301. “The Seven Climes”; i.e., the whole inhabited world as divided by Oriental geographers. (See Notes 207, 1,146, and 1,147.)
302. See Notes 204, 207, 1,146, and 1,147.
303. Aristotle is spoken of by Persian writers as a minister or adviser of Alexander.
304. Nūshīrvān the Just, in whose reign Muhammad was born, was (according to different authorities) the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first king of the Sāsānian dynasty of Persia. He was a great patron of literature, had a number of works translated from the Greek, and was visited, it is said, by some Neo-Platonic philosophers. He reigned from A.D. 531 to 579.
305. Buzurjmihr, the vazīr of Nūshīrvān the Just, was celebrated for his wisdom and virtues. He is said to have imported from India the game of chess and also the Fables of Bīdpāy (Pilpay). It was under his superintendence also that Greek works were translated into Persian.
306. Khusrau Parvīz, the grandson of Nūshīrvān, reigned from A.D. 591 to 628. He was married to Shīrīn (Sira), who is said to have been a Christian. One of Nizāmī’s Five Poems is called “Khusrau-u Shīrīn”.
307. Bārbad or Bārbud was the most famous of Persian musicians and composers. The number of modulations usually ascribed to him is thirty. Cf. sī laḥn, “the thirty modulations.” These are said to have been composed in honour of Khusrau Parvīz, but a number of them would seem from their names to have been composed in honour of his wife Shīrīn.
Nizāmī in his Khusrau-u Shīrīn excludes three from the usual list, and introduces four which are not in it. One of the latter is called Khusravī, “Royal,” and was a eulogistic song in rhymed prose written and composed in honour of the king.
308. Jalālu ’d-Dīn Malik Shāh was the third sultān of the first dynasty of the Seljūqides. He succeeded his father Alp Arslān in A.D. 1072, and died in A.D. 1092, aged 38. The Jalālian Era, Tārīkh-i Jalālī, was established in his reign by ‘Umar-i Khaiyām and the other astronomers royal. This era, according to Dr. Hyde, begins on the 15th of March, A.D. 1079.
309. To Nizāmu ’l-Mulk, the vazīr of Alp Arslān and afterwards of his son Malik Shāh, was mainly due the prosperity of the Sejūqide empire. He was a great patron of learning, and founded in Baghdād the famous college, the Nizāmīya, in which the poet Sa‘dī had, as he relates in the Būstān, an Assistant-Professorship or office of Répétiteur. (See Graf’s Būstān, p. 341.) He was the author of the political treatise Siyāsat-nāma. He died in A.D. 1092, assassinated by a follower of Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ, “the Old Man of the Mountain.” Nizāmu ’l-Mulk and Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ had been friends, but in later life Nizāmu ’l-Mulk had become at variance with Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ.
310. The word translated “orderly estate” is nizām, and that rendered “in orderly estate” nizāmī. Thus the Author makes out by a poetical conceit that his name (or fame) is Nizāmī, i.e., in orderly estate, or in a satisfactory condition, through the king’s favour.
311. I read kām-i gizāf with I.O. MS. 1491.
312. “The cupbearer” is here the eminent poet, or his poetical genius, tab‘, which infuses superexcellence and richness into his work. “The peasant” is the inferior poet, or his genius, which produces only inferior work. The former, as it were, gives wine to the earth, the latter only water. (Cf. Note 437.)
313. i.e., other kings are not generous towards themselves in the matter of justice and learning.
314. i.e., presumably, because the king is learned himself.
315. This is probably an allusion to the influence which Ḥasan Maimandī, the vazīr of Mahmūd of Ghaznī, is said to have brought to bear upon him in order that Firdausī should not be adequately rewarded for his great poem the “Shāh-nāma”.
316. By the king’s name being attached to the poem under the ascendant of Leo the Author implies that the king in his judgment of it will be influenced by the qualities possessed by those who are born under that ascendant. Alan Leo in his work The Horoscope says: “When the ascendant is Leo . . . they will be as noble as their prototype, the lion, and being possessed of one of the strongest forms bestowed by the twelve signs of the zodiac, they should be able to resist all external conditions, and maintain their own free and independent spirit. In disposition they are open, frank and fearless, magnanimous, sincere, honourable, and affectionate. . . . (They) are ever ready to help when help is needed. They can be very determined, self-reliant and strong-willed.”
By the distich the Author hints that the king will exercise his independent judgment and not be influenced as Mahmūd by others. (See Note 315.)
317. i.e., fortunate is he who offers so fine a result of your favour—the result being the poem.
318. Lit., “may draw a pen through.”
319. “The cycle of seven thousand.” This is what is called “the lunar cycle”, of which the Persian lexicographers, quoted by Vullers, speak as follows, Gūyand daur-i har kaukabī haft hazār sāl mī-bāshad: hazār sāl ba-khvadi-yi khvad ṣāḥib-i ‘amal ast, va-shash hazār sāl-i dīgar ba-mushārakat-i shash kaukab-i dīgar; va-Ādam—‘Alai-hi’s-salām!—dar avval-i daur-i qamarī ba-zuhūr āmad; va-ān daura ba-pāyān rasīd:
“They say that the cycle of every planet is of seven thousand years’ duration. A thousand years it acts by itself, and the six thousand other years in partnership with the six other planets” (i.e., with each one a thousand years). “Adam—On him be peace! —came into being at the beginning of the lunar cycle. That cycle has come to an end.”
The Haft Qulzum adds, Az-ān jihat īn ‘ālam-rā daur-i qamarī gūyand; va-ba‘zī bar-ān-and ki qiyāmat ham dar daur-i qamarī khvāhad shud:
“For this reason they call this world (that of) the lunar cycle; and some assert that the Resurrection will be in the lunar cycle.” According to this assertion the lunar cycle has not come to an end, and this is the general belief; but according to the relation in the first of these quotations this cycle has come to an end, and if so Nizāmī would be perhaps referring to the Martian cycle which would follow it; but it is evident that Jalālu ’d-Dīn Rūmī believed that Muḥammad, at all events, lived in the lunar cycle, since he writes,
“What indeed, O Muḥammad, is the army of the earth (to you)? See the moon in the sky, and split its forehead;
“In order that the ignorant astronomers may know that this cycle is yours, (and) not that of the moon.” (See C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II. Cf. also Note 871.)
320. By “this sugar-reed” is meant the Author’s pen.
“Earth’s blackness” most probably means the ink in the inkstand; and “verdure” signifies the charming results of his dipping the pen into the ink and writing.
321. i.e., my eyes are watery from trying to look at him.
322. i.e., though the king, like the sun, is too dazzling in himself to be looked at, he can be considered in his virtues and deeds, which are, as it were, reflections of him.
323. i.e., this poem newly composed.
324. The poem is likened to coin which is to receive its power and value from the impression of the hoofs of the king’s horse; i.e., through the king’s notice and approval.
325. By “the cloud” is meant an exalted patron like the king.
326. i.e., the poet who cannot secure an exalted patron must put up with one less high.
327. i.e., from the king’s hand.
328. Zuhra is Venus, the musician of the sky.
People look out for the new moon to take omens from it, especially for the new moon which ushers in the beginning of the month which succeeds Ramaẓān, the month of Fast. (See the First Story in C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II.)
329. i.e., the Author would be resigned though the king judged the poem to be insignificant.
330. i.e., that which you do not favour.
331. By the word Kun, “Be,” God is said to have given existence to all things.
Muslims have a special reverence for speech, as they suppose it to be God-created and to be co-extensive with thought.
332. i.e., when you speak of any one of them, you think of his work, and he himself emerges, as it were, and is seen from that work.
333. “The unknown,” or the hidden; that which is still wrapped in mystery or concealed in the mind. (See Note 331.)
334. i.e., speech as existing in the abstract. (See Notes 331 and 333.)
335. i.e., save speech, which may be handed down by writing, no individual thing subsists permanently.
336. i.e., nothing remains to display the mind of men except speech handed down by writing. Architecture is certainly an exponent of the minds of men, and archæological remains may to a considerable extent show the state of advancement of civilization and taste of an age, but they do not reveal the mind to the extent that speech does, nor are they so lasting.
337. Namely, the “human mind” or “rational soul”, nafs-i nāṭiqa, which is immortal if not debased and merged, as it were, in the “animal soul”, nafs-i ḥaivānī.
338. Cf. the dictum
339. See the preceding Note.
340. That which has this knowledge is of course the rational soul.
341. See Note 338.
342. i.e., you will not really perish though you leave this life.
343. See Notes 337 and 338.
344. i.e., it is useless to cultivate the body unless by the cultivation of it one is helped in the cultivation of the mind and heart.
345. “Their clay”; i.e., their bodies.
346. “Pleas and vain excuse,” namely, for cultivating the body and not the mind, and alleging that it is best for them.
347. “Not any one will say ‘My curds are sour’”; i.e., no one will confess that his action does him harm, or that he is the worse for it. Or, he will not acknowledge that he is not in a satisfactory condition.
348. i.e., they incline to contentment alone, and do not seek wealth in order to cherish the body.
349. The Author is speaking of the evils of possessions which are transitory. The mind, which is eternal, should be cultivated.
350. i.e., he who has transitory possessions has much anxiety and trouble in safeguarding them.