<text in Arabic script omitted>
<graphic>
Mongol siege of a Chinese town, from an old MS. of the Jámi'u't-Tawáríkh
in the Bibliothèque Nationale
To face p. 96
<text in Arabic script omitted>
“Thence * to the town of Qazwín, Subutáy *
Like raging tiger came right speedily.
The tale of years at six, one, seven stood
When that fair town became a lake of blood,
And Sha'bán's month had counted seven days *
When it was filled with woe and sore amaze.
The governor who held the ill-starred town
Muẓaffar named, a ruler of renown,
Was, by the Caliph's most august command,
Set to control the fortunes of the land.When came the hosts of war and direful fate
Firm as a rock they closed the city gate.
Upon the wall the warriors took their place,
And each towards the Mongols set his face.
Three days they kept the ruthless foe at bay,
But on the fourth they forced a blood-stained way.Fiercely the Mongols entered Qazwín Town
And heads held high before were now brought down.
No quarter in that place the Mongols gave:
The days were ended of each chieftain brave.
Nothing could save the townsmen from their doom,
And all were gathered in one common tomb.
Alike of great and small, of old and young,
The lifeless bodies in the dust they flung:
Both men and women shared a common fate:
The luck-forsaken land lay desolate.
Many a fair one in that fearful hour
Sought death to save her from th' invaders' power:
Chaste maidens of the Prophet's progeny
Who shone like asteroids in Virtue's sky,
Fearing the lust of that ferocious host
Did cast them down, and so gave up the ghost.
Much in that land prevails the Sháfi'ite;
One in a thousand is a Ḥanafite; *
And yet they counted on that gory plain
Twelve thousand Ḥanafites amongst the slain!
In heaps on every side the corpses lay,
Alike on lonely path and broad high-way.
Uncounted bodies cumbered every street:
Scarce might one find a place to set one's feet.In terror of the Mongol soldiery
Hither and thither did the people fly,
Some seeking refuge to the Mosque did go,
Hearts filled with anguish, souls surcharged with woe.
From that fierce foe so sore their straits and plight
That climbing forms the arches hid from sight.
The ruthless Mongols burning brands did ply
Till tongues of flame leapt upwards to the sky.
Roof, vault and arch in burning ruin fell,
A heathen holocaust of Death and Hell!”
Yet a third work produced by this industrious writer is the well-known geographical and cosmographical treatise Nuz-hatu'lQulúb entitled the Nuz-hatu'l-Qulúb, or “Heart's Delight.” Manuscripts of it are fairly common, but until 1915 the text was only generally accessible in the indifferent lithographed edition published at Bombay in 1311/1893-4. In 1915, however, a critical edition of the text was brought out by Mr G. le Strange in the “E. J. W. Gibb Memorial” Series (vol. xxiii, 1), and the English translation (vol. xxiii, 2), which is now in the Press, will shortly follow.
The Nuz-hatu'l-Qulúb was composed five years later than the Ẓafar-náma, during the period of anarchy which succeeded Abú Sa'íd's death, to which the author alludes with feeling. He was persuaded, he says, to undertake the work at the request of certain friends, who felt the want of a Persian work on geography, most of the works on that sub- Sources of the Nuz-hatu'lQulúb ject being in Arabic. He enumerates amongst his sources the following works, which he has supplemented from his own observations during his travels through Persia: the Ṣuwaru'l-Aqálím of Abú Zayd Aḥmad b. Sahl al-Balkhí; * the Tibyán of Aḥmad b. Abí 'Abdi'lláh; the Road-book (Masálik wa'l-Mamálik) of Abu'l-Qásim 'Abdu'lláh ibn Khurdádhbih; * and a work entitled the Jahán-náma; besides nineteen other works, of which the enumeration will be found in Rieu's Persian Catalogue, pp. 418-419. The work is primarily divided into an Introduction (Fátiḥa), three Discourses (Maqála), and an Appendix (Khátima). The third Maqála is the important part of the work: all that precedes this deals with cosmography, the heavens, the earth, the three kingdoms, and man. This third Maqála, which contains the geographical portion of the work, deals first with the geography of the two holy cities of Arabia and of Jerusalem; then with the geography of Persia, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, with an appendix on the physical geography of Persia; then with the countries bordering on Persia, and some other lands never included in the Persian Empire. The Conclusion treats of the wonders of the world, especially of Persia. The book is of considerable value for a knowledge of the geography and condition of mediaeval Persia, and was largely used by Mr G. le Strange in the compilation of his Lands of the Eastern Caliphate before he published the edition mentioned on the preceding page.
Mention has been already made at the beginning of this chapter (p. 63 supra) of a small historical manual entitled Al-Baydáwí's Niẓámu'tTawáríkh Niẓámu't-Tawáríkh (the “Order of Histories” or “Dates”) by the well-known judge and Qur'án-commentator Náṣiru'd-Dín al-Bayḍáwí, whose father held the same office under the Atábek Abú Bakr b. Sa'd-i-Zangí, the patron of the great poet Sa'dí. This dull and jejune little book, compiled in the year 674/ 1275, with a continuation, apparently added by the author, down to 683/1284-5, and a further continuation, probably by another hand, to 694/1294-5, contains an outline of general history from the time of Adam to the date last mentioned. It has not been published, and is probably not worth publishing, since it is doubtful whether it contains anything new or valuable, and whether it is calculated to add to the fame which its author enjoys as a jurisconsult, theologian and commentator.*
Another still unpublished historical manual of this period
is that properly entitled Rawḍatu Úli'l-Albáb fí tawáríkhi'l-