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EARLY PERSIAN POETRY FROM THE BEGINNINGS DOWN TO THE TIME OF FIRDAUSI
BY THE SAME AUTHOR PERSIA PAST AND PRESENT A BOOK OF TRAVEL AND RESEARCH Cloth, 8to, xxxi
+
471 pages, with more than 200 illustrations
and a map.
New
York, The Macmillan Company, 1906.
FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO THE HOME OF OMAR KHAYYAM TRAVELS IN TRANSCAUCASIA AND NORTHERN PERSIA FOR HISTORIC AND LITERARY RESEARCH Cloth, 8vo, xxxiii
+
317 pages, with over 200 illustrations and a
map.
New
Yokk, The Macmillan Company,
1911.
ZOROASTER, THE PROPHET OF ANCIENT IRAN Cloth, 8vo, xxiii
+
314 pages, with 3 illustrations and a map.
New York, Columbia
University Press, 1899 (reprinted
1919).
Kl.N(c IvHllSK.Vr I'AKX IZ
(From the
SKATED
ON'
HIS ThR(1XE
Ciu'Iiran Ciillection of I'er.^ian Maimsi'i'ipts in the Metropolitan
Miiseum
of Art, >;o\y
York)
EAELY PERSIAN POETRY FROM THE BEGINNINGS DOWN TO THE TIME OF FIRDAUSI WITH TEN ILLUSTEATIONS
BY A. V.
WILLIAMS JACKSON
PBOFBSSOR OF INDO-IRANIAN LANGtTAGBS IN COLUMBIA UNIVEBSITT, AUTHOR OF 'PEESIA PAST AND PRESENT,' 'FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO THE HOME OF OMAR KHATTAM,' AND 'ZOROASTER, THE PROPHET OF ANCIENT IRAN'
TStin gotfe
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1920 All rights reserved
nV, ^1 y
"VTTT
^<^
^ COPTEIflHT, 1920,
I
bt the macmillan company. Set
up and
electrotyped.
Published April. 1920.
LJ c.
NottoonlJ Tlreag J. S.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Berwick & Smith Co. Cashing Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
TO
KATE
PREFACE This book
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
a labor of love the outcome of years of devotion to the study of Persia, its history, languages,
and
is
literature,
and
is
in part the result of four journeys
through the Land of the Sun, in 1903, 1907, 1910, and 1918. Some of the records of these travels have appeared in print elsewhere. The appreciation with which those studies were received has been an incentive to supplement
them by a
literary
presentation, in brief
down
form, of the
1000 a.d., so as to include Firdausi's Shah-namah, or 'Book of Kings,' the Perhaps the reception of the great epic poem of Persia. present work may give encouragement enough to lead to the preparation of a couple of volumes on ^ Persian Mystic Poetry' and on 'The Lyric and Romantic Poetry of earlier poetry of Persia
to about
Iran.'
The aim
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and is
I
of the chapters included in the present
hope that they
to give succinctly the
periods
now
may main
illustrate,
original Persian, the charac-
the various authors, regarding whom I have gath-
ered material from
Many
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
outlines of the several early
chosen for presentation, and to
by translations made from the teristics of
volume
not be found unduly long
all sorts of sources,
native and foreign.
of the citations are only small fragments of verse
from Persian poets so long dead that they have been evoked almost as shades from the far-distant past; but there is something very human in their brief messages that makes their story more np-to-date than might be imagined.
Some
of the reliques of their works, however, vii
PREFACE
viii
are longer and have a fuller metrical tale to
Suhrab and Rustam, moreover,
episode of
classic in literatm-e, so that
verse
may
a
is
tell.
The
a well-known
new rendering
into blank
not be unwelcome.
In making all these translations it has been my endeavor to combine the feeling of the original with the element of a faithful reproduction in modern form. To be fairly literal and at the same time fau'ly literary is not an easy task.
How
far I
have succeeded in attaining
my aim must remain for others to judge. It will be easy, for any one who cares to do so, to compare text and version by making use of the references to sources, conscientiously given in the footnotes regarding every passage
I have translated.
In the three brief selections where I
have chosen the English version by other scholars (Cow ell, Pickering, Browne) references are likewise given directly after the passages.
In making the renderings there has been no attempt in general to imitate the Persian rhythms, which are elabo-
and depend upon the quantity of syllables, heavy and light, and thus do not lend themselves to English versification any more than do the Greek and Latin metrical schemes. But, on the other hand, the general system of rhyming in Persian has been imitated in a broad manner, occasionally even the favorite Persian monorhyme,^ and in all cases of departure from such schemes the footnotes call attention to the arrangement of the rhyme in the original rate
stanzas.
The quatrain-form has been
indicated to the eye
wherever
it
occurs, so that lovers of
Omar Khayyam can
quickly catch rubal verses that long antedate the famous
Tentmaker
In one of the longer selections translated from the Shah-namah, moreover, an attempt has of Nishapur.
1
Cf.
pages 29, 33-34, 36
n. 1,
52 n.
2.
PREFACE
IX
been made to suggest the rhythm and couplet-verse of Firdausi's epic.^ Any one who is interested in the verseforms and the rhetoric of the Persians will find abundant material on the subject in the well-known works of
Browne, Gladwin, Riickert, Blochmann, and Wahrmund, not to mention others. I have purposely omitted all diacritical marks which would indicate the length of vowels or differentiate between certain consonants in Persian names. These diacritical marks have been employed, however, in the Alphabetical List of Poets which I have included as part of the
They may
introductory matter (pages xx-xxi).
also be
found in the very occasional transliterations from the Persian which I have given in italics. I hope that neither the general reader nor the specialist may be embarrassed by my method in either case. Regarding the pronunciation of Persian
Persian bizarre
to
Khayyam,
names and
see the special note,
style
us
— are
its
poetic
familiar
Sa'di, Hafiz, or
to those
some
page
xxii.
characteristics
— often
who know Omar
of the rest
;
and though
I
have not yet reached the period of Persian poetry when the gul and the hulbul fill the verse with tuneful measures, I still hope that even without 'the nightingale and the this volume, with though they are mentioned rose' ' lute, madrigal, and trump, may find gentle readers.'
—
I
now
—
take the wished-for opportunity of expressing
thanks to some of the
many
to
whom
gratitude
is
my
due.
One of the first inspirations to write on Persian poetry came in the form of an invitation, in 1908, from the Johns Hopkins University, to deliver seven lectures on the subject, as Percy Turnbull Lecturer, on the foundation established by Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull of Balti1
See pages 96-99.
PREFACE
X more, Md., in
memory
of a deceased
As a later Persia, came a
son.
a fourth journey to University of Chicago, through President the from request Harry Pratt Judson, who had been Director of the American-Persian Relief Commission, to present the same general subject in three addresses in a lecture-series founded by William Vaughn Moody. In addition to these sources there came also a special inspiration from the audiences present on the various occasions when I gave public lectures, in the halls of my Alma Mater, on Persian Poetry and other topics relating to the Orient. I desire to express as well, with grateful acknowledgment, my indebtedness to the works of scholars in the same field, especially to the writings of my friend Edward G. Browne, the most distinguished English authority on the literature of Persia, and also to the works of the late scholars Darmesteter of Paris and Horn of Strassburg. Eth^'s erudite and creative contributions, which have left a standard to emulate for all time, have been constantly consulted and Pizzi's name will always rank with those
sequel, in 1919, after
;
The
of the foremost Persian scholars of Italy.
essays of
Pickering, though published long ago, became accessible to
me
press,
only after Chapter
IV was
practically ready for the
but they have been constantly consulted, as the
My
added references will show.^
indebtedness to these
scholars in particular, as well as to others, inferred
from the abundant
in the List of
Works
may
best be
citations in the footnotes
and
of Reference.
But there are likewise special debts of obligation and which I wish to record. My assistant at Columbia, Dr. A. Yohannan, whose birthplace was in Northwestern Persia and who has been my devoted helper gratitude
1
See the remarks,
p.
32
n. 2
and
p.
47
n. 1.
PREFACE
XI
for years, stood ready at all times to give aid in the solu-
tion of difficult problems that presented themselves in the
texts translated.
My former student and ever friend, Dr. Louis H. Gray, whose scholarly contributions are too well known to need mention here, most generously read through the first rough draft of a considerable number of the chapters and gave valuable suggestions which I wish heartily to acknowledge.
But two fellow-workers, always at hand, come in for the meed of thanks. Dr. George C. 0. Haas, formerly Fellow in Indo-Iranian Languages at Columbia, has not only read the proofsheets throughout, supplementing by his skilled eye the care bestowed by the compositors and readers of the Norwood Press, but has also prepared the Index and aided with his advice in regard to all matters of detail connected with the make-up of the volume. Dr. Charles J. Ogden, who was formerly a student in the Department and who most generously supplied my highest
place
at Columbia during
my
eight
months' leave of
absence on the relief mission to Persia in 1918-1919, has
worked almost daily with me on the volume as the
sheets
were passing through the press. To his broad scholarship, sound learning, wise judgment, and fine critical sense I owe more than I can readily state. To each and all of these willing helpers my most sincere thanks are expressed anew. A. V.
Columbia Universitt, February 12, 1920.
WILLIAMS JACKSON.
CONTENTS PASS
Preface
vii
List of Illustrations
List of
xv
Works of Reference
xvi
List of Abbreviations
xix
Alphabetical List of Poets
xx
Note on Persian Pronunciation Chapter L
Persian Poetry of Ancient Days (From before 600
Chapter IL
xxii
...
1
B.C. to about 650 a.d.)
The New Awakening of Persian Song after THE MUHAMMADAN CONQUEST ThE TaHIRID :
AND Saffarid Periods (From about 800
Chapter
III.
14
to 900 a.d.)
Kays from Lost Minor Stars Earlier Sama:
NiD Period
22
(About 900-950 a.d.)
Chapter IV.
Rudagi, a Herald of the
Dawn
...
32
(Middle of the Tenth Century a.d.)
Chapter V.
Snatches of Mxnstrel Song From the Later Samanid Period to the Era of Mahmud :
of Ghaznah
45
(The Latter Half of the Tenth Century a.d.)
Chapter
VI.
Dakiki (In the Latter
Chapter Vn.
59 Half of the Tenth Century a.d.)
The Round Table of Mahmud of Ghaznah: Court Poetry
66
(Early in the Eleventh Century a.d.)
Chapter
VIII.
Great Persian Epic
Firdausi, and the
.
.
82
(About 935-1025 a.d.)
Chapter IX.
The Shah-namah lated
Chapter X. Index
Epilogue
:
Some
Selections
Trans93
115 119
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS King Khuseau Paeviz Seated on
his
Throne
Frontispiece
.
From the Cochran Collection of Persian Manuscripts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. PAGE
A Page
op as Avestan Manusceipt with Pahlavi Translation
From
King Khuseau Paeviz and the Minsteel Baebad From the Cochran Museum of Art.
.
.
12
Collection of Persian Manuscripts, MetropoUtan
The Ceumbling Mausoleum at Tus From a photograph by
26
the author.
The Great Minaebt oe Bukhara From
4
the Avestan Ms. Jp. 1 in the Columbia University Library.
36
a photograph by Edvyard G. Pease.
Embellished Introductory Page op a Persian Manu72
script
From the Cochran Museum of Art.
Collection of Persian Manuscripts, Metropolitan
...
90
Ruined Walls of Tus at the Site of the Poemee Eudbar Gate
90
The Bridge over the Kashap Eivee at Tus From
From
a photograph by the author.
a photograph by the author.
Faridun's Grief at the
From the Cochran Museum of Art.
Murder
of his Son Iraj
The Death of Suheab at the Hands op EUSTAM From the Cochran Museum of Art.
.
.
100
Collection of Persian Manuscripts, Metropolitan
his
Fathee
Collection of Persian Manuscripts, Metropolitan
114
WOEKS OF KEFERENCE
LIST OF This
list
includes only the works most often referred to as covering this parDetailed information regarding other
ticular period of Persian literature.
books and papers Aruzi.
given in the footnotes.
is
Chahar Maq^la ('The Four Discourses') of Ahmad ibn 'All an-Nizami al-'Ariidi as-Samarqandi, edited by
"Umar ibn Mirza
Muhammad
of
(Gibb Memorial Series,
Qazwfn.
London and Leyden,
1910.
vol. 11.)
The Chahdr Maq^la ('Four Discourses') of Nidhami-itranslated into English by Edward G.
"Arudi-i-Samarqandi,
Browne.
In Journal of
613-663, 757-845.
the
Royal Asiatic
Society, 1899,
pp.
[Eeprint, pp. 1-139.]
Lubabu '1-Albab of Muhammad 'Awfi. Part 1, edited by Edward G. Browne and Mirza Muhammad Qazwini, London and Leyden, 1906 Part 2, edited by Edward G. Browne, London
Aufi.
;
and Leyden, 1903.
(Persian Historical Texts Series.)
[Part 2
was issued before Part l.J Browne, Edward G. A Literary History of Persia from the Earliest Times. Volume 1, Erom the Earliest Times until Eirdawsi; Volume 2, From Firdawsi to Sa'di. London and New York, [The standard work in English, and constantly 1902, 1906. consulted, as shown by the references in the footnotes.] Biographies of Persian Poets of Mustawfi.
:
From
Tarikh-i Guzida
In Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1900-1901.
[See specific references in the footnotes.]
See also Aruzi, Aufi, Daulatshah, Mustaufi. Darmesteter, James.
[A valuable
little
Les Origines de
la poesie persane.
Paris, 1887.
book of 88 pages.]
Tadhkiratu 'sh-Shu'ara, 'Memoirs of the Poets,' of Dawlatsh^h bin 'Ala'u 'd-Dawla, edited by Edward G. Browne.
Daulatshah.
London and Leyden, ÂŁthâ&#x201A;Ź, Hermann.
Hamburg,
1901.
(Persian Historical Texts Series.)
Die hofische und romantische Poesie der Parser.
1887.
[A
general presentation in 48 pages.]
Eudagi, der Sami,nidendichter. xvi
In Nachrichten von der
LIST OF
WORKS OF REFERENCE
koniglichen Gesellschaft der
xvii
Wissenschafien zu Gottingen, 1873,
pp. 663-742.
Die Lieder des
'
KisS'i. In Sitzungsberichte der konigAkademie der Wissenschafien zu Munchen (phil.-
lich bayerischen
hist. CL), 1874, vol. 2, pp.
133-153.
Firdusi als Lyriker. bayerischen
275-304
In Sitzungsberichte der koniglich Akademie der Wissenschafien zu Munchen 1872, pp.
[Two articles.
1873, pp. 623-659.
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Cf. Noldeke,
'
Per-
sische Studien, II,' in Wiener Sitzungsb. 126. 14 and n. 3, 34 n. 1
;
also Pickering,
'
Firdausi's Lyrical Poetry,' in National Bev.,
Feb. 1890.]
EMagi's Vorlaufer und Zeitgenossen. In MorgenldndFestschrift H. L. Fleischer gewidmet, pp.
Forschungen:
ische
33-68, Leipzig, 1875.
Neupersische Litteratur.
In Grundriss der iranischen
Philologie, vol. 2, pp. 212-368, Strassburg, 1896-1904.
VuUers
J. A.
(et S.
Le Livre des 7 vols.
italiani
Libro dei
da Italo
3
vols.
rois, traduit et
re,
Pizzi.
Leyden, 1877-1884.
commente par Jules Mohl.
poema 8 vols.
epico, recato dal persiano in versi
Turin, 1886-1888.
Konigsbuch (Schabname),
Firdosi's
rich Riickert, aus vols.
qui inscribitur Schahname, ed.
Landauer).
Paris, 1876-1878. II
3
Regum
Firdusii Liber
Firdausi.
iibersetzt
dem Nachlass herausgegeben von
Berlin, 1890, 1894, 1895.
von Fried-
E. A. Bayer.
[Incomplete.]
Tbe ShÂŁib-nama of Firdausi, done George Warner and Edmond Warner.
into English
by Arthur
1-7.
London,
Vols.
1905-1915. [To be completed in nine volumes.] The Shah-namah, translated by Alexander
London, 1907.
The Shah N^mah, translated and abridged in prose and by J. Atkinson. Edited by J. A. Atkinson. London and
verse
New
Eogers.
[Incomplete.]
York, 1886.
Grundriss
der
(Chandos
iranischen
Geiger und Ernst Kuhn. Horn, Paul.
Classics.)
Philologie,
2
vols.
herausgegeben von Wilhelm Strassburg, 1895-1904.
Geschichte Irans in islamitischer Zeit.
In Grundriss der
iranischen Philologie, vol. 2, pp. 551-604, Strassburg, 1896-1904.
LIST OF
XVlll
WORKS OF REFERENCE
Geschichte der persischen Litteratur.
Leipzig,
1901.
Asadi's neupersisches Worterbuch, Lughat-i Furs.
Ber-
(In the series Die Litteraturen des Ostens.)
(Abhandlungen der koniglichen Gesellschaft der
1897.
lin,
Wissenschaften zu Gottingen,
Neue
Klasse,
phil.-hist.
Folge,
vol. 1, no. 8.)
JackBon, A. V. Williams.
and Research.
Prom
New 1899. Mustaufi.
Persia Past and Present
New York and
:
a Book of Travel
London, 1906.
Constantinople to the
Home
of
Omar Khayyam
York and London, 1911. Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran.
New
York,
(Reprinted, 1919.)
The
Ta'rikh-i-Guzida, or
'
Select History,' of
Hamdu'llah
Mustawfi-i-Qazwlni, reproduced in PacsimUe from a Manuscript,
with an Introduction. Part 1 (text), by Edward G. Browne, London and Leyden, 1910; Part 2 (abridged translation and indices), by Edward G. Browne and R. A. Nicholson, London
and Leyden, 1913.
(Gibb Memorial Series,
Tarikh-i Guzidah, ed. and
tr.
vol. 14.)
J. Gantin.
Vol.
1,
Paris,
1903. Noldeke, Theodor.
Das iranische Nationalepos.
In Grundriss der
iranischen Philologie, vol. 2, pp. 130-211, Strassburg, 1896-1904. Pickering, Charles
J.
Three
articles
on Persian literature in the
National Review, vol. 15, London, 1890
:
(a)
A
Persian Chaucer,
pp. 327-340; (6) The Beginnings of Persian Literature, pp. 673-687 (c) The Last Singers of Bukhara, pp. 815-823. [See ;
the remarks below, p. 32 n. 2, p. 47 n. 1.]
Chrestomathie persane, avec un abreg6 de la gram-
Pizzi, Italo.
maire et un dietionnaire.
Turin, 1889.
Storia della poesia persiana.
Manuale
Shams
ad-Din.
2 vols.
di letteratura persiana.
Al-Mu'jam
fi
Turin, 1894.
Milan, 1887.
Maayiri Ash'ari
'l-'Ajam,
[Sketch.]
a Treatise on
by Shamsu 'd-Din by Mirz^ Muhammad of Muhammad Leyden, 1909. (Gibb and Memorial Series, Qazwin. London the Prosody and Poetic Art of the Persians, ibn Qays ar-R^zi, edited
vol. 10.)
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS For
full titles of pulDUcations cited in
the List of
A.
H
Works
abbreviated form in the footnotes, consult
of Reference, pages xyi-xviii.
{Anno Hegirae), Muhammadan
era.
Bh
inscription of Darius at Behistan.
c
(circa), about.
Cat ch
chapter.
Catalogue.
Chr d ed
Chrestomathie. died. edition, edited by.
fl
(floruit), flourished.
fol
folio.
folios.
fols
Grundr.
.
.
.
....
id.
JE.AS.
.
.
.
loc. cit.
.
.
.
M.
...
F.
Mem n op.
Grundriss der iranischen Philologie. (idejft),
the same author.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, (loco citato), at the place previously cited.
Morgenlandische Forschungen. Memorial. note.
cit.
.
.
.
(opus citatum), the
work previously
Sitzb
Sitzungsberichte.
tr
translation, translated by.
Vd., Vend.
.
.
Yt
ZDMG.
cited.
recto (in manuscripts).
r
Vendidad. Yasht.
.
.
.
Zeitschrift der
Deutschen Morgenlandischen Ge-
sellschaft.
JOX
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF POETS INCLUDED IN THIS VOLUME Transliteration of
names with
diacritical
marks added to denote the more
technical spelling, and with dates given wherever possible.
(Names only incidentally mentioned are omitted here
;
for fuller references consult
Index.)
A pioneer in Persian poetry,
'Abbas of Merv.
master also of Arabic.
Died
815 or 816 a.d.
Abu '1-Muzafiar. Nishapur.
In fuller
A
Samanid
From
Abii Nasr of Gilan.
stanza
this
Latter part of the 10th century a.d.
preserved.
is
Abu 'l-Muzaffar Nasr al-Istighna'i of Tenth century a.d. Samanid poet, Abu "l-Malik Nasr Gilani, a
form, poet.
sumable date. Abu Sa'id. The noted Persian mystic poet (to be discussed, a later volume, cf. p. 58). Born 967, died 1049 a.d.
it is
Abu
Salik of Gurgan. A poet of the later Saffarid period. about the end of the 9th century a.d.
Abu
Shukiir of Balkh. A poet of the earlier Samanid period. about 941 A.D., and completed the Afann-namah, a work 947-948 A.D. (a. h. 336).
Aghachi
(or Aghaji).
Bukhara.
Abu '1-Hasan
In fuller form,
A warrior-poet of
'Ali
is
the pre-
hoped, in
Flourished Flourished
now
lost,
in
ibn Ilyas al-Aghachl
About the middle of the 10th century a.d. or somewhat later. 'Asjadi. In fuller form, 'Abdu 'l-'Aziz b. Mansur 'Asjadi. Associated with Firdausi as a poet at Mahmud's court. Flourished 1025 a.d. Avicenna. See Ibn Sina. of
Bahram
whom
Sasanian king,
Giir.
the later Samanid period.
legend recounts to have composed
Reigned 420-438 a.d.
verses.
Sasanian minstrel, called by Persian writers Barbad, and by Arab authors Bahlabad, Balahbad, or Fahlabad, being various forms of an older Persian Pahlapat. Flourished 600 a.d.
Barbad.
In fuller form, Abu Mansiir Muhammad Ibrahim b. Ahmad ad-Dakiki of Tus. Poet of the latter part of the Samanid period, and noted as Firdausi's predecessor in the epic. Died after 975 a.d.
Dakiki.
fuller form, Abu l-Hasan "Ali b. Jiilugh (or Kuliigh) of Associated as a poet with Firdausi at Mahmiid's court. Died
In
Famikhi. Sistan.
1037 or 1038 a.d.
The famous
Firdausi. title,
'
of the
epic poet of Persia.
Garden
'
or
'
of Paradise.'
His name Firdausi is a poetic In fuller form, Abu '1-Kasim
Hasan b. 'Ali of Tus, though there are variations in the nomenclature. About 935-1025 a.d. XX
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF POETS
A poet
Firiiz al-Mashriki.
890 A.D. Hanzalah of Badghis. 850 A.D. Ibn Sina, or Avicenna. discussed, it
is
A
XXI
the later Saffarid period.
Flourished about
poet of the Tahirid period.
Flourished about
of
The famous
philosopher, physician, and poet (to be
hoped, in a later volume,
of.
p. 57).
Born
980, died
1037 A.D. In fuller form, Abu 'Abdu 'llah Muhammad al-Junaidi. Junaidi. lingual poet (Persian and Arabic) of the Samanid period.
A
bi-
Tenth
century a.d.
Khabbaz
of Nishapur.
The
baker-poet and physician;
earlier
Samanid
Died 953 a.d.
period.
Abu 'Ali ibn Hakim Khabbaz. Composed verses see preceding entry regarding his father as a poet. Khusrau Parviz. Sasanian king, to whom the composition of a couplet may possibly be ascribed. Reigned 590-628 a.d. Khabbaz's son.
;
In fuller form,
Khusrayani.
Abu
Tahir at-Tabib ('the Physician' or at
Tayyib, the Sweet ') b. Muhammad al-Khusravani. A Samanid poet. Tenth century a.d. Kisa'i. In fuller form, Abu Ishak (or Abu '1-Hasan) Kisa'i, ' the Man of the Cloak.' A poet of the later Samanid period, who lived on, it seems, somewhat beyond that time. Date of death generally supposed to be '
1002
Mahmud
but possibly
A.D.,
of Ghaznah.
later.
Famous
ruler,
and said to have been himseK a poet Firdausi. Reigned 998-
as well as a patron of poets, especially of
1030 A.D. Mantiki of Rai.
In fuller form, Mansur b. 'Ali al-Mantiki of Rai. A Buwaihid poet. Flourished in the latter half of the 10th century a.d. Last of the Muntasir. In fuUer form, Abu Ibrahim Isma'il Muntasir. Samanid princes, and a poet. Died 1005 a.d. Kudagi, or Rudaki. In fuller form, Abu "Abdu llah Ja'f ar ibn Muhammad ar-RMagi (or RUdaki). The most noted of the Samanid poets. About 880-954 A.D. Shahid of Balkh. A poet of the earlier Samanid period. Died about 950 a.d. Shukur.
See
Abu
Shukiir.
'Umarah of Merv. In fuller form, Abu Mansur b. Muhammad (or Ahmad) 'Umarah. Poet and astronomer (compare later, Omar Khayyam), of the later Samanid and the early Ghaznavid periods. Flourished end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th century a.d. "Unsurl. In fuller form, Abu '1-Kasim b. Ahmad 'Unsuri of Balkh. Poet laureate at the court of Mahmud of Ghaznah, and famed through association with Firdausi's name. Died 1040 or 1050 a.d.
NOTE ON PERSIAN PRONUNCIATION
A brief
remark on the pronunciation
of Persian
may be
of
some
service
to the reader.
The
accent of aU Persian words, with few exceptions,
syllable,
and
this
method
of
accentuation
may
is
on the
last
general be adopted
in
throughout the book. The vowels and diphthongs have, in the main, the Continental, or Italian, value.
The consonant g is always hard, as in go give M is spirant, as in zA is Ukewise spirant, as in azure loch or German noch gh '
',
Scotch is
'
'
'
'
'
'
;
'
;
'
;
similarly a spirant, a sort of roughened g.
It is not necessary here to enter into a discussion of minor details regarding the matter of pronunciation. For a similar reason I have omitted, in the body of the text, all diacritical marks which would indicate the length of vowels or differentiate between certain consonants in Persian names.
These
diacritical signs, however, will
be found in the Alphabetical List
of
Poets which I have included as part of the introductory matter (p. xx). They may also be found in the very occasional transliterations from the Persian which I have given in italics. I hope that neither the general reader nor the specialist may be embarrassed by my method in either case.
EARLY PERSIAN POETRY FROM THE BEGINNINGS DOWN TO THE TIME OF FIRDAUSI
'
EARLY
PERSIA]^ POETRY CHAPTER
I
PERSIAN POETEY OE ANCIENT DAYS (From
before 600 b.c. to about 650 a.d.) '
Metre
of
an antique song. Shakespeare, Sonnets,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Persia has always been a land lyric quality ever
The guide who
been
lost
of poetry, nor has the
from the voice of her people.
leads the traveller's cavalcade
across the mountains,
17. 12.
Persia a i-ana of Poetry
and the master of the
caravan, as he heads the long camel train that winds
slow
way among
the
from poets centuries
can each
hills,
old.
troll
its
snatches of verse
The nightingale
still
pleads with
the rose '
That sallow cheek of hers
and the plaintive note
t'
iacarnadine,'
of the wood-pigeon seems yet to
harmonize in poetic tenderness with the delicate per-
fume
of the narcissus.
Even the rays
of the
dawning
sun and the soft glances of the rising moon, as they touch the slender form of the tapering heart, as of yore, the
cji^press, call
back to the
myriad images used by the Persian
lover in paying court to the graceful damsel of his choice.
The beginnings of antiquity.
of Persia's poetry are lost in the mists
And
yet
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
if
we may judge from analogy
PERSIAN POETRY OF ANCIENT DAYS
2
^e
earliest poetry
g
be far astray
shall probably not
.
was
The
g
Obscure
and the epic
first of
is,
itself is
The
all,
epic.
hymn,
satire,
the recounting of a tale,
was probably,
at its original inception,
epic type in Persian poetry
'Book of Kings,' which to be
and the
but a magnified and polished ballad,
represented in finished form
more easy
say that the
later to develop into
diverse forms as the lyric,
so that all poetry
a ballad.
we
types, the ballad
which was
ballad,
g^(.\i
and panegyric,
two
of
if
admirably
is
m Firdausi's Shah-namah,
sets forth in
or
measured cadence,
remembered by the narrator than
prose,
the deeds of the heroes of the race.^
Of the hypothetical primitive ballad no traces remain in Persian literature, nor
is
it
earliest Iranian records begin. Zarathushtra or Zoroaster,
^^^^^ 0^
—
Earlier
For in
Persia, as in other
East, the earliest note of poetry
^^i^
at least SO far as extant specimens
Seventh Century B.C. or
with love poetry that the
<.
i
burst forth yoice of
m
go
—
•
a prophet
s
Zarathushtra,
song. or
It
was the
Zoroaster, the
great religious teacher of Persia, in the seventh century B.C.
or
earlier,
divine praise.
chanting in fervid tones an anthem of
His cry broke the silence of the night
perchance in some mountainous cavern in Northwestern Iran, or
heralded the
morn
as he
wandered
priestlike
through the borders of Persia, preaching the story of his
communings with the god Ormazd and the arch-
angels.^ '
and '
Cf. L.
H. Gray, in Encyclop. Belig.
Ethics, Cf.
6. 2, d. (art.
Jackson,
'
Fiction
Zoroaster,
').
the
Prophet of Ancient Iran, pp. 34, 40-51, York, 1899.
New
!
THE ZOROASTRIAN PSALMS
And what future to
life,
the burden of these ancient chants, or
is
psalms in verse
It
?
now a
is
of the wicked,
low the path of righteousness.
may
and the
vision of heaven
and now an appeal to mankind to repent,
abandon the way
there
3
and
to fol-
For a moment
Zoroaster's
AncientPsaims
be a note of despondency in the tone, since
deaf ears hearken not to his inspired word; but comfort is
always at hand
;
it is
found in God and in the
to be
marvelous works of His creation.
Hence
rises
prophet's lips the impassioned question to his
that
hymn
of the Avesta, or Sacred
which begins with the
Book
to the
Maker
in
of Zoroaster,
refrain,
Tat TTiwd pdrasa This I ask Thee
drds
—
moi vaoca Ahura me truly, Lord
tell it to
the ancient rhythm and divisions of three stanzas of
which I attempt to imitate here
in
my
translation.
ZOROASTER DEVOUTLY QUESTIONS ORMAZD This I ask Thee
Who Who
—
tell it to
Father
the Sire was, the
pathway
for the sun
Who, through whom This and much else This I ask Thee
Who
—
Who,
set firmly
Who,
do I long,
Who
?
!
stars ordained ?
O
me
God, to know. truly.
Lord
!
the streams and trees did
to the
make ?
winds and clouds hath yoked ?
was the Founder of Good Thought ?
Mazda,
benignant,
and
Lord
Holiness ?
moon doth wax and wane again ?
is't
tell it to
their swiftness
This I ask Thee
truly,
earth below, and kept the sky
Sure from falling
Who
me
first of
—
tell it to
me
truly.
Lord
made the darkness and
the light ?
PERSIAN POETRY OF ANCIENT DAYS
4
Who, benignant,
Wlo
sleep
the morning,
As reminders
own
His
and waking did create ?
noon, and evening did decree
to the wise, of duty's call ?
knows the answer,
soul
'
since
Ahura Mazdah
(Ormazd) and the celestial hierarchy form ever the theme of Zoroaster's
song.
These psalms
anthems,' they are called
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; give
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gathas,
hymns,
'
the outpourings of the
heart in rhythmic measures that resemble in meter
seer's
the Vedic verses of the bards of ancient India,
somewhat
later
though
than the Vedas in time of composition.^
There are touches of poetry throughout the Avestan Yashts, or 'praises' in metrical
stanzas
glorifying the
various personifications of divine
The Avestan Yashts
^jjg
demigods and heroes of the
powers or These
faith.
compositions in verse, sometimes mingled with prose, aie later than the tion,
Gathas in language and in time of Redac-
though metrically (and in certain religious aspects)
The
older.
simplicity of the
meter in the Yashts shows
a more antique phase than the elaborate Gathic rhythms,
and
possibly the mixture of prose
than in
is
commonly thought
more than one way.
;
but this mixture
may is
be older
explicable
The Yashts, moreover, are doubt-
the work of various hands,
less
and verse
inspired
still
by Zoroaster,
but using material that presents religious aspects in part older than his time. 1
1
From
148)
Yasna
44. 3-5-
The two
last
stanza 5 refer to the three
of
lines
the Avesta (ed. Geldner,
The Gatha meters
types
:
7
+9
verses)
are of seven
syllables (3 verses in a
;
+
+7 +7
4 7
;
7+7+5
(5 verses) (3 verses)
(2 verses each)
;
;
;
6) 4 + 7 (2 verses) (one verse) twice repeated, (3
times for daily prayer. 2
stanza)
;
+ 7 (4 + 5 and (7 + 9) + 4
7
and 3
+6
:
THE AVESTAN YASHTS AS POETRY The metrical
5
stanzas of the Yaslits, like numerous other
parts of the Avesta, are composed in a
somewhat
free
octosyllabic measure that resembles the Kalevala verse,
so familiar to us through Longfellow's
sometimes a Yasht passage poetry.
rises
Hiawatha
is
;
and
the Supreme Lord,
lines
from the
devoted entirely to
extolling the grandeur of Mithra as
angelic host to
'
to the height of real
At random might be chosen a few
tenth Yasht, a composition that
Ormazd.
'
next only in the
Ahura Mazdah, or
Mithra, the angel of truth and the embodiment
of the sun's light, rides forth majestic in his chariot across
the heavens, guiding and watchiug over men, even in the battle
which
his
mighty power
sets in
motion, or sternly
punishing the sinner that breaks his word and pledge.
Here may be
cited a stanza
transhteration
and translation YASHT
from the Mithra Yasht
10.
13-14
To paoiryo mainyavo taro
Haram
yazato
dsnaoiti
paurva-naemat amdsahe
hu yat aurvat^aspahe.
Yd paoiryo zaranyo-plso srird barasnava gdrawnaiti
aSat vispam ddiSditi
Airyo-sayandm
yahmya
Sdvisto,
sastaro aurva
paoiris ir& rdzayente
A YASHT PASSAGE
IN PRAISE OF
MITHRA
Mithra, the celestial angel,
Foremost climbeth Mount Haraiti (Alburz) In advance o' the sun immortal.
in
PERSIAN POETRY OF ANCIENT DAYS
6
Which
is
He, the
drawn by
fleeting coursers.
adornment Grasps the beauteous lofty summits Thence beneficent he glanceth Over
Eange
their troops in countless
number.^
may
numbers.'
be caught here and there in other
Avesta â&#x20AC;&#x201D; sometimes passages â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but
Sufficient,
;
Aryan home-land,
the valiant chiefs in battle
parts of the prosaic
all the
Where
Poetic strains
of
in gold
first,
embedded in the midst
they are not over-many in
however, they are to show that the
musical chord was struck nearly three thousand years ago in ancient Iran.
The note perhaps was sounded earlier
date, far back in
Legends of Ancient Song
festally at
the legendary reign
even an
King
of
Jamshid (which tradition fancifully places at ^bout 3000
B.C.),
for the imagination of the
poet Firdausi heard echoes of the bard singing at the
New
Year's banquet in the court of that monarch in the
Golden Age of
may
Catches of song, moreover,
Iran.^
believe the romantic history
if
by Xenophon, enlivened
the merry bouts in which the Median
monarch Astyages
when Cyrus the Great was
indulged, in the days
we
still
a boy.*
The
pillared halls
of
the
great Achaemenian
Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes, at Persepolis, 1
Avesta, Yasht
2
On
H. Moulton, Early Beligious Poetry of Persia, Cambridge, 1911. also J.
'Firdausi, Sftoft-namaft,ed.Vullers
and Landauer,
1 . 26,
1
.
55
;
of
.
tr.
Mohl,
must likewise
rois, 1. 37 Warner, Shah34 see also Mirkhond, History of the Early Kings of Persia, tr.
Livre des
10. 13-14.
poetry in the Avesta compare
kings
noma,
1.
;
;
Shea, p. 107, London, 1832. *Ct. Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 10.
1. 3.
;
.;
THE LOVE-TALE OF ZARIADRES AND ODATIS have echoed at times to the ring of the
We may at least fourth century
infer this
from the
poet's minstrelsy.
fact that, late in the
Chares of Mytilene
B.C.,
7
re-
Anoia Romance
ported that the Greeks in Alexander's train
retold in
had heard
'
barbarians
(Persians) singing the
'
tale of the romantic love of Zariadres
Odatis, a story in which the lover
â&#x201E;˘**
and seen
first
is
AchaemenUn
hy the
heroine in a dream and later wins her hand in marriage.
So well known and prized among
was
this
romance
all
the peoples of Asia
that, as Chares adds,
they have repre-
'
sented the story in paintings in their temples and palaces,
and even in this
own
their
private houses.'
must have furnished
poet,
as the
especially
Avestan
the
Zairivairi,
A
^
inspiration to
name
Vishtaspa, and hero of the
more than one represents the
Zariadres
brother first
of
theme hke
Zoroaster's
patron,
of the holy wars as re-
counted later in a Pahlavi prose epic fragment and in Firdausi's
Although no verses
Shah-nS.7nah?
poetic
of
the original love-story of Zariadres (Zairivairi, Zarir) and 1
So Chares
Mytilene
of
tenth hook of his ander,' as cited
'
in
the
History of Alex-
Andreas, in Bohde, Der griechische
Roman,
hy Athenaeus, Deip-
nosophistae, 13, ch. 35
;
tr.
Yonge,
3.
2
3 ed. p. 48, note, Leipzig, 1914.
por references
Avesta (Yt.
5.
to Zairivairi in the
112 seq.
;
13. 101),
Compare London, 1854. Eapp, in ZDMG. 20. 65 also Darmesteter, Les Origines de lapoesie
in the Pahlavi
Shah-ndmah, as
Zarir, see
id. Le persane, p. 2, Paris, 1887 and esZend-Avesta, 3, p. Ixxxi
Zoroaster,
104-116,
919-920,
;
;
peciaUy G. Cowell,
Life of
Edward
Byles Cowell, pp. 27-31, London, 1904 Persian Legend and E. B. Cowell,
;
A
of Athenaeus, in Gentleman's Magacf. also zine, July, 1847, pp. 26-29 and Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 73, n. 5 ;
;
prose
epic
and
ÂĽdtkdr-l
Zarirdn, as Zarer, and in Firdausi's pp.
Jackson, footnotes.
The name
Zairivairi in Avestan means having a yeUow (brass) breastplate and Odatis would be presimiably the equivalent of an assumable Avestan '
'
of good birth Namenbuch, pp.
adjective hunZditi, Justi, Iranisches
'
231, Marburg, 1895.
'
;
cf
382,
8
PERSIAN POETRY OF ANCIENT DAYS
Odatis remain, Pirdausi, in
a different connection, has woven into the narrative of his great epic certain incidents of the story that are
We may appear,
easy to recognize.^
be sure that the minstrel's craft did not dis-
though
may have
it
languished, during the dark
ages of the Parthian rule
in the centuries
Absence of
and following the Christian
directly preceding
Parthian Recor s (250 B.C.-
Qj.^
—
^j^g
224 A.D.)
^
with Rome. 2 regret to us that
it is
when Iran was
^-j^g ''
Yet
at
war
must remain a source
it
no longer possible to
cite
of
a single
verse which dates from that particular era, nor has even
any hterary monument in prose survived from the Parthian period, though
may
from Parthian times.^
possibly date
Certain
we
some sporadic passages of the Avesta
are,
however, that the poet's art was a
cherished one in Sasanian times, or
a.d., even though seventh century •' ° all the Ht-
,
Traditionof
erary remains that
Sasanian
lavi,
later,
have survived in the Pah-
or Middle Persian of that
have come down in prose.*
iFirdausi in the Shdh-ndmah
(tr.
Mohl 4. 238-243 Warner, 4. 329-332) makes Zailr's brother Gushtasp and ;
the beautiful Kitayun (or Katabun) the hero and heroine in a strildng
episode of his great heroic
poem, which
(tr. Yonge, 1. 235), wliioh would be appUoable to Parthian as well as Sasanian times, it we may judge from the allusions to Bahram Gur, below, p.
10, n. 4.
sjo,. a discussion of the problem
(with
Zariadres and Odatis, as told above,
theory)
C£. also the references
on
as cited
reference see
to
Geldner,
Darmesteter's in
Orundr.
2.
33-39.
p. 7, n. 2.
2 For the custom of the Persian music at their lungs having songs and of Heraauthority the have we suppers
Kyme
period and
Tradition, however, has
of practically parallels the lovenstory
cleides of
from the third to the
*
Attempts to find verse in the ex-
(fourth century b.c.)
Pahlavi works, including the Ydtkar-i Zarirdn and the Kdrndmak-i Artakhshlr-i Pdpakdn, have thus far
26
proved unsuccessful, even though the
by Athenaeus, Deipn.
4.
tant
POETRY IN THE SASANIAN PERIOD
9
preserved the names of at least three court poets, besides
Barbad (mentioned below) and the harper Sakisa
who was no doubt
Nakisa), are
also a poet siager
(or
but they
;
mere umhrae nominum}
Legend
tells
two well-known Sasanian Kings
likewise of
who could turn a verse, and to one of Gur (420-438 a.d.), company ^' in ^ r J with
these,
his
rhyming couplet
music of
the
their
rhythmic verse.
in Persian
°~*^
ascribed,
is
springing
souls
^
.
King Bahram Gur as a Poet
beloved Dilaram, 'Heartsease,' the invention of the
Bahram
to
their
in
lips
According to the story as preserved
in native sources, it
was on an occasion when Dilaram,
the beautiful, had accompanied her lord upon a lion
Bahram, upon encountering the
hunt.
with
it
and held
his prowess
be
it
lion.
by the
grappled
then glorified
ears,
by likening himself, in what happened
cadenced words,
pant
captive
lion,
to
a wild
and
elephant
Dilaram caught up the cadence
a ram-
same
in the
meter and compared him to a lofty mountain, the ending
in
subjects of the
a two
word
that
latter heroic
and
romantic stories are found versified later by Firdausi in the Shah-namah. Consult Horn, Oesch.
d. pers.
Litt.
and espepp. 43-44, Leipzig, 1901 neupersisches cially Horn, AsaM^s ;
Worterbuch Lughat-i Furs, pp. 16-17, where mention is made
Berlin, 1897,
of F. C. Andreas's view that the Haji-
abad Inscription contains a metrical passage.
»The names
of the three minstrels
referred to are Afarin,
and
Khusravani,
Madharastani, as recorded by
rhymed with al-Baihaki,
the
Kitdb
to
line
close
al-Mahdsin
of (ed.
Van
Vloten), p. 363; and the harper Sakisa occurs in Nizami's Khusrau
and Shlrin, as referred
A
to
by Browne,
Literary Sistory of Persia,
1.
London and New York, 1902. But name Sakisa is written Nakisa in
18,
the the
Nizami Mss. 7 and 8 described in Jackson and Yohannan, Cat. Pers. Mss., New York, 1914 and it appears as Nakiyya in the lithographed ed. pub. ;
at Teheran, 1312 a.h.
Query
—
cf. p. 12, n. 2,
Namenbwh,
p.
289
('
(=1894
a.d.).
and Justi, Jran. Sarkas
') ?
;
;
PERSIAN POETRY OF ANCIENT DAYS
10
Thus was rhyme born
his.^
But there are other
!
stories,
besides, regarding the origin of Persian rhyme.^
We
have also the authority of the
raphy of the Persian poets,
1235 first
A.D.), for
earliest
the work
the statement that
extant biog-
of Aufi
1210-
(fl.
Bahram Gur was
'
the
composed Persian verse,' and that he had seen
who
a collection of his Arabic poems in Bukhara, from which
he quotes fragments of odes in Arabic, together with the
two Persian rhyming resents
Bahram
as
Firdausi
verses.^
still
taking delight in verses that were
chanted to him to the accompaniment of the
even
if
'
earlier rep-
that great hunter
'
may
not have had renown as
a king-poet, he nevertheless gave inspiration to later Persian verse
But
lute.*
many
a
by his adventurous deeds, and he thus
well deserves a share in the fame.
To another tic
sovereign of the House of Sasan, the roman-
and kingly lover
may
Khusrau Parviz
(590-628
a.d.),
possibly be ascribed a rhjmaing distich engraved
on
the walls of the palace of the beautiful Shirin, at Kasr-i 1 For this story see Daulatshah, Tadhkiratu ^sh-Shu'ard, ed. Browne, pp. 28-29, London, 1901; and compare
Browne, Lit. 3ist. of Persia, 1. 12 Blochmann, Prosody of the Persians, p. 2, Calcutta, 1872
;
Eth6, Die hofische
und romantische Poesie der Perser, id. BUdagVs p. 1, Hamburg, 1887 ;
For-
Vorldnfer, in Morgenldndische
schungen,
p.
36
;
Darmesteter, Les
gines delapoesie persane,-p.
1
Storia della poesia persiana,
Turin, 1894 Persia,
;
;
Orir-
Pizzi, 1.
65,
Rose Garden of Horn, Gesch. d.
Costello,
pp. iv-v
pers. Litt. p. 47.
;
Consult also Shams
ad-Din ibn Kais, al-Mu'jam (ed. Mirza Muhammad, in Gibb Memorial 10), p. 169. 2
See Browne, Lit. Hist.
1.
12-13.
Lubdb al-Albdb, chap. 4 (beginning), cf. ed. Browne and Mirza 3
Auii,
Muhammad,
1.
Eth6, in Morg.
20,
London, 1906 and p. 36
Forsch.
;
Browne, Lit. Hist. 1. 262. * Cf Shdh-ndmah, tr. Mohl,
cf.
.
pp. 446, 474, 476,
499-500,
vol. 5,
509-510,
tr. Warner, 7. 51-52, etc. Observe in this connection the reference to Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 4. 26, given above, p. 8, n. 2.
616, 617
;
!
A COUPLET TO THE FAIR SHI BIN and
Shirin,
who
is
cites in his
'
au-
Daulatshah in the fifteenth century,
memoirs
of the Persian poets
Abu
Tahir of Khatun to
the statement of
the effect that
The
legible in the tenth century.
still
thority for this
11
in the time of
Azud ad-Daulah
ascribabieto
KHusrau
ii
(590-628 A.D.)
[who
Dailam
of
was a Buwaihid
of the tenth century A.D.] there tion
upon the palace
prince
was found on an
inscrip-
at Kasr-i Shirin (" Shirin' s Palace ")
in the region of Khanikin,
which was not then
entirely in
ruins, the following couplet written in the antique Persian style
^ ':
huzMra, borgaihan anushah
bi-zl
jihan ra ba-diddr toshah bari
TO THE FAIR SHIRIN
Upon this earth, happy for aye do live by thy mere glance such joyance thou dost give.'
Ah, Beauteous One Siace to the world
I
!
had in memory the
lines of this distich,
which
may
reasonably be ascribed directly to Khusrau Parviz himself, as I
wandered among the ruins of Kasr-i Shirin when
coming from Khanikin on
my
fourth journey to Persia in
1918; but I could find no traces of any inscribed stones
among
the debris
;
yet a careful search
unearth a stone or a tablet, which lasting witness to the 1
Daulatshah,
2
Tadhkiratu ''sh-Shu-
Ordinarily the meaning of toshah,
I
have rendered
is
it
'
sustenance,' but
by
'
bear
still
more
enamored verse of a Sasanian king.
'ard (ed. Browne), p. 29.
tushah in Persian
may
may some day
joyance,'
Skt. tosa, 'satisfaction, comfort.'
cf.
Re-
garding this couplet consult, furthermore, A. de Biberstein Kazimirski,
Divan de Menoutchehri, p. 7, Paris, 1886, where a slightly different reading and a somewhat different translation and interpretation are given.
;
PERSIAN POETRY OF ANCIENT DAYS
12
The
fact that
Khusrau was
also a patron of poetry is
shown by the honor that he paid
orBahlabad,
Du;.^.,. Barbad, the Sasanian Bard
of his court.^ the sweet sinser °
'
The story goes — and that this
Bar bad,
to the minstrel
bard
gifted
told
it is
first
by Firdausi
won
—
the king's
by singing a ballad as he stood hidden amidst the
ear
branches of a cypress tree in the royal garden on a moon-
So great was the minstrel's favor with the
light night.^
monarch that when the king's horse Shabdiz,
Black-as-
'
night/ died, the courtiers selected Barbad as the only one
who might venture
to break the
news
man
to his Majesty, for
Khusrau had sworn to
kill
these tidings to him.
With consummate
the Muses contrived to
the
weave the
that ever should bear art the child of
accom-
tale into verse,
panied by the plaintive wail of his lute, until Khusrau himself, in listening to the strain, suddenly divined the
truth and cried out,
dead
is
!
'
Ah, woe
is
me
My horse
!
Shabdiz
^ '
Thus from those ages long ago the gentle thrum lute
— the
strings
faintly echoes; 1
true
accompaniment of poesy
Persian authors give the poet's as Barbad, but Arabic writers as
Justi,
BaAJaftod, which more correctly points to an older Pahlavi-Persian form,
Le Lime
back
See Browne, Lit. Hist.
where an excellent
references to
series
dausi
of
the
Bahlabad, Barbad, in is given
Persian and Arabic sources
and compare also Browne, The Sources and an Excursus of Dawlatshdh on Barbad and Rudagi, in JBAS. .
1899,
pp.
.
37-69.
.
Consult
likewise
'), p.
spirjausi,
1.
Namenbuch,
Iran.
Barbad
('
14-15,
—
still
and that echo makes us wish that we
name
Pahlapat.
of the
Shdh-ndmah,
').
tr.
des rois, 7. 265-260;
(loc. cit.) gives also
rival
minstrel,
the
63
p.
237(' Pahlapet
Mohl, Fir-
name
Sargish,
Barbad supplanted in Khusrau's ' See also Browne, Lit. Hist.
of
whom favor.
1. 17Regarding a request made also to Barbad by Shirin, to remind Khusrau of a promise, see Browne, in JBAS.
18.
1899, p. 60.
King Khuseau Pabviz and the Minstrel Baebad (From
the Cochran Collection of Persian Manuscripts in the Metropolitan
Museum
[
To face page
12'}
of Art,
New York)
THE SASANIAN POET BABBAD might have been fortunate enough strains also
from others
of
13
to catch even a
those bards
few
who sang
in
Pahlavi, the national language of Sasanian Persia in the
seventh century Conquest.
a.d., before
the cataclysm of the Arab
The timeful numbers
have passed away
;
of
their
verse,
alas,
but the names at least of some of these
minstrels lived long enough after the
Moslem invasion
prove to the victors that, two centuries
later, the
to
hushed
music of Persian poetry would again awake to ring with the old-time spirit of Iran.
CHAPTER
II
THE NEW AWAKENING OF PERSIAN SONG AFTEE THE MUHAMMADAN CONQUEST THE TAHIBID AND SAJFFARID PERIODS (From about 800 '
Disjecti
to 900 a.d.)
membra
poetae.'
— HoHACB,
The Moslem Conquest meant
Satires, 1, 4, 62.
to Persia in
many respects
what the Norman Conquest meant to England. of Kadisia
^^
madan Con-
and Nahavand (637, 642
Hastings of Persia
quest (Seventh gf ^]^q j^st
The
;
battles
a.d.)
were
and with the murder
Sasanian king, in 651, Persia came
Century A.D.)
under the
Muhammadan
rule of the Arabs.
There followed, in consequence, an infiltration of foreign blood, a certain
amount
But beyond the
blending in thought. as it
was
—
of giving
of fusion in language, a partial sacrifice
— great
up the old national religion of Zoro-
astrianism, vanquished Iran yielded
little
more
to
the
victorious
Arab than Britain gave up to the invading
Norman.
If the Persian
vocabulary took on something of
a foreign tinge, the poetic verse flowed the smoother for it-
and
if
the freedom of religious thought
was
fettered
by the bonds of Islam, the true Persian spirit the shackles two centuries later, when it achieved
for a time
threw
ofE
a semi-independence of
its
own upon 14
the decline of the
RENAISSANCE OF POETRY
15
Caliphate at Baghdad in the ninth century this emancipation
and
life
realm of
a.d.,
began the re-estabHshment of
laid the foundations
for
and with
its
national
a renaissance in the
letters.^
may
Beginnings
Such was the casa^with the reborn
The
Province of the Sim. slender at
first,
Islam, but
it
may
be small, but great results
art of poesy in the
was
infant cry
poetry
^*'"'"
muffled by the stifling hand of
was the vox humana.
Poetry, nursed for
two hundred years by the fostering care dynasties of the truer Iranian blood SafEarid (860-903),
follow.
of three princely
— Tahirid (820-872),
Samanid (874-999), not
to
mention
the BuwaUiids (also of the tenth century), or the eleventh
century Ghaznavids of Afghanistan
grow
in grace
and stature
voice changed into the
of the
destined to
until the thin register of its
manly tone
the virility of the race within
The mastery
— was
its
of a Firdausi with all
compass.
newer speech, with
its
infusion of
— the Pahlavi tongue having now been transformed New Persian — was already complete, and could
Arabic into
develop only in range and power of expression.
The
language, in fact, has ever since remained essentially the
same, so that Persian has changed far
less in
a thousand
years than has English in the comparatively brief period
from Shakespeare to the
The 1
2
cradle of the literary renaissance
Cf. also
sia, 1. 6,
Browne,
Lit. Hist, of Per-
of
was Eastern
Misteli, Neupersisoh
Iran,
und Englisch,
in
Philologische Abhandlungen Schwei-
339-341.
On the curiously
opment
present.^
analogous devel-
Persian and English
cf.
zer-Sidler gewidmet, pp. 28-35, Zurich, 1891.
:
THE NEW AWAKENING OF PERSIAN SONG
16
or the provinces of
modem town
the environs of the
city,
may
Merv, the ruins of which
city of
name
Khurasan and Transoxiana.
in Russian Turkistan,
of the World,' as it
was
be visited in
still
that perpetuates the
was the
Marghu
the Zoroastrian
of the
This ancient
scene.
Avesta/ and ' Queen
entitled in medieval times,
witnessed the death of the last Sasanian king, but
had
was
destined to witness also the rebirth of Persian
Abbas of Merv
within
PO^^'^y? ^o^
{i 8i5^or
816A.D.)
walls
its
was bom, some-
Abbas
time before 800 a.d..
whom common renown
The
tradition, rightly or
of Merv, to
wrongly, ascribes the
of beiag the earliest minstrel to chant verse in
the newer Persian tongue.^
The
occasion which inspired the effusion of the poet
was the triumphal entry made,
Mamun,
the son of
in 809,
Harun ar-Eashid
of
by the Caliph Arabian Nights
Abbas, as a bard, was chosen to greet the monarch
fame.
with a panegyric in celebration of the event
on other occasions he had made use for his poetic compositions,
to be the
medium
atory lines to
we can hear
of his
Mamun
he
;
and though
of Arabic as the vehicle
now chose his native Persian
encomium.
A few
of these laud-
have been preserved; and in fancy
a faltering accent in the minstrel's tone as he
apologetically sings
1
Avesta, Vend.
1. 5, 7
;
Yaskt, 10.
and cf in the Old Persian Insorip4. 25. 3. 11 tions, Bh. 2. 7 2 The year of the death of Abbas 14
;
.
;
;
of
Merv
is
recorded as (200 a.h.
815 or 816 a.d.
The
=)
authenticity of
the verses ascribed to him
is
generally
accepted by scholars, but is questioned by A. de Biberstein Kazimirski, Divan
de Menoutchehri, pp. 8-9, Paris, 1886, and Browne, Lit. Mist. 1. 13, 341 2. 13. Consult Pizzi, Storia della poesia ;
persiana,
1. 66.
:
;
THE EARLIEST VERSES IN NEW PERSIAN
17
FROM THE FIRST PERSIAN PANEGYRIC me no
Before
poet as yet, an ode in this fashion hath sung,
There is lack in the Persian speech, in this manner of verse to begin
Yet that is the reason I chose in this language J%y praises to sing, That through lauding and praising Thy Highness, real grace and true charm it may yna,^
Perhaps a better idea of the
may
lilt
of the original stanza
be obtained from a transcript of the Persian lines
themselves
Kas
bar-in
Mar
minvdl pish az
zaban-i
Parsi rd
man
chunln shiri na-guft,
hast td in nau'-i bain;
z-dn guflam man in midhcU turd td in lughat, Girad az madh u ^and'-i hazrat-i tv, zib u zain.^
Lek
Echoes of the verse, no doubt, were heard throughout the land, for other poets were emboldened, as a consequence,
own vernacular. One of these bards was Hanzalah of Badghis^ (about ^ ^^^ 850 A.D.), who hved in the time of the ofBadghis to raise their voice in their
Tahirids (820-872 a.d.), a dynasty more fa-
(^^'""'^^soa.d.)
The
vorable to Arabic than to Persian culture.
early
Persian biographer, Aufi, praises the verses of Hanzalah
by saying, ' the graceful flow of his expression is like the Water of Paradise, and his verses have the freshness of wine (shamul) and the agreeableness of the northern wind (shanial) * So well known were the poems of cool
.'
1
In rendering I have preserved the rhyme 6 d of the Persian.
original
2 Aufi, Lubdb al-Albdb, 1. 21, ed. Browne and Muhammad al-KazvinI, cf. Eth6, Buda1. 21, London, 1906 gVs Vorldufer und Zeitgenossen, in ;
Morgenldndische Forschungen {Feat-
schrift
an Fleischer), pp. 37-38, Leip-
zig, 1875. Âť Badghis was the northwest of Herat. ÂŤ
Aufi,
name of a district
Lubdb al-Albdb,
Browne, London, 1903 Morg. Forsch. p. 39.
;
2.
2, ed.
and Eth6, in
;'
:
;
THE NEW AWAKENING OF PERSIAN SONG
18
Hanzalah. that they were worth gathering into a Persian
Divan, or 'Collection,' only a few fragments of which, however, remain.^
Here
a quatrain (the earliest ruhal.
is
thus far quotable), which contains an odd conceit founded
on an old superstition it is futile
for her to
;
the poet warns his sweetheart that
throw rue-seed on the
to avert
fire
the influence of the evil eye.^
EUE AND THE EVIL EYE Though, rue into the
fire
my
dear one threw,
Lest from the evil eye some harm accrue,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; either rue or â&#x20AC;&#x201D; her beauteous mole the rue
'Twould naught avaU her
Her
More
face the fire
potent, however,
was the charm
ascribed to Hanzalah, for
it
!
in another stanza
inspired a simple
ass-herd
Chancing one day to read four of
win a crown.
to
fire
Hanzalah's verses, this donkey-driver became fired with the ambition to
make an attempt
to gain the throne
and, rising triumphant over every obstacle, he finally
grasped
the
sovereignty.
served the ass-herd king, for his life's success
was
Ahmad
Mention of the Divdn of Hanzalah Badghis is made in the work, cited
Makdla,
by Nizami-i Aruzi, Chahar translated by Browne, in
JBA8.
1899, pp. 665-656
below,
(=
2
On
stanza which
of Khujistan, as a
motto
Khayyam,
p. 119,
New York and Lon-
don, 1911
and of.
especially Elworthy,
;
Evil Eye, pp. 344-347, London, 1895. ' For text see Aufi, Lubdb al-
Albdb, 2.
the custom, stiU current in
2, ed. Browne, London, 1903 and Eth6, in Morg. Forsch. p. 40 of. also tr. Browne, Lit. Hist. 1. 452
of burning sipand, 'rue,' to
Pickering, Nat. Bev. 15. 677; Pizzi,
reprint,
pp. 43-45). Persia,
inspiring
this
'
of
The
avert the evil eye, see Jackson,
Constantinople to the
;
;
Some
of
From Omar
;
Storia,
1.
128.
—
;
HANZALAH AND FIRVZ
19
BUN THE RISK
K lordship in a lion's jaws
shovdd hang,
Go, run the
risk, and seize it from his fang Thine shall be greatness, glory, rank, and place,
Or
From
else, like heroes,
thine be death to face.*
the period of the following dynasty, the Saffarids,
or 'Braziers,' so called from their fomider in 872 A.D.,
Yakuh, the son of Laith, {saffar),
we have
a 'coppersmith'
the names and fragmentary remains of
One
a couple of poets.^ ^ ^
Firuz
who was
was
of these bards
al-Mashriki, or 'the Easterner,' as his
appellative mashriki implies,
890 A.D.
Only three of
who
lived about
Firuz
ai-Mashriki
^°
^
'-^
•
seem to
his stanzas, however,
have been preserved, even though his compatriot Aufi accounted his songs
'
sweeter than a stolen kiss
hublat4 duzdldah khushtar? descriptive of
The following two
'
—
az
couplets,
an arrow, contain an odd fancy:
THE ABEOW
—
A bird the arrow is What marvel thou wilt say A bird that maketh ever some living thing its prey. A gift the eagle gave it — from her own quills a plume. Wherewith 1
it
!
'
'
straightway briageth her nestlings to their doom.*
For text and the whole story
Aruzi, Chahdr Makdla,
see
hy Nizami-i
the above-mentioned work
tr.
Browne,
pp 43-45; and cf. Browne, Lit. Hist. 1. 355, 452. But cf Mustaufi, Ta'rikh-i Guzidah, ed. Browne In Gibb Mem. 14. .
1, p.
379,
who quotes
the verses anony-
mously and applies the story to Saman, ancestor of the Samanid dynasty.
Horn, Gesch. '
pers. Litt. p. 48.
d.
See Aufi, Lubdb,
2. 2.
For the text see Aufi, 2. 2 Eth6, in Morg. Forsch. p. 41, finds metrical reasons to include a nah not ' That may not carry away her it but the manuscript young brood *
;
'
'
'
—
;
reading, adopted above in the render-
Rhyme, 6 d. 2 The name
also is mentioned of Varrak, the ' Copyist or 'Bookseller,' who, like Hanzalah, be-
MahmM-i
longed partly to the Tahirid period as See Eth6, in Grundr. 2. 218 ;
well.
'
seems equally good cf Browne, 1. 453 Darmesteter, p. ing,
;
;
.
also 9.
!
'
;
THE NEW AWAKENING OF PERSIAN SONG
20
Another stanza of Firuz Mashriki, in admiration of his sweetheart,
quite bizarre in its imagery.
is
also because it
it
I translate
seems to have escaped notice elsewhere.
HER BEAUTIFUL LIPS ANT) TEETH Ah, look at her beautiful teeth, and her lips with their exquisite line;
They keep me
forever inflamed
with the warmth of the passion
of love
Those teeth that
flash bright as
when
the Pleiads,
aloft in the zenitb
they shine
Those
'
lips that
moon
above
This
is
seem halo of moonlight round the orb of the full
!
the very ecstasy of love
! '
and
it
was perhaps
from those very hps that the kiss was stolen to which
Two
Mashriki's verses are likened.
other stray distichs
of his poetry have been preserved in a chance quotation
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but enough
^ !
poetic artery that throbbed in the pulse of
The
Eastern
Iran must have had an answering beat as far westward as the Caspian
Q IV ofGurgan
f^rid era, or
of the Ninth
verse of
Century A.D.)
^
Abu
^j^g latter
Sea before the end of the Saf-
900
a.d., for it is
Abu
The
1
edition
text of
is
part of that
Lughat-i
Furs,
1897 (Abhandd. Wiss. Gesellschaft Egl. lungen zu amingen, Neue Edge, Bd. 1 Nr. 8).
fol.
17
p. 26, Berlin, d.
2
See Shams ad-Din
b.
^ais,
al-
era,
the lived
and was a
which corresponds to the
Salik,
found cited in Horn's
Asadi's
in
Salik of Gurgan, who
native of the district (Gurgan) ancient Hyrcania.^
felt
we
are told,
'
spread out
Mu'jam, ed. Muhammad Kazvini, in Gibb Memorial Series 10, pp. 267-268. ' This province is the same as Varkanain theold Pers. Inscriptions, Bh. 2 92. .
'
;
!
;
STANZAS OF ABU SALIK the carpet of words
Nobility
of
thought
to us.
ONE'S Shed,
if
HONOR
own blood on the earth. own pure honor's worth worship idols than a man take heed, and practise he who can *
thou wilt, thine
—
Better than shed thine Better to
Give
certainly
few rhymed stanzas that have
characterizes one of his
come down
21
sukhun) and raised aloft the
{hisat-i
banner of eloquence.'^
!
ear,
!
Another surviving stanza, which has a sportive touch,
may on
be quoted as perhaps having formed part of a sonnet
his mistress'
eyebrow
TO HIS SWEETHEART'S EYEBROW With thy eyebrow
What
thou'st stolen
Wilt thou claim a reward ?
A robber rewarded Two
served, but that
and
me
— for heart-robbing, a fee
few
verses,
— Tahirid and
Abu
?
!
Salik have been pre-
is all.*
these three or four
their
'way from
That's passing belief
!
other chance distichs of
With
my heart
dost judge with thy lips, and thy eyebrow the thief
!
we
SafEarid
names
of the olden-time poets,
bid adieu to the
—
of the
first
two epochs
newer Persian renaissance.
We may be happy at least that the voice
of song
had been
awakened from slumber. 1 Aufi, Lubab, 2. 2-3 Eth6, in Morg. Forsch., pp. 41-42. 2 Eor the text see references in the ;
preceding note.
The rhyme
in the
Eth6, p. 41.
The
is
perliaps
more
literally
'eyelash.' * See Shams ad-Din b. Kais, alMu'jam, pp. 255, 276 (in Gibb Memo-
»^J
original isbd.
SAufl, p. 3;
word muzhah
Series, vol. 10, cited above).
CHAPTER
III
EAYS TEOM LOST MINOR STAES EAELIER SAMAOTD PERIOD (About 900-950 a.d.) '
When the
The Samanid 1000
A.D.,
morning
sang together.'
stars
— /o6, 38.
7.
period, or the entire century
was a
down
to
true age of minstrelsy, and this day-
spring of song
was marked, when the
zenith
££irli6r
Samanid
was reached, by the fame
two
of
-^^'i^gi ^^*^ Dakiki, both of CFirst^if f Tenth Century described in the next and a
whom later
poets, will
be
chapter.
A.D.)
But around these twin
stars
was
clustered a
group whose magnitude was of the second degree, yet
from each of which a glimmer
of light has
through the ages, though the orb that gave
it
come down birth faded
from ordinary observation more than a thousand years ago. Scintillations
from one of these
been caught in rays from the poet Abu Shukur (fl.
941 AD.)
horizon for
lost stellar orbs
Abu Shukurof
which might have disappeared forever
if
have
Baikh, lovers
Omar Khayyam were not scanning quatrain-beams that may be older than
the
Abu, or
Bu
Qjf
Tubals of the Tent-maker of Nishapur.
the
Shukur
as he is also called, appeared earlier than the bard
Shahid,
who
is
next mentioned, and prior to the renowned 22
;
:
A QUATRAIN BY ABU SHUKUR
whom
Rudagi, from both of ball of excellence
'
—
he carried
off in
23
advance
'
the
to use a polo phrase from one of his
native biographers.^
One
Shiikur's
of
works
written in 941 a.d.,^ and is
is
recorded as having been
among
the reliques from his pen
a very early quatrain, which has, as in the case of
Hanzalah
Yet there
whom
Badghis, a special interest for
of is
in the four lines, written
Omarians.
on parting from one
he has loved, something of the bitter-sweet, or
rather the venerium in eauda sting of a later-day Heine, at least as I read
them
A QUATRAIN BY SHUKUR — BITTER-SWEET Through grievous pangs
for thee I
am bowed
low
'Neath separation's burden bent I go.
But ah
None
e'er
!
with hands wash'd of thy had moods and whims like
But on another occasion
to his love
guile
and wile
I
thine, I know.'
— and I quote from
an out-of-the-way Persian source of nearly a millennium ago
— our poet Shukur says that he could never speak an
untruth to his beloved, because that 'untruth would fasten his neck into the yoke {yogh).'^ of personahty in to
Abu
it
all.
And who
There
is
a touch
will fail to put
down
Shukur's credit as a bard, that he was the earhest
writer to employ in his narrative poetry the mutakarih 1 So Valih, Biydz ash-Shu'ard, as quoted by Eth6, in Morg. Forsch.
p, 42. 2
Eth6, in Grundr.
train authors.
2. 219.
For text see Aufi, Lubdb, 2. 21 Eth6, in Morg. Forsch. p. 42. It is worth noting that there are only a half s
dozen Arabic words in this quatrain proportion which it would be interesting to examine in other qua^
—a
;
^
Asadi, Lughat-i Furs, ed. Horn,
fol. 35,
p. 56.
;
RAYS FROM LOST MINOR STARS
24
meter, which Firdausi later rendered immortal in his epic verse
^
?
Simplicity verse, if
of
which
style,
we may judge from
Firdausi's
lexical
Shukm^'s
nearly a hundred stray Unes
purposes in a Persian dictionary by
nephew, nearly a thousand years ago, was not a
quality that
made
among
his poetry live
But we of to-day can at because
of
and there from incidental quo-
that can be gathered here tation for
mark
the
is
least like
his compatriots.^
one of his simple jingles,
reminds us of some of our childhood's verse,
it
and be glad that that old-time Persian dictionary-maker quoted Shukur's
little
to illustrate an unusual
lilt
for 'mendicant, pauper,' in
ordinary
'
The
beggar.'
word
the original, instead of the
lines are not
without ndiveti :
PAUPER — A BEGGAR
A pauper there Who
sank
('tis
was
— so Father
Dry bread he begged from door This was his trade
True, this
is
said,
beg his bread
told) to
to door,
— forever more
commonplace verse
!
^
but brighter shone
;
the rays of another of those minor lights of the past „^ ^-^ X Shahid of Baikh(d. about 93° I
p.
Cf.
23 '
•
;
•;
Shahid of Balkh, who died some time before '
950
A.D.,
friend,
and was
Horn, AsacR's Lughat-i Furs, the references to
by Asadi, add four
Abu Shukur
citations
by Shams
ibn Kais, al-Mu'jam, pp. 268, 277, 383, 439. Shukur's Afatin-ndmah is lost, cf.
Browne, «
moumed
the renowned poet
id. Gesch. d.pers. Litt. p. 68.
To
—
Lit. Hist. 1. 466.
Asadi, Lughat-i Furs (ed. Horn),
in verse
Rudagi.*
by
his
Even
Horn, Gesch. d. Other stanzas also of Shukur are quoted in Asadi, e.g. fol. 18 r, 43 r. So likewise lines by Shukur's contemporary, Ma'rufi, cf. Horn, AsacR, p. 29 (introduction). * See Aufi, 2. 3 and cf. Pickering, in Nat. Bev. 16. 329, 678, 682. fol.
70
r,
p.
117
;
of.
pers. Litt. p. 68.
;
: ;
:
;
SHAHID AND HIS SOMBRE NOTE
25
though we have native authority for the statement that Shahid was a person
'
of excellent mind, spirited in con-
and a
versation, noble in views,
scholar,'
the tinge of
^
melancholy that marks the few verses by which alone we can judge him, has somewhat justly entitled Shahid to be designated
'
the pessimist of his century.'
^
Listen for
a moment to the sombre cadence of one of his stanzas,
made
the more impressive in
all
gravity by the alter-
its
nation in the rhyme IF
GRIEF
HAD SMOKE
If grief had smoke, as hath the blazing
The world would be
fire,
for aye in darkness blind
Travel the world from end to end entire,
A wise man wholly happy thou'lt not find.' The
serious earnestness of another of Shahid's stanzas
similar in spirit, though bizarre in expression
is
TWO OF Two
LIFE'S ARTISANS
artisans there are, heaven's vault below,
The one doth cut, the other spias with knack The first shapes naught but kings' high caps of show,
WhUe
weaves the other naught save sackcloth black.
In a quatrain, earlier than which only one or two
exist,
as intimated above, Shahid gives voice to a lament over
the ruins of the city of Tus in Khurasan, left desolate by the ravages of invading hordes, too oft repeated later from 1
So after the Saflnah-i Khvashgu,
cited 2
by Eth6,
in
M.F.
So Darmesteter,
p. 43.
Origines de
la
poesie persane, p. 29. 3
Aufi, Lubdb, 2. 4,
the original
rhyme a
from which text b a b has been
imitated above cf. also Ethยง, in M.F. p. 44; Pizzi, Chrestomathie, p. 57; and ;
tr. Pizzi,
Storia, 1. 128.
^Xext, EtM, in M.F. p. 45; Pizzi, Chr. p. 67.
:
:
26
;
RAYS FROM LOST MINOR STARS
Any
over the Turkistan border.
among
as I have,
the
one
who has wandered,
crumbUng remains
of that ancient
heap of dust, near modern Mashad, will best appreciate the raven-note of these dismal four lines
^ :
RUINED TUS — A QUATRAIN Last night by ruined Tus I chanced to go,
An
owl
Quoth
perched where once the cock did crow
sat
Quoth
"
I,
What message from
The message
he, "
is,
'
this
waste briug'st thou ? "
Woe, woe
—
all's
woe
!
'"
^
Nature sad or glad sympathizes with the plaint of a
was Shahid's case when he bemoaned
lover,
and
plight
and sang
this
his
A LOVER'S PLAINT The cloud is weeping like a lover sad, The garden smUeth like some maiden glad. The thunder moaneth, yea, like umto me. That make lament each dawn I'm doomed to
see.'
A store of world-wisdom — gathered, no doubt, through sad experience
—
by Shahid 'Tis
is
locked up in the following
LEARNING AND WEALTH
with learning and wealth like narcissus and rose.
At the same time and place neither one
1
For, where there
is
And where
is
Cf. Jackson,
to the
Home
of
there
them grows
;
is
spare.*
little
From Constantinople Omar Khayyam, pp.
the form of a Divdn,
Grundr.
2.
cf.
Eth^,
It is also to
219.
in
be ob-
served that in the old Persian diction-
2Text,Eth6, p. 44; 3 Text Aufi, 2. 4 ;
<Aufl
of
— well, wealth not there, wealth — learning's to
learniag
286-296.
Original
little jingle
rhyme 2.
in original
4
;
Pizzi, Cftr. p. 57. cf.
Eth6, p. 46.
It
may be
Lughat-i Furs is
cited
some
t"wo times (mostly couplets
is 6 d.
cf. Ethfe, p. 45.
6 d.
ary of Asadi, Horn), Shahid
Rhyme
noted that
Shahid waa one of the earliest poets lyrics in to leave a collection of his
(ed.
thirty-
— one
on
35 r), and among these quotations are four short stanzas (fols. 8, 12, 40, 67) cf. also Shams ibn
Lost Youth,
fol.
;
?ajs, al-Mu'jam, p. 204.
'fi'~:iim;;!i'!
1
'.: ...
'i:
.a'iiismim^y
,.;,;.
-Jfpr
'*!*
The Ckumbling Mausoleum at Tus (From
[
To face page
26']
a photograph
by the author)
'
:
SHAHID AND KHABBAZ Different both in in fancy,
its
had
manner, but not lacking
in
Khabbaz
was the baker-poet
for Nishapur
had
mood and
27
of
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
Nishapur
baker-poet as Niirnberg
its
shoemaker-bard Hans Sachs.
Khab-
9S3A.D.)
(d.
baz, or Khabbazi, flourished in the middle of
the tenth century, as his death occurred in 953 a.d.^ His
is
name (Khabbaz) means
and a well-known Persian
tradition
Khabbaz
skilled in
of Nishapur
fine bread,
and was
recorded as having
was
that
states
'
'
Baker,'
Doctor
baking choice and
also clever in piercing the pearls of
Here
words with the needle of speech.'*
is
one of the
strings of pearls for his loved one's hair
THOSE TWO TRESSES OF HAIR Dost see those two tresses of
hair,
Wliich the wind waveth hither and yon ? Thou'dst liken them unto a swain,
Who never
hath constancy won.
Nay, like some lord chamberlain's hand, For his prince in full martial array. That waveth thee back from afar,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
'Thou hast not any audience to-day
The
title
Hakim,
'
Doctor,'
when brought
tion with the following verse,
son
Abu
!
which
'
into connec-
probably by his
is
Ali Khabbaz, appears to show that the elder
Khabbaz combined the practice of medicine with his calling of loaf -making and his avocation as a poet nor did ;
he lack a sense of humor, allusion in EtM,
1
Cf.
2
Cf. Aufi,
if
we may
Khabbaz Junior's
in Grundr. 2. 221. Lubdb, 2. 27.
'
judge from the
liaes:
Aufi, 2. 27
;
EtM,
in
M.F. 60
;
cf.
also Pickering, in Nat. Bev. 15. 681.
;
;
:
RAYS FROM LOST MINOR STARS
28
THE QUACK'S RESPONSE To Doctor Khabbaz
once I gave this counsel pure
:
Take heed no sick man leaves thy door without a cure Hopeful of healing, glad they to thy door repair Let no poor patient, then, depart in sad despair.' '
Said Papa,
'
Know'st thou not, no fault
Wild game whose hour is come,
To
the city of Nishapur
is
belonged likewise
Muzaffar Nasr, who had
Abu'iMuzaffarKasr
^f
my
miue,
Son.
straight to the hunter run.' ^
is
'1-
the real touch
fancy in his verse, though he
only by the fragmentary stanza that
Abu
is
known
here rendered
HER BEAUTY One might
—
liken her unto the moon,
not for her tresses so
if
black.
Or
like
Her
unto Venus were she,
her beauteous mole she did lack.
if
radiant cheeks were the sun,
I
had ventured
to say with
my
lips,
and never once suffered
If the sun were but never obscured, eclipse.''
To
same epoch of
the
Samanid
minstrel,
song
Junaidi,
Junaidi, as his fuller
name
belongs
or Abdullah
another
Muhammad
al-
Junaidi enjoyed an
given.
is
still
added repute among and r o his contemporaries r
Junaidi
successors as being
Shahid of Balkh
—a
—
like
Abbas
of
Merv and
master equally of the Arabic and
the Persian tongue, and as being skilled likewise in
of
He
the art of composing in prose as well as in verse.^ 1
Text
from Valih, Eiyaz by Eth6, in M. F.
Shu'ard, cited
Rhyme 2
ash-
Hist.
Original
p. 49.
in original, b df.
Aufl, 2. 23
;
Bth§, p. 48.
rhyme,
p. 51.
'
1.
6 d.
Cf. also tr.
Browne,
LuMb,
23-24
Lit.
467.
Cf. Aufi,
2.
;
Ethfi,
:
;
A WINE-SONG BY JUNAIDI was an adept
certainly
tumiQg a wine-song (perhaps
in
the earliest extant in Persian), even though
with
its
29
my
rendering,
attempt to imitate the Persian monorhyme of his
stanzas, only inadequately conveys the idea
DRINK WINE At da^wn
quaff a draft
By crow
of the cock
!
from the flagon of wine, and the lute's plaintive whine.
When the sun lifts his head o'er the top of the hill, He were best put to blush by the cup and the vine. Prom From
the cup to the couch at the fall of night time, the couch to the cup at the dayspring's
As milk So
is
the food that for infants
men
let old
their diet to grape-milk confine.^
— that ancient Empire — was the home
Bukhara anid
city
year old tribute.
of
capital of the
numbers
Several of these
corded for fame; and
even
and
Their names have lived, and that
song.
if
first sign.
is best.
of devotees of is
a thousand
names should be
his poetic activity appears to belong
Samanid
period, the
name
of a prince of the
blood, Aghachi, or Aghaji, or
Abu
b. Ilyas al- Aghaji, of
Bukhara
sword and the
he was
pen,'
—
'
'1-Hasan Ali
a man of the
Aghaji (about
xenth Century and some-
a.d.
what
There
is
a pun in the Persian
and shlrah, 'new wine' milk of the grape). For the text, see ( Aufl, Lubab, 2. 23 Eth6, p. 49 and ;
cf. tr.
latter of
sang his praises), and must, therefore, have
shtr, 'milk,'
;
Pickering, in Nat. Bev. 15. 681.
'
Aufl,
Bth^, in
Orundr.
Later)
Aghachi was a con-
called.^
temporary both of Shahid and of Dakiki (the
1
re-
among them may be mentioned now,
only to the middle or the latter part of the
whom
Sam-
Lubdb al-Albdb,
M.
F.
2. 222.
pp.
1.
62-63;
flour31-32 id.
in
•
'
;
:
;
RAYS FROM LOST MINOR STARS
30
about the middle of the tenth century, or even
ished
somewhat In
later.^
and
spirit
Aghachi combined the
and the
soldier
poet,
temper brooked no taunt that stigmatized,
his fiery
as a source of weakness, his court education, in accordance
with the regimen of princes; for against the attack he hurled back four biting lines
A
SOLDIER-POET'S EDUCATION
Ho, thou who takest no accoimt of what Test
!
my
may
skill
be,
— Thou wilt find I was not reared 'mid luxury abhorred
Bring forth the steed, the noose, the bow, and bring the book to me, Verse, pen, and lute,
board
— bring on the wine, chess, and backgammon
!
The knightly
chivalry of the lover speaks in the next
fragment from the writings of this soldier-bard:
LOVE BEYOND COMPARE
—
Should thy heart require a fortress Fort
my heart
shall be for thee
Since thy love's beyond computing,
may thy
Countless
And
the fancy of the true poet
by which
of the half-dozen stanzas
The
soldier's
As
years be
life's
imagination
is
!
hidden in one other
is
al- Aghachi is
known.*
not absent.
in
the
I have Aghachi in the present chapter rather than in the one
latter half of the tenth century,
but
after next.
1
to the date of Aghachi, Eth6,
in Orundr. 2. 222, evidently inclines to
place
has
Aghachi
authority
(Aghaji)
for
saying
'
gehorte
zu den Zeitgenossen des Shahid und Dakiki ' (in M. F. p. 62) so apparently also Horn, Geach. d. pers. Litt. ;
p. 79
;
aiana,
Pizzi, 1.
Storia della poesia per-
69-70, 130.
Also look up
Pickering, Nat. Bev. 15. 685.
preferred
2
Ghr. »
to
Aufi,
32
1.
Eth^, p. 63
;
;
Pizzi,
rhyme 6 d. Eth6, in M. F. p.
Original
p. 59.
Aufi,
treat
1.
32
;
62.
has six Ethfi (Jf. F. pp. 62-63) quotes four. Asadi, Lughat-i Furs, ed. Horn, cf. p. 17, *
Aufi,
1.
32,
;
!
THE SOLDIER-POET AGHACHI
31
A SNOW-FLURKY Oh, look at the sky with
How
amid
it
its
troops of flaked snow,
a flurry of wings
is
widespread
'Tis verily like to a troop of white doves
Panic-stricken with fear of the falcon so dread.
A
few
recorded,
from the for
an
glints it
more from these minor
true; but these slender rays shot
is
instant,
and then are gone.
we knew more
down gleam
stellar spaces of the long-forgotten past
Yet behind them they
leave to us a wish, unfulfilled though
that
might be
stars
it
of the galaxy of
must ever remain,
which they formed
a part in those star-regions of song that are no longer within our ken. cites
ten different single lines (un-
rhymed)
of Aghajl.
I
am
not sure
about the quatrain by AghajJ cited by Shams ibn Kais, al-Mu'jam (in Gibb
Memorial
Series, 10), p. 214.
I
may
have missed noting others, which some one will doubtless add later, i For text, cf. Aufl, 1. 32 Eth6, p. ;
62
;
Pizzi, Chr. p. 59; cf tr. Pickering,
iVixt. iJei).
.
15.686; Pizzi, Stona, 1.130.
CHAPTER IV RUDAGI, A HERALD OF THE DAWIST (Middle of the Tenth Century a.d.)
But look, the mom, in russet mantle clad. Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill.'
'
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Shakespeare, Hamlet,
The dawn had had
Pleiades
set,
1. 1.
166-167.
not yet fully broken; but though, the
two morning-stars
still
liagered
The more
sky as heralds of the dawn.
va.
the
brilliant
of
the twain, yet earliest to sink beneath the horizon, bore the
name Rudagi
or
The
Rudaki.^
other, hardly less
luminous, but quenched before the great sun of Firdausi rose,
was
called Dakiki.
Only snatches of the music of
swung have come down
the spheres in which their orbits
to us, but the notes that reverberate are true
To Rudagi,
and
rich.
the older of these minstrels, as dominating
the Samanid era, this chapter
is
devoted; Dakiki, his
later compeer, is reserved for another.
Rudagi may song.'
'
father of Persian
His birth-year appears to have been somewhere
around 880
954
justly be styled the real
A.D.2
A.D.,
and
He owed
his death his
name
1 When I was in Persia for the fourth time (1918) I heard from literary men only the pronunciation
to his natal
there
is
town Rudag,
manuscript authority for
it)
the reading Rudagi. ^
West
964
adopted (and
941
iJudati, although scholars of the
have more generally
must have occurred about
32
For the view as
to the latter date,
(=343 a.h.) as (= 330 a.h.), see
contrasted with
Eth6, in Grujidr.
!
TRADITIONS OF RUDAGI'S YOUTH
33
a small place beyond the river Oxus, located near either
Bukhara or Samarkand,
or possibly between the two.^
Tradition has
was
that he
it
so clever as a Ruaagi (about 880-954 ad.)
boy that he knew the whole Kuran by heart
A
at the age of eight.^
presage of his future greatness
Tradition reports also that, like Homer, Rudagi was born blind
;
but
if so,
which
sense of color
poetry
have
that
makes
that
is
the more surprising the
all
shown
in the fragments
At
survived.'
endowed him not only with the
gift of poesy,
his
nature
events,
all
of
but also
with a rich voice for singing and a talent likewise for playing the lute (barbat).*
from
its
from 2. 1.
221
and the burden of
his lips,
with
Persian
original,
although Browne, Lit. Hist.
456, n. 2, cites authority for the date
940-941 A.D.
of song
compare furthermore
;
A
has
the
all
the
Daulatshah
(ed.
references are added in the footnotes.
668-670;
standard monograph on Rudagi is by H. Eth^, Rudagi, der Sdmdnidendichter, in Nachrichten d.
2.6;
The
sources
original
2
early
Aufi,
2.
imitated
abandon
Lit. Hist. 1. 455-458.
Aufi, Lubab,
I
here
is
Persian Chaucer, in National Beview, 15. 829, London, 1890. This latter article, pp. 327-340 (based on Ethfiand Darmesteter), became accessible to me after this chapter was ready for the press, but C. J. Pickering,
came
his light-hearted verse,
chiming monorhyme, which
the ;
The burst
of
For some consult
of
also
Browne), pp. 31-33
;
7-9.
cited
by Eth^,
Nachrichten, pp. 669-670. ^ On the question of
in
Gott.
Rudagi's
blindness see (with citation of native
Ethg, in
sources)
cf.
Aufi,
Nachrichten, pp.
Lubab
(ed.
also Pickering, Nat.
Browne) Bev. 15.
The case probably that blindness came later in life 329, 678, 682.
is
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
compare likewise
have been blind poets from Thamyris to Milton. * Compare on barbat, Steingass,
the artistic literary presentation (based on Eth^'s material) by Darmesteter,
Persian^English Dictionary, p. 170 a, and the note by Pickering, Nat. Bev.
Kgl. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. zu Gottingen (1873), pp. 668-742; see also id. in
Grundr.
Origines 11-28.
2.
220-221
de
;
la poesie persane,
Compare
also
pp.
Pizzi, Storia
delta poesiapersiana,!. 11-7i
;
Uom,
Gesch. d. pers. Litt. pp. 73-76 ; Browne,
there
' barbat, the pdpptTov of 15. 829 other authorities give 'ud, Greece "lute."' Ct 'Eth^, in Nachrichten, :
;
p. 671.
:
!
;
;
DAWN
RUDAGI, A HERALD OF THE
34 Byron's
line,
I
'
knew
was
it
or of Horace's Carpe Diem, as lyric
and I
love,
'
!
was
felt it
glory,'
^
runs cheerily along in
it
measure
CARPE DIEM Live gay with maids dark-eyed, diviae 'Tis a vain, world,
and wind
is its sign.
What Cometh, thou shouldest rejoice at, No thought take of past, or repine. I've won me a musky-tressed damsel, Moon-faced, and of angel-born
line.
He's happy who giveth and getteth
Who
doth not,
This sad world
Let be
!
— his
is
lot is of brine.
wind and cloud merely,
— Come bring hither the wine
Sometimes the tone
is
!
a melancholy one, a piteous
note of unrequited love.
SHE EEGRETS TOO LATE
When dead
thou shalt behold me,
My lips forever Keft of
sealed,
body,
its life this
Passion ne'er more revealed,
Then by my
And '
cold bier
sit
thou.
say with a caress,
Alas, 'twas
I who slew
thee
Heart-broken, I confess."
Oiu"
own Chaucer
in his youth could not
the verse more gracefully —
or
more
have turned
sadly.
Fortune early selected Rudagi for her favorite, and led •
him
to the
Byron,
Stanzas
court of the
Samanid prince Nasr II
written on the
'
Text, Eth6, in Nachrichten, p. also compare Pizzi, Chr. p. 62
Road between Florence and Pisa, 1. 16. 2 Text, EtM, in Nachrichten, p. 720
the version
Pizzi, Chr. p. 61
Hist.
;
tr. id.
Storia,
1.
134.
737
;
;
1.
by Cowell
458.
in
Browne,
Lit.
'
;
RUDAGI'S POPULARITY AT COURT (913-942), which he graced
35
his royal patron's death.
till
During these halcyon days honors and riches were showered
upon him
and the retinue
in abundance; '
f
formed a
his attendants
line of
â&#x20AC;&#x17E;
of
,
.,
Rudagi's
two hundred,
Princely
while double that number of camels was needed to carry his baggage.^
In addition to the royal favor of Nasr, Kudagi received generous recognition from his poetic peers, as
by
his fellow-minstrel
verse which
a
said, in
and
friend,
has
is
proved
Shahid of Balkh, who
remained, that
'
Bravo
!
(ahsand) might be praise for the lines of other poets, but
would be mere
poems
ridicule for the
of
Rudagi
;
^
and
so
run the commendations from every Persian singer after him." Rudagi's popularity, moreover, with
all alike at
he was a court poet) and in camp
(for
story that he
was the one
is
proved by the
win Nasr's
selected to try to
thoughts back to Bukhara
when
court
that Samanid monarch
away from home, enchanted by the the region around Herat. The bard's ready wit
tarried four years
charm
of
So well acquainted
was quick to improvise the means.
was he with
his royal patron's
writers relate, therefore 1
Aufi, 2.
'
and
verse.'
others, cf Eth^, in .
Nachrichten, p. 672. 2
Aufi,
and cf '
.
Lubdb
(ed.
Ethfi, in GStt.
that, as the Persian
he knew prose would not affect him, and
had recourse to 7,
moods
Browne)
Naeh.
2.
6
p. 675, n. 3.
References are easily at hand to
the scholar {e.g. Ethfi, pp. 675-677),
and as an illustration of Rudagi's renown might be instanced the fact that he is quoted no less than a hundred and sixty-one times by Asadi,
*
At the moment when
Lughat-i Furs,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in
fact
cf. ed.
Eudagi
is
Horn, pp. 18-19 the most often
cited author in that work.
Shams ibn
in
Kais,
Similarly
al-Mu'jam
(in
Gibb Mem. 10. 461, Index), * See Nizami-i Aruzi Samarkandi, OAaftarJfofcaJa, ed. Mirza Muhammad (Giftft-MemoriaJ, 11), p. 33;
in
JBAS.
53).
1899, p. 759
(=
tr.
Browne,
reprint, p.
!
:
RUDAGI, A HERALD OF THE
36
;;
:
;
DAWN
Nasr had quaffed his morning cup, Rudagi came in and did obeisance, and sat down in his accustomed place ; and '
when
the musicians
had
he took up the lute
ceased,
{chang), and, playing the " Lover's air," began this elegy,'
opening with the tender strain, Buy-i juy-i Muliyan ayad Kami
The perfume sweet Remembrance,
comes aye to
of Muliyan's stream
Then, striking a lower key, he continued
THE PRINCE
IS
And
my
:
TO RETURN TO BUKHARA
The sandy road by Oxus' banks, Silk-soft beneath
me
comes aye to me.
too, of longed-for friends
feet to
that rugged way,
me
appears to-day
Jihun's waves, for very joy
at their friend's face,
Rise to our waists in blithesome mood with fond embrace.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
since Bukhara glad Long live thou Be joyful, Here to thee joyous comes thy life, thy own glad Prince. Thy Prince, Bukhara, is the Moon, and thou, the Sky In heaven's vault the Moon, behold, is mounting high !
A
cypress, he
Anon
!
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Bukhara, thou
a garth ablow. the garden grow
the cypress shall within
* !
I In the original Persian text of the Chahdr Makdla (p. 33) and Tadhkiratu 'sh-Shu'ard (p. 32) referred to above (p. 33, n. 1), and oft quoted, the rhymso the alternating ing refrain throughout is dyad haml, ' doth ever come ;
'
rhyme-lines might perhaps be more UteraUy rendered thus
6.
The perfumed Muliyan to me Remembrance of my friends to me
d.
Sili-soft
a.
beneath
my feet to me
h.
Waist-high in blithesome mood to me In joy thy prince, thy life, to thee
j.
Into the sky the moon,
/.
I.
The cypress
doth doth doth doth doth doth doth
O
see
!
to his garth, to thee
For other versions of this noted ode of. Eth6, Browne, in JBAS. 1899, p. 760 (= reprint, p. 54)
p. ;
719
ever ever ever ever
ever ever ever ;
come come come come come come come
Darmesteter, p. 13
and (though available to
;
me
only later for this footnote reference) Pickering, in Nat. Mev. (1890), 15. 332.
The Geeat Minaket of Bukhara (From a photograph by Edward
[
To face page
36'\
G. Pease)
A FAMOUS ODE ON BUKHARA
37
So deeply touched was Amir Nasr, as the story goes, that without waiting to put on his riding-boots he leaped
upon the sentry-horse that stood saddled at the gate and never drew rein for eight miles, so that his boots had to be carried after him.
The
joyful courtiers and soldiers
joined in presenting to the successful poet a purse 'of
twice five thousand dinars.'
To the same Nasr
^
the Fortunate, as his royal patron,
are dedicated the few panegyrics that have
us from Rudagi.
many
come down
of such Persian courtly effusions, they show,
equal measure,
skill
courtly affection.^
why Nasr
to
Graceful, but not fulsome, as are so
and refined It is
taste, together
in
with true
understand
easy, therefore, to
should have bestowed upon his prot^g^ a gift
of 40,000 dirhams (about $7000) for complying with his
request for a poetical translation of the famous Indian
book,
'
The Fables
under the
of Bidpai.'
This rendering by Rudagi,
made from an
Kalilah and Dimnah, was
title
Arabic version of the Pahlavi translation of the Sanskrit original
which had been brought from India in the time
of the Sasanian
monarch Khusrau I (Anushirvan the
Just), in the sixth century of our era.^ This whole episode is given by Nizami Aruzi of Samarkand, op. cit. 1
pp. 31-33 tr. Browne in JRAS. 1899, pp. 757-761 (= reprint, pp. 51-55). ;
2
For text and a
translation of these
see Eth6,
kasidahs,
in
Gott.
Nach-
richten, pp. 678-696; together with a
literary appreciation
pp. 16-18 15.
by Darmesteter,
cf. also Pickering, Nat. Rev. 332-335; but Eth6 later, in Grujidr.
2. 220,
;
doubts their authenticity.
'
There
is
The
loss of this
a large mass of material
available regarding the original Sans-
Pancaand its ramifications through Persian and other literatures, a subject which belongs to the special stukrit collection of beast-fables,
tantra,
dent;
consult,
e.g.
J.
Hertel,
Das
Pancatantra, Leipzig, 1914 G. N. Keith-Falconer, Kalilah and Dimnah, ;
Cambridge, 1885; Lit. Hist.
1.
cf.
also
110, 275, 457.
Browne,
DAWN
RUDAGI, A HERALD OF THE
38
Persian rendering
deeply to be regretted, as only about
is
sixteen of its couplets have survived through chance quo-
an eleventh-century lexicographical work.^
tations in
He
Rudagi's poetic productivity was great. to
is
reputed
have composed a million and three hundred thousand ,
Literary
verses, epic rhapsodies
among
this fabled output Only
a scanty remnant (not
much more than
But
them.^
of
fourscore fragments, together
with other stray verses) has been preserved,* though they
him
are such in merit as to entitle
among the
poets
of
of a
be
illustrated, perhaps,
number
by
his songs
'
Omar
In the previously mentioned Per-
sian lexicon, Asadi's
Horn, pp. 18-21
;
LughaUi Furs, of.
also
Browne,
Lit. Hist. 1. 467, 474. 2
3
p.
677
Ethg, in
678-742,
Browne,
;
1.
456-457.
Nachrichten, pp. has gathered 52 fragments Gott.
later
available
in
Asadi's
Lughat-i Furs (ed. Horn), in which old
lexicon
Rudagi
'
close,
and
the also
Fitzgerald.
stanzas (see
fols.
6 r, 9
r,
11
27, 30, 32, 33, 35, 40, 42 r,
51
i,
61, 71
r,
21, 24,
43
r,
50,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; two being quatrains, 9
r.
See also Horn, op. cit. pp. 18and observe his remark on the
(the
most
oft
quoted poet) is cited 161 times. The majority of these quotations by Asadi are single rhymed distichs but among the number I have found 17 short ;
19,
couplets,
(making up 240 couplets in all), and to these should now be added the material
its
it is
11 r).
See references by Ethd, in Gott.
Nach.
Out
has been rendered into English by Professor
it
Cowell, the teacher of
ed.
re-
lyric vein
on wine.
being guided by the fact that
one best known, and striking for
'
he
of such fragments I select one for presenta-
tion, the choice
because
whom
from
century,
His masterly touch in the
ceived just praise.*
may
his
rank
to a foremost
p.
To these likewise number of other stanzas now available in
21.
should be added a
fragments in Shams ad-Din ibn Kais, al-Mu'Jam, ed. Mirza Muhammad, Gibb Memorial, 10 cf Index, p. 451. * For appreciations by Rudagi's con;
.
temporaries see references above, 35, u. 3
455
;
;
also cf.
and add
to
Browne,
them the estimate by
ICsa'i in Asadi, op.
Horn, p. 21).
p.
Lit. Hist. 1.
cit. fol.
8
i
(ed.
:
;
RUDAGI IN PRAISE OF WINE
39
A WINB SONG BY RUDAGI " Bring
me yon wine which
thou might'st
call
a melted ruby in
its
cup,
Or
a scimitar unsheathed, in
like
the
sun's
noon-tide
light
held up. 'Tis the rose-water,
thou might'st say, yea, thence
distilled for
purity
sweetness
Its
falls
as
sleep's
own balm
steals o'er the Tigil-
wearied eye.
Thou mightest
call the
cup the cloud, the wine the raindrop from
it cast,
Or say the joy comes at
Were
the heart whose prayer long looked-for
fills
last.
there no wine all hearts would be a desert waste, forlorn
and black. But were our bring if
that
it
last life-breath extinct, the sight of
wine would
back.
an eagle would but swoop, and bear the wine up to the sky. all the base, who would not shout 'Well
Far out of reach of done!' as I? "1
— Translation by Edward Byles A
dozen other
lyric
fragments might be added
Cowell.
— some-
times an elegy, sometimes a eulogy, sometimes a lover's plaint.^
No
how
portray the pangs of separation from the be-
to
one
knew
better than Eudagi, for example,
loved,
and the joys of reunion with the
Here
is
idol of his heart.
a rhapsody which I translate because
it
tells
the tale 1
For
this
rendering by the late
Professor Cowell,
see
Browne,
Lit.
1. 457-458; for the Persian text (with translation) see Eth6, pp. 722-
Hist.
723
;
cf . id.
pp. 14-15
Bev.
;
Die hofische
cf.
16. 335.
.
.
.
Poesie,
also Pickering, in Nat.
=
Translations
of
some
of
these
which I chapter, will be
lyric effusions, besides those
have rendered in this found in the articles, already referred
by Bth6, Darmesteter, Pickering, and in Pizzi, Storia della poesia persir
to,
««»)
1-
131-135.
;
;
!
!;
—
BUDAGI, A HERALD OF THE DAWIHT
40
KEUNION ATTEE SEPARATION FROM HIS BELOVED Of the pangs of separation I have suffered and borne more Than, through all the distant ages, any mortal being bore And my heart had quite forgotten all the charms of union S"weet But what joy 'tis after severance, with one's idol dear, to meet So I turned me back in gladness, back unto the camp and tent. Light ia spirits, and light-hearted, and my speech with lightness blent
For there came enthralled to meet me
A
— yet with bosom
all
unbraced
sweet maid with a cypress figure, tresses flowing to her waist.
How hath fared thy heart
'
me
without
?
'
'twas with coquetry she
said, *
Yea, and how thy soul without
me ?
did she add, while blushing red.
'
Then I spake and gave her answer,
'
thou face of heavenly birth,
My soul's
ruia, mischief-maker of all beauties
Snared
my
And
is
world in the
I
am
on
this earth
thy locks as amber sweet,
caught like a ball with the mall-bat through thy curving
'tis
^
ringlets neat
Deeply
circle of
filled
!
am
I with anguish
anguished by those
by those eyes which arrows
tresses,
dart,
which rich showers of musk
impart.
Where were night without
the
moonbeam ? where were day without
the sun?
Where
the rose that hath no water ? where the
mead
that raiu doth
shun?'
my bosom grew
Then
sweet through toying with her hyacinthiue
hair,
And my
lips
were sugared through kisses from that coral mouth so
fair;
Now was
she the ruby-buyer, and the ruby-seller I, While the nectarous wine she poured me, and I drained the goblet dry.2 1
The
ringlets are
compared
—
to the
curved head of a polo-stick a simile found elsewhere in Persian poetry. 2
For text
see Eth6, in G'dU.
Nach-
rkhten (1873),
rhyme
pp.
The
712-713.
in the original is
a 6
d/
7i,
Cf. also tr. Pickering, pp. 336-337.
etc.
:
;
:
RUDAGI EVER THE LOVER
With a
passionate love like Rudagi's, the
alone can bring relief to the heart,
merits God's benison.
:
41
which
kiss,
a divine boon that
is
So he whispers to his sweetheart
THE KISS AND GOD'S BENISON
my
Free
soul
With but
And
from pain and torment two or three
kisses
;
that gracious favor's guerdon
Allah's benison will be
Vain
limit
^ !
Rudagi gives the reason in rhythm
!
if
not
rhyme
in
KISSES BITTER-SWEET Kar-i busah chu ab khvardan shur
BiMivari besh tishnahtar 'Tis
with kisses as with drinking of water that
The more you drink the
A whimsical
thirstier still
you grow
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
for the Persians
!
^
he grew
old.*
is
have a quaint vein of
Somebody had twitted him on
his hair as
is salt,
quatrain by Rudagi in a humorous vein
worth translating humor.
gardi.
his vanity in dyeing
He promptly responds in a rubal
A QUATRAIN ON DYEING THE HAIR Not for this reason, black my hair I dye, To
new
look more young and vices
to try
People in time of grief don raiment black
my hair
I black 'Text, Bth6,
p.
742;
cf.
Darme-
steter, Origines, p. 20. ' 3
References as in preceding note. It is thought that the original re-
buke was made by Rudagi's contemporary,
Abu
Tahir Khusravani, who.
Kisa'i on the same subject, is mentioned in the next chapter (p.
I render (see text, Pizzi, Chr. p. 64; cf. also
Khusravani's jingling four lines
Pickering, pp. 821-822): count it that men in old
A wonder I age,
To dyeiag
their hair should be fain; dyeing they cannot 'scape dying
By
at
like
51).
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
in grief at old age nigh.'
all,
But give themselves trouble *
in vain
!
Text, Eth6, in Gott. Nach. p. 739.
;
!
DAWN
RUDAGI, A HERALD OF THE
42
Perhaps there was more in the
The lightheartedness
than we know. to have
last line of this quatrain
of
gone, especially after the loss
and admirer, the poet Shahid,
whom
youth seems
of
his
friend
he mourned in
touching verse; and Rudagi had apparently fallen on evil days.
Nasr, his royal patron, was dead
and poverty lent an added pang to the
942);
(d.
distress of ad-
The same cry which was uttered a
vancing years.
century earlier in Anglo-Saxon by the old English poet
Cynewulf, and has been echoed in the silence of the night by myriads since
life
began,
broke forth from
Rudagi' s soul in a lamentation over the fleeting joys of
youth and the sorrows of approaching decay.
which
of Rudagi' s, the opening lines of of
still
This elegy
show a
flash
grim humor in their realism, deserves to be rendered
in full, even
if
present-day taste would excise several of
the verses.
RUDAGI'S LAMENT IN OLD AGE Every tooth, ah me has crumbled, dropped and fallen in decay Tooth it was not, nay say rather, 'twas a brilliant lamp's bright ray Each was white and silvery-flashing, pearl and coral in the light, Glistening like the stars of morning or the raindrop sparkling bright Not a one remaineth to me, lost through weakness and decay. !
Whose
the fault ?
'
'Twas surely Saturn's planetary
rule,'
you
;
say.
No, the fault of Saturn 'twas not, nor the long, long lapse of days What then ? ' I will answer truly Providence which God dis;
'
:
'
plays.'
Ever
like to this the
world
is,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
ball of dust as in the past.
Ball of dust for aye remainiug, long as
its great law doth last. That same thing which once was healing, may become a source of
pain;
And
the thing that
now
is
painful, healing
balm may prove again
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
;
'
RVDAGI'S Time, ia
fact, at the
!
LAMENT IN OLD AGE
43
same moment bringeth age where once was
youth,
And anon rejuvenateth what was gone in eld, forsooth. Many a desert waste existeth where was once a garden glad And a garden glad existeth where was once a desert sad.
;
Ah, thou moon-faced, musky-tressed one, how canst thou
know
What was
e'er
deem
or
once thy poor slave's station,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how once held in high
esteem ?
On him now thy curling tresses, coquettish thou dost bestow, In those days thou didst not see him, when his own rich curls did Time
there
was when he
in gladness,
happy did himself
flow.
disport.
Pleasure in excess enjoying, though his silver store ran short
Always bought he in the market, coimtless-priced above the rest, Every captive Turki damsel with a round pomegranate breast. Ah how many a beauteous maiden, in whose heart love for him !
reigned.
Came by
night as pilgrim to him, and in secret there remained
Sparkling wine and eyes that ravish, and the face of beauty deep.
High-priced though they might be elsewhere, at
my
door were ever
cheap.
Always happy, never knew
And my Many a heart
what might be the touch
I
of pain,
heart to gladsome music opened like a wide champaign.
Yea, though
to silk
it
was softened by the magic of
were hard as
my
fliatstone, anvD-hard, or
verse.
even worse.
Ever was my keen eye open for a maid's curled tresses long, Ever alert my ear to listen to the word-wise man of song.*
House I had
not, wife nor children, no, nor female family-ties,
Free from these and unencumbered have I been in every wise. Kudagi's sad plight in old age, Sage, thou verily dost see
In those days thou didst not see him as
this
;
wretch of low degree.
In those days thou didst not see him when he roved the wide world o'er. Songs enditing, chattiag 1
There
is
gaily,
an allusion to the minstrel
or poet in mardunv-i sukhurirddn,
man who knows the '
with a thousand tales and more.^
'
the
value of words.
Darmesteter, p. 25, sees in the
words hazdr dastdn a reference by Rudagi to his Kalllah and Dimnah, which was one of the sources of the taxnovis Thousand and one Nights.'' ^
;
RUDAGI, A HERALD OF
44 Time
when
there was
'
;
THE'dAWN
that his verses broadcast through the whole
world ran,
when he
Time
there was
Who
had greatness ?
I
it
all-hailed was, as the
Who
had
Saman
was, had favor, greatness, from the
own Amir,
Khurasan's
bard of Khurasan.
favor, of all people in the land ? scions'
hand
Nasr, forty thousand dirhams gave,
And a fifth to this was added by the Prince of the Pure and Brave From his nobles, widely scattered, came a sixty thousand more Those the times when mine was fortune, fortune good in plenteous ;
store.
Now
the times have changed,
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and
changed and altered
I, too,
must succumb. Bring the beggar's
come
Thus
!
stafE
here to
me; time
for staff
The
life.
strings
of
his
follow to catch up the lost strains once
the silenced chords again This line
der
and
is
a
of. n.
1) renders
Frommenseelenfiirsten
ziihlte
einen
mehr
'
;
it,
'
Und
Vierzahl
similarly
final
were
would
more and sweep
?
Eth6
difficult one.
lute
Who
hushed, the echoes of his voice were stiUed.
1
scrip has
shadows and deep sorrow closed the
in dark
days of Rudagi's
(p. 702,
and
^
also
Pickering, p. 338, and cf n. 5. This rendering implies that by his generosity .
Nasr became 'a fifth Caliph,' i.e. on an equality with the first four Caliphs of Islam. But the interpretation seems
strained.
I prefer to regard the allusion
as being to
some one
of the
Caliphs of Rudagi's time.
main, Pizzi, Storia, 1. 134. ^ For text, Eth6, pp.
Abbasid
So, in the
696-699
;
Chr., pp. 59-61; cf. tr. Pizzi, Pickering, pp. Storia, 1. 133-134;
Pizzi,
337-338. etc.
Original
monorhyme abd,
(Pers. -an ftSd throughout).
CHAPTER V SNATCHES OF MINSTREL SONG PROM THE LATER SAMANID PERIOD TO THE ERA OF MAHMUD OP GHAZNAH (The Latter Half '
Hushed
is
of the
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Scott,
RuDAGi was of
singers
now
Tenth Century i.n.)
the harp â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the minstrel gone.'
The Lay of the Last Minstrel,
in his grave; silent
minstrelsy never dies.
5. 31. 13.
he had joined the choir
in the tomb.
But the voice
The far-famed dynasty
of
of
the
Samanids, in their capital at Bukhara, continued to foster the art of song
down
to the very close of their rule at
the end of the tenth century, and handed
it
on as a
treasured heritage to their successors at the Ghaznavid
Court in the eleventh century of our
era.
Thus
to the
patron-favor of the last Samanid princes and to the
hopes kindled by the rising sun of
Mahmud
new
of Ghaznah's
power, most of the minstrels of those days owed inspiration for their song.
The
verses of the bards
whose poetry
rainbow-arch that spanned
later
this
lent tints to the
Samanid
period,
varied in hue and shade; but the prismatic colors can all
be
made out undimmed down
Mahmud
of
Ghaznah
mounted the
throne.
(a city
still
to the bright era
when
existing ia Afghanistan)
This famous conqueror's seat was 46
SNATCHES OF MINSTREL SONG
46
near that bag of gold which
is
fabled to be found at the
rainbow's base; and, being somewhat of a poet himself,
he joined in doling out the aureate metal to encourage minstrelsy, especially to praises in
those
bards
who chanted
his
glowing verse.
Among
those whose poetry spanned this period was
Abu Ishak
(or Abu'l-Hasan) of Kisa'i,'
â&#x20AC;&#x17E;. ,. Kisa 1,
Sufi.
grave and
Man
'the
donning in
Latter Part of
Merv, better known as
of
the
later life the dervish
Kisa'i
had in
his
from
Cloak,' '
his
garb of the
voice
tones
both
gay, which served to liak the straias of the
passing age with the newer music of the coming
His death
era.^
generally supposed to have occurred about
is
the year 1002 or 1003 A.D., but there are grounds
now
for believing that he outlived considerably the elegiac plaint to which he gave utterance
in a poem, written
about this time, on reaching the half century in
life's
run,
as referred to below.^
Whatever may have been the date
of Kisa'i's death,
flowers should have been planted on his grave, because, like Keats,
A
he had for flowers the true love of a poet.
stanza that survives from his pen would suffice to prove this.
They
are lines on the blue lotus or water-Uly of the
Nile.
Who
can say whether
Kisa'i's
may
wanderings
not
have led him in fact as well as in fancy to the borders of 1
A
number
of
the
poetic
frag-
Asadi (ed. Horn,
of. p.
36r, and
27) including
60r
have been preserved by Aufi, Lubdb (ed. Browne), 2. 33-
Ukewise Shams ibn Kais,
over sixty single verses of Kisa'i, moreover, are separately quoted by
(Gibb Mem. 10), p. 272. ^ gee p. 49 below and on the
ments 39
:
of Kisa'i
acouplet,
fol.
cf.
;
60,
;
see
al-Mu'jam
:;
KISA'I
Egypt's stream
AND
:
; !
HIS LOVE OF FLOWERS
47
I render the lines, at all events, as
?
an
mood
expression of his poetic
THE BLUE LOTUS OF THE NILE The azure
water-lily see, amidst the waters blue,
now
]Srow like a burnished gleamiag sword,
tinged with sapphire
hue; Color like heaven, and like the heaven, as radiantly bright,
But cup all yellow, as is the moon a fortnight old in light Yet like a sallow pious monk during a full year's fast Weariag from head to foot blue robes, with merit pure amassed.i
Nor again could any minstrel sing the beauty rose in verses late, for
that
more quaint than those which
many
they seem to rival
came from the bards
of that queen of flowers
of the
I next trans-
a later longer rhapsody
of Shiraz chanting the
when every
petal
charms
was abloom.
THE ROSE
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
rose a rich gift, angel-brought from Paradise In midst of rose-delights, man's soul more noble grows.
The
Ah, rose-seller Or what for
!
How
silver
canst the rose for silver
question of the date of Kisa'i's death, consult Bth6, Neupersische Litteratur,
Kuhn, Grundriss, 2. 281 Browne, Lit. Hist. 2. 161. Ethfi, Die Text, Aufi, 2. 35
in Geiger and
and 1
see
;
d.
bayer.
Akad. Wiss. zu Munchen, 1874,
p. 144.
Lieder des Kisai, in Sitzb.
sell.
buy more precious than the
The rhyme in the original Persian is b df; and the image in the last two lines might be more literally rendered 'As the wayfaring monk, whose two cheeks are sallow [through fasting] a year and a month, Has made his upper and lower garment of blue stuff.' For another translation into English consult Pickering, The Last Singers
rose ?
^
of Bukhara, in National Review, 15. London, 1890. Throughout the present chapter I have enjoyed the advantage of consulting Dr. Pickering's essay, which, though published long ago, and based on Eth6 and Darmesteter, was not accessible to me 818,
before. 2
j-or the Persian text see
Aufi (ed.
Browne), 2.35-36; also Eth6, Sitzb. d. bayer. Akad. 1874, p. 145, and Cf. also Browne, Pizzi, Chr. p. 63. ; Pickering, p. 818 ; 46; Horn, Gesch. d.
Lit. Hist. 2. 164
Darmesteter,
p.
pers. Litteratur, p. 77, Leipzig, 1901.
';
:
SNATCHES OF MINSTREL SONG
48
To every reader
by Kisa'i there
of that stanza
will in-
Omar Khayyam's tone, Omar expresses
voluntarily recur a later reminiscence in
when, in quite a different
lines,
marvel regarding the wine-sellers of Nishapur I
wonder only what the vintners buy
One It
is
half so precious as the stuff they
sell.^
not surprising, therefore, that so refined a literary
critic of
Persian poetry as the French scholar Darmesteter
should add
:
'If
the rose had had to choose between these
fom: pretty verses of Kisa'i and the interminable dithy-
rambs
of Hafiz, I believe that she
out hesitation to Hafiz
:
note of the nightingale than Light-hearted in
would have said with-
" The rose loves better a single all
its spirit is
the gardener's songs.'"
^
the following musical mes-
sage which Kisa'i caught from the carol of a bird.
THE BIRD'S MESSAGE Yon
caroling little bird a singer
is,
Giving a message like a lover to his love
What
sings
he?
Sings,
'
Take thou thy sweetheart's hand and
In
still
another vein
brief eulogy lauding the
;
Beloved, the night hath flown,
— that
in the garden rove.'
of the
panegyric
new monarch Mahmud
—
is
a
of Ghaz-
nah, sovereign lord of Afghanistan, whose succession to the throne marked the year 998 A.D., and the sweep of
whose conquering sword soon brought under a large part of Persia and
much
of
his
sway
Northwestern India.
Sad though Kisa'i may have been at the setting sun of 1
So likewise, Browne,
'
Darmesteter, Les Origines,
»
For the text
Sitzb. 1874, p.
2. 164.
see Aufi, 2. 36
p. 46. ;
Eth6,
and
cf .
148
;
Pizzi, Chr. p.
Pickering, p. 820.
64
!
;
:
VERSES GRAVE AND GAY
may
the Samanid rule, he
49
nevertheless have felt glad, like
other poets of the hour, at the
dawn
of the rising
Ghaznah
Doubtless for that reason he hailed the upshoot of
day. its
;
beams
somewhat extravagant
in these
lines, praising
the newly enthroned monarch (as translated by Pickering)
MAHMUD OF GHAZNAH
TO
SMh, we
"
may
call thy hand a jewel mine, For thence thou scatterest gems in never-ceasing shower Though Grod hath made thy soul of bounty and noblesse, How, when that soul is spent, to breathe hast yet the power ? "
well
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Translation by C. But fulsome an
praise
J. Pickering.^
and bombast were the fashion
of such
horn"
On
reaching his
and debonair in
blithe
In a long kasidah-laraent he
sombre note.
been
gave place to a
verse
Kisa'i's
may have
that
fiftieth year, all
tells
mourn-
bards before and after him, of the lost joys of
fully, like
youth, and recalls in sadness the
years over which he
fifty
looked backward only with regret to the day when
he saw the
light, that date
March
953
16,
a.d.^
first
being equivalent to Wednesday,
These despondent verses were com-
posed, according to Aufi, the earliest biographer of the
Persian poets,
'
at the end of his
and the hour of departure.'
^
life,
If,
the time of farewell,
however, as more mod-
ern scholars have reason to believe, he lived long past the 1
15.
See Pickering, in National Review, 818
;
and for the
Aufl, 2. 34
;
EtM,
original text,
in Sitzb. d. bayer.
Akad. 1874, p. 142. 2 For the original text of and see Aufi, 2. 38-39 ;
Ohr. pp. 62-63
;
135-136
and
;
Browne,
2.
;
Pickering, p. 819;
Pizzi, Storia, 1. 135. '
Aufi, Lubab, ed.
Browne,
this lament
and
also Pizzi,
see p. 163)
Eth6, Sitzb. 1874, pp.
a translation see
for
163-164
cf.
;
Browne,
2.
38
Lit. Hist. 2. 161 (but
Pickering, p. 819.
:
SNATCHES OF MINSTREL SONG
50
age of
fifty,
may have
it
death's grim visage
view, that
his
which
with
robe
dervish
in
been at this moment, with
name Kisa'l has ever Hindu Yogi, gave himself
his
been associated, and, like a
up
to the ascetic
he donned the
calmly awaiting release through
life,
death.^
There
is
much
so
that
human
is
in such personal ex-
pressions that our hearts cannot but sympathize with a
melancholy touch in some of the fragmentary Ehusravani
verses of another
'the Royal,'
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
title
was
his full
Samanid poet. Khusravani,
pseudonym
his
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; perhaps
a lamreate
name being Abu Tahir bin Muhammad.
To
this
or,
according to another reading, at-tayyib, 'the sweet.'
was attached the cognomen
we had more than that have come down If
at-tahlb,
'
physician,'
the four or five poetic specimens
we might
to us,
find a brighter
tinge, as there are reasons for believing that his
possessed
it.^
But here
is
one in the sombre tone
those that have been preserved.
Fallen into dire
poems
among illness,
it
seems, Khusravani vents his spleen against four sorts
of
men who
bring
him not an atom
physicians, priests, astrologers,
Eor me
of comfort, namely,
and charm-mongers.
FOUR SORTS OF USELESS MEN men as types of weakness
four sorts of
stand,
Since not a whit of help comes from the four 1
This latter 163,
2.
is
the view of Browne,
following
the deductions of
Ethfe, in Sitzb. 1874, pp. 133-153. 2
For the text and a German
trans-
lation of these fragments see Eth6, in Sitzb. 1873, pp. 654-658.
There are
some twenty-five single-line quotations from Khusravani in Asadi, Lughat-i Furs (ed. Horn, of. p. 23), but the only rhyming hues I note are f ol. 17 r, 21
r.
!
;
;
!
KHUSRAVANI AND ABU NASR The leech, the priest, With drug, prayer,
star-wizard,
and the
51
sorcerer,
horoscope, and with spell-lore.'
In another four lines Khusravani bemoans,
and
coming
Kisa'i, the
dyeing the whitening locks, because of
been translated above
its
futility in
That particular stanza has
41, n. 3), but there
(p.
Rudagi
and inveighs against
of gray hair,
avoiding the advance of age.^
like
is
a special
reason for quoting here two other lines of Khusravani on
vanished youth, because they are immortalized in an elegiac plaint
by Firdausi, who, when looking back over what
seemed to be
lost
work
more than
of
Shah-namah, and disappointed in
upon the
sixty years
his hopes, cried out in
anguish of heart that Khusravani had once truly
My youth Alas for
I recall
my
youth
or as the original runs
from the days of my childhood Ah, alas, for my youth !
:
Juvdm man
az hudaki yad
much
is
of the
AbuNasrof
The lament
once more
'
Alas
of this seemingly lost soul
The
!
'
lines,
which
in the
sad
Gila n, a native
province southwest of the Caspian
of that
is
'
same minor chord
verses of another minstrel,
Sea.
daram;
Darigha juvani
Darigha juvani !
There
said,
AbuNasr ^^^^ 째*
I here versify, tell
only of the past joys of youth that are vainly recalled, never to return. 1
Chr.
and
Pizzi, see Attfl, 2. 20 Eth6, Sitzb. 1873, p. 656 Darmesteter, p. 34; Pick-
For text p.
64
;
cf. tr.
;
ering, p. 821. 2
64
;
The
verses of
Firdausi's plaint,
Khusravani's
tr.
Sitzb. 1873, p. 658
Pickering, p. 821
see ahove, p. 41, n. 3.
;
;
and
are
verse,
cf. quoted by Aufi, Lubdb, 2. 33 Eth6, Sitzb. 1872, p. 299 also Pizzi, Chr. pp. 64, 65 and Browne, 2. 147. ;
;
For text, Bth6,
Pizzi, p.
3
-which cite
;
SNATCHES OF MINSTREL SONG
52
MEMORY OF YOUTH Like a cloud in spring or wind in autumn blown,
My youthful Here have
Body
my
days from out
how
I sat,
oft, in
hand have flown. happy days,
ruddy grown. Ear never free from minstrels' roundelays, Nor hand without the Magian wiue-cup known.i Thus to youth's memories back my heart now strays, '
Alas
relaxed, heart glad, cheek
my
youth
Some fragments
!
my
of
youth alas
!
'
I moan.^
other minstrels of
the
Samanid
Bukharan court have been preserved, but
period and the
they are likewise only disjecta membra, and there
is
space
here merely to say something about two of their number,
although simply snatches of their verses have come
The one
to us.^
U mar ah
of these
Merv
of
is
Umarah, the other is Muntasir.
flourished in the latter part of the
Mahmud of Ghaznah, He is reported to have
tenth century and in the time of Umarah
whom
of
"'^
he eulogizes.*
been an astronomer of high repute (therefore
Omar Khayyam), but it is not through name is known it is through the frag-
a forerunner of science that his 1
;
The Magians were
tolerant in re-
gard to the temperate use of wine, which was forbidden by Muhammadan law.
Cf. below, p. 62, u. 1.
For text see Eth6, in Sitzb. 658, and cf. id. in Grundr. d. 2
p.
Philol. 2. 223 note ing,
p.
822
;
;
cf.
Pizzi,
1873, iran.
also tr. Picker-
Storia, p.
130.
The monorhyme in the original Persian is
down
a 6 d/ ft. 'Fragments
of some of the poets alluded to, like Faralavi, Abu'l- Abbas,
Ma'navi of Bukhara, Abu'l-Masal, Zarra'ah of Gurgan, Baunaki, Muvay-
yad, Abu'1-Fath, are fo\md in Aufi
and
cited
by
Ethfi,
Browne, and Pickfrom
ering,
besides chance citations
others
by Asadi,
etc.
A
new mono-
graph on this entire subject would be worth while. * Cf. Aufi, 2. 24 Eth6, in Morg. Forsch. p. 64 Pickering, pp. 686, 686. ;
;
I
am
not sure on what authority
Horn
(Asadi, Lughat, p. 24) gives the year 'a.h. 360' (=970-971 a.d.) as the
date of Umarah's death; the state-
ment
of
lived
till
Aufi, 2. 24,
implies that he
Ghaznavid times.
;
:
!
UMABAH OF MERV ments of
his verses,
and a vein
53
some of which have a madrigal turn
A number of these
of real imagination.
poetic
snatches of song have been preserved from oblivion through
having been quoted, seven centuries ago, by Aufi, in the earliest extant
biography of Persian
It is
poets.^
from
that source that some of the specimens are here translated. This, for instance, to his sweetheart might serve as a proto-
type for a modern love-missive sent on
A VEESE TO
HIS
Day
SWEETHEART
my
I should like to be one of
Slyly hidden
St. Valentine's
words,
among them
in bliss,
So when thou would'st sing it I might Imprint on thy sweet lip a kiss.'
The poet
story goes that in after days the renowned mystic
Abu
lines,
who and when he Sa'id,
is
mentioned below, once heard these
learned that they were by Umarah,
he said to a group of his visitation to his grave.'
Here
is
disciples,
'
Arise, let us
make a
*
a quatrain which shows that
Umarah had no
scruples about indulging in the juice of the grape.
THE WINE-CUP See in
my
silvern idol's
hand the wine,
Thou'dst say the sun and moon together shine
That cup on which the wine
its
Is a white rose-leaf joined with a
Again the wine-cup gives 1
See Aufi,
Browne,
2.
Lubab
24-26;
Forseh. pp. 63-68. (cf . ed.
Horn,
al-Albdb,
"
InAaadi'sLughat
57 1.
from Umarah, but no
stanzas.
^ *
66
Cf. Eth^, p. 64
;
;
Pickering, p. 686
130
p. 24) there are refer-
ences to some forty single-line quotations
;
casts
tulip fine.*
a pretty conceit
rise to
ed.
Eth6, in Morg.
shadow
;
id.
Darmesteter, ;
p.
Pizzi, Storia,
Chr. p. 59.
For references see note 2. For text see Aufi, 2. 25 Eth6, ;
Pizzi, Chr. p. 59.
p.
;
;
:
SNATCHES OF MINSTREL SONG
54
AND WATER COMMINGLE
FIRE
marvelous — water and
Hast ever seen —
fire
!
combine ?
Just cast thine eye upon this cup and then upon the wine,
Cup
crystal clear
—
all
red the wine, within this goblet single;
Acknowledge now, thou hast beheld water and
Graver in tone
is
this stanza,
and
fire
commingle.^
fitting in its applica-
tion to the old adage that pride goes before destruction in
world
this fickle
BEWARE OF PRIDE Be thou not proud
e'en
though the world hath chanced to make thee
great
Many
The charmer
The
The
on
known
from
falling
fight
2
In the original
rhyme (6d),
Browne, 3
It
Day and
2.
1.
better
is
dynasty which was
seems odd to think that this life
was spent
in flight
night he was on horseback, and
Persian of tMs
also Pickering, p. 823, both give the
and fourth
endof the year 1004 a.d.; the difference depends simply upon the question in which part of the Muhammadan month Rabi I, 395 a.h., the event occurred
cf.
Aufl, 2. 26;
p. 66.
Aufi,
decadent throne
strove in vain to hold
effete
most of whose
'
stanza only the second Eth^,
now
(dar gunkhtan u avikhtan), should have been
'
a poet besides.^
verses
Muntasir,
his grasp.^
youthful warrior,
1
as
head the crown of the
his
and
last heir to the
Bukhara, Abu Ibrahim Ismail, who
of
1005A.D.
Samanids died with a song upon a
of the
line
Muntasir,
the world brings swift to low estate.
— a charmer he, who seeks in his power to bring
ofttimes from the snake receives a mortal sting.^
prince's lips.
d.
whom
the great ones
This world's a snake,
25
;
and
of.
Ethfi, p. 65
;
467.
(cf.
See Eth6, in Grundr.
2.
222
;
id.
Die hdjische Poesie, p. 24, in both of which places the date of Muntasir's death is given as 1005 a.d., .
while Horn, in
.
.
Grundr.
2. 562,
and
Mustaufl, Ta'rtkh-i Guzldah,
tr.
Browne, in Gibb Mem. 14. 2, p. 78). * So Aufi 1. 298 (ed. Brovrae), and cf. Browne, Lit. Sist. 1. 468 Picker;
ing, p. 823.
; '
:
MUNTASIB, THE WARRIOR-POET must have formed a picturesque
55
figure clad in a cloak of
coarse white cloth, which seems to have served alike as a
an inspiration
protecting mail and
who
lowers
to the devoted
fol-
attended him in the guerilla warfare which
he maintained against inroading Tatar bands from be-
yond the Oxus
On
power.
as well as against the rising
Ghaznavid
one occasion, relates Aufi, the early
thir-
teenth century biographer of Persian poets, a group of his
companions, faithful amid the vicissitudes of fortune and
him
misfortune, asked
deck thyself out in
of royalty
may,
at this
'
The
^
regal
moment,
dost thou not
and beguile thyself with
fine robes
among
instruments of music, which are ?
why
King,
'
:
the outward signs
scion of the
Samanid House
have reined in his steed and grasped
a pen from the kalamdan-ho^ of one of his scribes, but at
any
came from
rate there
his lips a stern rebuke in verse
THE WARRIOE-POET They say
to me,
*
Wliy not adopt a face
A house adorned with Can
I,
carpets rare,
'midst warriors' shouts and
merry
of
cheer,
many hues bedecked ?
with
cries,
the voice of minstrels
hear?
Can
I,
What
When
'midst chargiug steeds iu fight, the rose-bower sweet elect ? place can be for the gush of wine and Saki's luscious
lips.
blood must gush in streams by which the corselet mail
is
flecked ?
My
steed and arms the banquet-hall and rose-garth far eclipse
For lance and bow, the 1
Cf.
Browne,
1.
468
;
tulip fair
Pickering, p.
823. "
and lUy I
â&#x20AC;˘
rhyme of the For the text see Eth6,
I have followed the
original, 6
d/ ft.
Sitzb. 1874, pp.
150-151
;
Pizzi,
Chr.
64
p. .
53
â&#x20AC;˘
;
;
reject
cf.
also
!*
tr.
Poesie, p. 24
Pickering, p.
;
Eth6, Die hofische
Darmesteter, pp. 52823 Browne, 1. 469
Pizzi, /Storia, 1. 136.
;
;
SNATCHES OF MINSTREL SONG
56
The end
of Muntasir's romantic career
was treacherously murdered, with
whom
lord Ilak
Khan, but he had
poetic traditions of the
The glory brilliantly
in 1005,
he had taken refuge in
of the
was
He
tragic.
by an outlaw band from the Tatar
flight
lived true to the heroic
House
and
Saman.^
of
Samanid sun which had shone
so
during the tenth century, especially at the
Bukhara, did not
capital city of
set
some
inspiration to other singers,
without having given of
whose voices
still
continued to be heard ia the early part of the Ghaznavid
The names,
period.
in fact, of several of the minstrels
mentioned in this chapter belong in part to that Then, too, while
as well.^
later era
true that the literary
it is
supremacy of the Samanids, which lasted down to about
1000
A.D.,
was paramount
in Northeastern Persia
and
in
Transoxiana, poetry was not confined to these realms
The
alone.
poetic
was
art
cultivated Hkewise
at
the
Dailamite court of the House of Buwaih, which, during
a large part of the century, dominated the southern and
A
Buwaihid ^°^^
Southwestern provinces, with power reaching
even as far as Baghdad.^
A
example, by a Buwaihid poet,
Mantiki
ing his patron
(936-995
Sahib Ismail
panegyric, for
of Rai, eulogiz-
who was
a.d.),
minister under two successive Buwaihid rulers and himself
the author of an Arabic dictionary, has been pre-
served. 1
On
It is fantastic
the date
'
1005,'
enough in
see p. 54,
n. 3. »
its
though the chapter
So,
for
example,
Kisa'l
Umarah, and possibly Aghaohi,
and al-
»
Cf.
exaggerated hyperlatter
has beeu treated in
3.
Browne,
364, 365, 367, 374
Lit. ;
Hist.
2. 93.
1.
360,
:
A PANEGYRIC BY MANTIKI bole,
but
is
57
not without imagination, as shown by Professor
E. G. Browne's rendering
A PANEGYRIC "
Methinks the Moon of Heav'n
is
stricken sore,
And nightly grieveth as it wasteth What late appeared a great, round,
Now like
more. silver shield,
a mall-bat â&#x20AC;˘ enters heaven's
field.
The
Sahib's horse,
And
cast one golden horse-shoe in the sky."
you 'd think, had galloped by.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Translation by Edward Not only the Buwaihids but House
G.
Browned
the enlightened
also
of the Ziyarids in the Caspian province of Tabar-
istan (corresponding to the
modern Gilan and
x^e ziyands as Patrons
Mazandaran, south of the Caspian Sea) encouraged literary and learned men.
One
of these rulers
was the Ziyarid
prince,
Kabus, who, besides being a gen-
erous patron of
letters,
composed some poems himself.^
But among tection
is
the pro-
which he gave to the famous physician,
losopher,
known
renown as a patron
his titles to
and
poet,
so well to
Ibn Sina,
he was a young man, led to his capital at
Avicenna, as he is West, who was bom
or
Europe and the
near Bukhara in 980 a.d.
phi-
Avicenna's fame, even while
Mahmud
Ghaznah
to seek to bring
him
as one of the great lights of
the time, but he fled from the monarch's bidding and at last found refuge at the court of Kabus, where he
was long hospitably (1037 1
A
A.D.) at
Hamadan,
resemblance
the crescent of the
is
in
seen between
moon and
curved head of a polo-stick.
and
entertained,
the
which "
city his
Browne,
1.
he
later
tomb may 463
;
and
374, 453. '
Cf.
Browne,
1.
469-471.
cf.
died still id.
1.
58
SNATCHES OF MINSTREL SONG
be visited^
A
consideration of the
poems
left
by
this
far-famed scholar, however, as well as of the quatrainverses of his
Abu
contemporary and friend
noted mystic poet (967-1049),
is
reserved for another
volume according to the plan adopted in
Yet a
Sa'id, the
this series.^
special chapter, the following, belongs to
other poet, whose the Samanid period
name adds ;
it is
lustre to the latter half of
the renowned
Dakiki, the
runner of Firdausi in the realm of Epic Poetry. has
left
more than snatches
of song,
worthy pioneer of Firdausi that we 1
2
one
and
shall
it
is
Dakiki to this
next turn.
See Jackson, Persia Past and Present, pp. 165-167. See Preface, p. vii.
fore-
CHAPTER VI DAKIKI (In the Latter Half of the Tenth Century a.d.) '
The herald
that dropped dead in announcing the victory, in
whose
fruits
he was not to share.'
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Lowell, Lecture on Marlowe, in Old English Dramatists, A
YOUTH, generally known as Dakiki, whose
like Marlowe's, all
fire,
The
lover's
lute
woman, and song were renown
kiki' s
pulses,
were aflame, and whose raptures were
received the coveted gift from the
Muses.
p. 54.
rests
was
his
;
DakUd *'**
wine,
Yet Da-
his favorite themes.
rather on
^°Ž*
the fact that the
few
bugle notes which he had just begun to sound in epic
made him the herald of Firdausi. Almost at very moment when he had given the call, an assas-
poetry the
sin's
dagger cut short his
life
at
an early age,
in
the
latter quarter of the tenth century of our era.
Dakiki's
home
is
commonly thought
to
have been
Tus, the native place of his great successor Firdausi,
though some sources allow Bukhara
and
Samarkand
likewise to share in the claim of having nurtured his genius.^
In any event he was, like the other early poets,
a child of Eastern Iran; and this fact that 1
some
is
borne out by the
of the fragments of his verse are stanzas
Noldeke, Das iranische Nationalepos, in Grundriss der iranischen Phir
lologie, 2. 147-150.
69
:
;
DAKIKI
60
two
in praise of
(961-976
the last Samanid rulers, Mansur I (976-997).i his son Nuh II
of
and
A.D.)
This latter statement seems to be correct from the fact that Mustaufi (1330 a.d.) expressly says that
was 'the contemporary (976-997), and
(II)
in accordance with the accepted
is
Nuh
that
tradition
it
Amir Nuh
of
II
assigned
him the task
to
may
it
of
In view
writiag the national legend of Iran in verse. ^ of this
Dakiki
the Samanid'
be inferred that Dakiki lived beyond the
year 975 a.d., which has been assigned for his death,
although he
may have met and
verses, panegyric
deservedly merits the
The
end early in Nuh's
regard to his poetical name,
With
which
his
form of
full
his
Muhammad
Mansur
From
Dakiki, or
designation
literary
bin
real
he
'
the
Subtle,'
by
commonly known.
is
Abu
name, however, was
Ahmad, which preceded
it.
the last stanza of one of Dakiki's impassioned
odes, in which, after Persian fashion, title,
well turned that he
lyric, are so title
Dakiki's
of
all
reign.^
we may
charmed
he inserts his literary
gain some insight into the delights that most After chanting the beauties of spring,
his heart.
he concludes this
Ijo-ical
effusion with these four lines
DAKIKI'S CHOICE
Of
all
things good and evil in the world,
Dakiki's choice
is
given to these four
1 Cf. Browne, Lit. Hist. 1. 461 Noldeke, in Grundr. 2. 147. 2 See Mustaufi, Ta'nkh-i Guzldah, tr. (
Browne, in
= reprint,
Mem.
14.
1,
p.
JRAS. 30)
;
p. 818;
id. tr.
1900, ed.
p.
in
14. 2, p.
;
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
and Khvashgu's Safmah, referred to by Eth6 In Morg. Forsch. p. 57. Cf. also Pickering, in Nat.
750
Gibb 224
:
3
Bev. 15. 683.
There seems to be a
slight incon-
sistency in the statements of 1.
372
;
2.
116
;
and
1.
Browne,
123, 460-461.
:
;
;
!
DAKIKI THE POET
61
The ruby lip, the lute's sad melody, The blood-red wine, and Zoroaster's lore.*
Even
the allusion to the religion of Zoroaster need
if
not be taken too seriously, although there are reasons for taking
somewhat
it
seriously,
we have
proof
sufficient
of Dakiki's fondness for music in the melody of his verse
and no better evidence
ruby
of his devotion to
lips
need
be given than to cite the following lines in praise of one of his loves
TO HIS BELOVED
Would in this world there were no night, Then from her lips there were no flight
No
scorpion's sting were Lq
If that her tresses
made no
my
heart.
smart.^
Did 'neath her lip no star-dent dimple play. The stars were not my comrades till the day.' Were she not moulded from all good above, My soul would not be moulded of her love And must I ever live sans my sweetheart. Then God, I pray, let life from me depart * !
"With a spirit like Dakiki's that courted maidens and minstrelsy,
the joyous hour for wine, as the third of
his delights, especially 1
For a
full
Eth6, in Morg.
on a moonlight evening, could
text of this ode see
Forsch.
pp. 58-59
;
Pizzi, Chr. p. 58. * In Persian poetry the dark curled ends of the beloved's locks are often likened, because of their shape, to the
sting of a scorpion.
a subtle turn in the repetition here of the Persian word kaukab, star,' which is used first in a metaphorical sense as ' dimple in '
There '
is
the chin,' and secondly in the image of
'
counting the
stars,'
a rhetorical
expression for sleeplessness. <
The rhyme
in the original
is
a 6
have varied my meter from For the text see Aufi, 2. 12; choice. Eth6 in Morg. Forsch. p. 60 Pizzi, cf. also tr. Browne, 1. Chr. p. 58
dfhj;
I
;
;
461-462
;
Pickering,
Storia, 1. 129.
p.
684
;
Pizzi,
DAKIKI
62
His fondness for the juice of the
not pass by unheeded.
made him more
grape, no doubt,
of a Zoroastrian than his
heart, for that ancient faith allowed a temperate use of
Kuran
wine, which the stern mandates of the
forbade.^
Dakiki in any event seems to have freed his conscience
from
all
of his lyrics
nodded
we may judge by one which Ben Jonson would have
qualms in such matters,
on wine, to
Thus
assent.
if
to his. cup-bearer he gayly sings
:
THE WINE CUP AND A MOONLIGHT EVENING Ah, bring me the wine cup, fair Idol, For bright
is
the world, full of sheen.
From up where the Moon now is shining. To yonder where Pisces is seen.
When
out from thy bower thou comest,
Forth into this desert so drear,
Wherever thy glance thou bestowest Doth soft as Byzance silk appear. Come, quaff we the wine cup together, And let us be merry and gay, For now is the time for wine-bibbing, The time of the glad holiday .^
Some
sixteen or eighteen fragments of
Dakiki's lyric
poems have been preserved, numbering not much over a hundred lines in all but these fragments show delicacy ;
of feeling â&#x20AC;˘
and genuine imagination.^
See above, pp. 29, 34, 39, 52
n. 1
;
and consult Jivanji Jamshedji Modi, Wine amongst the Ancient Persians, pp. 1-16, Bombay, 1888 (Gazette Steam
^â&#x201E;˘^)2
Text,
Eth^,
in
Morg. Forsch.
P- ^^'
The fragments in by Browne,
as noted
Yet there
one
is
460-461, are, 10 with 27 couplets 1
is
with
tional)
ad-Din
,
2
couplets
Ethfe
;
3 with 13 couplets
;
;
2.7
(addi-
and Shams
al-Mu'jam, p. 255 gives 2 fragments with 5 couplets; of.
b.
Kais,
also id.
p.
Add
444.
also
two
fragmentary stanzas in Asadi, LughatAufi, Lit.
Lubab, Hist.
1.
i
Furs,
tols.
59
r,
60,
sixty single-line citations.
among some
'
;
THE LYRIC AND EPIC VEIN OF DAKIKI stanza, a quatrain in form, which,
almost Marlowesque in
and
is
63
really Dakiki's, is
if
attitude towards resignation,
its
well-nigh blasphemous,
if
alluding to God.^
Dar-
mesteter was somewhat fanciful in suggesting that the lines
were gasped out by Dakiki amid his sufferings on
when
that night
But the quatrain
the assassin's fatal steel pierced his side.^ in
any case
is
worth quoting.
HAVE PATIENCE '
Patience,' they say,
'
that
He His
Show, yes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but in another This whole
life I
It needs a next to
life,
patience
show
!
I trow.
with patience have endured
show His
patience, though.^
Dakiki's right to fame, however, as has already been
upon the
intimated, rests
basis of his epic genius, the
promise of which he showed in a remarkable degree. All too scanty as was the opportunity that was allowed
him
name
in the realm of heroic poetry, his
pioneer in this branch of composition.
stands as a
was wait-
Persia
ing for an epic poet, and to Dakiki, beyond any predecessor,
belonged the all-absorbing idea of narrating in lofty
verse the historic glories of ancient Iran.
He had
taken up the theme with a verve, and had
completed a thousand couplets
King Gushtasp, the patron 1
There
is
It is ascribed to
Dakiki only in Lutf Alibeg Adhur's Atash-kadah (1760-79 a.d.), cf. Eth6 in Morg. Forsch. p. 61, and his note yet see Pizzi, Chr. p. 68 (text), and ;
tr.
Storia,
1.
130
;
and
cf.
next note.
episode relating to
of Zoroaster,
some uncertainty about
the whole quatrain.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an 2
and
his holy
war
Darmesteter, Origines de la poesie
persane, p. 43. ^ xext, Ethg, p. 61 Pizzi, Chr. tr. id. Storia della poesia perp. 58 ;
;
siana, 1.130 (after Eth6) ing, Nat.
Bev. 15. 685.
;
and Picker-
DAKIKI
64
Turan
against Arjasp, the ruler of in the
hand
of a Turkish
minion
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when
(for
whom
the poniard it is
thought
he entertained an unlawful affection) brought a tragic
end to
his poetic
The accounts
work.
of the fatal inci-
dent have sometimes intimated that the assassin's dirk
was drawn against the bard because of a general hatred on account of his leanings toward the old Zoroastrian creed.
Dakiki's thousand couplets, however, have been ren-
dered immortal, since Firdausi incorporated into his
own
tells us,
the dead poet in a dream.
great epic
poem
after
them bodily
having beheld, as he
As
these verses in
the Shah-namah form the particular section that relates to Zoroaster
and the development of the ancient religion
of the Fire-worshipers
the midst of
been as
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;-a
delicate subject to handle in
Muhammadan
much prudence
fanatics
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there
may
have
as loyalty on Firdausi's part in
constructing this chapter in his epic out of the verses left
by
his Ul-starred predecessor, instead of
self
on the theme.
committing him-
In support, moreover, of Firdausi's
claim in the assignment,
it
is
agreed by scholars best
competent to judge, that the verses thus accredited to Dakiki actually show a difference in style and diction
What
from Firdausi's own manner of composition. more, they prove, by their strength and
finish,
is
that Dakiki
himself was a master of the epic style, inherited, no doubt,
from
his predecessors,
and
especially
^ On this whole subject of the episode and Dakiki's style see Noldeke,
from Rudagi.^
Nationalepos, in Gruvdr.
Warner, Shdhndma,
5.
2.
148-150
20-22.
;
DAKIKI AS FIRDAUSI'S PREDECESSOR
The trumpet
call
to the nation, sounded
from halfway up the heights clear,
if
of epic song,
not far-reaching; but
its
blast
before the full tone could be heard.
65
by Dakiki
was sharp and was cut short
The volume
of a
stronger trumpet blare was needed, the clarion note of a
Firdausi on the topmost summit of the height, to impart to
it
that
quality which
realm of time.
makes
it
ring throughout the
CHAPTER
Vir
THE EOXJND TABLE OF MAHMUD OF GHAZNAH COUKT POETRY (Early in the Eleventh Century a.d.)
'And Peace
to
MahmM on his golden Throne.'
— FitzGbrald, Bubdiy&t of Omar Khayy&m,
11.
The court of Firdausi's patron, MahmudofGhaznah, who ruled from 998 to 1030 a.d., included a Round Table of
Poets
called,
—a
Divan,
'
Assembly,'
it
might have been
although in Persian literary usage that word
applied rather to a collection of the
poems
of
is
an author.
Seats at the royal board or places in the assembly around
the aureate throne were occupied only by bards
who
could
claim their right to fame by infusing into their verse the spirit also of
the great conqueror's time or by lavishing
panegyrics upon their lord or on some court grandee.
Even Firdausi
in his great epic
had to
resort to a eulogy
Mahmud. Nevertheless, tinged though court poetry was with the fulsome flattery which prevailed in times when patrons, and not publishers, served to keep alive of
the Muses' song, there verse a personal note
the vox seraphica nant.
It is
was heard often and again
— that
in the
vox humana mingled with
— not drowned by the panegyric domi-
an echo of the minstrel's own 66
soul, that finer
M AH MUD which
feeling
thrills
HIMSELF A POET
67
with the universal chord and makes
the verse true poetry.
Mahmud
of Ghaznah, fosterer of poets
though he was, was
first
and learned men
and foremost a man
His conquering blade brought under
sword.i
its
of
the
sway a
large portion of Persia proper, far outside of the ancestral
domain
of
now forms
Ghaznah, the capital of a a part of Afghanistan.
territory
He
which
launched, more-
over, a dozen or seventeen successful raids against North-
em
and Western India to give proof of the edge
trenchant
Yet with
steel.^
it
no better way to hand down works
of the poets
and men
of his
aU he knew that there was his
name than through
of letters
and science
the
whom
gathered to grace his court.
he
Mahmud, himself, on more than one
Six ghazals, or odes, are ascribed
the pen for the sword. to his authorship.^
occasion exchanged
Among
the poems attributed to him,
in addition to a heroic vaunt in verse, given
below, there exist three elegiac couplets that
show a tenderer up.
The
voice
to a
side of the conqueror's
make-
half-dozen lines of this particular elegy give
lament over the death
Ghdistan, 'Rose-garden,'
of
she was called
a
Cf above, pp. 45-46. See Lane-Poole, Mediaeval India, pp. 14-33, New York and London, 1903; laid id. in History of India, ed. Jackson, 3. 14-35, London, 1906 consuit also V. A. Smith, The Oxford His.
*
;
tory of India, pp. 190-195, Oxford, 1919.
young
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and
speak real devotion on Mahmud's part. 1
j^^y^^^ ^ Ghaznah as a
girl
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
they be-
So, with
the
' cf. Ethfi, in Grundr. 2. 224, 225 n. (where the question of authenticity is raised); Schefer, Chrestomathie persane, 2. 247-252 (Persian text), and pp. 242-246 (explanations),
'
:
;
THE ROUND TABLE OF MAHMUD OF GHAZNAH
68
sad strain of 'dust thou art, to dust returnest,' I repeat tliem here
:
ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG GIRL Moon, beneath the dust dost
Since thou,
Dust
high with heaven's
joins ia union
My heart laments
I say,
;
'
Heart, patient be,
This Cometh by an All-just God's decree
Man
is
of dust,
much
!
— and dust must aye remain
What's born of dust to dust returns
The
rest,
crest.
again.'
heroic vaunt in verse, alluded to above, bears so
of the spirit of
Mahmud,
turning, as he does in the
face of grim-visaged Death, to God, that I feel the lines to be genuinely
Mahmud's (even though the authorship Accordingly I venture to trans-
has been questioned).^ late
them, with
boastfulness that gives place to
all their
deep rehgious humihation
THE KING — AND DEATH Out of fear
for
my
conquering sword
my
and
mace that cleaves
strongholds amaia.
The earth
subdued by
is
my
might,
as the
body subdued by the
brain.
Though
in glory
and power supreme,
I
am
never contented to
rest.
So from land unto land have I roamed,
in ambition's high con-
quering quest.
Oftentimes I gave place to
my
fancy
that I
In mine eyes have I now come to see
was a somebody
great,
kiug and pauper in equal
estate.
If perchance thou should'st dig
from two graves
two
skulls of
the mouldering dead, •
Text, Aufl (ed.
Muhammad Browne,
Browne and MIrza
Kazvini),
Lit. Hist. 2. 117.
1.
26;
cf.
2 See also Browne, Lit. Hist. 2. 118, on Daulatshah's citation and ascrip-
tion to Sanjar the Seljuk.
M AHMUD'S
POETRY AT
COURT
69
Wlio knows which was crown of the king, and which was the hireliag's head ? With one blow of my powerful fist I have thousands of strongholds laid low,
With one stamp
my
of
foot have I scattered
multitudinous ranks
of the foe.
But when Death cometh now
way one has 'Tis the it is
to assail me,
naught availeth the
trod,
Lord that alone God 1
is
and the King above Kings,
abiding,
!
Poetry must have resounded at Mahmud's court, for
we
are told
poets
'
by Daulatshah that
'
four hundred appointed
(chahar sad shair mutaayyin) thronged his capital.^
The names
of a score of the
more prominent are men-
who wrote in known.^ Some
tioned offhand by the Persian writer Aruzi,
the twelfth century, and
many
others are
of these minstrels, like Minuchihri,
But
sideration in a later volume.
may come
in for con-
chief amidst the galaxy,
till
the greater light of Firdausi came to outshine them
all,
were Unsuri and Farrukhi, while Asjadi also
The
mentioned.
palace, as related
alike for their
own
their generosity as
Unsuri, the
was a native 1
members
first of
of Balkh,
arrived at
the next chapter, speaks
va.
of the fellowcraft of song.
the trio that have been named,
and held rank at Mahmud's court
Por the text here translated
see
'
See
Makdla
rhyme a
JBAS.
;
b df, etc.
See Daulatshah, Tadhkirat, pp.
44-45.
when he
merits as judges of real poetry and for
Daulatshah, p. 67 but consult espeOriginal cially the preceding note. 2
be
fact that these very three should have
recognized Firdausi's superior genius
Mahmud's
may
Nizami-i
Kazvlnl) p. 28 46).
1899,
Aruzl,
MIrza
(ed. ;
p.
cf.
658
tr.
(=
Chahdr
Muhammad Browne, in reprint,
p.
THE ROUND TABLE OF
70
MAHMUD
OF GHAZNAH
not only as a royal panegyrist but as poet laureate.
'King
was
of Poets'
and to Unsuri belonged,
his title,
by court appointment, the prerogative of having to pass
d. 1040 or
'°^°
first
on every poetic composition
that V7as presented, before
could reach the
it
sovereign's ear.^
His accepted appellation V7as 'Master'
Unsuri, and the
other bards acknowledged themselves
Although, in a way, he was a natural rival
his disciples.
of Firdausi, he proved himself a friend,
and won from the
Admiration was shown
great epic poet an encomium.^
Unsuri likewise by others of his fellow-poets.
(who died in 1041 verses
a.d.) says that
'
Miuuchihri
the perfume of his
was as sweet as the fragrance of the jasmine'
{harm huy-i saman)
;
while Aruzi, more than a century
*
adds a tribute in verse to the lasting quality of his
later,
poetry.*
His personality must have been attractive, since
'he combined the rank of a favorite courtier with that of poet' little
{mansab4 nadlmi ha
more
is
knovm
regarding Unsuri' s
he died in 1040 or 1050
With regard _
.,
life,
'
It
Browne,
Lit. Mist. 2.
2
Daulatshah,
p. 45.
3
Daulatshah, Aruzi, op.
p. 42,
*
Browne,
JRAS.
print, p. 48).
44-45,
pp.
cit.
p.
1899,
cf.
^
120-121.
«
is
Mahmud was
p.
660
p. 44.
Cf. Eth6, in Grundr. 2. 224.
tr.
re-
also Pizzi, Storia,
20.
28;
Daulatshah,
worth repeat-
Chahar Makdla, pp. 3426 of. tr. Browne, JMAS. 1899, pp. 762-764 (= reprint, pp. 56-58); cf. '
1.
and the
anecdote related by the
happened that one night, when
Daulatshah,
except that
which he exerted over his sovereign &
we have an
lord,
all,
a.d.«
above-mentioned Aruzi, which ing.^
after
to Unsuri's personality, moreover,
influence
Unsun's Gifto*
Yet
shairi).^
Aruzi,
;
cf.
(=
1.
142, n. 5.
!
UNSURI'S GIFT OF IMPROVISATION
71
well drenched with wine, he grasped a knife and was
about to shear
the luxuriant tresses of hair which
ofE
graced the temples of Ayaz, his favorite minion at court.
He
refrained, however, for the instant, but
blade to Ayaz,
who
laid
himself next
morning — in
act
— the
from his
dutifully cut off the curls
own head and have been
handed the
them
before
the
monarch was
which he had caused
;
Mahmud. 'False
On coming to Dawn' it may
with despair at the
filled
and the court was plunged into
A poet's skill alone could save the day.
equal despondency.
Unsuri was ready with an improvised quatrain at once.
THE SHOEN CURLS Though wrong,
What 'Tis
poet's
horizon was
Mahmud was
that thy Idol's tress be shorn, sit in grief forlorn ?
time for mirth and glee
Trimming the
The
if
cause to rise and
— to
call for
cypress' locks serves but
impromptu was a the
cleared,
t'
wine
adorn.^
flash of genius
court's
;
the royal
equanimity restored.
so well pleased with the quatrain, as the story
concludes, that he ordered Unsuri's lap to be filled three
times over with gold and
and
for music, to the
He
silver.
then called for wine
accompaniment of which the verses
were repeated in song.
All
was serene
!
Unsuri's literary activity must have been great, for
have the authority of Daulatshah to the
we
effect that as
poet laureate *he was continually composing poems on
the deeds and battles of the King, and there
is
a lengthy
panegyric of Unsuri's, about one hundred and eighty 'Text, Aruzi, op.
cit.
The rhyme
p. 35.
original quatrain has a double
:
—
khdstan ast kdstan ast pirastan ast. ast
—
— khmatan
THE ROUND TABLE OF MAHMUD OF GHAZNAH
72
couplets, in
which he recorded in encomium-verse
the King's battles, wars, and conquests.' collection of Unsuri's poems, has in fact
may
Mention
'
made
of
question and answer
'
been preserved.^
which
style (sual
is
an example
u javah), the
alternating throughout with an interrogation sponse.
The
first
Divan, or
a rather long eulogy on
brother. Prince Nasr,
Mahmud's the
be
A
^
all of
of
liues
and a
re-
dozen or sixteen verses read like a
rhapsody of love between a wooer and his beloved, then leading up to the burden of the song, which
the
of
there
is
Among
prince.^
the
likewise one, the loss of
regretted;
it is
of
a panegyric
works
poetic
which
is
Unsuri
of
particularly to be
a romantic epopee, Vamik and 'Adhra, on
a subject as old as Sasanian times
fragments
is
;
but only some stray
have been preserved through chance
it
quotations.*
Ethe's estimate of Unsuri's literary merits
high as was that of his
own
contemporaries, and he finds
that Unsuri falls short of Rudagi, rival.^
But there
iDaulatshah, p.45.
is
one
Two of Unsuri's
found translated into prose in Elliot and Dowson, History of India, 4. 615-518, London, 1872 also a quatrain in praise of the same monarch, ;
op.
cit. 4.
ria, 1.
189
;
cf.
likewise Pizzi, Sto-
142-146.
whom
he sought to
poem which
little
long panegyrics on Malimud will be
not so
is
I should
Hke
Lughat-i Furs (of. ed. Horn, pp. 2425) slk or seven couplet-stanzas being ,
among 27
the citations
r, 40, 67,
68
r,
(of. fols. 20,
21
r,
62 r).
por text see Daulatshah, pp. 45and for a translation of the panegyric, Browne, 2. 121-123. s
46
;
ÂŤ Cf. Eth6, in Grundr. 2. 239-240 Horn, Gesch. Pers. Litt. pp. 80, 177 and id. ed. Asadi's Lughat-i Furs, p. 26 Browne, 2. 276-276 cf. also Elliot and Dowson, History of India, ;
See Eth6, in Grundr. 2. 224, 225 n., on a lithographed edition of Unsuri, 2
which appeared in Teheran, a.h. 1298 (= 1881 A.D.). Note might be made also of the fact that Unsuri is cited over a hundred times in Asadi's
;
;
;
4. 189. 6
EthS, in Grwndr.
2. 224.
Embellished Introductory Page of a Persian Manuscript (From the Cochran
Collection of Persian Manuscripts in the Metropolitan
Museum r
To face naae 7S^
of Art,
New York)
!
!
OTHER POEMS BY UNSURI to quote, because of
its
strain
73
— a minor chord
seemingly
never absent from the music of these earlier Persian bards
— the note perhaps of an Unsuri a
mood
grown
of true poetic despondency.
older, writing in
Hamlet
soliloquizing
over Yorick's skull would have sympathized. IN
A REFLECTIVE MOOD
Alas, that from this bright world
Beneath a
we must
go,
pit of clay, turned all to dust
Body unclean sed from
earthly sin to
show
Before a God, All-pure, Perfect, and Just
That a mind,
like fire's flash or water's flow,
Should with the dust and wind find measure just
The second above-mentioned among
!
*
the chief minstrel
group at Mahmud's court, and associated with Firdausi,
Farrukhi.
was
Though °
below
ranking; °
Unsuri in position at the court
Farrukhi,
circle,
he
d.
is
regarded by modern judges as his superior in literary
Farrukhi was a native of Sistan, the
merit.
province which Persia
still
forms a part of the border between
and Southwestern Afghanistan.
that his personal appearance
and
his dress
1037 or
"^
uncouth
heavy turban as a
'
— we
Tradition has
it
was most unprepossessing can
fancy his
see in
still
Sagzi,' or native of Sistan,
— but we
are told that his native talents, his cleverness in poetic
composition, especially in improvisation, and his skill in
playing the lute (chang), were such that early in
life
he
obtained a position at the baronial hall of one of the great 1 Text, Mustaufi-iKazvini, ra'nfc^i Guzidah, ed. Browne (Gibb Mem.
Series, 14. 1), p. 823,
London, 1910
;
tr.
Browne, in JBAS.
(=
reprint,
p. 41).
original, 6 df.
1900, p. 761
Rhyme
in the
;
THE ROUND TABLE OF MAHMUD OF GHAZNAH
74
who gave him
landed proprietors of his native place,
This salary was increased by the lord
yearly emolument. of the
manor when Farrukhi married, but
proved
it still
So Farrukhi joined a
the story goes.^
insufficient, as
a
caravan that was starting from Sistan, taking with him
few
any
if
effects,
but furnished (as he himself says in a
verse) '
With
material spun ia
And woven
my
in
my
brain
soul,'
and journeyed to the princely domain of one of Mahmud's vassals,
Amir Abu '1-Muzaifar,
lord of a district in Trans-
oxiana, whose reputation for munificence to poets was far-famed.
The
vassal Amir,
as well as to be
who happened
an appreciative
away from
listener to minstrelsy,
'
18,000
'
of
mares and
his
By
were being branded that spring.
chanced
engaged at
his princely residence, being
the branding-ground, where colts
to be a lover of horses
a happy
cir-
cumstance, however, a certain steward in high position at the palace, to
talents
whom
Farrukhi applied, was a
and could himself indite
He
verses.
man
of
at once rec-
ognized Farrukhi's merits in the encomium-poem which the minstrel brought with him, as composed for presentation to the
Amir
was engaged
;
and
after telling
him
in the round-up of colts,
that the prince
which were being
lassoed for branding, suggested that a special
poem
suit-
able for the occasion should be prepared. 1
The whole account
of
he found in Nizami-i Chahdr Makdla (ed. Mirza
will
Farrukhi Aruzi's
Muham-
mad, in Gibb Mem. Series, 11. 36-40) tr. Browne, in JRAS. 1899, pp. 764772
(=
reprint, pp. 58-66).
FARRVKHI IN QUEST OF A PATRON It
is
75
probably unparalleled in the history of poetry
that the subject of branding steeds should be used as a poetic
theme but Pegasus was ;
there, as the sequel proved.
Overnight, Farrukhi improvised the verses which I translate
below, and the friendly steward was amazed next
morning upon hearing them.
The vivid
description
of
the springtide, the graphic scene of the plain, dotted with tents in
which
at evening convivial intercourse
was
held,
the lively picture of the scampering colts trjdng to escape the Amir's lasso, and fires
the lurid flare of the branding
which blazed throughout the night,
Farrukhi's genius for portraying a
revealed
all
situation.
Forthwith mounting the poet on a steed, the steward rode out with
him
to the branding-ground
him that same evening
When
and conducted
into the princely presence.
the wine had gone round, Farrukhi rose and
modestly recited at
first
Amir
the brief panegyric on the
which he had previously prepared, and which began with the couplet describing
caravan to his court. of a poet,
and
showed pleasure
see.'
to the
how he had come from Sistan by The Amir, who was also something
The
;
but the steward added,
flagons were filled again, and
accompaniment of the
so well to tune, in song with his
ing-ground
'
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
lute,
and amid rapt
whose
graphic color
Wait
Farrukhi,
strings he
knew
attention, broke forth
newly improvised poem on
full of
'
'
the Brand-
:
THE BRANDING-GROUND Whilst the meadow hides
And
its
visage in a veil of emerald green,
the Mil-tops wrap their foreheads in a fold of seven-hued sheen,
'
;
!
THE BOUND TABLE OF MAHMUD OF GHAZNAH
76
The fragrant
And
earth, like musk-deer,
an aroma boundless bears.
the willow, like the parrot's plume, a countless foliage wears.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yester-midnight â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that the zephyr's
was yestern
It
breeze did
bring
A vernal
scent
Stored in
its sleeve,
i'
the northern blast. the wind,
Whilst the garden, in
its
it
Hail to thee, breath of Spring
seems, fine powdered
musk
enfolds.
bosom, shining buds like puppets holds.
The
narcissus a bright necklace, set with shining gems, has on.
And
the red syringa wears in
its
ear rubies from Badakhshan.
Yes, the branches of the rose-bush, too, have donned a wiue-hued
gown.
And
five-fingered leaves, like
down
human
hands, from the sycamore hang
;
While the garden's changing boughs and sprays match the
cha-
meleon's hue.
And
the pool from pearl
its
lustre takes, as the clouds drop pearls
of dew.
Robes of honor, you might fancy, all had won by special grace, So full of color the garden-mead of the Eoyal Branding-place
And
the Eoyal Ground for Branding is so joyous and elate That our age stands now bewildered by its brilliancy's estate. And amidst the verdure's green on green, like stars within the
Tent after
tent, like fort
on
fort,
The greensward echoes constant
And
brave
'
Wassails
'
sky,
you everywhere descry. to the lute of minstrels fine.
in the tents resound, as the pages pour the
wine.
In every tent
On
is
a lover, close wrapt in his sweetheart's arms,
every grassplot
is
a friend, to enjoy true friendship's charms.
kisses, love's embraces, though coy damsels frown the while, Or the song and dance of minstrels to deep sleep the maids beguile. At the door of the pavilion tent of Prince All-fortunate
There are
'
A branding-fire Its
is
blazing like the sun, without abate
gleaming flames like lances dart,
all girt
;
with gold brocade.
Hotter than a young man's passion, yellower than gold assayed. Like branching corals the branding-irons take on a ruby glow.
And
the prong of each, 'midst the fiery heat, a pomegranate's grain
doth show.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
!
A POEM ON THE BRANDING-GROUND Slaves that ne'er
know need
77
of sleeping, rank on rank all ready
stand,
Whilst the unmarked
aligned in rows, await the glowing
colts,
brand.
On
his gallant steed,
'
Stream-forder,' meanwhile rides the Prince
afar
Across the plain, lasso in hand, like young Isfandiar.
how
See,
Yet
its
the lariat curleth, as the locks of some loved youth
hold
is
firm, like to the
This Just King,
bonds between old friends, in sooth
Bu 'l-Muzaffar,
is
attended by his band.
He, the Prince and Lion-himter, that holds
cities ia his
In his puissant grasp the lasso
a serpent's
coils like to
E'en as the rod turned to a snake in Moses' hand of
hand.
fold,
old.
What steed soe'er by the noose's loop is caught in its circling swing On the forehead, flank, and shoulder bears the brand-mark of the King. Yet, whilst giving brands on one side, he grants likewise rich bequests,
His poets dowering with
The Amir was
bridles,
with caparisons his
guests.*
His wit was
delighted with the poem.
quick, as the outcome shows, to catch the point in the closing verse regarding a bridled as a
and caparisoned steed
reward for a poet who came as a guest to the brand-
His admiration was no doubt shared by the
ing-ground.^
courtier-throng with plaudits, or with a
'
bravo
'
(ahsanf)
and a 'wassail' (nush) as the goblets were replenished once more, while the Amir, not lacking in a sense of
humor, called Farrukhi
him go out and catch up
colts as 1
Text, 11.
for his
pp.
55-57;
Muhammad,
in Gibb
Daulatshah,
37-39
a cunning
own
rascal,'
as
and then bade
many
of the round-
he could.
Aruzi, ed. MIrza
Mem.
'
;
tr.
Browne, in JS.AS.
1899, pp.767-769(=reprlnt, pp. 61-68).
seems certain that the veiled lagdm, ' bridles,' and fasar, ' caparisons (lit. 'headstalls '), is so to be interpreted. ^
It
alluBion, in the closing lines, to
'
;
THE ROUND TABLE OF MAHMUD OF GHAZNAH
78
Inspired by such a noteworthy
and
fired
by the
mark
of princely favor,
taste of the court wine,
forth, as the narrative continues,
Farrukhi dashed
unwinding and waving
his long turban in order to catch some of the horses, yet,
for a considerable time,
But
brain was. of the
aU
in vain, wine-befogged as his
at last he succeeded in driving forty-two
unbroken
colts
into
the enclosure
of
a ruined
caravanserai, where they sought refuge from the chase
and then he lay down to sleep
ofE
the effects of his
exertion and his over-copious drafts.
Next morning
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the account goes on â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Amir, after
having heard the story, summoned Farrukhi into his presence, gave him, besides the wild colts, a charger of
with bridle and caparison, and bestowed upon him
state
a lordly tent, camels, slaves, Persian carpets, and a robe of
honor to boot. Farrukhi prospered in the Amir's service, and from
there fortune soon led
royal
palace
him
Mahmud
of
to his longed-for goal, the
at
Ghaznah, where he was
treated with so high favor that 'twenty servants, belted
with
silver
girdles,
career he seems,
Hke so many
Mahmud' s good
of
court,
rode in his
graces,
train.'
others, to
Later in his
^
have
fallen out
and was banished from the
though he survived that monarch and died in the
year 1037 or 1038 a.d.^ 1 So Aruzi, ferred to above
;
Chahar Makdla, recf also Browne, Lit. .
Hist. 2. 128. 2
Cf Eth^, in Grundr. .
2.
224.
The
Khvandamir says that Farrukhi amassed great wealth at Mahhistorian
mud's court but was robbed
way to Samarkand,
of it
on his
a misfortune which
he lamented in verse, translated in Elliot and Dowson, Hist, of India, 4. 189-190
;
cf. also Pizzi,
Storia,
1.
140.
;
;.
ASJADI ASSOCIATED WITH FIRDAUSI
The
works of Farrukhi were
poetical
Dwan,^
and
extant,
still
his
verses
79
collected into a
show, beside the
panegyric vein, a genuine power of description and a fine but his fame as a poet would not perhaps
lyrical sense
;
have lived
if
had not been
it
for his association with
Firdausi.
The
third of the trio,
named
same connection
in the
with the coterie of four hundred court-bards, was Asjadi. Possibly his
survived
name would
he had not shared with Unsuri
if
and Farrukhi Firdausi
likewise not have
putting
in
when
(pp. 87-89).
has been preserved from Asjadi's pen
and regarding
his life it is
was a native
of
open to question whether he
Herat, Bukhara, or of Merv, though It
latter.^
may
be also a matter of debate
whether he really was a pupil of Unsuri.^ poets called themselves disciples
Divan
of Asjadi
of
All the court
that Laureate.*
was not current even
quoted in poetic 1
See Daulatshah,
Eth6, in Grundr.
Lit. Hist. 2. 124.
collections.^
p. 57,
1.
13
;
and
226 n. Browne, Observe that Far2.
;
rukhi is cited some ninety times in Asadi's Lughdt-i Furs (ed. Horn) , cf esp.
fols.
stanzas cited
;
17
1,
48
by Shams ibn
(in Gibh
r,
54,
for brief
there are also two stanzas
Mem.
Kais, al-Mu'jam
10), pp. 95, 325; cf.
likewise citations, pp. 197, 339, 438. 2 Daulatshah, p. 17, says Bukhara
A
in Daulatshah's
time, the fifteenth century, although verses
cf.
aÂť)
the latter was seeking admission to Mah-
little, alas,
probably the
'°^5
famous rhyming-test to
the
mud's court, as told in the next chapter
Too
Asjadi (*^-
by him were
In style he seems rather Aufi, 2. 50, says Merv. Cf . furthermore Etlig, in
123.
Orundr.
2.
224
;
Browne,
2.
Asjadi's death occurred about
1040 a.d. (=a.h. 432), according to Horn, Asadi's LughaUi Furs, p. 24. '
Daulatshah,
p. 47.
Cf Daulatshah, p. 44, 1. 23. ^ Cf. Daulatshah, p. 47. Also for some of his fragments see Aufi, 2. 5058, and note that Asjadi is quoted more than fifty times in Asadi's *
.
:
THE ROUND TABLE OF
80
have
to
indulged It
effects.
as a beauty
in
;
!
GHAZNAH
OF
and rhetorical
devices
in Persian poetry, for example,
and not as a defect to repeat the same word
two or three
or radical
M AH MUD
artificial
was regarded
'
:
Asjadi does this in four
times.
verses which are not easy to render
THE WEEPING LOVER Tear-drops, a-dripping, from
my
eyes I shed,
Like the cloud, or like the murmuring, murmuring stream
These drops the dripping rain have far outsped. These murmurs like
my
sad heart's murmurings seem.*
In a somewhat fanciful manner he says that, for weal or woe, he has become a Zoroastrian, because his heart
bums with
love like the flame of a fire-temple, and his
bloodshot eyes stream like a wine press it
may
be noted, had no scruples
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Magians, making
about
or
drinking wine.^
Among
the stray bits of Asjadi's song, however,
be cited in this connection a quatrain which of
Asjadi's having
was
tells
looked upon the wine cup
may
the tale
when
it
having repented
red, but as
ASJADI THE PENITENT Of wine and praise of wine I do repent. Of lovely maids, fair chins with silver blent. Lip-penitence Heart lusting still for sin !
O God, Lughatr-i
Furs
(of.
such penitence thou dost resent
ed.
among them a couple quatrain form
iPor text
(of. fols.
see
Horn,
p. 24),
of stanzas in
8
r,
33).
Shams ad-Din Mu-
hammad ibn Kais ar-Razi, al-Mu'jam flMa'dyiriAsh^dri H-^Ajam (ed. Mirza Muhammad, in Gibb Mem. Series 10), p. 315, London, 1909. Observe in
!
the original the repetition (five times each) of katrah, drop,' and khirah, '
murmuring and consult Horn, Gesch. Pen. Litt, p. 64.
'
idle
2
'
;
Qf_
Horn,
op.
cit.
p.
80
;
above, pp. 34, 39, 52 n. 1, 62. 3 Text, Daulatshah, p. 47 BroTcne,
2. 123.
;
also
and see cf.
also
STANZAS BY ASJADI As
this quatrain
was
been sighs and there throng of courtiers lips,
ever,
there
was
courtiers,
;
recited
may have yet
when
must have been
may have
Asjadi, there
been whispers among the a madrigal
salvos.
in Asjadi's voice;
and pages
by
81
No
fell
from
his
tone heroic, how-
and the king, grandees,
alike, stood listening
till
a Firdausi
should arise and sing in strains of rhapsody an epic for all time.
CHAPTER
VIII
AND THE GEEAT PEESIAN EPIC
FIEDAUSI,
(About 935-1025 A.D.) '
Shapes of epic grandeur are stationed around me.' Keats, Letters.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
The the
trumpet's blare resounds, the din of battle
fills
and the verse rings with the valorous deeds of
air,
heroes and the proud triumphs of long lines
Persia's
Great Epic
Epic poetry has come into
of ancient kings.
being through the clarion voice of Firdausi to give expression to the inherited pride of the nation in her glory
before
the Arab
recalls
to
the
memory
pristine fame, the its
epic
Conquest.'^
at the
heroic
poems
As already
Shah-namah does
poetry that
epic
greatness of
firdausi' s list
masterpiece of
the great
of the world.
noted, the //Arab Conquest
Norman Conquest
the
national feeling, but
of England,
Nahavand meant
it
of
Persia,' like
may have weakened
did not
destroy itA
The
to Iran, in the realm of letters,
the same thing as the battle of Hastings
Britain.
its
for Persia as
this
same moment into the
the
much
is
it
a folk the
of
poem paramount, and
enters
battle of
If
meant
to
In each case there was born a poet-genius of 1
See above, pp. 12-15. 82
AN EXPRESSION OF NATIONAL FEELING
83
world-wide fame three centuries after the clash of arms
had
ceased,
though
it
must be emphasized that
epic talents lay in a realm quite different
Firdausi's
from Chaucer's
story-telHng gifts.
A
closer parallel in the
and yet one vastly rhapsodist, Firdausi's icle
might
to
domain
of
epic composition,
advantage of the Persian
the
drawn between
easily be
Layamon's Brut, which recorded
of
-
Shah-namah and the rhymed chron-
j, -^
Parallel
in
measured verse the History of the Early Kings of Britain. In both instances the poet-annalist harked back to themes in a national past otherwise long forgotten alike,
though separated from each other
space and time,
made
;
both bards
in the realm of
use of material handed
down from
ancient days; and in eacb^ case there was something of
the
the poet commingled with the spirit
of
soul
of
The comparison, however,
the historian and chronicler.
between the sixteen thousand double verses of the Brut, uncouth in form, and the
sixt y thous and cquplets^f_the
Shah-namah, polished to the
finest finish,
be overdrawn; nevertheless there would to add that
if
might still
easily
be room
the British bard was chary in using words
from the vocabulary
of
the Norman-French conquerors,
the Persian rhapsodist was equally careful ia avoiding, as far as possible, linguistic borrowings from the speech
Arab
of the
*a well
victors..
VFirdausi might justly be called
of Persian undefiled.
1 Yet on this entire question of employing AraWc words compare
Noldeke,
Das
iranische Nationalepos,
^
in Grundr. 2. 149 n. 4, p. 150;
Browne,
Lit. Hist. 2. 145-146.
and
AND THE GREAT PERSIAN EPIC
FIRDAUSI,
84
As has been sents
Homer
of
Iran repre-
wave
of
patriotism.
the cresting of the national
He was
Dakiki as Forerunner
fruits
the successor of the gifted Dakiki,
^^^^ youthful herald whose tragic death came
at the very first
seen already, this
moment when he was about of the
victory
epic
to proclaim the
whose triumph
in
he
himself was not to share.
The nation had been waiting was
for
an
epic bard
;
the time
the path was clear.
Firdausi seized the chance,
inspiration/^orn at Tus, in
Northeastern Persia, about
ripe,
for Firdausi
935 ^
(possibly five
jj
member
Iranian stock and a
whom
proprietors in Khurasan,
not effectually displaced,
of the
years earlier) of old
Dihkan class
the
of landed
Arab Conquest had
and in whose families were
pre-
served the oldtime legends and historic traditions of Iran, Firdausi possessed an inherited aptitude for the theme.
His poetic talents and his enthusiastic zeal for the task qualified
him
''
alike.
Antiquarian sufficient
materials,
moreover, were
available
in
measure for the genius that could recognize their
national worth.
Chronicle-histories
of
Persian
Sources for
Media and Persia had been kept from the earhest times,
if
we may judge from
state-
ments in the Greek writers Herodotus, Ktesias, and Agathias, the
Armenian Moses
bibhcal authority of the
Book
Khorene, and from the
of
of Esther.^
that these annals were continued 1
Cf.
Herodotus,
Ktesias, Frag.
p.
Diodorus Sioulus,
1.
98 2.
1-5, (ed.
22. 5
;
95, 214 Gilmore)
down
to the time of the
4. 30 Moses of Khorene, 2. and Esther, 6. 1 10. 2 see also Xenophon, Cyrop. 1. 2. 1.
;
2.
27
;
67
;
Agathias,
seems clear
It
;
;
;
;
'
OTHER SOURCES FOR THE EPIC later
Sasanian monarchs and must have been accessible
any court antiquarian.
to
85
Tradition makes
certain
it
that a collection from this storehouse, to which the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle
is
only a remote parallel, was made ia
the form of a prose-epic, the Khvatai-namak, or
somewhere about 640
Sovereigns,'
III, the last of the
a.d.
Sasanian Kings.
Book
'
of
under Yazdagard
This epic thesaurus
was gathered together by one Danishvar, a member the dihhan class of landed gentry,
it
interested ia
Traces of the work have
the past records of his country.
been preserved, and
who was
of
must have been known
in the
tenth century, Dakiki's time, and surely served Firdausi,
however
directly or indirectly, as a source for his
famous
Shah-namah. Dakiki's death and Firdausi's
sparks that kindled the epic
We
can imagine
the
own ambition were
fire
in
the
the Bard of Tus.
quickened pulse-beat
with which Firdausi saw in a dream 'that
.,
Dream
of
youth, Dakiki, of fair speech and of brilliant
when his dead predecessor appeared and gave him the inspiration that led him to
mind,' as he calls him, in a vision
seek for a copy of that ancient chronicle-book.
own words in
best tell the tale of
its spectral
apparition,
here somewhat freely
I
/
meant
what the
Firdausi's
poet's shade,
to him, so I versify
them
:
My heart was fired,
as from his sight it turned Towards the world's Sovereign Throne, and inly yearned, May I lay hand upon that book some day
'
And
tell,
in
my own words,
that ancient lay
!
;
FIBDAUSI,
86
—
'
;
AND THE GREAT PERSIAN EPIC
Countless the persons whom. I sought for aid,
As
I of fleeting time
was sore afraid
Lest I ia turn not long enough should
live,
hand the task must give. my means should ne'er suffice, Por such a work there was no buyer's price The age forsooth was filled with wars of greed, A straitened world it was for those in need. But
to another's
Nay more
—
lest that
Some time ia that condition did I live. Yet of my secret not a word did give. Finding no person who my aims would share.
Nor
act for
By
me with
friendly patron care.
hap, a friend beloved at Tus I had
Thou would'st have said Two souls To me he spake, Good is thy whole '
'
Thy
foot toward fortune
now
That book, which written I'll
get for thee
Thine
To
is
tell
;
is
is
.
.
.
;
in one skin clad
!
project.
turned direct
ia Pahlavi,
but slack thou must not be
the gift of speech, and youth
the tale of champions' deeds
is
— in
Do thou the Kingly Book anew relate And seek through it renown among the
;
thine fine.
great.'
When he at last that book before me laid He made ablaze with light my soul of shade
^ !
/^Without doubt, Firdausi had actually made long and conscientious preparation for his special task of rehabUitatFirdausi's Qualifications
i^g
^^.^
national epos of his people, equipping
jjijugelf
by researches into the Pahlavi, or
Middle Persian,
soiu-ces
from which he could draw material
for his long chronicle-poem. >
Cf.
Mohl,
same
VuUers, 1.9; Pizzi, 1. 112 12; Warner, 1. 109. In the connection see furthermore ;
1.
/
That he had a scholarly
Vullers-Landauer, 4.
287;
76-77.
Warner,
3. 5.
cf. tr. Mohl, 30-31; Pizzi, 5.
1495;
FIRDAUSrS YEARS OF PREPARATION
87
acquaintance with Arabic, despite his natural avoidance of that idiom in a Persian epic,
employment
is
of occasional Arabic
not absolutely be avoided. trol of Persian as
shown by
his accurate
words when they could
Regarding his masterly con-
a poet, no comment need be made
the dignity of his style throughout
is
;
and
harmonious with
his heroic theme.
From incidental allusions in the Shah-namah itself we may infer that Firdausi was approximately forty years old (about the year 974 a.d.) when he made the Earlier Career real beginning of his monumental work. From other personal references in the poem we know that he was married and that he had had two son,
whose death he mourned
other a daughter,
who
children
in touching strains; the
survived him. For nearly twenty-five
home
years Firdausi appears to have labored at his
upon the cherished theme
of his
was doubtless then the cause the court of
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the one a
Mahmud
of
in
Tus
His growing fame
life.
of his seeking preferment at
Ghaznah, where he found a
sovereign-patron that shed munificent favor so great at
the outset as to win from the poet a fervid eulogy of praise only to be later revoked.
form
still
The poem
commemorates the glory
of
in its final
Mahmud's name,
but the scathing satire from the pen of the bard,
dis-
abused of his hopes, as mentioned below, remains a lasting stigma on the ruler's fame.^ Tradition narrates true in 1
its
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the story old â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that Firdausi is
general setting
See Jackson,
From
Constantinople to the
and probably
first
Home
of
approached
Omar Khayyam,
p. 281.
:
FIRDAUSI,
88
AND THE GREAT PERSIAN EPIC
Mahmud's Round Table
moment when
of court poets at a
The same
they were engaged in poetic composition.
names
tradition gives the
^
'='
Introduction at
Mahmud's
minstrels It
as
may have
of the three chief
Unsuri, Asjadi, and Farrukhi.
been natural for them not to
wish to admit an outsider into their favored all
At
circle.
events, the anecdote recoimts that, to put to
shame
him stand the
test of
their
unwelcome
intruder, they bade
matching one of the hardest rhymes in Persian poetry.
The words were rushan, and jushan, twelfth,
'
cuirass
'
month, and
'bright,' gulshan,
— rhymes silver
as hard to
in
'rose-garden,'
mate as window,
English.
Firdausi,
they
thought, would not be able to complete the fourth line
with any rhyme at liness of a fair '
Thy
all.
So Unsuri, in praise of the love-
maiden, began
visage the light of the
Farrukhi matched this with '
No
moon doth
surpass.'
—
rose ia the garth hath thy cheek's bloom, sweet lass.'
Asjadi continued by another puzzling catchword, '
Thine eyelashes pierce
Firdausi instantly caught '
The
As
like
a lance through
up the rhyme
Giv's spear in combat did
Pushan
cuirass.'
—
harass.'
*
readiness of the response and the interesting his-
torical allusion to Giv,
which was unknown to the
coterie,
together with Firdausi's quickness as he proceeded in perfect verse to tell the story of the eventful battle
the two heroes, Pushan and Giv, 1
whom
between
he had thus men-
For references in detail see Jackson, From Constantinople,
T^p.
281-282, u.
2.
FIRDAUSI AT THE COURT OP tioned, immediately
tion
from the
won his
89
applause and generous admira-
Charmed by
three.
and impressed by
MAHMUD
Firdausi's poetic grace,
personality,
and learning,
gifts,
Unsuri, Farrukhi, and Asjadi recognized
him
unhesitat-
ingly as their compeer, or as their superior, and proceeded to advance
him
in every
way
If the story be true, such
in favor with the Sultan.
an example
of disinterested-
ness would not be easy to parallel in the East nor could it
be readily matched in the West.
Unfortunately this
story, although written in very choice Persian, is
often regarded as mere fiction. detail should be emphasized)
it
now
Nevertheless (and this
conveys some idea of the
general estimation in which Firdausi's genius was held at least is
by
Among other Mahmud had praised
tradition.^
one that
current tales, moreover,
the newly-arrived bard
from Tus by saying that he had, through the Court into a
assumed
'
Paradise
'
(Firdaus),
this appellation as his poetic
his verses, turned
whence Firdausi
name
;
but other ex-
planations are possible.^ It
is
well
laureate court,
known
title,
that this poet,
lived long
more than worthy
in the sunshine of
who promised him a thousand
pieces for each thousand
composition.
Sultan
lines
Mahmud's
of his
Mahmud's
gold The epic
liberality
of a
Years at ^째^'^
called
forth
from Firdausi the splendid panegyric, abeady mentioned, 1 See my article on Pirdausi in Warner, The World^s Best Literature, 10. 5735-5739, New York, 1917, and
ideas in the present chapter.
From Constantinople, pp. 281-282. From both of these works I have re-
^ See Khvandamir, tr. Elliot and Dowson, History o/ India, 4. 191 and cf Browne, Lit. Mist. 2. 138, n. 3, 139 in which connection see footnote in my
peated in part some
From
also
paragraphs or
;
.
;
Constantinople, p. 284, n.
2.
FIRDAUSI,
90
AND THE GREAT PERSIAN EPIC
that was only to be eclipsed, years later, by the sav-
and scathing
ageness
satire,
which
the
poet
age poured out against his niggard patron
in
old
when
dis-
appointed of the promised reward that was to crown his work.
Tradition recounts that Firdausi was a septuagenarian
when
the last line of the 60,000 couplets that
make
up the Shah-namah was completed, and the Toyal reward for his
pieted; dis-
appointed
g^j^ jealousy
life's
labor became due.
and intrigue against him had
Hopes
not been idle during his long residence at
Mahmud was
Instead of the promised gold,
court.
duced to send him 60,000 dirhams in is
said to
silver.
in-
Firdausi
have been in the bath when the elephant laden
On
with the money-bags arrived. ception the
discovering the
de-
injured poet rejected the gift with scorn,
divided the silver into three portions, presenting one of
them
to the bath-steward, another to the elephant-driver,
while he
bestowed the
last
upon an attendant who
He
brought him a glass of cordial. the
venom
of his spleen in the
then gave vent to
famous
as immortal as the epic itself, holding
born origin up to eternal
scorn.
satire,
which
Mahmud's
is
slave-
The angry monarch
ordered that the poet should be crushed to death beneath the foot of his life
by
in poverty
an elephant, but Firdausi managed to save
fleeing
and
from the
city,
only to become an exile
dire distress.
For ten years the aged singer was a wanderer, though he ultimately found, in Tabaristan, a princely patron,
:SP^>^f'':
^^^^%^M^h ^--
^'jifei
The Bridge over the Kashap Eivee at Tus (From a photograph by
W^;
^j^^.'..^ J
'?"'
the author)
"^ÂŤ;
NSJ
Ruined Walls of Tus at the Site of the Former Eudbab Gate (From a photograph by r
To
face,
"oaae 901
the author)
FIRDAUSrS DISAPPOINTMENT AND DEATH
who sought
to
him with the unappreciative
reconcile
Owing
lord of Ghaznah.
to this prince's favor,
he was induced to expunge the biting
Mahmud, though they still a stigma in many manuscripts of
live
on as
the
to tarnish the
To
great, ruler.
his
new
fame
on
in his old age,
Firdausiin
^"^*
of that despotic,
though
benefactor at the Tabaristan
court, Firdausi dedicated the long romantic '
it is said,
lines written in
derision of
Shah-namah
91
poem, composed
Yusuf and Zulaikha,' or the love of
Potiphar's wife for Joseph
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an acknowledged masterpiece
in the realm of versified romance.
In the bard's
he was now advanced to
last days, for
his ninetieth year, the longing seems to
him
to return to his old
home
there he died of a broken heart,
at Tus,
have come upon
and
it is said,
on
The Bard's ^*^* ^^^^
hearing a child in the market-place repeating verses from his terrible satire.
An
old-time tradition relates that
Mahmud had
mean-
while relented of his anger, and had despatched to the city of
to
Tus a magnificent caravan, bearing
the aged poet gifts fully equivalent to
Mahmud Relents
the gold pieces of which he had been disappointed, and
bestowing upon him a robe of honor worthy of his fame.
But
all
too late.
The
treasure-laden camel traia,
having crossed the Kashaf River at Tus, entered the city gate just as the funeral procession was conducting the
dead poet's body to the grave.
was about the year 1025
The date
a.d., or,
reckoning, the year 1020 a.d.
;
of
his death
according to another
and his body was interred
;
;
FIRDAUSI,
92
though the precise spot which was his burial place
at Tus,
can no longer be
identified.^
Though nearly a thousand years have passed
His Lasting
Fame
and
AND THE GREAT PERSIAN EPIC
since
his
fame
Firdausi's
death,
his
name
still
lives
Firdausi himself, even in the de
will last.
profundis moments of darkest despondency, rises to the heights of exultation in a personal passage in the great epic
when he
exclaims in a vaunt, proud as the boast of
Horace,
From poesy I've raised a tower high, Which neither wind nor rain can ever harm Over
this
And he
work the years shall come and go, that wisdom hath shall learn its charm
and again, with assurance of undying renown, he the famous
poem with
the verse
I shall live on
Sown 1
See
Jackson,
nople to the
Home
;
:
the seeds of words have I
broadcast, and I shall not wholly die.'
From ConstantsOmar Khayyam,
of pp. 284-285, 290-292.
closes
"
See
Jackson,
nople, p. 293.
From
Constanti-
CHAPTER IX THE SHAH-NAMAH SOME SELECTIONS TEANSLATED '
The briefest
As
story of
full of
valour as of royal blood.'
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Shakespeare,
the
Richard the Second,
5. 5.
112.
Shah-namah may be described
in
terms as the chronicle history of Iran from the
age of the mythical ruler Kaiumars, or Gayumart,
whom
down
to the death of the last Sasanian king,
tradition places about
3600
B.C.,
of the
the historic Yazdagard III, in 651 a.d., and the events
accompanyrag the
fall
Arab
of the empire through the
Conquest.
The argument,
if
we
so
may term
with a poetic picture of the
rise of
in legendary antiquity, followed
the reign of
the Iranian empire
by the golden age during
King Jamshid, succeeded by a thousand
years of foreign of
of the epic begins
it,
rule under Zahak, typifying the
Babylon for centuries over Iran,
yoke of Semitic tyranny could at
the renowned Faridun of fabled fame.
Turan and Iran next strife
the
and bloody
poem
tells,
fill
that usurping
till
last
cruel
sway
be thrown
off
by
Wars between
the scene as the result of civil
fratricide until, ia Minuchihr's reign,
how
the love
Rudabah gave
birth to
in a long romantic episode,
of the valiant Zal for the fair 93
\
THE SHAH-NAM AH
94
Rustam, the great hero of the exploits, herculean labors,
them
Rustam's martial
epic.
and signal triumphs (one of
being, alas, the tragic slaying in single
Suhrab, his
own
son,
whom
combat
of
he did not recognize) occupy
a large part of the poem.
The majesty
of the
Kaianian
king after king
rulers,
and event following event, forms the burden of the epic song in chronicle order down to the time when Alexander the
The sway
Great invaded Iran.
Arsacids, however,
dred years,
is
followed with a rule of five hun-
crowded into a period of quarter that length
of time (owing to to a
who
Parthian
the
of
an established
tradition),
minor section as compared with the
and reduced rest
of
the
poem.
Yet poesy and history joia hand in hand, cant grasp, rule, or
when
in fairly signifi-
Firdausi reaches the era of the Sasanian
from about 226 to 650 a.d.
It
be added that throughout his whole
may
furthermore
work Firdausi -
deals
with his subject as a poetic chronicler and not as a cold historian
;
but he has succeeded withal in giving a certain
unity of purpose to his long sight the
poem by keeping
ever in
aim which he had in view, which was to exalt
the fallen glory of Iran.
There are translations of the Shah-namah into English, French, Italian, and (incomplete) into German.
They
are
referred to in the Bibliography at the beginning of this
volume, the best English translation being that by Arthur G. and
Edmond Warner.
I
have nevertheless ventured to
add here some translations which
I
have made of several
SURVEY OF THE EPIC selections, the first excerpt being rendered into
95
rhyme,
with a rhythm modelled somewhat after the mutakarib
;
the other three are in blank verse, which latter form I
have chosen also for the famous episode of Suhrab and
Kustam.
;
;
THE SHAH-NAMAH
96
KING JAMSHID OF THE GOLDEN AGE (TMs monarch, who was a pioneer
in civilization,
is
supposed to have lived
ahout 3000 b.c, and legend assigns to him a fahulous reign of seven hundred years.
sent
In translating the present selection an attempt has heen made to repre-
somewhat the rhythm and the rhyme
Then Jamshid, the scion With girt loins and full of
of the original Persian. )'
of glorious line, his father's design,
Ascended the radiant throne in his stead, In the manner of kings, a gold crown on his head. With glory majestic his form was bedight. The world, end to end, then conceded his right;
The times ceased from tumult throughout the whole E'en Demons, Birds, Peris, obeyed his
command
land,
!
Prosperity waxed in the world through his lead.
And
the throne of the kings became glorious indeed.
Quoth he, The office The hand
'
am
I
graced with the Glory Divine,
and
of king of the
of priest I
wicked
I'll
Their souls toward the light
To
And
the
skill of his
He
weapons he
that shall win.
first
turned his hand,
portals, as heroes
demand.
majesty, iron he melted
cuirass or as trappings for steeds of his genius he 'complished these deeds.
years in this
fifty full
And
it is I
helm, plate, and corselet he smelted.
steel into
As mail and By the light For
of
opened Fame's
Through
And
making
combine
cut short from sin.
manner he wrought,
treasures of that kind together he brought.
next worked on vestments,
That the Of linen,
folk silk,
full fifty years
more,
might have robes for the feast as for war. hair, and of soft floss he made
Rich raiment, and also of fur and brocade. Âť
Text, Vullers,
1.
23-26 1.
;
cf. tr.
137-141;
Mohl, cf.
1.
33-37
Rogers,
p.
;
Warner,
16
f.
1.
131-134
;
Pizzi,
;
;
;;
;;
KING JAMSHID AND THE GOLDEN AGE The people he taught both
to spin
and
to
weave,
And woof within warp on the loom's beam to And when it was woven to wash and to sew To
learn this from
A
new
him
97
reeve
in detail did he show.
made when aU
this he had doneSo glad was the time and such joy he had won. A gath'ring from every profession he drew,
plan he
And
spent in this
The
class of the Priests,
Who
way
a half cycle anew.
who
are worshipers deemed,
He now
set apart
from the
as clerics are
by a right
of
—
known their own
—
rest of the throng.
Assigned them the hill-tops for worship in song Devotion and praise
Enwrapt
To
it is
theirs to combine,
in the glorious Presence Divine.
the next of the classes he then turned aside,
The Warrior Caste's name to them is applied. Whenever these lion-knights join in the fight, The army and realm gain in glorious light To them it is owing the king holds his throne. And the valorous name of the country is known.
The
third class as Tillers of soil
you may know
Obligation to no one they anywhere owe.
They
plant and they
And when men
till,
and the harvest they rear
eat their products, no censure they hear.
They brook no command, though in rags they be dressed. Nor by sound of complaint is their ear e'er distressed Exempt through their tilling the face of the ground, Exempt from all censure and talk that goes round. Dost know the quaint saw that the wise spokesman gave ? 'Tis idleness maketh the free man a slave.'
—
'
To
the fourth class the Artisan
Their hands they
all use,
and
name
is
applied
;
their skill is their pride.
; ;
;
THE SHAH-NAMAH
98
And what
though
a trade their sole calling
Their heart from concern never wholly is In this
And
way
may
be,
free.
another half century he spent,
benefits
many
to
mankind thus
lent.
His own proper place through him each man attained ; To each one he showed how the path could be gained. his own fitting station might know more or less what behooved
So that each one
see
And
his degree.
He
should
ordered the Div-fiends of uncleanly birth
To mix up with water the clay of the earth. Then the crude mass, as soon as to shape it they knew. With skill into light moulded brick-forms they threw. With mortar and stone the foundations they raised.
By
architect's science the
work was
appraised.
Hot
baths thus were builded and palaces high.
And
halls of retreat
where from danger
to fly.
The rocks he searched next for their jewels so bright. the number his search brought to light There were jewels of all kinds that came to his hold.
And many Such
as rubies, carnelian, with silver
and gold.
All these from the stones he by magic art drew.
As
the key for each separate mystery he knew.
Next perfumes
Which
delicious 'twas his to invent.
pleasure for mortals impart
by
their scent
Like balsam and camphor and musk of the deer, Like
aloes,
and amber, and rosewater
clear.
Then leechcraft and healing for every known pain, The way to 'scape ills and sound health to regain
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
These secrets from hiding he
No
searcher like
all
did unfold
him hath on earth
e'er
been
told.
;
;
;
;
KING JAMSHID AND THE GOLDEN AGE Anon on
And
99
the sea in a ship he did toss,
swift from one land to another did cross.
In manner like
that, fifty years did pass still
Naught
this
by
else
time he saw hid from his
skill.
And when, by himself, all these deeds he had done. No mortal he saw saving himself alone And since through his skill all such things did transpire. He planted his foot to ascend a step higher. Yea, a glorious throne, sovran -worthy, he made, Incrusted with gems and with jewels inlaid.
The Divs
at his bidding did raise
it
on high.
Aloft from the plain far up into the sky.
In mid-air
it
shone like the glistening sun.
The king gave his edicts when seated thereon. The whole world assembled his bright throne around
And
;
stood at his glorious lot in astound.
While jewels on Jamshid were scattered and thrown The day ever since has as New Year's been known, The first of God's New Year, the month Farvadin, Each man freed from toiling, each heart from chagrin. '
'
The grandees in gladness a feast did array, They called for the wine cup and minstrels
And
to play
hence doth that glorious fete ever stand
To keep up
the fame of that sovereign so grand.
;
;
;
THE SHAH-NAMAH
100
THE HOSTS OF IRAN AND TURAN ENGAGE BATTLE
IN
(The inveterate warfare which raged between Iran and Turan grew out of the fratricidal strife between the famous Taridun's three sons, Iraj, Tur, and Salm, among whom respectively he had divided the kingdoms of Persia, Turan,
and China. The youthful Iraj, lord of Iran, was treacherously murdered by his two brothers but his son, Prince Minuchihr, became the avenger and led the Iranian hosts to battle and victory over the Turanians. This was the beginning of the continuous series of conflicts between these two countries, which forms the burden of a large part of the Shah-namah. The opening engagement, when the avenging Minuchihr gives the signal for battle, and victory Ughts upon the standards of Iran, is thus described in heroic verse.) i ;
When dawn
burst forth from out the eastern sky, Rending apart the darkness of the night, Prince Minuchihr advanced out from the ranks, Wearing his corselet, sword, and Riiman casque.
A shout,
with one accord, the army raised,
Their lances lifted upward toward the clouds.
Heads full of wrath, brows knit with vengeful frowns They plowed the very face of earth amain. The king arrayed his troops, as fits a host, Left, right, and center, and the army's flanks. The earth became like ship upon the main. Thou might'st have said it was about to sink.
The sign he gave, on his huge elephant. Then 'gan the ground to heave like azure sea The drummers marched before the elephants With din and roar like lions in a rage. The clarions and the trumpets sounded loud As though a festival were taking place. Both hosts advanced
A >
like
mountains from their base,
battle-cry rang out on either side
Text, VuUers,
1.
109, 112
;
cf. tr.
220, 221; Pizzi,
Mohl, 1.
1.
143-144, 146; Warner,
273-274, 278.
1.
219-
Faeidun's Geief at the Muedbe of his Son Iraj (From
the Cochran Collection of Persian Maniwcripts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
IToface page
100']
IRAN AND TURAN IN COMBAT
101
The plain became as 'twere a sanguine sea, Thou 'dst said that blood-red tulips sprang from
earth.
In streams of gore the elephants stood, knee-deep,
Mounted as 'twere on coral pedestals The air was clogged with fog from the horsemen's ;
.
.
.
Like lightning flashed their gleaming swords of
Thou
might'st have thought the sky was
So shone
dust.
steel,
all ablaze.
earth's surface diamond-like with flame.
;
THE SHAH-NAM AH
102
THE HERO SAM SLAYS A DRAGON (The warrior Sam, ancestor of Rustam, is one of the heroes of the poem. his deeds of prowess was the slaying of a dragon which had devastated the earth. The description of this Geste is somewhat fantastic in its hyperbole, but is not without parallel in medieval "Western romance or even in our oldest English epic, which tells of the flre-breathing dragon which Beowulf slew.) i
Among
When
out from Kashaf s stream the dragon came
Its
Its
made
foam length seemed stretched on earth from town bulk from hill to hill seemed in expanse.
Lashing,
it
the whole world like to
All hearts with panic were aghast at
^
;
to town,
it.
Keeping watch day and night continuously.
Even the sky became bereft of birds, The face of earth entire deprived of beasts The very vulture's wings singed by its blast. The world ascorch did with its venom blaze. drew from out the stream And eagles swift of wing from out the sky The earth, of man and moving thing was reft, The whole world yielded to it room and space. Fierce crocodiles
it
;
Then when Able I,
saw no human being left, it in hand combat,
I
to dare
with
trusting God, the World-protector pure,
my
Cast from
My loins
inmost heart each spark of
I girt in
name
of
fear.
God Most High,
Mounting my steed, whose size was mammoth-like, Ox-headed mace upon my saddle-cross. Bow on mine arm, my hauberk on my neck. Text, Vullers,
1
Mohl, 297
;
1.
243-245
;
1.
194-196
Warner,
Pizzi, 1. 399-401;
;
1.
cf. tr.
296-
Atkinson,
p.
=
The
river Kashaf flowed
city of Tus, Firdausi's
home.
by the
;
;
:
;
THE HERO SAM SLAYS A DRAGON Forward I
103
like furious crocodile I rushed,
with keen grasp, he with sharp flaming breath
All they that saw, bade
As
me
a last farewell,
'gainst the dragon-monster
I reached
it,
mace
I
drew.
— saw as 'twere a mountain huge,
was dragging on the earth like an ebon tree. Its gnashing jaws, wide yawning, barred the path. Two pools of blood its gleaming eyeballs were At sight of me it roared, and furious sprang It seemed to me, O thou that hearest this. As though it fire bore within its frame. Its coil-like hair Its
;
swarthy tongue looked
!
The ground seethed like a sea beneath my Or floated like a sombre cloud in smoke
eyes
Aghast was, at its roar, the face of earth. The world empoisoned was, like China's sea.
Then
lion-like, I raised a fearful shout.
As
behooveth
it
And It
man
set forthwith
of valiant heart.
an arrow on
my bow —
was a shaft whose point was diamond
And
shot the arrow
Pinning
And
its
down
yet remained a part of
its
—
jaws amain,
tongue within that awful mouth.
Beyond the cloven jaws Into
its
its
tongue outside
after that stroke.
throat I launched a second shaft.
Whereat the horrid creature writhed with pain Then shot a third into its maw adown. The dragon's life gushed from its baneful spleen. But earth had grown too narrow for my rage, In wrath I drew my famed bull -headed mace (With strength from God, Lord of the Universe)
—
Spurring
my mammoth
steed apace towards
it,
—
;
THE SHAH-NAMAH
104
And
smote with bull-topped mace the dragon's head,
(Thou
'Idst
say the sky a mountain had poured
Like a
mad
elephant
Venom
its skull I
streamed over
all,
down
crushed,
like the River Nile.
more from my blow's force The ground rose mountain-like with its huge brain, While Kashaf s stream to bitter bile was churned Then peace and rest once more to earth returned. It ne'er recovered
;
!)
;
; :
''
;
COMBAT OF SUHRAB AND RUSTAM
105
THE FATAL COMBAT OF SUHRAB AND RUSTAM (The episode
Suhrab and Eustam, in which the warrior Eustam unwitin single combat, is one of the most famous episodes in the Shah-namah. Parallels in the Old High German epic fragment of Hildebrand and Hadubrand or in the tragic story of Cucullin and Conloch, pretingly slays his
of
own son
Matthew Arnold, in on the theme, with a free the tragic close. Blank verse is here
served in the reliques of Irish poetry, are not far to seek. English, has modelled his
'
Sohrab and Eustum
'
treatment but with poetic art sustained to chosen for my rendering from the Persian.)
1.
EUSTAM PEBPAKES FOE THE FEAY AGAINST THE HEED OF TUEAnI Rustam made
And
donned
ready,
his tiger-mail
girt the royal girdle 'bout his waist.
Vaulting on Rakhsh, his steed, he took the road.
To Zawarah, guard
He
said:
Hearken
'
and host, Advance no further step from here
to
me
of the throne
rather than to the chiefs
!
His gonfalon they bore along with him
Thus marched he
forth, vengeful
and
full of
wrath.
When he saw Suhrab and his neck and arms, And brawny chest like that of warrior Sam, He said to him, Come, let's aside from here, '
Let's to a field of fight outside the lines!
Suhrab clasped hands with him and then withdrew
To
the place of fight far from the serried ranks.
Saying to Rustam,
At
the place apart
'
On
!
till
We
I
we
arrive
are the heroes twain
Not one need we from Iran or Turan, Enough that thou and I together fight. Yet on the field there is no room for thee. Not one blow from my fist thou could'st withstand 1 Text, Vullers, 1. 487-489 Mohl, 2. 115-117; Warner,
;
2.
cf . tr.
161-
162 174.
;
Pizzi, 2.
263-266 ; Rogers, p. 169-
; ;
;;
!;
THE SHAH-NAMAH
106
Tall though thy stature, stout thy chest and neck,
They
are enfeebled with the weight of years.'
Rustam
upon the champion bold, Upon his shoulders, arms, and stirrups long Gently to him he said, O gentle youth, The earth is cold, the air is mild and warm. Though old in years, I've many a combat seen, cast glance
'
Many Many
army I have crushed to earth. demon that my hand hath slain. Nor saw I yet when I have met defeat. the the
Just wait
me on
thou hast seen
till
the field
Should'st thou survive, fear not Leviathan!
my
For
seas
The
stars bear witness to
and
hills
^
combats have beheld,
my
feats achieved
Against the heroes famed of Turan's host
In
valor's realm the
Yet, pity
's
in
body
Life from thy
world I
would
Stay not with the Turks
Thy compeer
When
is
my heart for
'neath
fain not reave
— having such neck and arms —
in Iran I ne'er have known.'
parley such from Rustam's lips had come.
The heart
of
Suhrab throbbed, yearning towards him.
Quoth Suhrab, Just one question '
'Tis wholly
Thy
And For
my feet.
rue of thee.
fit
I
wiU ask
—
thou should'st the truth reveal
lineage tell to
me
in all detail.
gladden thou
my
heart with thy good word.
I believe that
thou art Rustam, aye,
Sprung from the stock of famous Nariman.' Then out spake Rustam Rustam I am not. Nor sprung from stock, line of Sam Nariman :
1
(cf
The Persian word nahang or nihang Skt. nihdkd ?) designates some
.
monster of the deep;
it is
generally
'
translated as
'
crocodile, alligator, '
and
a synonym in the epic for something that is the extreme of ferocity. is
;
—
;;
.
COMBAT OF SUHRAB AND RUSTAM
A hero, he
I his inferior
;
Nor throne
is
107
am,
mine, nor rank, nor diadem.'
From Suhrab's hope came not a joyous ray, Dark turned for him the brilliant light of day. 2.
THE FIGHT BETWEEN SUHEAB AND ETTSTAM
Forth to the Still
field
went Suhrab, lance
pondering on his mother's
in
hand
—
tale of his birth. ^
A narrow place as field of fight they chose, And
with their javelins short began the attack
Nor point, nor joint upon the spears remained. Curb turned to left, they fought with Indian swords. Pouring forth flame from out the edge of
—
steel
The blades by force of blows asplinter were — (Such blows might bring
Then grasped they each
And
their clubs of
mighty weight.
smote each other, dealing blow for blow.
Broken
The
their
maces from the
fierce
impact
horses staggered, the furious foemen reeled
Off from the steeds the armored trappings
The
corselet
on each warrior's breast was
Chargers and heroes worn and weak
No
strength in cither's hand or
Their bodies sweating, mouths Their tongues
all
alike.
arm remained. ^ filled full
with dust.
parched and cracked with burning thirst
—
Suhrab's mother, on his departure had told him the strange story
for war,
that
Rustam was
his father, though
knew not
the truth, because
the sire
at his birth she
fell,
rent.
all full of wounds the Thus parted they The son with pain and full of anguish-fire.
1
Doom !)
Crack of
to pass the
had sent the warrior
hero word that a daughter was
bom
sire. .
.
to him, lest that the child be taken
from ^
her.
Possibly
bdzu,
lit.
'
arm,
'
may
here refer to the foreleg of the steed, to carry out the parallel
bazu in Yt.
8.
22
;
Vd.
;
of.
18. 70.
ATestan
;
!
THE SHAH-NAM AH
108
NEXT MOENING THE BATTLE
3.
IS
RENEWED
I
When the sun's brilliant orb its wings had spread And black-plumed raven night its head had bowed, Rustam, of mighty bulk, his tiger-mail
Did don, and climbed his dragon-charger Rakhsh. Between the lines was two leagues' space of ground
Which none dared
tread or enter in the midst.
Suhrab the night had passed with wine and harp Telling his friend Human, in company,
How
sure he felt he had with
And
his misgirings at the
He,
too, at
And
dawn when
Rustam fought,
coming
fray.^
the bright sun arose
warrior-knights lifted their heads from sleep.
Arrayed himself in armor for the fight, His head with combat filled, his heart with mirth. Shouting he came into the battle-plain
Wielding in hand a mace with bullock's head.
Of Rustam, then, he asked with smiling lips, (As had the twain the night together passed), '
How
Why
didst thou rest last night is
?
How
thy heart's design on combat set
Throw down thy mace
;
°
fling off
rise
to-day
?
?
thy vengeful sword
Cast to the earth this unjust wicked
strife
Let us dismount, and down together sit. Making our sad cheeks bright with drafts of wine.
A
covenant in God's sight
And
rest resort to fight,
Be reconciled with me and 1
Vullers,
Mohl,
168-171
;
us make.
heartily repent of seeking war.
Let some one of the
tr.
let
2.
text,
1.
126-130;
497-500;
Warner,
join in feast. 2
cf.
2.
Pizzi, 2. 276-281; cf. Rogei-s,
pp. 178-184.
in translating this paragraph seThave heen abridged. So the reading of Ms. P, with 3urÂŤ,
eral lines ' '
mace,' instead of
tlr,
'
arrow.'
;
'
;
COMBAT OF SUHRAB AND RUSTAM
My
109
heart for love of thee doth inly yearn
And
bringeth tears of shame into
my
face.
Seeing thy birth comes of heroic stock 'Tis
fit
Thy name
Now
make known
that thou
thou shouldest not
that in fight with
me thy line from me conceal to
me thou
art to join.
Art thou the son of Zal, son of brave Sam, The famous Rustam of Zabulistan ?
Rustam
replied,
O
'
seeker after fame,
In parley such as this we've ne'er indulged
I
—
Of wrestling we did speak a word last night make thou no use of them I stand no tricks ;
No
child
My loins
am
I,
I
though thou thyself art young,
meet the fray. Come, let's engage and let the issue be That which the World-protector may ordain I'm well acquaint with pride and with its fall I've girt already to !
I
Nor am
I
man
Suhrab replied
;
^
that speaketh guile and fraud.' :
Old man,
'
My counsel — though
it
In time should'st quit thy
While those thou
leav'st
if
were life
thou dost spurn
my
wish that thou
upon thy bed,
behind should for thee make
A tomb, thy soulless body to enshrine — Yet,
if
thy
life
Down
I'll
And
take
it
is laid.
from that hand.'
from their battle chargers leapt the twain.
In mail and casque
Each
my hand
within
At God's mandate
cautious they
;
tied his steed of
war
made advance;
fast to a rock
then came on, each with a troubled soul.
They grappled like two lions in desperate clinch. With sweat and blood in streams their bodies ran 1
Literally fardz
u nishib
is
'
ascent and descent
ment
in life).
'
(i.e.
exaltation
and abase-
;
no
THE SHAH-NAMAH From dawn until the sun his shadows stretched They strove, in turn, each other to o'ercome. Suhrab attacked as some mad elephant,
And
sprang like roaring lion from his
lair,
Seized Rustam's girdle-band and tugged amain,
(Thou would'st have said he meant to rend the earth Then raised a cry, with wrath and vengeance filled, As he the lion Rustam dashed to earth.
As
raging elephant then he Rustam grasped,
Raised him aloft and hurled him
Then
upon His hands and sat
his chest of
face
down
mammoth
again.
size.
and mouth covered with dust,
paw The wild ass, and it straightway meets its death. Then forth his dagger keen of blade he drew. E'en as the lion smiteth with his
Eager to cut
Which ('
seeing,
The hidden
Rustam secret
Speaking to Suhrab, Master of
head from
his foe's
lasso,
trunk.
lifted his voice
must '
its
at last
and
come out
said, I
')
Lion-queller bold,
mace, and dagger-thrust.
Our custom different is from that of yours. Our rule ordaineth something else than that. The man who joins in wrestling with his foe. And brings the chieftain's head down to the earth. Planting his shoulders squarely on the ground.
Though wroth takes not his head at the first But if he bring him down a second time, Winning by triumph thus the Lion Name,'
fall
'
He
then
Such
By
is
may from
its
trunk the head cut
off:
the custom which prevails with us.'
strategy like this he sought escape
From
out the dragon's clutch, and death t'elude.
!)
;
;
COMBAT OF SUHBAB AND RUSTAM
111
The brave youth yielded to the old man's plea (Though Rustam's words, in sooth, were not in In part through confidence, in part through In part, no doubt, through greatness of his
Suhrab freed Rustam from
Turned to 4.
his
soul.
hand amain,
the waste where wild deer scoured the plain.
COMBAT EENEWED THE NEXT DAY TO DEATH 1 Once more
.
.
.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; SUHEAB WOUNDED
their steeds they tethered ere the fray
(Ill-destined Fate
When
place)
fate,
was drawing
to its end.
Fortune once doth show malignity.
The flinty rock become th soft as wax !) Then took their grip to wrestle all anew. Each seized the other by the girdle-strap But as for gallant Suhrab, thou'ldst have said High heaven had bound in bonds his strength ;
Rustam
He
of hand.
in rage reached out to clutch his foe.
champion by his head and neck, Bent down the body of the valiant youth. Whose time had come, nor strength in him remained, And like a lion dashed him to the earth. Yet knew he well he would not stay beneath, So, from his belt quick drew his gleaming blade And gashed the bosom of his valiant son. seized the
'Ah gasped out Suhrab from his soul and writhed; Nor recked he then of either good or ill. I
'
'
'
Vengeance comes on me from myself,' he cried, 'Twas Fate that gave into thy hand the key
Of this thou'rt blameless, that the vaulted sky Hath raised me up to cast me down so soon. Âť VuUers, text, 1. 502-504 cf. Warner, 132-135; Mohl, 2. ;
tr.
2.
172-174
;
Pizzi,
pp. 184-188.
2.
284-287; Rogera,
'
: '
THE SHAH-NAMAH
112
My peers Because
in years will
my
me with
speak of
scorn,
,
neck hath come thus to the dust.
My mother gave me signs to know my sire My love for him hath brought my life to an
;
Ever
end.
might see his face, through that desire. came to no lucky end.
I searched that I
my life
'Tis thus I gave
My search, alas! My father's countenance
I ne'er have seen
1
Yet, shouldest thou become a fish in the sea,
Or Or Or
turn, like night, into the
e'en
become
in
heaven
murky
air,
like a star,
blot the brilliant sun out of the world.
Vengeance on thee
When
he shaU see
Some one
my father my pillow is
'11
surely take,
of clay
!
renowned warriors Will bring the proof to Rustam and the news " Suhrab's been slain and cast as a vile thing Away, while he was making search for thee " of those
I
As Rustam
heard, his brain turned in a whirl,
Darkling the world became before his eyes,
His body
From
When He '
he
fell
once again back to himself he came
asked of Suhrab, with deep groan and moan,
Tell
me what marks
(May
his
For
am Rustam
I
name
of
Rustam thou dost have,
perish from the warriors' roll I) !
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Perish the name
I
and may
for
my
death
raised a cry, his blood within
him
seethed.
Zal, son of
He
and vigor ebbed. and swooned away.
failed, his strength
off his feet
Sam,
sit
mourning
I
His hair he tore and uttered moan on moan.
When
Suhrab Rustam saw
His sense took
flight a
in such a state
moment from
his brain.
;
;'
;
COMBAT OF SUHRAB AND BUSTAM Anon he spoke, If thou art Rustam true, Wanton and in bad blood thou hast me slain In every way I made advance to thee,
113
'
But not an atom
Undo
of thy love did stir.
my
the fastening of
corselet
;
—
now
And look upon my glowing body bare The onyx on my arm regard — 'twas thine — And see how a son hath by his father fared.^
When
drum
the
raised its voice before the gate,
My mother came — (cheeks stained with
—
tears of blood.
Broken her heart because I had to go) And tied this onyx round about my arm. "A keepsake," said she, "from thy sire it is. Guard and preserve it till it comes of use."
And now
the use
is
past, the strife is o'er.
The son hath perished
'neath his father's eyes.'
When Rustam loosed the mail, the onyx saw. He rent the clothes upon his frame, and cried, 'Ah
!
Thou
He
thou,
my
son, art
by mine own hand company
hero, praised in every
poured forth tears of blood, tearing his
Covering his head with dust
To him It
slain.
1
said Suhrab,
naught behooves
What
profit
The deed
is
5.
And when a
now
'
to
That fill
hair.
— face drenched with
is
tears.
worse than bad.
thine eyes with tears
for thee to slay thyself
done, and done
it
was
?
to be.'
.
.
.
THE LAST WOBDS OP SUHBAB ^ clamor from the camp arose,
Suhrab to mighty Rustam spake once more. iThe reading
of Ms.
C
in the translation of these
is
followed
two Unes.
2
xext, Vullers,
Mohl,
2.
136-137
Pizzi, 2. 288-289.
;
1.
506-506;
Warner,
of. tr.
2. 175-176
!; ; ;
;; ;
THE SHAH-NAMAH
114 '
Now
my
that
The Turks'
Do me
day
affairs
passed away and gone,
is
have ta'en a different hue
this act of love
war
;
see that
your King
Turan. Lead 'Twas but through my support, greedy of war, That towards Iran's frontier they turned their face. For many days I gave them tidings good. In many ways I did their hopes fulfil. How could I know O hero, named to fame That I should perish by my father's hand Not one of them must suffer on the retreat Have thou regard for them with naught save love. not in
his host against
—
—
In yonder fort I
a captive brave of mine,
is
caught him with the slip-kndt of
Him
oft I
my
noose
asked some sign for knowing thee
Thy image saw
ever in my eye —
I
Yet was his answer everything but that. ('Twas his own fault a high post is unfilled! Hopeless did I become at what he said.
And my Yet
bright day was turned to
see thou
who
of Iran's host he
No harm must come The
signs
my
unto his
mother gave
I
— )
murky gloom. is.
life for this.^
saw
But, though I saw, I trusted not
in thee.
my
eyes
My evil fate
was written on my brow That I should die by mine own father's hand Like lightning came I, like the wind I go
Happy
in heaven, perchance, I
may
thee
see.'
Thus died Suhrab by his own father's hand, and Rustam mourned for his son and would not be comforted. 1
A fine touch,
this
dying appeal to save a captive's
life.
The Death oe Suheab by the Hand of (From the Cochran
Museum [ To face page
114~i
his
Fatheb Eustam
Collection of Persian Manuscripts in the MetropoKtan of Art,
New York)
CHAPTER X EPILOGUE The
intelligible
forms
of ancient poets.'
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; CoLERiDOB, Translation of Wallenstein, Part The
I, 2.
4. 123.
chapters which have gone before on Early Persian
Poetry cover a long period
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a period of nearly two thouThe
sand years from Zoroaster to Firdausi. song broke forth
first
verse of Iran's
from Zoroaster's prophetic
lips,
chant-
ing praises divine in ages long before the Christian era.
Echoes of music from the palace halls of the great Persian kings in ancient times and from the courts of the Sasanian rulers,
when
minstrel verses charmed the assemblage on
haunt the
festive occasions, still
memories of a by-gone
The shouts
of
ear,
but only as faint
past.
Arab invaders drowned these
Persia's vanquished heart found
lays until nearly
two
centuries
strains,
no expression
had passed.
and
in tuneful
In brighter
national days the strings of the sUenced lute and harp were
touched once more, and Persia, awakened, again raised voice in song.
A brief stanza, heard
its
here or there, an ode,
panegyric, or stray quatrain, told that poetry was reborn.
The
minstrel's voice rang out anew.
full of lyric grace, light-hearted in
tive in thoughtful vein,
It
was
slender, but
buoyant fancy, or
reflec-
keen in sympathy for surroundings,
rich in a feeling for nature, and, above 115
all,
ever thoroughly
EPILOGUE
116
human.
These we may count as some of the characteristics
of the bards that sang
down
to the time
when
the epic
rhapsody of Firdausi's verse gave the assurance that Persian poetry was destined to live on. Firdausi was not only great in the heroic strain, but
was a
master likewise in the art of composing lyric and romantic verse,
about which more
may
be told at some later time.
It seems fitting, however, to let this
manly voice amid the fanfare
volume
close with his
of trumpets, the din of battle,
and the martial deeds that ended in triumph, but in death.
And deep in my heart I cherish the hope that sometime I may touch on that chord of mystic harmony, which long ago and always has thrilled the Persian soul, and that I may likewise revive for "Western ears strains
some
of the later lyric
and some of the romantic melodies in song which
give to Persian poetry a place literatures of the world.
among
the great poetic
INDEX
INDEX Ahmad Abbas
Merv, 16-17 Abbasid Caliphs, 44 n. 1 Abdullah Muhammad al-Juuaidi, poet, 28-29 Abu Ali Khabbaz, poet, 27-28 Abu Ibrahim Ismail, called Munpoet (d. 815 or 816),
of
poet (d. 1005), 54r-56 Ishak of Merv, called Kisa'i,
tasir,
Abu
see Kisa'i
of Khujistan, king, inspired
by lines of Hanzalah, 18-19 Ahura Mazdah, a Gathio hymn addressed to, 3â&#x20AC;&#x201D;4 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 85 Anushirvan the Just (Khusrau Sasanian ruler, 37 Arab conquest of Persia, 14, 82
I),
Arabic, poems by Bahram Gur in, 10 infusion of, into Persian, 14, 15 Abbas of Merv wrote poetry in, 16 proportion of, in the Persian of
Abu Abu Abu
Shukur, 23 n. 3 '1-Abbas, poet, 52 n. 3 the poet Junaidi a master of, 28 '1-Fath, poet, 52 n. 3 Budagi translated his Kalilah and '1-Hasan or Abu Ishak, called Dimnah from, 37 Bjsa'i, see Kisa'i words avoided by Pirdausi, 83, 87 Abu 'l-Hasan Ali b. Ilyas al-Aghachi ^jasp, ruler of Turan, in Dakiki's (Aghaji), 29-31 epic fragment, 64 Abu '1-Masal, poet, 52 n. 3 Abu 'l-Muzaffar, Amir, patron of Arnold, Matthew, the story of Suhrab and Rustam treated by, Farrukhi, 74r-78 105 Abu 'l-Muzaffar Nasr, poet, 28 Abu Mansur Muhammad bin Ah- Aruzi, Nizami-i, Samarkandi, on Hanzalah of Badghis, 18 n. 1, mad, poet, see Dakiki 19 n. 1 Abu Nasr of Gilan, poet, 51-52 quoted on Rudagi, 35, 37 Abu Sa'id, mystic poet (967-1049), mentions poets at the court of Umarah of Merv esteemed by, Mahmud of Ghaznah, 69 53 remarks on Unsuri by, 70 to be discussed in a subsequent account of Farrukhi by, 74 n. 1, 78 volume, 58 Abu Sahk of Gurgan, poet (9th Asadi, early Persian lexicographer, nephew of Firdausi, quotes cent.), 20-21 Unes of Abu Shukur, 23 n. 4, Abu Shukur of Balkh, poet (fl. 941),
22-24
Abu Tahir
of
Khatun, quoted by
Daulatshah, 11 Tahir Khusravani, poet, a stanza by, 41 n. 3 general account of, 50-51 Achaemenian times, poetry in, 6-7 Afarin, a Sasanian poet, 9 n. 1 Afarin-namah, lost poem by Abu Shukur, 24 n. 2 Afghanistan, 15, 45, 48, 67 Agathias, Greek writer, 84
Abu
Aghachi (Aghaji), Abu '1-Hasan Ali b. Ilyas al-, poet (10th cent.),
29-31 119
24 and n. 2 quotes Shahid of Balkh some 32 times, 26 n. 4 quotes 10 single Unas by Aghaji, 30
n.
4
quotes Rudagi 161 times, 35 n. 3, 38 n. 3 quotes over 60 verses of Kisa'i,
46
n. 1
quotes some 25 single lines by Khusravani, 50 n. 2 quotes 40 single lines by Umarah of Merv, 53 n. 1 quotes Dakiki some 60 times, 62 n. 3
INDEX
120
Unsuri more than 100 Bahram Gur, Sasanian ruler (420438), invention of the rhyming 2 couplet ascribed to, 9 quotes Farrukhi some 90 times, said to have been the first to com79 n. 1 pose Persian verse, 10 quotes Asjadi more than 50 Baihaki, al-, records the names of times, 79 n. 5 Sasanian poets, 9 n. 1 Asjadi, poet (fl. 1025), 79-81 joined with Unsuri and Farrukhi Balkh, Abu Shukur a native of, 22 Shahid a native of, 24 in testing Firdausi, 88 Unsuri a native of, 69 declared useless by astrologers, Barbad, a Sasanian poet (fl. 600), Khusravani, 50-51 12 astronomer, Umarah of Merv an, 52 beast-fables, Indian, 37 Astyages, songs at the court of, 6 Aufi, biographer (fl. 1225), state- Bidpai, Fables of, translated into Persian by Rudagi, 37-38 ment of, regarding Bahram branding of colts, a poem on, 74r-78 Gut, 10 Browne, Edward G., view of, repraises Hanzalah of Badghis, 17 garding Kisa'i's old age, 60 n. 1 lauds the poems of Firuz altranslation by, of a poem of Mashriki, 19 comment of, on Abu Salik of Mantiki of Rai, 57 Gurgan, 20-21 Bukhara, city, the home of numera tradition regarding Kiabbaz ous poets, 29 quoted from, 27 a famous ode by Rudagi on, 35-36 statement of, regarding Junaidi, 28 n. 3 the poet Ma'navi a native of, comment of, on Aghaehi, 29 n. 2 52 n. 3 statements of, regarding Rudagi, the poet Muntasir a prince of, 54 Avieenna (Ibn Sina) bom near, 67 33, 36 fragments of Kisa'i's poetry preDakiM possibly a native of, 69 served by, 46 n. 1 Asjadi possibly a native of, 79 statement of, regarding Kisa'i, 49 Buwaihid princes, poetry under the, snatches of IJmarah's poems pre15,56 served by, 53 C traditions regarding Muntasir redecline of the, Bagdad, Caliphate at lated by, 54 n. 4, 55 15 Avesta, poetry in the, 2-6 a Gatha passage (Ys. 44. 3-5) Chares of Mytilene, mentions the Zariadres and of love-tale from the, 3^ Odatis, 7 a Yasht passage (Yt. 10. 13-14) chronicles, ancient, of Media and from the, 5-6 Persia, 84 Avieenna (Ibn Sina), refused to quotes
times, 72 n.
Edward Byles, version of a Mahmud of CoweU, poem of Rudagi by, 39 Ghaznah, 57 found a patron in the Ziyarid CucuUin and Conloch, the Irish story of, a parallel to the prince Kabus, 57 episode of Suhrab and Rustam, tomb of, stiU preserved at Ha105 madan, 57 to be discussed in a subsequent Cynewulf, Anglo-Saxon poet, 42 volume, 58 D Ayaz, favorite of Mahmud of Ghazgrace the court of
nah, 71
Azud ad-Daulah
of Dailam, 11
B Badghis, a district northwest of Herat, 17 n. 3 the poet Hanzalah a native of, 17 Bahlabad (Barbad), a Sasanian poet (fl. 600), 12
Dakiki, poet (10th cent.), praised his contemporary Aghaehi, 29 general account of, 59-65 stanzas by, translated, 60, 61, 62,
63 an epic fragment by, incorporated in the Shah-namah, 63-64 as forerunner of Firdausi, 65, 84 Firdausi 's dream of, 85
INDEX
121
Danishvar, author of a Sasanian joined with Asjadi and Unsuri in prose epic, the Khvatai-namak, testing Pirdausi, 88 85 Firdausi, epic poet (c. 935-1025), Darmesteter, James, quoted on mentions poets at the court of Shahid of Balkh, 25 n. 2 the legendary king Jamshid, 6 explanation by, of a phrase in a Zarir mentioned in the Shahpoem by Rudagi, 43 n. 2 namah by, 7 quoted in praise of Kisa'i, 48 represents Bahram Gur as encomment of, on a poem of Dakiki, joying poetry, 10 mentions the Sasanian poet Bar63 Daulatshah, biographer Persian bad, 12 (15th cent.), tells the story of quotes lines of Khusravani, 51
King Bahram's invention rhyming couplet, 9, 10 n.
of the
incorporated Dakiki's epic frag-
ment
1
in his
Shah-namah, 64
Mahmud
Ghaznah
mentions a poetic inscription at
eulogy of
Kasr-i Shirin, 11 on poets at the court of
by, 66, 87 the poet Unsuri praised by, 70 avoidance of Arabic words by, 83 the successor of Dakiki, 84, 85 account of the Kfe of, 84-92 sources drawn on by, for his epic,
of
statements 70,
Mahmud
Ghaznah, 69 of,
regarding Unsuri,
71-72
life became a, 46,50 Dihkan, class of landed proprietors, 84,85 DUaram, beloved of King Bahram
dervish, Kisa'i in later
Gur, 9
Divan
(collection
of
Hanzalah, 18 Shahid of Balkh
poems),
by
84-86 Unsuri, Asjadi, and Farrukhi joined in a test of, 88 the famous satire on Mahmud by,
90,91 fame
lasting
the
one
of
the
of
great
of,
epic
92 by,
see
Shah-
namah
earhest poets to leave a, 26 n. 4 Piruz al-Mashriki, poet (c. 890), 19-20 by Unsuri, still extant, 72 flowers, Kisa'i's love of, 46-47 by Farrukhi, still extant, 79 by Asjadi, not current even in the G 15th century, 79 dragon, conflict of the hero Sam Gathas, poetic aspects of the Aveswith a, 102-104 tan, 2-A
ghazal (ode), translation from a, by Dakiki, 60-61 elegiac poetry, 42-44, 49, 51, 67-68 ghazals, six, ascribed to Mahmud of Ghaznah, 67 epic, an early type of poetry, 2 Ghaznah, city in Afghanistan, 45, Dakiki's fragment of an, 63-65 the great Persian, see Shah57, 67 namah Ghaznavid princes, poetry under Esther, Book of, 84 the, 15, 48, 52, 56, 66-67, 69 Ethe, H., estimate of Unsuri by, 72 Gilan, the poet Abu Nasr a native of, 51 evil eye, rue burned to avert the influence of the, 18 Giv, hero, mentioned by Pirdausi,
E
88 Gulistan, beloved of Faralavi, poet, 52 n. 3
Farrukhi, poet
73-79
(d.
Mahmud
of
Ghaznah, 67 (Hyrcania), Abu SaUk a native of, 20 the poet Zarra'ah a native of, 52
1037 or 1038), Gurgan
a native of Sistan, 73 n. 3 found a patron in Transoxiana, 74-78 Gushtasp, King, hero in a loveepisode of the Shah-namah, 8 composed a poem on the branding n. 1 of colts, 74^78 Dakiki's epic fragment relates to, at the court of Mahmud of Ghaz63-64 nah, 78
INDEX
122
H comment on, 48 tomb of Avicenna
Khusrau ruler,
Hafiz, Darmesteter's
II
(Parviz),
Sasanian
a couplet ascribed
to,
10-11 Hamadan, the a patron of poetry, 12 still preserved at, 57 Khusravani, a Sasanian poet, 9 n. 1 Hanzalah of Badghis, poet (o. 850), Khusravani, Abu Tahir, poet, a 17-19 stanza hy, 41 n. 3 Heracleides of Kyme, cited, 8 n. 2 general account of, 50-51 Herat, Asjadi possibly a native of, Khvandamir, historian, on Far79 rukhi and his wealth, 78 n. 2 Herodotus, 84 explains Firdausi's name, 89 n. 2 the Hildebrandslied, a parallel to Khvatai-namak, Pahlavi 'Book of episode of Suhrab and Rustam, Sovereigns,' 85 105 Kisa'i, poet (10th cent.), 46-50 humor, Persians have a quaint vein in later life assumed dervish garb, of, 41 46,50 love
Avicenna Ilak Khan, Tatar ruler, the poet Muntasir fled from, 56
Ibn Sina,
see
of,
for flowers,
46
Darmesteter's comment on, 48 a panegyric on Mahmud of
Ghaznah by, 48-49 wrote despondent verses in old age, 49-50 KatajTin, heroine in a love-episode 100 of the Shah-namah, 8 n. 1 Islam, Zoroastrianism replaced by, Ktesias, 84 14 Kuran, Rudagi in boyhood knew by Ismail, Sahib, Buwaihid minister, heart the whole, 33 eulogized by Mantiki, 66
improvisation, poetic, 71, 73 Iran, warfare between Turan and,
Layamon's Brut, compared with the Shah-namah, 83 Jamshid, King, legend of poetry at love-poems, by Firuz al-MashriM, 20 the court of, 6 by Abu Salik of Gurgan, 21 selection from the Shah-namah by Abu Shukur, 23 about, 96-99 by Aghachi, 30 Junaidi, AbduOah Muhammad al-, by Rudagi, 34, 40-41 poet, 28-29 by Kisa'i, 48 by Umarah of Merv, 53 by Dakiki, 61 Kabus, Ziyarid prince, composed poems, 57 Madharastani, a Sasanian poet, 9 n. 1 Kadisia, battle of, 14 Kalilah and Dimnah, by Rudagi, Mahmud of Ghaznah (998-1030), a 37-38, 43 n. 2 panegyric on, by Kisa'i, 48-49 Kashaf, river, 91, 102 eulogized by Umarah of Merv, 52 kasidah, Kisa'i wrote a mournful, 49 Avicenna refused to grace the Kasr-i Shirin, a couplet inscribed on court of, 57 the palace at, 11 Round Table of poets at the Katabun, heroine in a love-episode court of, 66-81 of the Shah-namah, 8 n. 1 himself a poet, 67-69 Khabbaz of Nishapur, poet (d. Unsuri at the court of, 69-73 953), 27-28 a panegyric by Unsuri on, 71-72 Khabba,z, Abu Ali, poet, 27-28 Farrukhi at the court of, 73, 78 Kianikin, ruins of Kasr-i Shirin Asjadi at the court of, 79-81 near, 11 Firdausi at the court of, 87-90 Khurasan, scene of literary revival Firdausi's eulogy of, 87, 89-90 in 9th century, 16 Firdausi's scathing satire on, 87, Khusrau I (Anushirvan), Sasanian 90,91 ruler, 37 praise of Firdausi by, 89
K
M
INDEX Mahmud-i
Varrak,
'copyist'
'bookseller,' 19 n.
Mamun,
2
Caliph, lauded in verse
Abbas Ma'navi
of
Merv, 16-17 Bukhara, poet, 52
Mansur
I,
Samanid
or Nishapur, the poet Khabbaz a native of, 27 by Abu '1-Muzaffar Nasr a native of,
28
of
by Dakiki
n. 3 ruler, praised in verse, 60
Mantiki of Rai, poet, 56-57 Marghu, ancient name of Merv, 16 Ma'rufi, poet, 24 n. 3
Mashad, ruins 26 Merv, ruins
of ancient
Tus
near,
of the ancient city, 16
the last Sasanian king died at, 16 rebirth of Persian poetry at, 16 the birthplace of Abbas of Merv,
16 Kisa'i a native of, 46 the poet Umarah a
123
native
Nizami-i
Aruzi Samarkand!, on of Badghis, 18 n. 119 n. 1, quoted on Rudagi, 35, 37 mentions poets at the court of
Hanzalah
Mahmud of Ghaznah, 69 remarks on Unsuri by, 70 account of Farrukhi by, 74 78
n. 1,
Nuh
II, Samanid ruler (976-997), directed Dakiki to write the national legend of Iran, 60 praised by Dakiki in verse, 60
O
of,
52-54 ode (ghazal), translation from an, by Asjadi probably a native of, 79 Dakiki, 60-61 meter, remarks on Persian, viii odes, six, ascribed to Mahmud of types of, in the Avestan Gathas, Ghaznah, 67 4n. 2 Omar Khayyam, quoted, 48 of the Avestan Yashts, 4r-5 Ormazd, addressed in the Avestan the mutakarib, 23, 95 Gathas, 3-4 Mihr Yasht, the, of the Avesta, 5-6
P epic hero, 100 Minuchihri, poet (d. 1041), at the Pahlavi works, attempts to find court of Mahmud of Ghaznah, verse in, 8 n. 4 69 panegyric, on the Caliph Mamun quoted in praise of Unsuri, 70 by Abbas of Merv, 16-17 Mithra, a Yasht passage in praise on Nasr II by Rudagi, 37 MinucHhr, Prince,
of,
5-6
on
monorhyme,
29, 33, 36 n. 1, 44 n. 2, 52 n. 2 Moses of Khorene, Armenian author, 84 Muhammadan conquest of Persia, 14,82 Muntasir, poet (d. 1005), 54-56 Mustaufl, author (fl. 1330), statement of, regarding Dakiki, 60 mutakarib, type of meter, 23, 95 Muvayyad, poet, 52 n. 3
of
Ghaznah
by
of
Ghaznah
by
48-49
Mahmud
Umarah
of
Merv, 52
on the minister Sahib Ismail by Mantiki of Rai, 56-57 on Mansur I and Nuh II by Dakiki, 60
on
Mahmud
suri,
of
Ghaznah by Un-
71-72
on Prince Nasr by Unsuri, 72 on Mahmud of Ghaznah
by
Firdausi, 87, 89-90
N Nahavand, battle of, (Nakiyya), Nakisa
Mahmud
Kisa'i,
on
rule, no poetry surviving from the time of, 8 treatment of, in the Shah-namah, 94
Parthian
82 a Sasanian
14,
harper, 9 n. 1
Nasr II, Samanid prince (913-942), Rudagi at the court of, 34-37, 42,44
Persia, Northeastern, the scene of literary activity in the 9th and 10th centuries, 15-16, 56 of Persian, a couplet in antique, 11 Unsuri little changed in 1000 years, 15 analogous development of Eng-
Nasr, Prince, brother of Mahmud Ghaznah, panegyric by on, 72 New Year's Day, said to have been instituted by King Jamshid,
99
lish and, 15 n. 2 earliest verses in,
16-17
Firdausi used remarkably pure, 83
INDEX
124
Khvashgu, quoted on Shahid of Balkh, 25 n. 1 Pickering, C. J., essays on Persian Sakisa, a Sasanian harper, 9 Sam, epic hero, conflict of, with a poetry by, 32 n. 2, 47 n. 1 dragon, 102-104 translation of a poem of Kisa'i Saman, ancestor of the Samanid by, 49 dynasty, 19 n. 1 poet laureate, Unsuri designated as, Samanid dynasty, poetry under the, 70 15, 22, 32, 34, 45, 52, 56, 60 psalms, Zoroastrian (Gathas), 2-4 pun, Junaidi ends a poem with a, Samarkand, Dakiki possibly a native of, 59 29 n. 1 Pushan, hero, mentioned by Pir- Sargish, poet, 12 n. 2 (cf. 9 n. 1) Sasanian rule, poetry under, 8-13 dausi, 88 treatment of, in the Shah-namah, Q 94 quatrain (ruba'i), the earliest known, Saturn, failings of old age attributed by Hanzalah, 18 to the planetary rule of, 42 a very early, by Abu Shukur, 23 Shabdiz, horse of Elhusrau Parviz, an early, by Shahid of Balkh, 25-26 12 by Rudagi, 41 Shahid of Balkh, poet (d. about by Umarah of Merv, 53 950), 24-26 by DakiM, 63 contemporary of Aghachi, 29 physicians,
useless
declared
by
Safinah-i
Khusravani, 50-51
a
by Unsuri, 71 by Asjadi, 80
quoted in praise of Rudagi, 35 in verse by Rudagi, 42 Shah-namah, national epic in finished form, 2 Rai, the poet Mantild a native of, 56 mentions poets at the court of the Raunaki, poet, 52 n. 3 legendary king Jamshid, 6 rhyme, single (monorhyme), 29, 33, 36 n. 1, 44 n. 2, 52 n. 2 Zarir mentioned in the, 7 represents Bahram Gur as enjoyromance, the, of Zariadres and ing poetry, 10 Odatis, 7-8 mentions the Sasanian poet Barof Gushtasp and Kitayun, 8 n. 1
mourned
R
ruba'i, see
Rudag,
quatrain
birthplace
of
the
poet
(o.
880-
Rudagi, 32
Rudagi
(Rudaki),
poet
954), mourned Shahid of Balkh in verse, 24 traditions of the youth of, 32-33 at the court of Nasr II, 34-37, 42,
44 persuaded Nasr Bukhara, 35-37
83 Arabic words avoided in the, 83 sources
drawn on by Firdausi
for
the, 84r-86
to
return to
poetic productivity of, 38 l3rric vein of, 38-39 love poems by, 40-^1 lament of, in old age, 42-44 rue, burned to avert influence of the evil eye, 18 Rustam, the fatal combat of Suhrab
and, 105-114
Saffarid dynasty, poetry 15, 19
bad, 12 Dakiki's epic fragment incorporated in the, 64 one of the world's great epics, 82 compared with Layamon's Brut,
under the,
composition of the, 87, 90 survey of the contents of the, 93-95 of selections from 96-114 Shams ad-Din ibn Kais, the poet Abu Shukur quoted 4 times by, 24 n. 2 Shirin, a couplet addressed to, 11 Shukur, see Abu Shukur Sistan, province, Farrukhi a native of, 73
translations the,
sorcerers, declared useless
by Khus-
ravani, 50-51
Firuz al-Mashriki lived in the Sufi, Kisa'i assumed the dervish time of the, 19 robe of a, 46, 50 Abu Salik lived in the time of the, Suhrab, the fatal combat of Rustam
20
with, 105-114
INDEX
125
Vishtaspa (Gushtasp) King, hero in a love-episode of the ShahTabaristan, the Ziyarid princes in, namah, 8 n. 1 57 Dakiki's epic fragment relates to, Firdausi took refuge in, 90 63-64 Tahirid dynasty, poetry under the, 15 Hanzalah of Badghis lived in the Warner, A. G. and B., translators time of the, 17 of the Shah-namah, 94 more favorable to Arabic than to wine, a poem by Junaidi in praise Persian culture, 17 of, 29 Thousand and one Nights, Rudagi's a poem by Rudagi on, 38-39 Kahlah and Dimnah one of the Zoroastrians allowed a temperate sources of the, 43 n. 2 use of, 52 n. 1, 62, 80 translation, by E. B. Cowell, of a ,
W
poem by Rudagi, 39 by C.
Pickering, of lines
J.
Kisa'i,
by
49
of a poem by of Rai, 57 Transoxiana, scene of literary activity in the 9th and 10th cen-
poems by Umarah of Merv on, 53,54 a poem by Dakiki in praise of, 62
by E. G. Browne,
MantiM
Xenophon, songs at the court Astyages mentioned by, 6
of
turies, 16, 56 Farrukhi went from Sistan to, 74 Turan, warfare between Iran and, Yakub, son of Laith, founder of the 100 Saffarid dynasty, 19 Tus, city in Khurasan, lamented by Yashts, poetic aspects of the AvesShahid of Balkh, 25-26 tan, 4-6 Dakiki probably a native of, 59 Yatkar-i Zariran, Pahlavi prose Firdausi born at, 84 epic, 7 and n. 2 Pirdausi returned to, 91
Yusuf
U
and
Zulaikha,
poem
by
Furdausi, 91
Z
TJmarah of Merv, poet (10th cent.), Zairivairi, brother of Vishtaspa, 7 52â&#x20AC;&#x201D;54 Unsuri, poet (d. about 1050), 69-73 Zarathushtra, Ahura Mazdah addressed by, in the Gathas, 2-^ other poets disciples of, 79 joined with Asjadi and Farrukhi Zariadres and Odatis, the love-tale of, 7-8 in testing Firdausi, 88 Zarir, the love-story of, 7-8 Zarra'ah of Gurgan, poet, 52 n. 3 Ziyarid princes, patrons of literature, 57 Vahh, quoted on Abu Shukur, 23 Vamik and "Adhra, a poem by Zoroaster, Ormazd addressed by, Unsuri, 72 the Gathas, 2-4
in
supplanted by verse in Pahlavi works, attempts to Zoroastrianism, Islam, 14 find, 8 n. 4 versification, in the Avestan Gathas, a temperate use of wine allowed by, 52 n. 1, 62, 80 4n. 2 Dakiki's leanings toward, 61, 64 in the Avestan Yashts, 4-5 Asjadi fancifully caUs himself a in the mutakarib meter, 23-24, convert to, 80
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