XXXV. CISHTĪ.*

He is Shaikh Ḥusain the Ṣūfī, whose native place is Dihlī, and as he is a disciple of Shaikh Salīm Cishtī* he has chosen this poetical name. He was one of the Ṣūfī members of the monastery at Fatḥpūr, otherwise known as Sīkrī. He has composed a dīvān and is the author of several works, one of which is “The Book of the Heart and the Soul” written in verse, but in an Indian style, and since its purport is the same as that of the book “Beauty and the Heart,” in which the master Mīr ‘Alī Shīr* has displayed his verbosity, it would be a pity to soil one's tongue with the mention of it.

Perhaps this opening couplet is the only one of several thousands of couplets written by Cishtī which is worthy of mention:—

“Such love has Qais* for the peacock's feather
That it would seem that he believes its eye to be the foot-
print of Lail's camel.”