Translations of qaṣidas (pp. 103-135);
Translations of ghazals (pp. 135-137);
A Table of the Muhammadan years mentioned in the course of the work, from A.H. 225 to A.H. 1273, with their Christian equivalents (pp. 138-141);
Alphabetical index of proper names (pp. 141-146).
The Persian texts at the end of the volume comprise:—
Selected qaṣídas (six in number), the first with full and the remainder with occasional commentary (pp. 2-72);
Selected ghazals, four in number (pp. 73-76);
Biography of Anwarí from the Tadhkira, or Memoirs, of Dawlat-
Biography of Anwarí from the Mirátu'l-Khayál of Shír Khán Lúdí (pp. 83-85);
Biography of Anwarí from the Átash-Kada of Luṭf 'Alí Beg (pp. 85-88);
Biography of Anwarí from the Haft Iqlím of Amín Aḥmad-i-Rází (pp. 88-90).
Amongst the mass of interesting matter collected by
Zhukovski, attention may be especially directed to his table
(on p. 29) of the various dates assigned to Anwarí's death by
different authorities, and his list of the very numerous Arabic
and Persian works (over sixty in number) to which Abu'l-
In the Átash-Kada of Luṭf 'Alí Beg (composed in A.H. 1180 = A.D. 1766-77) as A.H. 545 (= A.D. 1150-51) in Zhukovski's text, but as A.H. 656 (= A.D. 1258) or A.H. 659 (= A.D. 1261) in the Bombay lithographed edition of A.H. 1277 (= A.D. 1860-61);*
In the Taqwímu't-Tawáríkh of Ḥájji Khalífa (composed in A.H. 1058 = A.D. 1648) as A.H. 547 (= A.D. 1152-53);
In the Tadhkira of Dawlatsháh (p. 86 of my edition) as A.H. 547 (= A.D. 1152-53), but some MSS. give other dates, such as A.H. 548 and 556;
In the Mirátu'l-Khayál of Shír Khán-i-Lúdí (composed in A.H. 1102 = A.D. 1690-91) as A.H. 549 (= A.D. 1154-55);
In the Haft Iqlím of Amín Aḥmad-i-Rází (composed in A.H. 1002 = A.D. 1593-94) as A.H. 580 (= A.D. 1184-85);
In the Mujmal of Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yaḥyá Faṣíḥ of Khwáf (composed in A.H. 845 = A.D. 1441-42) as A.H. 585 (= A.D. 1189-90);
In the Khuláṣatu'l-Ash'ár of Taqí Khán of Káshán (composed, so far as this earlier portion is concerned, in A.H. 985 = A.D. 1577-78) as A.H. 587 (= A.D. 1191);
In the Mirátu'l-'Álam of Muḥammad Bakhtáwar Khán (composed in A.H. 1078 = A.D. 1667-68) as A.H. 592 (= A.D. 1196);
While, lastly, the date A.H. 597 (= A.D. 1200-1) is given by d'Herbelot and Stewart.
As will be seen, most of these works are comparatively modern, only two, the Mujmal and Dawlatsháh's Tadhkira, reaching back even as far as the ninth century of the hijra (latter half of the fifteenth of our era). Of the older works from which information might be expected, the Chahár Maqála makes no mention whatever of Anwarí, while the Ta'ríkh-i-Guzída of Ḥamdu'lláh Mustawfí (composed A.H. 730 = A.D. 1330) and the Lubábu'l-Albáb of 'Awfí (early thirteenth century of our era), though they both consecrate articles to him, omit to mention the date of his death, as does the Arabic Átháru'l-Bilád of al-Qazwíní (ed. Wüstenfeld, p. 242, s.v. Kháwarán), which merely describes his poetry as “more subtle than water,” and says that it is in Persian what that of Abu'l-'Atáhiya is in Arabic—a comparison which seems to me singularly inapt. At present, therefore, no data are available for determining accurately when Anwarí was born or when he died, but, for the reasons given above, his death must have taken place subsequently to A.H. 581, and probably, as assumed by Zhukovski and Ethé, between A.H. 585 and 587 (= A.D. 1189-91).
Before proceeding to a fuller examination of Zhukovski's admirable work, allusion should be made to another monograph on Anwarí by M. Ferté, published in the Journal Asiatique for March-April, 1895 (series ix, vol. 5, pp. 235-268). This need not detain us, for it is quite uncritical; the author seems to have had no knowledge of Zhukovski's or Pertsch's work, and contents himself with translating a few of Anwarí's most celebrated poems and reproducing some of the best known, but probably in many cases apocryphal, anecdotes of the biographers.
Zhukovski begins his book with a brief Preface, in which he describes the materials which he had at his disposal, and explains the reasons which led him to select the six qaṣídas whereof the text is published at the end of the volume. The first of these, which is also the first in the Lucknow edition, begins:—
Báz in chi juwání u jamál-ast jahán-rá?
and is chosen because it is at once one of the most celebrated and one of the most difficult and complex of Anwarí's qaṣídas, and because Abu'l-Ḥasan Faráhání's commentary on it, which Zhukovski prints with the text of the poem, is particularly full.
The second, beginning:—
Agar muḥawwil-i-ḥál-i-jahániyán na Qaḍá'st,
Chirá majáriy-i-aḥwál bar khiláf-i-riḍá'st?
is chosen because, in Zhukovski's opinion, Nicolas, who translated it, has misunderstood it, and misrepresented Anwarí on the strength of it.
The third, already mentioned, which begins:—
Gar dil u dast baḥr u kán báshad,
Dil u dast-i-Khudáyagán báshad,
is chosen because it is generally considered to be alike the earliest and one of the most beautiful of Anwarí's qaṣídas.
The fourth, published by Kirkpatrick with an English translation, entitled “The Tears of Khurásán,” in the first volume of the Asiatic Miscellany, p. 286 et seqq. (Calcutta, A.D. 1785), is chosen on account of its historic interest, its human feeling, and its celebrity. It begins:—
Bar Samarqand agar bug'zarí, ay bád-i-saḥar,
Náma-í-ahl-i-Khurásán bi-bar-i-Sulṭán bar.
The fifth, beginning:—
Ay birádar, bishnaw ín ramzí zi shi'r u shá'irí,
is interesting as containing Anwarí's confession as a poet.
The sixth and last, beginning:—
Ay Musulmánán, fighán az jawr-i-charkh-i-chanbarí!
is chosen as one of the last and finest of Anwarí's poems (his “swan-song,” as Zhukovski terms it), and because of its biographical interest.
Of the ghazals only four are given, and Zhukovski has admittedly taken these more or less at random, considering that all of them are about equal in point of merit and interest.
The Preface is followed by an Introduction, dealing with the peculiar position of the professional poet in Persia, especially at this epoch, and emphasizing the necessity under which he laboured, if he wished to make money, of devoting his attention chiefly to political and panegyric verse, varied by satire, the natural counterpart of eulogy. Rhetoric in verse rather than true poetry was generally, as Zhukovski well says, the output of these Court-poets, who fulfilled to a certain extent the functions proper to the journalist in modern times, as well as the more intimate duties of the boon-companion and sycophant. The Court-poet frankly wanted and wrote for money. “If thou wilt give me a thousandth part of what Rúdagí obtained from the bounty of kings, I will produce poetry a thousand times as good,” said Shaykh Abú Zarrá'a al-Ma'marí of Gurgán to his patron. * The poet was expected to show himself equal to every occasion, whether of joy or grief; to congratulate, as we have seen, the royal eye which first detected the new moon heralding the conclusion of the month of fasting, or to console for a fall from a restive horse, or a bad throw at backgammon, or even a defeat in the field of battle; * even to offer condolence to a friend afflicted with toothache.
Another curious point which Zhukovski brings out is that
every poet of note had his ráwí, or rhapsodist, to whom he
entrusted the task of declaiming the poetry which he had
composed. Firdawsí mentions Abú Dulaf as his ráwí;
*
Abu'l-Faraj-i-Rúní says in a verse cited by Zhukovski: “My
ráwí has recited in [your] audience-chamber the conquest of
Merv and Níshápur”; while Mas'úd-i-Sa'd-i-Salmán, in a
verse also cited by Zhukovski, bids his ráwí, Khwája Abu'l-