A literary history of Persia - The Literary History of Persia, Volume 4

Almost any educated Persian can compose tolerable verses, and the great majority do so, while the number of Widespread poetical talent in Persia. those who habitually indulge in this pastime on a considerable scale and have produced díwáns of poetry has been at all times fairly large. Moreover this poetry is as a rule so conventional, and the language in which it is written so unchanged during the period under discussion, that if a hundred ghazals, or odes, by a hundred different poets who flourished during the last four centuries were selected, avoiding those which contained any reference to current events, and omitting the concluding verse of each, wherein the poet generally inserts his ta-khalluṣ , or nom de guerre, it is extremely doubtful whether any critic could, from their style, arrange them even approximately in chronological order, or distinguish the work of a poet contemporary with Sháh Isma'íl the Ṣafawí from Difficulty of discrimination between noteworthy and mediocre poets. one who flourished in the reign of Násiru'd-Dín Sháh Qájár. Nor do the tadhkiras, or Memoirs of Poets, give us much help in making a selection, for when discussing contemporaries the author is very apt to make mention of his personal friends, and to ignore those whom he dislikes or of whom he disapproves. Thus influential or amiable rhymsters of mediocre ability are often included, while heretics, satirists and persons distasteful or indifferent to the author, though of greater talent, are often omitted. When Riḍá-qulí Khán “Hidáyat,” author of that great modern anthology entitled Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá (“the Concourse of the Eloquent”), ^225a comes to speak of his contemporaries, we constantly come across such expressions as

“He had a special connection with me, and I a sincere regard for him”; ^225b “I saw him in Shíráz”; ^225c “I repeatedly called on him and he used to open the gates of conversation before my face”; ^225d “I sometimes get a talk with him”; ^225e “for a while he established himself in Fárs, where at that time the writer also was living; I used constantly to have the honour of conversing with him, for he used to open the gates of gladness before the faces of his friends”; ^225f and so forth. How many of the 359 “contemporary poets” mentioned in this work ^225g were included on such personal grounds rather than on account of any conspicuous merit? I once went through the list with my excellent old friend Ḥájji Mírzá Yaḥyá Dawlatábádí, a man of wide culture and possessing a most extensive knowledge of Persian poetry, of which he must know by heart many thousands of verses, and asked him which of them he considered really notable. Out of the whole 359 he indicated five (Ṣabá of Káshán, Furúghí of Bisṭám, Qá'ání of Shíráz, Mijmar of Iṣfahán, and Nasháṭ of Iṣfahán) as of the first class; two (Wiṣál of Shíráz, and the author himself, Hidáyat) as of the second; and two (Surúsh of Iṣfahán and Wiqár of Shíráz) as of the third; that is, he regarded about one out of every forty mentioned as having a claim to real distinction.

In any case, therefore, a very rigorous selection must be made, the more so when it is a question of poets whose Criterion of selection. beauty does not depend solely on form, and can, therefore, be preserved in some degree in translation. In making this selection I have included such poets as enjoy any considerable fame in their own country, and any others whom I happen to have come across in the course of my reading (a mere fraction of the total number) who make any special appeal to myself. It is doubtful how far a foreigner is competent to criticize; he may say that he personally admires or dislikes a particular poet, but I doubt if he should go so far as to class him definitely on Divergence of foreign from native taste. this ground as good or bad. The taste of even the Turks and Indians, who are more familiar with Persian poetry than we can easily become, differs very considerably from that of the Persians themselves, who must be reckoned the most competent judges of their own literature. In this connection I should like to direct the reader's attention to a very apposite passage in P. G. Hamerton's Intellectual Life. ^226a Speaking of a Frenchman who had learned English entirely from books, without being able either to speak it, or to understand it when spoken, and “had attained what would certainly in the case of a dead language be considered a very high degree of scholarship indeed,” he says: “His appreciation of our authors, especially of our poets, differed so widely from English criticism and English feeling that it was evident he did not understand them as we understand them. Two things especially proved this: he frequently mistook declamatory versification of the most mediocre quality for poetry of an elevated order; whilst, on the other hand, his ear failed to perceive the music of the musical poets, as Byron and Tennyson. How could he hear their music, he to whom our English sounds were all unknown?” Transform this Frenchman into an Indian or a Turk, and substitute “Persian” for “English” and “Qá'ání” for “Byron and Tennyson,” and the above remarks admirably apply to most Turkish and Indian appreciations of Persian poetry.

Of the poets who died between A.D. 1500 and 1600 some ten or a dozen deserve at least a brief mention; of those between A.D. 1600 and 1700 about the same number; between A.D. 1700 and 1800 only one or two; between A.D. 1800 and 1885 about a score. Those who outlived the date last-mentioned may be conveniently grouped with the moderns, who will be discussed separately. The following are the poets of whom I propose to speak briefly, arranged in chronological order of their deaths (the dates of birth are seldom recorded) in the four periods indicated above.

Several of the poets who really belong to this period have been already mentioned in my Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion, namely, Mír 'Alí Shír Nawá'í, d. 906/ 1500-1 (pp. 505-6); Ḥusayn Wá'iẓ-i-Káshifí, d. 910/1504-5 (pp. 503-4); Banná'í, killed in the massacre at Qarshí in 918/1512-3 (p. 457); and Hilálí, killed by 'Ubaydu'lláh Khán the Uzbek as a Shí'a in 936/1529-30 (p. 459). Of the last-named only need anything further be said here.

Mawláná 'Abdu'lláh Hátifí of Kharjird in Khurásán derives his chief fame from the fact that he was the nephew Hatifí (d. 927/1520). of the great Jámí, who, according to the wellknown story, ^227a tested his poetical talent before allowing him to write by bidding him compose a “parallel” to the following verses in Firdawsí's celebrated satire ^228a on Sultán Maḥmúd of Ghazna:

“A tree whereof the nature is bitter, even if thou plantest it in the
Garden of Paradise,
And if, at the time of watering, thou pourest on its roots nectar and
fine honey from the River of Paradise, ^228b
It will in the end give effect to its nature, and bring forth that same
bitter fruit.”

Hátifí produced the following “parallel,” which his uncle Jámí approved, except that he jocularly observed that the neophyte had “laid a great many eggs on the way”: ^228c

“If thou should'st place an egg of the crow compounded of darkness
under the Peacock of the Garden of Paradise,
And if at the time of nourishing that egg thou should'st give it grain
from the Fig-tree of the Celestial Gardens,

And should'st water it from the Fountain of Salsabíl, and Gabriel
should breathe his breath into that egg,
In the end the crow's egg will become a crow, and vain will be the
trouble of the Peacock of Paradise.”

Hátifí was one of the innumerable poets who strove to compose a “Quintet” (Khamsa) rivalling that of Niẓámí of Ganja. Two of his five subjects were the same, the romances of Laylá and Majnún ^229a and of Shírín and Khusraw; the Haft Manẓar formed the parallel to the Haft Paykar; while the Tímúr-náma ^229b formed the counterpart to the Sikandar-náma, except that, as Hátifí boasts, ^229c his poem was based on historical truth instead of on fables and legends. He also began, but did not complete, a similar historical poem on the achievements of Sháh Isma'íl the Ṣafawí, who paid him a surprise visit as he was returning from a campaign in Khurásán in 917/1511-12. This poem is in the style and metre of the Sháh-náma of Firdawsí, and is entitled Sháh-náma-i-Ḥaẓrat-i-Sháh Isma'íl.^229d

Hátifí belongs essentially, like so many other representatives of Art and Letters in the early Ṣafawí period, to the circle of Herát formed under the liberal patronage of the later Tímúrids.

Fighání appears to be one of those poets who are much more highly esteemed in India than in their own country,

“Stained with wine Fighání sank into the earth: alas if the Angels
should sniff at his fresh shroud!”^230c

The longest extracts from his poems are given in the Majálisu'l-Mú'minín, but these are all qaṣídas in praise of 'Alí, presumably composed towards the end of his life, and, though they may suffice to prove him a good Shí'a, they are hardly of a quality to establish his reputation as a great poet.

Little is known of Umídí except that his proper name was Arjásp, ^230d that he was a pupil of the celebrated philosopher Jalálu'd-Dín Dawání, that his skill was in the qaṣída rather Umídí (d. 925/1519). than the ghazal, that he was on bad terms with his fellow-townsmen, on whom he wrote many satires, and that he was finally killed in Ṭihrán in a quarrel about a piece of land, at the instigation of Qiwámu'd-Dín Núr-bakhshí. Námí, one of his pupils, composed the following verses and chronogram on his death:

“The much-wronged Umídí, wonder of the Age, who suddenly and
contrary to right became a martyr,
Appeared to me at night in a dream and said, ‘O thou who art
aware of my inward state,
Write for the date of my murder: ^231a “Alas for my blood unjustly shed,
alas!”’”

Reference has already been made (p. 59 supra) to a qaṣída composed by him in praise of Najm-i-Thání, and probably his poetry consisted chiefly of panegyrics, though he also wrote a Sáqí-náma (“Book of the Cup-bearer”) of the stereotyped form. Manuscripts of his poems are very rare, but there is one in the British Museum, ^231b comprising, however, only 17 leaves, and even these few poems were collected long after his death by command of Sháh Ṣafí. Mention is, however, made of him in most of the tadhkiras, and the Átash-kada cites 24 verses from his Sáqí-náma, and 70 verses from his other poems. Amongst these are the following, also given in the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá (vol. ii pp. 7-8):

“If the College hall should be turned upside down it matters little;
but may no injury befall the halls of the Wine-houses of Love!
The College buildings, high and low, were destroyed, while the
taverns continued to flourish just the same.”

“Thou art a half-drunk Turk, I am a half-slain bird; ^233a thy affair with
me is easy, my desire of thee is difficult.
Thou settest thy foot in the field, I wash my hands of life; thou
causest sweat to drip from thy cheek, I pour blood from my
heart.
Behind that traveller in weakness and helplessness I rise up and
subside like the dust until the halting-place [is reached].
When shall the luck be mine to lift him drunken from the saddle,
while that crystal-clear arm embraces my neck like a sword-belt?
Thou bearest a dagger and a goblet: the faithful with one accord
drink blood beside thee and give their lives before thee.
Now that my scroll of praise is rolled up, hearken to the tale of Ray:
it is a ruin wherein a madman is governor:
A madman on whom counsel produced no effect; a madman whom
chains did not render sensible.
He is a madman full of craft, my old enemy; be not secure of him,
and be not heedless of me.
From the arbiter of eloquence this point is hidden, that a distracted
mind is not disposed to verse.
My genius would snatch the ball ^233b of verse from all and sundry, if
only the bailiff were not in my house!”

These two homonymous poets, the one of Turshíz in Khurásán (d. 934/1527-8) and the other of Shíráz (d. 942/

Hilálí, though born in Astarábád, the chief town of the Persian Province of Gurgán, was by race a Chaghatáy Hilálí (d. 935/1528). Turk, and was in his youth patronized by Mír 'Alí Shír Nawá'í. His most famous poem, entitled Sháh u Darwísh, or Sháh u Gadá (“the King and the Beggar”), has been harshly criticized by Bábur himself ^234a and in later times by Sprenger, ^234b but warmly defended by Ethé, who translated it into German verse. ^234c He composed another mathnawí poem entitled Ṣifátu'l-'Áshiqín (“the Attributes of Lovers”) and a number of odes collected into a Díwán. Riḍá-qulí Khán says ^234d that in Khurásán he was regarded as a Shí'a, but in 'Iráq as a Sunní. Unhappily for him 'Ubaydu'lláh Khán, the fanatical Uzbek, took the former view, and caused him to be put to death as a “Ráfiḍí.” It is curious, in view of this, that he is not mentioned in the Majálisu'l-Mú'minín amongst the Shí'a poets; and perhaps, as asserted in the Haft Iqlím, the envy of two of his rivals at the Uzbek Court, Baqá'í and Shamsu'd-Dín Kúhistání, rather than his religious views, may have caused his execution, which 'Ubaydu'lláh Khán is said to have subsequently regretted. The following verses, however, seem to indicate Shí'a propensities:

“Muḥammad the Arabian, the honour of both worlds: dust be upon
the head of him who is not as dust at his Door!
I have heard that his life-sustaining ruby lip uttered, like the Mes-
siah, this tradition:
‘I am the City of Knowledge and 'Alí is my Door’: a marvellously
blessed tradition! I am the dog of his Door!”^235a

Lisání of Shíráz is the last of the twenty-two Persian Shí'a poets mentioned in the Majálisu'l-Mú'minín and Lisání (d. 940/1533). deserves mention rather on account of his devotion to that faith than by reason of his poetic talent; for, although he is said to have produced more than 100,000 verses, they are little known and seldom met with, ^235b and, though mentioned in the Átash-kada and the Haft Iqlím, he is ignored by Riḍá-qulí Khán. Most of his life was spent at Baghdád and Tabríz, in which latter town he died just before it was taken by the Ottoman Sulṭán Sulaymán. “On account of his devotion to the Twelve Imáms,” says the author of the Majális, “Lisání would never remove from his head the twelve-gored kingly crown ^236a until, when Sulṭán Sulaymán the Turk was advancing to occupy Tabríz, it happened that news of his near approach reached Lisání when he was engaged in prayer in the great Mosque of Tabríz. On hearing this news, he raised his hands in prayer, saying, ‘O God, this usurper is coming to Tabríz: I cannot remove this crown from my head, nor reconcile myself to witnessing his triumph, therefore suffer me to die, and bring me to the Court of Thy Mercy!’ He then bowed his head in prayer, and in that attitude surrendered his soul to the Beloved.” The following quatrain is characteristic:

“If the joints of Lisání break apart, and his needy body passes into
the dust,
By God, from the horizon of his heart naught will appear save the
love [or sun] of 'Alí and his eleven descendants!”

His poems, in the preservation of which he seems to have been very careless, were collected after his death by his pupil Sharíf of Tabríz, but so slovenly was the compilation that, according to the Átash-kada, it was known as Sahwu'l-Lisán , or “Lapsus Linguæ.”

Fuḍúlí is reckoned amongst the Turkish rather than the Persian poets, and is fully discussed by Gibb in vol. iii of Fuẓúlí (d. 970/1562). his monumental History of Ottoman Poetry (ch. iv, pp. 70-107). That he became an Ottoman subject was due to the fact that Baghdád, where he was probably born, and where he spent nearly all his life, was taken from the Persians by the Turks in 940/ 1535; but, as Gibb says, ^237a “he composed with equal ease and elegance in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic.” He is described by the same scholar ^237b as “the earliest of those four great poets who stand pre-eminent in the older literature of Turkey, men who in any age and in any nation would have taken their place amongst the Immortals.” That his status in the Persian Parnassus is so much lower is due rather to the greater competition and higher standard of excellence prevailing there than to any lack of skill on his part in the use of the Persian language. ^237c That he was of the Shí'a faith is clear from several of his verses, and from his Ḥadíqatu's-Su'adá, ^237d a Turkish martyrology modelled on the Persian Rawḍatu'sh-Shuhadá of Ḥusayn Wá'iẓ-i-Káshifí.

As I have referred to Gibb's great work on Ottoman Poetry, I may here express a doubt as to his claim ^237e that the kind of poem entitled Shahr-angíz (or “City-thriller,” as he renders it) is a Turkish invention, and that “there is no similar poem in Persian literature.” Sám Mírzá in his Tuḥfa-i-Sámí (compiled in 957/1550) mentions at least two poets, Waḥídí of Qum and Ḥarfí of Iṣfahán, who composed such poems, the former on Tabríz, the latter on Gílán, and though these were probably written later than Masíḥí's Turkish Shahr-angíz on Adrianople, there is nothing to suggest that they were regarded as a novelty or innovation in Persia. Ḥarfí's poem, called Shahr-áshúb (“City-disturber”) seems to have been bitterly satirical, for the unhappy poet was deprived of his tongue in consequence, as Sám Mírzá relates:

Though born at Báfq, a dependency of Kirmán, Waḥshí spent most of his life at Yazd. His poetry, especially his Waḥshí (d. 991/1583). Farhád u Shírín and his ghazals, are highly praised in the Ta'ríkh-i-'Álam-árá-yi-'Abbásí, the Átash-kada, and the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá. ^238a He also wrote panegyrics on Sháh Ṭahmásp and his nobles, concerning which the author of the work last-named remarks that in this branch of the poetic art none of the poets of the middle period can compare with the ancients. He did not finish the Farhád u Shírín, which was completed long afterwards (in 1265/1848-9) by Wiṣál. He wrote two other mathnawí poems, the Khuld-i-Barín (“Supreme Abode of Bliss”) and Náẓir u Manẓúr, besides ghazals (odes) and qiṭ'as (fragments), a large selection of which are given in the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá and the Átash-kada (pp. 111-120). ^238b The following murabba', or “foursome,” given in both these anthologies, is rather pretty and unusual.

“O friends, hearken to the account of my distraction! Hearken to the tale of my hidden sorrow! Hearken to the story of my disordered state! Hearken to my description of my bewilderment! How long shall I hide the account of this grievous story? I burn! I burn! How long shall I refrain from telling this secret?

For a while I and my heart dwelt in a certain street: the street of a certain quarrelsome beauty. We had staked Faith and heart on one of dissolute countenance; we were fettered in the chains of one with chain-like tresses. In that chain was none bound save me and my heart: of all that exist, not one was captive then.

Her bewitching narcissus-eyes had not then all these love-sick victims; her curling hyacinthine locks held then no prisoner; she had not then so brisk a business and so many customers; she was a Joseph [in beauty] but found no purchaser. I was the first to become a purchaser; it was I who caused the briskness of her market.

My love was the cause of her beauty and comeliness; my shame gave fame to her beauty; so widely did I everywhere describe her charms that the whole city was filled with the tumult of the spectators. Now she has many distracted lovers, how should she think or care for poor distracted me?

Since it is so, it is better that we should pursue some other aim, that we should become the sweet-voiced songsters of some other rose-bower, that we should become the nightingales of some other rose-cheeked beauty, that for a few days we should follow some other charmer. Where is some fresh young rose whose eloquent nightingale I may become, and whom I may [thus] distinguish amongst the youthful beauties of the garden?

Although the fancy for thy face hath passed away from Waḥshí's mind, and the desire for thy charming figure hath departed from his heart, and one vexed in heart hath departed in vexation from thy street, and with a heart full of complaints hath departed from the displeasure of thy countenance, God forbid that I should forget thy constancy, or should listen to man's counsels of expediency!”

Maḥmúd Qárí of Yazd, the poet of clothes, who died two years after Waḥshí and three years before Muḥtasham, was Maḥmúd Qárí of Yazd (d. 993/1585), and Muḥtasham of Káshán (d. 996/1587-8). mentioned in the preceding volume of this work ^241a in connection with the two earlier parodists 'Ubayd-i-Zákání and Busḥaq (Abú Isḥáq) of Shíráz; while the far more notable Muḥtasham has been already discussed at some length in the preceding chapter ^241b in connection with the religious poetry on which his fame chiefly rests. Of the erotic verse of his early youth and of his panegyrics on Sháh Ṭahmásp copious specimens are given in the Átash-kada, but these are neither so distinguished nor so characteristic as his elegies (maráthí) on the martyrdom of Ḥusayn and the other Imáms, from which the extracts given in the Maj-ma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá ^241c are chiefly taken.

Though less highly appreciated in his own country than in Turkey and India, 'Urfí is probably on the whole the 'Urfí of Shíráz (d. 999/1590-1). most famous and popular poet of his century. ^241d Though born and brought up in Shíráz, his short life was chiefly spent in India, where he died in 999/1590-1 at the early age of thirty-six, some say of dysentery, others of poison. He is one of the three poets of this century (A.D. 1500-1600) discussed by Shiblí Nu'mání in his Shi'ru'l-'Ajam, ^241e the other two being his fellow-townsman Bábá Fighání, already mentioned, ^242a and Fayḍí (Fayẓí), brother of Akbar's celebrated minister Abu'l-Faḍl (Abu'l-Faẓl), who, in Shiblí's opinion, was one of the two Indian poets who wrote Persian verse which would pass as the work of a genuine Persian. ^242b 'Abdu'l-Qádir Badá'úní says ^242c that 'Urfí and Thaná'í were the two most popular Persian poets in India in his time, and that manuscripts of their works were to be found in every bazaar and bookshop, while Fayḍí's poems, in spite of the large sums of money which he had expended in having them beautifully copied and illuminated, were little sought after. Gibb says^242d

“Fayḍí and 'Urfí run neck-and-neck; they are the leaders of the later
time.
In Fayḍí is eloquence and freshness, in 'Urfí sweetness and fluency.
In Fayḍí are fiery exhortations, while 'Urfí is strong in elegies.
But if pre-eminence he sought, excellence still remains with Fayḍí.
Fayḍí is clear throughout: no dots need be added to his commen-
tary.
But that paragon of excellence suffered martyrdom at his pupil's
hands.”

I can find no evidence in support of the last statement, which, indeed, is at variance with Badá'úní's exultant de- Fayḍí's miserable death in 1004/1595. scription ^243a of his painful and unpleasant death, ^243b though perhaps the swollen face and blackened lips, which his bitter enemy describes with unconcealed Schadenfreude, may have aroused suspicions of poison. The same fanatical writer gives a series of most uncomplimentary chronograms composed by the orthodox to commemorate the death of an arch-heretic, such as:

“When infidel Fayḍí died, Faṣíḥ said as the date of his death, ‘A dog
departed from the world in a foul fashion.’”

The simplest of them all are “Fayḍí was a heretic” (), “he died like a dog-worshipper” (), and “the rule of heresy broke” (), all of which yield the required date A.H. 1004 (A.D. 1595). Badá'úní also says that, with a view to restoring his shattered religious reputation, he composed a commentary on the Qur'án consisting entirely of undotted letters, adding unkindly that he was drunk and in a state of legal uncleanness when he wrote it. The author of the Majma'u'l- Fuṣaḥá ^244a in alluding to this book (which he only knew by repute) says that the author “troubled himself to no purpose” (), and has no word of praise for his poems, on which the author of the Átash-kada has the tepid encomium that “they are not bad.” The fullest and most appreciative account of him which I have met with is that given by Shiblí Nu'mání in his Shi'ru'l-'Ájam. ^244b He composed a Khamsa (“Quintet”) in imitation of Niẓámí, the titles of these five poems being Markaz-i-Adwár, Sulaymán u Bilqís, Nal u Daman (the most celebrated), Haft Kishwar, and Akbar-náma, but some of them remained incomplete. He also wrote many qaṣídas and ghazals, and produced several translations from the Sanskrit. None of his verses quoted by Shiblí appear to me so affecting as the following on the death of his child:

Fayḍí's verses on the death of his child. “O brightness of my bright eyes, how art thou? Without
thee my days are dark; without me how art thou?
My house is a house of mourning in thine absence;
thou hast made thine abode beneath the dust: how
art thou?
The couch and pillow of thy sleep is on thorns and
brambles: O thou whose cheeks and body were as
jasmine, how art thou?”

Fayḍí was a man of varied learning and a great lover of books. His library contained four thousand six hundred Fayḍí's library. choice manuscripts, mostly autographs or copied during the authors' lifetimes. ^245a He was generous and hospitable, and amongst those who enjoyed his hospitality was 'Urfí of Shíráz, to whom we now turn.

'Urfí, whose proper name was Jamálu'd-Dín Muḥammad and whose father was named Badru'd-Dín, was born and Account of 'Urfí. educated at Shíráz, but at an early age migrated to India, and, as already mentioned, attached himself to Fayḍí, with whom, however, he presently quarrelled. Badá'úní says ^245b that one day he called on Fayḍí and found him caressing a puppy, whereupon he enquired what the name of “the young master” (makhdúm-záda) might be. “'Urfí,” replied Fayḍí, to which 'Urfí promptly replied, “Mubárak báshad!” which means “May it be fortunate!” but may be taken as alluding to Fayḍí's father Shaykh Mubárak and as meaning, “It should be Mubárak!”

'Urfí next won the favour of the Ḥakím Abu'l-Fatḥ of Gílán, ^245c by whom he was introduced to that great nobleman and patron of letters 'Abdu'r-Raḥím, who succeeded to the title of Khán-khánán borne by his father Bayram Khán on the assassination of the latter in 968/1560-1. In due course he was presented to the Emperor Akbar himself, whom he accompanied on his march to Cashmere in 997/1588-9.

In spite of his opportunities and undoubted talents, 'Urfí's intolerable conceit and arrogance prevented him Unamiable character of 'Urfí. from being popular, and made him many enemies. Riḍá-qulí Khán accords him but a brief notice, ^245d and observes that “the style of his poems is not admired by the people of this age.” Criticism and disparagement are, indeed, courted by a poet who could write: ^246a

“Wherefore did Sa'dí glory in a handful of the earth of Shíráz
If he did not know that it would be my birthplace and abode?”

Nor is this an isolated example of his conceit, for in like fashion he vaunts his superiority to Anwarí, Abu'l-Faraj, Kháqání, and other great Persian poets, and this unamiable practice may have conduced to his unpopularity amongst his compatriots, who do not readily tolerate such disparagement of the national heroes. In Turkey, on the other hand, he had, as we have seen, a great influence and reputation, and likewise in India, so that Shiblí devotes to him fifty-two pages (pp. 82-133) of his Shi'ru'l-'Ajam, rather more than he devotes to Fayḍí, and much more than he gives to any other of the seven poets he mentions in the third volume of his work. But even Shiblí admits that his arrogance made him generally unpopular, a fact of which he was fully aware, as appears from the following poem, ^246b wherein he complains of the hypocritical sympathy of the so-called “friends” who came to visit him when he was confined to bed by a severe illness:

Collect thyself, and beware, let not thy heart be troubled, for I will
with single purpose collect thy verse and prose.
After copying and correcting it, I will compose an introduction like
a casket of pearls in support of thy claims;
An index of learning and culture such as thou art, a compendium of
good qualities and talents such as thou art,
I will pour forth, applying myself both to verse and prose, although
it is not within the power of man to enumerate thy perfections!’

‘May God, mighty and glorious, give me health again, and thou
shalt see what wrath I will pour on the heads of these miserable
hypocrites!’”^248a

Space does not allow us to follow in detail Shiblí's interesting and exhaustive study of this poet, to whose verse he assigns six salient merits, such as “forceful diction” (), new and original combinations of words, fine metaphors and comparisons, and continuity or congruity of topics (). Except for a little-known prose treatise on Ṣúfíism entitled Nafsiyya all his work was in verse, and included, according to Shiblí, two mathnawi poems in imitation of Niẓámí's Makhzanu'l-Asrár and Khusraw wa Shírín, and a Díwán, compiled in 996/1588, only three years before his death, containing 26 qaṣídas, 270 ghazals, and 700 fragments and quatrains. The following chronogram gives the date of its compilation: ^248b

One of his most famous qaṣídas, given in the Kharábát (vol. i, pp. 169-174), is in praise of 'Alí ibn Abí Ṭálib, and contains 181 verses. It begins:

“I have wandered through the world, but alas! no city or country
have I seen where they sell good fortune in the market!”

'Urfí is not, however, included amongst the Persian Shí'a poets to whom notices are consecrated in the Majálisu'l-Mú'minín .

Concerning the numerous Persians—theologians, scholars, philosophers and poets—attracted to Akbar's brilliant court,

“The versifiers, or so-called poets, were extremely numerous. Abu'l-Faẓl tells us that although Akbar did not care for them, ‘thousands of poets are continually at court, and many among them have completed a díwán (collection of artificial odes), or have written a mathnawí (composition in rhymed couplets).’ The author then proceeds to enumerate and criticize ‘the best among them,’ numbering 59, who had been presented at court. He further names 15 others who had not been presented but had sent encomiums to His Majesty from various places in Persia. ^249b Abu'l-Faẓl gives many extracts from the writings of the select 59, which I have read in their English dress, without finding a single sentiment worth quoting; although the extracts include passages from the works of his brother Fayẓí (Fayḍí), the ‘king of poets,’ which Abu'l-Faẓl considered to enshrine ‘gems of thought.’”

The third volume of Badá'úní's Muntakhabu't-Tawáríkh, which is entirely devoted to the biographies of the poets Valuable data furnished by Badá'úní. and men of learning who adorned Akbar's court, contains notices of 38 Shaykhs (religious leaders), 69 scholars, 15 philosophers and physicians, and no fewer than 167 poets, most of whom, however, though they wrote in Persian and were in many cases Persians by birth, are unknown even by name in Persia.

Amongst the most eminent names belonging, in part at any rate, to the century which we here conclude, are those of Shaykh Bahá'u'd-Dín 'Ámilí, Mullá Muḥsin-i-Fayḍ (Fayẓ) of Káshán, Mír Dámád, and Mír Abu'l-Qásim-i-Findariskí, who, however, will be more suitably considered amongst the theologians or philosophers.

Four of the seven poets discussed at length by Shiblí in the third volume of his Shi'ru'l-'Ajam fall within the period indicated above. These are Naẓírí (d. 1021/1612-13), Ṭálib-i-Ámulí (d. 1036/1626-7), Abú Ṭálib Kalím (d. 1061/ 1651), and Ṣá'ib (d. 1088/1677-8). ^250a Riḍá-qulí Khán in the enumeration of eminent contemporaries of the Ṣafawí kings with which he concludes the supplementary eighth volume written by him in continuation of Mírkhwánd's Rawḍatu'ṣ-Ṣafá mentions not one of these, but, in the period now under consideration, names only Ẓuhúrí (d. 1024/1615) and Shifá'í (d. 1037/1627). Another poet ignored by both these writers but highly esteemed in Turkey, where, according to Gibb, ^250b “he continued for more than half a century to be the guiding star for the majority of Ottoman poets,” being “deservedly famous for his marvellous ingenuity and fertility in the invention of fresh and picturesque images and similes,” is Shawkat (or Shevket, according to the Turkish pronunciation) of Bukhárá (d. 1107/1695-6). To these seven we may add, besides four or five ^250c who, though they wrote occasional verse, were primarily philosophers, and will be discussed in connection with that class, the following six, who were, perhaps, a trifle more distinguished than their innumerable competitors: Saḥábí of Astarábád (d. 1010/1601-2), Zulálí of Khwánsár (d. about 1024/1615), Jalál Asír (d. 1049/1639-40), Qudsí of Mashhad (d. 1056/ 1646-7), Salím of Ṭihrán (d. 1057/1647-8), and Amání of Mázandarán (d. 1061/1651). Although I think that Rieu ^251a goes too far when he describes Ṣá'ib as “by common consent the creator of a new style of poetry, and the greatest of modern Persian poets,” he is without doubt the greatest of those who flourished in the seventeenth century of our era, and, I think, the only one deserving a detailed notice in this volume, notwithstanding Riḍá-qulí Khán's remark that “he had a strange style in the poetic art which is not now admired.”^251b

Here follows a list of these seventeen poets, arranged chronologically according to the dates of their deaths, with brief references to the authorities who may be consulted for further particulars concerning them. These are, besides Rieu's incomparable Persian Catalogue, Shiblí's Shi'ru'l-'Ajam, vol. iii (Sh.), the Átash-kada (A. K.), the Haft Iqlím (H. I., available in manuscript only), the Raw-ḍatu'l-Jannát (R. J.), the Rawḍatu'ṣ-Ṣafá (R. Ṣ.), the Maj-ma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá (M. F.), and the Riyáḍu'l-'Árifín (R. 'Á.).

(1) Saḥábí of Astarábád (d. 1010/1601-2). Rieu, p. 672; A. K., pp. 141-2, and H. I., s.v. Astarábád in both; M. F.,

(2) Naẓírí of Níshápúr (d. 1021/1612-3). Rieu, pp. 817-8; Sh. iii, pp. 134-64; A. K., pp. 131-3; H. I., s.v. Níshá- Naẓírí of Níshápúr (d. 1021/1612). púr (a long notice); M. F., ii, pp. 48-9; R. 'Á., pp. 236-7. The last thirty years of his life were spent in India, chiefly at Aḥmadábád in Gujerát, where he died. He was one of the many poets who benefited by the bounty of 'Abdu'r-Raḥím Khán-khánán, who provided him with money to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1002/1593-4, in response to a qaṣída beginning:

“Through genius I cannot contain myself, like the Magian wine in
the jar; the very garments are rent on my body when my ideas
ferment.
Through thy beneficence I experienced all the pleasure of this world:
what wonder if through thee [also] I should obtain provision for
the other world?”

In matters of religion he was something of a fanatic, and wrote verses attacking “the heretic” Abu'l-Faḍl. He also wrote verses in praise of tobacco, some of which are quoted by Shiblí (p. 134).

(3) Zulálí of Khwánsár (d. 1024/1615). Rieu, pp. 677-8; H. I., s.v. Khwánsár (a long notice). He was the pane- Zulálí of Khwánsár (d. circ. 1024/1615). gyrist of Mír Dámád, and composed seven mathnawís, of which that on Maḥmúd and Ayáz (begun in 1001/1592-3, and concluded in 1024/ 1615), shortly before his death, is the most popular. Two others mentioned by Rieu are “the Wine-Tavern” (May-khána ), and “the Mote and the Sun” (Dharra u Khurshíd).

(4) Ẓuhúrí of Turshíz (d. 1024/1615, murdered in an affray in the Deccan together with his fellow-poet and Ẓuhúrí of Turshíz (d. 1024/1615). father-in-law Malik of Qum). Rieu, pp. 678-9; A. K., pp. 68-70; R. Ṣ., at end of vol. viii. He is, as Rieu observes, little known in Persia, though much admired in India, especially as a writer of extremely florid prose. The author of the A. K. says that in his opinion this poet's Sáqí-náma (“Book of the Cupbearer”) has no great beauty, in spite of the fame which it enjoys.

(5) Bahá'u'd-Dín 'Ámilí, commonly called Shaykh-i-Bahá'í (d. 1030/1620-1), was primarily a theologian, and to Shaykh Bahá'u'd-Dín 'Ámilí (d. 1030/1620-1). some extent a philosopher and mathematician, but he wrote at least two short mathnawí poems, entitled respectively Nán u Ḥalwá (“Bread and Sweetmeats”) and Shír u Shakkar (“Milk and Sugar”). Extracts from both are given in the M. F. (vol. ii, pp. 8-10), besides a few ghazals and quatrains, and also in the R. 'Á., pp. 45-9. Apart from his mathematical and astronomical treatises, his best-known prose work is the Kashkúl (or “Beggar's Bowl”), which has been printed at Buláq and lithographed in Persia. This work, though written in Arabic, contains many Persian poetical citations, which, however, are omitted in the Egyptian edition. The famous mujtahid Mullá Muḥammad Taqí-i-Majlisí (d. 1070/1659-1660) was one of the most eminent of his disciples.

(6) Ṭálib-i-Ámulí (d. 1036/1626-7). Rieu, p. 679; Sh. iii, pp. 165-188; A. K., pp. 155-6, where it is said that “he Ṭálib of Ámul (d. 1036/1626-7). had a peculiar style in verse which is not sought after by eloquent poets.” In India, whither he emigrated in early life, he was so highly appreciated that Jahángír made him his poet-laureate (Maliku'sh-Shu'ará ) in 1028/1619. He was far from modest, for he boasts that before he reached his twentieth year he had mastered seven sciences: ^254a

In the following quatrain, also cited by Shiblí (p. 168), he alludes to his proposed journey to India and bids himself “leave his black (i.e. bad) luck in Persia, because no one would take a Hindú as a present to India”:

He had an elder sister to whom he was deeply attached Ṭálib's affection for his sister. and after a long separation she came from Persia to Ágra to see him. He thereupon sought leave of absence from the Emperor Jahángír in the following verses: ^255a

“O Master, Patron of the humble! ^255b I have a representation [to make]
in eloquent language.
I have an old and sympathetic sister, who entertains for me a mother's
love.
Fourteen years or more have passed since my eyes were parted from
the sight of her face.
I was removed from her service in 'Iráq, and this sin is a grievous
fault of mine.

She could not bear to remain far from me, for she is as a mother to me.
Lo, she hath come to Ágra, and in longing for her my heart flutters
like a pigeon.
My heart craves after her: what can I do? Yearning impels me on
the road.
If leave should be granted me to visit her, it would be worth a world
to me.”

Of love-poems there are only too many in Persian, but poems such as this, testifying to deep and sincere family affection, are rare enough to make them worthy of record.

(7) Shifá'í (d. 1037/1627). There exists in the British Museum (Or. 1372, f. 7^a) a portrait of this poet, as well as Shifá'í (d. 1037/1627). one of his satires, entitled Sízdah-band ^256a (Add. 12,560, ff. 134-140): see Rieu, pp. 786 and 822. I cannot find in my manuscript of the Ta'ríkhi-'Álam-árá-yi-'Abbásí , either amongst the poets or the physicians of the court of Sháh 'Abbás, the notice of him to which Rieu refers, but there is a long account of him in M. F. (vol. ii, pp. 21-23) and in the R. 'Á. of the same author (pp. 213-218), as well as in A. K. (pp. 168-9). His proper name was Ḥakím (Doctor) Sharafu'd-Dín Ḥasan, and he was court-physician and boon companion to Sháh 'Abbás the Great. Riḍá-qulí Khán says that “his medicine eclipsed his scholarship, as his poetry eclipsed his medicine”:

Besides satires and odes he composed a mathnawí poem entitled Namakdán-i-Ḥaqíqat in imitation of Saná'í's Ḥadí-qatu'l-Ḥaqíqat .

(8) Mír Muḥammad Báqir-i-Dámád of Astarábád (d. 1040/1630-1). The title Dámád (“Son-in-law”) really Mír Báqir-iDámád (d. 1040/1630-1). applies to his father, who was the son-in-law of the celebrated mujtahid Shaykh 'Alí ibn 'Abdu'l-'Ál al-'Ámilí. Mír Dámád, who wrote

SHIFÁ'Í, POET AND PHYSICIAN
1920 . 9 . 17 -0298 [2] (Brit. Mus.)
To face p. 256

verse under the pen-name of Ishráq, was more notable as a theologian and philosopher than as a poet. See Rieu, p. 835; M. F., ii, p. 7; R. 'Á., pp. 166-7; Á. K., p. 159. There are long notices of him in the Rawḍátu'l-Jannát (pp. 114-116), and in the Ta'ríkh-i-'Álam-árá-yi-'Abbásí, written in 1025/1616, while he was still living. He is there described as skilled in most of the sciences, especially philosophy, philology, mathematics, medicine, jurisprudence, exegesis and tradition, and about a dozen of his prose works are mentioned. He was one of the teachers of the great philosopher Mullá Ṣadrá of Shíráz.

(9) Mír Abu'l-Qásim-i-Findariskí (d. about 1050/1640-1) was also more notable as a philosopher than as a poet, but Mír Abu'lQásim-iFindariskí (d. 1050/1640). is mentioned in M. F., vol. ii, pp. 6-7; R. 'Á., pp. 165-6; A. K., pp. 143-4; and Rieu, pp. 815-816. One poem of his, written in imitation of Náṣir-i-Khusraw, is cited in all the tadhkiras, and is therefore, presumably, his best known if not his best production. It begins:

“The heaven with these fair and pleasant stars should be beautiful;
it hath an aspect beneath, whatever there may be above.
If this lower aspect should ascend by the ladder of knowledge, it
would indeed be at one with its original.
No exoteric understanding can comprehend this speech, though it
be Abú Naṣr [al-Fárábí] or Abú 'Alí [ibn] Síná (Avicenna).”

Abu'l-Qásim was extraordinarily careless of appearances, dressing like a darwísh, avoiding the society of the rich and the respectable, and associating with disreputable vagabonds. One day Sháh 'Abbás, intending to rebuke him for keeping such low company, said to him, “I hear that certain students cultivate the society of vagabonds and look on at their degrading diversions.” “I move constantly in those circles,” replied Mír Abu'l-Qásim, “but I have never seen any of the students there.” He made a journey to India, and there, according to the Dabistán, ^258a came under the influence of certain disciples of Ádhar Kaywán and imbibed Zoroastrian and Hindú or Buddhist ideas which led him to declare that he would never perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, since it would involve his taking the life of an innocent animal. Though his attainments are rated high by Riḍá-qulí Khán, very meagre details are given concerning his life; perhaps because, while more a philosopher than a poet, and more a darwísh than a philosopher, he does not exactly fall into any one of these three classes, and is consequently apt to be omitted from the special biographies of each.

Among the better-known minor poets of this period are Jalál Asír (d. 1049/1639-40), Qudsí (d. 1056/1646-7), Salím of Ṭihrán (d. 1057/1647-8), Abú Ṭálib Kalím and Amání of Mázandarán (both died in 1061/1651), Muḥammad Ṭáhir Waḥíd (d. about 1120/1708-9), and Shawkat of Bukhárá (d. 1107/1695-6). Besides Ṣá'ib (d. 1088/1677-8), the greatest of them all, only the fourth, the sixth and the last of these demand any separate notice.

(10) Abú Ṭálib Kalím (d. 1061/1651) was born at Hama-dán, but, until he went to India, lived chiefly at Káshán Abú Ṭálib Kalím (d. 1061/1651). (whence he is often described as “Káshání”) and Shíráz. Riḍá-qulí Khán (M. F., ii, p. 28) gives a very meagre notice of him, but Shiblí (Shi'ru'l-'Ajam, iii, pp. 205-230) discusses him at some length. About 1028/1619 he paid a visit to his native country, but after remaining there for about two years, he again returned to India, where he became poet-laureate to Sháh Jahán. He accompanied that monarch to Cashmere and was so charmed with that country that he remained there until his death. He was a man of genial disposition, free from jealousy, and consequently popular with his fellow-poets, of whom Ṣá'ib and Mír Ma'ṣúm were his special friends, so that Ṣá'ib says:

“Except Ṣá'ib, the epigrammatic Ma'ṣúm, and Kalím, who of all the
poets are kind to one another?”

When the poet Malik of Qum died, Abú Ṭálib composed the following verses giving the date of his death:

“Malik, that king of the realm of ideas, whose name is stamped on
the coin ^259a of poetry,
So enlarged the horizons of this realm of ideas that the frontiers of
his domains extended from Qum to the Deccan.
I sought for the date of the year [of his death] from the days: they
said ‘He was the chief of the Masters of Speech’” (ú Sar-i-ahl-
i-sukhun búd= 1025/1616).^259b

Most of the Persian poets who went to India to seek a Dislike of most of the Persian poets for India. fortune, or at least a livelihood, had, according to Shiblí, ^259c nothing but evil to say of the country, but Kalím speaks of it with appreciation:^259d

“One can call it the second Paradise, in this sense, that whoever
quits this garden departs with regret.”

On one occasion the Sulṭán of Turkey wrote a letter to the Emperor Sháh Jahán reproaching him with arrogance in calling himself by this title, which means “King of the World,” when he was in reality only king of India. Kalím justified his patron in the following verse:

“Since both Hind (India) and Jahán (world) are numerically identical, ^260a
the right of the king to be called ‘King of the World’ [and not
merely ‘King of India’] is demonstrated.”

Shiblí discusses Kalím's merits very fully, and cites many of his verses to illustrate them. He includes amongst them especially novelty of topics (), original conceits (), and aptness of illustration (). In this last respect, illustrated by the following amongst other verses, Kalím resembles the more famous Ṣá'ib:

“Fate sets an ambuscade against our luck: the thief always pursues
the sleeper.” ^260b

“The heart imagines that it has hidden the secret of love: the lantern
imagines that it has hidden the candle.”

“He who has been raised up from the dust by fortune, like the rider
of the hobby-horse, always goes on foot, although he is mounted.”

“My desolate state is not mended by my virtues, just like the ruin,
which does not prosper through its treasure.” ^261a

“The mean man does not acquire nobility by proximity to the great:
The thread does not become precious through its connection with
the pearls.”

“What profits it that I, like the rosary, kissed the hands of all?
After all, no one loosed the knots of my affair.”

“Her converse with me is as the association of the wave and the
shore,
Ever with me, yet ever fleeing from me.”

“Where there is power, the hand and heart are not able [to use it]:
The oyster-shell opens its palm when there is no pearl therein.”

(This last verse is very similar to one by Ṣá'ib which runs:

“Flowers and fruit are never found together in one place: it is im-
possible that teeth and delicacies should exist simultaneously.”)

‘He who has reached [the goal] shuts his lips on ‘Why?’ and ‘Where-
fore?’
When the journey is finished the [camel-]bell becomes tongueless.”

“If thou art satisfied with thy portion, the more or less of the world
is the same:
When the thirsty man requires but one draught, the pitcher and the
ocean are alike.”

“We are without knowledge of the beginning and end of the world:
the first and last [pages] of this ancient book have fallen out.”

“He who becomes acquainted with the mysteries of the world soon
departs:
Whoever does his work brilliantly leaves the school.”

The following ode, cited by Shiblí, ^262a is typical of Kalím, and with it we may conclude this brief notice:

“Old age hath come, and the exuberance of the youthful temperament
hath departed;
The weakness of the body can no longer support the heavy [wine-]
cup.
The way of the world is not worth seeing a second time:
Whoever passes from this dust-heap looks not back.
Through the triumph of thy beauty over the army of Spring
The blood of the roses hath risen a fathom above the top of the
Judas-tree.
Acquire such a disposition that thou canst get on with the whole
world,
Or such magnanimity that thou canst dispense with the world.
According to our creed the detachment of the 'Anqá is not com-
plete,
For, though it retains no sign, it continues to think of name. ^263a
If one cannot travel the road without sight, then how
Canst thou forsake the world when thou hast closed thine eyes to it?
The ill repute of Life endureth no more than two days:
O Kalím, I will tell thee how these too passed:
One day was spent in attaching the heart to this and that,
And another day in detaching it from this and that.”

(11) Muḥammad Ṭáhir Waḥíd of Qazwín (d. 1120/ 1708-9) ^264a was an industrious rather than a great poet: he is Ṭáhir Waḥíd of Qazwín (d. 1120/ 1708-9). said by Riḍá-qulí Khán ^264b to have left a Díwán containing 90,000 verses, which, however, were for the most part “tasteless” (maláḥatí na-dásht), and of which only six are quoted as “the best of his poetry,” amongst them the following quatrain testifying to his Shí'a proclivities:

“Whosoever's nature is leavened with the love of 'Alî,
Though he be the constant frequenter of church or synagogue,
Even if, for example, they should bring him into Hell
They would bear him thence to Paradise ere his place there had
been heated.”

The main facts of Waḥíd's life are given by Rieu. ^264c He was secretary to two successive Prime Ministers of Persia, Mírzá Taqiyyu'd-Dín Muḥammad and Khalífa Sulṭán. In 1055/1645-6 he was appointed court-historiographer to Sháh 'Abbás II, became a Minister in 1101/1689-90, retired eighteen years later into private life, and died about 1120/1708-9. Five manuscripts of his historical monograph are described by Rieu, one of which (Or. 2940) comes down to the twenty-second year of the reign, 1073-4/1663. The remark of the Átash-kada, that these poems were only praised on account of the author's rank, is probably justified. He was, according to Ethé, a friend of the poet Ṣá'ib.

(12) Shawkat ^265a of Bukhárá (d. 1107/1695-6) is at the present day almost unknown in Persia. He is not even Shawkat of Bukhárá (d. 1107/ 1695-6). mentioned in the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá and but briefly in the Riyáḍu'l-'Árifín, where only two of his verses are cited, together with the description of his eccentric demeanour given by his contemporary Shaykh Muḥammad 'Alí Láhijí, called Ḥazín, who saw him wandering about in mid-winter, bare-headed and bare-footed, with a piece of felt (namad-pára) over his shoulders and his head covered with snow, which he did not trouble to shake off. Shawkat only deserves mention because of the reputation which he enjoys in Turkey and the influence which he exerted over Turkish poetry, an influence which Gibb emphasizes in several places in his History of Ottoman Poetry.^265b

(13) Ṣá'ib of Tabríz ^265c (d. 1088/1677-8) is considered by Shiblí ^265d as the last great Persian poet, superior in originality Ṣá'ib of Tabríz (d. 1080/1670). to Qá'ání, the greatest and most famous of the moderns, whom he regards as a mere imitator of Farrukhí and Minúchihrí. Riḍá-qulí Khán, on the other hand, ^265e says that Ṣá'ib has “a strange method in the poet's path, which is not now admired.” He is, in short, like 'Urfí, one of those poets who, while greatly esteemed in Turkey and India, are without honour in their own country. I have already expressed ^265f my own personal opinion as to his high merits.

According to the Átash-kada, ^266a Ṣá'ib, whose proper name was Mírzá Muḥammad 'Alí, was born in the village of 'Abbás-ábád near Iṣfahán, whither his father's family had been transferred from Tabríz by Sháh 'Abbás. Having completed his studies in Iṣfahán, he visited Dihlí and other cities of India at an early age, certainly before 1039/1629-30, and was patronized by Ẓafar Khán and other nobles. He had only spent two years there, however, when his father, though seventy years of age, followed him to India in order to induce him to return home, for which journey he sought permission from his patron Ẓafar Khán in the following verses: ^266b

Autograph of the poet Ṣá'ib
Or. 4937 (Brit. Mus.), p. 472
To face p. 266

“More than six years ^267a have passed since the passage of the steed of
my resolve from Iṣfahán to India took place.
The bold attraction of my longing has brought him weeping from
Iṣfahán to Agra and Lahore.
I your servant have an aged father seventy years old, who has count-
less claims upon me by reason of the education [he gave me].
Before he comes from Agra to the flourishing land of the Deccan
with reins looser than the restless torrent,
And eagerly traverses this far road with bent body and feeble form,
I hope for permission from thy threshold, O thou whose threshold is
the Ka'ba of the age's hopes!
His object in coming is to take me hence, therefore cause thy lips
to scatter pearls [of speech] by [uttering] the word of permission,
And, with a forehead more open than the morning sun, raise thy
hand in prayer to speed me on my way.”

On his return to Iṣfahán, Ṣá'ib became poet-laureate to Sháh 'Abbás II, but had the misfortune to offend his successor Sulaymán. He died in Iṣfahán after an apparently uneventful life in 1080/1669-70. The words “Ṣá'ib found death” () give the date of his decease.^267b

Amongst the merits ascribed to Ṣá'ib by Shiblí is an appreciation of Indian poets rare with the Persians. Shiblí

“Happy that company who are intoxicated with each other's speech;
who, through the fermentation of thought, are each other's red
wine.
They do not break on the stone [of criticism] one another's pearls
[i.e. verses], but rather strive to give currency to the wares of
one another's shops.
They pelt one another with tender-hued verses as with roses, with
fresh ideas they become the flowers of one another's gardens.
When they shape their poetry it is with blades like diamonds, and
when their genius tends to become blunted, they are each other's
whetstones.
Except Ṣá'ib, the epigrammatic Ma'ṣúm, and Kalím, who of all the
poets are kind to one another?”^268a

Ṣá'ib was a great admirer of Ḥáfiẓ, and is also complimentary to his masters Rukná and Shifá'í. Of the latter he says

“Who will care for poetry in Iṣfahán, O Ṣá'ib,
Now that Shifá'í, whose discerning hand was on the pulse of poetry,
is no more?”

He puts Naẓírí not only above himself but above 'Urfí. “So far,” says Shiblí, ^268b “no objection can be made, but it is a pity that, yielding to popular approbation and fame, he makes himself also the panegyrist of Ẓuhúrí and Jalál-i-Asír… This was the first step in bad taste, which finally established a high road, so that in time people came to bow down before the poetry of Náṣir 'Alí, Bí-dil, and Shawkat of Bukhárá. ‘The edifice of wrong-doing was at first small in the world, but whoever came added thereunto.’”^269a

Though Ṣá'ib tried his hand at all kinds of poetry, it was in the ode (ghazal) that he excelled. He was a ready wit. One of his pupils once composed the following absurd hemistich:

“Seek for the bottleless wine from the wineless bottle.”

Ṣá'ib immediately capped it with the following:

“Seek for the truth from the heart which is empty of thought.”

On another occasion one of his friends produced the following meaningless hemistich and apparently invited Ṣá'ib to complete the verse and give it a meaning:

Ṣá'ib immediately prefixed the following hemistich:

so that the completed verse runs in translation:

“Peace is in proportion to every pause: observe the difference between
‘to run, to walk, to stand, to sit, to lie, to die.’”

Ṣá'ib was a very careful student of the works of his predecessors, both ancient and modern, and himself compiled a great anthology of their best verses, of which, according to Shiblí, ^269b a manuscript exists at Ḥaydar-ábád in the Deccan, and which appears to have been utilized by Wálih of Dághistán and other tadhkira-writers. Shiblí compares Ṣá'ib to Abú Tammám, the compiler of the great anthology of Arabic poetry called the Ḥamása, inasmuch as his taste is shown even more in his selective than in his Selected verses from Ṣá'ib. creative powers. The following are the verses by Ṣá'ib which I selected from the Kharábát and copied into a note-book many years ago. ^270a They pleased me when I was a beginner, they still please me, and I hope that some of them at any rate may please my readers.

“When poison becomes a habit it ceases to injure: make thy soul
gradually acquainted with death.”

“The roots of the aged palm-tree exceed those of the young one;
the old have the greater attachment to the world.”

“In this market every head has a different fancy: everyone winds his
turban in a different fashion.”

“What profit accrues from a perfect guide to those whom Fate hath
left empty-handed, for even Khiḍr brings back Alexander athirst
from the Water of Life?”

“The rosary in the hand, repentance on the lips, and the heart full o??
sinful longings—sin itself laughs at our repentance!”

“The place of a royal pearl should be in a treasury: one should make
one's breast the common-place book for chosen verses.”

“All this talk of infidelity and religion finally leads to one place:
The dream is the same dream, only the interpretations differ.”

“The tyrant finds no security against the arrows of the victim's sighs:
Groans arise from the heart of the bow before [they arise from] the
target.”

“The cure for the unpleasant constitution of the world is to ignore it:
Here he is awake who is plunged in heavy sleep.”

“Flowers and fruit are never combined in one place; it is impossible
that teeth and delicacies should exist simultaneously.”

“Ten doors are opened if one door be shut: the finger is the inter-
preter of the dumb man's tongue.”

“The simple-minded quickly acquire the colour of their companions:
The conversation of the parrot makes the mirror [seem to] speak.”

“The march of good fortune has backward slips: to retreat one or
two paces gives wings to the jumper.”

“The wave is ignorant of the true nature of the sea: how can the
Temporal comprehend the Eternal?”

“The touchstone of false friends is the day of need: by way of proot,
ask a loan from your friends.”

“The learned man is a stranger amidst the people of the world,
just as the ‘witness-finger’ [i.e. the index-finger] appears strange
on the Christian's hand.”

“What doth it profit thee that all the libraries of the world should be
thine? Not knowledge but what thou dost put into practice is
thine.”

“The life of this transitory world is the expectation of death: to re-
nounce life is to escape from the expectation of annihilation.”

“O my dear friend! thou hast more care for wealth than for life:
Thy attachment to the turban is greater than to the head.”

“Our heart is heedless of the Beloved, notwithstanding our complete
proximity:
The fish lives through the sea, yet heeds not the sea.”

“The weeping of the candle is not in mourning for the moth: the
dawn is at hand, and it is thinking of its own dark night.”

“To quit this troubled world is better than to enter it: the rose-bud
enters the garden with straitened heart and departs smiling.”

“If friendship is firmly established between two hearts, they do not
need the interchange of news.”

“When a man becomes old, his greed becomes young: sleep grows
heavy at the time of morning.”

“To the seeker after pearls silence is a speaking argument, for no
breath comes forth from the diver in the sea.”

“Not one handful of earth is wasted in this tavern: they make it
either into a pitcher, a wine-jar, or a wine-cup.”

“The enjoyments of both worlds will not satisfy the greedy man:
Burning fire has always an appetite.”

“The humá ^274a of happiness came to me in old age; the shadow of
fortune came to me at the time of [the sun's] decline:
Heaven became kind to me at the close of my life: peaceful slumber
visited me at morning-time.”

“I talk of repentance in the days of old age; I bite my lip [in re-
morse] now that no teeth remain to me.”

“When perfection ^274b is unduly increased it becomes the destroyer of life:
The tender branch breaks when it bears too much fruit.”

“If I am mad, then who on the face of the earth is sane? If thou art
sane, then there is no madman in the world.”

“The only thing which troubles me about the Resurrection Day is
this,
That one will have to look once again on the faces of mankind.”

“Become placeless, for to change this place of water and clay is but
to move from one prison to another.”

“I do not bid thee detach thy heart from the sum of the world: de-
tach thy heart from whatever lies beyond thy reach.”

“In the end the idolator is better than the worshipper of self: better
be in bondage to the Franks than in the bondage of self.”

“If thou dost not trample under foot this world of form, then suffer
until the Resurrection the torments of this tight boot.”

“Within his own house every beggar is an emperor: do not overstep
thine own limit and be a king.”

“If I worship the rose according to the rites of the nightingale, it is
a fault—I, who in the worship of fire am of the religion of the
moth.”

“Everyone who like the candle exalts his head with a crown of gold
will oft-times sit [immersed] in his tears up to the neck.”

“Formerly people used to grieve over the departed, but in our days
they grieve over the survivors.”

“Either one should not avert one's face from the torrent of vicissitudes,
Or one should not make one's home in the plain of the Phenomenal
World.”

“Every tombstone is a hand stretched forth from the house of oblivion
of the earth to search for thee.”

“The hair has become white through the squeezing of the sphere, and
the milk which I had drunk in the time of childhood has re-
appeared [on my head].”

“If everyone could easily become honoured in his own country,
How would Joseph have passed from his father's embrace to a prison?”

From the literary point of view this century is perhaps the most barren in the whole history of Persia, ^277a so much so Barrenness of the eighteenth century. that the only notable poem produced by it is, so far as I know, the celebrated tarjí'-band of Hátif-i-Iṣfahání, of which I shall speak presently. On the other hand we have two full and authoritative accounts of the period by two men of letters who were Two important contemporary records. personally involved in the disastrous events which befell Persia during and after the Afghán invasion, and who have left us a fairly clear and detailed picture of that sad and troubled epoch. These men were Shaykh 'Alí Ḥazín (b. 1103/1692, d. 1180/1766-7), and Luṭf 'Alí Beg poetically surnamed Ádhar (b. 1123/1711, d. 1195/1781). Both were poets, and the former even a prolific poet, since he composed three or four díwáns, but their prose writings are, from our point of view, of much greater interest and value than their verse.

Shaykh 'Alí Ḥazín, whose proper name was Muḥammad ibn Abí Ṭálib of Gílán, is best known by his “Memoirs”

Since the “Memoirs” can be read in English by anyone interested in their contents, it is unnecessary to discuss or Shaykh 'Alí Ḥazín's Memoirs. analyse them here, and it will be sufficient to emphasize their importance as a picture of the author's times, and to note a few points of literary interest. In 1135/1722-3 he began to compile a kind of literary scrap-book or magazine (majmú'a), probably somewhat similar in character to the Kashkúl of Shaykh Bahá'u'd-Dín 'Ámilí, and entitled Muddatu'l-'Umr ^278d (“Lifetime”), but it was lost with the rest of his library in the sack of Iṣfahán by the Afgháns a few months later. About the same time or a little earlier he wrote, besides numerous philosophical commentaries, a book on the Horse (Faras-náma), and published his second Díwán of poetry, and soon afterwards his third.^279a

The Afghán invasion and the misery which it caused, especially in Iṣfahán, put a stop to Shaykh 'Alí Ḥazín's literary activities for some time. “During the latter days of the siege,” he says, ^279b “I was attacked by severe illness; and my two brothers, my grandmother, and the whole of the dwellers in my house died, so that my mansion was emptied of all but two or three infirm old women-servants, who attended me till my disorder began to abate.” Being somewhat recovered, he escaped from Iṣfahán early in Muḥarram, 1135 (October, 1722), only a few days before it surrendered to, and was entered by, the Afgháns. During the next ten years he wandered about in different parts of Persia, successively visiting or residing at Khurramábád in Luristán, Hamadán, Niháwand, Dizful, Shúshtar (whence by way of Baṣra he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and on his return journey visited Yaman), Kirmánsháh, Baghdád and its holy places, Mashhad, Kurdistán, Ádharbáyján, Gílán and Ṭihrán. From the last-named city he returned once more to Iṣfahán, to find “that great city, notwithstanding the presence of the King, ^279c in utter ruin and desertion. Of all that population and of my friends scarcely any one remained.” It was the same at Shíráz, whither he made his way six months later. “Of all my great friends there,” he says, ^279d “the greatest I had in the world, not one remained on foot; and I met with a crowd of their children and relatives in the most melancholy condition and without resource.” From Shíráz he made his way by Lár to Bandar-i-'Abbás, intending to go thence in a European ship to the Ḥijáz, “because their ships and packets are very spacious and are fitted up with convenient apartments, and their navigators also are more expert on the sea and more skilful in their art than any other nation.” ^280a He was, however, prevented by illness and poverty (caused partly by the loss of his patrimony in Gílán, partly by the exorbitant and oppressive taxation which now prevailed) from carrying out this plan. A subsequent attempt carried him in a Dutch vessel as far as Muscat, which he found little to his liking, so that after a stay of rather more than two months he returned again to Bandar-i-'Abbás. He next visited Kirmán, but, finding “the affairs of that ruined country in utter confusion by reason of the insurrection of a body of the Balúch tribe and other accidents,” ^280b he returned thence after a few months' stay to Bandar-i-'Abbás in the hope of being able to go thence once again to Baghdád and the Holy Shrines. Finding this impracticable owing to Nádir's operations against the Turks, and unable to endure any longer the sight of the misery prevailing throughout Persia, he embarked on the 10th of Ramaḍán, 1146 (Feb. 14, 1734) for India, where, in spite Shaykh 'Alí Ḥazín's deep dislike for India. of the deep dislike which he conceived for that country, he was destined to spend the remaining forty-five years of his long life. “To me,” he says, ^280c “who do not reckon the time of my residence in this country as a portion of my real life, the beginning of my arrival on the shores of this empire appears as it were the end of my age and vitality.” A little further on he says, “Altogether my nature had no agreement with the fashions and manners of this country, nor any power of patiently enduring them,” and adds a few lines lower “the sight of these dominions became more and more hateful to me, and being continually in hope of escape from them, I reconciled my mind to the incidents in the affairs of Persia, and bent my thoughts on my return thither.” ^281a Although unhappily disappointed in this hope, and compelled to spend the long remainder of his days in “a country traced … with foulness and trained to turpitude and brutality,” ^281b where “all the situations and conditions … are condemned by fate to difficulty and bitterness of subsistence,” ^281c he declined to include in his “Memoirs” any account of his personal experiences in India, save in so far as they were connected with such important historical events as Nádir Sháh's invasion and the terrible massacre he made in Dihlí on March 20, 1739. So, though the “Memoirs” were penned at “the end of the year [A.H.] 1154” ^281d (beginning of A.D. 1742), they deal chiefly with the author's personal history before he left Persia twenty years earlier. The accounts of contemporary scholars and men of letters (many of whom perished during the siege of Iṣfahán in A.D. 1722) with whom he was personally acquainted constitute one of the most valuable features of this interesting book.

Eleven years later (1165/1752) Shaykh 'Alí Ḥazín composed an account of about a hundred contemporary Shaykh 'Alí Ḥazín's biography of contemporary poets. poets entitled Tadhkiratu'l-Mu'áṣirín, which is included in the lithographed edition of his complete works published at Lucknow in 1293/ 1876, and of which MSS. exist in the British Museum and elsewhere.^281e

Another and more accessible contemporary account of the poets of this period forms the last portion of the well- Luṭf 'Al Beg Ádhar (b. 1123/1711, d. 1195/1781). known Átash-kada (“Fire-temple”) of Luṭf 'Alí Beg Ádhar. The greater part of this book deals with the Persian poets who flourished before the author's time, arranged in alphabetical order under the various towns and countries which gave birth to them, including Túrán and Hindústán. This is followed by an account of sixty of the author's contemporaries, which begins with a brief historical survey of the misfortunes of Persia during the fifty years succeeding the Afghán invasion down to the re-establishment of security and order in the South by Karím Khán-i-Zand. ^282a The author recognizes the dearth of poets and men of letters during this period and ascribes it to the prevalent chaos and misery, “which,” he says, “have reached such a point that no one has the heart to read poetry, let alone to compose it”:

To most of these poets the author devotes only a few lines. The longer notices include Mullá Muḥammad Mú'min, poetically surnamed Dá'í, who died in 1155/1742-3 at the age of ninety; Mullá Ḥusayn Rafíq of Iṣfahán; Sayyid Muḥammad Shu'la of Iṣfahán; Sayyid Muḥammad Ṣádiq of Tafrish; Mírzá Ja'far Ṣáfí of Iṣfahán; a young friend of the author's named Sulaymán, who wrote under the name Ṣabáḥí, and to whose poems he devotes no less than thirteen pages; Mírzá Muḥammad 'Alí Ṣubúḥ of Iṣfahán; Áqá Taqí Ṣahbá of Qum; Sayyid 'Abdu'l-Báqí Ṭabíb (“the physician”), whose father Mírzá Muḥammad Raḥím was court-physician to Sháh Sulṭán Ḥusayn, as he himself was to Nádir Sháh; Ṭúfán of Hazár-jaríb, whose death was commemorated by the author in a chronogram giving the date 1190/1776-7; Áqá Muḥammad 'Áshiq of Iṣfahán (d. 1181/1767-8), to whom he devotes eight pages; and his own younger brother Isḥáq Beg, who wrote under the penname of 'Udhrí and died in 1185/1771-2, according to the chronogram:

Other poets noticed are Muḥammad 'Alí Beg the son of Abdál Beg, a Frankish painter who embraced Islám; Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ghálib, who spent fourteen years of his earlier life in India and married the daughter of the Nawwáb Sar-afráz Khán; Mír Sayyid 'Alí Mushtáq of Iṣfahán; Sayyid Muḥammad Ṣádiq, nephew of the abovementioned court-physician Mírzá Muḥammad Raḥím, who, besides several mathnawí poems dealing with the somewhat threadbare romances of Laylá and Majnún, Khusraw and Shírín and Wámiq and 'Adhrá, was engaged on a history of the Zand dynasty; Mírzá Naṣír, son of the physician Mírzá 'Abdu'lláh (d. 1192/1778); and Sayyid Aḥmad Hátif, the most notable of all these poets, of whom we shall shortly have to speak.

Luṭf 'Alí Beg concludes his Átash-kada with an autobiography of himself, from which we learn that he was born on the 20th of Rabi' i, A.H. 1123 (June 7, 1711) at Iṣfahán, but spent fourteen years of his earlier life at Qum, whither his family migrated in consequence of the Afghán menace. At the beginning of Nádir Sháh's reign his father was made governor of Lár and the coasts of Fárs, and he resided in Shíráz. On the death of his father two years later he accompanied his uncle Ḥájji Muḥammad Beg on the pilgrimage to Mecca, and, after visiting that and the other holy places, returned to Persia, and was at Mashhad when Nádir's victorious army returned from India. After accompanying them to Mázandarán he returned to Iṣfahán, and, after the assassination of Nádir Sháh, was attached for a while to the service of 'Alí Sháh, Ibráhím Sháh, Sháh Isma'íl and Sháh Sulaymán. He then seems to have retired from public life and devoted himself to the cultivation of poetry under the guidance and tuition of Mír Sayyid 'Alí Mushtáq. With selections of this poetry, largely drawn from his Yúsuf u Zulaykhá, he concludes the book.^284a

Of Sayyid Aḥmad Hátif of Iṣfahán, though he was the contemporary and friend of Luṭf 'Alí Beg, no biographical Hátif of Iṣfahân. particulars are given in the Átash-kada, but only praises which appear somewhat exaggerated, since he is described as “in Arabic and Persian verse and prose the third after A'shá and Jarír, and second only to Anwarí and Ẓahír.” Nearly ten pages are filled with citations from his poems, but of all these we need only concern ourselves with the beautiful and celebrated tarjí'-band by which alone Hátif's name has been immortalized.

“O Thou to whom both heart and life are a sacrifice, and O Thou in
whose path both this and that are an offering!
The heart is Thy sacrifice because Thou art a charmer of hearts; life
is Thine offering because Thou art the Life of our lives. ^292a
Hard it is to deliver the heart from Thy hand; easy it is to pour out
our life at Thy feet.
The road to union with Thee is a road full of hardships; the pain of
Thy love is a pain without remedy.
We are servants holding our lives and hearts in our hands, with eyes
[fixed] on Thy orders and ears [waiting] on Thy command. ⁵
If Thou seekest peace, behold our hearts; and if Thou seekest war,
behold our lives!
Last night, [impelled] by the madness of love and the impulse of
desire, I was rushing in bewilderment in every direction.
At last desire for the [Beatific] Vision turned my reins towards the
temple of the Magians.
Far from it be the Evil Eye! I beheld a secret gathering bright with
the Light of Truth, not with the Flames [of Hell].
On every side I beheld that fire which Moses the son of 'Imrán saw
that night on Sinai. ¹⁰
There was an elder [busied] with tending the fire, round about whom
respectfully stood the young Magians,
All silver-skinned and rose-cheeked, all sweet-tongued and narrow-
mouthed.
[There were] lute, harp, flute, cymbals and barbiton; candles, desert,
roses, wine and basil;
The moon-faced and musky-haired cup-bearer; the witty and sweet-
voiced minstrel.

Magian and Magian boy, Fire-priest and High Priest, all with loins
girt up for His service. ¹⁵
I, ashamed of my Muhammadanism, stood there concealed in a
corner.
The elder enquired, ‘Who is this?’ They answered, ‘A restless and
bewildered lover.’
He said, ‘Give him a cup of pure wine, although he be an unbidden
guest.’
The fire-handed and fire-worshipping cup-bearer poured into the
goblet the burning fire.
When I drained it off, neither reason remained nor sense; thereby
were consumed both Infidelity and Faith. ²⁰
I fell down intoxicated, and in that intoxication, in a tongue which
one cannot explain,
I heard this speech from [all] my limbs, even from the jugular vein
and the carotid artery:

‘He is One and there is naught but He:
There is no God save Him alone!’

O Friend, I will not break my ties with Thee, even though with a
sword they should hew me limb from limb!
Truly a hundred lives were cheap on our part [to win] from Thy
mouth a sweet half-smile. ²⁵
O Father, counsel me not against love, for this son [of thine] will
not prove susceptible [to counsel]!
People counsel these [others]: O would that they would counsel
me concerning Thy love!
I know the road to the street of safety, but what can I do? for I am
fallen into the snare.
In the church I said to a Christian charmer of hearts, ‘O thou in
whose net the heart is captive!
‘O thou to the warp of whose girdle each hair-tip of mine is sepa-
rately attached! ³⁰
‘How long [wilt thou continue] not to find the way to the Divine
Unity? How long wilt thou impose on the One the shame of
the Trinity?
‘How can it be right to name the One True God “Father,” “Son,”
and “Holy Ghost”?’
She parted her sweet lips and said to me, while with sweet laughter
she poured sugar from her lips:

‘If thou art aware of the Secret of the Divine Unity, do not cast on
us the stigma of infidelity!
‘In three mirrors the Eternal Beauty cast a ray from His effulgent
countenance. ³⁵
‘Silk does not become three things if thou callest it Parniyán,
Ḥarír and Parand.’ ^294a
Whilst we were thus speaking, this chant rose up beside us from
the church-bell:

‘He is One and there is naught but He:
There is no God save Him alone!’

Last night I went to the street of the wine-seller, my heart boiling
and seething with the fire of love.
I beheld a bright and beautiful gathering presided over by the wine-
selling elder. ⁴⁰
The attendants stood row on row, the wine-drinkers sat shoulder
to shoulder.
The elder sat in the chief seat and the wine-drinkers around him,
some drunk and some dazed,
With breasts devoid of malice and hearts pure, the heart full of talk
and the lips silent.
The eyes of all, by the Eternal Mercy, beholding the Truth, and
their ears hearkening to secrets.
The greeting of this one to that one, ‘Wassail!’ the response of that
one to this one, ‘Drink-hale’! ⁴⁵
With ears for the harp and eyes on the goblet, and the desire of both
worlds in their embrace.
Advancing respectfully, I said, ‘O thou whose heart is the abode of
the Angel Surúsh, ^294b
‘I am an afflicted and needy lover: behold my pain and strive to
remedy it!’
The elder, smiling, said to me mockingly: ‘O thou to whom the
Guide of Reason is a devoted ^294c slave!

‘Where art thou, and where are we, ^295a O thou for shame of whom the
daughter of the grape ^295b sits with veiled face?’ ⁵⁰
I said to him, ‘My soul is consumed! Give me a draught of water,
and abate my fire from its vehemence!
‘Last night I was consumed by this fire: alas if my to-night be as
my yestere'en!’
He said smiling, ‘Ho! Take the cup!’ I took it. He cried, ‘Ha!
Drink no more!’
I drained a draught and became free from the pain of understanding
and the trouble of sense.
When I came to my senses I saw for a moment One, and all else
mere lines and figures. ⁵⁵
Suddenly in the temples of the Angelic World the Surúsh ^295c whispered
these words into my ear:

‘He is One and there is naught but He:
There is no God save Him alone!’

Open the eye of the heart that thou mayst behold the spirit, that
thou mayst see that which is not to be seen.
If thou wilt turn thy face towards the Realm of Love thou wilt see
all the horizons a garden of roses.
Thou wilt behold the revolution of the cycle of heaven favourable to
all the people of this earth. ⁶⁰
That which thou seest thy heart will desire, and that which thy heart
desireth thou wilt see.
The headless and footless beggar of that place thou wilt see heavy-
headed with the dominion of the world. ^295d
There also thou wilt see a bare-footed company with their feet set
on the summit of the Guard-stars.^295e

There also thou wilt see a bare-headed assembly canopied overhead
by the throne of God.
Each one at the time of ecstasy and song thou wilt see shaking his
sleeves over the two worlds. ^296a 65
In the heart of each atom which thou cleavest thou wilt behold a sun
in the midst.
If thou givest whatsoever thou hast to Love, may I be accounted an
infidel if thou shouldst suffer a grain of loss!
If thou meltest thy soul in the fire of Love, thou wilt find Love the
Alchemy of Life;
Thou wilt pass beyond the narrow straits of dimensions, and wilt
behold the spacious realms of the Placeless;
Thou shalt hear what ear hath not heard, and shalt see what eye
hath not seen; ⁷⁰
Until they shall bring thee to a place where of the world and its
people thou shalt behold One alone.
To that One shalt thou make love with heart and soul, until with
the eye of certainty thou shalt clearly see

‘That He is One and there is naught but He:
There is no God save Him alone!’

From door and wall, unveiled, the Friend shines radiant, O ye who
have eyes to see!
Thou seekest a candle whilst the sun is on high: the day is very
bright whilst thou art in darkest night. ⁷⁵
If thou wilt but escape from thy darkness thou shalt behold all the
universe the dawning-place of lights.
Like a blind man thou seekest guide and staff for this clear and level
road.
Open thine eyes on the Rose-garden, and behold the gleaming of
the pure water alike in the rose and the thorn.
From the colourless water [are derived] a hundred thousand colours:
behold the tulip and the rose in this garden-ground.
Set thy foot in the path of search, and with Love furnish thyself with
provision for this journey. ⁸⁰
By Love many things will be made easy which in the sight of Reason
are very difficult.

Speak of the Friend in the mornings and the evenings: seek for
the Friend in the gloaming and at dawn.
Though they tell thee a hundred times ‘Thou shalt not see me,’ ^297a still
keep thine eyes fixed on the Vision,
Until thou shalt reach a place to which the foot of Fancy and the
eye of Thought cannot attain.
Thou shalt find the Friend in an assembly whereunto not even
Gabriel the trusted hath access. ⁸⁵
This is the Road, this thy Provision, this the Halting-place: if thou
art a roadsman, come and bring!
And if thou art not equal to the Road, then, like the others, talk of
the Friend and scratch the back of thy head! ^297b
O Hátif, the meaning of the Gnostics, whom they sometimes call
drunk and sometimes sober,
[When they speak] of the Wine, the Cup, the Minstrel, the Cup-
bearer, the Magian, the Temple, the Beauty and the Girdle,
Are those hidden secrets which they sometimes declare in cryptic
utterance. ⁹⁰
If thou shouldst find thy way to their secret thou wilt discover that
even this is the secret of those mysteries,

‘He is One and there is naught but He:
There is no God save Him alone!’

The Qájár rule was strong though severe, and, in spite of its harshness, was, perhaps, welcome on the whole to a Revival of poetry under the Qájárs. country which had suffered seventy years of anarchy and civil war. The brief and bloody reign of the eunuch Áqá Muḥammad Khán, ^298a who once more carried the Persian standards into Georgia and captured Tiflis, was followed by the milder administration of his nephew Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh (A.D. 1797-1834), to whose influence Riḍá-qulí Khán, in the Introduction to his Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá, ascribes the revival of poetry and the restoration of a better literary taste. He himself wrote verses under the pen-name of Kháqán, and gathered round him a host of poets to whose lives and work several monographs are devoted, such as the Zínatu'l-Madá'iḥ, the Anjuman-i-Kháqán, the Gulshan-i-Maḥmúd and Safí-natu'l-Maḥmúd , the Nigáristán-i-Dárá, and the Tadhkira-i-Muḥammad-Sháhí , all of which are described by Rieu in his Supplementary Catalogue of the Persian MSS. in the British Museum (pp. 84-91), and most of which were utilized by the above-mentioned Riḍá-qulí Khán. One of them, the Gulshan-i-Maḥmúd, contains notices of forty-eight of Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh's sons who wrote poetry, and at a later date the Royal Family supplied Persia with another versemaking autocrat in Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh (A.D. 1848-1896), but these kingly outpourings need detain only those who accept the dictum Kalámu'l-Mulúk Mulúku'l-Kalám (“the Words of Kings are the Kings of Words”).

These poets of the earlier Qájár period might very well have been included in the preceding chapter, but for the in- Reversion to earlier models. ordinate length which it has already attained. The only respect in which they differed from their immediate predecessors was in their reversion to earlier models and their repudiation of the school typified by 'Urfí, Ṣá'ib, Shawkat, and their congeners. This fact is established from two opposite quarters. On the one hand Shiblí, as we have seen, ^299a takes the view that Persian poetry, which began with Rúdakí, ended with Ṣá'ib, and that Qá'ání and the moderns did but imitate the older classical poets, especially Farrukhí and Minúchihrí. Riḍá-qulí Khán Divergent taste of Persian and Indian critics. takes the same view of the facts, but puts on them a quite different interpretation. According to him, ^299b Persian poetry had long been on the decline and at the end of the pre-Qájár period had become thoroughly decadent, so that the early Qájár poets did well to break away from the ideals of their immediate predecessors and revert to earlier models, amongst which he especially mentions the poems of Kháqání, 'Abdu'l-Wási'-i-Jabalí, Farrukhí, Minúchihrí, Rúdakí, Qaṭrán, 'Unṣurí, Mas'úd-i-Sa'd-i-Salmán, Saná'í, Jalálu'd-Dín Rúmí, Abu'l-Faraj-i-Rúní, Anwarí, Asadí, Firdawsí, Niẓámí, Sa'dí, Azraqí, Mukhtárí, Mu'izzí, Lámi'í, Náṣir-i-Khusraw and Adíb Ṣábir, all of whom flourished before the Fall of the Caliphate and the Mongol Invasion in the middle of the thirteenth century. Of the later poets Ḥáfiẓ was perhaps the only one who retained an undiminished prestige in the eyes of his countrymen, and it is doubtful how far even he served as a model, though this was perhaps rather because he was inimitable than because he was out of fashion, like Jámí, 'Urfí and Ṣá'ib, who lost and never regained the position they had once held in their own country. Henceforth, therefore, the divergence between Turkish and Indian taste on the one hand and Persian taste on the other increases, while the action of the British rulers of India ^300a in substituting Urdú for Persian as the polite language of that country in 1835-6 tended still further to cut off India from the intellectual and literary currents of modern Persia.

It would be easy with the help of the Biographies of Poets mentioned above and others of a later period to compile a list of a hundred or two more or less eminent poets of the Qájár period, but it will be sufficient for our purpose to mention ten or a dozen of those who followed the classical tradition. Nor is it necessary to group them according to the reigns in which they flourished, though it Wiṣál and his family. will be convenient to arrange them in chronological order. Of one great family of poets, the sons and grandsons of Wiṣál (Mírzá Shafí', commonly called Mírzá Kúchuk) who died in 1262/1846, it was my privilege to meet several, including the brothers Farhang and Yazdání, at Shíráz in the spring of 1888. ^300b The latter was accompanied by his own son and the son of his deceased brother who wrote under the pen-name of Himmat. Of the three elder brothers, sons of Wiṣál, the eldest, Wiqár, was about forty-two years of age when Riḍá-qulí Khán ^300c met him in Ṭihrán in 1274/1857-8, while the second, Mírzá Maḥmúd the physician, who adopted the takhalluṣ of Ḥakím, died in 1268/1851. Of the third, Dáwarí, a specimen of whose work is quoted in translation in vol. ii of my Literary History, pp. 41-42, I do not know the date of decease. As his poems have not, I think, been published, I here give the Persian text on which the trans-

Autograph of the poet Wiṣál
Or. 4936 (Brit. Mus.), 20
To face p. 30

lation above mentioned is based. It is taken from a small manuscript selection of his poems ^301a given to me in Ṭihrán in the winter of 1887-8 by my late friend the Nawwáb Mírzá Ḥasan 'Alí Khán, one of his admirers and patrons.