All the essential facts of Jámí's life, however, are given in the excellent Biographical Sketch (pp. 1-20) prefixed by Captain Nassau Lees to his edition of the Nafaḥátu'l-Uns, * a sketch only marred by a violent and uncalled-for attack on Mysticism. The details are far fuller and better vouched for than, for instance, in the case of Ḥáfiẓ. Jámí himself

See p. 509
of the text.
JÁMÍ'S AUTOGRAPH DATED A.H. 890 (A.D. 1485)
To face p. 508

has recorded the date of his birth and the double reason for which he adopted the pen-name by which he is known, and he has also recorded the dates when most of his poems and other works were composed, for the most part during the last fourteen or fifteen years of his long life. These dates, as well as the texts of the poems, rest on an unusually firm foundation, for there exists at St Petersburg, in the Institut des Langues Orientales du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, an autograph manuscript of the poet's Kulliyyát, or Complete Works, which has been described in great detail by the late Baron Victor Rosen, * and which has finally settled several doubtful points of chronology. For further details of his life and character there is no lack of contemporary evidence. Even as a boy he showed remarkable quickness and ability, and, as he grew older and pursued his studies under more famous masters, he rapidly assimilated such knowledge as they were able to impart, and often finished by being able to confute them in argument. Of his scholarship Nassau Lees writes as follows:

“Considering Jámí, not as a poet, but simply as a scholar, it cannot be denied that he was a man of remarkable genius and great erudition; and it is to be regretted that he does not seem to have been free from self-conceit, supercilious hauteur, and contempt for the literati of his day, so commonly the characteristic of the votaries of his peculiar philosophy. He was extremely reluctant to admit that he was indebted to any of his masters for his acquirements. ‘I have found,’ said he, ‘no master with whom I have read superior to myself. On the contrary I have invariably found that in argument I could defeat them all. I acknowledge, therefore, the obligations of a pupil to his master to none of them; for if I am a pupil of anyone it is of my own father, who taught me the language.’”

More pleasing, though possibly due to the same motives,

Jámí's independence of spirit was his refusal to flatter or humble himself before the rich and powerful, a rare virtue amongst the poets of that day, which led his biographer 'Alí the son of Ḥusayn Wá'iẓ al-Káshifí to remark that to no one more than Jámí did the following lines of Niẓámí apply:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Since in my youth I ne'er forsook Thy gate
To seek elsewhere the favours of the great,
Thou in return didst send them all to me:
I sought it not; it was a boon from Thee.”

To his spiritual teachers, on the other hand, and to those who guided him in the mystic's path Jámí showed the greatest veneration and rendered the most ungrudging homage; a fact abundantly illustrated by Nassau Lees in his Biographical Sketch.*

But though, or perhaps because, he refused to flatter or fawn on the great, few Persian poets have enjoyed during their lives such profound and widespread respect, or have lived so long without being exposed to such disagreeable experiences or discouraging vicissitudes of fortune as fell to the lot of even the greatest of them, such as Firdawsí, Náṣir-i-Khusraw, Anwarí, Sa'di or Ḥáfiẓ. The only unpleasant incident recorded as having befallen Jámí, and one from which he easily and speedily extricated himself, occurred at Baghdád when he was returning from the Pilgrimage in 877-8/1472. * A garbled citation from one of his poems, the Silsilatu'dh-Dhahab, or “Chain of Gold,” was employed by some ill-disposed persons to convict him of hostility to the House of 'Alí, in spite of a remarkable poem * in praise of al-Ḥusayn, 'Alí's son, which he had composed a little while before when he visited the scene of his martyrdom at Karbalá. In a crowded meeting presided over by the chief doctors of Baghdád, Jámí easily succeeded in refuting the accusation and turning the tables on his detractors, adding that “if he had any fears at all in writing this book they were that…the people of Khurásán might accuse him of Shí'a tendencies, but that it never occurred to him to imagine that on account of it he should fall into trouble at the hands of the Shí'a.” The incident, however, rankled in his mind, and is commemorated in a rather bitter poem beginning: * <text in Arabic script omitted>

“O cupbearer, unseal the [wine]jar by the brink of the Shaṭṭ, * and
wash from my memory the unpleasantness of the Baghdádís.
Seal my lips with the wine-cup, for not one of the people of this land
is worth discussion.
Expect not faithfulness or generosity from the unworthy; seek not
for the virtues of men from the disposition of devils.”

Notwithstanding his piety and mysticism, Jámí had a sharp tongue and was ready at repartee. Thus on one occasion he was repeating with fervour the line:

“So constantly art thou in my stricken soul and sleepless eye
That whosoever should appear from afar, I should think that it was
thou.”

An irreverent bystander interrupted him with the question, “Suppose it were an ass?” “I should think that it was thou,” replied Jámí.*

On another occasion Jámí composed the following verses on a contemporary poet named Ságharí who had accused his fellow-poets of plagiarizing his ideas:

“Ságharí was saying, ‘Wherever the plagiarists have seen a fine idea
in my poetry they have stolen it.’
I have noticed that most of his poems are devoid of ideas: whoever
said that the ideas had been stolen spoke the truth.”

When Ságharí angrily reproached Jámí for this verse, he said, “It is not my fault. What I wrote was shá'irí (‘a certain poet,’ <text in Arabic script omitted>), not Ságharí (<text in Arabic script omitted>), but some mischief-maker has altered the dots over the letters to annoy you.”*

Amongst the chronograms which commemorate the date of Jámí's death the two best known are <text in Arabic script omitted> (Qur'án, iii, 91: 6 + 40 + 50 + 4 + 600 + 30 + 5 + 20 + 1 + 50 + 1 + 40 + 50 + 1 = 898) “And whosoever entereth it is safe”; and <text in Arabic script omitted> “Smoke [of the heart, i.e. sighs] came up [or ‘was subtracted’] from Khurásán.” Khurásán gives 600+200+1+60+1+50=912; smoke (dúd) gives 4 + 6 + 4 = 14; 912 - 14 = 898.

We pass now to a consideration of Jámí's numerous Jámí's prose works works, which fall primarily into two categories, prose and poetry. Of his chief prose works, the Nafaḥátu'l-Uns (Biographies of Ṣúfí saints, composed in 883/1478), the Shawáhidu'n-Nubuwwat (“Evi- Contents of the Shawáhidu'nNubuwwat dences of Prophethood,” composed in 885/1480), the commentary on 'Iráqí's Lama'át (known as Ashi“atu'l-Lama'át, composed in 886/1481), and the Lawá'iḥ (“Flashes”) mention has been already made. Of these the second only, so far as I know, remains unpublished. I possess a fine old manuscript of it, on which the following table of contents is based.

Preface (Muqaddama). On the meaning of Nabt (Prophet) and Rasúl (Apostle), and other matter connected therewith.

First chapter (Rukn). On the signs and evidences which preceded the birth of His Holiness the Prophet.

Second chapter. Setting forth what took place from the time of his birth until [the beginning of] his mission.

Third chapter. Setting forth what took place from [the beginning of] his mission until the Flight.

Fourth chapter. Setting forth what took place from the Flight until his death.

Fifth chapter. Setting forth what has, or is known to have, no special connection with any one of these periods, and that whereof the significance became apparent only after his death.