(Another Fragment)

“Whoe'er he be, wherever he may dwell
A man should strive to guard his honour well;
Conceit and folly he should put aside,
And turn his back on arrogance and pride;
Should so behave that none through him should e'er
Endure vexation equal to a hair;
None should despise for lack of power or pelf,
And deem each neighbour better than himself;
Then all his energies and wealth should spend
That so perchance he thus may gain a friend.”

(Another Fragment)

“A corner which no stranger can explore,
Where no one bores you, and you no one bore,
A sweetheart, lute and song, a friend or two—
At most a party not exceeding four;
A harp, a zither, roasted meats and wine,
A cup-bearer who is a friend of thine,
Reason, which doth distinguish good and ill,
Regarding not thy ploy with eyes malign!

Whoever doth disparage such affair
Is in the spirit-world devoid of share;
To Ibn-i-Yamín should such luck accrue
For no one in this world or that he'd care!”

The following fragment is practically a paraphrase of some very well-known Arabic verses ascribed to Qábús ibn Washmgír, Prince of Ṭabaristán (reigned A.D. 976-1012), which are quoted in the Story of the Merchant and the Jinní in the Arabian Nights:*

<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>

“Not as I would, O friends, the world doth go:
Of men of genius 'tis the constant foe.
Though fickle Fortune trouble me, what then?
Trouble's the portion of all noble men.
The sky holds countless stars, of which not one
Suffers eclipse, except the moon and sun.
'Tis custom now that he who wants for wits
Ever above the man of talent sits,
As on the sea the dust and rubbish swim
While pearls lie sunk in its abysses dim.”

2. Khwájú of Kirmán
(Kamálu'd-Dín Abu'l-'Aṭá Maḥmúd ibn 'Alí ibn Maḥmúd).

Although nearly all the well-known biographies, such as Dawlatsháh, * the Haft Iqlím, the Átash-kada, * the Khwájú of Kirmán Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá, * etc., contain notices of Khwájú of Kirmán, they are singularly jejune and lacking in precise information, while such precise information as is given is often demonstrably incorrect. Indeed the carelessness with which these works are compiled and copied is deplorable. To take one instance only, Riḍá-qulí Khán, in spite of his undeniable attainments as a poet, a lexicographer and a historian, states in the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá that Khwájú was the panegyrist of Sulṭán Abú Sa'íd Khán, who reigned from 716-736/1316-1335, and immediately afterwards gives the year of his death as 503/1109-1110, which is evidently a careless mistake for 753. Dawlatsháh, who gives 742/1341-2 as the year of his decease, describes him as belonging to a good family in Kirmán, where, however, he spent but a small part of his life, though in some verses quoted on the same page, * and evidently composed at Baghdád, he speaks of his native town with longing and affection:

<text in Arabic script omitted>
Verses showing his love of his native place Kirmán “Pleasant the fragrant and sweet-scented blast
Which o'er the earth of Kirmán late hath passed!
Pleasant the days of that sweet Philomel
Which in its groves and gardens fair doth dwell!
What fault was mine that Heaven did decree
From that pure land I must an exile be?
Wherefore in Baghdád city must I dwell
That tears like Tigris from mine eyes may well?”*

During his travels, according to the Haft Iqlím, Khwájú made the acquaintance of many of his contemporaries amongst the poets and men of letters, and became the disciple of the eminent and pious Shaykh Ruknu'd-Dín 'Alá'u'd-Dawla of Simnán, with a sketch of whose life Dawlatsháh seeks to compensate us for the exiguity * of his information about the proper subject of his biography. Rieu * quotes some verses in which a little-known contemporary poet named Ḥaydar of Shíráz fiercely attacks Khwájú, whom he calls “a Kábulí thief from Kirmán town,” as a plagiarist. He says:

Khwájú accused of plagiarism by Ḥaydar of Shíráz

“Do not mention the name of Khwájú before a poet,
For he is a thief from the Díwán of Sa'dí.
Since he cannot compete in verse even with me
How dares he talk about Sa'dí?”

I can find no mention of Khwájú in the Mujmal of Faṣíḥí, but Ḥamdu'lláh Mustawfí of Qazwín accords him References to Khwájú in the chief biographies of poets a brief notice and cites one of his poems in the Ta'ríkh-i-Guzída, which was completed in 730/1330, * so that even during his lifetime he was evidently well-known throughout Persia. He is also mentioned in the Majálisu'l-Mú'minín, that late but extensive biographical work on the ornaments of the Shí'a sect of Islám, which, however, in this case does little more than copy Dawlatsháh.

It may be laid down as a general principle that the only satisfactory method of writing the lives of Persian Von Erdmann's critical study of Khwájú's life and works poets, with the possible exception of some of the older ones, who lived before the Mongol Invasion had destroyed the scientific spirit of historical criticism in Persia, is to collect and collate such particulars as can be derived from their own works as preserved in old and correct manuscript copies, since little confidence can be placed in some of the modern lithographed editions. This method has been followed in the case of many of the older poets, such as Firdawsí, Niẓámí, Anwarí, Kháqání, etc., and in this respect Khwájú is more fortunate than many of his contemporaries, for so long ago as 1848 Dr Franz von Erdmann published * a short account of him, in which, after quoting and translating Dawlatsháh's article, he gives a brief description of a manuscript of his Khamsa, or five longer mathnawí poems, adding some useful particulars derived from them and from his Díwán. These particulars I shall here summarize, together with the additional details contributed by Rieu.*

According to his own statement, in his poem Naw-rúz u Gul (“New Year's Day and the Rose”), he was born on Shawwál 15, 679 (Feb. 7, 1281). He began his poetical career by attaching himself to the court of one of the Muẓaffarí princes, probably Mubárizu'd-Dín Muḥammad, the founder of that dynasty, at Yazd. Later he frequented the court of Shaykh Abú Isḥáq (reigned 742-754/1341-1353) at Shíráz, and, as may be gathered from the dedications of some of his qaṣîdas (panegyrics) given by von Erdmann, the courts of Shirwán-sháh and Qizil Arslán, Prince of 'Iráq, while the poem already cited shows that he also spent some time at Baghdád. In short he would seem to have wandered through the greater part of Persia, and cannot be regarded, like some of his contemporaries, as essentially the poet of one particular dynasty.

Khwájú's poems comprise the five romantic mathnawís which constitute the Khamsa, or “Quintet” (of which no Extant poems of Khwájú copy is accessible in Cambridge, though the British Museum possesses a fine copy * made in 798/1396), and a Díwán containing qaṣídas (some religious, but mostly panegyrics), ghazals (odes), muqaṭṭa'át (fragments), rubá'iyyát (quatrains), etc. Of the Díwán I possess two manuscripts, one quite modern, and the other, bought at the sale of the Fiott-Hughes library about twenty years ago, copied by “Darwísh Ḥáfiẓ of Shíráz” (not, of course, the great Ḥáfiẓ, who died more than a century earlier) in 899/1493-4. A former owner of the last-mentioned manuscript has computed the number of verses which it contains at about four thousand.

The five poems which constitute the Khamsa are:

(1) Naw-rúz u Gul (“New Year's Day and the Rose”),

Khwájú's five mathnawís of which the contents are briefly stated by von Erdmann, who says that it comprises 2615 verses (bayt).

(2) Humáy u Humáyún, dedicated, apparently, either to Sulṭán Abú Sa'íd (716-736/1316-1335) or to his minister Ghiyáthu'd-Dín Muḥammad, and containing 3203 verses. This poem, as Rieu has shown, was composed at Baghdád in 732/1331-2.

(3) Kamál-náma (the “Book of Perfection”), composed in 744/1343-4, and dedicated to Shaykh Abú Isḥáq, Prince of Fárs, who had ascended the throne only two years previously.

(4) The Rawḍatu'l-Anwár (“Garden of Lights”), a mystical poem composed at the shrine of Shaykh Abú Isḥáq Ibráhím, the patron saint of Kázarún in Fárs, in 743/1342-3, a year before the poem last mentioned.

(5) Another mystical poem of the title of which I am uncertain. The whole Khamsa, or “Quintet,” is apparently an imitation of the celebrated Khamsa of Niẓámí of Ganja, and was concluded in 744/1343-4.

In spite of the comparative celebrity which Khwájú enjoys, I have not been able to discover any striking beauty or conspicuous merit in his odes (ghazals), of which I have read some seventy-five. The following may serve as a fairly favourable specimen: