Jámí, a better judge than Dawlatsháh, is more guarded in his praise of Kátibí, of whom he says in the seventh chapter of his Baháristán that he had many original ideas which he expressed in an original way, but that his verse was unequal and uneven—“cats and camels” (shutur gurba). I possess a good manuscript of his Díwán (hitherto, so far as I know, unpublished) dated 923/1517 and containing nearly 3000 verses, odes, fragments and quatrains. As usual the fragments are the most personal, and therefore, from the biographical point of view, the most interesting, though unfortunately ignorance of the persons and circumstances to which they refer often render a full appreciation impossible. Of these fragments my MS. contains 105 (ff. 104^b-115^b), mostly consisting of only two verses, of which only two can be precisely dated. The first records the death by violence of Minúchihr Sháh in 825/1422, and the second the death of Mír 'Ádil Sháh in 827/1424. The following have been selected as presenting some special feature of interest. The first is remarkable only on account of the ingenious rhyme and alliteration:

“O heart, if thou wouldst ride on the road of honour, swiftly gallop
the steed of ambition into the arena of contentment.
That thy heart may become acquainted with the mystery of everything
that is, cast the cash of thy being in full at the feet of the mystics.
If the substance of thy soul be diminished when thou siftest the dust of
poverty, suffer not dust from this road [to settle] on thy heart,
but sift again.
And if thou knowest rightly the occasions for sitting and rising, * sit
if thou wilt in Armenia, or rise up if thou wilt in Abkház.

The alliterations táz tíz, ráz ríz, báz bíz, and Abkház khíz are very ingenious, though otherwise the lines are not remarkable. The reference in the following fragment may be to the poet Salmán of Sáwa himself, * or possibly to Kátibí's contemporary 'Árifí of Herát, who, as Mír 'Alí Shír tells us in his Majálisu'n-Nafá'is, was called by his admirers “the second Salmán.”

“Those people who advance a claim on behalf of Salmán, why do they
take objection to my verse?
The verse of me the illuminated and then Salmán's poetry…—I say
nothing; all men can see [the difference for themselves]!”

In the following squib the Kamál referred to may be Kamál of Khujand, but is more probably Kátibí's contemporary Kamálu'd-Dín Ghiyáth al-Fársí of Shíráz, * while Khusraw and Ḥasan are presumably the two eminent poets of Dihlí already noticed.*

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“If Ḥasan stole ideas from Khusraw, one cannot prevent him,
For Khusraw is a master, nay, more than the masters!
And if Kamál stole Ḥasan's ideas from his Díwán
One can say nothing to him: a thief has fallen on a thief!”

The two following pleasant quips, which help to explain Kátibí's unpopularity with his colleagues, are addressed to a contemporary poet named Badr (“Full Moon”). Dawlat-sháh, who accords him a brief notice, * tells us that this Badr was for many years the principal poet of Shírwán, where, as we have seen, Kátibí established himself for a time. Dawlatsháh gives the first of the two following fragments as a specimen of the literary duels which took place between these two, and adds that though some critics prefer Badr's poetry to Kátibí's, the people of Samarqand hold a contrary opinion.

<text in Arabic script omitted>*

“I have the title Kátibí, O Badr, but Muḥammad is the name which
came to me from heaven;
Muḥammad became my name, and thou art Badr; with my finger
I will tear thine asunder.” * <text in Arabic script omitted>

“Yesterday I said to the ill-conditioned little Badr, ‘Thou art no poet!
He who is of the poets, him should one encourage.’
‘In every city,’ he replied, ‘I have hung up * a poem’:
One who produces such poetry ought [himself] to be hung!”

The following, on the other hand, is a tribute to the skill shown by Abú Isḥáq (Busḥáq) of Shíráz * in the gastronomic poems contained in his Díwán-i-Aṭ'ima:

“Shaykh Busḥáq (may his luxury endure!) dished up hot the idea of
foods:
He spread a table of luxuries: all are invited to his table.”

The following satire on a poet named Shams-i-'Alá is imitated, and indeed partly borrowed, from a well-known poem by 'Ubayd-i-Zákání: * <text in Arabic script omitted>

“Shams-i-'Alá hath at length departed from the world, he who now
and again used to be taken into account.
He hath departed and left behind him a Díwán of verse; even
that would not be left if it were of any use!”

In the following he accuses the poet Símí, * who taught him calligraphy, of plagiarism:

“When Símí saw the tasteful poems of Kátibí in the city of Níshápúr
He went to Mashhad and produced them in his own name: he ate
the salt and stole the salt-cellar!”

Here is another denunciation of plagiarists:

“He is no poet who, when he produces verses, brings together images
from the poems of the masters;
No house which is made of old bricks stands on so firm a foundation
as a new house.”

Here is a gentle hint to one of his royal patrons to see that he gets his full allowance of wine at the banquet:

“O Prince, thou art he on account of the weight of whose love the
back of the arch of the Placeless is bowed even as the vault of
Heaven!
Our share of favour is not lacking out of thy abounding liberality, but
the wine they bring is of short measure, like the life of thine
enemy.”

Finally here is an epigram addressed to his pen:

“Alack at the hands of my pitch-stained pen, which showed forth
my secret to foe and friend!
I said, ‘I will cut its tongue that it may become dumb’: I did so,
and it waxed more eloquent than before.”*

There are references to other places, such as Sárí in Mázandarán, and to other individuals whom I cannot identify, such as Khwája Niẓám, 'Abdu'r-Raḥmán, a poet named Amín, and Shápúr, Jamshíd and Ardashír, who were perhaps Zoroastrians, since the first two of the three are mentioned in connection with wine. The last seems to have been a rebel against the king of Shírwán, who, having got him into his power, hesitated between killing and blinding him; whereon the poet advises the latter course in these verses:

“O king, do not kill the rebel Ardashír, although he hath broken the
support of Shírwán:
Thou didst ask, ‘Shall I kill him, or apply the needle to his eyes?’
It is not good to kill; blind the devil!”