There On his way to Sijistán. is no record of his stay in Ṭús and other important cities of the Níshápúr district, but it is quite likely that our author might have visited them during his rambles in Khurásán. However, we see him in Herát a little later, probably on his way to Sijistán, enjoying the company of Fakhru’d-Dín* al-Khaṭṭáṭ al-Harawí, and of Badru’d-Dín* b. Núru’d-Dín al-Harawí, who recounts his own relations with ‘Alá’u’l-Mulk* Dhiyá’u’d-Dín Abú Bakr b. Aḥmad al-Jámají, the Wazír of the Sultan Muḥammad Khwárazmsháh, whom al-‘Awfí himself sees later in Asfizár, and whose generosity and piety he records in his biography*. Only from this notice we can infer the approxi­mate date of his stay in Sijistán. In one of the conversations with the Wazír, it is revealed that the Wazír had a desire to see the learned people of Khurásán and Transoxiana, which he fulfilled on the occasion of his journey to Khaṭá (Cathay). Now this incident is connected with the battle in Ṭiráz between Táyangú, the chief of the Qará Khaṭá, and the Sultan Muḥammad Khwárazmsháh, which happened according to the Jahángushá* and other authorities in the year 607 A. H. Therefore our author must have met the Wazír after that date. Sijistán at that time was under the rule of Malik Táju’d-Dín* Ḥarb, and the crown-prince was Yamínu’d-Dín Bahrám­sháh who succeeded to his father’s throne in 612 A. H. Thus our author’s stay in Sijistán lies between these two dates, and this agrees with the other records of his tour in that country.

The His literary associations in Sijistán. important acquaintances he makes at Asfizár are those of the above-mentioned Wazír, and his son*, whose glorious deeds he was destined to record in later times. Besides collecting a few verses of the poet Shihábu’d-Dín Muḥammad b. Humám from the Imám Sharafu’d-Dín* ‘Anbarí, in Asfizár, he makes a very important friendship with Muhadhdhabu’d-Dín* Manṣúr b. ‘Alí al-Asfizárí, who has probably immortalised the name of al-‘Awfí in the line cited below*. Our author now comes down to Farah, while going to the capital of Sijistán, now called Zarnaj, and meets Sharafu’d-Dín* Muḥam­mad b. Muḥammad al-Faráhi. In the seat of the government of Sijistán, he meets the egoist Shamsu’d-Dín* Muḥammad b. Naṣír as-Sijzí, and hears the famous remark about the three wonders of Sijistán, and then comes into close touch with the Jásúsu’l-Aflák Farídu’d-Dín* ‘Alí al-Munajjim as-Sanjarí (Sijzí) who was then living a secluded life, and gives a short account of his brother Naṣír Sha‘rání, the Wazír of the country of Nímrúz; and also hears the verses of Shamsu’d-Dín* Mubáraksháh ibnu’l-A‘azz as-Sanjarí (Sijzí)*, the panegyrist of the rulers of Sijistán.

After End of his wanderjahre and return to Bukhárá. this we do not know much about the wanderings of our author, although there is a vague reference* to Bámiyán, which does not necessarily indicate that our author had been there. Here, probably, ends the tour, and by this time our author, if not the acknowledged preacher, poet, and scholar of his day, is reckoned amongst the most eminent of his contemporaries. There is one significant reference to his return from Marw*, by way of Ámway (Ámúl), which suggests the return of our author after his wanderjahre to his native town, as the references that follow throw a good deal of light on a period which is quite different to the earlier one at Bukhárá. Firstly, he meets his old teacher now the Ṣadru’sh-Sharí‘a of Bukhárá Burhánu’l-Islám Táju’d-Dín ‘Umar b. Mas‘úd (mentioned previously), and attempts a reconciliation* between him and his son, Niẓámu’d-Dín* Muḥammad b. ‘Umar b. Mas‘úd, for whose unbecoming conduct towards his own parents al-‘Awfí pleads on his behalf; secondly his way of alluding to Sa‘du’d-Dín* Mas‘úd Dawlatyár, a client of the above-mentioned Táju’d-Dín, and his taking part with him in social intercourse with that personage, shows that our author had acquired a considerable importance by this time. Another proof of this is the congratulations sent to him by an eminent poet, the Ḥakím Majdu’d-Dín* Fahímí al-Bukhárí, at the approach of the month of Ramadhán. Similarly, when the Muftí of Nakhshab (Nasaf) Shamsu’d-Dín* Dá‘í al-Ḥusayní an-Nasafí comes to Bukhárá, he says that he approached his holiness, and heard his verses, but he does not say whether he learnt anything from him, though it is always the habit of our author to acknowledge the benefits he derived from his seniors.

We Unrest in Khurásán takes him to India. are in the dark as to when our author left Bukhárá for good, and what were the actual circumstances that drove him from Khurásán; but as we know from his past career, he was always trying to get a footing in some court or other, for he had tried Samarqand, Khwárazm, Jurján (Kabúd Jáma), and Sijístán at one time or other, and probably could not find suitable prospects for himself. Apart from this, if we look into the history* of Khúrásán, about 615 A. H. we find that the empire of the Sultan Muḥammad Khwárazmsháh had outgrown its limits, the clouds were gathering, and the impending storm of the Mongols was about to burst, and most of the scholars and poets enticed by the recently established fame of the Indian princes were finding their way to that country*; naturally, our author was also attracted by it. At about this time we find him in Ghazna — shorn of its glory and no longer the pride of either the Ghaznawids or the Ghúrids — probably on his way to India, where he meets the poet Dhiyá’u’d-Dín* Maḥmú’d al-Kábulí, a younger contem­porary of his; and then crossing the Indus*, is seen for the first time in Lahore*, associating as usual with poets and contemporaries* of more or less equal merit, who were then flourishing in that region. A little later we see him in Sind, then the dependency of Malik Náṣiru’d-Dín Qabácha, which extended over a part of the modern Punjáb, and also included Sind and Gujrát. This is the landmark of his journey, and the end of the second period of his life; by this time he is settled at the court of the ruler of Sind, under the patronage of the Wazír ‘Aynu’l-Mulk Fakhru’d-Dín al-Ḥusayn b. Sharafu’l-Mulk Radhíyyu’d-Dín Abú Bakr al-Ash‘arí, and has begun his Lubáb (about 617 A. H.)

Before Situation in India after 607 A. H. discussing the third period, which is that of al-‘Awfí’s literary productivity, it is necessary to say a few words about the political relations of India with Ghúr, Ghazna, Khurásán and Khwárazm. According to the Ṭabaqát-i-Náṣirí, an important source for Indian affairs at this period, we find that, after the death of Quṭbu’d-Dín Aybak, in 607 A.H., the Turkish generals, who had once served under the Ghúrid Sultans Ghiyáthu’d-Dín (d. 599 A. H.) and Mu‘izzu’d-Dín Muḥammad (d. 602 A. H.) and even under Aybak, assumed independence and set up states of their own. Thus Náṣiru’d-Dín Qabácha ruled in Sind; Shamsu’d-Dín Iltutmish became the virtual successor at Dihlí; the province of Lakhnawtí (in Bengal) was held by the Khalajís; Lawhúr (or Lahore) was a bone of contention amongst Táju’d-Dín Yildiz, (who governed Ghazna), Iltutmish and Qabácha; and the kingdom of Ghúr was rent asunder by the strife of ‘Alá’u’d-Dín Atsiz and ‘Alá’u’d-Dín Muḥammad, till the Sultan Muḥammad Khwárazmsháh wiped it out in 612 A. H.

According Fate of the last two Khwá­razmsháhs. to Ibnu’l-Athír* and Muḥammad b. Aḥmad an-Nasawí*, at this stage India comes in contact with the Mongols who burst on Khwárazmsháh, drove his family out of Khwárazm in 616 A. H., and chased him in Khurásán, Mázandarán, and from place to place, till at last he took refuge in an island, called Ḥamáma, off the shore of the Caspian Sea and died there in 617 A. H. His gallant son, Jalálu’d-Dín Mankubirní, unable to stem the tide of Chingíz’s army, moved towards the south, and in 618 A. H., losing the battle fought on the upper bank of the Indus, crossed the Indus on horseback, seeking protection from the murderous foe, once at the hands of Náṣiru’d-Dín Qabácha at Multán and then again of Iltutmish at Dihlí; both of them in turn afraid of the invasion of the Mongols, which was hanging over their heads, deserted the unfortunate monarch in the hour of his dire need. But Náṣiru’d-Dín Qabácha could not escape the onset of the Mongols, as we find him besieged in Multán in 621 A. H. The rivalry of Iltutmish and Qabácha led to the overthrow of the latter and the supremacy of the former in 625 A. H. This period of the life of our author is intimately connected with the last event and he himself has portrayed it graphically in his Preface to the Jawámi‘ (A. ff20-21). He also alludes once in the Lubáb (I, p. 182) and again in the Jawámi‘ (A. f118a. = C. f161a = E. f127b. I. v. 360) to the destruction of Khurásán and other countries in the Caliphate of an-Náṣir in these words:

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The The beginning of the period of his literary productivity. year 617 A. H. = 1220/1 A. D. is rather important in the life of our author, as we find him taking actual part in the political events of the day, and preaching from the pulpit the glorious adventures of the statesman Majdu’l-Mulk* Bahá’u’d-Dín ‘Alí b. Aḥmad al-Jámají, once the Wazír of Táju’d-Dín Yildiz in 612 A. H., who now after breaking with Iltutmish, had become a staunch supporter of Malik Náṣiru’d-Dín Qabácha, the ruler of Sind. As has been said previously, the period of his literary activity also begins in this year, so we shall trace the progress of his works in suc­cession. There are three extant works of the author and the fourth* is probably lost. The first is the Biography of the Poets, called the Lubábu’l-Albáb, for which he collected ample material during his travels. Owing to various unfortunate accidents, much of this material, as he himself states on two different occasions*, was destroyed, and in the short period at his disposal he was not able to enrich the Lubáb with biographical details of the various personalities mentioned in the notices, so that this anthology contains no more than a summary of what he could recollect. And again it appears from the concluding remarks in the Lubáb that his attachment to the court of Qabácha was not much earlier than this date, and that the Lubáb was completed just afterwards.

Soon Chief Judge of - Kanbáyat, where he trans­lates the Faraj. after this, he was sent as the Chief Judge, at the behest of Qabácha, to the recently acquired country of Gujrát, or Nahrwála as it was then called. A con­temporary note, suffixed to the Persian Translation* of at-Tanúkhí’s al-Faraj gives a glimpse of our author in Kanbáyat. From the original Preface to this work, from this Subscription, and from the author’s own reminiscences of Kanbáyat in the Jawámi‘* and a clear statement in the same*, we can gather the history of this Translation*, which was composed about 620 A. H. This work, like the first one, was written for Malik Náṣiru’d-Dín Qabácha, and in fact it was a preparation for the grand Collection of Anecdotes which was to follow.