After the historians come the biographers, of whose
works five or six deserve notice, to wit Dawlatsháh's
“Memoirs of the Poets” (Tadhkiratu'sh-Shu'ará); Mír 'Alí
Shír Nawá'í's Majálisu'n-Nafá'is (which, however, is in the
Turkí, not the Persian language); Jámí's “Lives of the
Saints” (Nafaḥátu'l-Uns); Abu'l-Ghází Sulṭán Ḥusayn's
“Assemblies of Lovers” (Majálisu'l-'Ushsháq); Ḥusayn
Wá'iẓ-i-Káshifí's “Mausoleum of Martyrs” (Rawḍatu'sh-
Mullá Núru'd-Dín 'Abdu'r-Raḥmán Jámí, who derives his last and best-known name, which he uses in his poems Jámí's Nafaḥatu'l-Uns and Baháristán as his takhalluṣ or nom-de-guerre, from the town of Jám in Khurásán where he was born on November 7, 1414, * was equally remarkable for the quality and the quantity of his literary work. He is often described (wrongly, in my opinion, for reasons which will be given later) as “the last great classical poet of Persia,” and it is as a mystical poet of remarkable grace and fertility of imagination that he is chiefly known. Like his great predecessor of the thirteenth century, Shaykh Farídu'd-Dín 'Aṭṭár, who even excelled him in fecundity, though he fell short of him in grace, he composed, besides his numerous poems, a great Biography of Mystic Saints entitled Nafaḥátu'l-Uns, or “Breaths of Fellowship.” This book, of which a good edition was printed at Calcutta in 1859, with an excellent notice of the author by W. Nassau Lees, comprises 740 pages, contains the lives of 611 Ṣúfí saints, male and female, and is one of the most useful and easily available sources of information on this subject. It was written in 881/1476, and contains, besides the biographical notices, which are arranged more or less in chronological order, and conclude with the poets Ḥáfiẓ, Kamál of Khujand, Maghribí, and others who flourished at the end of Tímúr's and beginning of Sháh-rukh's reign, an Introduction of 34 pages dealing, in nine sections, with various matters connected with the doctrine, practice and history of the Ṣúfís or Muhammadan mystics.
The book is written in the simple and direct style suitable to such a work; and indeed Jámí's taste was too good and his sincerity too great to allow him to fall into the verbosity and bombast which mar so many books of this period.
Another of Jámí's prose works, the Baháristán, or “Spring-land,” of which the form seems to have been sug- Jámí's Baháristán gested by Sa'dí's Gulistán or “Rose-garden,” contains some biographical matter in chapter i, dealing with the sayings of the saints, and chapter vii, on poetry and poets. This work, however, is designed rather to yield amusement and instruction than accurate biographical information. In style it is distinctly more ornate than the Nafaḥátu'l-Uns. An English translation was published by the so-called “Káma-Shastra Society.”
Amír Dawlatsháh, son of 'Alá'u'd-Dawla Bakhtísháh Ghází of Samarqand, is the author of the best known Dawlatsháh “Memoirs of the Poets” existing in Persian, and is chiefly responsible, through his interpreter to the West, Von Hammer, * for the perspective in which the Persian poets stand in European eyes. His “Memoirs” are divided into seven Ṭabaqát or Generations, each containing accounts of some twenty more or less contemporary poets and the princes under whose patronage they flourished. There is also an Introduction on the art of Poetry, and a Conclusion dealing with seven poets contemporary with the author and the virtues and accomplishments of his royal patron Abu'l-Ghází Sulṭán Ḥusayn. This is an entertaining but inaccurate work, containing a good selection of verses and a quantity of historical errors which have in some cases misled even such good and careful scholars as Rieu. The book was lithographed in Bombay in 1887 and published by me from a selection of the best available manuscripts in 1901 as the first volume of my short-lived “Persian Historical Texts Series.” A Turkish version by Sulaymán Fahmí was also published in Constantinople in 1259/1843 under the title of Safínatu'sh-Shu'ará.
The oldest account of Dawlatsháh is that given by his contemporary Mír 'Alí Shír Nawá'í in his Majálisu'n-
Biography of Dawlatsháh Nafá'is, which will be mentioned directly. A notice is devoted to him in chapter vi of that work, dealing with “sundry gentlemen and noblemen of Khurásán and other places whose ingenuity and talent impelled them to write poetry, but who, by reason of their high estate and exalted rank, did not persevere therein.” He is there described as “a wholly excellent youth, unassuming and of good parts,” who relinquished worldly pomp and power for a life of seclusion and study, and “composed a Corpus Poetarum on the very same subject which is treated in this manual.” After praising this work, Nawá'í adds that news had recently been received of his death, which the Mir'átu'ṣ-Ṣafá, according to Rieu, * places in 900/1494-5. This does not agree with the statement of Nawá'í, who wrote in 896/1490-1, unless the report of Dawlatsháh's death which reached him was false. Dawlatsháh's “Memoir” was composed in 892/1487, when he was about fifty years of age. Of the living contemporary poets whom he mentions Jámí is by far the most eminent, and I believe that the notion prevalent amongst Persian students in Europe that he is “the last great classical poet of Persia” arises ultimately from the fact that, directly or indirectly, they derive their ideas from Dawlatsháh.*Of Mír 'Alí Shír Nawá'í, the patron of a whole circle of poets, writers and artists, and himself a poet of no mean The Majálisu'nNafá'is of Mír 'Alí Shír Nawá'í order something has been said already, and more remains to be said. For the moment we are only concerned with his biographical work, the Majálisu'n-Nafá'is, written in the Eastern Turkí or Chaghatáy dialect of Turkish which he did so much to popularize and refine. This work, of which I possess a fine manuscript, transcribed in 937/1530-1 at Samarqand, was composed in 896/1490-1, and comprises an Introduction and eight books.
Book i treats of poets who died while the author was
still young and whom he never had the good fortune to
meet, of whom the first and most important is Qásimu'l-
Book ii treats of poets whom the author had known
personally, but who were dead at the time his book was
written. Of these the first and most celebrated is Sharafu'd-
Book iii treats of poets who were flourishing when the author wrote and with whom he was personally acquainted, such as Amír Shaykhum Suhaylí, Sayfí, Áṣafí, Banná'í and Ahlí of Turshíz.
Book iv treats of eminent and pious men who, though not primarily poets, wrote occasional verses, such as Ḥusayn Wá'iẓ-i-Káshifí, the historian Mírkhwánd, etc.
Book v treats of Princes and members of the Royal Family in Khurásán and elsewhere who wrote occasional verses.
Book vi treats of scholars, poets and wits, not natives of Khurásán, who shewed poetic talent.
Book vii treats of Kings and Princes who have either composed verses, or cited the verses of others so appropriately as to entitle them to rank with poets. Amongst the rulers mentioned in this chapter are Tímúr himself, Sháh-rukh, Khalíl Sulṭán, Ulugh Beg, Báysunqur Mírzá, 'Abdu'l-Laṭíf Mírzá, and other Princes of the reigning house of Tímúr.
Book viii treats of the virtues and talents of the reigning King Abu'l-Ghází Sulṭán Ḥusayn ibn Bayqará, to the political events of whose reign, as M. Belin observes in the monograph on Mír 'Alí Shír which will be mentioned immediately, Mírkhwánd devotes the seventh book of his Rawḍatu'ṣ-Ṣafá.*
The monograph mentioned in the last sentence, which contains the best account of Mír 'Alí Shír and his works with which I am acquainted, was published in the Journal Asiatique for 1861 and also as a tirage-à-part comprising 158 pages. It is entitled Notice biographique et littéraire sur Mir Ali-Chir Névâii, suivie d'extraits tirés des œuvres du même auteur, par M. Belin, Secrétaire-Interprète de l'Ambassade de France à Constantinople. The extracts from the Majálisu'n-Nafá'is (or “Galerie des Poètes” as Belin translates it) include the text and translations of the Introduction and Book vii. These suffice to give an adequate idea of the style and scope of the work, which, apart from the fact that it is written in Turkí instead of in Persian, differs from Dawlatsháh's Memoirs in being much smaller in extent, and in dealing only with contemporary poets. It is worth noting that while, as we have already seen, Nawá'í exercised a great influence over the development of Ottoman Turkish poetry, the Ottoman poets seem to have been entirely unknown to, or at least ignored by, him.