Of other more distant rulers contemporary with Sulṭán Maḥmúd it is sufficient to say that the 'Abbásid Caliph of Character and titles of Sulṭán Maḥmúd. Baghdád during the whole of his reign was al-Qádir bi'lláh, while of the Fáṭimid Anti-Caliphs of Egypt, Abú 'Alí Manṣúr was reigning during the first two-thirds and adh-Dháhir during the last third. Maḥmúd is said to have been the first Muslim sovereign who assumed the title of Sulṭán (a word properly meaning “Power” or “Authority”), and appears from al-'Utbí's History (vol. i, p. 21) to have also styled himself, as do the Ottoman Sulṭáns until the present time, “the Shadow of God on His earth” (Dhillu'lláhi fí arḍihi). He recognised the supreme spiritual power of his nominal suzerain the Caliph of Baghdád, and was a fanatical Sunní. * His full titles ran (al-'Utbí, i, p. 31): Al-Amír as-Sayyid al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad <text in Greek script omitted>amínu'd-Dawla wa Amínu'l-Milla Abu'l-Qásim Maḥmúd b. Náṣiru'd-Dín Abú Manṣúr Subuktigín Maliku'sh-Sharq bi-janbayhi . His most celebrated minister was Abu'l-Qásim Aḥmad b. al-Ḥasan al-Maymandí, entitled Shamsu'l-Kufát, who is said to have interceded on different occasions both for al-Bírúní (see p. 98 supra) and for Firdawsí, and to whose praise many fine qaṣídas of contemporary poets are devoted.

We must now turn from this short general sketch of the political state of Persia at this epoch to the consideration of a few of the most distinguished writers and poets of the period. And since, should we confine our attention to those who used the Persian language, we should do a great injustice to the genius of Persia, where, as has been already observed, Arabic was at this time, and for another 250 years, generally used not only as the language of science but also of diplomacy, corre­spondence, and belles lettres, we shall begin by briefly mentioning some of the most celebrated Persian writers who chiefly or ex­clusively made use in their compositions of the Arabic language.

Of one of the greatest of these, Abú Rayḥán al-Bírúní, the author of the Chronology of Ancient Nations (al-Átháru'l-

Abú Rayḥán al Bírúní. báqiya), the Indica, the Persian Tafhím, and many other works (mostly lost) enumerated by his learned editor and translator, Dr. Sachau, I have already spoken. For a just and sympathetic appreciation of his character and attainments, I must refer the reader to Sachau's prefaces to the translations of the first two works mentioned above, especially to pp. vi-vii of the Indica. He was a man of vast learning, critical almost in the modern sense, tolerant, and, as Sachau says, “a champion of the truth, a sharply-cut character of a highly individual stamp, full of real courage, and not refraining from dealing hard blows, when anything which is good or right seems to him to be at stake.” He was born at Khwárazm in September, A.D. 973, and died, probably at Ghazna, in December, A.D. 1048.

Of Avicenna (Ibn Síná) also, another of the greatest Persian writers and thinkers of this time, who, carrying on the tradi- Avicenna. tions of Aristotle in Philosophy and of Hippocrates and Galen in Medicine, exercised throughout the Middle Ages a dominant influence in both these fields, not only over Asiatic but over European thought, something has been already said. No adequate treatment of his philosophical and medical systems would be possible in a work of this character and scope, even were I competent to discuss them. Of his extant works Brockelmann (Gesch. d. Arab. Litt., i, pp. 452-458) enumerates nearly a hundred, dealing with a variety of theological, philosophical, astronomical, medical, and other scientific subjects. Of these the Shifá, treating of physics, metaphysics, and mathematics, and the Qánún, or Canon of Medicine, are the most celebrated. The former comprises eighteen volumes.

For accounts of Avicenna's life and works the reader may refer to Ibn Khallikán's Biographies (translation of de Slane,

Sketch of Avicenna's life. vol. i, pp. 440-446); the above-mentioned work of Brockelmann; Shahristání's Kitábu'l-Milal wa'n-Niḥal, either in the Arabic original (Cureton's edition, pp. 348-429) or in Haarbrucker's German translation (vol. ii, pp. 213-332); and the Baron Carra de Vaux' Avicenne (Paris, 1900). He was born near Bukhárá in A.D. 980, and died at Hamadán or Iṣfahán in A.D. 1037. “At the age of ten years,” says Ibn Khallikán, “he was a perfect master of the Qur'án and general literature, and had obtained a certain degree of information in dogmatic theology, the Indian calculus (arithmetic), and algebra.” He then studied with the physician an-Nátilí the <text in Greek script omitted> of Porphyry, Logic, Euclid, and the Almagest, and with Isma'íl the Ṣúfí, the theology of the mystics. He then applied himself to natural philosophy, divinity, and other sciences, including medicine, which he studied under the Christian physician 'Ísá b. Yaḥyá. At the age of seventeen his fame as a physician was such that he was summoned to attend the Sámánid Prince Núḥ b. Manṣúr, who, deriving much benefit from his treatment, took him into his favour and permitted him to make use of his very valuable library, which, according to Avicenna's own account, contained “many books the very titles of which were unknown to most persons, and others which I never met with before nor since.” Soon after this it unfortunately happened that this precious library was destroyed by fire, and Avicenna's enemies accused him or having purposely set fire to it so that he might be the sole depository of the knowledge which he had gleaned from some of the rare books which it contained. The death of his father, and the final collapse of the Sámánid power about the end of the tenth century, caused him to leave Bukhárá for Khwárazm, where he was favoured by the Ma'múní prince, from whose Court he was obliged to fly, under the circum­stances already described from the Chahár Maqála a few pages further back, to Nasá, Abíward, Ṭús and ultimately Gurgán, where he was liberally entertained by Shamsu'l-Ma'álí Qábús b. Washmgír. On the deposition and murder of this un­fortunate prince, Avicenna left Gurgán for a while, and sub­sequently went to Ray, Qazwín and Hamadán, and lastly Iṣfahán, where he was in the service of the Buwayhid Prince 'Alá'u'd-Dawla b. Kákúya. Having undergone many vicis­situdes of sickness, imprisonment and threatened death, he ultimately died of an intestinal disorder in the summer of A.D. 1037.*

Besides the philosophical and scientific works to which allusion has already been made, and certain Arabic and Persian poems of which we shall speak directly, he was the author of the philosophical romances of Ḥayy b. Yakdhán (not to be confounded with the more celebrated homonymous treatise by Ibnu'ṭ-Ṭufayl, published at Oxford in 1671 and 1700, with a Latin translation, by Pococke) and Salámán and Absál, which latter was afterwards taken by the Persian poet Jámí as the subject of a poem, printed by Falconer in 1850 and translated into English by FitzGerald, who published his translation anonymously, with a dedication to the late Professor Cowell, in 1856.

As to Avicenna's Persian poems, Dr. Ethé's industry and research have collected from various sources fifteen short pieces Avicenna's Persian poems. (twelve quatrains, one fragment of two bayts, and two ghazals), comprising in all some forty verses, which he published, with German translation, in the Göttinger Nachrichten for 1875, pp. 555-567, under the title Avicenna als persischer Lyriker. Of these quatrains it is to be noted that one of the most familiar is commonly ascribed to 'Umar Khayyám (No. 3 in Ethé = No. 303 in Whinfield's edition of the celebrated astronomer-poet's Quatrains), and is familiar to all readers of FitzGerald in the following form:—

“Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate,
And many a Knot unravelled by the Road;
But not the Master-Knot of Human Fate.”

Whinfield's more literal translation is as follows:—

“I solved all problems, down from Saturn's wreath,
Unto this lowly sphere of earth beneath,
And leapt out free from bonds of fraud and lies,
Yea, every knot was loosed, save that of death!”