Mubárizu'd-Dín was succeeded by his son Sháh Shujá', whose chief claim to fame is that he was the patron of the Sháh Shujá' immortal Ḥáfiẓ. He himself was not devoid of poetic talent, and wrote verses both in Arabic and Persian, specimens of which are given by Maḥmúd Kutbí. * Nor did his intellectual attainments end here: he knew the Qur'án by heart when he was nine years of age; could remember eight verses of Arabic poetry after hearing them read once; was famous for his epistolary style, wrote a fine hand, and was skilled in all martial exercises. He was also a great patron of men of learning, and at one time used to attend the lectures of Mawláná Qiwámu'd-Dín, while he appointed the eminent Sayyid-i-Sharíf-i-Jurjání professor in the Dáru'sh-Shifá College which he had founded at Shíráz. Nor did his reign lack military glory of the somewhat barren kind prevalent at that time, for he retook Shíráz from his brother Maḥmúd, who had ousted him from it by a trick, and Kirmán, which had been seized by Dawlat-sháh; and, on the death of Sulṭán Uways Jalá'ir at Tabríz in March, 1375, occupied not only that city, but also Nakh-juwán, Qárabágh, Awján, Sulṭániyya, Shúshtar and even Baghdád, so that he became for a while the master of the greater part of Persia.

In his family relations he was not happier than the rest of his House. His brother Maḥmúd, who had strangled his wife, the daughter of Shaykh Abú Isḥáq, about A.D. 1368, died in 1375 at the age of 38. On hearing of his death Sháh Shujá' wrote the following quatrain:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“My brother Maḥmúd, lion-like crouched low,
For crown and ring was my relentless foe.
At length we shared the earth that men might rest:
I took the surface, he the realm below.”

He was also troubled by the real disloyalty of one son, Sulṭán Uways, and the fancied disloyalty of another, Sulṭán Shiblí, whom in a fit of anger, intensified by drink, he caused to be blinded, and only repented of his rash act when it was too late. This happened in A.D. 1383, a year before his death, which took place on October 9, 1384, he being then 53 years of age and having reigned 27 years. On his death-bed he wrote a letter to the great Tímúr, * setting forth his devotion and loyalty, and commending to his care his sons and brothers, especially his successor Zaynu'l-'Ábidín. How much effect this letter, with its admonitions that “loyalty to promises is a part of Faith,” produced on Tímúr was shown nine years later when he made a massacre of the whole family. The body of Sháh Shujá' was conveyed to Medína for burial, or, according to another account, buried in a place called Kúh-i-Chahil Maqám (the “Mountain of Forty Stations”) a little to the North-east of Shíráz. The date of his death is given by the chronogram: <text in Arabic script omitted> (“Alas for Sháh Shujá'!”), the numerical equivalents of the component letters of which add up to (A.H.) 786 (= A.D. 1384).

Zaynu'l-'Ábidín's reign was both short and troubled, for not only was it marred by those family feuds and fratri- Mujáhidu'd-Dín 'Alí Zaynu'l­'Ábidín cidal strifes which were characteristic of this dynasty, but the menace of Tímúr and his Tar­tars hung ever more threateningly over the land. Soon after his accession Zaynu'l-'Ábidín was attacked by his cousin Sháh Yaḥyá, and shortly after this arrived Tímúr's envoy Quṭbu'd-Dín and required the insertion in the khuṭba of his master's name, which was tantamount to recognizing him as over-lord. In 789/1387 Tímúr himself made his first entry into 'Iráq and Fárs. From Iṣfahán, which was governed by Majdu'd-Dín Muẓaffar, the uncle of Zaynu'd-Dín, he demanded a large sum of money, in collecting which his agents showed so harsh and arrogant a disposition that the inhabitants rose against them and killed them. Tímúr took a terrible revenge on them, for he ordered a general massacre, in which 70,000 persons * are said to have perished. He then advanced on Shíráz, but Zaynu'l-'Ábidín did not await his arrival, and fled to Shúshtar, where he was treacherously seized by his cousin Sháh Manṣúr, who thereupon marched to Shíráz and drove out his brother Yaḥyá, who fell back on Yazd. The next six years (A.D.

Fratricidal strife of the Muzaffarís 1387-1393) passed in continual strife between the three Muẓaffarí princes Sháh Manṣúr (who reigned over Fárs and Iṣfahán), his brother Sháh Yaḥyá (who ruled at Yazd), and his cousin Sháh Aḥmad (who held Kirmán), until in 795/1393 Tímúr for the second time descended on these distracted provinces. He first took the Qal'a-i-Safíd (“White Castle”), killed the garrison, and released and restored to the throne Zaynu'l-'Ábidín, and then continued his march on Shíráz, whence Sháh Manṣúr fled to Pul-i-Fasá. Of some of the Shírázís who had followed him thither he enquired what the people of Shíráz were saying of him. “Some say,” they replied, “that those who wielded maces weighing ten maunds and carried quivers weighing seventeen maunds have fled like goats before a pack of wolves and have left their families as an easy prey to the foe.” On hearing this Sháh Manṣúr, moved alike by shame and compassion, resolved to go back Sháh Manṣúr gives battle to Tímúr to Shíráz and face the inevitable death which a conflict with Tímúr's hosts involved. He had with him only 3000 men, of whom 2000 fled soon after the battle began, while the Tartar army “were more numerous than ants and locusts,” yet with such valour and desperation did he engage the enemy that more than once he forced his way almost to within striking distance of Tímúr, until at last, wounded in the neck and shoulder, he turned in flight towards Shíráz. He was overtaken by Death of Sháh Manṣúr some of Sháh Rukh's soldiers, who dragged him from his horse and severed his head from his body. The year of his death (795/1393) is given by the chronogram <text in Arabic script omitted> (“he relinquished the kingdom”). * The other Muẓaffarí princes (Aḥmad 'Imádu'd-Dín and Sulṭán Mahdí, son of Sháh Shujá', from Kirmán; Nuṣratu'd-Dín Sháh Yaḥyá and his sons Mu'izzu'd-Dín Muẓaffarí princes put to death by Tímúr Jahángír and Sulṭán Muḥammad from Yazd; and Sulṭán Abú Isḥáq, son of Sulṭán Uways, son of Sháh Shujá', from Sírján) surrendered themselves to Tímúr and were at first treated honourably, but were finally put to death at Qumishah, a little to the south of Iṣfahán, on Rajab 10, 795 (May 22, 1393), a date commemorated in the following verses:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

Only two were spared, Zaynu'l-'Ábidín and Shiblí, both of whom had been blinded, the one by his cousin Manṣúr, the other by his father Sháh Shujá'. These were taken by Tímúr to Samarqand, his capital, where they spent the remainder of their days in tranquillity. So ended the Literary tastes of the Muẓaffarís Muẓaffarí dynasty, which for eighty years had held sway over the greater part of southern and central Persia. Several of their princes were distinguished alike by their taste and their talents, and their patronage of learning and letters drew to their court not only numerous poets of distinction, including the incomparable Ḥáfiẓ, but savants such as 'Aḍudu'd-Dín al-Íjí and Mu'ínu'd-Dín Yazdí. Materially they did little to benefit their subjects, save for the building of a few colleges; while even in Eastern history it would be difficult to find a household so divided against itself and so disposed to those fratricidal wars and savage mutilations or destruction of their kinsmen which constitute the greater part of their history.

THE JALÁ'IRS¹,

*

ÍL-KHÁNÍS, OR ÍLKÁNÍS.