It is curious to find in two such ribald poets as Yaghmá and Qá'ání * so deep a religious sense and sympathy with Ribaldry and piety. the martyrs of their faith as are manifested in a few of their poems. Verlaine, perhaps, offers the nearest parallel in modern European literature.

Of the remaining poets who flourished during the long reign of Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh, whose assassination on May 1, 1896, may be regarded as the first portent of the Revolution which bore its full fruit ten years later, two, Mírzá Muḥam- Sipihr, Hidáyat and Shaybání. mad Taqí of Káshán with the pen-name of Sipihr, and Mírzá Riḍá-qulí Khán Hidáyat, are better known as historians and will be men­tioned as such in a later chapter, though notices of both are given by the latter in his often-quoted Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá . * Another poet of some note is Abu'n-Naṣr Fatḥu 'lláh Khán Shaybání of Káshán, a copious selection of whose poems was printed by the Akhtar Press at Constanti­nople in 1308/1890-1, * and of whom a long notice (pp. 224-245) is also given in the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá. The list might be increased almost indefinitely, did space permit, but the most notable names have been mentioned, and even to them it has been impossible to do justice.

<graphic>

MUẒAFFARU'D-DÍN MÍRZÁ (afterwards SHÁH) seated, with his
tutor (Lala-báshí) RIḌÁ-QULÍ KHÁN, poet and historian, standing
on his right (the reader's left)
Or. 4938 (Brit. Mus.), 14
To face p. 344

Of the new school of poets produced by the Revolution in 1906 and the succeeding years I have treated in a The new school of post-Revolu­tion poets. separate work, the Press and Poetry in Modern Persia, * more fully than would have been possible in this volume. The most eminent of these contemporary poets are, perhaps, Dakhaw (Dih- Dakhaw, 'Árif, Ashraf and Bahár. Khudá) of Qazwín, 'Árif of Qazwín, Sayyid Ashraf of Gílán, and Bahár of Mashhad. Da-khaw is probably the youngest and the most remarkable of them, though I do not think he has produced much verse lately. The versatility of his genius is illustrated by two of his poems (Nos. 3 and 14) cited in my above­mentioned work, on the one hand the riotous burlesque of “Kabláy,” and on the other the delicate and beautiful In Memoriam addressed to his former colleague Mírzá Jahángír Khán of Shíráz, editor of the Ṣúr-i-Isráfíl, of which the former was published in that admirable paper on November 20, 1907, and the latter on March 8, 1909. Bahár, entitled Maliku'sh-Shu'ará, “King of the Poets,” or Poet Laureate, was the editor of the Naw Bahár (which after its suppression reappeared under the title of Táza Bahár), and was the author of several fine poems (Nos. 20, 34 and 36-47) published in my book, while 'Árif is repre­sented by No. 33, and Ashraf by Nos. 4-7, 9-13, 16-19, and 27. I do not think that the works of these or any others of the post-Revolution poets have been published in a collected form. They appeared from time to time in various news­papers, notably the Ṣúr-i-Isráfíl, Nasím-i-Shimál and Naw Bahár, and must be culled from their pages. Many of the now numerous Persian papers contain a literary corner entitled Adabiyyát in which these poems appear. The im­portance of the fact that their aim must now be to please the increasing public taste and reflect the growing public opinion, not to gratify individual princes, ministers and noblemen, has been already emphasized.*

Of one other poet, lately deceased, who is very highly esteemed by his countrymen, but whose writings are not The late Adíbu'l­Mamálik. yet readily accessible, something more must be said. This is Mírzá Ṣádiq Khán, a great-grand­son of the celebrated Qá'im-maqám, * best known by his title Adíbu'l-Mamálik, who died on the 28th of Rabí' ii, 1335 (Feb. 21, 1917). Three sources of informa­tion about him are at my disposal, viz. (1) a notice in my MS. marked J. 19 * on modern Persian poets (pp. 39-50); (2) an obituary notice in No. 20 of the old Káwa of April 15, 1917; and (3) a pamphlet published at the “Kaviani Press” in 1341/1922 by Khán Malik-i-Ḥusayní-i-Sásání, a cousin of the poet, announcing his intention of collecting and publishing his poems, and asking help from those who possess copies of verses not in his possession. Some parti­culars concerning him are also given in my Press and Poetry of Modern Persia in connection with the various His journalistic activities. papers he edited or wrote for at different times, viz. the Adab of Tabríz (pp. 37-8), Mashhad (p. 38) and Ṭihrán (p. 39), which extended over the period 1316-1322/1898-1905; the Turco-Persian Irshád (p. 39), which he edited in conjunction with Aḥmad Bey Aghayeff of Qarábágh at Bákú in 1323/1905-6; the Rúz­náma-i-Írán-i-Sulṭání (pp. 88-91), to which he contributed in 1321/1903-4; the 'Iráq-i-'Ajam (pp. 118-19), which he edited in 1325/1907; and the Majlis (pp. 132-3), for which he wrote in 1324/1906. One of the most celebrated of his poems is also given on pp. 300-302 of the same work.

The Adíbu'l-Mamálik was born in 1277/1860-1, and was a descendant in the third degree of Mírzá 'Ísá Qá'im- Brief chronology of his life. maqám, and in the thirty-fifth degree of the Imám Zaynu'l-'Ábidín. In 1307/1889-90 he was at Tabríz in the service of the Amír Niẓám (Ḥasan 'Alí Khán-i-Garrúsí), in honour of whom he changed his pen-name from Parwána (“Moth”) to Amírí. In 1311/ 1893-4 he followed the Amír Niẓám to Kirmánsháh and Kurdistán. During the two following years (1894-6) he was employed in the Government Translation Office (Dáru't-Tarjuma-i-Dawlatí ) in Ṭihrán, but in Ṣafar 1314/July-August, 1896, he returned with the Amír Niẓám to Ádhar-báyján, where, in 1316/1898-9, he adopted the turban in place of the kuláh, became Vice-master of the Luqmániyya College at Tabríz, and founded the Adab newspaper, which, as stated above, he afterwards continued at Mashhad and Ṭihrán. During the years 1318-20/1900-02 he travelled in the Caucasus and Khwárazm (Khiva), whence he came to Mashhad, but at the end of A.H. 1320 (March, 1903) he returned to Ṭihrán, and for the next two years, 1321-2/ 1903-5, was the chief contributor to the Rúz-náma-i-Írán-i-Sulṭání . In 1323/1905-6 he was joint editor of the Irshád at Bákú; in 1324/1906 he became chief writer for the Majlis. edited by Mírzá Muḥammad Ṣádiq-i-Ṭabáṭabá'í; and in 1325/1907 he founded the 'Iráq-i-'Ajam. In July, 1910, he took part in the capture of Ṭihrán by the Nation­alists, and subsequently held the position of President of the High Court of Justice (Ra'ís-i-'Adliyya) in 'Iráq and afterwards at Samnán. He lost his only daughter in 1330/ 1912. Two years later he was appointed editor of the semi­official newspaper Áftáb (“the Sun”). In 1335/1916-17 he was appointed President of the High Court of Justice at Yazd, but soon afterwards, as we have seen, he died at Ṭihrán, aged fifty-eight.*

The special value and interest of his poems, according to Khán Malik, his cousin and intimate friend, lie not only in Estimate of his poetry. their admirable and original style, but in their faithful reflection of the varying moods of the Persian people during the fateful years 1906-1912. In satire it is said that no Persian poet has equalled him since the time of old Súzaní of Samarqand, * who died in 569/1173-4. In his pamphlet Khán Malik gives the opening verses of all the poems in his possession, with the number of verses in each, and invites those who possess poems lacking in his collection to communicate them to him before Jumáda i, 1342 (December, 1923), when he proposes to publish as complete an edition as possible. The Káwa quotes the following verses from one of his poems on the Russian aggressions in Persia, which it com­pares with the celebrated poems of Sa'dí on the destruction of the Caliphate by the Mongols, * Anwarí on the invasion of the Ghuzz Turks, * and Ḥáfiẓ on Tímúr's rapacity: * <text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>