“Amongst the sons of al-Ḥusayn were 'Alí Akbar, who was killed in aṭ-Ṭaff,* and left no offspring, whose mother was Laylá, the daughter of Abú Murra b. 'Urwa b. Mas'úd ath-Thaqafí; and 'Alí Aṣghar, whose mother was Ḥarár,* the daughter of Yazdigird, whom al-Ḥusayn used to call Ghazála (‘the Gazelle’).”
This Shahr-bánú, “the Mother of Nine Imáms” (the fourth to the twelfth) still holds a place in the hearts of her country- Shahr-bánú in the Persian Passion-plays. men; she gives her name to a mountain three or four miles south of Tihrán (the Kúh-i-Bíbí Shahr-bánú) which no male footstep may profane, and which is visited by women who desire an intercessor with God for the fulfilment of their needs; and she is one of the heroines of those heart-moving passion-plays (ta'ziyas) which are yearly enacted in every Persian town and colony to crowds of weeping spectators. And this is how she is made to speak in the drama entitled “the Passing of Shahrbánú” (Ta'ziya-i-ghá'ib shudan-i-Shahr-bánú, Tihrán, A.H. 1314, p. 19):—
Zi nasl-i-Yazdijird-i-Shahriyáram,
Zi Núshirwán buwad aṣl-i-nizáram.
Dar án waqtí ki bakhtam kámrán búd
Badán shahr-i-Ray-am andar makán búd.
Shabí raftam bi-súyi qaṣr-i-bábam,
Biyámad Ḥaẓrat-i-Zahrá bi-khwábam,
Bu-guft, ‘Ay Shahr-bánú, bá sad á'ín
Turá man bar Ḥusayn áram bi-kábín.’Bi-guftam, ‘Man nishasta dar Madá'in,
Ḥusayn andar Madína hast sákin:
‘Muḥál-ast ín sukhun!’ Farmúd Zahrá,
‘Ḥasan áyad bi-sardárí dar ínjá;
‘Tú mí-gardí asír, ay bí-qarína;
‘Barand-at az Madá'in dar Madína;
‘Bi-farzandam Ḥusayn paywand sází,
‘Mará az nasl-i-khud khursand sází.
‘Zi nasl-at nuh Imám áyad bi-dawrán
‘Ki na-b'wad mislashán dar dár-i-dawrán.’“Born of the race of Yazdigird the King
From Núshirwán my origin I trace.
What time kind Fortune naught but joy did bring
In Ray's proud city was my home and place.
There in my father's palace once at night
In sleep to me came Fáṭima ‘the Bright’;
‘O Shahr-bánú’—thus the vision cried—
‘I give thee to Ḥusayn to be his bride!’
Said I, ‘Behold Madá'in is my home,
And how shall I to far Madína roam?*
Impossible!’ But Fáṭima cried, ‘Nay,
Ḥasan shall hither come in war's array,
And bear thee hence, a prisoner of war,
From this Madá'in to Madína far,
Where, joined in wedlock with Ḥusayn, my boy,
Thou shalt bear children who will be my joy.
For nine Imáms to thee shall owe their birth,
The like of whom hath not been seen on earth!’”
A few lines further on occurs a passage so characteristic of the Persian hatred of 'Umar and love of 'Alí that I cannot forbear quoting it in this connection. Shahr-bánú is brought to Madína in a litter, as befits a king's daughter, by the chivalrous Ḥasan, but then her troubles begin:—
“Walí chún shud Madína manzil-i-má
Gham-i-'álam fuzún shud bar dil-i-má.
Yakí guftá ki, ‘Ín dukhtar kaníz-ast’:
Yakí guftá, ‘Bi-shahr-i-khud ‘azíz-ast.’
Bi-masjid mard u zan dar bám maḥẓar,
Mará nazd-i-'Umar burdand, mádar!
Kalámí guft k'azú dar khurúsh-am:
Bu-guft, ‘Ín bi-kasán-rá mí-furúsham!’
'Alí jiddat chu bar ámad khurúshán
Bu-guftá, ‘Lab bi-band, ay dún-i-nádán:
Na-sháyad burdan, ay mal'ún-i-ghaddár
Buzurgán-rá sar-i-'uryán bi-bázár!’
Pas az án khwárí, ay núr-i-dú 'ayn-am,
Bi-bakhshídand bar bábat Ḥusayn-am.
Ḥusayn karda waṣiyyat bar man-i-zár
Na-mánam dar miyán-i-Ál-i-Aṭ-hár.
Agar mánam, asír u khwár gardam,
Birahna-sar bi-har bázár gardam.
Tú, chún hastí Imám u Shahriyáram,
Bi-dast-i-tust, mádar, ikhtiyáram.
Agar gú'í, rawam, dard-at bi-jánam;
Ṣaláḥ-am gar na-mí-dání, bi-mánam!’“But when at last I reached Madína's town
A whole world's sorrow seemed to weigh me down.
One cried, ‘This girl a serving-maid shall be!”
Another, ‘Nay, she was of high degree!’
The women thronged the roofs; the mosque, the men:
O Mother! Me they bore to 'Umar then,
Who spoke a word that caused me pain untold:
‘These hapless wretches shall as slaves be sold!’
But 'Alí then appeared upon the scene,
And cried, ‘Be silent, fool and coward mean!
These gentle women, traitor, void of grace,
Shall not stand naked in the market-place!’
Light of mine eyes! After such treatment dire,
They gave me to Ḥusayn, thy noble sire,Who did advise poor me, to spare me pain,
That after him I should not here remain.
Should I remain, enslaved, in fashion base,
I should be driven through each market-place.
Now, Mother, dear, Imám and Sov'reign mine,
Into thy hands my option I resign.
Bid my fare forth, my bosom filled with pain,
Or bid me tarry, and I will remain!’”
A darker picture of the Sásánians is presented by Christian, notably by Syrian, writers, a source of information “not Views of Christian subjects and contemporaries of the Sásánians. sufficiently used,” as Nöldeke remarks, “by most Orientalists.” Two works of this class in particular may be recommended to those students of Persian history who, like the writer, are unfortunately unable to consult this literature in the original. The first is the Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite,* composed in A.D. 507, describing the Persian invasion of Asia Minor by Kawád, and especially the sufferings of Edessa and Âmid (now 'Urfa and Diyár Bekr) in the beginning of the sixth century of our era. The other is the Acts of the Persian The Persian martyrs. Martyrs,* excerpted from various Syriac manuscripts and translated into German with the most scholarly notes, by George Hoffmann. In these books, both on political and religious grounds, it is natural that the Persians should be depicted in rather lurid colours, but in the first, at any rate, it does not appear that they acted more cruelly or more falsely than their Christian antagonists, though it is natural enough that the author, writing within two or three years of the war which had desolated his home, should occasionally speak of them in such terms as these:—“Now the pleasure of this wicked people is abundantly made evident by this, that they have not shown mercy unto those who were delivered up unto them; for they have been accustomed to show their pleasure and to rejoice in evil done to the children of men.”
Religious feeling, indeed, ran high on both sides, and in the matter of toleration there was little to choose between the Instances of religious bias. Zoroastrian and the Christian priesthoods. A good instance of the extent to which judgment of character was influenced by purely theological considerations is afforded by comparing the accounts of Yazdigird “the sinner.” Yazdigird I (A.D. 399-420) given by the Arabic historians (who drew their information and their views ultimately from the Pahlawí Book of Kings, which was composed under the influence of the Magian priests) with a Syriac account of the same king's character from the pen of a contemporary Christian writer. In the former Yazdigird is called “the sinner” (Pers. Baza-gar, Arab. al-Athím), and his wickedness, frowardness, and tyranny are described as almost superhuman. In the latter he is spoken of in the following terms: “the good and merciful King Yazdigird, the Christian, the blessed amongst the kings, may he be remembered with blessing, and may his future be yet more fair than his earlier life! Every day he doeth good to the poor and the distressed.”* So too Khusraw I (A.D. 531-578) gained the title of Núshírwán “the Just.” Núshírwán (Anúshak-rúbán, “of immortal soul”), by which he is still remembered as the very embodiment of kingly virtue and justice, by his high-handed suppression of the heresy of the communist Mazdak, which, in the eyes of the intolerant Magian priests, constituted his chief claim to “immortality”; and such service has their approval done him that Sa'di, zealous Muhammadan as he was, says:—