Some of the most interesting pieces of poetry are those composed, not necessarily by professional poets, for some Examples of occasional or topical verse. special purpose or some particular occasion. These are not so often to be found in the regular díwáns of verse as in the pages of contemporary histories. The following from the unpublished Aḥsanu't-Tawáríkh may serve as specimens.
In the year 961/1553-4 died three Indian kings, Maḥ-
<text in Arabic script omitted>
“In one year the [fatal] conjunction came to three princes by whose
justice India was the Abode of Security.
One was Maḥmúd,
*
the monarch of Gujerát, who was youthful as
his own fortune.
The second was Islám Sháh,
*
King of Dihlí, who was in India the
lord of a fortunate conjunction.
The third was the Niẓámu'l-Mulk
*
-i-Baḥrí, who ruled in royal state
in the kingdom of the Deccan.
Why dost thou ask of me the date of the death of these three Kings?
It was ‘the decline of the kings’ (<text in Arabic script omitted>=961).”
The following verses by Mawláná Qásim commemorate the death of Humáyún in the succeeding year (962/1554-5):
<text in Arabic script omitted>
“Humáyún, king of the realm of the Ideal, none can recall a monarch
like him:
Suddenly he fell from the roof of his palace; precious life departed
from him on the winds.
Qásim
*
thus ciphered the date of his death: ‘King Humáyún fell
from the roof’.”
The next piece, denouncing the people of Qazwín, is by the poet Ḥayratí, who died from a fall at Káshán in 961/ 1553-4:
<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>
“The time has come when the pivotless sphere, like the earth, should
rest under thy shadow, O Shadow of God!
O King! It is a period of nine months that this helpless one hath
remained in Qazwín ruined, weary, wounded and wretched.
I found the practices of the Sunnís in humble and noble alike: I saw
the signs of schism in small and great:
Poor and rich with washed feet at the Tombs: hands clasped in the
mosques to right and to left.
In the time of a King like thee to clasp the hands in prayer is an
underhand action, O King of lofty lineage!
The Judge of this Kingdom is of the race of Khálid ibnu'l-Walíd;
the Muftí of this city is the son of the worthless Sa'íd.
By the sword of the victorious King the brother, father, friend,
kinsman and family of both have been slain together.
Say thyself, O wise King, whether now this group are the propa-
gandists of the enemy, or the clients of the victorious King.
If there cannot be a public massacre one might [at least contrive]
a private massacre for the special satisfaction of the Divine
Majesty.
These are not subjects whose slaughter would cause a reduction of
the revenue or would check the spending power of the country;
Nay, rather each one of them consumes a quantity of the wealth of
the exchequer, for they are all fief-holders and pensioners.”
The worst of these “occasional verses” is that we seldom know enough of the circumstances under which they were composed to enable us fully to understand all the allusions contained in them. What, for example, had the people of Qazwín done to the author of the above verses to arouse in him such bitter anger? Who were the Qáḍí and the Muftí whom he particularly denounces? How did their relatives come to be slain by the King, and of what enemy were they the propagandists? The fact that we do not know at what date the verses were composed, and whether in the reign of Sháh Ṭahmásp or of his father and predecessor Sháh Isma'íl, makes it harder to discover the answers to these questions, but it is interesting to learn how prevalent were the Sunní doctrines in Qazwín at the time when they were written. Of course in the case of the modern topical verses which abounded in the newspapers of the Revolutionary Period (A.D. 1906-1911 especially) the allusions can be much more easily understood.
Of the numerous poets of the Ṣafawí period who devoted their talents to the celebration of the virtues and sufferings Religious poetry of Muḥtasham and his imitators. of the Imáms, Muḥtasham of Káshán (died 996/ 1588) is the most eminent. In his youth he wrote erotic verse, but in later life he seems to have consecrated his genius almost entirely to the service of religion. Riḍá-qulí Khán in his Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá (vol. ii, pp. 36-8) gives specimens of both styles, of which we are here concerned only with the second. The author of the Ta'ríkh-i-'Álam-árá-yi-'Abbásí * in his account of the chief poets of Sháh Ṭahmásp's reign states that though in earlier Indifference of the Ṣafawí kings to panegyric. life that king enjoyed and cultivated the society of poets, in his later years his increasing austerity and deference to the views of the theologians led him to regard them with disfavour as latitudinarians (wasí'u'l-mashrab), so that when Muḥtasham, hoping for a suitable reward, sent him two eloquent panegyrics, one in his praise and the other in praise of the Princess Parí-Khán Khánum, he received nothing, the Sháh remarking that poetry written in praise of kings and princes was sure to consist largely of lies and exaggerations, according to the well-known Arabic saying, “The best poetry is that which contains most falsehoods,” but that, since it was impossible to exaggerate the virtues of the Prophet and the Imáms, the poet could safely exert his talents to the full, and in addition would have the satisfaction of looking for a heavenly instead of an earthly reward. Thereupon Muḥtasham composed his celebrated haft-band, or poem of seven-verse strophes, in praise of the Imáms, and this time was duly and amply rewarded, whereupon many other poets followed his example, so that in a comparatively short time some fifty or sixty such haft-bands were produced. This poem is cited in most of the anthologies which include Muḥtasham, but most fully in the Kharábát * of Ḍiyá (Ẓiyá) Pasha (vol. ii, pp. 197-200). In this fullest form it comprises twelve strophes each consisting of seven verses, and each concluding with an additional verse in a different rhyme, thus comprising in all ninety-six verses. The language is extraordinarily simple and direct, devoid of those rhetorical artifices and verbal conceits which many Europeans find so irritating, and shows true pathos and religious feeling. I wish that space were available to quote the whole poem, the prototype of so many others of a similar character, but I must content myself with citing three of the twelve strophes (the fourth, fifth and sixth).
Muḥtasham's celebrated Haft-band. <text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>“When they summoned mankind to the table of sorrow, they first
issued the summons to the hierarchy of the Prophets.
When it came to the turn of the Saints, Heaven trembled at the blow
which they smote on the head of the Lion of God.
*
Then they kindled a fire from sparks of diamond-dust and cast it on
Ḥasan
*
the Chosen one.
Then they tore up from Madína and pitched at Karbalá those
pavilions to which even the angels were denied entrance.
Many tall palm-trees from the grove of the ‘Family of the Cloak’
*
did the people of Kúfa fell in that plain with the axe of malice.
Many a blow whereby the heart of Muṣṭafá [Muḥammad] was rent
did they inflict on the thirsty throat of Murtaḍá 'Alí's successor,
*
While his women, with collars torn and hair unloosed, raised their
laments to the Sanctuary of the Divine Majesty,
And the Trusted Spirit [Gabriel] laid his head in shame on his knees,
and the eye of the sun was darkened at the sight.