'Urfí on Job's comforters. “My body hath fallen into this state, and my eloquent
friends stand like pulpits round my bed and pillow.
One draws his hand through his beard and cocks his neck, saying,
‘O life of thy father! To whom is fortune constant?
One should not set one's heart on ignoble rank and wealth: where
is the Empire of Jamshíd and the name of Alexander?’
Another, with soft voice and sad speech, begins, drawing his sleeve
across his moist eyes:
‘O my life! All have this road by which they must depart: we are
all travellers on the road, and time bears forward the riders.’
Another, adorning his speech with smooth words, says, ‘O thou
whose death is the date of the revolution of news (inqiláb-i-
khabar)!

Collect thyself, and beware, let not thy heart be troubled, for I will
with single purpose collect thy verse and prose.
After copying and correcting it, I will compose an introduction like
a casket of pearls in support of thy claims;
An index of learning and culture such as thou art, a compendium of
good qualities and talents such as thou art,
I will pour forth, applying myself both to verse and prose, although
it is not within the power of man to enumerate thy perfections!’

‘May God, mighty and glorious, give me health again, and thou
shalt see what wrath I will pour on the heads of these miserable
hypocrites!’”*

Space does not allow us to follow in detail Shiblí's interesting and exhaustive study of this poet, to whose verse he assigns six salient merits, such as “forceful diction” (<text in Arabic script omitted>), new and original combinations of words, fine metaphors and comparisons, and continuity or congruity of topics (<text in Arabic script omitted>). Except for a little-known prose treatise on Ṣúfíism entitled Nafsiyya all his work was in verse, and included, according to Shiblí, two mathnawi poems in imitation of Niẓámí's Makhzanu'l-Asrár and Khusraw wa Shírín, and a Díwán, compiled in 996/1588, only three years before his death, containing 26 qaṣídas, 270 ghazals, and 700 fragments and quatrains. The following chronogram gives the date of its compilation: * <text in Arabic script omitted>

One of his most famous qaṣídas, given in the Kharábát (vol. i, pp. 169-174), is in praise of 'Alí ibn Abí Ṭálib, and contains 181 verses. It begins:

“I have wandered through the world, but alas! no city or country
have I seen where they sell good fortune in the market!”

'Urfí is not, however, included amongst the Persian Shí'a poets to whom notices are consecrated in the Majálisu'l-Mú'minín .

Concerning the numerous Persians—theologians, scholars, philosophers and poets—attracted to Akbar's brilliant court,

Mr Vincent Smith's harsh judgment. the third volume of Badá'úní's Muntakhabu't-Tawáríkh is a mine of information, but space will not permit us as a rule to go beyond the frontiers of the Persian Empire. The late Mr Vincent Smith in his otherwise admirable monograph on Akbar is perhaps unduly hard on these poets when he says (pp. 415-6):

“The versifiers, or so-called poets, were extremely numerous. Abu'l-Faẓl tells us that although Akbar did not care for them, ‘thousands of poets are continually at court, and many among them have completed a díwán (collection of artificial odes), or have written a mathnawí (composition in rhymed couplets).’ The author then proceeds to enumerate and criticize ‘the best among them,’ numbering 59, who had been presented at court. He further names 15 others who had not been presented but had sent encomiums to His Majesty from various places in Persia. * Abu'l-Faẓl gives many extracts from the writings of the select 59, which I have read in their English dress, without finding a single sentiment worth quoting; although the extracts include passages from the works of his brother Fayẓí (Fayḍí), the ‘king of poets,’ which Abu'l-Faẓl considered to enshrine ‘gems of thought.’”

The third volume of Badá'úní's Muntakhabu't-Tawáríkh, which is entirely devoted to the biographies of the poets Valuable data furnished by Badá'úní. and men of learning who adorned Akbar's court, contains notices of 38 Shaykhs (religious leaders), 69 scholars, 15 philosophers and physicians, and no fewer than 167 poets, most of whom, however, though they wrote in Persian and were in many cases Persians by birth, are unknown even by name in Persia.

Amongst the most eminent names belonging, in part at any rate, to the century which we here conclude, are those of Shaykh Bahá'u'd-Dín 'Ámilí, Mullá Muḥsin-i-Fayḍ (Fayẓ) of Káshán, Mír Dámád, and Mír Abu'l-Qásim-i-Findariskí, who, however, will be more suitably considered amongst the theologians or philosophers.