But for the principle embodied in the well-known Arabic saying, “the Words of Kings are the Kings of Words,” and The Majálisu'l­'Ushsháq the fact that another royal biographer, Sám Mírzá the Ṣafawí, has described it as supplying adequate proof of its author's literary gifts, * this book, “the Conferences of Lovers,” compiled by Sulṭán Ḥusayn in 908-9/1502-3, hardly deserves to be mentioned as a serious biographical work. Beginning with a flowery Preface, filled with citations from the mystical poets, on “real” (i.e. ideal) and “metaphorical” (i.e. material) love, and the latter considered as a bridge to the former, * the author proceeds to give 76 (or in some MSS. 77) articles, each entitled Majlis (“Conference” or “Séance”), and each containing a more or less romantic account of some saintly or royal personage, and, in most cases, of some Platonic love-affair in which he was concerned. As Rieu has pointed out, the first 55 articles follow a chronological order, be­ginning with the Imám Ja'far aṣ-Ṣádiq (d. 151/768), and ending with the author's contemporary the eminent poet Jámí (d. 898/1492-3). The last notice in the book is devoted to the author himself “Sulṭán Ḥusayn ibn Sulṭán Manṣúr ibn Báyqará ibn 'Umar Shaykh ibn Tímúr Kúrkán.” The title of the book, Majálisu'l-'Ushsháq, is given in the following verse:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

The only copy of this book which I have been able to consult is a modern but clearly written manuscript bearing the class-mark Or. 761 recently acquired by the Cambridge University Library, but I am informed that a lithographed edition has been published at Lucknow.

It should be added, however, that the great Bábur disputes the authorship of this book (Bábur-náma, ed. Ilminsky, p. 221), which he criticizes very harshly, and which he declares was really written by Kamálu'd-Dín Ḥusayn Gázargáhí, one of the pseudo-Ṣúfís who frequented the society and enjoyed the patronage of Mír 'Alí Shír Nawá'í. To this point I shall recur in discussing the work in question.

Ḥusayn-i-Káshifí, surnamed Wá'iẓ (“the Preacher”), is better known as the author of that famous but over-esti- The Rawḍatu 'sh-Shuhadá of Ḥusayn Wá'iẓ-i-Káshifí mated work the Anwár-i-Suhaylí, of which we shall speak presently; but his “Mausoleum” (or “Garden”) “of Martyrs,” which depicts in a rhetorical manner the persecutions and martyr­doms of the Prophets and Imáms, especially of the Prophet Muḥammad's grandson Ḥusayn, the third Imám of the Shí'ites, and the vengeance which overtook their perse­cutors, though of no great account from a historical point of view, deserves mention in this place. It is fully described by Rieu, * and has been lithographed at Lahore in 1287/ 1870-1. It was translated into Turkish by the poet Fuḍúlí of Baghdad, * with some additions, about half a century after its original composition.

This work, though composed in 909/1503-4 (a date indicated by the first word of its title Rashaḥát, or “Sprink- The Rashaḥát-i­'Aynu'l-Ḥayát lings”) and therefore falling just outside the period dealt with in this chapter, had best be considered here, since its author 'Alí was the son of Ḥusayn-i-Káshifí, the author of the work last men­tioned, while it was based on notes taken in Dhu'l-Qa'da 889 (Nov.-Dec. 1484) and Rabí' ii 893 (March-April, 1488) on the occasion of the writer's visits to Khwája 'Ubay-du'lláh (better known as Khwája Aḥrár), the great Naqsh-bandí Shaykh, whose predecessors, life, teachings, miracles and disciples form its subject-matter. A manuscript of this book is preserved in the British Museum and is fully described by Rieu, * but it is not common, and, so far as I know, has never been published in its original form, though a Turkish translation was printed at Constantinople in 1236/1820-1.