Sháyad ki ba'd-i-khidmat-i-dah sál dar 'Iráq
Nán-am hanúz Khusraw-i-Mázandarán dihad.
“Perhaps after ten years' service in 'Iráq
The Prince of Mázandarán may still provide me with bread.”
*
He also visited Iṣfahán, but, being displeased with his reception
by the chief judge of that city, Ṣadru'd-Dín 'Abdu'l-Laṭíf
of Khujand, he remained there only a short while. Mujíru'd-
“If by robes of rich brocades a man may claim to be the best,
Shall we count as man the lizard or the wolf in satin dressed?”
*
Towards the end of his life Dhahír, like so many other panegyrists,
renounced the life of Courts and retired into pious
seclusion at Tabríz, where he died at the end of A.D. 1201,
*
and, as we have seen, was buried in the cemetery of Surkháb
by the side of Kháqání and Sháhfúr-i-Ashharí. His poems,
however, show no trace of religious feeling, and are conspicuously
worldly in their tone, so that, if indeed he repented
at the end of his life, we must suppose that his renunciations
included the practice of his art.
I have taken the trouble to read through the manuscript of his poems mentioned above, but the result is disappointing, the references to current events or dates being very few, and the verse nearly always of the same polished, graceful, rather insipid kind characteristic of Persian Court-poets, without the occasional outbursts of invective, satire, or deep feeling which redeem the poems of Anwarí and Kháqání. The qaṣídas and fragments, with a few ghazals, amount to 185, and these are followed by 97 quatrains. The Díwán also contains at least one panegyric on Qizil Arslán in mathnawí form, but no mathnawís proper.
The kings and princes to whom these poems are addressed
(so far as they are indicated in the course of the poems, for
Patrons of
Dhahír.
there are no explanatory titles) are as follows:—
'Aḍudu'd-Dín Ṭughánsháh b. Mu'ayyad,
*
called
“King of the East” (Khusraw-i-Sharq and
Malik-i-Sharq), seven or eight poems; Ḥusámu'd-Dín Ardashír
b. Ḥasan, King of Mázandarán,
*
three poems; Akhtisán
Shirwánsháh (Kháqání's patron), one poem; Qizil Arslán b.
Íldigiz, Atábek of Ádharbayján,
*
eleven poems, besides two
further allusions to his death; Nuṣratu'd-Dín Abú Bakr
Bíshkín b. Muḥammad b. Íldigiz, nephew and successor of
Qizil Arslán, thirty-five poems; Ṭughril [b. Arslán], the last
ruler of the House of Seljúq in Persia,
*
one poem. Other
persons addressed are:—Bahá'u'd-Dín Abú Bakr Sayyidu'r-
“They say that Dhahír went for a tour from Níshápúr to Iṣfahán. At that juncture Ṣadru'd-Dín 'Abdu'l-Laṭíf of Khujand was the chief judge, and one of the most notable men of that country. One day Dhahír attended his audience, and observed that the places of honour were occupied by scholars and men of learning. He, having proffered his salutations, seated himself, like a humble stranger, in a [modest] place; but, not receiving such attention as he expected, he was vexed, and handed to the Ṣadr the following fragment of poetry which he had extemporised:—
‘Riches, Your Eminence, are not so great
That they with pride your heart should thus inflate.
Virtue you have, and science: wherefore be
So proud of adventitious luxury?
Scholars of talent how can you despise?
Your own distinction in your talents lies!…
Hear now my counsel, though it hurt your pride,
And strive to make it in your life a guide.
Each for the wrongs which he has wrought one day
Must give redress, and you must cast away
That shield of self-complacency whereby
You seek to safeguard your position high,
Else of all sins for which you will be judged
You most shall fear for kindly words begrudged!’*
“Thereafter, notwithstanding all the attention and civility which the Ṣadr showed him, he would not remain in Iṣfahán, but went to Ádharbayján, where he was generously patronised by the Atábek Mudhaffaru'd-Dín Muḥammad b. Íldigiz.”
This story does not altogether agree with the fact that several poems are addressed to the Ṣadr, in one of which the poet speaks of having attended for two years at this “fortunate threshold,” and begs his patron not to allow him, the possessor of “a thousand treasures of talent,” to be in need of the patronage of “a parcel of low fellows.” It seems much more probable that the poet, after remaining for two or three years at Iṣfahán, was disgusted at not receiving as much favour as he had expected from the Ṣadr, and therefore determined to seek his fortune in Ádharbayján.
Although we cannot fill in the details, the main outlines
of Dhahír's life are clear enough. He began to write
poetry while still resident in his native town of Fáryáb,
which in one poem he speaks of as his “dwelling-place”
(maskan). Thence he seems to have gone to Níshápúr,
in praise of whose ruler, Ṭughánsháh, the son of Mu'ay-
Apart from the persons addressed (several of whom, unfortunately, I am unable to identify), we find here and there more explicit references to the poet's circumstances. Thus in one poem, written, probably, towards the end of his sojourn in Níshápúr, he says:—
Mará bi-muddat-i-shish sál ḥirṣ-i-'ilm u adab
Bi-khákdán-i-Nishápúr kard zindání;
Bi-har hunar ki kasí nám burd dar 'álam
Chunán shudam ki na-dáram bi-'ahd-i-khud thání.
“For a period of six years desire for science and culture
Has kept me imprisoned in this dust-heap of Níshápúr;
In every accomplishment which any one has mentioned in the
world
I have become such that I have no second in my time.”
In the same poem I find an allusion which, in conjunction with another passage, inclines me to think that Dhahír was one of those who ridiculed poor Anwarí on account of his unfortunate astrological prediction for September, A.D. 1186, for he mentions:—
Risálatí ki zi inshá-i-khud firistádam
Bi-majlis-i-tu bi-ibṭál-i-ḥukm-i-ṭúfání—