Of the last-named poet, who took for his subject clothes, as Abú Isḥáq had taken foods, we have an excellent edition Niẓámu'd-Dín Maḥmúd Qárí of Yazd by the same Mírzá Ḥabíb who edited the works of the two other poets of the group, all three volumes being uniform in size and style. In the short preface prefixed to the Díwán-i-Albisa, which contains the sartorial poems of Maḥmúd Qárí of Yazd, the learned editor says that he believes the manuscript on which his text is based to be unique, and that he had never met with another copy in any of the numerous libraries in Persia and at Constantinople which he had examined, nor had he found any mention of the author or his date in any biographical or historical work except in one Indian tadhkira (neither named nor cited by him), and a single verse of his cited in evidence in the well-known Persian dictionary entitled Burhán-i-Jámi'.*

The Díwán-i-Albisa was avowedly inspired by the Díwán-i-Aṭ'ima, which, in style and arrangement, it closely follows. There is a prose preface, which, unfortunately, throws no light on the author's date; a qaṣída-i-Áfáq u Anfus; a mock-heroic account of the war between cloth and cotton (Jang-náma-i-Mú'ína u Kattán); a poem on the “Mysteries of Silk”; parodies of Awḥadí, Khwájú, Sa'dí,

Poets parodied by Maḥmúd Qárí Sayyid Ḥasan of Tirmidh, Saná'í, Kamálu'd-Dín Isma'íl of Iṣfahán, Ẓahír of Fáryáb, 'Imád-i-Fáqih of Kirmán, Ḥáfiẓ, 'Alí Dur-duzd, Kamál of Khujand, Muḥammad-i-Fírúzábádí, Nayyir of Kirmán, Sayyid Ni'matu'lláh, Amír Khusraw, Jalálu'd-Dín Rúmí, Salmán of Sáwa, Sayyid Jalál-i-'Aḍud, Sa'du'd-Dín Naṣír, Ṣadru'd-Dín Jawharí, Amíní, Amír Ḥasan of Dihlí, Jamá-lu'd-Dín, Shaykh Farídu'd-Dín 'Aṭṭár, Kátibí, Náṣir of Bukhárá, Sulṭán Abú Sa'íd, Humám of Tabríz, Amír Khusraw of Dihlí, Darwísh Ashraf-i-Namad-púsh, 'Ubayd-i-Zákání, and Jalál-i-Ṭabíb. Nearly all the chief varieties of verse are represented, including a certain number of poems in dialect (Fahlawiyyát and Shíráziyyát), and the volume concludes with several prose treatises, to wit a Further contents of Maḥmúd Qárí's Díwán Dispute between Food and Clothes, the Dream of the Bath, Eulogies of the chief Persian poets in terms of clothes and stuffs, the story of the clothes-thief, Wool's letter to Satin, and other similar letters and official documents, the Áráyish-náma (“Book of Adornment”), the Book of Definitions entitled Dah Waṣl, containing, as its name implies, ten sections, the treatise entitled Sad Wa'ẓ (“A Hundred Counsels”), a mock-heroic mathnawí in the style of the Sháh-náma on the battle between Wool and “Cincob” (Kamkhá) en­titled Mukhayyaṭ-náma, and finally a Glossary (Farhang) of articles of clothing. The only indication of the author's Probable date of Maḥmúd Qárí date which I can find is supplied by the list of contemporary poets occurring at the end of the Eulogies of Poets (pp. 138-9 of the text), which includes Qásim[u'l-Anwár], who died 837/1433-4; 'Iṣmat [of Bukhárá], d. 829/1425-6; Kátibí, d. 838/1434-5; Khayálí [of Bukhárá], d. circâ 850/1446-7; Sháhí, d. 857/1453; and Ádharí, d. 866/1461-2. We must therefore conclude that Maḥmúd Qárí of Yazd wrote subsequently to the date last given, so that he really belongs to a later period than that which we are now considering, though it seemed convenient to mention him here on account of his close literary affinity with Abú Isḥáq, to whom his work evidently owed its chief inspiration. Sayyid Ni'matu'lláh, on the other hand, who is one of the poets parodied by Abú Isḥáq, should, strictly speaking, be included in this place, but since he survived until 834/1430-1, and this chapter has already grown to an inconvenient length, I shall defer his consideration, with that of 'Iṣmat, Kátibí and others, to a later section of this book.