(17)

“This is my petition in my every private prayer, 'O my Succour and
my Refuge,
Save all people of taste and lovers of music from the harp of Maláṭí
and the poetry of Ma'ádhí!”

(18)

The following is a rather original and pretty conceit:

“Knowest thou what is the cause of chuckling of the wine-bottles?
They are laughing at the beard of the town-constable!”

(19)

The following fragment seems to show that Kamál's odes were not collected into a Díwán until after his death:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“A certain man of discernment said to me, ‘Why is it
That thou hast [composed] poetry, yet hast no Díwán?’
I replied, ‘Because, like some others,
My verse is not copious and abundant.’
He said, ‘Although thy verse is scanty [in amount]
It is not less [in value] than their utterances.’”

As is so often the case with Persian poets, Kamál's fragments are much more intimate and personal, and contain more allusions to contemporary events and persons (though for lack of fuller knowledge these allusions must often remain obscure) than his odes; and for this reason I have here quoted them to a disproportionate extent.

8. Maghribí
(Muḥammad Shírin Maghribí of Tabríz).

Of the life and circumstances of Maghribí, one of the Maghribí most thorough-going pantheistic poets of Persia, little is known, though notices of him are given by most of the biographers. * He is generally stated to have died in 809/1406-7 at Tabríz at the age of sixty years, so that he must have been born about 750/1349-1350; but by a minority of the biographers his death is placed two years earlier. The learned modern historian Riḍá-qulí Khán states that he was born at Ná'in, near Iṣfahán, and buried at Iṣṭahbánát in Fárs, but he is generally reckoned a native of Tabríz. His poetical name Maghribí is said to be due to the fact that he travelled in the Maghrib (N.W. Africa), where he was invested with the dervish cloak (khirqa) by a Shaykh who traced his spiritual pedigree to the great Maghribí mystic Shaykh Muḥiyyu'd-Dín ibnu'l-'Arabí, whose thought even at the present day has a great influence in Persia, and whose Persian disciples, poets like 'Iráqí, Awḥadu'd-Dín, Maghribí and even the later Jámí, are conspicuous for their thorough-going pantheism. Of Maghribí Riḍá-qulí Khán truly says in his Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá:

“His doctrine is the Unity of Being (Pantheism), and his inspiration the rapture of Vision, * nor can one find throughout all his verse aught save this one idea. His tarjí'-bands and ghazals are all filled with the verities of the true Unitarianism.”*

Maghribí is said by Jámí and other biographers to have been personally acquainted with the poet last discussed, Kamál of Khujand, which is probable enough, since the two were contemporaries and spent at any rate a considerable part of their lives at Tabríz. On one occasion he is said to have found fault with the following verse of Kamál's on the ground that it evidently referred to material charms, and was not susceptible of a mystical interpretation: * <text in Arabic script omitted>

“If eyes be such, and eyebrows such, and charm and coquetry such,
Farewell, abstinence and piety! Good-bye, reason and religion!”

Kamál, hearing this, sought an interview with Maghribí, and said: “[The Persian] chashm is [equivalent to the Arabic] 'ayn; * so it may be that in the language of allusion it is to be interpreted as the Eternal Essence ('Ayn-i-Qadím), which is the Divine Personality. So also [the Persian] abrú is [equivalent to the Arabic] ḥájib, * so it may be that it may be taken as alluding to the Divine Attributes, which are the veil of the Essence.” Maghribí, on hearing this explanation, apologized and withdrew his criticism. If it be true, however, as stated by Rieu, * that Kamál superseded Maghribí in the favour of Tímúr's son Míránsháh, the Governor of Ádharbáyján, it is possible that the relations of the two poets were not of the most cordial character.

As the above particulars practically exhaust the little we know of Maghribí's life, we may now pass on to his poetry, which is represented by a comparatively small Díwán, comprising for the most part odes (ghazaliyyát) with a few tarjí'-bands and quatrains. It has been several times lithographed in Persia, * and I also possess a good and well-written, but undated, manuscript. The lithographed edition comprises 153 smallish pages each containing 17 lines, and the total number of verses may be estimated at about 2300. The poems, so far as I have examined them, are entirely mystical, and contain no allusions to the poet's life and times. The following specimens are typical:

(1)

“When the Sun of Thy Face appeared, the atoms of the Two Worlds
became manifest.
When the Sun of Thy Face cast a shadow, from that shadow Things
became apparent.
Every atom, through the Light of the Sun of Thy Countenance, be-
came manifest like the Sun.
The atom owes its existence to the Sun, while the Sun becomes mani-
fest through the atom.

The Ocean of Being was tossed into waves; it hurled a wave to-
wards the shore.
That wave sunk and rose in some heart-delighting raiment and form.
Like violets the Ideas sprung up like the pleasant down on some fair
beauty's face.
The anemones of the [Eternal] Realities blossomed; a thousand tall
cypresses appeared.
What were all these? The counterpart of that Wave; and what was
that Wave? Identical [in substance] with the Ocean.
Every particle which exists is identical with the whole; then is the
whole altogether the parts.
What are the parts? The manifestations of the All; what are
things? The shadows of the Names.
What are the Names? The revelation of the Sun, the Sun of the
Beauty of the Supreme Essence.
What is the Shore? The land of Contingent Being, which is the
Book of God Most High.
O Maghribí, cease this discourse: do not make plain the Mystery of
the Two Worlds!”

(2)

“O Thou in whose life-giving Face all the Universe is manifest,
And O Thou whose Countenance is apparent in the Mirror of the
Universe!
Since the Darling of Thy Beauty looked in the Mirror
And saw the reflection of his face, he became wild and mad [with
love].
Every instant Thy Countenance displays the beauty of its features
To its own eyes, in a hundred fair vestments.
It looked forth from lovers' eyes
So that it beheld Its Beauty in the faces of Idols. *
Thy Face wrought a Mirror for Its self-display,
And called that Mirror ‘Adam and Eve.’
He beheld the Beauty of His Face in every face through him, *
Therefore hath he * become the Mirror of all the Names.
O Thou whose Beauty hath shone forth to Thine own eyes,
And who hast plainly seen Thy Face in Thine own eyes,
Since Thou art at once the Seer and the Seen, there is none other
than Thee:
Wherefore, then, hath all this strife become apparent?
O Maghribí, the horizons are filled with clamour
When my King of Beauty pitches His tent in the Plain!”

(3)

“O Centre and Pivot of Being, and Circumference of Bounty,
O Fixed as the Pole, and Fickle as the Sphere!
If I send greetings to Thee, Thou art the greeting,
And if I invoke blessings on Thee, Thou art the blessing!
How can any one give Thee to Thyself? Tell me now,
O Thou who art Thine own alms-giver and Thine own alms!
O Most Comprehensive of Manifestations, and Most Perfect in
Manifestation,
O Gulf of gulfs, and O Combiner of diversities!
O most Beauteous of the beautiful, and O most Fair of the fair,
O most Gracious of the graceful, O most Subtle of subtleties!
Thou art at once both the Bane and the Balm, both Sorrow and Joy,
Both Lock and Key, both Prison and Deliverance!

Thou art both the Treasure and the Talisman, both Body and Soul,
Both Name and Named, both Essence and Attribute!
Thou art both Western (Maghribí) and West, both Eastern and East,
Alike Throne, and Carpet, and Element, and Heavens, and Space!”