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CHAPTER IV.

AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF PERSIA DURING
THE LAST TWO CENTURIES (A.D. 1722-1922).

Only after much hesitation and several tentative experi-
ments have I decided to endeavour to compress into one
chapter two centuries of Persian history. Were this book,
primarily intended as a political history of Persia, such an
attempt would be out of the question; for this long period
witnessed the Afghin invasion and its devastations; the
rise, meteoric career, and sudden eclipse of that amazing
conqueror Nddir Sháh; the emergence in a world of chaos
and misery of Karím Khán-i-Zand, generally accounted the
best ruler whom Persia ever possessed, and of his gallant but
unfortunate successor Lutf-'Alf Khán; the establishment of
the still reigning Qájár dynasty, and within that period
the occurrence, amidst many other important events, of two
remarkable phenomena (the rise and growth of the Bábí
religious movement since 1844, and the political Revolution
of 19o6) which profoundly affected the intellectual life and
literary development of Persia, each one of which might
well form the subject of a lengthy monograph rather than
a chapter. This book, however, is written not from the
political but from the literary point of view, and the historical
part of it is only ancillary, and might have been omitted
entirely if a knowledge of even the general outlines of
Oriental history formed part of the mental equipment of
most educated Europeans. From this point of view much
fuller treatment is required for periods of transition, or of
great intellectual activity, than for periods of unproductive
strife not so much of rival ideas and beliefs as of conflicting
ambitions. To the latter category belongs the greater part

122 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

of the two centuries which must now engage our attention.
During this period the literary language (which, indeed, had
become fixed at any rate in the fourteenth century, so that
the odes of Hifiz, save for their incomparable beauty, might
have been written but yesterday) underwent no noticeable
change; few fresh forms of literary expression were de-
veloped until the middle of the nineteenth century; and
few fresh ideas arose to modify the Shí'a frenzy of Safawf
times until the rise of the Bábí doctrine in A.D. 1844, of
which, however, the literary effects were less considerable
than those of the Revolution of 19o6. Moreover excellent
and detailed accounts of the Afghin invasion, of NAdir
Sháh, and of the earlier Qájár period already exist in
English, several of which have been mentioned at the end
of the preceding chapter,; these could hardly be bettered,
and would only be marred by such abridgment as would
be necessary to fit them into the framework of this book.
Hence I have deemed it best to limit myself in this chapter
to a brief outline of the more salient events of these last
two centuries.

THF, AFGHkN INVASION (A.D. 1722-1730).

Unlike the Arabs, Mongols, Tartars and Turks, who were
instrumental in effecting previous subjections of Persia by
foreign arms, the Afgháns are, apparently, an
Character the Afghins. f rAnian and therefore a kindred race, though
differing materially in character, 'from the Per-
sians. The Persian language is widely spoken in their wild
and mountainous country, while in their own peculiar idiom,
the Pusht6, James Darmesteter saw the principal survivor
of the language of the Avesta, the scripture of the Zoro-
astrians. They are a much fiercer, hardier, and more warlike
people than the Persians, less refined and ingenious, and
I See pp. 114-118 siorm

CH. IV] MfR WAYS THE AFGHAN:

123
fanatical Sunnís, a fact sufficient in itself to explain the
intense antagonism which existed between the two nations,
and enabled the Afghdns to give to their invasion of Persia
the colour of a religious war.

In A.D. 1707 Qandahdr, a constant bone of contention
between the Safawf kings of Persia and the "Great Moghuls "

Beginning of of India, was in the possession of the former,

the trouble at and was governed in a very autocratic manner

QandahAr. by a Georgian noble named Gurgin Khain. Mfr
Ways, an Afghán chief whose influence with his fellow-
countrymen made him an object of suspicion, was by his
orders banished to Isfahán as a state prisoner. There,
however, he seems to have enjoyed a considerable amount
of liberty and to have been freely admitted to, the court of
Sháh Husayn. Endowed with considerable perspicacity and
a great talent for intrigue, he soon formed a pretty clear
idea of the factions whose rivalries were preparing the ruin
of the country, and with equal caution and cunning set
himself to fan the suspicions to which every-great Persian
general or provincial governor was exposed. This was the
easier in the case of one who, being by birth a Christian

and a Georgian of noble family, might, without gross im-
proBábílity, be suspected of thinking more of the restoration
of his own and his country's fortunes than of the mainten-
ance of the Persian Empire, though there seems in fact no
reason to suspect him of any disloyalty.
Havingsown this seed of suspicion and completely
ingratiated himself with the Persian Court, Mfr Ways
sought and obtained permission to perform
Mir Ways at
Mecca. the pilgrimage to Mecca. While there he took
another important step for the furtherance of
his designs. He sought from the leading ecclesiastical
authorities a fatwd, or legal opinion, as to whether the
orthodox Sunní subjects of a heretical (ie. Shi'a) Muslim
ruler were bound to obey him, or were justified, if occasion

124 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

arose, in resisting him, if necessary by force of arms.
The decision, which supported the latter alternative and
so accorded with his designs, he carried back with him to
Isfahin and subsequently to QandahAr, whither he was
permitted to return, with strong recommendations to Gurgfn
Khán, in 17og. There he soon organized a conspiracy
against the latter, and, taking advantage of the temporary
absence of a large part of the Persian garrison on some
expedition in the neighbourhood, he and his followers fell
on the remainder when they were off their guard, killed the
greater number of them, including Gurgin Khán, and took
possession of the city. It was at this juncture that the
fatwd obtained at Mecca proved so useful to Mir Ways,
for by it he was able to overcome the scruples of the more
faint-hearted of his followers, who were at first inclined to
shrink from a definite repudiation of Persian suzerainty,
but who now united with the more hot-headed of their
countrymen in electing Mir Ways "Prince of QandahAr
and General of the national troops,."
Several half-hearted attempts to subdue the rebellious
city having failed, the Persian Government despatched
Khusraw Khan, nephew of the late Gurgfn
Khán, with an army Of 30,000 men to effect its
subjugation, but in spite of an initial success,
which led the Afghans to offer to surrender on terms, his
uncompromising attitude impelled them to make a fresh
desperate effort, resulting in the complete defeat of the
Persian army (of whom only some 700 escaped) and the
death of their general. Two years later, in A.D. 1713, an-
other Persian army commanded by Rustam Khin was also
defeated by the rebels, who thus secured possession of the
whole province of QandahAr.
Mir Ways, having thus in five or six years laid the foun-
dations of the Afghán power, died in A.D. 1715, and was
I Krusinski, p. 187.

Success of the
rebels.

THE AFGHANS TAKE KIRMAN 125
CH. IV]

succeeded by his brother Mir 'Abdu'llih, whose disposition
to accept, under certain conditions, Persian
Mfr Ways
succeeded by suzerainty led to his murder by his nephew
hisson u
Mir Mahnnid. Mir Mahm'd, son of Mir Ways, who was forth
with proclaimed king. The weakness of the

Persian government thus becoming apparent, others were
led to follow the example of the Afgháns of
Other revolt7
against Persia. Qandahdr. Amongst these were the AbdAlf
Afghins of Herdt, the Uzbeks of Transoxiana,
the Kurds, the Lazgfs and the Arabs of Bahrayn, and
though the Persian General Saff-qulf Khán with 30,OOC
troops succeeded in defeating an Uzbek army of 12,000 '
he was immediately afterwards defeated by the Abdill
Afgháns.
in A.D. 1720MIr Mahmu'd assumed the aggressive, crossed
the deserts of SfstAn, and attacked and occupied KirmAn,
whence, however, he was expelled four months
Kirmin taken
by Afgháns. later by the Persian General Lutf-'Alf Khán,
who, after this victory, proceeded to - Shfrdz and
began to organize "the best-appointed army that had been
seen in Persia for many years " with a view to crushing the
Afgháns and retaking Qandahdr. Unfortunately before he
had accomplished this his position was undermined by one
of those Court intrigues which were so rapidly destroying
the Persian Empire, and he was deprived of his command
and brought as a prisoner to Isfahdn, while the army which
he had collected and disciplined with such care rapidly
melted away, and the spirits of the Afgháns were pro-
portionately revived. The capture and sack of ShamAkhf
by the Lazgfs and the appearance of strange portents in
the sky combined still further to discourage the Persians,
while the ordering of public mourning and repentance by
Shih Husayn tended only to accentuate the general de-
pression.
The fatal year 1722 began with the second siege and

126 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I
capture of KirmAn by Mir Mahmu'd. The most remarkable
incident connected with this was that he was
joined by a number of "guebres" (gabr)', the
small remnant of the Persians who still profess
the ancient religion of Zoroaster, and who exist in any
number only in the cities of Kirmin and Yazd and the
intervening region of Rafsinidn with its chief town BahrAm-
AbAd. Why these people should have attached themselves
to foreign Muslims to make war on their Muslim compatriots
it is hard to understand, unless the fanaticism of the Shi'a
divines was responsible for driving them into this extra-
ordinary course. Still more remarkable, if true, is Hanway's
statement that they provided Mir Mahmu'd with one of his
best generals, who, though he bore the Muhammadan name
of Nasru'llAb, was, according to the same authority2, " a
worshipper of fire, since there were two priests hired by the
Sultan who kept the sacred flame near his tomb."
From KirmAn Mir Mahm6d marched by way of Yazd,
which he attempted but failed to take by storm, to Isfahin,
having scornfully refused an offer of 15,000
Afgbins advance lubildns, to induce him to turn back, and finally
on Isfahin.
pitched his camp at GulnAba'd, distant some
three leagues from the Safawf capital. After much dispute
and diversity of opinions, the Persian army marched out of
Isfahan to engage the Afgháns on March 7th and on the
following day, largely through the treachery of the WAlf of
'Arabistdn, suffered a disastrous defeat.
The battle of GuInAbAd, fought between the Persians and
the Afghins on Sunday, March 8, 1722, decided the fate of
the Safawf dynasty as surely as did the battle
Battle of
Guln6hfid, of QAdisiyya in A.D. 635 that of the Sa'sAnians,
March 8, 1722- or the conflict between the Caliph's troops and

I Hanway's Revolution of Persia, vol. i, p. 99. 2 Ibid., p. x86.
3 At that time, according to Hanway (loc. cit., p. Ioo), equivalent to
437,500.

C11. IV] BATTLE OF GULNABAD I
i 127
the Mongols outside BaghdAd in A.D. 1258 that of the
'Abbisids. Between these three battles, moreover, there
was a remarkable point of similarity in the
splendour and apparent strength of the defenders
and the squalor and seeming weakness of their
assailants. The similarity in this respect between the battles
of Qddisiyya and BaghdAd has been noticed in a well-known
passage of the KiNbu'l-Fakhril, to which the following

account of the battle of Gulndba'd by Hanway' forms a
remarkable parallel:

"The sun had just appeared on the horizon when the armies began
to observe each other with that curiosity so natural on these dreadful
occasions. The Persian army just come out of the capital, being com-
posed of whatever was most brilliant at court, seemed as if it had been
formed rather to make a show than to fight. The riches and variety of
their arms and vestments, the beauty of their horses, the gold and
precious stones with which some of their harnesses were covered, and
the richness of their tents contributed to render the Persian camp very
pompous and magnificent.
11 On the other side there was a much smaller body of soldiers, dis-
figured with fatigue and the scorching heat of the sun. Their clothes
were so ragged and torn in so long a march that they were scarce
sufficient to cover them from the weather, and, their horses being
adorned with only leather and brass, there was nothing glittering about
them but their spears and sabres."'
These three great and decisive battles resembled one
another in several respects. In each case a great historic
The Arab, dynasty, the extent of whose inward decay was
Mongol and masked by its external splendour, and apparent,
Afghin invasion
of Persia because hitherto unchallenged, strength and
compared and supremacy, collapsed before the fierce onslaught
contrasted.
of a hardy and warlike folk, hitherto hardly
known,or accounted as little better than barbarians; and
in each case the more or less prolonged process of degene-

I See vol. ii of my Lit. Hist., P. 462, for the translation, and pp. 97-8
of Ahlwardt's edition for the text of this passage.
2 Revolutions of Persia (London, 1753), vol. i, PP. 104-5.

128 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

ration which rendered the final catastrophe not only possible
but inevitable is fairly obvious to subsequent historians,
even if its extent and significance were not realized until
the fatal touchstone was applied. The results, however,
differed widely according to the character and abilities of
the assailants. The Arab invaders of the seventh century
established an Empire which endured for six centuries and
effected a profound and permanent change in the lands
and peoples whom they brought under their sway. The
Mongol conquests were even more extensive, reaching as
they did from China and Thibet to Germany and Russia,
but the cohesion and duration of the vast Empire which
they created were far inferior. The Afghin conquest, with
which we are now concerned, was little more than an
extensive and destructive raid, resulting in some seventy-
five years of anarchy (A.D. 1722-1795), illuminated by the
meteoric career of that Napoleon of Persia, NAdir Sháh,
and ending in the establishment of the actually reigning
dynasty of the QAja'rs. The actual domination of the
Afgháns over Persia only endured for eight or nine years'.
Seven months elapsed after the battle of GulnAbAd
before the final pitiful surrender, with every circumstance
of humiliation, of the unhappy Shah Husayn.
Prince TabmAsp
escapes from In that battle the Persians are said to have lost
Isfahin to all their artillery, baggage and treasure, as well
~-Wln.
as some 15,000 Out of a total of 5o,ooo men.
On March ig Mfr Mahmu'd occupied the Shah's beloved
palace and pleasurc-grounds of FarahAba'd, situated only
three miles from Isfahán, which henceforth served as his
headquarters. Two days later the Afghans, having occupied
the Armenian suburb of julfi, where they levied a tribute
of money and young girls, attempted to take Isfahán by

I Mahm6d the Afghán laid siege to Kirmin in January, 1722, and
captured Isfahdn in October of the same year. His cousin Ashraf, who
succeeded him, was killed by Bal6chis in 1730.

CH. IV] SURRENDER OF ISFAHAN

129

storm, but, having twice failed (on March ig and 21), sat
down to blockade the city. Three months later Prince
TahmAsp Mfrzi, who had been nominated to succeed his
father, effected his escape from the beleaguered city to

Qazwfn, where he attempted, with but small success, to
raise an army for the relief of the capital.
Soon after this, famine began to press heavily on the
people, who clamoured to be led against the besiegers,
but their desperate sortie failed owing to the
Famine in
Isfahin. renewed treachery of WAlf of 'ArabistAn, who
was throughout these dark days the evil genius
of the unhappy king. The Persian court, indeed, seemed to
have been stricken with a kind of folly which was equally
ready to repose confidence in traitors and to mistrust and
degrade or dismiss brave and patriotic officers like Lutf-
'Alf Khán. For three or four months before the end the
sufferings of the people from famine were terrible: they
were finally reduced to eating dogs, cats, and even the
corpses of their dead, and perished in great numbers. The
pitiful details may be found in the pages of Krusinski,
Hanway, and the contemporary accounts written by certain
agents of the Dutch East India Company then resident at
Isfahán, of which the original texts have been included by
H. Dunlop in his fine work on Persia (Perzie, Haarlem,
1912, Pp. 242-257).
At the end of September, 1722, Sháh Husayn offered to
surrender himself and his capital to the Afghin invader,
but Mfr Mahmu'd, in order still further to reduce
surrender of
Isfahán to by famine the numbers and spirit of the besieged,
.A~fghinS, dragged out the negotiations for another three
Oct. 21, 1722. or four weeks, so that it was not until October 2 1
that Sháh Husayn repaired on foot to Farahdbid, once his
favourite residence, now the headquarters of his ruthless
foe, to surrender the crown which Mfr Mahmu'd assumed six
days later. When news of his father's abdication reached

B. P. I-

io CONSIDERATIONS ON THE SAFAWf DYNASTY [PT I

his high character and intellectual attainments, as well as
by his prolonged sojourn of fifty years (A.D. 1644-1696) in
Isfahán, to speak with authority. The works enumerated
by M. Schefer" are variously written in Dutch, English,
French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese and Spanish,
but many of the more important have appeared in two or
three different languages. Of their authors (excluding the
earlier Venetian envoys to the Court of Ozu'n Hasan, such
as Caterino Zeno, Josepho Barbaro and Ambrosio Contarini,
most of whom visited Persia during the latter half of the
fifteenth century, and consequently before the rise of the
~afawf dynasty) the best known are Anthony Jenkinson,
the Shcrley brothers, Cartwright, Parry and Sir Thomas
Herbert of the English, and of the others Antonio di
Govea, Don Garcias de Silva Figuerosa, Olearius, Teixeira,
Pietro della Valle, Tavernier, Thevenot, and last but not
least Chardin and P6tis de la Croix. M. Schefer does not
carry his survey beyond the seventeenth century, but the
final downfall of the Safawfs before the Afghán onslaught
in A.D. 1722 found an able historian in the Jesuit P~re
Krusinski, while letters from some of the Dutch merchants
in Isfah~n, a few of which have been published by H. Dunlop
in his Perzz*e*' (Haarlem, 1912; Pp. 242-7), serve to illumi-
nate the tragic details of that disaster. From this time until
the rise of the present Qa'jAr dynasty towards the end of the
eighteenth century comparatively_ few Europeans visited or
resided in Persia, a fact due partly to the unsettled state of
the country, and the consequent difficulties in the way of
missionary or commercial enterprises, and partly to the

I To these we must not omit to add the Afirdfu'l-Mamdlik ("Mirror
of Kingdoms ") of the gallant Turkish admiral Sidi 'Ali Ra'is, who
travelled overland from India to Turkey in A.D. 1554-6, and was
received by Sháh Tahma'sp at Qazwin. Vambftyls English trans-
lation of this book (Luzac, London, 1899) leaves a good deal to be
desired.

CH. 1]

THE TURKISH MENACE;,,

changed political conditions. The object of the numerous
diplomatic missions from various European countries which
visited Persia during and immediately before the Safawf
period was, in nearly all cases, to seek her cooperation in
combating the formidable power of the Ottoman Turks,
which was at its height during the period which began with

their conquest of Constantinople in A.D. 1453 and culminated
in the reigns of Sultdns Salfm " the Grim" and Sulaymdn
"the Magnificent" (A.D. 1512-1566), of whom the former
conquered Egypt and the Holy Cities and assumed the title
of Caliph, while the latter only failed by the narrowest
margin to capture Vienna. So formidable did the Turkish

menace appear to European statesmen that Busbecq,
Ferdinand's ambassador at the Court of Sulaymain, ex-

pressed himself in the following remarkable words: "'Tis
only the Persian stands between us and ruin. The Turk

would fain be upon us, but he keeps him back. This war
with him affords us only a respite, not a deliverance'." In

A.D. 1722 when the Safawf dynasty, long degenerate, finally
collapsed, Persia was left for the moment a negligible
quantity, the Turks had ceased to be a menace to Europe,
and the bitter sectarian quarrel which lay at the root of two

centuries of Turco-Persian warfare gradually lost much of
its virulence, especially after the development of the more
conciliatory policy of the great Nddir Sháh. Under these
changed conditions the earlier European policy became at
once unnecessary and impossible.

From this brief survey of the sources whence our know-
ledge of the Safawf dynasty is derived, we must now pass
Chief charac. to the consideration of its chief characteristics.
teristics of the These, though clear enough in general outline,

~afawi dynasty. present a series of very interesting problems

I Creasy's History qf the 011onzan Turks (London, 1877), PP. 171-2
ad ca1c. Cf Forster and Daniell's L~fe and Letters of .. Busbecy
(London, 1881), VOI. i, Pp. 221-2.

130 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

TahmAsp Mimi at Qazwfn he caused himself to be pro-
claimed king, but was driven out of that city on December 2o
by the Afghán general Amdnu'lldh Khain, who on his way
thither received the submission of Qum and KAshain.
TahmAsp was now reduced to the miserable expedient of
invoking the help of Russia and Turkey, who had already
Tahmftsp seeks fixed covetous eyes on the apparently moribund
&lpfromRussia Persian kingdom and had occupied Gfldn and
and Turkey. Tiflis respectively. On September 23, 1723, a
treaty was signed whereby, in return for the expulsion of
the Afghdris and the restoration of his authority, Tahma'sp
undertook to cede to Russia the Caspian provinces of Gfldn,
MAzandarin and Gurgin, and the towns of BAku', Darband
and their dependencies. Soon afterwards the Turks took
Erivan, Nakhjuwdn, Khu'y and HamadAn, but were repulsed
fromTabrfz. On July 8, 1724, an agreement for the partition
of Persia was signed between Russia and Turkey at Con-
stantinople".
Meanwhile Mir Mahm6d was continuing his cruelties at
Isfahan. In A.D. 1723 he put to death in cold blood some
Cruelties three hundred of the nobles and chief citizens,
committed by and followed up this bloody deed with the
Afghin& murder of about two hundred children of their
families. He also killed some three thousand of the deposed
Shah's body-guard, together with many other persons whose
senti ments he mistrusted or whose influence he feared. In
the following year (A.D. 1724) the Afghán general Zabardast
Khán succeeded, where his predecessor Nasru'lldhl had
failed and fallen, in taking ShirAz; and towards the end of
the year Mir Mahmu'd prepared to attack Yazd, which had
hitherto remained unsubdued. The Muslim inhabitants of
that town, fearing that the numerous Zoroastrians dwelling

I For the contents of the six articles, see Hanway's Revolutions qJ
Persia, i, pp. 200-1.
2 See p. 126 suhra.

CH. IV] MURDER OF THE SAFAWf PRINCES 131

in it might fOllOw the example of their co-religion;sts of
Kirmdn and join the Afghins, killed a great number of
them.
About this time Mir Mahmuld, alarmed at the increasing
insubordination of his cousin Ashraf, and, we may hope,

Mir Mahmdd tormented by an uneasy conscience on account
murders'the of his cruelties, betook himself to a severe
~afawf prince course of self-discipline and mortification, which
(Feb- 7, 1725~,

and is himself did but increase his melancholy and distemper,
slain by his
cousin Ashraf so that on February 7, 1725, he murdered all
(April 22, 1725)- the surviving members of the royal family with

the exception of the deposed Sháh Husayn and two of his
younger children. Thereafter his disorder rapidly increased,
until he himself was murdered on April 22 by his cousin
Ashraf, who was thereupon proclaimed king. Mir Mahmu'd
was at the time of his death only twenty'-seven years of
age, and is described as " middle-sized and clumsy; his
neck was so short that his head seemed to grow to his
shoulders; he had a broad face and flat nose, and his beard
was thin and of a red colour; his looks were wild and his
countenance austere and disagreeable; his eyes, which
were blue and a little squinting, were generally downcast,
like a man absorbed in deep thought."
The death of Peter the Great about this period made
Russia slightly less,dangerous as a neighbour, but the Turks
continued to press forwards and on August 3,
Death of Peter
the Great, and 1725, succeeded at last in capturing Tabriz.
Turkish invasion They even advanced to within three days'
of Persia.
march of Isfahán, but turned back before
reaching it. They subsequently (A.D. 1726) took Qazwfn
and MarAgha, but were defeated by Ashraf near Kirmin-
shAh. Negotiations for peace were meanwhile in progress
at Constantinople, whither Ashraf had sent an ambassador
named 'Abdu'l-'Azfz Khán, whose arrogant proposal that
his master should be Caliph of the East and the Ottoman

9-2

13Z HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 17zz-l9Z2) [PT I

Sult;in Caliph of the West caused great umbrage to the
Negotiations Porte. The war, however, was very unpopular
betweenTurks with the Turkish soldiers and people, who failed
and Afghdns. to see why they should fight fellow-Sunnis in
order to restore a heretical Shi'a dynasty, though the Vaind
were induced to give a fatwd in favour of this course, on
the ground that a divided Caliphate was incompatible with
the dignity or safety of IslAm. Finally, however, a treaty ot
peace was concluded and signed at Hamaddn in September,
1727'.
This danger had hardly been averted when a far greater
one, destined in a short time to prove fatal to the Afghdris,
Rise of NAdir. presented itself in the person of NAdir-qulf,
subsequently known to fame as NAdir Sháh,
one of the most remarkable and ruthless military geniuses
ever produced by Persia. Hitherto, though he was now
about forty years of age, little had been heard of him; but
this year, issuing forth from his stronghold, that wonderful
natural fastness named after him Kaldt-i-Nddir f2 , he defeated
an Afghán force and took possession of Nishipu'r in the
name of Shih Tahmdsp II, at that time precariously esta-
blished at FarahAbAd in MAzandarin, and supported with
a certain condescending arrogance by the QAja'r chief Fath-
Assassination of 'Ali Khán. After this success Nddir paid a
F.tb.'Alf visit to the fugitive Sháh, and, after insinuating
Khán Qij:ir. himself into his favour, contrived the assassi-
nation of the Qájár, against whom he had succeeded in
arousing the Sháh's suspicions. On May 15 of the following
year (1728) the Shih, accompanied by Nadir (or Tahmisp-
qulf, " the slave of TahmAsp," to give him the name which

I For its provisions, contained in nine articles, see Hanway, 0.6. cit.,
pp. 254-5-
2 This fortress, which is jealously guarded, Lord Curzon attempted
but failed to penetrate. See his Persia, vol. i, pp. 125-140, especially
the bird's-eye view on P- 134.

CH. iv] END OF THE AFGHAN DOMINI ON 133

he temporarily assumed about this time), made a solemn
NishApdr entry into Nishdpu'r, amidst the rejoicings of
recovered by the inhabitants, and shortly afterwards occupied
Persians. Mashhad and Herat. He also despatched an
ambassador to Constantinople, whence in return a certain
Sulaymdn Efendi was sent as envoy to Persia,
Meanwhile Ashraf, having taken Yazd and KirmAn,
marched into Khurdsdn with an army of thirty thousand

men to give battle to Tahma'sp, but he was
Defeat fAshrat
at DAmoghfin. completely defeated by Nddir on October 2 at
Ddmghdn. Another decisive battle was fought
in the following year at Mu'rchakhu'r near Isfahan. The
Israbfin Afghins were again defeated and evacuated
evacuated and Isfahán to the number of twelve thousand men,
Sháh Husayn
murdered by but, before quitting the city he had ruined, Ashraf
Afghins. murdered the unfortunate ex-Sháh Husayn, and
carried off most of the ladies of the royal family and the
King's treasure. When Tahrndsp 11 entered Isfahdn on
December 9 he found only his old mother, who had escaped
deportation by disguising herself as a servant, and was
moved to tears at the desolation and desecration which
met his eyes at every turn. Nddir, having finally induced
TahmAsp to empower him to levy taxes on his own
Defeat of authority, marched southwards in pursuit of
Afgháns near the retiring Afgháns, whom he overtook and
Persepolis and
death of Ashraf again defeated near Persepolis. -Ashraf fled
(A.D- 1734 from Shfrdz towards his own country, but cold,
hunger and the unrelenting hostility of the inhabitants of
the regions which he had to traverse dissipated his forces
and compelled him to abandon his captives and his treasure,
and he was finally killed by a party of Balulch tribesmen.
Thus ended the disastrous period of Afghán dominion in
Persia in A.D. 173o, having lasted eight years.

134 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922)LPT I

THE CAREER OF NADIR

UNTIL HIS ASSASSINATION IN A.D. 1747.

Although it was not until A.D. 1736 that NAdir deemed
it expedient to take the title of King, he became from
A.D. 1730 onwards the de facto ruler of Persia. Of his
humble origin and early struggles it is unnecessary to
speak here; they will be found narrated as fully as the
circumstances permit in the pages of Hanway, Malcolm
and other historians of Persia. SbAh TahmAsp was from
the first but a roijaintlaid, and his only serious
Incapacity of
Tahmisp. attempt to achieve anything by himself, when
he took the field against the Turks in A.D. 173 1,
resulted in a disastrous failure, for he lost both Taorfz and
Hamadin, and in January, 1732, concluded a most un-
favourable peace, whereby he ceded Georgia and Armenia
to Turkey on condition that she should aid him to expel
the Russians from Gilin, Shfrwa'n and Darband. NAdir,
greatly incensed, came to Isfahan in August, 1732, and,
having by a stratagem seized and imprisoned TahmAsp,
proclaimed his infant son (then only six months old) as
king under the title of Shaih'Abbis 111, and at
'Abbas III pro- once sent a threatening letter to Ahmad PAshi
claimed King. of BaghdAd, which he followed up b . y a dcclara-
tion of war in October.
In Aprilof the following year (1733) Nidir appeared
before BaghdAd, having already retaken Kirma'nsha'h, with
an army of 8o,ooo men, but suffered a defeat on
Further s
cesses of uNcdi,. July 18, and retired to Hamadin to recruit
and recuperate his troops. Returning to the
attack in the autumn he defeated the Turks on October 26
in a great battle wherein the gallant and noble-minded
Topil 'Osmin ('Uthm~n) was slain. Having crushed a
revolt in favour of the deposed Sháh Tahma'sp in FArs, he
invaded Georgia in 1734, took Tiflis, Ganja and ShamAkhf,

CH. IV] NADIR PROCLAIMED KING

135
and obtained from Russia the retrocession of Gfldn, Shir-
wdn, Darband, Ba'ku' and Rasht. In the following year
(1735) he again defeated the Turks near Erivan, and
captured that city and Erzeroum.
On the following -lVawrdz, or Persian New Year's day
(March 21, 1736), NAdir announced to the assembled army
and deputies of the nation the death of the

Nidir pro- infant Sháh 'AbbAs III and invited them to
claimed King.
decide within three days whether they would
restore his father, the deposed SbAh Tahmisp, or elect a
new king. His own desire, which coincided with that of
most of his officers and soldiers, was evident, and, the
unwilling minority being overawed, the crown of Persia
was unanimously offered to him. He agreed to accept it
on three conditions, namely: (I) that it should be made
hereditary in his family; (2) that there should be no talk
of a restoration of the Safawfs, and that no one should aid,
comfort, or harbour any member of that family who might
aspire to the throne ; and (3) that the cursing of the first
three Caliphs, the mourning for the death of the ImArn.
Husayn, and other distinctive practices of the Shí'a should
be abandoned. This last condition was the most distasteful
to the Persians, and the chief ecclesiastical authority, being
asked his opinion, had the courage to denounce it as
"derogatory to the welfare of the true believers "-a courage
which cost him his life, for he was immediately strangled
by Na'dir's orders. Not content with this, Nidir, on his
arrival at Qazwfn, confiscated the religious endowments
(awqdf) for the expenses of his army, to whom, he said,
Persia owed more than to her hierarchy. Towards the end
of the year he concluded a favourable treaty with Turkey,
by which Persia recovered all her lost provinces; and in
December he set out at the head of iooooo men against
Afghdnistin and India, leaving his son Rida'-qulf as regent.
The next two years (A.D. 1737-9) witnessed NAdir Sháh's

136 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

greatest military achievement, the invasion of India, capture
NAdir's Indian of Lahore and Delhi, and return home with
campaign the enormous spoils in money and kind which
(A-D- 1737-x739)- he exacted from the unfortunate Indians, and
which Hanway, estimates at ;687,5oo,ooo. Having taken
Qandahdr, Kdbul and Peshawur in 1738, he crossed the
Indus early in the following year, captured Lahore, and
in February, 1739, utterly defeated the Indian army of
Muhammad Sháh, two hundred thousand strong, on the
plains of KarnAl. Delhi was peaceably occupied, but a few
days later a riot occurred in which some of Nddir's soldiers
were killed, and he avenged their blood by a general
massacre of the inhabitants which lasted from 8 a.m. until
3 p.m., and in which I io,ooo persons perished. He never
dreamed ofholding India, and, having extorted theenormous
indemnity mentioned above and left the unhappy Muham-
mad Sháh in possession of his throne, with a threat that he
would return again if necessary, he began his homeward
march in May, turning aside to chastise the predatory
Uzbeks of Khiva and BuKhárA, which latter town he
captured on November 28, 1739.
During the absence of Nadir Sháh his son RidA-qulf had
put to death the unfortunate Tahmdsp and most of his
Nidir's son family at Sabzawdr, and began to show signs of
RWA-qulf rebels desiring to retain the powers with which he had
and is blinded. been temporarily invested by his father. Being
suspected of instigating an unsuccessful attempt on Na'dir's
life, he was deprived of his eyesight, but with this cruel act
the wonderful good fortune which had hitherto accompanied
Nddir began to desert him. His increasing
cruelty, tyranny, avarice and extortion, but
most of all, perhaps, his attempt to impose on

I Revolutions of Persia, ii, p. 188. The loss to India he puts at one
hundred and twenty million pounds and the number of those slain at
200,000 U"bid., P. 197).

I I

CH. IV] NADIR SHAITS ASSASSINATION 3137

his Persian subjects the Sunní doctrine, made him daily
more detested. His innovations included the production of
Persian translations of the Qourdn and the Gospels. The
latter, on which several Christians were employed, he caused
to be read aloud to him at Tihrin, while he commented on
it with derision, and hinted that when he found leisure he

might (perhaps after the model of Akbar) produce a new
religion of his own which should supplant alike Judaism,
Christianity and IslAm'. His military projects, moreover,
began to miscarry; his campaign against the Lazgfs in
A.D. 1741-2 did not prosper, and in the war with Turkey
in which he became involved in 1743 he was unsuccessful
in his attempt to take Mosul (Mawsil). Revolts which
broke out in FArs and ShfrwAn were only suppressed with
difficulty after much bloodshed. However he put down a
rebellion of the QijArs at AstarAbAd in A.D. 1744, defeated
the Turks in a great battle near Erivan in August, 1745,
and concluded a satisfactory peace with them in 1746. In
the following year NAdir Sháh visited KirmAn, which
suffered much from his cruelties and exactions, and thence
proceeded to Mashhad, where he arrived at the end of
May, 1747. Here he conceived the abominable plan of
killing all his Persian officers and soldiers (the bulk of
his army being TurkmAns and Uzbeks and consequently
Sunnis), but this project was made known by a Georgian
slave to some of the Persian officers, who thereupon decided,
in the picturesque Persian phrase, "to breakfast off him ere
he should sup off them." A certain Sailih Beg, aided by
four trusty men, undertook the task2, and, entering his tent

I See Sir John Malcolm's History ofPersia (ed. i8x5), vol. ii, p. io4.
2 Accordin~- to the Ta'rikh-i-ba'd Nddiriyya (ed. Oskar Mann, Ley-
den, 189 1, pp. 15 et seqq.), which gives a very full account of the matter,
the four chief conspirators, Muhammad Khán Qdjir, Mdsi Beg Afshir,
Qoja Beg Giinduzid and Muhammad SAlih Khin, were accompanied
by seventy young volunteers, but only four had the courage to enter

138 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 172Z-1922) [PT I CH. IV] KARfM KHAN-I-ZAND 139

by night, rid their country of one who, though he first

Assassination appeared as its deliverer from the Afghán yoke, THE ZAND DYNASTY
(A.D. 1750-1794).
ofNAdir now bade fair to crush it beneath a yoke yet
(June ~10, X747)- more intolerable. At the time of his death "The history of Persia," says Sir
John Malcolm', "from
NAdir Sháh was sixty-one years of age and had reigned the death of NAdir Sháh till the elevation of Aqi Muhammad
eleven years and three months (A.D. 1736-47). He was Virtues of Karim Khán, the founder of the reigning family, pre-
Chaossuc- succeeded by his nephew 'All-quli Khán, who Khin-i.Zand. sents to our attention no one
striking feature
ceedingNidies assumed the crown under the title of 'Adil . except the life of Karim
Khain-i-Zand. The
death. happy reign of this excellent prince, as contrasted with
Sháh, but was defeated and slain by his brother
those who preceded and followed him, affords to the historian
IbrAhim in the following year. He in turn was killed a of Persia that description of mixed pleasure and repose
year later (A.D. 1749) by the partisans of NAdir's grandson
Sháhrukh, the son of the unfortunate RidA-qulf and a which a traveller enjoys who arrives at a beautiful and
Safawf princess, the daughter of Sháh Husa'yn, who now fertile valley in the midst of an arduous journey over barren
succeeded to the throne. Youth, beauty and a character at and rugged wastes. It is pleasing to recount the actions
once arniable and humane' did not, however, secure him of a chief who, though born in an inferior rank, obtained
against misfortune, and he was shortly after his accession power without crime, and who exercised it with a modera-
deposed and blinded by a certain Sayyid Muhammad, a tion that was, in the times in which he lived, as singular as
grandson on the mother's side of the Safawi Sháh Sulay- his humanity and justice."
mAn IL He in turn soon fell a victim to the universal Karim Khán, however, who fixed his capital at Shiraz,
violence and lawlessness which now prevailed in Persia, which he did so much to beautify and where he is still
and Sháhrukh was restored to the throne, but again de- Karim Khán's gratefully remembered, never ruled
over the
posed and again restored to exercise a nominal rule at two rivals. whole of Persia and never assumed
the title
Mashhad over the province of Khurisdn, which Ahmad of Shih, but remained content with
that of
Waki(l, or Regent. Originally he and a Bakhtiydrf chief
Khán Abdili (afterwards famous as Ahmad Sháh DurrAnf, named 'Ali MardAn Khán were the joint regents of "a real
the founder of the modern kingdom of AighAnistAn) desired, or pretended grandson of Sháh Husayn211 in whose name
before leaving Persia, to erect into a buffer state between
that country and his own. The remainder of the blind they seized Isfahin, where they placed him on the throne.
Sháhrukh's long reign was uneventful, and he survived Before long they fell out; 'Ali MardAn Khan was killed; and
z' Kar'm Khán became the de facto ruler of Southern Persia.
until A.D. 1796, having reigned nearly fifty years. His'rivals were the Afghán chief.Azdd, in.AdharbiyjAn and
NAdirls tent. The assassination took place on Sunday, ii JumAda ii, the North-west, and in the Caspian
provinc . es Muhammad
i i6o (June 2o, 1747). Hasan the Qájár, son of that Fath-'Alf Khán who was
I Malcolm's History, Vol. ii, p. i i i murdered by NAdir at the outset of'his career, and father,

10
'p. cit., Vol. ii, P. I IS.
2 R. G. Watson's History of Persia, R 44-

140 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

of AqA Muhammad Khán, the actual founder of the Qájár
dynasty.
AzAd was the first to be eliminated from this triangular
contest. He defeated Karim Khán and compelled him to

Elimination evacuate not only Isfahán but Shiraz, but, rashly
of Azid the pursuing him through the narrow defile of
Afghin. Kama'rij, fell into an ambush, lost most of his

followers, and finally, having sought refuge first with the
PAshA of BaghdAd and then with Heraclius, Prince of
Georgia, " threw himself upon the generosity of Karim
Khán, who received him with kindness, promoted him to
the first rank among his nobles, and treated him with so
generous a confidence that he soon converted this danger-
ous rival into an attached friend'."
In A.D. 1757, about four years after the battle of KamArij,
Karim Khán had to face a fierce onslaught by his other
Karim Kh:in rival, Muhammad Hasan Khán the QAja'r, who,
defeats his after a striking initial success, was finally driven
Qdj6x rival. back into Ma'zandarAn, where he was eventually
defeated and killed in A.D. 176o by Karim Khán's general
Shaykh'Alf Khán. From this time until his death in the
spring Of 1779 Karim Khan practically ruled over the whole
of Persia except KhurAsAn, where the blind and harmless
Sháhrukh exercised a nominal sovereignty. The chief
military exploit of his reign was the capture of
Basra taken by
Per'sians. Basra from the Turks in 1776, effected by his
brother SAdiq, who continued to administer it
until Karim's death, when he relinquished it to the Turks
in order to take part in the fratricidal struggle for the
Persian crown2.

IL Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. ii, P. 125. The two
preceding pages contain a graphic account of the battle of KamArij, as
narrated to the author on the spot by persons who had themselves
taken part in it.
2 See 'Alf Ridd's Ta'r1kh-i-Zandiyya (ed. Ernst Beer, Leyden, 1888),
P. S.

140 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-I9Z2) [PT I

of AqA Muhammad Khán, the actual founder of the Qájár
dynasty.
Azad was the first to be eliminated from this triangular
contest. He defeated Karím Khan and compelled him to
evacuate not only Isfahan but ShfrAz, but, rashly
pursuing him through the narrow defile of
Kamdrij, fell into an ambush, lost most of his
followers, and finally, having sought refuge first with the
PAsha' of Baghdid and then with Heraclius, Prince of
Georgia, " threw himself upon the generosity of Karim
Khán, who received him with kindness, promoted him to
the first rank among his nobles, and treated him with so
generous a confidence that he soon converted this danger-
ous rival into an attached friend'."
In A.D. 1757, about four years after the battle of Kamairij,
Karím Khán had to face a fierce onslaught by his other
Kar m Khán rival, Muhammad Hasan Kbdn the Qijdr, who,
defeats his after a striking initial success, was finally driven
QijAr rival. back into MAzandarAn, where he was eventually
defeated and killed in A.D. 176o by Karim Khán's general
Shaykh 'All Khán. From this time until his death in the
spring of 1779 Karím Khan practically ruled over the whole
of Persia except Khura'sAn, where the blind and harmless
Sháhrukh exercised a nominal sovereignty. The chief
military exploit of his reign was the capture of
Basra taken by
Persians. Basra from the Turks in 1776, effected by his
brother SAdiq, who continued to administer it
until Karim's death, when he relinquished it to the Turks
in order to take part in the fratricidal struggle for the
Persian crown2.
I Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. ii, p. 125. The two
preceding pages contain a graphic account of the battle of KamArij, as
narrated to the author on the spot by persons who had themselves
taken part in it.
2 See 'Alf Ridd's Ta'rfkh-i-Zandiyya (ed. Ernst Beer, Leyden, 1888),
P. 8.

Elimination
of Azid the
Afghin.

CH. IV] DEATH OF KARfM KHAN

141

" The most important, if we consider its ultimate conse-
quences, of all the events which occurred at the death of
Death of Karim Karim Khán, was the Bight of AqA Muham-
KbAn and flight mad Khán Qdjir, who had been for many years
of,kqA Muham-
mad Khán * a prisoner at large in the city-of Shiraz"." As.
(March 2, 1779)- a child he had suffered castration by the cruel
command of Nddir's nephew 'Adil Shih2, on account of
which the title of Aghd or Aq'a', generally given to eunuchs,
was added to his name. After the defeat and death of his
father Muhammad Hasan Khán the Qájár in A.D. 1757, he
fell into the hands of Karim Khán, who interned him in
Shfrdz, but otherwise treated him kindly.and even gener-
ously, so far a's was compatible, with his safe custody. He.-
was even allowed to gratify his passion for the chase in the
country round Shfrdz on condition of re-entering the city
before the gates were closed at night-fall. Returning to the
city on the evening of Safar 12, 1193 (March 1, V79), and
learning through his sister, who was an inmate of the Palace,
that Karim Khán lay at the point -of death, -he suffered a
favourite hawk to escape, and made its- pursuit an -excuse,,-
for spending the'night in the plain. Next -morning, two
hours after dawn', having learned -that Karim Khán had
breathed his last, he took advantage of the prevailing con-
fusion to make his escape northwards, :and travelled so
swiftly that he reached Isfahin on the third day4, and
thence made his way-into Maizandarin, which thenceforth
became the base of those operations by which, fifteen years
later, he accomplished the final overthrow of the Zand,
dynasty and won for his own house that supremacy over
Persia which they hold to this day.
It is unnecessary to describe here the fratricidal wars

I Sir John Malcolm, ofi. cit., ii, p. 157.
2 Ibid., P. 263.
3 Ta1r1kh-i-Zandiyya, p. 6, 1.
4 Sir John Malcolm's History, ii, p. 158 ad cale.

142 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) LPT I

which during the next ten years (A.D. 1779-89) sapped the
power of the Zand dynasty while Aqa' Muham-
Successors of
Karim Khán. mad Khin, with incredible self-control and
political sagacity, was uniting and consolidating
the Qa'j'Ar power. Within the year which witnessed Karim
Khán's death four of his house had successively mounted
his throne, to wit, his son Abu'l-Fath, his nephew 'Alf
Murdd, his son Muhammad 'Alf, and his brother SAdiq.
The last-iiamed, together with all his sons except ja'far,
was put to death in March, 1782, by 'Alf MurAd, who thus
regained the throne, but died at Mu'rchakhu'r near Isfahán
in January, 1785, and was succeeded by ja'far, the date of
whose accession is commemorated in the following ingenious
chronogram by lia'j*ji Sulaymain of KAshdn called Saba'hfl:

61~'-?- JU J6~

;U2JU J.~a;j L52.t_~o Al-S %:4~;

To record the year of the blessed and auspicious accession
Which is the initial date of the mirth of the age,
The pen of SabAhf wrote: 'From the Royal Palace
'Alf Murdd went forth, and ja'far Khán sat' [in his place]."

The letters composing the words Qa~r-i-Sulldni yield
the number 550; from this we subtract (355) equivalent to
'All Hurdd, which gives us 195; to this we add the number
equivalent to fafar Khán (ioo4), which finally gives us the
correct date A.H. I 199 (A.D. 178 5).
Ja'far Khán was murdered on 25 Rabf ii, 1203 (January
23, 1789), and was succeeded by his son, the gallant and
unfortunate Lutf-'Ali Khán, of whose personality
Lutf-'Alf Kh6n,
the last of the Sir Harford Jones Brydges has given so attrac-
Zand dynasty. tive an account. " The reader, I hope," he

I Ta'rfkh-i-Zandiyya, pp. 24-25.

Or. 4938 (Brit. Mus.), No. i

KARfM KHAN-I-ZAND

CH. IV]

LUTF-'ALf KHAN 1143

says', "will pardon me if I treat the reign and misfortunes of,
the noble Lutf-'Alf more in detail than usual. I received great
kindness and attention from him when he filled the throne;
and under a miserable tent I had the honour of sitting on
the same horse-cloth with him when a fugitive I , His virtues
endeared him to his subjects; and the bravery, constancy,
courage and ability which he manifested under his mis-"
fortunes are the theme of poems and ballads which itlis not--,,
improbable will last as long as the Persian language itself
He was manly, amiable, affable under prosperity and, under
calamities as great and as severe as human nature can suffer,
he was dignified and cool and determined. That so noble
a being, that a prince the hope and pride of his country,
should have been betrayed by a wretch, in whom he placed,
or rather misplaced, his confidence-that his end should
have been marked by indignities exercised on his person at
which human nature shudders-that his ~ little son should
have suffered loss of virility-that his daughters should
have been forced into marriage with the scum of the earth--7 -
that the princess his wife should have been dishonoured-
are dispensations of Providence, which, though we must not
arraign, we may permit ourselves to wonder at.",~.
it is fortunate that we possess such disinterested ap-
preciations of poor Lutf-'Alf Khán, the last chivalrous figure
amongst the kings of Persia, ;for such of his
Courage,chivalry
and misfortunes compatriots as described his career necessarily
of Lutf-'Aff wrote after th ph of his' implacable rival
e trium
Kitin. and deadly foe AqA Muhammad I Khán, - and
therefore, whatever their true sentiments may have been,

The Dynasty of the Kajars, etc. (London, 1833), PP- cxx-cxxi- Sir
H. J. Brydges "visited Shirdz for the first time in - 1786."
2 To wit, the notorious Ijgjji 1brihfm-11the coundrel," 'as Sir
H. J. Brydges calls him (Account of .. H.M.'s Zsssion, etc. vol. Ii. PP.
95-96), "whose mad ambition and black heart brought ruin on his
confiding King, and misery the most severe on his fellow-citizens."

144 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

dared not venture to praise the fallen prince, lest they should
incur the displeasure of the cruel QAja'r. Short-lived as the
Zand dynasty was, it began and ended nobly, for its first
representative was one of the best and its last one of the
bravest of all the long line of Persian monarchs.

THE REIGNING QAJAR DYNASTY (A.D. 1796 ONWARDS).

The full and detailed accounts of the reigning Qájár
dynasty already available to the English reader render any
~qi Muhammad att . empt to summarize their history in this place
Kh6n(assassin- quite unnecessary'. Aqi Muhammad Khan was
ated June 117, not actually crowned until A.D. 1796, andwas as-
1797)-
sassinated in the following year, so that he wore
the crown of Persia for not more than fifteen monthS2, but
his reign practically began on the death of Karim Khán in
A.D. 1779, though "he used to observe that he had no title
even to the name of king till he was obeyed through the
whole of the ancient limits of the Empire of Persia,," so
that it was only after he had finally subdued Georgia
that he consented to assume the title of Shih. His appear-
ance and character are admirably summarized by Sir John
Malcolm in the following wordS4:
I Sir Harford Jones Brydges'Dynasty of the Kajars translatedfrom
the Original Persian Manuscript (London, 1833) opens with a valuable
Introduction (Preliminary matter) filling pp. xiii-cxci. The text of
the original, entitled Ma'dihir-i-Sultdniyya, was printed at Tabrfz in
Rajah, 1241 (March, 1826) and comes down to that year, but-Brydges'
translation ends with the year 1226/i8il-I2, and, in the latter part
especially, differs very greatly from the printed text. Sir John Mal-
colm's History ends with the year 1230/1814; R. G. Watson's excellent
monograph with A.D. 1857-8. The latest History of Persia, by Sir Percy
Molesworth Sykes (2nd edition, London, 1921), is continued down to
the actual year of publication.
2 Like NAdir, he was crowned by acclamation in the Plain of Mdqdn
in the spring of 1796, and met his death on June 17, 1797-
3 Malcolm's History, ii, P. 287.
4 Ibid., PP- 300-302-

AQA MUHAMMAD KHAN QAJAR seated, with his minister
HAJJI IBRAHIM standing before him

Add. 24903 (Brit. Mus.)

CH. iv] AQA MUIjAMMAD KHAN

145

"Aqi Muhammad KhIn was murdered in the sixty-third year of
his age. He had been ruler of a great part of Persia for upwards of
twenty years, but had only for a short period enjoyed the undisputed
sovereignty of that country. The person of that monarch was so
slender that at a distance he appeared like a youth of fourteen or
fifteen. His beardless and shrivelled face resembled that of an aged
and wrinkled woman; and the expression of his countenance, at no
times pleasant, was horrible when clouded, as it very often was, with
indignation. He was sensible of this, and could not bear that anyone
should look at him. This prince had suffered, in the early part of his
life, the most cruel adversity; and his future conduct seems to have
taken its strongest bias from the keen recollection of his misery and
his wrongs. The first passion of his mind was the love of power; the
second, avarice; and the third, revenge. In all these he indulged to
excess, and they administered to each other: but the two latter, strong
as they were, gave way to the first whenever they came in collision.
His knowledge of the character and feelings of others was wonderful;
and it is to this knowledge, and his talent of concealing from all the
secret purposes of his soul, that we must refer his extraordinary success
in subduing his enemies. Against these he never employed force till
art had failed; and, even in war, his policy effected more than his
sword. His ablest and most confidential minister', when asked if Aqd
Muhammad Khán was personally brave, replied, 'No doubt; but still
I can hardly recollect an occasion when he had an opportunity of dis-
playing courage. The monarch's head,' he emphatically added, 'never
left work for his hand.'))

Aqi Muhammad Khán was succeeded by his nephew
the uxorious and philoprogenitiVe2 Fath-'Alf Sháh., He was

I The infamous traitor Ijdjji Ibr;ihfm, who personally communicated
to Sir John Malcolm the opinion here recorded,
2 According to the Ndsikhu't- Tawdrikh, the issue of Fat4-'Alf Sháh
during the 47 years of his mature lifetime amounted to two thousand
children and grandchildren, and would, adds the historian, during the
twenty-one years intervening between his death and the date of writing,
probably amount to about ten thousand souls. He enumerates 57 sons
and 46 daughters who survived him, 296 grandsons and 292 grand-
daughters, and 158 wives who had borne children tobim. R.G.Watson
(HiStOry Of PerSia, P. 269) puts the number of his children at 159. In
any case the number was so large as to justify the well-known Persian

B. P. U

146 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) LPT I

avaricious and vain, being inordinately proud of his hand-
ReignofFath_ some face and long beard, but not by nature
WfSháh(A.D. cruel (at any rate compared to his late uncle),
1797-1834)- and it is related that, though obliged by custom
to witness the execution of malefactors, he would always
avert his face so as not to behold the unhappy wretch's
death-agony. He was something of a poet, and composed
numerous odes under the pen-name of Kháqa'n. Politically
the chief features of his reign were the Anglo-French rivalry
typified by the missions of Malcolm and Harford Jones
Brydges on the one hand, and Jaubert and General Gardanne
on the other (A.D. i8oo-i8o8); the growing menace of
Russia, resulting in the successive disastrous treaties of Guli-
stAn (A.D. 1813) and TurkmAn-chAy (A.D. 1826); and the
war with Turkey in A.D. 1821, concluded in 1823 by the
Treaty of Erzeroum. Other notable events of this reign were
the disgrace and death of the traitor HAjji IbrAhfm and the
almost complete extirpation of his family about A.D. I 8ool -
the massacre of Grebaiodoff and the Russian Mission at
TihrAn on February 11, 18292 ; and the premature death,
at the age of forty-six, of the Sháh's favourite son 'Abbis
MfrzA, the Crown Prince, "the noblest of the Kajar race,"
as Watson calls him", in A.D. 1833. His heart-broken father
only survived him about a year, and died at the age of
sixty-eight on October 23, 1834, leaving fifty-seven sons
and forty-six daughters to mourn his loss.
Fath-'Ali Sháh was succeeded by his grandson Muham-
mad, the son of 'AbbAs Mirza', who, ere he was crowned on
Mubammad January 31, 1835, was confronted with two rival
Sháh (A.D. claimants to the throne, his uncle the Zillu's-
x835-1848)- SultAn and his brother the Farm;in-farmd. These,

saying Shutur f., shuhush u shahzdda hama jd fiayddlst ("Camels,
lice and princes are to be found everywhere").
I See R. G. Watson's History of Persia, pp. 128-129.

' Ibid-, PP- 247-256- 3 Ibid., p. 269.

CH. IV] MUIjAMMAD SHAH QAJAR 1147

however, were overcome without much difficulty by Persian
troops commanded by Sir Henry Lindsay Bethune, and
though the new Sháh had every reason to be grateful to
England and Russia for assuring his succession, the fact
that these two powerful neighbours had for the first time
intervened in this fashion was an ominous portent and a
dangerous precedent in the history of Persia. The same
year witnessed the fall and execution (on June 26, 1835)
of the celebrated Qd'im-vzaqdm Mfrzi Abu'l-QAsim', hitherto

the all-powerful minister of the King, still regarded by his
countrymen as one of the finest prose stylists of modern
times. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by the notorious
Hdjji MfrzA Aghdsf, concerning whom many ridiculous
anecdotes are still current in Persia 2. Of the protracted but
fruitless siege of Herat by the Persians in 1838 and the
manifestations of Anglo-Russian rivalry for which it afforded
occasion it is unnecessary to speak; nor of the withdrawal
of Sir J. McNeill, the British Minister (A.D. 1838-18 41),
from the Persian Court; nor of the Turco-Pcrsian boundary
disputes Of 1842 and the Turkish massacre of Persians at
KarbalA in the early part of 1843. From our point of view
none of these events, fully discussed by R. G. Watson and
other historians of Persia, are equal in interest to the
Isma'111 revolt of 1840 or thereabouts, and the rise of the
Bdbi religion in 1844.
Of the origin and doctrines of the-Isma'l'lf heresy or "Sect
of the Seven " (Sabiyya), some account will be found in the
I His father, Mifrzi 'f sd of FardhAn, bore the same title. Notices of
both occur in vol. ii of the HajmaV1-Fusahd, pp. 87 and 425. Some
account of his literary achievements will be given when we come to
consider the prose-writers of the Qijdr period in the penultimate
chapter of Part iii of this volume.
2 See Gobincau's Les Relikions et les Philosofihies dans I'Asie Cen-
frale (2nd ed., Paris, 1866), pp. 16o-x66; and my Year amongst the
Persians, pp. 116-1'7. A sketch of his character is also given by
R. G. Watson, History of Persia, pp. 288-289.

10-2

.148 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

first volume' of this work, while their destruction by Hu'lAgu'
Khán the Mongol in the middle of the thir-
The Isma'flfs teenth century of our era is briefly described in
in modern times.
the second'. But, though their power in Persia
was shattered, they still continued to exist, and, from time
to time, to reappear on the pages of Persian history. In the
volume of the.Ardsikhu't- Tawdrikh dealing with the reigning
Qdjdr dynasty several references to them occur. The first,

Sháh Khalflu-
'llah killed at
Yazd in 1232/
1817-

under the year 1232/1817, refers to the death of
the then head of the sect Sháh Khalilu'llAh, the
son of Sayyid Abu'l-Hasan Khin, at Yazd.
Under the Zand dynasty Abu'l-Hasan had been
governor of KirmAn, whence on his dismissal he retired to
the Mahalldt of Qum. There he received tribute from his
numerous followers in India and Central Asia, who, it is
recorded, if unable to bring their offerings in person, used to
throw them into the sea, believing that they would thus be
conveyed into the hands of their Ima'm; but, when possible,
used to -visit him in his abode and deem it an honour to
render him personal service, even of the most menial kind.
His son, Sháh Khalilu'llAh, transferred his abode to Yazd,
but after residing there two years he was killed in the course
of a quarrel which had arisen between some of his followers
and the Muslim citizens of Yazd, instigated by a certain
MullA Husayn. The Shah punished the perpetrators of
this outrage, gave one of his daughters in marriage to AqA
Khán, the son and successor of the late Imim of the Isma'flfs,
and made him governor of Qum and the surrounding districts
(Hahalldt).
We next hear of this AqA Khán in 1255/1839 or 1256/
1840', when, apparently in consequence of the arrogant

1 Lit. Hist of Persia, i, PP. 391-4 15, etc-
2 Ibid., ii, pp. 190-211 ; 453-46o.
3 R. G. Watson in his History of Persia gives a fairly full accoun
of the insurrection (PP. 331-334)-

CH. IV]

THE AQA KHAN

1149

behaviour of HAjji 'Abdu'l-Muhammad-i-MahallAtf, insti-
Revolt of the gated by the minister Hdjji MfrzA AqAsf, he
Aqi Khán in rebelled against Muhammad Sháh and occupied
A.D. 1839 or 1940, the citadel of Barn, *but was obliged to surren-
der to Firu'z Mirza', then governor of Kirmin, who pardoned
him and sent him to Tihra'n. Here he was well received by
Hijji Mfrzi Aqdsf and was presently allowed to return to
his former government in the district of Qum. Having sent
his family and possessions to KarbalA by way of BaghdAd,
so as to leave himself free and unencumbered, he began to
buy swift and strong horses and to recruit brave and devoted
soldiers, and when his preparations were completed he set
out across the deserts and open country towards Kirmdn,
pretending that he was proceeding to Mecca by way of
Bandar_i-'Abba's, and that the government of Kirmin had
He is defeated by been conferred upon him. Prince Bahman Mirz;i
Bahman Mirz:j, Baha'u'd-Dawla, being apprised of his inten-
and flees by way t*
of Ur to India. ions, pursued and overtook him a - s - he was
making for Shahr-i-B~bak and Sfrjain, and a
skirmish took place between the two parties in which eight
of the Prince's soldiers and sixteen of the AqA Khán's men
were killed. After a second and fiercer battle the AqA Khán
was defeated and fled to Lair, whence he ultimately escaped
to India, where his descendant, the present AqA Khán', lives
a wealthy and spacious life at Bombay when not engaged
in his frequent and extensive travels.

. The rise of the Bábí sect or religion, which began in the
later years of Muhammad Sháh's reign, was an event of the
most far-reaching significance and importance, and forms

I Sultin Muhammad Sh6h, G.C.I.E., etc., born in 1875. See Who's
Who, sv. "Aga Khan," and the conclusion of Stanislas Guyard's
entertaining article Un Grand Maitre des Assassins au tem& de Sala-
din in the journal A siatique for 1877-

ISO HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I
the subject of an extensive literature", not only in Persian
and Arabic, but in English, French, German,
The Bábí
movement Russian and other European languages. Since
it would be impossible to give an adequate
account of its eventful history and extensive developments
in this volume, and since ample materials for its study are
already available even in English (indeed, thanks to the
success attained by its missionaries in America, especially in
English), no attempt at recapitulation will be made here.
Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad the Ba'b has himself (in the Persian
Baydn) fixed the date of his " Manifestation " (Z7mhzir) as
May :23, 1844 (5 Jumada i, i26o), just a thousand years
after the disappearance or " Occultation " (Ghaybat) of the
Twelfth Imdm, or ImAm Mahdf, to whom he claimed to be
the "Gate" (Bdb). Neither the idea nor the expression was
new: the ImArn Mahdi had four successive "Gates" (Ab-
wdb) by means of whom, during the " Lesser Occultation "
(Ghaybat-i-Sughra), he maintained communication with his
followers; and the " Perfect Shí'a " (Shí'a-i-Admil) of the
Shaykhf School, in which the BAb pursued his theological
studies, connoted much the same idea of an Intermediary
(Wdsita), or Channel of Grace, between the Concealed Imam
and his faithful people. Later the BAb " went higher " (bdld-
tar raft), to use the expression of his followers, and claimed
to be first the "Supreme Point" (Nuq1a-i-A'1d), or "Point
of Explanation " (Nuqfa-i-Baydn), then the Qd'im (" He
who is to arise " of the House of the Prophet), then the
Inaugurator of a new Dispensation, and lastly an actual
Divine Manifestation or Incarnation. Some of his followers
went even further, calling themselves Gods and him a

I For a bibliography of the literature to 1889 see my Traveller's
Narrative written to illustrate the Efizsode of the Edb (Cambridge,
1890, vol. ii, PP. 173-211 ; and for the subsequent literature, my
Materials for the Study of the Bdbi Religion (Cambridge, 1918), pp.
175-243-

CH. IV] NASIRU'D-DfN SHAH'S ACCESSION 151

11 Creator of Gods " (Khudd-dfarin) while one of them went
so far as to write of Baha"u'lldhl:

"Men say Thou art God, and I am moved to anger:
Raise the veil, and submit no longer to the sbam e of Godhead I"
Although the Bdbi movement led to much bloodshed,
this took place almost entirely after the death of Muhammad
Shah, which happened on September 5, 1848, though already
the BAb was a prisoner in the fortress of Mdkia in the ex-

treme N.W. of Persia, while in KhurAsAn, MAzandarAn and
elsewhere armed bands of his followers roamed the country
proclaiming the Advent of the expected Mahdi and the
inauguration of the Reign of the Saints, and threatening
those sanguinary encounters between themselves and their
opponents which were at once precipitated by the King's
death and the ensuing dislocation and confusion.

Dark indeed were the horizons at the beginning of the
new reign. The Wa1i-ahd,. or Crown Prince, Nisiru'd-Dfn,
Msiru'd-Din was absent at Tabriz, the seat of his government,
Sb~h (A.D. at the time of his father's, death, and until he
1848-1896). could reach Tihrin his mother, the Mahd-i-
,Ulyd, assumed control of affairs. Hdjji Mirzi AqAsf, whose
unpopularity was extreme, not only ceased to act as Prime
Minister, but bad to flee for his life, and took refuge in the
Shrine of Sbdh'Abdu'l-'A ZfM2 . Disturbances broke out in
the capital itself, and more serious revolts in Bur"ird, Kir-
Ui
mAnshdh, Kurdistdn, ShfrAz, KirmAD, Yazd and KhurdsAn.
The young Sháh, then only seventeen years of age$, finally
I Cited in the HashtBihisht, f 244a of my ms. The verse is ascribed
to Nabfl of Zarand, who killed himself at 'Akki on Bahilu'llAh's death
on May 28, 1892.
See R. G. Watson's HistOrY Of Persia) PP. 357-&
He was born on July 17, 1831.

152 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

reached the capital on October 20, 1848, was crowned the
same night, and immediately appointed as his Prime Minister
MfrzA Taqf KbAn, better known as the Aniir-i-
M(rziTaqfKhán ATiZAmtr-i-NififM. - , who, notwithstanding his lowly origin
(his father was originally cook to the Qd'im-
maqdm)', was one of the greatest men and most honest,
capable and intelligent ministers produced by Persia in
modern times. " The race of modern Persians," exclaims
Watson2 enthusiastically, " cannot be said to be altogether
effete, since so recently it has been able to produce a man
such as was the Ainir-i-NiOm"; and the Hon. Robert
Curzon, in his Armenia and Erzeroum, has described him
as "beyond all comparison the most interesting personage
amongst the commissioners of Turkey, Persia, Russia and
Great Britain who were then assembled at Erzeroum." In
the brief period of three years during which he held the
high office of Prime Minister he did much for Persia, but
the bright promise of his career was too soon darkened by
the envy and malice of his rivals. The tragic circumstances
of his violent and cruel death in his exile at the
Tragic death of
Mix-A Taqi beautiful palace of Fin near KAshAn are too well
Kh6n, Jan. 9, known to need repetition', but the admirable
11852.
fidelity of his wife, the Sháh's only sister, can-
not be passed over in silence. " No princess educated in a
Christian court, says Watson4, " and accustomed to the
contemplation of the brightest example of conjugal virtues
that the history of the world has recorded could have shown
more tenderness and devotion than did the sister of the
Sháh of Persia towards her unfortunate husband." Her
untiring vigilance was, however, finally tricked and out-

I Some account of the two celebrated men, father and son, who bore
this title will be found in the account of modern prose-writers of note
in Part iii of this volume. See p. 147 supra, ad ca1c.
See Watson's History, p. 264.
Ibid, PP- 398-4o6.

4 Ibid., p. 403.

~11

THE BAK INSURRECTION 153
CH. IV] I

witted by the infamous HAjji 'Alf Khán ~Ydjibu'd-Dawla,
who owed so much to the minister whose life he succeeded

in bringing to an end on January 9, 1852.
The Bibfs, however, had no cause to love MirzA Taqf
Khán, whose death they had already striven to compass,
and whose ultimate fate was regarded by them
as a signal instance of Divine retribution, since,
apart from*~ other measures which he had taken
against them, he was responsible for the execution of the
Bib himself at Tabriz on July 9, i85o. The Bib indeed,
helpless prisoner that he was, had kindled a flame which
proved inextinguishable, and which especially illumines
with a lurid glow the first four years of NAsiru'd-Dfn Sháh's
reign. The story of the almost incredible martial achieve-
ments of the Bábís at Shaykh Tabarsf in MAzandarAn, at
Zanj An, Yazd, Nayrfz and elsewhere during the years 1849-
Gobineau. 1850 will never be more graphically told than
by the Comte de Gobineau, who in his incom-
parable book Les Religions et les Philosophies dans fAsie
Centrale combines wit, sympathy and insight in an extra-
ordinary degree. I personally owe more to this book than
to any other book about Persia, since to it, not less-than to
an equally fortunate and fortuitous meeting in Isfahán, I am
indebted for that unravelling of Bábí doctrine and history
which first won for me a reputation in Oriental scholarship.
Gobineau was for some time a "prophet without honour in
his own country," but, while France long neglected him,
Germany produced a " Gobineau-Vereiningung"" and several
important workS2 on his life and writings. The militant

I Founded in 1894.
2 1 possess two by Ludwig Schemann, Eine Biografihie and Quellen
und Untersuchungen (Strassburg, 1913 and 1914). The monthly review
Eurofie for October, 1923 (No. 7), has published a very important
Numlro consacri au Comte de Gobineau, which contains (pp. 116-126)
an excellent article by M. Vladimir Minorsky entitled Gobineau et la
Perse, followed (pp. 127-141) by a list of his published and unpublished

Blibi risings
Of 1849-185o.

1154 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I

phase of Bábíism. culminated in the attempted assassination
Attempt on the of NAsiru'd-Din Sháh by three members of the
Shiih's life by sect on August 15, 18 5 2, and the frightful perse-
three 136bis, cution which followed, wherein twenty-eigbt
Aug. x5, xBS2.
more or less prominent Bábís, including the
beautiful and talented poetess Qurratu'l-Ayn, suffered death
with horrible tortures'. Most of the leading Bábís who
survived emigrated or were exiled to BaghdAd, and thence-
forth, though the sect continued to increase in Persia, the
centre of its activity, whether at BaghdAd, Adrianople,
Cyprus or Acre, lay beyond the frontiers of Persia.
It is unnecessary here to discuss the causes and course
of the short Anglo-Persian War of 1856-7, brought about
The Anglo. by the seizure of HerAt by the Persians. It
Persian War of began with the occupation by the British of the
185&-7- island of Kha'rak in the Persian Gulf on De-
cember 4, 1856, and was officially terminated by the Treaty
of Peace signed at Paris on March 4, 1857, by Lord Cowley
and Farrukh Khán, though, owing to the - slowness of com-
munications at that time, hostilities actually continued for
another month. They did not end a moment too soon for
Great Britain, for almost before the ratifications were ex-
changed the Indian Mutiny broke out. The need then
experienced for better communications between
f England and India led in 1864 to the intro-
duction into Persia of the telegraph, to which
further extension was given in 187o and 1872, and this, as
pointed out by Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes (whose History
of Persia2 is almost the only book which gives a continuous

works, a biography, and an account of Le mouvement Gobiniste en
Allemagne et en France.
I See my Travellers Narrative, vol. ii, PP. 326-334, and Afaterials
for the Study of the Edbf Rel~g-ion, pp. 265-271.
2 1 refer to the second and enlarged edition, published in 192r, in
which (on P. 526 of vol. ii) March of that year is mentioned as the
current date at the time of writing.

CIL IV] NASIRU'D-DfN SHAH'S DEATH 1155
and coherent narrative of events from 1857 to 1921), had
far-reaching reactions', and was one of the factors

Other modern- .
izing influences. in the modernization of Persia. Others were the
extension of the Press (first introduced into
Tabrfz by 'Abbis MfrzA about A.D. 1816) and consequent
wider diffusion of literature; the slow growth of journalism
since 185 12 down to its enormous expansion during the
Revolution of 19o6-i9ii and again after the Russian col-
lapse; the foundation of the Ddfru'I-Fumin, or Polytechnic
College.,at TihrAn in i85r, and the introduction of European
science and instruction; and, in a lesser degree, the Shah's

three journeys to Europe in 1873, 1878 and 1889, though
it is doubtful whether he or his attendants derived more

advantage from what they saw in the course of their pere-
grinations than Persian literature did from his accounts of
his experiences.
Na'siru'd-Dfn Sháh was onl a little over seventeen years
y
of age when he was crowned on the 24th of Dhu'l-Qa'da,
Assassination of 1264 (20 October, 1848), and would have entered
NAsiru'd-Din upon the fiftieth year of his reign on the same
Shih on the eve
of his jubilee, date of the Muhammadan year A.H. 13 13, corre-
May z, x896. sponding to May 5, 1896. Four days earlier,
however, when all the preparations for the celebration of his
jubilee were completed, he was shot dead by MfrzA RidA
of Kirmdn, a disciple of that turbulent spirit Sayyid JarnAlu
'd-Dfn al-Afghin, in the Shrine of Sháh 'Abdu'l-'Azfm a
few miles south of TihrAn. Of the events which led up to
this catastrophe and their significance I have treated fully
in my History of the Persian Revolution of r9o5-i9o9, and

will not attempt to epitomize here m ' atters which are fully
discussed there, and which it would be a waste of space to

1 OP. cit, ii, P. 369.
2 See p. io of my Press and Poetry in Afodern Persia, where the
whole subject is fully discussed.

156 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I
recapitulate. The seeds of the Revolution were sown, and
even began to germinate, about the time of the
Sháh's third and last visit to Europe, fruitful in
ill-advised concessions, which (especially the
Tobacco concession of i8go) were a potent factor in stimu-
lating the political discontents which found their first open
expression in the Tobacco-riots of 18gi and culminated in
the Revolution of 19o5. If we ignore the external relations
of Persia with foreign Powers, especially England and
Russia, which form the principal topic of such political
histories as that of Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, we may
say, broadly speaking, that of the long reign of Ndsiru'd-
Momentous Dfn Sháh the first four years (A.D. 1848-52)
Years at the be- were notable for the religious fermentation
ginning and end
of Nisiru'd-Din caused by the Bibfs, and the last six years
Sbdh's reign. (A.D. I 89o-6) for the political fermentation which
brought about the Revolution in the following reign; while
the intervening period was, outwardly at any rate, one of
comparative peace and tranquillity. It was my good fortune
to visit Persia in 1887-8 towards the end of
this period, and, while enjoying the remarkable
security which then prevailed in the country, to
see almost the last of what may fairly be called mediaeval
Persia. To this security I hardly did justice in the narrative
of my travels' which I wrote soon after my return, for I
hardly realized then how few and short were the periods,
either before or after my visit, when a young foreigner,
without any official position or protection, could traverse
the country from North-West to South-East and from North
to South, attended only by his Persian servant and his
muleteers, not only without danger, but practically without
the occurrence of a single disagreeable incident. And if this

1 -4 Year aniong-st the Persians (London: A. & C. Black, 1893).
This book has long been out of print and is now very scarce.

CH. IV]

PERSIA IN A.D. 1887-1896:

157

remarkable security, which compared favourably with that
of many European countries, had originally been brought
about by frightful exemplary punishments of robbers and
ill-doers, these were no longer in evidence, and during the
whole of my time in Persia I not only never witnessed an
execution or a bastinado, but never beard of a specific case

of either in any place where I stayed, though the ghastly
pillars of mortar with protruding human bones outside the
gates of Shiraz still bore witness to the stern rule of the
Shih's uncle FarhAd MfrzA, Xu'tamadu'd-Dawla, whom I
met only in the capacity of a courtly and learned bibliophile.
Yet withal the atmosphere was, as I have said, mediaeval:
politics and progress were hardly mentioned, and the talk
turned mostly on mysticism, metaphysics and religion; the
most burning political questions were those connected with
the successors of the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh
century of our era; only a languid interest in external affairs
was aroused by the occasional appearance of the official
journals Adn and Ittild or the more exciting Akhtar pub--
lished in Constantinople; while at Kirmain one post a week
maintained communication with the outer world. How
remote does all this seem from the turmoil of
189 1, the raging storms of I go5-i I, the deadly
paralysis of the Russian terror which began on
Christmas Day in the year last mentioned, and then the
Great War, when Persia became the cockpit of three foreign
armies and the field of endless intrigues. The downfall of
Russian Imperialism freed her from the nightmare of a
century, and seemed to her to avenge the desecration of the
holy shrine of Mashhad in April, 19 12, while the collapse of
the Anglo-Persian Agreement and consequent withdrawal
of British troops and advisers has left her for the time being
to her own devices, to make or mar her future as she can
and will.

Stormy later
years(i8gi
onwards).

158 HISTORY OF PERSIA (A.D. 1722-1922) [PT I, CH. IV

Since Nisiru'd-Dfn fell a victim to the assassin's pistol the
throne of Persia has been occupied by his son Muzaffaru'd-
Din (1896-1907), who granted the Constitution; hisgrandson
Nisiru'd-Dfn Muhammad 'All, who endeavoured to destroy
Sh~h's suc- it, w ho was deposed by the victorious National-
cessom ists on July 16, igog, and who is still living in
retirement in the neighbourhood of Constantinople; and his
great-grandson Sultdn Ahmad Shah the reigning monarch.
It would be premature to discuss the reign and character of
the last, while the very dissimilar characters of his father
and grandfather I have endeavoured to depict in my History
of the Persian Revolution. But since the death of Na'siru'd-
Dfn Sháh twenty-seven years ago it may truly be said that
the centre of interest has shifted from the king to the people
of Persia, nor, so far as we can foresee the future, is it likely
that we shall see another Isma'fl, another Nddir, or (which
God forbid 1) another Aqd Muhammad Khán.

PART IL

PERSIAN VERSE
DURING THE LAST
FOUR CENTURIES

CHAPTER V.

SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE LATER
AND ESPECIALLY THE RELIGIOUS POETRY OF
THE PERSIANS.

Four hundred years ago t - he Persian language (or at any
rate the written language, for no doubt fresh colloquialisms
Remarkable and slang may have arisen during this period)
stability of the was to all intents and purposes the same as it
Persian literary
language. is to-day, while such new literary forms as exist
go no further back, as a rule, than the middle of
the nineteenth century, that is to say than the accession of
Ndsiru'd-Din Sháh, whose reign (A.D. 1848-1896) might not
inappropriately be called the Persian Victorian' Era. In
the three: previous volumes of this book each historical
chapter has been immediately followed by a chapter dealing
w ith the literature of that period; but in this volumc, for
the reason just given, it appeared unnecessary to break the
sequence of events in this way, and to be preferable to devote
the first part of the volume to a brief historical sketch of the
whole period, and the second and third parts to a consider-
ation of the literature in verse and prose, arranged according
to categories.
How to arrange these categories is a problem which has
cost me a goo ea o t ought. Nearly all those who
Excessive have written on Persian literature have paid an-
attention devoted amount of attention which I regard as excessive
to Persian poetry. and disproportionate to poetry and belles-lettres,
and have almost entirely ignored the plainer but more
positive fields of history, biography, theology, philosophy
and the ancient sciences. If we understand literature in the

I Nisiru'd-Dfn, indeed, approximately means" Victor" or "Defender
of the Faith "

I I

162 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

narrower sense as denoting those writings only, whether
poetry or prose, which have artistic form, there is, no doubt,
some justification for this view; but not if we take it in the
wider sense of the manifestation in writing of a nation's
mind and intellectual activities. Still, in deference to the
prevalent view, we may begin this general survey of the
recent literature of Persia with some consideration of its
poetry.
Here we have to distinguish some half-dozen categories
of verse, namely (i) the classical poetry; (2) occasional
or topical verse; (3) religious and devotional
Categories of
Persian verse. verse, from the formal martkiyas, or threnodies,
of great poets like Muhtasharn of KAshAn to the
simple popular poems on the sufferings of the ImAms recited
at the Ta'ziyas, or mournings, of the month of Muharram;
(4) the scanty but sometimes very spirited verses composed
by the Bibfs since about 1850, which should be regarded
as a special subdivision of the class last mentioned,; (5) the
ballads or tasn6(s sung by professional minstrels, of which
it is hard to trace the origin or antiquity; (6) the quite
modern political verse which has arisen since the Revolution
of 19o6, and which I have already discussed in some detail
in another work'. In this chapter I shall deal chiefly with
the religious verse, leaving the consideration of the secular
poetry to the two succeeding chapters.

(i) The Classical Poetry.

Alike in form and matter the classical poetry of Persia
has been stereotyped for at least five or six centuries, so
that, except for such references to events or
Later poetry otheclassical, type. persons as may indicate the date of composition,
it is hardly possible, after reading a qasida
(elegy), ghazal (ode), or rubdY (quatrain), to guess whether
it was composed by a contemporary of Jaimf (d. A.H. 1492)
1 The Press andPoetry ofHodern Persia (Cambridge, 1914).

CH. V] LATER CLASSICAL POETRY x63

or by some quite recent poet, such as Qa"Anf. Of the ex-
tremely conventional character of this poetry I have spoken
in a previous volume,, and of Ibn Khalduln's doctrine "that
the Art of composing in verse or prose is concerned only
with words, not with ideas." Hence, even in the most
recent poetry of this type, we very seldom find any allusion
to such modern inventions as tea-drinking, tobacco-smoking,
railways, telegraphs or newspapers2; indeed several of the

greatest modern poets, such as Qd'Anf, Ddwarf and the like,
have chiefly shown their originality by reviving certain
forms of verse like the musamina P which had fallen into
disuse since the eleventh or twelfth century.
Perhaps the statement with which the above paragraph
opens is too sweeping and requires some qualification, for
Literary criticism in some of the later Persian poets Indian and
neglected by the Turkish critics do profess to discover a certain
Persians. originality (tdza-g2U) marking an epoch in the
development of the art, and the rise of a new school. The
Persians themselves are not addicted to literary criticism;
perhaps because, just as people only discuss their health
when they are beginning to lose it, so those only indulge
in meticulous literary criticism who are no longer able, or
have never been able, to produce good literature. According
to Gibb4 . Jaimf and Mir 'Ali Shir NawA'I, 'Urff of Shirdz
(d. 999/1590-1) and the Indian Fayqf (Fey~f, d. ioo4/i595-
6), and lastly *d'ib of Isfahan (d. io8o/i669-70) were suc-
cessively the chief foreign influences on the development of
Ottoman Turkish poetry, and a great deal has been written
about them by the Turkish critics. The best and fullest

1 Lit. Hist. of Persia, ii, pp. 83-9-
2 Cf Gibb's History of Ottoman Poetry, voI. iv, P. 4. Such allusions
will, however, be found in the poem by Na'fm quoted in the latter part
of this chapter, though in general it follows the orthodox qasfda form.
3 Lit. Hist. oJ Persia, 4, PP. 41-2.
4 Histor
y of Ottoman Poeliy, Vol. iii, pp. 247-48-

11-2

164 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

critical estimate of the leading Persian poets from the earliest
times down to the latter part of the seventeenth century is,
however, so far as I can judge, a work written (most un-
fortunately) in the Urdu' or HindustAnl language, the
Shi'ru'l-'Ajam ("Poetry of the Persians") of that eminent
scholar Shibli Nu'mAnf. The third volume of this work,
composed in 1324-5/igo6-7, deals with seven Persian poets
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of our era, namely
Fighinf (d. 925/15 ig), Fay4f (d. 1004/1595-6), 'Urff (d. 999/
1590-z), Nazfri (d. 1021/1612-3), TAlib-i-Amulf (d. 1036/
1626-7), *i'ib (d. ioSo/i669-i670), and Abu' TAlib Kalfm
(d. io6i/i65i). All these were Persians, attracted to India
by the liberal patronage of the Moghul Court, except Fay4f,
whom Shibli regards as the only Indian poet except Amfr
Khusraw who could produce Persian verse which might pass
for that of a born Persian. 'Urfi and SA'ib were the most
notable of these seven, but even they enjoy a greater repute
in India and Turkey than in their own country'. The
explanation of this fact offered by some Persians of my
acquaintance is that they are easily understood and there-
fore popular with foreigners, who often find the more subtle
poetry admired in Persia beyond their powers of compre-
hension. I must confess with shame that in this case my
taste agrees with the foreigners, and that I find SA'ib
especially attractive, both on account of his simplicity of
style and his skill in the figures entitled husn-i-tdlil or
it poetical aetiology," and irsdlu'l-mathal or " proverbial com-
mission2." Nearly forty years ago (in 1885) 1 read through
the Persian portion of that volume of the great trilingual
anthology entitled Khardbdt3 which deals with the lyrical

I Ri4&qulf Khán explicitly says of both of them that their style is
not approved by modern Persians.
2 See Gibb's History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. i, pp. I 13-14.
3 Compiled by ~iyi (PiyA) Pasha, and published in three volumes
at Constantinople in 1291-2/1874-5.

CH. V] PERSIAN POETS IN INDIA

165

verse of the Arabs, Turks and Persians, both odes and
isolated verses, and copied into a note-book which now lies
before me those which pleased me most, irrespective of
authorship; and, though many of the 443 fragments and
isolated verses which I selected are anonymous, more than
one-tenth of the total (45) are by 5d'ib.
India, at all events, thanks to the generous patronage of
Humdyu'n, Akbar, and their successors down to that gloomy

Attraction of zealot Awrangzib, and of their great nobles, such
India to Persian as Bayram Kha'n-Khina'n and his son 'Abdu'r-
poets under the
earlier Moghul Rahfm, who succeeded to the title after his
Emperors. father's assassination about A.D. 15 6 1, continued
during the greater part of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries to attract a great number of the most talented
Persian poets, who found there an appreciation which was
withheld from them in their own country. BadA'6ni, enu-
merates about one hundred and seventy, most of whom
were of Persian descent though some of them were born in
India. Shiblf2 gives a list of fifty-one who came to India
from Persia in Akbar's time and were received at court,
and a long list is also given by Sprenger". Shiblf quotes
numerous verses showing how widely diffused amongst
Persian poets was the desire to try their fortune in
India4.
Thus Sd'ib says:

J.)

j.$
.9,3

"There is no head wherein desire for thee danceth not,
Even as the determination to visit India is in every heart."

I Afuntakhabu't-Tawdrikh (Calcutta, 1869), vol. iii, pp. 170-390-
2 Shi'ru'l-'Ajam, vol. iii, p. 5.
3 Catalogue of the Library of the King of Oude, vol. i, pp. 55-65.
4 Shiru'l-Ajam, vol. iii, p. io.

x66 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT Il

And Ab6 TAlib Kalim says:

"I am the captive of India, and I regret this misplaced journey
Whither can the feather-flutterings of the dying birdl convey it ?
Kalfrn goes lamenting to Persia [dragged thither] by the eagerness
of his fellow-travellers,
Like the camel-bell which traverses the stage on the feet of others.
Through longing for India I turn my regretful eyes backwards in
such fashion
That, even if I set my face to the road, I do not see what confronts
me."

So also 'Alf-qulf Salfm says:

There exist not in Persia the means of acquiring perfection
Henna does not develop its colour until it comes to India."

The Persian dervish-poet Rasmf, commemorating the
Khán-KhánAn's liberal patronage of poets, says2:

I When a Muslim kills a bird for food by cutting its throat, he must
pronounce the formula Bisnzi'lldh ("In the Name of God") over it.
Such a bird, in its (lying struggles on the ground, is called Afu)gh-i-
Bismil, or JIVint-bismil.
2 Shiru'l-'Ajam, vol. iii, p. 13.

CH. VI PERSIAN POETS IN INDIA

"Through auspicious praise of thee the fame of the perfection of that
Subtle singer of ShfrAzl reached from the East to Rldm~.
In praising thee he became conversant with a new style, like the fair
face which gains adornment from the tire-woman.
Bythe grace (fayd) of thy name Fay4f, like [his predecessor]
Khusraws, annexed the Seven Climes from end to end with the
Indian sword.
By gathering crumbs from thy table Nazfrf the poet hath attained a
rank such that other poets
Compose such elegies in his praise that blood drips in envy from the
heart of the singer.
Men of discernment carry as a gift to KhurAsAn, like the collyrium
of Isfahán, copies of Sbakibi's verses.
By praising thee Haydtf found fresh life (~aydt): yea, the substanc4
must needs strengthen the nature of the accident.

Le. 'Urff, as Shiblf notes. le. Turkey. See above, p. 8o, n. 5.
Cf. p. 164 sufira.

168 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS LPT 11

How can I tell the tale of Naw'i and Kufwf, since by their praise of
thee they will live until the Resurrection Dawn?
Such measure of thy favour accrued to Naw'f as Amir Mu'izzi re-
ceived from the favour of Sanjar."
These poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
produced what the late Professor Eth6 has happily termed
the "Indian summer " of Persian poetry, and they had of
course a host of Indian imitators and successors so long as
Persian continued to be the polite language of India. These
last, who were at best skilful manipulators of a foreign idiom,
I do not propose to notice; and even of the genuine Persian
poets, whether sojourners in India or residents in their own
country, only a limited number of the most eminent can
The eighteenth be discussed in these pages. The eighteenth
century a barren century of our era, especially the troubled period
period. intervening between the fall of the Safawf and
the rise of the QA'J'Ar dynasties (A.D. 1722-1795), was the
poorest in literary achievement; after that there is a notable
revival, and several poets of the nineteenth century, QA'Anf,
YaghmA, Furu'ghf and Wisail and his family, can challenge
comparison with any save the very greatest of their pre-
decessors.

(2) Occasional or ToPical Verse.
Some of the most interesting pieces of poetry are those
composed, not necessarily by professional poets, for some
Examples of special purpose or -some particular occasion.
occasional or These are not so often to be found in the
topical verse, regular diwdns of verse as in the pages of con-
temporary histories. The following from the unpublished
Ahsanu't-Tawdrikh may serve as specimens.
In the year 961/1553-4 died three Indian kings, Mah-
mud I I I of Gujerit, IslAm Sháh son of Shfr Shah the Afghán
of Dihlf, and NizAmu'l-Mulk of the Deccan. This coin-
cidence, with the date, is commemorated in the following

verses:

CH. V]

INDIAN OBITUARIES :

16q

"In one year the [fatal] conjunction came to three princes by whose
justice India was the Abode of Security.
One was Mahmild', the monarch of Gujerdt, who was youthful as
his own fortune.
The second was Isldrn Shih2, King of Dihlf, who was in India the
lord of a fortunate conjunction.
The third was the Nizdmu'l-Mulks-i-Bahrf, 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' (,:)I_g ).1)
,%-,i. J Jjj = 961 -
The following verses by MawlAna' Qisimcommemorate
the death of HumAyu'n in the succeeding year (962/1554-5):

"HumAy6n, king of the realm of the Ideal, none can recall a monarch
like him:

I See S. Lane-Poole's Mohammadan Dynasties, P- 313-
2 Ibid., PP- 3oo and 303-
s Ibid., P- 320. 1 doubt if Bahrl is a correct reading: it should per-
haps be Burhdn, the proper name of the second of the NizArn Sháhs
of Abmadnagar, who reigned from 914 tO 961 A.H. (1508-1553 A.D.).

170 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 1I

Suddenly he fell from the roof of his palace; precious life departed
from him on the winds.
Qdsiml thus ciphered the date of his death: 'King Humiydn fell
from the roof'."

The next piece, denouncing the people of Qazwfn, is by
the poet Ijayratf, Who died from a fall at Kdshdn in 961/
1553-4:

I My text has gdhl, which I have ventured to emend to Qdshn.
For the particulars of Hurndy6n's death, see Erskine's History of _fndia
under the first two sovere~,--ns of the House of Tainizir, Baber and
Humdyzin (London, j854), vOl. ii, pp. 527-8. The chronogram is un-
usually natural, simple and appropriate.

CH. V)

SATIRE ON QAZWfN 171

"The time has come when the pivotless sphere, like the earth, should
rest under thy shadow, 0 Shadow of God I
0 King! It is a period of nine months that this helpless one hath
remained in Qazwfn 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 tbee to clasp the hands in prayer is an
underhand action, 0 King of lofty lineage 1
The judge of this Kingdom is of the race of Kh1lid ibnu'l-Walfd;
the Muftf of this city is the son of the worthless Sa'fd.
By the sword of the victorious King the brother, father, friend,
kinsman and family of both have been slain together.
Say thyself, 0 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
Qazwfn done to the author of the above verses to arouse in
him such bitter anger? Who were the Qddf and the Mufti
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

172 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11
what date the verses were composed, and whether in the
reign of Sháh TahmAsp or of his father and predecessor
Sháh Isma'il, makes it harder to discover the answers to
these questions, but it is interesting to learn how prevalent
were the Sunní doctrines in Qazwin at the time when they
were written. Of course in the case of the modern topical
verses which abounded in the newspapers of the Revo-
lutionary Period (A.D. 19o6-i9ii especially) the allusions
can be much more easily understood.

(3) Religious and Devotional Verse.

Of the numerous poets of the Safawf period who devoted
their talents to the celebration of the virtues and sufferings
Religious poetry of the ImAms, Muhtasham of KAshdn (died 9961
of Muhtasharn 1588) is the most eminent. In his youth hewrote
and his imitators. erotic verse, but in later life he seems to have
consecrated his genius almost entirely to the service of
I
religion. Ridi-qulf Khan in his Hajma'u'1-Fusaha (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'riklt-i-I.,41a-ni-drd-yi-'AbbdsiI in his account of the chief
poets of Sháh TahmAsp's reign states that though in earlier
Indifference of life that king enjoyed and cultivated the society
the ~afawi kings of poets, in his later years his increasing austerity
to panegyric, and deference to the views of the theologians

led him to regard them with disfavour as latitudinarians
(wasi'u'l-mashrab), so that when Muhtasham, hoping for a
suitable reward, sent him two eloquent panegyrics, one in
his praise and the other in praise of the Princess Parl-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

I Ff. 1381-139b of My MS. marked H. 13. Unfortunately this very
important history has never been published.

C11. V] MUUTASHAM'S HAFT-BAN,D

173

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 Imdms,
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 Muhtasham com-
posed his celebrated haft-band, or poem of seven-verse
strophes, in praise of the Imims, 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 Muhtasham,
but most fully in the Khardbdt, of DiyA (~,iyi) 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).

L:J J4 Jq
MuhtasbarWs
celebrated t*~J I "4-J, I

I This excellent anthology of Arabic, Persian and Turkish poetry
was printed in three volumes in Constantinople in A.H. 1291-2 (A.D.
1874-5). See p. x64, n. 3 suhra.

174 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

"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
Ijasan2 the Chosen one.
Then they tore up from Madfna and pitched at KarbalA those
pavilions to which even the angels were denied entrance.

I Ie. 'Alf ibn Abf TAlib, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law and
the first of the Twelve Imdms.
2 'Alf's eldest son, the second Im6m, said to have been poisoned at
the instigation of Mu'iwiya.

176 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT Il

Many tall palm-trees from the grove of the 'Family of the Cloak"
did the people of Kdfa fell in that plain with the axe of malice.
Many a blow whereby the heart of Mustafi [Muhammad] was rent
did they inflict on the thirsty throat of Murtadd 'Alf's successor 2,
While his women, with collars torn and hair unloosed, raised their
laments to the Sanctuary of the Divine Majesty,
Amd the Trusted Spirit [Gabriel] laid his head in shame on his knees,
and the eye of the sun was darkened at the sight.

When the blood of his thirsty throat fell on the ground, turmoil arose
from the earth to the summit of God's high Throne.
The Temple of Faith came nigh to ruin through the many fractures
inflicted on the Pillars of Religion.
They cast to the ground his tall palm-tree3 even as the thorn-bush
a deluge arose from the dust of the earth to heaven.
The breeze carried that dust to the Prophet's Tomb: dust arose from
Madina to the seventh heaven.
When tidings of this reached Jesus dwelling in the heavenly sphere,
. he forthwith plunged his garments in indigo 4 in the vat of heaven.
Heaven was filled with murmuring when the turn to cry out passed
from the Prophets to the presence of the Trusted Spirit.
Mistaken imagination fancied that this dustr, had [even] reached
the skirts of the Creator's glory,
For although the Essence of the All-glorious is exempt from vexation,
He dwells in the heart, and no heart remains unvexed.

I am afraid that when they record the punishment of his murderer,
they may forthwith strike the pen through the Book of Mercy.
I am afraid that the Intercessors on the Resurrection Day may be
ashamed, by reason of this sin, to speak of the sins of mankind.
When the People of the House shall lay hands on the People of
Tyranny, the hand of God's reproach shall come forth from its
sleeve.
Alas for the moment when the House of 'Alf, with blood dripping
from their winding-sheets, shall raise their standards from the
dust like a flame of fire!

I The Prophet, his daughter FAtima and her husband 'Alf and their
sons Ijasan and Husayn once sheltered under one cloak, whence these
five most holy beings are often collectively called by this title.
2 Ie. his younger son Ijusayn, the third ImAni and " Martyr of Kar-
bali."
4 The colour of mourning in Persia.

ie. stature, as in the fifth verse.
6 Ie. sorrow and vexation.

cH. v] THE HAFT-BAND OF MUIjTASHAM 177

Alas for that time when the youths of that Holy House shall dash
together their crimson shrouds on the Resurrection Plain!
That company, whose ranks were broken by the strife of KarbalA,
at the Resurrection in serried ranks will break the ranks of the
uprisen.
What hopes from the Lord of the Sanctuaryi can those worthless
ones entertain who wounded with their swords the quarry2 of
the Sanctuary?
Then [finally] they raise on a spear-point that Head3 from whose
locks Gabriel washes the'dust with the water of Salsabfik"

Whether or no this be accounted good poetry (and of
course it loses much of its beauty in a bald prose translation

Genuine feeling encumbered with notes on expressions familiar
manifested in to every Persian though strange to a foreigner
this class of and a non-Muslim) it at least reveals some-
poetry.
thing of that deep emotion which the memory
of the unforgettable tragedy of Karbald never fails to arouse
in the breast of even the least devout and serious-minded
Persian. It has, like the poetry of NAsir-i-Khusraw, who
lived nearly five centuries before Muhtasham, the great
merit of sincerity, and consequently has a claim to be
regarded as genuine poetry which we seek in vain in the
elaborately artificial and rhetorical compositions of many
Persian poets who enjoy in their own country a far higher
reputation.
One other marthiya, or elegy on the death of the Imim
Ijusayn, I cannot refrain from quoting, both on account of

the originality of its form and the generally
,QI'Anf's elegy irre
n the death ligious character of its author, the poet
of the ImAnn. QA'Anf (died A.D. 1853), one of the greatest and
Uusayn. the least moral of the modern poets of Persia.

God or His Prophet.
No game or wild animal or bird may be slain within a certain
radius of Mecca.
3 Le. the head of the ImArn Vusayn.
4 One of the rivers of Paradise.

B. P. L.

178 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

The text is taken from a lithographed collection of such
poems published, without title or indication of place or date,
in Persia, containing 220 unnumbered pages, and comprising
the work of six poets, namely WisAl, WiqAr, Muhtasham,
QA'Anf, SabAhf and Bfdil.

180 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

What rains down? Blood! Who? The Eye! How? Day and Night I
Why?
From grief 1 What grief? The grief of the Monarch of Karbali I
What was his name? Ijusayn! Of whose race? 'Alf's I
Who was his mother? Fitima I Who was his grandsire? Mustaff I
How was it with him? He fell a martyr! Where? In the Plain of
Mdriya 1
When? On the tenth of Mubarram 1 Secretly? No, in public!
Was he slain by night? No, by day! At what time? At noontide!
Was his head severed from the throat? No, from the nape of the
neck 1
Was he slain unthirsting? No I Did none give him to drink? They
did 1
Who? Shimr! From what source? From the source of Death I
Was be an innocent martyr? Yes I Had he committed any fault?
Not
What was his work? Guidance! Who was his friend? God!
Who wrought this wrong? Yazfd I Who is this Yazfd?
One of the children of Hind I By whom? By bastard origin I I
Did he himself do this deed? No, he sent a letter I
To whom? To the false son of Marjina I
Was Ibn ZiyAd the son of MarjAna? Yes!
Did he not withstand the words of-Yazfd? No!
Did this wretch slay Ijusayn with his own hand?
No, he despatched an army to KarbalA 1
Who was the chief of the army? 'Umar ibn Sald 1
Did he cut down Fdtima's dear folk? No, shameless Shimr 1
Was not the dagger ashamed to cut his throat?
It was 1 Why then did it do so? Destiny would not excuse it I
Wherefore? In order that he might become an intercessor for man-
kind!
What is the condition of his intercession? Lamentation and weeping I
Were any of his sons also slain? Yes, two I
Who else? Nine brothers I Who else? Kinsmen I
Had he no other son? Yes, he had I Who was that?

Yazfd was the son of Mu'iwiya, the rival of 'Alf and the founder
of the Umayyad dynasty, who was the son of Abd Sufyin and Hind
"the liver-eater" (.4kilatu'l-akbdd). The term "bastard origin"
should refer to Ibn Ziyid, not to Yazfd. See the Kiidbu'l-Fakhrl, ed.
Ablwardt, pp. 133-5-

CH. V]

QA'ANPS ELEGY

181

'The Worshipper' (Sajjdd) 11 How fared he? Overwhelmed with

grief and sorrow I
Did he remain at his father's KarbaIA? No, he went to Syria I
In glory and honour? No, in abasement and distress I
Alone? No, with the women of the household I What were their
names?
Zaynab, Sakfna, FAtima, and poor portionless Kulthdm I
Had he garments on his body? Yea, the dust of the road I
Had he a turban on his head? Yea, the staves of the wicked ones!
Was he sick? Yes! What med icine had he? The tears of his eyes I
What was his food after medicine? His food was heares blood I
Did any bear him company? Yes, the fatherless children I
Who else was there? The fever which never left him 1
What was left of the women's ornaments? Two things,
The collar of tyranny on their necks, and the anklet of grief on their
feet !
Would a pagan (g-abr) practise such cruelty? No I A Magian or a
Jew? Not
A Hindoo? No I An idolater? No I Alas for this harshness I
Is Qd'inf capable of such verses ? Yes !
What seeks he? Mercy! From whom? From God I When? In the
ranks of recompense 1'~

Besides these mardthi (singular marthiya), or threnodies
of the classical type, the contemplation of the sufferings
and misfortunes of the Imdms has inspired a
More popular
religious poetry. copious literature, both in verse and prose, of
a more popular kind. The mourning proper to
the month of Muharram finds expression not only in the
actual dramatic representations of this cycle of tragedies, of
which there are at least forty (a few of which, however, are
connected with prophets and holy men antecedent to IsIdm),
but in recitations of these melancholy events known as
Rawda FRawza1-Khwdni. These latter are said to derive
this name from one of the earliest and best-known books
of this kind, the Rawdatu [Rawzatu]'sh-Shuhadd ("Garden

1 'Alf ibn k1usayn, commonly called Zqynu'1-,dbidfh ("the Ornament
of the Worshippers"), who, on the death of his father at Karbal6,
succeeded him as the Fourth ImIm.

182 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

of the Martyrs") of Husayn Wi'iz-i-K~shififl, so that these
functions are called "Rawza-readings," whether the readings
be taken from this or from some similar work, such as the
T?ifdnu'1-Bukd (" Deluge of Weeping") or the A srafru'sh-
Shahddat (" Mysteries of Martyrdom "). Such entertain-
ments are commonly given in the month of Muharram by
rich notables, nobles, statesmen or merchants, who provide
an adequate number of professional rhapsodists or reciters
of this class, called Rawza-Khwdns, and a more or less
sumptuous supper to follow. I possess a copy of a curious
A matire on the little poem entitled Kitdbu's-Sufra ft dhammi-
Muharrarn 'r-.Riyd (" the Book of the Table, censuring
mournings. hypocrisy ")2 in which the ostentation of the
host and the greed of the guests is satirized with some
pungency. The following lines describe how the word is
passed round as to whose entertainment is likely to prove
most satisfactory to the guests:

"Now hear ftom me a story which is more brightly coloured than a
garden flower,
Of those who make mourning for Ijusayn and sit in assemblies in
frenzied excitement.

cn. v] A SATIRE ON GREEDY MOURNERS 185

All wear black for Fitimals darling',
Establish houses of mourning and make lament for the King of
Karbal.0.
In every corner they prepare a feast and arrange a pleasant assembly;
They carpet court-yard and chamber, they bedeck with inscriptions
arch and alcove;
They spread fair carpets, they set out graceful furnishings;
A host of gluttonous men, all beside themselves and intoxicated with
the cup of greed,
On whom greed has produced such an effect that, like the stamp on
the golds,
It has set its mark on their foreheads, make enquiry about such
assemblies.
One of them says, '0 comrades, well-approved friends, versed in
affairs,
I and 1j,6jJi 'Abbis went yesterday to the entertainment of that
green-grocer fellow.
In that modest entertainment there was nothing but tea and coffee,
And we saw no one there except the host and one or two rawza-
khwdns~.
To sit in such an assembly is not meet, for without sugar and tea
it has no charm.
God is not pleased with that servant in whose entertainment is
neither sherbet nor sugar.
But, by Him who gives men and finn their daily bread, in such-
and-such a place is an entertainment worthy of kings,
A wonderfully pleasant and comfortable entertainment, which, I am
sure, is devoid of hypocrisy.
There is white tea and sugar-loaf of Yazd in place of sugar,
And crystal qalydns with flexible tubes, at the gargle of which the

heart rejoices.
The fragrance of their tobacco spreads for miles, and the fire gleams
on their heads like [the star] Canopus.
No water will be drunk there, but draughts of lemon, sugar and
snow.

I Ie. her son the Imim Husayn. Jigar-ggsha (lit. "corner of the
liver") is an expression very similar to the Irish cuirte m o dpor6e.
2 Again k1usayn, "the martyr of Karbali."
3 I.e. its trace is ineffaceably stamped upon them.
4 The professional reciters or rhapsodists employed on these occa-
sions.

x86 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

'One of the reciters is MfrzA Kishf, who, they say, is the chief of
rawza-khwdns.
'Another of them is the rhapsodist of Rasht, who is like a boat in
the ocean of song.
'From Kirmdn, Yazd and KirmAnsh6h, from Shfrdz, Shushtar and
Isfahán,
'All are skilled musicians of melodious and charming voices: they
are like the kernel and others like the shell.
'In truth it is a wonderful entertainment, devoid of hypocrisy: by
your life it is right to attend it P
When the friends hear this speech with one accord they assemble
at that banquet."
On the whole, however, the emotion evoked by these
Muharram mournings, whether dramatic representations
European testi- or recitations, is deep and genuine, and even
mony to the true foreigners and non-Muslims confess themselves
pathos of the
Muharrarn affected by them. " If the success of a drama,"
mournings. says Sir Lewis Pelly in the Preface to his trans-
lation of thirty-seven scenes from the Taziyasi, " is to be
measured by the effects which it produces upon the people
for whom it is composed, or upon the audiences before
whom it is represented, no play has ever surpassed the
tragedy known in the Mussulman world as that of Hasan
and Husain. Mr Matthew Arnold, in his 'Essays on Criti-
cism,' elegantly sketches the story and effects of this I Persian
Passion Play,' while Macaulay's Essay on Lord Clive has
encircled the 'Mystery' with a halo of immortality." Even
the critical and sceptical Gibbon says2: " In a distant age
and climate the tragic scene of the death of Hosein will
awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader." Sayyidu'sh-
Shuhadd ("the Chief of the Martyrs ") the Persians call
their favourite hero, who is, indeed, in their eyes more even
than this, since his intercession will be accepted by God
for his sinful followers even when the intercession of the

I The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain (2 vols., London, 1879)-
2 Professor J. B. Bury's edition of the Decline and Fall in seven
volumes (London, 1898), vOl. v, P. 391-

CH. V] IJUSAYN AS INTERCESSOR 187

Prophet has failed. " Go thou," says the latter to him on
the Resurrection Day, "and deliver from the flames every
one who has in his life-time shed but a single tear for thee,
every one who has in any way helped thee, every one who
has performed a pilgrimage to thy shrine, or mourned for
thee, and every one who has written tragic verse for thee
Bear each and all with thee to Paradise'." To the Persian

Shí'a, therefore, Husayn occupies the same position that
Jesus Christ does to the devout Christian, notwithstanding

Persian doctrine the fact that the doctrine of the Atonement is
ofthe Atone- utterly foreign to the original spirit of Islim.

ment. To us.no Persian verse could well appear more
exaggerated in its deification of a human being than this2:

I.X& e5a; AL-V6 4=1.) ,)4
LSJ I

Men say Thou art God, and I am moved to anger: raise the veil,
and submit no longer to the shame of Godhead I "
But I am not sure whether the following verse, ascribed
to the Bábí poet Nabi? would not more re tl h k h
Persian Shfa -

J-.J3 Jq

6 - y a oc L e

j U
I ~~ &_%~
JW 4_04_1~:, cAk. -3 J.-
"0 witnesses of my aspect of fire, haste , y , e towards my home;
Make head and life my offering, for I am the Monarch of Karbali I"

Sir Lewis Pelly's Miracle Play, vOl- ii, P- 347.
2 By an Azalf controversialist it is said to have been written of
Bahá'u'llAh by one of his followers, but I have been told that it, or a
very similar verse, was really composed in honour of Husayn.
3 Kabil is a Bibf substitute for Muhammad, the numerical values of
both names being equivalent to 92. The poet Nabil at one time after
the Bib's death advanced a claim on his own behalf, and the verse
here cited appears to have been composed at this period. Later he
became one of the most devoted adherents of BahilulllAh, on whose
death in 1892 he drowned himself at 'Akk;L

188 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT II

It would be an interesting study, but beyond the capacity
of this volume, to trace the growth of the Husayn-Legend
from its comparatively meagre historical basis,
Growth of the
Ijusayn-Legend. as given by Tabarf and the earlier Arab his-
torians, to the elaborate romance into which it
has finally developed in the taziyas and rawqa-khudns.
But the romantic element appears early, even in the narra-
tive of Abu' Mikhnaf L4 ibn Yahyd, who flourished in the
A
first half of the second century of the hijra (circa A.D. 750)',
and it has even been suggested that Husayn has been
indued with the attributes of some far more ancient proto-
type like Adonis. At any rate no one at the present day
can see anything more like the performances of the priests
of Baal than the ghastly ceremonies of the
Sanguinary I
celebration of 'A sh4rd or Riiz- i- Qatl which take place on the
the ',4shz;rd or tenth of Muharram (the anniversary of Husayn's
death at Karbald) wherever there is a consider-
able Persian colony, but especially, of course, in Persia itself.
Certain episodes in the Husayn-Legend would almost
seem to indicate an unconscious sense of solidarity with the
Christians on the part of the Shí'a Persians arising from their
participation in the doctrine of the Atonement. The best-
known example of this is the conversion and martyrdom of
the " Firangi ambassador " at the Court of Yazfd 2 , a very
favourite scene in the ta'ziyas, and considered especially
appropriate when European visitors are included in the
audience. Another instance occurs in the Asi-dru'sh-Sha-
hddat, or " Mysteries of Martyrdom," of Isma'11 Khan
" Sarbdzl," when Ibn Sa'd invites cerLain Christians to aid

1 See WUstenfeld's Die Geschiclaschreiber der Araber, No. ig (pp.
5-6), and his translation of this work under the title of Der Tod des
,yusein ben 'All und die Rache: ein historischer Roman aus dem
Arabischen (G6ttingen, 1883)-
2 See Pelly's Miracle Play, vol. ii, pp. 222-240.
3 Lithographed with crude illustrations at Tihrin in 1274/1857-58.

cH. v] CHRISTIANS IN THE HUSAYN-LEGEND z89

him in killing the Imim Husayn, but when the eyes of
their leader fell upon him-

cp X~ 04M

, J ~- -W~ j I ~ J _%; I Z-4 Lttu

IOU" J2

"He saw Karbald as the Throne of Divine Majesty, he saw that
Throne wet with God's blood';
By the pen of imagination an impression grew in his heart, 'Surely
this is God in such glory and splendour I
'If he be not God, then surely he is Jesus,, the Sun of the Throne of
our Faith.'"

Thereupon, being convinced of the truth of IslAm and the
sanctity of Husayn-

JJ~11 s.0 L! CW

"With a hundred fre=ied enthusiasms he sought permission to en-
gage in the battle, and departed to offer his life as a sacrifice for
Husayn."

Since, however, we a - Iso find stories of the conversion of
an Indian king (presumably a pagan) and even of a lion,
the object may be to emphasize the cruelty and hard-
heartedness of the professing Muslims who compassed the
death of Husayn and his fellow-martyrs by depicting the
sympathy evoked by their sufferings even in the hearts of
unbelievers and savage animals.
The librettos giving the words actually spoken by the

I his expression in the mouth of a professing Muslim is extra-
ordinary.

Igo LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11
actors in the taWyas are not often met with, though litho-
graphed copies exist, of which, by the kindness
Libretto of the
Passion-plays. , of my friend the late George Grahame, formerly
Consul in different parts of Persia, I possess
half a dozen. As an example of their style I shall here
cite a passage from the "Martyrdom of Hurr ibn Yazl'd ar-
Riydhfl," wherein an Arab from K6fa brings to the ImArn
Ijusayn the news of the execution of his cousin Muslim ibn
'Aqfl.

192 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

j11__L1 L;LA_g~- j1 4-~-~

How the A rab comes ftom Kiifa bringing news of the
martyrdom of Muslim ibn 'Aqil.

(Arab) 'I whom thou scest coming with an hundred passionate
strains
Am the boopoe coming from Sheba into the presence of
Solomon.
I come from Kdfa, having tidings of poor Muslim,
I come enlarging the spirit like the morning breeze.
In my head is a longing to meet the son of F;itimal,
I come as the remedy for the pain of a wounded heart.'

('Abbds) 'To this gate, of whose pavilion the dust is camphor
And collyrium. for the angels' eyes, and its servants the
HtirfS 2.
By God, this gate is the qibla3 of all faithful folk,
And a house of healing to those stricken with sorrow

(Arab) 'My salutation to thee, 0 exemplar of mankind;
I come from Kffa, 0 leader of the people of Paradise 1
For God's sake whither goest thou, 0 my lord?
Explain to me [I conjure thee] by the God offinn and men!'
(The Inidin) 'And on thee [be my salutation], 0 messenger of comely
face !
Even now I am going to Kdfa in an agitated condition.
They have written to me letters of longing:
Heaven draws my reins towards the land of 'Iriq.
Tell me, therefore, if thou hast news of Muslim:
Has any one in Kffa loyally aided him?'

I Ze. the lmdm Husayn, son of 'Ali and Fdtima the Prophet's
daughter.
2 The &riiru'1-'Ayn, or black-eyed damsels of Paradise.
3 The point to which the worshipper turns in prayer in order to face
Mecca-wards.

CH. V] LIBRETTO OF A TA'ZIYA

193
(Arab) 'May I be thy sacrifice I Ask not of Muslim's case I
Come, master, let me kiss thy hands and feet!
Go not to Kiifa, 0 King of the righteous I
For I fear that thou may'st become sorrowful and friendless.
Go not to K6fa, 0 Lord! It were a pity 1
Be merciful I 'Alf Akbarl is so young I
Go not to KUM Zaynab2 will be humiliated,

And will be led captive through the streets and markets I

(Together)
(lindin) '0 Arab, make known Muslim's condition I
(Arab) 'Lament for grief-stricken Muslim! I
(Imdm) 'Tell me, how fared it with Muslim in Kffa?l
(Arab) 'Know that Muslim's fortune failed..'
(Intdm) 'Did the Kdfans drag his body through blood?'
(Arab) 'They severed his innocent head from the kingdom of his
body.'
(-Imdm) 'Did they cut his body in pieces ?I
(Arab) 'They stuck his noble body on the headsman's hook.'
(1indin) 'Tell me, what further did these wicked people do?'
(Arab) 'They dragged him through the city and market.'
(-Inzdm) 'Tell me, how fares it with Muslim's children?'
(Arab) 'They have become the guests of Muslim in Paradise.'
(lindm) 'Who wrought cruelty and wrong on those children?'
(Arab) 'lidrith severed their heads from their bodies.'
(Inzdm) 'Alas for Muslim's weeping eyes V
(Arab) 'These are the garments of Muslim's children.'
(Both)3 'Alas that faithful Muslim has been slain by the cruelty of
wicked men V"

It has only been possible here to touch th e fringe of this
vast literature of what is commonly and not inappropriately
termed the Persian Passion Play, and I have had to content
myself with a few specimens of the main types in which
it is manifested, namely the classical threnody or elegy
(marthiya) of Muhtasham and his imitators; the more

1 The eldest son of the ImAm Husayn. His death forms the subject
of Scene xvii of Pelly's Miracle PlaY (VOI. i, pp. 287-3-3)-
2 The daughter of 'Alf and sister of Hasan and Husayn.
3 It is not clear from the text whether this verse is uttered by one or
both of the speakers.

B. P. L.

194 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT II

popular presentations of these legends in verse, prose, or
mixed verse and prose, contained in innumerable and
obscure lithographed books, of which I have chosen the
Asrdru'sh-Shahddat as a type, not because it enjoys any
supreme excellence, but simply because it is one of those
of which I happen to possess a copy; and lastly the actual
librettos of the dramatized ta'ziyas, to be seen at their best
at the Royal Takya of TihrAn during the first ten days of
the month of Muharram. Manuscript note-books for the
use of rawza-khwdns on such occasions are commonly met
with in collections of Persian books, and the full description
of one such (Add- 423) will be found in my Catalogue of the
Persian HSS. in the Cambridge University Libraiyl. Most
of these pieces are anonymous, but amongst the poets
named are Muqbil, Mukhlis, Mawzdn, Nasim, ShafN and
Lawhf, of none of whorn can I find any biographical notice.

(4) Edbi Poetry.

One of my young Persian friends who, like so many of
the rising generation, deplores the influence of the mullds
and rawza-khwdns and the religious atmosphere
Immense
influence of the created by them, especially in connection with
Vusayn-Legend
on Persian the Muharram celebrations, admitted to me that
mentality. at least the work has been done so thoroughly
that even the most ignorant women and illiterate peasants
are perfectly familiar with all the details of these legends
of martyrdom, however little they may know of the authentic
history of the events portrayed or the persons represented.
Even the greatest viz~jtahids, like MullA Muhammad Bdqir-
i-Majlisf, however little they might approve the exaggcra-
tions and even blasphemies which characterized the Passion
Plays in their final popular developments, were at great
pains to supply their compatriots with popular and easily

I No. LXVI, pp. 122-142. On this last page are given references to
descriptions of other similar collectionr.

CH. V] THE IDEAL OF MARTYRDOM 195

intelligible religious treatises in Persian, so that a knowledge
of these matters might not be confined to Arabic scholars
or professed theologians.
One effect of the ta'ziyas has been to create amongst
the Persians a widely diffused enthusiasm for martyrdom,
The Persian of which sufficient account is not taken by those
passion for who, misled by the one-sided portrait, or rather

martyrdom. caricature, presented by Morier in his famous
Hajji Baba, deem them an essentially timid and even
cowardly folk. The English missionaries in Persia, who
in sympathy for and understanding of the people amongst
whom they work seem to me greatly superior to those
whose labours lie in other fields, know better, and no one
has done fuller justice to the courage and steadfastness of

The prestige the Bábí and Bahá'f martyrs than the Reverend
of the Bábís Napier Malcolm in his valuable book Five Years
and 13ahi'fs is
chiefly due to in a Persian Town (Yazd). Another told me an
the courage of .
their numerous interesting story from his own experience in
martyrs. Isfahán. One of the chief mujtalkids of that

city had condemned some Bábís to death as apostates, and
my informant, who was on friendly terms with this ecclesi-
astic, ventured to intercede for them. The mujtahid was at
first inclined to take his intervention very ill, but finally the
missionary said to him, " Do you suppose that the extra-
ordinary progress made by this sect is due to the superiority
of their doctrines? Is it not simply due to the indomitable
courage of those whom you and your colleagues condemn
to die for their faith ? But for the cruel persecutions to
which the Bábís have from the first been subjected, and
which they have endured with such unflinching courage '
would they now be more numerous or important than a
hundred obscure heresies in Persia of which no one takes
any notice and which are devoid of all significance? It is
you and such as you who have made the Bábís so numerous
and so formidable, for in place of each one whom you kill a

13-2

196 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT Il

hundred converts arise." The mqitahid reflected for a while
and then replied, "You are right, and I will spare the lives
of these people'."
Many of these martyrs died with verses of poetry on their
lips. SulaymAn Khán, with wicks flaming in his mangled
body,sang:

'JU %.-Uj 'Lly .3 63tj _Atq.. al~
I
'A;L4 Cj.~ -o_5
, L.5 j
In one hand the wine-cup, in the other the tresses of the Friend,
Such a dance in the midst of the market-place is my desire."
One of the "Seven Martyrs" exclaimed, when the heads-
man's sword, missing its stroke, dashed his turban to the
ground :

Lsti J3 V-ZL-- 01 04_6t~ LSI
I
,.~j I.%; I -A Lk!6 d-126 .0 1.%; j UZ,3 J.W
"Happy that intoxicated lover who at the feet of the Friend
Knows not whether it be head or turban which he casts."

Of the ancient Arabs Wilfrid Blunt well says2: "Their
courage was of a different quality, perhaps, from that
Characteristics admired among ourselves. It was the valour
ofArabianand of a nervous, excitable people who required
Persian courage.
encouragement from onlookers and from their
own voices to do their best...," and the same holds good to
some extent of the Persians. Poetry is called " Lawful
Magic" (Sihr-i-Haldl) because, in the words of the author
of the Chahdr Xaqdlas, it is " that art whereby the poet...
can make a little thing appear great and a great thing
small, or cause good to appear in the garb of evil and evil
in the form of good... in such a way that by his suggestion

I A good instance of that sense of justice (in~df) which my talented
friend and former pupil Mr W. A. Smart of the Consular Service re-
gards as one of the most admirable attributes of the Persians.
2 The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia (London, 1903), P. xii.
3 E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series, vol. A, i (Text), P. 26; Vol Xi, 2
(Translation), P. 27.

THE Bábí MARTYRS
CH. V] i 197

men's temperaments become affected with depression or
exaltation; whereby he conduces to the accomplishment

of great things in the order of the world."
The Karbali legend is a potent factor in producing in
these martyrs the psychological state which makes them
not only endure with fortitude but glory in their sufferings.
In one of the two celebrated poems ascribed to the Bábí
heroine Qurratu'l-'Ayn') who was one of the victims of the
great persecution of August, 1852, occurs the verse:

kVAJI U1 4E6 .5,*j d~,jtj 3 IVV..q
"For me the love of that fair-faced Moon who, when the call of
affliction came to him,
Went down with exultation and laughter, crying, 'I am the Martyr
at Karbali I "'
In its original and primitive form Bábíism was ShNsm of
the most exaggerated type, and the Bib himself the 'Gate'
Primitive Bábí- to the unseen ImAm or Mahdf. Gradually he
ism essentially came to regard himself as actually the ImArn -
ShVite in its
Welt. then he became the 'Point' (Nuqla), an actual
amchauung-. Manifestation of the Supreme Being, and his
chief disciples became re-incarnations, or rather "returns"
or "recurrences" of the ImAms, and the whole tragedy
of Karbald was re-enacted "in a new horizon " at Shaykh
Tabarsf in MizandarAn. The nineteen chapters constituting
the first " Unity" ( Wd~id) of the Persian Baydn (the most
intelligible and systematic of the Bib's writings) are entirely
devoted to the thesis that all the protagonists of the Islamic
Cycle have returneds in this cycle to the life of the world,

I Both are given in full, with versified translations, in my Afaterials
for the Study of the Edbi Religion, PP. 347-5 1.
2 Compare the initial verse of the poem cited on p. 173 supra.
3 Concerning this typical doctrine of "Return" (Rajat) see my
-a-f-terials etc., PP. 330, 335 and 338, and my translation of the New
HistorY, PP- 334 et segg.

198 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 1I

and Hijji MfrzA JAnf, the earliest BAW historian and himself
a victim of the persecution of 185 2, gives a long comparison
between Karbali and Shaykh Tabarsf, greatly in favour of
the latter'.
In the eleventh and last section of my Materials for
the Study of the Bábí Religion (PP. W-58) I published
MfrztL Na'Im, a selection of Bábí and Bahá'i poems, and here
the Bahá'I poet I will only add to these a qasida comprising
of Si-dih. 133 verses composed in the spring of 1885 by
Mfrza' Na'fm2 of Si-dih near Isfahán, an ardent Baha"f, whose
son, as I lately heard from a friend in the British Legation
at TihrAn, is still resident there. MirzA Na'fm sent me an
autograph copy of this poem in the summer Of 1902 through
my late friend George Grahame, and in the concluding
colophon he states that he was born at Si-dih in 1272/
1855-6 and came to TihrAn in 1304/1886-7. The poem is
so long that I originally intended only to give extracts
from it, but, finding that this could not be done without
injury to the sequence of ideas, I have decided to print it
in full as a typical Bahá'f utterance having the authority of
an autograph.

14U JtA3,01.9.4

209

"Through the revolution of the Sphere I have a heart and an eye,
the one like the Tigris in flood, the other like a gulf of blood.
Why should I not mourn heavily, and why should I not weep bitterly,
since I cannot make my way out of the narrows of the world?
Within the circle I find not my object; I have neither foot to fare
forth nor place within.
What profiteth me if I be as QAren' in rank? What gain to me if I
be as Qdr6n2 in wealth?
What fruit do farms and estates yield, since I must lay them aside?
What effect have daughters and sons, since I must pass away? 5
What pride have I in drinking wine or rose-water? What virtue have
I in wearing silk or black brocade3?
Since dominion and wealth remain not, what difference between
wealthy and poor? Since time endureth not, what difference

between the glad and the sorrowful?
I take pride in my understanding while every animal is full of it;
I glory in spirit when every place overflows with it.
What is it to me that I should say what Alexander did? What is it
to me that I should know who Napoleon was?
What affair is it of mine that the moon becomes crescent or full
because it shows its face in proportion to the shining of the -sun
upon it ? - 10
What advantage is it that I should know about the eclipses of the
sun and moon, or that the sun is darkened4 through the moon,
and the moon through the shadow of the earth?
What need is there for me to say that the fixed stars and planets are
all suns and spheres in the vault of heaven?

. One of the seven great noble houses of ancient Persia. See
N61deke's Sasaniden, especially PP. 437 etseqq. These seven families
constituted the Bar-bitdn of the Pahlawf inscriptions, the Ahlull-
Buyz4dt of the Arab historians.
2 See Qwrdn, xxviii, 76 and commentary thereon in Sale's trans-
lation and elsewhere. He is identified with Korah of the Old Testa-
ment, and amongst the Muslims is proverbial for wealth as is Croesus
with us.
3 A short note on aksibi, " a black brocade worn by the rich for
ostentation," will be found on p. io8 of my translation of the Chahdr
Afaqdla (Gibb Series, Xi, 2).
4 Literally, made the colour of indigo.
B. P. L.

210 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT Il

What do I gain by knowing that these spheres are poised and
revolving round suns, and are subject to two attractions?
What affair is it of mine that the wind, that undulating air, is light
and dry above, and dense and moist below?
What have I to say to this, that the moon marches round the earth,
the earth round the sun, and the sun in turn round another

sun ? 15

What should I say as to this rainal-metre being ' sound I or 'apoco-
pated,' or this rajaz-metre malwf ormakhbfin'?
Or of accidence, syntax, the letters, the correct and solemn intona-
tion [of the Qur'ln], or of the pauses of the K~ifans or the
junctions of the Basra school2 ?
Or of etymology, rhetoric, eloquence, style, expression, calligraphy,
prosody or the varieties of poetical criticism ?
Or of biography', jurisprudence, principles [of Law], controversy,
deduction, tradition, proof, exegesis, the Code and the Law?
Or of drawing, geometry, algebra, observations, chronology, arith-
metic, mathematics and geography in all their aspects? 20
Or of Politics, the Religious Law, agriculture, mining, philology,
National Rights, expenditure, taxation, loans and armies ?
Or of medicine, symptoms, anatomy, the pulse and the stools, the
properties of all the drugs, whether simple or compound?
Orof talismans, incantations, interpretation of dreams, alchemy,
mechanics, astrology, ascendants, [magic] numbers, geomancy,
cyphers and spells ?
Or of the philosophical sciences, and logic, ancient and modern, or
of cautionary glosses and the sophistries of texts ?
0 waste not the coin of your life on such sciences, for a whole
world of men have suffered disappointment through such trans
actions ! 25
Turn from these sciences to knowledge of the Religion of the Truth4,
for, save knowledge of the Truth4, all is deceit and vanity.

The full explanation of these terms will be found in Blochmann's
Persian Prosody, or in any book treating of the metrical systems of
the Arabs and Persians.
2 The two great rival philological schools of early IslAm.
3 '1hnu'r-,Rijd1 ("the science of notable men " ) means particularly the
biography and authority of the transmitters of religious traditions.
4 Or God, which is the usual meaning of tlaqq amongst the Persians.
Gibb (Ottoman Poehy, vol. i, p. 6o, ad cale.) gives "the Fact" as a
translation suggested by one of his Muslim friends.

A BAHA,f POEM BY NA'fM 211
CH. VJ

Hearken not to the spells of Philosophy, which from end to end is
folly' ; the themes of the materialist and the cynic are all
ignorance and madness.
Why dost thou consider the fancies of the naturalist as sciences?
Why dost thou assume the Divine sciences to be mere
fancies?
What is the talk of these philosophers ? All doubtful I What is the
~ speech of these ignorant men ? All conjecture I
Their sciences are [designed] to dispose of modesty, sincerity and
purity; their arts are for [the promotion of] sin, mischief, guile
and wantonness 1 30
Their whole [idea] is the socialization of the earth and the commun-
izing 2 of property; their whole [aim] is the diffusion of sin and
the filling of their bellies I
Their ideas are all short-sighted and their outlook narrow; their
arts are all phantasy, and their conditions vile I
Had it not been for the barrier of the Holy Law against this
Gog3, no one would have been secure of honour, property, or
life.
By God's Truth, the talk of this gang of materialists is the worst
pestilence in the body of the Nation and the Kingdom 1
By the Divine Knowledge thou wilt become the choicest product of
the two worlds; by the cynic's philosophy thou wilt become
the grandchild of an ape4l 35
Behold manifest today whatever the Prophet hath said, but what-
ever the philosopher hath said behold at this time discredited I
All their sciences are [derived] from the Prophets, but imperfectly;
all their arts are from the Saints, but garbled.
But, regarded fairly, man in this world is distinguished by science
and knowledge from all beside.

I There is a word-play here, of the kind called tq/hfs-i-zdV, be-
tween falsafah (philosophy) and safah (folly).
2 The early Bábís were often accused of holding communistic views
like the ancient Persian heresiarch Mazdak. Such views are here
explicitly repudiated.
3 Alexander the Great is supposed to have built the Great Wall of
China (hence called Sadd-i-Sikandar, "the Barrier of Alexander") to
prevent the tribes of Gog and Magog (Ydjiy wa Afdji~) from over.
running the world.
4 An evident allusion to the Darwinian theory.

14-2

212 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT U

By knowledge and learning be finds his way to the Eternal Essence;
by understanding and thought he attains to the Presence of the
Why-less 1.
It is Study of which He says 'It is the most excellent of actions'
it is Thought whereof an hour 'is better than seventy [years].'
The great sages, such as Socrates, Hippocrates, Aristotle and Zeno,
confess His Eternal Essence, 41
And so also Abd 'Alf [Avicenna], Euclid, Ptolemy, Thales, Plato,
Hermes and Solon 2.
These sanctify Him at dusk and at dawn ; these glorify Him in the
morning and in the evening.
The world is a bead wherein the sage is the intelligence; time is a
body wherein the sciences are in place of the eyes.
But thou ridest with a slack rein, and the steed of the arts is restive;
thou art weak and inexperienced, and the dappled charger of

the sciences is vicious. 45

Not having read a line thou hast doubts as to the Eternal Lord -
wonderful the constitution in which antimony produces consti-
pation !
'Seek learning from the cradle to the grave, even in China 3,' from
the knowledge of God, whereon trust and reliance may be
placed.
Sages are dumbfounded at His wise aphorisms ; men of letters are
indebted to His pregnant sayings.
Natural laws are like bodies in manifestation and emergence;
Divine Truths are like spirits in occultation and latency.
In this illimitable expanse for lack of space illimitable worlds are

buried in one another. 50

Common people see ordinary things, and distinguished people
special things, according to their own measure: and He 'knows
best what they describe4.'
A thousand Platos cannot fathom the essence of His humblest
temporal work; how much less His own Eternal Essence?
The sphere and the stars move by the command of God: yea, the
eyes and eyelids are affected by the soul.

I God is so called (Bi-ch4n) because none may question Him as to

the reason of His actions.
2 Doubtful. The original has Shfh;n, an evident error.
3 A well-known tradition of the Prophet.
I Cf. Qurldn, xxiii, 98.

A BAHAI POEM BY NA'fM
CH. VI

21~

Through whom, if not by His command, is the movement of bodies
By what, if not by the water, does the mill revolve?
For once in the way of wisdom look with the eye of reflection on
this abode whereof but one quarter is habitable 1. 55
In each one of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms are a
thousand unseen worlds, manifest and hidden.
Beyond thy intelligence is another over-ruling Intelligence; within
thy soul is another soul concealed.
Behold the grain, which stands shoulder to shoulder with past
Eternity: behold the egg, which is conjoined with Eternity to
come!
Hidden yet manifest in this latter are a hundred worlds of fowls and
chickens ; eternal yet temporal in that former are a hundred
groves of fruit and branches.
How canst thou pass through the street of Truth, thou, who comest
not forth from the mansion of Nature? 6o,
Even as thou seest how the flow of life from this world reaches the
child's inward parts through its mother's aid,
So, if aid come not from the Supernatural to this world, by God,
this world will be ruined I
For within the narrow straits of this world God hath worlds from
the Supernatural beyond limit or computation.
Contrary to universal custom, behold a group of intelligent men
voluntarily and naturally plunging into blood.2;
Contrary.to nature, a company content with pain and grief ; contrary
to nature, a party gladly enduring the cruelty of spite. 65
Behold a community renouncing the world by natural inclination;
see a people contentedly suffering exile from their native land!
Behold a party all slain eagerly and joyfully ; behold a throng all
imprisoned with alacrity and delight;
A whole series [of victims] voluntarily enduring various torments;
a whole class by natural inclination [involved] in afflictions of
every kind;
Allintoxicated and singing songs 3, but not from wine; all self-
effaced and dissipated, but not from opium 1

Ie. the world, whereof but one quarter is supposed to be capable
of sustaining human life.
2 This and the following verses refer to the readiness with which
the Bábís suffer martyrdom.
3 Like Sulaym;in Khin, for instance. See p. 196 su
,fta, and my
Year amongst the Persians, p. 102.

24 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

How bath Daniel given news of today I How bath the word of

Isaiah taken effect now' 1 70

How bath the promise of all the Scriptures been fulfilled, precisely
in conformity with the Que6.n, the Pentateuch, the Books of the
Prophets and the Gospels!
Now in the Abode of Peace [Baghdid], now in Jerusalem, now in
Mount Carmel, now in Edom, and now in Sion,
TheHoly and Fortunate Land bath been determined, the Blessed
and Auspicious Day bath been fixed.
'How came the Truth [God] to us? Even as our Arabian Prophet
and our guides the ImAms indicated to us2.
How according to promise did the Eternal Beautys reveal His
beauty, from whose Blessed Beauty the whole world augured
well? 75
How did God become apparent in the Valley of 'the Fig'? How
did He become visible in the Mount of 'the Olive 4 1 ?
How does He conquer without an army while all [others] are con-
quered? How does He triumph unaided while mankind are
helpless [before Him]?
Without the aid of learning He intones the sweetest verses5; with-
out the help of others He lays down the Best Law.
Why should we not see a hundred thousand souls His sacrifice?
Why should we not see a hundred thousand hearts bewitched
by Him?
By the movement of His Pen [men's] hearts and breasts are moved;
by the calmness of His Glance cometh Peace without and

within 80

I The fulfilment of these prophecies is especially discussed in a
Bábí work entitled IslidIdliyya addressed to the Jews, and in English
by Ibrihfin. Kbayru'llAh in Bahá'u'lldh, the S
,~61endour of God. To
give only one instance, "a time and times and half a time" is explained
as three years and a half Of 36c, days each= 126o. Now A.H. i26o
(A.D. 1844) was the year of the BAb's "Manifestation."
2 This verse is entirely in Arabic.
3 Le. Bahi'u'lldh, who was most commonly entitled by his followers
lanidl-i-Afiebdrak, "the Blessed Beauty," or "Perfection."
4 The reference is to Siira xcv of the Qur'dn, entitled " the
Fig.
I Not, of course, verses of poetry (abydt), but the revealed "signs"
(dydt) which constitute His credentials.

CH. V] A BAHAI POEM BY NAfM 215

Theturbans of the doctorsl did not extinguish His Torch ; the

hosts of the captains did not overthrow His Standard.
Behold bow His Word permeates the world as the soul the body;
behold how His Influence throbs in the spirit like the blood in
the veins 1
The hostility of His foes does but [attempt to] crush water in a
mortar; the enmity of His rivals is but as wind in the desert.
The duration of His command in the heart keeps company with the
Spirit2; the continuance of His authority in the world is coeval
with the ages.
What a fire bath He kindled in [men's] hearts, such that no water
can quench this furnace 1 85
His authority comprehendeth the terrestrial and the subterranean
regions; His fame bath passed beyond China, India and Japan.
With one glance He bath conquered two hundred countries and
districts; with one [stroke of His] Pen He bath taken a
hundred castles and fortresses.
How by His summons to the Faith bath He established a Church
against whom until the Resurrection no opponent shall prevail!
He sought help from none to found His Law; yea, God did not
raise up the heavens on pillars'.
When, when wilt thou admit His Grace and Mercy? How, how
canst thou deny His Knowledge and Power? go
Thou, who canst not order the affairs of a single household, do not
contend with Him who orders all the ages I
Thou, who knowest not what is expedient in tbine own affairs' do
not obstinately strive with the Lord of the Kingdom of 'Be and
it iS411
Thou dost dispute with thy father about a farthing's damage;
these5 surrender life and wealth for His sake, and deem them-
selves favoured.
Alas a thousandfold that I have a thousand thoughts which I cannot
harmonize with these restricted rhymes I
Words have escaped my control, yet [the tale of] my heart's pain is
incomplete; now I return again to the same refrain. 95
1 Le. of Law and Religion. It is, I think, misleading to translate
'Ulamd as " clergy."
2 Le. lasts as long as life endures.
3 See Qur'dn, xiii, 2 and xxxi, 9.
4 Zbid., ii, iii; iii, 42, etc.
6 Le. the followers of BahXWl,Uh.

z16 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT II

In this chameleon-like' age I have a heart led astray by all kinds of
trifles.
The time preens itself like a peacock in varied hues ; the sphere dis-
plays its blandishments like a chameleon in divers colours.
Sufficient is thy burning, 0 Sun, for my heart is roasted 1 sufficient
is thy turning, 0 Heaven, for my body is ground to powder!
I have a head, but what can it do with all this passion? I have a
heart, but what can it do with all this trickery?
Where can the soul find endurance and steadfastness except in the
Beloved? Where can the heart find patience and rest save in

the Heart's Desire? 100

At one time I say to myself, I Perfection is a disaster) 2: at another
I laugh to myself, 'Madness is of many kinds.'
Atone time my fancy rushes through the plain like an engine; at
another my desire soars in the air like a balloon.
I have broken away from the body, but life will riot leave the body;
I have abandoned life, yet the heart is not tranquil.
My heart is wearied of this ruined mansion of merit and talent
welcome the kingdoms of Love 1 welcome the realms of Mad-
ness3l
'The bobble of understanding bath snapped on the leg of the drome-
dary of my luck4: 0 God, where is my Layli, for I have

become Main6n (mad)? 105

Save the Divine Will [exercised] through the channel of Omnipo-
tence, who can drag me forth from this whirlpool?
Behold, the Will of God is 'He whom God willeth6,with whose will
the Will of God is conjoined;

1 Ie. ever changing, inconstant.
2 Perfection exposes the owner to special risks, and the Evil Eye is
called by the Arabs 'Aynit'l-Kanidl because it especially menaces,
whatever is perfect of its kind. CE P. 117, n. 2 SUfira.
3 So ljdfiz: " If the understanding knew how happy the heart is
under the locks of the Beloved, the intelligent would go mad for the
sake of our chains." (Ed. Rosenzweig-Schwannau, vol. i, P. 28,11- 7-8.)
4 It is impossible to render the word-plays between 'aql (under-
standing) and 'iqdl (bobble, tether, shackle fastened round a camel's
knee to keep it from straying), and bakhti (dromedary) and bakht (for-
tune). Even when treating of the most solenin themes few Persian
poets can resist such echolalia.
6 This is one of the titles given by the followers of Babd'u'I[Ah to his

CH. V) A BAHA,f POEM BY NA-fM

217

The unique Servant of Bahá ('Abdu'l-Bahi), made such by the Will
of God, Who I When He willeth aught, saith "Be!" and it is 1) ;
A King to whom God shows us the way; a Moon who guides us
towards God;
'God's Secret,' the fortunate Pearl of the Ocean of Union, who is the
Pearl concealed in the shell of God's Knowledge; 110
Beside his excellence, excellence lacks its excellency; beside his
bounty Ma'n2 is a withholder of benefits.
His enemy is a foe unto himself whom even his friends renounce;. he
who obeys him is secure of himself and trusted by mankind.
In praise of the countenance of Him round whom the [Divine] Names
revolve I would sing psalms, were I granted permission by Him.
I continued to utter in praise of His Essence what God [Himself]
bath said, not the verse of 'the poets whom the erring follow".
0 Vice-gerent [Khalffa] of the All-merciful, 0 Ark of Noah, be not
grieved because the Truth bath been weakened by violation [of
the Covenant]. 115
In the Dispensation of Adam, Qibil [Cain] cruelly and despitefully
shed his brother's blood without fault or sin [on his part].
In the Dispensation of Noah, when Canaan4 broke his father's
Covenant, by the disgrace of a repudiated affiliation he was
drowned in the Sea of Shame.
In the Disp - ensation of Jacob, Joseph the faithful was imprisoned
in the bonds of servitude by the wiles of his brethren.
In the Dispensation of Moses from amongst the children of Israel
one was such as Aaron and another such as Qirdn6.
In the Dispensation of the Spirit of God Uesus Christ] from amongst

son 'Abbds Efendf, also called Sirrullldh ("God's Secret "), and after
his father's death 'Abdu'l-Babd.
See the note on verse 92 above (p. 215, n. 4).
Ma'n ibn Zi'ida is proverbial for his courage, virtue and gene-
ro,ity. For an account of him, see Zotenberg's Chronique de Tabat!
(1874), vol. iv, PP- 373 et seqq. This verse affords another instance of
echolalia (Ma'n, mdni, md'zin).
3 QU?dU, XXVi, 224, on account of which the whole Szira is entitled
the " Chapter of the Poets."
4 According to Muhammadan tradition, he was a son or grandson of
Noah, who, on account of his unbelief, was not saved in the Ark, but
perished in the Flood. See QuPdn, xi, 42, and commentary thereon.
6 See the note on verse 4 Of this poem (p. 2og, n. 2 su
,hra).

z18 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT 11

the Disciples one in cruelty became like Judas [Iscariot] and
one in sincerity like Simon [Peter]. 120
In the Dispensation of His Holiness the Seal of the Prophets [Mu-
bammad] one of his people was in faithfulness Abil Dharr and
another Abil Sha'ydnl.
In the Dispensation of His Holiness the Supreme [the Bib] two
persons were [entitled) Wahfds; one was faithful and brave,
the other a cowardly traitor.
In the Dispensation of the Most Splendid Countenance [Bahá'u-
'llih] it must likewise needs be so, one faithful to the Covenant,
the other a vile violator thereof'.
I will not open my lips to curse, but God says, 'Whosoever breaketh
my Covenant is accursed.'
This people wilfully shut their eyes to the Truth, for the Truth is
apparent from the False in all circumstances. 125
1 swear by Thy Face, 0 Exemplar of all peoples I I swear by Thy
Hair, 0 Leader of all the ages!
I swear by Thy Substance, to wit the Majesty of the Absolute I I
swear by Thy Truth, to wit the Reality of the Why-lesS41
I swear by Thy Countenance, to wit His [God's] dawning Co unten-
ance! I swear by thy Secret, to wit His Treasured Secret !
By the earth at Thy Feet, to wit the Alchemy of Desire I By the
dust on Thy Road, to wit the tutty of [our] eyes I

I can find no mention of such a person, and suspect that the
reading is corrupt.
2 The title Wa~ld (" Unique") appears to have been taken by the
early Bibis as numerically equivalent to Ya~yd, but this equivalency
can only be obtained by writing the letter yd (& in the latter name
only twice instead of three times (L5m-4. for L5*ft_1). Thus misspelt, it,
like would yield the number 28. At any rate, as we learn from
Mfrzi JAni's Nuqfatze'1-Kdf (Gibb Series, vol. xv, pp. 2431 250) 257, 259)
the title was first given to Sayyid Yahyi of DArAb,- the leader of the
Nayrfz rebellion, and on his death was transferred to Mirzd Yabyl
,Fub~4-Azal, the half-brother and rival of Bahá'u'lldh, who is therefore
called "the Second Wahid" (L53L3 Itis, ofcourse,tohim that
Na'fm applies the term " cowardly traitor."
3 The allusion here is to Bahi`u'lldh's sons (half-brotbers) 'AbbAs
Efendf 'Abdu'l-Babd and Mubammad 'Alf, between whom arose the
same dispute about succession as arose in the previous generation
between their father and his half-brother ~ubh-i-Azal.
4 See P. 212, n. i supra.

C11. V] A BAHAI POEM BY NAIM

219

By the spot pressed by Thy foot in the Land of 'the Fig' 1 By the
place of adoration of mankind adorned by 'the Olive I 1 1 130
[By all these I swear] that my heart cannot remain tranquil without
praising Thee, for the debtor cannot lay his head tranquilly on
the pillow.
Yet how can Na'frn utter Thy praises? [He is as one] unproved who
steps into the Oxus.
May he who obeys Thy command be secure from the deceits of the
Flesh I May he who is the captive of Thy thralls be protected
from the delusions of the time 1" 133

Some apology is needed for quoting and translating in

Analysis of the
above poem of
Na'im, and
reasons for
including it in
this book.

full so long a poem by an author so modern, so little known
outside the circle of his own coreligionists, and,
as lie himself admits (verse 94), so comparatively
unskilful in the manipulation of rhyme and
metre. On the other hand the Bábí and the
subsequent and consequent Balid'i movement
constitutes one of the most important and typical mani-
festations of the Persian spirit in our own time; and this
poem, wherein an ardent enthusiasm struggles with a some-
what uncouth terminology, does on the whole faithfully
represent the Balid'i Weltanschauung. The following brief
analysis may help the reader better to understand the line
of thought which it pursues.

Dissatisfaction of the

Analysis of Na'im's Poem.

author with the ordinary pursuits
of life, and recognition of the vanity of worldly wealth,
pomp and learning (verses 1-25).
True religion celebrated as the only thing which can
satisfy the human soul; and materialism, socialism and
communism condemned (verses 26-37).
True wisdom and its seekers and expounders, including
the ancient Greek philosophers, praised (verses .38-48).

See p. 214, n- 4 supra.

420 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS fPT II

The wonder of the Universe, which is permeated through-
out by God's Spirit (verses 49-6o).
Man's need of Divine Revelation, which is as the need of
a little child for its mother's milk (verses 61-63).
Eagerness of the followers of the Ba'b and Balid'u'lldh for
suffering and martyrdom (verses 64-69).
Fulfilment of former prophecies in this Dispensation
(verses 70-74).
Proofs of the truth of BaháVIlAh's claim (verses 75-94).
The poet resumes his theme with a new inalld, or initial
verse (95), and first speaks of himself and his own condition
(verses 95-105). He next passes to the praise of Bahá-
'u'llili's son 'Abba's Efendf, better known after his father's
death (on May 28, 1892) as 'Abdu'l-Bahá (verses io6-iI4),
and offers consolation for the antagonism of his half-brother
and the Ndqizin, or "Coven ant-breakers," who supported
him, by numerous analogies drawn from previous Dispen-
sations (verses IX5-I25). The last eight verses (126-133)
constitute the peroration. The understanding of the poem,
of course, presupposes a fairly complete knowledge of the
history, doctrines and spiritual outlook of the Bábís and
Bah;Vis, and to render it intelligible I have had to annotate
the translation to an extent which I regret. It is, so far as
my knowledge goes, the most ambitious attempt to expound
this doctrine and point of view in verse.

It might be expected that I should include in this section
some account of the later mystical poetry of the SM's, but,
u
Little novelty or though such poetry continues to be produced
advance in later down to the present day, I have met with none
5617i poetry.
which attains the level of Sand'f,'AttAr, jalAlu'd-
Din Ru'mf, Mahmu'd Shabistarf, jAml, and the other great
mystics discussed in the previous volumes of this work.
There was, perhaps, little new to be said, and little that
could be better expressed than it had been already, while

THE TASNIF OR BALLAD 221
CH. V]

under the Safawfs at any rate circumstances were particu-
larly unfavourable to the expression of this class of ideas.
The beautiful Tarji'-band of HAtif of Isfahán, which will be

given at the end of the next chapter, is the only masterpiece
of SUM poetry produced in the eighteenth century with
which I am acquainted.

(5) The Tasnff or Ballad

This class of verse, ephemeral as our own topical and
The TafnVor Comic Songs, leaves far fewer and slighter traces
popular topical in literature than its actual importance would
ballad. lead us to expect. A tasno' about the jdhib-
Diwdn beginning:

He made [the garden of] Dil-gushA under 'the Slide';
He made Dil-,-,usbi with the sticks and the stocks
Alas for Dil-gushd I Alas for Dil-gushA 111)

was the most popular ballad when I was in ShfrAz in the
spring of 18881, but it is probably now as little remembered
as an almost contemporary ribald English satire on a certain
well-known Member of Parliament who " upset the milk in
bringing it home from Chelsea." I have no doubt that the

tasnor or ballad sung by the troubadour and
Probable an-
tiquity of the wandering minstrel existed in Persia from very
iafno, early-perhaps even from pre-Islamic-times.

BArbad and SakfsA may have sung such topical songs to
Khusraw Parwfz the Sisainian thirteen hundred years ago,
u 6
as R'da-f almost certainly did four centuries later to the
Sdminid prince who was his patron 2 ; and a fragment of a

See my Year aniongst the Persians, P. 283-
Cf. vol. i of my Lit. Hist. o)Persia, pp. 14-18.

222 LATER POETRY OF THE PERSIANS [PT II

typical tasno'(called by the curious name of hardra) sung
in Isfahán on the occasion of the capture and execution of
the heretic and assassin Ahmad ibn `AttAshl, is recorded in
the history of the Salj6qs composed by Abu' Bakr Najmu'd-
Din Muhammad ar-RAwandf early in the thirteenth century
of our era, under the title of Rdhatu',F-Juddr wa ~4yatds-
Sur9r.
The authorship of these tasn6fs is seldom known, and
they are hardly ever committed to writing, though my
friend the late George Grahame, when Consul at Shfriz in
19o5, very kindly caused a small selection of two score of
those most popular at the time in that city and in Tihra'n,
Isfahin, Rasht, Tabriz, and elsewhere, to be written down
for me; and a selection, adapted as far as possible to the
Ali English piano, was published in or about 1904 under
rendering of the title of Twelve Persian Folk-Songs collected
twelve tagno. and arranged for voice andpianoforte by Blair
Fairchild: English version of the words by Ahna Strettell
(Novello & Co., London and New York). In this excellent
little book the songs are well set, well rendered into English,
and intelligibly if not ideally transliterated, and the following
sentence from the short prefatory note shows how sensible
the compiler was to the indescribable charm of Persian
minstrelsy:
11 But one needs the setting of the Orient to realize what these songs
are: the warm, clear Persian night; the lamps and lanterns shining
on the glowing colours of native dresses ; the surrounding darkness
where dusky shadows hover; the strange sounds of music; voices,
sometimes so beautiful, rising and falling in persistent monotony-all
this is untranslatable, but the impression left on one is so vivid and so
full of enchantment that one longs to preserve it in some form."

Most of these tasn6rs are very simple love-songs, in which
lines from Hdfiz and other popular poets are sometimes
I Lit. Hist. of Persia, vOl- ii, 13P- 313-r6; and Rtflialu',v-judiir
(E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, New Series, vol. ii), pp. 161 and 497-8 (note
on ~ardra).

CH. V] MODERN POLITICAL VERSE : . 223,

incorporated ; the topical, polemical and satirical class is
much smaller, though in some ways more interesting as
well as more ephemeral. A parody or parallel of such a
tasno'may be produced to accord with fresh circumstances,
as happens nearer home with the Irish An u-rean bean
bo&o and the Welsh inochyn du. An instance of such an
adaptation is afforded by the second poem cited in my
Press and Poetry of Modern Persia (pp. 174-9). Of course
in the tasno' the air is at least as important as the words,

and a proper study of them would require a knowledge of
Persian music, which, unhappily, I do not possess. Indeed
I should think that few Europeans had mastered it both in
practice and theory, or could even enumerate the twelve
maqdms and their twenty-four derivatives (shu'ba)%

(6) Modernpolitical verse.

Of this I have treated so fully in my Press and Poetry of
.Modern Persia (Cambridge, 1914) that it is unnecessary to
enlarge further on it in this place. It is a product of the
.Revolution of 1905 and the succeeding years, and in my
opinion shows real originality, merit and humour. Should
space permit, I may perhaps add a few further specimens
when I come to speak of the modern journalism with which
it is so closely associated, and which, indeed, alone rendered
it possible. The most notable authors of this class of verse
include'.Arif and Dakhaw of Qazwfn, Ashraf of Gildn, and
Bahir of Mashhad, all of whom, so far as I know, are still
living, while the two first named are comparatively young
men. Portraits of all of them, and some particulars of their
lives, will be found in my book above mentioned.

I One of the clearest and most concise treatises on this subject which
I have seen is contained in a manuscript from the library of the late
Sir A. H outum- Schindler (now in my possession) entitled Bahjatur-
Rawdj.

CHAPTER VI.

POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION.
PRE-QAJAR PERIOD (A.D. i5oo-i8oo).

Almost any educated Persian can compose tolerable
verses, and the great majority do so, while the number of
Widespread those who habitually indulge in this pastime on
poetical talent a considerable scale and have produced d1wdns
in Persia. 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 gliazals, 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-
khallus, or nom de guerre, it is extremely doubtful whether
any critic could, from their style, arrange them even ap-
proximately in chronological order, or distinguish the work
of a poet contemporary with Sháh Isma'11 the Safawf from
Difficulty of one who flourished in the reign of Na'siru'd-Din
discrimination Sháh QAjir. Nor do the tadlikiras, or Memoirs
between note-
worthy and of Poets, give us much help in- making a selec-
mediocre poets. tion, 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 RidA-qulf Khán
" Hiddyat," author of that great modern anthology entitled

PT II CH. VI] BIAS OF BIOGRAPHERS

225

Hajma'u7-Fusahd ("the Concourse of the Eloquent")',
comes to speak of his contemporaries, we constantly come
across such expressions as

Li. .6 Lt:~ I t4
"He had a special connection with me, and I a sincere
regard for hiM2"; " I saw him in Shfrizs "; " I repeatedly
called on him and he used to open the gates of conversation
before my face4"; " I sometimes get a talk with him 5 "; " for
a while he established himself in Fairs, 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 friends6"; and so forth.

How many of the 359 "contemporary poets" mentioned in
this work' 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 HAjji Mfrzi
Yahyd DawlatAbAdf, 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 (~abA of Kdshin, Furu'ghf
of BistArn, Qd'Anf of Shfriz, Mijmar of Isfahán, and Nashit
of Isfahán) as of the first class; two (Wisdl of ShfrAz, and
the author himself, Hidiyat) as of the second; and two
(Suru'sh of Isfahdn and Wiqa'r of ShfrAz) as of the third;

I Composed in 1284/1867-8 and lithographed in 2 vols. at Tihrdn in
1295/1878.
2 Vol. ii, p. 64, s.v. Agah-i-ShfrAzf.
1
3 Ibid., p. 67, s.v. Azdd.
Ibid., p. 68, sv. Mfrzi Abu1I-Qdsim-l-Shfrizf.
Ibid., sv. Ummfd of Kirm-,insh4h.
6 Ibid., P. 72, S.V. Ulfat of Kisbdn.
7 They occupy PP. 58-679 of vol. ii, but were not all strictly con-
temporary, a few being as early as the first half of the eighteenth
century.

B. P. I~

226 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PTII

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
beauty does not depend solely on form, and can,
Criterion selection. therefore, be preserved in some degree in trans-
lation. 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 doubt-
ful 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 this ground as good or bad. The taste of even
foreign from the Turks and Indians, who are more familiar
native taste, with Persian poetry than we can easily become,
differs very considerably from that of the Persians them-
selves, 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'. Speaking of a French-
man 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 de-
clamatory versification of the most mediocre quality for
poetry of an elevated order; whilst, on the other hand, his
car failed to perceive the music of the musical poets, as
New ed., London, Macmillan & Co., 18go, pp. 86-94.

CH. VI] HATIFf
i 227

Byron and Tennyson. How couldhe 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 " Qa"Anf " 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. 15oo and i6oo some
ten or a dozen deserve at least a brief mention ; of those
between A.D. 16oo and 17oo about the same number;

between A.D. 17oo and i8oo only one or two; between
A.D. i8oo 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.

I. Between A.D. 15oo and 16oo (A.H. go6-ioog).
Several of the poets who really belong to this period have

been already mentioned in my Persian Literature under
Tartar Dominion, namely, Mfr 'Alf Shfr Nawi'f, d. go6/

1500-1 (PP. 505-6); Ijusayn Wa`iz-i-Kdshiff, d. 910/1504-5
(PP. 503-4); Banna"f, killed in the massacre at Qarshf in
918/1512-3 (P. 457); and Hililf, killed by 'Ubaydu'llih
a
Khin the Uzbek as a Shí'a in 936/1529-30 (P. 459). Of
the last-named only need anything further be said here.

i. Hitiff (d. 927/Dec. 1520 or Jan. 1521).
a
MawlAn ' 'Abdu'llAh HAtiff of Kharjird in KhurAsAn
derives his chief fame from the fact that he was the nephew
Hatift of the great JAmf, who, according to the well-
(d. 92711520~known story', tested his poetical talent before
allowing him to write by bidding him compose
See, besides the Persian ladhkiras, Sir Gore Ouseley's Biografihi-
cal Xotices of Persian Poets (London, 1846), pp. 143-5.

15-2

228 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PTI1

a "parallel " to the following verses in Firdawsf's celebrated
satire' on Sultdn Mahm6d of Ghazna:

-4 LJW
-r,U X;l t.4 dq

"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',
It will in the end give effect to its nature, and bring forth that same
bitter fruit."

HAtiff produced the following " parallel," which his uncle
JAmf approved, except that he jocularly observed that the
neophyte had "laid a great many eggs on the way' " -

L5,6
.1

"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,

I
I The satire is given at the end (pp. 63-6) of the Persian Intro-
duction to Turner Macan's edition of the Slidh-ndma (Calcutta, 1829).
These verses occur on p. 66, 11. 5-7.
2 Probably the celestial river of Salsabil is intended.
8 Afq/ma'u'1-Fusahd, vol. ii, P. 54. Hitiff's verses are given on the
last page (436) of vol. iii of Ziyi Bey's Khardbdt.

CH. vi]

BABA FIGHANI

229

And should'st water it from the Fountain of Salsab il, 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."
HAtiff was one of the innumerable poets who strove to
compose a " Quintet " (Khamsa) rivalling that of Nizimf of

Ganja. Two of his five subjects were the same, the romances
of Lay1d and Majnzin' and of Shirin and Khusraw; the
Haft Manzar formed the parallel to the Haft Paykar;
while the Ttmzir-ndina2 formed the counterpart to the
Sikandar-ndina, except that, as Haitiff boasts', 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'fl the Safawf, who
paid him a surprise visit as he was returning from a cam-
paign in Kliura'sin in 917/1511-12. This poem is in the
style and metre of the Sháh-ndma of Firdawsf, and is entitled
Sháh-nd;na-i-Hazrat-i-Sháh lsma'iP.
HAtiff belongs essentially, like so many other represen-
tatives of Art and Letters in the early ~afawf -period, to the
circle of HerAt formed under the liberal patronage of the
later Tim6rids.

2. Biba' Fighdrif of Shfriz (d. 925/1519).
Fighini appears to be one of those poets who are much
more highly esteemed in India than in their own country,
for while Shiblf in his Sh?ru'l-'Ajam (vol. iii,
_Figbinf pp. 27-30), like Wdlih in his.Riyd~lush-Shuard5,
.d. 925/1519~
deems him the creator of a new style of poetry,
I Published at Calcutta by Sir W. Jones in 1788.
1 Lithographed at Lucknow in Oct. 1869. It comprises about 4500
verses.
3 Rieu's British Museum Persian Catalogue, p. 654.
4 There is another similar and homonymous poem by QAsimf. See
R.MP.C., pp. 66o-i. The Library of King's College, Cambridge,
possesses a Ms. of this latter (Pote Collection, NO. 238)-
6 See Rieu's Pers. Cat., p. 651-

230 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PTI1

Ridi-qulf Khán only accords him a brief mention in his
Riyd~h/l-',4rifinl and entirely omits him in his larger
MajinaVI-Fusalid, while the notices of him in the 4tash-
kada and the Tu~fa-i-Sdmi are very brief. He was of
humble origin, the son of a cutler 2 or a vintner according
to different accounts, and seems to have lived the life of a
somewhat antinomian dervish. In KhurdsAn, whither he
went from ShfrAz, he was unappreciated, even by the great
JAmf, with whom he forgathered; but at Tabrfz he subse-
quently found a more appreciative patron in SultAn Ya'qu'b
the Prince of the " White Sheep " TurkmAns. He repented
in later life and retired to the Holy City of Mashhad, so
that perhaps this verse of his ceased to be applicable:

- ~koj 1 6,
311

Stained with wine Figb(tni sank into the earth: alas if the Angels
should sniff at his fresh shroud' I "

The longest extracts from his poems are given in the
Majd1isu'l-Mii'minin, but these are all qasidas in praise of
'Alf, 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.

3- Ummfdf (or Urnfdf) of Tihra'n (d. 925/1519 or
930/1523-4).

Little is known of Umfdi except that his proper name
was Arjaispl, that he was a pupil of the celebrated philosopher

Lithographed at TihrAn, 1305/1887-8, P. 122.
On this account he originally wrote verse under the " pen-name
of Sakk6kf.
3 Lest they should by the smell of the wine know him for the toper
be was.
4 One is tempted to conjecture from this name that he may have
been a Zoroastrian, but I have found no further evidence to support
this supposition.

CH. vi] UMfDf OF TIHRAN 231
Jaldlu'd-Dfn Dawdnf, that his skill was in the qay1da rather
than the ghazal, that he was on bad terms with

Umidl Is
(d. 92511519) h' fellow-townsmen, on whom he wrote many

satires, and that he was finally killed in Tihrdn
in a quarrel about a piece of land, at the instigation
of Qiwdmu'd-Din Nu'r-bakhshf. Ndmi, one of his pupils,
composed the following verses and chronograrn on his
death:

6~u xj L;.. Lq A

J L- j &

U
J%tj

"The much-wronged Umfdf, wonder of the Age, who suddenly and
contrary to right became a martyr,
Appeared to me at night in a dream and said, 10 thou who art-
aware of my inward state,
Write for the date of my murder I: "Alas for my blood unjustly shed,
alas P)) 1)

Reference has already been made (p. 59 su
,pra) to a
qasida composed by him in praise of Najm-i-Thdnf, and
probably his poetry consisted chiefly of panegyrics, though
he also wrote a Sdqi-ndina ("Book of the Cup-bearer ") of
the stereotyped form. Manuscripts of his poems are very
rare, but there is one in the British Museum2, comprising,
however, only 17 leaves, and even these few poems were
collected long after his death by command of Sháh Saff.
Mention is, however, made of him in most of the tadhkiras,
and the .41ash-kada cites 24 verses from his Sdqi-ndma,

I This chronogram gives A.H. 925 (A.D. 15iq), but 930/1523-4 is the
date given by SAm Mfrzi, and 929/1522-3 in the AhSanu't-1awdr1kh,
and, by implication, in the Haft I
qlim.
2 Or. 3642, ff. 80-,97. See Rieu's Persian SuAplement, P. 269. The
author of the Hafl IqUm, writing more than seventy years after the
death of Umfdf, his fellow-townsman and apparently kinsman, says
that in his day the well-known verses of the poet consisted of 17 qasfdas,
3 ghazals, a few fragments and quatrains, and the Sdqi(-ndma~

732 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

and 70 verses from his other poems. Amongst these are
the following, also given in the Maj;YzaV1-Fusa1-id (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 balf-slain bird'; 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' of verse from all and sundry, if
only the bailiff were not in my house I"

4 and 5. The two Ahlis.
These two homonymous poets, the one of Turshfz in
Khurdsa'n (d. 934/1527-8) and the other of Shiriz (d. 942/
AM of Turshiz 1535-6), of both of whom the names are more
(d. 934/1597), familiar than the works, must, as Rieu has
and Ahli of
ShirAz pointed out', be carefully distinguished. Both
(d. 94211535)- are ignored by Ridd-qulf Khán, and both belong,

I See p. 166, n. i sufira.
2 This common simile is derived from the game of polo.
3 Persian Catalogue, pp. 657-8. See also Eth6's India Office Persian
Catalogue, col. 785, No. 1432, where a very valuable autograph ms.,
made in 920/1514, is described.]

234 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [vrii

the former actually, the latter spiritually, to the Herit
school which gathered round SultAn Husayn and Mir 'Ali
Shin This school, to which also belonged Zuhu'rf (d. 1024/
1615), likewise of Turshiz, seems never to have been popular
in Persia, except, perhaps, in their own day in KhurAsAn,
but enjoys a much more considerable reputation in India,
where ZuhAri, whose very name is almost unknown in
Persia, enjoys an extraordinary, and, as I think, quite
undeserved fame, especially as a writer of extremely florid
and bombastic prose. Ahli of ShfrAz excelled especially
in elaborately ingenious word-plays (tajnisdt) and other
rhetorical devices.

6. HiUlf (killed in 935/1528-9).

Hildli, though born in Astara'bAd, the chief town of the
Persian Province of Gurgin, was by race a ChaghatAy
Turk, and was in his youth patronized by Mir
IM611 'Ali Shir Nawi'f. His most famous poem, en-
(d. 93511528).
titled Shd1t u Darwish, or Shdlz u Gadd ("the
King and the Beggar"), has been harshly criticized by
Bibur himself, and in later times by Sprenger', but warmly
defended by Eth6, who translated it into German verse'.
He composed another mathnawi poem entitled Sifdtu
',4shiqin (" the Attributes of Lovers ") and a number of
odes collected into a Diwdn. RidA-qulf Khan says' that
in Khura'sin he was regarded as a Shí'a, but in 'Irdq as a
Sunni. Unhappily for him'Ubaydu'llAh Khán, the fanatical
Uzbek, took the former view, and caused him to be put to
death as a "Rdfi#." It is curious, in view of this, that he is
not mentioned in the Majd1isu'l-Hii'minin amongst the
Shí'a poets; and perhaps, as asserted in the Haft Iqlim, the

I See my Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion, p. 459-
2 Oude Catalogue, P. 427.
3 MorgenIdndische Studien, Leipzig, 1870, PP. 197-282.
4 Maima'u'l-Fusahd, vol. ii) P- 55-

CH. VI] HILALf.-LISANf t 11 235

envy of two of his rivals at the Uzbek Court, Baqi'i and
Shamsu'd-Dfn Ku'histinf, rather than his religious views,
may have caused his execution, which 'Ubaydu'lldh Khán
is said to have subsequently regretted. The following
verses, however, seem to indicate Shí'a propensities:

L6 bt- .3.) J-A L53,-41 Lsq,-&

uLa _V.U

"Muhammad the Arabian, the honour of both worlds: dust be upon
the head of him who is not as dust at his Door I
I have heard that his life-sustaining ruby lip uttered, like the Mes-
siah, this tradition :
'I am the City of Knowledge and 'Alf is my Door': a marvellously
blessed tradition I I am the dog of his Door' I "

7. Lisini (d. 940/1533-4).
Lisinf of Shiriz is the last of the twenty-two Persian
Shi'a poets mentioned in the Maidlisu'l-Xii'minin and
deserves mention rather on account of his de-
UsAni
(d. 94-11533~ votion to that faith than by reason of his poetic
talent; for, although he is said to have produced
more than ioo,ooo verses, they are little known and seldom
met with2 ' and, though mentioned in the .4tash-kada and
the Haft Iqlim, he is ignored by Ridi-qulf Khán. Most of
his life was spent at Baghddd and Tabriz, in which latter

I Le. the dog of 'Alf. Kalb-',411 is not uncommon as a name amongst
the Shí'a, and, as we have seen, the Safawf kings gloried in the title
11 Dogs of the Threshold of 'Alf ibn Abf Tilib." These verses are
taken from the Majnia'u'1-Fusahd.
2 There is a copy of his Dlwdn (Or. 307) in the British Museum.
See Rieu's Persian Catalogue, pp. 656-7.

236 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PTI1

town he died just before it was taken by the Ottoman
Sult~n SulaymAn. "On account of his devotion to the
Twelve ImAms," says the author of the Majd1is, "LisAni
would never remove from his head the twelve-gored kingly
crown' until, when Sultin Sulaym~n the Turk was ad-
vancing to occupy Tabrfz, it happened that news of his
near approach reached Lisirif when he was engaged in
prayer in the great Mosque of Tabrfz. On hearing this
news, he raised his hands in prayer, saying, '0 God, this
usurper is coming to Tabrfz: 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:
.06- ji juj ~W J.;J

Ur- A-"- dlu

If the joints of Lisdnf 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 'Alf 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 Sharff of Tabrfz, but so slovenly was the compilation
that, according to the .4tash-kada, it was known as Sahwu'l-
Lisdn, or " Lapsus Lingua-_"

8. Fuldlf (Fuzdlf) of Baghda'd (d. 97011562-3)-
Fudu'li is reckoned amongst the Turkish rather than the
Persian poets, and is fully discussed by Gibb in vol. iii of
his monumental Ristory of Ottoman Poetry
FuTfill -io7). That he became an Otto
(d- 9701 562). (ch. iv, pp. 7o '
man subject was due to the fact that Baghd~d,

I Concerning this distinctive head-dress, which gave to the Persian
Shi'a their name of Qizil-bdsh (" Red-heads "), see P. 48 su
&a.

CH. VI]

FUZTJLf OF BAGHDAD

237
where he was probably born, and where he sp _nt nearly all
his life, was taken from the Persians by the Turks in 94o/
1535; but, as Gibb says", "he composed with equal ease

and elegance in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic." He is
described by the same scholar2 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~ That he was of the Shi'a
faith is clear from several of his verses, and from his
Hadi(qatu's- Su'add4 ' a Turkish martyrology modelled on
the Persian Rawdatu'sh-Shuhadd of Husayn Wi'iz-i-
Kishiff.
As I have referred to Gibb's great work on Ottoman
Poetry, I may here express a doubt as to his claim5 that
th e kind of poem entitled Shahr-angiz (or " City-thriller,"
as he renders it) is a Turkish invention, and that "there is
no similar poem in Persian literature." SAm MfrzA in his
Tu~fa-i-Sdmi (compiled in 957115 50) mentions at least two
poets, Wahfdf of Qum and Harff of Isfahin, who composed
such poems, the former on Tabrfz, the latter on Gflin,
and though these were probably written later than Masfhf's
Turkish Shahr-angi(z on Adrianople, there is nothing to
suggest that they were regarded as a novelty or innovation
in Persia. Harfl's poem, called Shahr-dshdb (" City-dis-
turber ") seems to have been bitterly satirical, for the

Loc. dt, P- 72. 2 Ibid., P. 71.
He has a complete Persian Dfwdn, of which a MS. (Add. 7785)
exists in the British Museum, and which has been printed at Tabrfz.
See Rieu's Persian Catalogwe, p. 659.
4 See Rieu's Turkish Catalo,-ue, PP- 39-4a
6 V01. ii, P. 232.

1~ __

238 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT D

unhappy poet was deprived of his tongue in consequence,
as Sim Mfrzd relates

JJ IjL.:OL-lj 4:-L- L5j,'t. U

C.))Lj JAI Z'Vgb d-.; VL I Ls!jj
6,~P~o JL

9. Wahshi of Wfq (d. 991/1583).
Though born at Bdfq, a dependency of Kirmain, Wahshf
spent most of his life at Yazd. His poetry, especially his
Farhdd u Shirin and his ghazals, are highly
Wahshf praised in the Ta'rikh-i-'Alain-drd-yi-'Abbdsi,
(d. 991/158A the .4tash-kada, and the MajmaV1-Fusahd11.
He also wrote panegyrics on Sháh Tahmdsp 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 Farhdd u Shirin, which was completed long
afterwards (in 1265/1848-9) by Wisdl. He wrote two other
mathnawl poems, the Khuld-i-Barfn (" Supreme Abode of
Bliss ") and Ndzir u Manzlir, besides ghazals (odes) and
q4'as (fragments), a large selection of which are given in
the Maima'u'l-Fusaliii and the ~4taslt-kada (pp. I I 1-120)2.
The following Murabba', or " foursome," given in both these
anthologies, is rather pretty and unusual.

" 0 friends, hearken to the account of my distraction! Hearken to
the tale of my hidden sorrow I Hearken to the story of my disordered
state I Hearken to my description of my bewilderment I How long
shall I hide the account of this grievous story? I burn I I burn I 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 pur-
chaser; 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 youth-
ful beauties of the garden ?

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

CH. Vil

'URF1 AND FAYPf

io. Mahmdd QArf of Yazd (d. 993/1585).
i i. Muhtasham. of K6Lsh'n (d. 996/1587-8).
a

241

Mahm6d Qa'ri of Yazd, the poet of clothes, who died two
years after Wahshf and three years before Muhtasham, was
mentioned in the preceding volume of this work'
in connection with the two earlier parodists
'Ubayd-i-Z;ika'nf . and Bushaq (Abu' Ishdq) of
ShfrAz - while the far more notable Muhtasharn
has been already discussed at some length in
the preceding chapter2 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 Tahmisp
copious specimens are given in the .4tash-kada, but these
are neither so distinguished nor so characteristic as his
elegies (mardthi) on the martyrdom of Husayn and the
other ImAms, from which the extracts given in the Maj-
ma'u7-Fusahd1 are chiefly taken.

Mahnuld Qirf
of Vazd
(d- 993/1585),
and Muhtash.m
ofMshin
(d- 996/1587-8)-

12. 'Urfi of Shiriz (d. 999/i5go-i) andhis circle.
Though less highly appreciated in his own country than
in Turkey and India, 'Urff is probably on the whole the
most famous and popular poet of his century~
'Urff of Shfriz
Though born and brought up in Shfriz,'his
short life was chiefly spent in India, where he
died in 999/159c)-i 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. i5oo-i6oo) discussed by Shibli
Nu'minf in his Shiru'l-Ajaml, the other two being his

I Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion, pp. 257 and 351-3.
Mahm6d is not mentioned in the .4tash-kada, the Haft Iqlim, or the
Afajma'u11-Fusahd; no particulars of his life are known to me, and the
date of his death must be regarded as uncertain.
2 pp. 172-7 sitfira.
4 See Rieu's 1ersian Catalogue, p. 667.
5 Vol. iii, PP. 82-133-

B. P. T_

24Z POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION LPT11

fellow-townsman BAbA Figh;inf, already mentioned', and
Fayof (Fay~f), brother of Akbar's celebrated minister Abu'l-
Fadl (Abu'l-Fazl), who, in Shibli's opinion, was one of the
two Indian poets who wrote Persian verse which would pass
as the work of a genuine Persian'. 'Abdu'l-Qddir Badi'u'nf
says' that 'Urff and Thani'l 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 book-
shop, while Fay4f'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'
Great popularity that, after jAmf, 'Urff and Fay~f were the chief
of'Urf] and Persian influences on Turkish poetry until they
Faydf in Turkey were superseded by ~A'ib, and that " the novelty
and india.
in this style lay, apart from the introduction of
a number of fresh terms into the conventional vocabulary
of poetry, in the deposition of rhetoric from the chief seat,
and the enthronement of loftiness of tone and stateliness of
language in its stead~" Ziyd (Piya') Pasha, in that portion
of his metrical Introduction to the Khardbdt which discusses
the Persian poets, after praising jaimi, proceeds to speak of
'Urff and Fayqf as follows:

)L.01 dj*X

.Z)AA 441 LS.%.j. L5.:VSLZ

*j 441 Lsz-!j

A-,
,j_g,j
U jl-.j CAI

3,1 L;.q~

1 Pp. 229-230 sufira.
I The other was Amfr Khusraw of Dihlf.
3 Muntakhabu't-7awdr[kh, vol. iii, P. 285 (Calcutta, j869).
4 Hist. of Ottoman Poetry, vol. i, pp. 51 127) 129.
5 Loc. cit. p. 129.

CH. vi]

'URFf AND FAYDf

243

Fayof and 'Urfi run neck-and-neck; they are the leaders of the later
time.
In Fay~i is eloquence and freshness, in 'Urff sweetness and fluency.
In Faydf are fiery exhortations, while 'Urff is strong in elegies.
But if pre-eminence he sought, excellence still remains with Fay4f.
Fay4f 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 BadA'U'nf's exultant de-
Faydf's miser. scription' of his painful and unpleasant death',
able death in though perhaps the swollen face and blackened
x-4/1595. lips, which his bitter enemy describes with un-
concealed 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:

'jt3I.33 ju i.%4 J+-.

J JU-~ 4:jj cjlv~-

"When infidel Fay~f died, Fasih said as the date of his death, 'A dog
departed from the world in a foul fashion.'"

The simplest of them all are " Fay4f was. a heretic,"
(U.%" L5-.~atj >I_o), "he died like a dog-worshipper"

A
dc and "the rule of heresy broke"
all of which yield the required date A.H. 1004
(A.D. 1595). Badd'6nf also says that, with a view to restoring
his shattered religious reputation, he composed a commen-
tary on the Qurdn consisting entirely of undotted letters,
adding unkindly that he was drunk and in a state of legal
uncleanness when be wrote it. The author of the Maima'U'l-
1 AYuntakhabuY-7awdrfkh, vol. iii, pp. 299-3io, especially P. 300.
2 This took place on jo Safar, 1004 (October 15, 1595). See Riett's
Persian Catalogue, P. 450, where the chief sources are fully enumerated.

16-2

244 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11 CH. vi] 'URFf AND FAYI?f 245
1 1

Fit.mhd, in alluding to this book (which he only knew
by repute) says that the author "troubled himself to no
J
purpose" (ox*ZA6 L5ZW`6), and has no word of
praise for his poems, on which the author of the 41ash-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 Shiblf Nu'mAni in his Shiru'12,4jain 2.
He composed a Khamsa ("Quintet") in imitation of Nizimf,
the titles of these five poems being Harkaz-i-Adwdr,
Sulaymdn u Pilqis, Nal u Daman (the most celebra ted),
HaftKishwar, and Akbar-ndma, but some of them remained
incomplete. He also wrote many qa~idas and ghazals, and
produced several translations from the Sanskrit. None of
his verses quoted by Shiblf appear to me so affecting as
the following on the death of his child

jj te. ji

Fay4rs verses(1 0 brightness of my bright eyes, how art thou? Without
0 the death thee my days are dark; without me how art thou?
of his child.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: 0 thou whose cheeks and body were as
jasmine, how art thou?"

1 Vol. ii, P. 26. This commentary was entitled, according to Shibli
Nulmdni (loc. cit., p. 65), Sawd#'u11-flhdm.
2 Vol- iii, PP- 31-81.

Fay4i was a man of varied learning and a great lover of
books. His library contained four thousand -six hundred
Fayli's library. choice manuscripts, mostly autographs or copied
during the authors' lifetimes'. He was generous
and hospitable, and amongst those who enjoyed his hospi-
tality was 'Urff of Shiriz, to whom we now turn.
'Urff, whose proper name was jamdlu'd-Din Muhammad
and whose father was named Badru'd-Dfn, was born and
Account of'Urfi. educated at Shfriz, but at an early age migrated
to India, and, as already mentioned, attached
himself to Fay4f, with whom, however, he presently quar-
relled. BadA'U'ni says2 that one day he called on Fay4f and

found him caressing a puppy, whereupon he enquired what
the name of "the young master" (maKhádm-zdda) might
be. "'Urff," replied Fayqf, to which 'Urfif promptly replied,
" fffubdrak bdshad! " which means " May it be fortunate! "
but may be taken as alluding to Fay4i's father Shaykh
Mubdrak and as meaning, " It should be MubArak I "
'Urff next won the favour of the Hakim Abul-Fath of
Gilins, by whom he was introduced to that great nobleman
and patron of letters 'Abdu'r-Rah1m, who succeeded to the
title of Khán-khAnAn borne by his father Bayram Khán on
the assassination of the latter in 9681156o-i. 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,
'Urfi's intolerable conceit and arrogance prevented him

Unarniable from being popular, and made him many ene-
character of mies. Ridd-quli Khán accords him but a brief
'Urfi. notice' and observes that"' the style of his

Y
poems is not admired by the people of this age." Criticism

I Shi'ru'l-'Ajam, iii, p. 5o, and Afuntakhabu'I-Tawdrikh, iii, P- 305.
2 Muntakhabu't-Tawdrikh, iii, P. 285.
3 Munfakhabu't-Tawdrikh, iii, p. 167. He died in 997/1588-9.
4 Majma'u'1-Fusahd, Vol. ii~ pp. 24-5-

246 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PTI1

and disparagement are, indeed, courted by a poet who
could write':

C's..6 LS 1.3 tA .3 ~jja X~v L~ Z__j 1.) Ls,.~

"Wherefore did Sa'di glory in a handful of the earth of Shfriz
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 Anwarf, Abu'l-Faraj,
KháqAnf, and other great Persian poets, and this unamiable
practice may have conduced to his unpopularity amongst
his compatriots, who do not readily tolerate such disparage-
ment 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 Shiblf devotes to him fifty-two
pages (pp. 82-133) of his Shi'ru'l-'Ajam, rather more than
he devotes to Fayqf, and much more than he gives to any
other of the seven poets he mentions in the third volume
of his work. But even Shiblf admits that his arrogance
made him generally unpopular, a fact of which he was
fully aware, as appears from the following poeM2, 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:

V
'Urff on Job's"My body hath fallen into this state, and my eloquent
C0111forLers. friends stand like pulpits round my bed and pillow.
One draws his hand through his beard and cocks his neck, saying,
10 life of thy father I To whom is fortune constant?
One should not set one's heart on ignoble rank and wealth: where
is the Empire of jamshfd and the name of Alexander?'
Another, with soft voice and sad speech, begins, drawing his sleeve
across his moist eyes :
0 my life I All have this road by which they must depart: we are
all travellers on the road, and time bears forward the riders.'
Another, adorning his speech with smooth words, says, '0 thou
whose death is the date of the revolution of news (inqildh-i-
khabar) I I
I think the words y~W I must be taken as a chronogram,

giving the date 986/1578-9, in which case this cannot, as Shiblf sug-
gests (10C. Cit., P. 92), have been 'Urff's last illness, since he did not die
until 99911590-1.

248 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

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 P

'May God, mi-bty and glorious, give me health again, and thou
r,
sbalt see what wrath I will pour on the heads of these miserable
hypocrites P I"

Space does not allow us to follow in detail Shibli's
interesting and exhaustive study of this poet, to whose
verse he assigns six salient merits, such as " forceful diction "
(A_,~-, j_9j), new and original combinations of words, fine
I
metaphors and comparisons, and continuity or congruity of
topics Except for a little-known prose
treatise on Sulfifism entitled Nafsiyya all his work was in
verse, and included, according to Shiblf, two viathnawz
poems in imitation of Nizimi's Hakhsanu'1-Asrdr and
Khusraw wa Shirin, and a Diwdit, compiled in 996/1588,
only three years before his death, containing 26 qasidas,
270gha,vals, and 700 fragm ents and quatrains. The following
chronogram gives the date of its compilation2:

L;j 13"1 ~,;
, V. P. J~ z,4~ :J.9,r

tj U va.0 1j.6 "joa._o

One of his most famous qa~ldas, given in the Khardbdi
(vol. i, pp. 16g-I74), is in praise of 'Ali ibn Abi Tilib, and
contains 181 verses. It begins:

I This final verse is, of course, spoken by the poet himself.
2 Shi'ru'l-Aiam, vol. iii, P. 95.

CH. VI] POETS OF AKBAR'S COURY

249

A-46

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

'Urfi is not, however, included amongst the Persian Shfa
poets to whom notices are consecrated in the Najdlisu'l-
m1i'millin.

Concerning the numerous Persians-theologians, scholars,
philosophers and poets-attracted to Akbar's brilliant court,
the third volume of Badd'illnfs Huntakhabu't-
Mr Vincent
Smith's harsh Tawdrikh is a mine of information, but space
judgment. will not permit us as a rule to go beyond the
frontiers of the Persian Empire. The late Mr Vincent Smith
in his otherwise admirable monograph on Akbari is perhaps
unduly hard on, these poets when he says (PP. 05-6):
" The versifiers, or so-called poets, were extremely numerous. Abull-
Fazi tells us that although Akbar did not care for them, 'thousands of
poets are continually at court, and many among them have completed
a diwdn (collection of artificial odes), or have -written a mathnawf
(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 bad not
been presented but had sent encomiums to His Majesty from various
places in Persia2. Abu'l-Fazi 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 pas-
sages from the works of his brother Fay;i (Fayof), the 'king of poets,'
which Abu'l-Fazl considered to-enshrine '-gems of thoucht."'
The third volume of Badi'u'ni's Huntakhabu't-Tawdr1kh,
which is entirely devoted to the biographies of the poets
Valuable data and men of learning who adorned Akbar's
furnished by court, contains notices Of 38 Shaykhs (religious
Badft'dnf. leaders), 69 scholars, 15 philosophers and phym
I Akbar the Great Afo,-ul, 1542-1 6o5 (Oxford, 1917).
2 11,41in(4-Akbart, translated by H. Blochmann and H. S. Jarrett,
Calcutta, 1873-1894 in 3 volumes), vol. i, PP. 548, 6 11.11.

250 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

sicians, 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 Bah;i'u'd-Din'Amili, MulU Muhsin-i-Fay4 (Fay;~)
of Kishin, Mir Dimid, and Mir Abul-Qisim-i-Findariski,
who, however, will be more suitably considered amongst
the theologians or philosophers.

IL Between A.D. 16oo and 1700 (A.H. ioo8-iiii).
Four of the seven poets discussed at length by Shibli
in the third volume of his Shi'ru'l-Ajam fall within the
period indicated above. These are Nazirf (d. io2i/i612-13),
TAlib-i-Amulf (d. 1036/1626-7), Abu' Tailib Kalim (d. io6i/
1651), and SA'ib (d. io88/i677-8)1. Ridi-quli Khán in the

enumeration of eminent contemporaries of the Safawl kings
with which he concludes the supplementary eighth volume
written by him in continuation of Mfrkhwind's Rawdatuls-
.5afd mentions not one of these, but, in the period now
under consideration, names only 7.,uhu'rf (d. 1024/1615) and
ShiWf (d. 1037/1627). Another poet ignored by both these
writers but highly esteemed in Turkey, where, according
to Gibbl, "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 BukhArA (d. 1107/1695-6). To
these seven we

may add, besides four or five, who, though
1 Other dates, eg. io8o/i669-7o, are also given. See Rieu, ofi. cit.,
p. 693.
2 History of Ottoman Poetry, vol- i, P. 130- See.also voL iv, p. 95, of
the same.
3 Namely, Mfr Wmdd, Shaykh Bah/tVd-Din, Abul-Qisim Fin.
dariski, Muhsin-i-Fay4 and 'Abdu1r-Razzdq-i-Uhijf, called Fayydif.

cH. vi] SEVENTEENTH CENTURY POETS 251

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: Sahdbf of Astardbid
(d. zoio/i6ol-2), Zuldlf of Khwinsdr (d. about 1024/1615),
JalA1 Asir (d. io4g/i639-40), Qudsi of Mashhad (d. io56/
1646-7), Salim of TihrAn (d. 1057/1647-8), and AmAni of

MdzandarAn (d. io6i/i65i). Although I think that Rieul
goes too far when he describes SA'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 Rida'-qulf Khán's remark
that "he had a strange style in the poetic art which is not
now admired2."
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 con-
sulted for further particulars concerning them. These are,
besides Rieu's incomparable Persian Catalogue, Shibli's
Shilru'l-'Ajam, vol. iii (Sh.), the itash-kada (A. K.), the
Haft lqlim (H. L, available in manuscript only), the Raw-
datu'l-janndt (R.I.), the Rawdatu's-jafd (R. S.), the Zvaj-
ma'u'l-Fusahd (M. F.), and the Ri~,dqW'l-',drifin (R.'A).

(i) Sahdbi of AstarAba'd (d. ioio/i6oI-2). Rieu, p. 672;
A. K., PP. 141-2, and H. 1, sv. Astara'bAd in both; H. F.,
Sabibi of ii, p. 2 1 ; R. 'A -, PP. 8 5 -6. He spent forty years
Astaribld of his life in tending the holy shrine of Najaf,
(d. xozo/i6oi--2). and composed, besides ghazals, many quatrains,
of which 6ooo are said to be extant.

I Persian Catalogue, p. 693.
2 Ma/malu'l-Fujap, VOL ii, P. 24, L;J.,6 L~LI

252 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11
(2) NazirfofNishipfir(d.102i/i6I2-3). Rieu,pp.817-
8; Sh- iii, PP- 134-64; A. K, pp. 13 1-3; H. I., sx. Nfshi-
Na;irf ofpur (a long notice); H. F., ii, PP- 48-9; R.'A.,
NishApirpp. 236-7. The last thirty years of his life
(d. io2x/i612).were spent in India, chiefly at Ahmadibid in
GujerAt, where he died. He was one of the many poets
who benefited by the bounty of 'Abdu'r-Rahfm Khán-
khinin, who provided him with money to perform the
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1002/1593-4, in response to a
qastda 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-Fadl. He also
wrote verses in praise of tobacco, some of which are quoted
by Shibli (p. 134).

(3) ZuMlf of Khwinsir (d. 1024/16 15). Rieu, pp. 677-

8 ; H. I., sx. KhwAnsAr (a long notice). He was the pane-
Zuulf of gyrist of Mir Dimaid, and composed seven

Khwinsir K inathnawts, of which that on Mahmu'd and AyAz
C&C. I024/x6x5). (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" (Dhari-a u Klmrshid).

cH. vi] SEVENTEENTH CENTURY POETS 253
k

(4) 7,uh6ri of Turshiz (d. 1024/1615, murdered in an
affray in the Deccan together with his fellow-poet and
~uhdri of father-in-law Malik of Qum). Rieu, pp. 678-9;
Turshiz A. K., pp. 68-70 R. S., at end of vol. viii. He
(d. 31024/i6z5).
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 Sdqt-ndma (" Book of the Cup-
bearer") has no great beauty, in spite of the fame which it
enjoys.

1
(5) Bahá'u'd-Dfn 'Amili, commonly called Shaykh-i-
Bah.i'i (d. 1030/1620-1), was primarily a theologian, and to
Sbaykh 13abi'u- some extent a philosopher and mathematician,
'd-Din 'Amilf but he wrote at least two short mathnawi poems,
(d. 1030A620-1). entitled respectively Ndn u Halwd ("Bread and
Sweetmeats") and Shir u Shakkar ("Milk and Sugar ").
Extracts from both are given in the H. F. (vol. ii, pp. 8- 1 o),
besides a few ghazals and quatrains, and also in the
PP. 45-9. Apart from his mathematical and astronomical
treatises, his best-known prose work is the Kashkz;l (or
"Beggar's Bowl"), which has been printed at Bula'q 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
Mulld Muhammad Taqf-i-Majlisi (d. 1070659-i(i6o) was
one of the most eminent of his disciples.

(6) T6dib-i-Amull (d. 1036/1626-7). Rieu, p. 679; Sh.
in, pp. 165-188; A. K., pp. 155-6, where it is said that "he
TAB of Jkmul had a peculiar style in verse which is not sought
(d.,036/,626-7). after by eloquent poets." In India, whither he
emigrated in early life, he was so highly appre-
ciated that Jahingfr made him his poet-laureate (Maliku'sh-
Shu'ard) in 1028/i6ig. He was far from modest, for he

254 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PTII

boasts that before he reached his twentieth year he had
mastered seven sciences':

Uj
6A-'- 15. Z-1 Ls7w-s
&~l C>.U I,.- -yU L:jjU6
My foot is on the second step of the zenith of the de
boasted
accomplish.cades, and behold the number of my accomplish
ments.ments exceeds the thousands I
In mathematics, logic, astronomy and philosophy I enjoy a pro-
ficiency which is conspiCUOUS2 amongst mankind.
When all these are traversed the savoury knowledge of the Truth3,
which is the Master of the Sciences, is added to the sum total.
In the concatenated description of my writing this is enough, that
every dot from my pen is the heart's core of men of letters ~
I put on the attribute of poetry, for I know that thou knowest that
this step is to me the eighth of these 'seven severe ones.' 6

In the following quatrain, also cited by Shibli (p. 168), he
alludes to his proposed journey to India and bids himself

The verses are given by Sbibli, o
,~. cit., p. x66.
2 Literally "which has the White Hand," in allusion to one of the
miracles of Moses.
3 That is, Sfffism, as explained by Shibli.
4 The word-play between suwaydd and sawdd cannot be reproduced
in translation.
5 This expression occurs in QUPdX xii, 48, where it denotes the
ct seven lean years."

CH. VIJ

TALIB-1-AMULf
255
"leave his black (ie. bad) Iuck in Persia, because no one
would take a Hindu' as a present to India":

JUL 0tZ--:q
, J14

He had an elder sister to whom he was deeply attached
TAlib's and after a long separation she came from
affection for Persia to Agra to see him. He thereupon

his sister. sought leave of absence from the Emperor
JahAngfr in the following verses,:

51- .3L4 &A
la-_11" J33 PiLi J_`6.......1Z_Z.;S LAj 41~4 JL, *>J1.
d--zj &,Jovia-i

~tqlj.q >~L_q AA* 'C~_4 Lgj.3.% -_1U .3j3L-.; I
OL,6 J3 *~Cq A--. I k:1
Le
L5 .-J
b-0

0 Master, Patron of the humble2l 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 'IrAq, and this sin is a grievous
fault of mine.

Shiblf, 0. cit., pp. 179-180-
Dharra means a mote, then metaphorically any very small thing
or person, so that dharra:0arwar is equivalent to the common Indian
gharfbj6arwar, "protector of the poor."

256 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT 11

She could not bear to remain far from me, for she is as a mother to me.
Lo, she bath come to Agra, 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) ShifA'i' (d. 1037/1627). There exists in the BritishMuseum (Or. 1372, f 7 a) a portrait of this poet, as well as
one of his satires, entitled Sfzdah-bandl (Add.
SWAII 12K zo37/1627). 56o, ff. 134-140): see Rieu, PP. 786 and 822.
1 cannot find in my manuscript of the TaWkh-
i-',41am-drd-yi-'Abbds1, either amongst the poets or the
physicians of the court of Sha'h 'Abbis, the notice of him
to which Rieu refers, but there is a long account of him in
H. F. (Vol. ii, pp. 21-23) and in the R.',4. of the same author
(pp. 213-2 18), as well as in A. K. (pp* 168-9). His proper
name was Hakim (Doctor) Sharafu'd-Dfn Hasan, and he
was court-physician and boon companion to Sháh 'AbbAs
the Great. Ridd-qulf Khán says that "his medicine eclipsed
his scholarship, as his poetry eclipsed his medicine":

Besides satires and odes he composed a mathnawt poem
entitled Namakddn-i-Haqiqat in imitation of Sand'f's Hadi(-
qatu'1-Haqtqat.

(8) Mir Muhammad B.Aqir-i-Ddma'd of Astar6LbAd (d.
io4o/i630-0- The title Ddindd ("Son-in-law") really
Mir Biqir-i- applies to his father, who was the son-in-law
Ddmdd of the celebrated mig'fahid Shaykh 'Alf ibn
((L 10401A30-0- Abdu'l-'Al al-'Amilf. Mir DAmAd, who wrote

I So called, I suppose, because it contains 13 strophes.

Vil

SHIFAJ, POET AND PHYSICIAN

1920 . 9. 17 -0298 [2] (Brit. Mus.)

To face 15. 256

CH. VI] SEVENTEENTH CENTURY POETS 257

verse under the pen-name of Ishrdq, was more notable as
a theologian and philosopher than as a poet. See
p. 835; H.F., ii, P. 7; R.'~4., pp. 166-7; A.K., p. 159.
There are long notices of him in the Rawddtu'1-Janndt
(pp. 114-116), and in the Ta'rfkh-i-'A1am-drd-yi-'Abbdsf,
written in 1025/1616, while he was still living. 'He is there
described as skilled in most of the 1~ 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 Mulli SadrA of Shfrdz.

(9) Mir Abu'l- Qdsirn -i- Fin dariski (d. -about i o5 o/ 1649- 1)
was also more notable as a philosopher than as a- poet, but
is mentioned in Af. F., vol. ii, pp. 6-7;~R-'~4-,
Mir Abul- p. 165-6; A. K.
Qisim-i- p , PP. 143-4; and Rieu, pp. 8 15-
Findariski 816. One poem of his, written in imitation I of
(d. xo5o/04o). NAsir-i-Khusraw, is cited in all . the tadlikiras,
and is therefore, presumably, his best known if not his, best
production. It begins:

A U~
LS

C)L-43J-~ Lo ~Jl'
C)LOA 9 33.) Jq

L5 Lsu
"The heaven with these fair and pleasant stars should be beautiful;
it bath 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 AbCL Nasr [al-Fdrdbf] or Abd 'Alf (ibn] Sfni (Avicenna)."
.Abu'l-Qisim was extraordinarily careless of appearances,
dressing like a darwish, avoiding the society of the rich

B. P. L.

258 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT 11

and the respectable, and associating with disreputable
vagabonds. One day Sháh 'AbbAs, 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 con-
stantly in those circles," replied Mir Abu'l-Qdsim, "but I
have never seen any of the students there." He made a
journey to India, and there, according to the Dabistdni,
came under the influence of certain disciples of Adhar
Kaywin and imbibed Zoroastrian and Hindd 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 Ridi-qulf Khin, very meagre details are
given concerning his life; perhaps because, while more a
philosopher than a poet, and more a darwtsh than a philo-
sopher, 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
JalAl Asir (d. 1040639-40), Qudsi (d. 1056/1646-7), Salim
of TihrAn (d. 1057/1647-8), Abu' TAlib Kalim and AmArif
of M Azandarin (both died in I o6 I / 16 5 1), Muhammad TAhir
Wahfd (d. about 112011708-9), and Shawkat of BukhAni
(d.II07/i695-6). Besides SA'ib (d. io88/ 1677-8), the greatest
of them all, only the fourth, the sixth and the last of these
demand any separate notice.

(io) Abd TAlib Kalim (d. io6i/i651) was born at Hama-
dAn, but, until he went to India, lived chiefly at KAshAn
(whence he is often described as "KishAni")
Abd Tilib Kal(d. io~i/05x). and ShfrAz. Ridi-qulf Khin (H. F., ii, p. 28)
gives a very meagre notice of him, but Shiblf
(Sh0ru'l-'Ajam,iii, pp. 205-23o) discusses him at some length.
I Shea and Troyer's translation, vol. i, pp. 140-1.

CH. VI] AB_G TALIB KALIM 259
i

About 1028/i6ig 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 Shah Ja'hAn.
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

Sd'ib and Mir Ma'sulm were his special friends, so that
says: , , ~ 3 & J

&--L- JAI

Except S;Vib, the epigrammatic Ma'~dm, and Kalfm, who of all the
poets are kind to one another?"
When the poet Malik of Qum died, Abi~ Tdlib composed
the following verses giving the date of his death:

,A0

U~,3jl j,".kc. A_':~, 'LTLXt.* ZLLO jI jUT CL4.

"Malik, that king of the realm of ideas, whose name is stamped on
the coin I 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 I He was the chief of the Masters of Speech " (4 Sar-i-ahl-

.5-91 C.,e~ JAI I LLLSL.)

i-sukhun blid= I025/i6i6)~.
Most of the Persian poets who went to India to seek a
Dislike of most fortune, or at least.a livelihood, had, according
of the Persian to Shiblil, nothing but evil to say of the country,
poets for India. but Kalim speaks of it with appreciations:
i Malik is, of course, the Arabic equivalent of Pddishdh, "king," and
one of the two distinctive symbols of kingship is the imposition of the
royal name on the current coin of the realm.
2 Shi'ru'l-Ajam, iii, p. 209.
3 He also learned more of the vernacular than most of his country-
men. See a poem full of Hindi words cited by Shiblf (ofi. Cit., p. 2 11).

17-2

26o POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PTII

,L5;,- o,-L4 C-11i CAP
c4--le C)tz-~ cpd :-b 45,tPb A--,-

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

On one occasion the Sultin of Turkey wrote a letter to
the Emperor Sháh Jahin 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. Kalfm
justified his patron in the following verse:

4'.:
,-A o~ 33 'kh ~~ a.3.) j CA- J ALh

"Since both Hind (India) and Jahin (world) are numerically identical',
the right of the king to be called 'King of the World' [and not
merely 'King of India'] is demonstrated."

Shibli discusses Kalfm's merits very fully, and cites many
of his verses to illustrate them. He includes amongst them
especially novelty of topics original conceits
(L;A-!j Jt*&.), and aptne-,s of illustration (A:JU~a). In this last
respect, illustrated by the following amongst other verses,
Kalfm resembles the more famous SA'ib:

"Fate sets an ambuscade against our luck: the thief always pursues
the sleeper%"
J.)

Z.-41 oA 3J'J-;J, 6P~U

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

I Both words yield the numerical equivalent 59-
2 Luck is called biddr ("awake") when it is good, and khwdbida
("asleep") when it is bad.

CH. VI] AB10 TALIB KAUXI i : 26z

9 kj~

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."

&S. A; IjI

"My desolate state is not mended by my virtues, just like the ruin,

which does not prosper through its treasure'."

56 x;,J1C; Ci L~Jq r!pi j I 41A.,

ijotj ~A~ j I :.,ai ,J 4;Zj
"The mean man does not acquire nobility by proximity to the great:
The thread does not become precious through its connection with
the pearls."
3.3,- A- _.J,-j4 d OL-4 1jV-_E1 jA r-.)

1j.* j LS 'ox;x~ sd.T 3,~= v-S

"What profits it that 1, like the rosary, kissed the hands of all?
After all, no one loosed the knots of my affair."

L~- J, .3
"Her converse with me is as the association of the wave and the
shore,
Ever with me, yet ever fleeing from me."

j Cjf
"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 5d'ib which runs:

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

I Treasures are popularly supposed to be found in ruins.

262 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

,3_44-

He who has reached [the goal] shuts his lips on 'Why P and 'Where-
fore? I
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."

-At-ji j 3 jull j L.

"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 Shiblil, is typical of Kalfm,
and with it we may conclude this brief notice:

j .:~ A
W1 Jjs
":~Zjs cjl 6L6
j

I Shilru'l-'Ajam, vol. iii, P. 229.

CH. VI]

ABV TALIB KAUM

263

L54LX4 L

Le LA~ j3

C)L!j j1 %j" _*U ".-Ci J.~

Uoj Le.3j, U;-q _t-.

J~-_tj LSj.3j _91 ':JL*- LeUj6J

":.~Zjs

0T j CP~.j J.) CiA.04, P3 L;jjj

Old age bath come, and the exuberance of the youthful temperament
bath 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 bath 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 'Anqd is not com-
plete,
For, though it retains no sign, it continues to think of name'.
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:
0 Kalim, 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 thaL"

The mythical bird called in Arabic 'anqd and in Persian stmurgh
is often spoken of as "having name but not substance" (mawjzidull-
ism, mal'q4du7jism).

264 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

(ii) Muhammad TAhir Wahid of Qazwfn (d. 1120/
1708-9)' was an industrious rather than a great poet: he is
Phir Wahid of said by RidA-qulf Khan' to have left a Diwdn
Qazwin (d*. xi2o/ containing go,ooo verses, which, however, were
17o8-9). for the most part "tasteless" (maldl-zatina-ddsht),
and of which only six are quoted as " the best of his poetry,"
amongst them the following quatrain testifying to his Shí'a
proclivities:

I A, z..6

I '. 11

"Whosoever's nature is leavened with the love of 'Ali,
Though be 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 Wahfd's life are given by Rieu 1. He
was secretary to two successive Prime Ministers of Persia,
Mirzi Taqiyyu'd-Dfn Muhammad and Khalffa Sul0n. In
io55/i645-6 he was appointed court-historiographer to
Sháh 'Abbis II, became a Minister in iioi/i689-9o, re-
tired 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 .4tash-kada, that these poems were only

I The date of his death is uncertain. See Rieu's Persian Sufifile-
ment~ PP. 40-4i~ and Eth6's India Office Catalogue oJPersian mss, cols.
goo-I.
2 M. F., ii, P- 50-
3 Persian Catalogue, pp. 18g-igo, and the Sitfifilenient cited in the
last note but one.

CH. VI)

SHAWKAT.-*A,IB 26S

praised on account of the author's rank, is probably justified.
He was, according to Eth6, a friend of the poet Silb.

(12) Shawkat' of Bukha'rfi (d. 1107/1695-6) is at the
present day almost unknown in Persia. He is not even
Shawkatof mentioned in the Xqjma'u1-Fusahd and but

BukhAri(d- ---71 briefly in the Riyd,~u'l-',4riffn, where only two
x695--6). of his verses are cited, together with the de-
scription of his eccentric demeanour given by his con-
temporary Shaykh Muhammad 'Alf La'hiji, called Hazin,
who saw him wandering about in mid-winter, bare-headed
and bare-footed, with a piece of felt (namad-
pdra) 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~.

(13) $A'ib of Tabrfz9 (d. ioU/i677-8) is considered by
Shiblil as the last great Persian poet, superior in originality
. to Qi'Anf, the greatest and most famous of the
SAlb of Tabrfz moderns, whom he re ards as a mere imitator
(d. zo8o/z670). 9
of Farrukhf and Min6chihrL RidA-qulf Khán,
on the other hand r-, says that Sd'ib has "a strange method
in the poet's path, which is not now admired." He is, in
short, like 'Urff, one of those poets who, while greatly
esteemed in Turkey and India, are without honour in their
own country. I have already expressed' my own personal
opinion as to his high merits.

I See Rieu's Persian Cat., p. 698; Ethd1s India Office Persian Ca4,
COIS. 891-2.
2 Vol. i, P. 130; Vol. iv, pp. 96-7, 185- Cf. P. 250 stifira.
3 Though he was born in Tabriz he was educated and grew up in
IfahAn, and is therefore often called "of I~fahin."
4 Shi'ru'1-'AjaM, Vol. iii, P. 189.
6 M. F., Vol. ii, P. 24. Cf P. 25 1, rL 2 sufira. Pp. 164-5 sufira.

266 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT Il

According to the -bash-kadal, SA'ib, whose proper name
was MfrzA Muhammad 'Alf, was born in the village of
'Abbis-Abdd near Isfahin, whither his father's family had
been transferred from Tabrfz by Shih 'Abbis. Having
completed his studies in Isfahán, he visited Dihlf and other
cities of India at an early age, certainly before 1039/ 1629-30,
and was patronized by ~,afar 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 Zafar Khán in the following
verses':

L-A-q J

AJI-1 AJL- J%UiA

6401 1J+0

L3.6 1j;.5i *Ij C.)A
C J DO Aj 14 .5 A-t-1

LS1

J*j

J
C)*-i J .31 >3-0~

YWI j1 )30>V-E- Li

C.4 0 1J 04-3jh-~q La>

Bombay lith. 1277/I86o-i, PP- 30-31-
Shibli's Shi'ru'l-Ajam, vol. iii, p. 194.

Autograph of the poet Si'ib

Or. 4937 (Brit. Mus.), P. 472

To face P. 266

CH. VI) ~AIB OF I*FAHAN 267

"More than six years I have passed since the passage of the steed of
my resolve from IfahAn to India took place.
The bold attraction of my longing has brought him weeping from
I~fahln 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, 0 thou whose threshold is
the Ka'ba of the age's hopes I
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 Isfahán, Sd'ib became poet-laureate to
Shih 'AbbAs 11, but had the misfortune to offend his suc-
cessor SulaymAn. He died in Isfahin after an apparently
uneventful life in 1080/1669-70. The words "Sd'ib found
death" (%:JU :)U.3 ,JLo) give the date of his deceas0.
Amongst the merits ascribed to SA'ib by hiblf is an
appreciation of Indian poets rare with -the Persians. Shibli
~Tih's generous quotes thirteen verses in which SA'ib cites with
appreciation of approval, by way of tadmin or "insertion," the
his Indian
colleagues. words of Fayqf, Malik, Tilib-i-Amulf, Naw'i,
Awhadf, Shawqf, Fathf, ShApdr, Mutf', Awjf,
Adham, IjAdhiq and RAqim. In the following verses he
deprecates the jealousy which-too often characterizes rival
singers

.j eaj Leo) &Z-6

If, as Shibli says, these verses were composed in or about io4i/
1631-2, SA'ib must have come to India about 1035/1625-6.
2 These words, however, yield the number io8i, not io8o.

268 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

'4J-1CJ.

!.P I t.!.6 3,e- _Oj

1 6W

'_**1-A6 3 C- 453 J ,j~ 1*4
,4-kj~ jp~

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 Sd'ib, the epigrammatic Ma's-6m, and Kalim, who of all the
poets are kind to one another'?"

Si'ib was a great admirer of Hifiz, and is also compli-
mentary to his masters Rukni and ShifA'f. Of the latter
he says

"Who will care for poetry in I sfahAn, 0 SAlib,
Now that ShifV, whose discerning hand was on the pulse of poetry,
is no more?"

He puts Nazfrf not only above himself but above 'Urff.
"So far," says Shibli2, "no objection can be made, but it is
a pity that, yielding to popular approbation and fame, he
makes himself also the panegyrist of Zuhu'ri and Jaldl-1-

' Cf. P. 259 SlIfira. 2 Shi'ru'l-'Ajam, vol. iii, p. 198.

CH. VI]

~A'IB OF ISFAHAN 269

Asfr.... 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 Nisir 'Ali, Bf-dil, and Shawkat

of BukhArA. 'The edifice of wrong-doing was at first small
in the world, but whoever came added thereunto .
Though SA'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:

- . I

& L14 LS4 Lsi "A4A j
Seek for the bottleless wine from the wineless bottle."

Sd'ib immediately capped it with the following:
j, L~U- J-~ j lia-
Seek for the truth from the heart which is empty of thought.,,

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

J J
.3 &;Ii- Lp:-~
5d'ib immediately prefixed the following hemistich:

jA jj_4
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.'

SA'ib was a very careful student of the works of his
predecessors, both ancient and modern, and himself com-
piled a great anthology of their best verses, of which,
according to Shiblf2 , a manuscript exists at Haydar-dbid
in the Deccan, and which appears to have been utilized by
Wilih of Da'ghistdn and other tadhkira-writers. Shibli

on from the Gulistdn of Sa'di (ed Platt
12 This is a quotati
.A. Cit., P. 201.

51 1J, j2j.

270 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

compares SA'ib to Abu' Tammim, the compiler of the great
anthology of Arabic poetry called the Hanidsa, inasmuch
as his taste is shown even more in his selective than in his
creative powers. The following are the verses
Selected verses
from ~Wib. by *A'ib which I selected from the Khardbdt
and copied into a note-book many years ago'.
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.

4;.?
90 R- C4
_J "tAj Jz 40.

"When poison becomes a habit it ceases to injure : make tby soul
gradually acquainted with death."

I ,: - "A
,,:j.3jh1 L:jl.!~ j1 JU Ch-S, Ji-j -tjj

"The roots of the aged palm-tree exceed those of the young one;
the old have the greater attachment to the world."
1A L~'A.4- JIV4

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

J6 U6 _,.A

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

6 '0 .4 J

"The rosary in the hand, repentance on the lips, and the heart full o,
sinful longings-sin itself laughs at our repentance! "

I See pp. 164-5 sufta. My copy of these selected verses was com-
pleted on Sept- 4, 1885-

CH. VI]

~A'IB OF I*FAHAN

27,

U4 44~- J,3 J ',.,z 'k,~
J1 16.~Ld~

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

a J
C>o
ax~
"All this talk of infidelity and religion finally leads to one place:
The dream is the same dream, only the interpretations differ."

_4JL6 -*3JJ&4 ;I

hs:
"The tyrant finds no security against the arrows of the victim's sig
Groans arise from the heart of the bo b fo
target."

- e re Lthey arise from] the

ci tv- U

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

'Ut." 3.34, to A-CT impossible
"Flowers and fruit are never combined in one place; it is
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."

4_~fil _*a" j3A_-4._ LT6..,.6

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

272 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11 CH. VI]

"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?"

j.5.) C)Lz-~3

"The touchstone of false friends is the day of need: by way of proof,
ask a loan from your friends."

Ub_A*- t..A~ JAI

"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 band."

1z_.jjI L:JL.A Lic..4 6~.o 4wk~,~ 4i

"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."

6 J

"The life of this transitory world is the expectation of death: to re-
nounce life is to escape from the expectation of annihilation,"

"0 my dear friend 1 thou bast more care for wealth than for life:
Thy attachment to the turban is greater than to the head."

SA'IB OF ISFAHAN

1 273

'%:._UU. Lo J.1 CjUtg,. jI y;l jLe, tj

"j ete
"Our heart is heedless of the Beloved, notwithstanding our compi
proximity:
The fish lives through the sea, yet beeds not the sea.'

OL;

"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."

L;JOU Z.

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

I J

_443 tiL& o.044 Cpp zAa- ..AS zU
I
"Not one handful of earth is wasted in this tavern: they make it
either into a pitcher, a wine-jar, or a wine-cup."

B. P. I-

274 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

1.% 45 aL..,A

"The enjoyments of both worlds will not satisfy the greedy man:
Burning fire has always an appetite."
&.0-i -:,-5L*- L;Loh

#A-,L- J13j Z-j.3

"The humd' 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."

uc,"t" _NA J3 &a;- L~L*A'. j,

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

)J;l _%:S~ Z~u A-141

"When perfection 2 is unduly increased it becomes the destroyer of life:
The tender branch breaks when it bears too much fruit."

16PLr-
L5.0.3 4310 J.) P~l

"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."

3) 'Itz -A.)

The humd is a mythical bird of whom it is supposed that if its
shadow falls on anyone he will become a king.
2 As already pointed out, perfection is regarded as a danger because
it is specially obnoxious to the Evil Eye, which the Arabs call 'Aynull-
Kamdl, "the Eye of Perfection." See suhra, p. 117, n. 2, and P. 216,
n. 2.

CH. VI] *A'IB OF ISFAHAN 275

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."

I j:JLC_G 6~J.J.J- 0-,:6 &Lca

I %Z ~ CoA J-U

"Become placeless, for to change this place of water and clay is but

to move from one prison to another."

J>
"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."

4 L-5~j -,;

'UM4 d4z L~ &~l J3 4 U

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

L)
L) U-j- .3 w;;J._4d- j I -3,pj

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

J!4 JS )S

1*4031)

"If I worship the rose according to the rites of the nightingale, it is
a fault-1, who in the worship of fire am of the religion of the
moth."

x8-2

276 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

9 )-4& zu I J)
I

"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."

_~rl

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

L
L) ;!p~ j3

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."

,~j J.- 3

U U.6

"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]."
JA L;A "s C.1-6.3 J,)

L;.~-;' uil-

If everyone could easily become honoured in his own country,
How would Joseph have passed from his father's embrace to aprison?"

CH. vil EIGHTEENTH CENTURY POETS 277

III. Between A.D. 17oo and i8oo (A.H. IXII-1215)-

From the literary point of view this century is perhaps
the most barren in the whole history of Persia", so much so
Baff enness of that the only notable poem produced by it is,
the eighteenth so far as I know, the celebrated tarjl'-band of
century. Hitif-i-Isfahinf, 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 personally involved in the disastrous events

contemporary which befell Persia during and after the Afghin
records. invasion, and who have left us a fairly clear and
detailed picture of that sad and troubled epoch. These men
were Shaykh 'Alf Hazin (b. 1103/1692, d. 118o/1766-7),
and Lutf 'Alf Beg poetically surnamed Adhar (b. 112311711,
d. 1195/1781). Both were poets, and the former even a
prolific poet, since he composed three or four diwdns, but
their prose writings are, from our point of view, of much
greater interest and value than their verse.

Shaykh 'Alf Hazfn, whose proper name was Muhammad
ibn Abf Tdlib of GflAn, is best known by his "Memoirs "
Shaykh 'Ali (Tadlikiratu'l-Ahwdl), which he composed in
Ijazin (b. 11031 1 ndia in I 15 4/174 1 -2, twenty years after he had
x692; d. xz8o/ become an exile from his native land, and which
1766-7)- are easily accessible to students in the text and
English translation published by F. C. Belfour in 1830-31.
He was born, as he himself tells us, on Monday the
27th of Rabf, ii, 1103 (Jan. ig, 1692) at Isfahin, and was
directly descended in the eighteenth degree from the famous
Shaykh ZAhid of GfIAn, of whom some account was given
in a previous chapte0. The family continued to reside in
GflAn, first at AstArA and then at Ldhijin, until the author's

Cf, p. 168 suhra.
See PP. 38-43 sufira.

278 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PTI1

interest.

father, Shaykh Abu' T;ilib, at the age of twenty, went to
Isfahán to pursue his studies, and there married and settled.
He died there in I 12711715 at the age of sixty-nine, leaving
three sons, of whom our author was the eldest, to mourn
his loss'. Shaykh 'Alf Hazfn speaks in the highest terms
of his father's character and ability, and quotes a few lines
from an elegy which he composed on this mournful occasion.
He also mentions that, amongst other final injunctions, his
father addressed to him the following remarkable words':
"If you have the choice, make no longer stay in Isfahán.
It were meet that some one of our race should survive."
"At that time," the author continues, " I did not comprehend
this part of his address, not till after some years, when the
disturbance and ruin of Isfahán took places."
Since the " Memoirs " can be read in English by anyone
interested in their contents, it is unnecessary to discuss or
Sbaykh 'All analyse them here, and it will be sufficient to
1jazin's emphasize their importance as a picture of the
Memoirs. author's times, and to note a few points of literary
In 1135/1722-3 he began to compile a kind of
literary scrap-book or magazine (majinfi'a), probably some-
what similar in character to the Kashkzil of Shaykh Bahi'u'd-
Dfn 'Amilf, and entitled Huddatu'l-'Uinrl (" Lifetime "), but
it was lost with the rest of his library in the sack of Isfahán
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-ndma), and

1 A fourth son died in infancy. The mother survived the father by
two years.
2 Belfour's text, p. 16; translation, p. 14.
3 Compare text, p. 107; translation, p. 117.
4 See pp, 93-4 of Belfour's translation, to which henceforth refer-
ences will be given. There is a Ms. of this work in the British Museum.
See Ricu's Persian Catalogue, P. 483, where two other works by the
same author, one on wine and measures and another on beasts of
venery, are mentioned.

CH. vi I

SHAYKH 'ALf HAVN

279
published his second Diwdn of poetry, and soon afterwards
his third'.
The Afghin invasion and the misery which it caused,
especially in Isfahán, put a stop to Shaykh 'Alf Hazfn's

literary activities for some time. "During the latter days
of the siege," he says2, " 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 some-
what recovered, he escaped from Isfahán early in Muharram,
I 13 5 (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, suc-
cessively visiting or residing at KhurramdbAd in Luristin,
HamadAn, Nihdwand, Dizful, Sh6shtar (whence by way of
Basra he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and on his return
journey visited Yaman), Kirmdnshdh, Baghd;id and its holy
places, Mashhad, Kurdistdn,.AdharbdyjAn, Gilin and TihrAn.
From the last-named city he returned once more to Isfahin
to find " that great city, notwithstanding the presence oi
the King$, in utter ruin and desertion. Of all that population
andof my friends scarcely anyone remained." Itwasthe
same at ShfrAz, whither he made his way six months later.
"Of all my great friends there," he says 4. " 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 ShfrAz he made his
way by Ur to Bandar-i-'Abbis, intending to go thence in

I See Belfour's translation, pp. io6 and iii, and for his fourth
Dlwdn, which was published somewhat later, p. 176.
Ibid., p. 128.
Ibid., P. 205. This was after the expulsion of the Afghdns by
Nddir.
4 Ibid., P. 207.

28o POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADYI ION [PT 11

a European ship to the HijAz, "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'."
He was, however, prevented by illness and poverty (caused
partly by the loss of his patrimony in Gilain, 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-'Abbds. He
next visited Kirmin, but, finding " the affairs of that
ruined country in utter confusion by reason of the insur-
rection of a body of the Baldch tribe and other accidents 2,11
he returned thence after a few months' stay to Bandar-i-
'Abbds in the hope of being able to go thence once again
to BaghdAd and the Holy Shrines. Finding this imprac-
ticable owing to NAdir's operations against the Turks,
and unable to endure any longer the sight of the misery
prevailing throughout Persia, he embarked on the loth of
Ramadin, 1146 (Feb. 14, 1734) for India, where, in spite
Shaykh 'Ali of the deep dislike which he conceived for that
Vazin's deep country, he was destined to spend the remaining
dislike for India. forty-five years of his long life. "To me," he
sayss, c(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

I See Belfour's translation, p. 215. 2 Ibid., p. 240.
3 Ibid, P. 253.

SHAYKH 'ALf IjAZfN 28
CH. vi)

my mind to the incidents in the affairs of Persia, and ben
my thoughts on my return thither'." Although unhappil3
disappointed in this hope, and compelled to spend the long
remainder of his days in "a country traced ... with foulnes
and trained to turpitude and brutality2 ' " where " all the
situations and conditions ... are condemned by fate to
difficulty and bitterness of subsistence3," 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 Nadir Shih's
invasion and the terrible massacre he made in Dihlf on
March 20, 1739. So, though the " Memoirs " were penned
at "the end of the year [A.H.] 11544" (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 Isfahan in
A.D. 1722) with whom he was personally acquainted con-
stitute one of the most valuable features of this interesting
book.
Eleven years later (1165/1752) Shaykh 'Ali Hazfn com-
posed an account of about a hundred contemporary
poets entitled TadhkiratuI-Mu'dsirin, which is
Shaykh'Alf
~Iazfn's bio- included in the lithographed edition of his
graphy of con- complete works published at Lucknow in 1293/
temporary poets. 1876, and of which mss. exist in the British
Museum and elsewhere".

See Belfour's translation, P. 255-

Ibid., P. 261. ' Ibid, P. 257. " Ibid., P. 256.

See Rieu's Pers. Cat., p. 372, and Sprenger's Catalogue, pp. 135-14z,
where the contents are fully stated. Through the kindness of my friend
Professor Mubammad Shafic of the Oriental College, Lahore, I have

recently (September, 1923) received a copy of the Kull~yydt, or Com-
plete Works, of Shaykh 'Alf Hazin, lithographed at KAnpdr in 1893-
It comprises 1032 pp., of which this Tadhkira occupies pp. 931-1025.
I make the number of biographies contained in it 96, and of all these

282 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

Another and more accessible contemporary account of
the poets of this period forms the last portion of the well-
Lutf 'Al known Atash-kada ("Fire-temple") of Lutf
BegIdlear
(b. 1123/1711, 'Alf Beg .4dhar. The greater part of this book
d. 119511780- 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 Tu'rAn and Hindu'stin. 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 in-
vasion down to the re-establishment of security and order
in the South by Karim Khin-i-Zandl. The author recog-
nizes 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":

JL.
jt- J)Ui~l _1 JL? L;e,,.V

42. jVLZ C>U~ U Z..tj

To most of these poets the author devotes only a few
lines. The longer notices include Mulli Muhammad Mu"min,
poetically surnamed Ddi, who died in 1155/1742-3 at the
age of ninety; MullA Husayn Raflq of Isfahán; Sayyid
Muhammad Shu'la of Isfahin; Sayyid Muhammad Sidiq
of Tafrish; Mirzi Ja'far Sdfi of Isfahan; a young friend
of the author's named SulaymAn, who wrote under the
name SabdU, and to whose poems he devotes no less than
thirteen pages; MfrzA Muhammad 'Alf Subfih of Isfahán;

poets there are only about four of whom I ever heard even the names,
to wit, T.1hir of Qazwfn, Sbawkat of BukhArA, Shaft'd Athar of Shfrdz,
and Lutf 'Ali Beg Shimf.
1 " That peerless Prince of happy fortune Abu'n-Nar Sultdr,
Karim."

LUTF'ALf BEG'S ATASH-KADA 283
CH. vij

AqA Taqf Sahbd of Qum; Sayyid'Abdu'l-BAqf Tabib ("the
physician"), whose father MfrzA Muhammad Rahfm was
court-physician to Sháh Sultin Husayn, as he himself was
to NAdir Sháh; Tfifdn of Hazdr-jarfb, whose death was
commemorated by the author in a chronogram. giving
the date 119011776-7; AqA Muhammad '.dshiq of Isfahin

(d. i 18111767-8), to whom he devotes eight pages; and his
own younger brother IshAq Beg, who wrote under the pen-
name of 'Udhrt and died in i 18 511771-2, according to the
chronogram:

Other poets noticed are Muhammad 'Alf Beg the son
of AbdAl Beg, a Frankish painter who embraced Islam,
Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Ghdlib, who spent fourteen
years of his earlier life in India and married the daughter
of the NawwAb Sar-afrdz Khán; Mir Sayyid 'Alf Hushtdq
of Isfahin; Sayyid Muhammad Sa'diq, nephew of the above-
mentioned court-physician MfrzA Muhammad Rah-fin, who,
besides several mathnawi poems dealing with the somewhat
threadbare romances of Layld and Majnu'n, Khusraw and
Shfrfn and WAmiq and 'Adhri, was engaged on a history
of the Zand dynasty; Mfrz;A Nasfr, son of the physician
MfrzA'Abdu'll'h (d. 119211778); and Sayyid Ahmad Hdtz*
a f,
the most notable of all these poets, of whom we shall
shortly have to speak.
Lutf 'Alf Beg concludes his ~tash-kada with an auto-
biography of himself, from which we leam that he was born
on the 2oth of Rabi' i, A.H. 1123 (June 7, 17H)'at Isfahdn,
but spent fourteen years of his earlier life at Qum, whither
his family migrated in consequence of the Afghin menace.
At the beginning of Nddir Sháh's reign his father was made
governor of LAr and the coasts of FArs, and he resided in
ShfrAz. On the death of his father two years later he
accompanied his uncle IjAjji Muhammad Beg on the

284 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT11

pilgrimage to Mecca, and, after visiting that and the other
holy places, returned to Persia, and was at Mashhad when
NAdir's victorious army returned from India. After ac-
companying them to Mdzandardn he returned to Isfahdn,
and, after the assassination of NAdir Sháh, was attached
for a while to the service of 'Ali Sháh, lbrihim Sháh, Sháh
Isma'il and Shih Sulaymdn. He then seems to have retired
from public life and devoted himself to the cultivation of
poetry under the guidance and tuition of Mir Sayyid 'Ali
Mushtdq. With selections of this poetry, largely drawn
from his Yzisuf u Zu1qyKhá, he concludes the book'.
Of Sayyid Ahmad Hdtif of Isfahin, though he was the
contemporary and friend of Lutf 'Alf Beg, no biographical
particulars are given in the Itash-kada, but
only praises which appear somewhat exagge-
rated, since he is described as "in Arabic and
Persian verse and prose the third after A'shA and jarfr, and
second only to Anwarf and Zahfr." Nearly ten pages are
filled with citations from his poems, but of all these we
need only concern ourselves with the beautiful and cele-
brated tarjP-band by which alone HAtif's name has been
immortalized.

Q31 -%;q)

'C)t- _,A 3 J.~ _.-A ~j LSI.%J LSI

II-J3 U-51i Cl~_, 13 LS1.%j JA

J3
jj L4J C)Lo.
LSL..j %:j
I have used the 4tash-kada in the Bombay lithographed edition of
1277/186o. It has three defects : the numeration of the pages stops at
189; the dates are often omitted; and the accuracy of the text leaves
a good deal to be desired.

CH. VI] THE TARYP-BAND OF HATIF

285

I A

(Strophe 1)

0 Thou to whom both heart and life are a sacrifice, and 0 Thou in
whose path botb this and that are an offering I
The heart is Thy sacrifice because Thou art a charmer of hearts; life
is Thine offering because Tbou art the Life of our lives'.
Hard it is to deliver the heart from Thy band; 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 1
Last night, [impelled] by the madness of love and the impulse ot
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 11mrAn saw

that night on Sinai. I0

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.

It is impossible adequately to preserve in English the play between
dil and dilbar, jdn and jdndn.

THE TAR,71--BAND OF HATIF 293
CH. vi]

Magian and Magian boy, Fire-priest and High Priest, all with loins
girt up for His service. is
1, 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
1 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 I'

(Strophe 1I)
0 Friend, I will not break my ties with Thee, even though with a
sword they should hew me limb from limb I
Truly a hundred lives were cheap on our part [to win] from Thy
mouth a sweet half-smile. 25
0 Father, counsel me not against love, for this son [of thine) will
not prove susceptible [to counsel] !
People counsel these [others]: 0 would that they would counsel
me concerning Thy love I
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, '0 thou in
whose net the heart is captive I
0 thou to the warp of whose girdle each hair-tip of mine is sepa
rately attached 1 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:

294 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [PT 11

'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 Parniydn,
Harlr and ParandY
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 I I

(Stro
phe 111)

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 ovei 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 P the response of that

one to this one, 'Drink-hale'l 45

With ears for the harp and eyes on the goblet, and the desire of both
worlds in their embrace.
Advancing respectfully, I said, ' 0 thou whose heart is the abode of
the Angel Surfish!R,
I am an afflicted and needy lover - behold my pain and strive to
remedy it I'
The elder, smiling, said to me mockingly: '0 thou to whom the
Guide of Reason is a devoted 3 slave!

I All these words, of which the first and last are Persian and the
other Arabic, mean silk.
9 Sur7~sh with the Zoroastrians, likeftbraw (Gabriel) with the Mu.
hammadans, is the Angel who brings revelation.
3 Literally "with a ring in the ear," a sign of servitude.

THE TARYP-BA.NTD OF HATIF 295
CH. V1j

'Where art thou, and where are we 1, 0 thou for shame of whom the
daughter of the grape 2 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 I
'Last night I was consumed by this fire: alas if my to-night be as
my yestere'en P
He said smiling, ' Ho I Take the cup! ' I took it. He cried, I Ha I
Drink no more P
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 Surgshs whispered
these words into my ear:

He is One and there is naught but He:
There is no God save Him alone V

(Strophe IV)

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. 6o
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 world4~
There also thou wilt see a bare-footed company with their feet set
on the summit of the Guard-starsk

I That is, how far apart are we.
2 Wine, who must veil her face before the stranger (nd-ma~ram).
3 See P. 294 supra, n. 2 ad ca1c.
4 le. even the veriest beggar in the Realm of Love exercises in
this lower world such authority as do the kings and rulers of earth,
and is as much preoccupied by his responsibility as they are.
6 Farqaddn, two bright stars in Ursa Minor, called " the Guards"
or "Guardians" (from the Spanish word guardare, "to behold") be-
cause of their " singular use in navigation." See vol. ii of my Travellers
Narrative, p. 12 5, ad cale.

296 POETS OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION [FT H

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'. 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 1
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 I I

(Strophe V)

From door and wall, unveiled, the Friend shines radiant, 0 ye who
have eyes to see 1
Thou seekest a candle whilst the sun is on high: the day is very
bright whilst thou art in darkest night.
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 coIours:
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. 8o
By Love many things will be made easy which in the sight of Reason
are very difficult.

I Le. snapping his fingers at them, taking no account of them.

CH. V11 THE TAR,71'-BAND OF HATIF 297

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',' 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 1
And if thou art not equal to the Road, then, like the others, talk of
the Friend and scratch the back of thy head2l
0 HAtif, 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. go
If thou sbouldst 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 I'

Lan tardnf, the answer given to Moses when he desired to see
God face to face. See Qur'dn, vii, 139-
2 Like one bewildered or undecided.

CHAPTER VIL

POETS OF THE QAJAR PERIOD.

The QAjdr rule was strong though severe, and, in spite
of its harshness, was, perhaps, welcome on the whole to a
Revival of country which had suffered seventy years of
poetry under anarchy and civil war. The brief and bloody
the QAj4im reign of the eunuch AqA Muhammad Khán',
who once more carried the Persian standards into Georgia
and captured Tiflis, was followed by the milder adminis-
tration of his nephew Fath-'Alf Sháh (A.D. 1797-1834), to
whose influence Ridi-qulf Khán, in the Introduction to his
Majnia'u'1-Tusahd, ascribes the revival of poetry and the
restoration of a better literary taste. He himself wrote
verses under the pen-name of KháqAn, and gathered round
him a host of poets to whose lives and work several mono-
graphs are devoted, such as the ZfnatuI-Madd'i~, the
Anjuman-i-Kháqdn, the GuIshan-i-Mahintid and Safi-
natu'I-Mahmiid, the Nigdristdn-i-Ddrd, and the Tadhkira-
t-Huhammad-Sháhi, 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 RidA-qulf Khán. One of
them, the Gulshan-i-Mahmzid, contains notices of forty-eight
of Fath-'Alf Sháh's sons who wrote poetry, and at a later
date the Royal Family supplied Persia with another verse-
making autocrat in Nisiru'd-Din Sháh (A.D. 1848-1896),
but these kingly outpourings need detain only those who
accept the dictum Kaldniu'I-Muhik MuNku'l-K'aldm ("the
Words of Kings are the Kings of Words").

1 Though practically supreme for eighteen years (A.D. 1779-1797),
he was not crowned until 1796 and was assassinated in the following
year.

Fu~a~d.

PT II CH. VIIJ PERSIAN AND INDIAN TASTE 299

These poets of the earlier Qájár period might very well
have been included in the preceding chapter, but for the in-
Reversion to ordinate length which it has already attained.
eulier model The only respect in which they differed from
their immediate predecessors was in their rever-
sion to earlier models and their repudiation of the school
typified by 'Urff, SA'ib, Shawkat, and their congeners. This
fact is established from two opposite quarters. On the one
hand Shiblf, as we have seen', takes the view that Persian
poetry, which began with Ru'dakf, ended with SA'ib, and that
Qd'dnf and the moderns did but imitate the older classical

poets, especially Farrukhf and Mindchihrf. RidA-qulf Khán
Divergent taste takes the same view of the facts, but puts on
of Persian and them a quite different interpretation. According
Indian critics. to him', Persian poetry had long been on the
decline and at the end of the pre-Q;ijAr period had become
thoroughly decadent, so that the early Qájár poets did well
to break away from the ideals of their immediate pre-
decessors and -revert to earlier models, amongst which he
especially mentions the poems of Kháqa'ni, 'Abdu'l-Wisi'-i-
jabalf, Farrukhf, Minu'chihri, Rddakf, QatrAn, 'Unsurf,
Mas'dd-i-Sa'd-i-SaImAn, SanA% jaldlu'd-Din Ru'mf, Abu'l-
Faraj-i-Rulnf, Anwarl, Asadf, Firdawsf, NizAmf, Sa'df,
Azraqf, Mukhtirf, Mu'izzf, LAmi% NAsir-i-Khusraw and
Adfb SAbir, 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 HAfiz 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
JAmf, 'Urff and SA'ib, who lost and never regained the

Pp. x64 and 265 sufira, and Shilrul-'Ajam, vol. iii, p. 189.
Fifth (unnumbered) page of the Introduction to the Majmalull-

300 POETS OF THE QAJAR PERIOD [PT Il

position they had once held in their own country. Hence-
forth, 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' in
substituting Urdu' 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 wouldbe 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 QAjdr 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
will be convenient to arrange them in chrono-
Wisil and his
family. logical order. Of one great family of poets, the
sons and grandsons of WisAl (MirzA Shaff',
commonly called Mirzi Ku'chuk) who died in 1262/1846,
it was my privilege to meet several, including the brothers
Farhang and-YazdAnf, at Shfriz in the spring of i888~
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 WisAl, the
eldest, WiqAr, was about forty-two years of age when
RidA-qulf Khains met him in TihrAn in 1274/1857-8, while
the second, MirzA Mahm6d the physician, who adopted the
takhallus of Hakfm, died in 1268/1851. Of the third,
DAwarf, a specimen of whose work is quoted in translation
in vol. ii of my Literary History, PP. 41-42, 1 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-

At or about the same time they ceased to subsidise the publication
of Oriental texts, thus inflicting a great injury on Oriental studies.
See my Year amongst the Persians, pp. 267-8, and also p. i 19.
Ma/maV1-FusaM VOL ii, P. 548-

i -

NIL--

; 1 4

Autograph of the poet Wisil

Or. 4936 (Brit. MUS,), 20

CH. VII] THE FAMILY OF WISAL 301

lation above mentioned is based. It is taken from a small
manuscript selection of his poems, given to me in TihrAn
in the winter of 1887-8 by my late friend the NawwAb
Mirzd Hasan 'Ali Khán, one of his admirers and patrons.

Two stanzas of a
musammal by
Diwarl..................I IjL5.o j,14Lv ~:)l *.Lj Lssj o Z.-ol

!)j 'AA

This mention of my kind friend the NawwAb reminds
me of a quaint incident which occurred while I was his

guest at Tihrin in the early part of the year
The modest
reward of a 1888, and which shows bow relatively unpro-
modern fitable is the profession of a Persian poet now
panegyrisL compared to what it was in the " good old

days" when a poet's mouth was sometimes filled with gold
or pearls as the reward of a successful poem which hit the
taste of his patron. A minor poet, whose name I forget, if
ever I knew it, came one day to the NawwAb's house and

I These selections are now bound up in my ms. bearing the class-
mark Y. i. The whole musammat contains eight strophes, of which
only the first two are here given.

302- POETS OF THE QAjAR PERIOD [PT 11 CH. V11] "TRANSITION POETS"
1 303

asked and obtained permission to recite a poem which he
had composed in his praise. On its conclusion he received
the sum of one tzinidn (at that time worth about six shillings),
with which he departed, apparently very well contented.
But so far from the gift being deemed insignificant, the
Nawwib was subsequently reproached by some of his
friends for turning the poet's head and making him imagine
that he could earn an honest livelihood by writing poetry I
This is no doubt one of the causes which are tending to
put an end to the old style of poetry, especially the
Another cause panegyric qasida. Another still more potent
of the decline one is the position attained by the Press since
of panegyric. the Revolution of 19o5-6, for the poet now
tends more and more to write for the people as a whole
rather than for some special patron. The transition can be
very well seen in the case of poets like the unfortunate
MfrzA JahAngfr Khán of ShfrAz, the proprietor and editor
of that remarkable product of the Revolution the weekly
jzir_i-1srdfi1, whose life, death, and literary activities in
connection with that great national upheaval are fully
discussed in my previous works, the Persian Revolution
and the Press and Poetry of Modern Persia. As a poet
and writer of the Revolution only did I know him until
lately, when I received from my accomplished friend and
former pupil Mr W. A. Smart, one of the most sympathetic
Consular officers ever sent to Persia from this country, a
large fragment (292 pages) of an untitled, anonymous,
acephalous and incomplete Persian manuscript work, con-
taining accounts of thirty-eight poets, mostly of FArs, who
were either still living in A.D. igio or who had died in
the course of the preceding forty years. Amongst these
mention is made of MirzA JahAngir Khán (PP. 74-77), and
specimens are given of his earlier pre-revolutionary poems,
including one addressed to his friends at ShfrAz from
1 It bears the class-mark J. ig in my library.

Tihrin, which are quite in the classical style, and bear no
traces of the modern peculiarities. Two other not less
eminent "transition poets" mentioned in this extraordinarily
interesting volume are Abu'l-Hasan Mirzi, a grandson of
Fath-'Ali Sháh, born in 1264/1848, and commonly entitled
Iiiiii Shaykhu'r-Ra'is, chiefly known as a philosophical and
political writer and a strong advocate of Pan-Islamism, who
also wrote poetry, mostly topical, but in the classical forms,
under the pen-name of Hayrat (pp. 102-121 Of My MS.);
and the eminent journalist A dibu'l-Hamdlik' (born in 12771
i 86o-i), a descendant in the third degree of MirzA 'f sA the
The transition Qd'im-Maqdin, who composed verse under the

poets of the pen-name of AmW of Farihin (PP. 39-50 Of

Revolution. my Ms.). The new poets of the Revolution
were therefore, except in the case of the younger ones who
have appeared since that epoch-making event, to a large
extent the poets of the old school who had sufficient
enthusiasm and flexibility to adapt themselves to the new
conditions. But the transition itself is marked by as hard
and fast a line as can mark any such historical transition,
that line lying in the years igo6-7. Of course an abun-
dance of poetry of the old type is still being produced, and
I myself was gratified and honoured on the occasion of my
sixtieth birthday (February 7, 1922) by receiving an album
of verses contributed by sixteen of the most notable con-
temporary poets, besides a separate qasida from 'Imddu'l-
KuttAb, that Benvenuto Cellini of contemporary Persia.

The older forms IN or is there any reason to apprehend the
ofpoetryinno early disappearance of the old verse-forms.
dangerof The panegyric (as opposed to the philosophical
extinction.
and didactic) qa~Ua will probably become

rarer for the reasons given above, but the. mathnaw4 911azal
and rubdY will survive as long as mysticism, love and
epigram continue to interest the Persians.
I See PP. 37-39 of my Press and Poetry in Modern Persia.

304 POETS OF THE QAjAR PERIOD [PT 11

After these preliminary general remarks on the poetry
of the latest epoch, we may pass to the consideration of
some of its chief representatives. For informa-
Biographies of
modern poets. tion as to those who flourished before about
A.D. 1870 my chief sources have been the three
works of that industrious writer RidA-qulf Khán, poetically
surnamed HidAyat, to wit the large general bio-
graphy of Persian poets entitled Hajnza'u'l-
Fusahd (" the Concourse of the Eloquent "); the
smaller biography entitled Rz)ld,~WIJ,4rifin ("Gardens of

the Gnostics"), which deals chiefly with the
Riyd~izel- mystical poets; and the Supplement to Mfrkh-
wand's Rawdatu's-Sa which carries that well-
Q A

known general history down to a out 1 57 an was
already well advanced in 1272/1855-6, when the author
returned from the embassy to KhwArazrn described in his
Rawdatu's. Safdrat-ndina, of which the Persian text was
.F,Zfd * (s U Pp I e - published by the late M. Ch. Schefer with a
ment). French translation in 1876-91. At the end of
the ninth volume of the Rawdatu's-Safd (the second of the
Supplement), which concludes the reign of Fath-'Alf Sháh,
several pages (unfortunately unnumbered, so that exact
references are impossible) are devoted to the notable states-
men, poets, theologians and other eminent men of that
period which sometimes contain biographical material
lacking in the two earlier monographs. From these three
sources, so far as they extend, the following particulars are
chiefly drawn, but I have also made use of a rare manu-
script work (possibly an autograph) entitled
Tadhkira-i-Dilgushd, a biography of con-
temporary poets by Mfrzi 'Alf Akbar of
Shiriz, who himself wrote poetry under the pen-name of

I Brief notices of these and other published works of the same author
will be found in Mr E. Edwards's excellent Catalogue of the Perst . an
Atinted books in the Btitish Museunt (London, 1922), columns 631-2.

SAIjAB OF ISFAHAN 305
CH. Vil

Bismil, composed about 1237/1821-2. This fine ms., written
throughout in a large, clear naskh with rubrications,
formerly belonged to the late Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler,

and now bears in my library the class-mark J. 18.
Mention is made of this author and his work by Ridi-qulf
Khán (who in his youth used to see him at ShIrAz) both in
the Majma'ul-Fusahd (ii, pp. 82-3) and the Riydgul-
'_4rifin (pp. 243-4

(i) SahAb (d. 1222/18o7-8).

Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahin, poetically surnamed
Sahdb, was the son of that Sayyid Ahmad Hd1if mentioned
at the end of the preceding chapter as almost
Sahib (d. T222/
the only notable Persian poet of the eighteenth
century. Ridi-qulf Khán (H.F., ii, 207-11)
says that he was held in high honour by Fath-'Alf Sháh,
for whom he composed, besides numerous panegyrics, a
book of memoirs (presumably of poets) entitled Rashahdt-
i-Sahdb, which I have never met with, and that his Diw dn
comprises only some five thousand verses. The following,
censuring the conceit and arrogance of certain poets, are
of some interest':

J6_

"Wherein save in good nature lies anyone's I perfection I,' and what
I perfection' can there be to him who has not good nature?
Poetry is naught, and the poet's vocation less than naught : I wonder
what is all this quarrel about nothing!
No one will ask about the arrangement of a few words: 0 fools
devoid of merit, what is all this talk?
On account of one or two hemistichs expressing some one else's
- ideas, what is all this thought of position and hope of wealth?
The root of poetry is phantasy, and its beauty lies in the impossible':
what can result from the imagining of all these impossible ideas?
Whoever has discovered what shame and modesty are will not boast
of superiority on account of a few silly words.
What in the eyes of men of judgment and sense are a hundred
sorts of such I perfection' compared with the good nature of an
ordinary well-disposed man?
I grant that the nazm (arrangement, or verse) of the ocean is pearls
and mines of precious stones: but what is it compared with the
Czathr (scattering, or prose) of the pen of that Lord whose bounty
is as that of the ocean?"

I Kaoidl (" Perfection') means especially literary attainments. CE
pp. 26-7 sufira.
2 The Arabs say "the best poetry is that which contains most lies,"
and the exaggeration characteristic of most Persian panegyrists is
notorious. CE Lit. Hist. Persia, ii, pp. 69-70-

CH. V111 MIJMAR OF ARDISTAN 307
i

(2) Mijmar (d. 1225/1810-10.

Sayyid Husayn-i-Tabdtabd'i of Ardistdn near Isfahin,
who earned the title of Hujtahidu'sh-Shu'ard, is noticed
by RidA-qulf Khán in all three of his above-
Mijmar (d. 1225/ mentioned works. He owed his introduction
1810-X11).

to the Persian Court to his fellow-townsman
and fellow-poet MfrzA 'Abdu'l-Wahhdb Nash4, who sur-
vived him by eighteen or nineteen years. He appears to
have died young, for Ridd-qulf Khán, after praising his
verse, of which but a small collection was left, says that
"had he lived longer, he would probably have attained the
utmost distinction," but even as it is he is one of the five
poets of this period whom my accomplished old friend
Ija'j*ji MfrzA YahyA of Dawlatdbdd placed in the first class~
Copies of his poems are rare, but the British Museum
possesses a manuscript of his Kulliyydt, or collected works2.
I can find nothing very noteworthy in Ridi-qulf Khán's
selections, but the two following riddles, the first on the
Wind and the second on the Pen, taken from the Tadhkira
i-Dilgwshd, may serve as specimens of his work.

9.,A= jJA A.4

See P. 225 suAhra. The others are Furii9114 Fabd (not %S`afid), Nashg
and Qd'dni in the first class; WisdI and RidA-qulf Khán Kiddyat in
the second; and Wiqdr and Sur2ish in the third.
2 Or. 3543- See B.M.P.S., NO- 354, pp. 222-3.

20-2

3o8 POETS OF THE QAjAR PERIOD [PT 11

3y AS j) X,!~ X

ICA- .51 j, A 6-,~j .3 jl ds 03)_

4 YLA j, 3 L5p-.j j,

"What is that messenger of auspicious advent and fortunate presence
who is moving every day and night and hastening every year
and month?
Who carries musk-pods in his skirt and perfume in his collar,
ambergris in his pocket, and pure musk in his sleeve?
A traveller without foot or head, a madman without sense or reason,
a lover without abode or habitation, a wanderer without food or
sleep.
None knoweth for love of whom he is so restless ; none discovereth
through separation from whom he is so troubled.
Through him water becomes, like the hearts of lovers through the
tresses of their idols, now wreathed in chains, now twisted and
tormented.
Now the earth dies through him, and again the world lives through
him, like the faculties through old age and like the nature
through youth."

1_11~wl JA39

,ij4j_6u

44 To the rose-bush of the garden of the reasoning faculty I am a cloud
raining down pearls,
Both pouring forth sugar and diffusing perfume [like] the darling's
lips and the sweetheart's tresses.
In scattering pearls and pouring forth jewels I am [like] the nature
of the Minister and the hand of the King. ))

CH. Vill *ABA OF KASHAN 309

(3) .5abA (d. 1238/1822-3)'
Fath-,Alf Khán of Kishin, with the pen-name of Sabi,
was poet-laureate (Haliku'sh-Shulard) to Fath-'Alf Sháh.
Ridi-qulf Khán, who mentions him in all three
abl (d. 11238/
-822-3). of his works, says that no poet equal to him
had appeared in Persia for nearly seven hundred
years, and that some critics prefer his Shahixshdh-xdma to
the Shd1indma of Firdawsil. He also composed a Khudd-
wand-ndina, an 'Ibrat-ndma, and a Gulshan-i-Sabd, while
his Diwdn is said to comprise ten or fifteen thousand
verses. He was for a time governor of Qum and KdshAn,
but latterly devoted himself entirely to the Sháh's service.

In his youth he was the pupil of his fellow-townsman the
poet SabAhf, who was a contemporary of Hitif and Adhar,
and died, according to the Majma'u1-Fusahd, in 12o6/
1791-2. His eldest son Mfrzd Husayn Khán, poetically
surnamed 'Andalfb ("Nightingale"), succeeded him in the
laureateship. His poetry, being mostly panegyric, has little
attraction for us, but is extraordinarily melodious, as- the
following extract from a qasida quoted in the Tadhkira-i-
Dilgwshd (which I think it unnecessary to translate, since
the beauty lies in the form only) will show:

Riydfu)1-',4HfiX, p. 264. The Shahinshdh-ndma was lithographed
in Bombay in x8go.

I The "aged son of BarkbiyA" is Asaf, Solomon's Wazir; the "noble
son of Abtin" is the legendary King Firid6n. 1 have made a slight but
necessary emendation in the penultimate and antepenultimate words
of this line.

CH. V11] NASHAT,-THE QA'IM-MAQAM 311

(4) NashAt (d. 1244/1828-9).

Passing over Mfrzi Muhammad-quli Afshir U4(at (d1240/1824-5) andAqA 'Ali Ashraf .4gdh (d. 1244/1828-9),
the younger brother of the poet Bismil, both
Nasb6l (cL 1244/
1828-9). of whom were personally known to RidA-quli
Khán, we come to Mimi 'Abdu'l-Wahh;ib of
Isfahin, celebrated as a calligraphist as well as a oet, and
P
master of the three languages, Arabic, Persian and Turkish.
After nearly ruining himself by his prodigal hospitality and
liberality to poets, mystics and men of letters, he gained
the favour of Fath-'Alf Sháh, who conferred on him the
title of Hze'tamadu'd-Dawla. He excelled in the ghazal, and
his best-known work is entitled Ganjina (the " Treasury ").
The following chronograrn gives the date of his death

(A.H. 1244):

I cjj ~6 LZj Ci ~_ r-M j I

"Nashdt (joy) bath departed from t~e heart of the worldL-0

(5) Mirza' Abu'l-Qfisim Qa`im-maqfim (put to death
in 1251/1835).
Two eminent men, father and son, bore this title (of which
the literal meaning is exactly equivalent to "lieutenant,"
Mird Abul- in the sense of vicar or deputy), Mfrzi 'fsd of
Qfisim Qdim- FarAhAn, called Mfrzi Buzurg, who acted as
Deputy Prime Minister to Prince 'Abbis Mirzi
and died in 1247/1831-2; and his son Mimi
AbuTQAsim, who, on the death of Fath-'Alf Sháh, fell into
disgrace, and was put to death by his successor Muhammad
Sháh on June 26, 18351. The latter was, from the literary
point of view, the more remarkable, but though he wrote

I See R. G. Watson's History of Persia, pp. 271-2 and 287-8. His
estimate of this Minister's character differs very widely from that of
Rid&qulf KbAn.

312 POETS OF THE QAJAR PERIOD [PT 11

poetry under the pen-name of Thand'i, he is more celebrated
as a prose-writer, his numerous published letters being
regarded by his countrymen as models of good style.
I possess a collection of his writings, both prose and verse,
compiled at the instance of the late Prince FarhAd MfrzA
in 1281/1864-5, and lithographed at Tabrfz in 1282/1865-6,
of which the letters, addressed to various more or less
eminent contemporaries but only occasionally bearing
dates', occupy by far the larger portion. Many of them
are diplomatic documents of some historical importance,
e.g. the apology addressed to the Tsar of Russia for the
murder of the Minister Grebaiodoff and his staff at TihrAn
on February 11, 18292, which is here given as a specimen
of the Qi'im-maqa'm's much admired style.

ShawwAl, 1239 (June-July, 1823), is the earliest date I have noticed.
The circumstances are fully given by R. G. Watson, op. cit., pp.

CH. V11] MURDER OF GREBAIODOFF 313

The Royal Letter to the Most Great Emperor concerning- the
reparations for the murder of the Envoy in such wise as
was desired.

The beginning of the record is in the Arame of the A 11-Knowing God,
The Living and,411-Powerful Creator and Provider,-
-that Peerless and Incomparable Being, exempt frorn every 'how'
and 'bow much',' Who is just and wise, and subdueth every wrong-
doer, Who hath set a measure and limit to the recompense of every
good and evil deed, and Who, by His far-reaching wisdom, reproveth
and punisheth the doers of evil, and rewardeth and recompenseth the
well-doers. And countless blessings be upon the spirits of the righteous
Prophets and beneficent Leaders2.
But to Aroceed. Be it not bidden and concealed from the truth-
discerning judgment of that most eminent, equitable, and just King,
that brilliant and glorious Sovereign, that Lord of land and sea, my
noble-natured and fortunate-starred brother, the Emperor of the
Russian domains and their dependencies, whose rule is mighty and
glorious, and whose standards are triumphant and victorious, that a
disaster hath overtaken the Envoy of that State in the capital of this,
by impulse of the vicissitudes of the time and the quarrels of his people
with certain ignorant townsfolk, for which it is incumbent and obli-
gatory on the acting officials of this Government to make reparation
and give satisfaction. Therefore, in order to express our preliminary
apologies and to satisfy the self-respect and honour of that esteemed
brother, I have sent my dearly beloved son KliusrawMirZA3 to the
capital of the glorious Russian State. In the course of a friendly letter
we have expressed and explained the truth as to the suddenness of

I Le. transcending quality and quantity.
2As the letter is addressed to a Christian sovereign, the usual
specific mention of Mutiammad is replaced by this more general
phrase.
3 See R. G. Watson, ofi. cit., PP. 254-6. He was the son of 'Abbds
Mfrzi and therefore the grandson of Fath-'Ali Sháh.

CH. VII) MURDER OF GREBAIODOFF

315
this tragedy and the non-complicity of those responsible for the con-
duct of our Government; and secondly, having regard to the perfect
accord and agreement existing between these two Heaven-high Courts,
we have recognized it as incumbent on Our Royal Person to avenge
the above-mentioned Envoy, and, according to his deserts, have

chastised, punished or expelled from the country everyone of the in-
habitants and dwellers in our Capital who was suspected of having
participated in the slightest degree in this foul deed and improper
action. - We have even reprimanded and dismissed the chief constable
of the city and the headman of the quarter, merely for the crime of
being informed too late and of not having established a firmer control
over the town before the occurrence of this catastrophe. Beyond all
this was the retribution and punishment which befel His Reverence
MirzA Masfh, notwithstanding the rank of mujtahid which he holds in
the religion of IslArn and the respect and influence which he enjoys
alike with gentle and simple, by reason of the assembly made by the
townsfolk in his circle. Having regard to the concord of our two
Governments, we have regarded as improper any overlooking of, or
connivance at, such matters, nor hath the intercession or intervention
of anyone been admitted in regard to him. Wherefore, since it was
necessary to make known this procedure to that brother of goodly
disposition, we have applied ourselves to the writing of this friendly
letter, committing the elucidation of the details of these events to our
divinely aided and favoured son Prince 'Abbis Mfrzi, our Viceroy.
The hope which we cherish from the Court of God is that every
moment the extent of the mutual affection of these two States of ancient
foundation may expand and increase, and that the bonds of friendship
and unity of these two Courts may be continually confirmed and multi-
plied by the interchange of messengers and messages: and may the
end be in welfare 1
"Written in the month of the First Rabf', 1245 " (September, 1829).

This letter, although professedly from Fath-'Alf Sháh,
was, of course, really written by the (2d'im-maqdm. It must
have been gall and wormwood to him to be
"Ras-i_ compelled to write so civilly, indeed so humbly,
nran~."
to the Russians, of whom he says in a poem
commemorating a Persian victory by 'Abbds Mirzi over
them and the Turks':

I A1a/ma1u1-FuFa~d, ii, p. 8&

316 POETS OF THE QAjAR PERIOD [PT 11

'lei LR- 6~'CJ 3 -~-3J

The unlucky ~urks and the ill-starred Russians on either side
attempted the subjugation of AdbarbdyjAn,"

and in one of his letters to MfrzA Buzurg of N6r, written
after the conclusion of peace with Russia (probably in 1243/
1828), he laments that he no longer dares speak of the
"Rzis-i-manhfis (the " sinister or " ill-starred Russians

CJ19U
J3

A later, greater, and more virtuous, but equally unfortu-
nate, Persian Prime Minister, MirzA Taqi Khán Aim(r-i-
MirzA Taqi Kabirl, still further simplified the style of official
Khán Amfr-i- correspondence; but the Qd'hn-nzaqdin's letters,
K4bfr. though they may not strike one unused to the
flowery effusions of the preceding age as very simple, mark
an immense advance on the detestable rhodomontades
which had for too long passed as eloquent and admirable,
and probably deserve the high esteem in which, as already
mentioned, they are held by the best contemporary Persian
taste and judgment. A critical annotated edition of these
letters would be of considerable literary and historical value,
and might with advantage engage the attention of some
Persian scholar whose interests are not confined to a remote
past.

(6) Wisa'l (d. 1262/1846) and his sons.
I have already mentioned WisAl, some of whose gifted
sons and grandsons I was privileged to meet at ShirAz in
Wi11 (d. x262/ the spring of 1888. He is generally regarded
1846) and his by his countrymen as one of the most eminent
sons. of the modern poets, and both RidA-qulf Khin
who devotes lengthy notices to him in all three of his works:
I For a most favourable sketch of his character, see R. G. Watson,
OP. cit., PP. 404-6.

CH. VH]

WISAL OF SHfRAZ

V7
and the poet Bismil, the author of the Tadhkira-i-Di1gushd,
were personally acquainted with him, the latter intimately.
His proper name was Mfrzi [Muhammad] Shaff'f but he
was commonly entitled "Mirzi Ku'chuk," and he was a
native of Shiriz. Bismil speaks in the most glowing terms

of his skill in calligraphy and music as well as in verse,
wherein he holds him "incomparable" (adimul-mithdl),
and praises his lofty character and fidelity in friendship,
but describes him as " rather touchy " (andak zzid-ray~j), a
description illustrated by Ridi-quli Klidn's remark (in the
Rawdatu's_.~afd) that he was much vexed when the Shih,
meaning to praise him, told him that he was "prodigal of
talents',." He is said to have written twelve thousand
verses, which include, besides qa~ldas and ghazals, the
Bazm-i- Wisdl and the continuation and completion of
Wahshi's Farhdd u Shtrin, described as " far superior to
the original2." He also translated into Persian the Atwd-
qu'dh-Dhahab ("Collars of Gold") of Zamakhshari. Bismil,
who professes to have read all his poems, only cites the
relatively small number Of 213 couplets, of which the
following are fairly typical, and afford a good instance of
what Persian rhetoricians call the "attribution of praise in
the form of blame," for the qa~ida begins:

"The sea , the land, heaven and the stars-
Each one of them declares the King a tyrant-

an opening calculated to cause consternation to courtiers.,
until it is stated that the sea considers itself wronged by
his liberality, the mountain because he has scattered its
hoarded gold like dust, the stars because they are eclipsed
in number and splendour by his hosts, and so forth. As

( lb Z_"j J3 jl~_t4
AW %:--o-Loj JL*A* Ij
L5

318 POETS OF THE QAjAR PERIOD [FT 11

such far-fetched conceits can hardly be made attractive in
translation, I again confine myself to quoting a few lines
of the original:

Wisil's Farhdd u Shirin has been lithographed, and
ample selections from his poems are given by RidA-qulf

WiU2 son& Khán in his Riyd~Yu'l-'~4rifi(n (PP. 337-5o) and
MajmaV1-Fusahd (ii, PP. 528-48), which latter
work also contains (PP. 548-58) an ample notice of his
Wiqlr. eldest son Wiqdr, who was presented to NAsi-
ru'd-Din Sháh in 1274/1857-8 at Tihrin, where
his biographer met him again " after twenty years' separa-
tion." The same work contains notices of WiqAr's younger
brothers, MfrzA Mahmu'd the physician, poeti-

Mirz.4 Mahmdd
the physician. cally named Hakfm (d. 1268/1851-2: pp. 102-
5), and MfrzA Abu'l-Qdsim Farhang, of whom
I have already spoken (P. 300 supra), but
not of the three other brothers Diwarf, Yazddnf and
HimmaL The following fine musammat by Diwarf, de-
DiwarL scribing one of the Sháh's hunting parties, I
copied for myself in the house of the late
NawwAb MirzA Hasan 'Alf Khán at Tihrdn early in the
year 1888, and, as it has never been published, and I know
of no other copy in Europe, I cannot resist the temptation
of here assuring a survival hitherto so precarious, for it was
copied on a loose half-sheet of note-paper which I only
accidentally came across just now while searching for
something else.

Farhang.

This poem is simple, sonorous and graphic; the court
page, who has just returned from accompanying the Sháh
on a winter hunting-expedition, and is in so great a hurry
to visit his friend the poet that he enters in his riding-
breeches and boots (bd chakina wa shalwdr), with hair still
disordered and full of dust, and eyes bloodshot from the
glare of the sun, the hardships of exposure, and lack of
sleep, bringing only as a present from the journey (rah-
dward-i-safar) roses and hyacinths (his cheeks and hair),
rubies of BadakhshAn (his lips), and a casket of pearls (his
teeth), is a vivid picture; and if a description of the Royal
massacre of game reminds us of the immortal Mr Bunker's
Bavarian battuel, we must remember that the wholesale
slaughters of game instituted by Chingiz Khán the Mongol
in the thirteenth century, whereof the tradition still survives
to some extent, were on a colossal scale, altogether tran-
scending any European analogy2.
In 1887,
the year before I met DAwari s brother Farhang
at Shfriz, two of his unpublished poems were shown to and
Farbang's copied by me in London. One was a qa~ida
description in praise of Queen Victoria, composed on the
of Paris. occasion of her jubilee, which I was asked to
translate so that it might perhaps be brought to her notice,
a hope not fulfilled. The other, composed in May of the
same year (Sha'bin, 1304), contained a quaint description

I See J. Storer Clouston's Lunatic at Large (shilling edition, 1912,
P. 241).
2 See Baron d'Obsson's Histoire des Mongols (the Hague and Am-
sterdam, 1834), vol. i, PP. 404-6; and P- 59, n. 2 sufira.

CH. VHJ FARHANG DESCRIBES PARIS! 323

of Paris, laudatory for the most part, but concluding with
some rather severe reflections on the republican form of
government. It differs widely from the poems of Farhang
cited in the Haima'u'I-Fusahd (ii, PP. 384-8), is full of
French words, and produces, as was probably intended, a
somewhat comic and burlesque effect. It contains 78 verses
and is too long to be cited in full, but I here give the
opening and concluding portions:

Lack of space compels me to pass over several poets
of some note, such as AqA Muhammad Hasan Zargar
("the Goldsmith") of Isfahdn, who died in 12701
Other poets of
lessimportance. 1853-4'; AqA Muhammad 'A'shiq, a tailor, also
of Isfahán, who died at the age of seventy in
1281/18642; Mfrz;i Muhammad 'All Surdsh of Sidih, en-
titled Shamsu'sh-Shuard, who died in 1285/1868-93; and
AqA Muhammad 'Ali jqy~zin of Yazd, of whose life I can
find no particulars save such as can be gleaned from his
verses, but who composed, besides numerous poems of

326 POETS OF THE QAjAR PERIOD [PT 11

various types, a prose work entitled Namakddn (" the Salt-
cellar ") on the model of the Gulistdn, and whose complete
works were lithographed at Bombay in 13i6/i8qq, making
a volume Of 317 PP- Others who are reckoned amongst
the poets were more distinguished in other fields of litera-
ture, such as the historians RidA-qulf Khán Hiddyati, so
often cited in this chapter (born M5/i8oo, died 1288/
1871-2), and MfrzA Muhammad Taqf Si
pilir of Kishin',
entitled LisdnWI-Mulk ("the Tongue of the Kingdom"),
author of the Ndsikhu't-TawdY,1kh ("Abrogator of His-
tories") and of another prose work entitled Bardhfizu'l-
'Aj~zm ("Proofs of the Persians"); the philosopher HAjji
MullA HAdf of SabzawAr, who was born in 1212/1797-8,
wrote a small amount of verse under the pen-name of
Asrdr Cl Secrets"), and died in 1295/18783; and others. Of
the remaining modern representatives of the "Classical
School" Qa"Anf is by far the most important, and after
him YaghmA, Fur6ghf and Shaybdni, of whom some account
must now be given.

(7) QA'Anf (d. 1,270/1853-4)-

QA'Anf is by general consent the most notable poet pro-
duced by Persia in the nineteenth century. He was born
at Shfriz about 1222/1807-8, for, according to
QA'Ani (d. 12701 his own statement at the end of the Kitdb-i-
1853-4)-
Parlshdn, he completed that work on Rajab 20,
1252 (October 31, 1836), being then two or three months
short of thirty years of age:

I His autobiography concludes the Ma/,-naV1-FusaP, ii, pp. 581-
678.
2 Ibid., ii, pp. i56-8r.
3 See my Year amongst the Persians, pp. 131-4; and the Riyd(fu'l-
'-6-Vln, pp. 241-2, -hich, however, puts his birth in 1215/1800-1, and
adds that he was sixty-three years of age at the time of writing (1278/
1861-2).

QA'ANPS PARISHAN 327

328 POETS OF THE QAjAR PERIOD [PT 11

His proper name was Ijabfb, under which lie originally
wrote, and which he uses as his takhallus, or noin de guerre,
riginally wrote in many of his earlier poems. Later when he
u0nder the pen- and Mirzi 'Abbis of Bistim, who originally
name of Habib. wrote under the pen-name of Miskfn, had

attached themselves to Hasan'Alf MfrzA Shujd'u's-Saltana,
for some time Governo r of KhurisAn and KirmAn, that
prince changed their pen-names respectively to Qd'inf and
Furu'ghf, after his two sons OgotAy QA'An and Ft '6
iru-hu'd-
Dawlal.
QA'Anf was born at Shfriz. His father, MfrzA Muhammad
(Alf, was also a poet who wrote under the pen-name of
Gulshan. Though QA'Anf was but a child when
11 is father he died, his statement in the Kitdb-i-Pai-1sh&z2
GuIshan.
that "though thirty complete years have elapsed
since the death of my father, I still imagine that it was but
two weeks ago" cannot be reconciled with the other state-
ment quoted above that he was not yet thirty when he
completed the book in question. The Tadlikira-i-Dilgieslid
consecrates- articles to both father and son, but unfortunately
in my manuscript the last two figures of the date of Gul-
shan's death are left blank, while it is also omitted in the
notice contained in the HajYnaV1-Fusahd3, which is very

meagre.
About QA'Ani's seemingly uneventful life there is not
much to be said. He appears to have spent most of it at
ShirAz, where in the spring of 1888 1 had the honour of
occupying the room in the house of the Nawwa'b MfrzA
Ijaydar 'Ali Khán which he used to inhabit and, as we
have seen, he resided for some time at KirmAn. The latter
part of his life, when he had established himself as a recog-
nized Court poet, was spent at Tihrin, where he died in

I Majmalull-Fusahd, ii, P. 394.
2 Tihrin lithographed edition of Qd'dnf's works Of 130211884-5, P- 35-
3 VOL ii, P. 426.

CH. V11]

QA,AN1 A TIME-SERVER

329
127011853-4. Two of his latest poems must have been
those which he wrote to celebrate the escape of NAsiru'd-
Din Sháh from the attempt on his life made by three Ba'bfs
on August 15, x852, quoted in my Traveller's Narrative~
QA'Ani is one of the most melodious of all the Persian
poets, and his command of the language is wonderful, but
he lacks high aims and noble principles. Not
QA'Anfs merits
and defects. only does he flatter'great men while they are
in power, and turn. and rend them as soon as
they fall into disgrace, but he is prone to indulge in the
most objectionable innuendo and even the coarsest ob-
scenity. In numerous qasidas he extols the virtues and
justice of IjAjji MfrzA Aq'isP, the Prime Minister of Mu-
hammad Sháh, but in aya~fda in praise of his successor
Mirzi Taqi Khán Amir-i-Kabir he alludes to the fallen
minister thus:

In the place of a vile tyrant is seated a just and God-fearing man,
In whom pious believers take pride."

Of his innuendo the following is a good specimen:

Lb '04

A)q 9

S.) I.*- Aj C>4 a_4j C)jft_.oA r-J C~), Wo

VOl- ii, PP- 325-6.
2 Tihrin ed. Of 1302/1884-5, PP- 19, 35, 40t 41) 43, 7o, 82, 94) 951 115,
12 31 130 etc.

CH. V11] QAANf A TIME-SERVER

1270/1853-4. Two of his latest poems must have been
those which he wrote to celebrate the escape of Nisiru'd-
Dfn Sháh from the attempt on his life made by three Bábís
on August 15, 185:2, quoted in my Traveller's Narrative'.
Qd'dni is one of the most melodious of, all the Persian
poets, and his command of the language is wonderful, but
QA'Ani's merits he lacks high aims and noble principles. Not
and defects. only does he flatter great men while they are
in power, and turn- and rend them as soon as
they fall into disgrace, but he is prone to indulge in the
most objectionable innuendo and even the coarsest, ob-
scenity. In numerous qa~fdas he extols the virtues and
justice of Hijji Mirzi Aqds1% the Prime Minister of Mu-
hammad Slidh, but in a qa~lda in praise of his successor
MfrzA Taqf Khán Amfr-i-Kabir he alludes to the fallen
minister thus:

329

A3 d3to A:-"j L5;1- U4U' L;tq-?

LhJt0;._W -A!;- L$AZ4 4AM -

In the place of a vile tyrant is seated a just and God-fearing man,
In whom pious believers take pride."

Of his innuendo the following is a good specimen

The beauty of Qi'Anfs language can naturally only be
appreciated by one who can read his poems in the original,
which is fortunately easily accessible, as his works have
been repeatedly published'. I have chiefly used the TihrAn
lithographed edition Of 1302/1884-5, and in a lesser degree
the Tabrfz lithographed edition Of 1273/1857, and the
" Selections ... recommended for~ the Degree of Honour

I See E. Edwards's Catalogue of the Persian printed books in the
British Museum, 1922, columnS 237-9.

CH. V11] QA'ANfS MELODIOUS DICTION 331

Examination in Persian " printed at Calcutta in A.D. 1907.
Like most of the Qájár poets, he excels chiefly in the qayida,
the musammat and the tarkib-band, but the following g-hazall
is extraordinarily graceful and melodious:

Wonderful also is the swing and grace of the poem in
praise of the Queen-mother (Mahd-i-'U1yd) beginning,:

LAJ U ~-Mj J C-J U_ .3

Tihrdn ed. Of 1302, P. 309.

CH. V11] QA,ANI'S CHARACTERISTICS,: 333
Lbj5z%I- C)L, 4.m. A, #.XJJj J1 Qj:!, J
IL4J.D 49 CA4 cj,..q OJ9 LSLV4--~-J
I
U-J L-AA uj~- j 4-,1,
1

"Are these violets growing from the ground on the brink of the
streams,
Or have the houris [of Paradise] plucked strands from their tresses?
If thou hast not seen how the sparks leap from the rock,
Look at the petals of the red anemones in their beds
Which leap forth like sparks from the crags of the mountains!"

Not inferior to this is another similar poem in praise of
Mirzi Taqf Khán Am;(r-i-Kabir, beginning':

. I

Instead of the far-fetched and often almost unintelligible
conceits so dear to many Persian poets, Qi'Anf prefers to
draw his illustrations from familiar customs and common
observances, as, for example, in the following verses2, wherein
allusion is made to various popular ceremonies connected
with the Naw-rdz, or Persian New Year's Day:

1J,A I J.3.) C~j UV

TihrAn ed. Of 1302, P. x6. 2 Ibid., pp. r4-x5.
Haft Sin. It is customary at the Naw-rziz to collect together seven
objects whereof the names begin with the letter S, such as sunbul
(hyacinth), sib (apple), s4san (lily), shn (silver), Sir (garlic), sirka
(vinegar), and sifiand (rue).

I All the people put on new clothes at this great national festival,
distribute sugar-plums amongst their friends, fill their hands with silver
and corn, eat pistachio-nuts and almonds, burn aloe-wood and other
fragrant substances, and greet one another with kisses.
2 The first verse of a poem by Im-,Imi of Herit cited on p. i r6 of my
Persian Literature under Tartar dominion contains a very similar
thought.

CH. VII] QAANPS STAMMERING POEM, 335

QA'Anf is also one of the very few Persian poets who has
condescended to reproduce actual peculiarities of speech
or enunciation, as in his well-known dialogue
QVInfs 6
stammering between an old man and a child both of whom
poem. are afflicted with a stammer. This poem, which
may more conveniently be transcribed into the Roman
character, is as follows,:

Pirakf 111 sahar-g1h bi-tiflf alkan
MI-shunfdam ki badin nawl hami-rind sukhan:
I Kay zi zulfat ~a-~a-subham sha-sha_sh1m-i-t6Lrfk,
Way zi chihrat sha-sha-shimam *a-*a-~ubh-i-rawshan I
Ta-ta-tiryAkiyam, u az shA-sha-shahd-i-la-labat
~a-sa-sabr u ta-ta-tibam ra-ra-raft az ta-ta-tan~
Tifl guftA, 'Ma-ma-man-rl tu-tu taqlfd ma-kun 1
Ga-ga-guin shaw zi baram, ay ka-ka-karntar az zan I
Mi-mf-khwdhf mu-mu-mushtf bi-ka-kallat bi-zanam,
Ki biyuftad ma-ma-ma-hzat ma-mayin-i-da-dihan?l

Pir guftA, 'Wa-wa-wad~hi ki ma'16m-ast in
Ki-ki zidarn man-i-h(chira zi mddar alkanl
Ha-ha-haftAd u ha-hashtdd u si sAl-ast fuzdn
Ga-ga-gung u la-la-lilam ba-bi-Khall6Lq-i-Zaman I
Tifl gufti: I Kha-khudi-rd qa-qa-~ad bdr sha-shukr
Ki bi-rastam bi-jahin az ma-la-141 u ma-miban I
Ma-ma-man ham ga-ga-gungarn ma-ma-mithl-i-tu-tu-td:
Tu-tu-td ham ga-ga-gungi ma-ma-mithl-i-ma-ma-man 111

Besides his poems, QA'Anf wrote a collection of stories
and maxims in the style of Sa'di's Gulistdn entitled Kitdb-i-
Parislidn, comprising one hundred and thirteen
The Kit,04- anecdotes, and concluding with thirty-three
Parfthdm
truly Machiavellian counsels to Kings and
Princes. This book, which contains a certain amount of
autobiographical material, occupies pp. i-4o of the TihrAn
lithographed edition of QVinfs works, and numerous other
editions exist, several of which are mentioned by MrEd~vards
in his Catalogue'.

I See my Year amongst the Persians, pp. i 18-19, and PP- 345-6 0
the edition of Qi'Ani cited above.

2 Columns 237-9-

336 POETS OF THE QAJAR PERIOD [PT II

(8) Furdghf (d. 1274/1858).

Mention has already been made of Mirzi 'Abbis, son Aqd Mu's;i of Bistim, who wrote verse first under the pen-
name of Miskfn and later of Furulghf. He is
Furfthf
(d. 1274/1858)- said to have written some twenty thousand
verses, of which a selection of sorne five thou-
sand is placed at the end (PP. 4-75) of the TihrAn edition
(1302/ 1884-5) of the works of QA'Anf, with whom he was so
closely associated. Unlike him, however, he seems to have
preferred lyric to elegiac forms of poetry ; at any rate

the selections in question consist entirely of
911azals. According to the brief biography
prefixed to thern he adopted the SUM doctrine

in the extremer forms which it had assumed in ancient
times with Bdyazfd of Bistaim and Husayn ibn Mansur al-
Halldj, and so incurred the suspicion and censure of the
orthodox. NAsiru'd-Din Sháh, in the beginning of whose
reign he was still flourishing, once sent for him and said,
" Men say that like Pharaoh thou dost advance the claim 'I
am your Lord the Supreme',' and that thou dost openly pre-
tend to Divinity." "This assertion," replied Furu'ghf, touching
the ground with his forehead, " is sheer calumny .... For
seventy years I have run hither and thither, and only now
have I reached the Shadow of God 12 " The first three
verses from the first ode cited seem to me as good and as
typical as any others. They run as follows:
, !)j U~!
'53 -,OAS 1-%*4 49, A:AO "".)v U-1
~3 -v;-S U4.3 j!iA j~o U

I QuPdn, lXXiX, 24- 2 Le. the King.

CH. V11] YAGHMA OF JANDAQ

337
When didst thou depart from the heart that I should crave for Thee?
When wert thou hidden that I should find Thee?
Thou hast not disappeared that I should seek Thy presence
Thou hast not become hidden that I should make Thee apparent.
Thou hast come forth with a hundred thousand effulgences
That I may contemplate Thee with a hundred thousand eyes."

(9) Yaghmi of Jandaq.

Mfrzi Abul-Hasan of jandaq, chiefly celebrated for his
abusive and obscene verses (Hazah~ydt), and commonly
known, from his favourite term of coarse in-
vective, as Zan-qa~zba, is the last poet mentioned
by the author of the XajvzaV1-Fusahd1 before
the autobiography with which he concludes. He was for
some time secretary to a very violent and foul-mouthed
nobleman named Dhu'l-FiqAr Khán of SamnAn, for whose
amusement he is said to have written these offensive poems,
collectively known as the Sarddriyyal. Though he wrote
a quantity of serious verse and a number of elegant letters
in prose, which are included in the large TihrAn edition of
his works lithographed in 1283/1866-7, it is on his Haza-
liyydt, or " Facetiae," that his fame or infamy is based.
The author of the Tadhkira-i-Di1gushds devotes but three
lines to him, and was not personally acquainted with him,
but had heard him well spoken of as " an amiable and
kindly man and a good-natured and eloquent youth, who
did not believe in making a collection of his poems."
QA'Anf attacked him in his own style in the following
abusive verses I:

Vagbrnl of
jandaq.

40
At"j

QA'Anrs attack
on YaghmC

VOl- ii, P- 580-
These poems, which occupy pp. 204-217 of the Tibrin lithographed
edition Of 1283/1866-7, are, however, only a fraction of the Hazaliyydt.
3 F. 53 b Of My MS.
4 P- 372 of the lithographed TihrAn edition Of 1302/1884-5.

338 POETS OF THE QAjAR PERIOD [PT 11

A t.0

J u

IJIA),& A3 AJ,& j1 3 dtb_X*j A.*A

'i U4-4 JP -9 4-OA -~dto

v<"ji A-C-Al U

Yaghmd's Ku11z)iydt, or Complete Works, as represented
in the Tihrin lithographed edition above
Contents of mentioned, comprise the following:
Yagbinfi's
Kulliyydt or
Complete Works. A. Prose writings (pp. 2-145), consisting of

numerous letters written to friends and ac-
quaintances, unfortunately, so far as I have seen, undated.
A careful examination of these letters would undoubtedly
furnish abundant materials for the poet's biography. Many
of them are addressed to unnamed friends, acquaintances
or patrons, but some were written to his sons, MirzA
Isma'fl who wrote poetry under the pen-name of Hunar,
MirzA Ahmad Safd'4 Mirzi Muhammad 'Alf Khatar, and
Mfrz;i lbrAhim. Dastdn, while others were written to men of
more or less note whose names are given. In many of these
letters he elects to write in pure Persian (Pdrsf-n1kdr1)1
avoiding all Arabic words, while others, called ndma-i-bas#,
are written in a very simple style.

B. Verse.

i. Early odes (g-7tazaYyydt4-qadfina), pp. 46-183,
2. Later odes (ghazaliyydt-ijadida), pp. 184-203.
3. The Sarddrz)~ya mentioned above (pp. 204-217),
written in the ghaval form with the pen-name Sarddr.

ILI

Autograph of the poet Yaghmi

Or- 4936 (Brit. Mus.), ig

To face P. 338

CH. VII] YAGHMA OF JANDAQ 339

4. The Qassdbiyya (pp. 21S-231), similar to the last-
mentioned work in form and contents, but with the pen-
name Qa~sdb ("Butcher").
.: 5.- The Kildb-i-Ahmad(pp. 232-247), similar to the two
last, but with the.pen-name.Ahmad.
6. The Khuldsatu'I-Ifti~d~ ("Quintessence of Disgrace,'!
pp. 248-265), an account in mathnawf vers e of a scandalous
incident fully described in a marginal note on P. 248- -
7-, The KiMb-i-Sukiiku'd-DaW (pp, 266-28o), another
wathnawl in the metre,of the Sháhndma outwardly praising
but inwardly satirizing a certain Sayyid Q anbar-i-Rawda-
khwdn, entitled, by Yaghmi Rustamu's-Sdddl.
8. Mardthi or Elegies on the deaths of thle lmdms (pp.
282-300.
9. , Tarji-bands and,TarRb-bands,(PP- 302-33 1), Mostly
of a ribald character.
io. Q4a'dtor Fragments (PP. 332-355), mostly ribald and
satirical.
i i. Rubdivydt or Quatrains (PP- 356-389 also ribald,

The -odes, old and new', and the elegies (Nos. r, 2 and 8
in the above list) constitute the respectable, part of Yaghmi's
verse, in all about one-third of the whole. As
Yaghtn4i's for the. rest, with' the possible exception of
abusive ~erse.
No. 7, it is for the most part not fit to.,print,
much less to translate. The poet's favourite term of abuse
Zan-qahba, by which he himself is commonly- known, is by
no m,eans a nice expression, but, it is delicacy,itself com-
pared with much 'of the language he employs.' On the other
hand, his serious odes and elegies show that
His religious
elegies. he can write fine poetrywhile his command
of language is almost greater than that of
QA'Anf, even though the melody of his verse be less. He
also appears to have invented a type of marthiyq or elegy
which he calls Nzi~a-i-Slna-zanf, or Lamentation accom-

22-2

340 POETS OF THE QAJAR PERIOD [PT 11

panicd by beating of the breast. This I supposed till lately
to have been one of the new models which sprang into
existence after the Revolution of 1905-6, and I gave several
specimens of it in my Press and Poetry of Modern Persia'.
The following are the initial lines of eight of Yaghmi's
elegies of this type:

This last poem in form most closely approaches No. xg
in my Press and Poetry of Modern Persia.
The above poems are interesting as regards their form.
The'following, an ordinary Nilha, or " Lamentation," with-
out refrain, partly in colloquial dialect, is simple and rather
beautiful. I quote only the first six of the nineteen verses
which it comprises:

My heart is very weary of life however soon I die, it is still too late.
The women's hearts are the abode of grief and mourning; the men's
bodies are the target of swords and arrows.
Their sons welter in their blood; their daughters mourn; the brother
is slain ; the sister is a captive.
The morsel in the mothers' mouths is their own heares blood; the
milk in the children's throats is liquid gore.

344 POETS OF THE QAJAR PERIOD [PT 11

The captives, in place of tears and lamentations, have sparks in
their eyes and fire in their souls.
The outcry of the thirsty reaches down and up from the dark earth
to the Sphere of the Ether."

It is curious to find in two such ribald poets as YaghmA
and QA'Anfl so deep a religious sense and sympathy with

the martyrs of their faith as are manifested
Ribaldry 2nd
Piety. in a few of their poems. Verlaine, perhaps,
offers the nearest parallel in modern European

literature.
Of the remaining poets who flourished during the long
reign of Ndsiru'd-Din Sháh, whose assassination on May i,
1896, may be regarded as the first portent of the Revolution
which bore its full fruit ten years later, two, MirzA Muham-
Sipibr, Hiddyat mad Taqi of KishAn with the pen-name of
andShaybinf. sipihr, and Mirzi RidA-qulf Khán Hiddyat,
are better known as historians and will be men-
tioned as such in a later chapter, though notices of both
are given by the latter in his often-quoted Majina'u'l-
Fusalzd% Another poet of some note is Abu'n-Nasr Fathu
'IlAh Khán Shaybdn;( of KAshAn, a copious selection of
whose poems was printed by the Akhtar Press at Constanti-
nople in Uo8/i 8go-i 3, and of whom a long notice (pp. 224-
245) is also given in the Majina'WI-Fusahd. The list might
be increased almost indefinitely, did space permit, but the
most notable names have been mentioned, and even to them
it has been impossible to do justice.

I For his beautiful marthiya on the tragedy of KarbalA, see pp.
177-181 sufira.
2 See vol. ii, pp. 156-i8l: for Sipihr, and PP. 581-678 for the auto-
biography of HidAyat. This great anthology was concluded in 1288/
1871-2.
3 It was edited by Isma'fl Na~frf Qarija-Dighf, published at the
instigation of Mfrzi Ri4A Khán, afterwards entitled Arfa'u'd-Dawla,
and comprises 312 pp.

x1i

MUZAFFARU'D-DIN MIRZA (afterwards SHAH) seated, with his

tutor (Lala-btishi) RIDA-QUL! KHAN, poet and historian, standing
on his right (the reader's left)

Or. 4938 (Brit. Mus.), 14

To face P- 344

CH. VII] CONTEMPORARY POETS

345
Of the new school of poets produced by the Revolution
in 19o6 and the succeeding, years I have- treated in a
The new %chool separate work, the Press and Poetry in Mo&rn
ofpost-Revolu- Persia', more fully than would have been
tion poets. possible in this volume. The most eminent of
these contemporary poets are, perhaps, Dakhaw (Dih-
I Khudd) of Qazwfn, 'Arif of Qazwfn, Sayyid
Dakhaw, 'ArIf.
Ashrat and Ashraf of GflAn, and, Bahár of Mashhad. Da-
BaUr. khaw is probably the youngest and the most
remarkable of them, though I do not think he has produced
much verse lately. The versatility of his genius is illustrated
by two of his poems (Nos- 3 and 14) cited in my above-
mentioned work, on the one hand the riotous burlesque
of 11 Xabldy," and on the other the delicate and beautiful
in Memoriam addressed to his former colleague~ Mirza'
jahingir Khin of Shfriz, editor of the Stir-i-Jsrdfll, of
which the former was published in that admirable paper on
November 20, 1907, and the latter on March 8, igog.
Bahár, entitled Maliku'sh-Shu'ard, " King of the Poets,"
or Poet Laureate, was the editor of the Naw Bahár (which
after its suppression reappeared under the title of Tdza
Bahár), and was the author of several fine poems (Nos. 2o,
34 and 36-47) published in my book, while 'Arif is repre-
sented by NO. 33, and Ashraf by Nos. 4-7, 9-13, z6-ig, and
27- 1 do not think that the works of these or any others of
the post-Revolution poets have been published in a collected
form. They appeared from time to time in various news-
papers, notably the Sdr-i-Isrdfil, Nasim-i-Shimdl and Naw
Bahár, and must be culled from their pages. Many of the
now numerous Persian papers contain a literary corner
entitled Adabiyydt in which these poems appear. The im-
portance of the fact that their aim must now be to please

I Camb. Univ. Press, 1914, PP- xl+357i with a Persian foreword of
5 pp. The poems (originals and translations) occupy pp. 168-3o8,
comprise 61 separate pieces, and can be obtained separately for Ss.

346 POETS OF THE QAJAR PERIOD [PT ii

the increasing public taste and reflect the growing public
opinion, not to gratify individual princes, ministers and
noblemen, has been already emphasized'.
Of one other poet, lately deceased, who is very highly
esteemed by his countrymen, but whose writings are not
yet readily accessible, something more must be
The late Adfbu'l. said. This is MfrzA SAdiq Khán, a great-grand-
MamAlik.
son of the celebrated QA'im-maqAM2 , best
known by his title Adibie'l-Mamdlik, who died on the 28th
of Rabfl ii, 1335 (Feb. 21, 1917). Three sources of informa-
tion about him are at my disposal, viz. (i) a notice in my
Ms. marked J. 193 on modern Persian poets (PP. 39-50);
(2) an obituary notice in NO. 20 Of the old Kdwa of April
15, 1917; and (3) a pamphlet published at the " Kaviani
Press" in '1341/1922 by Khán Malik-i-Husaynf-i-SAsAnf, a
cousin of the poet, announcing his intention of collecting
and publishing his poems, and asking help from those who
possess copies of verses not in his possession. Some parti-
culars concerning him are also given in my Press and
Poetry of Modern Persia in connection with the various
papers he edited or wrote for at different times,
His journalistic
activities. viz. the Adab of Tabriz (PP. 37-8)) Mashhad
(P. 38) and TilirAn (P. 39), which extended over
the period 13i6-I322/I898-i9o5 ; the Turco-Persian Irshdd
(P. 39), which he edited in conjunction with Ahmad Bey
Aghayeff of QarAbAgh at BAku' in 1323/1905-6; the Rziz-
ndina-ilrdn-i-Sul ' Idni (pp. 88-91), to which he contributed
in 1321/1903-4; the '1rdq-i-'Ajam (pp. 118-iq), which he
edited in 132511907; and the Majlis (pp. 132-3), for

I See P- 302 sufira.
2 See PP- 31 I-P6 sufira.
3 See 13- 302 sufira. Since writing this, my attention has been called
by my friend MfrzA Salmin-i-Asadf to an interesting article on the
Adibu'l-Mamdlik in the periodical entitled Armaglidn (No. i of the
third year, pp. 15-25).

CH. Vii)

AWBUL-MAMALIK 347

which he wrote in 1324/igo6. One of the most celebrated
of his poems is also given on PP. 300-302 of the same
work.
The Adibu'l-Mamdlik was born in 1277/i86o-i, and was
a descendant in the third degree of Mirzi 'fsA QA'im-
maqim, and in the thirty-fifth degree of the

Brief chronology IMiM Zaynu'l-'Abidfn. In 1307/i889-go he
of his life.
was at Tabriz in. the service of the Amfr Nizim
(Ijasan'Alf Khán-i-Garru'si), in honour of whom he changed
his pen-name from Parwdna (" Moth") to Amiri In 1311/
1893-4 he followed the Amfr NizAm to Kirmdnshdh and
Kurdistdn. During the two following years (1894-6) he was
employed in the Government Translation Office (Ddru't-
Tarjuma-i-Dawlati) in Tihra'n, but in Safar 1314/JuIY-
August, 1896, he returned with the Amfr Nizim to Adhar-
bAyjAn, where, in 1316/1898-9, he adopted the turban in
place of the kuldh, became Vice-master of the Luqminiyya
College at Tabriz, and founded the Adab newspaper, which,
as stated above, he afterwards continued at Mashhad and
TihrAn. - During the years 1318-2o/_19oo-o2 he travelled
in the Caucasus and Khwa'razm (Khiva), whence he came
to Mashhad, but at the end of A.H. 1320 (March, 1903) he
returned to Tihra'n, and for the next two years, 1321~2/
1903-5, was the chief contributor to the Rziz-ndma-i-Jrdn-i-
Sultdhi(. In 1323/igo5-6 he was joint editor of the Irshdd
at BAku'; in 1324/19o6 he became chief writer for the
Majlis. edited by Mimi Muhammad SAdiq-i-Tab#abA'f;
and in 1325/1907 he founded the '1rdq-i-Ajam. In July,
igio, he took part in the capture of Tihrdn by'the Nation-
alists, and subsequently held the position of President of
the High Court of Justice (Ra'1s-i-Ad1iyya) in 'IrAq and
afterwards at Samnin. He lost his only daughter in 13301
1912. Two years later he was appointed editor of the semi-
official newspaper -4ftdb ("the Sun"). In1335/i9i6-I7he
was appointed President of the High Court of justice at

348 POETS OF THE QAJAR PERIOD [PT 11

Yazd, but soon afterwards, as we have seen, he died at
Tihrin, aged fifty-eight'.
The special value and interest of his poems, according to
Khán Malik, his cousin and intimate friend, lie not only in
their admirable and original style, but in their
faithful reflection of the varying moods of the
Persian people during the fateful years 19o6-
1912. In satire it is said that no Persian poet has equalled
him since the time of old Su'zanf of Samarqand', who died
in 569/il73-4. In his pamphlet Khán Malik gives the
opening verses of all the poems in his possession, with the
number of verses in each, and invites those who possess
poems lacking in his collection to communicate them
to him before jumida i, 1342 (December, 1923), when be
proposes to publish as complete an edition as possible.
The Kdwa quotes the following verses from one of his
poems on the Russian aggressions in Persia, which it com-
pares with the celebrated poems of Sa'df on the destruction
of the Caliphate by the Mongols', Anwarf on the invasion
of the Ghuzz Turks', and HAfiz on Tfm6r's rapacitys:

- W

-q 3ij 3j,4 3 jL

'AvJo Le 'o

I These dates are taken from Khán Maliles pamphlet, PP. 4
2 See Lit. Hist. Persia, ii, PP. 342-3.
3 Ibid-, pp. 29-30-
4 Ibid., PP. 384-9-
6 The reference here is to the well-known verse-

C)LU
L)

It is, however, but a vague and casual allusion.

CH. V11]

AWBUL-AIAMALIK

349

J13A- 0-1c! JU C,.Vs j, ili,.,j

A Since the poor lamb did not forgather with its shepherd, through

fear it neither slept nor rested in the plain.
A bear came forth to hunt, and bound its limbs: our lamb became
the prey of that high-banded bear.
Alas for that new-bom and bemused lamb I Alack for that aged and
greedy bear I "

My manuscript J. 191 (P. 44) enumerates twelve of his
works, which include an Arabic and a Persian Diwdn, a
collection of Maqdmdt, a rhymed vocabulary, a volume of
travels, and several books on Astronomy, Geography,
Prosody, and other sciences.

I See p. 3o2 sufira.

PART III.

PERSIAN PROSE DURING THE
LAST FOUR CENTURIES

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ORTHODOX SHf'A FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS,
. THE MUJTAHIDS AND MULLAS.

One of the chief results of the Shi'a revival effected by
the Safawf dynasty was the establishment of the powerful
hierarchy of mujlahids and mullds, often, but
not very accurately, described by European
writers as "the clergy." This title is, however,
more applicable to them than to the 'ulamd, or "doctors,"
of the Sunnis, who are simply men learned in the Scripture
and the Law, but not otherwise possessed of any special
Divine virtue or authority. The great practical difference
between the Wlamd of the Sunnís and of the Shí'a lies in
their conception of the doctrine of ljtihdd, or
the discovery and authoritative enunciation of
fresh religious truths, based on a comprehensive
knowledge of the Scripture and Traditions, and arrived at by
supreme effort and endeavour, this last being the significa-
tion of the Arabic word. One who has attained to this is
called a mujtahid, whose position may be roughly described
as analogous to that of a Cardinal in the Church of Rome.
No such dignitary exists amongst the Sunnís, who hold
that the Bdbu'1-Ij1ihdd, or "Gate of Endeavour ",(in the
sense explained above), was closed after -the death of the
founders of their four " orthodox " schools or sects, Abu'
Hanifa (d. 1501767), Milik ibn Anas (d. circA 1791795),
ash-ShAfilf (d. 2o4/82o), and Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn
Hanbal (d. 241/855). Thus the "Gate of Endeavour,"
which, according to the ShPa view, is still open, has for
the Sunnís been closed for more than a thousand years;
and in this respect the Shi'a doctrine must be credited
with a greater flexibility and adaptability than that of the

B. P. 1.

354 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT iii

Sunnis, though in other respects narrower and more in-
tolerant.
As will appear in the course of this chapter, the power
and position attained by these prelates tended to divert
Attractions of the ambitions of young men who possessed, or
theology for believed themselves to possess, the necessary
the ambitiou& intellectual qualifications from poetry, belles
lettres, and other forms of mental activity to theology, and
from this tendency in part resulted the dearth of poets
and abundance of divines under the Safawfs. Those were
spacious times for the "turbaned classes"
and every poor, half-starved student who frequented one or
other of the numerous colleges (madrasa) founded, endowed
and maintained by the piety of the Safawf Sháhs, who
delighted to call themselves by such titles as " Dog of the
Threshold of the Immaculate Imims," or " Promoter of the
Doctrine of the Church of the Twelve," dreamed, no doubt,
of becoming at last a great mz~italzid, wielding powers of
life and death, and accorded honours almost regal.
No class in Persia is so aloof and inaccessible to foreigners
and non-Muslims as that of the mullds. It is easy for one
who has a good knowledge of Persian to mix
Aloofness of the
clerical class. not only with the governing classes and ofificials,
who are most familiar with European habits
and ideas, but with merchants, tradesmen, artisans, land-
owners, peasants, darwishes, BAbls, Bahi'ls, Sulffs and others;
but few Europeans can have enjoyed intimacy with the
The Cisasu'l. it clergy," whose peculiar, exclusive, and gene-
'Mami, ~r rally narrow life is, so far as my reading has
-raieq of the gone, best depicted in an otherwise mediocre
Divine&"
and quite modern biographical work entitled
Qi~asu'l-'Ulanzd ("Tales of the Divines ")' by Muharnmad

I possess two lithographed editions of this hook, the (second)
TihrAn edition, published in Salar, 1304(Nov. i886),andanutherpub-
lished (apparently) in Lucknow in '3o6/ 1888-9.

CH. viii] BIOGRAPHIES OF SHIIA DIVINES 55
3
ibn SulaymAn of Tanukibun, who was born- in 1235/
1819-20, wrote this book in three months and five days,
and concluded it on the 17th of Rajab, 1290 (Sept. i o, 1873).
It contains the lives Of 153 Shí'a doctors, ranging from
the fourth to the thirteenth centuries of the Muhammadan
(tenth to nineteenth of the Christian) era, arranged in no
intelligible order, either chronological or alphabetical. To
his own biography, which he places fourth in order, the

author devotes more than twenty pages, and enumerates
169 of his works, besides various glosses and other minor
writings. From this book, which I read through during the
Easter Vacation Of 1923, having long ago made use of
certain parts of it bearing on the Shaykhfs and Bábís,
I have disentangled from much that is tedious, trivial or
puerile, a certain amount of valuable information which is
not to be found in many much better biographical works,
whereof, before proceeding further, I shall here speak
briefly.
What is known as '1hnu'r-Rijd1 (" Knowledge of the
Men," that is of the leading authorities and transmitters
'11mu'r-Rijifl, of the Traditions) forms an important branch
or theological of theological study, since such knowledge is
biography. necessary for critical purposes. Of such Kutu-
bu'r-R~idl ("Books of the Men") there are a great many.
Sprenger, in his edition' of one of the most important of
these, the Filzrist, or " Index," of Muhammad ibn Hasan
ibn 'Alf of Tu's, entitled Shaykh0-Td'ifa) who died in 46o/
io67, ranks with it in importance four other works, the
Asind'u'r-R~idl ("Names of the Men") of Shaykh Ahmad
ibn 'Alf an-NajAshJ 2 (d. 455/io63); the Ma'dlimu'l-'Ulamd
of Muhammad ibn 'Alf ibn Shahr-Ashu'b of Maizandarin,

I Printed in the Bibliotheca Indica.
2 Lithographed at Bombay in 1317/1899-1900. In the Kashfull-
_Uujub (see PP- 357-8 inJra) the date of the author's death is given as
405/1014.

23-2

356 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

who died in 588/1192; the fdd1zu'1-1shtibd1z (" Elucidation
of Confusion") of Hasan ibn Yu'suf ibn Mutahhar al-Hillf
(b. 648/1250; d. 726/1326); and the LW1Watu'1-Bahrq
. yn
a work of a more special character, dealing especially with
the'ulamd of Bahrayn, by Y6suf ibn Ahmad ibn lbrAhfm
al-BahrAnf (d. 1187/1773-4). Another work, similar to the
last in dealing with a special region, is the Ama1u7-.,4Yni1fl
'Ulamd'iJabal-'.4mil, composed by Muhammad ibn Hasan
ibn 'Ali ... al-Ijurr al-'Amilf (b. 1033/1623-4) in io97/i686.
All these works are written in Arabic, but of the older
books of this class th ' ere is one in Persian (compiled in
990/1582) which must on no account be overlooked. This
is the Haidlisu'l-Mil'ininM ("Assemblies of
The
....majd"""'- Believers") of Sayyid Nu'ru'I]Ah ibn Sharff al-
inffl.
Mar'ashf of Sh6shtar, who was put to death
in India on account of his strong Shí'a opinions in ioig/
16io-i 1. This book is both of a wider scope and a more
popular character than those previously mentioned, since it
contains, in twelve chapters, notices of eminent Shi'as of
all classes, not merely theologians, and includes not only
those who adhered to the "Sect of the Twelve" (.1t1ind-
cashariyya) but all those who held that 'Ali should have
immediately succeeded the Prophet.
Of modern works of this class, composed within the last
sixty years, three, besides the above-mentioned Cisasu'l.-
'Maind, deserve special mention. The most
The RawdRu'l-
janndf. general in its scope, entitled Rawddtu'l-janndt
ft Ahwdli'l-'Ulamd wa's-Sdddt (;Gardens of
Paradise: on the circumstances of Divines and Sayyids2"),
was composed in Arabic by Muhammad BAqir ibn HAjji
Zaynu'l-'Abidfn al-Mu'sawf al-KhwAnsArl, whose auto-

1 Lithographed in Bombay, n. d.
L
2 An excellent litbograpbed edition (four vols. in one, containing in
all about 750 pp. and 713 biographies) was published at TihrAn in
13o6/i888.

cH. viiij BIOGRAPHIES OF SHPA DIVINES 157

bio,graphy is given on pp. 126-8 of vol. i9 in 1286/1869-70.
The biographies, which are arranged alphabetically, include
learned Muslims of all periods, and are not confined to
theologians or members of the Shia sect. Thus we find
notices of great Mystics, like Bdyazid of Bistdm, lbrihim

ibn Adham, Shibli and Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallij; of
Arabic poets, like Dhu'r-Rumma, Farazdaq, Ibnu'l-Firid,
Ab6 NuwAs and al-Mutanabbi; of Persian poets, like
SanA'f, Farfdu'd-Din 'Attdr, NAsir-i-Khusraw, and jalilu'd-
Din Ru'mf; and of men of learning like al-Bir6nf, ThAbit
ibn Qurra, Hunayn ibn lshAq and Avicenna, etc., besides
the accounts of Shí'a theologians down to comparatively
modern times which give the book so great a value for our
present purpose.
Anotherimportant work, composed in the same year
as that last mentioned (1286/i869-7o) but in Persian, is
entitled Nujzimu's- Samd (" Stars of Heaven
The Vvj,1-Ws-
Samd It deals with Shí'a theologians of the eleventh,
twelfth and thirteenth centuries of the hzjra
(A.D. 1592-1882), and the biographies are arranged on the
whole chronologically. The author was Muhammad ibn
~Adiq ibn Mahdi. Like most of these books its utility is
impaired by the lack of an Index or even a Table of
Contents, but it contains a great deal of useful information.
The third work of which I desire to make special mention
here is primarily a bibliography, though it also contains a
good deal of biographical matter. It is entitled
The Kashfu'l- Kashfu'l-,ffujub wa'I-Astdr 'an Asmd'i'I-Kutub
,~fujub.
wa'1-Asfdr ("the Removal of Veils and Curtains
from the Names of Books and Treatises "), contains notices
Of 3414 Shí'a books arranged alphabetically, and was com-
posed in Arabic by Sayyid PjAz Husayn, who was born in
124o/i825, and died in 1286/1870. The editor, Muhammad
HidAyat Husayn, discovered the manuscript in the excellent
1 Lithographed at Lucknow in 1303/1885-6 (pp. 424).

358 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Bankipore Library, and, encouraged by Sir E. Denison
Ross, prepared the text for publication at the expense of
the Asiatic Society of Bengal,.
Mention must also be made of another Arabic work on
Shí'a poets entitled Nashnatu's-Sahar ft-man tashayya'a
wa sha'ar ("the Morning Breeze, on those who
An anthology of
Shl'a poets. held the Shí'a faith and composed poetry
compiled by Yu'suf ibn YahyA al-Yamanf as-
~an'dnf, a rare book, hitherto, so far as I know, unpublished,
of which I am fortunate enough to possess a manuscript.of
the second half, containing the letters .6 to LS2. Only poets
who wrote in Arabic are noticed.
Of these books the Rawddtu7-.,ranndt is the most scholarly
and comprehensive, but those who read Persian only will
derive much instruction and some amusement
from the Majd1isu'l-HiVininin, Nuifimu's-Samd,
and 0sasie'1JUlamd. The older "Books of the
Men," such as the works of at-T6sf and an-NajAslif, are
generally very jejune, and suited for reference rather than
reading' As it is with the theologians of the -Safawf and
subsequent periods that we are chiefly concerned here, a
very few words about the older 'ulamd of the Shí'a will
suffice, though with their names, titles and approximate
dates the student should be familiar. The most important
of these earlier divines are " the three Muham-
The founders f
Shi'a theologyo: madsl," al-Kulaynf (Muhammad ibn Ya qu'b,
the "three
Muhammads" d. 329/940, Ibn Bdbawayhi (Muhammad ibn
and the "four 'Alf ibn Mu'sA, d. 381/991-.2), and the already-
Book&"
mentioned Tdsf (Muhammad ibn Hasan, d. 46o/

1 It was printed at the Baptist Mission Press at Calcutta in 1330/
1912, and comprises 607 PP.
2 For description of another copy see Ahlwardt's Berlin Arabic
Catalogue, vOl- vi, PP- 502-3, No. 7423.
See the Qisa u'l-WIanid, p. 221 of the Lucknow edition, sv. Mu-
bammad Bdqir-i-Majlisf.

cii. viii) THE FOUNDERS OF SHPA THEOLOGY 359

io67). Of these the first composed the Kdfi(, the second
Man Id yahduru-hu7-Faqih (a title which approximates in
sense to our familiar "Every man his own Lawyer"), and
the third the Istibsdr and the Tahdhfbu7-Ahkd;n, which
are known collectively amongst the Shl'a as "the Four
Books" (at-Kutubu'l-arba'a)', and of which full particulars

will be found in the above-mentioned Kash1*u'1-jVv;1,b

The "three More modern times also produced their "three
Muhammads" Muhammads," namely Muhammad ibn Hasan
of later days.
ibn'Alf ... al-Hurr al-'Amilf (author of the above-

mentioned Amalu'141nii); Muhammad ibnu'l-Murtadi,
commonly known as Mulld Muhsin-i-Fayz (Fayq), who
died about iogo/i679; and Muhammad BAqir-i-Majlisi
(d. I I I i/i6gg-1700)2. Each of these also produced a great
book, the first the Wasd'il, the second the Wdfl, and the
third the Bihdru'l-Anwdr (" Oceans of Light "), which con-
stitute the " Three Books " of the later time. These seven
great works on Shl'a theology, jurisprudence and tradition

Arabic the are, of course, like the great bulk of the works
usual medium of the Muhammadan Doctors -and Divines.
of theological written in Arabic, which language occupies no
works.
less a position in IslAm than does Latin in the
theological literature of the Church of Rome. Of them
space will not permit me to speak further; it is the more
popular Persian manuals of doctrine, whereby
Persian theo-
logical works the great theologians of the Safawf period
of the later sought so successfully to diffuse -their religious
period.
teachings, which must chiefly concern us here,
and even of these it will be impossible to give an adequate
account. According to the Rawddtu'l-fanndt', Kamdlu'd-
Din Husayn of Ardabfl, called "the Divine Doctor" (al-

I Or al-Usdlu'l-arbaa ("the Four Principles"). See JW~Wmwj-
Se"Hef, P. 75.
2 See p. 120 sufira.
3 Vol. i, P. 185.

36o THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Ildhi), a contemporary of Sháh Isma'fl I, "was the first to
compose books in Persian on matters connected with the
Holy Law according to the doctrine of the Shi'a ":

WA
4*- J.3 I
jwLi 61W

We have already seen' what difficulty Sháh IsmaT ex-
perienced on his capture of Tabriz in finding teachers or
books to inculcate the doctrines of the creed
Scarcity of
works of Shia which he was determined to impose throughout
theology in early his dominions, and it is not strange, though
*afawi days. the fact is often overlooked, that it became
necessary to introduce into Persia learned Arabs of the
Shí'a persuasion, where such were obtainable.
Importation to
Persia of Shl'a Two districts furnished the bulk of these: Bah-
doctors from rayn, across the Persian Gulf, and Jabal 'Amil
Arabia.
in Syria2. To the divines furnished by each of
these two localities a special biographical work has, as we
have seen, been devoted, namely the Lti'liVatie'l-Bahrayn
and the Amalu'l-,4nzil. Some of them came to Persia
totally ignorant of the Persian language, like Sayyid Ni-
'matu'llih al-jazi'irf, who, on reaching ShfrAz with his
brother, had to obtain from a Persian acquaintance the
sentence " Madrasa-i-Manyfiriyya-rd mi-k1twdhhn " (" We
want the Mansu'riyya College "), and even then each learned
only half of this simple phrase and spoke alternatelys.

PP. 54-5 sufira-
See G. le Strange's Palestine tinder the Moslems) PP- 75-6 and 470-
3 Qisasu'l-'Namd (ed. Lucknow, P. 229; ed. TihrJLn, P- 333)
.3 L5.6 'j,"i cil &;~p LAV, U w-i ...

A-S -1 Z L:jl ~:_j3 j.% 3

L*
Le Le U

L)l
1 J5 L4
1JOIJ L)'.1 45- Z-i~...OT L'-4 ")_*j L-, ,i

CH. viii] AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A THEOLOGIAN 361
t

It is the autobiography of this same Sayyid Ni'matu'llih,
as given in the Qisasu'l-,Ulamd, which furnishes us with
Autobiography so unusually vivid a picture of the privations
ofastudentof and hardships experienced by a poor student
theology. of Divinity. He was born in 1050/1640-1 and
wrote this narrative when he was thirty-nine years of age',
" in which brief life," he adds, "what afflictions have befallen
me I " These afflictions began when he was only five years
old, when, while he was at play with his little companions,
his father appeared, saying, " Come with me,
my little son, that we may go to the school-
master, so that thou mayst learn to read and
write, in order that thou mayst attain to a high degree." In
spite of tears, protests, and appeals to his mother he had to
go to school, where, in order the sooner to escape and return
to his games, he applied himself diligently to his lessons, so
that by the time he was aged five years and a half he had
finished the Qut-'dn, besides learning many poems. This,
however, brought him no relief and no return to his childish
games, for he was now committed to the care of a blind
grammarian to study the Arabic paradigms and
Tyranny of
teachers. the grammar of ZaDjdni. For this blind teacher
he had to act as guide, while his next preceptor

L,6 6.-J, LS-a~ L5!-;U I;A;

ak~ 6,.,j 'jem J;C~
0-
1Vjjq,3 Le A-E-1 A,156
A-'* Z-4t4 aA C)TI 4.j';tA;A ';.%4 :.A~ LV,

- He died, according to the Kashfull-gujub, P. 7o, NO. 328, in
1130/1718. Since writing this, I have found the Arabic original of this
autobiography in one Of my NESS- (C- 15) entitled Kildbu'l-Anwdri'n-
Nu'mdniyya, composed by Sayyid Ni'matu'llAh in io89/z678. It con.
cludes the volume, and Occupies ff. 329-34-

362 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

compelled him to cut and carry fodder for his beasts and
mulberry-leaves for his silk-worms. He then sought another
teacher with whom to study the Kdfiya of Ibnu'l-Ha'j*ib,
and found an imposing personage dressed in
An ignorant
Professor. white with an enormous turban " like a small
cupola," who, however, was unable to answer his
questions. "If you don't know enough grammar to answer
these questions, why do you wear this great load on your
head ? " enquired the boy; whereupon the audience laughed,
and the teacher rose up ashamed and departed, " This led
me to exert myself to master the paradigms of grammar,"
says the writer; "but I now ask pardon of God for my
question to that believing man, while thanking Him that
this incident happened before I had attained maturity and
become fully responsible for my actions."
After pursuing his studies with various other masters, he
obtained his father's permission to follow his elder brother
to Huwayza. The journey thither by boat
through narrow channels amongst the weeds,
tormented by mosquitoes " as large as wasps "
and with only the milk of buffaloes to assuage
his hunger, gave him his first taste of the discomforts of
travel to a poor student. In return for instruction in JAmf's
and JArbardi's commentaries and the Shdfiya, his teacher
exacted from him " much service," making him and his
fellow-students collect stones for a house which he wished
to build, and bring fish and other victuals for him from the
neighbouring town. He would not allow them to copy his
lecture-notes, but they used to purloin them when oppor-
tunity arose and transcribe them. " Such was his way with
us," says the writer, " yet withal we were well satisfied to
serve him, so that we might derive benefit from his holy
breaths."
He attended the college daily till noon for instruction and
discussion,, and on returning to his lodging was so hungry

Hardships of
travel "in
search of
knowledge."

CH. Vill] A STUDENT'S HARDSHIPS 363

that, in default of any better food, he used to collect the
melon-skins cast aside on the ground, wipe off
Study under the dust, and cat what fragments of edible
difficulties.
matter remained. One day he came upon his

companion similarly employed. Each had tried to conceal
from the other the shifts to which he was reduced for food,
but now they joined forces and collected and washed their
melon-skins in company. Being unable to afford lamps or
candles, they learned by heart the texts they were studying,
such as the A46yya of Ibn Mdlik and the Kdfiya, on moon-
light nights, and on the dark nights repeated them by
heart so as not to forget them. To avoid the distraction of
conversation, one student would on these occasions often
bow his head on his knees and cover his eyes, feigning
headache.
After a brief visit to his home, he determined to go to
Shfrdz, and set out by boat for Basra by the Shattu'l-'Arab.
He was so afraid of being stopped and brought
From Basra back by his father that, during the earlier part
to Shiniz.
of the voyage, he stripped off his clothes and
waded behind the boat, holding on to the rudder, until he
had gone so far that recognition was no longer probable,
when he re-entered the boat. Farther on he saw a number
of people on the bank, and one of his fellow-passengers
called out to them to enquire whether they were Sunnis or
ShPa. On learning that they were Sunnis, he began to
abuse them and invoke curses on the first three Caliphs, to
which they replied with volleys of stones.
The writer remained only a short while at Basra, then
governed by kIusayn Pdshd, for his father followed him
thither to bring him home, but he escaped
At College
in ShirAr-privily with his brother, and, as already nar
rated', made his way to ShfrAz and established
himself in the Mans6riyya College, being then only eleven
1 P. 36o sufira,

364 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Ycars of age. He found one of the tutors lecturing on the
A46yya of Ibn MAlik, who, on the conclusion of the lecture,
questioned him as to his aims and adventures, and finally,
seizing him by the car and giving it a sharp twist, said,
" 0 my son, do not make thyself an Arab Shaykh or seek
for supremacy, and do not waste thy time! Do not thus,
that so perchance thou mayst become a scholar."
In this college also the life was hard and the daily
allowance of food inadequate, and the writer's brother
wished to return home, but he himself deter-
Sufferings from
cold and hunger. mined to remain, copying books for a pittance,
and working almost all night through the hot
weather in a room with closed doors while his fellow-
students slept on the roof. Often he had neither oil for his
lamp nor bread to eat, but must work by moonlight, faint
with hunger, while in the winter mornings his fingers often
bled with the cold as he wrote his notes. Thus passed two
or three years more, and, though his eyesight was perma-
nently affected by the strain to which it was subjected, he
began to write books himself, a commentary on the Kdfiya,
and another, entitled Jfzftd~zu'I-Labib, on the Tahdhib
of Shaykh Bah;Vu'd-Dfn Muhammad'. He now began
to extend the range of his studies beyond Arabic grammar,
and to frequent the lectures of more eminent teachers from
BaghdAd, al-AhsA and Bahrayn, amongst them Shaykh
Ja'far al-BahrAnf. One day he did not attend
this Shaykh's lecture because of the news which
had reached him of the death of certain relatives.
When he reappeared on the following day the Shaykh was
very angry and refused to give him any further instruction,
saying, " May God curse my father and mother if I teach

I See the Kashfu'l-~Yujub, P. 146, No. 725. The author died in
1031/1621-2. He was one of the most notable theologians of the reign
of Sháh'Abbds the Great, and is commonly called in Persia " Shaykh-i-
Bahilf." See P. 407 infra.

A STUDENT'S HARDSHIPS
CH. VIII]

i 365
you any more I Why were you not here yesterday? " And,
when the writer explained the cause of his absence, he said,
"You should have attended the lecture, and indulged in
your mourning afterwards"; and only when the student
had sworn never to play the truant again whatever might
happen was he allowed after an interval to resume his
attendance. Finally he so far won the approval of this

somewhat exacting teacher that the latter offered him his
daughter in marriage; an honour from which he excused
himself by saying, "If God will, after I have finished my
studies and become a Doctor ('dlim), I will marry." Soon
afterwards the teacher obtained an appointment in India,
at HaydaribAd in the Deccan.
Sayyid Ni'matu'llAh remained in Shiriz for nine years,
and for the most part in such poverty that often he
swallowed nothing all day except water. The
Life or a poor earlier part of the night he would often spend
student at Shiriz.
with a friend who lived some way outside the
town so as to _profit by his lamp for study, and thence he

would grope his way through the dark and deserted bazaars,
soothing the fierce dogs which guarded their masters' shops,
to the distant mosque where he lectured before dawn. At
his parents' wish he returned home for a while and took to
himself a wife, but being reproached by a learned man
whom he visited with abandoning his studies while still ill-
grounded in the Science of Traditions, he left his parents

and his wife (he had only been married for three weeks)
and returned to the Mansu'riyya College at ShfrAz. Soon
afterwards, however, it was destroyed by a fire, in which
one student and a large part of the library perished ; and
about the same time he received tidings of his father's
death. These two misfortunes, combined with other cir-
cumstances, led him to leave Shiriz and go to Isfahán.
During his early days at Isfahán he still suffered from
the same poverty with which he had been only too familiar

366 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III
in the past, often eating salted meat to increase his thirst,
so that the abundance of water he was thereby
He wins the
favour of Mulli impelled to drink might destroy his appetite
Muhammad for solid food. The change in his fortune took
BAqw-i-MajUsf. place when he made the acquaintance and
attracted the notice of that great but fanatical divine Mulli
Muhammad BAqir-i-Majlisf, perhaps the most notable and
powerful doctor of the Shí'a who ever lived. He was ad-
mitted to the house of this famous man and lived with him
for four years studying theology, and especially the Tradi-
tions'. Yet in this case familiarity did not breed contempt,
for, as the author mentions in his Anwdru'n-Nu'nzdniyya 2,
though specially favoured by this formidable " Prince of the
Church," he often, when summoned to his library to converse
with him, or to help in the compilation of the Bilzdru'l-
Anwdr, would stand trembling outside the door for some
moments ere he could summon up courage to enter.

He obtains a Thanks to this powerful patronage, however,
lectureship at he was appointed lecturer (mudarris) in a
Isfahin.
college recently founded by a certain M1rzA
Taqf near the Bath of Shaykh-i-Bahá'f in Isfahán, which
post he held for eight years, when the increasing weakness
of his eyes and the inability of the oculists of Isfahán to
afford him any relief determined him to set out again on
his travels. He visited SAmarrA, KAzimayn, and other

holy places in 'IrAq, whence he returned by way of
Shu'shtar to IsfabAn. In 1070668-9 his brother died, and
ten years later, when he penned this autobiography, he still
I As has been already mentioned (P. 359 stifira), this powerful pre-
late was one of the "three Muhammads" of the later time, and his
great work on Shi'a tradition, the Biltdru'I-Anwdr, is still accounted
in Persia the most authoritative work on this subject.
2 See the Kashju'l-,~Iujub, P. 7o, NO- 328. 1 have a MS. of this
work obtained from the late I ' Mjji 'Abdu'l-Majfd Belshah and now
bearing the class-mark C. 15. As already noted (P. 361), it concludes
(ff- 329-34) with the Arabic original of the narrative here given.

CH. A "HUMAN DOCUMENT".:-
VIII]

367
keenly felt this loss. After visiting Mashhad he returned to
ljuwayza, where he was living a somewhat solitary and
disillusioned life at the time of writing (io89/i678-9)- Of
his further adventures I have found no record, but his death

did not take place until 1130/1718, only four years before
the disaster which put an end to the Safawf Dynasty.
I have given in a somewhat compressed form the whole
of this illuminating narrative, one of those "human docu-

Value of this
" human
document.

ments " which are so rare in Persian books
(though indeed, as already noted on P. 361, it was
originally written in Arabic), because it throws
so much light on the life of the Persian student of theology,
which, for the rest, inutatis n2utandis, closely resembles
that of the mediaeval European student. We see the child
prematurely torn from the games and amusements suitable
to his age to undergo a long, strenuous, and and course

of instruction in Arabic grammar and philology, reading
one grammar after another in an ascending scale of diffi-

culty, with commentaries, supercommentaries, glosses and
notes on each; we see him as a boy, now fired with

ambition, pursuing his studies in theology and law, half-
starved, suffering alternately from the cold of winter and
the heat of summer, ruining his eyesight by perusing
crabbed texts by the fitful light of the moon, and his
digestion by irregular and unwholesome meals, varied by
intervals of starvation; cut off from home life and family
-ties; submerged in an ocean of formalism and fanaticism;
himself in time adding to the piles of glosses and notes
which serve rather to submerge and obscure than to
elucidate the texts whereon they are based; and at last, if
fortunate, attracting the favourable notice of some great
divine, and becoming himself a mudarris (lecturer), a
inutawalli (custodian of a shrine), or even a mujtahid.
But if the poor student's path was arduous, the possible
prizes were great, though, of course, attained only by a few.

368 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

In the eyes of the Safawl kings the mujtalzid was the
Powerand representative of the Expected ImArn, whose
position of the name they never mentioned without adding
mujfahids under
the Safawis and the prayer, " M ay God hasten his glad advent I
their successors. ('ajjala 'Ildlzu farqja-hu !). He had power of life
and death. HAjji Sayyid Muhammad BAqir ibn Muhammad
Taqf of Rasht, entitled Hiyjatu'1-1s1dm (" the Proof of
IslAm "), is said to have put to death seventy persons for
various sins or heresies. On the first occasion, being unable
to find anyone to execute his sentence, he had to strike the
first ineffective blow himself, after which someone came to
his assistance and decapitated the victim, over whose body
he then recited the funeral prayers, and while so doing
fainted with emotion".
Another mz~jtahid, AqA Muhammad'Alf, a contemporary
of Kari'm Khán-i-Zand, acquired the title of Sdfi-kush
("the SUf-slayer") from the number of 'urafd and darwishes
whom he condemned to death2.
Another, MullA 'Abdu'llAli-i-Tu'rif, induced Sháh'Abbis
the Great to walk in front of him as he rode-through the
Mayddn-i-Sháh, or Royal Square, of lsfahAnsl with the
object of demonstrating to all men the honour in which
learning was held.
MullA Hasan of Yazd, who had invited his fellow-towns-
men to expel, with every circumstance of disgrace, a
tyrannical governor, was summoned to TihrAn by Fath-,Ali
Shih to answer for his actions, and threatened with the
bastinado unless he disavowed responsibility for this pro-
cedure. As he refused to do this, and persisted that he was
entirely responsible for what had happened, he was actually
tied up to receive the bastinado, though it was not actually
inflicted. That night the Sháh was notified in a dream of
tile extreme displeasure with which the Prophet regarded

I Qisa.su'l-WIanid (Lucknow ed.), p. 138.
2 Ibid., P. 2 10. 3 Ibid., part ii, p. 54.

C11. Vill) ARROGANCE OF THE MU
7TAHIDS 369
the disrespect shown by him to the exponent of his
doctrine and law, and hastened next morning to offer his
apologies and a robe of honour, which last was refused by
the indignant ecclesiastic'.
MullA Ahmad of Ardabfl, called Huqaddas (" the Saint,"

died in 993/1585), being asked by one of the King's officers
who had committed some fault to intercede for him, wrote
to Sháh 'Abbis the Great in Persian as folloWS2:

U .1
I J LS

U) dJ3J %;4 4.~Zs

Let 'Abbis, the founder of a borrowed empires, know that this
man, if he was originally an oppressor, now appears to be oppressed;
so that, if thou wilt pass over his fault, perhaps God (Glorious and
Exalted is He) may pass over some of thy faults.
" Written by Abmad al-Ardabilf, servant of the Lord of Saintship~,I)
To this the Sháh 'AbbAs replied:

A jLoj.&. A!~ J.
J~ 6A~,o

vi
Lstr-,3 it IJ4-0 A--`6 A.-JUJ

. X;5j,

.d
LOA-0 Liu ou-1
I

'AbbAs makes representation that he accepts as a spiritual favour
and has fulfilled the services which you enjoined on him. Do not for-
get [me] your friend in your prayers I
" Written by 'Abbis, the dog of 'AlPs threshold."

I QisaM7-'U1amd (Lucknow ed.), pp. 99-ioo.
2 This and the following anecdote are from the Qi~equll-'Ulamd
(Tihrdn ed., P. 26o; Lucknow ed., p. 132).
3 Because it really belongs to the Expected lmAm, and is only held
by the Sháh as his trustee and vice-gerent.
4 le. 'Ali ibn Abi Tilib, the First Imim.

B. P. L.

370 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Another mujtahid of Ardabf1 entitled Huhaqqiq (" the
Investigator" or "Verifier") wrote on behalf of certain
Sayyids to Sháh Tahmisp, who, on receiving the letter,
rose to his feet, placed it on his eyes, and kissed it, and
gave the fullest satisfaction to its demands. Then, because
the letter addressed him as " 0 brother" (A_yyzeha'1-Akh),
the Sháh caused it to be placed with his winding-sheet and
ordered that it should be buried with him, "in order that,"
said he, "I may argue with the Angels of the Tomb,
Munkir and Nakir, that I should not be subjected to their
torment"
Still more extraordinary is another anecdote in the same
work' of how Prince Muhammad 'Alf MfrzA gave a thou-
A mansion In sand Mnidns to each of two inujtahids in
Paradisebought return for a paper, duly signed and scaled,
by a Prince. promising him a place in Paradise. One of
them (Sayyid Ridd ibn Sayyid MahdQ hesitated to do this,
but the Prince said, "Do you write the document and get
the doctors of Karbali and Najaf to witness it, and I will
get it (ie. the mansion in Paradise) from God Most High."
Many similar anecdotes might be cited, besides numerous
miraclcs (kardmdt) ascribed to most of the leading divines,
but enough has been said to show the extraordinary power
and honour which they enjoyed. They were, indeed, more
powerful than the greatest Ministers of State, since they
could, and often did, openly oppose the Sháh and overcome
him without incurring the fate which would almost in
Mod 7evitably have overtaken a recalcitrant Minister.
instarm: 9 ofNor is this a thing of the past, as is abundantly
clerical power.shown by the history of the overthrow of the
Tobacco Concession in I 89o- I, which was entirely effected,
in the teeth of the NAsiru'd-Din Sháh and his Court, and
the British Legation, by the vn~jtahids, headed by U;ijji
Mirzi Hasan-i-Shirizi and HAjji Mfrz;i Hasan-i-Ashtiyinf,
I QiFa~dl-'Ulamd, ed. Lucknow, P. 32.

I
CH. VIIIJ POLITICAL POWER OF THE MUY.TAHIDS 371

inspired and prompted by that extraordinary man Sayyid
Jamilu'd-Dfn miscalled "the Afghán%" Dr Feuvrier, the
Shalli's French physician, who was in TihrAn at the time,
gives a graphic account of this momentous struggle in his
Trois Ans d la Cour de Perse~ I have described it fully in

my Persian Revolution of r9os-r9og", and also the still
more important part played by Mulli Muhammad KAzim
of KhurAsAn and other patriotic mqjtahids~ in the Persian
strug le for freedom and independence in the first decade

of this century of our era. MullA Muhammad KAzim, a
noble example of the patriot-priest, deeply moved by the
intolerable tyranny and a- ression of the then government
of Russia, formally proclaimed a jihdd, or religious war,
against the Russians on December I 1, 191.1, and was setting
out from Karbald for Persia in pursuance of this object
when he died very suddenly on the following day, the
victim, as was generally believed, of poison~. He was not

the only ecclesiastical victim of patriotism, for the Thiqatul-
IsIdin was publicly hanged by the Russians at Tabr z on
the '.4sh2ird, or zoth of Muharra -in, 1330 (January 1, 1912)",
a sacrilegious act only surpassed by the bombardment three
months later of the shrine of the Imirn Ridd at Mashhad,
which many Persians believe to have been avenged by the

fate which subsequently overtook the Tsar and his family
at the hands of the Bolsheviks.
The mu/tahids and mullds, therefore, are a great, though
probably a gradually decreasing force, -in Persia ' and con-
cern themselves with every department of human activity,

I For a full account of him, see my Persian Revolution, ch. i, pp.
1-30 etc.
2 Paris, n.d., ch. v, PP. 307-349.
3 Ch. ii, PP. 31-58.
4 Ibid., P. 262etc. For facsimiles offatwd and letter, see PP. 421-4
6 See my Press and Poetrj, of Modern Persia, P- 334-
" Ibid, PP. 335-6, and also my pamphlet entitled The Reign oy
Y~rror at Tabriz (October, 1912).

24-2

372 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

from the minutest details of personal purification to the
Thefatwd. largest issues of politics. It is open to any
Shl'a Muslim to submit any problem into the
solution of which religious considerations enter (and they
practically enter everywhere) to a mujtahid, and to ask for
a formal decision, or fatwd, conformable to the principles
of Shí'a doctrine. Such fatwd may extend to the denuncia-
tion of an impious or tyrannical king or minister as an
infidel (takfir), or the declaration that anyone who fights
for him is as one who fights against the Hidden ImAm.
The fact that the greatest mujtahids generally reside
at Najaf or Karbali, outside Persian territory, greatly
strengthens their position and conduces to their immunity.
To break or curb their power has been the aim of many
rulers in Persia before and after the Safawis, but such
attempts have seldom met with more than a very transient
success, for the mullds form a truly national
The better side
ofthe"clergy." class, represent in great measure the national
outlook and aspirations, and have not unfre-
quently shielded the people from the oppression of their
governors. And although their scholarship is generally of
a somewhat narrow kind, it is, so far as it goes, sound,
accurate, and even in a sense critical. The finest Persian
scholar I know, Mirz;i Muhammad ibn 'Abdu'l-Wahhdb of
Qazwfn, is one who has superimposed on this foundation
a knowledge of European critical methods acquired in
England, France and Germany.
On the other hand, apart from corruption, fanaticism and
other serious faults, many of the 'ulanid are prone to petty
Theworseside: jealousy and mutual disparagement. A well-
jealousy and known anecdote, given by Malcolm" and in the
vulgar abuse. 0sasu'l-'Ulaind', shows that great doctors like

Mir DAmAd and Shaykh Bahi'u'd-Dfn al-'Amilf could rise
I History of Persia (ed. IS' 5), vOl. i, pp. 258-9.
2 Lucknow ed., second part, pp. 26-7; TibrAn ed., p. 181.

CH. Vill] ECCLESIASTICAL BADINAGE, ~ 373

above such ignoble feelings; but, as the author of the latter
work complains, their less magnanimous colleagues were
but too prone to call one another fools and asses, to the
injury of their own class and the delight of irreligious lay-
men. Nor was this abuse rendered less offensive by being
wrapped up in punning and pedantic verses like this':

..i~ IJNl C~j I Lb LO."A CJ-*O CJ1 lpeka. Z.J.3
"Thou art not worthy to be advanced; nay, thou art nothing more

than half of the opposite of I advanced' !)y

The opposite of " advanced " (muqaddam) is "postponed"
(mu'akhkhar), and the second half of the latter word, khar,
is the Persian for an ass. This is a refined specimen of
mullds'wit: for a much coarser one the curious reader may
refer to an interchange of badinage between Mulli Mimi
Muhammad-i-ShfrwAni the Turk and AqA Jamail of Isfahin
recorded in the Q~sa~u'l-'Ulamd2. That some mullds had
the sense to recognize their own rather than their neigh-
bours' limitations is, however, shown by a pleasant anecdote
related in the same works of Jamilu'd-Dfn Muhammad ibn
Husayn-i-KhwAnsarf. As a judge he was in receipt of a
salary of four thousand Wmdns a year. One day four
persons successively put to him four questions, to each of
which he replied, " I do not know." A certain high official
who was present said to him, "You receive from the King
four thousand Wmdns to know, yet here to everyone who
asks you a question you reply 'I do not know."' " I receive
these four thousand tfimdns," replied the inulld, "for those
things which I do know. If I required a salary for what I
do not know, even the Royal Treasury would be unable to
pay it.00

I Qisasull-'Ulamd, Lucknow ed., second part, p. j65; TihrAn ed.,
P. 28t.
I ibid., Lucknow ed., second part, P. 52; TihrAn ed., pp. 200-1.
3 Ibid., Lucknow ed., second part, P- 50; TihrAn ed., p. i9q.

374 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT 11

jurisprudence (fiqh) and theology ('aqd'id), with the
ancillary sciences, all of which are based on a thorough
knowledge of the Arabic language, normally
Ah.4bdrfs and
Uplar. constitute the chief studies of the " clergy,"
though naturally there is a certain tendency to
specialization, the qd~A, or ecclesiastical judge, being more
concerned withfiqh, and the theologian proper with doctrine.
We must also distinguish between the prevalent Usfill and
the once important but now negligible Akhbdri school,
between whom bitter enmity subsisted. The former, as
their name implies, follow the general "principles" (uslil)
deducible from the Cur'dit and accredited traditions, and
employ analogy (qiyds) in arriving at their conclusions.
The latter follow the traditions (akhbdr) only, and re-
pudiate analogical reasoning. MullA Muhammad Amfn ibn
Muhammad Sharff of AstardbAd, who died in 1033/1623-4,
is generally accounted the founder of the Akhbdri school,
and was, according to the Lfi7zi'a1u'1-Eahrqyn1, " the first to
open the door of reproach against the Hqjtahids, so that the
'Saved Sect' (a1-Firqatu'n-Ndj'iya, i.e. the Shl'a of the Sect
of the Twelve) became divided into Akhbdrls and Aluj-
takids," and the contents of his book al-Fawd'idu'I-Mada-
niyya2 consist for the most part of vituperation of the
Mujlahids, whom he often accused of "destroying the true
Religion." A later doctor of this school, MfrzA Muhammad
Akhbdri of Bahrayn, entertained so great a hatred for the
Hqjtahids that he promised Fath-'Alf Sháh that he would
in forty days cause to be brought to Tihr;in the
Envoiltement
of a Russian head of a certain Russian general who was at
general. that time invading and devasting the frontier

provinces of Persia, on condition that Fath-'Alf Shih would,
in case of his success, " abrogate and abandon the Xqjtaltids,

Bombay lith., p. 122.
See the Kashfull-,ffujub, P. 4o6, No. 2242. The author wrote the
book at Mecca two years before his death.

CH. VIIIJ THE " INSPECTOR'S HEAD " 375

extirpate and eradicate them root and branch, and make
the Akltbdri doctrine current throughout all the lands of
Persia." The Shih consented, and thereupon the Akhbdri
doctor went into retirement for forty days, abstained from
all animal food, and proceeded to practise the "envoiltement"

of the Russian general, by making a wax figure of him and
decapitating it with a sword. According to the story, the
head was actually laid before the Sháh just as the period of
forty days was expiring, and he thereupon took council
with his advisers as to what he should do. These replied,
"the sect of the Hz~jlahids is one which hath existed from
the time of the ImArns until now, and they are in the right,
while the Aklibeirl sect is scanty in numbers and weak.
Moreover it is the beginning of the QAjdr dynasty, You
might, perhaps, succeed in turning the people from the
doctrine [to which they are accustomed], but this might be
the cause of disastrous results to the King's rule, and they
might rebel against him. Moreover it might easily happen
that Mirzi Muhammad should be annoyed with you, arrive
at an understanding with your enemy, and deal with you
as he dealt with the Russian Vshpukhturl.' The wisest course
is that you should propitiate him, excuse yourself to him,
and order him to retire to the Holy Thresholds (Karbald or

Qisasu'l-'Ulamd, Tilirin ed., p. 132; Lucknow ed., pp. 18". The
Russian general is here called Ishfiukhtur which, as my
friend M. V. Minorsky informs me, represents "Inspector" (pro-
nounced flpeXlor), and is, perhaps, influenced in its form by the popu-
lar etyrnology j3,) tij ' 1J I (in Ottoman Turkish-j3
invented by the Turkish- speaking AdharbAyjdnfs, meaning "his work
is dirt." M. Minorsky further informed me that this general's real
name was Tsitsianoff, that he was a Georgian, and that the phrase
Have you brought the Inspector's head?" V)).3 I lj,.;:i 4 1
is still used proverbially to one who presents himself in gre~t burry
and excitement, as though in fulfilment of some very important com-
mission.

376 THE SHIIA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Najaf) and stay there ; for it is not expedient for the State
that such a person should remain in the capital." This
advice Fath-'Alf Shah decided to follow.

The very dry, narrow and formal divines are called by
the Persians Cishri(literally " H uskers," ie. extern al ists), and
to these the Akhbeirls in particular belong, but
The Qishrf
theologians. also many of the Usfilis, like Mirzi lbrdhfm,
the son of the celeb rated Mulli Sadri, one of
the teachers of Sayyid Ni'matu'lldh JazA'irf, who used to
glory in the fact that his belief was that of the common
people, and MullA 'Ali Nu'ri, who used to pray that God
would keep him in the current popular faith,. On the other
hand we have the more liberal-minded divines, whose
Latitudinarians. theology was tinctured with Philosophy or
Sfffism, the Nutakalliijifin, who strove to re-
concile Philosophy with Religion and closely resemble the
School-men of mediaeval Europe, and finally the pure
philosophers, like the celebrated MullA SadrA of Shiraz,
who, however little their ultimate conclusions accorded with
orthodox theology, had generally had the training of the
fulamd and were drawn from the same class.
The literature produced by this large and industrious
body of men, both in Arabic and Persian, is naturally
enormous, but the bulk of it is so dull or so
technical that no one but a very leisured and
very pious Shl'a scholar would dream of reading
it. The author of the Cisasu'l-'Ulamd remarks' that the
culamd often live to a very advanced age, and as their habits
are, as a rule, sedentary and studious, and they devote a
large portion of their time to writing, it is not unusual to
find a single author credited with one or two hundred books

Literary
fecundity of
the Vamd

I Qisasu'l-'Ulaynd, TihrAn ed., P. 248; Lucknow ed., second part
P. 107.
2 Lucknow ed., p. 65.

CH. Vill] THEOLOGICAL FECUNDITY

i 377
and pamphlets. Thus the author of the Qisa~u'l-'Ulamd
enumerates 16q of his own works, besides glosses, tracts
and minor writings'; of those of Mulla' Muhsin-i-Fay4
(Fay~), 69 by name, but he adds that the total number is

nearly 2002; of those of Muhammad ibn 'Ali... ibn Biba-
wayhii, entitled as-Sadi1q, 1893; and so on. Many of these
writings are utterly valueless, consisting of notes or glosses
on super-commentarics or commentaries on texts, gram-
matical, logical, juristic or otherwise, which texts are com-
pletely buried and obscured by all this misdirected ingenuity
and toil. It was of this class of writings that the late Grand
Mufti of Egypt and Chancellor of al-Azhar Shaykh Mu-
hammad 'Abduh, one of the most able and enlightened
Muhammadan divines of our time, was wont to say that
they ought all to be burned as hindrances rather than aids
to learning.
The works on jurisprudence (Fiqh) also, even the best, are
as a rule very unreadable to a non-Muslim. What is taught
jurisprudence in English universities as " Muhammadan Law"
(figh). is, of course, only -a portion of the subject as
understood in the Lands of IslAm. The ShaWat,
or Holy Law, includes not only Civil and Criminal Law,
but such personal religious obligations as Prayer and the
Purifications necessary for its due performance; Alms;
Fasting; Pilgrimage; and the Holy War (Jihdd), which
subjects, with their innumerable ramifications and the hair-
splitting casuistry applied to all sorts of contingencies arising
from them, constitute perhaps one half of the whole. It is
curious that, in spite of the neglect of Shí'a theology by
European Orientalists, one of the best European books on
Muhammadan jurisprudence treats of Shí'a Law. This is
M. Am6dde Querry's Droit Musuhnan: Recueil de Lois

' Qisasul-'Ulaynd, Lucknow ed., PP. 77-85-
2 Ibid., second part, pp. I 12-0.
3 Ibid., second par4 pp. 183--&

378 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

concernant les Musubitans Schyitesl; and the European
reader who wishes to form an idea of the subject, with all
its intricate, and, to the non-Muslim mind, puerile and even
disgusting details, cannot do better than consult this monu-
mental work, which is based on the ShardyiVI-IsIdin ft
masd'i1i'l-Haldl wa'1-Hard1n2 of the celebrated Shi'a doctor
Najmu'd-Din Abu'l-QAsim Ja'far ibn al-Hasan ... al-Hillf,
commonly called al-Mu~zaqqiq al-Awwal (" the First
Verifier" or "Investigator"), who died in 67611277-8.
Other works of authority, enumerated in the Preface (vol. i,
P. vii) were also consulted, as well as leading conternporary
Persian jurists, by M. Querry, whose twenty-five years, so-
journ in Turkey and Persia, where he occupied important
official positions, such as counsellor of the French Legation
at Tihrin, singularly fitted him for the arduous task which
he so ably accomplished. An excellent Index of Arabic
technical terms explained in the course of the book greatly
enhances its value.
Mention should be made in this connection of a Persian
catechism on -problems of jurisprudence (fiqk) entitled
SaW sojawdh. Su'dl u jazvdb ("Question and Answer"), by
the eminent vn~jtahid HAjji Sayyid Muhammad
BAqir, whose severity in enforcing the death-penalty in
cases where it is enacted by the Ecclesiastical Law has been
already mentioneds. This work, composed subsequently
to 1236/1820, was very beautifully printed in 1247/1832,
apparently at Isfahdn, under the supervision of Mirzi
Zaynu'l-'Abidfn of Tabriz, " the introducer of this art into
Persia." It comprises 162 ff. Of 29-6 X 20-5 c. and 28 lines,
and theletters,,p- (su'dl, "question") and Z (jawdb, "answer")

I Two vols. of PP. viii+768 and 669 respectively (Paris, Maison-
neuve,1871-2).
2 See p. 54, n- 3, sufira.
3 See P. 368 supra. His life is given very fully in the Qi.seksul-
Ulamd (Lucknow ed., pp. 129-78).

CH. VIIIJ A LEGAL CATECHISM

379
are throughout inserted by hand in red. I possess only one
volume, which was to have been followed by a second, but
whether this was ever completed I do not know,. The
topics are arranged in the usual order, beginning with the
personal obligations of purification, prayer,'alms, fasting
and pilgrimage, and ending with the Kitdbu'l- Wadilat,
dealing with objects deposited in trust in the hands of

another. An Introduction on " Principles" (C~szil) is pre-
fixed to the whole, and in each book, or section, various
problems connected with the topic in question are pro-
pounded, with the author's decisions, the whole in the form
of dialogue. Thus the Introduction begins abruptly, with-
out any doxology, with the following question:
Q. " If a person follows the opinions of one of the muj~
tahids (may God increase the like of them 1) during the life
of that mujtahid, is it lawful after his death for that person
to continue to follow him and act according to his sayings,
or not?"
The answer, which fills nearly a page, is to the effect that
it is not- lawful so to do, and that the person in question
should transfer his allegiance to some other mujtahid.
Numerous authorities are cited in support of this view,
amongst them Muhammad BAqir (presumably al-Majlisf),
Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi, the " Second Martyr " (ash-
Shahidu'th-Thdni), and the "Second Verifier" or "In-
vestigator " (a1-Huhaqqiqu'th- Thdiii).
The "books)" or sections, are of very unequal length,
that on Prayer occupying nearly 70 ff, and other " books,"
including the last, on Trusts, only half a page. Of the
latter, which contains only two questions and their answers,
the full translation is as follows:

I The British Museum Library also possesses only this one volume.
See E. Edwards's Catalogue (1922), c0l- 458. The Qisasull-'Ulamd
gives 1227/1812 as the date of composition, but on E 28b of the text,
line 2, Mubarram 1236/Oct. 1820 is mentioned as the current date.

38o THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Q.-" Zayd 1 sends an article in trust to a trustee, bidding him give
it to So-and-so. After the arrival of the article, the trustee learns for
certain that the article entrusted to him belongs to 'Amrl, and that
the hand of the sender, etc., is the hand of borrowing and usurpation.
Moreover 'Amr lays claim to the trust. saying, 'This trust committed
to thee is my property.' The trustee also admits the validity of his
claim to the property, but says, 'He sent it to me to give it to So-and-
so; I will not give it to thee.' Has 'Amr legally power to assume
possession of the property and take it from the trustee, or not? And
to whom should the trustee surrender the trust, so that he may be

CH. VIII] THE POPULAR SHPA CREED! 381
based on the principal Persian narratives, will be found in
vol. ii of my Travellers Narrative, pp. 277-90.

We turn now to the more interesting subject of Shfa
theology, which has hitherto hardly attracted the attention

Popular it deserves from European Orientalists, and can
theological only receive brief and inadequate
treatment
doctrine. here. It must suffice to sketch in
outline the
current popular creed, without considering its evolution
cleared of all further responsibility?" from early times, and to mention a few of the chief doctrinal
A.-11 If what has been penned actually corresponds with'the facts works written in Persian during or
since the Safawi period.
of the case, that is to say, if the trustee knows that the property be- For the purpose of this outline,
however, I choose not one of
longs to 'Amr, and that the hand of the sender of it is the hand of
usurpation and violence, it is incumbent on the said trustee to sur- the larger, more authoritative and
more famous books like
render such property to its owner, whether the sender gives permission the Haqqu'l- Yaqfn (" Certain Truth ")
of Mulli Muhammad
for such surrender or not. For such trustee to say to 'Amr, having Bdqir-i-Majlisf, but a little manual
entitled
knowledge of the fact that the said property really belongs to him, AgdVA'sh.
I will not give it to thee, in view of the fact that the sender of it bade Shea. Aqd'idu'sh-Shia ("Beliefs of
the Shí'a ") com-
posed during the reign of Muhammad Sháh
me give it to So-and-so, not to thee,' is incompatible with the functions
of a trustee, and is not conformable to the Holy Law." Qájár (before the middle of the nineteenth century of our
Q.-11 If Zayd shall have deposited an article in trust with 'Amr, and era)by a certain 'Ali Asghar ibn 'Ali Akbar, and litho-
if nearly seventeen years shall have passed, and if, notwithstanding graphed in Persia without indication of place or -date. This
'Amrls urgent insistance with Zayd that he should remove the said work, comprising 438 (unnumbered) pages, consists of an
article, he neglects to do so, and the said article, without any excess Introduction (Muqaddama), five sections called Hishkdt,
or defect of action 2 [on 'Amr's part], perishes, is 'Amr liable to any
and a Conclusion (Khátima). The contents are briefly as
penalty, or not ? follows:

A.--~' Provided the details as set forth in writing correspond with Introduction (Muqaddama).
the facts, there will be no penalty."
Sets forth that God has not created mankind in vain,
This sample of Shl'a jurisprudence must suffice, but such but that they should worship and serve Him, and reap the
as desire a further illustration of the matters which pre- recompense of their actions in the next world. He has sent,
occupy the minds of these jurisconsults and doctors may tomake known to them His Will and Law, numerous
with profit read the narrative of the trial of the BAb at prophets,of whom Muhammad is the last and greatest.
Tabriz for heresy about A.D. 1848, of which an account, He left behind him the Scripture (the Curdn) and his holy
descendants and representatives for the continued guidance
'Amr and Zayd in Muslim jurisprudence correspond to "John ankind.In these days of the Greater Occultation
of m
Doe" and "Richard Roe" of English law-books; in grammar to
Balbus and Caius; and in common speech to "Tom$ Dick, and (Ghaybat-i-Kubrd)l wherein we live, the true faith is deduced
Harry." 1 This began in 260/873-4, when the Twelfth and last ImArn
dis-
2 Le. without any fault of commission or omission on his part. appeared, to return in "the Last Time

382 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

from the Qur'dn and the sayings and traditions of the Holy
ImAms. According to these, three things are required of
us: (i) heartfelt belief; (2) oral confession ; (3) certain pre-
scribed acts. These are ascertained either by personal
investigation and " endeavour " (~jtihdd), or by adopting
the opinions of such investigator (inqitakid) by conformity
to his authority (taqlid). The author concludes by enume-
rating a number of heresies to be avoided, such as
Various heresies
denounced. Pantheism (zuahdatu'1-7vu/ud); Apotheosis and
Incarnation (ittiliadwahulul); Determinism or
Fatalism (jabr); Antinomianism(suqli * t-i-'ibdddt) consequent
on self-morti 6 cation and discipline (riyd~ldt); Communism
(ibdlzat),; Deification and adoration of the Imims; denial of
the Resurrection of the body, or of any future life; sanction
of the use of musical instruments, and of narcotic or
intoxicating substances; Metempsychosis (tandsukh); An-
thropomorphism (tashbilt), and the like.

Mishka't I (pp. 7-28), in four sections (Hisbdh).

What is to be believed concerning the Essence and
Attributes of God.

Belief in the Unity of God (tazvh;(d) is fourfold, namely:
Sectioni. Unity of the Divine Essence (Tazvhid-i-Dhdt1).
God is One, without partner, peer or equal; Holy; Perfect;
The Divine Free from defect; not composite, or capable of
Essence and -being so conceived, imagined, or apprehended;
ALtributes. neither Body, nor Light, nor Substance, nor
Accident; not located, nor born, nor producing offspring;
Invisible both in this world and the next2, even to the

I Communism was preached in Persia in S:IsAnian times (sixth
Christian century) by Mazdak. From his time until that of the Bibfs
this accusation has been brought against many heterodox sects.
2 Hifi; has accordingly been blamed by one of his critics for the
verse :

Cu. Vill] THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES

383
Prophets, ImAms and Saints, but known to us only by
His acts and the signs of His Power; neither eating, nor
drinking, nor clothing Himself; exempt from anger, vexa-
tion, pain, joy, height, depth, change, progression, or retro-
gression; Eternal and absolutely independent of all else.
His Attributes are identical with His Essence, not added
to or superimposed on His Essence. These Attributes are

for the most part negative, and are called Sifidt-i-Salbiyya
or " Privative Attributes."
Here again the author digresses to denounce various
heresies of the Sulffs, especially the idea that beautiful
persons are especially the Mirrors orTabernacles
*dfls de-
nounced. of God, and the doctrine of Pantheism (Wahda-
tu'l- Wi~jiid), according to which the relation of
Phenomena to Absolute Being is similar to that between
the Waves and the Sea, or to sunlight passing through
windows of variously coloured glass.
Section R. Unity of the Divine Attributes (Ta-whid-i-
,~ifdti). These Attributes are of several kinds, namely
(i) "Essential Attributes" (,Sifdt-i-Dhdti)1, to
raulUd-i. wit, Life, Power, with its derivative Speech, and
.Y ifd &
Knowledge, with its derivatives Will and Com-
prehension. To these six some theologians add Eternity
and Truth, but these, like Speech, Will and Comprehension,
are Secondary Attributes, while Life, Power and Know-
ledge are primary. (2) The " Privative " or " Negative
Attributes " (jifdt-i-Sa/biyya), also called the "Attributes
of Glory " (Jaldl) as opposed to " Perfection " (Kamdl) and

L_A1,J
L
"This borrowed spirit which the Friend hath entrusted to ljifi~, one
day I shall see His Face and surrender it to Him."

Or "Positive" (Thubi;1iyya), or J~fdt-i-Kamdl, "Attributes of Per.
fection."

384 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

"Beauty" (Javidl), are seven qualities from which God is
exempt, namely, Compositeness, Corporeality, Visibility,
Locality, Association or Partnership, Unreality, and Need.
(3) "Effective Attributes" (.5ifd1-i-FP1i), or" Attributes of
Beauty " (.Szydt-i-Janzd1), are acts which may be ascribed or
not ascribed to God at different times and in different
circumstances, like " the Provider " (Rdziq), " the Creator "
(Kháliq), " the Merciful, the Compassionate " (Rahmdn,
Rah6n), "the Bounteous" (Jawd'd), and so forth. In this
section reference is made to other views entertained by the
Ash'aris, the Mu'tazila, the KirAmis, al-Balkhf, an-Najjdr,
Ijasan of Basra, etc.
Section iii. Creative Unity of God (Tawhid-i-Khalqi).
God alone can create, and it is heresy to believe with the
Zoroastrians that God creates only what is good,
Tawyd_i-
Kltalq4 and the Devil what is evil. But God can and
does use means to this end, and can delegate
His creative powers to Angels or other agents. "The good
or evil manifested through God's plenipotentiary servants'
is not God's act but their act, wherefore they are the re-
cipients of reward or punishment, by reason of the option
which they enjoy, so that they themselves, by their own

I This passage is so important in connection with the doctrine of
Free Will and Predestination that I give it in the original:

4K4 '- 3. L:13
t Z U 46
_9't uvwz

at_~ djL-
LS

CH. VIIIJ THE DIVINE UNITY 385

volition, do those things which God hath commanded or
forbidden. For although they act by virtue of a power and
strength which they do not in themselves possess, but which
God hath conferred upon them, yet, since He hath given
them this option, He hath also assigned to them rewards
and punishments. Yet God is the Creator of Good and
Evil, while His servant is but the agent and doer thereof.
Since, however, this treatise is designed for the common
people, it would be out of place for us to discuss this matter
[more fully] here."
The author next proceeds to refute certain opinions
entertained by the extreme Shi'a (Ghuldt), such as that'Ali
can create, with or without God's permission;

Refutation of
the Ghuldt. or that he is the "Assigner of Daily Bread
(Qdsimu'1-Arzdq); or that God obtained his per-
mission to create the universe; or that he put his hand
under his prayer-mat and brought forth in it the heavens
and the earth. It may, however, be believed, as is implied
in sundry traditions, that-on the Day of judgement God
willleave "the Reckoning" with 'Alf or otherof theImims,
and will accept their intercession, and the like. Hence 'Alf
is entitled "the Face of God" ( Wajhu'lldh), "the Hand of
God" ( Yadu'lldh), "the Gate of God" (Bdbu'lldh), and the
like.
It is also necessary to believe in at-Eidd, or God's sovereign
Will, that He does what He pleases; and that He can create
what He pleases " without material or period " (bild "iddda
wa mudda), that is, from nothing in the twinkling of an eye.
Section iv. Unity of Worshz~ (Tawhid-i-'.[bddatf). Wor-
ship is the exclusive prerogative of God, and of the Divine
Essence, not of the Attributes. To worship an
rawAfd-t-
,.add.tf. Attribute or Name (such as "the Word of God")
apart from the Essence is unbelief, while to
worship an Attribute in conjunction with the Essence is
polytheism. This is of two sorts, patent and latent. The
B. P. r_ 25

386 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT in

former includes the external worship of idols, trees, stars,
the sun and moon, fire and human beings; or of symbols,
such as crucifixes or pictures of holy persons; the latter
includes excessive devotion to wife or child, or worldly
wealth, or ambition, or hypocritical ostentation of piety.
The visitation of the Ka'ba at Mecca and the Tombs of the
Holy Imims is, however, permitted; as also bowing down
before kings or holy and learned men, provided there be not
actual prostration (sujzid), and that no worship be intended.

MishkAt II (pp. 28-31).

What is to be believed concerning the justice of God.
It is necessary to believe that God is just, not a tyranand that at no time hath He acted, or doth He or will He
act, unjustly towards any one. This is a funda-
Free Will aPredestination.mental article of our Faith, and whosoever holds
the contrary is eternally damned." Thus begins
this section, of which the most interesting portion again
deals with the question of Free Will and Predestination.
" It is also necessary to believe that God neither compels
His creatures to act in a given way (jabr, 'compulsion'),
nor allows them unrestricted choice (Iqfwf~), but pursues a
course intermediate between these two: that is to say that
He has created them equally capable of both good and evil, so
that they neither act under such compulsion that their deeds
are in reality God's deeds, nor can they do what they do by
their own strength and power without God's assistance.
The former belief is Determinism or Fatalism (jabr) and
the latter Free Will (tafwiq~). The correct view is that,
whatever they do, they do voluntarily, not by compulsion
and constraint, although God furnishes them with the power,
means, and instruments, and has indicated to them the paths
of good and evil, so that whoever elects to do good becomes
deserving of reward, while he who elects to do evil becomes
deserving of punishment."

CH. vin] FREE WILL AND PREDESTINATION ' 387

The author illustrates this by the example of a carpenter's
apprentice, who, having been taught his craft and furnished
with the necessary tools, is bidden by his master to make a
window of a certain size and description. If instead of this
he makes a door, he cannot excuse himself by pleading
that his master taught him the craft and gave him the tools
which enabled him to make the door. Such is the case of
man if he misuses the powers and limbs which God hath
given him. Here follows the well-known story' of the

sceptic whose three questions were answered by a darwish
who struck him on the head with a clod, but here Abu'
Uanffa and Buhldl (the "wise fool ") take the parts of the
sccptic and the darwish respectively.
The author's theory that God created the hearts of
believers, -unbelievers, and waverers each from a different
clay, " Knowing before He created them that the believer
by reason of his belief would be good, and the unbeliever
by reason of his unbelief bad, and so creating each of the
appropriate substance, so:that there- might be -no questi -on
of compulsion" (jabr), is not very convincing.

Mishkit III (PP- 32-45).
On the Prophetic Function, general and s
.pecial.

Section i. The general Prophetic Function (Arubuwwat-
i-'dmma). The number of the true prophets antecedent to
The Prophetic Muhammad, "the Seal of the Prophets and the
Function. last of them," is variously stated as from 140 to
124,000- It is necessary to believe that these,
whatever their actual number, were true and immaculate
(ma'slim), that is, that during the whole of the ' ir lives they
were guilty of no sin, major or minor; that they all
enunciated the same essential truths; and that the revela-

I It is included in the extracts at the end of Forbes's Persian Gram-
mar, No. 67, PP. V Y-f't -

25-2

388 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS (PT III

tions which they received were essentially identical, though
in detail the later abrogate the earlier, to wit, the Qur'dn
the Gospel, and the Gospel the Pentateuch (Tawrdt)
These three, together with the Psalms of David (Zubfir)
and the Books of Abraham (.~uhuf), are the principal
Scriptures, but the total number of revealed books is esti-
mated by some as io4 and by others as 124. Of the
Prophets sent to all mankind (mursal) four (Adam, Seth,
Enoch or ldris and Noah) were Syrians; five (Hu'd, $Alih,
Shu'ayb, Ishmael and Muhammad) were Arabs, and the
remainder of the Children of Israel. The five great Prophets
called Ulu'l-'Azin are Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and
Muhammad.
S e S Function [of Muhain-
ection ii. Th pecial Prophetic
mad] (N:ubuww_at-i-Khássa). It is necessary to believe
The Prophet- that Muhammad was the last of all the Prophets,

hood of and that anyone after him who claims to be a
Mul~ammad. prophet is an unbeliever and should be killed

by the Muslims. Also that in every virtue and excellence
he surpasses all other beings; that his "Light" (Niir-i-
Muhammad) was created thousands of years before all
other creatures; that he was sent not only to all mankind
but to the jinn ; and that his doctrine and law abrogate all
preceding ones.
Section iii. What is to be believed touching the Qur'An.
It is the last and greatest of revealed Scriptures, abrogating
The Qur'dn. all others, and is the miracle of Muhammad,

though not the product of his mind; it is
temporal (liadilk), not eternal (qadim); was revealed in the
pure Arabic language (as were all the Scriptures, though
each prophet received his revelation in the language of his
people), and was sent down on the Laylatu'l-Cadr C'Night
of Worth ") in its entirety from the Preserved Tablet
(Lawh-i-fffa~fii_~), but was revealed by Gabriel in instal-
ments, as occasion arose, over a period of 23 years.

cH. vin) ATTRIBUTES OF THE PROPHET 389

Neither men nor jinn, though all should combine, can
produce the like of the Qurdn, or even one chapter or
verse of it. It contains all truth and all knowledge, and the
full interpretation of it is known only to God, the Prophet,
and the ImAms, and those "firmly established in Knowledge"
to whom they have imparted it. The original Qur'dn is in
the keeping of the Hidden ImAm, and has undergone no

change or corruption.
Section iv. The Prophet's Attributes. He was "illiterate"
(umm;O, having never studied or received instruction from
Z>
men or linn; he cast no shadow; a cloud used
Char2cter of the to overshadow his head; he could see behind
Prophet.
his back as well as before his face; he was
luminous to such a degree that in his presence on the
darkest night his wives could find a lost needle without the
aid of lamp or candle. His birth was heralded and accom-
panied by miracles, enumerated in detail. He was immacu-
late (ma'szim), and the most excellent of all beings. Gabriel
was really his servant, and 'Azri'fl (the Angel of Death)
could not approach- him to receive his soul without his
permission. He was neither a poet (shdir), nor a magician
(sd~zir), nor a liar (kad4zdhdb), nor a madman (diwdna), and
to assert any of these things is blasphemy. He had five
souls or spirits, of which the first three (called Riih-i-mudrai,
Riih-quwwat, and Rfih-i-shahwat) are common to all men;
the fourth, Ruh-i-findn, "the Spirit of Faith," is peculiar to
true - believers; while the last, "Ahe Holy Spirit " (Rullu'l-
Quds), belongs to the Prophet alone, and his successors, the
Holy Imdms.
Section v. The Projbhet's Miracles. These included the
Cleaving of the Moon (shaqqu'l-qamar); knowledge of the
Past, the Future, and the Unseen; raising the
Miracles of the dead; knowledge Of 72 out of the 73 Names
Prophet. of God, whereof not more than twenty were
known to any previous Prophet, and the like. He saw

390 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Paradise and Hell with his own eyes, and ascended into
Heaven in his material body, clad in his own clothes, and
wearing his sandals, which he would have put off on
approaching God's Throne, but was forbidden by God to
do so.
Section vi. The Prophet's Ascension (Mi'rdj). He
ascended in his material body to the Station of " Two
bow-shots or less,," a point nearer to God than
Ascension of the that attained by Enoch or Jesus or any angel
Prophet.
or archanael. To assert that this Ascension was
allegorical, or within himself, or spiritual and esoteric, is
heresy.
Section vii. Sundry other beliefs concerning the Prophet.
He was "a mortal man to whom revelations were madc2"
Otherbeliefsin various ways mediate and immediate. He
concerning thecombined in himself the functions of Apostle
PropheL (Rasid), Prophet (Nab~, Iindin, and Huhaddith,
by which is here meant one who sees and holds converse
with the Angels. His intercession for sinners will be
acce ted in the Day of Resurrection and God has be-
p
stowed on him, within certain limits, authority to command
and prohibit, and to add to the obligations imposed by
God in such matters as prayer and fasting. He explicitly
appointed his cousin and son-in-law 'Ali ibn Abf TAlib to
succeed him; but to assert that Gabriel took the Revelation
from a well in a plain, and, receiving permission from God
to see who was the author, looked into the well and saw
that it was 'Ali; or that Gabriel mistook Mul.iammad for
'Alf and brought the Revelation to him by mistake, are
blasphemous heresies.

I Qutldn, Iiii, 9.
2 Ibid., xviii, i io,

CH. VIIIJ THE TWELVE IMAMS ~ 391

Mishkdt IV (PP- 45-71).

On the lindinate.
Section i. Enumeration of the Twelve ImAms of the
1thnd-'ashariyya or " Sect of the Twelve," and refutation of

The ImArnate. the Sunnís, who recognize Ab6 Bakr,'Umar and
'Uthmin as the Khulafd, or successors and vice-
gerents of the Prophet; of the Kaysiniyya, who accept
Muhammad ibnul-Hanafiyya, a son of 'Alf by another
wife than FAtima, as Imim; of the Zaydiyya, who accept

Zayd ibn Hasan; of the Isma'fliyya, who accept IsmaT in
place of his brother M6sA al-KAzim; of the Aftahiyya, who
accept 'Abdu'lldh al-Aftah, another son of ja'far as-SAdiq

the sixth Imim, and so forth. The KaysAnis, Zaydis,
Isma'flfs, Td'6sfs, Aftahfs and WAqiffs all belong to the
Shí'a, but not to the " Sect of the Twelve," and they will
all be tormented in Hell for their error, though they are

Muslims, as are even the Sunnís, who are therefore pure,
wherefore, according to the prevailing view, it is not lawful to
interfere with their lives, wives or property, though some
Shi'a doctors hold the contrary view.
Section ii. Knowledge of the Prophet and lmdins. This

Knowledge of section is entirely historical or quasi-historical,
the Prophet and giving the dates of the births, deaths, and chief

IMLM& events in the lives of Muhammad and the
Twelve lmdms.
The Prophet Muhammad was born on Friday 17th (or
12th) of Rabf' i in the "Year of the Elephant," in the year
1021 of Alexander, and in the Seventh year of
The Prophet
Mu4ammad. the reign of Anu'sharwAn " the just." He lived
63 years, of which 53 were spent at Mecca and
ten at al-Madfna, and his "Mission" began when he was
forty years old. He had nine (or 12, or 15) wives and two
concubines; four sons, Qdsim, Tdhir and Tayyib by
Khadija, and Ibrdhfm by Mary the Copt; and three

392 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

daughters, FAtima (who married 'Alf), and Zaynab and
Ruqayya, who were married to 'UthmAn. Hedied(poisoned
by a Jewess of Khaybar, as asserted) on Monday the 27th
or 28th of Safar, and was buried at al-Madfna.
'Alf ibn Abf TAlib was the immediate legitimate suc-
cessor of the Prophet and the First IMAM thou-h not
'Ali ibn Abi formally recognized as Khallfa until after the
TAlib, the First deaths of AbU' Bakr, 'Umar and 'UthmAn
lin.lut. (whom the Shi'a regard as usurpers). He waged
three great wars, with the Qdsitin (" wrong-doers "), i.e.
Mu'iwiya the Umayyad and his partisans; the NdkitRn
Ctroth-breakers "), ie. 'A'isha, Talha and Zubayr ; and the
Ndriqfit ("rebels"), i.e. the Khárijites. He was assassinated
by Ibn Muljarn on RamadAn 21 at the age of sixty-three.
He married twelve wives after the death of FAtima and
had seventeen sons and nineteen daughters. His father
Abu' TAlib was inwardly a believer, though he made no
outward profession of Islim. 'Alf is supposed to have been
the twelfth of the Awsi)ld (executors, trustees, or vice-
gerents) of Jesus Christ.
FAtima was the daughter of the Prophet by Khadfja,
and the wife of 'Alf, to whom she bore three sons (al-
Uasan, al-Husayn and Muhassin), and two daughters
(Zaynab the elder and Umm. KUlth6m). She died, aged
about eighteen, on the 3rd of JumAdh ii, A.H. 11 (26 August,
632).
Hasan ibn 'Alf, the Second IMAM, was born in Sha'bAn
or RamadAn, A.H. 3 (January or March, 625), resigned the
luman ibn 'Alf, position of Khalffa to Mu'Awiya, to safeguard
the Second himself and his followers, after he had held it
IMIM. for ten years and a half, and died of poison
administered to him by Ja'da the daughter of al-Ash'ath
ibn Naffs, known as AsmA, at the instigation of Mu'Awiya,
nine years and a half later. He is said to have had 6o
wives, besides concubines, but others say 300 or even 6oo,

CH. Vill] THE TWELVE IMAMS 39:

of whom he divorced so many that he earned the nick-namc
of a1-,W11dq (" the great divorcer ") ; and to have had fifteen
sons and two daughters, though here again there is mucb
difference of opinion. The best known of hi
titles is al-Afujtabd.
Husayn ibn 'Alf, the Third Im4m, was born only six
months (sic) after his brother Hasan; had five wives besides

4usaynibn'Alil, concubines; six 'sons, 'Alf Akbar, who suc-

the Third ceeded him as Imdm,'All Awsat,'Alf Asghar,
Imint.
Muhammad, Ja'far and 'Abdu'lldh; and three
daughters, FAtimatu'l-KubrA, Sakfna and FAtimatu's-

Sughr~. Account of his death at Karbald. on Muharram
10, A.H. 6r (October io, 68o) with 72 Of his kinsmen and
partisans at the age of 56, 57 or 58. Of his titles the
best known is "the Chief of Martyrs" (Sqyyidush-Shu-
hadd).
'Alf ibn 1jusayn, the Fourth Imam, commonly known
as ZaYnu'12-4bidin and Sqyyid-i_Sqjjdd. His mother was

'Alf Zaynu'! the daughter of Yazdigird, the last Sa'sdnian
'Abidin the King of Persia. Her name was Shahrbin' or,
Fourth imArn. u'
according to others, GhazAla or Salima. He was
born in 361656-7 or 381658-9. He had one wife, his cousin
Umm 'Abdi'lldh, daughter of al-Hasan, besides concubines.
He had sixteen children (seven or twelve sons, and nine or

four daughters). One of his sons, Zayd, was killed by
the Umayyad Caliph Hishdm ibn 'Abdu'l-Malik, who is
also said to have poisoned him in 941712 when he was
fifty-seven years of age.

Muhammad Biqir, the Fifth ImArn, was born in A.H.
57 or 58 (A.D. 676-8), and is said to have been poisoned
by the Umayyads in 104/722 or 1071726-7. [From this
point onwards there are so many discrepancies

and conflicting statements that a more rigorous
abridgment seems desirable. Thus the age of
this Imim is given as 57 or. 58, or even 78, all of which,

a numerous

Mubammad
Blqir, the
Fifth ImArn.

394 THE SHIIA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS (PT III

especially the last, are absolutely incompatible with the
dates given for his birth and death.]
Ja'far as-$6Ldiq, the Sixth ImArn, born 8o/699-700,
poisoned by the 'AbbAsid Caliph al-Mans6r in 148/765-6.
Jalar a~-~ddicl, He took advantage of the internecine strife
the Sixth between the Umayyads and 'AbbAsids to carry
IMAM. on an active propaganda for the Shi'a doctrine,
which is therefore often called after him " Ja'farf."
MdsaL al-KAzim, the Seventh ImArn, born 1291746-7,
poisoned by Hzir6nu'r-Rashid in 180/796-7.
'Alf ar-Rid6L, the Eighth ImAm, poisoned by
Milsh al-K&?irn,
the Seventhal-M,a'mu'n in203/8 I 8-9,and buried at Mashhad.
IMAM, and hisMuhammad Taqf, the Ninth Imim, born
five successors.
195/8io-ii, poisoned by his wife at the in-
stigation of the Caliph al-Mu'tasim in 22o/835.
'Alf Naqf, the Tenth Imim, born in 212/827-8, poisoned
in 245/868 at the instigation of the Caliph al-Mu'tazz.
Hasan al-'Askarf, the Eleventh ImAm, born 232/846-7
poisoned in 260/873-4 at the i nstigation of the Caliph al-
Mu'tamid.
The Ima'm Mahdf, also called Qi'imu 1~li Muhammad,
Hujjatu'llih and Baqiyyatu'llAh, the Twelfth and last
Imim, born in 255/869 by Narjis Khituln to
TheTmArn
Mahdi. Hasan al-'Askari, disappeared in 26o/873-4, is
still living and will return "in the last Days"
to establish the Shla faith and " fill the earth with justice
after it has been filled with iniquity."
Section iii. Attributes of the Intdins. It is necessary to
believe that the IrnAms were created from one pre-existing
Light; that all blessings and all knowledge of
Character of the
ImArns. God come through them; that through them
the universe lives and moves and has its being;
and that they are in every respect the most excellent of
beings after the Prophet Muhammad, and superior to all
other Prophets and to the Angels, though subject to all

CIL VIIII ' DEATH AND THE HEREAFTER 395

human needs and functions. They are also immaculate
(Inez's im), innocent of any sin, small or great, co-equal, n-
dowed with every virtue, knowledge and power. Their birth
wasnotas that of ordinary mortals, and, like the Prophet, they
were born a circumcised. After many further amplifications

of the Im'ms' perfections, the author proceeds to warn his
readers against certain opinions of the Chuldt, or most
extreme Shí'a, who would put them above the Prophet and
even deify them.

MishkAt V, (PP. 71-85).
Beliefs connected with Death, Judgement and the Hereafter.

Sectioni. Death. The Angels,the Prophet and the Imdms
are present at every death-bed, whether of a believer or an
Death. unbeliever. When the spirit leaves the body, it

attaches itself to a subtle invisible body (qdAb-
i-mithdll-i-lati~f) which is a simulacrum of the material body
in the intermediate world or "World of the Barrier " ('.Zlam-
i-Barzakh). To believe, as do some of the common people,

that these disembodied spirits enter the crops of green birds
or lamps attached to the Throne of God (Arsh) is an error.
This disembodied spirit watches the body it has quitted
and the preparations for its burial, urging haste if it be a
believing spirit, and delay if unbelieving, but none hears or
heeds its appeal. It also sees its place in Heaven or Hell,
as -the case may be. A believer's death is not always easy,
nor an unbeliever's hard. The Prophet's description of the
Angel of Death, whom he saw during his Night Ascent to
Heaven.

I Like so many Persian books, the actual divisions of this book do
not correspond with the Table of Contents, which indicates five main
divisionsp each called Mishkdl, while only four such headings actually
occur in the text. This section is described as Section (M~sbdh) iv of

ii~ con-
Afishkdl IV, but it introduces a quite new topic and should, I a*
vinced, be called, as I have called it, Mixhkdt V -

396 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Section ii. The Questioning of the Tomb. When the body
has been buried and the mourners have dispersed, the spirit
The " Question. returns to the body to undergo the Questioning
ing of the of the Tomb (Su'dl-i-qabr) at the hands of the
Tomb." Angels Munkir and Nakir, whose terrible aspect
is described. If the deceased is a believer and gives satis-
factory answers to their questions on his beliefs, they leave
him in peace, saying, " Sleep as the bride sleeps in her
bridal chamber," and they enlarge his Tomb as far as the
eye can see, and open from it a door into Paradise, so that
the air of Paradise enters it and gladdens the occupant.
But if he is an unbeliever, they revile him and beat him with
their clubs, and fill the tomb with fire; and he cries out in
agony, so that if men and Jinn could hear, they would die
of terror. But the animals hear, and that is why a sheep
grazing or a bird gathering grain will suddenly stop and
shiver and listen intently. Those of the Shl'a who are
buried at Karbald are said to be exempt from this Question-
ing, and some believe that the whole plain of Karbald, rid
of all impurities, including the bodies of unbelievers and
hypocrites, will be bodily transferred to Paradise. The
good deeds and kindnesses of the dead may take the form
of a beautiful companion who will bear them company in
the tomb and dispel their loneliness'.
Section iii. The Squeezing of the Tomb. It is not certain
whether all are subject to this, or only the unbelievers. This
squeezing is not confined to those who are
The "Squeeziof the Tomb." 9 buried in the ground, for those who are hanged,
drowned or eaten by wild beasts are equally
subject to it. After the Questioning and the Squeezing, the
spirit again leaves the material body and reunites with the
subtle invisible body. Opinions differ as to whether this
last always existed within the material body, or apart from

I This affords an interesting parallel to the Zoroastrian belief set
forth in the A rda Virdf ndma.

CH. VIIII THE INTERMEDIATE WORLD 397

it in the " World of Similitudes," or is specially created for

each spirit at the moment of dissolution.
Section ivi. Colicerning the -Intermediate Worid (,,4ia,,9
'-BarZak4)* Barzakh means something intermediate b

The "World of tween two other things, in this case a state o
the Barrier." world between this life and the next, more subtl
than the former and more gross than the latte
Some identify it with the World of Similitudes ('~41am-
Hithdl), others believe it to exist in this world, but in a
Eighth Clime outside the Seven Climes, called A rd-i-Huwar
qilyd~ The Terrestrial Paradise is in the lVddi's-Saldm ir
the western part of this region, and the Terrestrial Hell ir
the Wddi( Barahzitl, in the eastern part. In these places
respectively the souls of the Blessed and the Lost congregate

and experience pleasure or pain, and when a newspirit arrives
they let it rest for a while to recover from the "Questioning"
and the " Squeezing," and then interrogate it as to the
friends who survived them on earth, whether they be still
living or dead.
Section v11. The departed spirits visit their former homes

on earth to watch their families and friends, some daily,
State of the some weekly, some monthly, some yearly, some
departed befo~e only once in several years. Some say they come

the Resurrection. in the form of green birds and perch on the roof
or walls of the house and talk, but the living do not notice
or attend to them because of their preoccupation with the
things of this world-. The spirits of the Blessed see only the
I This is headed Hisbd~ v (of Afishkdt IV), and the numbering of
the sections begins again, but it appears to me really to constitute
Section iv of Afishkdt V.
2 Cf. the Jism-i-HuwarqUyd'i of the Shaykhfs, mentioned in my
Traveller's Narrative, VOL ii, P. 236.
3 See Qazwfnf's dlhdrull-Bildd, p. 25; also Haldvy in theJournal

Asiatique for Oct.-Dec. 1883, PP. 442-54; and Yiq7dt's Afu'jamul-
Buh4in, vol. i, P. 598.
4 Entitled Section ii of Af~sbdji v (of Hishkdt IV).

398 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

good things which befall, or are wrought by, their families
and friends. Some say that they come on a particular day,
on Monday at noon, or on Thursday, or on Friday. If their
friends remember them, offering good works, prayers or
fasting as a present to them, they are pleased ; the happiness
of the Blessed is increased, and the torments of the Lost
alleviated thereby. " Therefore, my dear friend," says the
author, "you must not forget the departed in this world,
but must strive, so far as in you lies, to send presents to
them." The Earthly Paradise (Bihisht-i-Dunyd) is a place
of rest and peace, there is no sorrow or weeping, nor any
obligation to pray or fast.
Section vil. On the spirits of the wicked. These arc also
permitted from time to time to visit their homes, but they
State of the see only the evil done by their friends, and strive
wicked after to warn them, but cannot, and return to the
death. Earthly Hell more miserable than before. Dis-
cussion as to the state after death of the children of believers
and unbelievers, the ignorant and feeble-minded, and the
insane; and concerning the Recording Angels. According
to sorne, the male children of believers are, after their death,
committed to the care of Abraham, and the female children
to that of the Virgin Mary.

Conclusion (Iflidthna)l (pp. 85-132).

Beliefs connected with the Return of the Twe4fth lindin.

Section i. On his Occultation (Chaybat). Three Occulta-
tions are distinguished, entitled "Lesser," "Greater" and
The "Occulta- " Least." The " Lesser Occultation " (Ghaybat-
tion" (GItaybat) i_~ughrd) began on the 8th of Rabf' i, 26o
of the ImAm. (Jan. 1, 874), lasted 69 years, and ended with

I Entitled Section iii etc., as in the preceding footnote.
2 This, I believe, is how the tiLle should stand, but it is actually
described as AfisbdA vi of Afishkdt IV. See P. 395, n. I, su.6ra,

cm. vin] THE RETUM OF THE TWELFTH, IMAM 3

the death of the last of the four wakils, who maintaine
communication between the Hidden lmdm and his followe
in 329/940-1. Then began the " Greater Occultation
(Ghqybat-i-Kz,b,,,,j), wherein no one has direct access t
the "Hidden ImArn 2, )' and wherein we are now living. Th
" Least Occultation 1) (GhaYbat-i-A-ygliar) will last only fron

The Signs of noon on the Friday succeeding his " Return'
the Last Time. (Raiat), when he will behead the preache

(Khat-0) at Mecca and forthwith disappear
again, until the morning of the next day (Saturday). The
time of the Advent or "Return " of the ImAm is known to
God alone, but it will be heralded by numerous signs, of

which forty-eight or more are enumerated by our auth
and of which the most celebrated are the coming of t0hre)
wicked and hideous SufyAnf, whose army the earth will
finally swallow up; the appearance of a figure in the sun -

the multiplication of misleading divines and lawyers and I
of poets; the abounding of tyranny and oppression; the
appearance of Antichrist (~Dql~;V) riding on his Ass the
assembling Of 313 chosen supporters of the ImArn in
T'liqln
of KliurAsAn, etc. After a " reign of the Saints ' lasting
seventy years, the Imaim. will die, poisoned by a woman
named Malffia, and the ImAm. Husayn will
The "Lesser
Resurrection."return to earth to read the Burial Service over
him. This is the beginning of what is called
the Le sser Resurrection when the

I le. Agents or Representatives, also called "Gates" (Bdb, pl.
-4bwdb). The avoidance . of this last title by the author is probably
intentional, for he wrote in 1263/1847, just when Mirzi 'Ali Muham-

mad's claim to be the Bdb was creating so great a stir in Persia. - See
MY TraVellet's XarrafiVe, ii, pp. 226-34 and 296-8.
' Many particulars concerning the "Occultations;2) the "Gates," and
the claims to communicate with the Hidden Im-im advanced by the
Shayklifs and Bábís, denounced as heretics by our author, are given
in the notes (especially D, E and 0) at the end of vol. ii of my Travellers
Narrafive, to which the reader is referred.

400 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Prophet and all the Imims, as well as their chief antagonists,
shall return to earth for a while, and fight their battles over
again, but with a different result, since the unbelievers shall
be uniformly defeated. In this first temporary Resurrection
only those who are purely believers or unbelievers (m2i'min-
i-Klidlis or Kdfir-i-Khális) will come to life. Then they
will again disappear from the face of the earth, and, after
forty days' anarchy and confusion, the tribes of Gog and
Magog (Ydjzy u Ndjzij) will burst through the Wall (Sadd)
which keeps them back, and will overrun the earth, and
eat up all the grass and herbs, and drink up the rivers.
The " Greater Resurrection " (Qiydma1-i-Kubrd), when all
the dead shall be raised to life in the same bodies they had
while on earth, re-created by God's Power as a
The "Greater broken brick can be re-made from its original
Resurrection."
materials, will be inaugurated by the blast of
IsrAfffl's trumpet, which shall draw into itself all the spirits
of the quick and the dead, so that no living thing shall
remain on earth save the "Fourteen Immaculate Ones"
(Chakdrdalt Ma'siiin)'. Then, when their bodies have been
re-created, IsrAffl will again blow his trumpet, and the
spirits will emerge from it like a swarm of bees, and fly
each one to its own body. All animals will also be raised
to life to undergo the Reckoning and be judged for their
acts of violence towards one another. Then the Balance
(Mizdn) will be set up for the weighing of the good and
bad acts of each soul, and the scroll of each man's deeds,
written down by the Recording Angels SA'iq and Shahfd,
will be placed in his hand.
The Seven Hells (Jihannayn, SaYr, Saqarfa~hn, La~;d,
Hutama and Hdiviya) are next enurnerated, whereof the
first is for Muslims who died in sin without
repenting, and who will be released when
adequately punished; the second for the Jews;
Le. the Prophet, his daughter FAtima, and the Twelve ImAms.

CH, VIII]

HEAVEN AND HELL

1 401
the third for the Christians; the fourth for the Sabaeans;
the fifth for the Magians; the sixth for the idolatrous
Arabs; and the seventh for the hypocrites. Unbelievers
will remain in Hell for ever, but some, on account of their
virtues, will remain there without suffering torment, as, for
example, Khusraw Anu'sharwin on account of his justice,

and HAtirn of Tayy on account of his generosity.
Next follows a description of the Bridge of Sir-A "finer
than a hair, sharper than a sword, and hotter than fire,"
which spans Hell, and over which everyone
The Bridge
of -yirdl. must pass, even the Prophets and Imdrus and
Saints, to reach Paradise. A detailed descrip-
tion of a very material Paradise succeeds, which in turn is
followed by an account of the Purgatory or
intermediate state called al-A'rdf. This is said
to be a beautiful meadow or high ground
situated on the Bridge of Sird1t, and peopled by the spirits
of the feeble-minded, illegitimate children, and those who
are neither good enough for Heaven nor bad enough for

Hell. By the intercession of the Prophet or
the ImArns some of these will be subsequently
admitted to Heaven. Other heavenly delights described,
such as the Water of Kawthar, the " Lote-tree of the

Limit" (Sidratu'I-Huntaha'), and the Tzibd-tree. When
every soul has been assigned its place in Heaven, Hell or
al-A'Y-df, Death will be led forth in the form of a black
sheep and slain, to show that henceforth there is neither
fear nor hope of death.

Purgatory
(A 'rdo.

Paradise.

Conclusion (Kháthna)l (pp. 132-138).
[Section ii.] On the ineaning of Unbelief (Kufr) andBelief
(-Iindn). Five meanings of Kufr in the Qur'dn are distin-
guished, and three chief kinds in ordinary life, namely

I This is so headed, but see PP. 381 and 398 su
might be called 11 Epilogue." Ara. This section

B. P. I~

402 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT in
spiritual (qalbf), verbal (qawli), and actual (ftli). Three
kinds of I'mdn are also distinguished, and .1indn
Beliefand
unbefieC is distinguished from IsIdin. Sunnis and Shi'a
not of the "Sect of the Twelve" are believers
(md'min), but not Muslims; they are not unclean, but will
remain for ever in Hell-fire. The apostate (inurtadd) from
Islim is deserving of death, nor is his repentance accepted
in this world, though, according to some theologians, it may
be accepted in the next. But from the convert to IslAm
who reverts to his original faith repentance may be ac-
cepted; and a woman who apostasizes should not be killed,
but imprisoned and beaten until she repents or dies in
prison. The book ends with a description of five kinds of
Faith and six kinds of Repentance.
Such in outline is the Shfa creed of contemporary Persia
in its crudest and most popular form. It would be inte-
resting to trace the evolution of that creed from the earliest
times of IslAm, to compare (so far as the available materials
allow) the historical with the legendary ImAms, and to
contrast in detail the beliefs, both doctrinal and eschato-
logical, of the Shfa and the Sunnís. This, however, tran-
scends the scope of this book, even had the preliminary
work indispensable to such a study been adequately done.
Even amongst the orthodox and formal (qishrf) mi~jtahids
and mullds these doctrines must often have been held in
a form less crude and childish than that outlined above,
though they may have deemed it wiser to leave the popular
beliefs undisturbed, and to discourage speculations which
might become dangerous amongst a people only too prone
to scepticism and heresy. Taking only the
Broad divisions
of religious broad divisions of theological and philosophical
thoughtin thought in Persia, we may distinguish in each
Persia.
field three main types; amongst the theologians
the A khbdris, the Usfills (or Mujtahidis), and the Sltaykhis;
amongst the philosophers the Mutakallimzin or School-men,

C11. viii] THE PHILOSOPHERS

403
the Faldsifa or Hukamd (Philosophers pure and simple),
and the philosophical Siifis. Of all these Gobi-
Gobineau
classificat:' neau's' account is still the most clear, lively
ion.
and concise which I have met with in any
European language, though it cannot be certainly affirmed

that its accuracy is equal to its clarity. Thus he credits the
AklibArfs, generally regarded as the straitest sect of the
Shí'a, with a certain latitudinarianism to which they can
hardly lay claim; and describes the Shaykhfs as "not
altogether rejecting the idea of the Resurrection of the
Body," when it was precisely their doctrine of the "subtle
body" (or Jism-i-Huwarqi1yd)2 which especially laid them
under suspicion of heresy. The doctrines of the Sliaykhfs,
moreover, definitely prepared the way for the still more
heretical doctrines of the Bábís, who were outside the pale
of IslAm while the Shayklifs were just within it and counted
many influential followers in high places. Of the Philoso-
phers and SUffs more will be said in another chapter, but
as to the theologians we shall do well to bear in mind
Gobineau's dictums: " 11 ne faut pas perdre de vue que si
l'on peut, approximativement, classer les trois opinions
ainsi que je le fais, il est ne'cessaire pourtant d'ajouter qu'il
est rare que, dans le cours de sa vie, un Persan n'ait point
pass6 de Pune 'a I'autre et ne les ait point toutes les trois
profess6es." Mulli Muhammad BAqir-i-Majlisf,
The Majlisis. one of the greatest, m . ost powerful and most
fanatical mz~jtahids of the Safawf period, -found it necessary
to apologize for the tolerant and even sympathetic attitude
assumed by his father Mulla' Muhammad Taqf-i-Majllsf,
not less distinguished than himself as a theologian, towards

I Les Reggions et les Philosofihies dans PAsie Centrale (2nd ed.,
Paris, 1866), pp. 28-33 for the three theological parties, pp. 63-111 (ch.
iv) for the S6fts and the Philosophers.
2 See my Traveller's Narrali've, vol. ii, P. 236.
3 0,6. cit- PP- 32-3.

26-2

404 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

the Su'fis. "Let none think so ill of my father," he says',
.,as to imagine that he was of the Sulffs. Nay, it was not
so, for I was intimately associated with my father in private
and in public, and was thoroughly conversant with his
beliefs. My father thought ill of the Sfffs, but at the
beginning of his career, when they were extremely powerful
and active, my father entered their ranks, so that by this
means he might repel, remove, eradicate and extirpate the
roots of this foul and hellish growth (in Shajara-i-Khabitha-
i-Zaqqiimiyya). But when he had extinguished the flames
of their infamy, then he made known his inner feelings, for
he was a man of the utmost virtue and piety, ascetic and
devout in his life," etc.
Yet MullA Muhammad BAqir, in spite of his formalism
and fanaticism, his incredible industry in writing books in
simple and easily intelligible Persian in order to popularize
the Shí'a doctrines, and his ruthless persecution of the
Suffs, is credited with posthumous gleams of a higher
humanity2. One saw him in a dream after his death and
asked of him, " How fares it with you in that world, and
how have they dealt with you? " He answered, " None of
my actions profited me at all, except that one day I gave
an apple to a Jew, and that saved me."
The Qisa~u'l-'Ulamd contains 15 3 biographies of eminent
divines, of whom the following twenty-five appear to me the
most interesting and important. They are here arranged,
as far as possible, chronologically, the serial number of each
biography in the book being indicated in brackets after
the name'.
I Qisa~u'l-'Ulamd, Lucknow ed., part ii, p. ig.
2 Ibid., part i, P. 216. The author discredited the tale, which is
described as widely current. As regards this theologian's literary
activity, be is said on the same page to have been accustomed to write
iooo, 11 bayts," ie. 5oooo words, daily.
They are numbered in both editions in the abjad notation, eg.

Kulaynf as_qo (96); NajjAshf as %r~U (132), CtC.

X11I

zl~

7~,

Autograph of Mulld Mul.iarnmad Bdqir-i-Majlisi

)r. 4937 (Brit. Mus.), p. 105

To face P. 404

CH. V111] EARLY SHPA THEOLOGIANS

1 405

I. Pre-$afawf divines.
1. Muhammad ibn Ya'qzib al-Kulaynf (No. 96), entitled

Thiqatu'l-IsIdm, author of the Kdfi(, d. 329/941.
Ten great
divines of the 2. Muhammad ibn'Ali ibn Husayn ibn Mgisei
pre-afawtibn BALbawayhi of Qum, called $addq (No. 95),
period. d- 381/991-2. Of his works 18q are enumerated

in the Cisasu'l-'Ulamd, the most important' being that
entitled ~ian Id ya~uru;iu'I-Faqih, which, like the Kdfi
mentioned in the last paragraph, is one of the " Four
Books."
3. Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Nu'mdn ibli 'A bdu's-
Saldin al-Hdrith4 commonly called Shaykh-i-Muffd (No.
97), d- 413/1022. The Cisas enumerates 171 of his works.
4. Sayyid Murtadi, entitled 'Alamu'l-Hudi (No. 98),
d. 436/io44. He was the great-great-grandson of the
Seventh ImAm, M6sh al-KAzim.
5. Ahmad ibn 'Ali'an-.Xqj~dshi (No. 132), d. 455/1063.
He was a disciple of the Shaykh-i-Alufild, and the author
of the well-known Kitdbu'r-R~Xdl.
6. Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn 'Ali at- Tzisi, called Shay-
khu't-T6L ;ifa (No.,ioo)", d. 46o/io67. He was the third of
the older "three Muhammads" (the others being Nos. i
and 2 supra), and the author of two of the "Four Books,"
the TahdUbu'1-Ahkdm and the Istibsdr, and of the well-
known Khrist, or Index of Shl'a books.
7. Arasini'd-Dix-i-Tzisl, entitled -Muhaqqiq ("the In-
vestigator"), even more celebrated as a philosopher and
man of science than as a theologian (No. go), d. 67211274.
His most famous works are the A kh1dq4-Ndsiri on Ethics,
the Astronomical Tables called Zo~-i-flKháni, compiled for
Hu'lAgu' Khán the Mongol, and the Tajridon Scholastic
Philosophy, a favourite text for the countless host of com-
mentators and writers of notes and glosses.
8. Nqjmu'd-Din ja!/ar ibn Ya~ya, known as Muhaqqiq.
i-Awwal ("the First Investigator"), author of the Shard-

V6 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS IPT iii

y?u7-1s1dm (No. 89), born 638/1240-1, died Mul ' iarram
726/Dec. 1325. As a youth he showed some poetic talent,
which was, however, sternly repressed by his father, who
told him that poets were accursed and poetry incompatible
with a devout life.
9. .47asan ibn Ydsuf ibn 'Ah' ibnu'1-J1u ' fahhar al-~Iild,
commonly called 'Allima-i-Hillf ("the Sage of Hilla")
(No. 83), died in the same month and year as the above-men-
tioned Nuhaqqiq-i-Awwa1, who was ten years his senior.
Of his works 75 are enumerated in the Qisas. 'Alldma-i-
Hillicame of a great family of theologians, which produced
in a comparatively short period ten mi~ltahids. His father
was one, and his son, entitled Fakhru'1-MuhaqqiqiYz (No. 86),
another.
io. Shaykh Shamsu'd-Din Muhammad ibn Makki -
at-'.4mili, called Shahid-i-Awwal ("the First Martyr")
(No. 82), was put to death at Damascus about midsummer
786/13841 by judgement of the two Qd~&s Burhdnu'd-Din
the Mdlikf and Ibn Jamd'a the ShAfi'i.

U. .5afawf and post-$afawf divines.

I I. Nuru'd-Din 'Ali ibn 'Abdu'l-'Ali, known as Muhaq-
qiq-i-Thinf ("the Second Investigator") (No. 84), came
Dhines or the to Persia from Karak, his native place, and
$afawl and post- was highly honoured and esteemed by Sháh
$afawl perio&% Tahmisp 1. He died in 940/1533-4-
12. Ahmad ibn Muhammad, called Muqaddas-i-Arda-
bflf " the Saint of Ardabil " (No. 83), was highly honoured
by Sháh 'Abbis the Great. He died in 993/1585.
13. Mir MuhammadBdqir-i-Ddmdd (N 0- 77), the grand-
son of Muhaqqiq-i- Thdizi (No. i i supra), also stood high
in the favour of Sháh 'Abbds, and died in 1041/1631-2.
This is the date given in the Q~sas, but the LWAValu'I-Bahra
Yn
gives 780/1378--9.

CH. V111] LATER SHPA THEOLOGIANS 407

Concerning his book the Sirdlu'l-Muslaqim the Straight
Path") a Persian poet composed the following epigram:

He himself wrote poetry under the takhallu~, or pen-name,
of IshrAq.
14. Shaykh Muhammad Bahá'u'd-DMa1-,4md1, com-
monly called Shaykh-i-Bahá'f (NO- 37), was equal in
fame, influence and honour with the above-mentioned Mir

Ddmdd, these two being amongst the men of learning who
gave most lustre to the court of Sháh 'Abbds the Great.
The literary activities of Shaykh-i-Bahá'f, who was born
near Ba'labakk in 953/1546, and died in 1031/1622, were
not confined to theology. In that subject his best-known
work is the Jdmi'-i-'Abbdsf, a popular Persian manual of
Shí'a Law, which he did not live to complete. He also
compiled a great collection of anecdotes in Arabic named
the Kashkfil ("Alms-bowl"), a sequel to his earlier and
less-known Mikhldt. He also wrote several treatises on
Arithmetic and Astronomy, and composed the Persian
mathnawi poem entitled Ndn u Halwd ("Bread and Sweet-
meats ").
15. Muhammad ibn Murtadd of Kdshin, commonly
known as Mulli Mubsin-i-Fayd (NO. 76), though reckoned
((a pure Aklibdrf " (il-o and detested by Shaykh

Ahmad al-AhsA'f the founder of the Shaykhf sect, who used
to call him Musi'(" the Evil-doer ") instead of Muhst . n (" the
Well-doer"), was in fact more of a mystic and a philosopher
than a theologian. His best-known theological work is
probably the A bwdbu'1-Jandn (" Gates of Paradise"), com-
posed in 1055/1645. Ten years later he went from KAshAn
to Shfrdz to study philosophy with Mulld SadrA, whose
daughter he married. He was also a poet, and in the

I "May the Musuhnin not hear nor the unbeliever see Mfr Dinild's
Sirdiu'l-Afustaqiin."

4o8 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT III

Nqjma'u'1-Fusahd1 the number of his verses is said to
amount to six or seven thousand.
16. Mir Abu'1-QdsiYn-i-Findartsk4 though omitted from
the Qisasu'l-'Ulamd, was accounted " the most eminent
philosopher and SUM of his time, and stood high in the
estimation of Sh;ih 'Abbis 1, whom lie is said, however, to
have scandalized by his habit of mixing with the lowest
orders and attending cock-fights2." He spent some time in
India in the reign of Sháh-jahAn and died in Isfahán about
1050/1640-1.
17. Mulld Jadru'd-Din Hithanimad ibn Ibrdlifin of
Shfriz, commonly called MullA ~adri, is unanimously
accounted the greatest philosopher of modern times in
Persia. That in the Qisa~u'l-'Ulamd no separate article
should be devoted to one whose life was a constant conflict
with the "clergy," and whose clerical disguise was even
more transparent than that of his teachers Mfr DimAd
and Shaykh-i-Bahá'f, is not surprising, but much incidental
mention is made of him in this and other similar works,
like the LWIWatii'I-Bahrayn, and his teaching affected
theology, notably that of the Shaykhf scliool3, in no small
degree. His death is placed by the Rawddtu'l-janndt
about I070/i66ol, but by the LWIWatu'l-Bahra
yn twenty
years earlier.
18. 'AbdWr-Ra_-zdq-i-Ldh~ji, like Mulli Muhsin-i-Fayq,
was a pupil of Mulli Sadrd. His two best-known works,
both in Persian, are the Sar-mdya-ilindn (" Substance of
Belief ") and the Gawhar-i-Kurdd (" Pearl of Desire "). He

1 Tihrin lith. ed. Of 1295/1878, vOl. ii, pp. 25-6.
2 Rieu's Persian CatalqW'ue, p. 815. See also P. 258 subra
3 Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsi'f commentated his Vashdlir and other
works (Raw(ldlu'l-janndt, P. 331), but, according to the Qisasull-
'Naind (Lucknow ed., P. 48), regarded him as an infidel.
4 This is given by the Qis'tsu'1-'U1amd as the date of his son MfrzA
lbrAhfm's death. The earlier date 1050/1640-1 is therefore more
probable for the father.

x1v

;_1 ~,

~kt ~-

4"'p-4

Jj ~1 j
1v (6/

Autograph of Mulld SadrjL of Shiniz, the Philosopher

Or. 4935 (Brit. Mus.), i

To face P- 408

CH. Vill] LATER SHPA THEOLOGIANS i~ 409

shared with Shaykh Tabarsf, the author of the MajmaWl-
Ba,vdn, the curious belief in the "essential meaning" of
words, by which he meant that there existed a real relation
between the sound and meaning of every word, so that
having heard the sound of a strange word it was possible
by reflection to conjecture the sense'.
The last six persons mentioned were all philosophers as
well as, or even more than, theologians. The following,
except the last, HAjji Mulli Hidf, are all Shí'a divines of
the strictest type.
ig. Mulld Muhammad Taqi(-i-Mqj1isi (No. 36) is said to
have been the first to compile and publish Shí'a traditions,
which he received from the Muhaqqiq-i-thdni, in the Safawf
period. Allusion has already been made to his alleged Sulff
proclivities. He died in 1070li659-6o, a date expressed by
the ingenious chronograml:

"The crown of the Holy Law fell: scholarship become headless and
footless."

By removing the Is crown," ie. the initial letter, of tA, and
the "head" and "foot," ie. the initial and final letters of
6W, we get the three letters uZj 800 + 200 + 70 = 1070.
20. Mulld Muhammad Bdqir-i-Mqj1isi( (NO- 33), son Of
the above, who has been already mentioned repeatedly in
this chapter, was even more famous than his father. His
great work is the Bihdru'l-Anwdr ("Oceans of Light"), an
immense compilation of Shí'a traditions; but he composed
many other works, of which the following are in Persian:
'Aynu'l-tlaydt ("the Fountain of Life"); Mishkd1u'1-Axwdr
("the Lamp of Lights"); ~1ilyatu'l-Muttaqin ("the Orna-
ment of the Pious"); Uqydtu1-Qu1db ("Life of Hearts"),

Qisasu'l-'Ulamd, Lucknow ed., second part, p. 123-
'.These data are from the Rawddtu'1-Janxd1, pp. 129-Y. The
notice in the QiF~ is very incomplete.

410 THE SHPA FAITH AND ITS EXPONENTS [PT in

notcompleted; Tu~zfatu'z-Zd'i~,Yn ("the Pilgrims' Present");
fald'u'l-'Uyfin (" the Clearing of the Eyes ")", etc. He died,
as already stated, in i i i i / 1699-1700.
21. Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi of Burujird, entitled
Bahru'l-IlUldna ("the Ocean of Learning") (NO. 27), was
born in 115 511742-3, and appears to have died about 1240/
1824-5.
22. Sayyid Muhammad Bdqir ibn Sayyid Muhammad
Taqf of Rasht, entitled Hujjatu'l-Isla':m (No. 26), has been
already mentioned for his severity in inflicting punishments
for infractions of the Shari'at. He was wealthy as well as
influential, and, according to the RawddtW1-Jannd1 (p. 12 5),
spent ioo,ooo "legal dindrS2 " in building a great mosque
in the BfdAbAd quarter of Isfahán. He was born about
118o/1766-7, went to 'IrAq to pursue his studies at the
age of sixteen or seventeen, returned to Isfahán in 1216
or 1217 (18ol-3), and died on Sunday the 2nd of Rabi' i,
126o (March 23, 1844). According to his namesake, the
author of the Rawddlu'l-Janndt, his death was mourned for
a whole year by the people (presumably the devout and
orthodox only 1), because none after him dared or was able
to enforce the rigours of the Ecclesiastical Law to the same
extent. By a strange coincidence, the " Manifestation " of
Mfrz;i 'Alf the Bdb, and the subsequent rise of that heresy
which did so much to weaken the power of the orthodox
Shí'a faith, took place just two months after his death.
23. Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zaynu'd-Din ibn lbrdhim a[-
Ahsd'i, the founder of the Shaykhf school or sect, spent
most of his life at Yazd, whence he went by way of Isfahin
to KirmAnshAh. There he remained until the death of the

I Rawddhe'I-Jayindt, pp. i 18-24.
2 The dindr in modern Persia is of merely nominal value, and
ioo,ooci (= io Ti;nidns) are only worth C,.2 to 4.4, but originally the
dintir was a gold coin worth about ic, francs, and this latter is pre-
sumably what is here intended.

CH. VIII] LATER SHPA THEOLOGIANS, 411

governor of that city, Prince Muhammad'Alf MfrzA, son of
Fath-'Alf Sháh, who favoured him and invited him to make
his abode there. He then retired to the Holy Shrines of
'IrAq, where he composed most of his numerous works, of
which the most famous are the Sharhu'z-Ziydrati'1-Kab/ra
and the Sharhu'I-Fawd'id. He vehemently opposed Mulld
~adrA, MullA Muhsin-i-Fay4, and the Sfffs, but was himself
denounced as a heretic by Ijijji Mulld Muhammad Taqf of
Qazwfn, whose death at the hands of a Bábí assassin about
A.D. 1847 earned for him the title of "the Third Martyr"

(Shahid-i-Thdfith). Shaykh Ahmad died in 1243/1827-8,
being then nearly ninety years of age'.
24. Mudd A hmad-i-iVhdqi, who died of cholera in 1244/
1828-9, was a poet as well as a theologian, and composed a
Persian poem entitled Tdqdis in imitation of the Mathnawl
of Jaldlu'd-Dfn R6mf. His poetical name was Saffi'f, and
an article is consecrated to him in the Mqj:ma'u'1-Fusahd'
(vOl. ii, P. 330).
25. ffdjjiMu11dHddiof Sabzawdr2, the last great Persian
philosopher, also wrote poetry under the nom de guerre of
Asrir. He was born in 1212/1797-8 and died in 129511878.

1 Most of these particulars are taken from the Rawtidtu'l-Janndt,
pp. 25-7.
2 For an account of his life furnished by one of his disciples, see my
Year amongst the Persians, pp. 131-43.

CHAPTER IX.

PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850.

Oriental writers on the art of rhetoric classify prose
writings, according to their form, into three varieties, plain
(Wri), rhymed (muqaffd), and cadenced (musajja').
We may divide them more simply into natural
and artificial. To us, though not always to our
ancestors, as witness the Euphuists of Elizabethan days,
artificial prose is, as a rule, distasteful; and if we can pardon
it in a work like the Arabic Haqdindt of al-Harfrf or the
Persian Anwdr-i-Sukayli, written merely to please the ear
and display the writer's command of the language, we resent
it in a serious work containing information of which we have
need. It is a question how far style can be described abso-
lutely as good or bad, for tastes differ not only in different
countries but in the same country at different periods, and
a writer deemed admirable by one generation is often lightly
esteemed by the next, since, as the Arab proverb says,
" Men resemble their age more than they do their fathers,."
Ornate prose in But when a serious historian takes a page to
historical works say what could be easily expressed in one or two
condemned. lines, we have a right to resent the wilful waste of

time inflicted upon us by his misdirected ingenuity. Before
the Mongol Invasion in the thirteenth century Persian prose
was generally simple and direct, and nothing
Early Sim- could be more concise and compact than such
plicity. books as Bal'ami's Persian version of Tabarf's

great history, the Siydsat-ndina of the NizAmu'l-Mulk, the
Safar-ndma of NAsir-i-Khusraw, the Qdbzis-ndma, or the
Chahdr Maqdla. Mongol, Tartar and Turkish influences

14 -.V;A .-o U!p AtL 1 6W U I

PT III CH. IXJ MISPLACED FLORIDITY
seem to have been uniformly bad, favouring as they did
flattery and bombast. The historian WassAf,
Corruption under
Mongolandother whose chronicle was presented to tljdytA in
foreign do- A.D. 1312', was the first great offender, and
minion. unhappily served as a model to many of his
successors. In recent times there has been a great improve-
ment, partly due to the tendency, already re-
marked in the case of verse, to take as models
the older writers who possessed a sounder and
simpler taste than those of the post-Mongol period, and
partly to the recent development of journalism, which, if

not necessarily conducive to good style, at least requires a
certain concision and directness. In point of style, arrange-
ment, and, above all, documentation the quite recent but
little-known "History ot the Awakening of the Persians"
(Ta'rikh-i-Bi(ddri-yi-.Irdiiiydn) ot the Nizimu'l-Islairn. of
Kirmin (1328/igio), unfortunately never completed, is in-
comparably superior to the more ambitious general histories
of Rida'-qulf Khán and the Lisdnu'l-Mulk (the Supplement
to Mfrkhwind's Rawdatu's_Jafd and the Ndsikhut-Tawd-
rikh) compiled some fifty years earlier.
Of prose works written simply to display the linguistic
attainments and rhetorical ingenuities of the authors I do
An instance of not propose to perpetuate the memory, or to
misplaced say more than that, when they embody historical
floridity. and other matter of sufficient value to render
them worth translating,- they should, in my opinion, if they
are to be made tolerable to European readers, be ruthlessly
pruned of these flowers of eloquence. As an instance I will
take one passage from that very useful and by no means very
florid history of the early ~afawf period the Ahsanu't-Ta-
wdrikh (985/1577-8), of which I have made such extensive
use in the first part of this volume. It describes the war

413

1 See my Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion, pp. 67-8.

414 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

waged on the blind Sháhrukh Dhu'l-Qadar by Mul.iammad
Khán UstAjl6 in the spring of 914/I5o8-9, and begins thus':

U.,X,

I 01A. 3 Z,., I) tj

,W_L.r~ 4-1
341_~ ,

In the spring, when the Rose-king with pomp and splendour turned
his face to attack the tribes of the Basil, and, with thrusts of his thorn-
spear, drove in rout from the Rose-garden the hibernal hosts-
A roars arose from the cloud-drums, the army of the basils was
stirred;
The cloud contracted its brows, and drew Rustam-boWS4 for the
contest ;
The flowering branches raised their standards, the basils prepared
their cavalry and their hosts -
The cloud in its skirts bore in every direction hail-stones for the
bead of AfrisiyAb-
Khin Muhammad Ust6jld encamped in summer quarters at MArdfn."

I F. 7 5a of Mr A. G. Ellis's ms.
2 This reading is conjectural. The ms. has j-JI, which is
obviously wrong, since it is neither sense nor verse.
3 Le. the spring thunder.
4 The rainbow is called "Rustam's bow" (Kamdn-i-Rustam) in
Persian.

CH. ix] CLASSIFICATION OF PROSE WORKS 415

All this could much better be said in one line:
J_tp Cf.J3jLo C3~ dq
1
In the spring Khán Muhammad Ustdjld encamped in summer
quarters at Mirdfn."

Graceful poetic fancies are all very well in their proper
place, but in a serious history they are inappropriate and
irritating. The trouble is that, as has been remarked already,
nearly all literary Persians, and consequently historians, are
poets or poetasters, and they unhappily find it easier and
more entertaining to mix poetry with their history than
history with their poetry, even their professedly historical

poetry. In discussing the later prose literature of Persia I
shall therefore confine myself to what has substantial value
apart from mere formal elegance, and shall treat of it, ac-
cording to subject, under the five following headings:
(I) Theology.
(2) Philosophy.
(3) The Sciences-mathematical, natural and
occult.
(4) History-general, special and local.
(5) Biography and autobiography. including
travels.

x. THEOLOGY.

Theology in Persia during the period with which we are
dealing, that is from the establishment of the Safawf dynasty
to the present day, means Shi'a theology, and
Theological
literature. by extension the semi-heterodox doctrines of
the Shaykhfs and the wholly heterodox doctrines
of the Bábís and Bahi'fs. A large portion of this theo-
logical literature-in older times almost all, and even now
a considerable amount-is in Arabic, the sacred language
of Isldrn and of the Qutdn, and much of it in all Muslim
countries is almost unreadable, save for a few professional

V6 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850[PT III

A worthless
class of books.
theologians, and, it may be added, quite unprofitable. Some
learned man writes a theological, philological,
or logical treatise which achieves renown in the
Colleges where the 'ulamd get their mediaeval
training. Some one else writes a commentary on that
treatise; a third produces a super-commentary on the
commentary; a fourth a gloss on the super-comnientary;
a fifth a note on the gloss ; so that at the end we are con-
fronted with what the immortal Turkish wit Khoja Nasru'd-
DIn Efencif called " soup of the soup of the soup of the hare-
soup," a substance devoid of savour or nutrii-nent, and
serving rather to conceal than to reveal its original material.
Shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh, late Grand Muftf of Egypt
and Chancellor of the University of al-Azhar, than whom,
perhaps, no more enlightened thinker and no more en-
thusiastic lover of the Arabic language and literature has
been produced by IsJdm in modern times, used to say that
all this stuff should be burned, since it merely cumbered
bookshelves, bred maggots, and obscured sound knowledge.
This was the view of a great and learned Muhammadan
theologian, so we need not scruple to adopt it; indeed the
more we admire and appreciate the abundant good literature
of Islim, the more we must deplore, and even resent, the
existence of this rubbish. In reading the lives of the Ulamd
in such books as the Rawddtu7-Janndt and the Qisasu
Vlamd we constantly find a theologian credited with forty,
fifty, or sixty works of this type, which nobody reads now,
and which, probably, no one but his pupils ever did read,
and they only under compulsion. E vcn to enumerate these
treatises ' were it possible, would be utterly unpro6table.
The great achievement of the Shia doctors of the later
~afhwf period, such as the Majlisfs, was their popularization

Popular theo. of the Shl'a doctrine and historical Anschauullg
logical works in in the vernacular. The realized that to reach
Persiau. Y
the people they must employ the language of

C11. IX] THE TWO MAJLISfS 417

the people, and that in a simple form, and they reaped their
reward in the intense and widespread enthusiasm for the
Shi'a cause which they succeeded in creating. We have
already seen, how few Shi'a books were available when
Sháh Isma'11 first established that doctrine as the national
faith of Persia, and, according to the Rawddlu'l-

Achievement the majlisi. Janndt2, MulliL Muhammad Taqf Majlisf was
"the first to publish the Shi'a traditions after
the appearance of the Safawf dynasty." His even more
Works of MullS, eminent son MullA Muhammad Biqir compiled
Muhammad on this subject the immense Bihdru'l-Anwdr
l3Aqir-i-Majlisl. (" Oceans of Light ") in Arabic, a'nd in Persian
the following workss: 'Aynu'l-~Iaydt (" the Fountain of
Life"), containing exhortations to renunciation of the world;
Hishkdtu'1-Anwdr ("the Lamp of Lights"); ffilyatu'l-
Muttaqhz ("the Ornament of the Pious"), on example and
conduct; ~Iaydlu'I-Quhib ("the Life of Hearts") in three
parts, the first on the Prophets before Muhammad, the second
on the Prophet Muhammad, and the third on the Twelve
ImAms, but only part of it was written and it was never
completed; Tu~ifatu'z-Zd'irix ("the Pilgrims' Present");
Jald'u'l-'Uyfin ("the Clearing of the Eyes"); Niqbdsu'l-
JlVa~dblh ' on the daily prayers; RabPu'1-AsdbP(" the Spring
of Weeks "); Zddu'1-Ma'dd (" Provision for the Hereafter
and numerous smaller treatises. Oddly enough one of the
most notable of his Persian theological works, the Haqqu'l-
Yaqin (" Certain Truth "), which was compiled in I iog/i698,
and beautifully printed at Tibrin so early as 1241/182,5, is
omitted from this list. The late M. A. de Biberstein Kazi-
mirski began to translate this book into French, but aban-
doned his idea, sent his manuscript translation to me, and
urged me to continue and complete the work be had begun;

' PP- 54-5 S11,15ra-
2 TihrAn lithographed ed. Of Qo6/i888, p. i2q.
3 Ibid., p. i 19.

B. P. L.

418 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

a task which, unfortunately, I have nevei had leisure to
accomplish, though it would be well worth the doing, since
we still possess no comprehensive and authoritative state-
ment of Shl'a doctrine in any European language.
The basic works of the Shi'a faith, namely the Qu?-'dx
(the Word of God) and the Traditions (the sayings and
Classification of deeds of the Prophet and the Imims), are
Persian theo. naturally in Arabic. The numerous Persian
logical works. religious treatises may be roughly classified ' in
three groups-the doctrinal, the historical, and the legal.
In practice doctrine and history are almost inevitably inter-
mixed, especially in the sections dealing with the ImAmate,
where attempts are made to prove that the Prophet intended
'Ali to succeed him; that Abu' Bakr, 'Umar and 'Uthmin
were usurpers of his rights; that the ImAms were twelve in
number, no more and no less, and that they were the twelve
recognized by the "Sect of the Twelve" (1thnd-'Ashariyya)
and none other. Thus while the earlier sections of these
doctrinal works dealing with God and His Attributes border
on Metaphysics-, the later sections are largely composed of
historical or quasi-historical matter, while the concluding
portions, dealing with Heaven, Hell, the Last judgement,
and the like, are eschatological.
The style of these books is generally very simple and
direct, and totally devoid of rhetorical adornment, but
commonly affects an imitation of the Arabic
Simple style of
these works. idiom and order of words, not only in passages
translated from that language, but throughout,
as though these theologians had so stceped their minds in
the Qur'dn and the Traditions that even when using the
Persian language the thought must follow Arabic lines.
The following example, taken from the beginning of the
second volume of the ~Iaqqu'l- Yaqinl, will suffice to illus-
trate this peculiarity:
1 TihrAn printed ed. Of 1241/1825, E 14A

CH. 1XI

L5 ~s j 1 3 3 3,- L).-Jj L)Uyl L5L6-%2> >3.&. 4
P %:1JL-j %:-*4 JAL.' 64~ L-5Z33 C,)l j"S-all

J j1 CJI. 1 .3
.36b.1 jj3z i3al-M-4 %:-.4 U
C)t...J1 6AU 4 %~=p -Az jp" ;3 at; ~Y.)

J-4 --~4 U Lo I
L

THE UAQQU'L-YAQIN

419

Maq~ad IX: establishing the 'Return' (Raj'at).
of those things whereon the SbVa are
"Know that of the number
agreed, nay, which are of the essentials of the true doctrine of that
Truth-pursuing body, is the 'Return.' That is to say that in the tirne

of His Holiness the Qd'hnl, before the Resurrection, a number of the
good who are very good and of the bad who are very bad will return
to the world, the good in order that their eyes may be brightened by
seeing the triumph of their ImAms, and that some portion of the
recompense of their good deeds may accrue to them in this world; and
the bad for the punishment and torment of the world, and to behold
-the double of that triumph which they did not wish to accrue to the
ImAms, and that the Shila may avenge themselves on them. But all
other men will remain in tbeir tombs until they shall be raised up in
the general Upraising; even as it has come down in many traditions

that none shall come back in the I Return) save he who is possessed of
pure belief or pure unbelief, but as for the remainder of mankind, these
will [for the time being] be left to themselves."

It is true that here the sentence most Arabian in con-
s truction may be the literal translation of a tradition not

He who shall arise," ie. the Imim Mahdf or Messiah of the Shfa.
27-2

420 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 185o [PT III

given in the original Arabic, which must evidently run
something like this:

'Al 6waft-4 .31 C)t.&^
.)I 6aah.A IJ &.4 -J~l
L5

but the influence of Arabian syntax is constantly apparent.
Another class of Shí'a theological writings consists of
polemical works directed against the Sunnis, the Sulffs,
Polemical works the Shaykhfs, the Bibfs and Bahá'is, and the
against-Christians. The Sunnís are naturally attacked in
(i) The Sunnis. all manuals of doctrine with varying degrees of
violence, for from NAdir Shih downwards to Abu'l-Hasan
Mirzi ("~Idjji Sha)1khu'r-.Ra'fs"), an eager contemporary-
advocate of Islamic unity', no one has been able to effect
an appeasement between these two great divisions of Islim,
and a more tolerant attitude in the younger generation of
Persians, so far as it exists, is due rather to a growing
(2) The Wis.indifference to Islim itself than to a religious
reconciliation. Attacks on the Sulff's, especially
on their Pantheism (Wa~datu'l- Wujiid), are also often met
with in general manuals of Shi'a doctrine, but several
independent denunciations of their doctrines exist, such
as.AqA Muhammad 'Ali Bihbihdni's Risdia-i-Khayrdloya 2 3
which led to a violent persecution of the SUM's and the death
of several of their leaders, such as Mir Ma'sum, MushtAq
'Ali and Nu'r 'Ali Sháhs; and the Na ' td(inu's_ju:fi)ya of
Muhammad Rafl' ibn Muhammad Shafil of Tabriz, com-
posed in 1221/1806 4 . The latter even has recourse to the
Gospels to prove his case, quoting Christ's saying "Beware

His pamphlet on the "Union of lsl~m" (Itfi~ddu'l-lsldm) was
lithographed at Bombay in 1312/1894-5.
Composed in 1211/1796-7. See the full and interesting account of
t1l: work in Rieu's Persian Catal(W-71e, 131). 33-4.
3 For a full account of these events, see Malcolm's History ofPersia,
ed. 1815, vol. ii, PP. 417-22.
4 Of this I possess a good ms. dated 22 jumAdd ii, 1222 (27 Aug. 1807)-

CH. IX] POLEMICAL WORKS 1 421

of them which come to you in sheep's clothing (~iif, wool),
but within they are ravening wolves."
The Islamo-Christian controversy has also produced a
considerable literature in Persian, which has been discussed
by Professor Samuel Lee in his Controversial

(3) The Tracts on Christianity and Mohammedanism
Christians.
(Cambridge, 1824). Several such works were
written in the first quarter of the seventeenth century by
Sayyid Ahmad ibn Zaynu'l-'Abidfn al-'Alawf, one in refu-
tation. of Xavier's .4Yna-i-Haqq-numd ("Truth-revealing
Mirror"), and another directed against the Jews. Later
the proselytizing activities of Henry Martyn the missionary
called forth replies from MfrzA lbrdhfm and others'.
The Shaykhi sect or school derived its origin and its
name from Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zaynu'd-Din al-AhsA'f, a
(4)TheShaykh1s. native not of Persia but of Bahrayn, who died,
according to the Rawddtu'1-janndt1, at the
advanced age of ninety in 1243/1827-8, and was succeeded
b Sayyid KAzim of Rasht, who numbered amongst his
y
disciples both Sayyid 'Alf Muhammad the Bib, the
originator of the Bábí sect, and many of those who sub-
sequently became his leading disciples, and Hijji Muham-
mad Karim Khán of KirmAn, who continued and developed
the Shaykhf doctrine. This doctrine, essentially a rather
extreme form of the Shí'a faith, was accounted heterodox
by several eminent mujtahids, such as Ha'j*ji MullA Muham-
mad Taqf of Qazwfn, the uncle and father-in-law of the
celebrated Bibf heroine Qurratu'l-'Ayn, whose hostility to
the Shaykhfs and Bábís ultimately cost him his life, but
earned for him from the orthodox Shí'a the title of the
"Third Martyr" (Shahid-i-.Thd1ith)1. Some account of the

I See my Cat. of Pers. mss. in the Camb. Univ. Library (1896), ppk
7-13.
2 Pp. 25-6, of the TihrAn lithographed edition Of Qo6/i888.
3 See vol. ii of my Traveller's Narrative, pp. 197-8 and 310-12.

422 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT,xii
CH. IX] POLEMICAL WORKS 423

Shaykhfs and their doctrines, sufficient for the ordinary
student of Persian thought, is given in Note E (pp. 234-
44) at the end of the second volume of my Traveller's
Narrative'. Shaykh Ahmad was the author of numerous
works, all, I think, in Arabic, of which the titles are given
in the Rawddtu'l-janndt (p. 25), which asserts amongst
other things that he held the Sulfis in great detestation, not-
withstanding his own unorthodox views on the Resurrection.
Naturally the pantheistic and latitudinarian opinions of
these mystics are distasteful to dogmatic theologians of
every kind, whether orthodox Shí'a or Sunní, Shaykhf,
Bábí and Bahá'f, or Christian. Henry Martyn evidently
felt that he had far more in common with the ordinary
fanatical mulld of ShfrAz than with the elusive and eclectic
SUM. The later Shaykhfs and Bibfs, though both derive
from a common source, hold one another in the utmost
detestation; and at least one of the doctors of theology
who examined and condemned the Bib at Tabriz towards
the end of the year A.D. 1847, Mulli Muhammad MAmaqAnf,
belonged-to the Shaykhf school2. -
The Bibf-Bahá'f movement, of which the effects have now
extended far beyond the Persian frontiers even to America,
has naturally given rise to a far more extensive
(5) The 131bis
and BahXfs. literature, which forms a study in itself, and
which I have discussed elsewhere3. Of the
Bib's own writings the Persian Paydn and the Dald'il-i-
sab'a ("Seven Proofs") are the most important of -those
composed in Persian'. Bahá'u'lldh's .1qdn (" Assurance")

I See also A.-L.-M. Nicolas, Essai stir le Cheikhisme (Paris, igio),
PP. 72. A list of Shaykh Ahmad's writings is given.
2 See Traveller's Narrative, Vol. ii, P. 278.
3 Travellers Narrative, vol. ii, PP. 173-211 ; Materials for the Study
of the Bábí Rel~,-ion, pp. 17 5-243-
4 French translations of both have been published by the learned
and impartial AL-L.-M. Nicolas.

is the earliest reasoned apology, and was written before he
advanced his claim to be " He whom God shall manifest."
His later "Tablets " (Alwdh), many of which are in Persian,
are innumerable; amongst them the "Epistles to the Kings"
(A1zvdh-i-Sa1dtfn) are the most interesting and important.
There is also an abundant Azalf literature, and each
dichotomous schism has given rise to a fresh crop of
controversial pamphlets. Of systematic refutations of the
Bábí and Bahá'f doctrines in Persian the most elaborate
are the Jhqdqu7-Haqq ("Verification of the Truth") of

Aqd Muhammad Taqf of Hamaddril, composed about
1326/igo8; and the Ninhdjuj-Td1ibhz1 of HAjji Husayn-
qulf, an Armenian convert to Isldm, lithographed at Bom-
bay in 1320/1902. The Bábís and Bahá'fs have developed
a somewhat distinctive style of their own in Persian
which possesses considerable merits. Some of Bahá'u'lldh's
"Tablets" (Alwdh) addressed to Zoroastrian enquirers are
even written in pure Persian without admixture of Arabic.
Their most important works, like the Kitdb-i-Aqdas
("Most Holy Book"), are, however, written in Arabic.
From the point of view of style, both in Persian and Arabic,
an immense improvement was effected by Bahá'u'lldh, for
the style of MfrzA 'Alf Muhammad the Bib was, as
Gobineau says, " terne, raide, et sans 6clat," " dull, stiff, and
devoid of brilliance."

2. PHILOSOPHY.

Philosophy (~Iikmat, Filsafa) is defined by the Muslims
as it a knowledge of the true essence of things, as they really
Divisions of are, so far as is possible to human capacity."
Philosophy. It is divided into two branches, the theoretical
(nazarl), and the practical ('amalf). The former
comprises Mathematics (Riyd.~iyydt), Natural Science
('flmu't- Tabi'at), and Metaphysics (Afd ward'bad or jawq

Materials, pp. L89-go.

I Ibid, pp. 196-7.

424 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

at-71abl'at); the lattet Ethics (Tahdh1bu'1-Akh1dq), Eco-
nomics (Tadbiru'I-Manzil), and Politics (Sz)1asatu'1-Mudun).
The three best-known Persian treatises on Practical Philo-
sophy, namely the Akh1dq-i-Ndsiri, Akh1dq-i-Ja1d14 and
Akh1dq-i-Nuhsin11, all belong to the period preceding that
which we are now discussing, and I do not recollect any
important Persian work on the subject which has appeared
since. We may therefore confine our attention here to the
first, or theoretical, branch of Philosophy, and in this section
to Metaphysics, which on the one hand borders on
Theology, and on the other on Science. It is generally
admitted that a very close connection existed
Shl'a and
Mu'tazila. between the Shí'a and the Mu'tazila2 in early
'Abbisid times, and it is well known that the
latter were the most enlightened and philosophic of the
theological schools of IslArn, and that in particular they
were the champions of Free Will against the rigid Deter-
minism which subsequently triumphed, to the great detri-
ment of the intellectual development of the Muhammadan
world. Those sections of ShNte theological works which
treat of the Nature and Attributes of God are, therefore, of
a more philosophical character than is commonly the case
in Sunní books of a similar type.
Muslim Philosophy, like Muslim Science, admittedly and
avowedly owes almost everything to the Greeks. Itsdevelop-
Debt of Muslim ment from the middle of the eighth century
philosophers to of the Christian era, when under the early
the Greeks. 'AbbAsid Caliphs the work of translating into
Arabic the works of the most eminent and celebrated Greek
thinkers began, down to the deadly blow inflicted on Islamic
civilization by the Mongol Invasion and the destruction of

1 See my Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion, PP 442-4.
2 See de Boer's Hist. of Philosofihy in Islam, translated by E. R.
Jones (London, 1903), PP, 33, 43, 72 and 84; and Goldziher's Vorles-
ungen iiber der Islam (Heidelberg, 19 10), pp. 234 et seqq.

CH. IX] THE PHILOSOPHERS 425

BaghdAd and the 'Abbisid Caliphate in the middle of the
thirteenth century, has been repeatedly traced by European
scholars. For a broad general view, characterizing the
chief exponents of the different schools of Islamic thought,
Dr T J de Boer's History of Philosoph
, _y in Islam, translated
into English Dy E. R. Jones, may be recommended to the
general reader. It will be observed that only one of the
thinkers mentioned in that book, Ibn Khaldu'n (b. A.D. 1332

at Tunis, d. A.D. 14o6 at Cairo), flourished after the fall of
the 'Abbisid Caliphate, and he was a unique and isolated
phenomenon, "without forerunners and without successors'."
The question we have to answer here is, has Persia, which
Difficulty of in earlier times produced so large a proportion
determining the of the so-called " Arabian Philosophers 2," pro-
value of later
Persian philo- duced any metaphysician of note since the
sophical systems. beginning of the sixteenth century? Toanswer
this question one would need to combine with a competent
knowledge of Arabic and Persian a grasp of the history and
subject-matter not only of " Arabian " but of Greek Philo-
sophy (and, indeed, of Philosophy in -general) to which I
cannot lay claim. This, indeed, constitutes the difficulty of
judging the value of the scientific literature of IslAm. How
many of those who admire the Persian quatrains of 'Umar
Khayyim can follow M. Woepcke in the appreciation of his
A rabic algebraical treatises? A knowledge of Arabic does
not suffice to enable us to decide whether ar-RAzi or Ibn
SfnA (Avicenna) was the greater physician. Much valuable
work of this technical character has been done in Germany,
by Dr E. Wiedemann of Erlangen (Optics, Physics, etc.),
Dr Julius Hirschberg of Berlin (Ophthalmology), Dr Max
Simon (Anatomy), and others, but very much remains to

1 De Boer, ofi laud., P. 208.
2 So-called merely because they wrote in Arabic, at that time ex-
clusively, and even now to a considerable extent, the learned language
of Isldm, as Latin was of Christendom.

426 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [FT III CH. IX]SHAYKH-I-BAHA,l
427
4
be done, and few scholars are competent to undertake it.
As regards Philosophy in Persia during the last three or
Six moderm four centuries, all one can say is that half a
Persian philo. dozen thinkers have established a great repu-
sophers of repute. tation amongst their countrymen, but how far
this reputation is deserved is a question which has not
yet received a satisfactory answer, These thinkers are, in
chronological order, as follows: (i) Shaykh Bahi'u'd-Dfn
al-'Amilf (d. 1031/1622); (2) Mir DAmAd (d. 1041/1631-2);
(3) MullA Sadrd (d. io5o/ 1640-0; (4) Mulli Muhsin-i-Fay4
(d. after iogi/i68o); (5) MuIIA 'Abdu'r-Razziq al-Ldhijf;
and, in quite modern times, (6) 1ja'jji Mulli Hddf of Sab-
zawdr (d. 1295/1878).
Now Muslim philosophers are of two sorts, those whose
philosophy is conditioned by and subordinated to revealed
Religion, and those whose speculations are not
,~Iikmat and
Kaldm. so limited. The former are the HutakalIhmin or
Ahl-i-Kaldni, the Schoolmen or Dialecticians';

-the latter the Hukamd (pl. of Hakim) or -Faldsz)a (pl. of
Faylasilf), the Philosophers proper. Ot the six persons
mentioned above, Mulld Sadri certainly and HAjji Mulli
HAdf possibly belong to the second class, but the four others
to the first. These four, however, if less important from the
point of view of Philosophy, were in other ways notable
men of letters. Biographies of all of them except Mulli
HAdf, who is too modern, are given in the Rawddtu'l-
,fanndt, or the Qisasu'l-'Ulamd, from which, unless other-
wise stated, the following particulars are taken.
The first five were more or less contemporary, and are,
to a certain extent, interrelated. Shaykh Bahá'u'd-Dfn and
Mir DAmAd both enjoyed considerable influence and stood
in high favour at the court of Sháh 'Abbds the Great, yet
there was no jealousy between them, if we may believe the
pleasing anecdote about them and the Sháh related by Sir
I See de Boer, o
,~. cit., PP. 42-3.

John Malcolm'. Mul1A SadrA was the pupil of both of
them2, while Mulli Muhsin-i-Fay4 and Mulli 'Abdu'r-
RazzAq al-Ldhijf were both his pupils and his sons-in-law.

His teachers.

I. Shaykh Bahá'u'd-Din al-'.4mili.
Shaykh Bahi'u'd-Dfn Muhammad ibn Husayn ibn'Ab-
du's-Samad al-HArithi al-'A:milf al-Hamd'Anf a]-jabi was

Shaykh-i-BahVi, one of the numerous Shí'a doctors who came to
b. 953/1546'. Persia from Jabal 'Amil in Syria, whence he
d. 1031/z622. derived the nisba by which he is commonly
known, though by the Persians he is most often spoken of
as "Shaykh-i-Bah;VV' His father Shaykh Husayn, a disciple
of Shaykh Zaynu'd-Dfn "the Second Martyr" (Shahid-i-
Thdni), came to Persia after his master had been put to death
by the Turks for his Shí'ate proclivities, bringing with him
the young Bahá'u'd-Dfn, who applied himself diligently to
the study of Theology in all its branches, Mathe-
matics and Medicine. His teachers included,
besides his father, Mulli 'Abdu'lldh of Yazd, a pupil of
Jal6lu'd-Dfn-i-Dawdnf, the author of the Akh1dq-i-Ja1d1i,
who was in turn a pupil of the celebrated Sayyid-i-Sharif-i-
JurjAnf. In Mathematics he studied with Mulld 'Ali Hu-
dhahhib (" the Gilder") and Mulli Afdal of QA'in, while in
Medicine he was the pupil of 'Ali'u'd-Dln Mahmu'd 3. In
due course he attained great celebrity as a theologian and
jurist, and became Sadr or Shaykhu'1-1s1dm of Isfahdn.
After a while he was possessed with the desire to make the
pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his homeward journey visited,
in the guise of a darwish, Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Ijijdz
I Hist. of Persia (ed. 1815), vOl. i, PP. 558-9. The anecdote occurs
in the Qisasu'l-'Namd and in the Raw(ldtu'l-Jantidt, p. 1' 5.
2 Rawddlu'l-Janndt, P. 331.
3 Some account of him is given in vol. i of the Tdr1kh4-1,4'1am-drd-
yi-'Abbds1 amongst the notices of eminent men of the reign of ShAll
'AbbAs, whence some of the particulars here given concerning Shaykh-
i-Bah;Vi and Mir DAmAd are also derived.

428 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT ITT

and Palestine, and made the acquaintance of many learned
men and eminent doctors and mystics.
Shaykh-i-Bahi'i was born at Ba'labakk in Syria on Mu-
harram 17, 953 (March 20, 1546), and died on Shawwdl 12,
1031 (August 20, 1622). His principal works
are thejdYn?-i-1Abbds1, containing legal decisions
(fatdwd); the Zubda; the Hifta~u'I-Faldh; the
Tashr1hu'1-Afldk ("Anatomy of the Heavens"); the Khu-
Idsatu'l-Hisdb on Arithmetic; the Kashk4l (" Beggars'
Bowl "), a large miscellany of stories and verses, the latter
partly in Persian'; a similar work called the Mikhldt; also
a Persian mathnawf poem entitled Ndn u Haiwd (" Bread
and Sweetmeats ") describing his adventures during the
pilgrimage to Mecca, and another entitled Shir u Shakar
("Milk and Sugar"). Extracts from these poems, as well
as from his ghazals, are given in the HajmaV1-Fusahd
(vol. ii, pp. 8-io).

2. Afir Ddmdd.

Mfr Muhammad Biqir of Astaribid, with the pen-name
of Ishriq, commonly known as DAmAd ("son-in-law"), a title
properly belonging to his father Sayyid Muham-
Mir Dimid
d. 104z/i631-s- mad, whose wife was the daughter of the cele-
brated theologian Shaykh 'Alf ibn'Abdu'l-'Alf,
pursued his earlier studies at Mashhad, but spent the greater
part of his life at Isfahán, where, as we have seen, he stood
in high favour with Shah 'AbbAs the Great, and where he
was still living when the author of the Ta'rikh-i-',41am-drd-
yi-'Abbds1 wrote in 1025/1616. He died in 1041/1631-2.
Most of his writings were in Arabic, but he wrote poetry in
Persian under the takhallus of lshrAq. He seems to have
had a taste for Natural History as well as
Philosophy, for, according to the Cisasu'l-'U14-
md, he made an observation hive of glass in
These Persian verses are omitted in the Cairo ed. Of 1305/1887-9,
but are contained in the Tihrdn lithographed ed. Of 1321/1903-4.

Li if

(0_11 j

ets_46t~j

00",

Autograph of Shaykli Bahá'u'd-Dfn-i-,Amili

Or. 4936 (Brit. Mus.), 15

To face P- 428

CH. XXJ MfR DAmAD AND MULLA SADRA 429

order to study the habits of bees. It is stated in the same
work that after his death his pupil and son-in-law MullA
SadrA saw him in a dream and said, " My views do not differ
from yours, yet I am denounced as an infidel and you are
not. Why is this?" "Because," replied Mir Dimaid's spirit,

MFr Dimid " I have written on Philosophy in such wise that
more cautious the theologians are unable to understand my
than Mulli
Sadri. meaning, but only the philosophers; while you
write about philosophical questions in such a

manner that every dominie and hedge-priest who sees your
books understands what you mean and dubs you an un-
believer."

3. Afulld Sadrd of Sh,-rdz.
Sadru'd-Din Muhammad ibn Ibrihfm of Shfriz,c ommonly
known as MullA SadrA, was the only son of an aged and
otherwise childless father. On his father's death
Mulli SadrA,
d. xop~x640 he left ShirAz and went to Isfahán, where, as
we have seen, he studied with Shaykh-i-Bahi'i
and Mir DAmAd, from both ot whom he held O~dzas. or
authorizations to expound their works. He subsequently
retired to a village near Qum, where he lived a secluded
and austere life, engaged in profound meditations on Phi-
losophy. He is said to have made the Pilgrimage to Mecca
on foot seven times, and to have died at Basra on his return
from his seventh journey in io5o/i64o-i, leaving a son
named lbrAhfm who did not follow his father's doctrine but
denounced and controverted it, boasting that "his belief
was that of the common people." To these meagre par-
ticulars of Mulld Sadrd's life, derived from the Rawddtu'l-
famidt (PP. 331-2) and the Qisasu'l-'Ulamd, I can only add
that it is clear from some expressions in the Preface to his
Asfdr that he suffered a good deal at the hands of the
orthodox divines, and that Shaykh Ahmad
His influence on
Shaykhf and Ahsd'i, the founder of the Shaykhf school, wrote
Bibi theology. commentaries on two of his works, the Hik

I I

T II CH.
430 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [P I IX] MULLA *ADRA 431

matu'l-'ArshiYYa and the Hashd'ir. Shaykh Muhammad high reputation in Persia, I know of only two brief and
lqbAl is therefore probably right when he says, that "the Gobineauls necessarily superficial accounts in
any European
Philosophy of SadrA is the source of the metaphysics of account of Mulli language. The Comte de Gobineau devotes
early Bibfism," and that2 "the origin of the philosophy of ~adr.L several pages, to them, but his
information was
this wonderful sect must be sought in the Shí'a sect of the probably entirely derived orally from his Persian teachers,
Shaykhfs, the founder of which, Shaykh Ahmad, was an who were very likely but ill-informed on this matter, since
enthusiastic student of MullA SadrA's philosophy, on which he concludes his notice with the words " la vraie doctrine
he had written several commentaries." de Moulla-Sadra, c'est-~-dire d'Avicenne," while the Raw-
The two most celebrated of MullA SadrA's works) all of ~dtuyl-janndtl explicitly states that he was an Ishrdqj-
which, so far as I know, are in Arabic, are the Asfdr-i- ("Illuminatus" or Platonist) and strongly condemned the
His chief works. A rba'a, or " Four Books'," and the Shawdhidu'r- Aristoteleans or Peripatetics
(Hashshd'9n), of whom Avi-
Rubub~yya, or "Evidences of Divinity." Both cenna was the great representative.
have been lithographed at Tihrin, the first in two folio The other shorter but more serious
account of Mull;J
volumes in 1282/1865, the second, accompanied by the Sadrd's doctrine is given by
Shaykh Muhammad lqbdl,
commentary of HAjji Mulld HAdi of SabzawAr, without formerly a pupil of Dr McTagg *
Shaykb Mu. art in this Uni
indication of date or place of publication. Amongst his barnmad lqbM's versity of Cambridge,
and now himself a notable
other works which I have not seen the Rawddtu'l-Janndt ~ccount. and original thinker in
India, in his excellent
- K dfl, little book entitled Develo
(P. 331) enumerates a Commentary on the Uszilu'l pment of Metaphysics in persia:
the Ifitdbu'l-Hiddya, notes on the metaphysical portion of a contribution to the History of
Muslim philosoph
Y&
I P- 175,
Avicenna's Shifd, a Commentary on the Hilematu'l-Ishrdq but he devotes much more space (pp.
175-95) to the
(presumably that of the celebrated and unfortunate Shaykh modern HAjji MulJA Hidf of Sabzaw;ir,
whom he regards
Shihibu'd-Din-Suhrawardf, known, on account of his exe- as Mulld Sadrd's spiritual successor,
and who, unlike his
cution for heresy, as at-Haqtfil), the Kildbu'l- Wdriddti'l- master, condescended, as we shall
presently see, to expound
Qalbiyya, the Kasru Asndmi'1-Jd1zi1iyya, or " Breaking of his ideas in Persian instead of in
Arabic. It may be added
the Idols of Ignorance," several commentaries on various ' Les Religions et les Philosofihies,
etc. (1366), pp. 80-92.
portions of the (2ur'dn, etc. 2 R 331. The passage runs in the original:
Of Mulli Sadri's philosophical doctrines, in spite of their
e

Development of Metafilz 1908), U~l aL,,6 Ula a-.*,

ysics in Persia (Luzac, London,
P. 175. London, Luzac and Co., 19o8. Muhammad IqbAl has set forth
2 Ibid., P. 187. his own doctrines (which, as I understan'd them, are in the main an
3 Gobineau has misunderstood As4dr (which is the plural of Sifr, Oriental adaptation of N ietzscbe's
philosophy) in a short Persian inath-
a book," not of Safar, "a journey") when he writes (Rel. el Philos., nawl poem entitled Asrdr-i-Khudf,
lithographed at the University
1866, p. 8 1), " 11 a 6crit de plus quatre livres de voyages." In the same Press, Lahore, and translated into
English with an introduction and
way he mistranslates the title of one of the BAb's earlier works, the Notes by my friend and colleague Dr
R. A. Nicholson (The S'ecrets qj
Ziydrat-ndnza(" Book ofVisitation") as "unjournalde son p6lerinagely the Se~' , London, Macmillan & Co., 1920).

432 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

that Mulli Sadri speaks with great respect of that eminent
Maghribf Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din ibnu'l-'Arabi,
Influence of
ShaykhMuhyi'd- Whose influence, non-Persian though he was,
Din ibnu' 1_ was probably greater than that of any other
'Arabi.
thinker on the development of the extremer
forms of Persian philosophical-mystical speculation.

4. NuIld Huhsin-i-Fayd q Kdshdn.

Muhamm'ad ibn Murtada' of Ka'shin, commonly called
Muhsin with the poetical pen-name of Fay4, was a native
MuIll Muhsin-i. of KishAn, and, as already said, the favourite
Fayq, d. a~out pupil and son-in-law of MullA SadrA. In the
xo9t/z68o. Rawddtu'1-.[anndt (pp. 542-9) and the Qisasul-
Ulaind much fuller notices of him are given than of his
master, and, since he was not only a theologian and a philo-
sopher but likewise a poet of some note, be is also mentioned
in the Riyd~u'l-'Arifin (pp. 225-6) and the Majmdul-
Fusahd (ii, 25-6). His literary activity was
His prodi . gious
literary activity. enormous: according to the Qisasu'l-WIamd he
wrote nearly two hundred books and treatises,
and was surpassed in productivity by hardly any of his
contemporaries or predecessors except Mulla' Muhammad
Ba'qir-i-Majlisf. Sixty-nine of these works, of which the
last, entitled Sharlzu's-jadrl, is autobiographical, are enu-
merated in the Cisas, but fuller details of them are given
in the Rawddt (pp. 545-6), where the dates of composition
(which range between I029/i62o and iogo/i68o) are in
most cases recorded. His age at this latter date, which is
also notified as the year of his death, is stated as eighty-
four2, so that he must have been born about ioo6/1597-8.
Of one of his works, the Mqfdt!~='sh-Shardye, I possess

I It was written in To65/i654-5- See Rawddtu'l-janndt, p. 546. it is
wrongly entitled Sharh-i-Juwar in the Indian lithograph of the Qisas.
2 Rawfdlu'l-janndt, pp- 542 and 549.

XVI

Ail

1*7

-al

L/lu

~WC, I

.Of
/Ll Y,

~~bs

Autograph Of Mulld Muhsin-i-Fayd

Or. 4937 (Brit. Mus.), p. 84

I
CH. IX] MULLA MUliSIN-I-FAYD 43 3

1042/1632-3,

what appears to be an autograph copy, made'in
now bearing the class-mark C. 18.
When Mulld Muhsin wished to leave his home in KAshin
and go to Shfrdz to study under the celebrated theologian
His travels Sayyid Mijid of Bahrayn, his father opposed
in search of this project, and it was finally agreed to take an

knowledge. augury (tafa"ul) from the Qurdn, and from the
poems ascribed to the first 1mAm 'Alf ibn Abf TAlib. The
former yielded the verse (iX, 123) " if apart of every band
of them go not forth, it is that they may diligently instruct
themselves in Relikion "; the latter the following lines rendered
particularly apposite by the words suhbatu
An apposite
augury. Ndjidi, " the society of some noble one," which
might in this case be taken as referring par-
ticularly to the above-mentioned Sayyid Mijid:

C-

Go abroad from the home-lands in search of eminence, and travel,
for in travel are five advantages :
The dissipation of anxiety, the acquisition of a livelihood, know-
ledge, culture, and the society of some noble one (mdjid).
And if it be said, 'In travels are humiliation and trouble, the
traversing of deserts and the encountering of hardships,'
Yet the death of a brave man is better for him than his continuance
in the mansion of abasement, between humiliation and an
envious rival."

13. P. 1.

434 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [FT III

After these clear indications, Mulli Muhsin's father no
longer opposed his desire to go to Shfrdz, where he pursued
his studies not only with the aforesaid Sayyid Maijid, but
also with Multi SadrA. It is difficult to accept the state-
ment of the Qisas that this took place in io65/i654-5, for
. . him nearly sixty years of age before he
this would make . d his
began his serious studies with Multi Sadri or marne
daughter.
Multi Muhsin is described in the Qisas as a " pure
AkhbArf " (Akltbdri-yi-Sirf), a S0, and an admirer of
Shaykh Muhyi 'd-Dfn' ibnu'l-,Arab(. Shaykh
Antagonism have seen', wrote
betweenShaykh Ahrnad Ahs;Vf, who, as we
Abmad Ahsi'i
and M.11i cornmentaries on two of the books of his master
Mu4sin. Multi SadrA, detested him, and used to call him
Musl' ("the ill-doer ") instead of Nuhsin C' the well-doer
and to speak of the great Shaykh as Humau'd-Din
C the Stayer of Religion") instead of Hu~tyi'd-DM Cthe
Quickener of Religion "). According to an absurd story in
the Qisa~, Multi Muhsin was chosen by Sháh 'AbbAs to
confute a Christian missionary -sent by the
1~ulli Mu4sin((King of the Franks" to convert the Persians.
triumphs over
a ChristianThe sign offered by this missionary was that he
roiasionarpwould specify any article held in the closed
onent2. Multi Muhsin chose a rosary (tasbih
hand of his opp
made of clay taken from the tomb of the ImAm Husayn.
The Christian hesitated to speak, but, when pressed, said,
,,It is not that I cannot say, but, according to the rule I
observe, I see that in thy hand is a portion of the earth of
Paradise, and I am wondering how this can have come into
thy possession.1f 14 Thou speakest truly," replied Multi
Muhsin, and then informed him what he held, and bade
him abandon his own faith and accept IslArn, which,

I PP. 429-30 sufira' thought-reading damtr- See my trans-
2 This is called kbaby, and
lation of the Chdhar Afaqdla, p. 64 and n. 2 ad cale., and pp. 130-1-

CH. IX] MULLA 'ABDU'R-RAZZAQ i

435

according to the narrator, he was constrained to do.
Though extremely pious in most respects, Multi Muhsin
scandalized the orthodox by his approval and sanction of

singing. His best-known Persian compilation is probably
the Abwdbu'1-Jandn ("Gates of Paradise") composed in
io55/i645, on prayer and its necessity,, but few of his
numerous writings have been published or are now read
and at the present day, at any rate, his name is more
familiar than his works.

5. 1fulld 'A bdu'r-Razzdq4-Ldh~Y;(

The subject of this notice resembled Multi Muhsin in
being a pupil and son-in-law of Multi SadrA and a poet,
who wrote under the pen-name of Fayydd, but
Mull& 'Abdu'r 0 umber, are
RazzAq-i-LAhij'i. his writings, th ugh much fewer in n
more read at the present day. The best known
are, perhaps, the philosophical treatise in Persian entitled
Gawhar-i-Murdd ("the Pearl of Desire"), and
the Sar-mdya-i-Jmdn (" Substance of Faith
Murdd.
also in Persian, both of which have been litho-
graphed. The notices of him in the Rawddtu'1-Janxdt (pp.
352-3) and the Qisasu'l-'Ulamd are short and unsatisfactory.
The latter grudgingly admits that his writings were fairly
orthodox, but evidently doubts how far they express his
real convictions and how far they were designed from
prudential motives to disguise them, thus bearing out to
some extent the opinion expressed by Gobineau%
I have been obliged to omit any further notice than that
already given" of the somewhat elusive figure of Mir Abu'l-
Mir AbWl- Qdsim-i-Findariskf, mentioned by Gobineau,
QAsim-i- as one of the three teachers of Mulld Sadri,
Findariski.
because, apart from the brief notices of him

Not to be confounded with a later homonymous work on Ethics.
Ofi. laud., pp. 91-2. See pp. 257-8 and 408 juj*a.
Ofi. laud, p. 82.

28-2

436 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. x850 LPT III

contained in the Riy&~W-1~4riflnl and the Majina'u'l-
Fu~ahd, in both of which the same poem is cited, and the
passing reference in the Dabistdn' to his association with
the disciples of Kaywdn and adoption of sun-worship, I
have been unable to discover any particulars about his life
or doctrines. He appears to have been more of a qa1andar
than a philosopher, and probably felt ill at ease in the
atmosphere of Shi'a orthodoxy which prevailed at Isfahán,
and hence felt impelled to undertake the journey to India.
He must, however, have- subsequently returned to Persia if
the statement in the Riyd~u'1-1~4rifin that his tomb is well
known in Isfahán be correct.
Gobineau (op. laud., pp. 91-110) enumerates a number of
philosophers who succeeded Mulli Sadrd down to the time
of his own sojourn in Persia, but most of them have little
importance or originality, and we need only mention one
more, who was still living when Gobineau wrote, and whom
he describes as " personnage absolument incomparable:'

6. ~7diii NuIld Hddl of Sabzawdr

it is not, however, necessary to say much about this
celebrated modern thinker, since his philosophical ideas are
somewhat fully discussed by Shaykh Muham-
VAIj! MuU nt Of
I-Ndl of mad lqba'l at the end of his Develo
,pme
SabzawAry taphysics in Persia, while I obtained from
b. 1212/1797-4- He
d. 1295/1878- one of his pupils with whom I studied in TihrAn

during the winter of 1887-8 an authentic account of his life,
of which I published an English translation in my Year
amongst the Persians,'. According to this account, partly
derived from one of his sons, lJAjji MullA HAdf the son of
1-.1iiji Mahdi was born in 1212/1797-8, studied first in his
native town of SabzawAr, then at Mashhad, then at Isfabin

I Pp. 165-6.
2 Shea and Troyer's traDslation (London, 1843), v01. i, PP- 140-1.
$ Pp. 175-95- 4 pp. 131-4-

cn. ixl HAjji muLLA HAW OF SABZAWAR 437

with Mulli 'Ali N6rL Having made the pilgrimage to
Mecca, he visited Kirmdn, where he married a wife, and
then returned to Sabzawdr, where the remainder of his life

was chiefly spent until his death in 1295/1878. His best-
His work& known works, written in Persian, are the
Asrdru'l-Hikam CSecrets of Philosophy") and
a commentary on difficult words and passages in the
Hathnawi; in Arabic he has a versified treatise (Manzzima)
on Logic; another on Philosophy; commentaries on the
Morning Prayer and the Jawshan-i-Kabir; and numerous
notes on the Shawilzidu'r-Rubdbz~ya and other works of
Mulli SadrA. He also wrote poetry under the pen-name of
Asrdr, and a notice of him is given in the RiydqV1-.4ri61n
(PP- 241-2), where he is spoken of as still living and in the
sixty-third year of his age in 1278/1861-2, the date of
composition. Most of his works have been published in
Persia in lithographed editions.

3. THE
SCIENCES-MATHEMATicAL, NATURAL
AND OCCULT.

As stated above', Mathematics (Riydiiyydt) "the Dis-
ciplinary" and Tabi'iyydt the Natural Sciences, in con-
junction with Metaphysics (.4fd ward or Md
ba'da't-Tabi'at), constitute the subject-matter of
the theoretical or speculative branch of Philo-

Evolution of
"Arabian"
Science, and its
connection with
Philosophy.
_ sophy, of which, therefore, they form a part'
It is probable that to this manner of regarding them is
partly due the unfortunate tendency noticeable in most
Muslim thinkers to take an a priori view of all natural
phenomena instead of submitting them to direct critical
observation. The so-called "Arabian," ie. Islamic, Science
was in the main inherited from the Greeks; its Golden Age
was the first century of the 'Abbisid Caliphate (A.D. 750-

' PP. 423-4 sufira-

438 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850[PT III
850), when so inuch trouble and expense was incurred by
I
the Caliphs, especially al-Mansur, Hirdnu'r-Rashfd and al-
Ma'mu'n, to procure good and faithful Arabic translations
of the great Greek philosophers, naturalists and physicians;
and the great service it rendered to mankind was to carry
on the Greek tradition of learning through the Dark Ages
of Europe down to the Renaissance.
So much is generally admitted, but there remains the
more difficult and still unsolved question whether the Arabs
What, if any- were mere transmitters of Greek learning, or

thing, did the whether they modified or added to it, and,
Arabs add.to in this case, whether these modifications or
what they in.
herited from the additions were or were not improvements on
Greeks T
the original. This question I have endeavoured
to answer in the case of medical science in my Arabian
Medicine', but I was greatly hampered by insufficient
acquaintance with the original Greek sources. For such in-
vestigation, whether in the Medicine, Mathematics, Physics,
Astronomy or Chemistry of the Muslims, three qualifi-
cations not often combined are required in the investigator,
to wit, knowledge of the science or art in question, know-
ledge of Arabic (and, for later writers, of Persian and even
Turkish), and knowledge of Greek. In the case of the
11 Arabian " (ie. Muslim) physicians the conclusion at which
Eminence of I arrived (already reached by Dr Max Neu-
Rhams (ar-Rizo burger in his monumental Geschichte der
as an observer. Medisilt2) was that Rhazes (Abu' Bakr Muham-

mad ibn ZakariyyA ar-Rdzf, i.e. a native of Ray in Persia)
was, as a physician, far superior to the more celebrated and
popular Avicenna (Ibn SfnA), and was, indeed, probably the

greatest clinical observer who ever existed amongst the
Muslims. The notes of actual cases which came under his
observation, as recorded in parts of his great " Contineris

1 PP. viii+ 138, Cambridge University Press, 1921.
I Vol. ii, Part i, pp. 168 et seqq.

CH. IX] MEDICINE 439

(al-tldwi), have an actual and not merely a historical or
literary value; and even from his methods of treatment it
is possible that here and there a hint might be obtained.

Avicenna was more logical, more systematic, and more
philosophical, but he lacked the Hippocratic insight pos-
sessed by his great predecessor.
In my Arabian Medicine I sketched the history of the
art amongst the Muslims from its beginnings in the eighth
Decay ot century of our era down to the twelfth, but
learning after the made no attempt to follow it down to the
MongolInvasion. period which we are now considering. The
Mongol Invasion of the thirteenth century, as I have
repeatedly and emphatically stated, dealt a death-blow to
Muslim learning from which it has not yet recovered.
Medical and other quasi-scientific books continued, of
course, to be written, but it is doubtful if they ever approached
the level attained under the early 'Abbisid Caliphs and
maintained until the eleventh. and, to some extent, until
the thirteenth century of our era. That they added any-
thing which was both new and true is in the highest degree
improbable, though I cannot claim to have carefully in-
vestigated the matter. A long list of these books is given
by Dr Adolf Fonahn in his most useful work entitled Zur
Quellenkunde der Persischen Medisin', which has pointed
the way for future investigators. Of these later works the
most celebrated is probably the Tu~fatu'-M&Vminix, com-
piled for Sháh SulaymAn the Safawf by Muhammad
M6'min-i-Husayni in A.D. x669. It deals chiefly with
Materia Medica, and there are numerous editions and
manuscripts, besides translations into Turkish and Arabic~
What has been said about Medicine holds good also of
Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, etc., and in a lesser degree
of Mathematics, Astronomy and Mineralogy. Fine work

11 Leipzig, 1910, PP. v+152-'
2 See Fonahn, ofi, laud, pp. 89-91. See also B.M.At, PP. 476-7.

440 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

has beem done in some of these subjects by experts who also
How far did possessed an adequate knowledge of Arabic.
the Muslifu I will only instance Woepcke in Algebra,
scientists
observe for. Wiedemann in Mechanics, Hirschberg in Oph-
tbembelves I thalmology, and, amongst younger men, Holm-

yard in Chemistry. All these, I think, have come to the
conclusion that the standard attained by the best Muslim
investigators surpassed rather than fell short of what
is generally supposed. Yet it is often difficult to assure
oneself that direct observation, which is the foundation
of true science, has played its proper part in ascertaining
the phenomena recorded. Dr Badhlu'r-Rahman, now Pro-
fessor of Arabic in the Oriental College at Lahore, when
he was a Research Student in this University, took as the
subject of his studies the works of al-Jihiz, who,
AI-JA~i; Fn
instincts in ants. on the strength of his great book on animals,
the Kitdbu'l-~Iayawdn, is often regarded as one
of the leading naturalists of the Arabs'. At my request
this able and industrious young scholar devoted especial
attention to the question whether the writings of this author
afforded any proof that he had himself observed the habits
of any of the animals about which he wrote. A passage was
ultimately found which seemed conclusive. In speaking of
instinct al-J Ahiz says that when the ant stores corn for food
it mutilates each grain in such a way as to prevent it from
germinating. After numerous fruitless enquiries as to the
truth of this statement, I finally ascertained from Mr Horace
Donisthorpe, one of the chief British authorities on ants,
that it was correct, and I began to hope that here at last
was proof that this old Muslim scholar had himself observed

I E.,g-. by Fr. Wiistenfeld in his Geschichle der Arabischen Aerzte
und Naturforscher (Gbttingen, 1840), pp. 2 5-6 (No. 65). Carl Brockel-
mann's view is correct (Gesch. d. Arab. Litt., i, p. 152), but his criticism
of Dr L. Leclerc's remarks on the subject (Hist. de la Midecine A rabe,
i, P. 314) hardly appears justified.

-4

CH. IX] THE OCCULT SCIENCES - 441

a fact of Natural History apparently unknown to many
modern Zoologists. Unhappily I subsequently discovered
the same statement in Pliny, and I am afraid it is much
more likely that it reached al-jdhiz by tradition rather
than by direct observation.

In each of the "Arabian" sciences the same question
arises and demands an answer which only one thoroughly
versed in the scientific literature of the ancients can give.
Does Ibnu'l-BaytAr's great Arabic work on medicinal plants,
for example, contain any information not to be found in
Dioscorides? Be the answer what it may, it is doubtful
Modem Euro- whether the later Muslim writers on these various
pean Science sciences ever surpassed, or even equalled, their
in Pcrsu*% predecessors. In quite recent times, especially
since the foundation of the Ddru'I-Funzin, or Polytechnic
College, at Tihrdn early in the reign of Nisiru'd-Dfn Sháh,
numerous Persian translations or adaptations of European
scientific works have been made, but these are entirely
exotic, and can hardly claim to be noticed in a work on
Persian Literature. A number of them are mentioned in
my Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, PP. 154-66, under
the heading " Modernising Influences in the Persian Press
other than Magazines and journals." But of those Persians
who since the middle of the nineteenth century have suc-
cessfully graduated in the European schools of science, I
know of none who has hitherto made a reputation for
original research.
In conclusion a few words must be said about the Occult
Sciences, excluding Astrology and Alchemy, which are in
the East hardly to be separated from Astro-
The Occult
Science& nomy and Chemistry. Alchemy is called in
Arabic and Persian K(iniyd, and the names of
four other Occult Sciences, dealing with Talismans, Necro-
mancy, and the like, are formed on the same model,
Lfmiyd, Himi Val .
yd, Sim' ' and Rimiyd, the initial letters

442 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 185o LPT III fl

being derived from the words Kulluhu Sirr (;- &Lg-,,), cc All
of it is a Mystery." The book entitled Asrdr-i-Qdsimt
cc secrets Of QASirn 11) ~ in Persian, and the Shamsdi-
m,a,drif C, Sun of Knowledges 11)~ of the celebrated Shaykh
al-B,Anf in Arabic, may be regarded as typical of this class
of literature, but to the uninitiated they make but arid
and unprofitable reading. Ibn Khald-An is the only Muslim
writer I know of who has sought to discover a philosophical
and rational basis for these so-called sciences, and his ideas
have been collated with the theories of modern Psychical
Research in a most masterly manner by Professor Duncan
Black Macdonald in his interesting and suggestive book
entitled The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam$. I have
always kept an open mind as to the reality of the powers
claimed by Occultists, and, when opportunity offered, have
always gone out of my way to investigate such manifesta-
tions. Disappointment has invariably been my portion,
save in two cases: a " magician " whom I met in KirmAn
in the summer of 1888, who, amidst much vain boasting,
did accomplish one feat which baffled my comprehension';
and the late Shaykh Habfb Ahmad, author of an as-
tonishing work in English entitled The Alysteries of Sound
and Number', who, if nothing more, was an amazingly
skilful thought-reader.

oRy-GENERAL, SPECIAL AND LoCAT-
4. HIST
it must be admitted, with whatever
regret, that in the art of historical

unwillingness and
compilation the Persians

I Lithographed at Bombay in 1885 and 1894. thers have
2 1 possess the lithograpbed edition of 1318/900s but o
appeared in India and EgypL
3 University of Chicago Press, 1909.
4 See my Year amongst the PersianS, pp. 453-5-
6 London, Nichols & Co., x9o3; pp. XiV+211-

cH. ix) ARAB AND PERSIAN HISTORIANS 443

fall far short of the Arabs, who, indeed, excel in this branch
of literature. The earlier Muslim annalists like Tabarf, with
their verbatim narratives by eye-witnesses of
the events recorded transmitted orally through
carefully scrutinized chains of traditionists, are

not only singularly graphic but furnish us, even
at this distance of time, with materials for history of
which, thanks to these isndds, it is still possible to estimate
the authenticity, even if our judgement as to the strength of
the respective links in the chain does not always agree
with that of Muslim critics. The later Arab historians
selected, condensed, and discarded these somewhat weari-
some if valuable isndds, but their narrative, as a rule,
continues to be crisp, concise, graphic and convincing.
The best of the earlier Persian historians, down to the
thirteenth century, though lacking the charm of the Arabian
chroniclers, are meritorious and trustworthy. The bad taste
of their Tartar and Turkish rulers and patrons gradually
brought about a deterioration both of style and substance,
very noticeable between juwaynf's Ta'r~kh-i-
]Deplorable
influtlice of the Jahdn-gushdy (completed about 658/126o) and
TaWkh-i- its continuation, the 74'rikh-i- Wassd (com-
Wafflif. * . f
pleted in 712/1312), which, as already observed',
exercised an enduring evil influence on subsequent historians
in Persia. Of later Persian histories I have met with few
equal to a history of the Caliphate by Hind6shAh ibn-
Sanjar ibn 'Abdu'llAh as-SAhibf al-KfrAnf, composed in
724/1324 for Nusratu'd-Dfn Ahmad the AtAbak
of LuristAn, and entitled Tajdyibu's-Salaf
(" Experiences of Yore"). This, however, is
entirely and avowedly based on the delightful
Arabic history of Safiyyu'd-Din Muhammad ibn 'Alf al-
'Alawl at-Tiqtaqf, composed in 70111302, commonly known

Superiority of
the Arabs to
the ers!ans
ah F ,
s istonans.

A Persian
version of
the KiWal-
FakAH.

. R 413 sufira-

444 pROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 LPT III

as the Kitdbu'l-Fakhril, but here entitled NunYatU'1_FU_
dald fl Tawdr1khi'1-Khu1afd wa'l- Wuzard C, the Desire of
Scholars on the History of the Caliphs and their Ministers").
That it never appealed to the debased taste which we are
here deploring is sufficiently shown by the fact that not
only has it never been published, but, so far as I know, it
is represented only by my manuscript, G. 3 (copied in
i286/i87o), and one other (dated 1304/1886-7) in the
Biblioth~que Nationale in ParisoIt would be a wearisome and unprofitable task to enume-
Persian historical works composed during
rate the many ies of
the last four centuries. Of the histor
special periods the most important have been
not only described but freely quoted in the
afw a
first part of this volume, notably the S atu's-S fd for
the life of Shaykh Safiyyu'd-Din from whom the Safawf
kings were descended; the monograph on Shih ismaT
described by Sir E. Denison Ross in the .1. R. A.S. for
1896, pp. 264-83; the Ahsandt-Tawdrikh, completed in
985/1577-9 by Hasan-i-R6,nM; and the TaWkh-i-'~41am-
drd-yi-'Abbdsi of Iskandar Munshi, composed in 1025/1616.
6 hs on the later Safawf period
There are other mono rap
such as the Fawd'id-i-5afazviyya (1211/1796-7) and the
Tadhkira-i-,41-i-Ddw9d (12 1 S/ 1803-4), which I wo uld fain
have consulted had they been accessible to me. For the
post-Safawi period we have several excellent European
accounts which render us less dependent on the native
historians, some of whose works moreover (eg. the Ta'rikh-

Some notable
later Persian
histories,

I Originally edited by Ahlwardt from the Paris MS. 895 (now 2441)
6o. A revised text was published by
and published at Gotha in 18 t two cheap
H. Derenbourg at Paris in 1895, and there are at leas
and good Egyptian editions. A French translation by Emil Amar has
been published by the Soci6td des ttudes Marocalnes (Paris, 1910).
2 See Blochet,s Cal. des Nscr. Persans etc. (Paris, 1905)) V01- il P- 251
(Schefer 237 = Suppl. Pers. 15 r,2).

cH. ix] DEFECTS OF PERSIAN HISTORIES 445

i-Zandiyyal and the Muimalu't-Ta'rikh-i-Bald-Nddiriyya2)

have been published in Europe, while others, such as the
Durra-i-Nddiri of Mfrzi Mahdi Khán of Astaribid, are
easily accessible in Oriental lithographed editions. These
monographs contain valuable material and are indispensable
to the student of this period, but they are generally badly
arranged and dully written, and further marred by the
florid and verbose style of which'we have just been com-
plaining.
For the general histories of our present period, from
KhwAndamir's Habibu's-Siyar (929/1523) at the beginning
to RidA-qulf Khain's Supplement to the Raw-
Poor quality %
of most of the~atus-sa d and Lisdnu'l-Mulk's Ndsikhu't-
. f
Persian general
hlstorle& Yawdrikh. at the end, with - the very rare
Khuld-i-Barlx (io7i/i66o-z) in the middle,
there is even less to be said, since, though for events con-
temporary with their authors they have the same value
as the monographs just mentioned, for the earlier periods
they are- not even good or judicious abstracts of the care-
lessly selected authorities from whom they derive their
information. They are, moreover, histories not of the Persian
people but of the kings, princes and nobles who tyrannized
over them and contended with one another for the spoils;
wearisome records of bloodshed, violence and rapine from
which it is hard to derive any general concepts of value'.
Only by diligent and patient study -can we extract from
them facts capable of throwing any real light on the
religious, political and social problems which a historian
like Ibn Khalddn would have handled in so masterly a
manner.
There are, however, hopeful signs of improvement in

Ed. Ernst Beer, Leyden, j888.
Ed. Oskar Mann, Leyden, i8gi.
Compare Mr Vincent Smith's judicious remarks on this subject in
his monograph on Akbar, pp. 386-7.

446 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

recent times. Poor MfrzA JAni of XAshAn, though a mer
chant without much literary training wrote his
Signs of im. 6)
provern nt in ZVuq~atu'1-Kdf1 on the history of the BAN sect,
modern times. of which in 1852 he was one of the proto-martyrs,
with violence and passion indeed, but with knowledge, in
plain and simple language without that florid rhetoric which
we find so intolerable; while the unfinished "History of
the Awakening of the Persians" (Ta'r1kh-i-BiddiY-yi4rdni-
ydn) of the Nizimu'l-IslAm of Kirmdn 2 ' with its ample
documentation and endeavour to estimate personal charac-
teristics and influence on political events, seems to me to
stand on an altogether higher level than any preceding
Persian historical work composed during the last six or
seven centuries.

5. BIOGRAPHY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.

Muslim writers have always evinced a great partiality for
biography, which may be general, dealing with the lives of
eminent- men of all sorts, like Ibn KhallikAn's
Wqfqydtu'1-A!ydn (" Obituaries of Notable
Men ") and the Rawddlit'l-Jamidt, of which I
have made such extensive use in the latter part of this
volume, the former composed in the thirteenth, the latter
in the late nineteenth century, and both in Arabic; and the
ambitious but unfinished modern Persian Ndma-i-Ddnish-
wardn ("Book of Learned Men ") compiled by a committee

Biography
popular with
the Muslims.

I Published in igio as Vol. xv of the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial"
Series.
2 This work was published in lithographed fasciculi, and, so far as it
has reached me, comprises the Introduction (Muqaddama) Of 273 PP.;
Vol. i, completed on the 2oth of Dhu'l-Qalda, 1328 (NOV. 23, igio), which
carries the narrative down to what is called the Hijrat-i-Jughrd
(December, 1905), and comprises 256 pp.; and vol. ii, completed at
the end of Safar, 1330 (Feb. 18, 1912), comprising 240 PP. Whether
there is any likelihood of the work being completed I do not know.

BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS 447

Mi. 1XI rst volume
of some half a dozen scholars, of which the fi
DM, was lithographed at TihrAn in 12961z879 and
i erent types

of biographical the second in 1312/1904-51. More often such
works. works treat of the biographies of some particular
class of men, such as Ministers, Physicians, Poets or Theo-

logians; or they follow a geographical or a chronological
arrangement, merging on the one hand into geography and
on the other into history. KhwAndamir's Dastarul_ Wuzard
("Models for Ministers ")2 . composed, according to the

chronograrn implicit in the title, in 91511509-lo, affords us
a Persian example of the first type falling at the beginning
of the period reviewed in this volume. For the Physicians
and Philosophers no Persian work approaches the level

of al-Qiftfs Ta'rfkhu7-.4Zukamd3 and Ibn Abf Usaybia's
'Uydnu7-Anbdft TabaqdtP1-AJibbd4 ' both composed in the
thirteenth century of our era, a period so rich in Arabic

biographical works. Biographies of poets, on the other
hand, abound in Persian, especially in the later period, since
Sháh Isma'il's son SAm MirzA set the fashion with his
Tu~fa-i-Sdmf (a continuation of DawlatshAh's "Memoirs of
the Poets") compiled in 957/155o. Eminent representatives
of the Shi'a sect, both Arabs and Persians of every category
from kings to poets, form the subject-matter of the very
useful Mqjd1isu'1-A1a'mz*n& ("Assemblies of Believers"),
the author of which, Sayyid Nu'ru'lldh of Shu'shtar, was

flogged to death in ioiq/z6io-i I by order- of JahAng1r at
the instigation of the Sunnís, and who is therefore called by
his f ellow- believers the "Third Martyr" (Shahid-i-.Thdlith)~

S e e MY Press and Poetry in Hojern Persia, pp. 165-6.
Compare Rieu (B.Afpq, P- 335. 1 have a good modern us.
professedly collated with the original in 1268/1851-2, now marked
J. 11.
3 Edited by Professor Julius Lippert (Leipzig, 1903)-
Printed in Cairo in two volumes in 1299/1882.
See Rie, (B-M-P-C-), PP- 337-&

448 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

Of the older geographico-biographical works the
Bildd (" Monuments of the Lands ") of Zakariyyi ibn Mu-
hammad ibn Mahmu'd al-Qazwlnll, and the Persian Haft
141im ("Seven Climes"), composed in I028/i6ig by Amfn
Ahmad-i-RAzi, are typical specimenS2. Monographs on
different provinces or cities of Persia are also fairly
common, and generally include notices of the more eminent
natives of the region discussed. Of modern biographical
works produced in Persia I have made extensive use,
especially in the chapter on the Theologians,
The Ramjdtu'l.
jaxndt. of the Arabic _Raze,ddt1/1-Janndt ft Ah-wdli'l-
'Ulamd wa's-Sdddt (" Gardens of Paradise, on
the circumstances of Men of Learning and Leading").
This comprehensive work, which deserves to be better
known, contains some 742 notices of eminent Muslim
scholars, saints and poets, ancient and modern, and was
compiled by Muhammad BAqir ibn HAjji Amfr Zaynu'l-
',&bidfn al-M6sawf of KhwinsAr in the latter half of the
nineteenth century. A good lithographed edition (except
that, as usual, it has- no Index) appeared at Tihrin in I 3o6/
1888. The notices are arranged in alphabetical order, not
very strictly observed, under personal names, such as
Ahmad, 'All, Muhammad, etc., which, of course, are seldom
the names by which those who bear them are commonly
known. Thus the Muhammads, who fill the greater part of
the fourth and last volume and comprise a hundred and
forty-three articles, include the great Slif'a theologians
generally referred to as al-Kulay,ni, Ibn BAbawayhi and

1 Edited in the original Arabic by F. WUstenfeld (G6ttingen, 1848),
and followed in the succeeding year by the same author's "Wonders
of Creation" (',4jd'ibu'1-,Vakh1fiqdt).
2 In the HeVt Iqlim the biographical element preponderates. Un-
fortunately it remains unpublished, though a critical edition was begun
by Mawlawf 'Abdu'l-Muqtadir, of which, so far as I know, only the
first fasciculus (pp. x + % % 1) has been printed at Calcutta in 19 1 &

cli. IX] BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS 44

Shaykh-i-Muffd; the historians Tabarf and ShahristAnf

I
the scientists Rdzf and B'r6nf"; the thinkers FdrAbf,
Ghazdlf and Muhyf'd-Din ibnu'l-'Arabi; and the Persian

u
poets Sani'f, Farfdu'd-Dfn 'AttAr and Jaldlu'd-Dfn R'mf,
nor is any subordinate plan, chronological or other, dis-
cernible within these sections, so that the owner of the
book who wishes to consult it regularly is compelled to
make his own Index or Table of Contents.

The other book which I have constantly consulted as to
the lives of the theologians is the Persian Qisa~u'l-'Ulamd
Stories of the Doctors") of Muhammad ibn
The Qifasu'l-
ulamL SulaymAn of Tanakibun, who wrote it in 12901
1873'. It contains about a hundred and fifty
biographies of Shí'a divines, and is more readable, if less
accurate, than the work previously mentioned. Another
useful Persian book on the same subject is the
The Nuidmu's.
Saind, and other lvuigmu's-Samd ("Stars of Heaven") composed
biographies of b MfrzA Muhammad 'Alf in 1286/1869-702,
Theologiam y
dealing with the Shi'a doctors of the-eleventh,-
twelfth and thirteenth centuries of the h~ira (seventeenth,
eighteenth and nineteenth of the Christian era). There
exist also two special monographs in Arabic on the Shl'a
divines of Bahrayn and Jabal 'Amil, the Lzi'lil'atu'l-Balzrayn
(" Pearl of Bahrayn ") of Shaykh Yu'suf ibn Ahmad al-
BahrAnf, who flourished in the eighteenth century; and the
A malu'l-,,f milfi'Ulamd'i * Jabal'.4inz'l (" the Hoper's I-lope,
on the Doctors of Mount 'Amil "), by Muhammad ibn
Ijasan ibn 'Alf... al-Hurr al-'Amilf, who belongs to the
previous century.
Mention must also be made of another modern bio-
graphical work of a somewhat special character, which,

I I possess two lithographed editions, one, the second TihrAn edition,
published in 1304/1886; the other, apparently at Lucknow, in i.3o6/
1888-9
2 Lithographed at Lucknow in 130311885-6.

B. P. T_

450 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

though the work of a Persian, is written in Turkish. This
Calligraphists. is the Khatt u Khattdtdn ("Writing and
Writers")', a history of the art of Calligraphy
and its votaries by the learned MirzA Habib of Isfahán, who
spent the latter period of his life in Constantinople, where
he was a member of the Anjuman-i-Xa'drif, or Turkish
Academy.
These are but a selection of the more useful or less
known biographical works, of which many more will be
Autobiographies. found described in Ricu's, Eth6's, and other
catalogues of Persian manuscripts. Of autobio-
graphies the most notable is that of Shaykh 'Alf Hazfn,
which contains one of the few first-hand Persian accounts
of the Afghin Invasion and fall of Isfahán in A.D. 1722.
Travels are a special form of autobiography, in which His

Travel& late Majesty Nisiru'd-Dfn Sháh indulged freely.
An account of the mission of Farrukh Khán
Amfnu'l-Mulk to London and Paris at the close of the
Anglo-Persian War in 1857-8 was written by one of his
staff, Mfrz;i Husayn ibn 'Abdu'lldh, but has never been
published2. It concludes with a description of the French
Departments of State and Public Institutions. More
valuable and varied in its contents is the
The Busidm4- Bustdnu's-Siyd~at (" Garden of Travel ") of
siyd~at. Hajji Zaynu'l-'Abidfn of ShirwAns, who wrote
it in 1247/1831-2. In a brief autobiography under the
heading ShamAkhf he tells us that lie was born in mid-

' A very nicely printed edition of this book was published at Con-
stantinople in 1305/1887-8.
2 MY ms. X. 7, copied in 1276/i86o for Prince Bahman Mfrzi Bahi
lu'd-Dawla, came to me amongst the Schindler mss. Concerning Far-
rukh Khán's mission, see R. G. Watson's History ol Persia z8oo-
1858, PP. 456 et seqq.
3 Lithographed at TihrAn in 1310/1892-3. See Rieu (B.M.P.S.),
pp. 99-ioi, Nos. 139 and 140, and B. Dorn iniVilanges et Extraits,
Vol. iii, pp. 50-59.

BOOKS OF TRAVEL 451
CH. IX]

Sha'bin, rr94 (August 15, 178o), and was taken to Kar-
balA, where be thenceforth made his home, when only five
years old. He travelled extensively in 'Irdq, Gilain, the
Caucasus, Adharbdyjdn, KhurdsAn, AfghánistAn, India,
Kashmir, BadakhshAn, TurkistAn, Transoxiana, the Persian

Gulf, Yaman, the HijAz, Egypt, Syria, Turkey in Asia and

Armenia, and in Persia also visited TihrAn, Hamadin,
Isfahán, Shiraz and Kirmin. He 'was a Shí'ate and a
darwish of the Order of Shah Ni'matu'llih, and in this
double capacity made the acquaintance and enjoyed the
friendship of many eminent doctors ('ulamd) and " gnostics "
Curafd). The author, a man of intelligence and a keen
observer, does not give a continuous narrative of his travels,
but arranges his materials under the following heads:

Chapter L Account of the Prophet, his daughter Fitima,
and the Twelve Imams.
Chapter 11 Account of certain doctors, gnostics, philo-
sophers, poets and learned men.
Chapter 111. On sundry sects and doctrines.
Chapter IV. Geographical account of towns and villages
visited by the author in Persia, TurkistAn, Afghánistin,

India, parts of Europe and China, Turkey, Syria and Egypt,
the names of these places being arranged alphabetically.
Promenade (Sayr). Prolegomena on the arrangement of
this Garden, and on certain matters connected therewith.
Rose-bed(Gulshan). Countries and persons to-describe
which is the ultimate object of the book, arranged alpha-

betically in twenty-eight sections, corresponding with the
letters of the Arabic alphabet.
S -bowers (Gulzdr)
pring- (Bahár), containing four Rose
(i) On the interpretation of dreams
(ii) Names of certain halting-places of the author on his
travels ;
(iii) Various anecdotes;
(iv) Conclusion.

29--2

452 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

The book contains a great deal of miscellaneous bio-
graphical and geographical information, which, owing to
the alphabetical arrangement generally observed, and the
very full table of contents prefixed, is fairly accessible to the
reader. The author was full of curiosity, and, though un-
able to visit Europe, lost no opportunity of cultivating the
society of European travellers and acquainting himself with
the peculiarities of their countries by hearsay. Under the
article Firang(pl)- 385-7) he discusses the general character-
istics of the chief European nations, amongst whom he puts
the French first, the Austrians second, and the English
third ; and he gives a long account of his conversations with
an Englishman whom he calls " Mr Wiklfs" (~., U_~-3 IZ-4),
and with whom he became acquainted at 'AzfmAbAd. He
also cultivated the society of the Austrian ambassador
at Constantinople, who invited him to visit his country,
"but," he concludes, "since there was no great spiritual
advantage to be gained by travelling in that country, I
declined." More valuable is his account of the various
religions and sects of Asia, in which he treats, amongst
other matters, of the Zoroastrians, Mazdakites, Jews,
Christians, Hindu's, Sfffs and Ghuldt (extreme Shí'a).

it would be impossible to notice here the many excellent
books of reference, historical, biographical and geographical,
which have been produced in Persia since the middle of
the nineteenth century. Many of them, it- is true, are for
the most part compiled and condensed from older works,
both Arabic and Persian, but some contain valuable new
matter, not to be found elsewhere. Something must, how-
ever, be said as to certain peculiarities connected with this
later literature and with the world of books in modern Persia.
European students of Persian are, as a rule, unless they
have lived in that country, accustomed to think in terms of
I Perhaps a corruption of Wilkins

CH. IX] PERSIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY . i 453

manuscripts, and to turn to Dr Rieu's admirable catalogues
of the British Museum MSS. for information as to literary
history. But since the introduction into Persia of printing
and lithography, especially since about i88o, the importance
of the manuscript literature has steadily diminished, the
more important books written being either transferred to
stone or set up in type from the original copy. This
printed and lithographed literature has not hitherto received
nearly so much attention as the older manuscript literature,
and it is often impossible to obtain ready and trustworthy
information as to the authors and contents of these modern

books. The recent publication of Mr Edwards's Catalogue
of the Persian printed books in the British Museum, marks
a great step in advance of anything previously accomplished,
but the notices are necessarily very brief, and contain, as a
rule, no particulars about the authors and only the most
general indication of the character of their works. What is
needed is a catalope raisonud of Persian books composed
during the last century and lithographed or printed in
Persia, for it is much easier, for reasons which will be stated
immediately, to ascertain what has been published in
Persian in Turkey, Egypt and India.
The fact is that the Persian book trade is in the most
chaotic condition. There are no publishers or booksellers
of substance, and no book-catalogues are issued. Most
books have no fixed price or place of sale;- many have - no
pagination ; hardly any have indexes or tables of contents.
Often books comprising several volumes change their size
and shape, their plan, and even their nature, as they proceed,
while the author not unfrequently changes his title. Let us
take as an illustration a few of the numerous works of
reference published under the name of Mimi Muhammad
Uasan Khán, who successively bore the titles of ~anf'u'd-

I London, 1922: 968 columns. The works are arranged under their
authors, but there is a General Index of Titles and a Subject Index.

454 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 1850 [PT III

Dawla, Mu"tamanu's-Sultin, and Ftimidu'd-Dawla, and was
the son of lj~jji 'Alf Kh4n of Marigha, originally entitled
]JAjibu'd-Dawla and later PtimAdu's-Saltana. Now first of
all it is very doubtful whether these books were really
written by ~ani'u'd-Dawla at all; at any rate it is com-
monly asserted that he coerced various poor scholars to
write them, and ascribed the authorship to himself', pro-
ceedings of which the latter must be regarded as wholly
reprehensible, whatever may be said in extenuation of the
former. In 1293/1876 he published the first volume of the
Hirdtu'l-Bulddit ("Mirror of the Lands"), a geographical
dictionary of Persian towns and villages, largely based on
YAqult's well-known Arabic .4fujamu'l-Bulddn, containing
the first four letters of the alphabet (I to Zj). Of this
volume, however, there appear to have been two editions,
the first ending with the notice of Tabriz and containing
388 pages, the second, published a year later (129411877),
extending to Tihrdn, and containing 6o6 pages. Having
reached Tihrin, however, the author, growing tired, ap-
parently, -of geography, decided to continue his work as a
history of the reigning king NAsiru'd-Din Shih, and to add
at the end of each remaining volume a Calendar and Court
Directory for the current year. Vol. ii, therefore, comprises
the first fifteen years of the Sháh's reign (298 pp.) and the
Calendar (45 PP.) for the year of publication (129511878).
Vol. iii continues on the same liDes, and contains the years
xvi--xxxii of the current reign (264 pp.) and the Calendar
(50 pp.). At this point, however, the author seems to have
remembered his original plan, and in vol. iv he continues
the geographical dictionary with the next two letters of the
alphabet (-!~t and C), at which point he reverts to history,
and gives an account of the events of

the year of publica
tion (1296/1879), fOllowed by the annual Calendar. More-

I See my Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, pp. 156 and 164-6.

4 i

CH. IX] METAMORPHOSIS OF A BOOK

4SS

over, in order to celebrate this reconciliation of geography
and history, the size of this fourth volume is suddenly
enlarged from ioJ x 61 inches to 131 x 81 inches.
By this time the author appears to have grown weary ot
the " Mirror of the Lands," for after a year's rest he began

the publication of a new book entitled Muntaqam-i-Nd~siri(, of
which also three volumes appeared in the years 1298-1300/
1881-3. Of these three volumes I possess only the first and
the third. The first contains an outline of Islamic history
from A.H. 1-656 (A.D. 622-1258), that is, of the history of
the Caliphate (PP. 3-239), followed by an account of the
chief events of the solar year beginning in March, I 88o, both
in Persia and Europe (pp. 239-57), and the usual Calendar
and Court Directory (42 pp.). The third volume contains a
history of the reigning QAjdr dynasty from 1194/1779 to
1300/1882 (PP. 32-387), followed again by the Calendar for
the last mentioned year.
Next year the author began the publication of a new
work in three volumes entitled Hatla'u'sh-Shams ("the

Dawning-place of the Sun "). This opens with
Mafiaws,&_ a perfunctory apology for the incomplete con-
ShaMl, A.H.
1301-3 (A-D- dition in which the " Mirror of the Lands " was
z884-6X left. However, says he, since the next two letters

of the alphabet are hd (,,) and Khá (t), and since KhurisAn
is the most important province beginning with the latter,
and since His Majesty Ndsiru'd-Din Sháh, whose faithful
servant he is, and to whom this and his other works are
dedicated, had recently made the journey thither in order
to visit the holy shrine of the ImAin 'Ali RidA at Mashhad,
he has decided to devote this book to an account of that
province, which, since it lies to the East, is hinted at in the
title. In the first volume (published in 1301/1884) he ac-
cordingly describes the route to Mashhad by way of Dami-
wand, Ffr6zk6h, BistArn, Bujndrd and Q6chAn, giving a full
account of each of these places and the intervening stations.

456 PROSE WRITERS UNTIL A.D. 185o [PT III

The second volume (published in 1302/1885) contains a
detailed description of Mashhad, its monuments, its history
from 428/1036 to 1302/1885, the most notable men to whom
it has given birth, a monograph on the eighth ImAm'Alf
Rida', and in conclusion (PP- 469-5oo) a valuable list of the
books contained in the Mosque library. In the midst of all
this topographical matter is inserted (pp. 165-2 16) the text
of Sháh Tahmdsp's diary, of which such free use was made
in a previous chapter". The third volume (published in
1303/ 1886) contains an account of the Shall-i's return journey
by the ordinary Pilgrim route through Nishdp6r, SabzawAr,
Sháhrild, DAmghdn and SamnAn, with full descriptions of
these and the intervening stations, and biographical notices
of eminent men connected with each. A Sdl-ndma, or
Calendar and Court Directory for the current year, com-
pletes each volume, and it is only fair to add that the price
of each is stated on the last page as twelve qrcins, at that
time about seven shillings.
Henceforward most of Muhammad Hasan Khin's nu-
merous works included a Sdl-ndma, or " Year Book" for
the current year, placed at the end of each
Other works by
the same author. volume and having a separate pagination. His
biographies of eminent Muslim women, entitled
Khayrdrn Hisdn-1, published in three volumes in the years
1304-7/i887-go, lacks this addition, which is, however,
found in the Kitdbu'1-.7v1a'd1hir zea'1-.z!1hdr (published in
13o6/ 1888-9), on the Memorabilia of forty years of the reign
of Ndsiru'd-Dfn Sháh, an invaluable book of reference for
students of the history, biography and evolution of modern
Persia down to the date of publication. The plan of a
geographical dictionary was taken up by another writer,
The Gan_1 .4- Muhammad Taqf Khán called Haldin, who in
Ddodsh of
" kiakim.'

1305/1887-8 published, uiAer the title of Gai~j-
i-Ddnish ("the Treasure of Learning"), a com-
I See pp. 84 et seqq. supra.

CH. IX] LITHOGRAPHED BOOKS 457

plete Encyclopaedia of Persian place-names comprising
574 large pages. One welcome feature of this book is that
the author prefixes a long list of the authorities and books
of which he made use in his compilation. This includes a
number of European (including ancient Greek) works.
These Persian lithographed books, notwithstanding their
shortcomings, are, as a rule, pleasant to handle, well written,

well bound, and printed on good paper. Some of them, like
the A"Itatt u K'hattdtdn ("Calligraphy and Calligraphists
of Mfrzi-yi-Sanglikh, and the excellent edition of the
Afathnawi with Concordance of Verses (Kashfu'1-Abydt)
associated with the name of 'Ald'u'd-Dawla, are really
beautiful books, while almost all are far superior to the
Indian lithographs. They are, however, hard to obtain in
Europe, and indeed anywhere outside Tihrdn, Tabriz and
perhaps Isfahan. Even the British Museum collection is
very far from complete, while my own collection, originally
formed by purchase in Persia,, owes much to the fact that
I was able to add to it a number of volumes from two very
notable Persian libraries, those of the late M. Charles Schefer
and of the late Sir A. Houtu in -Schindler. As has been
already said, few greater services could be rendered to
Persian scholarship than the proper cataloguing and de-
scribing of these lithographs, and the devising of means to
place them on the European book-market. Since litho-
graphy can be carried on with simple apparatus and with-
out any great technical skill or outlay of money, it is often
practised by comparatively poor scholars and bibliophiles,
who print very small editions which are soon exhausted, so
that many books of this class rank rather with manuscripts
than with printed books in rarity and desirabilityl~

I For a list of the books I bought in Persia in the autumn of x888,
see my Year anzongst the Persians, PP. 554-7-
2 Compare p. 551 of the book mentioned in the preceding footnote.

CHAPTER X.

THE MOST MODERN DEVELOPMENTS
(A.D. 1850 ONWARDS).

I haveendeavoured to show that under the Qájár
Dynasty, especially since the middle of the nineteenth
century, the old forms of literature, both prose
and verse, took on a fresh lease of life, and, so
far from deteriorating, rose to a higher level
than they had hitherto reached during the four centuries
(roughly speaking A.D. 1 5oo-19oo) with which we are dealing
in this volume. We must now consider three or four quite
recent developments due in the first instance to what MfrzA
Muhammad 'Alf Khán " Tarbiyat," the real author of my
Press and Poetry in Modern Persia (pp. 154-66), calls
" Modernizing Influences in the Persian Press other than
Magazines and journals." Amongst these he assigns an
important place to the various scientific - text-books
compiled by, or under the supervision of, the nurnerous
Europeans appointed as teachers in the Ddru'l-
The Dd"17-
F141811n. Funlin and the Military and Political Colleges
in TihrAn from A.D. 1851 onwards, and the
Persian translations of European (especially French) books
of a more general character,, such as some of Molie're's
plays and Jules Verne's novels, which resulted from an
increased interest in Europe and knowledge of European
languages. Of such books, and of others originally written
in Persian in this atmosphere, he gives a list containing
one hundred and sixty-two entries, which should be con-
sulted by those who are interested in this matter. The
Revolution of A.D. 19o6, with the remarkable development
of journalism which it brought about, and the increase of
facilities for printing resulting from this, gave a fresh

PT III CH. X] THE DRAMA IN PERSIA

459

impulse to this movement, which, checked by the difficulties
and miseries imposed on Persia by the Great War, seems
now again to be gathering fresh impetus. What we have
to say falls under three heads, the Drama, Fiction and the
Press, of which the first two need not detain us long.

The Drama.

The only indigenous form of drama is that connected
with the Muharram mournings, the so-called " Passion
The Drama. Plays " discussed in a previous chapter", and

even in their case it is not certain that they
owe nothing to European influence. Three at least of
MoUre's plays (Le M&ecin malgri lui, Le Misanthrope, and
another entitled The Ass, which I think must
Translations
of Moliare. be intended for L -4tourdi) have appeared in
Persian translations, but are seldom met with,
and seem never to have attained any great popularity.
I possess only Le Misanthrope, printed at Constantinople
in the Taswiru'l-Afkdr Press in 1286/1860-70. The title is
rendered as Guzdrish-i-Mardum-g-uriz ("the Adventure of
him who fled from mankind"), the characters are Persian-
ized, and the text is in verse and follows the original very
closely, though occasionally Persian idioms or proverbs are
substituted for French. Here, for instance, is the rendering
-in this case a paraphrase-of the "Vieille chanson" in
Act I,- Scene 2 _:

Si le roi m'avait donn6
Paris, sa grand' ville,
Et qulil me fallat quitter
L'amour de ma mie,
Je dirais au roi Henri
'Reprenez votre Paris,
J'aime mieux ma mie, o gail
J'aime mieux ma mie I"

1 PP. 172-94 sufirm

46o MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) LFT III

1po c..a I Lsj U6
1j to C) tz-q

The following Persian version of Act ir, Scene 7, if
compared with the original, will give a fair idea of the
translator's method. The characters are HiVnis (Alceste),
Fatina (Ulim6ne), Lay'd (Eliante), Nd~i~z (Acaste), Ndim
,3eg (Philinte) and Farrdsh (un garde de la Mare'chauss6e):

462 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [PT III

No indication of the translator's identity appears on the
title-page of my edition, nor is there any prefatory matter.
Curiously enough, in the very same year in which this
Persian version of Le Misanthrope was published (1286/
1869-7o) Ahmed Vefiq (Ahmad Wafiq) Pasha printed his
Turkish translations of George Dandin, Le He'decin malgrid
hii, and Le Maria,-,e Forndl, while Tartufie appeared in
Turkish somewhat later 2.
In 12gi/i874 there was lithographed in TihrAn a volume
containing seven Persian plays with an Introduction on the
Mimi Ja7ar educational value of the stage by Mimi Ja'far
Qarija-dAghl's QarAja-dAghf. These plays were originally
plays. written in AdharbAyjini Turkish by MirzA
Fath-'Alf Darbandf, and were published in Tiflis about
A.D. 1861. Five of them have been republished in Europe,
with glossaries, notes and in some cases translations. These
are (I) the Wazir of Lankurdn, text, translation, vocabu-
lary and notes, by W. H. D. Haggard and G. le Strange
(London, 1882); (2) Trois Coine'dies traduites du dialecte
Turc Azeri en Persan et publiZes... avec un glossaire - et des
notespar C. Barbier de Heynard et S. Guyard (Paris, 18 86);
(3) Monsieur Jourdan, with translation, notes, etc. edited
by A. Wahrmund (Vienna and Leipzig, 1889). The three
comedies contained in No. 2 are the "Thief-catching Bear"
(Khirs-i-q2i1dfir-bdsdn), "the Advocates" (Wukald-yi-Mu-
rdfa'a), and "the Alchemist" (Hulld lbrdhim Khalil- 1-
Kiiniyd-gar). The two remaining plays, hitherto unpub-
lished in Europe, are "the Miser" (Mard-i-Khasis) and
11 Y6suf Sháh the Saddler3."

I E. J. W. Gibb's History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. v, p. x4.
2 Ibid., p. 5 9 and n. I ad ca1c.
3 "The Alchemist" was translated by G. le Strange in theJ.R.A.S.
for 1886 (pp. io3-26); "Y6suf Sháh" in the same journal for 18()5
(PP- 537-69) by Colonel Sir E. Ross; and the text of the same was
published in 1889 at Madras by E. Sell. See E. Edwards's Catalo,-,ue
of the Persian Printed books in the British Museum, 1922, Col. 207-8.

CH. X] PERSIAN COMEDIES ~ 463

Three more plays, written at a date unknown to me, by
the late Prince Malkorn Kh;in, formerly Persian Minister
Three plays in London, were partly published as a feuilletion
by Prince (.pd-waraq) in the Tabriz newspaper Ittilidd
Malkorn Kh1n. ("Union") in I 326/i9o8. A complete edition,
from a copy in the library of Dr F. Rosen, the well-known
scholarly German diplomatist, was published in 1340/192 1-2
by the 11 Kaviani " Press in Berlin. These plays are (I) the
" Adventures of Ashraf Khán, Governor of 'Arabistin,

during his sojourn in Tihrdn in 1232/1817"; (2) the
"Methods of Government of ZamAn Khán of Bur6jird,"
placed in the year 1236/1820-1; and (3) "Sháh-qulf Mimi
goes to Karbali and spends some days at Kirmdnshih
with the Governor Sháh Murid Mfrzd."

Finally in 1326/igo8 there appeared at TihrAn a bi-
weekly newspaper called "the Theatre " (Tiyd1r) which
published plays satirizing the autocratic r6gime.
The newspaper I possess only a few numbers, containing part
Tiydir.
-_ of a play entitled " Shaykh 'Ali MfrzA, Gover-
nor of MalAyir and Tulysirkin, and his marriage with the
daughter of the King of the Fairies."

These are all the Persian plays I have met with,. All
are comedies, and all are satires on the administrative or
social conditions of Persia. In the " Wazir of Lankurin "
a rather weak and common-place love-story is combined
with the satire, but generally speaking this element is
lacking, and the object of the writer is simply to arouse
dislike and contempt for the old-fashioned methods of
government. In other words, these productions, like the
94 Travels of IbrAhim Beg," of which we shall shortly have

1 Since this was written I have come across a little comedy entitled
I'JaTar Kh4n comes from Europe" (a.LAT jJ~
. ) by
Hasan Muqaddam, printed at Tihrin and actually performed there
about two years ago.

464 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [PTIII

to speak, are primarily political pamphlets rather than
plays. Hardly one of them has ever been acted on the
stage, and none has produced an effect comparable to
Kemil Bey's Turkish play Watan, yakhod Silistral. In
short the drama has not succeeded in establishing itself in
Persia even to the extent which it has done in Turkey.

The Novel.

Of stories after the style of the " Arabian Nights " or the
more popular and indigenous " Husayn the Kurd " there is
The Novel. in Persia no end, but of the novel properly so
called there is even less to be said than of the
drama. Two rather ambitious attempts in this direction have
recently come under my notice, and it is characteristic of
recent tendencies to glorify Zoroastrian Persia that both of
them deal with pre-Islamic times, the one with Cyrus, the
other with QubAd and his son and successor AnlisharwAn
(Nu'shirwain) and the hcresiarch Mazdak.
The former (or rather the first volume of it, which, to
judge by the colophon, was intended to be followed by two
"Love andmore volumes) was completed in 13 34/ 19 16, and
Lordship," aprinted at Hamadin in 1337/1919. It is entitled
historical novel
of the days of Love'and Lordship" ('Ishq it Saltanat), and
Cyrus. was written by a certain Shaykh M6s*A, Director
of the "Nusrat" Government College at Hamaddn, who
was good enough to send me a copy in January, 1920. It
is described in the colophon as "the first novel (roman)
composed in Persia in the Western fashion

yjA4

Gibb (ofi. laitd, vol. v, P. 15) alludes very briefly to the outburst of
patriotic enthusiasm aroused by this play " Fatherland" when it was
first acted in the theatre of Gedik Pasha. SultAn 'Abclu'l-'Azfz was
highly displeased and alarmed, and banished Kem;il Bey to Fama-
gusta in Cyprus.

CH. X] PERSIAN NOVELS 1146S

It aims at being a historical novel, but the proper names
generally have their French, not their Old Persian, forms,
e.g% " MitrAdAt " (correctly explained as Hilzr-ddd), "Ak-
bAt;in " (Ecbatana, instead of Hagmaldna, for HamadAn),
tc AgrAdAt," " Ispa'ku' (Spako) " and " Siya'kzar " (Cyaxares,
for Huvakhshatara), though Cambyses (Kambu'jiya) takes
the intermediate form " KAmb6ziyA." The lengthy descrip-
tions of the scenes and persons introduced into the story,

and the numerous dialogues are evidently copied from
European models. The story itself, into which an element
of love as well as of war is introduced, is readable if not
very thrilling, but is overloaded with dates, archaeological
and mythological notes, and prolix historical dissertations
ultimately based for the most part on the statements of
Herodotus mixed with information derived from the Avesta.
There is no attempt to make use of archaic language or to
eschew the use of Arabic words, but the author has at any
rate avoided glaring anachronisms. The following short
extract (p. 247) from the description of the preparations
for the marriage of Cyrus will suffice to show how far
removed is the style of this book from that of the type of
story hitherto current in Persia:

"w'LSw-9)'o &J-1 %54

6,4Jtj

"ot4.0

"Yes I These preparations are the preparations for a wedding, and
I do not think that it can be the wedding of anyone else than Cyrus,
the mi~hty King of Persia and Media, for today none but he corn-
mands in so great a measure the affection of the people of Ecbatana,
so that they regard his wedding as a great festival, and have deco-
rated the bazaars, and from the bottom of their hearts make manifest
their joy and gladness."

IL P. I.

466 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [PT III

I do not know what measure of success this "historical
novel" has achieved in Persia, nor did I ever meet with
more than the one copy sent me by the author, accompanied
by a letter dated 4 ~afar, 1338 (Oct. 30, igig), in which he
requested me to review it in the Times. I hope he will
accept this brief notice as the best I can do to make his
book known in Europe as a praiseworthy attempt to instruct
while entertaining his countrymen,and to introduce a literary
form hitherto unknown in Persia.
The second of the two historical novels mentioned above
was printed at Bombay in 1339/1920-1, was written by
San'atf-zAda of KirmAn, and is entitled "the
"The Ensnarers: '
or the Avengers Ensnarers : or the Avengers of Mazdak I." Like
OfMazdak." the last it is incomplete, for it ends (on p. I io)

with the words "here ends the first volume," though how
many more the author intended to add does not appear,
nor do I know whether any further instalment was actually
published. In general style it much resembles " Love and
Lordship," but presents more archaeoloaical errors, as, -for
instance, where (p. io) a portrait of the SAsinian king
BahrAm. G6r is described as bearing a label written in the
cuneiform character (khatt-i-mikhf) I

Before leaving this subject I must at least mention a
Persian translation of three episodes in the career of the

immortal Sherlock Holmes, translated from a
Sherlock
Holmes" in Russian version by Mir Isma'il'Abdu'llih-zAda,
Persia and and printed at the Khurshid Press in Tihrin in
Turkey.
1323/1905-6. They are entitled respectively the

" Episode of the Gold Spectacles," the " Account of Charles
Augustus Milverton2," and " the Village Lords." Holmes in
passing through a Russian medium has been transmuted
into " Khums " or " Khu'mis Dr Watson

C)U13.i.. _AUZ I U _Al~
2 The original is entitled the Adventure of Appledore Towers."

CH. X) IBRAHfM BEG'S SIYAIJAT-NAMA , 467

has been more fortunate. The adventures are narrated in
the simplest possible style, and would form an admirable
reading-book for beginners in Persian, if the book were
obtainable in any quantity, which is unlikely. In Turkey

Sherlock Holmes had an enormous success, and I remember
a news-vendor on one of the Bosphorus steamers offering
me a Turkish version of the " Engineer's Thumb," while the
late SultAnAbdu'l-Hamfd was said to entertain the greatest
admiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and to desire above
all things to put him in charge of his Secret Police.

It is hard to say whether Hijji Zaynu'l-.Abidfn of MarA-
gha's fictitious " Travels (Szyd~zat-ndma) of Ibr.Ahim Beg,"
The "Travels which,according to Mirzd Muhammad'Alf Khan
of lbrAhfm Beg, " Tarbiyatl," had an appreciable effect in pre-
and the cause of
his enthusiasm." cipitating the Persian Revolution of A.D. 1905-6,
should be reckoned as a novel or not. The hero
and his adventures are, of course, fictitious, but there is little
exaggeration, and they might well be actual. The book is
a bitter satire on Persian methods of government and social
conditions, which are depicted in the most sombre colours,
with the definite object of arousing discontent in order
to bring about reform. The Persians are very sensitive
to ridicule, but on the whole -bear it much better than
most European nations, and most Persian reformers have
made extensive use of satire as a means of promoting their
objects. This Siyd~at-ndma is well and powerfully written
in a simple yet forcible style, and I know of no better

I See my Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, pp. 22 and 164. The
Persian text was printed in three volumes, the first at Cairo without
date; the second at Calcutta in 1323/1905, though publication was
apparently delayed until 1907; the third at ConstanLinople in 1327/1909.
The name of the author appears only on the title-page of vol. iii. A
German version of the first volume by Dr Walter Schutz was pub-
lished at Leipzig in 1903 with the title Zustdnde im heudgen Persien
7VI . e sie das Reisebuch Ibrahim Begs entlnillt.

30-2

468 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [PT11I

reading-book for the student who wishes to obtain a good
knowledge of the current speech and a general, if somewhat
lurid, idea of the country.
In this connection mention should also be made of the
Persian translation made by the talented and unfortunate
IJAjji Shaykh Ahmad " Ru'hi " of Kirmin of
Morier's.~Idj)i Edbd, published by Colonel D. C.
Phillott at Calcutta in 19051. This book, like
the last, is a clever satire on the Persians, the more re-
markable as being the work of a foreigner; but it belongs
rather to the domain of English than Persian literature.
All that I had to say about it is contained in the Intro-
duction (pp. ix-xxiii) which I contributed to the edition
published by Messrs Methuen in 1895, and all that need
be said about the Persian translator and his work has been
well said by Colonel Phillott in his Introduction to the
Persian text.

The Persian
transla tion of
41djji Bdbd.

The Press.

Of Persian journalism, which has been the most powerful
modernizing influence in Persia, I have treated so fully in
Development of a previous monograph on the subject' that little
the Press in need be said here, save by way of summary-
Persia. Printing was introduced into Persia about a
century ago by 'Abbis MirzA, and the first Persian news-
paper appeared about A.D. 1851, in the third yearof Nisiru'd-
Dfn Sháh's reign. It was soon followed by others, but these
early news-sheets, issued by the Government, were entirely
colourless, and even when I was in Persia in 1887-8 the
only Persian newspaper worth reading was the
Akhtar ("Star"), published weekly at Con.
stantinople. It was founded in 1875, and lasted
about twenty years. Prince Malkom Khán's Qdmin (" Law ")

I See pp. vii-viii of the English Introduction. to this work, and also
my Persian Revolution, pp. 93-6.
2 The Press and Poetry in Modern Persia, Cambridge, 1914-

Five earlier
newspapers of
importance.

;4
le

CHARAND-PARAND 469
CH. X]

appeared in i 8go and was printed and published in London,
but in consequence of its violent attacks on the Persian
Government, the Sháh, and his Ministers, its circulation in
Persia was prohibited. The Calcutta Hablu'l-Hatin first
appeared in 1893, the Thurayyd ("Pleiades") in Cairo in
1898, and the Par-warish, which replaced it, in i goo. These
were the most important Persian papers published outside
The best post- Persia, and it was not until 1907, when the
Revolution Revolution was an accomplished fact, and the
newspaper. conflict between King and Parliament was at
its height, that independent and influential newspapers began
to appear in Persia itself Amongst the most interesting of
these from a literary point of view I should place the Stir-i-
lsrdfil (" Trumpet of IsrAfft "-the Angel of the Resur-
rection), the lVashn-i-Shividl ("Breeze of the North"), the
MusdWdt ("Equality "),and the NawBahár(" Early Spring").
The first, second, and fourth of these supplied
The Sdr-i-
lirdw and its me with many fine poems from the pens of
Charand. Dakhaw, Sayyid Ashraf of Gildn, and Bahir of
,oarand. Mashhad, for my Press and Poetry in Modern
Persia, but the Charand-parand ("Charivari") column of
the Jzir-i-1srdfd also contained some excellent and original
prose writing of which I shall now give two specimens, since
they are unlike anything else which I have met with in
Persian. Both are by Dakhaw: the first appeared in No. i
of the Jzir-i-Isrdfil (May 30, 1907); the second in NO. 2
Uune 6, 1907).

Translation.

"After several years travelling in India, seeing the invisible saints',
and acquiring skill in Alchemy, Talismans and Necromancy', thank
God, I have succeeded in a great experiment; no less
than a method for curing the opium-Bábít ! If any one
in any foreign country had made such a discoveryi he
would certainly have received decorations and rich rewards, and his
name would have been mentioned with honour in all the newspapers.
But what can one do, since in Persia no one recognizes merit?
" Custom is a second nature, and as soon as one becomes habituated
to any act, one cannot easily abandon it. The only curative method is
to reduce it gradually by some special procedure, until it is entirely
forgotten.
"To all my zealous, opium-eating, Muslim brethren I now proclaim
the possibility of breaking the opium-habit, thus. First, they must be
firmly determined and resolved on abandoning it. Secondly, one who,
for example, eats two mithqdIss of opium daily should every day
diminish this dose by a grain (nukhiid) and add two grains of morphine

I The Abddl(" Substitutes ") and Awtdd ("Pegs") are two classes of
the Rijd1u'1-Ghayb, or "Men of the Unseen World," who play an im-
portant part in the cosmogony of the Mystics.
2 Concerning these Occult Sciences, see PP. 441-2 sufira.
3 The mithqd1=4-6o grammes, and is divided into 24 nukhfid(C'peas"),
each of which consists Of 4 grains or barley-corns (g-andum).

A cure for
opium-eating.

CH. X]

CHARAND-PARAND : 1 473
T

in its stead. One who smokes ten mithqdIs of opium should daily
reduce the amount by one grain, adding instead two grains of hashish
(Indian hemp). Thus he should persevere until such time as the two
mithqdIs of opium which he eats are replaced by four inithqRs of
morphine, or the ten mithqdls of opium which he smokes by twenty
mithqdIs of hashish. After this it is very easy to substitute for mor-
phine pills hypodermic injections of the same, and for hashish 'curds
of Unity'! 0 my zealous, opium-eating brethren, seeing that God has
made matters so easy, why do you not save yourselves from the
annoyance of men's foolish chatter, and the waste of all this time
and money? Change of habit, if it be effected in this way, does not
cause illness and is a very easy matter.
" Moreover great and eminent men who wish to make people forget
some evil habit act in precisely this way. See, for example, bow well
indeed the poet says that intelligence and fortune are closely connected
with one another. For example, when our great men consider that the
people are poor and cannot eat wheaten bread, and that the peasant
must spend all his life in cultivating wheat, yet must himself remain
hungry, see what they do.
" On the first day of the year they bake the bread with pure wheat-
flour. On the second day in every hundredweight (kharwdr) they put a
maund of bitter apricot stones, barley, fennel-flower, sawdust, lucerne,
sand-I put it shortly as an illustration-clods, brick-bats and bullets
of eight mithqd1s. It is evident that in a hundredweight of corn,
which is a hundred maunds, one maund of these things will not be
noticed. On the second day they put in two maunds, on the third
three, and after a hundred days, which is three months and ten days,
a hundred maunds of wheat-flour have become a hundred maunds of
bitter apricot stones, barley, fennel-flower, sawdust, chaff, lucerne and
sand, and that in such fashion that no one has noticed it, while the
wheaten bread habit has entirely passed out of men's minds.
" In truth intelligence and fortune are closely - connected with one
anotherl
" 0 my zealous, opium-eating brethren I Assuredly you know that
man is a little world, and has the closest resemblance to the great
world; that is to say, for example, that whatever is possible for man
may happen also in the case of animals, trees, stones, clods, doors,

I Dzigh-f-Wahdat, or Banjdb, is a mixture of hashish and curdled
milk similar to asrdr, habb-i-nashdj, etc. Bfiq-i- Wahdat (" the trumpet
of unity") is the name given by hashish-smokers to a paper funnel
through which the smoke of the drug is inhaled.

474 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [PT111

walls, mountains and seas; and that whatever is possible for these is
possible also for men, because man is the microcosm, while these form
part of the macrocosm. For example, I wanted to say this, that just
as it is possible to put a habit out of men's minds, even so is it possible
to put a habit out of the minds of stones, clods, and bricks, because
the closest resemblance exists between the microcosm and the macro-
cosm. What sort of a man, then, is lie who is less than even a stone
or a clod?
" For example, the late mujtahid HAjji Shaykh HAdil built a hos-
pital and settled on it certain endowments so that eleven sick persons
might always be there. So long as Hijji Shaykh Hddf was alive the
hospital was accustomed to receive eleven patients. But as soon as
IjAjji Shaykh HAdf departed this life, the students of the college said
to his eldest son, 'We will recognize you as the Master only when you
spend the hospital endowments on us I' See now what this worthy
eldest son did by dint of knowledge. In the first month he reduced
the number of patients by one, in the second by two, in the third by
three, in the fourth by four ; and so in like fashion until the present
time, when the number of patients has been reduced to five, and
gradually, by this excellent device, these few also will disappear in the
course of the next five months. See then how by wise management it
is possible to expel habit from the minds of every one and every thing,
so that a hospital which was accustomed to eleven patients has en-
tirely forgotten this habit without falling ill. Why? Because it also
forms part of the macrocosm, so that it is possible to drive a habit
out of its mind, just as in the case of man, who is the microcosm."
" Dakhaw.11

Translation.

Charand-
.Parand City letter.
Kahl A'f I D akhaw I
" In old days you used sometimes to be a help to people: if any

A modern difficulty befel your friends, you used to solve it. Latterly,
Persian there being no sign or sound of you, I kept telling myself
Ephialtes. that perhaps you too had taken to opium and were lolling2

at the foot of the brazier in the corner of the room. Now don't tell me
that3 you, you queer mug4, quietly, without any one's knowledge (I do
not know whether in order to study Alchemy, Talismans and Necro-
mancy, as you have written in the J1;r-i-_1srdfi1) have cut and run to
India. Surely then you have found the key to a treasure also I At any
rate, if I have entertained an unworthy suspicion of you, you must

1 For the half slang use of " KablA'1 " (= -IC-arbald'i), see my Press
and Poetry of Modern Persia, pp. 179-82.
2 Lam efddan (slang), "to loll, lounge."
8 Equivalent to balki, "perhaps."
4 Ndquldy ~uyqa, explained as equivalent to the French "dr6le de
type."

CH. X] CHARAND-PARAND 1 479

forgive me: I ask your pardon I Anyhow, praise be to God, you have
got safely back, a lasting cause of thankfulness, for you have come at
just the right moment, seeing that affairs are all topsy-turvy.
"May God forgive everybody's departed friends' I May the earth
not whisper it to him I In QAqizin we had a certain Mulli fnak-AIJ2 I
a rawda-khwdn3 and a very impudent fellow. Whatever may be the
case now, he was at that time very thick with me. When he went to
recite a rawda, he used first of all to put

forward a long-winded pro-
logue. He used to say (saving your presence)4, 'In this way the matter
will be more ass-plain' (no need to quarrel over a mere illustration).
It occurs to me that it would not be a bad thing if I too were to begin
with a prologue for you, simply in order that you may get the hang of
the matter.
"In olden days there was in the world one great Persian Empire
with the State of Greece as its neigbbour. At that time the Persian
Empire was puffed up with pride6. It was very well pleased with itself,
and, if you will pardon the expression, its pipe took a lot of filling6.
Its ambition was the King-of- Kingship of the world. Yes, there was
then in Persia no I King's Darling,' 'State's Sweetheart,' I Pet of the
Province,' ' Beauty of the Privy Chamber,' ' Charmer of the Presence,'
or 'Minion of the KingdoM7.' Nor had they yet made 'slides' in their
palaces8. Nor did the MulIds of that time include a 'Club of the Canon
Law,' 'Chamberlain of the Canon Law,' or 'Park of the Canon Law.'
At that time, in short, there did not exist a I Carriage of Isldm,' I Table

I This formula is common amongst the Zoroastrians. See my Year
amongst the Persians, P. 375, Here it implies that the Mulli was dead.
2 /nah is the Turkish for a cow. The name is, of course, meant to
be ridiculous. QiqAzdn may be a misprint for Qizin.
3 See pp. 181-2 sufira.
4 Har chand bi-adabist, "Although it be an incivility" to use such
an expression. Khar-fahm ("ass-plain 'I) means comprehensible to the
greatest fool.
6 "To have wind in the brain," a common expression for conceit.
6 Luldhingash khayll db mf-girift, "Its jug held a lot of water,"
said of one who has a great capacity for self-esteem.
7 The innumerable titles conferred by the Persian Government form
a constant subject of mockery. The fictitious titles here mentioned
are, of course, intended to be both barbarous in form and degrading
in meaning.
8 The reference is to the sursurak in the NigiristAn Palace at
TihrAn. See my Year amongst the Persians, p. 96.

480 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [PT III

and Chair of the Faith,' or 'Russian Horse of Religion.' Finn, days
were those indeed, which were in truth the time of King Wizwizak' t
" But to be brief. One day the Persian Government collected its
armies and quietly advanced to the back of the wall of Greece. Now
to enter Greece there was only one way, by which way the Persian
army must needs pass. Yes, but behind that way there was a lane like
the Ashti-kundn2 oj the Mosque of Aqd Sayyid 'Azfzu'llih, that is to
say, there was another narrow lane, but the Persian army did not know
about it. As soon as the Persian army arrived behind the wall of
Greece, they saw that these seven-fold rascals of Greeks had blocked
the road with troops. Well, what dust must Persia now scatLer on her
head? How, if she would advance, should she advance, or bow, if she
would retreat, could she retreat ? She was left abased and confounded.
God have mercy on the poet who so well says, 'Neither does my heart
rejoice in exile, nor have I any honour in my native land,' etc. But,
since things must somehow come right, suddenly the Persian army
saw one of those ja'far-qull Aqis3, a son of the Begler-AqA of
Cossacks, in other words a certain friend of the foreigner and hospitable
humanitarian, gently detach himself from the Greek army, and,
stepping Softly4, approach the Persian host. 'Peace be upon you,'
said he; 'Your arrival is fortunate! You are welcome I Your visit is a
pleasure! May your journey be without danger P All the while he
was quietly pointing out to the Persians with his forefinger that Ashtf-
kundn lane. 'We Greeks,' said he, 'have no troops there. If you go
that way, you can take our country.' The Persians agreed, and by that
road entered the Greek land.
" This, however, is not the point... By the bye, while I remember, let
me mention the name of this foreigner's friend, though it comes a trifle
heavy on our tongues; but what is to be done? His name was
Ephialtes ... God curse the Devil5l I don't know why it is that when-
ever I hear this name I think of some of our Persian Ministers-But
let us return to the point.
"When His Excellency, that double-distilled essence of zeal and

I An imaginary "good time" in the remote past, as we might say
"in the days of good King Cole."
2 1 understand that this is the name of a narrow lane, or passagep
in Phrin. It means " Reconciliation Street."
3 The name of a Persian officer in the Cossack Brigade.
4 Pd-war-chin, " picking up the feet."
6 An expression used when some ill-natured or inappropriate idea
occurs to the mind, as though it had been suggested by Satan.

CH. X]

CHARAND-PARAND

481

sum of science and political acumen, Mfrzi 'Abdulr-Razzgq Khán,
engineer, and lecturer in the School of the Cossack barracks, after a
three months' pedestrian tour drew for the Russians a military map of
the road through MAzandardn, we his friends said, 'It is a pity that
such a man of spirit should not have a title.' So some twenty of us
sat for three days and nights considering what title we should obtain
for him, but nothing occurred to our minds. Worst of all, he was a
man of taste. 'Any title obtained for me,' says he, 'must be virgin;
that is to say, no one else must have borne it before me.' We enquired
of the State Accountants, who said there was no 'virgin title' left.
We opened our dictionaries, and found that neither in the languages
of the Persians, Arabs, Turks, or Franks from A to Z was there one
single word left which had not been employed as a title at least ten
times over. Well, what were we to do? Would it be pleasing to God
that this man should thus remain untitled?

"However, since such things must come right, one day, being in a
state of extreme dejection, I picked up a history book which was at
hand in order to distract my mind. No sooner had I opened the book
than I read in the first line of the right-hand page: 'Ever afterwards
the Greeks stigmatized Ephialtes as a traitor whose blood might law-
fully be shed.' 0 you cursed Greeks, what had poor Ephialtes done
to you that you should call him a traitor? Is hospitality to strangers
blasphemy in your creed? Do you not believe in kindness to foreigners?
"In short as soon as I saw this name I said, 'Nothing could be
better than that we should adopt this name as a title for MirzA 'Abdu'r-
Razzdq Khán, both because it is "virgin," and because these two
persons have the closest resemblance to one another. This one was
kind to strangers and so was that one. This one was hospitable to
guests and so was that one. This one said, "Had I not acted thus,
another would have done so," and so did that one. There was only
one difference between them, namely, that the buttons of Ephialtes's
coat were not made of native forest-wood. Well, supposing they were
not, such trifles are unworthy of consideration.'
" In short, we friends assembled and gave an entertainment and
made great rejoicings. We also instantly despatched a telegram to
Kdsh;in bidding them send quickly five bottles of Qam~ar rose-water
and two boxes of sugared walnuts, so that we might present them [to
the Sh~'Lhj and secure the "title. In the midst of these proceedings
ljdjji Maliku't-Tujjdrl conceded the AstArA road to the Russians.
I This title, " King of the Merchants," was at this time borne by Udjji
Muhammad Kd?im, whose accomplishments were reputed greater than
his honesty.
B. P. L.

482 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [FT III

I doWt know what scoundrel told him the history of this title, but he
put his two feet in one shoe I and declared that he was a heaven-sent
genius, and that this title was his rightful property. Now for some
months you don't know what a hullabaloo is going on, with MirzA
'Abdu'r-RazzAq Khin on the one hand, supported by his science of
Geometry, and lj6jji Maliku't-Tujjdr on the other with his persuasive
eloquence and his quotations from the poems of Imru'u'l-Qays and
N6.sir-i-Khusraw-i-'Alawf. 0 KablA?i Dakhaw, you don't know in what
toil and moil we are caught! If you can deliver us from this calamity
it would be as though you had freed a slave for God's sake, and may
God, if He will, forgive your sons 1
"May God make one day of your life a hundred years! Today is
a day for zealous endeavour. For the rest, you are the best judge.
I have nothing more to submit.
" Your faithful servant, GADFLY."

It is difficult in a translation to do justice to these
articles, which mark an absolutely new departure in Persian
Originality of satire, and are written in a style at once
Dakha. both in idiomatic and forcible. Though they appeared
prose and verse. under variou pseudonyms, I fancy they were

all written by Dakhaw, who, little as he wrote, on the
strength of them and a few of his pocmS2 deserves, in my
opinion, to occupy the first rank amongst contemporary
Persian men of letters. It is to be regretted that, though a
comparatively young man, he has apparently produced
nothing during the last ten or twelve years.
Of the last twelve years I have little to say. The
beginning Of 1912 saw the culmination of Russian violence
The last twelve and oppression in Persia, and, for the time
years (A.D. X912- being, the end alike of liberty and literary
1923)- effort. Then came the War, when Persia be-
came the passive victim of three contending foreign armies,

This means to stand firm, be obstinate.
Especially "Kabldy," and his elegy on Mfrzi Jahingfr Khán, the
latter a poem of rare beauty and feeling. See my Press and Poetry
of Afodern Persia, pp. 179-82 and 200-4.

CH. X]

PERSIA AND GERMANY 48

with little profit to expect from the success of any one o
them, while there was scarcity everywhere and famine anc
devastation in the western provinces. To Persia at leas
the Russian Revolution came as a godsend, while the sub
Sequent withdrawal of Great Britain after the failure of the

Anglo-Persian Agreement left her at last more or less
mistress in her own house. How far she will be able to
make use of the breathing-space thus accorded her remains
to be seen.
Surprise has sometimes been expressed that during the
War there should have existed in Persia a considerable pro-

German party, largely composed of prominent
Democrats and Reformers. The explanation
is simple enough. Imperial Russia was hated
and feared, and with good reason, and any Power which
diverted her attention from her victim and threatened
her supremacy was sure of a large measure of popularity,
while Persia had no reason to fear or dislike Germany,
which lay remote from her borders and had at no time
threatened her independence. Germany, of course, took
advantage of this sentiment, and carried on an active pro-
paganda, of which the curious history remains to be written.

The old Kdwa One of the chief organs of the propaganda was
newspaper the Kdwa (Kaveh) newspaper published at
(191t6-x9ig~ Berlin, nominally once a fortnight, from
January 24, 1916, to August 15, igig. There was a long
gap between the combined NOS. 29 and 30, July 15, 1918,
and NOS. 31 and 32, October 15, 19j8; between NO- 33,
Nov. 15, 1918, and No. 34, March I, igig; and between
this last and the final number of the old series mentioned
above, which appeared five months and a half later. On

January 22, ig2o, appeared the first number of
The new Kdwa
(X920--X921). the New Series (Dawra-i-jadld), which defi-
nitely renounced politics in favour of literature
and science, while keeping the same external form and high

31-2

484 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. x850) [FT111

standard of style and typography. In this form the paper,
now appearing only once a month, endured for two years
more, the last number (No. 12, Jahrg. 2, Neue Folge) being
dated December i, ig2i, and containing no less than 33
large pages, closely printed in double columns.
During its propagandist days the contents of the Kdwa
were, of course, chiefly political, and, though valuable for
f the light they throw on events in Persia, and
especially on the doings of the Nationalist
"Committee of Defence," have little bearing on
literary matters until after the armistice, though
here and there exceptions to this rule occur. Thus NO. 4
(March 14, 19 16) contains a Kurdish poem'; NO.2oanobituary
notice of that eminent man of letters Sayyid Muhammad
Sddiq "QA'im-maqdmf2," better known byhis title of Adibu'l-
Hamdlik, who died on the 28th of Rabf' ii, 1335 (Feb. 21,
1917); NO. 21 an account of some of the scientific results
obtained by Captain Niedermayer's mission to Afghdnistdn3;
NO. 23 an article by Professor Mittwoch on the artist
RidA-yi-'AbbjSf 4 ; No. 26 an account of Persian students
in Germany; NO. 33 (Nov. 15, 1918), 1 pro
a pos of a new
publication, which, though bearing the Persian title Rdh-i-
IVaw (the " New Road "), was written in German, a brief
sketch of various attempts to reform or replace the Persian
alphabet; NO. 34 (March i, igig) an account of the
foundation in Berlin of a Persian Literary Society, and a
letter from Mfrzi Muhammad of QaZwfn on a point of
Persian orthography; and NO. 35 (August 15, igig) a long
and very interesting article by the writer last named on the

Articles o
interest
in the old
KZ..

I Reprinted from the Persian newspaper Rastakhfz ("the Resur-
rection ").
2 So called on account of his descent from the celebrated MfrzA
Abu'l-Qdsim QdYni-maqdnt. See PP- 311-16 sufira.
Translated from the Neue Orient, Nos. 4 and 5, May, 1917,
Translated from No. 7 of Die1slamische Welt.

CH. X] THE KAWA (KA vEH) 48.5

oldest recorded Persian verses subsequent to the Arab
conquest in the seventh century after Christ'.
The.Kdwa of the New Series, which began on Jan. 22,

1920, is, on the other hand, almost entirely literary, and
High literary contains numerous articles of the greatest value
and critical value and interest. The Persian colony in Berlin,
of the new though comparatively small, included several
Kdwa.
men of great intellectual distinction, and, though
ardent patriots, keenly alive to the national faults, and
eager to absorb what was best of European learning~ The
special characteristic of the best German scholarship is its
sobriety, thoroughness, painstaking accuracy, and exhaus-
tive examination of relevant material from all available
sources. This steadying influence is exactly what the
Persians, with their tendency to ingenious but rash con-
jectures and premature theories, most need. In the leading
article which opened the New Series the editor, Sayyid
Hasan Taqf-zida, thus defined his aims:

" The Kawd newspaper was born of the War, and therefore its
Conduct was correlated with the situations arising from the War. Now
that the War is ended and International Peace has super-
The new Xdwa's vened, the Kdwa considers its War period as concluded,
definition of its
aims. and now enters on a Peace period. It therefore adopts,
as from the beginning of the Christian year 1920, corre-
sponding with the 9th of Rabil ii, A.H. 1338, a new basis and line of
conduct. It has nothing to do with the former Kdwa, and is, indeed,
a new paper, the contents of which will for the most part consist of
scientific, literary, and historical articles. Above all else, its object will
be to promote European civilization in Persia, to combat fanaticism, to
help to preserve the national feeling and unity of Persia, to endeavour
to purify and safeguard the Persian language and literature from the
disorders and dangers which threaten them, and, so far as possible, to
support internal and external freedom ... In the opinion of the writer of

Two such early attempts are discussed, both taken from Arabic
books of authority, such as Ibn Qutayba's Kildbulsh-Shilr Uialsh-
Shu'ard, the KiNbull-Aghdn4 and Tabarf's great history. The earliest
goes back to the reign of Yazfd ibn Muiwiya (A.H. 6o-4=A.D..68o-4).

486 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 185o) [PTI11

these lines, that which is today in the highest degree necessary for
Persia, which all patriotic Persians should exert themselves to pro-
mote, literally, with all their strength, and should place before every-
thing else, is threefold.
" First, the adoption and promotion, without condition or reservation,
of European civilization, absolute submission to Europe, and the as-
similation of the culture, customs, practices, organization, sciences,
arts, life, and the whole attitude of Europe, without any exception save
language; and the putting aside of every kind of self-satisfaction, and
such senseless objections as arise from a mistaken, or, as we prefer to
call it, a false patriotism.
"Secondly, a sedulous attention to the preservation of the Persian
language and literature, and the development, extension, and populari-
zation thereof.
"Thirdly, the diffusion of European sciences, and a general advance
in founding colleges, promoting public instruction, and utilizing all the
sources of material and spiritual power ... in this way...
" Such is the belief of the writer of these lines as to the way to serve
Persia, and likewise the opinion of those who, by virtue of much
cultural and political experience, share his belief.
" Outwardly and inwardly, in body and in spirit, Persia must become
Europeanized.
" In concluding this explanation of fundamental beliefs, I must add
that in the writer's opinion perhaps the greatest and most effective
service of this sort which one could render would be the publication in
Persia of translations of a whole series of the most important European
books in plain and simple language."
In pursuance of this programme, there are a certain
number of articles on the German system of education, the
Some interesting proceedings of the Perso-German Society,, and
articles in the the arrangements for facilitating the studies of
new Kdwa. Persian students in Germany; but matters
connected with the language and literature of Persia supply
the subject-matter of most of the articles. Thus we find in
the year 192o a series of admirable articles by TaqfzAda
(signed Huhassil) on the most notable Persian poets of
early times2; an original article written in Persian by

Deutsch-Persische Gesellsehaft.
Kdwa, Nos. x, pp. 2-6; 4, PP- 15-24; 8, pp. 10-4; and 10, PP. 9-14.

CH - X1 THE KAWA (NEW SERIES) 487

Dr Arthur Christensen of Copenhagen on the existence of
verse in Pahlawfl; a discussion on the evolution of the
Persian language during the last century2; articles entitled
"Bolshevism in ancient Persia" on Mazdak'; comparisons
between Eastern and Western research and its results
(greatly in favour of the latter), entitled Mundzara-i-Shab

u Rilz ("Dispute between Night and Day") 4 ;the four
periods of the Persian language since the Arab conquest';
tea Touchstone of Taste," on good modern Persian verse
and what the writer calls "Karbald'i verse"'; Pahlawl,
Arabic and Persian sources of the Shdlk-ndmal; 'ancient
and modern translations from Arabic into Persians; and a
very interesting article on the "Sources of eloquent Persian
and'Khán-i-WAlida Persian"", in which the writer ridicules
and condemns the slavish imitation of Turkish idiom and
style practised by certain young Persians resident in Con-
stantinople. These articles, in most cases, display a wealth
of knowledge, critical ability' and originality which I have
nowhere else encountered in Persian, and deserve a fuller
analysis than can be accorded to them in this volume.
During the last year of its existence (1921) the Kdwa
maintained the same high standard, publishing many

The last year articles, both historical and literary, which were
(1922) of the fully up to the level of the best European
Kdwa. scholarship. A series of important historical

articles on "the Relations of Russia and Persia during the
period of the Aq-Qoy6nl6 and Safawf dynasties, down to
the beginning of the reign of Aqi Muhammad Khán

I Nos. 4-5, PP. 24-6. 1 Nos. 3, pp. 3-5; and 4-5, PP- 3-4.
3 Nos. 3, PP. 5-11, and 4-5, PP. 8-15.
' Nos. 4-5, PP. 7-8; 6, PP. 3-6; 8, pp. 5-io.
ra NO. 7, PP. 5-8. ' No- 7, P. 4.
Nos. I', PP. 7-12; 1 2p pp. 7- 12.
No. 9, PP. 4-5.
No. 12, PP. 3-5. The Khán-s- Wdlida is where most of the Per,
sian merchants in Constantinople live or have their offices.

488 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [PT III

Qájár," written by Sayyid Muhammad 'Alf JamAl_zAda,
also appeared as a monthly supplement, and showed very
wide and judicious use of all available sources, both Eastern
and Western. The sudden cessation of the paper after
December, 1921, was a great loss to Persian learning and
scholarship.
In June,1922, there appeared at Berlin a new Persian
literary and scientific review entitled frdn-shahr, edited by
Husayn KAzim-zAda, which, though described
as a "Revue ... bimensuelle," actually appeared
only once a month. It is of a lighter and more
popular character than was the A'dwa, and shows a more
marked preference for matters connected either with pre-
Islamic Persia, or with the problems with which the pro-
gressive Persians of today are confronted. NO- 7 (December,
1922) contains a long article on the sending of Persian
students to Europe, in the third section of which, "on the
place and manner of study " (pp. 162-4), the writer argues
that such students should go to England or Germany rather
than to France, for the following reasons:
Cd We Persians (with the exception of the people of Adhar-
bAyjAn, whose nature and character agree better with those
Germa of the Anglo-Saxons), in respect to character,
education pre- nature, capacity and mental tendencies, more
ferred to French
for Persian closely resemble and approach the French, that
students. is to say the Latin races, since quick and
piercing intelligence, self-confidence, versatility of thought,
wit and acuteness of perception, sociability and amiability
in intercourse on the one hand, and inconstancy, fickleness
of character, quickly-developcd weariness and want of perse-
verance, recklessness, and lack of moderation in action on
the other, are characteristic of the nature and disposition
both of ourselves and of the French,"
This view seems to have commended itself to the Persians
generally, for while in August, .1922, there were seventy

CH. X] POST-WAR JOURNALISM 489

Persian students in Germany, in the following December
the number had increased to over 1201.
In Persia itself the Press, paralysed for a time after the
Russian aggressions of 1912, has resumed its activities,
especially since the conclusion of the War; but
The post-WPressofPersia. owing to the badness of the communications
and the irregularity of the posts one has to be
content with somewhat fragmentary information about it.
NO- 4 of the Kdwa for ig2i (pp. 15-16) contained a brief

list of Persian papers and magazines which had come into
being since the beginning Of A.H. 1334 (November, 1915).
These, forty-seven in number, were arranged alphabetically,
the place of publication, name of the editor, and date of
inauguration, being recorded in each case. TihrAn heads
the list with eighteen papers, next comes Shfraz with seven,
Tabrfz and Rasht with four each, and Isfahin, Mashhad,
KirmAn, KirmAnshAh, Khu'y, Bushire, Biku', Herdt, Kdbul
and JalilAbAd (the last three in Afghinistin) with one or
two each. More than half of these-papers (twenty-five) first
appeared in A.11. 1338 (began on Sept. 26, igig). That the
list is far from exhaustive is shown by the fact that of
nine Persian magazines of which copies were sent me by
their editors or by friends, only two, the '.41am-i-Niswdh
("Women's World") and the Armaghdh ("Gift"), appear
in the above list. The latter is one of the best, containing
many poems, including some by the late AdibuI-Mamdlik,
and -accounts of the proceedings of the " Literary Society " -
(Anjuman-i-Adabl) of TihrAn. The others are the Bahár
("Spring"), very modern and European in tone, but in-
cluding some interesting poems; the Fur2igh-i-Tarbiyal
(" Lustre of Education "); the Ddnish (" Knowledge "), pub-
lished at Mashhad; the Nimdt u ~Iaydt (" Death and Life"),
entirely devoted to European inventions and material pro-
gress; the Firdawsl, edited and written by di~olomds of the
American College at TihrAn; the Pdrs, written half in
I frdn-shahr, No. 3, P. 55, and No. 7, P. 153.

49o MODERN DEVELOPMENTS (FROM A.D. 1850) [rT III

Persian and half in French, which first appeared at Con-
stantinople on April 15, 192 1 ; and the Gai~jina-i-Ma'drij
~, Treasury of Sciences "), of which the first number appeared
at Tabrfz on October 24,1922. None of these approach the
frdx-shahr, still less the Kdwa, in excellence of matter or
form. An exception should perhaps be made in favour of
the Giil-i-Zard (" Yellow Rose "), which appeared in Tihrin
about the end of August, ig2o, and in which the editor,
MirzA YahyA Khán, used to publish the poems he composed
under the nom de guerre of RayhAnf.

The establishment in Berlin of the " Kaviani" Printing-
press (C1tdp-Khána-i-Kdwaydn1) owned and managed by
Mimi 'Abdu'sh-Shuku'r and other Persians

The " Kaviani
Press " inanxious to meet the growing demand for cheap,
Berlin.correct, and well-printed Persian books, marks
t, V ~ N+arnr revival-

another very important stage in t e ersan y
and at the present time there exists no other Press which
can rival it in these respects. Besides modern plays and
treatises on Music, Agriculture and the like, and tasteful
editions of such well-known classics as the Gulistdn of
Sa'df and the " Cat and Mouse" (Mfish u Gurba) of 'Ubayd-
i-ZAkAnf, the managers have had the spirit and enterprise
to print such rare works of the great writers
Its great services of old as the Zddu'l-Hustifirfit (" Travellers'
to scholarship. Provision ") of NAsir-i-Khusraw, a book of which
only-two manuscripts (those of Paris and King's College,
Cambridge) are known to exist; and are now (November,
1923) printing the Wajit-i-Din ("Way of Religion") of

which the unique manuscript has recently been discovered
at Petrograd, though books of this sort, recondite in character,
costly to print, and unlikely to command a large sale, must
almost inevitably be published at a loss. In MirzA Mah-
m,Ad Ghan(-ZAda the Press possesses a most competent
scholar, who carries on the high traditions of criticism and
accuracy established by MfrzA Muhammad Khán of Qazwfn.

INDEX

In the following Index where many reference-numbers occur under one
heading the more important are printed in Clarendon type, which is also used
for the first entry under each letter of the alphabet. To save needless repe-
tition, all references to any name common to several persons mentioned in the
text are brought together under one heading, the individuals bearing this name
being arranged either in chronological order, or in order of importance, or in
classes (rulers, men of letters, poets, etc.). The letter b. between two names
stands for Ibn (I I Son of.."), and n. after the number of a page indicates a foot-
note. The addition in brackets of a Roman number after a name or book
indicates the century of the Christian era in which the man lived or the book
was written. Prefixes like Abd ("Father of...") and Ibn ("Son of....") in
Mubammadan, and de, le, von in European names are disregarded in the
alphabetical arrangement, so that names like Abd Sa1fd, Ibn Sini, le Strange,
de Slane, etc., must be sought under S, not under A, 1, L or D. Titles of
books and foreign words are printed in italics. A byphen preceding a word
indicates that the Arabic definite article al- should be prefixed to it.