THE text for the following translation has been prepared mainly from the MSS. and lithographed texts of the India Office Library, both of which, by the liberality of the Indian Government, can be borrowed by the student for use at home. Amongst these MSS. there is one especially remarkable both for its correctness and good writing—two qualities which are often not found together.
The Commentary is entirely my own, since I have found no notes of any importance either in the MSS. or the lithographed texts used. As a matter of fact, separate MSS., which might contain notes, I have not seen; whilst MSS. and lithographs of the collected works seldom, if ever, contain any. Of separate lithographed texts I have seen only a few, and in these the sparse notes are of the most trifling description. In fact, such notes are seldom of any value, unless written as a regular commentary by scholars of established reputation.
The system of transliteration adopted is as follows:—
| ’ | = | when a consonant. | |
| t | = | the soft dental. | |
| s | = | (in Arabic quotations as “th” in “thin”). | |
| j | = | as in “jar”. | |
| ch | = | as in “church”. | |
| ḥ | = | a deeply sounded “h”. | |
| kh | = | the German “ch”. | |
| d | = | the soft dental. | |
| ẕ | = | (in Arabic quotations transliterated “dh” for “th” in “this”). | |
| z | = | ||
| zh | = | the “s” in “pleasure”. | |
| ṣ | = | a hard palatal “s”. | |
| ẓ | = | (in Arabic “ḍ”, a hard palatal “d”). | |
| ṭ | = | a hard palatal “t”. | |
| z | = | (in Arabic generally pronounced “z”, but sometimes “ḍ”, or “th” as in “this”). | |
| ‘ | = | a guttural not found in European languages. | |
| gh | = | something like “r, grasséyée”. | |
| q | = | a guttural “k”, but now pronounced as “gh”. | |
| g | = | always hard. | |
| ṃ | = | when pronounced as “m”. | |
| v | = | in Arabic and Urdu “w”. | |
| v | = | unpronounced, as in “khvāstan”, pronounced “khāstan”. | |
| ẉ | = | when unpronounced in Arabic, as in “‘Amrw”, pronounced “‘Amr”. | |
| h | = | ||
| a | = | generally a sound between “a” in “can” and “u” in “jug”. | |
| i | = | generally sounded as “e” in “ten”. | |
| u | = | as “u” in “bull”. | |
| ā | = | when a long vowel, and is sounded as in “ball”. | |
| á | = | at the end of Arabic words, and |
|
| ū | = | when a long vowel, as “u” in “rule”. | |
| ī | = | when a long vowel, as “i” in “machine”. | |
| au | = | as “au” in German “auch”, but now pronounced as “o” in “no”, and sometimes even as “ū”. | |
| ai | = | “ai” in “gait” (in Urdu; and in Arabic and Turkish after a hard consonant, as “i” in “fire”). |
In addition to the above vowel sounds, Turkish has the French “u”, and “eu”, and a sound like “i” in “fir”. These may be represented by “ü”, “ö” or “eu”, and “y̆” respectively.
In conclusion, I have pleasure in offering a tribute of gratitude to my friend the Publisher, whose exceptional enterprise, energy, and enlightened appreciation afford a hopeful guarantee for the success of the work.
I have also to thank Messrs. Austin for the care they have taken in the printing of a work requiring great and particular exactitude.
NIZĀMĪ was born about 1141 at Ganja (Elizabethpol) in the old province of Arrān (now part of Russian Transcaucasia). To this place his father, a Sunnī, had come to live from the district of Tafrish, a dependency of Qum in Jibāl, led probably by the feuds which prevailed between the Shī‘ahs and Sunnīs in that district. Ganja was famous for the piety and learning of its inhabitants, who were rigid Sunnīs, and would not permit anyone to settle among them who differed from them in religious views. To this influence, no doubt, Nizāmī owed his early tendency towards asceticism and learning. The former he retained all his life; the latter he deprecates in his later works as of little account to the Ṣūfī before the knowledge of God, which is gained, not by learning, but by following the Ṣūfī path under the guidance of a spiritual chief.
His rigid asceticism is attested by, at least, all Persian writers, and by his own words, notably, in the Sikandar Nāma and the Haft Paikar. In the former he says that by wine, to which he repeatedly alludes, he means the rapture of the knowledge and love of God, and protests vehemently that he never tasted wine in his life.
He never, as other poets, frequented the courts of kings, but was sought out by them, and wrote some of his poems at their invitation. Dr. William Bacher’s assumption that at the age of 40 he adopted quite a tolerant attitude towards human nature and a moderate indulgence of the senses is based upon a complete misapprehension of a passage in Nizāmī’s first work, the Makhzanu ’l-Asrār, “the Treasure-house of Secrets,” in which he conceives the word dil, “heart,” to be used by the poet in the sense of a generous expansion of heart and a jovial outlook upon things mundane, whereas it should undoubtedly be taken in the usual Ṣūfī and Neo-Platonic sense of the place, when purified, of the manifestation of the Deity, the perfect Ṣūfī being called ṣāḥib-dil, “the master of heart.” We have only to turn to the admirably lucid expositions of Jāmī in the Tuḥfatu ’l-Aḥrār for any light which the more subtle language of Nizāmī may seem to some to require in such particulars. The misconception alluded to is due in part to a misapprehension of the expression rāh-zanān-ī ḥavās, which means “those bandits, the senses”, and not Sinnentöter, “killers of the senses”; i.e., enemies to moderate sensual indulgence! That he was by no means, however, a man of morose temperament is evident from the touches of humour we find in the Haft Paikar. And à propos of this, Jāmī in the Bahāristān remarks that the Believer is cheerful; the Infidel it is who is gloomy and morose.
The uninitiated may perhaps wonder why an accomplished Ṣūfī poet should appear to be lamenting the darkness of doubt, and urging himself to give up negligence and the senses, and to strive after the attainment of the “heart”, in order to attain to ḥaqqu ’l-yaqīn, the absolute feeling of the Truth and identification with It; but the poet is really instructing the neophyte by detailing his own past experiences.
By another misapprehension of the sense Dr. Bacher, in common with some others, assumes that the Makhzanu ’l-Asrār was written when the poet was 40 years old. Nizāmī really implies that the genius in collaboration with the intellect of one of 40 years’ experience should not be trusted, but that the Ṣūfī aspirant should at once seek a real friend, i.e., the heart, dil, in the Ṣūfī sense. Nizāmī, too, himself states that his second work, Khusrau and Shīrīn, was composed in 1175; i.e., when he was 34 years of age. He wrote the Makhzanu ’l-Asrār probably in about 1171 or 1172, when he was a little over 30. According to Nizāmī himself Lailī and Majnūn was written in 1188; the Sikandar Nāma in 1191; the Haft Paikar in 1198. A second recension of the Sikandar Nāma was made, probably, in about 1200.
After an ascetic life, uniformly maintained, and in the later part of which he went into complete retirement from the world, he died in about 1202 at Ganja.
From the statements of the biographers and his own assertions in the Haft Paikar, he appears to have made an extensive study of the sciences then known, but an examination of that work will show that his knowledge of geography, at least, was far from accurate. Astronomy (astrology) seems to have been his favourite study, and of this he appears to have had a considerable knowledge. He apparently believed, too, in the influence of the stars, but only as the agents of the pre-ordinances of the Deity.
It may seem strange on the surface that the Author of the Makhzanu ’l-Asrār should afterwards have composed only poems apparently exoteric, but closer observation of these poems will show that a sub-current of the mystic doctrine runs through them all. In addition also to our own observations we have the testimony of Jāmī, who in the Nafaḥātu ’l-Uns asserts that all Nizāmī’s poems are purely Ṣūfī, though ostensibly only exoteric stories. Then, too, what are the Odes of Ḥāfiz? On the surface nothing but songs in praise of love, wine, and nature; but in reality expositions, or rather symbolical images of Ṣūfīism. A close and deep study of the Haft Paikar, especially, amongst his other works, will reveal such glints of Ṣūfī teaching as will convince us that Jāmī’s estimate is a true one.
At the same time, it should be added that the subjects of most of Nizāmī’s poems were suggested by the prevalent taste of the times, and that though he complied with this so far as the exoteric sense was concerned, he, at the same time, admitted an under-current of Ṣūfīism, in order to comply with his own predilections and those of the select few.
In excuse for giving an exoteric form to the first poem he wrote after the Makhzanu ’l-Asrār, namely Khusrau and Shīrīn, he says in that poem:—
The treatment of the Makhzanu ’l-Asrār is absolutely original, for though Nizāmī was well acquainted with the Ḥadīqa of Sanā’ī, as we see by his allusion to it in a passage in the colophon to his own work—strangely misunderstood, by the way, by Dr. Bacher—the style he uses is quite different. Sanā’ī is perhaps more obscure and subtle even than Rūmī, but Nizāmī uses a mode of expression which is rare, though not unique, among Persian poets, who, though often obscure, are generally what may be called conventionally obscure. Nizāmī, on the other hand, like many European poets, is unconventionally obscure. He employs images and metaphors to which there is no key save in the possession of the poetic sense and of sound judgment. In a poet like Jāmī, a great admirer and imitator of Nizāmī, the style, in spite of its frequent quaint conceits, is so lucid that we can almost anticipate the sense. In Nizāmī we cannot do so, but have to use our best judgment and imagination.
In his later works Nizāmī follows the path of Firdausī, of whom he was a great admirer; but he by no means follows him servilely; in all he wrote we see the imprint of his own genius, and a striking originality of thought and expression. In Nizāmī we see Nizāmī and not Firdausī. His thoughts are deeper, his expression is more trenchant, crisp, and epigrammatic, though perhaps often more studied and artificial, and generally more obscure and subtle. In plain narrative he is equally flowing and perspicuous, whilst in situations requiring exalted imagination and dramatic force he is superior. In fine, he may be considered a greater creator than his predecessor.
His nearer adherence to Firdausī’s style in the Sikandar Nāma may be accounted for by the close similarity of the subjects of that poem to those of the Shāh Nāma.
His defects are those common to all Persian poets, who have little skill in delineating character, or in inspiring a sense of the spirit of nature. Each different character is cast in its own conventional mould, and has no individuality, whilst the depicting of nature is also conventional and artificial. Emotional, especially pathetic situations, it is true, are often drawn with great artistic power, but the expression to which they lead in those affected is not convincing. To enter a little more into detail upon these three topics, there is in the delineation of character an almost total absence of the real, whilst the ideal is represented only by a set, conventional form which is far from being a type. The depicting of nature reveals, it is true, the most close and accurate observation, but the images offered are fantastic: they are neither poetic nor scientific, and convey nothing of the spirit of nature such as we see it in Shelley and Wordsworth. Contrast, for example, Nizāmī’s description of a garden with Shelley’s exquisite lines in the Sensitive Plant.
Then, in the expression of the rapture, yearning, and sorrow of the lover, taken at least in an exoteric sense, there is nothing convincing, such as we find it in the impassioned lines of a Shakespeare or a Petrarch. But then, of course, we must remember that the real sense is esoteric, and that a mere symbolic suggestion may be sufficient for the mystic.
The Haft Paikar is more immediately connected with Ṣūfīism than any work of the Panj Ganj except the Makhzanu ’l-Asrār. It depicts, so far as the esoteric sense is concerned, the progress of the Ṣūfī through the seven Stages, symbolized by the seven colours which were supposed to belong to the spheres of the seven planets. Nizāmī, however, uses a more natural and satisfactory succession than that offered in the Rev. W. H. T. Gairdner’s The Way of a Mohammedan Mystic, in which the Stages are divided as follows:—
The sphere of Saturn is black; that of the Sun, yellow; of the Moon, silvery-green; of Mars, red; of Mercury, blue; of Jupiter, sandal-wood coloured; of Venus, white.
Black is naturally associated with the dark veil between the Deity and man in his undisciplined state; white, with the absolute colourlessness of the Deity and his dissociation from all but Himself.
The Stories if closely studied show these and the intermediate Stages of the Ṣūfī aspirant in his progress from the natural state of humanity, Nāsūt, to that of Lāhūt, in which he is merged in the Deity and is of Him.
It should be observed that as regards the reference of the planets to the Climes, Nizāmī follows an arrangement of his own, and that in this particular authorities differ.
On account of the ostensibly exoteric nature of the work, I have found it possible to translate it into blank verse without departing in any way from the literal sense of the original.
With regard to the Notes, I have endeavoured to elucidate all the linguistic difficulties, and have explained all the historical, geographical, astrological, and other references to the best of my ability.
The press-marks of the India Office MSS. used by me towards the fixing of a text have probably been altered since, but identification should, I think, be easy.
The lithographed texts used are indicated by initials.
The system of transliteration is the same as that employed in my translation of the Masnavī.
THE HAFT PAIKAR
(Invocation to God.)
In praise of the Lord of Envoys, the seal of the Prophets—May God bless and preserve him!
In description of the Ascension of his highness the chief of created beings.
On the cause of writing the book.
An apology for the writing of the book.
In praise of the king ‘Alā’u’d-Dīn204204.
A humble address.
On the excellence of speech. Counsel to the people.
Counsel to his son Muḥammad.
Treats of the birth of Bahrām.
1. One of the ninety-nine Names of God is Al-Ḥaiy, “The Living.”
↩2. Or, “is by Thee and to Thee.”
↩3. “Are air”; i.e., are nothing.
↩4. Taking the succeeding distich into consideration, the meaning is apparently that if a person is worthy of praying to God, and prays, he will be granted some thought, or shown some fine point, by which his difficulty will be solved.
↩5. Murgh-i rūz, “the bird of day,” is a name applied to the sun, so that the sense is presumably that God gives to the day the sun and maintains him. Murgh-i rūz might possibly, however, be equivalent to murgh-i saḥar, or murgh-i ṣubḥ-khvān, “the bird of dawn,” or “the bird which sings at dawn”, i.e., the nightingale, or the cock. This, however, is less probable, since it is only by restricting the day to a particular part of it that it would apply to the nightingale or the cock, whereas it applies in its entirety to the sun. “Day” too is generally opposed to “night”, and murgh-i rūz (the bird of day), “the sun,” to murgh-i shab (the bird of night), “the moon.” Cf. also the next distich.
↩6. The “white tent” is the light of day, the “black tent” the darkness of night.
↩7. i.e., day and night proceed as God commands. The “ring of bondage” of the sun and moon respectively is the sun itself in the day, and the moon itself at night. A ring worn in the ear was a badge of slavery.
↩8. This is simply the belief of all orthodox Muslims. Many believe in the influence of the skies, or rather, of the planets, upon human destinies, but would take them to be only agents of God.
↩9. The Ṣūfī or mystic does not believe that any appreciation of God can be obtained by the intellect, but that it is obtained through the discipline of the Ṣūfī life. (See C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II.)
↩10. “Breaks down”; lit., “is hamstrung.”
↩11. “In efforts to approach”; i.e., in the study by the philosopher of God by means of the intellect.
↩12. God is said to be everywhere, since no part of the whole universe is independent of or apart from His being. He is also nowhere, since He, as absolute and universal existence, cannot be assigned to any definite place. From another point of view, He must be both everywhere and also nowhere, since otherwise there would be something wanting to His universality.
↩13. By being “a part of the seven heavens” the Author possibly means that our intellect is, as it were, more immediately derived from the intellects attributed to the planets of the seven heavens. This belongs to the doctrine of the intellects of the ten spheres, which are as follows: the empyrean, the sphere of the fixed stars, those of the seven planets, and the sublunary sphere. (Cf. also Note 30.) When, however, we are in Communion with God we are above intellect, and, therefore, outside of the seven heavens.
↩14. The “Universal Intellect”, of which individual intellects are phases, was the first entity created by God: Auwalu mā khalaqa ’llāhu ’l-‘Aql: “The first thing which God created was the Intellect.” This teaching of orthodox Ṣūfīism is of course opposed to that of Neo-Platonism, which makes the Universal Intellect the first emanation from the Deity and a phase of the Divine Being.
↩15. i.e., God is the Alterer or Changer of states of every kind, mental, moral, and physical.
↩16. The “ruby’s fire” is the red rose, or, perhaps, any red flowers. The real ruby was supposed to be produced and developed in stone by the action of the sun.
↩17. “Hold off,” bard-ā-bard, a word used by guards, ushers, etc., in clearing the way. The meaning of the distich is that the world and the sky serve as veils to conceal the Deity and His Names and Attributes from the commonalty.
↩18. “A painter on Thy canvas every one”; or, “an embroiderer of Thy curtain”; i.e., everyone is an apparent mover of events in the visible world; but God is the real Mover of events.
↩19. See Note 8.
↩20. “Kai-Qubād would have been born of an astrologer”; for if he had been, his father by his knowledge of the science would have been able to ensure him felicity or prosperity, but since he was prosperous without his father’s having been an astrologer the Author argues that prosperity or felicity does not come from a knowledge of astrology. Kai-Qubād was the first of the Kayānian or second dynasty of Persian kings, and reigned, according to Oriental accounts, 100 or 126 years. (See Albīrūnī’s Chronology of Ancient Nations.)
↩21. See the last Note.
↩22. i.e., I had no need of them, since the knowledge of God entailed in the first place the knowledge of everything, and in the second place made everything as naught.
↩23. The Author means possibly poverty amongst other things, for cf. the next distich.
↩24. The Author implies that God knows his secret thoughts and that they can be addressed to Him with confidence. Cf. the next distich and Note.
↩25. The Author’s “object” is, I think, success in the accomplishment of his work, the poem.
↩26. i.e., the secrets of the mystic are not to be divulged to the commonalty, who would not understand them, and would contemn the divulger.
↩27. “In lordship”; or possibly, “away from,” or “without lordship”, az khudāvandī.
↩28. i.e., give him contentment and patience until he has finished the work and presented it, and then he will find honour.
↩29. “The centre of the first encircling line”; i.e., the Universal Spirit itself, the First Circle being the first entity created by God, namely, the Universal Spirit, which embraces the Universal Intellect and the Universal Soul.
“The seal of all creation at the end”; i.e., the final cause of creation, the universe having been created in order that Muḥammad should be manifested. Cf. Lau lā-k la-mā khalaqtu ’l-aflāk: “Had it not been for you I should not have created the spheres.”
↩30. i.e., again, Muḥammad was the fruit or final cause of the creation of the gardens, the seven spheres or heavens, as real fruit is the final cause of forming gardens and planting and sowing in them. See the last Note.
Altogether there are supposed to be nine spheres above the sublunary sphere, of which seven are those of the planets, the eighth that of the fixed stars, and the ninth the empyrean or the crystalline sphere. The last two, according to the Sūfīs, are the thrones of God, the ninth being called ‘Arsh, the higher throne of God, the Universal Intellect, and the eighth Kursī, the lower throne, the Universal Soul.
Both ‘Arsh and Kursī are used indistinctively in the Qur’ān for the throne of God, but they are not restricted to it.
↩31. “Central pearl,” lit., “crown pearl,” is the largest pearl in the middle of a necklace. Muḥammad, though it is supposed that he could not read or write, was famed for his eloquence.
↩32. Aḥmad, “the most praised or praiseworthy,” is a name given to Muḥammad.
↩33. i.e., as beautiful in spirituality as Joseph was in physical qualities.
↩34. “The Ascent”; i.e., the Ascension of Muḥammad through and above the nine heavens into the presence of God. (See the next Section.)
↩35. “Untaught.” Muḥammad called himself “the Untaught” or “the Illiterate”, Ummī, because he could not read or write. This seems to be the sense here, but other interpretations of the term have been given.
↩36. “The first causes” (i.e., of nature); lit., “the mothers,” ummahāt, i.e., the four elements, which were created in order that Muḥammad might be manifested. (See Note 29.)
↩37. “The shadow of God’s Throne”; i.e., the protection of the ninth heaven, the higher throne of God, the ‘Arsh. (See Note 30.)
↩38. i.e., “the sovereign of the earth.” Chār-bālish, translated ‘throne”, means literally “four cushions”, and is the name of a large cushion on which kings or great men reclined. It also means “the four elements”, and is thus applicable to the earth.
↩39. See Note 29.
↩40. Lit., “he (is) ‘Muḥammad’”; i.e., “the much praised” or “the very praiseworthy”.
↩41. This rather enigmatical distich is possibly a reference to the Rūz-i ‘Alast’, “the Day of ‘Am I not (your Lord)?’” i.e., the day of the original covenant between God and man, when God said to the incorporeal souls of all Adam’s descendants who were drawn from him on that day, “Am I not your Lord?” Alastu bi-Rabbi-kum? and they answered, “Yes,” Balá. Muḥammad, of course, would be in this assembly, and it is implied that he was as the rose-water pressed from this rose, and that all the rest compared with him were only as the residue of it. This explanation harmonizes fairly well with the succeeding distich, since Muḥammad, though not present in the body at the Beginning, was present in the spirit, and as Universal Spirit was first of all.
Another explanation might suggest itself: that, in the first hemistich, “rose” means the gift of prophecy, which Adam first possessed, and that, in the second, Muḥammad is asserted in an exaggerated sense to have possessed this gift to a supereminent degree; but this scarcely harmonizes with the succeeding distich.
↩42. “The conclusion”; i.e., the end of everything of the phenomenal universe.
Khātimat means also the epilogue of a book.
↩43. Muḥammad used the expression Al-faqru fakhr-ī, “Poverty is my pride.” Faqr, “poverty,” in the Ṣūfī sense is the state of the faqīr, or darvīsh, who is destitute of all attachments to the phenomenal world and immersed in God.
In the second hemistich, by “treasure” is meant spiritual treasure.
↩44. i.e., he outshone the day as the sun outshines all other lights.
↩45. i.e., it is strange that the sun should result in shade.
↩46. “His sword”; lit., “his iron.” “To punish”; lit., “(was) the joint-striker,” band-sāy.
↩47. “All lay the thong upon his drum”; i.e., “beat his drum” or “fight on his side.”
↩48. See Note 29.
↩49. “(His eye) turned not aside,” mā zāgha (’l-baṣar).
This is part of verse 17 of chapter liii. of the Qur’ān. Verses 16-18 are,
The verses refer to the Ascension of Muḥammad through the nine heavens into the presence of God (see the next section). The sidra-tree, “which marks the boundary” beyond which neither men nor angels can pass, is said to be on the right hand of the throne of God, the ‘Arsh, in the ninth heaven. It is supposed to be the abode of Gabriel and the angels, and allusion is made to this in the first verse above quoted. Muḥammad’s destination being the presence of God, “his eye turned not aside” when he passed this tree.
↩50. “This Garden” means the earth and the heavens. The object of Muḥammad’s contemplation is God Himself.
↩51. “The blue-clothed sphere’s ring-holders” are the sun, moon, and stars, which, in respect of their apparent form, wear rings, as it were. To wear a ring in the ear was a mark of slavery.
↩52. “For servitude”; lit., “on the road of servitude.”
↩53. “His four friends” are the first four Khalifs, Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān, and ‘Alī.
↩54. i.e., Muḥammad, as the Universal Spirit, the first creation of God, was the Universal Intellect and the Universal Soul, so that the whole universe was as his body.
↩55. i.e., his soul is to the universe as Solomon to his throne.
↩56. The “dry spines” are the sharp spines on the stem of the date-palm. They are often contrasted with the dates as evil attendant upon good. The sense of the second hemistich is that his miracles are as spines or thorns to his enemies.
↩57. An allusion to Muḥammad’s supposed miracle of cleaving the moon by drawing his finger down.
There is little doubt that the passage in the Qur’ān, on which this supposition is based, refers to one of the signs of the coming Resurrection, the past tense being used, as it is elsewhere, as a prophetic future; but some of the greatest writers, such as the present Author and Jalālu’d-Dīn Rūmī, interpret it as the account of a miracle performed by Muḥammad. (See the Qur’ān, liv., 1.)
↩58. i.e., Muḥammad brought his enemies to confusion by the miracle.
↩59. “Could not hold (or contain) his crown”; i.e., because of its exaltitude.
↩60. i.e., he ascended above the ‘Arsh into the presence of God. (For ‘Arsh, see Note 30.)
↩61. Burāq is described as a white animal intermediate in size between a mule and an ass.
↩62. i.e., in order that you may now tread the heavens as you did the earth.
↩63. “The most sacred house”; i.e., the spiritual world, or the presence of God.
↩64. “Guardian of the purest, best”; i.e., of the most holy and spiritual state.
↩65. The sense of this distich is concealed in the various meanings of tīr and Burāq. Tīr means “the best and choicest of its kind”, and also an “arrow”. The former sense refers to the guardianship in question, the latter to Burāq, a steed of arrow-like rapidity. Then also Buraq, as meaning “the flashing steed”, would be a suitable animal to carry him to the dazzling heights of the most holy and spiritual state.
↩66. i.e., to enable you to have such guardianship as has been mentioned. (See Note 64.)
↩67. “The king”; i.e., of the stars.
↩68. “The six directions” are those of space, namely, north, south, east, west, above, and below. “The seven roots” are the earths, of which there are supposed to be seven. “(Their) supports”; lit., “(their) supporting tight-rope poles,” or, it may be, “(their) gibbets.” These are only, of course, imaginary supports on which the spheres may be supposed to be suspended. For “the nine spheres”, see Note 30.
The sense of the distich is “Clear the obstacles of space and the nine spheres out of your way, and mount above the latter”.
↩69. There are two stars of the first magnitude named Simāk: one Simāk-i A‘zal (a Virginis), the other Simāk-i Rāmiḥ (a Bootis).
↩70. i.e., have sway over the angels in your ascension to and above the sidra-tree of the ‘Arsh or ninth heaven, the abode of the angels. (See Note 49.)
↩71. The sky is poetically supposed to have locks on account of its curves, and its darkness too at the time of the Ascension.
↩72. “Saints”; lit., “the fragrant ones of night,” ‘iṭr sāyān-i shab. There is no dictionary authority for this interpretation, but I think it may be assumed on the analogy of shab-ravān, “night-devotees, holy men who pray at night,” lit., “those who move at night,” especially considering that the angels are mentioned in the second hemistich.
↩73. “Angels”; lit., “those clothed in green.”
↩74. “The beauties of the Egypt of this tract” are the ḥūrīs of paradise.
The story of Joseph’s relations with the wife of the Egyptian who had bought him, and of how the women, who spoke in blame of her, on seeing him cut their hands instead of, or in addition to, the food in surprise at his beauty, is told in the Qur’ān, ch. xii.
In the next distich it is implied that the food was oranges.
↩75. See the last Note.
↩76. “The Night of Power,” Shab-i Qadr or Lailatu ’l-Qadr, is “a mysterious night in the month of Ramaẓān, the precise date of which is said to have been known only to the Prophet and a few of the Companions”. The following is the allusion to it in the Qur’ān, ch. xcvii:—
“Verily we have caused it” (i.e., the Qur’ān) “to descend on the Lailatu ’l-Qadr.
“Who shall teach thee what the Lailatu ’l-Qadr is?
“The Lailatu ’l-Qadr excelleth a thousand months:
“Therein descend the angels, and the spirit by permission
“Of their Lord in every matter;
“And all is peace until the breaking of the dawn.”
“The excellences of the Lailatu ’l-Qadr are said to be innumerable, and it is believed that during its solemn hours the whole animal and vegetable creation bow down in humble adoration to the Almighty.” (Hughes, A Dictionary of Islām.)
On the Night of Power the Qur’ān is said to have been brought down by the angels to the lowest heaven, and thence delivered portion by portion at different times by Gabriel to Muḥammad.
↩77. i.e., recreate the abode of the angels by your presence.
↩78. See Note 30.
↩79. “Give lamp-like blooms”; i.e., “show yourself in your transcendent brightness.” It is to be noted that by blossoms are generally meant the white blossoms of Spring. “Those who move at night,” i.e., to pray, are the saints. (See Note 72.)
↩80. “Be fresh of visage”; i.e., be bright, smiling and cheerful.
↩81. See Note 30.
↩82. It is possible to translate, “remove the pain of the carpet from afar”; i.e., “rejoice the abode of the angels by your presence.”
↩83. “The two worlds”; i.e., this world and the spiritual world.
↩84. i.e., Rise to regions above the dust of the world; or, free yourself from all things earthly.
↩85. i.e., you may get control over the two worlds, earthly and spiritual.
↩86. i.e., be prepared to obey. (See the last part of Note 7.)
↩87. i.e., Muḥammad used his perfect intellect in setting forth the revelations and guiding the people in them.
↩88. i.e., he gained his wish.
↩89. Burāq; lit., “the partridge.”
↩90. Lit., “a moon like the Kā’ūsian throne.” There was possibly something special in the throne of King Kā’ūs, since it had a special name, chahār kargas, “the four vultures.”
According to other authorities, however, this name was applied to the throne of Shaddād. Kai-Kā’ūs was the second king of the Kayānian or second Persian dynasty, and reigned, according to Albīrūnī, 150 years. Shaddād was the name of a king of the ‘Ādites in the south of Arabia (Yaman) who built the garden of Iram to rival the gardens of paradise. On its completion it was made to disappear and the king was struck dead. (See the Qur’ān, lxxxix., 5, 6, 7. See also Notes 1,203 and 1,605.)
Chahār kargas means also the four elements. Cf. the following Note and the distich to which it is appended.
↩91. i.e., it flew so swiftly that the four elements were exhausted in their efforts to follow.
↩92. Lit., “it drew under its foot.”
↩93. “The moon drew in (her) reins,” hopeless, notwithstanding her rapid course, of keeping pace with it.
↩94. The spheres were supposed to move swiftly round the earth.
↩95. An allusion to the supposed whirling movement of the spheres.
↩96. i.e., the movements of imagination and lightning seemed slow in comparison.
↩97. Lit., “before such wide-stepping were but narrow.”
↩98. I translate this obscure distich from the reading of the Bombay edition of 1328. All the other editions I have consulted offer only unintelligible readings:—
Bā tak-ash sair-i quṭb khālī shud: gah janūbī-u gah shimālī shud.
↩99. The word for “fish” used here, namely simāk (Arabic broken plural of samak), means here in the first place “stars”, and in the second two particular stars, one called Simāk-i Rāmiḥ, “Simāk the Lancer or Lance-bearer,” i.e. a Bootis, and the other Simāk-i A‘zal, “Simāk the Unarmed,” i.e., a Virginis. Jadval, “stream or rivulet,” means also an “astronomical table,” but here it signifies the “sky.”
↩100. Lit., “engaged in going through the leaves of this volume.” The “expanse” or “volume” is the earth and the sky.
↩101. i.e., he passed through the world’s gate.
↩102. i.e., he overcame the distance between the earth and the heavens.
↩103. Sar-sabzī, which means primarily “verdure and freshness”, has also the sense of “prosperity”. The word is used here in allusion to the fact that the colour attributed to the moon’s sphere is green.
↩104. Nuqra-kārī, which is not in the dictionaries, means literally “silver-working”. As silver is white, and Muḥammad’s hand is alluded to, I infer that reference is made to the “white hand of Moses”, yad-i baiẓā.
But sīm-kārī, which also means literally “silver-working”, signifies “blandishments, fascination”, and this may possibly be the sense here. It is not impossible, however, that nuqra-kārī may signify safīd-kārī, “white-working,” one of the senses of which is “good, virtuous action”.
The “lead-furnace” means the furnace by which the leaden glazing for pottery is prepared. This glazing is of a bluish colour, the colour attributed to the sphere of Mercury.
“From a lead-furnace” means probably “such as might come from a lead-furnace”.
↩105. The colour attributed to the sphere of Venus is white.
↩106. Yellow is the colour attributed to the sun’s sphere.
↩107. “The Khalif of the West” means the sun when setting, at which time much of the sky is often green.
↩108. i.e., the effulgence of his face cast a crimson glow upon Mars. The allusion is to the crimson hue which the sun often has when setting. Red is the colour attributed to the sphere of Mars.
↩109. The author possibly attributes headache to Jupiter on account of the size and weight of the planet conceived poetically as a head. Jupiter, as a fact, is the largest planet in the solar system. A perfumed embrocation for headache and fever is obtained by rubbing a piece of sandal-wood with water on a stone. The colour of it also is that which is attributed to the sphere of Jupiter.
↩110. “Saturn’s crown” is probably his rings.
Savād, “blackness,” means also “environs, city”. Blackness is the colour attributed to Saturn’s sphere.
↩111. Lit., “as regarded which Gabriel from (its) distance had permission”; i.e., they had reached a stage beyond which Gabriel and Burāq could not go.
↩112. Lit., “had left him back from the road.”
↩113. Isrāfīl is to blow the last trump to summon all at the Resurrection.
Raṣad-gāh, “a place of observation, observatory, watch-tower,” is used perhaps to signify that Isrāfīl is on the watch for the time.
↩114. ‘Azrā’īl, the name of the angel of death.
↩115. “Behind”; lit., “in (their) places.” The Rafraf is the abode of Isrāfīl, the Sidra that of Gabriel. (See Note 49.)
↩116. i.e., unconsciousness of his own existence.
↩117. i.e., he passed through the ocean of unconsciousness, and left every atom of everything which connected him with existence. But the distich is possibly misplaced, as it is seen from distichs which follow that he has not yet reached the sea of unconsciousness. He is not yet above the ‘Arsh, the “Universal Intellect”. As a matter of fact, this distich in the B. ed. of 1328 occurs after the distich, “He took the road to the world’s gate, (and then) removed (all) distance from the heavens’ sphere,” and in this connexion “ocean” would mean “the heavens”.
↩118. It may be noticed that the second hemistich is a repetition of that of the last distich but five. The latter is omitted by the B. ed. of 1328.
↩119. i.e., to the Deity Himself, the Absolute Existence, the One.
↩120. Lit., “When his stupefaction accepted risks, or peril.” The Vādī-yi Ḥairat, the “Vale of Stupefaction”, is the sixth stage towards Ṣūfī perfection.
↩121. i.e., guided and took him under its charge.
↩122. The expressions “he drew near”, “two bow-lengths”, and “or nearer”, are spoken of Gabriel in the Qur’ān, liii., 8, 9, but here, as often, they are applied to Muḥammad.
Verses 4-10 are as follows:
The words au adna, “or nearer,” as applied to Muḥammad, express his close proximity to God.
↩123. i.e., he became extinct as to his own existence, which is the only means of seeing God. “‘The seeing of the eyes is coincident with a change in the essence.’ In order to see God the Ṣūfī must have reached the ‘station’ of complete extinction, and annihilation as to everything other than God.
“After reaching the ‘station’ in which the Qualities of God are substituted for his own, which is the end of the second journey, as-safaru ’th-thānī, he reaches at the end of the third journey, as-safaru ’th-thālith, the ‘station’ of Adh-Dhātu ’l-Ahadīya, ‘the Unity Essence,’ in which duality no longer exists: he is completely immersed in God. This is the ‘station’ of the perfect saint. In seeing God his own imaginary and accidental essence and individuality are annihilated, he becomes fānin fi-llāh, ‘extinct in God,’ and he is identified with God. In this way only can he see God, since, as the Sūfīs say, Lā yara ’llāha illa ’llāh, ‘No one sees God except God.’” (C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II.)
↩124. One of the Traditions relating to Muḥammad speaks of these veils as 70, another as 700, and another as 70,000. Each of these expresses only an indefinite number, since it is of course impossible to attach any definite number to the veils which intervene between the creature and God.
“It is by ‘the Light’ (one of the ninety-nine divine Names) that the darkness of the non-existence of contingent beings is, as it were, covered, so that they come into relative existence. They are, however, only as shadows whose apparent existence is due to the Light. If the Light be withdrawn they cease to exist. Thus the veils which conceal God are ‘light’ in so far as it is His Light which gives them a quasi existence, and they are ‘darkness’ in so far as they are inexistent in themselves and have only a shadow-like existence.
“Now according to the higher or lower degree of the saint he has a less or greater number of veils between him and the Light in which the Quṭb dwells, that is the Light of God.
“The Quṭb is the highest in rank in the Ṣūfī hierarchy.” (C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II.)
For another explanation of the 70,000 veils see Gairdner’s The Way of a Mohammedan Mystic.
↩125. See Note 123.
↩126. i.e., being in the infinite, he was no longer subject to space relations.
↩127. i.e., he had no more any existence in space.
↩128. i.e., when the truth of the infinite makes itself felt the phenomenal world and direction or space are no longer considered as real.
↩129. i.e., as long as a person is subject to the world of space his heart is liable to be disturbed by anxiety at its vicissitudes.
↩130. i.e., he was completely absorbed in the Deity, and had only the breath or life which the Ṣūfī has in fanā, “extinction of himself in God.”
↩131. i.e., the infinite cannot be felt until all sense of space relations is lost.
↩132. He being infinite.
↩133. It is an open question “whether the Words of God can be heard as words, or whether God communicates only by inspiration, from behind a veil, or by the mouth of a prophet whom He has inspired. Those who support the latter view say that since the Attribute represented by Mutakallim, ‘the Speaker,’ is one of the eternal Attributes of God, the Words of God in His quality of the Speaker cannot be heard by mortal ears. They interpret the text (Qur’ān, ii., 70), Yasma‘ūna kalāma ’llāh, ‘They hear the Words of God,’ as meaning Yasma‘ūna mā dalla ‘alá kalāmi ’llāh, ‘They hear that which indicates the Words of God.’
“On the text (Qur’ān, iv., 162), Wa-kallama ’llāhu Mūsá taklīmā, ‘God spoke to Moses in speech,’ they say that God created such words as would give indication of His eternal Words (as ‘the Speaker’), and let them fall upon the ears of Moses.
“They also quote the verses (Qur’ān, xlii., 50, 51) ‘And it is not for man that God should speak with him except by inspiration, or from behind a veil; or He sends a prophet and reveals to his hearing what He will.’ ‘From behind a veil’ is explained as meaning that God may make (men) hear in or from certain bodies words which He creates. Thus He spoke to Moses from the tree.
“The Turkish Commentator on Rūmī’s Masnavī seems to come to the conclusion that God makes His servant hear His eternal Words, though since they are from an eternal Attribute they are unlike those of His creatures. God’s servant will understand also that those words are from God.”
I have added to this, “Would it not be simpler and clearer to say that Words coming from the Attribute expressed by the name Mutakallim, ‘the Speaker,’ may be manifested as a revelation to the elect?” (C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II.)
↩134. i.e., the special drink and robe of honour of the perfect Ṣūfī, which would be his ecstatic state and condition of freedom from all ties. (See the next distich.)
↩135. Iqbāl, “bliss, beatitude, felicity, prosperity,” means here the state of him who is the object of God’s grace. It is the opposite of idbār or shaqāvat.
Ma‘rifat, “knowledge,” is the possession of the ‘Ārif, “the Knower, the Ṣūfī.”
↩136. Lit., “With the humility or conciliation of a hundred thousand prayers.”
↩137. “That Goal,” or “Centre”; i.e., God.
↩138. “That which he brought”; i.e., the spiritual knowledge which he brought.
↩139. i.e., from the court of the king to whom this work is dedicated.
↩140. “A crescent moon”; i.e., a poem.
“On festive night.” The allusion is to the night of the termination of the month of fast, Ramaẓān, when the new moon, the appearance of which betokens the end of the fast, is eagerly watched for.
↩141. i.e., the poem is to be extremely subtle and shrouded in obscurity.
↩142. Lit., “may make magicians the prey of your magic.”
↩143. Filfil bar ātish rīkhtan, “to scatter pepper upon the fire,” is to make the beloved restless until she sees her lover. This is effected by the lover’s reciting a charm over some pepper, which he then throws into the fire.
In this case the beloved is presumably the poet’s ṭab‘, “poetic vein or muse,” which he is urged to rouse.
The second hemistich seems only to emphasize the first, thus, “make the fierce fire crackle by throwing plenty of pepper upon it.”
↩144. Lit., “for the sake of gentle-heartedness.” “The cold and hardened wax” represents the poet’s ṭab‘, “poetic vein or muse,” which has lain inactive for six years. He is urged to make his muse gentle-hearted and propitious by using the lover’s charm.
↩145. “This narrow way” is presumably a reference to the poet’s quiet, ascetic life and to his inactivity as to his poetical gifts. “To dance on stones” is not given in the dictionaries, but “to sit on a stone or stones” means “to be unhonoured, unesteemed”, so that if the former be equivalent to this the sense of the second hemistich would be: “You have been living long enough without the esteem which the exercise of your genius would give you.” But some MSS. give in the second hemistich bar or dar rah-i jang (jang probably for chang), and kvash instead of bas. If this were adopted the translation would be: “dancing is pleasant to the music of the harp,” and the meaning, I think, “engaging in writing an entertaining poem.” But this is scarcely acceptable. As some lithographed editions have jang, “battle,” the editors have possibly thought that reference is made to the Sikandar-nāma of Nizāmī, in which many battles occur, but as this had been finished six years before, as the Author also made a new recension of it not long after writing the Haft Paikar, and as there are also battles in the latter poem, such interpretation does not seem very plausible. But, to conclude, “dancing on stones” may be simply a metaphor for “living the retired, austere life of an ascetic”, which the king engages him to leave for awhile.
↩146. Lit., “Let the musky reed sneeze.” Musk being blackish and fragrant, the reed is poetically called musky because it offers in the black ink words which on account of their beauty are considered fragrant. “May be perfumed”; lit., “may rub galia moschata,” a perfume composed of musk, ambergris, camphor, and oil of ben-nuts.
↩147. i.e., to pass over the inky words which are likened here to ambergris, as they were before to musk.
↩148. i.e., let them convey fragrance to the verdure of the world, as people scent silk garments with musk.
↩149. “Leaves” mean the “leaves” of the poem to be written, and in a secondary sense “stamped coin”.
↩151. i.e., one has the trouble of cracking the bone to get at the marrow; and one must risk the sting of the bee to get the honey.
↩152. i.e., raise the curtain which conceals the beauty, your thoughts.
↩153. i.e., joy settled in my heart, and grief rose up and departed from it.
↩154. The “one work” is the Shāh-nāma of Firdausī.
↩155. The poet was Firdausī.
↩156. I read la‘l-i sūda with India Office MS. 1168, not la‘l-i rīza of the other editions.
↩157. “The contents of it”; lit., “its coin.”
↩158. “Alien or foreign,” I think, is a more likely sense here of gharīb than “wondrous”, especially if naqd, “coin,” be the right reading, and not naqsh, “design.”
↩159. i.e., which were not to be found collected together.
↩160. Darī, “the older Persian,” is the name given to the older pure Persian spoken before the admixture of Arabic, due to the Arab occupation. Firdausī professes to have written in Darī, though his work contains a considerable number of Arabic words. It is said to have received its name from its having been the court language, but this etymology, as well as others given, is doubtful. It is also said to have prevailed chiefly in Bukhārā, Balkh, Badakhshān, and Marv.
“In (such) cities (as those) of Bukhārā and Ṭabaristān” is one sense of dar savād-ī Bukhāri-y-ū Ṭabarī.
Another sense is “in works (found) in Bukhārā and Ṭabaristān”. Bukhārā, it may be added, is said to have derived its name from the learned men who inhabited it.
The rendering, “in the works of Bukhārī and Ṭabarī,” must, I think, be rejected, first, because Bukhārī was a Traditionist, and the Author does not quote Traditions, and secondly, because both Bukhārī and Ṭabarī wrote in Arabic, whereas the Author says he consulted both Arabic and also Persian works. Ṭabarī, it is true, was a historian, and therefore a likely source, but it seems curious that the poet should restrict his mention to that single authority.
↩161. The Author means presumably that he sought out each beauty of a recondite character which had been overlooked by other poets.
↩162. i.e., When I had written out a choice selection.
↩163. One of the meanings given to Zand is the Book of Ibrāhīm Zardusht, i.e., the Zend Avesta of Zoroaster. If the reading Zand be correct we must infer that that book was adorned with pictures of the planets, as we know the temples were. Or, reference may be made simply to the mention of the planets as an adornment. The B. ed. of 1328, however, reads dair-i Majūs, “the Magian temples.”
↩164. “The Brides, (adorners) of the sky,” are the seven planets.
↩165. By “affairs” or offices are meant possibly the arts of fascination.
↩166. i.e., when seven lines converge together, as, e.g., radii of a circle, the result is a single point in the object aimed at in our enterprise; i.e., though the subjects be many, the result is unity.
↩167. i.e., he keeps them all in due control so that they may all subserve the main design.
↩168. i.e., if any part be not subsidiary to the whole it throws out all the other parts, which brought together in due subservience would have formed a consonant and unified whole. The illustration here is a cord composed of a number of strands.
↩169. i.e., though no one appreciate the unity of the design, it is still there.
↩170. i.e., I measure correctly so as to produce a consonant, harmonious and unified whole.
↩171. i.e., presumably, If I had composed a work of one thread only it could not have borne so many pearls of rhetoric without fear of snapping.
↩172. The Author seems to imply (cf. the next two distichs) that the value of the water depends upon the nature of the recipient. If the water come to places which are not adapted to keep it perfectly pure, it may be fit for bathing, but not for drinking. It is also, of course, implied that for certain uses the water must be pure in itself before it reach the recipient. Similarly (see the next distich but one), if a drop of rain-water fall into an oyster-shell which is adapted to turn it into a pearl it becomes a pearl, but if not it is lost.
The real meaning implied by the next distich but one is that the Author being a proper recipient of such material as may come to him he is able to turn it into work of literary and poetical excellence. Cf. the lines of Sa‘dī:
Bārān, ki dar laṭāfat-i ṭab‘-ash khilāf nīst, dar bāgh lāla rūyad-u dar shūra būm khas: “Rain, in the fineness of whose nature there is no contrariety, makes tulips grow in the garden and weeds in brackish ground.”
It should be explained that it was believed that the pearl in the oyster-shell was formed from a drop of rain-water which fell into it.
↩173. See Note 172.
↩174. See Note 172.
↩175. The Author is hinting that he expects a reward from the king.
↩176. Firdausī’s “bounty” consisted in his offering to King Maḥmūd of Ghaznī the historical, romantic poem the “Shāh-nāma” of 60,000 distichs. Maḥmūd’s “stinginess” lay in his giving the poet a very inadequate reward.
The distich is literally: “Maḥmūd’s stinginess and Firdausī’s lavishness were (as) the relationship of one under the ascendant Scorpio to one under the ascendant Sagittarius.”
This does not mean that Firdausī and Maḥmūd were born respectively with the ascendants Sagittarius and Scorpio. The Author implies only either, that in the presentation of the “Shāh-nāma” by Firdausī and the thought of reward on the part of Maḥmūd the two were influenced by the ascendants of the particular times—Firdausī by Sagittarius, and Maḥmūd by Scorpio; or rather perhaps, more generally, that there was something in the horoscope of each that induced their respective acts at the respective times. It is clear from the context that the Author means that their respective conduct was due in some way to the influence of the stars.
According to Alan Leo those with the ascendant Scorpio are “reserved, determined and tenacious”, and those with the ascendant Sagittarius are “frank and honest, generous and sincere”. One may add that Scorpio being a “watery” sign, and Sagittarius a “fiery” sign, the two are antagonistic.
Pierre de Bresche in his Traité des Talismans (1671) says: “On attribue à Salomon un livre intitulé ‘des Sceaux des pierreries’, où il dit que la figure . . . du Scorpion et du Sagittaire se combattans, gravée en quelques pierres, et enchassée dans un anneau de fer, cause les divisions parmi ceux qui en sont touchez.”
Such figures, though included by De Bresche amongst talismans, are, more strictly speaking, spells or charms. (See also Note 1,490.)
↩177. Of Asadī of Ṭūs the Encyclopœdia of Islām says little except that he was “one of the oldest of the Neo-Persian poets, who died during the reign of the Ghaznavide Mas‘ūd (1030-41). Specially is he known for his Strife-poems (Munāzarāt)”.
The Encyclopædia adds, “Little that is certain is known of his circumstances, for what Daulat-Shāh tells of his relations with Firdausī appears to be of a legendary nature.”
This fact, I would suggest, is no reason for not repeating the account of those relations, since such legends are often of great importance to the Orientalist on account of the frequent reference made to them by Persian Authors. Of course discretion must be used, since some illustrative stories are of no importance, and are really too absurd to be repeated. One might add, however, with regard to the Encyclopædia, that it is far too succinct and condensed in many of its articles, and gives much too frequently references to other works when it ought to give the information itself. In its scientific articles also it is too technical: many of them are intelligible only to one who already knows the subject, and an Orientalist can scarcely be expected to have an acquaintance with all Oriental sciences.
We see, however, from the present distich that Asadī was better treated by Maḥmūd than Firdausī, of whom, it is related, he was the master.
It is said that Firdausī on his departure from Ghaznī in A.D. 1010 requested him to finish the “Shāh-nāma”, which was yet incomplete, and that Asadī composed that part of the poem between the Arabian conquest of eastern Persia under the Khalif ‘Umar to the end, consisting of 4,000 distichs. In the “Rose Garden of Persia” there is a verse translation by Miss Costello of Asadī’s poem, the “Dispute between Day and Night”.
The meaning of the hemistich (if the reading be correct) is obscure. It may be translated, “He favoured Asadī who was alif.” Alif is the first letter of the alphabet, and is in form like an upright stroke. It hence has the derived senses, “first,” “alone,” “bare or destitute,” and “recluse”, but no one of these seems applicable. He was certainly “first” in the sense of having been Firdausī’s master, but there seems to be no point in asserting this.
The B. ed. of 1328 reads, Asadī-rā ki būd-i ū bi-navākht: “For Asadī, whose being he caressed,” the sense being concluded in the second hemistich. Such a reading, however, strikes one as being only an evasion of the difficulty.
↩178. i.e., were friends together, or “the man subject to the ascendant”, ṭāli‘ī, was favoured by “the ascendant”, ṭāli‘.
↩179. The Author again urges the fact that he makes great improvements in the material collected. He does not sacrifice his independence by taking water from the cloud, because he far more than pays his debt by converting it through his poetical genius into pearls. He may also be intimating that he is not one of the mere imitators or plagiarists of whom he sometimes complains—cf. e.g. the Sikandar-nāma.
↩180. i.e., honour for the poem itself.
↩181. “At the monarch’s court support”; i.e., from the king himself. “Four into four are sixteen”; i.e., my calculations will be found correct, or things will be as I thought they would, and as they should be.
↩182. The Author probably means that he has so pure and bountiful a source of inspiration, and produces results so excellent that he need not fear for the reception of the work at the king’s court. This harmonizes with the preceding distich. Or the “cloud” may signify the king in his bountiful and generous nature, and the “water”, not the material from which the pearls are made, but rather the cause or instrument of the poet’s inspiration. Or possibly, after expressing his desire for the king’s support and favour (faiẓ, “favour,” by the way, means also “generosity”), the Author may be poetically asserting his independence in the concluding distich of the Section. Ab, “water,” means also “favour, generosity, honour, success, splendour”, and all this he can get from the “cloud”, i.e., from the material collected whence he pleases, and which by his genius he turns into the finest of pearls,—those of Aden,—which also enrich him.
↩183. I read, Jabra’īl-am na, jinni-yī qalam-am. Some of the I.O. MSS. have, Chīni-yī qalam-am, “the Chinese (art) of my pen.” The B. ed. of 1328 has, Jabra’īl-am ba-junbish-ī qalam-am, where junbish, I think, evidently indicates jinnī. Jinnī I take to be preferable on account of the coming reference to fusūn, “incantation,” and to the dīvs, “evil genii,” and Solomon. By “the genius, my pen” he means simply his poetical genius.
The genii (jinn) are supposed to have been created of fire, whilst the angels were created of light. There are good and evil genii, the latter corresponding generally with the Persian dīvs. Satan and his assistant-demons are of the jinn. The parī or fairy is of the good jinn.
↩184. It was the custom to put on new dress at the beginning of the New Year. In this and the following distich the poet’s genius is addressing him.
↩185. “Evil genii,” dīvs, mean here common and unspiritual people. “No man, it is said, ever obtained such absolute power over the Jinn as Sulaimānu ’bnu Dā’ūd (Solomon the son of David). This he did by virtue of a most wonderful talisman, which is said to have come down to him from heaven. It was a sealing-ring upon which was engraved ‘the most great name’ of God (al-ismu ’l-a‘zam), and was partly composed of brass and partly of iron. With the brass he stamped his written commands to the good Jinn; with the iron those to the evil Jinn or devils. (The Jinn are supposed to have a great dread of that metal.) Over both orders he had unlimited power, as well as over the birds and the winds, and, as is generally said, the wild beasts.” (Hughes: “A Dictionary of Islām.”)
The legend of “the great name” is very ancient, dating from the time of the Accadians, the people of the yellow race who inhabited Chaldæa before the Semite immigrations.
Lenormant in his Chaldean Magic says: “But the highest and most irresistible of all the powers dwells in the divine and mysterious name, ‘the supreme name,’ with which Hea alone is acquainted. Before this name everything bows in heaven and in earth, and in Hades, and it alone can conquer the Maskim and stop their ravages. The gods themselves are enthralled by this name, and render it obedience. . . The great name remains the secret of Hea; if any man succeeded in divining it, that alone would invest him with a power superior to that of the gods. Sometimes also in that part of the incantation (quoted by Lenormant) which takes a dramatic character, it is supposed that Hea is teaching it to his son Silik-mulu-khi. But even then it is not uttered, it is not written in the formula, and they think that the mention of it alone is sufficient to produce a decisive effect when the incantation is recited. Every one knows to what a pitch the belief in the all-powerful and hidden name of God has grown amongst the talmudical and cabalistic Jews, and how general it still is amongst the Arabs.”
It should be explained that Hea was the supreme god of the Accadians, and that the Maskim, of whom there were seven, were an order of demons.
↩186. The Author is now apparently addressing the king.
↩187. i.e., as regards the mere body.
↩188. i.e., my work has no character, good or bad, until it bear the king’s stamp of approval or disapproval. It has neither the sweetness of the honey nor the bitterness of (the sting of) the bee. It is neutral: pure and simple wax.
↩189. To be “red-faced” is to be “honoured”, and to be “black-faced” the contrary.
↩190. “The monarch’s scribe” means the king through his scribe or amanuensis.
↩191. i.e., if no one care for my written words, my silky paper will be enriched by them. They must be left simply to the paper, and I must be resigned. Or, for “silky paper” might perhaps be substituted “silk garments”, which are sometimes perfumed, the sense being that he must keep the poem for his consolation and be contented with it.
↩192. “The eloquent”; i.e., former writers, especially poets.
↩193. “I, looper of these knots”; i.e., the tyer of knots of subtleties in the poem. The “alchemy and bond of travellers to the village”; i.e., the transmuter into gold of (the material left by) those who had reached the domain of composition, and the fastener together of their material.
↩194. i.e., no one has written more originally than I.
↩195. i.e., I have nothing new to offer in the way of words, but I am an adept at expressing my meaning in the words which exist. Ma‘ānī, lit., “meanings,” is used here in the sense of ‘ilmu ’l-ma‘ānī, “the science whereby is known the manner of adapting language to the requirements of the case; ability to express clearly one’s meaning in various ways; rhetoric, and theory of literary style.”
↩196. i.e., I consider form, literary style, without good matter to be phantom-like and to have no real existence, like a dream; and I consider matter, i.e., the meaning, the thoughts of the poet, without form to be undetermined and vague, like water.
↩197. The Author probably is alluding especially to Firdausī.
↩198. In this and the following three distichs the Author seems to show some feeling of discouragement, real or affected, at not having in his poetry attained to perfection, on the mental, moral, or spiritual side.
↩199. i.e., “what is there in the domain of poetry that I have not written?”
↩200. Khilāṣ, “that which is absolutely pure, anything select or exquisite, gold refined in the fire, genuine money, the best and purest of anything,” is evidently the correct reading here, not khalāṣ, “deliverance, liberty.” (See Note 198.)
↩201. At the dawn the angels are supposed to hover on the verge of the first heaven, the lunar sphere, that nearest to the earth, and the Author here implies that they send down to him dainties of poetry.
“In deprecation”; lit., “in (saying) ‘I ask pardon of God.’”
↩202. “Your breath” means “your words, your poetry”, revivifying as the breath of the Messiah.
The “tree of Mary” was a withered date-palm under which Jesus is said to have come into the world, for which reason it became green, and always when shaken let fall dates.
↩203. i.e., you have become fortunate in scattering the inexhaustible dates of your learning.
↩204. In the heading to this section Qizil Arslān is given as the name, or rather an additional agnomen, of the king to whom the poem was dedicated, and in Beale and Keene’s Oriental Biographical Dictionary the same name is given. The king, however, who is generally understood by the name of Qizil Arslān (Red Lion), King of Āẕarbāijān, died in A.H. 587 (A.D. 1191), and the poem was not finished till A.H. 593 (A.D. 1197). That it was not begun even in the life-time of Qizil Arslān is fairly probable from the fact that the author had not finished his “Sikandar-nāma” till shortly after the death of that prince, and that he dedicated it to his successor, Nuṣratu ’d-Dīn, King of Āẕarbāijān.
In Sachau and Ethé’s Catalogue of the Persian MSS. in the Bodleian Library we read, the poem was “dedicated probably to the Atâbeg Nûr-aldîn Arslân (who ascended the throne of Mauṣil in A.H. 589).”
Dr. Bacher, in his Nizâmî’s Leben und Werke, gives the name as Nuṣratu ’d-Dīn, the king of Āẕarbāijān mentioned above. He says: “Es ist schon erwähnt worden, das der Fürst von Âderbeigân ähnlich wie einst jener von Schirwân Nizâmî zu neuer poetischer Thätigkeit aufmunterte; jedoch während Letzterer ihm den Stoff angezeigt hatte, liess ihm Nasrat-addîn (sic) die Wahl frei.”
It is, however, evident from what Nizāmī himself says in this section and the next that the prince to whom the poem was dedicated was the Khvārazm-Shāh, ‘Alā´u ’d-Dīn Tekish Khān, the ruler of Khvārazm (Chorasmia), the modern Khanate of Khiva. This country which lay along both banks of the lower Oxus extended to the Sea of Aral. In the time of this ruler, however, Khvārazm was by no means the limit of the territory of the Khvārazm-Shāhs, for before the end of the twelfth century they were masters not only of all Transoxiana, part of the Fifth Clime, according to the Dictionaries, but also, to the west, of the country which extended to the provinces then still subject to the Abbāside Khalifs.
In the next section, “A humble address,” Nizāmī speaks of the dedicatee as the ruler of Persia, and, as a matter of fact, Tekish Khān became supreme master of that country after having in A.H. 591 defeated Toghrul III., the last Seljūqide ruler of it.
We read in The Caliphate of Sir William Muir: “At last, the Kharizm Shah, Takash, at his instigation (i.e., the instigation of the Khalif Nāṣir) attacked the Seljuk forces, and defeated them, leaving Toghril, last of his race, upon the field . . . Takash, recognized now as supreme ruler of the East, conferred on the Caliph certain provinces of Persia hitherto held by the Seljuks.”
Schefer, in his translation of the Relation de l´Ambassade au Kharezm, Introduction, pp. ix., x., says: “Telle était au commencement du XIIIe siècle, la situation du Kharezm, auquel les princes de la dynastie des Kharezm Châh avaient annexé les États voisins. Ils avaient donné à leur empire une telle extension que les frontières en touchaient, à l´est, à la Mongolie, au sud, à l´Inde, et, à l´ouest, aux provinces qui restaient encore sous l´autorité chancelante des Khalifes Abbassides. Le Khanat de Khiva est aujourd’hui tout ce qui subsiste d´un si puissant État.”
Before coming under the rule of the Khvārazm-Shāhs Khvārazm was subject to the Seljūqides and before them to the Ghaznavides. Of the rise and fall of the Khvārazm-Shāhs, who succeeded the former, Schefer speaks (Introduction, pp. xi., xii.) as follows: “Le Kharezm passa, en 432 (1040) sous la domination des Seljouqides. Alp Arslan en confia le gouvernement à son fils Arslan Châh. Sous le règne de Malik Châh, Abou Thahir, gouverneur de Samarqand, fut chargé de l´administration de la province qui, après lui, fut confiée à Izz oul Moulk, le fils du célèbre ministre Nizham oul Moulk. Le Kharezm fut ensuite donné par le même prince à Anouchtekin, esclave de l´Emir Melkatekin qui l´avait acheté à un homme du Ghardjistan. Il était devenu Ibriqdar ou chargé de l´aiguière de Melik Châh, et il percevait, à ce titre, les revenus du Kharezm.
“Barkiarouk, successeur de Melik Châh, désigna Aqindjy pour succéder à Anouchtekin. Aqindjy fut assassiné à Merv par les émirs Qoudan et Yaraqtach, qui essayèrent de s´emparer du Kharezm. Mais ils furent mis en déroute par les troupes envoyées contre eux, et le fils d´Anouchtekin, Mohammed, fut investi du gouvernement avec le titre de Kharezm Châh, 490 (1096).
“À la chute de l´empire des Seljouqides, le Kharezm Châh proclama son indépendance. La dynastie qu´il fonda compte sept princes, qui régnèrent de 490 (1096) à 628 (1230).
“La conduite altière et imprudente de Mohammed Châh (the last king but one) provoqua l´invasion de Djenguiz Khan, qui couvrit l´Asie de ruines et porta au Kharezm un coup dont il ne s´est jamais relevé.
“Mohammed Châh, abandonné des siens, alla se réfugier dans l’île d´Abiskoun (in the Caspian) ou il mourut. Son fils, le vaillant Djelal oud Din Mangouberty, essaya de ressaisir le royaume de ses ancêtres; mais il périt assassiné par un Kurde dans les montagnes d´Amid ou il s’était réfugié 628 (1230). En lui s’éteignit la race des souverains qui avaient rangé sous leurs lois toute l´Asie centrale, et manacé l´existence du Khalifat des Abbassides.”
Thus Muhammad, the son of Anūshtegin, the ibrīq-dār, or ewer-bearer, to Malik Shāh, was the first king of Khvārazm, but Tekish Khān was the first independent king. The rulers of the Khvārazm-Shāhī dynasty are as follows:—
From the following considerations, added to the above, it is quite clear that the person to whom the poem was dedicated was ‘Alā´u ’d-Dīn Tekish Khān, the Khvārazm-Shāh:
Nizāmī in this section addresses a person named ‘Alā´u ’d-Dīn, and not Nūru ’d-Dīn, or Nuṣratu ’d-Dīn.
In addition to this he plays upon the meaning of the name ‘Alā, which means “sublimity, exaltitude, height”.
Later he speaks of two sons of the above king, one named Muḥammad, the other, Aḥmad. The latter he praises as a scholar, the former as one full of princely ambition. As a matter of fact, Muḥammad, who succeeded Tekish Khān in the empire, became a famous warrior. His agnomen, as given by Nizāmī, was Nuṣratu ’d-Dīn, whereas that of Nūru ’d-Dīn’s son was ‘Izzu ’d-Dīn.
Mīrkvānd gives Quṭbu ’d-Dīn as the honorific title of Muḥammad, but it was a common thing for a distinguished man to have more than one.
In the next section Nizāmī says, “Through you the Fifth Clime is in prosperous state.” Now a part of the Fifth Clime is Transoxiana, of which Tekish Khān was ruler; Nūru ’d-Dīn being ruler of Mauṣil, and Nuṣratu ’d-Dīn of Āẕarbāijān.
From the fact that ‘Alā´u ’d-Dīn Tekish Khān, the son of Īl Arslān, was undoubtedly the person to whom the poem was dedicated it does not seem improbable that the distichs in which the name Qizil Arslān is given or alluded to may be spurious. It is not impossible, however, that ‘Alā´u ’d-Dīn may have had the honorific title or additional agnomen of Qizil Arslān (Red Lion), or that he may have been called so as bin Arslān, “the son or grandson of Arslān.” Arslān in fact was a title of honour commonly given to a king of Turkish race, whether it was his name or not.
It is true, though unlikely, that the poem may have been begun in the life-time of Qizil Arslān, and the lines which early in the poem refer to him have been retained; but nearly at the end of the poem there is also a line referring to the dedicatee as “Lion”, and since Qizil Arslān died in 1191 and the poem was not finished till 1197, we should have to conclude that it was dedicated when finished to a dead Lion, which is highly improbable, the more so that the poet evidently expected a reward from the dedicatee.
The original of the distich in which the name Qizil Arslān occurs explicitly is as follows:—
“Shah Qizil Arslān-i kishvar-gīr; bih zi Alp Arslān ba-tāj-u sarīr.” (See also Notes 213 and 2,086.)
↩205. By “range” is meant the poem.
“The division, Spring”; i.e., Spring as a division of the year.
The Author by saying that his real aim in writing the book is to praise God, the Prophet, and the king, and to give the latter advice, means probably to pay a compliment to the king.
Or, it is quite possible that he includes under “advice to the king” the whole of the work after the first three divisions or sections mentioned.
↩206. “This ancient coinage” is possibly “the world”, which Muḥammad’s advent made young.
Or, the Author may be referring to Judaism and Christianity, and be implying that Muḥammad superseded them by Islām.
↩207. “The Seven Climes” are the seven divisions or zones into which Oriental geographers divided the whole earth as known to them.
According to the Persian geographer, Jurjānī (about A.D. 1460), they are as follows:—
There is a discrepancy in my MS. of Jurjānī, which gives 43° 30' to 47° 15', and then 47° 30' to 50° 30'.
The Climes of Idrīsī (about A.D. 1153) extend farther north than Jurjānī’s, but he does not explicitly define them.
The dictionary Burhān-i Qāṭi‘, taking a more popular view, enumerates the Seven Climes as follows:—
But other popular divisions are also found, no one of which agrees with that of Nizāmī, who makes an arbitrary division of his own. (See also Notes 1,146 and 1,147.) By the distich it is implied that the king is monarch of the whole world.
↩208. i.e., generous to the rulers subject to him.
↩209. Āq Sunqur, according to Vullers, who takes his account from the Burhān-i Qāṭi‘, is “cognomen regum Turcarum”, by which is presumably meant a cognomen of the rulers not only of Turkistan but also of all the countries of central Asia inhabited by people of Turkish race. So the race of the Āq Sunqurs would, of course, include the family of the Khvārazm-Shāh himself. In the Encyclopœdia of Islām three persons with the special cognomen (perhaps rather agnomen) of Āq Sunqur, “White Falcon” (falco gyrfalco), are mentioned, but I do not think that the family or race of any one of these is meant by Nizāmī.
↩210. “This resting place”; i.e., the earth.
↩211. i.e., the dynasty or sovereignty has reached perfection in him.
↩212. Rustam, the most famous of the legendary heroes of Persia, was lord of Sīstān or Nīmrūz, and Zābulistān, the highlands in the north of it. We gather from Lieut.-Colonel Yate’s Khurāsān and Sīstān that names and legends relating to Rustam are found in that country at the present day.
Part of Sīstān is on the east frontier of Persia, and part of it in Afghanistan.
A long account of Rustam’s life and exploits is found in Firdausī’s Shāh-nāma. (See also Notes 1,035 and 2,078.)
↩213. Unless this distich be spurious or corrupted, we must, I think, take it that he is called “lion in name” either as having the honorific title or additional agnomen Arslān, or as being bin Arslān, “the son or grandson of Arslān”; arslān, a Turkish word, meaning “lion”. (See also Notes 204 and 2,086.) The B. edition of 1328 has, however:—
Ham-pay-ī shīr-u ham-payām-i hizhabr:
“The companion of the lion and the bringer of the same message as the lion.”
↩214. i.e., simply, when the world came into existence.
↩215. “A Gem,” or “an Essence”, i.e., the Universal Spirit, the first creation, or the first emanation from the Deity; though considering it in its two-fold aspect of Universal Intellect and Universal Soul, the former is the first emanation, and the latter the second. Auwalu mā khalaqa ’llāhu ’l-‘Aql: “The first thing which God created was the Intellect.”
The Universal Soul by its formative faculty fashioned the phenomenal world upon “matter” taken in the philosophical sense, and is the Soul of that world. At the same time, the individual phases of the Universal Soul inclined to particular forms and became the individual souls of them.
↩216. An allusion to the king’s generosity.
↩217. Since this verse is applicable only to one whose name is Qizil (Arslān), Red (Lion), and the person addressed here was not at all events the Qizil Arslān, it may possibly be spurious. (But see Notes 204, 213, and 2,086.)
Surkh-rū (lit., “red-faced”) means “honourable, glorious”, and since the sultan is “surkh-rū”, his face is supposed poetically to cast a red tint upon the sign-manual, which the latter is predisposed to take from its including the word “Qizil”, which in Turkish means “red”, and is part of the name Qizil Arslān.
↩218. Lit., “is red-faced.” (See the preceding Note.)
It must be concluded that if the preceding distich be spurious, this one is so, too. (But see Notes 204, 213, and 2,086.)
↩219. An allusion to the martial valour of the king.
Another translation may be: “The surface or book of the sky is full of leaves from his expositions.” This would be an allusion to the king’s learning.
↩220. In this hemistich it is implied that the sea cannot compete with him in bounty; that before his bounty it perspires with shame.
↩221. i.e., the mind fails to compass it.
↩222. An allusion to the king’s name, ‘Alā´u ’d-Dīn, which signifies “Sublimity of the Faith”.
↩223. A pun upon the name, “Sublimity of the Faith.”
“In this last,” i.e., in sublimity (Sublimity).
↩224. Means presumably that his enemies are as women compared with him.
↩225. Āb, “water,” has also the senses “brilliancy, lustre, splendour”.
↩226. “Excites fire in the mind”; i.e., arouses admiration.
In the distich the four elements are introduced; thus the word meaning “brilliancy”, āb, has also the sense of “water”, and that meaning “body”, khāk, signifies also “earth”.
↩227. Lit., “where the lion scratches its tail.”
↩228. Ba-sar āmadan, lit., “to come to (its) head,” means also “to come to an end, to be finished”.
↩229. “Fire” is the “wine”; “frozen water” is the “crystal cup”.
↩230. A common expression in Persian for a great disturbance.
↩231. See Note on the next distich.
↩232. i.e., whatever he gains with effort he gives away freely and carelessly. Cf. the idiom ba-sar-i tāziyāna giriftan, “to take a thing, or gain a victory, by the whip alone, without using the sword.” For the second hemistich of the preceding distich contrast the effort and the impetuosity of the flow of the sea with the ease and gentleness of its ebb.
↩233. i.e., possibly, by his prosperity and victorious power he overcomes all malign influences as Jupiter may those of Saturn.
↩234. This and the preceding distich do not balance very well, since in the first, “lion” is apparently an allusion to “the king”, and in the second to his “horse”. The metaphorical sense of “dragon” in the second is “warrior”, and “burning the dragon” is “vanquishing that warrior”. He also kills real dragons in the chase.
“Mounted on a lion” in this second distich is to a certain extent in harmony with “sun” in the first, since one of its meanings is “sun” in his quality of being the ruler of the zodiacal sign Leo.
In this second distich the king is certainly, as it were, “upon a dragon” as vanquishing it, but his horse is alluded to as the “lion” and not he.
In the same distich by “dragon” there may be a sub-allusion to the constellation Draco which is extinguished, as it were, by the sun.
↩235. “Dragon” means here both the constellation Draco and also “warrior”.
“As a snake”; i.e., as if it were only a simple snake.
↩236. Tangī, rendered “closeness”, means also “narrowness, nearness”, and the word is contrasted with the word “widens”, which follows. Maṭraḥ, rendered “aim”, means literally “the place to which a thing is thrown”.
The absolutely literal sense is “his nearness (of aim) to the thing aimed at”.
↩237. i.e., he has beaten the sword in roughness.
↩238. Shīr-gīrī, “lion-taking,” is the third degree of drunkenness. “A lion-taker” means metaphorically “a strong, brave man”.
↩239. Lit., “By the circle of (his) lasso.” I.O. MS. 402 has ba-kūh-i samand, “by the mountain, (his) steed.”
I.O. MS. 1168 has ba-gird-i samand, “by the circle of (his) steed.”
I.O. MS. 1491, and the I.O. Bombay edition have ba-gurz-u kamand, “by (his) mace and lasso.”
From these I think we may plausibly conjecture ba-gird-i kamand, “by the circle or loop of (his) lasso.”
↩240. i.e., through awe at the king’s prowess.
↩241. i.e., his arrows have killed so many wolves and leopards that the onager has scarcely room to move over the plain.
↩242. The meaning is that the king kills so many wolves and leopards that the hunting-ground becomes a fuming, raging sea composed of their blood, and completely covered sometimes by the floating bodies of the wolves, and sometimes by those of the leopards. Thus the hunting-ground, in a way, at times puts on a wolf’s skin, at times a leopard’s skin.
↩243. i.e., the stag is shot dead and is buried, as it were, in its hide.
↩244. Lit., “as though the sky brought up smoke from the earth.”
↩245. i.e., as the reed has the musky (in this case black) ink, and the beauties (lit., rubies) which it forms, so the king’s character has its musky fragrance and the precious and brilliant qualities which are displayed by that character.
↩246. See the last Note.
↩247. An allusion to the king’s greatness and to his protection of all.
↩248. “The Nine-handled Bow” is the sky in its quality of having nine divisions. (See Note 30.) The meaning is that the nine-fold sky is only as the smallest bolt for the king’s bow.
↩249. “(The) four stars,” chār gauhar. The term chār gauhar usually means “the four elements”, but here it must signify the four large stars in Ursa Major that stand in the form of a square. Ursa Major as a whole is called Haft Aurang, “The Seven Thrones.”
↩251. “To have a bright, white, or red face” is “to enjoy honour”; “to have a black face” is “to be disgraced”.
i.e., the king’s friends derive lustre from his glory as the moon from the sun; but his enemies are scorched black by it.
↩252. “A gold-shod sun” means “the king”.
Sang means “rock or stone”, but it signifies also “weight, authority, dignity, splendour”, so that the sense is that as the sun lends grandeur to the mountain by gilding it, and furthers the growth of the rubies (as he is supposed to do) in the rock of the mine, so the king’s shining qualities produce brilliant results, and give brightness and prosperity to all his subjects.
The rhetorical merit lies, however, in the idea of the giving of rock to the mountain, so I have translated literally. One might almost combine the two meanings by saying “has given ‘weight’ to the mount, and rubies to the mine”.
↩253. i.e., the jewels of the mine are excelled by his brilliant qualities, and he is far superior to the mine in showing forth qualities so brilliant.
↩254. His “onyx” is his “eye”, which apparently means here his watchfulness and his all-pervading influence and power, which make all things flourishing. This sense is conveyed by the image that his “onyx” gives pearls to the sea, the strewer of pearls, and rubies to the mount, the strewer of rubies.
↩255. “Both Abodes”; i.e., heaven and earth.
He receives God’s Law and administers it to his people.
↩256. i.e., his two sons.
↩257. i.e., devoted to the study of theology.
↩258. Farīdūn, the name of the sixth king of the first dynasty of Persian kings, the Pīshdādian. He was famous for his wisdom and learning.
↩259. Kai-Khusrau was the third of the second or Kayānian dynasty of Persian kings. He was celebrated as a warrior.
The second hemistich is, literally, “opening the stirrup in Kai-Khusrau-ishness.”
↩260. “Power or authority,” naqsh, which here is equivalent to istiqrār-i ḥukm va-tamkīn-i haibat dar dilhā, “the fixing of one’s authority and the establishing of reverence in the hearts (of people).”
↩261. i.e., he having devoted himself to the study of religious and spiritual matters.
↩262. Aḥmad means “most praised”, and by praising his pursuits the Author introduces his name in poetical style. His name Aḥmad (twice), because it is his real name, and may also on account of his pursuits be attributed to him in its sense of “most praised”.
↩263. The words Aḥmad and Muḥammad both come from the Arabic root ḥamd, “praising,” so that the two forms which are of common origin differ only specifically from each other without being generically or essentially different. The genus is one, the species are two.
The distich is, however, susceptible of another interpretation, namely, “In two copies, the original of which is the same, there is the writing of Aḥmad and that of Muḥammad.” Or, again, “there is the stamp of each”; Aḥmad and Muḥammad being in the first case the copyists, and in the second case the two names.
In the latter case the sense would be that two copyists making a copy each from the same original would differ in minor particulars as the two names differ, though their sense is essentially the same; i.e., “most praised.”
↩264. i.e., they do not differ.
↩265. i.e., for his mastery of theological and spiritual subjects.
↩266. i.e., religion and spirituality strengthen him.
↩267. “The azure throne”; i.e., “the sky.”
↩268. i.e., May he be furthered and supported in his sovereignty by these two sons.
↩269. i.e., brighter than the day.
↩270. This would depend, I suppose, upon the way in which he spends the night. Cf. the succeeding distich.
↩271. By “that one of Aḥmad’s race (who is) veiled by the curtain of his night” is meant the king’s wife.
↩272. Bilqīs is the name given to the Queen of Sheba supposed to be one of Solomon’s wives. It means here the wife of the king, as Solomon means the king. (See also Notes 1,270 and 1,407.)
↩273. “The celestial sires” are “the seven or nine heavens”. “Existence’ mothers” are “the four elements”.
By “her being the seal of the mothers of existence”, i.e., of the four elements, is meant “her reaching the perfection or acme of existence which is composed of the four elements”.
↩274. Khiẓr is the name of a prophet who found and drank of the Water of Life. He has been confused with the vazīr of Alexander, with Elias, and also with St. George.
The Water of Life was supposed to be in the darkness, zulmat or (plural) zulumāt.
The origin of the legend may probably be traced back to the Chaldean epic of the progress of the sun through the seasons. In the winter he dies, as it were, in the darkness of storms and rains, from which he emerges to life again in the Spring. (See also Notes 1,201, 1,562, and 1,698.)
↩275. i.e., May the king’s protection abide by that Rose and Rose-garden, his wife!
“Rose-garden” is a name given to a slave-girl, kanīz.
↩276. i.e., he had that quality as a pre-existent, immaterial soul in the spiritual world. The doctrine of the pre-existence of souls is taught both by the Qur’ān and also by the Traditions.
↩277. Jalājil, rendered here “drum”, means primarily “small bells”, and is the Arabic broken plural of juljul. Such bells were fastened by couriers to their waists. But the word signifies also “a small round drum or tambourine with bells set round the rim”, and such, before the invention of fire-arms, were most probably carried at the waist by sentinels to give the alarm.
↩278. By “sword-belt” is meant the white streak of the dawn.
↩279. “Beside your stirrup gently breathes”; i.e., attends you as a servant attends his master at his stirrup.
↩280. Dīlam was formerly an independent province of Persia forming part of the modern Gīlān. Its capital was also called Dīlam. As it was a westerly district, the sense of “the wearer of Dīlam’s crown” may possibly be “the lord of the western sun”, which would be “the evening”.
I.O. MS. 1168 reads Shām-i Dīlam-kulah, “The evening with the crown of Dīlam,” instead of Shāh-i Dīlam-kulah. (See also Note 1,884.)
Many plants have a stronger scent in the evening.
↩281. Sarhang, the most usual sense of which is “a general, a military leader” (in modern Persian, “a Lieut.-Colonel”), means here either “a prefect” or “a censor-inspector”, muḥtasib. The muḥtasib was a police official who was charged with the inspection of weights, measures, and provisions, and was empowered to punish gambling, drinking, etc. Since the day on account of its brightness may be said, in a way, to be a searcher out of offences, the Author likens it to a sarhang, i.e., here, a muḥtasib.
The Author implies that the king is so great that the white-faced (in another sense honourable) day is his sarhang, and that if dismissed from that office it would become black-faced (in another sense dishonoured) night.
↩282. The sky is supposed to spread itself for the king’s benefit as a cloth, and to receive as its pay from the king two loaves, namely, the sun and the moon.
↩283. Lit., “To the signet-ring of the divine aid there is a sealing of sovereignty (more lit., to sovereignty) upon you.” i.e. by the divine aid you have become the highest exponent of sovereignty.
↩284. An allusion to the greatness of the king, enhanced by the previous allusion to the greatness of the sky.
↩285. i.e., has fashioned it upon the model of your throne. The sky is thus a throne imitated from the king’s throne. It is a golden throne presumably by reason of the stars. The king in his brilliance is as the moon.
↩286. “Turbid”; lit., “earthy.”
↩287. The Author is alluding to the scintillations of the king’s sword, which are, he implies, more brilliant than rubies.
↩288. i.e., the king’s long-suffering is more steady and immovable than the mountain.
↩289. The “cloud” is often taken as an image of generosity. Here it probably means that which is to foster the plant of the poet’s genius.
↩290. The April cloud fosters all the beautiful plants of Spring. The cold, wintry clouds produce no good effect.
↩291. i.e., the encouragement given by those other kings is absolutely inadequate: they give much pain and almost deprive of life before they give even a slight reward.
↩292. “(Your) shadow”; i.e., “(your) protection.”
↩293. “Your existence”; lit., “your creation.”
↩294. i.e., your fortune always exists as a guard or custodian of the realm of generosity. Or, your fortune looks after the realm of generosity.
↩295. The sense is apparently, “since Persia is the heart of the earth, Persia is the best part of the earth, because it is certain that the heart is better than the body.”
↩296. The Author means presumably that as the king’s dominion is the heart, i.e., the best of dominions, and the best ruler has the best place, therefore the king is the heart (of rulers), i.e., the best of rulers.
The difficulty of fixing the exact sense is that mamlakat and vilāyat both mean “realm” and also “rule”, being equivalent in fact to the word “dominion”. But in the preceding distich vilāyat has evidently the concrete sense of “realm”, and if in the present distich we give it the abstract sense of “rule”, I cannot see the raison d’ctre of the preceding distich. Or, if there be one, the Author proves only that the king rules Persia because, his rule being the best, he is the best ruler, and therefore rules the best place. But the logic seems peculiar.
↩297. See Notes 274, 1,201, 1,562, and 1,698.
↩298. “The mirror of Alexander,” Āyina-yi Sikandarī, was said to have been constructed by Aristotle and placed in the lighthouse at Alexandria to give knowledge of occidental affairs.
But under the word jām we have jām-i Jam (Jamshīd), “the cup or mirror of Jam, Solomon, or Alexander,” which, according to the Eastern fabulists, represented the whole world, (whence it is also called jām-i jahān-namā, or jām-i gītī-namā, “a mirror showing the universe”).
↩299. “A mirror of intellect.” This I take to be the sense of gauhar-āyīna, lit., “a pearl- or gem-mirror,” but also “an intellect-mirror”, since gauhar means also “intellect, wisdom”.
↩301. “The Seven Climes”; i.e., the whole inhabited world as divided by Oriental geographers. (See Notes 207, 1,146, and 1,147.)
↩302. See Notes 204, 207, 1,146, and 1,147.
↩303. Aristotle is spoken of by Persian writers as a minister or adviser of Alexander.
↩304. Nūshīrvān the Just, in whose reign Muhammad was born, was (according to different authorities) the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first king of the Sāsānian dynasty of Persia. He was a great patron of literature, had a number of works translated from the Greek, and was visited, it is said, by some Neo-Platonic philosophers. He reigned from A.D. 531 to 579.
↩305. Buzurjmihr, the vazīr of Nūshīrvān the Just, was celebrated for his wisdom and virtues. He is said to have imported from India the game of chess and also the Fables of Bīdpāy (Pilpay). It was under his superintendence also that Greek works were translated into Persian.
↩306. Khusrau Parvīz, the grandson of Nūshīrvān, reigned from A.D. 591 to 628. He was married to Shīrīn (Sira), who is said to have been a Christian. One of Nizāmī’s Five Poems is called “Khusrau-u Shīrīn”.
↩307. Bārbad or Bārbud was the most famous of Persian musicians and composers. The number of modulations usually ascribed to him is thirty. Cf. sī laḥn, “the thirty modulations.” These are said to have been composed in honour of Khusrau Parvīz, but a number of them would seem from their names to have been composed in honour of his wife Shīrīn.
Nizāmī in his Khusrau-u Shīrīn excludes three from the usual list, and introduces four which are not in it. One of the latter is called Khusravī, “Royal,” and was a eulogistic song in rhymed prose written and composed in honour of the king.
↩308. Jalālu ’d-Dīn Malik Shāh was the third sultān of the first dynasty of the Seljūqides. He succeeded his father Alp Arslān in A.D. 1072, and died in A.D. 1092, aged 38. The Jalālian Era, Tārīkh-i Jalālī, was established in his reign by ‘Umar-i Khaiyām and the other astronomers royal. This era, according to Dr. Hyde, begins on the 15th of March, A.D. 1079.
↩309. To Nizāmu ’l-Mulk, the vazīr of Alp Arslān and afterwards of his son Malik Shāh, was mainly due the prosperity of the Sejūqide empire. He was a great patron of learning, and founded in Baghdād the famous college, the Nizāmīya, in which the poet Sa‘dī had, as he relates in the Būstān, an Assistant-Professorship or office of Répétiteur. (See Graf’s Būstān, p. 341.) He was the author of the political treatise Siyāsat-nāma. He died in A.D. 1092, assassinated by a follower of Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ, “the Old Man of the Mountain.” Nizāmu ’l-Mulk and Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ had been friends, but in later life Nizāmu ’l-Mulk had become at variance with Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ.
↩310. The word translated “orderly estate” is nizām, and that rendered “in orderly estate” nizāmī. Thus the Author makes out by a poetical conceit that his name (or fame) is Nizāmī, i.e., in orderly estate, or in a satisfactory condition, through the king’s favour.
↩311. I read kām-i gizāf with I.O. MS. 1491.
↩312. “The cupbearer” is here the eminent poet, or his poetical genius, tab‘, which infuses superexcellence and richness into his work. “The peasant” is the inferior poet, or his genius, which produces only inferior work. The former, as it were, gives wine to the earth, the latter only water. (Cf. Note 437.)
↩313. i.e., other kings are not generous towards themselves in the matter of justice and learning.
↩314. i.e., presumably, because the king is learned himself.
↩315. This is probably an allusion to the influence which Ḥasan Maimandī, the vazīr of Mahmūd of Ghaznī, is said to have brought to bear upon him in order that Firdausī should not be adequately rewarded for his great poem the “Shāh-nāma”.
↩316. By the king’s name being attached to the poem under the ascendant of Leo the Author implies that the king in his judgment of it will be influenced by the qualities possessed by those who are born under that ascendant. Alan Leo in his work The Horoscope says: “When the ascendant is Leo . . . they will be as noble as their prototype, the lion, and being possessed of one of the strongest forms bestowed by the twelve signs of the zodiac, they should be able to resist all external conditions, and maintain their own free and independent spirit. In disposition they are open, frank and fearless, magnanimous, sincere, honourable, and affectionate. . . . (They) are ever ready to help when help is needed. They can be very determined, self-reliant and strong-willed.”
By the distich the Author hints that the king will exercise his independent judgment and not be influenced as Mahmūd by others. (See Note 315.)
↩317. i.e., fortunate is he who offers so fine a result of your favour—the result being the poem.
↩318. Lit., “may draw a pen through.”
↩319. “The cycle of seven thousand.” This is what is called “the lunar cycle”, of which the Persian lexicographers, quoted by Vullers, speak as follows, Gūyand daur-i har kaukabī haft hazār sāl mī-bāshad: hazār sāl ba-khvadi-yi khvad ṣāḥib-i ‘amal ast, va-shash hazār sāl-i dīgar ba-mushārakat-i shash kaukab-i dīgar; va-Ādam—‘Alai-hi’s-salām!—dar avval-i daur-i qamarī ba-zuhūr āmad; va-ān daura ba-pāyān rasīd:
“They say that the cycle of every planet is of seven thousand years’ duration. A thousand years it acts by itself, and the six thousand other years in partnership with the six other planets” (i.e., with each one a thousand years). “Adam—On him be peace! —came into being at the beginning of the lunar cycle. That cycle has come to an end.”
The Haft Qulzum adds, Az-ān jihat īn ‘ālam-rā daur-i qamarī gūyand; va-ba‘zī bar-ān-and ki qiyāmat ham dar daur-i qamarī khvāhad shud:
“For this reason they call this world (that of) the lunar cycle; and some assert that the Resurrection will be in the lunar cycle.” According to this assertion the lunar cycle has not come to an end, and this is the general belief; but according to the relation in the first of these quotations this cycle has come to an end, and if so Nizāmī would be perhaps referring to the Martian cycle which would follow it; but it is evident that Jalālu ’d-Dīn Rūmī believed that Muḥammad, at all events, lived in the lunar cycle, since he writes,
“What indeed, O Muḥammad, is the army of the earth (to you)? See the moon in the sky, and split its forehead;
“In order that the ignorant astronomers may know that this cycle is yours, (and) not that of the moon.” (See C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II. Cf. also Note 871.)
↩320. By “this sugar-reed” is meant the Author’s pen.
“Earth’s blackness” most probably means the ink in the inkstand; and “verdure” signifies the charming results of his dipping the pen into the ink and writing.
↩321. i.e., my eyes are watery from trying to look at him.
↩322. i.e., though the king, like the sun, is too dazzling in himself to be looked at, he can be considered in his virtues and deeds, which are, as it were, reflections of him.
↩323. i.e., this poem newly composed.
↩324. The poem is likened to coin which is to receive its power and value from the impression of the hoofs of the king’s horse; i.e., through the king’s notice and approval.
↩325. By “the cloud” is meant an exalted patron like the king.
↩326. i.e., the poet who cannot secure an exalted patron must put up with one less high.
↩327. i.e., from the king’s hand.
↩328. Zuhra is Venus, the musician of the sky.
People look out for the new moon to take omens from it, especially for the new moon which ushers in the beginning of the month which succeeds Ramaẓān, the month of Fast. (See the First Story in C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II.)
↩329. i.e., the Author would be resigned though the king judged the poem to be insignificant.
↩330. i.e., that which you do not favour.
↩331. By the word Kun, “Be,” God is said to have given existence to all things.
Muslims have a special reverence for speech, as they suppose it to be God-created and to be co-extensive with thought.
↩332. i.e., when you speak of any one of them, you think of his work, and he himself emerges, as it were, and is seen from that work.
↩333. “The unknown,” or the hidden; that which is still wrapped in mystery or concealed in the mind. (See Note 331.)
↩334. i.e., speech as existing in the abstract. (See Notes 331 and 333.)
↩335. i.e., save speech, which may be handed down by writing, no individual thing subsists permanently.
↩336. i.e., nothing remains to display the mind of men except speech handed down by writing. Architecture is certainly an exponent of the minds of men, and archæological remains may to a considerable extent show the state of advancement of civilization and taste of an age, but they do not reveal the mind to the extent that speech does, nor are they so lasting.
↩337. Namely, the “human mind” or “rational soul”, nafs-i nāṭiqa, which is immortal if not debased and merged, as it were, in the “animal soul”, nafs-i ḥaivānī.
↩ 338. Cf. the dictum
339. See the preceding Note.
↩340. That which has this knowledge is of course the rational soul.
↩341. See Note 338.
↩342. i.e., you will not really perish though you leave this life.
↩343. See Notes 337 and 338.
↩344. i.e., it is useless to cultivate the body unless by the cultivation of it one is helped in the cultivation of the mind and heart.
↩345. “Their clay”; i.e., their bodies.
↩346. “Pleas and vain excuse,” namely, for cultivating the body and not the mind, and alleging that it is best for them.
↩347. “Not any one will say ‘My curds are sour’”; i.e., no one will confess that his action does him harm, or that he is the worse for it. Or, he will not acknowledge that he is not in a satisfactory condition.
↩348. i.e., they incline to contentment alone, and do not seek wealth in order to cherish the body.
↩349. The Author is speaking of the evils of possessions which are transitory. The mind, which is eternal, should be cultivated.
↩351. The hoopoo is here likened to the capitalist, since, like him, it has transitory possessions which are coveted. Those who have such possessions find them exposed to peril, and they are consequently stimulated to great exertions to preserve them.
↩352. Because they have something of which others are envious.
↩353. i.e., the bird is stimulated by its cleverness to try to gratify its greed, and so it falls into the net. The Author is pursuing the same idea, but he now dwells more particularly upon the element of greed which leads people to covet transitory possessions.
↩354. i.e., with all his gluttony he can get from the earth only a stomachful.
↩355. “This store” is the world. i.e., all transitory possessions are lost in the end.
↩356. “The crown of the candle” is of course the flame, which makes it weep, as it were, tears of wax or tallow.
↩357. Another illustration of the same idea. I have translated from a supposed reading, kūh-u daryā, “the hills and the sea,” but the I.O. MSS. and printed editions alternate between āb-i daryā, and ān mufarraḥ, “the water of the sea,” and “that exhilarated person”. The former seems nonsensical, since the sea has no rubies. The latter is pointless and involves an inconsistency. Kūh, “hill, mountain,” seems a plausible conjecture, since the hill or mountain has rubies, and may be said to weep in the streams which flow from it. The sea has pearls, and the water of it may poetically be called tears.
↩358. See the next distich.
↩359. i.e., those who are entitled men are as angels if they have the wisdom which constitutes them “men” and distinguishes them from the lower animals. If, in fine, they have the rūḥ-i insānī, “the human spirit,” and have under their control the rūḥ-i ḥaivānī, the animal spirit.
↩360. “Did they prepare.” I read with I.O. MS. 1491, karda, which is an indefinite way of saying “he or they prepared”, the sense being here “God prepared”.
I.O. MS. 1168 has kard, which I should render “God prepared”.
↩361. i.e., work is good in itself, though it avails not against the preordinances of God, which are from past eternity.
↩362. i.e., if his work is only for himself and he does not care for others’ interests.
↩363. Khvīshī at the end of the first hemistich seems used in an adjectival sense.
↩364. i.e., so govern your life that you make not enemies, but friends.
↩365. i.e., weeping hypocritically.
↩366. “Take your hand”; i.e., actively help you.
↩367. Yād has two principal meanings, “memory” and “heart, or mind”. In this distich the meaning seems to be “heart”.
↩368. Concealed or buried treasure was supposed to be guarded by a snake or dragon.
↩369. The Author seems to imply that by exposing advantages the possessor will suffer, although those who may see them be good.
It should be remembered that New Year’s Day in Persia is the 21st of March.
↩370. The ass is considered a type of sensuality.
↩371. i.e., happiness depends upon a good, happy nature.
↩372. An assertion of the Muhammadan idea that the nature never changes. The pre-existent soul in the spiritual world has a certain nature, and when incarnate in this world it keeps the same nature.
↩373. Lit., with ugliness of aspect.
↩374. Advice apparently given to princes and governors against ill-treating the peasant.
↩375. i.e., he does not require an additional burden of oppression.
↩376. Muhra, a stone found in the head of a snake and supposed to be an antidote against the poison of its bite. The full name is mār-muhra, “snake-stone.”
↩377. I translate from the reading, du‘ā na-zanī. If daghā na-zanī be correct we should render, “Strive that you strike not false coin (in partnership) with the world,” or, “employ not deception (in company) with the world.”
↩378. By “dragon” is meant “the world”.
↩379. i.e., the world is not really friendly to men, and ultimately it consumes them.
↩380. Lit., “his dog-heartedness.” The allusion is to the wicked, malignant hypocrites of the world.
↩381 The Author means presumably that they increase the disagreement by misrepresentation, making black seem white and white black.
The literal sense as regards the fly is that it gets into different foods and trails one over another where it walks, mixing them up together.
↩382. “These highwaymen” are wicked enemies who rob people of good and set them astray. Cf. the definitions of rāh zadan (lit., to strike the road): “to plunder travellers,” and also “to set astray”, tārāj namūdan-i amvāl-u asbāb-i musāfirān; va-gumrāh kardan.
↩383. “This wallet of four ties” means “the world”. The wallet referred to is one in which travellers carry their food. It has four flaps which fold over and are tied together. It is used opened and spread out as a tray or cloth. This wallet is likened to the world on account of its having four sides as the earth has the four cardinal points; of its forming an expanse; and of its containing provisions.
↩384. i.e., when even the pious and good are led away by the wickedness of the age.
Past, rendered “base”, seems to have here the Ṣūfī sense, Ānki na-tuvānad ba-bāl-i himmat parvāz-i ‘urūj ba-madārij-i kamālāt-i ḥaqqānī yā martaba-ī az marātib-i dīgar kunad “He who cannot on the wings of resolution fly up to the stages of spiritual perfections, or to any other grade.”
“Josephs, (fierce) wolves.” An allusion to the wolf which was reported to have devoured Joseph. (See the Qur’ān, xii., 17, 18.)
↩385. The fire of hell is supposed to be made of men’s evil deeds.
↩386. “Pour talc away,” talq-rā rīzand. Talc being an allayer or quencher of fire, the sense of rīzand here must be “pour away”, not “pour on”.
↩387. “Subjection”; i.e., subjection to God.
↩388. Lit., “How long is seven-lockedness and four-tiedness to last?” The “seven locks” are the seven skies; the “four-tie (thing)” is the earth. (See Note 383.)
↩389. By the “false blood-stained gold” are meant the stamens of the anemone.
The Author is again warning people against seeking riches.
↩390. i.e., the stamens of the wormwood do not resemble money in colour.
Note the Persian word for “wormwood”, diramna, which, divided as diram-na, means “not money”.
↩391. “The white cloud” is apparently taken as an emblem of purity and renunciation, in contradistinction to the black cloud, which has, as it were, a treasure on its head in its bright lining. If the Author means that one is not to be like the white cloud, the “treasure” must be the golden appearance which the sun often gives to the white cloud, but this is not necessarily on its head.
↩392. This may mean that the earth, which becomes only mud through the wetting of the rain from the cloud (see the next distich), becomes golden when the sun shines upon it thus wetted, and this golden reflection is the treasure alluded to. Or, since it is believed that the sun makes gold grow and develop in the stone of the mine, as it is supposed to do rubies, the reference would probably be to such gold. I have not seen, it is true, any explicit assertion in Persian writers of such a belief as regards the gold, but passages occur which seem to allude to it, and in Le Trésor de l´univers, attributed to Raymond Lulle, we read:
“Chaque étoile du ciel a son influence particulière: l’étoile du Pole sur l´aimant et sur le fer; . . . . le Soleil, sur l´or; la Lune, sur l´argent; les images des hommes du ciel, sur les corps humains; la similitude du Bélier céleste, sur les béliers terrestres.”
↩393. Tar shudan, “to become moistened or wet,” means also metaphorically “to be vexed or troubled”.
↩394. See Note 392.
The meaning is that by contemning treasure, behaving with wisdom, and practising self-denial and beneficence people become a blessing to the earth.
↩395. i.e., show your contempt for the gold and rubies which the sun is supposed to develop.
↩396. The word zar, “gold,” is formed by two consonants which are disconnected from each other in Persian writing. I have been obliged to render parāganda by two words, “worthless, scattered,” since there is no single word in English that conveys these senses of parāganda, which is equivalent here to bī-rābiṭa. Cf. the Turkish rābiṭa-syz.
↩397. In this second hemistich parāganda means “scattered” in connection with the gold, and “disturbed” with reference to the possessor of it.
↩398. i.e., on account of their wearing gold they are put into mourning, blue being a mourning colour. This is in allusion to the commonly used gold and blue ornamentation of Persian MSS.
↩399. i.e., if gold is put into one scale, stone weights are put into the other to weigh it. This the Author calls “stoning”. “At a thousand doors”; i.e., at the doors of the bankers.
↩400. A dāng was the sixth part of a diram, and weighed about six grains. A diram was a silver coin worth, by various accounts, sixpence, or from three-halfpence to twopence.
↩401. “Bears them off”; i.e., inherits them.
“The waster”; lit., “the money-killer,” sīm-kush.
“The collector”; lit., “the money-collector,” sīm-kash.
Such an assumption as is conveyed in this and the preceding distich is tantamount in Persian to an assertion of the uselessness of the act alluded to in the assumption.
↩402. I translate from the reading Ānki, “that that” or “this that”, which is preferable to the alternative reading Ānchi, “that which”, in so far as the act is spoken of in the second hemistich, not the object of the act.
Both zar, “gold,” and sīm, “silver,” mean also simply “money”.
↩403. i.e., the person who spends not for his wants has no pleasure in life: the digger of the well instead of enjoying the water is injured by it.
↩404. Lit., “is the enlivener of joy.”
↩405. By “a stone” is meant “gold”.
↩406. “That ruin” means “the world”.
↩407. Dīvs, i.e., demons, are said to inhabit ruins and wastes.
↩408. Jahān, “the world,” means also “the world’s goods”, so that the sense of the distich is, “How long would you bear the world’s goods merely as a porter might, and make them serve no useful purpose?”
↩409. “The four porters” are “the four elements”. Hence “the four porters’ house” is either “the world” or “the human body”. Here the latter sense only is applicable, and the meaning is that however much a man may collect he will bear away (to the tomb) only his own body.
↩410. “The air without (the letter) alif” is bād without the long “a” (ā), reducing thus to “bad”, which means “bad, evil, wickedness”. The meaning is that the two kinds of elements opposed to you are the earth, which is devoid of “friendliness” (ilf), i.e., “the world,” and the air without alif, i.e., “evil.”
↩411. Some editions read tāj, “crown,” but others bāḥ, which has no meaning. Hence I think that we may readily surmise bāj, “tribute,” to be the correct reading, one dot in bāḥ in the original doing the office of two.
↩412. Sīkh is presumably used here in the sense of tīr, a “rolling-pin”, tīr-i tutmāj being a rolling-pin to prepare tutmāj.
Sīkh in the sense of “spit” is quite inappropriate here, since tutmāj, translated “paste”, is not a dish which could be prepared by or cooked on a spit, being “fresh made pastry cut into strips and stewed with meat”.
↩413. Lit., “in whose stomach there is a drum”; i.e., whose stomach grumbles through emptiness.
i.e., necessaries are preferable to luxuries; or everything should have its appropriate place. (For tutmāj, see Note 412.)
↩414. Dāna-yi dur is here equivalent to dur-dāna.
↩415. i.e., greediness and covetousness lead to vexatious interference and strife with others.
↩416. Sa‘dī says in the Būstān:
“Na-y-arzad ‘asal, jān-i man, zakhm-i nīsh” : “The honey, dear friend, is not worth the wound of the sting.”
↩417. Jigar, “liver, heart,” means also “pain, grief, trouble”. “The butcher’s shop” is, of course, “the world.”
↩418. i.e., thousands fail for one that succeeds. Life is only a lottery.
“The sky” means “fortune” or “the malice of fortune”.
↩419. i.e., the world or fortune is quite uncertain and untrustworthy.
↩420. The meaning is apparently that if the gratification of a person’s wish should be destined to have contrary results it is better that the wish should not be gratified. In the frustration of his wish he would be happier than in the gratification of it. Cf. the Anvār-i Suhailī, Book III., Story 1:
Basā murād ki dar ẓimn-i nā-murādīhā-’st! “How many a gratification is involved in frustration of one’s wishes!”
The best MSS. I have consulted read nā-murādī, “frustration,” but some MSS. and printed editions have bī-murādī, “not wishing,” which is simpler, but makes the sense rather pointless.
↩421. The Author apparently implies that success gained late in life is likely to be of a more solid, self-sustaining, durable, and complete nature than that gained early in life; for cf. the next distich. In this success, which, from its implied nature, should endure to the end of life, the business of life may be said to be perfected.
↩422. i.e., How long would you waste all your energies in seeking to shine and to make all you can of yourself before the people of the world?
↩424. By “this seven-rooted tree” is meant the sky, of which the roots are, as it were, the seven earths. The sky means fortune, and the sense is “do not let yourself be dependent upon fortune: have nothing to do with it”.
“This four-nailed shoe” is the world as consisting of the four elements, and the meaning is, “have nothing to do with the world or fortune.”
↩425. “The mat-covered well” is “the world covered by the sky”. The word “stone” is used with reference to the stones employed in the construction of the well. “Dead as a stone or a mat” may possibly apply to the person admonished, and would then signify “dead or insensible to the attractions of the world or the allurements of fortune”, but I think the application to the world or fortune is preferable.
↩426. i.e., sacrifice your life for intellectual and spiritual perfection, and think not of cultivating or indulging the body.
↩427. Pīr; i.e., Ṣūfī chief. This distich is omitted by I.O. MS. 1168.
↩428. i.e., “have full and entire faith in God.”
After this distich, I.O. MS. 1168, only, has a distich of which the following is a translation:
“If you are a disciple, behold, you are in bad estate; rise from the midst, that you be isolated (from all ties).” The only sense of this can be, “you are only on the road to improvement,” but this is far from being good sense.
↩429. The Author is possibly alluding to his life of retirement, upon which Jāmī in the Nafaḥātu ’l-Uns lays much stress.
↩430. The village-chief entertains stranger guests.
It should be remembered that the king has, in a way, called Nizāmī from his retirement by asking him to write a poem. Nizāmī seems to hint here that if he does not write no one can do so in a worthy manner.
↩431. The Author possibly means that he is aiming at the poet who is a pretender.
↩432. i.e., possibly, destitute of taste, judgment and appreciation of real merit.
↩433. The Author means possibly that where he is the people prefer bad poetry to good. Turk amongst its various meanings has that of “a beauty”. Hence Turkī (here a noun, not an adjective) means “something of a beautiful or delightful nature”. The Author in the second hemistich likens this to dūgh-bā, which is here equivalent to māst, or the Turkish yōghūrt, “specially prepared thick curds of milk,” a favourite dish of the Turks.
“This Ethiopia,” or “these Ethiopians”; i.e., these uncivilized people.
↩434. “This furnace” means “the world”.
Lit., “I had any rawness”; i.e., probably, I was still somewhat inexperienced in the affairs of the world. The only other sense could be that his early work was somewhat immature, but this I think is inadmissible.
↩435. i.e., fortune, or rather plagiarists, took advantage of my inexperience and made use of the works of my genius.
Tūtiyāhā-yi ḥiṣrimī is equivalent to tūtiyā-yi ghūra, “tutty dissolved in the juice of sour grapes and applied as a remedy to strengthen the sight.”
↩436. The Author again alludes to plagiarists, of whom he complains too in the Sikandar-nāma. He seems to imply not only that they have robbed him but also that they have depreciated him.
The idea in this and the two preceding distichs, taken all together, seems to be that he has always, even from the time when he first began to write, suffered from plagiarists.
↩437. I.O. MS. 1168 and the B. ed. of 1328 read:
The sense seems to be that he, as a spiritual teacher, deserves better treatment than he implies he has received. In Ṣūfī phraseology “wine” means “the knowledge and love of God”. The Author has previously alluded to its superiority to water as a fertilizer. (See Note 312.)
↩438. The Author means possibly the quiet, retired life of the Ṣūfī recluse.
↩439. “Frozen water or ice” refers possibly to the Author, as living a quiet, retired life of contemplation, bound up, as it were, in himself.
There may possibly be some reference to him as a writer of recondite Ṣūfī poetry in his retirement—poetry which is bound up, as it were, and closed to the comprehension of the commonalty.
↩440. The reference is possibly to the reflection of the sun upon snow or ice.
↩441. i.e., ice in itself is like silver and not gold.
↩442. It seems probable from the three preceding distichs that by “silver” the Author means himself, and by “gold” the Deity, of Whom he is only a reflection, as the moon is of the sun. Cf. too the next distich.
↩443. Sīm, “silver,” without the middle letter yā is “sim”, which is like mis, “copper,” and it is identical with it when reversed.
The sense intended is probably that the creature, a reflection of the Creator, loses value by not invoking Him, yā being a vocative particle. By using the word “reversed” the Author may be pointing to the supposition of the creature’s being depraved, as well as wanting in prayer.
↩444. By “iron” the Author means probably his ṭab‘ or “poetical genius”.
By “with gold inlaid” he refers either to the dedication to the king or the latter’s patronage.
By “its silvery work” are meant the sweetness and beauty of the verse.
Or perhaps it would be more in accordance with the next distich to interpret “iron” as his “poetry”. Then “in composition” would mean “when he composes”; but this seems a little strained.
↩445. The meaning is that the Author is enriched by his poetical genius (or possibly his poetry), because, though he calls it “iron”, it has the value of “silver”, and can be sold for silver. (See the preceding distich.)
Most of the I.O. MSS. read:
Mard-iāhan-firūsh zar pūshad k’āhanīrā ba-nuqra bi-firūshad: “The dealer in iron who sells a quantity of iron for silver can dress in gold”; or, “The dealer in iron can dress in gold because he sells, etc.” I have taken the reading of I.O. MS. 1168, but conjectured bi-firūsham for na-firūsham in the second hemistich.
↩446. i.e., “(my iron is silver); alas for him whose gold is less than silver!”
↩447. Āsmān and rīsmān; i.e., “the sky” and “cord”. The words are brought together from a certain resemblance in sound, as in several English proverbial expressions.
↩448. Lit., “gold in boxfuls, and silk in ass-loads.”
↩449. i.e., since riches distribute themselves so unworthily, why should one fear their not distributing themselves at all? Farāghat is exactly the opposite of kār.
↩450. “Such a ruin” is “the world”. “Into a ewer (or cup) draw a sun,” or perhaps, “confine a sun in a ewer (or cup),” means probably “have the mind or soul in its greatness and splendour trammelled by the visible world, which is in reality so small and insignificant”.
↩451. Cf. sukhanān-i dihlīzī, “idle talk, hearsay.” The “vestibule”, dihlīz, is a passage extending from the door to the court of the house, either roofed or not. Here people would collect and gossip.
The Author apparently means here that everyone discusses the mystery of existence, and, possibly, complains of the injustice of fortune, dihlīz meaning also, as Quatremère says, “la partie antérieure des tentes, ou la première tente, celle où le sultan se tenait d´ordinaire pour donner ses audiences.”
↩452. i.e., presumably, they have tried to explain the mystery of existence and the spiritual world, but have died before succeeding.
↩453. i.e., if I have a long enough life.
↩454. i.e., to penetrate into the mysteries of the spiritual life and to avoid all the pitfalls of the phenomenal world.
↩455. i.e., the warning and summons have not yet come, and I, like others, can scarcely believe I am to take the journey.
↩456. i.e., when I am dead, and the veil of the spiritual world is raised.
↩457. i.e., how long shall I try to teach the mystery of existence, of the spiritual world, and of God, being ignorant myself? How long shall I be eloquent upon a subject through which I do not see?
↩458. i.e., you cannot attain to a knowledge of the divine by means of the eyes (of intellect), therefore forget your eyes; nor can you teach the divine mysteries, therefore keep silence. It is only by following out the Ṣūfī Path that one can commune with God.
↩459. i.e., when you attain to a knowledge of the divine by living the Ṣūfī life you will know that your intellectual strivings were vain.
↩460. i.e., abandon all your puny efforts, for the spiritual world has shaped all things on the earth, and nothing can be achieved without its preordained concurrence. (Cf. the next distich.)
↩461. Instead of du tang-i nāvardī, “two passes of dispute,” some MSS. have dukān-i nāvardī, “shop of dispute.” By “two passes of dispute” is meant the world as a place of entrance and exit where contention prevails.
↩462. i.e., while pearls, rubies, and precious metals trammel your free action, how can you hope to make rapid progress in the domain of spirituality? The heavens were supposed to move rapidly round the earth.
↩463. The “bare-backed steed” refers to the carnal or animal soul purified and denuded of all earthly ties and desires. Such a steed will bear one safely through the world. (See also Note 2,036.)
↩464. The best comment upon this is the last distich of some lines in the third chapter of the Gulistān:
“The man of God” is “the darvīsh”.
↩465. i.e., before you are dispossessed by death. It was the custom to suspend the crown above the throne.
↩466. i.e., the blossoms of virtue may fall through the dust blown by the wind of envy of others’ riches.
↩467. The “arms” of the rose are the “petals”, which are scattered by the wind.
The Author means probably that he does not want arms because he does not wish to fight for worldly possessions, and by voluntary renunciation he escapes the thorn of envy.
↩468. “The wearing of the darvīsh’s robe by his envy” is presumably “the mortification of his envy”, by which the fire of the passions of his body or carnal soul may be allayed, talc being a resistant of fire.
But some of the I.O. MSS. and the B. ed. of 1328 reverse the order of ḥasad and jasad, offering the sense, “In order that, perchance, the wearing of the darvīsh’s robe by my body may scatter talc over the fire of my envy”; i.e., “may allay the fire of my envy.” This, however, is more prosaic, and less in harmony with the preceding distich than the former reading.
↩469. i.e., through the world, by giving up envy and covetousness and renouncing all possessions.
↩470. “This ancient inn” is “the world”. It is implied that all earthly possessions are transitory, and had better be renounced before one leaves the world.
↩471. The Author means probably, escape from the bonds of the world and from all other ties, in which there is multiplicity, and boldly assert your freedom. (Cf. the next distich.)
↩472. i.e., those who have studied existence and become skilful in speech, who have learnt how to guide practice by theory, and taught what they could of existence, have died. Each one has had his day and opportunity, has performed his part, and has then disappeared.
↩473. i.e., my life is nearly at an end; you be careful in your life, which has not long begun.
↩474. A rose of the Eternal Garden; i.e., the soul.
↩475. “By the name Muhammad you are sealed”; i.e., you are well sealed, as it were, with the name Muhammad, which means “much praised or praiseworthy”.
↩476. i.e., strive to obtain conspicuous praiseworthiness.
↩477. An attack of robbers on the pilgrims to Mecca is apparently supposed, during which some needy pilgrim swallows the little gold he has in order to save it. The robbers are supposed to see this and to cut open a hundred pilgrims, suspecting them of a like act. Or it may be that the richer pilgrims, seeing the needy man committing this act, imitate him and burst.
↩478. i.e., give them no hold upon you by carelessness.
↩479. “This malignly moving hall” is the sky, i.e., fortune.
↩480. A warning against over confidence on the road of life.
↩481. A similar thought to that in the preceding distich. Though you think you are making fine and rapid progress through the world, you must beware of its pitfalls.
Bāz-i safīd, “white falcon” (falco gyrfalco), is also a term applied to the sun. (Cf. the next hemistich.)
↩482. i.e., keep a bright look out in the world.
↩483. Kamān means a “bow”, and also Sagittarius.
Tīr is an “arrow”, and also the Persian name of the planet “Mercury”.
The sense is that the world is a road where people are hunted by the skies of the planets and zodiacal signs, i.e., fortune.
↩484. i.e., though your character may be naturally strong, you have the difficulties and attractions of life to contend with, which may neutralize your efforts.
↩485. “This beast” is “the carnal or animal soul”, nafs, and the sense is that you should not so indulge it that you may not engage in laudable pursuits and pass with credit through life. (See also Note 2,036.)
↩486. Daur, “Time,” also means “Fortune”. “Two-hued” refers to the whiteness of day and the blackness of night. “Let the road, etc.”; i.e., keep up a cheerful heart.
↩487. Lit., “the root of it is gladness in the interpretation.”
But I.O. MS. 402 has, ḥāṣil-ī ān khvashī ’st dar ta‘bīr, “the result of it is gladness, or, it amounts to gladness, in the interpretation.”
↩488. i.e., either from all ties, or from all griefs.
I.O. MS. 402 has:
‘ahd bar man ki az balā rastī, “I take it upon myself (to promise) that you escape calamity.”
↩489. Gauhar-ī nīk, “the good pearl,” means also “the good nature or temperament”; and here, “the man of good nature or temperament.”
The sense is, Do not separate from such a man.
↩490. “An evil nature”; lit., “the evil origin,” meaning “the man of evil nature”.
“Nature does not err” is in Arabic, and reads, aṣl lā yukhṭī, but as the Arabic is not strictly correct, and the distich is very similar to the next one, I should be inclined to take it as an interpolation.
↩491. “The evil nature”; lit., “the evil origin” meaning “the man of evil nature”.
↩492. i.e., you will be able to bring affairs to a happy conclusion, to solve difficulties, etc.
↩493. i.e., he who is not predestined to be learned is prevented from becoming so by being ashamed of acquiring knowledge.
↩494. “The Seven Climes” into which Oriental geographers divided the whole inhabited world as known to them. (See Notes 207, 1,146, and 1,147.)
↩495. The Author is evidently alluding to verses 4 and 5 of chapter v. of the Qur’ān:
“. . . . and that which beasts of prey have (partly) eaten . . . . is forbidden you. . . .
. . . . But he who is constrained by severe hunger, and has no inclination to transgress,—truly God is forgiving, merciful.” By “has no inclination to transgress” is meant, does not wilfully incline to the sin of unlawful food, and to eating more of it than is necessary to sustain life.
The sense of the distich is that by a knowledge of the holy Law one may know that even unlawful food is sometimes lawful, and by such knowledge be justified in eating it.
↩496. The reference is to the dog of the Seven Sleepers, which became a man by following them. Cf. Sa‘dī’s Gulistān:
Sag-i aṣḥāb-i kahf rūzī chand pay-i nīkān girift-u mardum shud: “The dog of the Companions of the Cave for a few days followed the good, and became a man.”
↩497. For Khiẓr, see Notes 274, 1,201, 1,562, and 1,698.
↩ 498. Cf. again the aphorism
499. “Life’s Water” or “the Water of Life”, Āb-i Ḥayāt, is also called Ab-i ḥaivān, “the Water of the living animal.”
The meaning of the distich is that the Water of Life is not the mere animal life, but has to do with the rational soul which is immortal for him who knows its nature.
↩501. i.e., “the soul” and “the reason”, nafs and ‘aql, are one in “the spirit”, rūḥ, which comes from God.
“In which (i.e., in the one) you have these two,” observes the Author; but he has implied that it is only if you cultivate the rational soul and learn to know its nature, and so know God, that you live eternally. (Cf. the last three distichs.)
↩502. i.e., the soul and reason must be in you only one, the spirit, which comes from God as absolutely one in the Universal Spirit. The soul in its formative faculty inclines to special incarnation, and the result is separation. By renouncing everything belonging to the phenomenal world, the body, and the carnal soul, and by giving up all desires, you become again one in the unity of the spirit, and, in fine, attain to the position of the Universal Spirit, and to ultimate union with, or rather immersion in, God.
↩503. “Lose the two”; lit., “throw low for the two (as it were in dice).”
↩504. In the position of Universal Spirit you will be above earth and heaven.
↩505. Before the last distich I.O. MS. 1168 has on the margin:
“Abandon three, for it is a blamable act (to retain them); abandon also two, for it is inauspicious (to keep them).” This is evidently a variant of the present distich.
“Three” generally would signify a trinity, and more especially the Christian Trinity, but here it possibly means the trinity of percipiens, perceptum, and perceptio, the perceiving subject, the perceived object, and the act of perception.
The Ṣūfī recognizes these three as an absolute unity.
“Two” generally would mean the Duality of Zoroastrianism, but it seems unlikely that the Author is warning his son against this; hence the meaning here is probably that explained in Notes 501 and 502.
The Author, however, may be making a transition to the subject of revealed religions, and warning his son against all those which do not teach the absolute unity inculcated by the teaching of Islām, and, in a deeper sense, by that of Ṣūfīsm. (See the next distich but one.)
↩506. See the last Note.
↩507. Sālis salāsa is from the Arabic thālithu thalāthatin, “a third one of three,” i.e., “a Person of the Trinity”; but it is used to express one who acknowledges a Trinity of three Persons, i.e., a Christian. Here, however, it seems used in the sense of Trinitarianism. (See the last distich but one.)
“You’ll not bear o´er the sky the ball of Unity”; i.e., you will not rise above the heavens in your appreciation of the Unity.
↩508. The Author seems to be hinting at revealed religions here by the words “fables” and “medium”. When you have found the unity of all things in God you have all, you are saved. No words of religion are required, no medium is wanted for your possession of that unity, or rather your existence in and as it.
↩509. I.O. MS. 1168, and the B. ed. of 1328 for māya, “capital, origin, root of a thing,” have pāya, “rank, grade, dignity.”
↩510. A person of graceful and straight figure is often likened to a cypress.
“Remedy”; lit., “mummy,” which was supposed to be efficacious in many maladies, including fractures.
↩511. “My tulips”; i.e., “my cheeks.” “My violets”; i.e., “my hair.”
↩512. i.e., powerless to act either as lord or servant.
↩513. I.O. MS. 1168 has aḥmarak, “a little ruddy man,” but most MSS. read Aḥmadak, “little Aḥmad,” which I presume would mean here a little man below the normal size.
Aḥmadak is absurdly explained by Steingass as “a handsome youth who has become pock-marked”. This looks like a misconception of the distich in question.
↩514. i.e., the protecting shadow of the king.
↩515. i.e., my accomplishments, my merit, and sincerity are my shield in the world. (Cf. the next distich.)
↩516. I am making the best of I.O. MS. 777,
Hīch kas pīsh na-n’garam bā man. 1168 has,
Hīch kas na-n’garam zi man bā man. 402 does not include the distich. 1491 has,
Hīch kas nīst na-n’garad bā man. The B. ed. of 1328 has,
Hīch kas nīst bi-n’garam tā man.
This last may be rendered,
“There is no person I see up to myself,” where “up to myself” would probably mean “excluding myself”.
↩517. “This stigma”; lit., “this calamity or evil”; i.e., “the calamity of this impression.”
I.O. MS. 1168 seems to offer the only probable reading in the first hemistich. It has,
Na-ki īn sikka naqd-i mā dārad, reading, however, na-ki in one word, naki.
↩518. Lit., “give me the mummy,” a remedy used in many maladies, including fractures.
↩519. This may be a reference to the Qur’ān, xx., 27,
Wa-yassir lī amr-ī, “and make my work easy for me.”
Or it is possibly a reference to the prayer, Rabb-ī, yassir, wa-lā tu‘assir, “O my Lord, make (it) easy, and not difficult.”
↩520. Ḥalvā. (See Note 1,459.)
↩521. The “sharp dagger” is “the white streak of the dawn”.
↩522. i.e., write the poem.
↩523. i.e., the author of the poem.
↩524. “Two-coloured,” in respect of day and night.
↩525. Et rubinus et flavi coloris lapis hic fortasse membrum virile significant.
“An amber-coloured (stone);” lit., “an amber-coloured thing.”
↩526. Yazdijard I., surnamed Al-Athīm, “The Sinner,” has been generally represented by Oriental historians as a cruel and intolerant prince. Western historians on the other hand generally speak well of him. That he was not tolerant is evident from the fact that he first persecuted the Zoroastrians in favour of Christianity, to which he had leanings, and later the Christians, through fear of their excessive zeal and of rebellion amongst his Zoroastrian subjects.
In the Siyāsat-nāma of Nizāmu ’l-Mulk (see Note 309) a detailed account of his death by the kick of a mysterious horse is given. He had reigned from A.D. 399 to 420, and was succeeded by his son Bahrām V.
For accounts of him consult Firdausī’s Shāh-namā, Mīrkhvānd, Ṭabarī, Sir John Malcolm’s History of Persia, and Canon Rawlinson’s Seventh Oriental Monarchy.
↩527. “One struck”; i.e., Yazdijard oppressed his subjects.
“The other cherished”; i.e., Bahrām cherished his subjects.
“Rock with ruby.” An allusion to the ruby’s supposed growing in the rock or stone.
“Spines with dates.” The “spines”, khār, often spoken of in connexion with dates, are those on the stem of the date-palm.
↩528. “A remedy”; lit., “mummy,” used in various maladies, including fractures.
↩529. Lit., “the first day the dawn, etc.”; i.e., when Bahrām was born, and the dark night of tyranny was changed to the dawn of justice by his birth and promising horoscope.
↩530. i.e., the alchemists of the sky, the astrologers.
↩531. i.e., they scarcely expected to find a good horoscope for Yazdijard’s son.
↩532. i.e., the son promised to be a great contrast to his father.
↩533. In this and the following four distichs the horoscope of Bahrām is very lightly and imperfectly sketched.
It is of course supposed to be entirely favourable, but as regards the “aspects” of the planets to one another nothing definite can be deduced owing to the fact that the Author, though assigning certain planets to certain zodiacal “houses”, does not state in degrees the position of each planet. Since, however, the horoscope is supposed to be entirely favourable, we should conclude that the “aspects” are good, and as a matter of fact they can, I think, be so placed in the “houses” of the signs in which they are situated as to be so.
With regard to the position of the planets the following remarks may be made:
The sun is in “strength” or “exaltation” in Aries. This indicates that the higher spirit has full force, and inclines to all that is lofty and aspiring. Aries implies impulse, assertiveness, generosity, and intuition. The moon is in exaltation in Taurus. She represents generally receptivity. “She is,” says Alan Leo, “the collector of aspects and influences, and acts only in accordance with the sign that she is in, having no definite nature of her own; she is in fact coloured, as it were, by the sign through which she passes. . . . Her office and mission is to reflect the light. As she passes out from the sun she gathers up the influences on her way until she reaches the full; thence she returns later with the fruits of experience to the sun.” She will thus, being in exaltation in Taurus, give full effect to the influences of that sign, which are fearlessness, strong will, constancy, and determination.
“Mercury,” says the same author, “depends chiefly upon aspects to other planets and to position, but in the main is imaginative, sharp, witty, logical, oratorical, and studious.” He, in fact, governs imagination, thought, wisdom, and eloquence.
Being in exaltation in Gemini, all these qualities are confirmed by the nature of that sign, which is dualistic, restless, and intellectual.
Venus, representing love, refinement, fondness for pleasure and art, has also full force, being in exaltation in Pisces, which is emotional, kind, and generous. She and Jupiter together are the “ruling planets”, being in the house of the “ascendant” Pisces.
“Venus is considered,” says Alan Leo, “the most fortunate planet under which to be born. It will awaken the love and emotional side of the nature of those under its influence. . . . It will also give them a keen appreciation of art and beauty, and stimulate all the pleasure-loving inclinations. They will be attended by fortune, more or less, throughout the whole life’s journey, and, even when under some adverse fate, their star will be shining behind the blackest cloud.”
The ascendant Pisces, in which Venus is in exaltation, would enhance the emotional tendency. With Venus is conjoined Jupiter as joint ruler in his own sign Pisces.
This, says Alan Leo, “will give an abundance of life and vitality. Those born under its influence are cheery and hopeful in disposition, possessing a noble and generous spirit. . . . They are faithful, prudent, just, and honourable.”
Since Jupiter, being in Pisces, is in his own “house”, the influence of the sign would be to increase the tendency to kindness and generosity. With regard to Mars and Saturn nothing can, I think, be said, except that if in opposition, as one may possibly deduce from the description, they might tend to correct each other to some extent. Those subject to Mars are bold, impulsive, aggressive, contentious, sensual and lavish, whilst those subject to Saturn are cautious, reflective, constant, patient, chaste, and economical. Saturn being in its own house, Aquarius, would be strengthened by that sign’s qualities, which are intellectual and retentive, studious and thoughtful. I do not know what is meant by the statement that the tail of Draco is turned towards Saturn. Amongst the planetary symbols, Alan Leo in his Practical Astrology includes the head and the tail of Draco, but he does not say anything about their respective influences.
↩534. In the first hemistich in the words “that region” the stress is, I think, rather laid on “that”. Then in the second hemistich the Arabic proverb would mean wherever there are “regions or cities”, biqā‘, there are “states”, duval, and that no particular region is required to give state. Wa-’llāhu a‘lam!
↩535. I.O. MS. 402 offers, I think, the best reading:
Pidar az mihr-i zindagāni-yi ū dūr shud rū zi-mihrbāni-yi ū, but z-ū should of course be read for rū in the second hemistich. In the first hemistich too I should suggest bahr for mihr, but this is not absolutely necessary. With mihr one would render,
“His father through love of his life.” The other I.O. MSS. I have consulted read in the second hemistich,
This would mean “became at some distance, so that he could not indulge in his love for him”.
↩536. “Canopus,” a star of the first magnitude in the rudder of the constellation Argo, a Argus. It is often associated with Yaman, Arabia Felix, over which it is said to shine with peculiar brightness.
“Canopus-like”; i.e., associated with Yaman as Canopus, or bright and exalted as Canopus; or both.
↩537. Nu‘mān was the ruler of the small kingdom of Ḥīra in ‘Irāq ‘Arabī (Babylonia), which was subject to Persia until conquered by Khālid under Abū Bakr, the first Khalif, in A.D. 633. The chief town, Ḥīra, according to Canon G. Rawlinson, lay almost due south of the town of Kūfa, in about latitude 31° 50' N. and longitude 44° 20' E.
Istakhrī, the geographer (about A.D. 950), however, places it about four miles north-west of Kūfa and the western branch of the Euphrates. It is a mistake of Nizāmī’s to say that Nu‘mān was king of Yaman in South Arabia.
↩538. Lāla-yi la‘l, “the anemone of ruby,” i.e., “the ruby anemone,” is called lāla-yi Nu‘mān, and shaqā´iq-i Nu‘mān, “the anemone of Nu‘mān.” It is said to have received the last two names on account of its having been a favourite flower of one of the kings of Ḥīra named Nu‘mān.
Nu‘mān is here likened to “the garden” as the destined guardian of Bahrām, “the ruby anemone.”
↩539. i.e., strewed or scattered the flowers of education and care in bringing him up.
“A Nu‘mānian anemone”; i.e., one cultivated, fostered, and developed, as it were, by Nu‘mān.
↩540. The first “litter” means a room in the king’s palace, or the palace itself.
“The moon”; i.e., Bahrām.
↩541. i.e., Munẕir, the son of Nu‘mān.
The kings of Ḥīra were named in regular alternate succession Nu‘mān and Munẕir, Munẕir and Nu‘mān.
↩542. i.e., grow up, gaining strength.
↩543. Lit., “in such a search.”
↩544. It seems from the following distich that they sought not only a high place but also a suitable fort or castle upon it. I think therefore that sāz in this distich may be conveniently rendered “fort or castle”, though it really signifies “suitable means or appliances, or anything fitted for a business”.
↩545. I.O. MS. 1168, and the B. ed. of 1328 have, ānchunān jā, “such a place,” but the other I.O. editions which I have consulted read, ānchunān diz, “such a castle or fort.”
↩546. Rūm is a name which was formerly applied to the whole territories of the lower or eastern Roman empire and Asia Minor. The name has in modern times been given by the Persians to the Ottoman empire.
It may also be often conveniently rendered Greece. (See also Note 700.)
↩547. i.e., could fashion stone as he pleased.
↩548. Sām, the grandfather of Rustam, the Persian champion. (For Rustam see Notes 212, 1,035, and 2,078.)
↩549. “Ornamentists.” The word so rendered is naqqāsh, “a sculptor, an engraver, a painter.”
↩551. “The astrolabian spider,” i.e., “the spider of the astrolabe,” is the centre of the plate of the astrolabe called the rete, which latter is similar to a spider’s web. On it are given the positions of the fixed stars and of the signs of the zodiac. The distich signifies that by means of the astrolabe he had mapped out the sky. (See Chaucer’s Treatise on the Astrolabe.)
↩552. Pliny; in Persian, Balīnās.
↩553. A talisman is a magic image which is supposed to have the power to hinder people from approaching places near which it is put, and also to prevent people from finding buried treasures. The belief in them may no doubt be traced to the Accadians who preceded the Semites in Chaldæa. (See also Note 1,490.)
↩554. “The veiled ones of the sky”; i.e., “the stars.”
“The moon’s night-raids, the sun’s hostility”; i.e., the evil influences of the moon and the sun.
↩555. i.e., when Nu‘mān, moved by the reputation of Simnār, became eager for his presence.
↩556. Lit., “he made his business right.”
↩557. “Iron-like.” Āhan-band means literally “iron-jointed, iron-plated”, and also “iron-binding”.
The term may apply both to the resolution with which he conducted the work, and also to the hard labour he expended upon it, as well as perhaps to some of the material, “iron,” which he used in the work.
↩558. “Clay,” gil; presumably, gil-i ḥikmat, “mud-cement.”
↩559. The palace is likened to one of the skies on account, no doubt, of having a dome. It is a sky in repose whilst the skies are circling round it in constant movement.
↩560. i.e., one round which the universe revolves: the centre or pivot of the universe.
↩All the I.O. MSS. and printed editions are very corrupt in the beginning of this second hemistich, but the word tangalūshā may undoubtedly be evolved from them. Tangalūshā means the paintings, school, or work of Zeuxis, the Grecian painter, who flourished from 425 to 400 B.C.
Under the corrupted name Lōshā (modern Lūshā) he enjoyed amongst the Persians as great celebrity as the famous painter Mānī (Manes), the founder of Manichæism.
Tang, it should be added, means “paintings, school, or work”, but Artang (the fuller form of the word) meant originally the book of the religious teachings of Mānī adorned by his paintings.
↩562. Iṣāba, rendered “head dress”, is “a band, fillet, or kerchief bound round the head”.
↩563. i.e., its roof was highly varnished.
↩564. “For more or less time.”
This, I think, is the most probable sense of az shitāb-u dirang, lit., “of hastiness or slowness.” It can scarcely have a subjective signification.
↩565. A bride, presumably, in the course of the day appeared in dress of three different colours, each assumed at a different time.
↩566. “The three-coloured silk which circles round” is “the sky”, which was supposed to move rapidly round the earth.
↩567. i.e., it took its colour from the atmosphere. The Author means probably that in the day time it was mostly white, and at night black. But the distich as a resumé of those which precede it is impossible, and it is equally impossible taken in any other way. It appears to want before it a distich, though I have not found any except in I.O. MS. 1168, which gives,
Chunki khvarshīd dar ghurūb shudī āsmān-vār bī ‘uyūb shudī.
This, however, does not offer much sense, and simply suggests that some distich was at least felt to be required here.
↩568. i.e., the artist must be encouraged and stimulated by generosity.
“The meat,” kabāb, which is, generally, roast, baked, or broiled meat. More particularly, as here, it means pieces of meat roasted on a spit or skewer. (See also Note 1,340.)
↩569. i.e., no one can have nobility and greatness of character who is not generous.
A diram was a silver coin worth about twopence. At an earlier time in history it was worth about sixpence. The word is used in a general sense for “money”.
↩570. “In these bounds”; i.e., “within these limits of the castle.” Or it might be, “in this district or region.”
“Chinese work.” The Chinese artists, as well as the Grecian, were held in high estimation by the Persians. Here, however, “Chinese work” means probably work as beautiful as that of Chinese artists.
↩571. “When I designed,” or possibly, “when I set to work,” or “when I determined”, the expression ba-vaqt-i basīch being ambiguous.
↩572. Yāqūt means ruby, sapphire, or topaz, according as it is qualified by the adjective red, blue, or yellow, but when without such qualifying adjective it signifies ruby.
↩573. Lit., “shows its face in one-domedness.”
↩574. “The sky”; i.e., the seven different skies of the seven planets.
↩575. i.e., the danger comes from close connexion.
↩576. “Root and branch,” bīkh-u bār; lit., “root and fruit,” or “root and blossoms”. Or bār might be taken as a synonym and corroborative of bīkh.
↩577. “The object of his work,” nishāna-yi kār-ash, means first, “the castle,” and secondly, “the reward expected.”
↩578. Gaz, an ell of 42 inches, or a cubit of about 26 inches.
↩579. i.e., that death would come from falling from the roof of the building if it were high.
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