Literary History of Persia

423 See p. 212, n. 1 supra.

424 See p. 214, n. 4 supra.

425 See my Year amongst the Persians, p. 283.

426 Cf. vol. i of my Lit. Hist. of Persia, pp. 14-18.

427 Lit. Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, pp. 313-16; and Ráḥatu’ṣ-Ṣudúr (E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, New Series, vol. ii), pp. 161 and 497-8 (note on ḥarára).

428 One of the clearest and most concise treatises on this subject which I have seen is contained in a manuscript from the library of the late Sir A. Houtum-Schindler (now in my possession) entitled Bahjatu’r-Rawáj.

429 Composed in 1284/1867-8 and lithographed in 2 vols. at Ṭihrán in 1295/1878.

430 Vol. ii, p. 64, s.v. Ágah-i-Shírází.

431 Ibid., p. 67, s.v. Ázád.

432 Ibid., p. 68, s.v. Mírzá Abu’l-Qásim-i-Shírází.

433 Ibid., s.v. Ummíd of Kirmánsháh.

434 Ibid., p. 72, s.v. Ulfat of Káshán.

435 They occupy pp. 58-679 of vol. ii, but were not all strictly contemporary, a few being as early as the first half of the eighteenth century.

436 New ed., London, Macmillan & Co., 1890, pp. 86-94.

437 See, besides the Persian tadhkiras, Sir Gore Ouseley’s Biographical Notices of Persian Poets (London, 1846), pp. 143-5.

438 The satire is given at the end (pp. 63-6) of the Persian Introduction to Turner Macan’s edition of the Sháh-náma (Calcutta, 1829). These verses occur on p. 66, ll. 5-7.

439 Probably the celestial river of Salsabíl is intended.

440 Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá, vol. ii, p. 54. Hátifí’s verses are given on the last page (436) of vol. iii of Ẓiyá Bey’s Kharábát.

441 Published at Calcutta by Sir W. Jones in 1788.

442 Lithographed at Lucknow in Oct. 1869. It comprises about 4500 verses.

443 Rieu’s British Museum Persian Catalogue, p. 654.

444 There is another similar and homonymous poem by Qásimí. See R.M.P.C., pp. 660-1. The Library of King’s College, Cambridge, possesses a ms. of this latter (Pote Collection, No. 238).

445 See Rieu’s Pers. Cat., p. 651.

446 Lithographed at Ṭihrán, 1305/1887-8, p. 122.

447 On this account he originally wrote verse under the “pen-name of Sakkákí.

448 Lest they should by the smell of the wine know him for the toper be was.

449 One is tempted to conjecture from this name that he may have been a Zoroastrian, but I have found no further evidence to support this supposition.

450 This chronogram gives A.H. 925 (A.D. 1519), but 930/1523-4 is the date given by Sám Mírzá, and 929/1522-3 in the Aḥsanu’t-Tawáríkh, and, by implication, in the Haft Iqlím.

451 Or. 3642, ff. 180-197. See Rieu’s Persian Supplement, p. 269. The author of the Haft Iqlím, writing more than seventy years after the death of Umídí, his fellow-townsman and apparently kinsman, says that in his day the well-known verses of the poet consisted of 17 qaṣídas, 3 ghazals, a few fragments and quatrains, and the Sáqí-náma.

452 See p. 166, n. i supra.

453 This common simile is derived from the game of polo.

454 Persian Catalogue, pp. 657-8. See also Ethé’s India Office Persian Catalogue, col. 785, No. 1432, where a very valuable autograph ms., made in 920/1514, is described.

455 See my Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion, p. 459.

456 Oude Catalogue, p. 427.

457 Morgenländische Studien, Leipzig, 1870, pp. 197-282.

458 Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá, vol. ii, p. 55.

459 I.e. the dog of ‘Alí. Kalb-‘Alí is not uncommon as a name amongst the Shí‘a, and, as we have seen, the Ṣafawí kings gloried in the title “Dogs of the Threshold of ‘Alí ibn Abí Ṭálib.” These verses are taken from the Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá.

460 There is a copy of his Díwán (Or. 307) in the British Museum. See Rieu’s Persian Catalogue, pp. 656-7.

461 Concerning this distinctive head-dress, which gave to the Persian Shí‘a their name of Qizil-básh (“Red-heads”), see p. 48 supra.

462 Loc. cit., p. 72.

463 Ibid., p. 71.

464 He has a complete Persian Díwán, of which a MS. (Add. 7785) exists in the British Museum, and which has been printed at Tabríz. See Rieu’s Persian Catalogue, p. 659.

465 See Rieu’s Turkish Catalogue, pp. 39-40.

466 Vol. ii, p. 232.

467 Vol. ii, pp. 51-4.

468 See Rieu’s Persian Catalogue, pp. 663-4.

469 Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion, pp. 257 and 351-3. Maḥmúd is not mentioned in the Átash-kada, the Haft Iqlím, or the Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá; no particulars of his life are known to me, and the date of his death must be regarded as uncertain.

470 Pp. 172-7 supra.

471 Vol. ii, pp. 36-38.

472 See Rieu’s Persian Catalogue, p. 667.

473 Vol. iii, PP. 82-133.

474 Pp. 229-230 supra.

475 The other was Amír Khusraw of Dihlí.

476 Muntakhabu’t-Tawáríkh, vol. iii, P. 285 (Calcutta, 1869).

477 Hist. of Ottoman Poetry, vol. i, pp. 51 127, 129.

478 Loc. cit. p. 129.

479 Muntakhabu’t-Tawáríkh, vol. iii, pp. 299-310, especially p. 300.

480 This took place on 10 Safar, 1004 (October 15, 1595). See Rieu’s Persian Catalogue, p. 450, where the chief sources are fully enumerated.

481 Vol. ii, p. 26. This commentary was entitled, according to Shiblí Nu‘mání (loc. cit., p. 65), Sawáṭi‘u’l-Ilhám.

482 Vol. iii, pp. 31-81.

483 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, iii, p. 50, and Muntakhabu’t-Tawáríkh, iii, p. 305.

484 Muntakhabu’t-Tawáríkh, iii, p. 285.

485 Muntakhabu’t-Tawáríkh, iii, p. 167. He died in 997/1588-9.

486 Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá, vol. ii, pp. 24-5.

487 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, iii, p. 88.

488 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, iii, pp. 92-3.

489 I think the words must be taken as a chronogram, giving the date 986/1578-9, in which case this cannot, as Shiblí suggests (loc. cit., p. 92), have been ‘Urfí’s last illness, since he did not die until 999/1590-1.

490 This final verse is, of course, spoken by the poet himself.

491 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, iii, p. 95.

492 Akbar the Great Mogul, 1542-1605 (Oxford, 1917).

493 “Á’ín(-i-Akbarí, translated by H. Blochmann and H. S. Jarrett, Calcutta, 1873-1894 in 3 volumes), vol. i, pp. 548, 611.”

494 Other dates, e.g. 1080/1669-70, are also given. See Rieu, op. cit., p. 693.

495 History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. i, p. 130. See also vol. iv, p. 95, of the same.

496 Namely, Mír Dámád, Shaykh Bahá’u’d-Dín, Abu’l-Qásim Findariskí, Muḥsin-i-Fayḍ and ‘Abdu’r-Razzáq-i-Láhijí, called Fayyáḍ.

497 Persian Catalogue, p. 693.

498 Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá, vol. ii, p. 24,

499 The verses are given by Shiblí, op. cit., p. 166.

500 Literally “which has the White Hand,” in allusion to one of the miracles of Moses.

501 That is, Ṣúfíism, as explained by Shiblí.

502 The word-play between suwaydá and sawád cannot be reproduced in translation.

503 This expression occurs in Qur’án xii, 48, where it denotes the “seven lean years.”

504 Shiblí, op. cit., pp. 179-180.

505 Dharra means a mote, then metaphorically any very small thing or person, so that dharra-parwar is equivalent to the common Indian gharíb-parwar, “protector of the poor.”

506 So called, I suppose, because it contains 13 strophes.

507 Shea and Troyer’s translation, vol. i, pp. 140-1.

508 Malik is, of course, the Arabic equivalent of Pádisháh, “king,” and one of the two distinctive symbols of kingship is the imposition of the royal name on the current coin of the realm.

509 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, iii, p. 209.

510 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, iii, p. 209.

511 He also learned more of the vernacular than most of his countrymen. See a poem full of Hindi words cited by Shiblí (op. cit., p. 211).

512 Both words yield the numerical equivalent 59.

513 Luck is called bídár (“awake”) when it is good, and khwábída (“asleep”) when it is bad.

514 Treasures are popularly supposed to be found in ruins.

515 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, vol. iii, p. 229.

516 The mythical bird called in Arabic ‘anqá and in Persian símurgh is often spoken of as “having name but not substance” (mawjúdu’l-ism, mafqúdu’l-jism).

517 The date of his death is uncertain. See Rieu’s Persian Supplement pp. 40-41, and Ethé’s India Office Catalogue of Persian mss, cols. 900-1.

518 M. F., ii, p. 50.

519 Persian Catalogue, pp. 180-190, and the Supplement cited in the last note but one.

520 See Rieu’s Persian Cat., p. 698; Ethé’s India Office Persian Cat., cols. 891-2.

521 Vol. i, p. 130; vol. iv, pp. 96-7, 185. Cf. p. 250 supra.

522 Though he was born in Tabríz he was educated and grew up in Iṣfahán, and is therefore often called “of Iṣfahán.”

523 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, vol. iii, p. 189.

524 M. F., vol. ii, p. 24. Cf. p. 251, n. 2 supra.

525 Pp. 164-5 supra.

526 Bombay lith. 1277/1860-1, pp. 30-31.

527 Shiblí’s Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, vol. iii, p. 194.

528 If, as Shiblí says, these verses were composed in or about 1041/1631-2, Ṣá’ib must have come to India about 1035/1625-6.

529 These words, however, yield the number 1081, not 1080.

530 Cf. p. 259 supra.

531 Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, vol. iii, p. 198.

532 This is a quotation from the Gulistán of Sa‘dí (ed. Platts, p. 32).

533 Op. cit., p. 201.

534 See pp. 164-5 supra. My copy of these selected verses was completed on Sept. 4, 1885.

535 The humá is a mythical bird of whom it is supposed that if its shadow falls on anyone he will become a king.

536 As already pointed out, perfection is regarded as a danger because it is specially obnoxious to the Evil Eye, which the Arabs call ‘Aynu’l-Kamál, “the Eye of Perfection.” See supra, p. 117, n. 2, and p. 216, n. 2.

537 Cf. p. 168 supra.

538 See pp. 38-43 supra.

539 A fourth son died in infancy. The mother survived the father by two years.

540 Belfour’s text, p. 16; translation, p. 14.

541 Compare text, p. 107; translation, p. 117.

542 See pp, 93-4 of Belfour’s translation, to which henceforth references will be given. There is a Ms. of this work in the British Museum. See Rieu’s Persian Catalogue, p. 483, where two other works by the same author, one on wine and measures and another on beasts of venery, are mentioned.

543 See Belfour’s translation, pp. 106 and 111, and for his fourth Díwán, which was published somewhat later, p. 176.

544 Ibid., p. 128.

545 Ibid., p. 205. This was after the expulsion of the Afgháns by Nádir.

546 Ibid., p. 207.

547 See Belfour’s translation, p. 215.

548 Ibid., p. 240.

549 Ibid, p. 253.

550 See Belfour’s translation, p. 255.

551 Ibid., p. 256.

552 Ibid., p. 261.

553 Ibid, p. 257.

554 See Rieu’s Pers. Cat., p. 372, and Sprenger’s Catalogue, pp. 135-141, where the contents are fully stated. Through the kindness of my friend Professor Muḥammad Shafi‘ of the Oriental College, Lahore, I have recently (September, 1923) received a copy of the Kulliyyát, or Complete Works, of Shaykh ‘Alí Ḥazín, lithographed at Kánpúr in 1893. It comprises 1032 pp., of which this Tadhkira occupies pp. 931-1025. I make the number of biographies contained in it 96, and of all these poets there are only about four of whom I ever heard even the names, to wit, Ṭáhir of Qazwín, Shawkat of Bukhárá, Shafí‘á Athar of Shíráz, and Luṭf ‘Alí Beg Shámí.

555 “That peerless Prince of happy fortune Abu’n-Naṣr Sulṭán, Karím.”

556 I have used the Átash-kada in the Bombay lithographed edition of 1277/1860. It has three defects: the numeration of the pages stops at 189; the dates are often omitted; and the accuracy of the text leaves a good deal to be desired.

557 It is impossible adequately to preserve in English the play between dil and dilbar, ján and jánán.

558 All these words, of which the first and last are Persian and the other Arabic, mean silk.

559 Surúsh with the Zoroastrians, like Jibrá’íl (Gabriel) with the Muhammadans, is the Angel who brings revelation.

560 Literally “with a ring in the ear,” a sign of servitude.

561 That is, how far apart are we.

562 Wine, who must veil her face before the stranger (ná-maḥram).

563 See p. 294 supra, n. 2 ad calc.

564 I.e. even the veriest beggar in the Realm of Love exercises in this lower world such authority as do the kings and rulers of earth, and is as much preoccupied by his responsibility as they are.

565 Farqadán, two bright stars in Ursa Minor, called “the Guards” or “Guardians” (from the Spanish word guardare, “to behold”) because of their “singular use in navigation.” See vol. ii of my Traveller’s Narrative, p. 125, ad calc.

566 I.e. snapping his fingers at them, taking no account of them.

567 Lan tarání, the answer given to Moses when he desired to see God face to face. See Qur’án, vii, 139.

568 Like one bewildered or undecided.

569 Though practically supreme for eighteen years (A.D. 1779-1797), he was not crowned until 1796 and was assassinated in the following year.

570 Pp. 164 and 265 supra, and Shi‘ru’l-‘Ajam, vol. iii, p. 189.

571 Fifth (unnumbered) page of the Introduction to the Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá.

572 At or about the same time they ceased to subsidise the publication of Oriental texts, thus inflicting a great injury on Oriental studies.

573 See my Year amongst the Persians, pp. 267-8, and also p. 119.

574 Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá, vol. ii, p. 548.

575 These selections are now bound up in my ms. bearing the class-mark Y. I. The whole musammaṭ contains eight strophes, of which only the first two are here given.

576 It bears the class-mark J. 19 in my library.

577 See pp. 37-39 of my Press and Poetry in Modern Persia.

578 Brief notices of these and other published works of the same author will be found in Mr E. Edwards’s excellent Catalogue of the Persian printed books in the British Museum (London, 1922), columns 631-2.

579 M.F., ii, p. 211.

580 Kamál (“Perfection”) means especially literary attainments. Cf. pp. 26-7 supra.

581 The Arabs say “the best poetry is that which contains most lies,” and the exaggeration characteristic of most Persian panegyrists is notorious. Cf. Lit. Hist. Persia, ii, pp. 69-70.

582 See p. 225 supra. The others are Furúghí, Ṣabá (not Ṣafá), Nasháṭ, and Qá’ání in the first class; Wiṣál and Riḍá-qulí Khán Hidáyat in the second; and Wiqár and Surúsh in the third.

583 Or. 3543. See B.M.P.S., No. 354, pp. 222-3.

584 Riyáḍu’l-‘Árifín, p. 264. The Shahinsháh-náma was lithographed in Bombay in 1890.

585 The “aged son of Barkhiyá” is Áṣaf, Solomon’s Wazír; the “noble son of Ábtín” is the legendary King Firídún. I have made a slight but necessary emendation in the penultimate and antepenultimate words of this line.

586 See R. G. Watson’s History of Persia, pp. 271-2 and 287-8. His estimate of this Minister’s character differs very widely from that of Riḍá-qulí Khán.

587 Shawwál, 1239 (June-July, 1823), is the earliest date I have noticed.

588 The circumstances are fully given by R. G. Watson, op. cit., pp. 247-57.

589 I.e. transcending quality and quantity.

590 As the letter is addressed to a Christian sovereign, the usual specific mention of Muḥammad is replaced by this more general phrase.

591 See R. G. Watson, op. cit., pp. 254-6. He was the son of ‘Abbás Mírzá and therefore the grandson of Fatḥ-‘Alí Sháh.

592 Majma‘u’l-Fuṣaḥá, ii, p. 88.

593 For a most favourable sketch of his character, see R. G. Watson, op. cit., pp. 404-6.

594

595

596 See J. Storer Clouston’s Lunatic at Large (shilling edition, 1912, p. 241).

597 See Baron d’Ohsson’s Histoire des Mongols (the Hague and Amsterdam, 1834), vol. i, pp. 404-6; and p. 59, n. 2 supra.