[The following analyses of some of the poetical works of Amír Khusrú, with the copious extracts, are all the work of Sir H. Elliot. Mr. Blochmann, the present learned and active secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, has just declared that “it would be of interest to examine Khusrú's Khazáínu-l futúh and the Kiránu-s Sa'dain from a historical point of view.”* That examination Sir H. Elliot made twenty-five years ago, nor did he confine his investigations to these two works of the great poet. He carefully perused other poems of this most copious writer. By his brief abstracts he has given a general notion of the character and contents of each work, and he has translated those passages which have an historical interest.
In the notice preceding the extracts from the Táríkh-i 'Aláí (suprà, p. 67), he has given a short account of the author, and of that prose work, which after all is more of a poem than a history. Amír Khusrú, the “Parrot of Hind,” whose name was Yamínu-d dín Muhammad Hasan, was one of the most prolific poets that the world has ever produced, for he is said to have left behind him “some half million of verses.”* Without answering for the accuracy of this prodigious number, a mere glance at the list of his productions, or a perusal of the following extracts, will establish the boundless fertility of his muse. He was born in 651 A.H. (1253 A.D.), and died in 725 H. (1325 A.D.). His father was a military chief, and he himself was attached to the Court. “He lived in a stirring time,” when the Mughals were making reiterated efforts to work their way into India. He fell a prisoner into their hands, as we have been told by Barní (suprá, p. 122), and the frequent references made to him by that author prove the esteem and honour in which he was held.]