In one of his most celebrated odes Ḥáfidh says:—

Bad-am guftí u khursand-am: 'afáka'llah, nikú guftí:
Jawáb-i-talkh mí-zíbad lab-i-la'l-i-shakar-khá-rá!”

“Thou didst speak me ill, and I am content: God pardon thee,
thou didst speak well:
A bitter answer befits a ruby lip which feeds on sugar!”

The first half of this verse occurs in Sa'dí's Ṭayyibát (p. 86, No. ccclxxxiii), as follows:—

Bad-am guftí u khursand-am: 'afáka'llah, nikú guftí:
Sag-am khwándí u khushnúd-am: jazáka'lláh, karam kardí!

The hemistich with which it is here joined means:—

Thou didst call me a dog, and I acquiesced: God reward thee
thou didst confer on me a favour!”

Again in the Badáyi' (p. 107, No. lxxvii) Sa'dí says:—

Juz ín-qadar na-tuwán guft dar jamál-i-tu 'ayb,
Ki mihrabání az án ṭab' u khú na-mí áyad.

“One can mention no defect in thy beauty save this,
That love comes not forth from that nature and disposition.”

Ḥáfidh has taken the first hemistich of this verse, and joined it with the following one of his own:—

Kí khál-i-mihr u wafá níst rú-yi-zíbá-rá.

“That the beauty-spot of love and fidelity is not on that fair
face.”

Again in the Ṭayyibát (p. 80, No. ccclix) Sa'dí says:—

Zawqí chunán na-dárad bí dúst zindagání:
Dúd-am bi-sar bar ámad zín átash-i-nihání.

“Life without the Friend has no great attraction:
My head is enveloped in smoke [of the heart, i.e., sighs] by
reason of this hidden fire.”

Ḥáfidh has taken the first hemistich of this, and has supple­mented it by the “complete anagram” of itself:—

Bí-dúst zindagání zawqí chunán na-dárad.

I am not aware that attention has hitherto been called to this indebtedness of Ḥáfidh to his predecessor, and on this account I have discussed the matter with what some may be tempted to regard as unnecessary elaboration.

The lesser poets of this epoch are many, and from 'Awfí's Lubábu'l-Albáb alone a list of at least fourscore who were Lesser poets of this period. more or less contemporary with the three great poets to whom this chapter is specially devoted might, I should think, be compiled. Lack of space, however, compels me to confine myself to the brier mention of two of the most notable, viz., Sharafu'd-Dín Muḥammad Shufurvah and Kamálu'd-Dín Isma'íl, called Khalláqu'l-Ma'ání, “the Creator of Ideas,” both of Iṣfahán. A third poet, Amír Khusraw of Dihlí (Delhi), whose reputa­tion might appear to entitle him to notice, is omitted on the principle already laid down that India is wholly excluded from the scope of this book, and I will therefore only say that he was born at Patiyálí in A.D. 1253, died at Dihlí in A.D. 1325, and worked chiefly on the lines of Nidhámí of Ganja.

Sharafu'd-Dín Shufurvah and Jamálu'd-Dín 'Abdu'r-Razzaq (the father of Kamálu'd-Dín Ismaíl) were both panegyrists of Sharafu'd-Dín Shufurvah. the Ṣadr-i-Khujand, the Chief Judge (Qáḍi'l-quḍát) of Iṣfahán, and belong to a somewhat older generation than the poets of whom we have just been speaking, for the latter died in A.D. 1192 and the former in A.D. 1204. Both of them came into conflict, under circum­stances to which reference has been made in a previous chapter (pp. 397-398 supra), with Kháqání's pupil Mujíru'd-Dín-i-Baylaqání, who satirised them with bitterness, and is said to have forfeited his life in consequence. They also satirised one another in the intervals of praising their common patron. I have met with nothing of Jamálu'd-Dín's which specially im­pressed me, but Sharafu'd-Dín Shufurvah has a remarkably fine poem describing the past splendour and actual devastation of Iṣfahán, of which I published the text in my Account of a Rare Manuscript History of Iṣfahán, published in the J.R.A.S. for 1901 (pp. 53-55 of the tirage-à-part).

Kamálu'd-Dín Isma'íl, “the Creator of Ideas,” son of the above Jamálu'd-Dín 'Abdu'r-Ruzzáq, was, like his father,

Kamálu'd-Dín Isma'íl. essentially a panegyrist. Amongst those whose praises he sung were Ruknu'd-Dín Ṣá'id b. Mas'úd; several of the Khwárazmsháhs, in­cluding Tukush, Quṭbu'd-Dín Muḥammad and Jalálu'd-Dín; Ḥusámu'd-Dín Ardashír, King of Mázandarán; and the Atábeks of Fárs, Sa'd b. Zangí and his son and successor, Abú Bakr b. Sa'd, both of whom we have already met with as patrons of Sa'dí. Kamálu'd-Dín was one of the many illus­trious victims who perished at the hands of the Mongols. According to Dawlatsháh (pp. 152-3 of my edition) he was both rich and liberal; but, meeting with ingratitude from some of the recipients of his favours, he reviled and cursed the people of Iṣfahán in verses whereof this is the purport:—

“O Lord of the Seven Planets, send some bloodthirsty pagan
To make Dar-i-Dasht like a [bare] plain (dasht), and to cause
streams (jú) of blood to flow from Júpára ! *
May he increase the number of their inhabitants by cutting each
one into a hundred pieces!”

His malign wish was soon only too completely fulfilled, for the Mongol army under Ogotáy entered Iṣfahán in or about A.D. 1237, and proceeded to torture, plunder, and massacre in its usual fashion. At this time, according to Dawlatsháh (who, as has been already pointed out, is of little weight as an authority, and much addicted to romance), Kamálu'd-Dín Isma'íl had adopted the ascetic life and habit of the Ṣúfís, and had retired to an hermitage situated outside the town, in con­sequence of which he was not for some time molested. The Iṣfahánís took advantage of this to deposit in his custody some of their treasures and valuables, which he concealed in a well in the courtyard of his hermitage. One day, however, a Mongol boy armed with a crossbow fired at a bird in this courtyard, and in doing so dropped his “drawing-ring” (zih-gír ), * which rolled into the well wherein the treasure was hidden. Search for the ring led to the discovery of the treasure; the Mongol greed was aroused, and poor Kamál was put to the torture to make him reveal other hoards of treasure which they supposed him to possess. In his death-agony he is said to have written with his life-blood the following quatrain:—

“When life dissolves, fierce anguish racks the soul;
Before His Face this is the least we thole;
And yet withal no word I dare to breathe:
This is his prize who renders service whole!”

In the history of a nation—and still more in its intellectual history—there comes no point where we can say with perfect Conclusion. satisfaction and confidence, “Here ends a period.” Yet, for practical convenience, such dividing-lines must needs be made; and, as has already been pointed out, in the history of Persia, and, indeed, of Islám, no sharper dividing-line between ancient and comparatively recent times can be found than the catastrophe of the Mongol Invasion. From this awful catastrophe Islám has never recovered, especially in its intellectual aspects. The Mongols as a world-power, or even as a political factor of importance, have long disappeared from the scene, but they changed the face of a continent, and wrought havoc which can never be repaired. The volume which I now at last bring to a conclusion covers a period of only about two centuries and a half; but I think that, should health and leisure be vouchsafed to me to bring the history down through the remaining six centuries and a half to our own times, it will be easier in a volume of this size to give adequate treatment to the later and longer period than to the earlier and shorter, whereof I now close the account— an account which, however prolix and detailed it may seem to the casual reader, is in reality, as I acutely realise, lamentably sketchy and inadequate. Yet had I waited until I could see my way to making it adequate, I should never have finished this volume at all; and in literature as in love there is deep truth in the Turkish proverb:—