Sayyid Muḥammad of Iṣfahán, poetically surnamed Saḥáb, was the son of that Sayyid Aḥmad Hátif mentioned Saḥáb (d. 1222/ 1807-8). at the end of the preceding chapter as almost the only notable Persian poet of the eighteenth century. Riḍá-qulí Khán (M.F., ii, 207-11) says that he was held in high honour by Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh, for whom he composed, besides numerous panegyrics, a book of memoirs (presumably of poets) entitled Rashaḥát­i-Saḥáb , which I have never met with, and that his Díwán comprises only some five thousand verses. The following, censuring the conceit and arrogance of certain poets, are of some interest: * <text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>

“Wherein save in good nature lies anyone's ‘perfection,’ * and what
‘perfection’ can there be to him who has not good nature?
Poetry is naught, and the poet's vocation less than naught: I wonder
what is all this quarrel about nothing!
No one will ask about the arrangement of a few words: O fools
devoid of merit, what is all this talk?
On account of one or two hemistichs expressing some one else's
ideas, what is all this thought of position and hope of wealth?
The root of poetry is phantasy, and its beauty lies in the impossible: *
what can result from the imagining of all these impossible ideas?
Whoever has discovered what shame and modesty are will not boast
of superiority on account of a few silly words.
What in the eyes of men of judgment and sense are a hundred
sorts of such ‘perfection’ compared with the good nature of an
ordinary well-disposed man?
I grant that the naẓm (arrangement, or verse) of the ocean is pearls
and mines of precious stones: but what is it compared with the
ṇathr (scattering, or prose) of the pen of that Lord whose bounty
is as that of the ocean?”

Sayyid Ḥusayn-i-Ṭabáṭabá'í of Ardistán near Iṣfahán, who earned the title of Mujtahidu'sh-Shu'ará, is noticed Mijmar (d. 1225/ 1810-11). by Riḍá-qulí Khán in all three of his above­mentioned works. He owed his introduction to the Persian Court to his fellow-townsman and fellow-poet Mírzá 'Abdu'l-Wahháb Nasháṭ, who sur­vived him by eighteen or nineteen years. He appears to have died young, for Riḍá-qulí Khán, after praising his verse, of which but a small collection was left, says that “had he lived longer, he would probably have attained the utmost distinction,” but even as it is he is one of the five poets of this period whom my accomplished old friend Ḥájji Mírzá Yaḥyá of Dawlatábád placed in the first class. * Copies of his poems are rare, but the British Museum possesses a manuscript of his Kulliyyát, or collected works. * I can find nothing very noteworthy in Riḍá-qulí Khán's selections, but the two following riddles, the first on the Wind and the second on the Pen, taken from the Tadhkira i-Dilgushá, may serve as specimens of his work.

<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>

“What is that messenger of auspicious advent and fortunate presence
who is moving every day and night and hastening every year
and month?
Who carries musk-pods in his skirt and perfume in his collar,
ambergris in his pocket, and pure musk in his sleeve?
A traveller without foot or head, a madman without sense or reason,
a lover without abode or habitation, a wanderer without food or
sleep.
None knoweth for love of whom he is so restless; none discovereth
through separation from whom he is so troubled.
Through him water becomes, like the hearts of lovers through the
tresses of their idols, now wreathed in chains, now twisted and
tormented.
Now the earth dies through him, and again the world lives through
him, like the faculties through old age and like the nature
through youth.”

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“To the rose-bush of the garden of the reasoning faculty I am a cloud
raining down pearls,
Both pouring forth sugar and diffusing perfume [like] the darling's
lips and the sweetheart's tresses.
In scattering pearls and pouring forth jewels I am [like] the nature
of the Minister and the hand of the King.”

Fatḥ-'Alí Khán of Káshán, with the pen-name of Ṣabá, was poet-laureate (Maliku'sh-Shu'ará) to Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh.

Ṣabá (d. 1238/ 1822-3). Riḍá-qulí Khán, who mentions him in all three of his works, says that no poet equal to him had appeared in Persia for nearly seven hundred years, and that some critics prefer his Shahinsháh-náma to the Sháhnáma of Firdawsí. * He also composed a Khudá-wand-náma , an 'Ibrat-náma, and a Gulshan-i-Ṣabá, while his Díwán is said to comprise ten or fifteen thousand verses. He was for a time governor of Qum and Káshán, but latterly devoted himself entirely to the Sháh's service. In his youth he was the pupil of his fellow-townsman the poet Ṣabáḥí, who was a contemporary of Hátif and Ádhar, and died, according to the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá, in 1206/ 1791-2. His eldest son Mírzá Ḥusayn Khán, poetically surnamed 'Andalíb (“Nightingale”), succeeded him in the laureateship. His poetry, being mostly panegyric, has little attraction for us, but is extraordinarily melodious, as the following extract from a qaṣída quoted in the Tadhkira-i-Dilgushá (which I think it unnecessary to translate, since the beauty lies in the form only) will show:

<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>*

Passing over Mírzá Muḥammad-qulí Afshár Ulfat (d. 1240/1824-5) and Áqá 'Alí Ashraf Ágáh (d. 1244/1828-9),

Nasháṭ (d. 1244/ 1828-9). the younger brother of the poet Bismil, both of whom were personally known to Riḍá-qulí Khán, we come to Mírzá 'Abdu'l-Wahháb of Iṣfahán, celebrated as a calligraphist as well as a poet, and master of the three languages, Arabic, Persian and Turkish. After nearly ruining himself by his prodigal hospitality and liberality to poets, mystics and men of letters, he gained the favour of Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh, who conferred on him the title of Mu'tamadu'd-Dawla. He excelled in the ghazal, and his best-known work is entitled Ganjína (the “Treasury”). The following chronogram gives the date of his death (A.H. 1244):

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Nasháṭ (Joy) hath departed from the heart of the world.”

Two eminent men, father and son, bore this title (of which the literal meaning is exactly equivalent to “lieutenant,”

Mírzâ Abu'l­Qásim Qá'im­maqám (d. 1251-1835). in the sense of vicar or deputy), Mírzá 'Ísá of Faráhán, called Mírzá Buzurg, who acted as Deputy Prime Minister to Prince 'Abbás Mírzá and died in 1247/1831-2; and his son Mírzá Abu'l-Qásim, who, on the death of Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh, fell into disgrace, and was put to death by his successor Muḥammad Sháh on June 26, 1835. * The latter was, from the literary point of view, the more remarkable, but though he wrote poetry under the pen-name of Thaná'í, he is more celebrated as a prose-writer, his numerous published letters being regarded by his countrymen as models of good style. I possess a collection of his writings, both prose and verse, compiled at the instance of the late Prince Farhád Mírzá in 1281/1864-5, and lithographed at Tabríz in 1282/1865-6, of which the letters, addressed to various more or less eminent contemporaries but only occasionally bearing dates, * occupy by far the larger portion. Many of them are diplomatic documents of some historical importance, e.g. the apology addressed to the Tsar of Russia for the murder of the Minister Grebaiodoff and his staff at Ṭihrán on February 11, 1829, * which is here given as a specimen of the Qá'im-maqám's much admired style.