies 
rather  in  the  form  than  the  substance.  Aristotle,  as  inter- 
preted by  Avicenna  (Abu  'All  ibn  Sin  a),  has  in  the  main 
determined  the  form  and  arrangement  of  Muhammadan 
Philosophy,  which  is  primarily  divided  into  "Practical  Philo- 
sophy" (Hikmat-i-'A malt)  and  "Theoretical  Philosophy" 
(Hikmat-i-Nazari).  Of  these  two  main  divisions  each  is 
subdivided  into  three  branches :  the  Theoretical  into  Mathe- 
matics (Riyddiyydt),  Physical  Science  (Tabi'iyydt),  and 
Metaphysics  (Md  fawqdt-  Tabi'at  or  Md  ba'dat-  Tabi'af)  ; 
and  the  Practical  into  Ethics  (Tahdhibu  l-Akhldq),  CEco- 
nomics  ( Tadbiru  l-Manzil),  and  Politics  (Siydsatu'l-Mudun). 
It  is  with  the  three  branches  of  the  second  division  that  the 
works  now  under  consideration  deal.  The  two  which  belong 
to  this  period  have  both  been  translated  into  English  and 


444  PROSE  WRITERS:  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BKIII 

printed,  the  Akhldq-i-Jaldlt  by  W.  F.  Thompson  (London, 
1839)  under  the  title  of  "Practical  Philosophy  of  the  Mu- 
hammadan  People";  and  the  Akhldq-i-Muhsini  (Hertford, 
1851)  by  H.  G.  Keene.  The  English  reader  who  desires 
to  acquaint  himself  with  their  contents  can,  therefore,  easily 
do  so,  and  no  further  description  of  them  is  required  in  this 
place. 

As  regards  their  authors,  Jalalu'd-Din-i-Dawani  was 
born  in  830/1426-7  at  the  village  of  Dawan  (from  which 
he  derives  his  nisba)  in  the  province  of  Pars 
Sw~Din""  near  Kazarun,  where  his  father  was  Qadi  or 
judge.  He  himself  held  the  same  office  in  the 
province  and  was  also  a  professor  at  the  Ddrul-Aytdm  or 
Orphans'  College  at  Shiraz,  where  he  passed  most  of  his 
life.  He  died  and  was  buried  at  his  native  place  in 
908/1 502-3 1.  His  fame  even  during  his  life-time  spread 
far  beyond  the  confines  of  his  native  land,  and,  as  we 
have  seen2,  received  recognition  even  at  the  distant  Ottoman 
Court.  In  spite  of  his  fame,  he  seems  to  have  left  but 
little  behind  him  besides  his  work  on  Ethics,  except  some 
Quatrains,  written  and  commentated  by  himself,  and  an 
explanation  of  one  of  the  odes  of  Hafiz. 

To  Husayn-i-Kashifi  we  shall  recur  later. 

(4)  T\\eJawdhirul-Asrdr,  (5)  the  Lawaih, 
and  (6)  the  Ashi"atul-Lamaldt. 

Of  the  rich  mystical  literature  of  this  period  the  major 

portion,  which  is  in  verse,  will  be  discussed  when  we  come 

to  speak  of  the  poets.     Of  the  prose  portion 

prtle^rkI1Cal     tne  three  books  mentioned  above  may  be  taken 

as  typical.     Two  are  commentaries  on  earlier 

texts,  while  the  third  is  an  independent  work. 

The Jawdhintl-Asrdr  wa  Zawdhirul-Anwdr  ("Gems 
of  Mysteries  and  Manifestations  of  Lights")  is  a  com- 
mentary on  the  great  Mystical  Mathnawi  of  Mawlana 

1  See  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  pp.  442-3. 

2  See  p.  423  supra. 


CH.  vn]     jAMf'S  ASHr'ATU'L-LAMA'AT.  ETC.          445 

Jalalu'd-Di'n  Rumi  by  Kamalu'd-Dm  Husayn  b.  Hasan  of 
Khwarazm,  the  author  or  translator  of  several  other  works1, 
who  was  killed  by  the  Uzbeks  some  time  be- 
25i-"-IW*  tween  835  and  840  (A.D.  1432-37).  He  was  the 
pupil  of  a  somewhat  celebrated  Sufi  Shaykh, 
Khwaja  Abu'1-Wafa,  had  assiduously  studied  the  Mathnawi 
from  his  youth  upwards,  and  had  already  written  a  briefer 
commentary  on  it  entitled  Kunuziil-Haqaiq  ("Treasures 
of  Truths ").  The  Jawdkiru'l-Asrdr,  the  later  and  fuller 
commentary,  has  been  lithographed  in  India.  There  is  a 
manuscript  of  the  first  half  in  the  British  Museum2,  and 
one  of  the  second  Book  (or  Daftar)  in  the  Cambridge 
University  Library3,  besides  a  lithographed  Indian  edition. 
The  most  important  part  of  the  work  is  the  Introduction, 
which  deals  with  the  history,  terminology  and  doctrines  of 
the  Sufi's. 

The  two  other  works  mentioned  above  are  from  the 
fertile  pen  of  the  great  poet  and  mystic  Mulla  Nuru'd-Dm 
'Abdu'r-Rahman  Jami. 

The  A  ski" atu  I- Lama1  at,  or  "  Rays  of  the  '  Flashes,'  "  is 
a  running  commentary  on  the  Lama'dt  of  'Iraqi,  which  has 
Timi's  been  already  discussed  in  a  previous  chapter4. 

AsWatu'i-  Apart  from  manuscripts,  which  are  not  very 
common,  the  text  has  been  published  in  Persia 
in  an  undated  volume  containing  this  and  several  other 
mystical  treatises.  Of  the  genesis  of  the  work  Jami  speaks 
thus  in  his  Preface  : 

"  It  is  represented  that  at  the  time  when  the  learned,  practising, 

gnostic  lover,  the  author  of  excellent  prose  and  admirable  verse,  that 

cup-bearer  of  the  bowl  of  generosity  to  men  of  high  aspi- 

Quotation  from     rations  Fakhru'd-Din  Ibrahim  of  Hamadan,  commonly 

the  Preface  ,  .  .  .  * 

known  as  Iraqi,  attained  to  the  society  of  that  Exemplar 
of  learned  seekers  after  Truth  and  that  Model  of  Unitarian  Gnostics 
Abu'l-Ma'ali  Sadru'1-Haqq  Wa'1-Millat  wa'd-Dfn  Muhammad  of  Qunya6 

1  See  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  pp.  144-6. 

2  Add.  14051.     See  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  p.  558. 

3  Marked  Or.  238. 

4  See  pp.  132-9  supra.  5  Or  Qonya,  the  old  Iconium. 


446  PROSE  WRITERS :  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

(may  God  most  High  sanctify  their  secrets !),  and  heard  from  him  the 
truths  contained  in  the  Fusttsu ^l-Hikam l,  he  compiled  a  short  manual, 
which,  inasmuch  as  it  comprised  several  "flashes"  from  the  lightnings 
of  these  truths,  he  entitled  Lama^dt.  Therein,  in  pleasant  phrases  and 
with  charming  allusions,  he  flung  together  jewels  of  verse  and  prose 
and  mingled  aphorisms  Arabic  and  Persian,  from  which  the  signs  of 
learning  and  wisdom  were  apparent,  and  in  which  the  lights  of  taste 
and  ecstasy  were  manifest,  such  as  might  awaken  the  sleeper,  render 
him  who  is  awakened  cognizant  of  the  mysteries,  kindle  the  fire  of 
Love  and  put  in  motion  the  chain  of  longing. 

"  But  since  the  author  ['Iraqi]  had  become  the  target  of  the  tongues 
of  lthe  vilifiers  of  sundry  men  of  good  repute  j  and  had  suffered  at  the 

hands  of ' 'certain  ill-conditioned  wanderers  from  the  path?] 
*on^lr£~i       t^ie  Dunc^y  orthodox  have  imposed  on  him  the  stigma 

of  repudiation,  and  withdrawn  from  him  the  skirt  of 
acceptance.  This  humble  writer  also,  in  view  of  this  rejection  and 
repudiation,  abstained  from  preoccupying  himself  therewith  ;  until  the 
most  illustrious  of  the  '  Brethren  of  Purity'  in  this  country,  and  the 
most  glorious  of  the  friends  of  constancy  (may  God  cause  him  to  walk 
in  the  ways  of  His  adept  servants  !),  whose  auspicious  name  has  been 
enunciated  in  the  course  of  this  prayer  in  the  best  form  of  enigma  and 
allusion  between  God  and  His  servants,  requested  me  to  collate  and 
correct  the  text  thereof;  which  request  could  only  be  met  with  obedience. 
When  I  entered  on  this  business,  and  ran  over  the  details  of  its  com- 
ponent parts,  I  saw  in  every  leaf  thereof  a  '  Flash '  from  the  lights  of 
Truths,  and  perceived  in  every  page  a  gust  of  the  declaration  of  Divine 
Wisdom.  The  heart  was  attracted  to  the  understanding  of  its  subtle- 
ties, and  the  mind  was  troubled  at  the  difficulty  of  comprehending 
its  purport.  Manuscripts  of  the  text  differed,  and  some  of  them  ap- 
peared to  be  perverted  from  the  path  of  accuracy.  In  certain  cases 
of  concision  and  passages  of  difficulty  reference  was  made  to  the  com- 
mentaries on  it ;  but  neither  was  any  difficulty  solved  thereby,  nor  in 
any  of  them  was  any  concise  statement  properly  amplified.  As  a 
necessary  consequence,  this  thought  passed  through  a  heart  disposed 
to  the  understanding  of  subtleties,  and  this  wish  established  itself  in  a 
mind  regardful  of  the  essence  of  truths,  that,  to  correct  its  sentences  and 
elucidate  its  hints,  a  commentary  should  be  compiled  gleaned  from 
the  sayings  of  the  elders  of  the  Path  and  leaders  in  the  Truth, especially 

1  A  well-known  and  highly  esteemed  mystical  work  in  Arabic  by 
Shaykh  Muhyi'd-Din  ibnu'l-'Arabf.     See  vol.  ii  of  my  Lit.  Hist,  of 
Persia,  pp.  497-501. 

2  These  two  half-verses  are  from  a  quatrain  generally  ascribed  to 
'Umar  Khayydm.    See  E.  H.  Whinfield's  edition  and  versified  transla- 
tion, No.  199,  pp.  134-5. 


CH.  vn]  jAMf'S  LAWA'IH  447 

those  two  great  Shaykhs  Muhyi'd-Din  Muhammad  ibnu'l-'Arabi  and 
his  disciple  and  pupil  Sadru'd-Dfn  Muhammad  of  Qiinya  and  their  fol- 
lowers (may  God  most  High  sanctify  their  secrets !).  So,  in  consequence 
of  these  promptings,  the  mind  decided  on  undertaking  this  difficult 
task,  which  it  brought  to  a  conclusion,  by  the  assistance  of  God's  Grace, 
in  the  shortest  time.  And  since  most  of  the  statements  which  are 
included  in  this  commentary  are  of  the  kind  which  have  shone  forth 
upon  the  heart  from  the  consideration  of  the  luminous  words  of  the 
text,  it  is  proper  that  it  should  be  named  'Rays  of  the  "Flashes,"'  and 
should  be  represented  to  the  eyes  of  students  by  this  description.  It  is 
hoped  of  such  as  regard  justly,  though  not  of  scoffers  characterized  by 
obstinacy,  that  when  they  take  this  manual  into  their  consideration, 
and  devote  their  thoughts  to  its  perusal,  wherever  they  see  aught  of 
goodness  and  perfection  they  will  account  it  the  gift  of  God  (Glory 
be  to  Him  and  exalted  is  He !),  whilst  wherever  they  find  any  fault  or 
defect  they  will  attribute  it  to  the  impotence  and  shortcomings  of 
humanity ;  and  that  they  will  not  specially  make  the  humble  author  a 
target  for  the  arrows  of  reproach,  nor  cast  themselves  into  the  vortex 
of  evil-seeking  and  evil-saying.  We  ask  aid  from  God,  to  whom  be 
glory!" 

This  Introduction  is  followed  by  a  long  dissertation  on 
various  points  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Mystics,  together 
with  questions  and  answers  designed  to  elucidate  special 
difficulties,  after  which  the  running  commentary  on  the  text 
follows.  The  book  ends  with  the  following  Perso-Arabic 

t»»9* 

chronogram,  in  which  the  word  tammamtuhu  (AZ+^J,  "  I 
completed  it ")  gives  the  date  of  completion  as  885  (A.D. 
1480-81): 


is    j      'iu        A-ij    u  31 

*• 


The  Lawaih  —  a  word  which  also,  like  Lama'dt,  means 

"  Flashes  "  or  "  Effulgences  "  of  Light  —  is  a  mystical  treatise 

in  prose  mixed  with  quatrains  comprising  thirty 

Jimt's  Lawd  'ik  .  .  ,.,-,,       ,          „     ,     ,          ,  11-11 

sections  called    r  lashes.     It  has  been  published 
in  fac-simile  with  a  Preface,  translation  and  appendices, 


448  PROSE  WRITERS  :  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

by  Mr  E.  H.  Whinfield,  who  has  made  such  valuable  con- 
tributions to  our  knowledge  of  Persian  mysticism,  aided  by 
that  great  scholar  Mirza  Muhammad  ibn  'Abdu'l-Wahhab 
of  Qazwin.  This  little  volume,  the  sixteenth  in  the  New 
Series  of  the  Oriental  Translation  Fund,  was  published  in 
1906  under  the  auspices  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  and, 
since  it  is  easily  accessible  to  English  readers,  any  lengthy 
account  of  it  would  be  superfluous.  One  of  the  most 
beautiful  things  in  it,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  prayer  which 
follows  the  Exordium  and  precedes  the  Preface,  and  which 
runs  as  follows  : 


3    ^5*^      Jliii^t   o-«   U 
^Ju    L«    Oj-^su  J*OL>  jt    C-JLftC.    O 


J    j 


IU  C~wU     l    A^A   U 


"  My  God,  my  God  !    Save  us  from  preoccupation  with  trifles,  and 

show  us  the  realities  of  things  as  they  are  !     Withdraw  from  the  eyes 

of  our  understanding  the  veil  of  heedlessness,  and  show 

Jdmi's  prayer        us  everything  as  it  truly  is!     Display  not  to  us  Not- 

for  spiritual  .          /  .  '    . 

enlightenment  Being  in  the  guise  of  Being,  and  place  not  a  veil  of 
Not-Being  over  the  Beauty  of  Being.  Make  these 
phenomenal  forms  a  Mirror  of  the  Effulgences  of  Thy  Beauty,  not  a 
cause  of  veiling  and  remoteness,  and  cause  these  phantasmal  pictures 
to  become  the  means  of  our  knowledge  and  vision,  not  a  cause  of 
ignorance  and  blindness.  All  our  deprivation  and  banishment  is  from 
ourselves  :  leave  us  not  with  ourselves,  but  grant  us  deliverance  from 
ourselves,  and  vouchsafe  us  knowledge  of  Thyself  !  " 


CH.  vn]  FADLITLLAH  THE  HURtfFf  449 

Literature  of  the  Hurufi  Sect. 

In  the  account  of  the  Hurufi  heresy  given  in  the  last 
chapter  (pp.  365-375  supra)  incidental  mention  has  been 
made  of  the  principal  books  emanating  from  or  connected 
with  that  strange  sect  From  the  purely  literary  point  of 
view  most  of  these  (with  the  exception  of  a  few  poems  like 
the  Iskandar-ndma  published  and  translated  by  M.  Cl.  Huart 
in  vol.  ix  of  the  "  E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial "  Series)  are  of 
little  merit1,  though  to  the  student  of  religion  and  the  psycho- 
logist they  are  deeply  interesting.  To  the  uninitiated  reader 
Fadlu'llah's  J dwiddn-ndma,  whatever  esoteric  mysteries  it 
may  contain,  is  a  series  of  disconnected  and  almost  un- 
intelligible ravings,  and  the  only  one  of  his  extant  writings 
which  strikes  anything  approaching  a  human  note  is  a  letter 
addressed  to  one  of  his  disciples  on  the  eve  of  his  execution. 
From  this  letter  it  appears  that  Fadlu'llah  was  put  to  death 
at  Shirwan,  which,  in  allusion  to  the  scene  of  the  Imam 
Husayn's  martyrdom,  he  speaks  of  as  "  my  Karbala2." 

In  Persia,  as  already  observed,  the  sect  does  not  seem 

to  have  played  an  important  role,  or  to  have  long  survived 

the  death  of  its   founder  and  his   immediate 

Diffusion  of  the 

Hurufi  heresy  successor.  In  Turkey,  whither  it  soon  spread, 
it  was  far  otherwise.  There,  in  spite  of  several 
severe  persecutions  recorded  by  the  Turkish  historians,  it 
counted  many  adherents,  amongst  the  most  famous  of 
whom  was  the  poet  Nasimi  (Nesimi),  who  was  skinned 
alive  for  his  heterodoxy  in  820/1417-8,  in  the  city  of 
Aleppo.  An  admirable  account  of  him  and  the  Hurufi 
sect  is  given  by  the  late  Mr  E.  J.  W.  Gibb3,  and  also  of 
his  chief  disciple,  the  Turkish  poet  Rafi'i,  author  of  the 

1  This  refers  only  to  the  Persian  Hurufi  writings,  for,  as  already 
indicated  (p.  369,  n.  i  supra),  Mr  Gibb  regards  Nesfmi  as  "the  first 
true  poet  of  the  Western  Turks." 

2  See  my  second  paper  on  the  Hurufis  in  the  J.  R.  A.  S.  for  July, 
1907,  pp.  9  and  10  of  the  tirage-a-part,  where  both  text  and  translation 
are  given. 

3  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  i,  pp.  336-388. 

B.  P.  29 


450   PROSE  WRITERS:  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD  [BK  m 

Bashdrat-ndma.  Here  it  may  be  observed  that  the  titles 
of  nearly  all  Hurufi  works  are  compounded  with  the  word 
-ndma,  "book."  Thus  in  Persian  we  have  the  Adam-ndma 
("Book  of  Adam,"  or  "  Book  of  Man"),  the  'Arsh-ndma 
("Book  of  God's  Throne"),  Hiddyat-ndma  ("Book  of 
Guidance"),  fstiwd-ndma,  Kursi-ndma,  Mahabbat-ndma, 
etc.,  and  in  Turkish,  besides  the  above-mentioned  Bashd- 
rat-ndma ("  Book  of  Good  Tidings "),  the  Akhirat-ndma, 
Fadilat-ndma,  Faqr-ndma,  Fayd-ndma,  Ganj-ndma,  Haqi- 
qat-ndma,  'Ishq-ndma,  and  many  others,  of  which  the  titles 
will  be  found  in  the  Index  appended  to  my  second  article 
on  the  Hurufi  Literature  in  the/.  R.  A.  S.  for  July,  1907, 
where  short  descriptions  of  45  Huruff  MSS.  are  given. 
The  list  of  works  in  that  Index  is  undoubtedly  far  from 
complete,  yet  even  these  have  for  the  most  part  received 
only  the  most  cursory  examination,  so  that  there  is  plenty 
of  scope  for  further  research  in  this  field.  Ordinary  curiosity 
about  the  sect  and  its  history  and  literature  will,  however, 
be  amply  satisfied  by  what  has  been  already 
gurfiflMctfa  published  about  it  in  English  and  French:  to 
English  and  wjt  my  account  of  the  Jdwiddn-i-Kabir*  and 

French  J  J 

my  two  papers  in  the  /.  R.  A.  S.  (for  1898 
and  1907) ;  the  chapter  in  Mr  E.  J.  W.  Gibb's  History  of 
Ottoman  Poetry ;  and  vol.  ix  of  the  Gibb  Memorial  Series, 
published  in  1909,  entitled  Textes  Persans  relatifs  a  la  secte 
des  Houroufis,  publics,  traduits  et  annotes  par  M.  Clement 
Huart,  sidvis  d'une  Etude  sur  la  Religion  des  Houroiifis^par 
le  Docteur  Rizd  Tevftq,  connu  sous  le  nom  de  Feylesouf  Rizd. 
Ishaq  Efendi's  refutation  of  the  Hurufi's,  written  in 
Turkish  in  1288/1871-2,  and  published  in  1291/1874,  under 

the  title  of  the  Revealer  of  Mysteries  and  Repeller 

Ishaq  Efendi's  * 

refutation  of        0f  Miscreants*,  though  very  violent  in  tone,  is 
fairly  accurate  in  substance,  and  is  the  result  of 
careful  though  prejudiced  investigations.    After  a  very  brief 
doxology  it  begins  as  follows  : 

1  See  my  Catalogue  of  the  Persian  MSS.  in  the  Cambridge  University 
Library,  pp.  69-86. 

2  KdshifuU-Asrdr  <wa  Ddfi'tfl-Ashrdr. 


CH.  vn]       DENUNCIATION  OF  THE  HURUFfS          451 

"  Be  it  known  that  of  all  those  sects  which  devote  themselves  to  the 
misleading  of  the  Muslims,  the  Bektashfs  are  the  chief  offenders,  and 
that  although  it  is  evident  both  from  their  deeds  and  words  that  they 
are  not  truly  Muslims,  yet  in  the  year  1288/1871-2  they  made  this  fact 
perfectly  plain.  The  books  called  by  these  people  Jdwiddn  ('  Eternal ') 
are  six  in  number,  of  which  one  was  composed  by  their  original  mis- 
leader  Fadlu'llah  the  Hurufi,  while  the  other  five  are  the  works  of  his 
Khalifas  (successors).  And  since  in  these  five  books  their  heresies 
and  blasphemies  are  very  evident,  they  are  accustomed  to  teach  and 
study  them  secretly  among  themselves ;  but  as  Firishta-zada  in  his 
Jdwiddn,  entitled  ''Ishq-ndma  ('  the  Book  of  Love  ')>  did  in  some  degree 
veil  his  blasphemies,  and  as  consequently  in  the  year  above-mentioned 
(1288/1871-2)  his  followers  made  so  bold  as  to  print  and  publish  it,  it 
has  beyond  question  become  a  matter  of  urgent  necessity  that  a  treatise 
should  be  compiled  to  warn  the  faithful  as  to  the  true  nature  and 
blasphemous  character  of  the  doctrines  contained  in  their  books. 
Therefore,  relying  on  God,  I  have  ventured  to  write  such  a  treatise, 
comprising  three  chapters,  viz.  : 

"  Chapter  I. — Setting  forth  the  origin  of  Fadl  the  Hurufi,  and  the 
principles  and  rules  of  certain  of  the  Bektashis. 

"  Chapter  II. — Setting  forth  the  blasphemies  of  Firishta-zada's 
Jdwiddn. 

"Chapter  III. — Setting  forth  the  blasphemies  contained  in  the 
other  Jdwiddns? 

After  a  brief  account  of  the  Carmathians  and  other  early 
heretics,  and  of  Fadlu'llah  of  Astarabad,  the  founder  of  the 
Hurufi  sect,  the  author  describes  how  "  the  son  of  Timiir  " 
(Miran-shah)  caused  him  to  be  put  to  death,  "  after  which 
he  tied  a  rope  to  his  legs,  dragged  him  publicly  through 
the  streets  and  bazars,  and  removed  his  foul  existence  from 
this  nether  world."  Thereupon  his  nine  Khalifas  or  "Vicars" 
dispersed  through  the  lands  of  Islam,  and  he  who  was  en- 
titled a/-' A  liyyu  'l-A'ld  ("the  High,  the  Supreme")1  came  to 
the  monastery  of  Hajji  Bektash  in  Anatolia,  and,  having 
won  the  confidence  of  its  inmates,  began  secretly  to  teach 
the  doctrines  of  the  Jdwiddn,  pretending  that  they  repre- 
sented the  esoteric  doctrine  of  Hajji  Bektash,  and  naming 
them  "  the  Secret,"  to  divulge  which  was  death.  For  the 
understanding  of  certain  obscure  symbols  and  passages  in 

1  He  died  in  822/1419. 

29 — 2 


452  PROSE  WRITERS:  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BK  m 

the  Jdwiddn,  a  key  entitled  "  the  Key  of  Life  "  (Miftdktil- 
Haydty  was  compiled.  "  Should  one  possess  this,"  adds 
the  author,  "  he  will  understand  the  Jdwiddn,  which,  without 
this  aid,  is  incomprehensible." 

In  spite  of  all  their  precautions,  however,  several  severe 

persecutions  of  the  Hurufis  and  Bektashfs  took  place  in 

Turkey,  one    of  the   latest   of  which  was   in 

Persecutions  * 

ofthe  Hurufis  1240/1824-5,  in  the  reign  of  Sultan  Mahmud, 
who  killed  many  of  them,  destroyed  their 
monasteries,  and  made  over  their  property  to  the  Naqsh- 
bandi  order  of  dervishes.  Many  of  their  surviving  Shaykhs 
and  ordinary  members  took  refuge  amongst  the  Naqshbandi, 
Qadirf,  Rufa'i  and  Sa'di  orders  of  dervishes,  and  cautiously 
carried  on  their  propaganda  in  these  new  environments. 
The  order,  however,  speedily  revived,  and  is  still  widely 
spread  in  Turkey,  to  which  country  rather  than  to  Persia 
the  later  history  of  the  Huruff  sect  belongs.  Of  the  con- 
tinued existence  of  the  sect  in  Persia  there  appears  to 
be  no  evidence,  though  doubtless  many  of  their  doctrines 
and  ideas  are  still  current  amongst  the  dervish  "  gnostics  " 
('urafa)  of  that  unforgetting  land,  while  some  of  their 
peculiar  views  and  terminology  have  been  assimilated  by 
such  later  heretical  sects  as  the  Babi's,  who  will  be  discussed 
in  the  concluding  volume  of  this  work. 

The  Turki  literature  of  this  period,  especially  the 
Bdbur-ndma. 

The  principle  has  been  repeatedly  laid  down  in  this 

book  that  the  literary  history  of  a  people   in  the  wider 

sense   should    not  be   confined   to  what  they 

Claims  of  Turki  J 

literature  to         wrote   in    their   own    language,    and    for   this 
reason  Arabic  books  written  by  Persians  have 


tion  even  in  a 


Literary  History   been   included  in  our  survey.     The  case  for 
saying  something  about  the  considerable  Turki 

1  Three  MSS.  of  this  "  Key  "  are  described  in  my  second  paper  on 
the  Literature  of  the  Hurufts,  viz.  Or.  5957  of  the  British  Museum  ; 
Or.  488  of  the  Cambridge  University  Library ;  and  a  MS.  of  my  own, 
B.  15. 


CH.  viz]  TURKf  LITERATURE  453 

literature  produced  at  the  Timurid  courts,  especially  at 
Herat  during  the  reign  of  Sultan  Abu'l-Ghazi  Husayn 
(A.H.  878-912  =  A.D.  1473-1506),  is  not  quite  so  strong, 
because  those  who  produced  it  were  for  the  most  part,  if 
not  wholly,  of  Turkish  race ;  though  since  in  Transoxiana 
and  Turkistan  the  two  languages  flourished  (and,  indeed, 
still  flourish)  side  by  side,  the  number  of  bilinguals  must 
always  have  been  considerable.  The  Persian,  as  being  the 
more  polished  idiom,  was  more  generally  used,  even  by 
princes  of  the  House  of  Timur  like  Ulugh  Beg,  Baysunqur, 
Mfrza  Haydar  Dughlat  and  Sultan  Husayn  himself,  for 
Services  of  M,r  literary  purposes;  but  the  great  Mir 'AH  Shir 
-AH  shir  Nawa'i  Nawa'i,  who  did  more  than  any  other  man 
hngukgeand  to  raise  the  Chaghatay  Turki  to  the  dignity 

of  a  literary  language,  actually  maintained  its 
superiority  to  Persian  in  a  treatise  entitled  Muhdkamatul- 
Lughatayn  ("the  Arbitration  between  the  two  languages"). 
Of  some  of  Mir  'AH  Shir's  numerous  works  something  has 
been  already  said,  and  those  who  desire  fuller  information 
can  find  it  in  M.  Belin's  monograph  in  \he  Journal  A  siatique 
for  1 86 1,  already  mentioned,  and  in  another  monograph  of 
his  on  \heMakbubul-Qulub1  ("Hearts'  Darling")  published 
in  the  same  periodical  in  1 866  under  the  title  of  Caracteres, 
Maximes  et  Pensees  de  Mir  AH  Chir  Nfodti,  Dawlatshah 
also  in  the  Conclusion  (Khdtima)  of  his  Memoirs  of  the 
Poets  mentions  several  other  eminent  Turki  poets  amongst 
his  contemporaries,  while  numerous  other  works  in  this 
tongue,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  will  be  found  mentioned 
in  Rieu's  Catalogue  of  the  Turkish  Manuscripts  in  the  British 
Museum.  Yet,  save  to  the  student  of  Turkish  in  its  wider 
sense,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  interest  of  this  literature  would 
be  commensurate  with  the  trouble  of  learning  this  particular 
dialect  of  Turkf,  were  it  not  for  the  sake  of  reading  in  its 

original    form  that  unique   work,  the  Bdbur- 

Unique  character          ^°  _  *• 

ofRabur's  Roma,  or  Memoirs  of  the  Emperor  Babur,  of 

which  at  any  rate  the  French  or  the  English 

1  The  text  of  this  has  been  printed  (I  think  at  Constantinople)  in 
189/1872-3. 


454  PROSE  WRITERS:  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

translation  should  be  read  by  every  student  of  Persian  or 

Indian  history1.     Enthusiastic  as  are  the  praises  lavished 

on  this  most  remarkable  book,  "  singular  in  its 

Eulogies  on  the  ,  f         .  .  e  .  .  . 

Memoirs  by  aii     own  nature,  and  perfectly  so  if  we  consider  the 
who  have  made     circumstances  of  the  writer,"  by  Erskine2,  Pavet 

use  of  them  i       /— 

de  Courteille3,  and  all  others  who  have  worked 
at  it,  no  one  who  has  perused  its  pages  will  deem  them 
exaggerated.  It  is  impossible  to  better  the  description  of 
it  given  by  Elphinstone4,  who  describes  it  as  containing 
"a  minute  account  of  the  life  of  a  great  Tartar  monarch, 
along  with  a  natural  effusion  of  his  opinions  and  feelings 
free  from  disguise  and  reserve,  and  no  less  free  from  all 
affectation  of  extreme  frankness  and  candour.  The  style 
is  plain  and  manly,  as  well  as  lively  and  picturesque  ;  it 
presents  his  countrymen  and  contemporaries  in  their  ap- 
pearance, manners,  pursuits  and  actions  as  clearly  as  in 
a  mirror.  In  this  respect  it  is  almost  the  only  specimen 
of  real  history  in  Asia ;  for  the  ordinary  writers,  though 
they  give  pompous  accounts  of  the  deeds  and  ceremonies 
of  the  great,  are  apt  to  omit  the  lives  and  manners  even  of 
that  class ;  while  everything  beneath  their  level  is  left 
entirely  out  of  sight.  In  Baber  the  figures,  dress,  tastes 
and  habits  of  each  individual  introduced  are  described  with 
such  minuteness  and  reality  that  we  seem  to  live  among 
them,  and  to  know  their  persons  as  well  as  we  do  their 
characters.  His  descriptions  of  the  countries  he  visited, 
their  scenery,  climate,  productions,  and  works  of  art  and 
industry  are  more  full  and  accurate  than  will,  perhaps,  be 
found  in  equal  space  in  any  modern  traveller ;  and,  con- 
sidering the  circumstances  in  which  they  were  compiled, 
are  truly  surprising." 

The  book  is,  indeed,  extraordinarily  frank  and  intimate, 

1  Pavet  de  Courteille's  French  translation  was  made  directly  from 
the  original  Turkf,  and  is  therefore  preferable  to  Leyden  and  Erskine's 
English  translation,  which  was  made  from  the  Persian  version. 

2  History  of  India,  vol.  i,  pp.  522-525. 

3  P.  ii  of  the  Preface  to  his  translation. 

4  Vol.  ii  of  his  History  of  India,  pp.  117-119. 


CH.  vn]  THE  BABUR-NAMA  455 

being  such  a  diary  as  a  man  writes  for  his  own  private 
delectation  rather  than  for  the  perusal  of  even  his  most 
confidential  friends,  much  less  subjects ;  and  probably  no 
king  at  any  rate  ever  wrote,  or  at  any  rate  suffered  to  be 
circulated,  such  Confessions.  While  recording  fully  the 
many  great  historical  events  in  which  he  took  part,  he 
does  not  hesitate  to  mention  when  he  shaved  for  the  first 
time1  at  the  age  of  23  in  the  year  909/1503-4;  when  he 
saw  the  star  Canopus  for  the  first  time2 ;  how  he  was  first 
induced  to  taste  wine3  at  Herat  in  912/1506-7;  and  when 
he  made  his  first  attempt  to  write  Turki  verse4.  He  de- 
scribes his  unhappy  marriage  with  'A'isha  Sultan  Begum5, 
his  reckless  and  unrestrained  passion  for  Babun'6,  his 
drinking-bouts7,  his  favourite  vintage8,  and  how  on  one 
occasion  he  refrained  from  exceeding  at  a  drinking-party 
in  order  to  form  an  impartial  opinion  as  to  the  effects  of 
drunkenness  on  others9.  Mention  has  already  been  made 
of  the  value  of  his  geographical  observations,  but  his  notes 
on  the  fauna  and  flora  of  Central  Asia  and  India  are  of 
nearly  equal  interest,  while  his  impartial  and  acute  de- 
lineations of  the  characters  and  personal  peculiarities  of 
his  royal  kinsmen  and  most  notable  contemporaries  are 
of  the  highest  interest  and  value.  From  our  present  point 
of  view,  however,  no  portion  of  his  Memoirs  is 
a  more  interesting  than  that  which  he  devotes 
and  artists  in  the  to  a  series  of  literary  portraits  of  the  leading 

Babttr-ndnia  ', 

poets,  writers  and  artists10  who  conferred  such 
distinction  on  the  court  of  Sultan  Abu'l-Ghazi  Husayn, 
beginning  with  that  monarch  himself  and  his  eminent  and 
accomplished  minister  Mir  'All  Shir  Nawa'i11.  As  the  whole 
of  it  may  be  read  in  French  in  the  first  volume  of  Pavet  de 

1  Bdbur-ndma,  ed.  Ilminsky,  p.  146. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  153.  3  Ibid.,  p.  239. 
4  Ibid.,  p.  107.  '°  Ibid.,  p.  62. 

6  Ibid.,  pp.  62-63.  :  Ibid.,  pp.  291,  293,  305. 

8  Ibid.,  p.  6.  9  Ibid.,  p.  304. 

10  Ibid.,  pp.  221-231.  u  Ibid.,  pp.  203-214. 


456  PROSE  WRITERS :  LATER  Tf Mtf  RID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

Courteille's  translation  (pp.  364-415),  it  will  be  sufficient 
here  to  summarize  a  few  of  the  more  interesting  passages. 

Having  spoken  of  Sultan  Husayn's  birth,  death,  family 

and  personal  appearance,  Babur  mentions  the  predilection 

for  the  Shi'ite  doctrine  which  he  showed  at 

Description  of      t^     beginning   of  his  reign,   but   which   was 

Siiliiut  Husayn  c>     ' 

checked  by  Mir  'All  Shir.  Chronic  rheumatism 
prevented  him  from  saying  his  prayers,  but  is  no  explana- 
tion of  his  neglect  to  keep  the  fast.  After  he  had  reigned 
six  or  seven  years  he  took  to  drink,  "  and  during  the  forty 
years  for  which  he  reigned  over  Khurasan,  there  was  not 
a  day  whereon  he  did  not  drink  after  the  morning  prayer 
though  he  never  drank  in  the  early  morning."  His  sons, 
soldiers  and  subjects  imitated  his  example,  and  were  for 
the  most  part  dissolute  and  self-indulgent.  He  was,  how- 
ever, of  proved  valour,  a  very  skilful  swordsman,  and  wrote 
moderately  good  poetry  in  the  Turki  language  under  the 
nom  de  guerre  of  Hasan.  His  kingdom  of  Khurasan  ex- 
tended eastwards  to  Balkh,  westwards  to  Bistam  and 
Damghan,  northwards  to  Khwarazm  (Khiva),  and  south- 
wards to  Qandahar  and  Sistan.  "  His  was  a  wonderful  age," 
says  Babur  a  little  further  on  ;  "  Khurasan,  and  especially 
Herat,  were  filled  with  men  of  talent  and  incomparable 
artists.  Whoever  undertook  any  task,  his  aim  and  ambition 
was  to  perform  it  to  perfection." 

Mir  'All   Shir  Nawa'f  is  next  discussed,  and  a  high 
tribute  is  paid   to  his  poetical   talent,  alike  in  romantic 

and  lyric  verse  and  in  the  quatrain,  but  his 
Shfc*Nawl'i  epistolary  style  is  rated  lower.  Though  he 

wrote  chiefly  in  Turki,  he  has  also  a  Persian 
Diwdn,  in  which  he  uses  the  pen-name  of  Fani.  He  was 
a  great  patron  of  art  as  well  as  of  letters,  and  the  fame 
attained  by  the  painters  Bihzad  and  Shah  Muzaffar  was 
largely  due  to  his  encouragement.  He  was  devout,  orthodox, 
and  attentive  to  his  religious  duties,  and  was  an  enthusiastic 
chess-player.  In  this  last  respect  he  was  excelled  by  Mir 
Murtad  the  philosopher,  who,  when  he  found  two  good 


CH.  vn]  THE  BABUR-NAMA  457 

players,  would  play  a  game  with  one  while  he  held  on  to 
the  skirt  of  the  other  to  prevent  him  from  going  away  until 
he  had  played  a  game  with  him  also.  He  was  a  batchelor, 
without  domestic  ties,  and  very  free  and  easy  with  his 
intimates.  Thus  on  one  occasion  while  engaged  in  playing 
chess  he  stretched  out  his  foot  and  accidentally  kicked  the 
poet  Banna'i,  whereupon  he  jestingly  exclaimed,  "A  plague 
on  Herat  !  If  you  stretch  out  your  feet,  you  kick  the  back- 
side of  a  poet."  "And  so  you  do  if  you  draw  in  your  feet1," 
retorted  Banna'i. 

Shaykhum  Beg,  who  assumed  the  pen-name  of  Suhaylf, 
was  another   of  Sultan    Husayn's   amirs   who   had   some 

poetical  talent,  but  was  criticized  for  an  undue 
Be^SuhTu        partiality  for  terrifying  words  and  ideas.    Thus 

on  one  occasion  he  recited  the  following  verse 
in  the  presence  of  Jami: 


"  In  the  night  of  grief  the  whirl-wind  of  my  sighs  displaced  the  world  ; 
The  dragon  of  my  tear-torrent  engulfed  the  habitable  quarter  [of  the 
globe]." 

"  Do  you  want  to  write  poetry  or  to  frighten  your  fellow- 
creatures?"  Jami  enquired. 

"Kamalu'd-Di'n  Husayn  G^zargahi,"  says  Babur  a  little 
further  on2,  "although  he  was  not  a  Sufi,  posed  as  such. 

Pretended  Suffs  of  this  type  were  wont  to 
£S£hiDin  Sather  rounc*  <All/  Shir  Beg  and  indulge  in  their 

ecstasies  and  religious  music.  This  man's  prin- 
ciples were  better  than  most  of  them,  and  to  this  fact  he 
probably  owed  the  consideration  which  he  enjoyed,  for 
otherwise  he  had  no  special  talent  worth  mentioning. 
He  wrote  a  book  entitled  Majdlisul-  Ushshdq  ("  Lovers' 
Meetings")  of  which  he  ascribed  the  authorship  to  Husayn 

1  I.e.  "sit  on  your  heels"  in  the  Persian  fashion. 

2  Ed.  Ilminsky,  p.  2.2,1. 


458  PROSE  WRITERS:  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD  [BK  m 

Mirza1.  It  is  a  miserable  production,  mostly  lies,  and  in- 
sipid and  impertinent  lies  to  boot,  some  of  which  raise  a 
suspicion  of  heresy.  Thus  he  attributes  carnal  loves  to 
many  prophets  and  saints,  inventing  for  each  one  of  them 
a  paramour.  Another  astonishing  piece  of  folly  is  that 
while  describing  the  book  in  the  preface  as  the  work  of 
Sultan  Husayn  Mirza  himself,  over  every  one  of  his  own 
verses  and  sonnets  occurring  in  the  course  of  the  book  he 
puts  '  by  the  author.' " 

Of  Jami,  by  far  the  greatest  poet  of  the  time,  Babur 

refrains  from  uttering  any  criticism,  because,  he  says,  "  he 

stands  too  high  to  need  any  praise,"  wherefore 

Jami  and  J    ' 

Sayfu'd-Din  he  only  mentions  his  name  "  for  luck  and  for  a 
blessing."  He  praises  the  Arabic  scholarship 
and  theological  attainments  of  the  Shaykhu'l-Islam  Sayfu'd- 
Din  Ahmad,  son  of  the  celebrated  Sa'du'd-Di'n  Taftazani, 
who  is  said  to  have  regularly  attended  public  prayer  for 
nearly  seventy  years,  and  who  was  finally  put  to  death  by 
Shah  Ismail  when  he  took  Herat  for  refusing  to  conform  to 
the  Shi'ite  doctrines  and  observances  so  fanatically  insisted 
on  by  that  monarch.  A  longer  notice  is  devoted  to  Jami's 
pupil  and  disciple  Mulla  'Abdu'l-Ghafur  of  Lar, 
^haWr-i-Lari  w^°  commentated  his  master's  Nafahdtiil-  Uns, 
and  whose  partiality  for  the  society  of  dervishes 
was  such  that  when  he  heard  of  one  who  had  newly  arrived 
he  could  not  rest  until  he  had  seen  and  talked  with  him. 
Mention  is  next  made  of  Mir  'Ata'u'llah  of  Mashhad,  a 
good  Arabic  scholar,  who  also  composed  in  Persian  a  treatise 
on  rhyme,  of  which  Babur  considers  the  chief  defect  to  be 
that  the  author's  illustrations  are  all  drawn  from  his  own 
poems,  as  well  as  another  treatise  on  rhetorical  figures  en- 
titled Baddyi'u's-Sandyi1. 

Amongst  the  poets,  besides  those  already  noticed,  of 
whom  he  makes  mention  areAsafi,  Banna'i,  Sayff  of  Bukhara 

1  Cf.  pp.  439-440  supra. 


CH.  vn]  POETS  AND  ARTISTS  OF  BABUR'S  TIME  459 

(the  author  of  a  useful  treatise  on  Prosody1),  Hatifi  (J ami's 
nephew)  also  known  as  ' Abdu  \\ah-\-Matkna- 

Other  poets 

mentioned  by       ivt-gu,   Mir   Husayn    Mu'ammd't,  Muhammad 

of  Badakhshan,  Yusuf  Badf'i,  Ahi,  Muhammad 

Salih,  Shah  Husayn   Kami,  Ahli  and  Hilalf,  the  last  of 

whom  Babur  criticizes  very  severely  for  the  subject-matter 

and  treatment  of  his  poem  "  The  Prince  and  the  Beggar  " 

(Shdk  u  Darwish  or  Shah  u  Gadd).     Of  the 

caiiigraphists      many  caiiigraphists  at  the  court  he  mentions 

and  artists  f 

only  Sultan  'All  of  Mashhad,  who  copied  manu- 
scripts both  for  Sultan  Husayn  and  for  Mir  'All  Shir; 
and  of  the  miniature-painters  Bihzad  and  Shah  Muzaffar, 
who  was  also  a  poet.  His  criticism  on  Bihzad's  portraits 
is  that  though  he  drew  bearded  faces  well,  he  was  less 
successful  with  beardless  boys  and  girls,  where  he  had  a 
tendency  to  exaggerate  the  chin2.  Yet  in  another  place3, 
in  speaking  of  Shaybani  Khan's  proceedings  after  he  had 
captured  Herat  in  913/1507-8,  he  denounces  his  action  in 
attempting  to  improve  and  touch  up  Bihzad's  paintings.  In 
conclusion  Babur  mentions  a  number  of  musicians,  minstrels 
and  composers. 

The   materials    for   a   literary   history  of  this    period, 
especially  of  its   poets,  are  therefore   singularly  copious 

and  authoritative,  for  besides  Babur's  incidental 
materials  for  notices  of  which  we  have  just  spoken,  we  have  the 
literary  history  voluminous  Memoirs  of  the  Poets  compiled  by 

of  this  period  ,     ,~.,   ,   , 

Dawlatshah  in  892/1487,  and  Mir  'Ah  Shirs 
Turki  Majdltsun-Nafd'is,  completed  about  four  years  later, 
of  the  contents  of  which  some  account  has  been  given  above4. 
As  a  pendant  to  these  is  the  later  work  of  another  royal 
author,  Sam  Mirza,  son  of  Shah  Isma'i'l  the  Safawi,  who 
was  born  in  923/1517  and  put  to  death  in  984/1576-7,  and 

1  Published  with  English  translation  and  explanations  by  Bloch- 
mann  at  Calcutta. 

2  Ed.  Ilminsky,  pp.  228-229. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  262. 

4  Pp.  437-439  supra. 


460  PROSE  WRITERS :  LATER  Tf  MtiRID  PERIOD  [BK  in 

who  in  957/1550  wrote  his  Tuhfa-i-Sdmt1,  a  somewhat  rare 
book  which  will  be  considered  in  the  subsequent  volume. 
In  addition  to  these  are  the  copious  biographical  notices 
contained  in  Khwandamir's  Habibus-Siyar.  Of  all  these, 
however,  Babur  is  the  most  amusing  and  the  most  in- 
structive, because  he  possesses  both  humour  and  a  critical 
faculty  lacking  in  the  other  biographers,  who,  by  indis- 
criminate eulogies,  deprive  their  appreciations  of  all  real 
value. 

1  See  Rieu's  Persian  Catalogue,  pp.  367-368,  and  the  references 
there  given.  There  is  also  a  MS.  (Or.  648)  in  the  Cambridge  University 
Library. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TIMURID  PERIOD 

As  already  indicated  in  more  than  one  place,  the  charac- 
teristic of  the  art  which  prevailed   under   the   Ti'murids, 
whether  literary  or  pictorial,  was  an  extreme 

Literary  taste  _  '  • 

under  the  elaboration  and  preciosity  little  in  accordance 

with  modern  European  taste,  though  very  similar 
on  its  literary  side  to  that  evolved  by  John  Lyly  and  the 
Euphuists  in  England  nearly  a  century  after  Jamf's  reputa- 
tion had  reached  its  zenith  in  Persia1.  In  England  this 
florid,  artificial  style  enjoyed  but  a  brief  popularity ;  in 
Persia  it  has  flourished  intermittently  for  a  long  period, 
especially  under  Tartar  and  Turkish  patronage,  but  not 
continuously  nor  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  so  that  it  is 
easy  to  point  out  fine  specimens  of  simple,  strong,  natural 
Persian  prose  and  verse  both  before  and  after  the  period 
now  under  consideration.  During  this  period,  however, 
Period  of  greatest  tne  prevailing  literary  style  in  Persia  was  very 
Persian  influence  ornate  and  artificial,  and  as  it  unfortunately 
Indian  literary  happened  that  at  no  time  was  Persian  literary 
style  influence  greater  in  the  adjoining  lands  of 

Turkey,  India  and  Transoxiana,  this  style  became  stereo- 
typed throughout  Western  and  Central  Asia,  and  has  come 
to  be  regarded  by  many  persons,  especially  those  who  have 
pursued  their  linguistic  studies  in  India,  as  typically  Persian. 
Still  it  is  a  fact  that  not  only  the  Persians,  Turks  and 
Indians,  but  even  the  Arabs,  whose  natural  tendency  is  to 
a  chaster  and  more  simple  style,  and  who  seldom  quite  forget 
their  adage  that  "  tfie  best  speech  is  that  which  is  brief  and  to 
the  point*"  tend  to  regard  form  as  more  important  than  ideas 

1  Lyly  was  born  in  1553-4  and  wrote  his  Euphues,  the  Anatomy  of 
Wit'vs\  1578.  Jami  composed  his  Nafahdtii'l- Uns  in  1478,.  and  com- 
piled his  first  Diwdn  in  the  following  year. 


462    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

in  literary  composition,  to  care  less  what  a  writer  says  than 
how  he  says  it,  and  to  prefer  conventionality  to  originality. 
Most  instructive  are  the  remarks  of  that  great  and  original 
historian  Ibn  Khaldun,  who  was  not  only  contemporary 
with  Timur  but  came  into  personal  relations  with  him  when 
Damascus  surrendered  to  him  at  the  end  of  A.D.  I4OO1. 
These  remarks,  with  other  observations  germane  to  this 
subject,  I  have  given  in  a  previous  volume2  to  which  the 
reader  is  referred.  In  particular  the  student  of  Persian 
poetry,  especially  of  the  later  more  ornate  writers,  may  be 
recommended  to  read  that  curious  work,  "the  Lovers' 
Companion"  (Anisu'l-Ushshdq),  composed  in  826/1423  by 
Sharafu'd-Din  Kami  at  Maragha  in  Adharbayjan,  of  which 
a  French  translation  by  M.  Cl.  Huart  was  published  in  Paris 
in  1875,  and  of  which  I  have  given  a  brief  account  in  a 
previous  volume3. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  all  the  poets 
who  will  be  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  or  even  all  who 

flourished  at  the  court  of  Sultan  Husayn  at 
l^ZSZSZ,  Herat,  employ  this  inflated  and  ornate  style, 
universal  as  sup-  which,  indeed,  is  more  noticeable  in  prose- writers, 

including  even  historians,  who  ought  to  know 
better  than  to  fill  ten  pages  with  what  could  very  well  be 
set  forth  in  one.  The  earlier  poets  of  whom  we  shall  imme- 
diately speak,  like  Shah  Ni'matu'llah  and  Qasimu'l-Anwar, 
are  free  from  this  blemish,  for  so  we  must  regard  it;  and  so 
also,  as  a  rule,  is  Jami,  who  is  universally  and  justly  regarded 
not  only  as  the  chief  ornament  of  the  court  of  Herat,  but 
as  one  of  the  greatest  Persian  poets  of  all  time.  It  is  the 
ornate  prose-writers  and  minor  poets  and  versifiers  of  the 
later  part  of  this  period  who  are  the  chief  offenders  in  this 
respect.  The  passion  for  the  riddle  and  acrostic  (mu'amma) 
which  prevailed  amongst  the  latter  is  very  characteristic, 

1  See  Part  i  of  the  Baron  McGuckin  de  Slane's  translation  in  Notices 
et  Extraits,  pp.  v  and  Ixxxv-xcii. 

2  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  17-89,  especially  pp.  86-89. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  83-84. 


CH.  vin]  SHAH  NPMATU'LLAH  463 

while  the  methods  of  the  former  are  well  illustrated  by 
Husayn  Wa'iz-i-Kashiff's  Anwdr-i-Suhayli,  where,  for  ex- 
ample, a  squeaking  mouse  is  described  as  "  raising  its 
outcry  to  the  aetherial  sphere."  In  a  previous  volume  I 
have  shown1  by  parallel  extracts  from  the  Book  of  Kalila 
and  Dimna  as  rendered  into  Arabic  by  'Abdu'llah  ibnu'l- 
Muqaffa'  in  the  eighth  century,  and  into  Persian  by  Nizamu'- 
d-Di'n  Abu'l-Ma'alf  Nasru'llah  in  the  twelfth  and  Husayn 
Wa'iz  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  centuries  how  the  last- 
named  writer  set  himself  to  "write  up"  and  improve  upon 
the  work  of  his  predecessors. 

I.     Sayyid  Ni'matulldh  of  Kirman. 

Though  Jamf  is  unquestionably  the  greatest  poet  of  the 

period  which  we  are  now  considering,  it  seems  better  to 

adhere  to  chronological  sequence  and  to  begin 

•nTid,  ^-'T1    with  the  earliest,  Sayyid  (or  Shah)  Ni'matu'llah 

llih  of  Kirmin  *  J 

of  Kirman,  who  died  at  an  advanced  age  in  the 
spring  of  1431  (Rajab  22,  834),  and  was  buried  at  the 
charming  village  of  Mahan  near  Kirman,  of  which  some 
malicious  wit  has  said  : 

' 
Epigram  on 

Mdhan 


"  Mdhdn  an  Earthly  Paradise  would  be,  I  wot  right  well, 
If  you  could  clear  its  people  out  and  shake  them  into  hell." 

The  site  of  his  grave  is  marked  by  a  fine  monastery 
inhabited  by  dervishes  of  the  Shah  Ni'matu'llahi  order  which 
he  founded  ;  for  he  was  a  great  saint  and  mystic  as  well  as 
a  poet,  and  his  verses  abound  in  dark  apocalyptic  sayings 
concerning  the  "Mischief  of  the  Last  Days"  (Fitna-i- 
Akkiru2-Zamdn\  the  Advent  of  the  Mahdi,  and  other 
similar  matters.  I  visited  this  shrine  in  September,  1888, 
shortly  before  I  left  Kirman,  and  was  very  hospitably 
entertained  by  its  acolytes. 

1  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  349-353. 


464    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRfD  PERIOD     [BK  m 

As  usual,  the  best  account  of  Ni'matu'llah  is  that  given 
by  Rieu  in  his  Persian  Catalogue1,  where  the  substance  of 
the  information  given  by  the  ordinary  biographical  works 
is  supplemented  by  details  drawn  from  a  rare  contemporary 
monograph  existing  in  the  British  Museum2  and  from  the 
history  of  Yazd  and  its  most  notable  men  known  as  the 
Jdmi'i-Muftdi.  His  full  name  was  Amir  Nuru'd-Din 
Ni'matu'llah,  his  father's  name  was  Mir  'Abdu 

Biography  of  ' 

Sayyid  'llah,  andhe  claimed  descent  from  the  fifth  Imam 

Ni'matu'llah  of  the  Sh{<a>  Muhammad  3^  the  great-grand- 
son of 'AH  ibn  Abi'Talib.  He  was  born  at  Aleppo  ^730/1329- 
30  or  in  the  following  year,  but  spent  mpst  of  his  youth  in 
'Iraq.  At  the  age  of  24  he  visited  Mecca,  where  he  resided 
for  seven  years,  and  became  one  of  the  chief  disciples  of 
Shaykh  'Abdu'llah  al-Yafi'i,  a  well-known  mystical  and 
historical  writer,  who  died  in  768/1366-7.  His  later  life 
was  passed  in  Samarqand,  Herat,  Yazd  and  finally,  as 
already  mentioned,  at  Mahdn  near  Kirman,  where  he  spent 
the  last  twenty-five  years  of  his  life,  and  where  he  died  on 
Rajab  22,  834  (April  5,  1431)  aged  more  than  a  hundred 
years.  The  historian  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  of  Samarqand  visited 
his  grave  in  845/1441-2. 

Ni'matu'llah  was  the  king  of  dervishes  (the  title  "  Shah  " 
is  always  prefixed  to  his  name)  and  the  friend  of  kings. 
He  enjoyed  the  special  favour  of  Shah-rukh, 
scendants  enjoy  while  Ahmad  Shah  Bahmani,  King  of  the 
Royal  favoui  Deccan,  deemed  himself  fortunate  in  persuading 
to  come  to  his  court  one  of  his  grandsons.  Two  other 
grandsons  with  their  father  followed  him  thither,  while 
several  of  Shah  Ni'matu'llah's  descendants  who  remained 
in  Persia  intermarried  with  the  Royal  Safawi  House. 
According  to  Rieu3,  Ni'matu'llah  left  more  than  500  Sufi 
tracts  besides  his  Diwdn  of  verse,  but  the  latter  is  his  chief 
work,  and  it  alone  need  be  considered  here.  The  only 
complete  copy  at  my  disposal  is  the  lithographed  edition 

1  Pp.  634-635.  2  Add.  16,837,  ff.  339-355- 

3  Pers.  Cat.  p.  635. 


CH.  vin]  SHAH  NPMATU'LLAH  465 

published  at  Tihran  in  1276/1860,  but  numerous  selections 
from  it  are  contained  in  the  various  biographies  and  antho- 
logies in  which  he  is  mentioned.  His  fame,  however,  is 
that  of  a  saint  and  mystic  rather  than  a  poet,  and  his  verse 
strikes  one  on  the  whole  as  monotonous  and  mediocre,  similar 
in  style  and  subject-matter  to  that  of  Maghribi,  and  altogether 
lacking  the  consuming  ardour  and  brilliant  illustration  of 
Shams-i-Tabriz.  His  most  characteristic  poems,  though 
few  in  number,  are  those  couched  in  the  prophetic  strain, 
and  these  still  exercise  a  certain  influence,  and  are  appealed 
to  by  other  Persians  than  those  who  belong  to 
au^heTto  his  tne  order  of  dervishes  which  he  founded.  The 
prophetic  Babis,  for  example,  used  to  tell  me  in  Kirman 

utterances 

that  the  date  of  the  Babs  "Manifestation 
(1260/1844)  was  foretold  in  the  following  poem.  When  I 
visited  the  saint's  shrine  I  took  the  trouble  to  obtain  from 
one  of  the  dervishes  a  copy  of  the  poem  in  question  from 
the  oldest  and  most  trustworthy  manuscript  in  their  pos- 
session, and  I  found  that  there  the  date  was  given  as  274 
instead  of  1260  (p,j,  3=70  +  200  +  4  instead  of  i,j,^»  = 
1000  +  200  +  60),  while  in  Rida-quli  Khan's  Majma'ul- 
Fusa/id1,  where  the  same  poem  is  quoted,  the  date  becomes 
1  204  (>  +  j  +  i  =  1000  +  200  +  4).  In  the  last-named  work 
the  poem  is  thus  entitled  : 

"  Declaration  of  sundry  •mysteries  and  revelations  by 
way  of  allegories." 

(1) 


1  Tihran  lithographed  ed.,  vol.  ii,  p.  45. 
B.  P.  30 


466    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMURID  PERIOD     [BK  m 


,5* 


j-    3 


|JA«A 

3       a* 


^Q  X  In   C^ 


._* 


-»    .-« 


j-*  >^>^ 
jl 


3  j-jj^  j-ib 


CH.  vin] 


SHAH  NPMATU'LLAH 


The  text  here  given  is  that  copied  for  me  at  Mahan  on 
August  9,  1888.  Of  the  50  verses  which  it  contains  only  24 
are  given  in  the  Majinrfiil-Fusahd,  which  only  adds  one  or 

30—2 


468    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

two  new  verses,  but  in  some  cases  adopts  a  different  order, 
besides  supplying  a  few  variants.     The  poem  is  not  to  be 

found  at  all  in  the  lithographed  edition. 

• 

(Translation) 

"  I  see  the  Power  of  the  Maker  ;  I  see  the  state  of  the  time. 
The  state  of  this  year  is  of  another  sort ;  not  like  last  year  and  the  year 

before  do  I  see  it. 
These  words  I  speak  not  from  the  stars  ;  rather  I  see  them  from  the 

Creator1. 
When  layn,rd  and  ddl(  =  274)  have  passed  of  the  years  I  see  wonderful 

doings. 

In  Khurasan,  Egypt,  Syria  and  'Irdq  I  see  sedition  and  strife. 
I  see  the  darkness  of  the  tyranny  of  the  lands'  oppressors  boundless 

and  beyond  computation. 

I  hear  a  very  strange  story  ;  I  see  vexation  in  the  land. 
War,  strife,  mischief  and  injustice  I  see  on  the  right  and  on  the  left. 
Looting,  slaughter  and  many  armies  I  see  in  the  midst  and  around. 
I  see  the  servant  like  the  master ;  I  see  the  master  like  the  servant. 
They  impress  a  new  superscription  on  the  face  of  the  gold  ;  I  see  his 

dirhams  of  short  weight. 

I  see  the  dear  friends  of  every  people  grown  sorrowful  and  abased. 
Each  of  the  rulers  of  the  Seven  Climes  I  see  involved  with  another. 
I  see  the  face  of  the  moon  darkened  ;  I  see  the  heart  of  the  sun  trans- 
fixed. 
The  appointment  and  dismissal  of  officials  and  agents,  each  one  I  see 

twice  repeated. 

In  Turk  and  Tajik2  towards  one  another  I  see  enmity  and  strife. 
I  see  the  merchant  left  friendless  on  the  road  at  the  hands  of  the 

thief. 

I  see  from  small  and  great  much  cunning,  guile  and  trickery. 
I  find  the  condition  of  the  Indian  ruined  ;  I  see  the  oppression  of 

Turks  and  Tartars. 
I  see  the  Holy  Place  fearfully  desolated,  the  abode  of  a  number  of  evil 


1  I.e.  these  predictions  are  not  based  on  astrological  predictions 
but  inspired  by  revelation  from  God. 

2  Tdjik,  a  term  originally  applied  to  the  Arabs  ( Tdztk,  Tdzi)  who 
garrisoned  the  towns  of  Khurdsan  and  Transoxiana,  was  later  and  is 
still  applied  to  the  Persian  settled  population  as  opposed  to  the  nomads 
of  Turkish  stock. 


CH.  vin]  SHAH  NI'MATU'LLAH  469 

Some  of  the  trees  of  the  Garden  of  the  World  I  see  springless  and 

fruitless. 
If  there  be  a  little  security,  that  too  I  see  within  the  borders  of  the 

mountains. 
A  companion,  contentment  and  a  [quiet]  corner  I  now  see  as  most  to 

be  desired. 

Although  I  see  all  these  sorrows,  I  see  the  [final]  joy  of  the  sorrowful. 
Grieve  not,  for  in  this  trouble  I  see  the  harvest  of  union  with  the 

Friend. 

After  this  year  and  a  few  years  more 1  I  see  a  world  like  a  [fair]  picture. 
I  behold  this  world  like  Egypt ;  I  see  Justice  as  its  stronghold. 
My  king  and  his  ministers  are  seven  ;  all  of  these  I  see  triumphant. 
Such  as  rebel  against  my  immaculate  Imam  I  see  ashamed  and  dis- 
graced. 
On  the  palm  of  the  hand  of  the  Cup-bearer  of  Unity  I  see  the  pleasant 

wine. 
The  friendly  foe-destroying  warrior  I  see  as  the  comrade  and  friend 

of  the  friend. 
I  see  the  swords  of  those  whose  hearts  are  hard  as  iron  rusted,  blunt 

and  of  no  account. 
The  beauty  of  the  Law  and  the  splendour  of  Islam,  each  one  I  see 

doubled 2. 
I  see  the  wolf  and  the  sheep,  the  lion  and  the  gazelle,  dwelling 

together  in  the  meadow. 
I  see  the  treasure  of  Chosroes  and  the  coin  of  Alexander  all  put  to 

good  use. 
I  see  the  roguish  Turk  drunk,  I  see  his  enemy  with  the  headache  born 

of  wine. 

I  see  Ni'matu'llah  seated  in  a  corner  apart  from  all. 
When  the  fifth  winter  has  passed  I  see  in  the  sixth  a  pleasant  spring. 
The  vicar  of  the  Mahdf  will  appear,  yea,  I  see  him  plainly. 
I  see  a  king  perfect  in  knowledge ;  I  see  a  leader  endowed  with  dignity. 
'I  see  the  servants  of  His  High  Majesty  all  wearing  crowns. 
For  forty  years,  O  my  brother,  I  see  the  cycle  of  that  Prince  continue. 
When  his  cycle  ends  victoriously,  I  see  his  son  as  a  memorial  of  him. 
I  see  a  king  perfect  in  knowledge,  a  ruler  of  noble  family. 
After  him  will  be  the  Imam  himself,  whom  I  see  as  the  pivot  of  the 

world. 
I  read  '  M.  H.  M.  D.' :  I  see  the  name  of  that  famous  one3. 

1  The  variants  in  the  Majmcftt'l-Fusahd  give  a  slightly  different 
meaning,  viz.  "  After  that  year  for  several  years  more." 

2  Or,  if  the  variant  be  adopted.  "  strong  and  firmly  established." 

3  I.e.  Muhammad. 


470    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

I  see  his  aspect  and  attributes  like  the  Prophet :  I  see  knowledge  and 

clemency  as  his  distinctive  signs. 
I  see  again  '  the  White  Hand  n  (long  may  it  endure  !)  conjoined  with 

Dhu'l-Fiqdr2. 
I  see  the  Mahdi  of  the  time  and  the  Jesus  of  the  age  both  royally 

riding  forth. 
I  smell  the  rose-garden  of  the  Law,  I  see  the  flower  of  Religion  in 

blossom." 

These  "apocalyptic"  poems,  however,  though  they  have 

attracted  most  attention  in  Persia,  constitute  but  a  small 

fraction  of  the  whole.      Most  of  Ni'matu'llah's 

Pantheistic          verses    illustrate   the   doctrine   of    Wahdatul- 

poems 

Wujud  (Pantheism),  while  a  certain  proportion 
(in  which  again  the  Babi's  see  an  allusion  to  their  founder)  use 
the  favourite  illustration  of  the  *'  Point "  (Nuqta),  of  which 
the  circle  is  only  a  manifestation ;  just  as  the  letter  alif  is,  in 
the  world  of  calligraphy,  a  manifestation  of  the  diacritical 
"  point,"  which  shares  with  the  mathematical  "  point "  the 
same  title.  A  few  specimens  will  suffice  for  the  purpose 
of  illustration. 


JLJ^ 

"  King  and  beggar  are  one,  are  one  ;  foodless  and  food  are  one,  are  one. 
We  are  stricken  with  grief  and  drain  the  dregs ;  dregs  and  sorrow  and 
cure  are  one. 

1  Alluding  to  the  miracle  of  Moses,  when  he  drew  forth  his  hand 
"  white  as  snow." 

2  The  famous  sword  of  'All  ibn  Abi  Talib. 


CH.  VHI]  SHAH  NI'MATU'LLAH  471 

In  all  the  world  there  is  naught  but  One;  talk  not  of  'Two,'  for  God 

is  One. 
Mirrors  a  hundred  thousand  I  see,  but  the  face  of  that  Giver  of  Life 

is  one. 
We  are  plagued  with  the  plague  of  one  tall  and  fair,  but  we  the 

plagued  and  the  plague  are  one. 
Drop,  wave  and  sea  and  the  elements  four  without  a  doubt  in  our 

eyes  are  one. 
Ni'matu'llah  is  one  in  all  the  world  :  come,  seek  him  out,  he  is  one, 

is  one." 

(3) 


"  The  Point  appeared  in  the  circle  and  was  not ;   nay,  that  Point 

produced  the  circle1. 
The  Point  in  its  revolution  becomes  a  circle  in  the  eyes  of  him  who 

measured  the  circle. 
Its  beginning  and  end  joined  together  when  the  Point  measured  the 

completion  of  the  circle. 
When  the  circle  was  completed,  the  compass  put  its  head  and  feet 

together  and  rested. 
We  are  all  without  Being,  without  Being  ;  we  are  without  Being  and 

Thou  art  Existant. 
I  called  the  whole  world  His  dream  :  I  looked  again,  and  lo,  His 

dream  was  Himself. 
Sweeter  than  the  sayings  of  our  Sayyid  Ni'matu'llah  has  heard  no 

other  words." 

1  Cf.  1.  710  of  the  Gulshan-i-Rdz  (Whin field's  edition). 


472    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  in 


*<=»  J 

»•  5 


3-3    Ja—  j  jl 


JU. 

"  Know  that  the  Named  is  one  and  the  Names  a  hundred  thousand, 
That  Being  is  one,  but  its  aspects  are  a  hundred  thousand. 
Its  Form  is  the  Glass,  and  its  Meaning  the  Wine, 
Although  both  are  one  substance  in  our  eyes. 
Perceive  in  two  one  unit  and  two  units1  ; 
Search  it  out  well,  for  I  have  told  you  a  good  bit. 
Without  His  Being  all  the  world  is  non-existant, 
Of  His  Being  and  Bounty  the  world  is  a  sign. 
The  world  arises  from  the  diffusion  of  His  universal  Being  ; 
Whatever  thou  seest  is  from  His  universal  Bounty. 
His  Ipseity  is  essential,  while  our  Ipseity 
Is  but  casual  :  be  annihilated,  then,  from  this  annihilation  ! 
The  Ipseity  of  the  world  is  the  veil  of  the  world  : 
Nay,  the  world  itself  is  the  veil  of  the  world. 
This  veil  is  eternal,  O  my  soul, 

0  my  Friend  of  God,  and  O  my  Proof  ! 

1  tell  thee  the  state  of  the  world  in  its  entirety, 

So  that  thou  may'st  know  the  state  of  the  world,  and  so  farewell  !  " 

The  lithographed  edition  ofNi'matu'llih's  poems  contains 
approximately  some  14,000  verses,  including  a  number  of 
quatrains,  and  from  the  following  verse  it  would  appear 

1  f.e.  1x2  =  2. 


CH.VIII]  QASIMU'L-  ANWAR  473 

that  his  literary  activities  continued  until  he  had  reached  a 
very  advanced  age  : 


"  The  Living  and  Eternal  [God]  hath  vouchsafed  to  this  servant  ninety 
and  seven  years  of  pleasant  life." 

2.     Qdsimul-Anwdr. 

The  next  poet  of  this  epoch  who  claims  our  attention 

was  like  the  last  a  Sayyid  and  a  mystic.     The  main  facts 

concerning  his  life   are  thus   summarized   by 

Qdsimu'l-Anwir  .  S>  .  ,  .  ' 

Rieu1.  He  was  born  in  Sarab  (Saraw)  in  the 
district  of  Tabriz  in  7  5  7/1  3  56,  and  had  for  religious  instructors 
Shaykh  Sadru'd-Dfn  Ardabilf,  an  ancestor  of  the  Safawfs, 
and  after  him  Shaykh  Sadru'd-Dfn  Yamanf,  a  disciple  of 
Shaykh  Awhadu'd-Din  Kirmanf.  After  staying  some  time 
in  Gi'lan  he  went  to  Khurasan  and  settled  in  Herat,  where 
he  lived  during  the  reigns  of  Ti'mur  and  Shah-rukh.  There 
disciples  flocked  to  him  in  such  numbers  and  he  acquired 
so  great  an  influence  as  to  give  umbrage  to  the  sovereign. 
'Abdu'r-Razzaq  relates  in  the  Matlatu's-Sa'dayn  that  in 
830/1426-7,  Shah-rukh  having  been  stabbed  in  the  mosque 
of  Herat  by  a  certain  Ahmad-i-Lur2,  Sayyid  Qasim  was 
charged  by  Mirza  Baysunqur  with  having  harboured  the 
intended  assassin,  and  was  obliged  to  leave  Herat3  and 
repair  to  Samarqand,  where  he  found  a  protector  in  Mirza 
Ulugh  Beg.  He  returned,  however,  some  years  later  to 
Khurasan,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  Kharjird,  a  town  in 
the  district  of  Jam,  where  he  died  in  837/1433-4." 

The  intimacy  of  Qasimu'l-  An  war's  relations  with  Shaykh 
Sadru'd-Di'n  of  Ardabil,  the  ancestor  of  the  Safawi  kings 

1  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  635-637. 

2  See  above  pp.  365-366,  where  I  have  endeavoured  to  show  that 
this  attempt  was  instigated  by  the  Hurufi  sect. 

3  A  pretty  but  probably  fictitious  anecdote  about  this  event  is  given 
by  Ouseley  in  his  Notices  of  the  Persian  Poets  (London,  1846),  pp.  101- 
103. 


474    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

of   Persia,    is   abundantly    confirmed    by   an   unpublished 

Persian  work  on  the  genealogy  of  that  dyn- 

QLhnu"iS-  Anwar    asty  entitled  Silsilatu'n-Nasab-i-Safawiyya,  of 

with  shaykh        which  I  possess  a  manuscript  from  the  library 

Sadru  d-Din 

of  the  late  Sir  Albert  Houtum  Schindler.  In 
this  MS.  (ff.  27b  —  28b)  the  poet  is  mentioned  as  one  of  the 
Shaykh's  most  enthusiastic  disciples,  and  an  account  is 
given  of  the  rigid  discipline  whereby  he  attained  in  the 
great  Mosque  of  Ardabil  to  that  vision  wherein  he  beheld 
himself  distributing  the  light  to  his  fellow-disciples,  whereby 
he  earned  the  title  of  Qdsimul-Anwdr  ("the  Apportioner 
of  the  Lights  ").  On  the  death  of  Shaykh  Saf  f,  the  father 
of  Shaykh  Sadru'd-Di'n,  he  composed  the  following  verses1. 

(1) 


>      4,.,  he 


oUI  .^-i  b 


"  The  chief  representative  of  saintship,  who  is  actually  Shaykh  Saf  i, 
Was  for  nearly  ninety  years  the  guide  on  this  road. 
His  soul  at  the  moment  of  its  departure  sneezed2  and  exclaimed, 
'  O  Angel  of  Death,  I  have  attained  unto  God  !  ' 
When  the  Angel  saw  his  condition  he  was  amazed  and  cried, 
'  O  Shaykh,  a  thousand  times  may  God  have  mercy  upon  thee  !  ' 
Thou  art  utterly  consumed,  O  Qasimf,  by  separation  from  the  Master  ; 
Be  patient  in  separation  :    may  God  give  thee  patience  !  " 

1  These  verses  also  occur  in  one  of  my  MSS.  of  the   poems   of 
Qdsimu'l-Anwar. 

2  For  sneezing  as  a  sign  of  life  (here,  apparently,  of  Eternal  Life) 
see  Sir  J.  G.  Frazer's  Folk-lore  in  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  i,  pp.  6  and  9. 


CH.  vin]  QASIMU'L-ANWAR  475 

Jamf,  in  the  notice  which  he  consecrates  to  Qasimu'l- 

Anwar  in  the  Nafakdtu'l-Uns1,  alludes  to  the  suspicions 

which  fell   upon  him   in  connection  with  the 

Suspected  of  r 

heresy  and  ami-  attempt  on  Shah-rukh's  life  in  830/1426-7  and 
which  led  to  his  banishment,  and  also  observes 
that  opinions  differed  as  to  his  character,  but  that  most  of 
his  disciples  with  whom  he  was  personally  acquainted  had 
abandoned  the  observances  of  Islam,  for  which  they  ex- 
pressed contempt,  and  had  adopted  a  kind  of  communism. 
There  is  therefore  good  reason  to  suspect  that  Qasimu'l- 
Anwar  was  at  any  rate  something  of  an  antinomian,  even  if 
he  had  not  some  quasi-political  relation  with  the  Shi'ite 
partisans  of  the  still  uncrowned  Safawis,  or  with  the  still 
more  irreconcilable  Hurufi  heretics. 

The  literary  work  of  Qasimu'l-Anwar  consists  of  an  un- 
published Diwdn  of  lyrical  and  some  mathnawi  poetry,  of 
which  I  possess  two  good  manuscripts,  one  dated  861/1456—7, 
only  24  years  after  the  author's  death.  Several  of  these 
poems  are  in  Turkish  and  others  in  some  dialect  of  Persian. 
The  poems  are  followed  in  this  older  manuscript  by  two 
treatises,  written  wholly  or  partly  in  prose,  entitled  respec- 
tively Anisii  I-  Arifm  ("the  Gnostics'  Familiar")  and  the 
Anisu'l-Ashiqin  ("Lovers'  Familiar"),  or  Risdla-i-Amdna 
("Treatise  of  the  Trust").  There  is  also  a  poem  beginning: 


in  which  there  is  supposed  to  be  a  reference  to  Timur's 
death,  though  it  is  so  vague  as  to  be  capable  of  application 
to  any  public  calamity. 

The  poetry  of  Qasimu'l-Anwar,  so  far  as  a  foreigner 
may  venture  to  judge  it,  is  only  of  average  merit,  and  is 
generally  of  the  same  mystical  character  as  that  of  Maghribi 
and  other  kindred  poets.  Of  its  general  type  the  two 
following  ghazals  may  serve  as  fair  specimens. 

1  Ed.  Nassau  Lees,  pp.  689-693. 


476    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

(2) 


»«« 


"  Of  thy  favour,  Cup-bearer,  fill  me  up  that  clear  and  crystalline  bowl, 
That  spirit  of  holy  sanctity,  that  high  and  exalted  soul  ! 
What  day  thou  givest  a  cup  of  wine  to  settle  our  whole  affair 
Bestow,  I  pray,  of  your  charity  a  draught  on  yon  Preacher  rare  ! 
Woulds't  thou  that  the  motes  of  the  universe  may  with  thee  in  the 

dance  be  whirled  ? 

Then  toss  aside  in  thy  dance's  stride  thy  tresses  tangled  and  curled  ! 
O  chiding  mentor,  get  thee  hence  :  desist  and  cease  thy  strain, 
For  never  thy  windy  talk  can  drive  from  our  heads  this  passion  and 

pain. 
'  Lose  thyself,'  thou  didst  say,  '  that  thou  to  thyself  the  way  may'st 

gain  !  ' 

But  this  riddle  dark  and  inscrutable  I  cannot  solve  or  explain. 
Whenever  I  cast  my  life  away,  a  hundred  I  win  in  its  place  : 
Who  can  limit  the  miracles  of  Christ  and  His  healing  grace? 
Qasim  ne'er  of  his  own  free  will  would  play  the  lover's  part, 
But  what  can  one  do  when  the  matter  lies  with  the  Lord  of  the  Soul 

and  Heart?" 

1  One  MS.  has  L     as  a  variant. 


CH.VIII]  QASIMU'L-  ANWAR  477 

(3) 


"  Ere  ever  cloistered  cell  was  built,  or  Somnath's  ancient  fane 
We  dwelt  with  Thee  in  every  phase  of  life  on  Being's  plane. 
'Twixt  us  all  talk  of  Messenger  and  Message1  falls  away: 
What  need  of  Messenger  when  Thou  dost  bide  with  me  for  aye? 
Can  I  oppose  the  Loved  One's  will,  when  ever  with  the  Friend 
I  hold  communion  sweet  in  moods  and  musings  without  end  ? 
From  mention  of  all  'others'2  let  thy  tongue  be  cleansed  and  freed, 
Since  those  in  whom  the  Spirit  works  of  '  others  '  take  no  heed. 
Sober  to  tread  the  mystic  Path  no  obligation's  thine  : 
Each  atom  in  the  Universe  intoxicates  like  wine. 
O  Zealot,  press  me  not,  I  pray,  in  language  harsh  and  rude, 
For  unto  those  of  goodly  kind  allowed  are  all  things  good3. 
O  Qasim,  silence  !  to  the  steed  of  speech  apply  the  rein, 
That  Love's  High  Priest  may  speak  of  things  that  neither  fade  nor 
wane4." 

1  I.e.  presumably  of  Prophet  and  Revelation. 

2  I.e.  other  than  God. 
:i  QuSdn,  xxiv,  26. 

4  Qur'dn,  xviii,  44. 


478    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD    [BK  HI 

The  following  ode  is  interesting  as  showing  traces  of 
Hurufi  ideas  : 


Mi- 

"  l  In  six  days'1  runs  God's  Word,  while  Seven 
Marks  the  divisions  of  the  Heaven. 
Then  at  the  last  *•  He  mounts  His  Throne*'1  ; 
Nay,  Thrones,  to  which  no  limit's  known. 
Each  mote's  a  Throne,  to  put  it  plain, 
Where  He  in  some  new  Name  doth  reign3: 

Know  this,  and  so  to  Truth  attain  ! 
'  Fie,  fie  !  '  the  zealot  answers  back 
Whate'er  I  say.     I  cry  'Alack!  ' 


1  One  MS.  has  O 

2  That  God  created  the  heavens  in  six  days  and  then  ascended  (or 
settled  Himself)  on  His  Throne  is  mentioned  repeatedly  in  the  Qur'dn, 
e-g-  v>  52  >  x'  3  >  xxv>  6°>  e*c'    T*16  numt>er  of  the  heavens,  not  mentioned 
in  these  verses,  is  given  as  seven  in  ii,  27  etc.    The  numbers  7,  14  and 
28  have  great  significance  in  the  Hurufi  doctrine. 

3  This  is  the  characteristic  pantheistic  interpretation  of  the  Hurufis. 


CH.  vni]  QASIMU'L-ANWAR  479 

'  Who  from  the  Prophet's  cup  drinks  free 
God's  Wine,  escapes  calamity, 
And  over-boldness  to  dispense 
With  proper  forms  of  reverence1  !' 
O  drunk  with  fancies,  cease  to  bawl, 
Nor  plague  us  with  thy  drunken  brawl  ! 
To  glory  in  thine  ignorance 
Is  but  thy  blindness  to  enhance. 
O  Qdsimi,  what  canst  thou  find 
In  jurists  blind  with  leaders  blind  ? 
Repeat  a  Fdtiha?,  I  pray, 
That  so  this  plague  may  pass  away!" 

Although  the  traces  of  Hurufi  influence  in  this  poem 
are  unmistakeable,  it  cannot  on  such  evidence  alone  be 
proved  that  Qasimu'l-  Anwar  was  actually  a  member  of  that 
sect,  though  his  association  with  an  admitted  disciple  of 
Fadlu'llah  of  Astarabad  and  the  suspicion  which  he  thereby 
incurred3  afford  strong  corroboration  of  this  conjecture. 
But  his  saints  and  heroes  were  many,  and  we  find  in  his 
poems  encomiums  of  theologians  like  al-Ghazzali,  mystics 
like  Shaykh  Ahmad-i-Jam,  Bayazfd  of  Bistam,  and  Khwaja 
'Abdu'llah  Ansari,  and  theosophic  poets  like  Shaykh 
Faridu'd-Din  'Attar  and  Mawlana  Jalalu'd-Dm  Rumi,  whose 
works  he  bids  his  readers  bind  together  in  one  volume  : 


It  is  indeed  likely  that  one  of  his  half-Turkish  poems 
with  the  refrain  Chelebi,  bizi  onutma  ("  O  Chelebi,  forget  us 
not  !  ")  may  be  addressed  to  the  "  Chelebi  Efendi,"  or 
hereditary  superior  of  the  Mawlawi  or  Mevlevi  order  of 
darwtshes,  of  Qonya  in  Asiatic  Turkey.  Of  these  Turkish 
or  half-Turkish  poems  there  are  only  two  or  three,  nor  are 
they  of  a  high  quality.  The  poems  in  some  Persian  dialect 
(probably  that  of  Gilan)  are  more  numerous  and  more 

1  I   take  these  four  lines  to  embody  the  orthodox  objection  to 
mystical  antinomianism,  while  the  succeeding  lines  embody  the  poet's 
dislike  of  the  orthodox. 

2  The  opening  chapter  of  the  Qur'dn. 

3  See  p.  366  supra. 


480    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

interesting,  though  our  knowledge  of  these  dialects  in  their 
mediaeval  forms  is  insufficient  as  a  rule  to  enable  us  fully 
to  interpret  them.  The  text  of  one,  based  on  the  two  MSS., 
is  here  given  as  a  specimen. 


(5) 


CH.  vin]  QASIMU'L-ANWAR  481 

"Thou  art  the  Qibla  of  my  soul,  O  Gil1  with  the  colour  and  fragrance 

of  an  angel, 
The  Moon  of  the  Heaven  of  Nobility,  the  Cypress  of  the  Gardens 

of  Desire. 

Thou  art  not  a  Gil  but  an  angel,  compounded  of  heart  and  soul, 
How  should  any  Gil  be  thus  Hun-like  and  of  such  angelic  temper? 
May  my  heart  and  faith  be  thy  sacrifice  !  Take  them  if  thou  wilt2,  for 

thou  art  very  fair  : 
Thou  art  the  Qibla  :   why  should  I  wander  from  city  to  city,  from 

street  to  street  ? 

The  tyranny  which  thy  musky  tresses  have  wrought  upon  me 
I  will  explain  to  thee  hair  by  hair,  if  opportunity  offers. 
If  the  reflection  of  thy  beauty  reaches  the  mirror  for  a  moment 
How  [much  the  more]  should  it  reach  him  who  is  ever  face  to  face 

with  thee? 
Last  night  thou  didst  signify  to  me  by  hints,  '  Tomorrow  I  will  not 

leave  thee  in  sorrow  3  '  : 

Once  again  of  thy  clemency  repeat  the  tale  of  yesterday  ! 
I  said  to  her,  '  O  Desire  of  the  Soul,  thou  didst  give  me  a  promise 

of  union  !  ' 

She  said,  '  Seek  not  to  recall  those  stories,  for  that  has  gone  by  !  ' 
I  said  to  her,  '  O  my  Dear,  I  have  been  brought  low  by  thy  love  !  ' 
She  said,  '  No,  regard  not  as  low  one  who  has  spoken  with  me  lip 

to  lip2!' 

I  said,  '  I  am  thy  lover  :  what  is  the  cure  for  my  pain  ?  ' 
She  said,  '  Thou  speakest  this  word  being  beside  thyself,  and  it  will 

yield  no  result2.' 

Qasimi,  through  separation  and  grief,  is  lost  and  heedless  of  himself: 
Of  thy  clemency  seek  to  win  back  him  who  is  lost  in  separation  !  " 

1  This  term  is  applied  to  a  native  of  the  Caspian  province  of  Gildn. 
Rida-quli  Kh£n  in  his  Farhang-i-Anjuman-drd-yi  Ndsirt  says  (s.v.) 
that  it  is  also  pronounced  Gay!  (Get),  in  proof  of  which  he  cites  the 
following  quatrain  by  Qdsimu'l-Anwar  in  which  it  rhymes  with  mayl 
and  say  I  : 


2  These  words  are  entirely  in  dialect,  and  the  sense  given  is  only 
conjectural. 

3  Meaning  doubtful. 

B.  P.  31 


482    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  in 

That  Qasimu'l-  Anwar  was  familiar  with  Gilan  and  other 
regions  bordering  on  the  Caspian  Sea  is  confirmed  by  other 
poems  in  which  he  mentions  Astard,  Lahijan,  Ardabil  and 
other  places  in  that  part  of  Persia.  Further  facts  about 
him  might  undoubtedly  be  deduced  from  an  attentive 
examination  of  his  poems,  but  space  only  permits  me  to 
give  two  more  extracts  from  them,  both  taken  from  his 
mathnawi  poem  the  A  nisitl-'A  rifin,  in  the  prose  preface  to 
which  he  gives  his  full  name  as  "  'Ah'  b.  Nasi'r  b.  Harun  b. 
Abu'l-Qasim  al-Husayni  at-Tabrizi,  better  known  as 
Qasimf."  The  first  extract  is  an  allegory  of  the  sinner  who 
clings  to  his  sin  because  it  is  sweet  to  him. 

(6) 


W 


CH.  vin]  QASIMU'L-ANWAR  483 


3 


Jut    Osa 


JL.J!    ft^U  ^jb  ^,  U 


"  A  negro,  lacking  reason,  faith  and  taste, 
Whose  life  the  demon  Folly  had  laid  waste 
Had  in  a  jar  some  treacle  set  aside, 
And  by  mischance  a  mouse  fell  in  and  died. 
He  seized  the  mouse  and  plucked  it  out  with  speed — 
That  cursed  mouse,  whose  death  was  caused  by  greed. 
Then  to  the  Qadi  sped  the  unwilling  wight, 
Taking  the  mouse,  and  told  of  Fortune's  spite. 
The  Judge  before  the  folk,  refined  and  rude, 
Condemned  the  treacle  as  unfit  for  food. 
The  luckless  negro  scouted  this  award, 
Saying,  '  You  make  a  great  mistake,  my  Lord  ! 
I  tasted  it,  and  found  it  sweet  and  good  ; 
If  sweet,  it  cannot  be  unfit  for  food. 

31—2 


484    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

Had  this  my  treacle  bitter  been,  then  sure 

Unlawful  had  I  held  it  and  impure.' 

The  mind  perverted  of  this  black  accursed 

Bitter  and  sweet  confounded  and  reversed. 

Sin  seemeth  sweet  and  service  sour,  alack  ! 

To  thee  whose  face  is  as  a  negro's  black. 

To  passion's  palate  falsehood  seemeth  sweet ; 

Bitter  is  truth  to  natures  incomplete. 

When  men  are  sick  and  biliously  inclined 

The  taste  of  sugar  alum  calls  to  mind. 

Sick  for  this  world  all  hearts,  both  young  and  old, 

Jaundiced  for  love  of  silver  and  of  gold. 

O  captive  in  the  snare  of  worldly  joys, 

Perish  not  mouse-like  for  the  sweet  that  cloys  ! 

Though  bitter  seems  God's  discipline  to  thee 

This  bitter  drug  is  thy  sure  remedy. 

This  bitter  drug  will  cause  thine  ill's  surcease, 

And  give  the  patient  healing,  rest  and  peace." 

The  second  extract  is  of  greater  interest,  for  it  describes 
a  meeting  between  Shaykh  Safiyyu'd-Di'n,  the  ancestor  of 
the  Safawfs,  who  take  their  name  from  him,  and  the  famous 
Shaykh  Sa'di'  of  Shi'raz.  Some  independent  corroboration 
of  this  interview,  or  at  least  of  its  possibility,  is  afforded  by 
the  previously-quoted  Silsilatttn-Nasab-i-Safawiyya^^ftioh. 
gives  the  date  of  Safiyyu'd-Di'n's  birth  as  "  in  the  last  days 
of  the  'Abb^sid  Caliphs  in  A.H.  650  "  (A.D.  1252-3),  at  which 
time,  the  author  adds,  Shams-i-Tabriz  had  been  dead  five 
years,  Shaykh  Muhyi'd-Dfn  ibnu'l-'Arabi  twelve  years,  and 
Shaykh  Najmu'd-Din  Kubra  thirty-two  years ;  while  of 
eminent  contemporary  saints  and  poets,  Jalalu'd-Din  Rumi 
died  when  he  was  twenty-two  and  Sa'di  when  he  was  forty- 
one  years  of  age.  He  was  also  contemporary  with  Amir 
'Abdu'llah  of  Shi'raz,  Shaykh  Naji'bu'd-Di'n  Buzghush, 
'Ala'u'd-Dm  Simna'ni,  and  Mahmud  Shabistari2.  A  page  or 
two  further  on  we  read  how  Safiyyu'd-Din  went  to  Shi'raz 
to  seek  guidance  from  the  above  Shaykh  Naji'bu'd-Din 
Buzghush,  but  found  on  his  arrival  that  this  saintly  personage 

1  See  p.  474  supra.     The  passage  here  referred  to  occurs  on  f.  9  of 
the  MS.  2  See  pp.  146-150  supra. 


XI 


SA'DI 


Add.  7468  (Brit.  Mus.),  f.  19 


CH.  VIH]  QASIMU'L-ANWAR  485 

had  passed  away.    This,  no  doubt,  is  the  occasion  to  which 

/ 

the  following  passage  in  the  Anisu'  I-  Arifin  refers. 


~ 


»- 


«i-*i 


Cj 


1  The  MS.  has 
the  text. 


xi  which  I  have  ventured  to  emend  as  in 


486    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TlMURID  PERIOD     [BKIII 


From  this  passage,  which  is  hardly  worth  translating  in 
full,  we  learn  that,  while  at  Shfraz,  Shaykh  Safiyyu'd-Din, 
whose  reputation  had  made  Ardabil  (or  Ardawil)  famous, 
became  acquainted  with  the  great  Sa'di,  who  was  so  much 
impressed  by  his  sanctity  and  holy  enthusiasm  that  he 
offered  to  add  to  his  Diwdn  some  poems  in  his  praise.  This 
offer,  however,  Safiyyu'd-Din  declined,  on  the  ground  that 
he  was  too  much  preoccupied  with  "  the  Beloved  "  to  con- 
cern himself  with  anything  else  ;  a  refusal  which  evidently 
caused  poor  Sa'di  some  chagrin,  as  he  "wept  bitterly,"  while 
paying  tribute  to  the  Shaykh's  exalted  motives. 

Between  the  subjects  of  the  last  two  biographies,  who, 
if  not  very  remarkable  poets,  had  at  least  a  certain  character 
and  individuality,  and  the  great  Jami,  in  whom  culminated 


CH.  vni]  KATIBf  OF  NfSHAPtiR  487 

the  literary  talent  of  this  period,  there  intervene  a  number  of 
minor  poets  amongst  whom  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  selec- 
tion, but  of  whom  half  a  dozen  or  more  deserve  at  least  a 
brief  mention.  Little,  as  a  rule,  is  known  of  their  lives  or 
personal  characteristics,  though  most  of  them  are  noticed 
in  the  numerous  biographical  works  of  the  period,  and  for 
convenience  they  may  best  be  arranged  in  chronological 
order,  according  to  the  dates  of  their  death. 

Kdtibt  of  Ntshdpiir. 

Katibi    of  Nfshapur    (or    of    Turshiz),   who    died   in 
838/1434-5,  comes  first  in  sequence  and  perhaps 

in  merit     Mfr  'AH  Shl'r  Nawa'i>  in  his  Majd- 
tisu'n-Nafd'zs,  classes  him  amongst  the  poets 

who  were  living  in  his  time  but  whom  he  had  never  had  the 

honour  of  meeting,  and  writes  of  him  : 

"  He  was  incomparable  in  his  time,  and  introduced  wonderful  ideas 

into  whatever  kind  of  verse  he  attempted,  especially  his  qasidas,  even 

inventing  new  artifices,  which  were  entirely  successful. 

Mjr -AH  shir's      gQ  also  his   mat^naw^s    such  as   <  Love  and  Beauty' 

opinion  01  him  * 

(Husn  u  llshq\  'Regarder  and  Regarded'  (Nazir  u 
Manziir),  '  Bahram  and  Gul-andam,'  which  illustrate  such  artifices  as 
the  double  metre  (dhtfl-bahrayri},  the  double  rhyme  (dhu'l-qdfiyatayri) 
and  various  kinds  of  word-plays1.  His  Dtwdn  of  ghazals  (odes)  and 
qasidas  (elegies)  is,  however,  more  celebrated  and  better.  Towards  the 
end  of  his  life  he  attempted  an  imitation  of  the  Khamsa  (Quintet),  in 
which  he  advanced  great  pretensions  ;  probably  for  this  reason  he 
failed  to  complete  it.  In  my  humble  opinion  his  poetical  talent  was 
such  that  had  he  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  a  ruler,  like  our  own  most 
fortunate  Sovereign,  capable  of  appreciating  good  verse,  and  had  his 
life  endured  longer,  he  would  have  captured  the  hearts  of  all  with  his 
effusions,  but  through  his  ill-fortune  he  did  not  survive  into  either  of 
the  two  reigns  here  mentioned  2." 

Mir  'AH  Shir  then  quotes  a  verse  each  from  a  qasida 
and  a  ghazal  of  his,  and  finally  the  two  following  verses 

1  Dawlatshdh,  however,  implies  that  these  were  separate  poems 
entitled    Majma'u'l-Bahrayn,    Dhdl-Qdfiyatayn,    and    Dah-ndma-i- 
Tajnhdt. 

2  Probably  Sultan  Abu  Sa'fd  and  Abu'l-Ghazf  Husayn  are  meant. 


488    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  in 

which  Khwandamir1  adduces  as  a  proof  that  he  perished  in 
the  outbreak  of  plague  at  Astarabdd  to  which  he  alludes2  : 


"  That  Astardbdd  whose  dust  was  more  fragrant  than  musk 
Was  suddenly  made  desolate  by  the  fiery  wrath  of  the  pestilence. 
No  one,  old  or  young,  survived  therein  : 
When  fire  falls  on  the  forest  neither  moist  nor  dry  remains." 

Dawlatshah  consecrates  ten  pages  of  his  Memoirs  of  the 
Poets3  to  Katibi,  who,  according  to  him,  was  born  at  a 
village  between  Turshiz  and  Nishapur,  whence  he  is  some- 
times called  Turshizi  and  sometimes  Nishdpun.  He  learned 
the  art  of  calligraphy  from  the  poet  Simi4,  who,  however, 
became  jealous  of  him,  so  that  he  left  Nishapur  for  Herat. 
Finding  his  talent  unappreciated  at  the  court  there,  he  went 
to  Astarabdd  and  Shfrwan,  where  he  attached  himself  for  a 
time  to  Amir  Shaykh  Ibrahi'm,  from  whom  he  received 
large  sums  of  money  which  he  dissipated  in  a  short  while, 
so  that  he  was  reduced  to  the  state  of  penury  depicted  in 
the  following  verses  : 


1  Habibrfs-Siyar,  vol.  iii,  part  3,  p.  149. 

2  These  verses  are  also  given  by  Dawlatshah  (pp.  389-390  of  my 
edition),  who  merely  says  that  he  composed  them  "  on  the  plague  and 
the  fierceness  of  the  pestilence." 

3  Pp.  381-391  of  my  edition. 

4  Simf's  life  is  given  by  Dawlatshah,  pp.  412-417. 


CH.  vni]  KATIBf  OF  NfSHAPtfR  489 

"  Yesterday  I  called  my  cook  and  bade  him  bake  for  me  a  pie 
That  my  guest's  needs  and  mine  own  might  eke  be  satisfied  thereby. 
'  If,'  said  he,  '  I  get  the  meat  and  get  the  fat,  who'll  give  the  meal?' 
'  He,'  I  answered,  '  who  the  millstone  of  the  heavens  made  to  wheel.'" 

Katibi  next  proceeded  to  Adharbayjan,  and  composed 
a  qasida  in  praise  of  the  Turkman  ruler  Iskandar  ibn  Qara 
Yusuf.  As  this  potentate  failed  to  appreciate  his  efforts  or 
to  reward  him  for  them,  he  wrote  a  very  coarse  lampoon  on 
him  and  departed  to  Isfahan,  where  he  seems  to  have  under- 
gone a  kind  of  conversion  at  the  hands  of  Sa'inu'd-Din 
Tarika,  to  have  renounced  the  adulation  of  princes  and 
attendance  at  courts,  and  to  have  adopted  the  outlook  of 
the  Sufi  mystics.  Dawlatshah1  quotes  one  of  his  poems 
(also  occurring,  with  two  additional  verses,  in  a  manuscript 
of  mine)  which  reflects  this  change  of  heart,  but  is  more 
conspicuous  for  piety  than  for  literary  merit.  From  Isfahan 
he  went  to  Rasht  and  thence  once  more  to  Astarabad, 
where,  as  we  have  seen,  he  died. 

Jami,  a  better  judge  than  Dawlatshah,  is  more  guarded 
in  his  praise  of  Katibi,  of  whom  he  says  in  the  seventh 
chapter  of  his  Bahdristdn  that  he  had  many  original  ideas 
which  he  expressed  in  an  original  way,  but  that  his  verse 
was  unequal  and  uneven — "cats  and  camels"  (shutur gurbd). 
I  possess  a  good  manuscript  of  his  Diwdn  (hitherto,  so  far 
as  I  know,  unpublished)  dated  923/1517  and  containing 
nearly  3000  verses,  odes,  fragments  and  quatrains.  As 
usual  the  fragments  are  the  most  personal,  and  therefore, 
from  the  biographical  point  of  view,  the  most  interesting, 
though  unfortunately  ignorance  of  the  persons  and  circum- 
stances to  which  they  refer  often  render  a  full  appreciation 
impossible.  Of  these  fragments  my  MS.  contains  105 
(ff.  iO4b-ii5b),  mostly  consisting  of  only  two  verses,  of 
which  only  two  can  be  precisely  dated.  The  first  records 
the  death  by  violence  of  Minuchihr  Shah  in  825/1422,  and 
the  second  the  death  of  Mfr  'Adil  Shah  in  827/1424.  The 
following  have  been  selected  as  presenting  some  special 
1  P.  384  of  my  edition. 


490    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

feature  of  interest.    The  first  is  remarkable  only  on  account 
of  the  ingenious  rhyme  and  alliteration  : 


j-A.  jU»ol  jj 

"  O  heart,  if  thou  wouldst  ride  on  the  road  of  honour,  swiftly  gallop 

the  steed  of  ambition  into  the  arena  of  contentment. 
That  thy  heart  may  become  acquainted  with  the  mystery  of  everything 

that  is,  cast  the  cash  of  thy  being  in  full  at  the  feet  of  the  mystics. 
If  the  substance  of  thy  soul  be  diminished  when  thou  siftest  the  dust  of 

poverty,  suffer  not  dust  from  this  road  [to  settle]  on  thy  heart, 

but  sift  again. 
And  if  thou  knowest  rightly  the  occasions  for  sitting  and  rising1,  sit 

if  thou  wilt  in  Armenia,  or  rise  up  if  thou  wilt  in  Abkhdz. 

The  alliterations  tdz  ttz,  rdz  riz,  bdz  biz,  and  Abkhdz 
khiz  are  very  ingenious,  though  otherwise  the  lines  are  not 
remarkable.  The  reference  in  the  following  fragment  may 
be  to  the  poet  Salmdn  of  Sawa  himself2,  or  possibly  to 
Katibi's  contemporary  'Arifi  of  Herdt,  who,  as  Mir  'All 
Shfr  tells  us  in  his  MajdlisiJn-Nafd'is,  was  called  by  his 
admirers  "  the  second  Salman." 


1  By  the  "rules  of  sitting  and  rising"  the  Persians  understand  the 
laws  of  etiquette. 

2  See  pp.  260-271  supra. 


CH.  vin]  KATIBf  OF  NfSHAPtfR  491 

"  Those  people  who  advance  a  claim  on  behalf  of  Salman,  why  do  they 

take  objection  to  my  verse  ? 

The  verse  of  me  the  illuminated  and  then  Salmon's  poetry...  —  I  say 
nothing  ;  all  men  can  see  [the  difference  for  themselves]  !  " 

In  the  following  squib  the  Kamal  referred  to  may  be 
Kamal  of  Khujand,  but  is  more  probably  Katibf's  contem- 
porary Kamalu'd-Dfn  Ghiyath  al-Farsi  of  Shfraz1,  while 
Khusraw  and  Hasan  are  presumably  the  two  eminent  poets 
of  Dihlf  already  noticed2. 


"  If  Hasan  stole  ideas  from  Khusraw,  one  cannot  prevent  him, 
For  Khusraw  is  a  master,  nay,  more  than  the  masters  ! 
And  if  Kamdl  stole  Hasan's  ideas  from  his  Dtwdn 
One  can  say  nothing  to  him  :  a  thief  has  fallen  on  a  thief  !  " 

The  two  following  pleasant  quips,  which  help  to  explain 
Katibf's  unpopularity  with  his  colleagues,  are  addressed  to 
a  contemporary  poet  named  Badr  ("  Full  Moon  ").  Dawlat- 
shah,  who  accords  him  a  brief  notice3,  tells  us  that  this  Badr 
was  for  many  years  the  principal  poet  of  Shfrwan,  where, 
as  we  have  seen,  Katibi  established  himself  for  a  time. 
Dawlatshah  gives  the  first  of  the  two  following  fragments 
as  a  specimen  of  the  literary  duels  which  took  place  between 
these  two,  and  adds  that  though  some  critics  prefer  Badr's 
poetry  to  Katibf's,  the  people  of  Samarqand  hold  a  contrary 
opinion. 


1  See  Dawlatshdh,  pp.  418-420  of  my  edition. 

2  See  pp.  108-110  supra, 

3  Pp.  377-378  of  my  edition. 

4  Dawlatshah  has  the  better  variant :  '^'ji  jJ 

"  I  will  tear  thee  asunder  with  my  index  finger." 


492    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtRID  PERIOD     [BKIII 

"  I  have  the  title  Kdtibf,  O  Badr,  but  Muhammad  is  the  name  which 

came  to  me  from  heaven  ; 

Muhammad  became  my  name,  and  thou  art  Badr  ;  with  my  finger 
I  will  tear  thine  asunder1." 


"  Yesterday  I  said  to  the  ill-conditioned  little  Badr,  '  Thou  art  no  poet  ! 
He  who  is  of  the  poets,  him  should  one  encourage.' 
'  In  every  city,'  he  replied,  '  I  have  hung  up2  a  poem'  : 
One  who  produces  such  poetry  ought  [himself]  to  be  hung  !  " 

The  following,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  tribute  to  the 
skill  shown  by  Abu  Ishaq  (Bushaq)  of  Shi'raz3  in  the  gastro- 
nomic poems  contained  in  his  Diwdn-i-Afima  : 

0   3 

«.^w 


"  Shaykh  Bushdq  (may  his  luxury  endure  !)  dished  up  hot  the  idea  of 

foods  : 
He  spread  a  table  of  luxuries  :  all  are  invited  to  his  table." 

The  following  satire  on  a  poet  named  Shams-i-'Ala  is 
imitated,  and  indeed  partly  borrowed,  from  a  well-known 
poem  by  'Ubayd-i-Zakani'4  : 

i    «J    A^    A&l          "} 


1  The  allusion  is  to  the  Prophet  Muhammad's  miracle  of  cleaving 
the  full  moon  (Badr)  asunder  with  his  finger.     "Thine"  means  "thy 
name." 

2  Probably  alludes  to  the  common  belief  that  the  classical  Muiallagdt 
of  the  Arabs  were  so  called  because  they  were  "suspended"  on  the  door 
of  the  Ka'ba  at  Mecca.     Badr  means  that  he  has  produced  a  prize 
poem  in  every  city. 

3  See  pp.  344-351  supra. 

4  See  pp.  230-257  supra. 


CH.  vni]  KATIBf  OF  NfSHAPtR  493 

"  Shams-i-'Ald  hath  at  length  departed  from  the  world,  he  who  now 

and  again  used  to  be  taken  into  account. 

He  hath  departed  and  left  behind  him  a  Diwdn  of  verse  ;   even 
that  would  not  be  left  if  it  were  of  any  use  !  " 

In  the  following  he  accuses  the  poet  Simi1,  who  taught 
him  calligraphy,  of  plagiarism  : 


"  When  Simi  saw  the  tasteful  poems  of  Ka'tibi  in  the  city  of  Nfsha'pur 
He  went  to  Mashhad  and  produced  them  in  his  own  name  :  he  ate 
the  salt  and  stole  the  salt-cellar  !  " 

Here  is  another  denunciation  of  plagiarists  : 


* 

"  He  is  no  poet  who,  when  he  produces  verses,  brings  together  images 

from  the  poems  of  the  masters  ; 

No  house  which  is  made  of  old  bricks  stands  on  so  firm  a  foundation 
as  a  new  house." 

Here  is  a  gentle  hint  to  one  of  his  royal  patrons  to  see 
that  he  gets  his  full  allowance  of  wine  at  the  banquet  : 


1  Dawlatshdh  (pp.  412-417)  consecrates  an  article  to  him,  in  which 
he  mentions  his  migration  from  Nfshapur  to  Mashhad.  Besides  being 
a  notable  penman,  poet  and  maker  of  acrostics,  he  was  an  expert  in 
gilding,  illumination,  and  all  arts  connected  with  books,  and  gave 
instruction  in  these  subjects.  He  is  said  to  have  composed  3000  verses 
of  poetry  in  one  night.  He  had  also  so  voracious  an  appetite  that  on 
one  occasion  he  ate  twelve  maunds  of  food  and  fruit  without  suffering 
any  evil  effects. 


494    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TrMCRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 


"  O  Prince,  thou  art  he  on  account  of  the  weight  of  whose  love  the 
back  of  the  arch  of  the  Placeless  is  bowed  even  as  the  vault  of 
Heaven  ! 

Our  share  of  favour  is  not  lacking  out  of  thy  abounding  liberality,  but 
the  wine  they  bring  is  of  short  measure,  like  the  life  of  thine 
enemy." 

Finally  here  is  an  epigram  addressed  to  his  pen  : 


"Alack  at  the  hands  of  my  pitch-stained  pen,  which  showed  forth 

my  secret  to  foe  and  friend  ! 

I  said,  '  I  will  cut  its  tongue  that  it  may  become  dumb  '  :  I  did  so, 
and  it  waxed  more  eloquent  than  before1." 

There  are  references  to  other  places,  such  as  Sari  in 
Mazandaran,  and  to  other  individuals  whom  I  cannot  iden- 
tify, such  as  Khwaja  Nizam,  'Abdu'r-  Rahman,  a  poet  named 
Amin,  and  Shapur,  Jamshid  and  Ardashir,  who  were  perhaps 
Zoroastrians,  since  the  first  two  of  the  three  are  mentioned 
in  connection  with  wine.  The  last  seems  to  have  been  a 
rebel  against  the  king  of  Shfrwan,  who,  having  got  him  into 
his  power,  hesitated  between  killing  and  blinding  him; 
whereon  the  poet  advises  the  latter  course  in  these  verses  : 


1  The  nibs  of  the  reed-pen  (qalain)  are  cut  to  make  it  write  better. 


CH.  vin]  'ARIFf  OF  HERAT  495 

"  O  king,  do  not  kill  the  rebel  Ardashir,  although  he  hath  broken  the 

support  of  Shfrwan  : 

Thou  didst  ask,  '  Shall  I  kill  him,  or  apply  the  needle  to  his  eyes  ?  ' 
It  is  not  good  to  kill  ;  blind  the  devil  !  " 

'Arifi  of  Herat. 

The  next  poet  of  whom  something  must  be  said  is 
,,  .„  'Arifi  of  Herat,  whose  best-known  work  is  the 

'Anfi  of  Merit 

mystical  and  allegorical  poem  properly  entitled 
Hdl-ndma  ("the  Book  of  Ecstasy"),  but  more  commonly 
known,  from  its  subject,  as  Giiy  u  Chawgdn  ("the  Ball  and 
the  Polo-stick"),  which  was  written  in  842/1438-9  in  the 
space  of  a  fortnight,  and  for  which  the  author  received  as  a 
reward  from  his  royal  patron  a  horse  and  the  sum  of  one 
thousand  dinars^.  As  he  was,  according  to  his  own  state- 
ment, over  fifty  years  old  at  the  time,  he  must  have  been 
born  about  791/1389,  the  year  in  which  the  great  Hafiz 
died.  His  own  death  appears  to  have  taken  place  in 

853/I449- 

As  already  mentioned2,  he  was  called  by  his  admirers 
"  the  sec6nd  Salman,"  partly  because  his  style  was  deemed 
similar  to  that  of  the  earlier  poet,  and  partly,  as  Mfr  'All 
Shir  informs  us  in  his  Majdlisu'n-Nafd'is,  because  both 
poets  suffered  from  weak  and  inflamed  eyes.  This  is  proved 
in  the  case  of  'Arifi  by  the  following  verse  : 


"  The  white  salve  on  the  red  lid  of  my  eye  is  exactly  like  powdered 
salt  on  roast  meat." 

Though  almost  all  the  biographers  (except  the  modern 
Rida-quli  Khan  in  his  Majma'u'l-Fusahd)  make  mention  of 
'Arifi,  the  particulars  which  they  give  about  him  are  very 

1  See  Rieu's  Persian  Catalogue,  pp.  639-640,  and  his  Persian  Sup- 
plement, p.  185. 

2  P.  490  supra. 


496    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TlMtiRID  PERIOD     [BKIII 

meagre.  His  Hdl-ndma,  which  Jami  calls  "one  of  his  best 
poems,"  comprises  only  some  500  verses.  It  has  not,  I 
think,  been  printed,  but  I  have  looked  at  a  pretty  and  fairly 
good  manuscript  of  it  in  the  Cambridge  University  Library1, 
transcribed  in  952/1546,  and  found  it,  I  regret  to  confess, 
laboured  and  insipid.  The  following  passage,  describing 
the  king's  polo-pony,  includes  some  of  the  specimen  verses 
given  both  by  Jamf  and  Mir  'Ah'  Shir,  and  may  therefore 
be  assumed  to  be  a  favourable  sample  : 


"The  King  of  the  denizens  of  earth  Muhammad2,  whose  throne  is 

the  sun  and  his  cushion  the  moon, 
That  King  for  whom,  when  he  lifts  his  polo-stick,  the  moon  becomes 

the  ball  and  heaven  the  playing-field. 
At  what  time  he  throws  his  leg  over  the  saddle  he  raises  the  dust 

from  the  terrestrial  sphere. 
When  his  spur  excites  his  horse,  thou  wouldst  say  that  fire  mingled 

with  wind. 
When  the  King's  polo-pony  is  at  the  gallop  it  snatches  away  the  ball 

from  the  steed  of  heaven. 
If  he  did  not  restrain  it  in  its  leaping,  it  would  overshoot  the  goal  of 

heaven. 
When  it  is  drenched  in  perspiration  it  is  like  rain  with  lightning  in 

the  midst. 
Fire  flies  from  its  hoof,  while  the  whirlwind  clings  to  its  tail." 

1  Add.  3150.     See  my  Camb.  Pers.  Cat.,  pp.  365-6. 

2  I.e.  Prince  Muhammad  ibn  Baysunqur.     See  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat., 
loc.  cit. 


CH.  vin]       MINOR  POETS  OF  THIS  PERIOD  497 

The  whole  poem  is  filled  with  these  ingenious  and  often 
far-fetched  similes  and  metaphors  drawn  from  the  game  of 
polo,  but  to  most  European  readers  they  will  seem  tasteless 
and  artificial,  and  the  resulting  product  hardly  worthy  to 
be  called  poetry  in  the  sense  in  which  we  understand  the 
word. 

Of  the  poets  who  died  in  the  second  half  of  the  ninth 
century  of  the  hijra  (fifteenth  of  the  Christian  era)  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  decide  which  are  of  sufficient  importance  to  deserve 
mention  in  a  work  like  this,  until  we  come  to  the  last  and 
greatest  of  them,  Jami,  whose  claim  to  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  most  notable  poets  of  Persia  is  indisputable.  That 
there  is  no  lack  of  them,  so  far  as  numbers  go,  will  be  evi- 
dent to  anyone  who  consults  the  contemporary  biographers. 
Thus  Dawlatshah  gives  notices  of  some  two  score  of  this 
period,  while  Mir  'All  Shir  Nawa'i  in  his  Majdlisu'n-Nafd'is 
(composed  in  the  Turki  language)  mentions  forty-six  in  the 
first  chapter  (Majlis)  of  his  work,  wherein  he  treats  of  those 
poets  who  were  still  living  in  his  time,  though  he  had  never 
met  them.  Some  of  these  poets  are  familiar  by  name  to 
students  of  Persian  literature,  and  most  of  them  have  pro- 
duced graceful  verses,  but  few  if  any  attain  a  degree  of 
excellence  which  would  preserve  their  names  from  oblivion 
but  for  their  association  with  princes  and  rulers  who  gloried 
not  only  in  the  quality  but  in  the  quantity  of  the  men  of 
letters  who  frequented  their  courts  and  enjoyed  their 
patronage.  Dawlatshah,  implicitly  recognizing  this  fact, 
often  makes  a  brief  notice  of  some  minor  poet  the  peg  on 
which  to  hang  a  much  fuller  account  of  his  royal  patron. 
Thus  in  his  notice  of  Shah  Ni'matu'llah,  who  really  has 
claims  to  distinction  as  a  mystic  if  not  as  a  poet,  he  con- 
cludes by  enumerating1  the  chief  Shaykhs,  men  of  learning, 
poets  and  artists  who  added  lustre  to  the  court  of  Shah- 
rukh.  Of  the  poets  he  mentions  Shaykh  Adhari  of  Isfara'in 
(d.  866/1461-2),  Baba  Sawda'i  of  Abfward  (d.  853/1449-50), 
1  P.  340  of  my  edition. 

B.  P.  32 


498    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

Mawldna  'All  Shihab  of  Turshfz,  Amir  Shahi  of  Sabzawar 
(d.  857/1453),  Katibi  of  Turshiz  (d.  839/1435-6),  and  Nasimi, 
"  the  fame  of  whose  writings  and  diwdns"  he  adds,  "  is  cele- 
brated throughout  the  habitable  quarter  of  the  world." 
"  There  were,"  he  concludes,  "  four  talented  artists  at  the 
court  of  Shah-rukh  who  in  their  own  time  had  no  peer, 
Khwaja  'Abdu'l-Qadir  of  Maragha  in  the  art  of  music  and 
roundels  (adwdr\  Yusuf  of  Andakan  in  singing  and  min- 
strelsy, Ustad  Qiwamu'd-Din  in  geometry,  design  and 
architecture,  and  Mawlana  Khalfl  the  painter,  who  was 
second  only  to  Manf1."  Yet  the  verses  of  these  poets,  for 
the  most  part  unpublished  till  this  day  and  very  rare  even 
in  manuscript,  were  probably  but  little  known  even  in  their 
own  time  outside  Khurasan,  and  we  may  consider  ourselves 
fortunate  if  we  can  individualize  them  by  some  special 
personal  characteristic  or  incident  in  their  lives,  such  as  that 
Adharf  visited  Shah  Ni'matu'llah,  became  a  mystic  and 
renounced  the  flattery  of  kings,  and  made  a  journey  to 
India2 ;  or  that  Shahi  was  a  descendant  of  the  Sarbadarf 
rulers  of  Sabzawar  and  a  Shi'a,  which  latter  fact  has  won  for 
him  a  long  and  laudatory  notice  in  the  MajdlisiJl-Mtfminiu 
("Assemblies  of  true  believers,"  i.e.  Shi'ites)  of  Nuru'llah  ibn 
Sayyid  Sharif  al-Mar'ashi  of  Shushtar3.  "  Scholars  are 
agreed,"  says  Dawlatshah4,  with  his  usual  exaggeration, 
"  that  in  the  verse  of  Amir  Shahi  are  combined  the  ardour 
of  Khusraw,  the  grace  of  Hasan,  the  delicacy  of  Kamal,  and 
the  clarity  of  Hafiz."  That  he  entertained  no  mean  opinion 
of  himself  is  shown  by  the  following  verses  which  he  extem- 
porized when  assigned  a  lower  place  at  the  reception  of  some 
prince  than  that  to  which  he  considered  himself  entitled5 : 

1  It  is  commonly  believed  by  the  Persians  that  Mani  (Manes),  the 
founder  of  Manichaeanism,  claimed  that  his  skill  in  painting  was  the 
miraculous  proof  of  his  divine  mission. 

2  See  pp.  399-400  of  my  edition  of  Dawlatshah. 

3  Composed  about  993/1585.    See  Rieu's  Persian  Cat.,  pp.  337-8. 

4  P.  426  of  my  edition. 

5  Ibid.,  p.  427. 


CH.  vin]  AMfR  SHAHl—  QUDSf  499 


"  O  king,  the  revolution  of  heaven's  wheel  in  a  thousand  years 
Will  not  show  forth  one  like  me,  unique  in  a  hundred  accomplishments. 
If  thou  makest  me  to  sit  below  everybody  and  nobody 
Herein  is  a  subtle  point  ;  so  much  I  know. 
Thy  court  is  an  ocean,  and  in  the  ocean,  without  dispute, 
The  pearl  is  at  the  bottom  and  the  rubbish  at  the  top." 

What,  again,  is  to  be  thought  of  such  a  verse  as  this  of 
Qudsf  of  Herat  in  which  he  alludes  to  the  slobbering  mouth 
with  which  he  was  afflicted  as  the  result  of  some  paralytic 
affection  of  the  face1  ? 


"  Notwithstanding  such  a  mouth  as  I  have 
I  utter  verse  from  which  water2  drips." 

Such  ingenuities  are  very  characteristic  of  the  time  and 
place  of  which  we  are  speaking,  and  therefore  deserve  notice, 
but  they  do  not  constitute  what  we  understand  by  poetry. 
The  following  passage  from  Dawlatshah3  gives  a  good  idea 
of  what  the  courts  of  these  Tfmurid  princes  were  like. 

"  Now  the  auspicious  birth  of  Prince  Bdysunghur  took  place  in  the 
year  802/1399-1400.  He  possessed  a  perfect  comeliness  and  favourable 
fortune  and  prosperity.  Alike  in  talent  and  in  the  encouragement  of 
talent  he  was  famous  throughout  the  world.  Calligraphy  and  poetry 
were  highly  esteemed  in  his  time,  and  scholars  and  men  of  talent, 
attracted  by  his  renown,  flocked  from  all  regions  and  quarters  to  enter 
his  service.  It  is  said  that  forty  calligraphers  were  busy  copying  in 
his  library,  of  which  scribes  the  chief  was  Mawlana  Ja'far  of  Tabriz. 

1  Cited  by  Mfr  'Alf  Shfr  Nawa'f  in  his  MajdlisiSn-Naftfis. 

2  Ab  means  water,  but  also  lustre,  temper  (of  steel),  water  (of 
diamonds),  splendour,  and  the  like. 

3  Pp.  350-351  of  my  edition. 

32—2 


500    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD    [BK  m 

He  showed  favour  to  men  of  talent,  loved  poets,  strove  after  refinement 
and  luxury,  and  entertained  witty  courtiers  and  boon-companions.  Of 
the  kings  of  all  times  since  Khusraw  Parwfz1  none  lived  so  joyous  and 
splendid  a  life  as  Baysunghur  Sultdn.  He  composed  and  appreciated 
good  verse  both  in  Turki  and  Persian,  and  wrote  six  different  hands. 
This  verse  is  by  him  : 


'  Bdysunghur  hath  become  the  beggar  in  thy  street  : 
The  king  is  the  beggar  in  the  street  of  the  fair.' 

"It  is  related  that,  in  the  time  of  Sultan  Baysunghur,  Khwaja 
Yusuf  of  Andakdn  had  no  peer  in  song  and  minstrelsy  throughout  the 
Seven  Climes.  His  notes,  sweet  as  David's  song,  lacerated  the  soul, 
while  his  '  Royal  Mode2  '  sprinkled  salt  on  wounded  hearts.  On  several 
occasions  Sultan  Ibrahim  the  son  of  Shdh-rukh  sent  from  Shirdz  to  ask 
for  Khwaja  Yusuf  from  Baysunghur  Sultdn,  who,  however,  raised  diffi- 
culties. Finally  he  sent  a  hundred  thousand  dhtdrs  in  cash  in  order 
that  Mirza  Bdysunghur  might  send  Khwaja  Yiisuf  for  him,  but  Bay- 
sunghur answered  his  brother  in  this  verse  : 


'  We  will  not  sell  our  Yiisuf  [Joseph]  :  keep  thy  black  silver  !' 

"Between  Ulugh  Beg  Kurkdn,  Bdysunghur  Bahddur  and  Ibrdhim 
Sultdn  there  passed  many  pleasant  sayings  and  much  correspondence 
which  transcend  the  scope  of  this  Memoir,  but  faithless  Fortune  and 
the  cruel  Sphere  laid  hands  on  the  life  of  that  joyous  prince  in  the  days 
of  his  youth,  nor  did  the  ministers  of  Fate  and  Destiny  take  pity  on  his 
immaturity.  One  night,  by  the  decree  of  the  Lord  of  lords,  through 
excess  of  wine  he  was  overwhelmed  by  the  deep  sleep  of  death,  of 
which  the  inhabitants  of  Herat  supposed  apoplexy  to  be  the  cause. 


'  They  say  that  death  is  a  strange  sleep  :  that  heavy  sleep  overtook  us.' 

"  So  the  Prince,  half-drunken,  staggered  to  the  bed  of  earth,  whence 
he  shall  rise  up  bemused  on  the  Resurrection  Morning,  with  others 
drugged  with  the  Wine  of  Death,  to  seek  from  the  cup-bearers  of  'and 
their  Lord  shall  give  them  to  drink  pure  wine3'  the  purification  of  the 

1  The    Sdsdnian,    contemporary  with    the    Prophet    Muhammad 
(seventh  century  after  Christ). 

2  Ahang-i-Khusrawdni,  the  name  of  one  of  the  modes  or  airs  of 
Persian  music. 

3  Qur'dn,  Ixxvi,  21. 


CH.VIII]    DAWLATSHAH'S  PICTURE  OF  HIS  TIME    501 

headache-healing  wine  of  '  a  full  bumper^?  It  is  our  firm  hope  that 
the  All-Merciful  Judge  will  overlook  his  sin,  which  naught  but  the 
dew  of  His  Mercy  can  wash  away.  This  tragic  catastrophe  of  Bay- 
sunghur  Sultdn  took  place  in  the  metropolis  of  Herat  in  the  White 
Garden  in  the  year  837/1433-4,  his  age  being  then  thirty-five  years. 
The  poets  who  were  attached  to  the  service  of  Baysunghur  Bahddur 
during  the  reign  of  Shdh-rukh  Sultan  were  Baba  Sawda'f,  Mawldna 
Yusuf  Amirf,  Amir  Shahf  of  Sabzawar,  Mawlana  Katibi  of  Turshiz, 
and  Amir  Yammu'd-Din...The  poets  composed  elegies  on  Sultan 
Baysunghur's  death,  but  Amir  Shahi  surpassed  them  all  in  this 
quatrain  : 


'  The  age  lamented  much  in  mourning  for  thee  ;   the  red  anemone 

poured  forth  all  the  blood  of  its  eyes  into  its  skirt  ; 
The  rose  rent  the  collar  of  its  crimson  mantle  ;  the  dove  clothed  its 
neck  in  black  felt.'  " 

Dawlatshah,  in  spite  of  all  his  faults,  of  which  inaccuracy 
and  an  intolerable  floridity  of  style  are  the  worst,  does  suc- 
ceed in  depicting  better  than  many  contemporary  historians 
and  biographers  the  strange  mixture  of  murder,  drunken- 
ness, love  of  Art  and  literary  taste  which  characterized  the 
courts  of  these  Timurid  princes,  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
add  to  the  preceding  extracts  the  portrait  of  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  of  them,  Ulugh  Beg,  with  which  he 
concludes  his  notice  of  the  poet  'Ismat  of  Bukh^ri,  the 
master  of  Bisati  and  Khayali,  and  the  contemporary  of 
Rustam  of  Khuriyan,  Tahir  of  Abfward,  and  Barandaq  of 
Bukhara.  After  mentioning  that  'Ismat  died  in  829/1425-6 
he  continues2  : 

"  Now  as  to  the  late  Sultdn  of  blessed  memory  Ulugh  Beg  Kiirkan, 
he  was  learned,  just,  masterful  and  energetic,  and  attained  a  high 
degree  in  the  science  of  Astronomy,  while  in  Rhetoric  he  could  split 
hairs.  In  his  reign  the  status  of  men  of  learning  reached  its  highest 

1  Qur'dn,  Ixxviii,  34.  *  Pp.  391  et  seqq.  of  my  edition. 


502    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  in 

zenith,  and  in  his  period  the  rank  of  scholars  was  at  its  greatest. 
In  the  science  of  Geometry  he  was  an  expositor  of  subtleties,  and  on 
questions  of  Cosmography  an  elucidator  of  the  Almagest.  Scholars 
and  philosophers  are  agreed  that  in  Islamic  times,  nay,  from  the  days 
of  [Alexander]  'the  Two-horned'  until  now  no  monarch  like  unto 
Mirza  Ulugh  Beg  Kurkdn  in  philosophy  and  science  has  ever  sat  on 
a  royal  throne.  He  had  the  most  complete  knowledge  of  the  mathe- 
matical sciences,  so  that  he  recorded  observations  of  the  stars  with  the 
cooperation  of  the  greatest  scientists  of  his  age,  such  as  Qadi-zdda-i- 
Rumi1  and  Mawland  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Jamshid.  These  two  great 
scholars,  however,  died  before  completing  their  work,  and  the  Sultan, 
devoting  all  his  energies  to  this  task,  completed  the  observations  and 
produced  the  Ztj-i-Sultdnl2  ('  Royal  Almanac '),  to  which  he  himself 
prefixed  an  exordium.  These  tables  are  today  in  use  and  highly 
esteemed  by  philosophers,  some  of  whom  prefer  them  to  the  Zij-i- 
flkhdni  of  Nasiru'd-Dfn  of  Tus3. 

"  He  further  constructed  a  fine  college  in  Samarqand,  the  like  of 
which  in  beauty,  rank  and  worth  is  not  to  be  found  throughout  the 
seven  climes,  and  in  which  at  the  present  time  more  than  a  hundred 
students  are  domiciled  and  provided  for.  During  the  reign  of  his 
father  Shah-rukh  he  exercised  absolute  sway  over  Samarqand  and 
Transoxiana.... 

"It  is  related  that  Mirzd  Ulugh  Beg's  intelligence  and  power  of 
memory  were  such  that  a  record  was  kept  of  every  animal  which  he 
overthrew  in  the  chase,  with  the  place  and  date  of  the  hunting,  recording 
the  day,  the  locality,  and  the  nature  of  the  quarry.  By  chance  this  book 
was  mislaid,  and  seek  as  they  might  they  could  not  find  it,  so  that  the 
librarians  were  filled  with  apprehension.  '  Be  not  troubled,'  said  Ulugh 
Beg,  '  for  I  remember  all  these  particulars  from  beginning  to  end.'  So 
he  summoned  the  scribes  and  repeated  the  dates  and  circumstances, 
all  of  which  the  scribes  took  down  until  the  record  was  completed. 
After  a  while  by  chance  the  original  record  turned  up.  They  collated 
the  two  copies,  and  found  divergences  only  in  four  or  five  places. 

"  Many  such  marvels  are  related  of  the  genius  and  intelligence  of 
this  prince.  Thus  the  learned  Shaykh  Adhari  (the  poet)  relates  as 
follows : 

1  His  proper  name  was  Saldhu'd-Din  Mtisa.       • 

2  Concerning  this  important  work,  probably  completed  about  84 1/ 
1437-8,  see  Rieu's  Persian  Catalogue  and  the  references  there  given, 
especially  to  the  partial  text  and  translation  published  by  Sedillot 
(Paris,  1847  and  1853). 

3  Rieu's  Pers.  Cat.  pp.  454-5.    Some  account  of  Nasiru'd-Din  of 
Tiis  will  be  found  in  my  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  484-6. 


CH.  vni]  HUSAYN  W/'/Z-I-KASHIFf  503 

"'In  the  year  800/1397-8,  when  I  was  in  Qara-bagh  with  my 
maternal  uncle,  who  was  story-teller  to  the  great  Amir,  the  Lord  of 
the  Fortunate  Conjunction,  Timiir  Kurkan,  I  became  attached  to  the 
service  of  Ulugh  Beg  Mirza  in  the  days  of  his  childhood,  and  for  several 
years  was  that  Prince's  playmate  in  childish  games  and  used  to  tell 
him  tales  and  stories,  while  he,  after  the  fashion  of  children,  became 
familiar  and  intimate  with  me.  In  the  year  852/1448-9,  when  the  above- 
mentioned  Prince  conquered  Khurasdn  and  halted  at  Isfard'in,  I  arose, 
after  the  grey  dawn  of  age  had  been  kindled  from  the  evening  of 
youth1,  and  hastened  to  wait  upon  him.  When  he  saw  me  from  afar 
.  off  in  the  garb  of  the  religious  mendicants  and  men  of  God,  after  saluting 
me  and  enquiring  after  my  health,  he  said,  "O  darwish,  thou  seemest 
to  be  my  ancient  companion  and  friend.  Art  thou  not  the  nephew  of 
our  story-teller  ?  "  I  was  amazed  at  the  quick  apprehension  and  clear 
memory  of  the  King,  and  replied,  that  I  was.  He  spoke  of  Qara-bagh, 
the  wars  in  Georgia  and  the  marvels  of  that  country,  while  I  answered 
to  the  best  of  my  recollection.' 

"  Many  similar  instances  are  related  of  this  Prince's  keenness 
of  memory,  but  more  than  this  much  exceeds  the  scope  of  these 
Memoirs." 

A  year  after  the  meeting  described  above  (in  853/1449- 
1450)  the  talented  Ulugh  Beg  was  murdered  by  his  un- 
natural son  'Abdu'l-Latif,  who  was  himself  murdered  seven 
months  later. 

Husayn  VJ&iz-i-Kdshifi. 

Almost  all  the  literary  achievements  of  the  latest  period 

treated  in  this  volume  centre  round  that  great  and  liberal 

patron  of  the  arts  the  Minister  Mir  'Ah'  Shfr 

Husayn 

iwi?-i-  Nawa'i,  as  they  culminate  in  the  brilliant  and 

KAshifi  -11  .     T  >       i          •-,!  e 

many-sided  poet  Jami,  with  some  account  ot 
whom  we  shall  conclude.  First,  however,  a  few  more  words 
must  be  added  about  Mir  All  Shir  and  also  about  Husayn 
Wafiz-i-Kash\f\,  agreeably  to  a  promise  given  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  where  something  was  said  about  their  more 
solid  prose  work.  Of  the  latter  a  notice  is  given  by 
Khwdndamir  in  his  Habtbiis-Siyar"*,  of  which  the  substance 

1  The  turning  grey  of  black  hair  is  often  poetically  described  by  the 
Persians  as  the  dawn  coming  up  out  of  the  night. 

2  Bombay  lith.  ed.  of  1273/1857,  vol.  iii,  part  3,  p.  341. 


5o4    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

is  as  follows.  His  full  name  was  Kamalu'd-Din  Husayn,  and, 
as  his  title  Wd'iz  implies,  he  was  by  profession  a  preacher. 
He  had  a  fine  and  melodious  voice  and  a  considerable  know- 
ledge of  theology  and  traditions.  Every  Friday  morning  he 
used  to  preach  in  the  Ddrus-Siyddat-i-Sultdnf  at  Herat, 
and  afterwards  used  to  officiate  in  the  Mosque  of  Mir  'All 
Shir.  On  Tuesday  he  used  to  preach  in  the  Royal  College, 
and  on  Wednesday  at  the  tomb  of  Khwaja  Abu'l-Walid 
Ahmad.  In  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  also  sometimes 
preached  on  Thursday  in  the  chapel  of  Sultan  Ahmad 
Mirza.  He  was  skilled  in  astronomy  as  well  as  in  the 
art  of  literary  composition,  and  could  hold  his  own  with 
his  compeers  in  other  branches  of  learning.  His  son 
Fakhru'd-Din  'All,  who  succeeded  him  as  a  preacher,  was 
something  of  a  poet  and  composed  the  romantic  mathnawi 
known  as  Mahmtid  and  Aydz.  The  father,  however,  does 
not  seem  to  have  written  poetry,  but  preferred  to  display 
his  skill  in  fine  writing,  chiefly  in  the  well-known  Anwdr-i- 
Suhaylt,  or  "  Lights  of  Canopus."  This  florid  and  verbose 
rendering  of  the  famous  Book  of  Kalilaand  Dimna,  thanks  to 
the  reputation  which  it  enjoys  in  India,  has  attracted  an  undue 
amount  of  attention  amongst  English  students  of  Persian : 
it  was  for  many  years  one  of  the  text-books  prescribed 
for  candidates  for  the  India  Civil  Service,  and  is  one  of  the 
lengthiest  Persian  texts  which  ever  issued  from  an  English 
printing-press1.  The  way  in  which  this  wordy  and  bombastic 
writer  has  embroidered  and  expanded  not  only  the  original 
Arabic  version  of  Ibnu'l-Muqaffa',  but  even  the  earlier 
Persian  version,  may  be  appreciated  by  the  English  reader 
who  will  refer  to  vol.  ii  of  my  Literary  History  of  Persia, 
pp.  350-353.  The  other  works  of  Husayn  Wd'iz  have  been 
already  mentioned2,  except  an  epistolary  manual  entitled 
Makhzanu'l-Inshd  which  I  have  not  seen.  He  died  in 
910/1504-5,  nineteen  years  before  Khwandamir's  notice  of 
his  life  was  written. 

1  Messrs  Austin  of  Hertford,  1805. 

2  Pp.  441,  442  supra. 


CH.  vni]  MfR  'ALf  SHfR  NAWA'f  505 

Mir  'Alt  Shir  Nawd'i. 

The  importance  and  influence  of  Mir  'AH  Shir,  both  as  a 
writer  and  a  patron  of  literary  men,  was,  as  pointed  out  in 

the  last  chapter,  immense,  and  he  may  without 
sttrNawd'f  exaggeration  be  described  as  the  Maecenas  of 

his  time  and  country.  He  was  the  friend  and 
patron  of  Jamf,  who  dedicated  many  of  his  works  to  him, 
and  on  whose  death  in  898/1492  he  composed  an  elegy  of 
which  Khw^ndamir  quotes  the  opening  lines,  and  his  name 
occurs  in  connection  with  a  large  proportion  of  the  scholars 
and  poets  noticed  by  the  last-named  writer  in  the  section 
which  he  devotes  in  the  Habibu's-Siyar*  to  the  men  of  letters 
of  Sultan  Husayn's  time.  Babur,  who  is  much  more  critical 
and  much  less  addicted  to  indiscriminate  praise  than  bio- 
graphers like  Dawlatshah  and  Khwandamir,  speaks  in  the 
highest  terms  of  Mir  'All  Shir2,  and  says  that  he  knows  of 
no  such  generous  and  successful  patron  of  talent.  Apart 
from  the  numerous  writers  and  poets  whom  he  encouraged 
and  patronized,  the  painters  Bihzad  and  Shah  Muzaffar  and 
the  incomparable  musicians  Qul-Muhammad,  Shaykhi  Na'i 
and  Husayn  'Udi  owed  their  success  to  him.  He  himself 
was  a  successful  musician,  composer  and  painter,  and  un- 
rivalled as  a  poet  in  the  Turki  language,  in  which  he  pro- 
duced four  Diwdns  of  lyric  poetry  and  six  long  mathnaivis, 
five  in  imitation  of  Nizamfs  Khamsa  ("Quintet"),  and  one 
in  imitation  of  'Attar's  Mantiqu't-  Tayr  ("  Speech  of  the 
Birds")  entitled  Lisdmi't-Tayr  ("the  Language  of  the 
Birds").  In  Persian  poetry,  which  he  wrote  under  the  pen- 
name  of  Fani,  he  was,  according  to  Babur,  less  successful, 
for  though  some  of  his  verses  were  not  bad,  most  were  weak 
and  poor.  His  prosody  also  was  lacking  in  accuracy,  and 
in  the  treatise  entitled  Mizdnul-Awzdn  ("  the  Measure  of 
Metres  ")  which  he  wrote  on  that  subject  Babur  asserts 

1  Bombay  lith.  ed.  of  1273/1857,  vol.  iii,  part  3,  pp.  334-351. 

2  Bdbur-ndma,  ed.  Ilminsky,  pp.  213-214  (  =  Pavet  de  Courteille's 
French  translation,  vol.  i,  pp.  382-385). 


5o6    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

that  he  made  erroneous  statements  about  four  of  the  twenty- 
four  quatrain-metres  which  he  discussed. 

It  is  on  his  Turkish  rather  than  on  his  Persian  poetry, 
therefore,  that  Mir  'AH  Shir's  claims  to  literary  fame  are 
based,  though  his  munificent  patronage  of  all  literature  and 
art  entitles  him  to  honourable  mention  in  any  history  of 
Persian  literature.  Such  as  desire  further  particulars  of  his 
life  and  work  will  find  them  in  the  admirable  monograph 
published  by  M.  Belin  in  the  Journal  Asiatique  for  1861 
under  the  title  of  Notice  biographique  et  litteraire  sur  Mir 
Ali-Chir  NJvdii,  suivie  cTextraits  tir^s  des  ceuvres  du  meme 
auteur*.  He  was  born  at  Herat  in  844/1440-1  and  died  and 
was  buried  there  on  the  I2th  of  Jumada  ii,  906  (January  3, 
1501).  His  life,  for  a  statesman  in  so  troublous  a  land  and 
time,  was  singularly  peaceful,  and  throughout  it  he  enjoyed 
the  friendship  and  confidence  of  Sultan  Abu'l-Ghazi  Husayn, 
his  school-fellow  in  childhood  and  his  sovereign  in  maturer 
age2.  For  public  life  and  political  power  he  cared  little, 
and  would  willingly  have  renounced  them  in  favour  of 
spiritual  contemplation  and  literary  leisure,  nor  did  he  ever 
take  to  himself  a  wife.  He  was  even  admitted  by  the  illus- 
trious Jami  into  the  Naqshbandi  order  of  darwishes*.  His 
zeal  for  good  works  was  unfailing,  and  he  is  stated  to  have 
founded,  or  restored,  and  endowed  no  fewer  than  370 
mosques,  colleges,  rest-houses  and  other  pious  and  charitable 
institutions  in  Khurasan  alone.  He  was  a  prolific  writer, 
and  Belin4  enumerates  29  of  his  works,  composed  at  various 
dates  between  the  accession  of  Sultan  Husayn  and  his 
death.  The  latest  of  these  was  his  Muhdkamatiil-Lttghatayn, 
or  "Judgement  between  the  two  Languages,"  in  which  he 
endeavours  to  establish  the  superiority  of  the  Turki  over  the 
Persian  tongue.  This  was  written  in  905/1499-1500,  only 
the  year  before  his  death. 

1  Also  published  separately  as  a  pamphlet  of  158  pages. 

2  He  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Herat  on  the  death  of  Abu  Sa'id 
in  Ramadan  873  (March-April,  1469). 

3  Belin,  op.  tit.,  p.  19.  4  Ibid.,  pp.  59-64. 


CH.  vin]  jAMf  507 

Jdmi. 

Mulla  Nuru'd-Din  'Abdu'r-Rahmdn  Jami,  who  was  born 
at  the  little  town  of  Jam  in  Khura'san  on  Sha'ban  23,  817 
(November  7,  1414),  and  died  at  Herdt  on 
Muharram  18,  898  (November  9,  1492),  was  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  geniuses  whom  Persia  ever  pro- 
duced, for  he  was  at  once  a  great  poet,  a  great  scholar,  and 
a  great  mystic.  Besides  his  poetry,  which,  apart  from  minor 
productions,  consisted  of  three  Diwdns  of  lyrical  poetry 
and  seven  romantic  or  didactic  mathnawis,  he  wrote  on  the 
exegesis  of  the  Quran,  the  evidence  of  the  Divine  Mission 
of  the  Prophet  Muhammad,  traditions,  lives  of  the  Saints, 
Mysticism,  Arabic  grammar,  Rhyme,  Prosody,  Music, 
acrostics  (mtfammd)  and  other  matters.  In  the  Tuhfa-i- 
Sdmi  forty-six  of  his  works  are  enumerated,  and  I  do  not 
think  this  list  is  exhaustive.  He  was  held  in  the  highest 
honour  by  his  contemporaries,  not  only  by  his  fellow- 
countrymen,  but,  as  we  have  seen1,  even  by  the  Ottoman 
Sultan,  who  vainly  endeavoured  to  induce  him  to  visit  his 
court.  By  his  most  illustrious  contemporaries  he  was  re- 
garded as  so  eminent  as  to  be  beyond  praise  and  so  well 
High  esteem  in  known  as  to  need  no  detailed  biography.  Thus 
which  jdmi  was  Bdbur2,  after  observing'  that  "in  exoteric  and 

heldbyBdbur  . ' 

esoteric  learning  there  was  none  equal  to  him 
in  that  time,"  says  that  he  is  "too  exalted  for  there  to  be  any 
need  for  praising  him,"  and  that  he  only  introduces  his 
name  "  for  luck  and  for  a  blessing."  Sam  Mirza\  the  son 
of  Shah  Isma'il  the  Safawi,  places  him  first  in 
the  fifth  section  (Sahifd)  of  his  Tuhfa-i-Sdmt*, 
and  says  "by  reason  of  the  extreme  elevation 
of  his  genius... there  is  no  need  to  describe  his  condition  or 
set  forth  any  account  of  him,  since  the  rays  of  his  virtues 
have  reached  from  the  East  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 

1  See  pp.  422-3  supra. 

2  Bdbur-ndma  (ed.  Ilminsky),  pp.  222-223. 

3  Cambridge  MS.  Or.  648,  pp.  93-100. 


5o8    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

West,  while  the  bountiful  table  of  his  excellencies  is  spread 
from  shore  to  shore."    Dawlatshah,  who  puts  him 

s~Mhy  Daw'at"  first>  before  Ml'r  'AH  Shfr> in  the  concluding  sec- 
tion of  his  Memoirs1,  which  deals  with  living 
contemporary  poets,  speaks  in  a  similar  strain.  Mir  'All 
Shir,  besides  the  brief  notice  of  him  at  the  beginning  of  his 
Majdlisun-Nafd'is,  has  devoted  an  entire  work, 
sh?  Mir  <AH  the  Khamsatu'l-Mutahayyirin  ("  Quintet  of  the 
Astonished  ")  to  his  praises.  This  work,  fully 
described  by  Belin2,  is  so  entitled  because  it  is  divided  into 
five  parts,  a  preface,  three  chapters  and  an  epilogue,  which 
treat  respectively  (i)  of  the  origin,  birth  and  life  of  Jamf, 
and  of  the  author's  acquaintance  with  him ;  (2)  of  events  and 
conversations  between  the  author  and  Jamf  indicating  the 
degree  of  their  intimacy;  (3)  of  the  correspondence  between 
them  preserved  in  Jami's  works;  (4)  of  the  works  composed 
by  Jamf  at  the  author's  suggestion  and  instigation  ;  (5)  of 
the  books  and  treatises  read  by  the  author  under  Jami's 
direction,  with  an  account  of  his  death  and  funeral,  which 
was  celebrated  with  extraordinary  pomp,  and  attended  by 
many  members  of  the  Royal  Family,  noblemen,  divines  and 
scholars,  besides  a  vast  concourse  of  the  com- 

tsiograpny  by 

•Abdu'i-Ghafur  mon  people.  But  the  most  valuable  biography 
of  him  is  probably  that  written  by  his  most 
eminent  disciple,  'Abdu'i-Ghafur  of  Lar,  who  died  on 
Sha'ban  5,  912  (December  21,  1506)  and  was  buried  beside 
his  master3. 

All  the  essential  facts  of  Jami's  life,  however,  are  given 
in  the  excellent  Biographical  Sketch  (pp.  1-20)  prefixed  by 
Captain  Nassau  Lees  to  his  edition  of  the  Nafahatul-Uns*, 
a  sketch  only  marred  by  a  violent  and  uncalled-for  attack 
on  Mysticism.  The  details  are  far  fuller  and  better  vouched 
for  than,  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  Hafiz.  Jamf  himself 

1  Pp.  483  et  seqq.  of  my  edition. 

2  Op.  cit.,  pp.  101-158. 

3  Rieu's  Persian  Catalogue,  pp.  350-1. 

4  Published  at  Calcutta  in  1859. 


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CH.  vm]  jAMf  509 

has  recorded  the  date  of  his  birth  and  the  double  reason  for 
which  he  adopted  the  pen-name  by  which  he  is  known,  and 
he  has  also  recorded  the  dates  when  most  of  his  poems  and 
other  works  were  composed,  for  the  most  part  during  the 
last  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of  his  long  life.  These  dates, 
as  well  as  the  texts  of  the  poems,  rest  on  an  unusually  firm 
foundation,  for  there  exists  at  St  Petersburg,  in  the  Institut 
des  Langues  Orientales  du  Ministere  des  Affaires  Etrangeres, 
an  autograph  manuscript  of  the  poet's  Kulliyydt,  or  Com- 
plete Works,  which  has  been  described  in  great  detail  by 
the  late  Baron  Victor  Rosen1,  and  which  has  finally  settled 
several  doubtful  points  of  chronology.  For  further  details 
of  his  life  and  character  there  is  no  lack  of  contemporary 
evidence.  Even  as  a  boy  he  showed  remarkable  quickness 
and  ability,  and,  as  he  grew  older  and  pursued  his  studies 
under  more  famous  masters,  he  rapidly  assimilated  such 
knowledge  as  they  were  able  to  impart,  and  often  finished 
by  being  able  to  confute  them  in  argument.  Of  his  scholar- 
ship Nassau  Lees  writes  as  follows  : 

"  Considering  Jamf,  not  as  a  poet,  but  simply  as  a  scholar,  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  he  was  a  man  of  remarkable  genius  and  great  erudition ; 
and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  free  from 
self-conceit,  supercilious  hauteur,  and  contempt  for  the  literati  of  his 
day,  so  commonly  the  characteristic  of  the  votaries  of  his  peculiar 
philosophy.  He  was  extremely  reluctant  to  admit  that  he  was  indebted 
to  any  of  his  masters  for  his  acquirements.  '  I  have  found,'  said  he, 
'  no  master  with  whom  I  have  read  superior  to  myself.  On  the  con- 
trary I  have  invariably  found  that  in  argument  I  could  defeat  them  all. 
I  acknowledge,  therefore,  the  obligations  of  a  pupil  to  his  master  to 
none  of  them  ;  for  if  I  am  a  pupil  of  anyone  it  is  of  my  own  father,  who 
taught  me  the  language.'" 

More  pleasing,  though  possibly  due  to  the  same  motives, 
T,   .,  was  his  refusal   to   flatter  or  humble  himself 

Jami  s 

independence       before   the   rich   and   powerful,  a   rare   virtue 

amongst  the  poets  of  that  day,  which  led  his 

biographer  'Ah'  the  son  of  Husayn    Wd'iz  al-Kashifi   to 

1  Collections  Scientifiques  de  P  Institut  etc.  Les  Manuscrits  Per  sans, 
pp.  215-259. 


510    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD     [BK  in 

remark  that  to  no  one  more  than  Jami  did  the  following  lines 
of  Nizamf  apply1  : 


"  Since  in  my  youth  I  ne'er  forsook  Thy  gate 
To  seek  elsewhere  the  favours  of  the  great, 
Thou  in  return  didst  send  them  all  to  me: 
I  sought  it  not  ;  it  was  a  boon  from  Thee." 

To  his  spiritual  teachers,  on  the  other  hand,  and  to  those 
who  guided  him  in  the  mystic's  path  Jami  showed  the 
greatest  veneration  and  rendered  the  most  ungrudging 
homage  ;  a  fact  abundantly  illustrated  by  Nassau  Lees  in 
his  Biographical  Sketch?. 

But  though,  or  perhaps  because,  he  refused  to  flatter  or 
fawn  on  the  great,  few  Persian  poets  have  enjoyed  during 
their  lives  such  profound  and  widespread  respect,  or  have 
lived  so  long  without  being  exposed  to  such  disagreeable 
experiences  or  discouraging  vicissitudes  of  fortune  as  fell 
to  the  lot  of  even  the  greatest  of  them,  such  as  Firdawsi, 
Nasir-i-Khusraw,  Anwarf,  Sa'di  or  Hafiz.  The  only  un- 
pleasant incident  recorded  as  having  befallen  Jami,  and  one 
from  which  he  easily  and  speedily  extricated  himself, 
occurred  at  Baghdad  when  he  was  returning  from  the  Pil- 
grimage in  877-8/1  472  3.  A  garbled  citation  from  one  of 
his  poems,  the  Silsilatudh-Dhahab>  or  "Chain  of  Gold,"  was 
employed  by  some  ill-disposed  persons  to  convict  him  of 
hostility  to  the  House  of  'All,  in  spite  of  a  remarkable  poem4 
in  praise  of  al-Husayn,  'All's  son,  which  he  had  composed 
a  little  while  before  when  he  visited  the  scene  of  his 
martyrdom  at  Karbala.  In  a  crowded  meeting  presided 
over  by  the  chief  doctors  of  Baghdad,  Jami  easily  succeeded 
in  refuting  the  accusation  and  turning  the  tables  on  his 
detractors,  adding  that  "  if  he  had  any  fears  at  all  in  writing 

1  Nassau  Lees's  Biographical  Sketch,  p.  5. 

2  Pp.  5-11.  3  Ibid.,  pp.  12-15.  4  Ibid.,  p.  12. 


CH.  vin]  jAMf  511 

this  book  they  were  that...  the  people  of  Khurasan  might 
accuse  him  of  Shf'a  tendencies,  but  that  it  never  occurred  to 
him  to  imagine  that  on  account  of  it  he  should  fall  into 
trouble  at  the  hands  of  the  Shi'a."  The  incident,  however, 
rankled  in  his  mind,  and  is  commemorated  in  a  rather  bitter 
poem  beginning1  : 

L5L/ 


X 

lv-£=>  ?~  -A  *£=>  ^o  -.^5  jl 


"  O  cupbearer,  unseal  the  [wine-]jar  by  the  brink  of  the  Shatt*,  and 

wash  from  my  memory  the  unpleasantness  of  the  Baghdadis. 
Seal  my  lips  with  the  wine-cup,  for  not  one  of  the  people  of  this  land 

is  worth  discussion. 

Expect  not  faithfulness  or  generosity  from  the  unworthy  ;  seek  not 
for  the  virtues  of  men  from  the  disposition  of  devils." 

Notwithstanding  his  piety  and  mysticism,  Jami  had  a 
sharp  tongue  and  was  ready  at  repartee.  Thus  on  one 
occasion  he  was  repeating  with  fervour  the  line  : 


"  So  constantly  art  thou  in  my  stricken  soul  and  sleepless  eye 
That  whosoever  should  appear  from  afar,  I  should  think  that  it  was 
thou." 

An  irreverent  bystander  interrupted  him  with  the  ques- 
tion, "  Suppose  it  were  an  ass  ?  "  "I  should  think  that  it 
was  thou,"  replied  Jamf3. 

1  Nassau  Lees,  op.  tit.,  pp.  14-15. 

2  The  Shatiu'l-'Arab  is  the  name  given  to  the  united  streams  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates 

3  Ibid.,  p.  19. 


512    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD     [BKIII 

On  another  occasion  Jami  composed  the  following  verses 
on  a  contemporary  poet  named  Sagharf  who  had  accused 
his  fellow-poets  of  plagiarizing  his  ideas  : 


J  I  d  Jk-J>J,>      Ij^ly-^JlXI      A_£J1      OA-AA.*—  0     C-»  ...itj 


"  Saghari  was  saying,  '  Wherever  the  plagiarists  have  seen  a  fine  idea 

in  my  poetry  they  have  stolen  it.' 

I  have  noticed  that  most  of  his  poems  are  devoid  of  ideas  :  whoever 
said  that  the  ideas  had  been  stolen  spoke  the  truth." 

When  Saghari  angrily  reproached  Jami  for  this  verse,  he 
said,  "  It  is  not  my  fault.  What  I  wrote  was  shd'iri  ('  a 
certain  poet,'  ^j^U>),  not  Sdgharl  (iJ>£Lw),  but  some  mis- 
chief-maker has  altered  the  dots  over  the  letters  to  annoy 
you1." 

Amongst  the   chronograms   which   commemorate   the 

j  *  ,  ,    t  *  * 
date  of  Jamf's  death  the  two  best  known  are  *d».>  &*$ 

Cuf  ,ji£  (Quran,  iii,  91  :  6  +  40+50+4  +  600  +  30  +  5 
+  20  +  i  +  50  +  i  +  40  +  50  +  i  =  898)  "And  whosoever 
entereth  it  is  safe"  ;  and  J^«l  j-»  (j(~>\j±.  j\  i_j>,  "  Smoke  [of 
the  heart,  i.e.  sighs]  came  up  [or  '  was  subtracted  ']  from 
Khurasan"  Khurasan  gives  600  +  200  +1+  60  +1+50=912; 
smoke  (dud)  gives  4  +  6  +  4=14;  912—14  = 


We  pass  now  to  a  consideration  of  Jami's  numerous 

works,  which  fall  primarily  into  two  categories, 

pro^e  works         prose  and  poetry.    Of  his  chief  prose  works,  the 

Nafahdtu'l-Uns    (Biographies   of    Sufi   saints, 

composed  in  883/1478),  the  Shawdhidiin-Nubuwwat  ("Evi- 

contents  of  the     dences  of  Prophethood,"  composed  in  885/1480), 

shawdhidu'n-     the  commentary  on  'Iraqi's  Lama'dt  (known  as 

Ashi"atu'l-Lama''dt,    composed    in    886/1481), 

and  the  Lawd'ik  ("Flashes")  mention  has  been  already 

1  Nassau  Lees,  op.  tit.,  p.  19. 


CH.  vm]    jAMf'S  SHAWAHIDU'N-NUBUWWAT         513 

made.  Of  these  the  second  only,  so  far  as  I  know,  remains 
unpublished.  I  possess  a  fine  old  manuscript  of  it,  on  which 
the  following  table  of  contents  is  based. 

Preface  (Muqaddamd).  On  the  meaning  of  Nabi 
(Prophet)  and  Rasiil  (Apostle),  and  other  matter  connected 
therewith. 

First  chapter  (Rukn}.  On  the  signs  and  evidences  which 
preceded  the  birth  of  His  Holiness  the  Prophet. 

Second  chapter.  Setting  forth  what  took  place  from 
the  time  of  his  birth  until  [the  beginning  of]  his  mission. 

Third  chapter.  Setting  forth  what  took  place  from  [the 
beginning  of]  his  mission  until  the  Flight. 

Fourth  chapter.  Setting  forth  what  took  place  from  the 
Flight  until  his  death. 

Fifth  chapter.  Setting  forth  what  has,  or  is  known  to 
have,  no  special  connection  with  any  one  of  these  periods, 
and  that  whereof  the  significance  became  apparent  only 
after  his  death. 

Sixth  chapter.  Setting  forth  the  signs  and  evidences 
which  became  apparent  through  his  Noble  Companions  and 
the  Imams  of  his  House  (may  God  be  well  pleased  with 
them  !). 

Seventh  chapter.  Setting  forth  the  evidences  which 
were  manifested  through  the  Followers  [of  the  Companions] 
and  the  Followers  of  the  Followers,  down  to  the  generation 
of  the  [first]  Sufi's1. 

Conclusion  (Khdtimd).  On  the  punishment  of  his 
enemies. 

This  book  is  written  in  a  very  simple  style,  and  would, 
if  published,  constitute  an  admirable  introduction  to  the 
beliefs  of  the  Muslims  about  their  Prophet. 

Three  other  mystical  works  which  I  have  not  had  an 
opportunity  of  reading  are  the  Lawdmi'  ("Gleams"),  a  Com- 
mentary on  the  celebrated  Fustiml-Hikam  of  the  great 

1  On  this  classification  (Companions  ;  Followers  ;  Followers  of 
the  Followers ;  Sufis)  compare  the  Nafahdtrfl-  Uns  (ed.  Nassau  Lees), 
P-  31- 

B.  P.  33 


POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

mystic  Shaykh  Muhyi'd-Din  ibnu'l-'Arabi  (composed  in 
896/1491),  and  a  Commentary  on  the  Nusus  of  his  disciple 
Shaykh  Sadru'd-Din  al-Qunyawf.  This  is  entitled  NaqdiJn- 
Nustis,  and  is  one  of  J ami's  earliest  works,  for  it  was  com- 
posed in  863/1458-59. 

Of  Jamf's  minor  works  I  have  noted  some  two  dozen, 
included  by  Sam  Mirzd  in  the  list  of  forty-six  which  he 

gives  in  his  Tuhfa-i-Sdmi,  but  this  latter  number 
iforillsmin°r  is  more  than  doubled  by  the  Mirdtu'l-Khayal\ 

which  states  that  Jami  left  behind  him  some 
ninety  works.  These  minor  works  include  commentaries 
on  portions  of  the  Qur'dn,  e.g.  the  Stiratul-Fdtika;  com- 
mentaries on  Forty  Traditions  and  on  the  Traditions  of 
Abu  Dharr  ;  theological  tracts  on  the  Divine  Unity  (Risdla- 
i-Tahliliyya  and  Ld  ildha  ilia  'lldk),  the  Rites  of  the  Pil- 
grimage (M&ndsik-i-Hajf)  and  the  like ;  monographs  on 
the  lives  or  sayings  of  various  eminent  mystics,  such  as 
Jalalu'd-Din  Rumf,  Khwaja  Parsa  and  'Abdu'llah  Ansari ; 
tracts  on  Sufi  ethics  and  practice  (e.g.  the  Tariq-i-Sufiydn 
and  Tahqiq-i-Madhhab-i-Sufiydri);  and  commentaries,  on 
Arabic  and  Persian  mystical  verses,  such  as  the  Td'iyya  and 
Mimiyya  (or  Khamriyyd)  of  'Umar  ibnu'l-Fdrid,  the  opening 
verses  of  the  Mathnawi  (also  known  as  the  Nay-ndma,  or 
"  Reed-book"  from  its  subject),  a  couplet  of  Amir  Khusraw 
of  Dihli,  and  a  commentary  of  some  of  his  own  quatrains. 
Besides  all  these  Jami  wrote  treatises  on  prosody,  rhyme2 
and  music,  a  commentary  on  the  Miftdhul-Ghayb,  and 
another  for  his  son  Diya'u'd-Din3  on  the  well-known  Arabic 
grammar  of  Ibnu'l-Hajib  known  as  the  Kdfiya.  There  is 
also  a  collection  of  Jamf's  letters  (Muns/id'dt),  and  five 
treatises  on  the  Mu'ammd,  or  Acrostic,  which  was  so  popular 
at  this  period. 

1  Cited  by  Nassau  Lees,  loc.  cit.,  p.  19. 

2  Published  by  Blochmann   at  the  end  of  his   Persian  Prosody 
(Calcutta,  1872). 

3  This  book,  commonly  called  Sharh-i-Mulld  Jdm{,  is  properly  en- 
titled, in  allusion  to  the  son's  name,  al-Fawd!idu?d-Diya!iyya,  and  is 
well  known  and  widely  used  in  the  East. 


CH.  vin]  jAMf'S  BAHAR1STAN  515 

Last,  but  not  least,  amongst  J  ami's  prose  works  is  the 
Bahdristdn,  or  "  Spring  land,"  a  book  similar  in  character 
and  arrangement  to  the  more  celebrated  Gulistdn 
lSdnahdr'  of  Sa<dl'>  composed  in  892/1487.  It  comprises 
eight  chapters  (each  called  Rawda,  "  Garden  "), 
the  first  containing  anecdotes  about  Saints  and  Sufis ;  the 
second  sayings  of  Philosophers  and  Wise  Men  ;  the  third  on 
the  Justice  of  Kings;  the  fourth  on  Generosity;  the  fifth 
on  Love  ;  the  sixth  on  Jokes  and  Witticisms1 ;  the  seventh 
on  Poets2 ;  and  the  eighth  on  dumb  animals.  The  work  is 
written  in  mixed  prose  and  verse,  the  proportion  of  verse 
being  very  considerable.  The  text,  accompanied  by  a 
German  translation  by  Schlechta-Wssehrd,  was  published 
at  Vienna  in  1846.  There  are  also  several  Constantinople 
printed  editions  of  the  text3,  a  complete  English  translation 
published  in  1887  by  the  Kama  Shastra  Society,  and  an 
English  version  of  the  sixth  book  entitled  "  Persian  Wit 
and  Humour  "  by  C.  E.  Wilson.  The  curious  reader  can 
therefore  easily  acquaint  himself  more  fully  with  the  con- 
tents of  this  book,  even  if  he  does  not  read  Persian,  and  it 
is  therefore  superfluous  to  describe  it  more  fully  in  this 
place. 

It  is  as  a  poet,  however,  that  Jami  is  best  known,  and  it 

is  of  his  poetical  works  that  we  must  now  speak.     These 

comprise  seven  mathnawi  poems,  known  collec- 

Jdmi  s  poetry  l  l 

tively  as  the  SaVa  ("  Septet  )  or  Haft  Awrang 
("Seven  Thrones,"  one  of  the  names  by  which  the  constel- 
lation of  the  Great  Bear  is  known  in  Persia),  and  three 
separate  Diwdns,  or  collections  of  lyrical  poetry,  known 
respectively  as  the  Fdtihatu  sh-Shabdb  ("  Opening  of 
Youth"),  compiled  in  884/1479-1480;  the  Wdsitatu'l-'Iqd 

1  This  chapter  contains  53  "witticisms,"  many  of  them  very  coarse, 
and  hardly  any  of  them  sufficiently  amusing  to  raise  a  smile. 

2  Particulars  of  some  three  dozen  are  given,  but  the  notices  given 
by  Jami  of  his  own  contemporaries  are  very  brief. 

3  I  possess  that  printed  at  the  Akhtar  Press  in  1294/1877.     See 
also  Ethe"'s  India  Office  Persian  Catalogue,  col.  771-2. 

33—2 


516    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

("  Middle  of  the  Necklace  "),  compiled  in  894/1489  ;  and  the 
Khdtimatul-HaydtC'fLnd  of  Life"),  compiled  in  896/1490-1, 
only  two  years  before  the  author's  death. 

The  Haft  A  wrang  comprises  the  seven  following  poems  : 
(i)     Silsilatu'dh-Dhahab  (the  "Chain  of  Gold")  com- 

posed in  890/1485. 

Ifwwe'  (2)     Saldmdn  waAbsdl,  published  by  Forbes 

Falconer  in  1850,  and  translated  into  English 
in  1856.  This  edition  contains  1131  verses.  Another 
English  prose  abridged  translation  by  Edward  FitzGerald 
was  published  in  London  in  1856  (pp.  xvi  +  84). 

(3)  Tuhfatul-Ahrdr  ("the  Gift  of  the  Noble"),  com- 
posed in  886/1481,  was  published  by  Forbes  Falconer  in 
1848,  and  contains  1710  verses. 

(4)  Subhatu'l-Abrdr  ("  the  Rosary  of  the  Pious")  has 
been  twice  printed  (1811  and  1848)  and  once  lithographed 
(1818)  at  Calcutta. 

(5)  Yusufu  Zulaykhd,  composed  in  888/1483,  the  best 
known  and  most  popular  of  these  seven  poems,  was  pub- 
lished  with   a   German   verse-translation   by  Rosenzweig 
(Vienna,    1824).     There    is    an    English    translation    by 
R.  T.   H.  Griffith   (London,   1881),  and  another   in  very 
mediocre  verse  by  A.  Rogers  (London,  1892). 

(6)  Layld  wa  Majmin,  composed  in  889/1484,  has  been 
translated  into  French  by  Che'zy  (Paris,  1805)  and  into 
German  by  Hartmann  (Leipzig,  1807). 

(7)  Khirad-ndma-i-Sikandari  ("the  Book  of  Wisdom 
of  Alexander  ")  has  received  the  least  attention  of  the  seven 
poems,  and,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  has  never  been  pub- 
lished or  translated. 

i.     The  Chain  of  Gold. 

Of  the  Silsilatiidh-Dhahab,  or  "  Chain  of  Gold,"  I  possess 
a  good  manuscript  transcribed  in  997/1588-9. 
This  poem  discusses  various  philosophical, 


Chain  of          ethical  and  religious  subjects  with   illustrative 

Gold")  .  .    . 

anecdotes,  and  comprises  some  7200  couplets. 


CH.  vm]  jAMf'S  "CHAIN  OF  GOLD"  517 

A  certain  incoherence  and  scrappiness,  combined  with  a 
not  very  pleasing  metre,  seem  to  have  rendered  it  less 
popular  than  the  remaining  poems  of  the  "  Septet,"  and 
hence  probably  its  comparative  rarity.  It  is  dedicated  to 
Sultan  Husayn,  "whose  justice  bound  the  hands  of  the 
Sphere  from  aggression  "  : 


and  there  follows  a  most  elaborate  and  artificial  acrostic  on 
this  Prince's  name,  full  of  the  most  far-fetched  conceits. 

As  a  specimen  of  the  poem  we  may  take  the  following 
anecdote  concerning  the  distress  of  a  poet  who  composed 
a  brilliant  panegyric  on  a  king,  which  no  one  applauded 
save  an  ignorant  fellow  who  had  no  acquaintance  with  the 
forms  of  poetry. 

) 


j    .X-JLwj     A.,£» 


518    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 


l  L.3 


ft-^i  ....  .1 


J-      c^Ji      o    J' 


->-J>—<0 


t 

J.  kj  .  3 


>-» 


*     .       .     i     ,        ^-j    xC  JL 


CH.  vm]  jAMf'S  "CHAIN  OF  GOLD" 


519 


J      i    A* 


ilj 


'   ftLj     .L. 
C    *    T^ 


«>._^_jC-.i     ij^ 


^  J 


*•••  1  1      . 


520    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

"  A  bard  whose  verse  with  magic  charm  was  filled, 
Who  in  all  arts  of  eulogy  was  skilled, 
Did  for  some  king  a  flag  of  honour  raise, 
And  wrought  a  poem  filled  with  arts  of  praise. 
Reason  and  Law  the  praise  of  kings  approve  ; 
Kings  are  the  shadow  of  the  Lord  above. 
The  shadow's  praise  doth  to  the  wise  accord 
With  praises  rendered  to  the  shadow's  Lord. 
A  skilful  rhapsodist  the  bard  one  day 
Brought  in  his  verse  before  the  King  to  lay. 
Melodious  verse  melodious  voice  doth  need 
That  so  its  beauty  may  increase  indeed. 
From  end  to  end  these  praises  of  the  King 
Unto  his  ears  the  rhapsodist  did  bring. 
A  fine  delivery  is  speech's  need  : 
The  Book  God  bids  melodiously  to  read 1. 
When  to  the  end  he  had  declaimed  the  piece 
And  from  reciting  it  at  length  did  cease, 
The  poet  strained  his  ears  to  hear  the  pause 
Swiftly  curtailed  by  thunders  of  applause. 
The  man  of  talent  travaileth  with  pain 
Hoping  the  critic's  well-earned  praise  to  gain, 
Yet  no  one  breathed  a  word  or  showed  a  sign 
Of  recognition  of  those  verses  fine, 
Till  one  renowned  for  ignorance  and  pride, 
Standing  beyond  the  cultured  circle,  cried, 
'  God  bless  thee !  Well  thou  singest,  well  dost  string 
'  Fair  pearls  of  speech  to  please  our  Lord  the  King ! ' 
The  poet  gazed  on  him  with  saddened  eye, 
Covered  his  face,  and  sore  began  to  cry. 
'  By  this,'  he  wailed,  '  my  back  is  snapped  in  twain  : 
'  The  praise  of  this  lewd  fellow  me  hath  slain ! 
'  That  King  and  beggar  grudged  my  praises  due 
'  My  fortune's  face  with  black  did  not  imbrue, 
'  But  this  fool-fellow's  baseless  ill-judged  praise 
'  Hath  changed  to  woe  the  pleasure  of  my  days  ! ' 
In  folly's  garden  every  flower  and  fruit, 
Though  fair  of  branch  and  bud,  is  foul  of  root. 
'  Verse  which  accordeth  with  the  vulgar  mood 
'  Is  known  to  men  of  taste  as  weak  and  crude. 
'  Like  seeks  for  like ;  this  is  the  common  law ; 
'  How  can  the  ripe  foregather  with  the  raw  ? 

1  Qur'dn  Ixxiii,  4:  "and  chant  the  Qur'dn  with  a  well-measured 
recitation." 


CH.  vin]  jAMf'S  "  CHAIN  OF  GOLD  "  521 

'  The  crow  repeats  the  crow's  unlovely  wail, 
'  And  scorns  the  warbling  of  the  nightingale. 
'  The  owl  to  some  forsaken  nook  doth  cling, 
'  Nor  home  desires  in  palace  of  the  King. 
'  He  hath  no  eye  to  judge  the  worth  of  verse, 
'  So  from  his  praise  I  suffer  shame  and  worse  ! ' 
E'en  so  the  Rdfidi1  fulfilled  with  fraud, 
When  occupied  with  'All's  praise  and  laud, 
Shame  comes  to  'All  from  his  shameless  praise, 
Which  praise  on  him  a  grievous  burden  lays. 
If  thou  shouldst  say, '  A  heart's  devotion  ne'er 
'  Can  be  devoid  of  some  relation  fair  ; 
'  'All  so  high,  the  Rafidi  so  mean, 
'  Doth  no  relationship  subsist  between  ? ' 
Another  anecdote  I  pray  thee  hear, 
Ponder  it  well,  and  rend  an  answer  clear2." 

The  Silsilatiidh-Dhahab  is  divided  into  three  books  or 
daftars,  whereof  the  first  ends  with  an  Ptiqdd-ndma,  or 
Confession  of  Faith,  which  exhibits  Jdmi,  in  spite  of  his 
mysticism,  as  a  thoroughly  orthodox  Sunni.  This  is  suffi- 
ciently shown  by  the  sectional  headings,  which  run  as 
follows :  Necessary  Existence ;  Unity  of  God  ;  the  Attri- 
butes of  God,  viz.  Life,  Knowledge,  Will,  Power,  Hearing, 
Seeing,  Speech  ;  Divine  Actions ;  existence  of  the  Angels  ; 
belief  in  all  the  Prophets  ;  superiority  of  Muhammad  over 
all  other  prophets  ;  finality  of  Muhammad's  mission ;  the 
Prophet's  Law  ;  his  Night- Ascent  to  Heaven  ;  his  miracles; 
God's  Scriptures ;  eternal  pre-existence  of  God's  Word3 ; 
superiority  of  the  people  of  Muhammad  over  all  other 
peoples;  unlawfulness  of  regarding  as  infidels  any  of  the 

1  Literally  "Rejector"  (i.e.  of  the  first  three  orthodox  Caliphs),  a 
term  of  vituperation  applied  by  the  Sunnfs  to  the  Shf'a. 

2  The  following  lines,   which   are   a   continuation   of  these,   are 
entitled  :    "  Story  of  that   Rafidf  who   begged  a  certain  scholar  to 
describe  'Alf,  and  how  that   scholar  enquired,  'Which  'Alf  shall  I 
describe,  the  'All  in  whom  I  believe,  or  the  'AH  in  whom  you  believe?' " 

3  This  important  dogma,  hotly  repudiated  by  the  Mu'tazila,  was 
one  of  the  test-beliefs  of  what  ultimately  became  the  orthodox  doctrine 
of  IsMm. 


522    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

"  people  of  the  Qibla1 "  ;  the  Angels  of  the  Tomb,  Munkir 
and  Nakfr ;  the  two  blasts  of  the  trumpet ;  the  distribution 
of  the  books  kept  by  the  recording  angels ;  the  Balance ; 
the  Bridge  of  Sirdt ;  the  fifty  stations  of'Arasat ;  indicating 
that  the  infidels  shall  remain  in  Hell-fire  for  ever,  while 
sinners  shall  escape  therefrom  by  the  intercession  of  the 
virtuous  and  the  pious ;  Paradise  and  its  degrees. 

The  second  book  of  the  "Chain  of  Gold "  consists  chiefly 
of  dissertations  on  the  different  kinds  and  phases  of  Love, 
"  metaphorical "  and  "  real,"  and  anecdotes  of  saints  and 
lovers.  The  third  contains  for  the  most  part  anecdotes  of 
kings,  and  towards  the  end  several  about  physicians. 
Amongst  the  latter  it  is  interesting  to  find  two  borrowed 
from  the  fourth  Discourse  of  the  Chahdr  Maqdla  of  Nizamf- 
i-'Arudi  of  Samarqand,  one  related  by  Avicejina  concerning 
a  certain  physician  at  the  Samanid  Court  who  healed  a 
maidservant  by  psychical  treatment,  and  the  other  describing 
how  Avicenna  himself  cured  a  prince  of  the  House  of  Buwayh 
of  melancholic  delusions2.  These  are  followed  by  a  dis- 
quisition on  the  two  opposite  kinds  of  poetry,  the  one  "  a 
comfort  to  the  soul "  and  the  other  "  a  diminution  of  the 
heart "  ;  and  an  interesting  dissertation  on  poets  of  old  time 
who  rewarded  their  royal  patrons  by  immortalizing  their 
names,  which  would  otherwise  have  passed  into  oblivion. 
The  poets  of  whom  mention  is  here  made  are  Rudaki, 
'Unsurf,  Sana'i,  Nizami,  Mu'izzi,  Anwari,  Khaqanf,  Zahi'r, 
Sa'di,  Kamal  and  Salman  of  Sawa.  Another  anecdote  from 
the  Chahdr  Maqdla?  about  one  of  'Unsuri's  happy  improvisa- 
tions is  also  introduced  in  this  place.  The  book  ends  some- 
what abruptly  with  a  short  conclusion  which,  one  cannot 
help  feeling,  would  have  seemed  almost  equally  appropriate 
at  any  other  point  in  the  text.  In  a  word,  the  "  Chain  of 
Gold  "  could  bear  the  withdrawal  of  many  of  its  component 

1  I.e.  those  who  turn  towards  Mecca  when  they  pray. 

2  See  my  translation   of  the   Chahdr  Maqdla,   Anecdotes   xxxiii 
(pp.  113-115)  and  xxxvii  (pp.  125-128). 

3  Ibid.,  Anecdote  xiv,  pp.  56-58. 


CH.  vin]         jAMf'S  SALAMAN  AND  ABSAL  523 

links  without  suffering  much  detriment.  It  contains  some 
excellent  matter,  but  is  too  long,  and  lacks  artistic  unity  of 
conception. 

2.     Said man  and  A  bsdl. 

The  character  and  scope  of  the  curious  allegorical  poem 
of  Saldmdn  and  Absdl  may  be  readily  apprehended  by  the 

English  reader  from  Edward  FitzGerald's  rather 
S^!dAhdi  *ree  ancl  somewhat  abridged  translation.  His 

rendering  in  blank  verse  is  generally  graceful 
and  sometimes  eloquent ;  but  the  employment  of  the  metre 
of  Hiawatha  for  the  illustrative  anecdotes  (which,  as  is 
generally  the  case  in  poems  of  this  class,  frequently  inter- 
rupt the  continuity  of  the  text)  is  a  less  happy  experiment. 
The  story  is  of  the  slenderest  kind,  the  dramatis  persona 
being  a  King  of  Greece,  a  Wise  Man  who  is  his  constant 
mentor  and  adviser,  his  beautiful  and  dearly  beloved  son 
Salaman,  Absal  the  fair  nurse  of  the  boy,  and  Zuhra  (the 
planet  Venus),  representing  the  heavenly  Beauty  which 
finally  expels  the  memory  of  Absal  from  Salaman's  mind. 
Amongst  the  somewhat  grotesque  features  of  the  story  are 
the  birth  of  Salaman  without  a  mother  to  bear  him  (the 
poet's  misogyny  holding  marriage  in  abhorrence,  though  he 
was  himself  married),  and  the  seniority  by  some  twenty 
years  of  the  charming  Absal  over  her  nursling,  whom,  when 
he  reached  maturity,  she  entangles  in  an  attachment  highly 
distasteful  to  the  king  and  the  sage.  The  latter,  by  a  kind 
of  mesmeric  power,  compels  Salaman  in  the  earthly  paradise 
whither  he  has  fled  with  Absdl  to  build  and  kindle  a  great 
pyre  of  brushwood,  into  which  the  two  lovers  cast  them- 
selves, with  the  result  that,  while  poor  Absal  is  burned  to  ashes, 
Salaman  emerges  unhurt,  purified  from  all  earthly  desires,  and 
fit  to  receive  the  crown  and  throne  which  his  father  hastens 
to  confer  upon  him.  The  allegory,  transparent  enough  with- 
out commentary,  is  fully  explained  in  the  Epilogue1. 

1  Pp.  71-5  of  FitzGerald's  translation  ;  11.  1076-1120  of  the  original 
in  Forbes  Falconer's  edition. 


524    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  in 

As  FitzGerald's  work  has  a  special  interest  in  the  eyes 
of  all  amateurs  of  Persian  literature,  I  here  give  an  extract 
of  his  translation  with  the  corresponding  passage  of  the 
original1.  The  passage  selected  describes  the  arrival  of 
the  lovers,  in  the  course  of  their  flight  from  the  King's 
reproaches,  in  the  enchanted  island  where  they  spend  their 
joyous  days  of  dalliance. 

*_£»       Alo          jl 


'jl  c.  ,,.t.  .Oi  'A-fc-^-s  jl  ^  ,:  a.  .,,>j 

1  Pp.  48-49  of  the  translation,  11.  802-824  of  the  text. 


CH.  vin]         J  AMI'S  SAL  AM  AN  AND  ABSAL  525 


j   ^j 

JLol 


'  a>  ;  n.  t 


i'    W 


LJ 


526    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

FitzGerald's  translation  (pp.  48-49). 

"  When  they  had  sailed  their  Vessel  for  a  Moon 
And  marr'd  their  Beauty  with  the  wind  o'  th'  Sea, 
Suddenly  in  mid  Sea  revealed  itself 
An  Isle,  beyond  Description  beautiful ; 
An  Isle  that  all  was  Garden  ;  not  a  Bird 
Of  Note  or  Plume  in  all  the  World  but  there; 
There  as  in  Bridal  Retinue  array'd 
The  Pheasant  in  his  Crown,  the  Dove  in  her  Collar; 
And  those  who  tuned  their  Bills  among  the  Trees 
That  Arm  in  Arm  from  Fingers  paralyz'd 
With  any  Breath  of  Air  Fruit  moist  and  dry 
Down  scattered  in  Profusion  at  their  Feet, 
Where  Fountains  of  Sweet  Water  ran,  and  round 
Sunshine  and  Shadow  chequer-chased  the  Ground. 
Here  Iram  Garden  seemed  in  Secresy 
Blowing  the  Rosebud  of  its  Revelation ; 
Or  Paradise,  forgetful  of  the  Day 
Of  Audit,  lifted  from  her  Face  the  Veil. 

Sala'ma'n  saw  the  Isle,  and  thought  no  more 

Of  Further — there  with  Absal  he  sat  down, 

Absdl  and  He  together  side  by  side 

Rejoicing  like  the  Lily  and  the  Rose, 

Together  like  the  Body  and  the  Soul. 

Under  its  Trees  in  one  another's  Arms 

They  slept — they  drank  its  Fountains  hand  in  hand — 

Sought  Sugar  with  the  Parrot — or  in  sport 

Paraded  with  the  Peacock — raced  the  Partridge — 

Or  fell  a-talking  with  the  Nightingale. 

There  was  the  Rose  without  a  Thorn,  and  there 

The  Treasure  and  no  Serpent  to  beware — 

What  sweeter  than  your  Mistress  at  your  side 

In  such  a  Solitude,  and  none  to  chide!" 

3.     The  Gift  of  the  Free. 

The  Tuhfatu'l-Ahrdr,  or  "  Gift  of  the  Free,"  is  a  didactic 
and  moral  poem  of  theological  and  ethical  contents  com- 
prising,  besides    doxologies,   eulogies    of    the 
Akrtr  Prophet,  and  Supplications  to  God  (Mundjdt\ 

twenty  Maqdldtor  Discourses,  of  which  the  last1 
1  See  note  on  p.  527. 


CH.  vni]         jAMf'S  "  GIFT  OF  THE  FREE "  527 

is  addressed  to  the  poet's  little  son  Yusuf  Diya'u'd-Din,  who 
was  then  only  four  years  of  age,  while  his  father  was  sixty. 
Each  discourse  is,  as  a  rule,  followed  by  one  or  more  illustra- 
tive anecdotes.  In  a  short  prose  preface  prefixed  to  the  poem 
Jami  implies  that  it  was  inspired  by  the  Makhzanu'l-Asrdr 
("  Treasury  of  Mysteries  ")  of  Nizami  and  the  Matla'uH- 
Anwdr  ("Dayspring  of  Lights  ")  of  Amir  Khusraw  of  Dihli. 
The  poem  is  on  the  whole  dull  and  monotonous,  and  can- 
not be  regarded  as  a  favourable  specimen  of  J  ami's  work. 
As  a  specimen  I  give  a  prose  translation  of  part  of  the 
author's  above-mentioned  address  to  his  son,  the  original  of 
which  can  be  consulted  by  those  who  desire  it  in  Forbes 
Falconer's  printed  text1. 

Twentieth  Discourse, 
giving  counsel  to  my  precious  son, 

(May  he  be  nurtured  on  the  Herb  of  Beauty  in  the  Garden  of 
Childhood,  and  may  he  find  his  way  to  the  Limit  of  Perfection 

in  the  School  of  Eloquence!} 
(1615) 
"  O  New  Moon  to  the  night  of  my  hope,  to  whose  Image  the  eye  of 

my  fortune  is  a  pledge ! 
The  Crescent  Moon  arises  after  thirty  days,  while  thou  didst  show 

thy  face  after  sixty  years. 
Thy  years  are  four  at  the  time  of  reckoning :  may  thy  four  be  forty 

and  thy  forty  four2 ! 

May  each  forty  [years]  of  thine  be  quadraginta3,  wherein,  by  know- 
ledge and  ecstasy,  thou  mayst  explore  the  degrees  of  Perfection  ! 
Thy  name  is  the  Yusuf  [Joseph]  of  the  Egypt  of  Faith:  may  thy 

title  be  the  Light  (Dtya)  of  the  Empire  and  of  Religion ! 
With  the  pen  which  inditeth  wisdom  I  write  this  Book  of  Wisdom 

for  thee. 

Although  thou  hast  not  at  present"  understanding  of  advice,  when 
thou  attainest  the  age  of  understanding  put  it  into  practice. 

1  Pp.  91-93  of  Forbes  Falconer's  edition,  11.  1615-1659. 

2  I.e.,  I  suppose,  "  may  thy  four  years  increase  to  forty  years,  yea,  to 
four  times  forty  !  " 

3  Chilla  (Arabic  Arbaim},  a  period  of  fasting  and  religious  exercises 
lasting  forty  days  practised  \>ydarwishes  and  seekers  after  occult  powers. 
See  my  Year  amongst  the  Persians,  p.  148. 


528    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

Until  the  hair  of  thy  face  becomes  a  veil,  set  not  thy  foot  outside  the 

house  into  the  market  and  the  street1. 
Be  the  enchainer  of  thine  own  feet ;  be  the  [willing]  prisoner  of  thine 

own  apartments  (haram). 
Never  carry  thy  goods  from  the  companionship  of  thy  house-fellows 

to  the  doors  of  strangers. 
The  sight  of  a  stranger  is  not  auspicious,  especially  if  his  age  exceed 

thine. 
If  they  set  thee  to  work  at  school  and  place  the  tables  of  the  alphabet 

in  thy  lap, 
Do  not  sit  beside  every  low-born  [school-fellow] :   separate  thyself 

from  all  and  sit  alone. 
Although  the  letter  alif(\)  is  not  by  itself  of  crooked  stature,  see  how 

crooked  it  becomes  [in  combination]  as  lam-alifty). 
When  thou  placest  thy  slate  in  thy  lap  lift  not  up  thy  finger  like  an 

alif  therefrom. 
Modestly  hang  thy  head  like  the  letter  dal  (3);  fix  thine  eyes  upon 

it  like  the  letter  sdd  (u°)- 
Smiling  now  at  this  one,  now  at  that  one,  show  not  thy  teeth  like 

the  letter  sin  d^). 
Divide  not  thy  heart  with  errant  thoughts ;  be  like  the  letter  mini 

(j>}  too  narrow-mouthed  for  speech. 
Hearken  not  vainly  to  every  kind  of  tittle-tattle,  so  that  thou  mayst 

not  suffer  the  pain  of  a  box  on  the  ear. 
Take  heed  of  right  behaviour  during  the  teacher's  lessons,  lest  thou 

become  the  little  drum2  of  the  school-room. 
Although  the  [master's]  slaps  impart  virtue,  yet  is  it  better  if  thou 

dost  not  bring  the  affair  to  slapping  !" 

Excellent  as  this  paternal  advice  (and  there  is  much 
more  of  it)  may  be,  it  does  not  constitute  what  we  should 
regard  as  suitable  material  for  poetry,  while  here  again  the 
many  fanciful  conceits  about  the  ethical  lessons  to  be  learned 
from  the  shapes  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  make  it  diffi- 
cult to  produce  a  tolerable  translation  even  in  prose. 

4.      The  Rosary  of  the  Pious. 

The  Subhatu'l-Abrdr,  or  "Rosary  of  the  Pious"  is  a 

didactic    poem    of    theological,    mystical    and 

SAbrdr"'1'         ethical  contents  very  similar  to  the  last,  equally 

lacking  in  coherence  and  even  less  attractive  in 

1  Young  boys  in  the  East  are  almost  as  carefully  secluded  as  girls. 

2  By  being  beaten  with  the  sticks. 


CH.  vni]      jAMf'S  "  ROSARY  OF  THE  PIOUS  "  529 

form  and  matter.  The  following  story  of  Abraham  and 
the  aged  Fire-Worshipper,  which  also  occurs  in  Sa'di's 
Bustdn^,  and  is  the  subject  of  some  very  lengthy  reflections 
in  Forbes's  Persian  Grammar*,  where  it  is  quoted  amongst 
the  extracts,  may  serve  as  a  specimen. 


J-> 


1  See  Graf's  edition  (Vienna,  1858),  pp.  142-3,  11.  37-54. 

2  Pp.  152-4  and  164-70. 

B.  P.  34 


530     POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtfRID  PERIOD     [BK  in 


"  One  from  a  heathen  temple  took  the  road 
And  lodged  as  guest  in  Abraham's  abode, 
Who,  seeing  that  his  practice  did  accord 
111  with  true  faith,  dismissed  him  from  his  board. 
Beholding  him  a  stranger  to  God's  Grace, 
The  Fire-fane's  smoke  apparent  in  his  face, 
Bade  him  confess  the  Lord  who  doth  bestow 
Men's  daily  bread,  or  leave  the  board  and  go. 
The  aged  man  arose,  and  '  Friend,'  quoth  he, 
'  Can  Faith  the  vassal  of  the  Belly  be  ? ' 
With  lips  athirst  and  mouth  unfilled  with  food 
He  turned  away  his  face  and  took  the  road. 
To  Abraham  a  message  from  the  skies 
Came,  saying,  '  O  most  fair  in  qualities ! 
'  Although  that  stranger  held  an  alien  creed, 
'  Food  to  forbid  him  was  no  righteous  deed. 
'  For  more  than  threescore  years  and  ten,  in  fine, 
'  He  offered  worship  at  a  heathen  shrine, 


CH.  vm]       jAMf'S  YtfSUF  AND  ZULAYKHA  531 

'  Yet  ne'er  did  I  his  sustenance  withhold, 

'  Saying,  "  Thy  heart  is  dead  to  faith  and  cold." 

'What  harm  were  it  if  from  thine  ample  store 

'  Some  morsels  thou  shouldst  give  him,  less  or  more  ? ' 

Abraham  called  him  back,  and  did  accord 

A  place  to  him  at  his  most  bounteous  board. 

'  This  flood  of  grace,'  the  aged  man  enquired, 

'  After  that  first  rebuff  what  thought  inspired  ? ' 

He  told  the  message  which  his  act  had  banned, 

And  told  him  too  of  that  stern  reprimand. 

'  To  one,'  the  old  man  said,  '  who  thus  can  take 

'  To  task  his  servant  for  a  stranger's  sake 

'  Can  I  endure  a  stranger  to  remain, 

'  Or  fail  his  love  and  friendship  to  attain  ?' 

Unto  the  Source  of  Good  he  then  addressed 

His  homage,  and  his  faith  in  God  professed." 

The  story  and  the  moral  are  admirable,  but  most  Persian 
scholars  will,  I  think,  prefer  Sa'di's  older  to  Jamf's  later 
version. 

5.      Yti suf  and  Zulaykhd. 

The  fifth  of  the  "  Seven  Thrones,"  the  Romance  of 
Yusuf  (Joseph)  and  Zulaykha  (Potiphar's  wife),  is  by  far  the 
most  celebrated  and  popular,  and  is  also  the 
most  accessible  both  in  the  original  and  in  trans- 
lation. The  entire  text,  with  German  metrical 
translation  and  notes  by  Vincenz  Edlem  von  Rosenzweig, 
was  published  in  a  fine  folio  volume  at  Vienna  in  1824,  and 
there  are  several  Oriental  editions  of  the  text1.  I  have 
already  alluded  to  the  late  Mr  A.  Rogers'  English  rhymed 
translation  (1892)  which  cannot  be  described  as  happy; 
R.  T.  H.  Griffith's  earlier  translation  (1881)  I  have  not  seen. 
Of  two  fine  passages  on  the  nature  of  Beauty  and  its 
essential  desire  to  manifest  itself,  and  on  love  of  the  creature 
considered  as  the  bridge  leading  to  love  of  the  Creator2 
I  have  published  translations,  originally  in  a  lecture  on 

1  See  Ethe's  India  Office  Persian  Catalogue,  col.  746-747. 

2  This  latter  passage  is  practically  a  commentary  on  the  well- 
known  Sufi  aphorism,  "  the  Phenomenal  is  the  Bridge  to  the  Real." 

34—2 


532     POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

Sufi'ism  contributed  to  the  Religious  Systems  of  the  World1 
and  again  in  part  in  vol.  i  of  my  Literary  History  of  Persia 
(pp.  439  and  442). 

The  story  itself,  based  on  the  Stiratu  Yiisuf  (Qur1  an  xii), 
which  describes  it  as  "  the  most  beautiful  of  stories,"  is  one 
of  the  most  popular  themes  of  romantic  poetry  in  Persia 
and  Turkey,  and  engaged  the  attention  of  the  great  Firdawsf 
after  he  had  finished  the  Shdh-ndma^  and  after  him  of  a 
whole  series  of  Persian  poets.  Of  the  Turkish  renderings 
of  the  tale  a  pretty  complete  list  will  be  found  in  a  foot- 
note in  the  second  volume  of  Gibb's  History  of  Ottoman 
Poetry*.  But  of  all  these  renderings  of  the  well-known  tale 
Jami's  deservedly  holds  the  highest  place,  and  on  it  his 
reputation  largely  rests.  The  text  of  the  following  trans- 
lation, which  unfortunately  is  a  very  inadequate  representa- 
tion of  the  original,  occurs  on  p.  81  of  von  Rosenzweig's 
edition,  11.  19-42. 

"This  speech  from  Bazigha3  when  Joseph  heard 
From  his  sweet  mouth  came  forth  this  living  word : 
'That  Master- craftsman's  work  am  I,'  said  he; 
'  One  single  drop  contents  me  from  His  Sea. 
'  One  dot  is  Heaven  from  His  Pen  of  Power, 
'And  from  His  Beauty's  garth  this  world  a  flower. 
'The  Sun's  a  gleam  from  out  His  Wisdom's  Light, 
'The  Earth's  a  bubble  on  His  Sea  of  Might. 
'  Each  mundane  atom  He  a  Mirror  made, 
'And  His  Reflection  in  each  one  displayed. 
'  His  Beauty  from  all  faults  and  flaws  is  free, 
'  Hid  'neath  the  Veil  of  what  no  eye  can  see. 
'  Discerning  eyes  in  all  that's  dowered  with  Grace 
'See  naught,  when  well  they  look,  except  His  Face4. 
'  Beside  the  Prototype  the  Shadow's  dim ; 
'  See  His  Reflection,  haste  thee  unto  Him. 
'  If  from  the  Prototype  you  stand  bereft, 
'When  fades  the  Shadow,  naught  to  you  is  left. 

1  Published  by  Swan  Sonnenschein  in  1892,  pp.  314-332. 

2  Vol.  ii,  pp.  148-150  ad  calc. 

3  A  lady  who,  like  Zulaykha,  falls  in  love  with  Joseph,  but  is  turned 
by  his  exhortations  from  love  of  the  creature  to  love  of  the  Creator. 

4  Cf.  Qur'dn  ii,  109. 


CH.  vm]  jAMf 'S  LA  YLA  AND  MAJMlN  533 

'  Nor  will  the  Shadow  long  remain  with  thee ; 

'  The  Rose's  colour  hath  no  constancy. 

'  Look  to  the  Source,  if  permanence  you  claim  ; 

'  Go  to  the  Root,  if  constancy's  your  aim. 

'  Can  that  which  is,  and  soon  is  not  again, 

'  Make  throb  the  heart,  or  twinge  the  vital  vein  ?'" 

6.     Lay  Id  and  Majniin. 

Of  the  last  two  of  Jami's  "Seven  Thrones,"  the  Romance 
of  Layla  and  Majniin  and  the  Book  of  Wisdom 
^aj»^a          °f  Alexander,  copies  are  rare,  but  I  have  been 
able  to  examine  them  cursorily  in  a  fine  manu- 
script1, transcribed  in  937/1530-1,  belonging  to  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  and  have  selected  the  following  passages 
as  typical.    The  first  two  are  from  the  Layld  and  Majntin*. 


1  It  bears  the  class-mark  R.  13.8. 

2  Ff.  68b-69b. 


534    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  in 


(7«  />^  meaning  of  the  Love  of  the  Loyal  and  the  Loyalty 
of  Lovers. 

"  When  the  Dawn  of  Eternity  whispered  of  Love,  Love  cast  the  Fire 

of  Longing  into  the  Pen. 
The  Pen  raised  its  head  from  the  Tablet  of  Not-Being,  and  drew  a 

hundred  pictures  of  wondrous  aspect. 
The  Heavens  are  the  offspring  of  Love  :  the  Elements  fell  to  Earth 

through  Love. 
Without  Love  is  no  token  of  Good  or  Evil  :  that  thing  which  is  not 

of  Love  is  indeed  non-existent. 

This  lofty  azure  Roof  which  revolveth  through  the  days  and  nights 
Is  the  Lotus  of  the  Garden  of  Love,  and  the  ball  [which  lies]  in  the 

curve  of  Love's  Polo-stick. 
That  Magnetism  which  is  inherent  in  the  Stone,  and  which  fastens 

its  grasp  so  firmly  on  the  Iron, 
Is  a  Love  precipitated  in  Iron  Resolve  which  hath  appeared  from 

within  the  Stone. 
Behold  the  Stone,  how  in  this  resting-place  it  becomes  without 

weight  through  longing  for  its  opponent  : 
Judge  therefrom  of  those  who  suffer  sorrow  in  the  attraction  of  the 

love  of  those  dear  to  the  heart. 

Although  Love  is  painful,  it  is  the  consolation  of  pure  bosoms. 
Without  the  blessing  of  Love  how  shall  a  man  escape  from  the 

sorrow  of  the  inverted  Wheel  [of  Heaven]  ?  " 


CH.  vni]  jAMf'S  LA  YLA  AND  MAJNVN 


535 


t    C 


ULJ 


Concerning  the  cause  of  the  versification  of  this  Book,  and  the 
reason  of  the  arrangement  of  this  Address. 

"  When  I  withdrew  the  Veil  from  this  Mystery,  and  prepared  this 

strange  Song, 
The  Parrot  of  my  Genius  became  an  eater  of  sugar  from  the  Story 

of  Joseph  and  Zulaykha. 
In  this  outpouring  of  sugar  there  sprang  from  my  Pen  sweet  verses 

mingled  with  sugar. 


536    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  in 

Therefrom  tumult  fell  upon  the  World,  and  a  gladness  in  the  hearts 

of  lovers. 
It  was  a  Fountain  of  Graciousness,  but  therefrom  my  thirst  was  not 

appeased. 

The  Bird  of  my  Heart  desired  to  sing  another  song  on  another  topic. 
When  under  fortunate  auspices  I  cast  lots,  [the  lot]  fell  on  an  account 

of  Majnun's  plight. 
Although  aforetime  two  Masters,  raised  high  above  the  Realm  of 

Verse, 
Unloosed  their  tongues  in  the  enunciation  of  subtleties,  and  therein 

did  full  justice  to  speech  ; 
That  one1  pouring  forth  pearls  like  a  Treasure  (ganf)  from  Ganja, 

and  this  one2  scattering  sugar  like  a  Parrot  in  India; 
That  one  smiting  the  ears  of  [unjustified]  pretension,  and  this  one 

unveiling  the  bride  of  the  Ideal  ; 
That  one  with  his  verse  engraving  an  inscription  on  the  rock,  and 

this  one  giving  colour  [to  the  tale]  by  his  exquisite  art  ; 
That  one  raising  his  standard  to  the  Zenith  of  Glory,  and  this  one 

preparing  the  spells  of  Magic  ; 
I  also  bound  my  girdle  behind  me,  and  seated  myself  on  my  dromedary 

fleet  as  the  wind, 

And  wherever  their  Pegasus3  attained,  through  their  inspiring  minds 
I  also  urged  onwards  my  camel  in  humility,  and  brought  myself 

within  the  range  of  their  dust. 
Though  I  fall  behind  their  reckoning,  yet  their  dust  upon  my  face 

sufficeth  me." 

7.      The  Book  of  Wisdom  of  A  lexander. 

The  following  anecdote  from  the  Khirad-ndma-i- 
Sikandari,  or  "  Book  of  Wisdom  of  Alexander,"  is  taken 
from  the  same  manuscript4  as  the  last  two  extracts  : 


1  I.e.,  Nizdmi  of  Ganja. 

2  Amir  Khusraw  of  Dihli. 

3  Rakhsh,  the  name  of  Rustam's  celebrated  charger. 
<  R.  13-8  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  f.  I7ia. 


CH.  vm]     jAMf'S  KHIRAD-NAMA-I-SIKANDARt         537 


JU  J 


«  JJUO   ji     4J 


J  A*^  J-H 


U 


538     POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  in 


1  Jl 


*_j     ^Jv  ifc  ^ 


'  oj   O 


O—  * 


15-0 


CH.  vm]    jAMf'S  KHIRAD-NAMA-I-SIKANDARI        539 


Story  of  the  Kite  which  lent  an  ear  to  the  Frog's  talk,  and  in 
hope  of  credit  let  slip  the  cash  from  its  hand. 

"The  cycle  of  heaven  now  bids  me  indite 
For  example  the  tale  of  the  frog  and  the  kite. 
A  kite,  wont  to  prey  on  the  birds  of  the  air, 
By  the  weakness  of  age  was  reduced  to  despair. 
For  soaring  its  pinions  no  longer  avail ; 
For  hunting  the  strength  of  its  talons  doth  fail. 
From  the  depth  of  its  soul  bitter  wailing  arose ; 
An  abode  by  the  shore  of  a  lakelet  it  chose. 
Now  when  in  that  place  it  had  dwelt  for  a  spell 
On  a  sudden  a  frog  in  its  clutches  there  fell. 
The  miserable  frog  made  a  piteous  appeal : 
'To  woe  thou  hast  turned,'  it  lamented,  'my  weal!' 
'  O  haste  not  to  seek  my  destruction,'  it  cried ; 
'  Turn  the  steed  of  intent  from  my  murder  aside ! 
'  An  unsavoury  morsel  I  yield  at  the  best, 
'  Neither  sweet  to  the  palate  not  good  to  digest. 
'  My  body  is  nothing  save  ill-flavoured  skin  : 
'  What  eater  of  meat  can  find  pleasure  therein  ? 
'  Unclose  then  thy  beak,  leave  me  free  to  depart, 
'  And  tidings  of  gladness  convey  to  my  heart ! 
'  Then  by  magic  and  spells  evermore  at  thy  wish 
'  I  will  guide  thee  to  toothsome  and  savoury  fish, 
'  In  the  river's  clear  streamlets  long  nurtured  and  bred, 
'  And  with  various  food-stuffs  abundantly  fed, 
'  From  the  head  to  the  tail  flesh  and  fatness  alone, 
'  With  scarcely  a  skin  and  with  hardly  a  bone  ! 
'Their  bellies  like  silver,  their  backs  bright  of  blee, 
'  Their  eyes  like  reflections  of  stars  in  the  sea. 
'  With  silvery  scales  back  and  sides  are  alight 
'As  with  God's  starry  largesse  the  heavens  by  night. 
'  Far  better,  all  persons  of  taste  will  agree, 
'  Is  a  mouthful  of  such  than  a  hundred  like  me.' 

The  kite,  by  an  oath  confirmation  to  seek, 
Relaxed  its  control  :  the  frog  fell  from  its  beak  ; 
With  one  leap  it  returned  to  its  watery  lair, 
And  the  kite  once  again  was  the  slave  of  despair. 
Its  seat  in  the  dust  of  destruction  it  took, 
Neither  frog  in  its  talons  nor  fish  on  its  hook. 


540    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

That  kite  disappointed  is  like  unto  me, 

Whose  soul  has  been  turned  from  the  pathway  of  glee. 

Composure  has  quitted  my  heart  at  the  thought 

Of  finding  expression  for  thoughts  so  distraught. 

In  my  hands,  through  my  lack  of  good  fortune,  I  find 

Neither  graces  of  speech  nor  composure  of  mind. 

O  cupbearer,  come,  pass  the  bowl,  I  entreat, 

And  like  heaven,  I  pray  thee,  the  cycle  repeat ! 

That  wine  I  desire  which  to  peace  giveth  birth, 

And  frees  us  from  all  the  defilements  of  earth. 

O  minstrel,  approach,  that  the  listening  lute 

At  the  touch  of  thy  fingers  may  cease  to  be  mute. 

The  heart  of  the  heedless  shall  wake  at  its  cry, 

And  the  message  of  angels  descend  from  the  sky." 

As  the  Sab'a  ("  Septet")  of  Jamf  was  admittedly  inspired 

by  and  modelled  on  the  Khamsa  ("  Quintet ")  of  Nizamf, 

some  comparison  of  their  respective  styles  and 

jdmi^T"         methods  may  fairly  be  demanded.     As  I  con- 

romanticpoet      sider  that  in  questions  of  literary  taste  it  is  very 

with  Ni?Am(  «   '     . 

difficult  for  a  foreigner  to  judge,  I  requested 
my  Persian  colleague,  Mfrza  Bihruz,  son  of  the  distinguished 
physician  and  writer  Mi'rz£  Abu'1-Fadl  of  Sawa,  a  young 
man  of  great  promise  and  ability,  well  read  in  both  Arabic 
and  Persian  literature,  to  write  a  short  essay  on  this  point, 
and  I  here  reproduce  in  English  the  gist  of  his  opinions. 

Jamf's  verses,  writes  Mi'rzci  Bihruz,  rival,  and  perhaps 
even  excel,  those  of  Nizami  in  poetical  form,  sweetness  and 
simplicity,  being  unlaboured  and  altogether  free  from 
artificiality ;  but  they  fall  far  short  of  them  in  strength 
(matdnat),  poetic  imagination  and  eloquence.  To  appreciate 
and  enjoy  Nizimf  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  Persian 
language  is  required,  while  Jamf  can  be  read  with  pleasure 
by  all,  whence  his  greater  fame  and  popularity,  especially 
in  India,  Turkey  and  other  lands  where  Persian  literature 
is  an  exotic.  Moreover  Nizami  was  a  man  of  far-reaching 
attainments,  not  only  in  the  language  and  history  of  his 
country,  but  in  the  sciences,  especially  the  mathematical 
sciences,  of  his  time,  so  that  often  he  cannot  be  understood 
except  by  a  reader  similarly  gifted.  Such  an  one,  however, 


CH.  vni]        NIZAMf  AND  jAMf  COMPARED  541 

will  find  in  him  depths  and  subtleties  for  which  he  would 
seek  in  vain  in  J  arm's  poetry. 

In  one  only  of  his  "Five  Poems"  does  Nizami  challenge 
comparison  with  his  great  predecessor  Firdawsi,  to  wit  in 

his  "Alexander  Book"  (Sikandar-ndma),  which, 
R^u^'sT"  alike  in  metre  and  subject-matter,  resembles 

the  corresponding  portion  of  the  Shdh-ndma, 
but,  in  the  judgement  of  most  critics,  falls  short  of  it1.  But 
here  Nizami  was  apparently  more  hampered  than  Firdawsi 
by  the  fanaticism  of  a  less  tolerant  age,  as  he  hints  in  the 
following  lines  : 


}       ,x> 


Cj_ 

"  The  world  was  so  warmed  by  Fire-worship 
That  thou  mayst  well  be  ashamed  of  thy  Muhammadanism. 
We  are  Musulmdns,  while  he  is  called  a  Guebre  (ga.br)  : 
If  that  be  heathenism  (gabrf),  what  is  Muhammadanism  ? 
Return,  O  Nizami,  to  the  tenour  of  thy  tale, 
For  harsh  are  the  notes  of  the  bird  of  admonition  !  " 

Jami,  though  a   mystic,  was   essentially  an   orthodox 

Muhammadan,  and  shows  little  of  the  enthusiasm  for  pre- 

Islamic  Persia  which  inspired  Firdawsi,  and,  in 

JAmi  s  close 

imitation  of  a  lesser  degree,  Nizami.  Of  his  indebtedness 
to  the  latter  he  makes  no  secret,  and,  indeed, 
follows  his  footsteps  with  extraordinary  closeness,  though 
here  and  there  he  introduces  topics  and  dissertations  entirely 
his  own2.  Not  only  does  he  imitate  Nizami  in  the  titles, 
metres  and  subdivisions  of  his  poems,  but  even  in  minute 

1  This  matter  is  discussed  at  length  by  Shiblf  in  his  Skfnil-tAjamt 
vol.  i,  pp.  323-356. 

2  E.g.  his  curious  explanation  of  and  commentary  on  the  letters  of 
the  Bismfllah  near  the  beginning  of  the  Tuhfatrfl-Ahrdr. 


542    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

personal  details.  Thus  each  poet  addresses  himself  and 
gives  advice  to  a  seven-year-old  son,  the  only  difference 
being  that  while  Nizami  encourages  his  son  to  study 
Medicine,  Jami  recommends  Theology.  The  parallelism 
is  especially  apparent  in  the  sections  dealing  with  the 
"  cause  of  the  versification  of  the  tale "  of  Layla  and 
Majnun  in  the  respective  versions  of  the  two  poets,  but 
lack  of  space  compels  me  to  omit  the  illustrations  of  this 
given  by  Mirza  Bihruz  in  his  essay.  Such  critical  com- 
parison of  the  works  of  the  great  Persian  poets  is  very 
important  and  has  hitherto  been  too  much  neglected,  but 
the  necessary  preliminary  work  of  a  historical,  biographical 
and  bibliographical  character  is  all  that  I  have  been  able  to 
attempt  in  this  and  the  preceding  volumes  on  the  literary 
history  of  Persia. 

Of  Jami's  lyric  poetry,  embodied,  as  already  mentioned1 

in  three  separate  Dtwdns,  it  is  impossible  to  give  an  adequate 

account    in    this    volume,   which    has    already 

jdmi-s  lyric         exceeded  in  bulk  the  limits  I  had  assigned  to  it. 

poetry 

In  Europe  German  scholars  alone  have  done 
much  work  in  this  field,  notably  von  Rosenzweig2,  Riickert8 
and  Wickerhauser  in  his  Bliitenkranz*.  Having  regard  to 
the  eminence  of  Jami  in  this  field  also,  and  to  the  abundance 
of  his  output,  a  separate  monograph  would  be  required  to 
do  adequate  justice  to  the  subject,  which  deserves  fuller 
study  not  only  on  account  of  Jami's  own  merit  as  a  lyric 
poet,  but  also  by  reason  of  the  profound  influence  which, 

1  See  pp.  5 1 5-6  supra. 

2  Biographische  Notizen  iiber  Mewlana  Abdurrahman  Dschami 
nebst  Ubersetzungsproben  aus  seinen  Diivanen  von   Vinzenz  Edleni 
von   Rosenzweig  (Vienna,    1840).     The    pages   of   this  volume  are, 
unfortunately,  unnumbered. 

3  His  work  extends  over  33  years  (1844-1876).     It  began  in  the 
Z.  f.  d.  Kunde  d.  Morgenlandes,  vols.  v,  pp.  281-336,  and  vi,  pp.  189- 
227  ;  and  was  continued  in  the  Z.  D.  M.  G.,  vols.  ii,  pp.  26-5 1 ;  iv,  pp. 
44-61;  v,  pp.  308-329;  vi,  pp.  491-504;  xxiv,  pp.  563-590;  xxv,  pp. 
95-112;  xxvi,  pp.  461-464  ;  and  xxix,  pp.  191-198. 

4  Leipzig,  1855  and  Vienna,  1858. 


CH.  vin]  jAMf'S  LYRIC  POETRY  543 

as  already  indicated1,  he  exercised  over  his  successors, 
not  only  in  Persia,  but  also  in  Turkey.  I  hope  that  it  may 
be  possible  to  recur  to  his  lyric  poetry  in  my  next  volume, 
when  I  come  to  trace  the  development  of  the  ghazal  in 
later  times,  but  for  the  moment  I  must  content  myself  with 
a  few  specimens  selected  after  a  cursory  perusal  of  the 
edition  of  his  first  Diwdn  printed  at  Constantinople  in 
1284/1867-8,  and  based,  as  stated  in  the  colophon,  on  an 
autograph  manuscript2.  I  have  also  at  hand  a  much  fuller 
text  of  the  same  Diwdn  lithographed  at  Lucknow  in 
1298/1881,  which  contains  many  poems  omitted  in  the 
Turkish  edition,  and  comprises  568  as  against  182  pages. 

(1) 


Ijui 


3*  J*  *£*  u~4  3  C-wl 


>»L». 


1  See  pp.  421-3  supra. 

2  Unfortunately  no  indication  of  the  whereabouts  of  this  MS.  is 
forthcoming.    The  texts  here  given  have  been  emended  in  some  places 
from  the  Indian  lithographed  edition,  which  often  gives  a  more  correct 
reading. 


544    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtiRID  PERIOD     [BK  in 

"  O  Thou  whose  Beauty  doth  appear  in  all  that  appeareth,  may  a 

thousand  holy  spirits  be  Thy  sacrifice  ! 
Like  the  flute  I  make  complaint  of  my  separation  from  Thee  every 

moment,  and  this  is  the  more  strange  since  I  am  not  parted 

from  Thee  for  a  single  instant1. 
It  is  Love  alone  which  reveals  itself  in  the  two  worlds,  sometimes 

through  the  raiment  of  the  King,  and  sometimes  through  the 

garment  of  the  beggar. 
One  sound  reaches  thine  ear  in  two  ways  ;  now  thou  callest  it  'Echo' 

and  now  '  Voice.' 
Arise,  O  cupbearer,  and  graciously  pour  out  a  draught  of  that  grief- 

dispelling  wine  for  the  sorrow-stricken  lovers  ! 
Of  that  special  wine  which,  when  it  delivers  me  from  myself,  leaves 

in  the  eye  of  contemplation  naught  but  God. 
O  JAmi,  the  road  of  guidance  to  God  is  naught  but  Love  :  [this]  we 

tell  you,  and  '  Peace  be  upon  him  who  followeth  right  guidance.'" 

The  following  is  evidently  inspired  by  and  modelled  on 
the  well-known  ode  of  Hafiz  composed  in  the  same  metre 
and  rhyme2: 


1  This  line  is  an  obvious  reminiscence  of  the  opening  line  of  the 
Mathnawi. 

2  It  is  the  first  ghazal  in  the  Dtwdn  of  Hdfiz. 


CH.  vni]  jAMf'S  LYRIC  POETRY 


"  O  Breeze  of  Morning,  visit  the  hills  of  Nejd  for  me  and  kiss  them, 

for  the  fragrance  of  the  Friend  comes  from  those  pure  camping- 

grounds. 
When  the  longing  for  union  increases,  what  occasion  for  blame  is 

there  if  Majnun  follows  the  litters  in  the  hope  of  [finding  amongst 

them]  Layld's  howdah  ? 
My  heart  is  filled  with  love  for  the  Friend,  who  is  not  heedless 

thereof,  for  they  say  *  Hearts  have  a  road  to  hearts.' 
Behold,  Salma  hath  arrived  from  the  road,  while  I  am  in  such  case 

through  bodily  weakness  ;   take,  then,  O  comrade,  my  spirit  as 

a  gift  from  me  and  accept  it. 
O  cloud-like1  eye,  do  not  shed  the  rain  of  regret  in  her  path,  for  it 

is  better  that  her  horse's  hoof  should  be  far  removed  from  the 

plague  of  such  mire. 
In  my  heart  were  knotted  a  hundred  difficulties  through  separation 

from  her  ;   when   I   saw  her  form  all  difficulties  were  solved 

forthwith. 
Jami  suffers  vexations  from  the  harshness  of  this  grievous  cycle,  but 

fear  of  the  wearisomeness  of  penitents  did  not  prolong  them." 

(3) 


35 


546     POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  m 

Jj^    *£*   £* 

»     *.-*-J 


.        ^      .,-0      ^l     Cfc.     A-flk.     C« 

"  Here  is  the  border  of  the  garden,  the  brink  of  the  stream,  and  the 

lip  of  the  goblet  :  arise,  O  cup-bearer,  for  here  abstinence  is  a 

crime. 
If  the  elder  of  the  monastery  is  intoxicated  with  the  delights  of 

music,  give  me  the  wine-tavern,  for  here  this  state  endureth 

continually  ! 
Thou  didst  touch  the  lip  of  the  goblet  with  thy  lip,  and  I  the  drunkard 

know  not  which  is  here  thy  ruby  lip  and  which  the  wine. 
Not  my  heart  alone  is  bound  in  thy  black  tresses  :  wherever  there  is 

a  birdlike  heart  it  is  here  caught  in  the  snare. 
Thou  dost  draw  the  sword  to  divide  my  heart  in  twain  ;   lay  aside 

the  sword,  for  here  one  glance  is  sufficient. 
Do  not  explain  the  difficulties  of  Love  to  the  reasonable  ;  utter  not 

a  private  matter,  for  here  is  a  public  assembly. 
Jamf  is  intoxicated  with  thy  love,  though  he  has  seen  neither  wine 

nor  goblet:  here  is  the  Banquet  of  Love:   what  place  is  there 

for  wine  or  goblet  ?  " 


CH.  vmj  jAMf'S  LYRIC  POETRY  547 


"  The  fair  ones  are  a  thousand,  but  of  them  all  my  desire  is  one  ;  my 

speech  is  one,  though  they  cut  me  into  a  hundred  pieces  with 

the  sword. 
The  assembly  of  the  beautiful  is  a  pleasant  meeting-place,  but  the 

Moon  whence  this  assembly  derives  its  lustre  is  one. 
For  each  pace  of  her  advance  we  desire  a  different  present,  but  we 

fall  short  [of  this  our  desire],  for  the  soul  in  the  body  is  [only]  one. 
I  have  grown  so  thin  that,  but  for  my  lamentation  and  wailing,  it 

would  not  appear  that  there  was  anyone  in  this  shirt. 
Where  the  charming  ruby  [lips]  of  Shirfn  are  glowing,  rubies  and 

pebbles  are  alike  in  the  eyes  of  [Farhad]  the  Tunneller. 
It  was  thou  of  all  the  fair  ones  who  didst  shatter  my  name  and  fame  ; 

yea,  of  a  hundred  Abrahams  the  breaker  of  idols  is  but  one. 
O  Jdmf,  close  thy  mouth  from  speech  in  this  garden,  for  there  the 

song  of  the  nightingale  and  the  shriek  of  the  raven  are  one  !  " 

This  poem  bears  a  great  similarity,  both  in  form  and 
ideas,  to  an  ode  of  unknown  authorship  of  which  I  printed 
the  opening  lines  with  a  verse  translation  in  my  Year 
amongst  the  Persians1.  The  fourth  couplet  appears  to  have 
been  inspired  by  the  well-known  Arabic  verses  of  al-Mu- 
tanabbi2  : 


j  j* 


'  ^>*J  &    *r* 


1  p.  501.  2  Ed.  Dieterici,  p.  5. 

35—2 


548    POETS  OF  THE  LATER  TfMtf  RID  PERIOD     [BK  in 

"  On  the  day  of  parting  passion  wore  away  my  body  with  sorrow, 

while  separation  effected  a  divorce  between  my  eyelids  and  sleep. 

[I  am  only]  a  spirit  permeating  [a  body]  like  a  splinter  [in  leanness], 

no  longer  visible  when  the  wind  blows  the  garment  away  from  it. 

Thin  enough  is  my  body,  for  indeed  I  am  a  man  whom  thou  wouldst 

not  see  if  I  did  not  speak  to  thee." 

This  is  not  an   isolated    instance  of  the  influence  of 
Arabian  poetry  on  Jami's  Persian  verse.     Thus  the  line  : 

0  J  ~ 

\          A 


',jUJ  JU  j\  AJ  3  jjj  ,jUJ  JD  jt  4J  <t£=> 
"  I  was  of  the  company  of  dreg-drainers  on  that  day 
When  there  was  [as  yet]  no  trace  of  the  vine  or  of  the  vine-planter" 

is,  as  Mfrza  Bihruz  has  pointed  out  to  me,  almost  certainly 
inspired  by  the  celebrated  couplet  of  the  great  Egyptian 
mystic  'Umar  ibnu'l-Farid1: 


"  We  drained  a  draught  of  wine  to  the  memory  of  the  Friend  : 
We  were  intoxicated  therewith  ere  ever  the  Vine  was  created." 

Of  the  great  Persian  lyrical  poets  who  preceded  Jamf 
the  influence  of  Sa'di  and  Hafiz  is  most  noticeable  ;  and  in 
the  verses  sometimes  known  collectively  as  the  Nay-ndma'2, 
or  "  Book  of  the  Reed,"  he  has  skilfully  imitated  the  style 
and  lucidly  developed  the  idea  of  the  Prologue  to  Jalalu'd- 
Din  Rumi's  great  Mystical  Mathnawi.  To  conclude  and 
epitomize  in  one  sentence  this  wholly  inadequate  account 
of  one  who,  though  I  decline  to  regard  him  as  the  last  great 
classical  poet  of  Persia,  was  certainly  one  of  the  most  talented, 
versatile  and  prolific.  In  Jami  the  mystical  and  pantheistic 
thought  of  Persia  may  be  said  to  find  its  most  complete  and 
vivid  expression  ;  while,  though  he  may  have  been  equalled 
or  even  surpassed  by  others  in  each  of  the  numerous  realms 
of  literature  which  he  cultivated,  no  other  Persian  poet  or 
writer  has  been  so  successful  in  so  many  different  fields,  and 
the  enthusiastic  admiration  of  his  most  eminent  contempo- 
raries is  justified  by  his  prolific  and  .many-sided  genius. 

1  Ed.  Cheikh  ed-Dahdah  (Paris,  1855),  p.  472. 

2  See  p.  514  supra. 


INDEX 


In  the  following  Index  where  many  reference-numbers  occur  under  one 
heading  the  more  important  are  printed  in  Clarendon  type,  which  is  also  used 
for  the  first  entry  under  each  letter  of  the  alphabet.  To  save  needless  repe- 
tition, all  references  to  any  name  common  to  several  persons  mentioned  in  the 
text  are  brought  together  under  one  heading,  the  individuals  bearing  this  name 
being  arranged  either  in  chronological  order,  or  in  order  of  importance,  or  in 
classes  (rulers,  men  of  letters,  poets,  etc.).  The  letter  b.  between  two  names 
stands  for  Ibn  ("  Son  of..."),  and  n.  after  the  number  of  a  page  indicates  a  foot- 
note. The  addition  in  brackets  of  a  Roman  number  after  a  name  or  book 
indicates  the  century  of  the  Christian  era  in  which  the  man  lived  or  the  book 
was  written.  Prefixes  like  Abu  ("Father  of...")  and  Ibn  ("Son  of...")  in 
Muhammadan,  and  de,  le,  von  in  European  names  are  disregarded  in  the 
alphabetical  arrangement,  so  that  names  like  Abu  Sa'id,  Ibn  Sfna,  le  Strange, 
de  Slane,  etc.,  must  be  sought  under  S,  not  under  A,  I,  L  or  D.  Titles  of 
books  and  foreign  words  are  printed  in  italics,  and  an  asterisk  is  prefixed  to  the 
former  when  they  are  quoted  at  any  length  in  the  text.  A  hyphen  preceding 
a  word  indicates  that  the  Arabic  definite  article  al-  should  be  prefixed  to  it. 


Abaqa  (Mongol  Il-Khan,  xiii),  17-25, 
31,  40,  53,  69,  106,  112,  114,  175 

'Abbas  "the  Great,"  Shah  —  (Safawf 
king,  xvi-xvii),  317,  396 

'Abb£s  (murderer  of  Ulugh  Beg,  xv), 
386 

'Abbasid  Caliphs  (viii-xiii),  91,  206, 
396,  484 

'Abbasf  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 

Abddl  (a  class  of  invisible  saints), 
276  and  n. 

Abdal  Beg  (xv-xvi),  417 

'Abdu'l-'Aziz  b.  Ulugh  Beg  (Tfmurid, 
xv),  386 

'Abdu'l-Ghafvir  of  Lar  (disciple  of 
Jami,  xv-xvi),  458,  508 

'Abdu'l-Hamid  (Ottoman Sultan,  xix- 
xx),  107  n. 

'Abdu'llah.  Shaykh  —  Ansarf  (saint, 
iv-v),  479,  514;  Amir  —  of  Shfriz 
(xiii)  ;  Mir  —  (father  of  Sha"h 
Ni'matu'llah,  xiv),  464;  -  -  b. 
Fadlu'lhih  of  Shiraz  (historian,  xiii- 
xivj,  see  Wassaf-i-Hadrat  and 
Ta'rikh-i-Wassaf ;  Prince  —  b. 
Ibrahim  b.  Shah-rukh  (Timurid, 
xv),  387,  429  ;  — b.  Mir  'Ali  (calli- 
graphist,  xv),  395 ;  —  Mathnaivi- 
gu  (known  as  Hatifi,  xvi),  459 


Abu  'Abdi'llah  Muhammad  b.  Abi 
Bakr  b.  'Uthman.'  See  Imamf 

'Abdu'l-Latff,  son  of  the  minister 
and  historian  Rashidu'd-Din  Fad- 
lu'llah  (xiii-xiv),  82,  84 ;  Prince  — , 
son  of  Ulugh  Beg  the  Tfmurid  (xv), 
82,  84,  386,  387,  388,  390,  429, 
438,  503 

'Abdu'l-Majid  b.  'Izzu'd-Dfn  (Huruff 
heretic,  xv).  See  Firishta-zada 

'Abdu'l-Mii'min,  son  of  Rashfdu'd- 
Dfn  Fadlu'llah  (xiii-xiv),  81;  — 
the  rhapsodist,  put  to  death  (xiv- 

xv)>  r95 

'Abdu'l-Muqtadir,  Mawlawf  —  (con- 
temporary Indian  scholar),  259  n., 
260,  261,  263,  287  n.,  293  n. 

'Abdu'l  -  Qadir.  --of  Mardgha 
(musician,  xiv-xv),  191,  384;  — 
(?  liuruff,  xiv),  368 

'Abdu'l  -Wahid  (name  adopted  by 
Herman  Bicknell,  q.v.,  xix), 

302-3 

'Abdu'n-Nabf  Fakhru'z-Zama"n  (bio- 
grapher of  poets,  xvii),  273 

'Abdu'r-Rahim.  -  -  Huriifi  (xiv), 
368 ;  —  Kha'n-Kha'na'n  (Akbar's 
general,  translator  of  the  Bdbur- 
ndma  into  Persian,  xvi),  392 


55° 


INDEX 


'Abdu'r-Rahman.  Shaykh  — F£mf 
(author  of  old  and  apparently  lost 
history  of  Merit),  174,431;  —  (un- 
identified, xv ),  494 ;  —  Bey  Sheref 
(contemporary  Turkish  historian), 
408  n.,  411,  412 

'Abdu'r-Razzaq.  —  SarbadaV  ruler 
(xiv),  178;  —  Kamalu'd-Dfn  of 
Samarqand  (historian,  xv),  361, 

393.  397.-.426,  428-430.  464.  4735 
—  Ldhijf  (commentator  of  the 
Gulshan-i-Rdz,  xvii),  148 

Abel-Remusat,  10,  190. 

Abgh£y  (grandfather  of  Tfmur,  xiv), 
185 

Abhar  (near  Zanjan),  31,  87 

AW  ward,  497 

Abkhaz,  85,  122,  490 

Abraham,  89,  529-31,  547 

Abulustayn,  Battle  of — (A.D.  1277),  19 

Abyssinia,  Abyssinians,  89,  398 

Achaemenian  dynasty,  3 

Adam,  73,  89,  100,  133,  2ipn.,   245, 

,   335,  343 

Adam-ndma  (Huruff  work),  374,  450 

Aden,  in,  327,  398 

Adharbayjan  (Persian  province),  43, 
122  n.,  146,  160,  173,  187,  192, 
194,  264,  272,317,  321,  332,  382, 
385.  389*  397,  399,  4°o,  401,  402, 
406,  409,  410,  416,  425,  426,  462, 

489 
Adhari  (poet,  xiv-xv),  259,  350,  352, 

,   438,  497,  498,  502-3 
'Adil   Shall,   Mfr  —  (d.  A.D.   1424), 

489 
Adrianople    (Turkish    Edtrn<<),    104, 

356,  370 
'Adudu'd-Dfn.  —  'Abdu'r-Rahman 

b.  Ahmad  al-Ijf  (theologian  and 

philosopher,  xiv),  159,  170,  276  n., 

356-7 ;  —  (grandson  of  Fadlu'llah 

al-Huruff,  xv),  366 
Afdq  u  Anfus  (poem  by  Bushaq,  xv), 

350 ;  —  (poem  by  Mahmiid  Qarf 

of  Yazd,  xv),  351-2 
Afdal-i-Ka'shf  (poet,  xiv),  154 
Afdalu'd-Din.     Mawldna"  —  (xiii), 

27;  Sayyid — Mas'tid  (pensioner, 

xiv),  8 i 
Afghanistan,  Afghans,  64,  107,  i22n., 

152  n.,  161,  175,  193,  379,  393 
'Afffa  (daughter  of  Amir  Khusraw, 

xiii),  109 

'Afffu'd-Dfn  of  Baghdad  (xiv),  83 
Afrasiyab  (At£bek  of  Luristin,  xiii), 

37 


Africa,  North  — ,  92 

Afshar  tribe  (supporting  Shah  Isma'fl 

the  Safawi,  xvi),  417 
Agra  (taken  by  Babur,   A.D.    1526), 

.   393 

Ahang-i-Khusrawdni (name  of  a  Per- 
sian air),  500  n. 
Ahar,  27,  416 

Ahf  (poet  of  Babur's  time,  xvi),  459 
Ahlf  (poet  of  Turshiz,  xv),  438,  459 
Ahmad.  Sultan  —  Takudar  (Mongol 
I)-kh£n,  xiii),  25-6,  27,  31  ;  — 
(Muzaflari  prince  of  Kirman,  xiv), 
163,  168,  169,  190;  — b.  Uways 
of  the  Il-khdni  or  Jali'ir  dynasty 
(xiv),  172,  173,  187,  191,  196,  197, 
204,  205,  206,  284,^358,  366,  399, 
400  ;  —  b.  Abu  Sa'id  (Tfmurid 
prince,  xv),  390 ;  Chapel  of  — , 
504 ;  Sultan  —  (Ottoman,  xvii), 
396 ;  —  Shah  Bahmani  (of  the 
Deccan,  xv  or  xvi),  464  ;  Sultan  — 
(governor  of  Kurdistan,  xv),  401  ; 
-  b.  Rashidu'd-Din  Fadlu'lteh 
(governo^of  Ardabfl,  xiii-xiv),  84, 
86  ;  —  (Aq-qoyunhi  prince,  xiv), 

404;  Shaykh i-Jain  (saint,  xi- 

xii),  479  >  —  Suhrawardi  (calli- 
graphist,  xiii),  84  ;  —  b.  Sahl  of 
Balkh  (geographer,  cited  in  Nuz- 
hatti'l  -  Qulub,  ?  xiii),  99 ;  —  b. 
Abi  'Abdi'llah  (author  of  the 
Tibydn,  cited  in  the  Nuzhatifl- 
Qulub),  99;  Qadf  —  of  Damghdn 
(historian,  source  of  Tdrikh-i- 
Guzida),  89 ;  Khwaja  —  (mer- 
chant, xiv),  84 ;  —  of  Tabriz  (poet, 
author  of  Shdhinshdk-ndma,  xiv), 

103 ; i-Lur  (Huriifi,  assailant  of 

Shah-rukh,  A.D.  1426),  366,  382, 
473  5  Sayyid  —  Toghan-oghlu  (en- 
voy of  Uzun  Hasan  to  Ottoman 
Sultan,  xv),  410  ;  Faridu'd-Din  — 
b.  Sa'd-at-Taflazanf  (theologian 
and  jurist,  xv),  398,  423,  458 ; 
—  Dede  b.  Lutfu'llah  (Turkish  his- 
torian, xvii),  384  n. ;  —  b.  Muham- 
mad Nadfm  (Turkish  historian, 
translator  from  the  Arabic  of  the 
last  writer's  Sahtiifrfl-Akkbdr, 
xviii),  384  n.  ;  Dr  —  Khan  (con- 
temporary), 183,  361 
Ahmad-abad  (Gujerdt,  India),  318 
Ahrar,  Khwaja  —  Naqshbandi  (saint, 

,  xv)>  44i 

'A'isha  (wife  of  the   Prophet,  called 
Humayrd},  320  n. 


INDEX 


'A'isha  Sultan  Begum  (Babur's  wife), 

455 

'•Aj&ibu'l-Makhluqdt  ("Wonders  of 
Creation"  of  al-Qazwfni,xiii).64n. 

'AjiVibifl-Maqdur  fl  akhbdri  Tlmur 
(' '  Marvels  of  Destiny  in  the  History 
of  Timur,"  hy  Ibn  'Arabshah, 
<].v.,  xv),  181,  183,  321  n.,  355-6 

Akbar  (the  celebrated  "  Great  Mogul " 
Emperor  of  India,  xvi-xvii),  391, 

392,  393  "• 
Akhi  Juq  (antagonist  of  Mubarizu'd- 

Dfn,  xiv),  165 
Akhirat-ndma  (Turkish  Hurufi  book), 

374-5.  45° 
Akhldq  -  i -Jaldli    (by    Jalalu'd-Din 

Dawani,  xv),  246,  389,  442-4 
Akhldq-i-Muhsini  (by  Husayn  Wa'iz- 

i-Kashiff,  xv),  246,  443,  444 
Akhldq-i- Ndsiri    (by    Nasiru'd-Din 

Tiisi,  xiii),  i8n.,  442 
*Akhldqu'l-Ashrdf   (by    'Ubayd-i- 

Zdkani,  xiv),  230,  232,  235,  237, 

244-51,  257 
Akhlat,  188,  192,  401 
Akhtar  (the  "  Star,"  a  Persian  news- 
paper published  at  Constantinople, 

A.n.  1875-1895),  515  n. 
'Akka    (St   Jean    d'Acre    in    Syria, 

ravaged  by  Tumir  in  A.D.  1401), 

,     197 

Ala  Tagh  (or  —  dagh,  mountain),  59, 
192 

Alafrank  (son  of  Gaykhatu,  Mongol 
prince,  xiii-xiv),  43,  48 

Alarmit  (stronghold  of  the  Assassins), 
6,  25,  66,  69,  92,  255 

Alast  ("Day  of  --"),  219  n.,  307 
and  n.,  308 

'Ala'u'd-Dawla. — b.  Ahmad  Jala'ir 
(xiv),  191;  —  b.  Baysunqur 
(Timvirid  prince,  xv),  386-8;  — 
Bakhtfshdh  Gha/i  (father  of  Daw- 
latshah,  q.v.,  xv),  436 

'Ala'u'd-Din.  —  'Ata  Malik-i-Ju- 
wayni  (historian,  xiii),  20,  22,  24, 
25,  29,  65,  88,  106 ;  Khwaja  — 
Hindu  (correspondent  of  Rashi- 
du'd-Din  Fadlu'llah,  xiii-xiv),  82  ; 
Malik  —  (correspondent  of  same, 
xiii-xiv),  85 ;  Sultan  —  of  India 
^correspondent  of  same,  xiii-xiv), 
85;  —  Kurt  (xiv),  176  ;  Khwaja 
-  Muhammad  (fiscal  officer  of 
Sultan  Abu  Sa'fd,  xiv),  215;  — 
(appealed  to  by  'Ubayd-i-Zakanf, 
xiv),  240,  241 ;  —  Simnanf  (xiii- 


xiv),  484;  —  'All  Qushji  (astro- 
nomer and  philosopher,  xv),  386, 
407 

Alburz  Mountains,  316  n. 

Aleppo  (Halab)>  181,  197,  361,  425, 
449,  464 

Alexander  "the  Great"  (hkandar- 
i-Rum!},  3,  16,  89,  90  n.,  182, 
228,  291  n.,  317  n.,  373,  533,  536, 

54' 

Alexandria  (Iskandariyya),  53  n. 

Alfiyya  [tva]  Skalfiyya  (pornographical 
work  by  A/.raqi,  xi),  347  and  n., 
349.  350 

'Ali.  —  b.  Abi  Talib  (fourth  Caliph 
of  Sunnis  and  first  Imam  of  Shi'a, 
vii),  Si.  7i.  9'»  ,250,  255,  510, 
519,  521  ;  —  Rida  (eighth  Imam 
of  Shi'a,  viii-ix),  44 ;  Shaykh  — 
b.  Kinjik  (or  Kikhshik,  or  Kichik, 
Mongol,  xiv),  53 ;  Amir  —  Padi- 
shah (Mongol  noble,  xiv),  59 ; 
Amir — (governor  of  'Iraq-i-'  Arab, 
xiii-xiv),  80-8 1,  82  ;  —  b.  Rashf- 
du'd-Din  Fadlu'llah  (xiii-xiv),  84 ; 

—  Sahl  (son  of  Shaykh  Abu  Ishaq 
Inju,    xiv),    163,    275   n.;    -  -   b. 
Uways     Jala'ir    (xiv),     172  ;    — 
Mu'ayyad   (Sarbadar,    xiv),    178; 

—  Sultan  Qiichin  (retainer  of  Shah- 
rukh,  xv),  366 ;   —   Taz   (or   Pfr 
'AH,  xv),  381 ;   —  Beg  b.   Qara 
'Osman  (or '  Uthman,  of  the  "White 
Sheep"  Turkmans,  xv),  404;  — 
Qushjf    (entitled    'Ala'u'd-Din, 
q.v.,  xv),  386,  407  ;  —  b.  Husayn 
Wa'iz-i-Kashifi  (xv),  434,  441-2, 

509 

Abu  'Ali  b.Sma",  443.  See  Avicenna 
•Ali-garh  (A.-O.  M.  College,  India), 

108,  261 
'Ali-shah.  —  (rival   and  enemy  of 

Rashidu'd-Din    Fadlu'lldh,     xiv), 

51-2,  54,  70,  71;  —  (son  of  the 

same  Rashfd,  xiii-xiv),  84 
'Aliyyu'1-A'la  (successor  of  Fadlu'llah 

al-Huriifi,  xiv-xv),  371,  374,  451 
Allahu  Akbar,  Tang-i (defile  near 

Shiraz),  291  and  n. 
Allesandri,  Vincentio  d'   —  (Italian 

traveller  in  Persia,  xvi),  381  n. 
Almagest,  18,  502 
"  Alumut "  (last  ruler  of  Aq-Qoyunlii 

dynasty  so  called  by  Italians),  415 
Alwand    Beg  b.   Yusuf   Aq-Qoyiinlu 

(xv-xvi),  417-18 
Aman-Kuh,  176 


552 


INDEX 


America,  107 

Amid  (Diya>  Bakr),  192,  404 

'Amidu'1-Mulk  Sdhib-Diwdn  (patron 

of  'Ubayd-i-Z£ka'ni,  xiv),  235,  238 
Amin  (poet  contemporary  with  Katibi, 

xv),  494 
Amini   (poet    parodied    by  Mahmud 

Qarf  of  Yazd),  352 
Aminu'd-Din.    —   Nasr    Mustawfi 

(great-grandfather  of  Hamdu'llah 

Mustawfi  of  Qazwfn,  xiii),  87,  96 ; 

Khwaja  —  (minister  of  Shaykh 

Abu  Ishaq  Inju,  xiv),  233 ;  Shaykh 

—    (?  identical   with   preceding), 

275  ;  —  (poet  parodied  by  Busha~q, 

probably    identical    with    Amini 

mentioned  above),  350 
Amir  Bey  (Ottoman  envoy  to  Uzun 

Hasan,  xv),  410 
Amfr  Khusraw  of  Dihli  (poet,  xiii), 

108-10.     See  under  Khusraw 
Amfrf,  Yusuf  —  (poet    attached    to 

Baysunghur,  xv),  501 
Amurath,  a  corruption  of  Murad,  q.v. 
'Ana  (in  Mesopotamia),  42,  69,  81 
Ana'l-ffaqq  ("  I  am  the  Real,"  i.e. 

God),  195  n. 
Anatolia,  371,  451 
Andakan,  180 
Andakhud,  185 
Andalusia,  132 
Angioletto,  Giovan  Maria  —  (Italian 

traveller   in    Persia,    xv),    381  n., 

409,411,  412,  413,  416 
Angora  (Anqura),  Battle  of  —  (A.  D. 

1402),  198,  199,  365,  370 
*Anisul  -  'Arifin     (the    "  Gnostics' 

Familiar,"  by  Qasimu'l-Anwar, 

?•»•),  47,5,  482,  485 
Anisu'l-  'Ashiqfn      (the      "Lovers' 
Familiar,"  by  Qasimu'l- Anwar, 

?•*•).  475 
Anisu1 1-1  Ushshdq   (by  Sharafu'd-Din 

Kami,  A.D.  1423),  462 
Anjou,  King  Rene  of  — ,  395 
lAnqd  (mythical   bird),    136  and  n., 

316  n. 

Antioch  (AntaMciya),  8r 
Anusharwan,  Khusraw  —  (the  Sasa- 

nian,  vi).     See  Nvishirwan 
Anwari  (poet,  xii),  64,  118,  224,  291, 

350,  510,  522 
Anwdr-i-Suhayli  ( "  Lights  of  Cano- 

pus,"  by  Husayn  Wa"'iz-i-Ka~shifi, 

xv),  44i,  443,  463,  504 
Aq  Bugha  ("White  Bull,"  grandfather 

of  Shaykh  Hasan-i-Buzurg),  171 


Aq-Qoyunlii  ("White  Sheep"  Turk- 
ma"n  dynasty,  xv-xvi),  379,  380, 

381,     389,     399.    403-4,    407-9, 

417,  418,  421  n.,  444 
Aq  Shamsu'd-Dfn,  Shaykh  —  (Turkish 

theologian,  xv),  411 
Aqldb    ("Poles,"    plural   of   Qutb,  a 

class  of  the  Rijdlu'l-Ghayb,  or  In- 
visible Saints),  276  n. 
Arabia,  Arabic,  Arabs,  3-5,  32,  64, 

93,  99,  132,   162,  231  n.,  250  n., 

461,  467,  468  n. 

Arabia  Felix,  184.     See  Yaman 
"Arabian   Nights"    (Alf  Layla   wa 

Lay  la),  221 
Arabic  literature  produced  in  Persia, 

62-6* 
Ibnu'l-'Arabf,    Shaykh    Muhyi'd-Dm 

—  (the  great  mystic,  xii-xiii),  63, 

127,   128,  132,  139,  446  n.,  447, 

484,  5H 

Ibn  'Arabshah  (historian,  xiv),  181, 
183,  185,  197 n.,  198,  203,  32 in. , 
355-6 

Araxes  (Aras)  river,  187,  192,  196 

Ardyish-ndma  ("Book  of  Adorn- 
ment "  by  the  poet  Mahmud  Qari 
of  Yazd,  xv),  352 

Arbfl,  191 

Archives  (Paris),  10 

Arcturus  (Simdk),  113 

Ardabfl,  42,  85,  86,  362,  416,  473, 
474,  482,  485,  486 

Ardashir.  —  Babakan  (founder  of 
Sasanian  dynasty,  iii),  90  n.;  — 
-i-Changi(Miranshah's  harper,  xiv), 
195  n.;  —  (unidentified,  xv),  494-5 

Arghun  (Mongol  Il-khan,  A.D.  1284- 
,91),  26,  27-34,  37,  40,  46,  47,  163 

'Arif  Hikmat  Bey  (Turkish  poet, 
xviii-xix),  371 

'Arifi  (poet  of  Hera~t,  xv),  438,  490, 

495-7 

Arik   Buqa  (brother  of  Hulagu   the 

Mongol,  xiii),  58 
Aristotle,  18,  443 
Arji'sh,  399 
Armenia,    Armenians,    54,    181,   190, 

196,  201,  406,  489 
Arpa,    Arpaga'un    (Mongol    Il-kha~n, 

xiv),  58-59,  171,  274  n. 
Arran,  57,  67 
'Arsh-ndma  ("  Book  of  the  Throne," 

Persian  Hunifi  work),  375,  450 
Arzanjan,8;}j  188.  See  also  Erzinjan 
Asaf  (Solomon's  minister),  67,   307, 

3°8,  3°9 


INDEX 


553 


Asafi  (poet,  xv),  438,  458 

'Ashara  (unidentified  place  in  Meso- 
potamia), 8 1 

Ash'ari  (doctrine),  301 

*Ashi"atu'l-L.ama':dt  (J  ami's  com- 
mentary on  'Iraqi's  Lama'at, 
o.v.),  132-3,  444-7,  512 

'Ashiq  Chelebi  (biographer  of  Turkish 
poets),  369 

Ashraf,  Malik-i-  —  (xiv),  170 

Ashraf-i-JVamad-flisA  (poet  parodied 
by  Mahmiid  Qarf  of  Yazd),  352 

Asia  Minor,  3,  5,  53,  54,  56,  58,  71, 
92,  99,  in,  127,  155,  188,  196, 
357»  397,  4°4,  408,  479 

'Asjadf  (poet,  xi),  65 

Asflu'd-Dfn  (b.  Nasiru'd-Din  Tiisi, 
astronomer,  xiii),  48  ;  —  (judge  of 
Shiraz,  xiv),  275,  276 

Asir-Garh  (Burhanpur,  India),  289 

"Asmurat"  (Italian  corruption  of 
Murad),  412 

Asrdru't-Tanzil  (al-Baydawi's  com- 
mentary on  the  Qur'dn,  xiii),  63 

"Assambei"  (Italian^  corruption  of 
Hasan  Beg,  i.e.  Uziin  Hasan, 
q.v.},  389,  404 

'Assar  (poet  of  Tabriz,  xiv),  159,  328, 

344 

Assassins  (of  Alamut,  q.v.),  6,  19,  25, 
,     53,  66,  69,  73,  92,  154-5,  255 

Astara,  482 

Astarabad,  190,  216,  286,  355,  365, 
368,  370,  388,  390,  395,  488,  489 

"Astibisti"  (Italian  corruption  of 
Hasht  Bihisht,  "the  Eight  Para- 
dises"), 414 

Astrachan,  356 

Astrology  condemned,  86 

Atabek  (son  of  Shamsu'd-Din  Mu- 
hammad Sdhib-Diwdn,  xiii),  28, 
29;  —  dynasty  cf  Pars,  92,  100, 
121,  274  (see  also  Salgharid);  — 
of  Luristan,  q.v.,  68,  92,  189 

Atash-kada  ("Fire-temple,"  a  well- 
known  biography  of  Persian  poets 
by  Lutf  'All  Beg  Adhar,  xviii), 
in,  119,  210,  211,  216,  222,  230, 
258,  274,  321  n.,  331  n.,  345 

'Ata'u'llah,  Mir  — of  Mashhad  (writer 
,    of  Babur's  time,  xv-xvi),  458 

Athdrul-Bildd  ("  Monuments  of  the 
Lands  "  by  al-Qazwini,  xiii),  64-5 

Athenaum  (newspaper),  95  n. 

Athfr-i-Awma'nf  (poet,  xiii),  154,  261 

Ibnu'l-Athir  (Arabian  historian,  xiii), 
88,  i44n. 


Auguries  from   Hafi?  (taf£ul),  311- 

19 

Austin  (printers,  of  Hertford),  504  n. 

Austrians  (defeated  by  Mongols  at 
Liegnitz,  A.  D.  1241),  6 

Avesta,  290  n.,  317  n. 

Avicenna  (Shaykh  Abii  'AH  ibn  Sfna, 
x-xi),  443,  S'^ 

Avnik,  192,  196 

'Awasim,  81 

'Awfi  (Niiru'd-Din  Muhammad,  bio- 
grapher, xiii),  65 

Awhadf  of  Mardgha  (poet,  xiii-xiv), 
?i28,  141-6;  parodied,  352 

Awhadu'd-Dm  of  Kirman  (poet,  xiii), 
65,  ?i28,  139-41,  473 

Awjan,  1 66 

Awrang-zib  'Alamgir  ("Great  Mogul'' 
Emperor,  A.D.  1659-1707),  391 

A-wtdd  (a  class  of  the  "  Invisible 
Saints"),  276  n. 

Aydakan,  171 

Aydin,  192 

Ay  KMtiin  (daughter  of  Rashfdu'd- 
Din  Facllu'llah),  84 

'AjTi  Jaliit  (defeat  of  Mongols  by 
Egyptians  at  —  in  A.D.  1260),  19 

'Ayntab,  197 

Aywanak  (near  Ray),  194 

Ayyiibi  Dynasty,  408 

Azad,  Ghulam  'AH  Khan  —  (bio- 
grapher, xviii),  289 

Azraqi  (poet,  xi),  347 

Baba  Husayn  (murderer  of  'Abdu'l- 
Latif  the  parricide  in  A.D.  1450), 
386-7 

B^bd  Kiihf  (Shrine  of  —  at  Shiraz), 
274 

Baba  Sangu  (holy  man  of  Andakhiid, 
xiv),  185 

Baba-Sawda'i  (poet,  xv),  438,  497,  501 

Babis,  432,  452,  465,  470 

Babur,  Mfrza  Abu'l-Qasim  (Timurid, 
d.  1456-7),  311,  387,  388,  390, 
421  n.,  429;  Zahiru'd-Din  Mu- 
hammad (Timurid,  founder  of  the 
"  Great  Mogul  "  Empire  in  India, 
xv-xvi),  184  and  note  on  pro- 
nunciation of  the  name,  311  n., 
380,  39I-3-  418-19,  433,  440, 
453-60,  505,  507 

Baburi  (favourite  of  Zahiru'd-Dm 
Babur),  455 

* Bdbur-ndma  (autobiography  of  Za- 
hiru'd-Dfn  Babur),  391-3,  440, 
453-9,  5«>5  •»• 


INDEX 


"Babylon,"  "Sultan  of — ,"  199,  201 

Bachu  Ni'iyan  (Mongol  general,  his 
letter  to  the  Pope),  10 

Badakhshan,  388,  390,  393 

Badakhshi  (poet,  xv),  438 

Baddyi'tt1  s-Sandyfr  (a  work  on  Rhe- 
toric by 'Mir  'AtaVllah  of  Mash- 
had,  xv),  458 

Badghfs,  179,  427 

Badf'u'z-Zaman.  —  al-Hamadh^ni 
(man  of  letters,  x-xi),  139  n. ;  — 
b.  Abu'l-Ghazf  Sultan  Husayn 
(Timurid  prince,  xv-xvi),  399, 416, 
418 

Badr.  —  (poet  of  Ch£ch  or  Shash  in 
Transoxiana,    xiii),    106,   no;  — 
(poet    satirized    by    Katibf,    xv), 
491-2 

Baghdad,  4,  20,  24,  31,  32,  33,  34, 
54,  55,  60,  62,  66,  70,  78,  82,  1 1 1, 
160,  161,  162,  164  n.,  166,  172, 
183,  191,  195  n.,  196,  197,  204, 
205,  206,  208,  223,  225,  226,  230, 
234,  250,  257,  261,  263,  264,  284, 
285.  3'7,  357,  361,  366,  368,  396, 
399,  402,  409,  510,  511 

Baghdad  Khatun  (daughter  of  the 
Amfr  Chuban,  xiv),  54,  56,  57, 
58,  170,  171 

Bahadur  (title  assumed  by  the  Mongol 
Il-khan  Abu  Sa'id  in  A.D.  1318), 

53 

Bahdrlsldn  (the  "Spring- Land,"  by 
Jami,  xv),  258,  273,  347  n.,  436, 

489,  515 

Bahdrlu  tribe,  399 

Bahd'u'd-Dawla,  Bahman  Mfrza  (Qa- 
jar  Prince  and  bibliophile,  xix), 
80,  100  n. 

Baha'u'd-Dfn.  —  Juwayni  (great- 
grandfather of  Shamsu'd-Dfn  Mu- 
hammad Sdhib-Dhudii,  xii-xiii), 
20 ;  —  Juwayni  (son  of  the  above- 
mentioned  Sdhib-Diwdn,  xiii),  21- 
22,  29,  119;  —  Zakariyya  (saint 
of  Multan  and  spiritual  guide  of 
'Ir£qi,  xiii),  125,  127,  174;  - 
Ahmad  (commonly  called  Sultan 
Walad  or  Veled  q.  v.,  son  of 
Mawl£n£  Jaldlu'd-Dfn  Rumf,  xiii), 
155;  —  (father  of  the  poet  Hafiz, 
xiv),  274;  —  Qara  'Osman  (known 
as  Qdralluk,  "the  Black  Leech," 
of  the  Aq-qoyunlii,  or  "White 
Sheep  "  Turkmans,  xiv-xv),  404 

Bahman  Mfrza,  80,  icon.  See  above 
under  Baha'u'd-Dawla 


Bahman  Shah  (of  India,  xv),  400 

Bahrain  u  Gul-anddm  (poem  by 
Katibi,  xv),  487 

Bakhshis  (Uyghur  priests  and  scribes), 
50,  in,  112  and  n. 

Abii  Bakr.  —  (the  first  Caliph,  vii), 
74,  255  and  n.;  — •  b.  Sa'd-i-Zangi 
(Atdbek  of  Fars,  xiii),  100;  - 
(father  of  Mubarizu'd- Din,  founder 
of  the  Muzaffarf  dynasty,  xiii), 
162  ;  —  (son  of  Mfrdnshah  b. 
Tfmur,  xiv-xv),  362,  399,  400 

Baku,  175,  368.  417 

Bala'bakk  (Baalbek),  197 

Baladu'l-'Ayn,  81 

Balkh,  108,  432,  4=,6 

-Balkhf,  Abu  Zayd  Ahmad  b.  Sahl  - 
(geographer  and  author  of  the 
Suwaru'l-Aqdltrn,  one  of  the 
sources  of  the  Nuzhatu'l-Quliib, 
q.v.),  99  and  n. 

Bam,  81,  165 

Bamiyan,  122 

Banakat  (or  Fanakat  in  Transoxiana), 
100  and  n.,  320  n. 

Bandkati,  Td'rikh-i-  — ,  100-103. 
See  Rawdatu  Util-Albdb 

Bandtun-Na'sh  (Arabic  name  for  the 
constellation  of  Ursa  Major),  2i3n. 

Bang  (Cannabis  Indica  or  Hashish), 
150  and  n.,  151  and  n. 

Bankipore  (Library  and  Catalogues), 
108,  10911.,  259  n.,  260,  28711., 
293  n.,  312  n.,  317  n.,  319 

Banna'f  (poet,  xv),  438,  457,  458 

Bcinu  Jahan  (wife  of  Mubarizu'd-Dfn 
Muhammad,  xiv),  163 

Baqir  b.  Ghiyathu'd-Din  Kurt  (xiv), 

177 

Barandaq  (poet  of  Bukhara,  xv),  501 

B£rbad  (minstrel  of  Khusraw  Parwi'z, 
vii),  267  and  n. 

Barbaro,  Josafa  —  (Venetian  envoy 
to  Persia,  xv),  380,  399,  404 

Barbier  de  Meynard,  431 

Bardi  Beg  (xv),  381-2 

Bar-Hebraeus,  Abu'l-Faraj  —  (Chris- 
tian historian  and  physician,  xiii), 
12,  18,  19  n.,  25  n.,  26  n.,  27  n., 
48  n.,  64,  106  n. 

Barmak,  House  of  — ,  or  ''  Barme- 
cides," 21 

Barquq  (al-Maliku'z-Zahir,  ruler  of 
Egypt,  xiv),  191 

Bashdrat-ndma  (Turkish  Huriiff  poem 
by  Raff'i,  xv),  375,  449-50 

Basra,  81,  85 


INDEX 


555 


Batnir,  Massacre  of  —  (xiv),  194 

Batii  (Mongol  prince,  xiii),  54,  354 

Ibn  Batiita  (Arabian  traveller,  xiv), 
47  n.,  55  n.,  56  n.,  58,  61,  64 

Bayandari  (the  "White  Sheep"  Turk- 
man dynasty,  xv-xvi),  402,  404. 
See  Aq-qoyunhi 

Baydnu'l-ffaqd'it]  (by  Rashidu'd-Dm 
Fadlu'liih,  xiv),  77,  79 

Bayazid.  —  (of  Bistam,  saint  and 
mystic),  479 ;  —  b.  Mubarizu'd- 
Din  Muhammad,  founder  of  the 
Muzaffarf  dynasty  (xiv),  163;  - 
b.  Sultdn  Uways  of  the  Il-khanf 
or  Jald'ir  dynasty  (xiv),  173 ;  — I, 
known  as  Yildirim,  the  "Thunder- 
bolt" (Ottoman  Sultan,  A.D.  1389- 
1402),  173,  196,  198-9,  203-6, 
365,  399,  400;  —  II  (Ottoman 
Sultan,  A.D.  1481-1512),  398 
(where  "  II  "  is  twice  erroneously 
given  as  "III"),  418,  419,  422, 
423;  Khwdja  —  (Huriiff,  xiv), 
368 

Bdyazfd  (Turkish  frontier  fortress),  188 

Baybars  (al-Maliku'z-Zahir,  Sultan  of 
Egypt,  xiii),  19 

-Baydi  (the  Arabic  name  of  Turbat-i- 
Safid'm  Fars),  63 

•Baydawf,Qddi  Ndsiru'd-Din  —  (com- 
mentator, historian  and  judge,  xiii), 
63,  88,  100,  ipi,  272  n. 

Baydii  (Mongol  Il-khan,  A.D.  1295), 

39-4° 

Bayhaq,  178 

Bayqara  (Tfmurid  prince,  nephew  of 
Shah-rukh,  xiv-xv),  427 

Bayram,  Khwaja  —  Baharlu  (of  the 
dynasty  of  the  "  Black  Sheep  "  or 
Qara-qoyxinlu,  q.v.),  399 

Baysunqur.  —  (Timurid  prince,  son 
of  Shah-rukh,  xv),  108,  366,  380, 
385  and  n.,  386,  387,  395-6,  400, 
424,  427,  438,  453,  473,  499-501 ; 
—  b.  Ya'qiib  (of  the  Aq-qoyiinlu 
or  "White  Sheep"  dynasty,  circ. 
A.D.  1500),  415 

Bazdari  family  of  Qazwfn,  94 

Bazigha  (her  love  affair  with  Joseph), 
532  and  n. 

"Beard,"  "Book  of  the  — "  (Rtsh- 
ndma,  by  'Ubayd-i-Za"kan{,  xiv), 

235.  25i 
Bektash,  Hajji  —  (d.  A.D.   1337-8), 

37,1-2,374,  45i 
Bektashi    order    of    dervishes,    365, 

370-5,  450-2 


Belgian  professors  at  Cambridge  (A.D. 

1915),    112  n.,    427.      See    also 

Fasihi,  Museon 
Belin    (Notice  sur  Mir  Ali-Chir..., 

1861),  391,  439,  506,  508 
Bell,    Miss    Gertrude    Lowthian    — 

(Poems  from  the  Divan  of  ffafiz, 

1897),    162,   273,    286,    291,   292, 

303-6,  308-11 
Bengal,  286,  287,  393,  398 
Bernhauer,  156 
Beveridge,  Mrs  —  (edition  of  Bdbur- 

ndma,  1905),  391 
Bianchi,  399 
Bibliotheque  Nationale  (Paris),   237, 

372 
Bicknell,    Herman  —  (translator   of 

Hafiz,  d.  1875),  283,  290,  291  n., 

302-3,  304-7,  309,  310 
B5hna"m  (his  fatal  banquet  at  Hama- 

dan,  A.D.  1282),  25  n. 
Bihruz,    Mirza    Dhabihu'llah    --of 

Sa"wa   (contemporary),   541,    542, 

548 
Bihza"d  (miniature  painter,  xv),  456, 

.  459,  5°5 

Bijanagar,  398,  429 
Birjand,  155 

Bisdti  (poet,  xv),  438,  501 
Bishkrf  (family  or  clan  of  Qazwin),  94 
Bistam,  59,  178 
Bitl'fs,  192 
"Black     Sheep"     Turkmans.       See 

Qara-qoyiinlu 
Blochet,  M.  Edgar  —  (edition  of  part 

of  the  Jami'u't-Tawarikh,  q.v.}, 

74  n. 
Blochmann  {Persian  Prosody,   1872), 

5i4n. 

Blue  Banner  (Leon  Cahun),  15 
Bliithensammhwg    aus   d.    Morgenl. 

Mystik  (Tholuck,  1825),  147 
Bliitenkranz  (Wickerhauser,  1885-8), 

542 
Bodenstadt  (translator  of  Hafiz,  1877), 

303 

Bohemia,  10,  102 

Bombay,  231 

"Bousaet,"  "Boussay"  (Italian  cor- 
ruption of  Abii  Sa'id,  q.v.),  61 

Brahmins,  342  n. 

Britain,  British,  102,  183 

British  Museum,  367,  430,  445 

Brockelmann,  Karl  —  (Gesch.  d.  arab. 
Lift.,  1898-1902),  63  n.,  64  n., 

99  n-'  354,. 355,  3»6,  357 
Brockhaus (editor of  Ha"fiz),  299 n.,  302 


556 


INDEX 


Broussa,  199 

Buddhist,  Buddhism,  44,  73 

Buhlul  (rebellion  of  — ,  A.  D.   1395), 

193 
BukhinC,  82,  186,  188,  189,234,238, 

432 
Bula  Timiiri  (family  or  clan  of  Qaz- 

wfn),  94 
Bulgarians,  15 
Bulqan  Khatiin  (mentioned  in  Rashi- 

du'd-Din's  will),  28 
Btiqa',  Amfr  —  (mentioned  in  Rashi- 

du'd-Dfn's  will),  28 
Buraq  (rebellion  of — ,  A.D.  1268-9), 

25 
•Burda  (the  "Mantle-poem"  of  al- 

Busiri),  363 

Burgundy,  Uukes  of  — ,  395 
Burhdn-i-Jdmi1'  (Persian  dictionary), 

35' 
Burhdn-i-Qdti''  (Persian  dictionary), 

351  n. 
Burhanf  (family  or  clan  of  Qazwin), 

94 

Burhanpiir,  289 
Burhanu'd-Dfn.    Qadf  —  (Turkish 

warrior-poet,  xiv-xv),  404;    Say- 

yid  —  (father  of  Mfrkhwdnd  the 

historian),  432 
Burujird,  187,  190,  368 
"Busech"  (Italian  corruption  of  Abu 

Sa'id,  q.v.),  389,  410,  429  n. 
Bushanj,  150,  175,  186 
Bushaq    (Abu     Ishaq,     parodist    of 

Shfraz),  159,  209,  211,  257,  299, 

344-51.  353.  492 
-Busiri   (Arabic  poet,  author  of  the 

Burda),  363 

Bus/an  (of  Sa'di,  xiii),  16,  354,  529 
Buwayhid  dynasty,  91,  522 
Byzantine  Empire,  205,  409 

Caesarea  (Qaysariyya),  83,  85 

Cahun,  Leon  — ,  9n.,  14,  15 

Cairo,  42,  196,  356,  357 

Calcutta,  216 

Calf,  Golden  — ,  35,  36 

Caliph, Caliphate  (Khalifa,  Khildfaf), 
5,  62,  73,  74,  90,  91,  92,  101, 
247  n.  See  also  under 'Abbasias, 
Fatimids,  Umayyads 

Calmucks,  398 

Cambay,  398 

Cambaluc  (Khan-baligh,  i.e.  Pekin), 

397 
Cambridge,   112,  162,  367,  368,  373, 

427>  43°"-;  440.  443.  445.  496 


"Cafio"   (name   of  Timur's  wife  as 

given  by  Clavijo),  200 
Caracoili,  399.     See  Qara-qoyunlu 
Carmathians,  451 
"Carparth"  (corruption  of  Kharput, 

q.v.),  389 

Cashmere,  283.     See  Kashmir 
Caspian  Provinces  and  Sea,  3,  6,  15, 

'87,    355,    48r,    482.     See    also 

Gilan,  Mazandaran 
"Cassan"      (Italian     corruption     of 

Kashan,  q.v.),  389 
Catalonia,  102 
Cathay  (A'hatd),  75,  228 
Catholic  church,  6 
Catkins  called  "Willow-cats"  (giirba- 

i-btd),  118  and  n. 
Caucasus,  7 
Ceylon,  122,  398 

Chabistar,  or  Shabistar  (q.v.),  146 
Chabot,  J.-B.  — ,  31  n.,  52  n. 
Chach,  Chachi,  no,  262,  320 n. 
Chaghatay  Khan,  66 
Chaghatay  language,   391,  438.     See 

Eastern  Turkish,  Turki 
Chahdr  Maqdla  (V>y  Nizami-i-'Arudi 

ofSamarqand,  xii),  65,  256, 353  n., 

522  n. 

Chansons  de  Gcstes,  394 
Chao    (Chinese    paper-money    intro- 
duced into  Persia),  37-9 
Chelebi,  479 
Chess,  456-7 

Chezy    (translator     into     French    of 
Jamfs  Layla  wa  Majnun,  Paris, 

1805),  516 

Chilla  (forty  days'  fasting  and  self- 
discipline,  in  Arabic  arba'in),  125, 

527  n. 
China,  Chinese,  37,  43,  44,  49,  64,  73, 

74.   75.   77.  86.   ^9.   101-3.   202> 
206,  228,  362,  383,  397,  398 
Chingfz  Khan  or  Qa'an  (xii-xiii),  n, 
12,  15,  16,  40,  43,  65,  73,  74,  103, 
159,  180,  182,  185,  203,  250,  285, 

364.  383 

Chingiz-ndma  (or  Shdhinshdh-ndma 
of  Ahmad  of  Tabriz,  xiv),  103 

Chosroes  (generic  name  for  S£sanian 
king,  Arabic  Kisra,  Persian  Khus- 
raw,  q.v.) 

Christ,  Christians,  17,  18,  19,  54,  58, 
101,  116,  134,  196,  201,  259,  281, 
282,  338,  342  n.,  372,  467,  476 

Chronograms,  58,  282,  283,  385,  386, 
387,  512.  This  list  is  not  ex- 
haustive 


INDEX 


557 


Chronological  Retrospect  (Major  David 
Price,  1811-21),  196  and  n. 

Chuban,  Amir — (xiv),  51-56,  59,  60, 
170,  171 

Churches  destroyed  by  orders  of 
Ghazan  (circ.  A.D.  1295),  40 

Churchill,  Sidney  —  (rare  Persian 
books  acquired  by  — ),  95,  300 

Clarke,Col.  H.Wilberforce —  (transla- 
tor of  Hafiz, etc.), 299,  300,  302,303 

Clavijo,  Ruy  Gonzalez  de  —  (Spanish 
ambassador  to  Tfmur,  A.D.  1404- 
5),  199-201 

Clement.  Pope  —  IV,  19;  Pope 
-V,  49 

Cologne  (mentioned  by  the  historian 
Banakatf,  xiv),  102 

"Como"  (Italian  corruption  of  Qum, 

?•»•)•  389 

Comneni,  407,  408-9 
Compass,  invention  of — ,  15 
Constantinople,   64,    199,    201,    203, 

206,  231,  257,  367,  368,  370,  399, 

405,  409,  413,  419 

Contarini,  Ambrosio  —  (Venetian 
envoy  to  Persia,  xv),  380,  406  and 

n.,  410 

Copts,  era  of  the  — ,  89 
Cordier,    M.    Henri    —    (edition    of 

Odoric  of  Pordenone),  6r  n. 
Crusades,  8 
"Curlumameth"  (Italian   corruption 

of  Oghurlii  Muhammad,  q.v.), 

410 

Dabfran  (family  of  Qazwin),  94 
Dah  Fasl  (by  'Ubayd-i-Zakani,  xiv), 

237.  252 
Dah  Wasl  (by  Mahmiid  Q<Crf  of  Yazd, 

xv),  352 
Dahhak  (legendary  tyrant  of  Persia), 

250 

Dalmatia,  6 

Damad  Ibrahim  Pasha  (xviii),  384  n. 
Damascus (Dimashq), 41,  42,122,  128, 

l8l»  J97,  355.  356.  357.425.  462 
Damghan,  81,  190,  368,  388 
Danishmand  Bahadur  (general,  xiii), 

176 

Dante  compared  with  Hafiz,  292-3 
Darabjird,  356 
Darband,  175 
Darby  (translator  of  Petis  de  la  Croix's 

Life  of  7'imurmto  English,  1723), 

363 
Darius  (Dara).    —  Hystaspes,  405 ; 

the  last  — ,  228,  229 


Darrab,  Sayyid  Amir  Hajji  —  (xiv), 

164 

Ddru  l-Aytdm  (in  Shfraz),  444 
Ddni'sh-Shifd  (in  Shiraz),  166,  355 
Daru's-Siyadat-z'-£/kzW«/   (at    Si- 
was),  83 ; i-Sultdnt (at  Herat), 

5«>4 

Dasht,  356 

Dastiir-ndma  (by  Nizarf),  155 

David's  melodious  voice,  500 

David  Comnenas,  408 

Davy,  Major  —  (xviii),  184 

Dawan  (in  Pars),  444 

*Dawlatshah.  —  (ruler  of  Kirmdn, 
xiv),  166;  —  b.  Bakhtishah  of 
Samarqand  (author  of  the  well- 
known  Biography  of  Poets,  xv), 
40 n.,  47,  72,  108,  io9n.,  in, 
ii5n.,  n8n.,  119,  141,  188,209, 
210,  211,215,  222,  223,  224,230, 
258,  259,  262,  263,  265,  272,  273, 
274,  282,  311  n.,  321,  33in.,  344, 
345.  346,  347,  362.  363.  382,  383- 
4.  4.H.  436-7,  439»  453,  459' 
48711.,  488,  489,  491  n.,  497,  498, 
499-501,  505,  508 

Daylamis,  91.     See  Buwayhids 

Deccan,  285,  464 

Defremery,  64  n. 

Delhi.     See  Dihli 

Deluge,  era  of  — ,  89 

Despina.  —  (daughter  of  Michael 
Palaeologus  and  wife  of  Abaqa" 
Khan  the  Mongol  Il-khan,  xiii), 
18;  —  (daughter  of  Kalo  Joannes 
and  wife  of  Uziin  Hasan,  xv), 
407 

Abii  Dharr,  traditions  of — ,  514 

Dhu'l-Fiqdr  ('All's  sword),  467,  468 
and  n. 

Dhu'l-Qadar  (one  of  the  nine  tribes 
supporting  Shall  Isma'fl,  A.D. 
1500),  417 

Dhu'l-Qadari  dynasty  (xv),  401 

Dieterici    (editor    of    al-Mutanabbi), 

347  n- 
Dihli,  107,  108,  181,  183,  194,  358, 

391,  393 
Dilshad.       -  Khatiin  (daughter   of 

Dimashq  Khwaja,  q.v.),  55.  58, 

171,     172,    260,    262;    -  -    Agha 

(Timur's  wife,  xiv),  186 
Dimashq  Khwaja  (son  of  Am  fr  Chuban, 

xiv),  54,  55»  T7° 
Diwa-Mahall,  398 
Diwdn-i-Albisa  (by  Mahmud  Qir{  of 

Yazd,  q.v.),  351-3 


55* 


INDEX 


*  Diwdn-i-At'iima    (by    Bushaq    of 

Shiraz,  q.v.),  346-51 
Dlwdmfn-Nasab    (source     used     by 

author  of  Trfrikh-i-Guzida},  88 
Diyar  Bakr  (formerly  Amid),  84,  92, 

192,  400,  402,  404,  406,  407,  408, 

417,  418 

Diya'u'd-Din  (J ami's  son),  514 
Dizful,  83,  191 

Dolmetsch  (suggested  Turkish  etymo- 
logy), 9n. 
Dominican  archbishop  of  Sultaniyya 

(xiv),  54 
Doqiiz  Khatiin  (wife  of  Hulagii  Khan, 

xiii),  18,  52  n. 

Dorn,  Bernard  — ,  i ion.,  426 
Drink,  indulgence  in  —  by  Tartars, 

24,  200,  391,  406  ;  laws  against  — , 

53»  58,  277-8 
Dughlat,  Mirza  Haydar  — (cousin  of 

Babur  and  author  of  Ta'rikh-i- 

Rashidi,  q.v.),  392,  453 
Dulafi  (clan  or  family  of  Qazwm),  94 
Dur-duzd,    Mawlana   'AU    —   (poet 

parodied  by  Bush£q  and  Mahmud 

Qari),  350,  352 

Ebu'z-Ziya  Tevfiq  (Abu'd-Diya 
Tawfiq)  Bey  (Turkish  man  of 
letters  and  printer,  xix-xx),  231 

Edward  King  of  England.  —  I, 
ii,  19;  —  II,  ii,  12,  49 

Egypt,  Egyptians,  n,  19,  20,  41,  42, 
44,  49,  51,  53,  54,  56,  70,  85,  86, 
92,  106,  127,  162,  16411.,  170. 
173,  191,  197,  199,  205,  206,312, 
329,  368,  396,  397,  399,  400,  401, 
404,  405,  414,  466,  468,  469 

"Elephant,"  "Year  of  the  — ,"  89 

Eleutherius,  Pope  — ,  102 

Elias,  N.  —  (d.  1897),  i7on.,  364  n., 
392  n. 

Eliot,  Sir  Charles  — ,  433 

Elliot,  Sir  H.  —  (History  of  India), 
107,  no 

Ellis,  A.  G.  — ,  174,  1 79  n.,  430 

Elphinstone  (History  of  India},  454 

Emessa.     See  Hims 

England,  English,  6,  43,  44,  102,  107, 

395, 

Era,  Il-khanf  — ,  45 ;  others  em- 
ployed by  different  peoples,  89 

Erdmann,  Dr  Franz  von  — ,  224,  225, 
226 

Erskine,  W.  —  (historian  of  India), 
364 n.,  392  n.,  393  and  n.,  419  n., 
454 


Er-Toghril  (ancestor  of  the  Ottoman 

Sultans),  205 
Erzeroum,  188,  196,  199 
Erzinjan,    188,    196,   404,    408.     See 

also  Arzanjan 
Ethe,   Dr  Hermann  —  (d.   June  7, 

1917),  68  n.,  103,  302  n.,  515  n., 

S31  n- 
Euclid,  1 8 
Euphrates  (Furdt),  42,  69,  Si,  84, 

379,  408,  412,  511  n. 
Euphuists,  461 
Europe,  Europeans,  89,  395 
Eve  (Hawwd),  334,  335 
Evil  Eye  (rue  or  pepper  burned  for 

protection  against — ),  2290. 

Facetiae  (Hazaliyydt)  of  'Ubayd-i- 
Zakanf,  i/.v.,  231,  238 

Abu'1-Fadl  of  Sawa,  Mirza  —  (physi- 
cian and  writer,  xix),  540 

Fadtlat-ndma  (Hurtiff  work),  450 

Fadlu'llah.  —  al-Husayni  (author 
of  al-AIu'jam  fl  Athdri  Muluktl- 
'Ajani,  xiii-xiv),  68 ;  —  (author 
of  Jdmi^u't-Tawdrikh,  xiii-xiv), 
see  under  Rashidu'd-Din  ;  — al- 
Huruff  of  Astarabad  (heresiarch, 
xiv),  190,  365-374,  449.  451,  479? 

—  of  Tabriz  (physician  to  Timur, 
xiv-xv),  202  ;  — ,  Mir  —  (courtier 
of  Mahmud  Shah  Bahmani  of  the 
Deccan,  xiv),  285 

Fahlawiyydt  (poems  in  dialect),  352 
Fdkihatrfl-Khulafd   (by   Ahmad   ibn 

'Arabshah,  y.v.,  xiv),  356 
*Fakhri,  Kitabul-  —  (xiv), '4-5 
Fakhri'-i-Banakati  (historian  and  poet, 

xiv),  100-103 

Fakhri-i-Jurjani  (poet,  xi),  65 
Fakhru'd-Din.   Monastery  of  Shakh 
— ,  28 ;  —  Kurt,  Malik  —  (xiv), 
41,    50,    150-1,    174  n.,    176;   - 
'Iraqi  (q.v.,  poet,  xiv),  63,  124-39, 

»74,  32I>  344.  35°,  445-  446, 
512;  —  Abu'l-'Abba's  Ahmad-i- 
Shirazf  (author  of  the  'Shlrdz- 
ndma,  xiv),  360-1 ;  — ,  Khwaja 

—  (correspondent  of  Huriifis,  xiv) ; 

—  'Ajami  (Persian  Mufti  of  Con- 
stantinople, xv),  370;  —  'AH  b. 
Husayn     Wi'iz-i-Kashifi      (poet, 
preacher  and  biographer,  xv-xvi), 
441-2,  504,  509 

Fakhru'1-Mulk  Shamsu'd-Dawla  (pa- 
tron of  the  poet  Imamf,  xiii),  117, 
1 18  and  n. 


INDEX 


559 


Fdl-ndma  (table  for  taking  auguries), 

*35.  3'2-i5 

Falconer,  Forbes  — ,  516,  52311.,  527 

Fani  (Persian  takhallus  of  Mir  'AH 
Shir  Nawa'i,  q.v.),  505 

Fayr-ndma  (Huriifi  work),  450 

Farah,  175,  186 

Faraju'llah  (son  of  the  Sdhib-Diwdn 
Shamsu'd-Dfn  Muhammad-i-Ju- 
wayni.  xiii),  29 

Abu'l-Faraj,  Gregorius  —  b.  Ahrun 
(physician  and  historian).  See 
Bar  Hebraeus 

Akhii  Abi'l-Faraj  of  Zanjan  (saint, 
xi),  426  and  n. 

Farghana,  380,  393,  418 

Farhdd,  32*8,  329,  547 

Farhadjird,  178 

Farhang-  i-Anjuman  -  drd  -yi-Ndsiri 
(Persian  lexicon  by  Rida-quli 
Khan,  xix),  481  n. 

Ibnu'l-Farid, '  U  mar —  (Egyptian  mys- 
tical poet,  xii-xiii),  133,  514,  548 

Farid-i-Ahwal  ("  Squinting  Farid," 
poet,  xiv),  154 

Faridu'd-Dfn.  —  'Attar  (mystical 
poet,  xiii),  88,  344,  350,  352,  435, 
479>  505;  Q*di  —  (envoy  of 
Bayazid  "  theThunder-bolt"to  Tf- 
mur).2O5;  —  Ahmad  b.Sa'du'd-Dm 
at-Taftazanf.  See  under  Ahmad 

Farmin-Khand  (daughter  of  Rashf- 
du'd-Din  Fadlu'llah,  xiv),  84 

Farrukh  (ode  of  Hafiz  addressed  to 
— ).  30i 

Farrukh  Yasar  (king  of  Shirwan,  c. 
A.D.  1500),  417 

Farrukhf  (poet,  xi),  65 

Fars,  20,  73,  83,  101,  119,  160,  163, 
165,  168,  186,  188,  189,  190,  191, 
206,  226,  237,  272,  274,  275,  276, 
277,  284,  285,  317,  344,  356,  357, 

381,  385»  387.  389-  397>  4°^,  4°6> 
410,  444 

Fdrs-ndma-i-Ndsirt,  162,  165  n.. 
168  n.,  274  n.,  275  n.,  357  and  n. 

Faryab,  175 

Faryumad,  212,  215 

Fasa  (in  Fars),  168 

Fasfhi  of  Khwaf  (author  of  the  rare 
Mujt/ial,  or  Compendium  of  his- 
tory and  biography),  28  n.,  29, 
4011.,  67  n.,  112  and  n.,  150  and 
n.,  151-2,  174  and  n.,  195  n., 
210  and  n.,  211,  214-15,  224, 
230,  282  n.,  283,  354  n.,  365, 
424  n.,  425,  426-8 


Fath-abad,  Garden  of  — ,  83 
Fatalism    (Hifiz   charged    with    — ), 

301  and  n. 
Fath-'Ali  Sultan  b.  Imam-quH  KMn, 

318-19 
Abu'1-Fath    Ibrahfm    b.    Shah-rukh 

(d.  A.D.  1434-5).  385  «• 
Fdtihatifsh-Shabdb  (J  ami's  first  Di- 

wdn,  compiled  in  A.D.  1479-80), 

5'5 

Fatimid  Caliphs,  92,  154 

-Faw£idtJd-piy£iyya  (Arabic  gram- 
mar compiled  by  Jam!  for  the  use 
of  his  son),  514 

Fayd-ndma  (Turkish  Huriiff  work), 
45° 

Ferte,  M.  — ,  231,  235 

Fihvagushan  (clan  or  family  of  Qaz- 
win),  94 

Fiott-Hughes  (collector  of  Oriental 
MSS.),  225 

Firdq-iidma  (by  Salman-i-Sawaji, 
xiv),  261 

Firdawsf,  65,  89,  95,  104,  108,  224, 
259,  316  n.,  348,  350,  385,  510, 
53'1'  541-  See  also  Shah-nama 

Fire-arms,  invention  of — ,  14 

Fire-worshippers.  See  Gabr,  Guebre, 
Magian,  Zoroastrian 

Firidun  Bey  (Ahmad  Firklun  Tawqf'i, 
'1'urkish  writer  and  official,  com- 
piler of  a  great  collection  of  State 
Papers  known  as  Mttnshd'dt,  xvi), 
203-6,  398  and  n.,  400,  401  and 
n.,  407,  409-11,  422-3 

Firishta,  Muhammad  Qasim  —  of 
Astarabid  (historian  of  India),  286 

Firishta-zada  ('Abdu'l-Majid  b.  p'i- 
rishta  'Izzu'd-Din,  Huriifi  heresi- 
arch  and  author  of  the ' Ishq-ndma) , 

„  37,r>  45Z. 
Firuzabad  (in  Fars),  357 

-Ffnizab£di,  Abii  Tahir  Muhammad 
—  (lexicographer,  xiv-xv),  357-8 

Ffruz-Kuh,  175,  193,  368 

Fish  supporting  the  earth  (mdhi  or 
satnak),  113 

FitzGerald,    Edward    — ,    304,    516, 

.  523.  5*4.  5*> 
Fitzwilliam  Museum,  Cambridge,  162, 

360 

Fleischer,  156,  328 
Florence,  292 

Florin,  Turkish  — ,  423  and  n. 
Flugel,  88  n.,  367  n. 
Forbes,  Duncan  — ,  529 
"Four"  (i.e.  the  Four  Elements),  248 


560 


INDEX 


France,  French,  6,  9,  10,  395 
Franciscan  envoys  to  Mongol  court, 

'9 

Franks,  73,  74,  101,  200,  205.  See 
also  Europeans 

Frazer,  Sir  J.  G.  — ,  474 

Friesland,  6 

Fuduli  (Fuzuli,  Turkish  poet  of  Bagh- 
dad, xvi),  44! 

Funighi  (Muhammad  Husayn  Khan 
Zukd'iSl-Mulk,  contemporary  Per- 
sian poet  and  historian),  383 

Fustisu  I  -  Hikam  (by  Shaykh  Mu- 
hyi'd-Din  ibnu'l-'Arabi,  g.v.), 
63,  127,  446,  513 

Gabr  (Guebre),  38,  39,  541.   See  also 

Magians,  Zoroastrians 
Ganja,  122,  326  n.,  535,  536 
Ganj-ndma    (Turkish   Ilurufi   book), 

45° 
Gantin,  M.  Jules —  (editor  of  Tfffikk- 

i-Guztda),  94 

Garm-sir,  52  , 

Gawhar  Shad  Kh£tun  (or —  Aqa,  xv), 

388,  389,  410,  428 
Gaykhdtu  (Mongolll-khan,  A.  D.  1 291- 

5).  3L37-9.  43.  l63 
Gayl  (Gel,  Gil),  48o,  481 
Gedik  Ahmad   Pasha   (tutor  to   the 
Ottoman  Prince  Mustafa,  xv),  411 
G61.     See  above  under  Gayl 
Genoa,  201 
Geoffrey  de  Langley  (English  envoy 

to  Ghazdn's  court),  44 
Georgia,  Georgians,  9,  85,  160,  188, 

190,  192,  197,  199,  362,  406,  409, 

4M,  503 

German,  Germany,  6,  542;  German 
Emperor,  iO7n. 

Gharjistdn,  175 

Ghaza  (Egypt),  19 

Ghazan  (Mongol  Il-khan,  A.D.  1295- 
1304),  17,  27,  40-46,  47.  48,  69, 
70,  72«  73.  74.  76'  82,  83,  84, 
iof,  104  n.,  163,  176,  275,  361 

Ghdzaniyya  (suburb  of  Tabriz),  46, 
70 

Ghdzdn-ndma  (by  Ahmad  of  Tabriz, 
xiv),  103 

Abu'l-Ghdzi  Sultan  Husayn  b.  Man- 
sur  b.  Bayqara  (Timurid  prince, 
xv-xvi),  380,  390- 1,  395,  396, 
399,  400,  410,  412,  418,  421-2, 
430-1,  433,  434,  436,  439-40, 
443,  453,  455-9,  48?  n->  505,  5°6, 
517 


Ghazna,  House  of — ,  73,  74,  91,  380 

-Ghazzali,  Shaykh  Muhammad  —  (xi- 
xii),  479;  Shaykh  Ahmad  — , 
'35  n. 

Ghibellines,  399 

Ghiyathu'd  -  Din.  —  Muhammad 
Sam  (king  of  Ghiir,  d.  A.D.  1202), 
174,  179  ;  —  Kurt  ruler  of  Herat 
(d.  A.D.  1329),  55,  57,  176-7, 
179;  —  Pir  'AH  Kurt  (grandson 
of  the  preceding),  57,  179,  186;  — 
(Muhammad  b.  Rashidu'd  -  Din 
Fadlu'llah  (minister  and  patron  of 
letters,  put  to  death  in  A.D.  1336), 
56-7,  58-9,  71,  83,  84,  87,  103, 
226,  261-2  ;  —  Hajji  Khurasini 
(ancestor  of  the  Muzaffari  dynasty, 
xiii),  162;  —  b.  Sultan  Iskandar 
(king  of  Bengal  and  correspondent 
of  the  poet  Hafiz,  xiv),  286-7 ; 
Amir  —  (Huriifi  poet),  373;  — 
Naqqash  (xv),  397 

Ghiich  Husayn  b.  Amir  Chiiban  (xiv), 
170' 

Ghulam  'AH  Khdn  Azdd  (author  of 
the  Khizdna-i-1 Amira,  xviii),  289 

Ghur,    152,   175,    176;  kings  of  — , 

91-  J79 

Ghuri,  Amir  —  (Sarbadar,  xiv),  180 

"  Giansa,"  389.     See  Jahanshah 

Gibb,  E.  J.  W.  —  (Turkish  scholar, 
d.  1901),  156,  210  n.,  354,  368  n., 
369,  370,  392,  399  n-,  404"-,  422, 
423,  426,  441  n.,  449,  450,  532 

Gibbon  (author  of  the  Decline  and 
Fall),  202-3 

Gibbons,  Professor  H.  A.  — ,  198, 
401  n. 

Gilan,  Gil,  49,  416,  429,  473,  479, 
48 1 ,  482.  See  also  Caspian  pro- 
vinces, Gayl 

Gird-i-Ktih  (stronghold  of  the  Assas- 
sins), 368 

Gobineau,  le  Comte  de — ,  103,  425 

de  Goeje,  88 n.,  99 n. 

Gog,  1 6 

Golden  Horde,  57,  354 

Gomez  de  Salazar  (member  of  Spanish 
mission  to  Timur,  xv),  199 

Gonzalez  de  Claviio  (Spanish  ambas- 
sador to  Timur),  199-201.  See 
Clavijo 

Gothland,  6 

Gottwaldt,  88  n. 

Government  service  to  be  avoided,  28 

Graf  (editor  of  Sa'di's  Bustdn),  i6n., 
529  n. 


INDEX 


561 


Greece,  Greek,  3,  89,  405 

Gregory  X,  Pope  — ,  19 

Griffith,  R.   T.  H.  —  (translator  of 

J  ami's  Yiisufwa  Zulaykhd),$  16,531 
Giidarz  (rebel  at  Sirj£n,  xiv),  192 
Guebre  \gabr],  38,  39,  541.    See  also 

Magians,  Zoroastrians 
Guelphs,  399 
de  Guignes,  382  n. 
Guillaume     d'Ada     (archbishop     of 

Sultaiiiyya,  xiv),  54  n. 
Gujarat,  318,  398 
Gulandam,  Muhammad  —  (compiler 

of  the  Diwdn  of  Hatiz),  272,  283 
Gulbarga,  398 
Giilistdn    (of   Sa'df),    16  n.,    401  n., 

436>  515 
Gulistan  (place  in  Caucasia),  417 

*  Gulshan-i- A'dz     ("  Rose-garden     of 

Mystery"),  146-9,  300,  471  n. 
Gurgan,    190,    355,    390.       See   also 

Astarabad,  Jurjan 
Gurjistdn  (Georgia,  y.v.),  188 
*Guy  u  Cha-wgdn  ("  Ball  and  Polo- 
stick, "a  poem  by'Arifi,  xv),  495-7 

Habib-i-'Udi  (favourite  of  Miranshah 
put  to  death  by  Tfmur),  195 

Habib,  Mirz£  —  of  Isfahan  (xix), 
231,257,346,351 

Habibu's-Siyar  (history  by  Khwand- 
amfr,  xvi),  39  n.,  40  n.,  41,  60  n., 
171  n.,  174,  258,  264,  273,  282  n., 
283,  331  n.,  353  n.,  354,  366,385, 
389,  421,  428  n.,  429,  430  n.,  432, 
434,  460,  488  n.,  503,  505 

Hadiqatrfl-Haqlqat  (by  Sana'i  of 
Ghazna),  141 

Haditha,  81 

Hadiyya  Malik  (daughter  of  Rashf- 
du'd-Din  Fadlu'llah),  84 

Hafiz.      Muhammad   Shamsu'd-Din 

—  of  Shir£z  (the  poet,  xiv),  108, 
159,  161,    166,   170,  188-9,  207, 
209,    211,    225,    238,    243,   258, 
259n.,  260,  269  n.,  271-319,320, 
325,  348,  35°.  352.  354.  356,357, 
435-  444.  495,  498>  5°H,  5i°>  544> 
548 ;     tomb    of    —    (Hafiziyya), 
311,318-9;  — b.  Ghiyathu'd-Dfn 
Kurt  (xiv),   57,  117-8;   —  Abrii 
(historian,    xv),   424-6,    430 ;   — 
(minstrel  of  Shiraz),  328;  Darwish 

—  (copyist,  xv),  225 

*  Haft  Awrang  (the  Sa&'a,  Septet,  or 

"Seven  Thrones"  of  Jami,  xv), 
5i5>  5'6 
B.  P. 


Haft  Birddardn  (the  "  Seven  Bro- 
thers," the  constellation  of  the 
Great  Bear),"  213  n. 

*Haft  Iqttm  (the  "  Seven  Climes,"  a 
geographical  and  biographical  work 
by  Amfn  Ahmad-i-Razi),  in,  141, 
142,  153,  210,  211,  216,  222,  223, 
230,  258,  274,  331  n.,  345,  362,  363 

Haithon  (Armenian  historian),  25  n. 

*Ibn  Hajar  al-'Asqal^ni  (Inbd),  367 

*Ibnu'l-H4Jib  (Arabic  grammarian, 
author  of  al-Kafiya),  514 

Hajji  Beg  b.  Amfr  Chtiban  (xiv),  170 

Hajji  Khalifa  (Turkish  bibliographer, 
author  of  the  Kashfu'z-Zunun), 
88  n.,  367  n. 

Hakluyt  Society,  6n.,  8,  381,  399  n., 
4O4n.,  405  n.,  407,  416 n. 

Hallaj  (wool-carder).  See  Bushaq 
(Abu  Ishaq)  of  Shiraz,  who  fol- 
lowed this  trade 

Hdl-ndma  ("the  Book  of  Ecstasy") 
of  'Ariff,  495-7.  See  also  Giiy 
li  Chawgan 

"Hahil.'Vs-  See  Khalil,  of  which 
this  is  an  Italian  corruption 

Hama  (in  Syria),  197 

Ramadan,  25,  39,  69,  85,   125,  193, 

403>  424 

Hamdu'llah  Mustawfi  of  Qazwm  (his- 
torian and  geographer),  56, 87-100, 
224,  231  n. 

Hamfdi  dynasty,  401 

von  Hammer,  68,  156,  347 n.,  436 

Hammer-Purgstall,  147,  401  n. 

Hamza  b.  Qara  'Osmdn  ('Uthm£n) 
Aq-qoyunlii  (xv),  404 

Hanafi.  —  sect,  46,  50,  97,  98  ;  clan 
or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 

Hanbalf  sect,  301  n. 

Haqlqat-ndma  (Turkish  Huniff  book), 
450 

Haqqrfl-Yaqin  (by  Mahmiid  Shabis- 
tarf,  xiv),  149-150 

ffaramayn,  Sultdmfl-  —  (title  as- 
sumed by  Egyptian  rulers,  xiv),  205 

Harqaddq  (Mongol  general,  xiv),  48 

Hartmann,  516 

Hanin.  —  ar-Rashfd  ('Abbasid  Ca- 
liph, ix),  21  ;  Sharafu'd-Din —  b. 
Shamsu'd-Din  Muhammad  Sdhib- 
Diwdn  (xiii),  20-21 

Hasan.  The  Imam  —  b.  'AH  b.  Abi 
Talib  (vii),  90,  91  ;  Shaykh  —  b. 
Husayn  Jala'ir  or  Ilkani  (Il-Khani) 
called  Buzurg  ("the  Great,"  d. 
A.D.  1356),  54,  55,  59,  60,  170-2; 

36 


562 


INDEX 


208,    260,     261,     262,     264; 

Shaykh  —  b.  Timurtash  b.  Chiiban 
called  Kuchak  ("the  Little,"  d. 
A.D.  1343),  59,  60,  170-2;  b. 
Uways  b.  Shaykh  —  i-Buzurg 
(killed  A.D.  1382),  172,  320;  — b. 
'AH  Beg  b.  Qara  'Osman  ('Uth- 
man)  Biyandarf  or  Aq-qoyiinlu 
(A.D.  1453-77),  402,  403;  see 
Uziin  Hasan ;  — ['AH]  b.  Jahdn- 
shah  (xv),  402,  403,  408,  409,  410; 
— i-Sabbah(founderof  the  Assas- 
sins, q.v.,  xi),  66;  Amir  —  of 
Dihli  (poet,  xiv),  106,  108,  293, 
35°>  352,  49*>  498;  Shaykh-i- 
Jiiri  (xiv),  211-12;  Sayyid  —  of 
Tirmidh  (parodied  by  Mahmiid 
Qa>f  of  Yazd),  352  ;  Khwaja  - 
and  Shaykh  —  (correspondents  of 
Hunifis,  xiv),  368;  Hajji  Mfrz;i 
—  (author  of  Fdrs-ndma-i-Ndsirl, 
xix),  162 

Hasht  Bihisht  (a  garden  near  Tabriz, 
the  "Astibisti"  of  the  Venetian 
travellers),  414 

Hatifi  (nephew  of  Jamf  and  poet,  xvi), 

459 

Hdtim-T^'i,  276,  383 

Haydar-i-Safawi,  Shaykh  —  (xv),  407, 
414,  416,  41711. 

Haydar  of  Shiraz  (poet,  xiv),  223-4 

HaydaraMd  codex  of  the  Bdbur- 
ndma,  391 

Haz£rasp  dynasty  in  Luristan,  37 

Hebrews.     See  Jews 

Henry  the  Pious,  Duke  of  Silesia,  6 

Herat,  41,  49,  50,  55,  57,  115,  152, 
161,  163,  173,  i?5»  J7<>,  178,  i?9. 
180,  186,  208,  210,  354,  355  n., 
362,  366,  380,  382,  384,  387,  388, 
39°.  393.  397.  4<>2»  4l8.  4*i>  422, 
424,  425,  427-32,  455,  457-9,  462, 
464,473,488,500,501,503,506,507 

Hertford    (Oriental   printing   at   — ), 

443.  444 

Hiawatha,  523 

Hidayat  (takhallus  of  Rida-quli  Khan 
Lala-bashf,  xix),  432.  See  Rida- 
quli  Khan 

Hiddyat-ndma  (Persian  Huriifi  book), 

45° 

Hilali  (poet,  xv-xvi),  459 

Hims  (Emessa),  41,  197 

Hindus,  193 

Hindusha'h  (poet,  xiii),  22 

Ibn  Hisham  (biographer  of  the  Pro- 
phet), 88 


Hisn  Kayf  (fortress),  408 

Hit,  81 

Horn,  Dr  Paul  — ,  107  n. 

Houtum-Schindler,  Sir  Albert  —  (d. 
1916),  80,  ioon.,  150  n.,  162, 
2ion.,  360,  426,  430,  474 

Howorth,  Sir  Henry  —  (History  of  the 
Mongols),  13-14,  15,  i8n.,  19  n., 
21,  25  n.,  26  n.,  34  n.,  41  n.,  42  n., 
44,  45,  58  n.,  60,  6 1  n.,  177  n. 

Huart,  M.  Clement  — ,  365,  375,  449, 
450,  462 

Hulagu  (Mongol  Il-Khan,  xiii),  15, 
17,  18,  19,  20,  39,  40,  58,  59,  60, 
66,  69,  74,  162,  171,  175,  250,251 

Hiilaju  (Mongol  prince  put  to  death 
by  Arghiin,  xiii),  33 

Hulwani  (clan  or  family  of  Qazwin),  94 

Humam,  Humamu'd-Din.  —  son 
of  Rashfdu'd-Dm  Fadlu'llih  (xiii), 
84  ;  Mawlana  —  (contemporary  of 
above-mentioned  Rashid),  28 ;  — , 
or  I  lumami,  of  Tabriz  (poet,  xiii- 
xiv),  152-4,  329,  352 

Humayri  ('A'isha,  the  Prophet's  wife, 
so  called),  320 

Humayun  ("Great  Mogul"  Emperor 
of  India,  xvi),  391,  393,  418,  419 

Humdy  wa  Humdyim  (poem  by 
KhwaJYi  of  Kirman),  226 

Hungary,  Hungarians,  6,  9 

Hurmuz,  47,  193,  238,  285,  290,  397 

Hurr  b.  Yazid-Riydhf,  87 

Huriifi  sect  (xiv),  190,  365-75,  449-52, 

475.  478.  479 

Husayn.  The  Imam  —  b.'Ali  Talib 
(vii),  256,  441,  449,  510;  —  b. 
Mansiir  al-Hallaj  (mystic,  x),  195 
and  n. ;  —  b.  Amfr  Chtiban  (xiv), 
54;  Amfr —  (general  of  Abu  Sa'id 
the  Mongol,  xiv),  52;  —  b.  Aq- 
Biigha  b.  Aydakan-i-Jali'ir  (or 
Ilkdni  (father  of  Shaykh  Hasan- 
i-Buzurg,  q.v.,  xiv),  171  ;  —  b. 
Uways-i-Jala'ir  (killed  A.D.  1382), 
172;  Sultan  —  (Timur's  rival), 
185;  Shaykh  —  Jurf  (xiv),  178-9; 
Abu'l-Ghazi  Sultan  —  b.  Mansiir 
b.  Bayqari  (Timiirid  prince,  xv), 
see  supra,  s.v.  Abu'l-Ghazf ; 
—  Kiya  (Hurufi  correspondent, 
xiv),  368 ;  —  Beg  Shamlu  (coun- 
sellor of  Shah  Isma'il  the  Safawi, 
A.D.I  500),  417;  —  Wa'iz-i-Kashifi 
(man  of  letters,  xv),  434, 438, 441-3, 
463,  503-4 ;  —  'Udi  (musician  to 
Mir  'All  Shfr  Nawa'i,  xv),  505 


INDEX 


563 


Husayni.  Amir  —  of  Khurasan  (ques- 
tioner of  Mahmud-i-Shabistari, 
xiv),  147 

Husn  u  'Ishq  ("  Beauty  and  Love,"  a 
poem  by  Katibf,  xv),  487 

Hyde,  Thomas  —  (xviii),  303 

Hyrcania,  390.  See  Astarabad, 
Gurgan,  Jurjan 

Ibnu'l-Athir  (Arab  historian,  xiii),  6, 

11,  88,  1440. 

Ibrahim.  Shaykh  Sadru'd-Din  — 
al-Hamawi  (xiii),  40 ;  Shaykh  Ibra- 
him al-Juwayni  (xiii),  40  n. ; 
Khwaja  —  b.  Rashidu'd-Din  Fad- 
lu'lhih  (xiv),  52,  71,  83,  84,  86; 
Mirz£  —  Sulta~n  b.  Shah-rukh 
(xv),  364,  387,  500  ;  —  b.  'Ald'u'd- 
Dawla  b.  Bdysunqur  (xv),  388 ; 
Sultdn  —  Lodf  of  Dihlf  (xvi),  393 ; 
—  (brother  of  Shah  Isma'fl-i-Sa- 
fawf,  A.D.  1500),  416;  Amir 
Shaykh  —  of  Shfrwdn  (xv),  488 
Iconium,  63,  127.  See  also  Qonya 
Idajf,  Sultan  —  (put  to  death,  A.D. 

1291),  33 
Idol-temples  destroyed  in  Persia  by 

Ghazan  (A.D.  1295),  40 
'Idu'l-Fitr,  349  and  n. 
Iftikhari,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwm,  93 
Iftikham'd-Din,  Malik  Sa'id  —  Mu- 
hammad b.  Abu  Nasr  (xiii),  93,115 
Ij  (place  in  Fars),  356/357 
Ikhtiyaru'd-Din,  castle  of  — ,  366 
Ildaci  or  Ildonchi,  Thomas  —  (Mon- 
gol envoy  to  Edward  II  in  A.D. 
1307),  it  and  n.,  49 
fl-Khans.     This  title  is  properly  ap- 
plied to  the  Mongol  successors 
of  Hulagu  Khan,  whose  history 
is  contained  in  ch.  i  (1-61),  but  it 
is  also  sometimes  applied  to  the 
dynasty  founded  by  Shaykh  Ha- 
san-i-Buzurg,     more    correctly 
called  Jala'ir  or  Ilkani  (170-3). 
The  references  to  the  former  are  : 
15,  17,  18,  20,  27,  44,  45,  49,  50, 
58,  71,  74,  83,  87,  92,  172,  205; 
to  the  latter:    160,    161,   170-3, 
208,  260,  261,  262,  4Oi;     On  the 
forms  Il-Khani  and  Ilkani  see 
especially   171 ;    but  it   is   to  be 
noted  that  in  the  received'  text  of 
Hifiz    (ed.    Rosenzweig-Schwan- 
nau,  vol.  iii,  p.  8)  the  former  title  is 
applied  to  the  grandson  of  Shaykh 
Hasan-i-Buzurg 


Ilminsky  (editor  of  the  Bdbur-ndma), 

391 

'Imadu'd-Dfn.  —Faqih("  the  Juris- 
consult,"   poet   of  Kirma'n,    xiv), 
159,  209,211,  258-9,280,  281,  315, 
348,  350,  352  ;  —  Nasfmi(Nesrmf, 
the  Turkish  Hurufi  poet,  xiv-xv), 
368.     See  Nasfmi 
Imams,   the  Twelve  —  (vii-ix),  91. 
See    also    under    'Ali,    Hasan, 
Husayn,  etc. 
Imam-quit  Khan,  318 
'Jmarat-i-Tuqchf  (Isfahan),  368 
Inal  (old  Turkish  name),  120,  121  and 

n. 

-Inbd  (of  Ibnu'l-Hajar,  xiv-xv),  367 

India,  Indians,  3,  44,  64,  73,  74,  83, 

85,  89,  101,  106,  107,   108,   in, 

125,  127,  128,  174,  181,  182,  183, 

184,  193,  194,  272,  284,  302,  318, 

357.  380,  383  n->  393-  397.  398' 
419,  420,  423,  429,  433,  442,  461, 
466,  468,  498,  504,  335,  536,  540 

Indian  hemp  (Bang,  Hashish),  150 
and  n. ,  151  and  n. 

Indian  Mutiny,  183  n.,  380,  391,  420 

Indus,  4,  175,  193,  194,  393 

Inju,  Shaykh  Abu  Isha'q  —  (xiv),  163, 
164-5,  166,  «5»  226,  230,  231, 
233  "•>  235,  237,  274,  275,  290, 

357 

"  Institutes "(Tuziikdt)  ofTfmur,  183, 
202,  361  n. 

louldouchi,  Thomas  — ,  n,  49.  See 
above  s.v.  Ildaci 

Iram,  525 

Iranchin  (Mongol  officer,  xiv),  52,  53 

'Iraq,  20,  21,  160,  168,  173,  191,  204, 
225,  31?.  325»  364.  36«,  385»  387. 
389.  397.  398.  4°2,  409,  410,  418, 
464,  466,  468 

'Iraqi,  Fakhru'd-Din  —  (poet),  63, 
124-39,  174,  321,  344,  350,  445, 
446,  512 

Ireland,  Irish,  44,  102,  107 

Irm  (place  near  Ray),  265 

'Isa.  Sultan  —  (governor  of  MaYdm, 
xiv),  192  ;  —  brother  of  the  Otto- 
man Sultan  Muhammad  I,  401. 
See  also  Jesus 

Isen-bviqa  (Mongol  officer,  xiv),  52 

Isfahan,  15,  22,  37,  81,  82,  119,  141, 

160,  161,  165,  168,  169,  181,  188, 

190,  208,  274,  331,  344,  360,  364, 

368,  384,  389,  402,  410,  416,  489 

Isfandiyarf  dynasty,  401 

Isfard'in,  186,  497,  503 

36-2 


564 


INDEX 


Isfizar,  175,  176 

Ishaq  Efendi  (author  of  the  Kdshifu'l- 
Asrdr,  xix),  371,  450 

Abii  Ishaq.  —  b.  Sultan  Uways  b. 
Shall  Shujd'  Muzaffarf  (slain  by 
Tfmiir,  A.D.  1393),  169  ;  Shaykh 

—  Inju  (xiv)  ;  see  above  s.v.  Injii  ; 

—  Ahmad  b.  Y£-Sm  (historian  of 
Herat),    174,   431  ;    —  of  Shfr£z 
(gastronomic  poet,  xiv)  ;  see  above 
s.v.  Bushaq  ;   —  Ibrahim  (saint 
of  Kdzarun),  226 

'Ishq-ndma  (Persian  Hunifi  book  by 


Iskandar.  —  b.  'Umar  Shaykh  Mirza 
(Timurid,  xv),  344,  345,  366;  - 
b.  Qdra  Yusuf  Aq-qoyunlu  (xv), 
382,  400,  401,  402,  404,  489.  See 
also  Alexander  the  Great 

Iskandar-ndma  (Hurufi  poem),  449 

Islam,  4,  8,  n,  17,  31,  32,  40,  43,  44, 
46,  48,  49,  73,  78,  93 

Isma'il,  Shall  —  Safawf  (A.D.  1500), 
3i5»  3l6»  379-  38o,  381,  400,  407, 
414,  415,  416,  417-19,  434,  458, 

459.  5°7 

Isma'fl  'Ali  (Indian  copyist,  xix),  154 
Isma'fli  sect,  53,  73,  74,  154.   Seealso 

Assassins 
'Ismat  of  Bukha'ra'    (poet,   xv),   352, 

353.  5°i 

Istahb£nat  (in  Fdrs),  331 
Istakhr  (in  Fais),  414,  416 
Isliwd-ndma  (Persian  Huriiff  poem), 

373.  45° 
Istizhdru'l-Akhbdr  (one  of  the  sources 

of  the  TcSrikh-i-Guzida),  89 
Italy,   Italians,   381,   395,  399,  405, 

414.     See  also  Venetians 
Iy£s  b.  Mu'awiya,  255 
Izniq,  369 
'Izzat  Malik  (wife  of  Shaykh  Hasan- 

\-Kuchak,  xiv),  60 
'Izzu'd-Din.   —  Muzaffar  (minister 

responsible  for  introducing  paper 

money  into  Persia,  A.D.  1294),  38  ; 

—  'Umar-i-Marghinf    (minister, 
xii-xiii  and  ancestor  of  Kurt  dy- 
nasty), 174,  175;  Malik  —  (ruler 
of  Luristdn,  xiv),   187,  192,  368  ; 

—  Shfr  (xv),  401 

Jacob,  413,  414,  415.     See  Ya'qiib 

Ja'far.  —  b.  Abi  'f&fo-Tayydr  (vii), 

i44andn.  ;  —  Sa~diq  (Imam,  viii), 

440  ;   —  of  Tabriz  (calligraphist, 

xv),  395,  499 


Jahangir.   —  b.  Tfmur  (xiv),   381  ; 

—  (Mogul  Emperor  of  Dihli,  xvii), 

273.   319.  391;  —  b-  'Ali  Beg  b. 

Qara  'Osman  ('Uthman)  Aq-qoy- 
unlu (xv),  404,  407,  408 
fahdn-gushd,  Ta?rlkh-i-  —  (by  'Ald- 

'u'd-Dfn     'Ata    Malik-i-Juwayni, 

xiii) ;  see  under  Ta'rikh 
Jah£n  Khatun  (satirized  by  'Ubayd-i- 

Zikani,  xiv),  233  n. 
Jahdn-ndma  (one  of  the  sources  of  the 

Nuzhatu'l-Qultib],  99 
Jaha"nshah     b.     Qara     Yusuf    Qara- 

qoyiinlu  (xv),  387-9,  400-3,  406, 

408-10,  412 
Jala'ir  family  and  dynasty,  54,  59,  60, 

160,   161,   166,   170-3,   187,   191, 

260,  284,  320,  399.     See  also  II- 
khani  (Ilkanf) 

Jalal.  —  i-'Adudi  (poet,  xiv),  159, 
344,  350,  352  ;  Khwaja  —  [or 
JaMlu'd-Din]  b.  Rashidu'd-Din 
Fadlu'lldh  (xiv),  82,  84;  —  -i- 
Khw^rf  (poet),  65 ;  -  -  i-Tabfb 
(poet),  65,  159,  344,  350,  352 

Jalalu'd-Din.  —  Mankobirni  Khwa- 
razmsh^h  (xiii),  12,  66;  —  Sim- 
n£n(  (minister  to  Arghun,  put  to. 
death  in  A.D.  1289),  31  ;  —  Kay- 
QuMdb.  'Ald'u'd-DinKay-Qubad 
Seljiiq  of  Rum  (xiii),  8^;  Khwaja  — 
b.  Rashidu'd-Dfn  Fadlu'llah  (xiv), 
82,84;  Mawlana  —  Riiml  (author 
of  the  Mathnawi,  q.v.),  105,  106, 
in,  139,  140,  155,  217,  302,  344, 

35°.  445.  479.  4^4.  S'4.  548  5  - 
Mansur-i-Muzaffarf,  163  (see  also 
infra,  s.v.  Mansiir) ;  Mawlina  — 
b.  Husdm  of  Herat  (contemporary 
of  'Ubayd-i-Zdkanf),  257;  Khwaja 
-  (patron  of  Hafiz),  292 ;  — 
Dawanf  (philosopher,  xv),  389, 
398,  423,  442-4 ;  Mawlan£  - 
Ishaq  of  Samarqand  (xiv-xv),  428 
Jam  (town  in  Khurasan),  175,  435, 

473.  507 
fdm-i-Jam  (poem  by  Awhadf  of  Mard- 

gha,  xiv),  141 
Jamf,    Mulla    Nuru'd-Dfn     'Abdu'r- 

Rahman  (poet,  xv),  124,  125,  132, 

r33n->   139 n->    X40»    141  n.,   258, 

261,  273,   283,  320,  321  n.,  331, 
347 n-.    395,    398,   399  n.,   422-3, 
426  n.,    434,    435-6;    437,   44o, 
445-8,  457,  459.  4<>i  n.,  463,  475, 
486,  496,  497,  503,  505,  506,  507- 
548 


INDEX 


565 


Jamalu'd-Dfn.  Shaykh  -  -  (xiii), 
35>  36  and  n.  ;  —  Dastajirddni 
(minister  of  Baydu,  A.D.  1295), 
39,  41  ;  — Shafi'i  doctor  of  Bagh- 
dad (xiv),  70;  — Abu'l-Qasim  of 
K£shan  (historian  cited  in  Ta'rikh- 
i-Guzlda),  88;  —  Muhammad  b. 
Husain  (poet,  xiv),  177;  —  (poet 
parodied  by  Mahmud  Qarf  of 
Yazd),  352 

fdmi^-i-Mitfidl  (monograph  on  the 
town  of  Yazd),  360,  362,  464 

[dmi'iit-TttfAntf-i-Rashidt  (xiv),  77 
and  n. 

/dmi'u't-  Tawdrikk  (by  Rashidu'd- 
Din  Fadlu'llah,  author  of  the  pre- 
ceding work),  12,  17,  44  n.,  49, 
67,  68,  72-5,  89 

Jamshid.  —  or  Jam  (the  Yima  of 
the  Avesta,  a  legendary  Persian 
demi-god  or  king),  151,  290,  317; 

—  Mawlana,   Ghiyathu'd-Din  — 
(astronomer,   xv),    386,    502 ;    - 
(unidentified),  494 

Jamshid  u  Khurshld  (by  Salman-i- 
Sawajf,  xiv),  261 

Jani  Beg  Khan  (of  the  Golden  Horde, 
xiv),  354 

Jarbadhaqdni,  Abu  Sharaf  —  (trans- 
lator of  al-'Utbi's  Kilobit  I- Ya- 
mini),  88  and  n. 

Jarun,  397 

Java,  30.8 

Jawahiru'l-Asrar  (of  Adharf),  259  ; 

—  of  Kamalu'd-Din    Husayn   b. 
Hasan  of  Khwarazm  (commentary 
on  the  Mathnawi),  444-5 

fawahiru. V-  To/sir  (larger  commen- 
tary on  the  Qttr'dn  by  Husayn 
Wa'iz-i-Kashifi,  xv),  442 

Jawhari,  Sadru'd-Din  Muhammad  — 
(parodied  by  Bushaq  and  Mahmiid 
QarO,  350,  352 

fdwiddn-i-Kabir  (by  Fadlu'llah  al- 
Hurufi),  367-9,  449  (where  Jdwf- 
ddn-ndma  is  a  mistake  for  the 
above  title),  450-2 

Jaxartes  (river),  called  by  the  Arabs 
Sihiin,  202 

-Jazh-a  (Mesopotamia,  q.v.),  368 

Jedda,  398 

Jerusalem,  99,  357 

Jesus  Christ  ('Isa'l-Mastk),  298 

Jews,  17,  31-6,  39-40,  47,  49,  69,  71, 
73.  74.  89,  101,  194,  251,  372; 
Society  for  the  propagation  of 
Christianity  amongst  the  — ,  346 


"Jex"  (Italian  corruption  of  Yazd, 

q.v.),  389 
Jibba  (place),  8r 

/*'««!  3i 7  "• 

Johan-Yokhnan-Ung  (origin  of  "Pres- 

ter John"),  tin. 

John  XXII,  Pope  —  (A.D.  1322),  54 
Jones,  Sir  William  — ,  303,  304 
Joseph,  263.     See  YUsuf 
Juha  (a  celebrated  wit  or  jester),  254, 

'255 

Junayd,  Shaykh  —  (Safawi,  grand- 
father of  Shah  Isma'il),  414 

Jurjan  (province  of  Persia),  355,  390. 
See  Astarabad,  Gurgan 

-Jurjanf,  -Sayyidu'sh-Sharif  (xv),  159, 
276 n.,  353,  355,  370 

Jiishkab  (Mongol  noble  executed),  33 

Juwayni  (family),  20-24;  'Al£'u'd- 
Dfn  'Ata  Malik-i-  —  (author  of 
the  Ta'rf  kh-i-Jahangusha,  q.v.), 
10,  u  n.,  12,  17 

Ka'ba,  32,  89,  321,  492  n. 

Kabfru'd-Din  b.  Fakhru'd-Dm  'Iraqi 
(xiii),  127,  128 

K^bul,  86,  175 

"Kabuli  thief,"  Khwajuof  Kirnian  so 
called,  224 

K£firist£n,  193 

Kdfiya  (of  Ibnu'l-Hajib),  514 

Kajahanf,  Shaykh  — ,  264 

Kalat-i-Nadirf,  152  n.,  i86(?) 

Kalila  wa  Dimna  (Book  of  — ),  94 
(translated  into  Mongolian);  in 
(versified  by  Qani'i,  xiii) ;  463, 
504.  See  also  Anwar-i-Suhayli 

Kalo  Joannes  (last  Christian  Emperor 
of  Trebizond,  xv),  407,  408 

Kamal  of  Khujand  (poet  contem- 
porary with  Hafiz,  xiv),  159,  209, 
211,  320-30,  331-2,  350,  352,  435, 
491,  498.  See  also  under  the  next 
heading 

Kamalu'd-Din.  Khwaja  —  of  Sfwas 
(correspondent  of  Rashfdu'd-Din 
Fadlu'llah,  xiv),  84;  —  Isma'il  of 
Isfahan  (poet,  xiii),  261,  327  n., 
352,522;  —  Husayn  (satirized  by 
'Ubayd-i-Zakanf,  xiv),  238;  — 
of  Kashan  (poet  parodied  by 
Bushaq),  350;  — Ghiy£th  al-Fa>sf 
of  Shiraz  (accused  of  plagiarism  by 
K£tibi),  491 ;  Khwaja  —  (corre- 
spondent of  Hurufis,  xiv),  368; 
—  'Abdu'r-Razzaq  (author  of  the 
Matla'u's-Sa'dayn,  q.v.),  389, 


566 


INDEX 


428-30;  —  Husayn  Gazargalii 
(pseudo-Sufi  and  poetaster,  alleged 
to  be  the  real  author  of  the  Maja- 
lisu'l-'Ushshaq,  q.v .),  440,  457- 
8 ;  —  Husayn  b.  Hasan  of  Khwa"- 
razm  (author  of  a  commentary  on 
the  Matknawf  entitled  JawdAiru'I- 
Asrdr,  xv),  445 

Kamdl-ndma  (by  Khwaju  of  Kirm^n, 
xiv),  226 

"  K£ma-Shastra  Society,"  436 

Kami,  Shall  Husayn  —  (poet  con- 
temporary with  B£bur),  459 

Kan'£n  Beg  (xvii),  318 

Kanbi'it  (Cambay),  398 

Kamdl-Ishtihd  (the  "Treasure  of 
Appetite"  by  Bushaq  of  Shiriz, 
xv),  346-50 

Karaji,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 

KarbaM,  42,  44,  191,  256,  449,  510 

Karduchin  (wife  of  Amir  Chvib£n, 
xiv),  55 

Karim  Khan-i-Zand  (xviii),  311 

Karit,  Kerait  (a  people  akin  to  the 
Mongols),  u,  1 8  n. 

Ka"r-kiyd  Mirz£  'Ali  (governor  of 
Gilaii,  A.D.  1500),  416 

Karkiik,  192 

Kdr-ndma  (of  Rabi'iof  Bushanj,  xiv), 
151-2 

Kash,  185,  194 

Kashan,  81,  118,  389 

Kashf  (near  Euphrates),  42 

Kashfa'z-Zumin  (of  Hajji  Khalifa), 
367  n. 

Kdshghar,  382 

Kdshifu'l-Asrdr  (refutation  of  Hunifi 
heresies  by  Ish£q  Efendi),  371, 
45072 

Kashmir,  language  of  — ,  43 ;  beauties 
of—,  283 

-Kashshdf  (<o{  -Zamakhshari),  272 

Kdtibi  (poet  of  Nishapur  or  Turshiz, 
xv),  352.  353.  438,  487-95,  498> 
5°i 

Kd'us,  Kay  —  (legendary  king  of 
Persia),  152 

Kawthar  (stream  or  fountain  in  Para- 
dise), 134 

Kayini  dynasty  of  Persia,  90 

Kayfi  (name  of  a  place),  82 

Kaysi,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 

Kazan,  391 

Kazarun,  226,  418,  444 

Keene,  H.  G.  —  (translator  of  Akhldq- 
i-MuAsmt),  444 

Kerd'it,  Karit,  11,  i8n. 


"Key   of    Life"    (Miftdku'l-Haydt), 

372 

Khabis,  81 
Khabtthdt  (obscene  poems  of  Sa'df), 

232  n. 

Khabushan,  387 
Khafija  (Arab  tribe),  162,  231 
Ibn  Khaldun  (historian,  xiv),  462 
Kh^lidi  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 
Khalfl.   —  Sultan  of  Shirwan  (xv), 
400 ;     —    Sultan    b.    Miranshih 
(Timurid   prince,    xv),   381,    382, 
438;  Mawhina'  —  Naqqash  ("the 
painter"),  384,  498 
Khalili,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 
Khalilu'llah    Mirza   b.    Uzun    Hasan 

Aq-qoyunlii  (xv),  408,  413,  414 
Khalldqifl-Ma'dni ("Creator  of  [new] 
Ideas"),  327  n.     See  above  under 
Kamalu'd-Din  Isma'il 
Ibn  Khallik£n  (biographer,  xiii),  64 
Khamriyya    (the    "Wine-poem"    of 

'Umar  b.  al-Farid,  q.v.),  514 
Khamsa  ("Quintet")  of  Nizami  of 
Ganja,     226,    505,    541  ;     -  -    of 
Khwaju   of  Kirmin,    225-6;    - 
tu'l-Mutahayyirin  of  Mir  'Ali  Shir 
Nawa'i,  508 
Khan-b;iligh  ("Cambaluc,"    Pekin), 

397>  398 
Khdniqin,  163 
Khan-zada    Begum    (B^bur's   sister), 

419 

Kh^qani  (poet,  xii),  65,  224,  522 
Khar-banda  (original  name  of  Ulja'ytu 

changed  to  Khuda-banda,  q.v.), 

46-7 

Kharjird,  473 
Kharput,  389 

Khat£  (Cathay),  75,  228,  356 
Khatimatu* l-Haydt  (Jami's   last   Dt- 

wdn,   compiled  in  A.D.    1490-1), 

5i6 

Khatlan,  390 
Khayali  (poet  of  Bukhara),  352,  438, 

501 

Khaysar,  152,  174,  175,  176 
-Khazin  al-Baghdadi,  Abii  T^lib  'Ali 

—  (historian),  88 
-Khazraji     (author     of    gf-'UtA&it~ 

Ltflu'iyya,  a  history  of  Yaman), 

357 

Khidr,  134,  259,  291 
Khidr  Khdn  (xv),  383  n. 
*Khirad-ndma-i-Sikandari  (byjami), 

516,  536-40 
Khiva,  190.     See  Khwarazm 


INDEX 


567 


Khizdna-i-1  Amira  (biography  of  poets 
by  M(r  Ghuldm  'AH  Khan  Azdd, 
xviii),  289 

Khuda"-banda(Uljaytu,  A.D.  1305-16), 
46-51,  83,  176,  215.  See  also 
Uljaytii 

Khuda-da"d  (leader  of  revolt  against 
Khalil  Sultan,  xv),  381 

Khujand,  -206,  209,  320,  324,  327 

Khuldsatifl-Akhbdr^y  Khwa"ndamfr, 
xv-xvi),  434 

Khurasan,  25,  27,  32,  52,  54,  83,  147, 
152  n.,  160,  162,  175,  177,  185, 
190,  193,  210,  233  n.,  272,  354, 
364,  382,  387,  388,  392,  398,  402, 
408,  410,  416,  418,  419,  428,435, 
438,  456,  466,  468,  473,  498,  503, 
506,  507,  511,  512 

Ibn  Khurdadhbih  (geographer),  99 

Khurram-a'bad  (Lurista'n),  187,  410 

Khurshid  Beg  (ambassador  from  Uziin 
Hasan  to  the  Ottoman  Sultan 
Muhammad  II),  409 

Khusraw  I  (vi),  see  N  \ishfrwan; 
—  II  ( —  Parwiz,  vii),  267,  329, 
500;  Amir  —  of  Dihlf  (poet,  xiii), 
106,  107,  108-10,  293,  352,  491, 
498,  514,  527,  536  n.  See  also 
Chosroes,  Kisra,  Sasanians 

Khutan,  33,  266 

Khuy,  199,  414 

Khuzistdn,  82,  83,  193,  411 

Khwaf,  112,  211,  424  n.,  428.  This 
place  is  chiefly  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  Fasihf,  q.v. 

Khwaju  (poet  of  Kirma'n,  xiv),  159, 
209,  211,  222-9,  293-5,  296,  348, 
35°.  352 

Khwandamir  (historian  and  bio- 
grapher, xvi),  17,  40,  171,  273, 

283.  361,  393.  433,  434.488,  503. 
504,  505.  See  also  Habibu's- 
Siyar,  Khulasatu'l-Akhbar 

Khwar,  81 

Khwa"razm  (Khiva),  12,  190,  354.356, 
368,  390,  418,  456 

Khwarazm- shahs,  66,  73,  74,  92,  180 

Kichik,  53 

Kieff,  10 

Kikshik,  53 

-Kinasa,  254 

Kinjik,  53 

Kirman,  47,  48,  81,  85,  92,  115,  139, 
160,  161,  163,  166,  168,  169,  190, 
208,  223,  224,  258,  259,  280,  325, 
345-  357,  360,  387,  389'  40-2,  4°6, 
410,  418,  427,  463,  464,  465 


Kisra,  120,  121,  285,  467,  469.     See 

also  Chosroes,  Khusraw,  Nvis- 

hirwan,  Sasanians 
Kitdb-i-Yamirtl   (History  of    Sultan 

Mahmud  of  Ghazna),  88 
Kitdbu'l-Ahyd  wa!l-Athdr  (by  Rashf- 

du'd-Din  Fadlu'lla"h,  xiii-xiv),  75, 

79 
Kitdbitl-Ma'drifOteR.  Qutayba),  88 

Kitdbu't-Tanbih   wa'I-Ishrdf  (-Mas- 

'udi),  90  n. 

Kiyd,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 
Kosti  (Zoroastrian  girdle),  342  n. 
Kubla  Kh;in.     See  Qubilay 
-Kubrd    (treatise    on    Logic    by   al- 

JurjiCni,  xiv-xv),  355 
K&cha-i-'Ulamd     ("Street     of     the 

Learned"   in   the  Rab'-i-Rashfdf 

at  Tabrfz),  86 
K&h-i-Chahil  Maqdm  (mountain  near 

Shiraz),  167 
Kunhtfl-Murdd    (by    Sharafu'd-Dfn 

'AH  Yazdi),  363 
KunuzuU-Haqd^iq    (commentary   on 

the  Mathnawf),  445 
Kur,  River  — ,  417 
Kurdista~n,  190,  401,  406 
Kurs{-ndma  (Persian  Hurufi  work), 

450 
Kurt  (dynasty  of  Hera"t),  41,  50,  55, 

57,  60, 160,  161,  163,  173-80,  186, 

208,  211,  354,  43r 
Kurt-ndma  of  Rabi'f  of  Bushanj,  1 74, 

431 

Kushtf  (Zoroastrian  girdle),  342  n. 
Kutbi,  Mahmud  —  (historian  of  Mu- 
zaffarf  dynasty,  xv),  162,  166,  360 
Kuyvik  Khan(MongolEmperor,xiii),8 

Lahijan,  416,  482 

Ldhijf,  'Abdu'r-Rahma"n  —  (commen- 
tator of  Gulshan-i-Rdz},  148 
Ldld-bdshl.     See  Rida-quli  Khan 
*Lama'dt    (of    'Irdqii),    127,    132-9, 

444-7.  512 

Landauer  (editor  of  Shdhndtna),  89 
Lands  of  the  Eastern  Caliphate,  by 

G.  le  Strange,  100 
Lane,  Edward  — ,  312 
Lane-Poole,  Stanley  — ,  19  n.,  178, 

379,  387.  39° 

Langles,  Professor  — ,  184 

Ldr,  285 

Laranda,  155 

Latd'if-i-Rashidiyya  (dedicated  by 
the  author  Mahmud  b.  Ilyas  to 
Rashfdu'd-Dm  Fadlu'lldh),  84-5 


568 


INDEX 


Latff if-ndma,  362 
Ldtffifttl-Haq'ffiq  (by  Rashidu'd-Din 

'Fadlu'liah),  76 
Latifa-i-Ghaybiyya  (critical  essay  on 

'Hiifiz),  300,  315,  316 
Latffi  (Turkish  biographer  of  poets), 

'369 

Latin,  9,  10,  n,  43,  62 
*Lawa?ih  (by  Jdmi),  444,  447-8,  512 
Lawdmi1  (commentary  by  Jdmi  on  the 

Fususti'l-Hikam),  513 
Lawdmi^u^l-Ishrdq    (by   Jal£lu'd-Din 

Daw^ni),    443.      See    Akhlaq-i- 

Jalali 
Layla  (concubine  of  Qubad  b.  Iskan- 

dar  Qaia-qoyunlu),  402 
*Layla  wa  Majniin  (of  Amir  Khus- 

raw,  xiii),  109-10;    —  (of  Ja'mf, 

xv),  516,  533-6,  545 
*Leaf,  Walter   —  (translations  from 

Hafiz),  303-6,  308,  309 
Leyden  (in  Holland),  367;  Dr  John 

— ,  392,  454 

Liegnitz,  Battle  of —  (April  9, 1241),  6 
Lisdnu'l-Ghayb  ("Tongue  of  the  Un- 
seen," H£fiz  so  entitled),  311 
Lisdnu't-Tayr    ("Language    of    the 

Birds,"   poem   by   Mfr   'AH  Shfr 

Nawd'f),  505 

Lishta-Nisha  (in  Gflan),  416 
Literary   History   of  Persia,   by   the 

author  of  this  volume  (vol.  i  from 

the   earliest  times  to  A.D.    1000, 

vol.    ii  from  A.D.    1000  to   1265, 

published    by    Fisher    Unwin    in 

1902  and  1906  respectively),  5  n., 

6  n.,  15  n.,  17  n.  and  passim 
Llandudno  Junction,  231  n. 
Locks  ley  Hall  (Tennyson),  218  n. 
Lodf,    Sultan    Ibrahim   —   of    Dihlf 

(xvi),  393 
Lombardy,  ro2 
Lowe,  W.  H.  —  (translator  of  Hafiz), 

299 
Lubdbttl-Albdb  (by  Muhammad '  Awff, 

xiii),  65 
Lur,  Luristan,  37,  68,  92,   187,  189, 

191,  410 
Lutf  'Alf  Beg  (author  of  the  Atash- 

kada,  q.v.},  274 
Lutfu'llah  b.  Sadru'd-Dfn  'Iraqi  (xiv), 

'165 

Lyly,  John  —  (the  Euphuist),  461 
Lyons,  8 

Ma'adhi     (satirized    by    Kamal    of 
Khujand),  329 


McCarthy,  Justin  — ,  303 
-Madfna,  55,  in,  127,  167,  427 
Magas,  Mulla1  — ,  315-16 
Maghrib  (Morocco),  84,  331 
Maghribi    (mystical   poet   of  Tabrfz, 
xiv-xv),    159,    211,    330-44,    345, 

435.  465.  475 

Magians,  234,  278  and  n. ,  300,  342 
and  n.  See  also  Gabr  or  Guebre, 
Zoroastrian,  Zunnar 

Mdh  (the  Moon),  113  and  n. 

Mahabbat-nama.  —  (Persian  Hu- 

rufi  work),  373,  450; i-Sdhib- 

dildn  (by  'Imadu'd-Dm  Kirmani, 
^A.D.  1322),  259 

Mahan  (near  Kirman),  345,  463,  464, 
467 

Mahbubu'l-Qulub  ("Hearts'  Darling," 
by  Mfr  'Ali  Shfr  Nawsi'f),  453 

Mahdi.    Advent  of  the  expected  — , 
463,  467,  469,  470;  pretended  — , 
50,  54  ;  Sultan  —  b.  Shall  Shuja' 
Muzaffari     (xiv),     169;     Ibn    - 
(physician,  xiii),  85 

Mdki  (the  Fish),  113 

Mahmiid.  Sultan  —  of  Ghazna 
(x-xi),  256,  353,  380;  —  Shah 
Bahmani  (of  the  Deccan,  patron 
of  H£fiz,  xiv),  285,  287  n.,  290; 
Sulta"n  —  II  (Ottoman,  xix),  371, 
452  ;  —  b.  Mubdrizu'd-Dfn  Muzaf- 
farf  (xiv),  165,  166-7,  360;  - 
Injii  (xiv),  274;  —  b.  Abu  Sa'fd 
(Tfrm'trid,  xv),  390 ;  Mfrza  Shah 
—  (Tfmurid,  xv),  388;  Amfr  — 
b.  Rashfdu'd-Dfn  Fadlu'liah  (xiii- 
xiv),  8 1,  84,  85;  '--  b.  Ilyas 
(rewarded  for  dedicating  a  book 
to  Rashidu'd-Din,  xiii-xiv),  84 ; 
Khwaja  —  of  Siwa  (envoy  to 
India,  xiii-xiv),  85 ;  —  Qari  of 
Yazd  (parodist,  xv),  257,  351-3; 
—  Kutbi  (historian  of  MuzafFarfs), 
360  n.;  Mawlana'  —  (correspon- 
dent of  Huruffs,  xiv),  368 

Mahmud-dbad  (near  Shfrwin),  417 

Mahmud  u  Aydz  (poem  by  Fakhru'd- 
Dfn  'Ali),  504 

Majdlisiil-Mtiminin  (by  Sayyid  Nii- 
ru'lldh  of  Shushtar,  xvi),  44  n. , 
224,  498 

"Majdlisu'n-Nafd'is  (by  Mfr  'Alf  Shir 
Nawa'f),  434,  437~9.  459.  487. 
490,  495,  497,  499  n.,  508 

Majdlisu '!- '  Ushshdq  (ascribed  by 
Babur  to  Kamalu'd-Din  Husayn 
Gazargahi,  but  generally  attributed 


INDEX 


569 


to   Abu'l-Ghazf   Sultan   Husayn), 
124,  321,  434,  439-40,  457-8 

Ma'jarf  (poet  of  Samarqand,  xiv),  329 

Majdu'd-Din.  —  Isma'fl  Fall  (xiii- 
xiv),  80,  82  ;  Shaykh  —  (xiii-xiv), 
82  ;  Khwaja  —  b.  Rashidu'd-Din 
Fadlu'llah  (xiii-xiv),  83,  84;  - 
Hamgar  (poet  of  Yazd,  xiii),  115, 
116,  118,  119-24;  —  Muzaffar 
(xiv),  168;  Mawlana  —  (corre- 
spondent of  Hurufis,  xiv),  368 

Majdu'1-Mulk  of  Yazd  (minister  of 
Abaqa,  xiii),  22-4,  27,  30,  31 

Majma'ti'l-Ansdb  (xiv),  103 

Majma'u  Arbdbfl-Maslak  (?  Mulk: 
one  of  the  sources  of  the  TcCrikh- 
i-Guzidd),  89 

Majma  'u'J-  Fitsahd  (of  Rida  -  quli 
Khan,  xix),  in,  115,  119,  139, 
140,  141,  211,  216,  222,  230,  272, 

*74>  33 r.  345.  495 
Majma'u'l-Munij  (Egyptians  defeated 

by  Mongols  in  A.  D.  1299-1300),  41 
Majma'u't-  Tawdrikh  as-Sultdn{  (A.  D. 

1426),  425.    See  Hafiz  Abrii  and 

Zubdatu't-Tawarikh 
Majnn'Sa-i-Rashidiyya  (xiv),  76,  79 
Majniin.     See  Layla  wa  Majniin 
Makani  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 
Afakhzanu'l-Asrdr    (of    Nizami    of 

Ganja),  527 
Makhzanu 'I- Inshd  (by  Husayn  Wa'iz- 

i-Kashifi),  504 
Malabar,  398 
Maldhat,  348  n. 

Maldhida  (plural  of  Mulhid,  "  He- 
retic"), 154,  255.  See  Assassins, 

Isma'ilis 
Malati  (harper  satirized  by  Kamal  of 

Khujand),  329 
Malatya,  204,  205,  412 
Malcolm,  Sir  John  — ,    182,   183  n., 

203,  311  n.,  382,  394 
Malfuzdt,  or  "Memoirs,"  of  Tmuir, 

i«3T4 

Maliku'sh  -  SAit'ard,  Qani'i  (xiii) 
created  —  or  Poet  Laureate,  1 1 1 

Malthusianism  of  Ibn-i-Yamin  (xiv), 
218 

Mamlakh  (Mongol  ambassador  to 
Edward  II  in  A.D.  1307),  n 

Mamluks  of  Egypt,  20 

Mandsikrfl-Hajj(  Rites  of  the  Pilgrim- 
age), Jamf's  treatise  on  — ,  514 

Mangii  Khan  (Mongol,  xiii),  8,  174 

Manf  (Manes)  as  a  painter,  201,  384, 
498  and  n. 


Manichaeanism  of  Ibn-i-Yamin,  218 

-Maninfs  commentary  on  al-'Utbf's 
Kitdbu'l-  Yamtni,  89 

Mansiir.  Jalalu'd-Din  —  (ancestor 
of  Muzaffarfs,  xiii),  163;  Shah  — 
Muzaffari  (xiv),  168-9,  J73»  x^9> 
191,  206,  290;  Shaykh  —  (corre- 
spondent of  Hurufis,  xiv),  368 

Mantiqu't-Tayr  (by  Farfdu'd-Din 
'Attar,,  xiii),  505 

Maqsiid  (Aq-qoyunlii,  xv),  414  n.,  415 

Maragha,  18,  48,  59,  206,  462 

Marand,  409 

Mardin,  192,  408 

Marghinf,  Taju'd-Dm  'Uthman  — 
(ancestor  of  Kurts,  xii),  174 

Marju's-Suffar  (Mongols  defeated  by 
Egyptians  at  — ,  A.D.  1303),  42 

Markham,  Sir  Clements  R.  — ,  199, 
203,  386 

Ma'riif.  Khwaja  —  (nephew of  Rashf- 
du'd-Din  Fadlu'llah,  xiii-xiv),  81 ; 
Mawlan£  —  (suspected  of  com- 
plicity in  attempt  on  Shah-rukh's 
life  in  A.D.  1426), ,366 

Marta  (daughter  of  Uztin  Hasan  and 
Despina  Khatun,  xv),  407 

*Martin,  Dr  F.  R.  — ,  394-7 

Marzubanan  (clan  or  family  of  Qaz- 
win), 94 

Afarzubdn-ndma,  356  and  n. 

Masdlik  wa  Mamdlik  (by  Ibn  Khur- 
dadhbih,  ix),  99  and  n. 

Mashhad,  44,  55,  199,  388,  493 

"Mashhadis,"  men  of  Transoxiana  so 
called,  234 

Mashdribu' t -  Tajdrib  (one  of  the 
sources  of  the  Ta'rtkh-i-Guzida),  88 

Ma' sud.  —  son  of  the  Sahib- Diwdn 
(xiii),  28,  29;  —  Injii  (xiv),  274  n. 

-Mas'udi  (the  historian,  x),  90  n. 

Matdlilu  l-Anzdr  (of  al-Baydawf,  xiii), 
272  n. 

Mathnawi  (of  Jalalu'd-Din  Rumi, 
xiii),  139,  217,  302,  444,  445,  514, 
544  n.,  548 

Matlalu'l-Anwdr  (of  Amir  Khusraw 
of  Dihli,  xiii),  527 

Matla'u's-Sa'dayn  (of  Kamalu'd-Din 
'Abdu'r-Razzaq  of  Samarqand, 
xv),  58,  60  n.,  159,  174,  361,  362, 
389.  397.  428-30,  431,  473 

Matthew  Paris,  6-8 

MaTvdqif(o{ 'Adudu'd-Din  al-Iji,  xiv), 

^76.  35.6 

Mawdhib-i-1  Aliyya  (of  Husayn  Wa'iz- 
i-Kashiff,  xv),  442 


570 


INDEX 


Mawdhib-i-Ildhi    (of    Mu'inu'd-Din 

Yazdf,  xiv),  359,  360 
Mawsil,  82,  192,  399,  408,  417 
Mayana,  389 
Maybud,  163 
May-khdna  (of  'Abdu'n-Nabi,  xvii), 

273 
Mazandar^n,   27,   51,   52,   152,    160, 

186,  187,  190,  193,  194,  388,  390, 

416,  419,  494 
Mecca,    32,    51,   71,    in,   127,    177, 

356,  357.  358,  374.  407,  423.  427. 

464,  492  n. 
Meninski  (Latin  renderings  of  Hafiz, 

1680),  303 

Mercury  (the  planet),  121  and  n. 
Merv  (Marw),  175,  382,  419 
Mesopotamia,   6,    66,  99,   190,    192, 

272»  357.  368 

Mevlevf  (Mawlawf)  dervishes,  479 
de  Meynard,  Barbier  — ,  94 
Michael  Palaeologus  (xiii),  18 
Miftdhrfl-Ghayb  (Jdmf's  commentary 

on'—),  514 
Miftdhttl-8*ydt  (key  to  the  Jawi- 

dan-i-Kabir,  q.v.),  372,  452 
Miftdhu'l-lUlum  (of  as-Sakkaki,  xiii), 

272  n. 
mftdhttt-Tafdsir  (of  Rashidu'd-Din 

Fadlu'llali,  xiii-xiv),  76 
Mimiyya   (or   Khamriyya,    poem   of 

'Umar  ibnu'l-Fdrid),  514 
Mimichihr  Shah  (killed  in  A.D.  1422), 

489 
Mir  'Ali  Shah  Nawd'i  (man  of  letters, 

patron  of  art  and  learning,   and 

minister  to  Abu'l-Ghazi  Sultan 

Husayn  b.  Mansur  b.  Bayqara, 

g.v.,  xv),  380,  390-1, 399  n.,  422-3, 

432,  434,   437-9.  44°.   442,  453. 

455.  456,  457.  459.  487,  49°.  495, 

496,  497,  499  n.,  503,  505-6,  5°8  ; 

Mosque  of  — ,  504 

Mfranshah  (d.   A.D.  1400),   71,   180, 
"  186,   190,   IQ4-5,  321,   332,  367, 

371  n.,  374,  381,  388,  451 
Mirdtdl-  fCkaydl,  514 
Mirdtu's-Safd,  437 
Mirkhwind    (historian,    xv),    17,   58, 

361,    387,    388,    393,    407,    414, 

431-3.   434,   438,   439-     See  also 

Rawdatu's-Safa 
Misbdh  (?  of  al-Mutarrizi,  xiii),  272 
* MisbdhuU- Arwdh  (by  Awhadu'd-Din 

of  Kirmaii,  xiv),  140-1 
Ibn  Miskawayhi  (historian),  88 
Misr  b.  Qara  Yusuf  (xiv),  192 


Mizdnifl-Awzdn  (treatise  on  prosody 
by  Mir  'AH  Shfr  Nawa'i),  505 

Moguls  or  Moghuls  ("Great  — "  of 
Dihli,  xvi-xix),  107,  183,  184,319, 
364,  38o,  391,  393,  420,  433-  See 
also  Akbar,  Babur,  Humayun 

Mohl,  Jules —  (edition  ofSMA-ndma), 
89  n. 

Mongols  (or  Tartars),  4-17,  32,  37, 
39-45,  48,  49,  60,  62,  67,  71-4, 
77.  87,  95-9,  101,  108,  in,  159, 
162,  170,  178,  185,  186,  190,  205, 
208,  250,  405;  Mongolian  lan- 
guage, 31,  93,  in 

Moravia,  6 

Morris,  William  — ,  395 

MosalM,  283.     See  Musalla 

Moscow,  192 

Moses,  89,  114,  267  and  n. 

Mu'ifiydn,  or  Mu'afaniyan,  a  clan  or 
family  of  Qazwin,  94 

Mu'allaqdt  (the  seven  — ),  492  n. 

Mu'ammd  (acrostic).  462,  507,  514 

Mu'amma'i  Mawland  Muhammad 
—  (architect,  xv),  311;  Mir 
Husayn  —  (poet,  xv  or  xvi),  459 

Mu'awiya  (Umayyad  Caliph,  vii),  90, 
250 

Mu'ayyad  -  z£da,  'Abdu'r  -  Rahman 
Chelebi  (xv),  423 

Mubdrizu'd-Dfn  Muhammad  (ancestor 
of  Muzaffarfs,  xiv),  162-6,  225, 
275  n.,  277-8,  357,  360 

-Mufassal  of  -Zamakhshari,  357 

Mufid  of  Yazd  (author  of  the_/awt'-2- 
Mufidl,  xvii),  360 

Mughithu'd-Din  (grandson  of  Fasihf 
of  Khwaf,  y.v.,  xv),  428 

Muhadhdhib  (?  Jewish  notable  who 
perished  in  massacre  about  A.D. 
1291),  35,  36  n. 

MuhdkamatuU-Lughatyn  (composed 
in  A.D.  1500  by  Mfr  'Ali  Shir 
Nawa'i),  453,  506 

Muhammad.  The  Prophet  (vi-vii), 
32,  49.  Si.  73,  74,  76,  89,  90,  95, 
101,  144 n.,  231  n.,  320 n.,  424, 
>427,  441,  492 n.,  507,  513,  521; 
-  Baqir  (fifth  Iman  of  the  Shi 'a, 
viii),  464;  Shamsu'd-Din  —  b. 
Qays  of  Ray  (xiii),  ser  Mu'jam 
and  Shams-i-Qays;  Shamsu'd- 
Dfn  —  Juwayni  (xiii),  see  Sahib - 
Diwan ;  —  Sam  (Ghuri  captain, 
defender  of  Herat,  put  to  death  in 
A.D.  130,7),  50;  —  Shah  (last 
Mongol  Il-khdn,  put  to  death  in 


INDEX 


A.D.  1338),  59;  —  of  Abarquh 
(editor  of  the  letters  of  Rashfdu'd- 
Din  Fadlu'llfli),  80;  Mawlana  - 
Rumi  (appointed  Head  of  the 
College  at  Arzanjan,  xiv),  83 ;  — 
b.  'Ali  of  Shabdnkira  (author  of 
the  Majma'u'l  -  Ansab,  y.v.), 
103;  Sultan  —  (Muzaffari  prince 
put  to  death  by  Timur  in  A.D. 
J393)>  ^9,  190;  Malik  —  Kurt 
(put  to  death  by  Timur  in  A.D. 
1389),  180;  Sultan  —  b.  Abu  Sa 'id 
of  Tabas  (revolted  against  Tfmur 
in  A.D.  1395),  192;  Mawla'na  — 
Quhistanf  (one  of  Mira'nsha'h's 
intimates  put  to  death  by  Tfmur 
in  A.D.  1399),  195;  —  al-Qddi 
(accompanied  Clavijo  from  Spain 
to  Tfmvir's  court  in  A.D.  1404), 
199;  —  Ka°zaruni  (a  merchant 
who  befriends  Hafiz,  xiv),  285; 

—  Qasim  Astaraba"df  (historian  of 
India),  see   Firishta;    —  b.  — 
Da>db{    (author    of    Latffa  -  i  - 
Ghaybiyya,  q.v.),  300;  —  Fini- 
zaba'di  (poet  parodied  by  Mahmud 
QaVi  of  Yazd),  352;  Malik  —  of 
Sarakhs   b.    Mu'izzu'd-Din    Kurt 
(xix),  354;  — b.  Sa'du'd-DmTafta"- 
za"nf  (d.  A.D.  1434) ;  —  I  (Ottoman 
Sultin,  A.D.  1402-21),  356,  398, 
400;  —  II  (Ottoman  Sulta"n,  A.D. 
1451-1481),  370,  398,  400,  401, 
405,    407-12;,  Mfrz£    Sultan  — 
(governor  of  Iraq,  xv),   364;   — 
Juki  b.  Shdh-rukh  (d.  A.D.  1444), 
385  n.  ;    —    Mfrza  b.    Jahdnshkh 
Qa"ra-qoyunlii   (xv),    402  ;    —    b. 
AbuSa'id  (xv),  410 ;  —  Badakhshf 
(poet  and  bearer  of  Jami's  letter  to 
Sultan  Bdyazfd  II,  xv),  423,  459; 

—  b.  Khawand  Sha"h  (historian, 
xv),  431,    see   Mfrkhwand;   — 
Sa"lih    (poet    contemporary    with 
B£bur),   459 ;    —   b.    Bdysunqur 
(xv),  496;    Mfrz£  —  b.   'Abdu'l- 
Wahhib  of  Qazwin  (contemporary 
Persian   scholar),    i6n.,    21,   66, 
88 n.,  io6n.,  153  n.,  356 n.,  448; 

—  Iqbal  (contemporary  scholar), 
269  n. ;    -  -    Husayn    Kha"n,    see 
Zuka'u'1-Mulk 

Abu  Muhammad  of  Tabriz  (father  of 
Fadlu'll^h  al-Hurufi),  367 

Muhtasib,  functions  of  — ,  164  n. , 
277  n. 

Muhyi'd-Din.  —  (divine,  xiii),  27; 


Shaykh  —  ibnu'l-'Arabf  (xiii),  63, 
127,    128,  132,   139,  331,  446  n., 

447.  484.  5M 

Mu'fna  (near  Ahar),  27 

Mu'ln-i-IsfizaVi  (author  of  a  history  of 
Herat),  173,  430-1 

Mu'fnu'd-Din.  —  Parwana  (xiv), 
85,  106,  115,  127;  —  of  Yazd 
(historian  of  the  Muzaffarfs),  159, 
161-2,  170,  359-60;  —  of  K£shdn 
(astronomer,  xv),  386 

Muir,  Sir  William  —  (author  of  Life 
of  Mahomet),  14411. 

Mu'izzf  (panegyrist  of  the  Seljuqs),  522 

Mu'izzu'd-Din.  —  b.  Ghiydthu'd- 
Din  Kurt  (xiv),  57,  177,  178,  179, 
211-14,  354;  —  Jaha"ngfr  b.  Shall 
Yahya"  Muzaffari  (xiv),  169 

-Mu'jam  ft  Athdri  Multiktl-1  Ajam 
(history  of  the  ancient  kings  of 
Persia  by  Fadlu'lldh  al-Husayni, 
xiii-xiv),  68 

-  Mu  '•jamfi  Ma  'dyiri  Asfcdrtl-  'Ajam 
(work  on  Persian  prosody  by 
Shams-i-Qays,  xiii),  16  n. 

Mujir  of  Baylaqan  (poet,  xii),  65 

*Mujmal  of  Fasihf  of  Khwdf  (A.D. 
1442),  426-8.'  'See  Fasihi 

Mukhayyat-ndma  (mock-heroic  poem 
by  Mahmud  Qa"rf  of  Yazd,  xv), 
352 

Mukhtari,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwfn,  94 

Mukhtasar.  —  (of  -Taftazanf,  xiv), 
354;  —  u'd-Duwal  (of  Bar- 
Hebraeus,  q.v.),  18,  64;  — 
//  Ta'rikhfl-Bashar,  see  Abu'l- 
Fida 

Ibn  Muljam  (assassin  of  the  Imam 
JAlf,  A.D.  661),  256  n. 

Mult^n,  83,  125,  174 
" 


90 

Mu'minan,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwfn,  94 

Munajjim-bdshl  (by  this  title,  "  the 
Astronomer  in  chief,"  Darwfsh,  or 
Dervfsh,  Ahmad,  author  of  the 
history  entitled  Sahtfifu'l-Akhbdr, 
is  generally  known),  383  n.,  384 
and  n.;  387,  390,  403,  407,  409, 
411,  414,  415,  4i?n. 

Munisu'l-Abrdr  (by  'Imid  of  Kir- 
man,  A.D.  1364),  259 

Munkir  (name  of  one  of  the  angels 
who  conducts  the  "  Questioning 
of  the  Tomb"),  522 

Ibnu'l-Muqaffa',  'Abdu'llah  —  (viii), 
463,  504 


572 


INDEX 


39 

Ibn  Muqla  (calligraphist),  84 
Murdd    II    (Ottoman    Sultan,    A.D. 

1421-51),  383  n.,   398,  '400,    404 
Mur^d  Bey    (nephew  and   envoy   of 

Uziin  Hasan,  A.D.  1461),  408,  418 
Murad  Pasha  Palaeologus  (xv),  412 
Murghab,  175,  388 
Murtad,    Mir    -  -    (philosopher    and 

chess-player),  456-7 
Miisa.  —  (the  last  Mongol  ruler  of 

Persia,    d.    A.D.    1337),    17,    59; 

—   the  Kurd   (pretended  Mahdi, 

xiv),   50;    —   (brother  of  Sultan 

Muhammad  I,  put  to  death  about 

A.r>.  1416),  401 

Musafir,   Darwfsh  —  (Hurufi   corre- 
spondent, xiv),  368 
Musalla("  the  Oratory,"  near  Shiraz), 

238,  284,  291 
MusSon,  le  — ,    112  n.,  366  n. ,   427, 

428,  465,  467,  469  n. 
Miish  (town  in  Armenia),  188,  192 
*Mush  u  Gurba  ("  the  Mouse  and  the 

Cat,"  poem  by  'Ubayd-i-Zaka'nf), 

230,  241-4 
Mustafa^    Prince   —    (son   of  Sultdn 

Muhammad  II,  campaign  against 

Uzun  Hasan,  A.D.  1472-4),  411-12 
-Mustakff   (titular   Caliph    at   Cairo, 

xiv),  164  n. 
-Musta'H  (Fatimid  Caliph,  A.D.  1094- 

noi),  154 
-Mustansir    (Fatimid     Caliph,     A.D. 

i°35-94)»  '54 
-Musta'sim  (the  last  'Abbasid  Caliph, 

killed   by   the    Mongols    in   A.D. 

1258),  74 
Mustawfi,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin, 

94 ;    Amin  Nasr  —    (resident  in 

Qazwm  when  it  was  sacked  by  the 

Mongols  in  A.D.   1220),  96.     See 

also    Hamdu'llah,    Ta'rikh-i- 

Guzid'a 
Mustawfi  l~  Mamdlik  ("  Chancellor  of 

the  Exchequer  "),  20 
Mii'ta,  Battle  of —  (A.D.  629),  144  n. 
-Mu'tadid   (titular   Caliph   at   Cairo, 

A.D.  1352-62),  164  n. 
-Mutanabbf  (Arabic  poet,  x),  547 
-Mutarrizf  (grammarian,  xiii),  272  n. 
-Mutawwal  (of  -Taftazanf,  xiv),  354 
Mu'tazila  (sect),  521  n. 
Mutiny,  Indian —  (A.D.  1857),  183  n., 

380,  391,  420 
Muwaffaqu'd-Dawla  'AH  (grandfather 

of  Rashidu'd-Din  Fadlu'llah),  69 


Muy-dirdz  ("  long-haired, "nick-name 
of  the  Sdhib-Dtwdrfs  grandfather), 
20.  See  under  Juwayni 

Muzaffar,  House  of —  (xiv),  60,  139, 
1*60-70,  172,  173,  186,  188,  189, 
190,  191,  193,  206,  208,  225,  258, 
275.  284,  355,  356,  357;  —  (gover- 
nor of  Qazwin  when  it  was  sacked 
by  the  Mongols  in  A.D.  1220),  96- 
7 ;  Shall  —  (artist,  xv-xvi),  456, 

459.  5°5 
Muzaflfarf,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin, 

94 

Nadir  Shah  (A.D.  1736-47),  371  n. 

Nafahdtu'l-  Uns  (written  by  Jamf  in 
A.D.  1476),  124,  isgn.,  140,  141  n., 
273.  283,  321,  331  n., 426 n.,  434- 
6,  458,  461  n.,  475,  508,  512,  513 

Na'in,  331 

Najashi  (envoy  of  Sultdn  Bayazid  to 
Timur),  205 

Najibu'd-Din.  —  Kahhdl  ('*  the 
oculist, "  xiii,  creature  of  Sa'du'd- 
Dawla,  q.v.),  32 ;  Shaykh  — 
Buzghiish  (xiv),  484 

Najmi    (poet    parodied   by  Bushaq), 

350 

Najmu'd-Dfn  Kubri  (xiii),  484 
Nakhjuwan,  59,  165,  166,  187,   188, 

400,  417 

Nakfr,  522.  See  above  under  Munkir 
Napoleon  I  (compared  with  Timur), 

182 
Naqdrfn-Nusus  (composed   by  Jami 

in  A.D.  1458),  514 
Naqibu'l-Ashrdf,  Sayyid  Taju'd-Din 

— ,71 
Naqshbandi,  order  of  dervishes,  441, 

f  452,  506 

Narin  Biiqa,  Amfr —  (xiv),  57 
Nasa  (in  Khurasan),  354 
Nas£'f,  Shihdbu'd-Din  —  (biographer 

of    Jalalu'd-Din    Khwarazmshah, 

xiii),  12 
Nashat    (acrostic   on   the   name  — ), 

124 
Nasfmi  (or  Nesimi,  Turkish  poet  put 

to  death  for  heresy  in  A.D.  1417), 

368,  369  and  n.,  449,  498 
Nasir.  Ah-Malik  al (Muhammad, 

Sultan  of  Egypt,  A.D.  1293-1340), 

49-  5i,  53-  54.  i?«>;  (Faraj.A.D. 

1398-1412),    196,    197,    199;    - 

-i-Khusraw     (Persian    poet    and 

traveller,  xi),  65,  154,  510;  — of 

Bukhara  (Persian  poet),  352 


INDEX 


573 


Nasfru'd-Din  Tiisi  (astronomer  and 

philosopher,  xiii),  17,  18,  48,  67, 

442,  50J 
Abii    Nasr.    Hasan    Beg    Bahadur 

Kh£n  (xv),  103  ; i-Far^hf  (poet 

and    author  of    the    well-known 

rhymed  vocabulary  entitled  Nisdb- 

i-Sibydn),  350 
'Nassau  Lees,  Captain  W.  —  (editor 

of  the    Nafahatu'1-Uns,    q.v.), 

435,  5<>8-9,  5 ion. 
Nd'us^  (place),  81 
Nawa'i.     See  Mir  'Ali  Shir 
Nawniz,  Festival  of  the  — ,  3240.; 

—    (son    of  Rashidu'd-Din   Fad- 

lu'llah,  xiv),  28  ;  Amir  —  (Ghdzan 

Khan's  general,  xiii),  40,  41,  176 
Nawruz  u  Gul  (poem  by  Khwaju  of 

Kirman,  xiii-xiv),  225,  226 
Naw-Shahr,  30,  31,  59 
Ndy-ndma  ("Book  of  the  Reed-flute," 

byjamf),  514,  548 
Nayriz  (in  Firs),  356 
Nayyir  of  Kirman  (poet  parodied  by 

Mahmud  Qari  of  Yazd),  352 
Ndzir  u  Manzur  (poem  by  Katibi  of 

Nfshapiir,  xv),  487 
Nebuchadnezzar,  89,  250 
Nejd  (or  Najd),  544 
Neri,  399 

Nesimf.     See  above  Nasimi 
Nestorians,  u,  102 
Nicholson,  Dr  R.  A.  —  88,  95 
Nicolas  III,  Pope  —  (sends  envoys 

to  Mongols  in  A.D.  1278),  19 
Nicolas   (Uljaytii   said  to  have  been 

baptized  under  this  name),  46 
Nihawand,  193 
Nikfsa  (harper  of  Khusraw  Parwfz), 

267  and  n. 
Nikiidaris,  25,  177 
Ni'matu'llah,  Sayyid  or  Shdh  —  of 

Kirmdn  (xiv-xv),  345,  350,    352, 

353.  463-73,  497,  498 
Nisha'piir,  112-15,  178,487,  488,  493 
Nishapuriyan  (clan  or  family  of  Qaz- 

win),  94 
Nizam.     Khwaja  —  (unidentified), 

494;   —  -i-Sham(  (biographer  of 

Tfmur,    xiv-xv),    159,    183,    197, 

203,  361-2,  363,  365 
Nizami.  —  (poet  of  Ganja,  xii),  65, 

224,  226,  326  n.,  348,  350,   387, 

5«>5,  5!°.  522,  527,  536,  540-42; 

i-'Arudf  of  Samarqand  (author 

of  the  Chahar  Maqala,  q.v,,  xii), 

65,  522 


Nizamu'd-Din.  —  Awliya"  (Saint, 
d.  A.D.  1324),  108;  —  Mah- 
mud Qa"rf  of  Yazd  (parodist), 
211,  351-3;  Abu'l-Ma'ilf  Nas- 
ru'llah  (translator  into  Persian  of 
the  Book  of  Kalila  and  Dimna, 
xii),  463 

Nizdrnu'l  Mulk  (minister  to  the  Selj  viqs 
Alp  Arslin  and  Maliksha~h,  xi),  89 

Nizdmrft-  7a7i/aV/^(historical  manual 
by  al-Bayddwi,  xiii),  63,  88,  100 

Nizar  (b.  -Mustansir,  Fdtimid  prince, 

.  xi),  154 
Nizari  of  Quhistan   (poet,  xiii-xiv), 

154-5 

Nogay  (Mongol  prince,  xiii),  25 

Northampton  visited  by  Mongol  envoy 
in  A.D.  1307,  1 1 

North  Sea,  6 

Nu'min,  Shah  — ,  son  of  the  poet 
Hafiz  (buried  at  Burhanpur  in 
India),  289 

Nuqta  ("Point"),  470,  471 

Niiru'd-Dfn.  --  b.  Shamsu'd-Din 
Muhammad  (author  of  the  Ghdzdn- 
ndma,  composed  in  A.D.  1361), 
103;  — Rasadf(xiii),  115;  Shaykh 
—  'Abdu'r-Rahma"n  of  Isfard'in 
(xiv),  177,  191;  Mull£ —  'Abdu'r- 
Rahman,  see  Jami;  Khwaja  — 
Lutfu'lldh,  424,  see  Hafiz  Abril 

Nuru'liah,  Sayyid  --of  Shushtar 
(author  of  Majalisu'l-Mii'minin, 
q.v.),  44  n.,  498 

Nushfrwan  (Sasanian  king  of  Persia, 
vi),  114,  119,  121  n.,  250.  See  also 
Chosroes,  Kisra,  Sasanians 

Nusratu'd-Din.  —  Ahmad  b.  Yvisuf 
(Atabek  of  Lur-i-Buzurg,  xiii-xiv), 
68;  Amir  —  Sitay  (governor  of 
Mawsil,  xiii-xiv),  82 

-Nustis  (of  Shaykh  Sadru'd-Din  al- 
Qunyawf),  5 '4 

Nuzhatrfl-Akhbdr  (history  by  Firfdun 
Bey,  xvi),  204 

Nuzhatu 'l-Qulub  (geography  by  Ham - 
du'llah  Mustawfi  of  Qazwin,  xiv), 
63  n.,  87,  93  n.,  98-100 

Odoric  of  Pordenone,  Friar  —  (xiv), 
61 

Oghurlu  Muhammad  b.  Uziin  Hasan 
Bdyandari  (xv),  the  "Curlu- 
mameth"  or  "  Ugurlimehemet  " 
of  the  Venetians,  403,  410,  413 

Oghuz  (legendary  ancestor  of  the 
Turks),  73 


574 


INDEX 


Ogotdy  (son  and  successor  of  Chingiz 
Khan,  A.D.  1227-41),  74,  383 

d'Ohsson's  Histoire  des  Mongols 
(Amsterdam,  1834-5),  5,  rin., 
12,  13,  15,  26  n.,  49,  50,  53  n., 
54  n. ,  58 n.,  60,  H2n. 

Omar.     See  'Umar 

Omayyads.     See  Umayyads 

Ong  Khan,  n  n.    See  Prester  John 

Oriental  Translation  Fund,  448 

Orphi,  389.     See  'Urfa 

'Osmdn,  Amir  —  (xvi),  417.  See 
also  'Uthman 

Ottoman  ('Osm£nli)  Turks,  4,  5,  107, 
156,  164  n.,  196,  198-9,  201,  204, 
381,  398,  400-1,  404-5,  409, 
410-14,  419-23,  433,  439,  444, 
507.  See  also  Turks,  and  under 
the  names  of  the  several  Ottoman 
Sultans 

Ouseley,  Sir  Gore  — ,  152  n.,  263, 
273,  292,  328  n.,  473  n. 

Oxford,  ^184 

Oxus  (Amu,  Jayhtin),  4,  175,  190, 
*94»  379'  419 

Paez  de  Santa  Maria,  Fray  Alonzo 

—  (xv),  199 
Paladins,  394 

Palaeologus,  Michael  —  (xiii),  18 
Palmer,    Professor    E.   H.    — ,    300, 

3«5  n. 

Pilu  (place),  82 
Panipdt,  Battle  of —  (April  20, 1526), 

393 
Panj   Ganj   ("the  Five  Treasures," 

i.e.  the  five  great  romantic  poems 

of  Nizami  of  Ganja,  q.v.,  also 

known    as     the     "Quintet"     or 

Khamsa,  q.v.),  326n. 
Pan-Turanian  movement,  14,  15 
Paper  currency.     See  Chao 
Paris,  1 02,  237 

Parsa,  Khwaja  —  (mystic),  514 
Parthians    (Muhiku't-  Tawcftf),    90 

and  n. 
Parwiz,  Khusraw  —  (S£sinian  king, 

vii),  I2in.,  2670. 
Patyalf  (India),  108 
Pavet  de  Courteille,   392,  454,  455, 

5°5  n- 
Payne,  303 

"  Pehlevi-musulman,"  367 
Pekin  (Khan-baligh,  Cambaluc),  397, 

398 

Pen,  the  —  (Qalam),  220 n. 
Persia  Society,  304  n. 


Persian  Gulf,  3,  285,  379,  402 

"  Persian  Historical   Texts   Series," 

436 
Peruse,  Francois  de  —  (archbishop  of 

Sultdniyya,  A.D.  1322),  54 
Petits  de  la  Croix,  363 
Petrograd,    11211.,  2ion.     See   also 

St  Petersburg 
Pharaoh,  89 
Philip  le  Bel,  49 
Pian  de  Carpine,  Friar  John  of  — , 

8,9 
Pfr  Ahmad  (of  the  Qaraman  dynasty, 

xv),  412 
Pir    'Ali,    Ghiyathu'd-Din   —  Kurt 

(xiv),  179,   180;  —  (minister  and 

murderer    of    Khalil    Sultan     b. 

Mfrdnshdh  b.    Tfmur,  xv),    381; 

—  (brother  of  Baha'u'd-Dfn  Qdra 

'Osma~n  of  the  "  White  Sheep " 

Turkmans,  xiv),  404 
"Pirameto."       See      Pir    Ahmad 

above 
Pfrf  Beg  Qajar  (commander  of  Shah 

Isma'fl's   army  at   the  Battle   of 

Shurur),  417-8 
Pfr  Budaq  b.  Jahanshdh  (of  the ' '  Black 

Sheep"  Turkmans,  xv),  402 
Pfr  Muhammad  (son  of  Ghiyathu'd- 

Dfn  Pfr  'AH,  q.v.},  179,  180;  - 

b.  Jahdngfr  b.  Tfmur,   186,  202, 

38i 
Pir  Pasha  (connected  with  Huruffs), 

368 
Pfr    Sultan    (son    of    Rashfdu'd-Dfn 

Fadlu'llah),  84,  85 
Pfshdadf  (legendary)  kings  of  Persia, 

90 

Plato,  18,  125 
Pococke,  64  n. 
"Point."     See  Nuqta 
Poland,  6,  to,  102 
Popes,  8,9,  10,  19,  101,  102 
Portugal,  1 02 

Potiphar's  wife,  531.    See  Zulaykha 
Press  and  Poetry  of  Modern  Persia 

(by  E.  G.  Browne),  15 
Prester  John,  n,  ign. 
Price's  Chronological  Retrospect,  196 

and  n.,  366  n. 
Printing,  Invention  of  —  ascribed  to 

Chinese,  14,  102-3 
Prostitutes,    Abu    Sa'id's    legislation 

against  —  (A.D.  1318-19),  53 
Pul-i-Fas^  (in  Fars),  168 
Pur-i-Baha-yi-Jami  (poet,  xiii),  m- 

15,  177 


INDEX 


575 


Qabiis    b.    Washmgir    (Prince    of 

Tabaristan,  x-xi),  221 
Qadawi,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 
Qadiri,  order  of  dervishes,  452 
Qadi  -  zada  -  i  -  Rural     (Salahu'd  -  Din 

Musa,  astronomer,  xv),  386,  502 
Qaf,  mountains  of — ,  3i6n.,  349 
Qajar  tribe,  417,  418 
Qal'a-i-Saftd  ("the  White    Castle" 

in  Fars),  165,  168,  191 
Qalandar,  124,  125 
Qala'un  (Mamliik  Sultan  of  Egypt, 

A.  D.  1279-90),  26  n. 
Qdmdn  (Mongol  medicine-men),  in, 

112  and  n. 

Qamaru'd-Din  (xiv),  186 
Qdtnus  of  -Firiizabadi,  357 
Qandahar,  187,  456 
Qani'i  (poet,  xiii),  in 
Qara- bagh  (near  Arran),  57,  166,  188, 

196,  197,  199,  201,  417,  503 
Qara-Buqa  ("Black  Bull,"  xiii-xiv), 

82 
Qarachar  Noyan  (Mongol  ancestor  of 

Timur),  185 
Qdra  Iluk  ("  the  Black  Leech,"  nick- 

nameof  Qara  'Osman  Aq-qoyunlu, 

xiv),  404 

Qara-Khita'i,  dynasty  of  Kirman,  xiii- 
xiv),  48,  92 
Qaraman  (formerly  Laranda  in  Asia 

Minor),  155,  411;  dynasty  of — , 

401 
Qara  Muhammad  b.  Bayram  Khwaja 

Qara-qoyunlii  (xiv),  399 
Qaranqay  (Mongol  prince  executed), 

33 

Qara  'Osman  CUthman);  see  above 
under  Qara  Iluk 

Qaraqorum  (the  Mongol  metropolis), 
8,  405 

Qara-qoyunlu  ("  Black  Sheep  "  Turk- 
mans), 173,  379,  380,  381,  382, 
387, 388,  399, 401,  403,  404,  407-9 

Qara  Sunqur  (xiv),  53 

Qarawul,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 

Qara  Yusuf  ("Black  Joseph")  son  of 
Qara  Muhammad,  q,v.,  173, 
192,  196,  204,  206,  380,  382,  399, 
400,  401,  404,  409 

Qars  (in  Armenia),  188 

Qasimu'l-Anwar  (poet,  xv),  352,  366, 
438,  473-86 

Abu  1-Qasim  Babur  (Timiirid  prince, 
xv),  311,  387 

Qasr-i-Zard  (in  Fars),  355 

Qatada  (family  of —  at  Mecca),  51 


Qayin,  155 

Qaysariyya  (Caesarea),  83,  85 

Qazwin,  57,  87,  93,  94,  96,  97,  98, 
190,  195,  -230,  231,  232,  233,  234, 
255.  256,  257,  368,  400 

-Qazwini,  Zakariyya  b.  Muhammad  — 
(geographer,  xiii),  64 

Qibla,  522  and  n. 

Qinnasrin,  81,  86 

Qipchaq,  321,  354,  388,  398 

Qisasul  -  Anbiyd  ("'  Tales  of  the 
Prophets  "),  88 

Qiwam,  Hajji  —  (xiv),  276  and  n., 
292 

Qiwamu'1-Din.  Mawlana  —  of 
Shiraz  (xiv),  166,  292 ;  —  'Ab- 
du'llah  of  Shiraz  (xiv),  272 ;  Maw- 
lana —  (connected  with  Hurufls, 
xiv),  368  ;  Ustad  —  (architect  to 
Shah-rukh,  xv),  384,  498 

Qizil  Arslan  (ruler  of  'Iraq,  xiv),  225 

Qizil-bdsh  ("  Red-heads  "),  416-17 

Qonya  (Iconium),  63,  in,  127,  411, 

445.  479 
Quatremere,  69,  70,  72,  74 n.,  75,  76, 

77,  78  n.,  79,  80,  397,  429 
Qubad    b.     Iskandar     Qara-qoyunlu 

(xv),  402 
Qubilay  ("Kubla")  Khan  (xiii),  19, 

27»  74 

Qudsi  (poet  of  Herat,  xv),  438,  499 

Quhistan,  155,  156 

Qul-Muhammad  (musician  patronized 
by  Mir  'AH  Shir  Nawa'i),  505 

Qum,  27,  364,  389,  416 

Qumis,  27 

Qumishah,  169 

Qunquratay  (Mongol  noble  put  to 
death,  A.D.  1284),  26 

Qur'dn,  27,  36 n.,  63,  76,  84,  86,  92, 
125,  165,  166,  175,  215,  259  n., 
272,  274,  289,  311,  363,  367,  385, 
442,  478 n.,  479 n.,  soon.,  501  n., 
507.  5i4>  5'8,  520,  532 

Quraysh,  89 

Qiishjf,  Mulla  'Ala'u'd-Din  'AH  — 
(astronomer,  xv),  386 

Ibn  Qutayba,  88 

Qutb-i-Jahan  (xiii),  41 

Qu'tbu'd-Din.  -  Muhammad  Kh- 
warazmshdh  (A.D.  1199-1220),  20, 
66;  —  Mas'ud  of  Shiraz  (xiii-xiv), 
83 ;  —  (ruler  of  Kirman,  xiv),  163  ; 
-  Mahmiid  b.  Mubarizu'd-Din 
Muhammad  (Muzaffarf,  bom  A.D. 
1336),  163;  Amfr  —  (son  of  Say- 
yid  Amir  Hajji  Darra"b,  xiv),  164; 


576 


INDEX 


—  (envoy  of  Timiir),   167,   282  ; 

—  Na"'i  (courtier  of  Mira"nshah,  put 
to  death  by  Timur  in  A.D.  1399), 

195  , 

QutlughTurkan  Agha  (sister  of  Timur, 
d.  A.D.  1382),  186 

Rabab-nama   (of  Sultan  Walad   or 

Veled,  xiii),  156 
Rabban  Sawmd  (member  of  Arghun's 

mission  to  Europe  in  A.D.  1287-8), 

31 
Rab'-i-Rashfdf  (or  Rashf  diyya,  q.v.), 

71,  75,  77,82,^84,86 
Rabi'f  (poet  of  Bushanj,  xiv),  150-2, 

i74»  43  * 
Radloff,  156 
Rdfidis  (Rdfizis),  234,  519,  521  and  n. 

See  Shi'a 
Rafi'f.  —  author  of  a  work  entitled 

Tadwin,  93  ;  —  clan  or  family  of 

Qazwfn,  94 
Raff'i  (or  Refi'f,  Turkish  Huriifi  poet, 

xv),  369,  449 
Rafi'u'd-Din-i-Abhari  (poet,  xiii-xiv), 

154 

Rafsinjdn,  163 

Rahba  (Rah bat)  in  Syria,  51,  8 1 
Rakhsh    (Rustam's   war-horse),    535, 

536  n. 
Ramusio,  Giovan  Battista  — ,  381  n., 

405 

Rasadi,  Nuru'd-Dfn  —  (xiii),  115 
Rashahdt-i-  lAym£l-Haydt  (composed 
by  'Ali  b.  Husayn-i-Kdshifi  in 
A.D.  1503),  434,  441-2 
Rashidu'd-Din.  — Fadlu'llah  (states- 
man, physician  and  historian,  put 
1,0  death  by  Abu  Sa'id  the  Mongol 
Il-Khan  in  A.D.  1318),  17,  31,  41, 
43,  46-7,  48,  49,  50,  51-2,  56,  67, 
68-87,  89,  94,  100,  10 1,  194, 
328n.,  424;  — Watwat  (poet,xii), 

65 
Rashidiyya  (quarter  of  Tabriz),    70, 

328.     See  also  above  under  Rab'- 

i-Rashfdi 
Rasht,  489 

Raverty,  the  late  Colonel  — 's  manu- 
scripts, 67  n.,  I5on.,  2 ion.,  426, 

427' 
Raivdatttl-Anwdr  (poem  by  Khwajti 

of  Kirman  composed  in  A.D.  1342), 

226 
*  Rawdatu1 1  Janndt  (history  of  Herat 

to  A.D.  1473  by  Mu'fn  of  Isfizdr), 

173-4,  179  n- 


Raivdatu's-Safd  (general  history  by 
Mfrkriwand,  y.v.),  161,  174,  388, 

389,  431-3,  434,  439 

Rawdatu 'sh  -  Shuhadd  (by  Husayn 
Wd'iz-i-Ka'shiff,  xv),  434,  441,  442 

*Rawdatu  UlVl-Arbdb  (composed  in 
A.D.  1317  by  Fakhru'd-Din  Bana- 
kati),  100-103 

Rawdu'r-Riydhin  (by  -Y^fi'f),  88  n. 

Rawha,  192 

Ray  (Rhages),  16,  27,  187,  190,  193, 
194,  199,  265,  382,  386,  402 

"Red  Heads,"  416.  See  also  Qizil- 
bash 

Reff'f.     See  Rafi'f  supra 

Rehatsek,  431 

Religious  Systems  of  the  World  (i  892), 
53.2  n. 

Renaissance,  5 

Rend  of  Anjou,  King  — ,  395 

Revisky  (translator  of  Hafiz),  303 

Rhages.     See  Ray  supra 

Rida-quli  Khan  Lala-bdsM,  poetically 
named  Hiddyat  (Persian  states- 
man, writer  and  poet,  xix),  140, 
141,  222-3,  2?2,  432,  465,  481  n., 
495.  See  also  Farhang-i-Anju- 
man-ara-yi-Nasiri,  Riyadtrl- 
'Arifin  and  Majma'u'l-Fusaha 

RicU  Tawffq  (Riza  Tevfiq,  called 
' '  Feylesiif  Riz^, "  contemporary 
Turkish  scholar  and  politician), 
103,  375,  450 

Rieu,  Dr  Charles  — ,  58  n.,  67,  68, 
95  n.,  96,  icon.,  103,  1 1 1,  i84n., 
203,  223,  226,  321,  328,  332,355. 
360,  361,  363,  364,  386,  424,  425, 
429,  430  n.,  436,  437,  440,  441, 
443>  453,  46o n.,  464,  473,  495  n., 
502  n. 

Rijdlu^l-Ghayb  ("Men  of  the  Unseen 
World"),  276 n. 

Risdla-i-Amdna  (by  Qa"simu'l-Anwar, 
xiv-xv),  475 

*Risdla-i-Dilgushd  (by  'Ubayd-i-Za- 
kanf,  xiv),  232,  235,  254-7 

Risdla-i-Qushayriyya,  88 

Risdla-i-Sad  Pand  (by  'Ubayd-i- 
Zdkani,  A.D.  1350),  232,  235 

Risdla-i-Shdhid  (by  Mahmiid  Shabis- 
tari,  xiv),  149 

Risdla-i-Sultdniyya  (by  Rashidu'd- 
Dfn  P'adlu'lldh,  A.D.  1307),  76 

Risdla-i-TahlUiyya  (by  Jamf,  xv),  5x4 

Rlsh-ndma  (the  "  Book  of  the  Beard," 
by  'Ubayd-i-Za'kani,  xiv),  235, 
237.  25i 


INDEX 


577 


Riyddu'l-'Arifin  (by  Rid^-qulf  Khan, 

xix),  272,  331  n. 
Rizd.     See  Ri'da 
Rizwan  or  Ridwdn,  the  custodian  of 

Paradise,  215 
Rockhill,  W.  W.  — ,  8n. 
Rogers,  A.,  516,  531 
Rome,  Romans,  3,  102,  311,  405 
Romulus,  102 
Rosen,  Baron  Victor — ,  17411.,  2ion., 

424  n.,  425,  426,  427,  509 
von  Rosenzweig,  Vincenz  Edlem  — , 

5'6,  S3L  532»  542 

von  Rosenzweig-Schwannau,  Vincenz 
Ritter  — ,  200,  302,  305.  See  also 
Hafiz 

Ross,  Sir  E.  Denison  — ,  108,  131, 
170  n.,  184,  259,  364  n.,  392 

Royal  College  of  Hera~t,  504 

Rubruck,  Friar  William  of —  (Rubru- 
quis),  8,  9 

Ruckert,  542 

Rudakf  (poet,  x),  522 

Rudbar,  368 

Rufa'i,  order  of  dervishes,  452 

Rukndbad  (stream  of  —  near  Shfra'z), 
238,  284,  291 

Ruknu'd-Dfn.  —  Khurshdh  (late 
Grand  Master  of  the  Assassins  of 
Alamiit,  xiii),  25 ;  Sa'in  (prime 
minister  to  Abu  Sa'fd  the  Mongol, 
A.D.  1324),  54,  55;  Qadf  —  Ju- 
waynf  (one  of  the  sources  of  the 
Ta'rikh-i-Guzida,  q.v.),  89; 
Malik  —  Abu  Bakr  b.  Taju'd-Din 
'Uthman  (ancestor  of  the  Kurt 
kings  of  Herat,  xiii),  174,  175  ;  — 
b.  Shamsu'd-Dln-i-Kurt,  known  as 
Kihin,  "the  Lesser"  (A.D.  1278- 
1307),  176;  Shaykh  —  'All'u'd- 
Dawla  of  Simnan,  223  ;  —  (un- 
identified, praised  by  'Ubayd-i- 
Zaka"ni,  xiv),  235 

Rum,  81,  82,  83, 84,  85, 106.  Seealso 
Asia  Minor,  Turkey 

Rumhi  (one  of  the  nine  tribes  which 
supported  Shah  Isma'fl  the  Safawi 
in  A.D.  1500),  417 

Rumelia,  412 

Russia,  Russians,  5,  6,  9,  10,  190,  192 

Rustam.  —  (the  legendary  hero  of 
Persia),  3i6n.;  —  Beg  (general  of 
Jahanshah  beheaded  by  Uzun 
Hasan  in  A.D.  1456),  408  ;  —  b. 
Maqsud  Aq-qoyunld  (xv),  415, 
416;  —  of  Khuriya'n  (poet,  xv), 
501 
B.P. 


Ruthenians,  9 

RAyatu'lldh  ("the  Vision  of  God"), 
301  n. 

Sad'a  (the  "Septet"  of  Jamf,  also 
called  Haft  Awrang,  q.v.),  515 

Sabzawa"r,  160,  161,  178,  186,  208, 
212,  498 

de  Sacy,  Silvestre  — ,  432  n. 

Sad  Pand  (by  'Ubayd-i-Zsikanf,  xiv), 
251 

Sad  Wa'z  (by  Mahmiid  Qa"rf  of  Yazd, 
xv),  352 

Sa'd  b.  Abu  Bakr,  At£bek  of  Fdrs 
(xiii),  121 

Sa'di,  Shaykh  Muslihu'd-Din  —  of 
Shir^z  (xiii),  15,  16,  70,  100,  105, 
106,  115,  116,  119,  139,  143,  153, 
224,  232  n.,  238,  293,  329,  348, 
350.  352,  4°i.  484.  485,  486,  510, 
516,  522,  529,  531,  548 

Sa'df,  order  of  dervishes,  452 

Sadr-i-Jahan.  Sadru'd-pfn  Ahmad- 
i-Khdlidf  of  Zanjan  (prime  minister 
to  Gaykh£tu,  A.D.  1291-5),  31,  37, 
39,  69;  Jamalu'd-Dfn  Dastajirda"n( 
(prime  minister  to  Baydii,  A.D. 
1295),  41 ;  Mawlan£  —  of  Bu- 
khdr^,  82 

Sadru'd-Din.  —  Ahmad-i-Khdlidi, 
see  immediately  above ;  Shaykh  — 
Ibrahfm  (xiii),  40;  Shaykh  — 
Qunyawi  (of  Qonya,  Konia  or 
Iconium),  63,  127,  445,  514;  — 
'AH  b.  Nasfru'd-Din  Tiisi  (xiii), 
67;  Shaykh  —  b.  Bah£'u'd-D(n 
Zakariyya"  (xiii-xiv),  81 ;  Mawl&ia" 

—  Muhammad  Turka'f  (xiii-xiv), 
81,  83;   —  Qayruw^ni  (parodied 
by    Bushdq),    350 ;    Mawldna   — 
(connected  with  the  Hurufis,  xiv), 
368 ;   Shaykh  —  of  Ardabil   (an- 
cestor of  the  Safawi  kings,  xv), 
473,  474,  484 ;  Shaykh  —  Yamani 
(xiv),  473 

Sa'du'd-Dawla    (Jewish    minister   of 

Arghiin,  A.D.  1284-91),  31-6 
Sa'du'd-Din. Hamawi  (xiii),  40 ; 

—  of  Sa"wa  (xiii-xiv),  48,  50,  69, 
70;    —  Mas'ud  b.   'Umar-Taftl- 
zani  (xiv),  159,  353-4.  458 ;  —  b. 
Rashidu'd-Din     Fadlu'llih    (xiii- 
xiv),  84,  86  ;  —  b.  Nasir  (parodied 
by  Busha"q),    350;    —  Wara"winf 
(author  of  Persian  version  of  the 
Marzubdn-ndmci) ,  356 

-Safadf  (xiv),  356 

37 


578 


INDEX 


Safawi  dynasty  (A.D.  1502-1736),  160, 
207,  3i5»  3l6n-,  3i7»  379-  38°. 
396»  397,  399>  4°°>  4°7>  414.  416, 
417-20,  421  n.,  434,  439,459,464, 

473.  475.  484,  507 

Saffaii  dynasty  (A.D.  867-900),  91 

Saff-i-Ni*dl  (the  "shoe-row"),  323 n. 

Saff  or  Safiyyu'd-Din  of  Ardabil, 
Shaykh  —  (ancestor  of  the  Safawi 
kings),  85,  474,  484-6 

Saffnatti'sh-Shu'ard  (Turkish  trans- 
lation of  Da  wlatshah's  "  Memoirs  of 
thePoets"bySulayma~nFahmi),436 

Saghari  (poet,  satirized  by  J£mi),  512 

Sahd'ifu  l-Akhbdr  (general  history  in 
'Turkish  by  Munajjim-bashi, 
q.v.),  383 n.,  384 n.,  385 n.,  403  n., 
407 

Sahban  b.  Wa'il,  116  and  n. 

Sdhib-Diwdn  -  \  - Juwaynf,  Shamsu'd- 
Dm  —  (xiii),  20-24,  27-3J.  66, 
106,  115,  121,  153,  175 

Sdkib-Qirdn  ("  Lord  of  the  Fortunate 
Conjunction,"  title  given  to  Ti- 
miir,  q.v.},  185 

S£'ib  (Persian  poet),  292 

Abti  Sa'id.  —  b.  Abi'l-Khayr  (mystic 
and  poet,  xi),  65,  121 ;  —  (Mongol 
Il-Khan  of  Persia,  A.D.  1317-35), 
48,  51-8,  59,  71,  74,  95,  99,  103, 

159,   l6o,    170,   171,  178,    215,  222, 

226,  251,  261,  352(?),  389.  429- 
30 ;  Sultaii  —  (grandson  of  Miran- 
shah  b.  Tfmur,  xv),  388-90,  402, 
406,  409-10,  42  in.,  429,  487  n., 
506  n. 

St  Albans,  6 

St  Bartholomew's  Hospital,  303 

St  Peter,  102 

St  Petersburg,  2 ion.,  425,  509.  See 
also  Petrograd. 

St  Sophia  (Constantinople),  367 

Sa'mu'd-Din  Tarika  (saint,  xv),  489 

-Sakk£kf  (author  of  Miftdhu'l-'  UMm, 
xiii),  272 n. 

Sakyamuni  (Buddha),  73 

Salahu'd-Din  Musd,  386.  See  Qadi- 
zada-i-R\imf 

*Saldmdn  u  Absdl  (poem  by  Jami, 
xv),  523-6 

Salemann,  156 

Salgharid  Atdbeks  of  Firs  (xii-xiii), 

73.  74.  92 

Salihiyya  cemetery  (Damascus),  128 
Salim.   —  (or  Selim)   "the  Grim" 
(Ottoman   Sultan,    xvi),    107  and 
n. ;  —  (Persian  poet),  292 


Salf  Noyan,  174 
Saljuqs.     See  Seljuqs 
Saljuq-ndma  (of  Zahiri  of  Nishapur), 

89 

Salma  (woman's  name),  544,  545 
Salmon  of  Sawa  (poet,  xiv),  60,  159, 

171,  172,  211, 230, 233,  234,  260- 

71,  291,  293,  296-8,  325,  348,  350, 

352,  490,  491,  522 
Salmas,  188 
Sam.    —  (legendary  hero  of  Persia, 

grandfather   of  Rustam),   3i6n.  ; 

—  Mirzd  (Safawi  prince,  xvi,  author 

of  the  Tuhfa-i-Sami,  q.v.},  439, 

459.  5°7.  5.14 
Samak  (the  Fish  which  supports  the 

Earth),  113  and  n. 
Sa~manid  dynasty  (x),  91,  522 
Samarqand,   169,  180,  186-9,  191-4, 

196,  197,  199,  202,  206,  283,  329, 

354,  355.  362,  368,  381,  386,  390, 

394,  418,  428,  436,  438,  464,  473, 

491,  502 
Sana'f  (poet,  xii),  65,  261,  343,  344, 

352,  522 

Sanguinetti,  64  n. 
San  Lucar,  201 
Santa  Maria,  199 
Sar£b,    Sarai,    Sara\v,    Sar£y,    53  n., 

122,  321,473 
Saracens,  9 
Sarakhs,  186,  354 
Sarandib  (Ceylon),  122 
Sariw-rud,  70 
Saray  Kh£tun  (or  Sa"ra  Khatun,  mother 

of  Uzun  Hasan,  xv),  407,  408  n. 
Sarbadar  dynasty  of  Sabzawar  (xiv), 

60,  160,   161,    178-80,  208,   210, 

in,  216,  498 
Sarf-i-Mlr   (by   -  Sharif-  Jurjdnf,    xiv, 

xv),  355 

Sa"rf  (Mdzandara~n),  494 
Sarjam  (near  Zanjan),  426 
Sasanian  kings  of  Persia  (iii-vii),  3, 

14,  68,  74,  90,  119,  120,  121,  250, 

267,  414,  soon. 
Sa"ti  Beg  (daughter  of  Uljaytu,  and 

queen  in  A.D.   1339),  51,   53,  55, 

59.  !7° 
Savinj    (Sevinj),    Amir  —  (d.    A.D. 

1318),  52 
Savinj  (Sevinj),  Qutlugh  Agha"  (niece 

of  Timiir,  xiv),  179 
Sawa,  55,  400 
Sawdnih  (by  Shaykh  Ahmad   Ghaz- 

z£lf),  135  and  n. 
Sawda'f,  B£b£ —  (poet,  xv),  438 


INDEX 


579 


Sawma,   Rabban  —  (one  of  envoys 

sent  by  Arghun  to  Europe  in  A.D. 
1287-8),  31 

Sayfi.  —  of  Herat  (historian),  174, 
[76,  431  ;  —  of  Bukhara  (poet, 

xv),  438,  458 
Sayfu'd-Din.    —  of  Isfarang  (poet, 

xiii-xiv),   154;   Shah  —  (praised 

by  Bushaq),  350;    Amir  —  Mah- 

miid    (father   of  Amir   Khusraw, 

xiii),  1 08 

Sayyids,  heretical  —  (xiv),  190 
Sayyid-i-Sharif-i-Jurjanf     (xiv),     159, 

1 66,  189-90,  355 
Schefer,  M.  Charles  — ,  89  n. 
Schiltberger,  Johann  —  (xiv-xv),  404  n. 
Schlechta-Wssehrd,  216,  515 
Scotland,  Scotch,  43,  102 
"Sechaidar,"  " Secheaidare "  (Italian 

corruption  of  Shaykh  Haydar. 

q.v.),  416  n. 
Sedillot,  502  n. 
Seljuqs,  73,  74,  83,  91-2,  in 
Seven  Heavens,  248  and  n. 
"  Seven  Lean  Years,"  325  n. 
"  Seven  Years'  Campaign  "  of  Timiir, 

196 

Seville,  199 
Sevinj.     See  Savinj 
Shabaran,  83 
Shabistar,  146 
Shabistari,      Shaykh      Mahimid      — 

(mystical  poet,  xiii-xiv),   146-50, 

300,  484 
Shad  Malak  (the  beloved  of  Khalil 

Sultan,  xv),  381-2 
Shafatha,  81 

Shafi'f  (sect),  46,  50,  70,  97,  98,  356 
Shah  u   Gadd  ("  the  King   and   the 

Beggar,"  poem  by  Hilali),  459 
Shah  Jahan.    —  Qara-Khita'i  (ruler 

of  Kirman,  A.D.   1301-3),  48;  — 

Timiir  (descendant  of  Abaqa,  xiv), 

60;    --    (Mogul    Emperor,   A.D. 

1628-59),  184,  391 
Shdh-ndma  (of  Firdawsi,  xi),  65,  89, 

95,    104,    in,    316  n.,   352,   385, 

532.  541 

Shah-rukh.  —  b.  Timur  (A.D.  1404- 
47),  74,  169,  192,  193,  194,  344, 
364,  366,  379,  380-7,  393,  395, 
398,  400,  401,  404,  421  n.,  424, 
425,  427-8,  435,  438,  464,  473, 
475,  498,  501,  502;  —  b.  Abu 
Sa'id  (Timurid,  xv),  410 

Shah  Shuja'  (Muzaffari,  xiv),  163, 
164,  165,  166-7,  !69,  172,  186, 


206,  258,  264,  276  n.,  278,  279, 

280,   281-2,   290,   299,  355,  357, 

360 
Shahi.    Amir  —  (poet  of  Sabzawar, 

xv),  352, 438,  498,  501 ;  —  Khatun 

(daughter  of  Rashidu'd-Din  Fad- 

lu'llah,  xiii-xiv),  84 
Shdhinshdh-ndma  (or  Chingiz-ndma) 

of  Ahmad  of  Tabriz  (A.D.  1337), 

103 

Shahr-i-Naw,  398 

Shahr-i-Sabz  (Kash.near  Samarqand) 
194 

Shakh-i-Nabat  (alleged  sweetheart  of 
Hafiz),  287 

Sham  (Damascus,  a  word-play  on  the 
name),  122 

Shamakhi,  83,  417 

Shamans,  44 

Sham'i.     See  Shem'i 

Shamlvt  (one  of  the  nine  tribes  who 
supported  Shah  Isma'il  the  Sa- 
fawi),  417 

Shams.  —  i-Qays  (prosodist,  xiii), 
16;  —  i-Tabrfz  (mystic,  xiii),  139, 
343,  465,  484;  i-Tabasi  (poet),  65  ; 
Amir  —  (connected  with  Hurufis, 
xiv),  368 ;  —  i-'Ala  (poet  satirized 
by  Katibi,  xv),  492-3 

Shamsu'd-Din.  —  Muhammad-i- 
Juwayni,  entitled  Sahib -Diwan, 
q.v. ;  —  (grandfather  of  the  pre- 
ceding, xii),  entitled  Bu2urg("  the 
Great")  and  Muy-dirdz  ("the 
Long-haired"),  20;  Mawlana  — 
(xiii),  28;  —  b.  Ruknu'd-Din-i- 
Kurt  (xiii),  57,  174,  175;  - 
Muhammad- i- Kurt  (xiv),  177-8; 
Qadi  —  Muhammad  b.  Hasan 
(xiii-xiv),  8 1 ;  —  Muhammad-i- 
Abarqiihi  (xiii-xiv) ,  86 ;  Sayyid 

—  (connected  with  Hurufis,  xiv), 
368;  —  (ruler  of  Akhlat  in  A.D. 
1425),   401;    Amir  —   Zakariyya 
(first  Prime  Minister  of  Shah  Is- 
ma'il the  Safawi,  A.D.  1500),  417; 

—  Gilani  (first  Chancellor  of  Shah 
Isma'il,  A.D.  1500),  417 

Shanb-i-Ghazani,  361 

Shapiir.  —  I  (Sasanian  king,  iii), 
93;  —  (unidentified,  xv),  494 

-  Shaqaiqu'n  -  Nu'mdntyya  (bio- 
graphies of  Ottoman  divines),  369 

Sharafu'd-Din.  —  Harun-i-Juwayni 
(poet  and  patron  of  poets),  20-1 ; 
—  Hasan  Mustawfi  (xiii-xiv),  82 ; 
Mawlana  —  i-Tabasi  (xiii-xiv), 


58o 


INDEX 


86 ;  —  'Ali  Yazdi  (biographer  of 
Timur,  xv),  159,  181,  183,  189, 
190,  191,  196,  197,  198,  201,  202, 
2°3>  356,  361,  362-5,  385,  438, 
see  also  Zafar-nama;  —  Muzaf- 
far  b.  Mubarizu'd-Din)  A.D.  1325- 
53))  *63;  —  Kami  (author  of  the 
Anhi£l-iUshshdq)  A.D.  1423),  462 
Sharafiyya  College  (in  Taft  of  Yazd), 

364 

Shash  (or  Chach,  the  modern  Tash- 
kand),  no,  320  and  n. 

Shattu'l- 'Arab,  511  and  n. 

Shawdhidrfn-Nubuwwa  ("  Evidences 
of  Prophethood, "  composed  by 
Jami  in  A.D.  1480),  512-13 

Shaybani  Khan  the  Uzbek  (xv-xvi), 
380,  390,  393,  418-19,  459 

Shaykhi  b.  Rashidu'd-Din  Fadlu'llah 
(xiii-xiv),  84 

Shaykhi  Na'i  (musician,  xv-xvi),  505 

Shaykhum  Suhayli,  Amir  —  (poet, 
xv),  438,  457 

Shem'i  (Turkish  commentator  of 
Hafiz),  299 

Shibli.  '  Sultan  —  b.  Shah  Shuja'-i- 
Muzaffari  (xiv),  167,  169 ;  — 
Nu'mani  (Indian  critic  and  scholar, 
xix-xx),  108,  261,  265,  267,  269, 
27r>  273,  274»  280  n.,  289,  291, 
292  n.,  293,  296 

Shihab,  Mawlana  'AH  —  of  Turshiz 
(poet,  xv),  498 

Shihabu'd-Din.  —  -Nasa'i  (bio- 
grapher of  Jalalu'd-Din  Manko- 
birni,  xiii),  12;  —  Suhrawardi 
(Shafi'i  doctor  of  Baghdad,  xiii- 
xiv),  70,  139;  Amir  —  (governor 
of  Baghdad,  xiii-xiv),  82 ;  —  b. 
Rashidu'd-Din  Fadlu'llah  (xiii- 
xiv),  84 ;  -  -  Haydar  (satirized 
by  'Ubayd-i-Zakani,  xiv),  238 ; 
Shaykh  —  Qalandar  (satirized 
by  'Ubavd-i-Zakani,  xiv),  257 ; 
Shaykh  —  'Abdu'llah  (or  'Azi- 
zu'llah)  of  Khwaf,  426,  428.  See 
also  Hafiz  Abrii 

Shi'a,  Shi'ites,  42,  44,  50,  51,  178, 
224,  255,  256,  301,  315,  372,  416, 
418,  441,  456,  458,  464,  475,  498, 
511,  521  n.  See  also  Rafidis 

Shiraz,  15,  16,  30,  33,  38,  39,  84,  86, 
163,  164,  166,  167,  168,  169,  188, 
189,  190,  191,  206,  208,  225,  230, 
231.  237,  238,  274,  276  n.,  277, 
281,  282,  283,  303,  31  r,  344,  355, 
356.  357.  358,  359>  363,  366,  410, 


413,  418,  423,  427,  436,  444,  485, 

486,  500 
Shfrdz-ndma  (composed  in  A.D.  1343 

by  Shaykh  Fakhru'd-Din),  360-1 
Shirin  (the  beloved  of  Khusraw  Par- 

wiz),  329,  547 
Sh^ru'l-'Ajam  (by  Shibli  Nu'mani, 

g.v.),  108,  109,  261,265,273,  292n. 
Shirwan,    374,    401,   416,   417,   449, 

488,  494,  495 

Shirwan-shah  (xiii-xiv),  83,  225 
Shirzad,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 
Shuja',  Shah  — .     See  above  under 

Shah  Shuja' 
Shurur,  Battle  of —  (A.D.  1502),  379, 

417-18 

Shushtar,  166,  168,  189,  191 
Sibak  (poet,  xv),  438 
Sihun.     See  Jaxartes 
Silesia,  6 
* 'Sihilatu 'dh- Dhahab  (the  "Chain  of 

Gold,"  composed  by  Jami  in  A.D. 

1485),  510,  516-23 
Sihilatu' n-Nasab-i-Saf aw iyya  (a  rare 

work   on   the   Genealogy   of   the 

Safawi  kings  of  Persia),  474,  484 
Simak  (the  star  Arcturus),  113 
Simi  (poet  and  calligraphist,  xv),  488, 

493 

Simnan,  55,  81,  190 

Simurgh,  316 

Sinai,  Mount — ,  114 

Sind,  83 

Sindibad-ndma  (Turki  translation  of 

— ).  94 

Sinjar  (place  near  Mawsil),  82,  399 
Sinope,  205 
Siraju'd-Din   of    Dizful,    Khwaja  — 

(government  auditor,  xiii-xiv),  83 
Sirdt,  Bridge  of — ,  522 
Sirdtu 'n- Nabi  ("Biography    of    the 

Prophet,"  probably  Ibn  Hisham's), 

88  and  n. 

Sirjan,  169,  190,  192 
Sistan,   86,   91,    160,    175,   177,   181, 

186,  187,  193,  388,  392,  456 
Siwas,  83,  192,   196,  204,  205,  206, 

4°4»  4' 7 

Siyah-push  Kafirs,  193 

Siyarifl-Muluk  ("  Biographies  of  the 
Kings"),  89.  The  work  here  in- 
tended is  the  Siyasat-nama,  q.v. 

Siydsat-ndma  (by  the  Nizamu'1-Mulk, 
xi),  88-9 

Siyawush,  317-18 

de  Slane,  Baron  McGuckin  — ,  64  n., 
462  n. 


Smith,   Vincent  A.   —  (historian  of 

Akbar's  reign),  393  n. 
Smyrna,  199 
Solivero,  of  Barcelona  (Spanish  envoy 

at    Ghazan's     court    about    A.D. 

1300),  44 
Solomon,  317  n. 
Somnath,  477 
"  Sortes  Vergilianae, "  311 
"  Spaan,"    "Spaham"   (Italian   cor- 
ruptions of  Isfahan,   q.v.),  389, 

410 
Spain,    Spaniards,    Spanish,    4,    44, 

199-201,  396 
Sprenger  (Catalogue  of  the  Library  of 

the  King  of  Oude),   125  and  n., 

155  and  n. 

Ssufismus  (by  Dr  Tholuck),  147 
Stewart,  Major  Charles  —  (translator 

of  Malfuzdt-i-  Tttnurl,  1830),  184 
le  Strange,  Guy  — ,  63  n.,  70  n.,  80, 

93  n.,  99,  100,  155  n.,  304,  356  n., 

426 

Strassburg  or  Strasbourg,  107  n. 
*Subhatu'l-Abrdr  (the  ' '  Rosary  of  the 

Pious,"  by  Jami,  xv),  516,  528-31 
-Subki  (scholar  and  lecturer  at  Da- 
mascus, xiv),  357 
Subutay  (Mongol  general,   xiii),   25, 

9<5,  97 
Siidi  (Turkish  commentator  of  Hafiz), 

299,  302 
Sufiism,   Sufis,   85,   92,  319  n.,  417, 

Suhayli.  See  Anwar-i ,  Shayk- 

hum 

Sulayman.,  —  Khan  (one  of  the  last 
puppet  Il-khans  of  Persia,  xiv), 
60  ;  Sultan  —  "  the  Magnificent " 
(Qdnunt,  A.D.  1520-66),  396 ; 
Prince  —  (brother  of  Sultan  Mu- 
hammad I,  killed  in  A.D.  1410), 
400,  404 ;  —  Fahmi  (translator  of 
Dawlatshah's  "Memoirs  of  the 
Poets  "  into  Turkish),  436 

Abii  Sulayman  Da'ud.   See  Banakati 

Sulayman  Kuh,  193 

Sultan  'All.  —  (elder  brother  of 
Shah  Isma'il  the  Safawi),  416;  — 
(calligraphist  of  Mashhad,  xv),  459 

Sultan  Veled  (or  Walad,  son  of  Maw- 
lana  Jalalu'd-Din  Ruini  and  author 
of  the  Rabdb-ndma,  xiii),  155-6 

Sultaniyya,  48,  51,  53,  54,  55,  61,  67, 
70,  81,  166,  187, 190,  192,  400,  401 

Sunnis,  50,  178,  238,  256,  301,  315, 
418,  419,  521 


INDEX  581 


Sunqur  Bawarchi  (governor  of  Basra, 

xiii-xiv),  8 1 
Surghatmish    Qara-Khita'i    (ruler   of 

Kirman,  xiii),  163 
Sururi      (Turkish     commentator     of 

Hafiz),  299 
Sus/8i  ' 
Suwarutl-Aqdlim  (geographical  work 

by  Abu  Zayd  Ahmad  b.  Sahl  al- 

Balkhi),  99 
Suyurghatmish    (son    of    Shah-rukh, 

died  A.D.  1426-7),  385  n. 
-Suyiiti,     'Abdu'r- Rahman    Jalalu'd- 
Din  —  (historian  and  polymath, 

xv),  164  n. 

Siizani  (poet  and  satirist,  xii),  257 
Swan  and  Sonnenschein  (publishers), 

532  n- 
Syria,  Syrians,  19,  41 ,  42,  51,  53,  69, 

85,  86,  92,   127,    197,  205,   397, 

404,  408,  417,  466,  468 
Syriac  language,  12,  31 
Synagogues  (destroyed  by  Ghazan  in 

Persia  about  A.D.  1295),  40 

Tababakan  (clan  or  family  of  Qaz- 
win),  94 

Tabaqdtu'l-Atibbd  ("Lives  of  the 
Physicians"  by  Ibn  Abi  Usaybi'a, 
xiii),  63-4 

Tabarak,  Castle  of  — ,  165 

-Tabari  (the  historian  Muhammad 
Jarir  — ),  88,  220  n. 

Tabaristan,  221 

fabas,  55 

Tabriz,  27,  28,  33,  38,  40,  46,  61,  70, 
79,  82,  86,  103,  146,  161,  165, 
166,  172,  173,  175,  187,  199,  201, 
208,  230,  317,  32o,  321,  3*8,  329, 
330,  361,  362,  368,  379-  4°°>  403. 
406,  410,  413,  414,  416,  418, 

473 

Tacitus,  80 
Tadwin  of  -Rafi'i,  93  ;  —  of  -Yafi'i, 

88 
Tadhkirattfl-Awliyd   ("  Memoirs   of 

the  Saints,"  by  'Attar,  xiii),  88 
Tadhkiratu'sh-Shu''ard  ("  Memoirs  of 

the  Poets,"  by  Dawlatshah,y.z>.), 

434 
Taf&ul  (auguries  from   Hafiz,  etc.), 

311-19 

Taft  (near  Yazd),  364 
Taftazan  (in  Khurasan),  354 
-Taftazani.     See  Sa'du'd-Din  and 

Ahmad  b.  Sa'du'd-Din 
Ibn  Taghribardi  (historian),  58 

37—3 


582  INDEX 


Tahir.  —  Abiwardi  (poet,  xv),  501 ; 

—  of  Faryiimad,  1 1 1 
Abu  Tahir-Khatuni  (Persian  poet  and 

writer),  65 
Tahmasp,   Shah  —   I   (Safawi,    A.D. 

1524-76),  316  and  n.,  381  n.,  400, 

418,  419 
Tahqiq  •  i  -  Madhhab  -  i  -  Sufiydn    (by 

Jami,  xv),  514 
Tdtyya    (poem    by    'Umar    ibnu'l- 

Farid),  I33n.,  514 
Tajd  ribul-  Umam    (of    Ibn     Miska- 

wayhi),  88 
Tajik,  466,  468 
Tajrid   (commentary   on    —   by  al- 

Qushji,  xv),  386 
Taju'd-Dfn.  —  Awaji(  Shi 'ite  divine 

contemporary  with  Uljaytii,  xiv), 

50 ;    Sayyid    —   Naqibrfl-Ashrdf 

(xiv),  70-1  ;  Sayyid  —  (connected 

with  Hunifis,  xiv),  368 ;  —  '  Uth- 

man-i-Marghini    (ancestor  of  the 

Kurt  kings,  xii-xiii),  174 
Tajziyatu'l-Amsdr.    See  Ta'rikh-i- 

Wassaf 
Takalu  (one  of  the  nine  tribes  who 

supported    Shah    Isma'il    in   A.D. 

1500),  417 

Takhtakh  Inju  (xiii-xiv),  83 
Takrit,  191 

Takudar.    See  Ahmad  Takudar 
Talib  of  Jajarm  (poet,  xv),  438 
Abu  Talib  al-Husayni  (translator  or 

author  of  the  supposed  autobio- 
graphical works  of  Timtir,  xvii), 

184 

Talish  b.  Amir  Hasan  (xiv),  170 
Talmih  (allusion),  243 
Tamanna'i  (Turkish  Hunifi  poet,  xiv), 

370 
Tamerlane   (corruption   of    Tim&r-i- 

Lang,    "Limping    Timvir "),    see 

Timiir 
Tamimi  (clan  or  family  of  Qazwin), 

94 

Tanasuri  (place),  398 
Taraghay  (father  of  Timur),  185 
Taramtaz,  Amir  —  (xiv),  50 
*Ta'rifat     ("Definitions").         -    of 
'Ubayd-i-Zakani  (xiv),  232,    235, 
252-4,  276  ;  —  of  -Sayyid^Sharif- 
Jurjani  (xiv-xv),  355 
Ta'rikh.     -  -  *i-Bandkati  (composed 
in  A.D.   1317).  100-3;  —  i-Ghd- 
zdnf,    72 ;   see  Jami'u't-Tawa- 
rikh ;    —  i- Guztda  (composed  in 
A.D.   1330),   17,  56,  57n.,  87-95, 


115,  118,  119,  162,  i66n.,  167, 
168  n.,  224,  231  n.,  360  ;  — i-Jrdn 
(by  Zuka'u'l-Mulk.'xix),  383  n. ;  — 
i-Jahdn-gushdy  (by  Ala'u'd-Din 
'Ata  Malik-i-Juwayni,  completed 
in  A.D.  1260),  ion.,  12,  17,  2on., 
21,  65-6,  88,  97  n.,  106  n.,  153 n.; 

Kdmil  (by  Ibnu'l-Athir,  xiii), 

88  ;  —  -Khulafd  (by  Jalalu'd-Din 
'Abdu'r- Rahman  as-Suyuti),  164; 
—  i-Rashldi  (by  Mirza  Haydar-i- 
Dughlat,  xvi),  362,  364  and  n., 
392  and  n. ;  —  i-Tabari,  88;  — 
i-Wassdf  (completed  about  A.D. 
1312),  12,  21  n.,  28  n.,  29,  31,  33, 
34,  37,  42,  48  n.,  53  n.,  67-8,  70, 
360 

Tar {q-i- Sufiydn  ("the  Sufis'  Way," 
by  Jami,  xv),  514 

Tarjumdnu'l-Asrdr  ("the  Interpreter 
of  the  Unseen,"  Hafiz  so  called), 
312 

Tarsus,  81 

Tartary,  266,  267 

Tartars  (properly  Tatar,  the  common 
form  being  based  on  a  popular 
etymology,  see  pp.  6-7),  4-10, 
466,  468.  See  Mongols 

Tarumayn,  87 

Tashkand,  no,  262  n.,  320,  418 

Tash-Timur  (executed  in  A.D.  1327), 

5? 
Tauris,  413.     See  Tabriz 

Ta'usi  (clan  or  family  of  Qazwin),  94 
Tawakkul,    Uarwish    —    (connected 

with  Hurdfis,  xiv),  368 
Tawdihdt    (by    Rashidu'd-Din    Fad- 

lu'llah,  xiii-xiv),  75-6 
Tawqi'i  (Tevqi'i),  203.    See  Firidiin 

Bey  supra 
Tayabad,  186 
Tayy  (Arab  tribe),  132 
Tekfiir  (Byzantine  Emperor  so  called), 

205 

Tennyson,  2i8n. 
Tevqi'i  (Tawqi'i),  203.    See  Firidun 

Bey,  supra 
-Tha'labi  (author  of  the  Qisasu'l-An- 

biyd),  88 
Thiqatu'd-Din  Fami,  Shaykh  —  (xiii), 

J75 

Tholuck,  Dr  — ,  147 
Thomas  Ildaci  or  Ildouchi   (Mongol 

envoy  to  Edward  II  in  A.D.  1307), 

n,  49 
Thompson,  W.  F.  —  (translator   of 

the  Akhldq-i-Jaldli},  444 


INDEX 


Tibet,  Tibetan,  43 

Tibydn  (of  Ahmad  b.  Abi  'Abdi'llah, 
one  of  the  sources  of  the  Nuzha- 
tu'l-Quliib),  99 

Tiflis,  188,  192,  414 

Tigin  (typical  Turkish  suffix  to  names), 
1 20,  121  and  n. 

Tigris,  223,  234,  251,  264,  284,  285, 
511  n. 

Tihran,  300 

timur(  Turkish  for  "Iron").  —  Qa'an 
(Emperor  of  China,  A.D.  13051,49; 
—  -tash  (son  of  Amir  Chiiban,  put 
to  death  in  Egypt  in  A.D.  1328), 
54>  S^,  59,  170;  —  (grandson  of 
Qubilay  Khan),  74 ;  -  -  i-Lang 
("Tamerlane,"  the  great  Tinuir, 
b.  A.D.  1336,  d.  1405),  4,  9,  12, 
57,  58,  60,  71,  159,  160,  161,  163, 
167-9,  J72>  I73)  r78,  179,  180- 
206,  208,  216,  282,  311,  321,  332, 

344.  353-5.  357.  361-8,  37i»  374. 
379,  380,  381,  383,  388,  390,  393, 
394.  395,  399.  4°°>  404,  421,  424, 
425,  429,  430,  431,  432,  433,  435, 
438,  462,  473,  503 

Tirah,  175 

Tirmidh,  390 

Tongudar  (Armenian  form  of  Takii- 
dar,  q.v. ),  25  n. 

Toqat  (or  Tuqat),  127,  205 

Tornberg,  88  n. 

Toynbee,  Arnold  — ,  151 

Transoxiana  (Md  ward^cHn-Nakr),  5, 
54,  64,  100,  101,  no,  185,  234, 
320,  353  n.,  379,  382,  387,  390, 
398,  418,  419,  428,  453,  461,  468, 
502 

Trebizond,  85,  199,  201,  407,  412 

Trinity  College  Library,  Cambridge, 
553  n-,  536  n. 

Tughachar  (Mongol  general,  put  to 
death  in  A.D.  1295),  35,  36,  37, 

39 
Tughan-shah  (patron  of  Azraqi    the 

poet),  347 

Tughay-Tiimir  (xiv),  59,  60,  216 
Tuhfa-i-Sdm!    (Biography    of    later 

poets  by  Sam  Mfrza  the  Safawi), 

460,  507,  514 
*Tuhfattfi-Ahrdr    (poem    by    Jami, 

composed  in  A.D.  1481),  516,  526- 

8,  541 
Tiiman  (Mongol  Envoy  to  Edward  II 

in  A.D.  1307),  n 
Tunis,  84 
Tuqat  (or  Toqat),  127,  205 


Tiiqatmish  (rival  of  Timiir,  xiv),  189, 

190,    192,    321,    328-9,    368    (for 

Tuqtamish  in  the  later  references 

read  Tuqatmish) 
Tiiqjaq  (niece  of  Jushkab,  a  Mongol 

noble,  put  to  death),  34 
Tuqmaq  (conspires  against  Chtiban  in 

A.D.  1319),  52 
Tuqtay  (xiv),  49 
Ttiran,  58.  See  also  Transoxiana, 

Turkistan 

Turghudf  dynasty,  401 
Turkey,  14,  107,  302,  365,  385,  422, 

449.  452,  461,  540.  543-    See  also 

Ottoman  Turks 
Turki  (or  Eastern  Turkish)  language 

and  literature,   32,  93,   in,  184, 

380,   391,  392,  395,   437-8,   439, 

452-8,  505,  506 
Turkistan,   5,  262  n.,   272,  385,  386, 

388,  398,  453.     See  also  Turin, 

Transoxiana 
Turkmans,  85, 172,  1^73,  192,  379,  399, 

418.     See  also  Aq-qoyunlii  and 

Qara-qoyunlii 
Turks  (Eastern),  73,  74,  108,  228,  232, 

252,  283,  318,  466,  467,  468,  469 
Turk  Yurdu  (the  organ  of  the   Ye  Hi 

Turdn  or  Pan -Turanian  party  in 

Turkey),  15 
Turner  Macan  (editor  of  the  Shdh- 

ndma),  89  n. 
Turshiz,  186,  487,  488 
Tus  (the  modern  Mashhad),  in,  186, 

190,  234 

Tiisi  (poet,  xv),  438 
Tuysirkan,  274 
T&zuk-i- Bdburl  (Persian    translation 

of  the  Babur-nama,  q.v.),  392 
Tuz&kdt-i-Tlmtiri ^the  so-called  "In- 
stitutes of  Timur  "),  183-4,  202-3 

'Ubayd-i-Zakani  (poet  and  satirist, 
xiv),  159,  209,  211,  230-57,  260, 

299.  35°.  35i,  352,  492 

'Ubaydu'llah.  Khwaja—  of  Shash 
(xiv,  spiritual  guide  of  Kamal  of 
Khujand),  320;  Khwaja  —  Ahrdr 
(Shaykh  of  the  Naqshbandi  order 
of  dervishes,  xv),  441 

"  Ugurlimehemet  "  (Italian  corrup- 
tion of  Oghurlu  Muhammad, 

,    2-v-),  413 

Ujan,  52 

Uljaytti  (Mongol  Il-khan,  reigned 
A.D.i3o5-i6),  4&-51. 52,55. 67,68, 
70.71.72,73.76,83,  163,  170,  171 


5*4 


INDEX 


Ulugh  Beg  (son  of  Shah-rukh,  mur- 
dered by  his  son  'Abdu'l-Latif  in 
A.D.  1449),  192,  364,  385,'  386, 
387.  388,  390,  394,  395,  4oo,  438, 
453-  501-3 

'Umar.  —  b.  Abi'l-Khattab  (the 

Caliph,  vii),25o,  255  ; i-Khay- 

yam  (the  astronomer-poet,  xi-xii), 
65,  119,  121,  227,  304,  335  n., 
446  n.  ;  —  b.  al-Farid  (Egyptian 
mystical  poet,  xii-xiii),  514,  548; 
—  i-Sultaniyya  (connected  with 
Hunifis,  xiv),  368 ;  —  Shaykh, 
Mirza  b.  Miranshah  (xiv-xv),  362, 
381  ;  b.  Uzun  Hasan  (killed  in 
A.D.  1472),  411 

Umayyad  Caliphs  (vii-viii),  90,  91 

'Umman,  Sea  of — ,  148,  212,  214 

Ung  Khan  (the  supposed  original  of 
Prester  John),  n,  I9n. 

'Unsuri  (poet,  xi),  65,  522 

Urdu  (Hindustani)  language,  107-8 

'Urfa,  389,  414 

'Urfi  of  Shfraz  (poet,  circd  A.D.  1000), 
292 

'Urmiya,  188 

Uriik  Khatun  (mother  of  Uljatvi 
Khuda-banda),  46 

Ibn  Abi  Usaybi'a  (author  of  the 
Tabaqdtti'l-Atibbd,  or  Biographies 
of  Physicians,  xiii),  64 

'•Ushshdq-ndma  ("Book  of  Lovers") 
of  'Iraqi,  132;  —  of  'Ubaycl-i- 
Zakani,  235,  237 

"  Ussun  Cassano  "  (Italian  corruption 
of  Uziin  Hasan,  g.v.),  389,  404 

Ustajlu  (one  of  the  nine  tribes  which 
supported  Shah  Isma'il  the Safawi), 

41? 

Usury  prohibited  by  Ghazan  Khan 
(A.D.  1299),  40 

-'Utbi  (author  of  the  Ta'riMu'J- 
Yamini,  xi),  88 

'Uthman.  —  b.  'Affan  (the  Caliph, 
vii),  255  ;  Amir  —  of  Mawsil  (A.D. 
1502),  417.  See  also  'Osman 

Utrar,  202 

Uways.  Sultan  -  -  (Il-khani  of 
Baghdad,  xiv),  55,  104  n.,  166, 
171,  172,  208,  230,  235,  260, 
262-3,  264-5,  368  n.,  399  ;  Sultan 
—  b.  Shah  Shuja'  (Muzaffarf,  xiv), 
167,,  169  ;  —  (Aq-qoyiinlu,  brother 
of  Uzun  Hasan),  408 

Uyghiir  script,  112  and  n. 

'  Uyunu't-  Tawdrikh  (of  al-Khazin  al- 
Baghdadi),  88 


Uzbek  Khan  (of  the  Golden  Horde, 

A-D.  1335),  57,  59 

Uzbeks,  204,  379,  380,  390,  393,  399, 
,    418,  419,  445 
Uzun  Hasan  (Aq-qoyiinlii,  also  called 

Bayandari,  y.v.,  d.  A.D.  1477-8), 

380,  381,  389,  400,  404-14,  429n., 

443 

Van,  1 88 

Venice,  Venetians,  61,  380,  381,  405, 

410,  411,  416,  429  n. 
Vergil,  311 

' '  Vision  of  God"  (RuyatrflldK),^  n. 
Viillers,  89  n. 

Abu'1-Wafa,  Shaykh  —  (xiv-xv),  445 

Wafaydtifl-A'ydn  (by  Ibn  Khallikan, 
xiii],  64 

Wahl  (translator  of  Hafiz),  303 

Wajihu'd-Dfn.  Khwaja  —  Zangi 
(xiii),  in;  Mavvlana  —  Nasafi 
(xiii),  175;  Khwaja  —  Mas'ud-i- 
Sarbadar  (xiv),  211-12 

Wali,  Amir  —  (ruler  of  Mazandaran, 
xiv),  186 

Abu'l-Walid  Ahmad,  Tomb  of  —  in 
Herat,  504 

Walt  Whitman,  107 

Wang  (or  Ung  or  Ong)  Khan,  1 1  n. 
See  Prester  John 

WdqVdt-i-Bdburi,  392.  See  Babur- 
nama 

Warawini,  Sa'du'd-Din  (author  of 
Marzubdn-ndma.)  xiii),  356 

Warsaq  (one  of  the  nine  tribes  who 
supported  Shah  Isma'il  the  Safa- 
wi), 417 

Wasit  (in  Mesopotamia),  357 

Wdsttatu'l-  'Iqd  (Jami's  second 
Diwdri),  515 

Wassdf-i-Hadrat  (the  ' '  Court  Pane- 
gyrist," 'Abdu'llah  b.  Fadlu'llah 
of  Shiraz,  xiv),  21,  42,  67-8, 
87,  424.  See  also  Ta'rikh-i- 
Wassaf 

Water  of  Life,  291  n. 

Watwat,  Rashidu'd-Din —  (poet,  xii), 

65  ' 

Weil,  88  n. 
Whinfield,  E.  H. — ,  11911.,  146,  148, 

300,  446  n.,  448 
White,  Dr  —  (Professor  of  Arabic  at 

Oxford  in  A.D.  1779),  184 
"  White  Garden"  (Herat),  501 
"White  Hand"  (Yad-i-Baydd),  267, 

470  and  n. 


INDEX 


585 


"White  Sheep"  Turkmans.    See  Aq- 

qoyunlii 

Wickerhauser,  156,  542 
Wilson,  C.  E.  — ,  515 
Winchester,  Bishop  of  —  (A.D.  1238), 

6 

Wine-drinking.     See  Drink 
Wolf,  Dr  — ,  346 
"  Wurchanadin "    (i.e.    Burhanu'd- 

Din,  q.v.},  404  n. 
Wiistenfeld,  64  n.,  88  n. 

Yadigar  Muhammad  (xv),  389,  410 
-Yafi'i,  Imamu'd-Din  —  (xiii),  88  ; 
Shaykh  'Abdu'llah  —  (xiv),  356, 
464 

Yahya.  — •  (son  of  the  Sdhib-Dlwdn, 
xiii),  29  ;  Nusratu'd-Din  Shah  — 
Muzaffari  (xiv),  167,  168,  169, 
190,  292 ;  Khwaja  —  yi-Narrad 
(favourite  of  Miranshah,  put  to 
death  by  Timur  about  A.D.  1400), 
195  n. 

Yaman  (Arabia  Felix),  89,  184 
Yaminu'd-Din.  Amir  —  Tughra'i 
(father  of  the  poet  Ibn-i-Yamin, 
xiv),  211,  215;  Amir  —  (one  of 
Mirza  Baysunghur's  poets,  xv), 
50i 

Ibn-i-Yamin,  Amir  Mahmud  —  (son 
of  the  above,  d.  A.D.  1367-8),  159, 

179,  2IO,  211-222 

Yanbu',  398 

Ya'qitb  (son  of  Uztin  Hasan,  xv),  413 
and  n.,  414-16 

Yaqiit.  —  (the  historian  and  geo- 
grapher, xiii),  6,  12;  —  al-Musta'- 
simi  (the  celebrated  calligraphist, 
xiii),  84 

Yarmouth,  6 

Yasa'iil  (xiv),  52 

Yasawur  (rebellion  of  — ,  A.D.  1318), 

52 
Yasiir  Nikudari,  Prince  —  (killed  in 

A.D.  1320),  177 
Yazd,   119,  162,  163,  168,  169,  193, 

208,  225,  290,  364,  389,  418,  464 
Yazdigird  (name  of  three  Sasanian 

kings).  —  I   "the  sinful"  (A.D. 

399-420),    250;   --    III,   son   of 

Shahriyar,   the   last   of  the   line, 

9° 

Yazid  b.  Mu'awiya  (Umayyad),  256 
Year  amongst  the  Persians  (by  E.  G. 

Browne),  241  n.,  299n. 
Yeni    Tiirdn    (the    "  Pan-Turanian " 

movement),  15 


Yildirim  ("the  Thunderbolt")  Baya- 
zid  (the  Ottoman  Sultan  Bayazid  I, 
reigned  A.D.  1389-1402),  173,  196. 
See  under  Bayazid 

Yima  (in  the  Avesta,  the  Jam  or 
Jamshid  of  the  Persian  epic), 
29on.,  317  n. 

Yunus  Kha'n  (xv),  364 

Yurish-i-Panj-sdla  (Timiir's  "  Five 
years'  campaign,"  A.D.  1392-6), 


Yiisuf.  —  Amiri  (poet  of  Mirza 
Baysunghur,  xv),  501  ;  —  i-Anda- 
kani  (musician  of  Shah-rukh,  xv), 
384,  498,  500;  —  Badi'i  (poet  of 
B£bur's  time,  xv-xvi),  459  ;  — 
Beg  (xvii),  318;  —  i-Damghani 
(connected  with  Hunifis,  xiv), 
368  ;  —  Diya'u'd-Din  (Jami's  son), 
514,  527  ;  —  Shah  (minstrel,  xiv), 
264  ;  —  b.  Uziin  Hasan  (killed 
in  A.D.  1472),  411,  417 

*  Yusuf  u  Zulaykhd  (poem  by  Jami, 
composed  in  A.D.  1483),  516,  531- 

3,  535 

Yiisuf,  S6ratu  —  (sura  xii  of  the 
Qur'dn),  325  n. 

Zabulistan,  388 

Zadani,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 

Zafar-nama.  —  (of  Hamdu'llah  Mus- 
tawfi  of  Qazwin,  xiv),  87,  95-98, 
99  ;  —  (of  Nizam-i-Shami,  fired 
A.D.  1404),  183,  361-2;  —  (of 
Sharafu'd-Dfn  'Alf  Yazdf,^.z;.), 
181,  185,  190  n.,  191,  193,  361, 
362-5,  438 

-Zahir,  al-Malik.  —  (Sultan  Bay- 
bars  of  Egypt,  A.D.  1260-77), 
19;  —  (Barqiiq,  A.D.  1382-98), 
191 

Zahiri  of  Nishapiir  (author  of  Saljuq- 
ndma),  89 

Zahir-i-Faryabi  (poet,  xiii),  118,  261, 

29Z»  35°.  352,  522 
Zakariyya.    —   b.    Muhammad   al- 

Qazwini     (geographer,    xiii),    64, 

94  ;  —  (son  of  the  Sahib-Diwdn, 

xiii),  28 

Zakan,  village  of  —  near  Qazwin,  231 
Zakani,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94, 

23  in.  Seealso'Ubayd-i-Zakani 
Zal  (son  of  Sam  and  father  of  Rustam 

in  the  Persian  epic),  316  n. 
-Zamakhshari  (philologist  and  com- 

mentator), 256  n.,  272  n.,  357 
Zand  dynasty,  311 


586 


INDEX 


Zanjan,  37,  48,  87,  97  n.,  425 
-Zanjani  (grammarian),  354 
Zanzibar,  398 

Zarkub,  Shaykh  —  of  Shiraz,  360 
Zawa,  179,  211 

Abii  Zayd  Ahmad  b.  Sahl  al-Balkhi 
(author  of  the  Suwaru'l-Aqdlim), 

99 

Zaynal  b.  Uziin  Hasan  (killed  in 
battle  in  A.D.  1472  or  1474),  411, 
412 

Zaynu'l-'Abidin  b.  Shall  Shuja'-i- 
Muzaffari  (A.D.  1384-7),  167-9, 
i88J  189,  191,  282 

Zaynu'd-Din.  'AH    b.    Sa'id 

(preacher  and  rhapsodist,  xiii), 
34;  Muhammad  (brother  of  Ham- 
du'llih  Mustawff  of  Qazwin,  xiv), 
87 ;  —  '  Ali  (brother  of  MubaVizu'd- 
Din  Muhammad,  xiii),  163;  — 
Abii  Bakr-i-Tdyabadi  (saint,  xiv), 
1 86,  281  ;  —  of  Hamadan  (mer- 


chant, friend  of  Hafiz,  xiv),  285  ; 

Shaykh  —  of  Khwaf  (xiv),  321 
Zeno,  Caterino  —  (Venetian  traveller, 

xv),  380,  405,  411,  412,  4i6n. 
Zij  (Astronomical  tables).  — i-Ilkhani 

by  Nasiru'd-Din  of  Ttis  (xiii),  502  ; 
-    i-jadid-i-Sultdnt    (by    Ulugh 

Beg,  xv),  386,  502 
Zirih,  1 86 
Zirbad,  398 
Zoroastrians,  342  n.,  494.     See   also 

Gabr,  Guebre,  Magians 
Zubdatu't-Tawarikh.  —  of  Jama- 

lu'd-Din  Abu'l-Qasim  of  Kashan, 

88  ;  —  of  Hafiz  Abru,  424-6,  430 
Zubayri,  clan  or  family  of  Qazwin,  94 
Zuhra  (in  the  allegory  of  Saldmdn  and 

Absdl),  523 
Zukaitl-Mulk  (author  of  the  Ta'rikh- 

i-Irdn,  xix),  383 
Zunndr  (zonarium  or  sacred  girdle), 

342  n. 


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