‘Báysunghur hath become the beggar in thy street:
The king is the beggar in the street of the fair.’

“It is related that, in the time of Sulṭán Báysunghur, Khwája Yúsuf of Andakán had no peer in song and minstrelsy throughout the Seven Climes. His notes, sweet as David's song, lacerated the soul, while his ‘Royal Mode’ * sprinkled salt on wounded hearts. On several occasions Sulṭán Ibráhím the son of Sháh-rukh sent from Shíráz to ask for Khwája Yúsuf from Báysunghur Sulṭán, who, however, raised difficulties. Finally he sent a hundred thousand dínárs in cash in order that Mírzá Báysunghur might send Khwája Yúsuf for him, but Báy-sunghur answered his brother in this verse:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

‘We will not sell our Yúsuf [Joseph]: keep thy black silver!’

“Between Ulugh Beg Kúrkán, Báysunghur Bahádur and Ibráhím Sulṭán there passed many pleasant sayings and much correspondence which transcend the scope of this Memoir, but faithless Fortune and the cruel Sphere laid hands on the life of that joyous prince in the days of his youth, nor did the ministers of Fate and Destiny take pity on his immaturity. One night, by the decree of the Lord of lords, through excess of wine he was overwhelmed by the deep sleep of death, of which the inhabitants of Herát supposed apoplexy to be the cause.

‘They say that death is a strange sleep: that heavy sleep overtook us.’

“So the Prince, half-drunken, staggered to the bed of earth, whence he shall rise up bemused on the Resurrection Morning, with others drugged with the Wine of Death, to seek from the cup-bearers of ‘and their Lord shall give them to drink pure wine’ * the purification of the headache-healing wine of ‘a full bumper.’ * It is our firm hope that the All-Merciful Judge will overlook his sin, which naught but the dew of His Mercy can wash away. This tragic catastrophe of Báy-sunghur Sulṭán took place in the metropolis of Herát in the White Garden in the year 837/1433-4, his age being then thirty-five years. The poets who were attached to the service of Báysunghur Bahádur during the reign of Sháh-rukh Sulṭán were Bábá Sawdá'í, Mawláná Yúsuf Amírí, Amír Sháhí of Sabzawár, Mawláná Kátibí of Turshíz, and Amír Yamínu'd-Dín…The poets composed elegies on Sulṭán Báysunghur's death, but Amír Sháhí surpassed them all in this quatrain:

‘The age lamented much in mourning for thee; the red anemone
poured forth all the blood of its eyes into its skirt;
The rose rent the collar of its crimson mantle; the dove clothed its
neck in black felt.’”

Dawlatsháh, in spite of all his faults, of which inaccuracy and an intolerable floridity of style are the worst, does succeed in depicting better than many contemporary historians and biographers the strange mixture of murder, drunkenness, love of Art and literary taste which characterized the courts of these Tímúrid princes, and it may not be amiss to add to the preceding extracts the portrait of one of the most accomplished of them, Ulugh Beg, with which he concludes his notice of the poet 'Iṣmat of Bukhárá, the master of Bisáṭí and Khayálí, and the contemporary of Rustam of Khúriyán, Ṭáhir of Abíward, and Barandaq of Bukhárá. After mentioning that 'Iṣmat died in 829/1425-6 he continues:*

“Now as to the late Sulṭán of blessed memory Ulugh Beg Kúrkán, he was learned, just, masterful and energetic, and attained a high degree in the science of Astronomy, while in Rhetoric he could split hairs. In his reign the status of men of learning reached its highest zenith, and in his period the rank of scholars was at its greatest. In the science of Geometry he was an expositor of subtleties, and on questions of Cosmography an elucidator of the Almagest. Scholars and philosophers are agreed that in Islámic times, nay, from the days of [Alexander] ‘the Two-horned’ until now no monarch like unto Mírzá Ulugh Beg Kúrkán in philosophy and science has ever sat on a royal throne. He had the most complete knowledge of the mathematical sciences, so that he recorded observations of the stars with the cooperation of the greatest scientists of his age, such as Qáḍí-záda-i-Rúmí * and Mawláná Ghiyáthu'd-Dín Jamshíd. These two great scholars, however, died before completing their work, and the Sulṭán, devoting all his energies to this task, completed the observations and produced the Zíj-i-Sulṭání * (‘Royal Almanac’), to which he himself prefixed an exordium. These tables are today in use and highly esteemed by philosophers, some of whom prefer them to the Zíj-i-Ílkhání of Naṣíru'd-Dín of Ṭús.*

“He further constructed a fine college in Samarqand, the like of which in beauty, rank and worth is not to be found throughout the seven climes, and in which at the present time more than a hundred students are domiciled and provided for. During the reign of his father Sháh-rukh he exercised absolute sway over Samarqand and Transoxiana…

“It is related that Mírzá Ulugh Beg's intelligence and power of memory were such that a record was kept of every animal which he overthrew in the chase, with the place and date of the hunting, recording the day, the locality, and the nature of the quarry. By chance this book was mislaid, and seek as they might they could not find it, so that the librarians were filled with apprehension. ‘Be not troubled,’ said Ulugh Beg, ‘for I remember all these particulars from beginning to end.’ So he summoned the scribes and repeated the dates and circumstances, all of which the scribes took down until the record was completed. After a while by chance the original record turned up. They collated the two copies, and found divergences only in four or five places.

“Many such marvels are related of the genius and intelligence of this prince. Thus the learned Shaykh Ádharí (the poet) relates as follows:

“‘In the year 800/1397-8, when I was in Qará-bágh with my maternal uncle, who was story-teller to the great Amír, the Lord of the Fortunate Conjunction, Tímúr Kúrkán, I became attached to the service of Ulugh Beg Mírzá in the days of his childhood, and for several years was that Prince's playmate in childish games and used to tell him tales and stories, while he, after the fashion of children, became familiar and intimate with me. In the year 852/1448-9, when the abovementioned Prince conquered Khurásán and halted at Isfará'in, I arose, after the grey dawn of age had been kindled from the evening of youth, * and hastened to wait upon him. When he saw me from afar off in the garb of the religious mendicants and men of God, after saluting me and enquiring after my health, he said, “O darwísh, thou seemest to be my ancient companion and friend. Art thou not the nephew of our story-teller?” I was amazed at the quick apprehension and clear memory of the King, and replied, that I was. He spoke of Qará-bágh, the wars in Georgia and the marvels of that country, while I answered to the best of my recollection.’

“Many similar instances are related of this Prince's keenness of memory, but more than this much exceeds the scope of these Memoirs.”

A year after the meeting described above (in 853/1449-1450) the talented Ulugh Beg was murdered by his unnatural son 'Abdu'l-Laṭíf, who was himself murdered seven months later.