The period which we are now considering is far less rich in notable prose-writers than in poets, and not more than four or five need detain us here.

The first writer who deserves mention is Shams-i-Fakhrí,

Shams-i-Fakhrí whose full name is given above. He compiled in 745/1344 a very excellent work on the Persian language entitled Mi'yár-i-Jamalí, which he dedicated to the amiable and talented but unfortunate Shaykh Abú Isḥáq Ínjú. * It is divided into four parts as follows:

Part i, in 9 chapters, on Poetry and Prosody.

Part ii, in 5 chapters, on Rhyme, the different varieties of Poetry, etc.

Part iii, on Rhetorical Devices, Tropes and Figures of Speech, etc.

Part iv, on the Persian language and its rare and archaic words.

The fourth part, which is of most interest to philologists, was printed at Kazan in 1885 by Carl Salemann. I possess a good MS. of the whole work (except for one leaf missing at the beginning) which was given to me by my friend Dr Riẓá Tevfíq in August, 1909. The date of composition is given in a poem of 11 bayts in praise of “the son of Maḥmúd Sháh” (i.e. Shaykh Abú Isḥaq Ínjú) in the following lines:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

The rare Persian words explained in this fourth part are arranged under the final letter, and each group is worked up into a qaṣída, of which they constitute the rhymes, in praise of the author's royal patron. The first three (un­published) parts of the book, though good, are relatively of less value than the fourth, since the matters of which they treat are more fully discussed in such older books as the Mu'jam fí Ma'áyíri Ash'ári'l-'Ajam * of Shams-i-Qays, and the Ḥadá'iqu's-Siḥr of Rashídu'd-Dín Waṭwáṭ.

Nearly all that is known of this writer is recorded by Mu'ínu'd-Dín Yazdí's history of the House of Muẓaffar Rieu * in his notice of one of the British Museum MSS. of the Mawáhib-i-Iláhí, a historical mono­graph on the House of Muẓaffar from its origin until the battle fought at Shíráz in 767/1365-6 between Sháh Shujá' and his brother and rival Sháh Maḥ-múd. Mu'ínu'd-Dín is described by his fellow-townsman Mufíd in the Jámi'-i-Mufídí (composed in 1082-1090/1671-79) * as the greatest of the 'ulamá of his day. His lectures were crowded with students, and occasionally honoured by the presence of his patron Sháh Shujá' the Muẓaffarí, at whose instigation and encouragement, seconded by that of his father Mubárizu'd-Dín Muḥammad, Mu'ín began the composition of his history at Iṣfahán in 757/1356, though, as indicated above, he did not complete it until ten years later. Two years earlier, in 755/1354, according to the abstract of his history included in some manuscripts of the Ta'ríkh-i-Guzída, * he was made professor at a college at Kirmán. He died in 789/1387.

The Mawáhib-i-Iláhí, of which I possess two MSS. from the late Sir A. Houtum-Schindler's library, * besides having access to a manuscript belonging to the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, is a disappointing book, written, as Rieu justly remarks, like the History of Waṣṣáf, mainly “with a view to rhetorical display.” It is in fact intolerably florid and bombastic, a fault which we might more readily excuse but for the undoubted value of the information which it contains. Happily the simplified abstract of its contents mentioned at the end of the last paragraph dispenses us in large measure from the necessity of reading it in its unabridged form.

This author, a grandson of the famous Shaykh Zarkúb of Shíráz, deserves mention on account of a monograph on The Shíráz­náma his native town, entitled Shíráz-náma, which he composed in 744/1343-4, and which is de­scribed by Rieu. * Manuscripts of this work, which has never been published, are rare; and it is a matter of regret that the author has devoted his attention in the biographical portion of the work so much more to Shaykhs and holy men than to poets.

This writer, called Shamb-i-Gházání after a mausoleum erected for his own sepulture by the Mongol Gházán Khán Niẓám-i-Shámí, the earliest Persian historian of Tímúr two miles to the S.W. of Tabríz, is notable as the author of the only known history of Tímúr compiled during his life-time. This history, en­titled, like the later and much more celebrated book of Sharafu'd-Dín 'Alí of Yazd, Ẓafar-náma (“The Book of Victory”), is extremely scarce, the only manuscript which I know of being the British Museum codex (Add. 23,980), of which I possess a copy made for me by my friend Dr Aḥmad Khán. Our knowledge of Niẓám-i-Shámí is chiefly derived from incidental remarks occurring in his history, some of which are copied by his successor Shara-fu'd-Dín 'Alí, 'Abdu'r-Razzáq (in the Maṭla'u's-Sa'dayn), Mírkhwánd and Khwándamír. Rieu has admirably sum­marized all that is known about this author. * He was living at Baghdád when it was conquered by Tímúr in 795/1392-3, and was amongst the first who came out to do homage to the conqueror, by whom he was graciously received; and he describes the impression made on him by the Tartar attack. In 803/1400-1 he was detained as a prisoner at Aleppo, and describes an attack on the citadel of which he was a witness. In 804/1401-2 Tímúr summoned him to his presence and ordered him to write the history of his reign and his conquests, placing at his disposal the necessary records, memoranda and official papers, * and bidding him especially avoid bombast and rhetoric, and write in a simple and straightforward style which ordinary people could understand. In 806/1403-4 he preached a homily before Tímúr in his camp near Ardabíl on the occasion of the 'Íd or Festival at the end of the Ramaḍán fast (April 12, 1404). Soon afterwards Tímúr set out for his capital Samarqand, and allowed Niẓám-i-Shámí to return “home” (apparently to Tabríz), furnishing him with letters of recommendation to his grandson Prince 'Umar Bahádur, son of Mírán-sháh, who had just been appointed Governor of Persia; a post which he held until 808/1405-6, when he was dispossessed by his brother Prince Abú Bakr.

It does not appear that the history was continued beyond the year 806/1404, when Tímúr, having enjoyed a brief period of repose after his last Georgian campaign, set out on his last return journey to his capital Samarqand, which he quitted on December 28, 1404, on his projected campaign against China. This campaign was rendered abortive by Tímúr's death on March 19, 1405. Particulars of the last The later Ẓafar-náma of Sharafu'd-Dín 'Alí Yazdí year of his life, therefore, are not included in Niẓám-i-Shámí's work, but must be sought for in the homonymous Ẓafar-náma of Sharafu'd-Dín 'Alí Yazdí, who wrote in 828/1424-5 and died thirty years later. Although he strictly belongs, there­fore, to the period which will be discussed in the next chapter, it will be more convenient to consider him here in connection with the author of the original Ẓafar-náma, of which his later Ẓafar-náma is essentially a more florid and verbose enlargement, garnished with many more verses, and increased in bulk by about fifty per cent.

All that is known about this historian, either from his own statements or from such books as the Jámi'-i-Mufídí, Maṭla'u's-Sa'dayn, Haft Iqlím, Ta'ríkh-i-Rashídí, Ḥabíbu's-Siyar , * Laṭá'if-náma, and Dawlatsháh's “Memoirs of the Poets,” * is, as usual, admirably summarized by Rieu. * It is as a poet writing under the nom de guerre of Sharaf, and with a special skill in versifying riddles and acrostics (mu'ammá) that he is mentioned by Dawlatsháh, who also speaks in terms of exaggerated praise of his history of Tímúr, the Ẓafar-náma, on which his fame chiefly rests, though its style is intolerably inflated and bombastic, and its facts—in spite of the author's implication that he col­lected them from original documents and orally from old men who had taken part in the events described—appear to have been mostly borrowed with little or no acknow­ledgement from his predecessor Niẓám-i-Shámí, to whom he is even indebted for many of his citations from the Qur'án and from the poets. His work, however, has entirely eclipsed that of his predecessor. It has been published at Calcutta in the Bibliotheca Indica Series in two volumes (1887-8), and translated into French by Petis de la Croix (1722) and from the French into English by J. Darby (1723). The author of the Haft Iqlím calls Sharafu'd-Dín “the noblest of the scholars of Persia in his time, and the subtlest of the doctors of that period; luminous in ex­position, sharp-tongued, conspicuous in merit, the illuminator of every assembly, the adorner of every company”; and, in speaking of his Ẓafar-náma, says that “no book so elegant has ever been written in Persian on the science of history.” He adds that it was composed in 828/1424-5, a date ex­pressed by the chronogram <text in Arabic script omitted> (“It was composed Other works by Sharafu'd-Dín 'Alí of Yazd in Shíráz”), and that the author also wrote a treatise on riddles and acrostics; a commentary on the celebrated Arabic poem in praise of the Prophet entitled al-Burda (“The Mantle”) by al-Búṣírí; a book on magical squares and lucky numbers, entitled Kunhu'l-Murád dar 'Ilm-i-Wafq-i-A'dád; and a number of odes, quatrains and mathnawí poems, of which he gives only one short specimen.