3 1822029434255 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Social Sciences & Humanities Library University of California, San Diego ease Note: This item is subject to recall. Date Due 1 7 2002] Cl 39 (5/97) UCSD Lib. A HISTORY OF PERSIAN LITERATURE UNDER TARTAR DOMINION (A.D. 12651502) CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, MANAGER LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.G. 4 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY \ CALCUTTA I MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. MADRAS j TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED HULAGU Add. 18803 (Brit. Mus.), f. 19 Frontispiece A HISTORY OF PERSIAN LITERATURE UNDER TARTAR DOMINION (A.D. 1265-1502) BY EDWARD G. BROWNE M.A., M.B., F.B.A., F.R.C.P. SIR THOMAS ADAMS'S PROFESSOR OF ARABIC AND FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1920 I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME TO MY WIFE, TO WHOSE PERSUASION AND ENCOURAGEMENT ITS COMPLETION IS CHIEFLY DUE (Imdmi: see pp. 116-117.) PREFACE "T7OURTEEN years have elapsed since the second JL volume of my Literary History of Persia 1 , of which the present work is in fact, if not in name and form, a con- tinuation, was published. That the appearance of this continuation, which comprises the period between Sa'di and Jam/, and extends from the death of Hulagu the Mongol to the rise of the Safawi dynasty (A.D. 1265-1502), has been so long delayed is due to a variety of causes, at one of which, operative for five or six years (A.D. 1907-12), I have hinted in the Preface (p. xx) to my Persian Revolution of 1905-9. While Persia was going through what repeatedly appeared to be her death-agony, it was difficult for anyone who loved her to turn his eyes for long from her present sufferings to her past glories. Often, indeed, I almost abandoned all hope of continuing this work, and that I did at last take up, revise and complete what I had already begun to write was due above all else to the urgency and encouragement of my wife, and of one or two of my old friends and colleagues, amongst whom I would especially mention Dr T. W. Arnold and Mr Guy le Strange. The delay in the production of this volume has not, however, been altogether a matter for regret, since it has enabled me to make use of materials, both printed and manuscript, which would not have been available at an earlier date. In particular it has been my good fortune to acquire 1 Of these two volumes, published by Mr T. Fisher Unwin in the " Library of Literary History," the full titles are as follows : A Literary History of Persia from the earliest times until Firdaivst (pp. xvi + 521), 1902 ; and A Literary History of Persia from Firdawsi to Sa l di (pp. xvi + 568), 1906. In the notes to this volume they are referred to as Lit. Hist, of Persia, vol. i or vol. ii. viii PREFACE two very fine collections of Persian and Arabic manu- scripts which have yielded me much valuable material, namely, at the beginning of 1917*, some sixty manuscripts (besides lithographed and printed books published in Persia) from the Library of the late Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler, and at the beginning of 1920 another forty or fifty manu- scripts of exceptional rarity and antiquity collected in Persia and Mesopotamia by Hajji 'Abdu'l-Maji'd Belshah. So many Persian works of first-class importance still remain unpublished and generally inaccessible save in a few of the great public libraries of Europe that the possession of a good private library is essential to the student of Persian literature who wishes to extend his researches into its less familiar by-paths. I regret in some ways that I have had to produce this volume independently of its two predecessors, and not in the same series. Several considerations, however, induced me to adopt this course. Of these the principal ones were that I desired to retain full rights as to granting permission for it to be quoted or translated, should such permission be sought ; and that I wished to be able to reproduce the original Persian texts on which my translations were based, in the numerous cases where these were not accessible in printed or lithographed editions, in the proper character. For this reason it was necessary to entrust the printing of the book to a press provided with suitable Oriental types, and no author whose work has been produced by the Cambridge University Press will fail to recognize how much he owes to the skill, care, taste and unfailing courtesy of all responsible for its management. I hope that none of my Persian friends will take ex- ception to the title which I have given to this volume, 1 See my notice of this collection in iheJ.lf.A.S. for October 1917, pp. 657-694, entitled The Persian Manuscripts of the late Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler, K.C.I. E. PREFACE ix "A History of Persian Literature under Tartar 1 Dominion." I have known Persians whose patriotism has so far outrun their historical judgment as to seek to claim as compatriots not only Timur but even Chingiz and Hulagu, those scourges of mankind, of whom the two last mentioned in particular did more to compass the ruin of Islamic civilization, especially in Persia, than any other human beings. When we read of the shocking devastation wrought by the Mongols through the length and breadth of Central and Western Asia, we are amazed not so much at what perished at their hands as at what survived their depredations, and it says much for the tenacity of the Persian character that it should have been so much less affected by these barbarians than most other peoples with whom they came in contact. The period covered by this volume begins with the high tide of Mongol ascendancy, and ends with the ebb of the succeeding tide of Turanian invasion inaugurated by Timur. Politically, during its whole duration, Turan, represented by Tartars, Turks and Turkmans, lorded it over Iran, which, neverthe- less, continued to live its own intellectual, literary and artistic life, and even to some extent to civilize its invaders. It is my hope and purpose, should circumstances be favourable, to conclude my survey of this spiritual and intellectual life of Persia in one other volume, to be entitled "A History of Persian Literature in Modern Times," covering the last four hundred years, from the rise of the great Safawf dynasty, which restored the ancient boundaries and revived the national spirit of Persia, to the present day. There remains the pleasant duty of expressing my thanks to those of my friends and fellow-students who have most materially helped me in the preparation of this work. Nearly all the proofs were carefully read by two Government of 1 I have yielded to the common usage in adopting this form instead of the more correct "Tatar." The later and less accurate, though more familiar, form " Tartar " owes its origin, as indicated on pp. 6-7 infra, to a popular etymology which would connect it with Tartarus. x PREFACE India Research Students of exceptional learning, ability and industry, Muhammad Shaft'', a member of my own College and now Professor of Arabic in the Panjab University, and, on his departure, by Muhammad Iqbal, a young scholar of great promise. To both of these I owe many valuable emendations, corrections and suggestions. Of the twelve illustrations to this volume four (those facing pp. 8, 66, 74 and 96) have already appeared in the edition of the Tarikh-i-Jahdn-gushd published in 1912 by the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust " (vol. xvi, I, pp. Ixxxvii, 147, 154 and 222), and are reproduced here by the kind permission of my fellow trustees. To my old friend Pro- fessor A. V. Williams Jackson, of Columbia University, and to Messrs Macmillan, his publishers, I am indebted for permission to reproduce the photograph of the Tomb of Hafiz at Shfraz which originally appeared in his Persia, Past and Present (p. 332), and here appears facing p. 310. The facsimile of J ami's autograph facing p. 508 of this volume is reproduced from vol. iii (1886) of the Collections Scientifiques de I'Institut des Langues Orientales du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres a St P^tersbourg: Manu- scrits Per sans, compiled with so much judgment by the late Baron Victor Rosen, to whose help and encouragement in the early days of my career I am deeply indebted. The six remaining illustrations, which are new, and, as I think will be generally admitted, of exceptional beauty and interest, were selected for me from manuscripts in the British Museum by my friends Mr A. G. Ellis and Mr Edward Edwards, to whose unfailing erudition and kindness I owe more than I can say. Three of them, the portraits of Sa'di, Hafiz and Shah-rukh, are from Add. 7468 (ff. 19, 34 and 44 respectively), while the portraits of Hulagu and Timur are from Add. 18,803, f. 19, and Add. 18,801, f. 23. The colophon of the beautifully written Quran transcribed at Mawsil in A.H. 710 (A.D. 1310-1 1) for Uljaytii (Khuda-banda) and his two ministers Rashidu'd-Din PREFACE xi Fadlu'llah and Sa'du'd-Dm is from the recently acquired Or. 4945 1 . All these have been reproduced by Mr R. B. Fleming with his usual taste and skill. Lastly I am indebted to Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell, whose later devotion to Arabic has caused her services to Persian letters to be unduly forgotten, for permission to reprint in this volume some of her beautiful translations of the odes of Hafiz, together with her fine appreciation of his position as one of the great poets not only of his own age and country but of the world and of all time. EDWARD G. BROWNE. April 5, 1920. 1 See the first entry in the Descriptive List of the Arabic Manu- scripts acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum since 1894, by Mr A. G. Ellis and Mr Edward Edwards (London, 1912). TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii BOOK I THE MONGOL IL-KH^NS OF PERSIA, FROM THE DEATH OF HtJLAGtJ TO THE EXTINCTION OF THE DYNASTY (A.H. 663-737 = A.D. 1265-1337) CHAP. I. The Mongol Il-khans of Persia (A.D. 1265-1337) . . 3 II. The Historians of the Il-khani Period .... 62 III. The Poets and Mystics of the Il-khanf Period . . 105 BOOK II FROM THE BIRTH TO THE DEATH OF TfMUR-I-LANG, COMMONLY CALLED TAMERLANE (A.H. 736-807 = A.D. 1335-1405) IV. The Period of Tfmur 159 V. The Poets and Writers of the Time of Tfmur . . 207 BOOK III FROM THE DEATH OF TfMt/R TO THE RISE OF THE SAFAWf DYNASTY (A.H. 807-907 = A.D. 1405-1502) VI. History of the Later Tfmurid Period .... 379 VII. Prose Writers of the Later Tfmurid Period . . . 421 VIII. Poets of the Later Tfmurid Period 461 INDEX 549 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I. Hiilagu. (Phot, by Mr R. B. Fleming) . . Frontispiece II. Batu's court on the Volga . . . To face page 8 III. Colophon of oldest MS. of the Tcfrikh-i- Jahdn-giishd ...... 66 IV. Enthronement of Ogotay .... ,, 74 V. Colophon of Qur'an transcribed for Uljaytii, Rashidu'd-Din and Sa'du'd-Di'n. (Phot. by Mr R. B. Fleming) .... 78 VI. Mongol siege of a Chinese town . 96 VII. Timur-i-Lang (Tamerlane). (Phot, by Mr R. B. Fleming) 180 VIII. Hafiz and Abu Ishaq. (Phot, by Mr R. B. Fleming) 274 IX. The Hafiziyya or Tomb of Hafiz . . 310 X. Shah-rukh. (Phot, by Mr R. B. Fleming) 382 XI. Sa'di. (Phot, by Mr R. B. Fleming) . 484 XII. Jamfs autograph 508 ERRATA p. 60, last line, read Matla'u's-Sa'dayn. p. 1 10, 1. 25, for speed read speech. p. in, 1. 23, for bfajmthtsk-SkttarA read Majmcfrfl-FusahA. p. 311, 1. ii. The date given is evidently wrong, for Karim Khan reigned from A.H. 1163-1193 (A.D. 1750-1779). p. 398, 11. 28 and 31, for Bdyazid III read Bdyaztd II. pp. 411, 1. 1 6, and 412, 1. 26. One of the two dates (A.D. 1472 and 1474) here given is wrong, but I do not know which. BOOK I. THE MONGOL IL-KHANS OF PERSIA, FROM THE DEATH OF HULAGU TO THE EXTINCTION OF THE DYNASTY (A.H. 663-737 = A.D. 1265-1337). B. P. CHAPTER I. THE MONGOL IL-KHANS OF PERSIA. Although to the student every period in the history of every nation is more or less interesting, or could be made Great epochs in so w ^ tn sufficient knowledge, sympathy and Persian history, imagination, there are in the history of most and their con- , - , . nection with peoples certain momentous epochs of upheaval world-history an( j reconstruction about which it behoves every educated person to know something. Of such epochs Persia, for geographical and ethnological reasons, has had her full share. A glance at the map will suffice to remind the reader that this ancient, civilized and homogeneous land, occupying the whole space between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, forms, as it were, a bridge between Europe and Asia Minor on the one hand and Central and Eastern Asia on the other, across which bridge from the earliest times have passed the invading hosts of the West or the East on their respective paths of conquest. The chief moments at which Persian history thus merges in World-history are as follows : (i) The Persian invasion of Greece by the Achaemenian kings in the fifth century before Christ. Enumeration of ( 2 ) Alexander's invasion of Persia on his seven of these way to India in the fourth century before Christ, resulting in the overthrow of the Achaemenian dynasty and the extinction of Persia as a Great Power for five centuries and a half. (3) The restoration of the Persian Empire by the House of Sasan in the third, and their often successful wars with the Romans in the fourth and following centuries after Christ. (4) The Arab invasion of the seventh century after Christ, which formed part of that extraordinary religious revival of a people hitherto accounted as naught, which in 4 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i the course of a few years carried the standards of Islam from the heart of desert Arabia to Spain in the West and the Oxus and Indus in the East. (5) The Mongol or Tartar invasion of the thirteenth century, which profoundly affected the greater part of Asia and South-eastern F^urope, and which may be truly described as one of the most dreadful calamities which ever befel the human race. (6) The second Tartar invasion of Tamerlane ( Timtir- i-Lang or " Limping Ti'mur") in the latter part of the four- teenth century. (7) The Turco-Persian Wars of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, which gave Persia at that time so great an importance in the eyes of Europe as a potential check on Turkish ambitions, and caused her friendship to be so eagerly sought after by the chief Western nations. Of these seven great epochs in Persian history the fourth and fifth are the most important and have had the greatest The Arab and and most profound influence. In all points save Mongol inva- one) however, the Arab and Mongol invasions compared and were utterly dissimilar. The Arabs came from contrasted the South-west, the Tartars from the North- east; the Arabs were inspired by a fiery religious enthusiasm, the Tartars by mere brutish lust of conquest, bloodshed and rapine; the Arabs brought a new civilization and order to replace those which they had destroyed, the Tartars brought mere terror and devastation. In a word, the Tartars were cunning, ruthless and bloodthirsty marauders, while the Arabs were, as even their Spanish foes were fain to admit, " Knights... and gentlemen, albeit Moors." The one point of resemblance between the two was the scorn which their scanty equipment and insignificant ap- pearance aroused in their well-armed and richly-equipped antagonists before they had tasted of their quality. This point is well brought out in that charming Arabic history the Kitdbu'l-Fakhri, whose author wrote about A.D. 1300, some fifty years after the Tartars had sacked Baghdad and CH. i] EFFECTS OF MONGOL INVASION 5 destroyed the Caliphate. After describing the Arab inva- sion of Persia and the merriment of the Persian satraps and officers at the tattered scabbards, slender lances and small horses of the Arabs, he relates, a propos of this, the account 1 given to him by one of those who " marched out to meet the Tartars on the Western side of Baghdad on the occasion of its supreme catastrophe in the year 656/1258," and tells how to meet one of their splendidly appointed champions in single combat there rode forth from the Mongol ranks "a man mounted on a horse resembling a donkey, having in his hand a spear like a spindle, and wearing neither uniform nor armour, so that all who saw him were moved to laughter." " Yet ere the day was done," he concludes, " theirs was the victory, and they inflicted on us a great defeat, which was the Key of Evil, and after which there befell us what befell us." It is almost impossible to exaggerate either the historical importance or the horror of this great irruption of barbarians out of Mongolia, Turkistan and Transoxiana in Terrible charac- \c\-\cr\\- i A ter and lasting the first half of the thirteenth century. Amongst effects of the fa results were the destruction of the Arabian Mongol invasion Caliphate and disruption of the Muhammadan Empire, the creation of the modern political divisions of Western Asia, the driving into Asia Minor and subsequently into Europe of the Ottoman Turks, the stunting and bar- barizing of Russia, and indirectly the Renaissance. As regards the terror universally inspired by the atrocious deeds of the Tartars, d'Ohsson in his admirable Histoire des Mongols observes 2 that we should be tempted to charge the Oriental historians with exaggeration, were it not that their statements are entirely confirmed by the independent testimony of Western historians as to the precisely similar proceedings of the Tartars in South-eastern Europe, where 1 For the full translation of this passage see Lit. Hist, of Persia, vol. i, pp. 197-8. 3 Vol. i, p. vii : " On croirait que 1'histoire a exagdre leurs atrocite"s, si les annales de tous les pays n'etaient d'accord sur ce point." 6 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i they ravaged not only Russia, Poland and Hungary, but penetrated to Silesia, Moravia and Dalmatia, and at the fatal battle of Liegnitz (April 9, 1241) defeated an army of 30,000 Germans, Austrians, Hungarians and Poles com- manded by Henry the Pious, Duke of Silesia. Already two years before this date the terror which they inspired even in Western Europe was so great that the contempo- rary chronicler Matthew Paris, writing at St Albans, records under the year A.D. 1238 that for fear of the Mongols the fishermen of Gothland and Friesland dared not cross the North Sea to take part in the herring-fishing at Yar- mouth, and that consequently herrings were so cheap and abundant in England that year that forty or fifty were sold for a piece of silver, even at places far from the coast. In the same year an envoy from the Isma'ilis or Assassins of Alamiit by the Caspian Sea came to France and England to crave help against those terrible foes by whom they were annihilated twenty years later. He met with little encouragement, however, for the Bishop of Winchester, having heard his appeal, replied : " Let these dogs devour each other and be utterly wiped out, and then we shall see, founded on their ruins, the Universal Catholic Church, and then shall truly be one shepherd and one flock ! " The accounts given by Ibnu'l-Athfr, Yaqut and other contemporary Muhammadan historians of the Mongol in- vasion have been cited in part in a previous pLrifcLd volume 1 and need not be repeated here, but it is instructive to compare them with what Matthew Paris says about those terrible Tatars, who, for reasons which he indicates, through a popular etymology connecting them with the infernal regions, became known in Europe as " Tartars." Under the year A.D. 1 240 he writes of them as follows 2 : " That the joys of mortal man be not enduring, nor 1 Lit. Hist, of Persia, vol. ii, pp. 426 et seqq. 2 Vol. iv, pp. 76-78, cited in the Introductory Note to vol. iv of the Second Series of the Hakluyt Society's publications (London, 1900). CH. i] MONGOL CHARACTERISTICS 7 worldly happiness long lasting without lamentations, in this same year a detestable nation of Satan, to wit the countless army of Tartars, broke loose from its mountain- environed home, and, piercing the solid rocks (of the Cau- casus) poured forth like devils from the Tartarus, so that they are rightly called 'Tartars' or 'Tartarians.' Swarming like locusts over the face of the earth, they have brought terrible devastation to the eastern parts (of Europe), laying them waste with fire and carnage. After having passed through the land of the Saracens, they have razed cities, cut down forests, overthrown fortresses, pulled up vines, destroyed gardens, killed townspeople and peasants. If perchance they have spared any suppliants, they have forced them, reduced to the lowest condition of slavery, to fight in the foremost ranks against their own neighbours. Those who have feigned to fight, or have hidden in the hope of escaping, have been followed up by the Tartars and butchered. If any have fought bravely for them and con- quered, they have got no thanks for reward ; and so they have misused their captives as they have their mares. For they are inhuman and beastly, rather monsters than men, thirsting for and drinking blood, tearing and devouring the flesh of dogs and men, dressed in ox-hides, armed with plates of iron, short and stout, thickset, strong, invincible, indefatigable, their backs unprotected, their breasts covered with armour ; drinking with delight the pure blood of their flocks, with big, strong horses, which eat branches and even trees, and which they have to mount by the help of three steps on account of the shortness of their thighs. They are without human laws, know no comforts, are more ferocious than lions or bears, have boats made of ox-hides which ten or twelve of them own in common ; they are able to swim or manage a boat, so that they can cross the largest and swiftest rivers without let or hindrance, drinking turbid and muddy water when blood fails them (as a beverage). They have one-edged swords and daggers, are wonderful archers, spare neither age, nor sex, nor condition. They know no 8 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i other language but their own, which no one else knows; for until now there has been no access to them, nor did they go forth (from their own country); so that there could be no knowledge of their customs or persons through the common intercourse of men. They wander about with their flocks and their wives, who are taught to fight like men. And so they come with the swiftness of lightning to the confines of Christendom, ravaging and slaughtering, striking everyone with terror and incomparable horror. It was for this that the Saracens sought to ally themselves with the Christians, hoping to be able to resist these monsters with their combined forces." So far from such alliance taking place, however, it was not long before the ecclesiastical and temporal rulers of Eari Euro an Christendom conceived the idea of making use envoys to the of the Tartars to crush Islam, and so end in their favour once and for all the secular struggle of which the Crusades were the chief manifestation. Com- munications were opened up between Western Europe and the remote and inhospitable Tartar capital of Qaraqorum ; letters and envoys began to pass to and fro; and devoted friars like John of Pian de Carpine and William of Rubruck did not shrink from braving the dangers and hardships of that long and dreary road, or the arrogance and exactions of the Mongols, in the discharge of the missions confided to them. The former, bearing a letter from the Pope dated March 9, 1245, returned to Lyons in the autumn of 1247 after an absence of two years and a half, and delivered to the Pope the written answer of the Mongol Emperor Kuyuk Khan. The latter accomplished his journey in the years 1253-5 a d spent about eight months (January- August, 1254) at the camp and capital of Mangu Khan, by whom he was several times received in audience. Both have left narratives of their adventurous and arduous journeys which the Hakluyt Society has rendered easily accessible to English readers 1 , and of which that of Friar 1 Second Series, vol. iv, London, 1900, translated and edited by W. W. Rockhill. II Batii, the grandson of Chingiz, holds his Court on the Volga From an old MS. of the Jdmi'iit-Tawdrikh in the Bibliotheque Nationale CH. i] MONGOL RELATIONS WITH EUROPE 9 William of Rubruck especially is of engrossing interest and great value. These give us a very vivid picture of the Tartar Court and its ceremonies, the splendour of the presents offered to the Emperor by the numerous envoys of foreign nations and subject peoples, the gluttonous eating and drinking which prevailed (and which, as we shall see, also characterized the Court of Ti'mur 1 50 years later), and the extraordinary afflux of foreigners, amongst whom were included, besides almost every Asiatic nation, Russians, Georgians, Hungarians, Ruthenians and even Frenchmen. Some of these had spent ten, twenty, or even thirty years amongst the Mongols, were conversant with their language, and were able and willing to inform the missionaries "most fully of all things" without much questioning, and to act as interpreters 1 . The language question, as affecting the answer to the Pope's letter, presented, however, some diffi- culties. The Mongols enquired "whether there were any persons with the Lord Pope who understood the written languages of the Ruthenians, or Saracens, or Tartars," but Friar John advised that the letter should be written in Tartar and carefully translated and explained to them, so that they might make a Latin translation to take back with the original. The Mongol Emperor wished to send envoys of his own to Europe in the company of Friar John, who, however, discountenanced this plan for five reasons, of which the first three were: (i) that he feared lest, seeing the wars and dissensions of the Christians, the Tartars might be further encouraged to attack them ; (2) that they might act as spies; (3) that some harm might befall them in Europe "as our people are for the most part arrogant and hasty," and " it is the custom of the Tartars never to make peace with those who have killed their envoys till they have wreaked vengeance upon them." So Friar John and his 1 M. Le"on Cahun in his Introduction a I ' Histoire de FAsie, p. 353, n. 2 ad calc., puts forward the ingenious suggestion that the German Dolmetsch is derived from the Turco- Mongol Tilmdj\ both words meaning " Interpreter." io THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i companions came at last to Kieff on their homeward journey, and were there "congratulated as though they had risen from the dead, and so also throughout Russia, Poland and Bohemia." The history of the diplomatic missions 1 which passed between Europe and Tartary in the thirteenth and four- teenth centuries has been admirably illustrated Diplomatic re- > i \ *n lations of the by Abel-Remusat in his two classical Memoir es Bur?? Wkh sur les R e lations politiques des Princes Chretiens, et particulierement les Rois de France, avec les Empereurs Mongols. Fac-similes are here given, with printed texts and in some cases Latin or French trans- lations, of nine Mongol letters conveyed by different envoys at different periods to the French Court. The originals of these, measuring in some cases more than six feet in length, may still be seen in the Archives in Paris. The arrogance of their tone is very noticeable ; still more so the occurrence in the Latin version of a letter to the Pope from Bachu Nuyan of a very ominous and characteristic phrase which is also noticed by the contemporary Persian historian Juwayni. " Si vultis super terram vestram, aquam et patrimonium sedere," runs the letter, "oportet ut, tu Papa, in propria persona ad nos venias, et ad eum qui faciem totius terrae continet accedas. Et si tu praeceptum Dei stabile et illius qui faciem totius terrae continet non audieris, illud nos nescimus Deus scit z " So Juwayni says* that, unlike other great rulers and conquerors, they never indulged in violent and wordy threats when demanding submission or sur- render, but "as their utmost warning used to write but this much: 'If they do not submit and obey, what do we know [what may happen}? the Eternal God knows" 7" As to what would inevitably happen if the Tartars were resisted (and 1 Published in the Mdmoires de I'Acade'mie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres in 1821 and 1822, vol. vi, p. 396 and vol. vii, p. 335. 2 See pp. 421-2 of the second memoir mentioned above. 3 Tctrikh-i-Jahdn-gushd (" E. J. W. Gibb Memorial " Series, vol. xvi, i, 1912) Part I, p. 18, 1. 11. CH.I] MONGOL ENVOYS TO ENGLAND n often even if they were not resisted) men were not long left in doubt. "Wherever there was a king, or local ruler, or city warden who ventured to oppose, him they annihi- lated, together with his family and his clan, kinsmen and strangers alike, to such a degree that, without exaggera- tion, not a hundred persons were left where there had been a hundred thousand. The proof of this assertion is the ac- count of the happenings in the various towns, each of which has been duly recorded in its proper time and place 1 ." Whether any such letters exist in the records of this country I do not know, but in 1307, shortly after the death of Edward I (to whom they had been accredited), two Mongol ambassadors, whose names are given as Mamlakh and Tuman 2 , came to Northampton Mongol envoys -111-11 r visit Edward ii and carried back with them an answer from at Northampton Edward II written in Latin and dated Oc- in 1307 tober 1 6, 1307. The principal object of this and previous missions was to effect an alliance between the Mongols and the European nations against the Mu- hammadans, especially the Egyptians. To attain this end the wily Mongols constantly represented themselves as dis- posed to embrace the Christian religion, a deceitful pretence which the more readily succeeded because of the belief pre- valent in Europe that there existed somewhere in Central or Eastern Asia a great Christian emperor called 'Presterjohn r / "Prester John," generally identified with Ung Khan the ruler of the Kari'ts (or Kera'its), a people akin to the Mongols, with whom at the beginning of his career Chingi'z Khan stood in close relations, and who had been converted to Christianity by Nestorian missionaries 3 . But as a matter of fact Islam had been the official religion of 1 Juwaynf, op. tit., p. 17. 2 Called elsewhere " Thomas Ildaci " or " louldoutchi " (Yoldiichi). 3 This identification is explicitly made byAbu'l-Faraj Bar-Hebraeus (Beyrout ed. of 1890, p. 394). See also d'Ohsson's Hist, des Mongols, vol. i, pp. 48-9 and 52-3 with the footnotes, fag or Ong Khdn was converted by popular etymology into Yokhnan=Johan. 12 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i the Mongol rulers of Persia for at least ten years before the above-mentioned ambassadors obtained audience of Edward II. The contemporary Oriental histories of the Mongols are singularly full and good 1 , and include in Arabic Ibnu '1-Athir's great chronicle, which comes down Excellence and , . _ , Of ., ,, , , T -., -, ,.,. abundanceof to the year O28/I23I; Shihabud-Dm Nasais materials for ver y f u u biography of his master Jalalu'd-Uin Mongol history J J J Mankobirm, the gallant Prince of Khwarazm who maintained so heroic and protracted a struggle against the destroyers of his house and his empire; the Christian Abu'l-Faraj Bar-Hebraeus, whose Arabic history (for he wrote a fuller chronicle in Syriac) comes down to 683/1284, two years' before his death; and Yaqut the geographer, most of which have been discussed and quoted in a previous volume. Of the three chief Persian sources, the Tarikh-i- Jahdn-gushd of Juwayni, the Tarikh-i- Wassaf, and the Jdmi'iJt-Tawdrikh, a good deal will be said in the next chapter, but one may be permitted to express regret that the last-mentioned history, one of the most original, ex- tensive and valuable existing in the Persian language, still remains for the most part unpublished and almost inac- cessible 2 . Of the three best-known European histories of the Mongols, and of the point of view represented by each, Euro an his- something must needs be said here. First there tones of the is Baron d'Ohsson's admirable Histoire des Mon- gols, depuis Tchinguiz Khan jusqit a Timour Bey ou Tamerlan 3 , a monument of clear exposition based on profound research. While recognizing, as every 1 They are admirably enumerated and described by d'Ohsson, op. tit., vol. i, pp. x-lxvi. 2 I have discussed the materials available for a complete text of this important work in an article published in the/. R.A. S. for 1908, vol. xl, pp. 17-37, entitled Suggestions for a complete edition of the Jami'u't- Tawarikh of Rashidifd-Din Fadhflldh. 5 Published in four volumes at the Hague and Amsterdam, 1834-5. CH. i] HISTORIANS OF THE MONGOLS 13 student of the subject must recognize, the immense im- portance and far-reaching effects of the Mongol conquests, he finds this people utterly detestable: "their government," he says, "was the triumph of depravity: all that was noble and honourable was abased ; while the most corrupt per- sons, taking service under these ferocious masters, obtained, as the price of their vile devotion, wealth, honours, and the power to oppress their countrymen. The history of the Mongols, stamped by their savagery, presents therefore only hideous pictures ; but, closely connected as it is to that of several empires, it is necessary for the proper understanding of the great events of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 1 ." Next in point of time is Sir Henry Howorth's great History of the Mongols in four large volumes 2 . His view of the Tartars differs somewhat from Howorth" 1 d'Ohsson's, for he sees in them "one of those hardy, brawny races, cradled amidst want and hard circumstances, in whose blood there is a good mix- ture of iron, which are sent periodically to destroy the luxurious and the wealthy, to lay in ashes the arts and culture which only grow under the shelter of wealth and easy circumstances, and to convert into a desert the para- dise which man has painfully cultivated. Like the pestilence and the famine the Mongols were essentially an engine of destruction ; and if it be a painful, harassing story to read, it is nevertheless a necessary one if we are to understand the great course of human progress 3 ." After enumerating other luxurious and civilized peoples who have been simi- larly renovated by the like drastic methods, he asserts that this "was so to a large extent, with the victims of the Mongol arms ; their prosperity was hollow and pretentious, 1 Op. laud., vol. i, pp. vii-viii. 2 Published in London 1876-1888 and divided into three parts, of which part 2 forms vols. ii and iii. Part 3 (vol. iv) deals with the Mongols of Persia. 3 Op. latid., part I, p. x. 14 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i their grandeur very largely but outward glitter, and the diseased body needed a sharp remedy; the apoplexy that was impending could probably only be staved off by much blood-letting, the demoralized cities must be sown with salt and their inhabitants inoculated with fresh streams of vigorous blood from the uncontaminated desert 1 ." With more justice he insists on the wonderful bringing together of the most remote peoples of the East and West which was the most important constructive effect of the Mongol conquest, and concludes: "I have no doubt myself. ..that the art of printing, the mariner's compass, firearms, and a great many details of social life, were not discovered in Europe, but imported by means of Mongol influence from the furthest East." The third book which demands notice, chiefly on account of its influence in Turkey in generating the Yeni Ttirdn, or Pan-Turanian movement, of which it is not (3) Lon Cahun yet possible exactly to appraise the political importance, is M. Leon Cahun's Introduction a I'Histoire de rAsie: Turcs et Mongols, des Origines a 1405*. This writer goes very much further than Howorth in his admi- ration of the Mongols and the various kindred Turkish peoples who formed the bulk of their following. A note of admiration characterizes his description of their military virtues 8 , their " culte du drapeau, la glorification du nom turc, puis mongol, le chauvinisme 4 " ; their political com- binations against the Sasanian Persians 5 , and later against the Islamic influences of which Persia was the centre ; their courage, hardihood, discipline, hospitality, lack of religious fanaticism, and firm administration. This book, though diffuse, is suggestive, and is in any case worth reading because of its influence on certain chauvinistic circles in Turkey, as is a historical romance about the Mongols by 1 Op. laud., p. ii. 2 Paris, 1896. 3 Op. laud., p. ix. 4 Ibid., p. 79. 5 Ibid., pp. 111-118. CH. i] THE "PAN-TURANIAN" MOVEMENT 15 the same author, translated into English under the title of The Yeni The Blue Banner. Of the Yeni Turdn movement THrdn, or j nav e spoken briefly elsewhere 1 , and this is nian" Move- hardly the place to discuss it more fully, though ment it has perhaps a greater significance than I was at that time disposed to think. On the literary side it aims at preferring Turkish to Arabic and Persian words, idioms and vehicles of expression, and at combating Arabic and Persian influences and traditions ; while on the political side it dreams of amalgamating in one State all the Turkish and kindred peoples west and east of the Caspian Sea (in- cluding the Mongols on the one hand and the Bulgarians on the other), and of creating a great Turkish or Turanian Empire more or less coextensive with that of Chingiz Khan. The ideas of this school were chiefly embodied in a fort- nightly publication entitled Turk Yurdu (the "Turkish Hearth") inaugurated in December, 1911. It is not, however, with the Mongol Empire as a whole, but with Persia under Mongol dominion that we are here state of Persia chiefly concerned, nor is it necessary to record under the Mon- in detail the history of the Mongol Il-khdns who succeeded Hulagu, which can be read in full in the pages of d'Ohsson and Howorth. Considering what Persia suffered at the hands of the Tartars, it is wonderful how much good literature was produced during this period. Generally speaking the South of Persia, lying Relative immu- * > J o nity of South apart from the main track of conquest to the West, suffered much less than the North, West and Centre. Isfahan suffered a massacre in which one famous poet at least perished 2 , but Shi'raz, owing to the timely and prudent submission of its ruler, escaped almost scatheless, a fact to which Sa'di ingeniously alludes in the 1 The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, p. xxxix. An interesting article on this subject, written, I understand, by Mr Arnold Toynbee, also appeared in the Times for Jan. 3, 5 and 7, 1918. - See Lit, Hist, of Persia, vol. ii, pp. 541-2. 16 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i panegyric on his patron prefixed to the Bustdn, where he says 1 : " Alexander, by means of a Wall of brass and stone, narrowed the road of Gog from the world : Thy barrier to the Gog of Paganism is of gold, not of brass like the Wall of Alexander." "By the 'Gog of Paganism,'" says the commentator, " Chingi'z Khan is meant. The King-Atabek made peace with him by money, so that the'Musulmans of Shi'raz were saved from the hands of his tyranny. The author ascribes pre-eminence to his patron because, says he, 'Alexander barred Gog's advance with a brazen barrier, but thou didst check the advance of the Gog of Paganism with gold.' " Twenty-five years before Sa'di wrote this,Shamsu'd-Di'n Muhammad ibn Qays of Ray, flying before the first fury of the Tartar irruption, had found at Shi'raz a haven of refuge wherein to complete his interrupted work on the Ars Poetica and prosody of Persia 2 ; and the life of Shi'raz seems to have gone on fairly tranquilly and suffered relatively little dis- turbance during those stormy days. Another point to be noted is that, while all learning suffered from the wholesale massacres of scholars and des- why certain struction of mosques, libraries, and other pious branches foundations, some branches of learning suffered oflearning * suffered less much less than others. For theology and philo- sophy, for example, the pagan Mongols naturally cared little ; but they attached considerable importance to medicine, botany, astronomy and other natural sciences, 1 See Graf's edition, last line on p. 22 and first line on p. 23. The Bustdn was written in 665/1257, a year before the Gulistdn. 2 See the English Preface (pp. xv-xviii) to MirzA Muhammad's edition of his Mu'jam fi Mcfdyiri Asfcdri 'l-'Ajam, published in the " E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, vol. x, 1909. CH. i] ABAQA KHAN (A.D. 1265-1282) 17 were especially desirous that their achievements should be fully and accurately recorded by competent historians, and were not altogether indifferent to the praises of poets. At no other period, as will be pointed out more fully in the next chapter, were so many first-rate histories written in Persian ; but it must be remembered that the writers were, as a rule, men whose education reposed on the more scholarly tradi- tion of pre-Mongol days, and that such historical works as the T " On the eve of Saturday the seventeenth of Sha'ban's month In the year three score and eighteen and six hundred from the Flight 1 From the world Baha'u'd-Din, that great wazir, in Isfahdn Fled. Ah, when on such another ruler shall Time's eyes alight ? " This was the first of the misfortunes which befel the Juwaynf family, and which were largely due to their un- grateful protege Majdu'1-Mulk of Yazd. whose Misfortunes r of juwayni ambition led him to calumniate both the Sdhib- family Diwdn and his brother 'Ala'u'1-Mulk' 'Ata Malik. While still subordinate to the Sdhib-Dlwdn, Majdu '1-Mulk addressed to him the following quatrain : 1 Sha'ban 17, 678 = Dec. 23, 1279. CH. i] ABAQA KHAN (A.D. 1265-1282) 23 " I said, 'I'll ever in thy service be, intrigues of Not come like larch and go like willow tree' 1 : Majdu'l-Mulk He who despairs is bold and sharp of tongue ; Cause me not, Friend, thus desperate to be ! " By traducing the Sdhib-Diwdn to Abaqa, he finally induced that monarch to associate him in the government with his rival, and this dual control gave rise to endless friction and recriminations. On one occasion he sent another quatrain to the Sdhib-Diwdn as follows : " Into the Ocean of thy grief I'll dive, And either drown, or pearls to gather strive ; 'Tis hard to fight with thee, yet fight I will, And die red-throated, or red-cheeked survive 2 ." To this the Sdhib-Diwdn sent the following answer " Since to the King complaints thou canst not bear Much anguish to consume shall be thy share. Through this design on which thou hast embarked Thy face and neck alike shall crimson wear." 1 I suppose the writer's meaning is, that he wishes to be a permanent and honoured associate of the minister, not liable to reprimand, humili- ation or dismissal, coming in erect as the larch or cypress, and going out after some rebuff bowed down with humiliation like the weeping willow. 2 "Die red-throated," i.e. by decapitation. "Red-cheeked" or "red- faced" means " honoured," the opposite of "black-faced." 24 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i Ultimately Majdu'1-Mulk succeeded in arousing Abaqa's suspicions against the Sahib -Diwdris brother, 'Ala'u'1-Mulk 'Ata Malik-i-Juwayni,whowas arrested, paraded Disgrace and i ' i i / T i i y i i i punishment of through the streets ot Baghdad, tortured, and Ata Maiik-i- forced to pav large sums of money which he Juwayni . . was alleged to have misappropriated. Matters might have gone yet worse with him had not Abaqa's sudden death on April i, 1282, put an end to his persecution and brought about his release from prison, while Release of 'Ata a r Malik and death soon afterwards his enemy Majdu'1-Mulk fell a Majdu'l-Mulk pieces by the mob, his dismembered limbs being publicly exhibited in the chief cities of Persia. On this well-merited punishment of the old and inveterate foe of his family 'Ata Malik-i- Juwayni composed the following quatrain : " For some brief days thy guile did mischief wreak; Position, wealth and increase thou didst seek : Now every limb of thine a land hath ta'en : Thou'st over-run the kingdom in a week ! " 'Ata Malik, however, did not long survive his foe, for he too Death of 'Ata died ' the Spring of 1283. Maiik-i-juwayni In one curious particular connected with Abaqa's death all the historians agree. He had, in the usual Mongol fashion, been drinking deeply with his favourites and boon-companions. Feeling uneasy, he had withdrawn from them for a moment into the Death of Abaqa , , , 111-1 1 palace garden when he suddenly cried out that a large black bird was threatening him, and ordered some of his servants to shoot it with arrows. The servants hastened to him in answer to his call, but no bird was to be seen, and CH. i] AHMAD TAKtfDAR (A.D. 1282-1284) 25 while they were still searching for it, Abaqa fell down in a swoon from which he never awoke 1 . A few other events of Abaqa's reign merit a brief men- tion. The Assassins, in spite of all they had suffered at Renewed the hands of the Mongols, so far recovered activity of themselves as to attempt the life of 'Ata Malik- i-Juwaynf in 670/1271-2, while four years later, in 674/1275-6, they actually succeeded, under the leader- ship of the son of their last Grand Master Ruknu'd-Din Khurshah, in regaining possession of Alamut, though they internecine were shortly afterwards subdued and destroyed warsofMon- by Abaqa. Internecine wars between various gol princes n/r i u i- i Mongol princes began to be prevalent in Abaqa's reign, as, for instance, that between Yushmut and Nogay at Aq-sii in 663/1264-5, the year of Abaqa's ac- cession, and that between Abaqa and Nikudar the son of Chaghatay in 667/1268-9. Further turmoil was caused by the repeated raids of the Nikudarfs, and by the revolt of Buraq in Khurasan. The defeat of the latter Revolt of Burdq , , , . by Abaqa s troops was due almost entirely to the valour of Subutay, in allusion to which a contemporary poet says: O"* L^'r IP "'Gainst the army of thy love not one could stand save only I, As against Burdq of all Abaqa's captains Subuta"y." AHMAD TAKUDAR 2 (A.D. 1282-1284). On the death of Abaqa two rival candidates appeared on the scene, his brother Takudar 2 (who, on his conversion 1 Abu'l-Faraj Bar-Hebraeus (Beyrout ed. of 1890, p. 505) says that this happened at Ramadan in the house of a Persian named Bihndm who gave a banquet in Abdqd's honour. He does not explicitly mention the black bird, but says that Abqa "began to see phantoms in the air." - This name is sometimes given as Nikudar or Nigudar, but the Armenian form Tongudar given by Haithon seems decisive. See Howorth, op. '/., pp. 310-11. 26 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i to Islam took the additional name of Ahmad) and his Ahmad Takudar son Arghun. A majority of the Mongol nobles A.H. 681-683 preferred the former, and he was accordingly * proclaimed on May 6, 1282, under the title of Sultan Ahmad Takudar. One of his earliest public acts was to show his devotion to the religion which he had adopted by letters addressed to the doctors of Baghdad 1 and to Qala'un, Sultan of Egypt 2 , in which he expressed his desire to protect and foster the religion of Islam and to live on terms of peace and amity with all Muslims. His letter to Qald'un, dated Jumada I, A.H. 68 1 (August, 1282), was entrusted to two special envoys, Qutbu'd-Din-i- Shi'razi and the Atabek Pahlawdn, and Qala'un's answer was dated the beginning of Ramadan of the same year (December 3, 1282). However gratified the Muslims may have been at the conversion of Ahmad Takudar and the evidences of sin- cerity afforded by his conduct, the Mongols Ahmad Takudar J ' . ' defeated, cap- were far from sharing this satisfaction, and in in the followin g y ear (682/1283-4), a formidable conspiracy of Mongol nobles to depose Ahmad Takudar and place his nephew Arghun on the throne came to light. Qunquratay, one of the chief conspirators, with a number of his accomplices, was put to death on January 18, 1284, but Arghun successfully revolted against his uncle, whom he ultimately captured and put to death on Au- gust 10 of the same year, and was proclaimed King on the following day. 1 See d'Ohsson's Hist, des Mongols, vol. iii, pp. 553 et seqq. 2 See the Tdrikh-i-Wassdf, Bombay lithographed edition of A.H. 1269, pp. 113-115, and, for Qala'un's answer, pp. 115-118 of the same. Also Abu'l-Faraj Bar-Hebraeus (Beyrout ed. of 1890), pp. 506-510 and 510-518. English translations of both letters are given by Howorth, op. cit., pp. 260-296. CH. i] DEATH OF THE SA#IB-DlWAN 27 ARGHUN (A.D. 1284-1291). One of Arghun's first acts was to make his son Ghazan governor of Khurasan, Mazandaran, Ray and Qumis. His Rei nofAr hun f rma l recognition as Il-khan of Persia by his A. H. 683-690 over-lord Qubilay Khan (" Kubla Khan") was brought from China in the following year by Urdugaya. During the reign of Ahmad Takiidar the fortunes of the Sdhib-Dtwdn and his family, threatened for a while The.svrt#- ky the intrigues of Majdu'1-Mulk, revived z>/' P utto once more, but they were finally eclipsed by the accession of Arghun. On the death of his master, Shamsu'd-Din Muhammad the Sdhib-Diwdn, fearing Arghun's anger, fled to Qum, where he was over- taken by Arghun's messengers, brought back, and finally put to death at a place called Mu'ma near Ahar on Sha'ban 4 or 5, 683 (October 16 or 17, I284) 1 . Before submitting himself to the headsman's hands he craved a brief respite, which was granted him. After performing the ablution, he took an augury from a Qur'dn which belonged to him, and then wrote the following letter to the l ulamd of Tabriz : "When I sought an augury from the Qur'an, these were the words which came 2 : ' Verily those who said ''God is our Lord" and then were steadfast, unto them do The Sdhib-Dt- . , . r . n J . . mdn's letter to the angels afscaut [sayingj : rear not, neither Tab '" la "' 4 f be afraid. Receive good tidings of the Paradise which ye were promised!" Since the Creator, exalted is He, hath well maintained his servant in this perishable world, and hath not withheld from him any wish, it hath pleased Him even in this world to give him glad tidings of the World Eternal. Therefore he hath deemed it incumbent on himself to convey these glad tidings to Mawlana Muhiyyu'd-Din, Mawlana Afdalu'd- 1 This is the last event recorded by Bar-Hebraeus in his history (pp. 521-2 of the Beyrout ed. of 1890). 2 Qur'dn, xli, 30. 28 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i Din, Mawlana Shamsu'd-Din, Mawlana Humamu'd-Din and those other great divines whom time and the circum- stances do not permit me to mention by name, that they may know that we have severed all ties and so departed. Let them assist me with their prayers 1 !" He also addressed the following farewell letter and testament to his sons 2 : "Salvation and greeting to my sons and dear ones, may God Almighty preserve them ! Let them know that I en- trust them to God, Mighty and Glorious is He : tohiiKMu verily God doth not suffer that which is en- trusted to Him to sustain loss. It was in my mind that perhaps a meeting might be possible, whereat my last wishes might be communicated orally, but my days are ended, and my business is now with the world to come. Do not fall short in the care of my children ; incite them to study, and on no account suffer them to have aught to do with the service of the State; let them rather be content with that which God Most High hath assigned to them. If my son Atabek and his mother wish to return home, they have my permission so to do. Let Nawruz, Mas'ud and their mother remain with Bulqan Khatun, and should she grant them estates, let them ac- cept them and be content therewith. Whither can my chief wife go from Tabriz ? Let her then remain there near the grave of me and my brothers. If they can, let them make their dwelling in the monastery of Shaykh Fakhru'd-Din and repair thither. Mumina hath received little satisfaction from us : if she wishes to marry again, let her do so. Let Farrukh and his mother remain with Atabek. Let them leave Zakariyya with the crown lands and other estates which I have given over to Amir Buqa. Let them petition [on his behalf]: if some land should be granted to him, well and good: if not, let him rest content. May the Almighty 1 Ta!rikh-i-Wassdf,v- HI. 2 The text of this is given in the Mujmal of Fasihi of Khwdf, ff. 468 b -469 a of the MS. belonging to the Gibb Trustees. CH. I] FATE OF THE JUWAYNf FAMILY 29 Creator have mercy upon us, and bless all of them. At this hour my mind is fixed on the Divine Presence, and I can write no more than this. Deal kindly with all, bond and free, and forget us not on the nights when you remember the absent." The Sdhib-Diwdn did not perish alone. Four of his sons, Yahya, Faraju'llah, Mas'iid and Atabek, were put to death soon after him, and a little later another son, Harun. "Two brothers and seven sons," according to the Ta'rikh-i- Wassaf 1 , constituted the sacrifice demanded by Mongol ferocity, ever ready to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, and little disposed to leave alive poten- tial avengers. Added to these losses were the deaths in the years immediately preceding of 'Ala'u'1-Mulk 'Ata Malik-i- Juwayni and Baha'u'd-Dm, already mentioned, so that in the course of five or six years this great family of states- men was practically effaced from the page of history. Fasihi, in his Mujmal (f. 469), quotes the two following quatrains composed by the Sdhib-Diwdn in his last mo- ments : " O Hand of Fate, which doth my heart's steps stay, My heart submits to thy desire to slay : With all my heart I offer thee my life ; For this throughout my life my heart did pray." " Look, thou who caused'st life's bright lamp to die, Two hundred worlds thou seest extinguished lie, Yet do the slain eternal life attain, And those in chief who are by heathens slain." 1 P. 142. 30 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i His death was universally lamented, even in towns like Shiraz where he was known only by his charities and good works, and which he had never visited. Amongst the verses composed on his death are the following: \ "The Night in grief hath dyed her cloak, and Morn, Heaving cold sighs, appears with collar torn : The Sun's 1 departure stains the sky with gore : The Moon is veiled, the locks of Venus shorn." " That minister whose head o'ertopped the skies Hath earned, in truth, of martyrdom the prize ; The Sdhib-Dtwdn, who for thirty years Hath kept the world secure from hurts and fears. O cruel heavens such a life to ban ! O cruel earth, to slay so great a man ! " There were, however, others who regarded the Sdhib- Diwdris fate as well deserved, on account of the part he had played in respect to his unlucky predecessor Majdu'1-Mulk. This point of view is represented in the following verses, cited in the Tcf rikh-i-Guzida : 1 Shamsu'd-Dfn, " the Sun of Religion," was the Sdhib-Diivdris name, to which allusion is here made. CH. i] ARGHtiN KHAN (A.D. 1284-1291) 31 aU 5 i j JL- " Since Majdu'1-Mulk, by God-sent destiny, A martyr in Naw Shahr's plain did die, By the Sdhib-Diwdn Muhammad's spite, Who ruled the land with unrestricted might, Two years, two months, two weeks went by, and lo, Fate bade him drain in turn the cup of woe. Beware how in this world thou workest harm ; Fate's scales hold equal weight of bane and balm ! " A violent death was, however, the common end of those who were rash enough to act as ministers to Mongol sovereigns. Thus Jalalu'd-Dm Simnani, who succeeded the Sdhib-Diwdn, was executed in August, 1289; Sa'du'd-Dawla, who succeeded him, was put to death at the end of February, 1291 ; Sadru'd-Dm Khalidi, who acted as minister to Gay- khatu, suffered the same fate in May, 1298; and Rashidu'd- Din Fadlu'llah, the most accomplished of all, was executed in July, 1318. Arghun reigned over Persia for nearly seven years (August, 1284-May, 1291). The embassies which he sent to Europe, and especially that of 1287-1288, of Sa'du'd-Dawia, w hi c h one o f ^Q envoys, Rabban Sawma, has theJewisha/aszV ' left us an account in Synac 1 , mark a revival of Abaqa's policy, which had been reversed by Ahmad Takudar. During the latter part of Arghun's reign Sa'du'd-Dawla the Jew was his all-powerful minister. This man, originally a physician, was detested by the Muslims, who ascribed to him the most sinister designs against Islam. He was originally a native of Abhar, and afterwards practised medicine at Baghdad. He was recommended to Arghun by some of his co-religionists, and, according to the 7V- rikh-i- Wassdf", gained the esteem and confidence of that prince not only by his knowledge of the Mongol and 1 See that most interesting book Histoire de Mar Jabalaha ///... , ~ 4 0*9 ' , i - - J i x> j j ^ Oi i^TVJUj ^3 U JUU ^>Xi ' liwl "^La-Lc 4JLJI ^JkUC^I 5 6 0<0 X X 0X5 , 7 ji.1 LJ 9 1 See Howorth, op. cit., p. 345. 2 Cited from the Tcfrikh-i- Wass&f, p. 247. CH. i] ANTI-JEWISH POEMS 35 ' \j->j3 & jLi ijb UJ 13 H L5 5iL " bj-f*-* 1 * l6 ^"^ -liJ9 17 jxx e 18 il 19 > JL5 j>^ ^J 2 3 1 " His Name we praise who rules the firmament ! These apish Jews are done away and shent. 2 111 luck hath whelmed the Fortune of their State 1 ; Throughout the lands they're shamed and desolate. 3 God hath dispersed their dominant accord, And they are melted by the burnished sword. 4 How long they ruled in fact, though not in name, And, sins committing, now are put to shame. 1 Scfdrfd-Dawla means the " Fortune," or " Good Luck of the State." There is an antithesis between Safd, which applies to the fortu- nate influence of the auspicious planets, and Nafys, the maleficent influence of the unlucky planets. 32 36 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i 5 God made them wail in woe right speedily, After that in their days they laughed with glee. 6 Grim captains made them drink Death's cup of ill, Until their skulls the blood-bathed streets did fill, 7 And from their dwellings seized the wealth they'd gained, And their well-guarded women's rooms profaned. 8 O wretched dupes of error and despair, At length the trap hath caught you in its snare ! 9 Vile, carrion birds, behold, in open ground The nets of ruin compass you around ! 10 O foulest race who e'er on earth did thrive, And hatefulest of those who still survive, 1 1 The Calf you served in place of God ; and lo, Vain, vain are all your goings to and fro ! 12 They doomed to death your ' Cleanser 1 ' and thereby A host of sinful souls did purify, 13 What time they gathered round his head upraised Midst dust and stench, and on its features gazed. 14 God sped the soul of him who was their chief To hell, whose mirk is dark despair and grief. 15 In molten torments they were prisoned, In trailing chains they to their doom were led. 16 Take warning, from this doom without reprieve ; Recite the verse : " How many did they leave 2 / " 17 Tughachar, prince fulfilled with strength and zeal, Hath caused the pillars of their power to reel. 1 8 His flashing falchion on their flesh did feed, And none would hold him guilty for the deed. 19 Our Shaykh's prediction found fulfilment there, What time he saw them rob him of his share ; 20 That holy man, our lord Jamalu'd-Din 3 , Aided by God, endowed with angel's mien, 21 Devoted, walking ever in the way Of Him the fishes in their seas obey. 22 I penned this satire, hoping to attain The Eternal Gardens' lake-encompassed plain, 23 And to refute that poet's words untrue Who said, ' Turn Jews, for Heaven hath turned a Jew.' " 1 This word Muhadhdhib (" Purifier") probably forms part of some such title as Muhadhdhibu'd-Dawla borne by one of the victims. 2 " How many gardens and fountains .. .did they leave behind them /" Qur'an, xliv, 24. 3 Perhaps Jamdlu'd-Dfn Muhammad ibn Sulaymdn an-Naqfb al- Maqdisf (d. 698/1298-9) is meant. CH. i] PAPER CURRENCY RIOTS 37 GAYKHATU (A.D. 1291-1295). Arghun was succeeded by his brother Gaykhatu, whose coronation did not take place till July 22, 1291, four months and a half after his predecessor's death. During Gaykhatu this interval, in spite of the fact that Tughachdr (A.D^ 1291- anc j other chiefs of the Mongols had hastened to appoint governors in the different provinces, anarchy was rampant, and Afrasiyab, of the House of Hazarasp, which had ruled over Luristdn since the middle of the twelfth century, broke out in an abortive revolt and for a while held Isfahan. Gaykhatu, whom the author of the Habibu's-Siyar describes as " the most generous of the children of Hulagu," chose Sadru'd-Din Ahmad Khalidi of Zanjan, Dissolute and , ', r> j T i * i extravagant better known as Sadr-i-Jahan, as his prime character of minister. Both the monarch and his minister Gaykhatu were disposed to extravagance and prodigality, and the former at any rate to the pleasures of the table and other less reputable enjoyments. Thus it soon happened that the treasury was empty, and, money being urgently required, Sadr-i-Jahdn determined to introduce Introduction of + paper money the ckao, or paper money, which was current in the Chinese Empire. To this end establishments for manufacturing the chao were erected in all the principal towns, and stringent laws were enacted to restrict the use of the precious metals as far as possible. Full descriptions of the projected paper money are preserved to us in the Tartkh- i- Wassdf 1 and other histories of the period. The notes consisted of oblong rectangular pieces of paper inscribed with some words in Chinese, over which stood the Muham- madan profession of faith, "There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Apostle of God," in Arabic. Lower down was the scribe's or designer's name, and the value of the note (which varied from half a dirham to ten dinars) inscribed in a circle. A further inscription ran as follows: "The King 1 Pp. 272-3. 38 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i of the world issued this auspicious chao in the year A.H. 693 [A.D. 1294]. Anyone altering or defacing the same shall be put to death, together with his wife and children, and his property shall be forfeited to the exchequer." Proclamations were also sent to Shi'raz and other towns explaining the advantages of the new currency, answering imaginary objec- tions against it, and declaring that : " If in the world this chao gains currency, Immortal shall the Empire's glory be," and that poverty and distress would entirely disappear. One ingenious provision in the laws affecting the chao was that notes worn and torn by circulation were to be returned to the chao-khdna, or Mint, and new notes, less by ten per cent, than the amount thus refunded, were to be given to the person so returning them. The issue of the chao in Tabriz was fixed for the month of Dhu'l-Qa'da, 693 (Sept.-Oct, 1294). In three days the bazaars of Tabriz were closed and business S n the P ^ ity was practically at a standstill, for no one would accept the chao, and gold and silver had been withdrawn from circulation. The popular rage was largely directed against 'Izzu'd-Din Muzaffar, who had been in- strumental in introducing the hated paper money, and such verses as the following were composed about him : " Pride of the Faith 1 , Protection of the Land, Would that thy being from the world were banned ! 1 This is the meaning of I lzzu'd-Dtn. CH. i] BAYDti (APRIL-OCTOBER, 1295) 39 Hence Muslim, Guebre and Jew first magnify God, and declare His Power and Unity ; Then, humbly praying, bow them in the dust, And thus invoke the Judge All-wise and Just : ' Lord, send him not victorious 1 , we pray : Cause all his schemes and plans to go astray ! ' " Similar disturbances broke out at Shi'raz and in other cities, and, yielding to the representations of the Mongol nobles and others, Gaykhatu finally consented withdraw * reca ll the obnoxious chao and abolish the paper currency which had intensified instead of ameliorating the financial crisis. Shortly after this untoward experiment, Gaykhatu, in one of those drunken orgies which were habitual to him, grossly insulted his cousin Baydu. a grandson Gaykhatu insults his of Hulagu, and caused him to be beaten by one of his retainers. Next morning, when he came to his senses, he repented of his action, and endeavoured to conciliate Baydu by means of gifts and honours. Baydu, for reasons of expediency, concealed his resentment for the time, but soon afterwards, encouraged by certain disaffected Mongol nobles, he openly revolted against Gaykhatu, who, betrayed by his general Tughachar, was taken prisoner and put to death at Muqan, on Thursday, 6 Jumada II, 694 (April 23, 1295). BAYDTJ (APRIL-OCTOBER, 1295). Baydu was crowned soon after this at Ramadan, and after celebrating his accession in the usual drunken fashion of the Mongols 2 , proceeded to appoint Tugha- Baydii (April- c harcommander-in-chief,dismiss the late premier Oct., A.D. 1295) Sadr-i-Jakdn, and replace him by Jamalu'd-Din Dastajirdanf. He did not, however, long enjoy the high position which he had gained, for six months after his 1 " Victorious " is the meaning of Muzaffar. 2 Habibu's-Siyar (Bombay lithographed ed. of 1857), vol. iii, pt. i, p. 81. 4 o THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i accession he was overcome by Ghazan, the son of his cousin Arghun, and, in the words of Khwandamir 1 , "quaffed a full cup of that draught which he had caused Gaykhatu to taste." GHAZAN (A.D. 1295-1304). The accession of Ghazan, the great-grandson of Hulagii, marks the definite triumph of Islam over Mongol heathenism, and the beginning of the reconstruction of Per- Ghdz4n (A.D. s j an independence. He was born on December 1295-1304) 4, 1271, and was therefore not twenty-four years of age when he assumed the reins of government. At the youthful age of seven he accompanied his grandfather Abaqa on his hunting expeditions, and at the age of ten his father Arghun made him governor of Khurasan, under the tutelage of the Amir Nawruz, the son of Arghun Agha, who for thirty-nine years had governed various Persian provinces for Chingiz Khan and his successors. The Amir Nawruz had GhAzdn's embraced Islam, and it was through him that conversion Ghazan was converted to that faith, for at the beginning of his struggle with his rival Baydu he had been persuaded by Nawruz to promise that, if God should grant him the victory, he would accept the religion of the Arabian Prophet. This promise he faithfully fulfilled ; on Sha'ban 4, 694 (June 19, 1295), he and ten thousand Mongols made their profession of faith in the presence of Shaykh Sadru'd-Din Ibrahim 2 , the son of. the eminent doctor Sa'du'd-Din al-Hamawi. Nor did Ghazan lack zeal for his new convictions, for four months after his conversion he permitted Nawruz to destroy the churches, synagogues and idol-temples at Tabriz. He also caused a new coinage bearing Muhammadan inscriptions to be struck, and by an edict issued in May, 1299, prohibited usury, as contrary to the Muhammadan religion. In November, 1297, the Mon- 1 Habibds-Siyar (Bombay lithographed ed. of 1857), vol. iii, pt. i, p. 81. 2 So the Habibrfs-Siyar and Dawlatshdh ; but, according to the Mujmal of Fasihi, Shaykh Ibrahim al-Juwaynf. CH. i] GHAZAN (A.D. 1295-1304) 41 gol amirs adopted the turban in place of their national head-dress. There was still, however, a considerable section of Mon- gols, princes, nobles and others, which regarded Ghazan's _. . . conversion with active dislike. This led to Disaffection of the old-fashioned sundry rebellions and intrigues, which, however, were sternly repressed ; and in the course of one month, according to the Habibu's-Siyar (loc. cit., p. 85), no fewer than five Princes and thirty-seven amirs of the Mongols were put to death by Ghazan and Nawriiz. Naw- ruz himself, however, in spite of all that Ghazan owed him, was suspected by his master of secretly intriguing with the Sultan of Egypt ? and, though he fled to Herat and sought refuge with Malik Fakhru'd-Dm Kurt, he was taken and put to death. Shortly afterwards Jamalu'd-Dm Dastajir- dani, the Sadr-i-Jahdn* and his brother Qutb-i-Jahdn, were also put to death, and the great historian and physician Rashfdu'd-Din Fadlu'llah was made prime minister. Ghazin was a stern ruler; "his reign," as Sir Henry Howorth ob- serves 2 , "was marked by a terrible roll of executions, and, as d'Ohsson says, there is hardly a page of Rashfdu'd-Din at this time without a notice of the execution of some public functionary." During a considerable portion of his reign, Ghazan was at war with Egypt. His first campaign, which was in the winter of 1299-1300, culminated in the Mongol victory at Majma'u'l-Muruj near Hims (Emessa), where the Egyptians, outnumbered by three or four to one, were completely routed. The Mongols occupied Damascus and other portions of Syria for a hundred days, during which Ghazan's name was in- serted in the khutba. In spite of Ghazan's reassuring proclamation of December 30, 1299, Syria suffered heavily from the cruelties and depredations of the Mongols 3 . In 1 On April 30, A.D. 1298. See Howorth's Hist, of the Mongols, pt. 3, pp. 426-7. - Howorth, loc. tit., p. 421. 3 Ibid., pp. 444~5- 42 THE MONGOL I'L-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i the following winter (1300-1301) Ghazan again prepared to invade Syria, but was forced to retreat owing to floods and bad weather. In the following May he despatched a letter to the Sultan of Egypt, the answer to which, written in October, was delivered to him by his envoys in De- cember, 1 30 1 1 . Rather more than a year later, at the end of January, 1303, Ghazan again marched against the Egyptians. Having crossed the Euphrates at the date above mentioned, he visited Karbala, a spot sanctified to him by his strong Shi'ite proclivities, and bestowed on the shrine and its inmates many princely favours. At 'Ana, whither he next proceeded, Wassaf, the court- The historian . t i ' i f i Wassaf is pre- historian, presented him with the first three sentedtoGhd- volumes (out of five) of the history on which zan in A.D. 1303 ' . ' he was engaged, and which has been so otten quoted or mentioned in these pages. Ghazan accompanied his army for some distance further towards the West, and then recrossed the Euphrates to await the result of the campaign at Kashf, two days' journey westwards from Ardabi'K This campaign proved as disastrous to the Mongols as the previous one had been fortunate, for they were utterly defeated by the Egyptians in Defeat of the ' Mongols at March, 1303, at Marju s-Suffar near Damascus. Marju's-Sufiar -phe Egyptian victory was celebrated by gene- m A.D. 1303 . . . . c . J , \\ c ral rejoicings in Syria and Egypt, especially, 01 course, at Cairo, where every house was decorated and every point of vantage crowded to see the entry of the Sultan with his victorious troops, preceded by 1600 Mongol prisoners, each bearing, slung round his neck, the head of one of his dead comrades, while a thousand more Mongol heads were borne aloft on lances, accompanied by the great Mongol war-drums with their parchment rent 3 . Ghdzan's vexation was commensurate with the Egyptian Sultan's exultation, and was increased by a scornful and railing letter addressed to him by the victor 4 . Condign punishment was inflicted 1 For the contents of these letters, see Howorth, loc. cit.> pp. 458-461 . 2 Ibid., p. 467. 3 Ibid.) p. 474. 4 Ibid., pp. 476-8. CH. i] CHARACTER OF GHAZAN 43 by him on the Mongol generals and captains who were sup- posed to have been responsible for this disaster. Ghazan's health seems to have been undermined by the distress re- sulting from this reverse to his arms, which was perhaps still further increased by the abortive conspiracy to depose him and place his cousin Alafrank the son of Ga y kMtu on the throne, and he died at the early age of thirty-two on May 17, 1304. The mourning for his death throughout Persia was uni- versal, and appears to have been sincere, for he had restored Islam to the position it occupied before the in- Ghazan's / /~ T-> ^ > i > < -r^> i ^1 Rashfdu'd-Dm I3i8, Rashidu d-Din being then over seventy and his son in years f a g e - His body was outraged, his houses and possessions plundered, and his relatives and connections subjected to all sorts of persecution. More will presently be said of his character, learning, charity and literary achievements. About a month after this sad event (August, 1318) began the rebellion of Yasawur, whose ambition led him to covet the province of Khurasan. He succeeded in Rebellions compassing the death of Yasa ul, and, having made himself master of Khurasan, invaded and ravaged Mazandaran, but retired before Abu Sa'fd's general, Amir Husayn into the Garm-sir, or hot region bordering on the Persian Gulf. About the same time a formidable conspiracy of Mongol captains, such as Iranchin 1 , Tuqmaq and Isen- buq was formed against Chuban, but the latter, supported by Abu Sa'fd, utterly defeated them near Ujan in June, 1319, and those of the rebel leaders who did not perish in the battle were put to death with every circumstance of 1 Or Irinjin, the nephew of Doquz KMtun. See Chabot's Hist, de Mar Jabalaha III, p. 141 adcalc. CH. i] ABti SA'fD (A.D. 1317-1334) 53 ignominy and cruelty at Sultaniyya. Amongst the victims was Kinjik (or Kikhshik, or Kichik), the grand-daughter of Abaqa and wife of Iranchin, who had fought with con- spicuous bravery in the battle to avenge the death of her son Shaykh 'Ah', and was now, according to Nuwayri's account 1 , trampled to death by horses at the command of Abu Sa'id. Two months later Chuban was rewarded by being given in marriage Satf Beg, the king's sister, while the king, to commemorate his valour in this battle, took the title of Bahadur Khan. The years 1318-1319 were remarkable for grievous famines in Asia Minor and elsewhere, followed in 1320 by terrific hail-storms. Abu Sa'id, much alarmed, LTstorm 1 ? consulted the theologians as to the cause of these calamities. They ascribed them to the laxity which prevailed about wine-drinking and prostitution, taverns and brothels being in many cases situated close to mosques and colleges. Abu Sa'id thereupon closed all dis- orderly houses, and caused an enormous quan- Suppression t j t Q f to b destroyed, but he allowed of taverns * * one wine-shop to remain for the use of travellers in each district. These measures produced a very good impression in Egypt, and facilitated the conclusion of a treaty between Abu Sa'id and Sultan Nasir, the Egyptian ruler, who had recently carried his hostility against the Mongols so far as to send thirty assassins of the Assassins em- . ployed against Isma'ili sect from Syria to attempt the life ot Qara Sunqur. Although this attempt mis- carried, it greatly alarmed the Mongols, and both sides were thus prepared to come to terms and to set aside their ancient feuds. A treaty was ultimately concluded in 1323 between the two states, after a Mongol princess 2 (a grand- 1 D'Ohsson, vol. iv, pp. 636 and 641 ad calc. According to another account she perished in the battle, while WassaT (p. 645) says she was stoned to death, and her body cast naked into the street. * Ibid., pp. 655-6. The princess's journey from Sardy to Alex- andria, where she arrived in April, 1320, occupied nearly six months. 54 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i daughter of Batu) had been given in marriage to Sultan Nasir in 1320. In 1322 Timur-Tash the son of Chuban revolted in Asia Minor and declared himself to be the expected Mahdi or Revolt of Messiah, but he was overcome by his father, par- Tfmur-Tash doned, and ultimately reinstated in his govern- ment by Abu Sa'id. About the same time Armenia was de- Armenia vastated by the Egyptians,and Popejohn XXII devastated endeavoured to stir up the European powers on their behalf; to which end he wrote a letter (dated July 12, I322) 1 to Abu Sa'id asking him to aid them, and exhorting him at the same time to embrace the Christian faith. He also appointed 2 a Dominican named Fra^ois de Peruse archbishop of Sultaniyya. Early in 1324 died the prime minister 'Ali-shah, who was chiefly remarkable as the first Mongol wazir to die a Abu Sa'id natural death. He was succeeded by Ruknu'd- becomes Din Sa'in, who enjoyed the support of the impatient J J rr great Amir Chuban. The power of this Amir, power however, began to arouse the jealousy of Abu Sa'id, now about twenty-one years of age, and an open rupture was precipitated by Abu Sa'id's passion for Baghdad Khatun, the daughter of Chuban and wife of Shaykh Hasan Jala'ir, and by the intrigues of the ungrateful Ruknu'd-Dm against his benefactor. A threatened invasion of Khurasan by the Mongols of Transoxiana obliged Chuban and his son Husayn to be present in the eastern portion of the empire, while another son named Dimashq Khwaja, against whom Abu Sa'id was already incensed, remained at the court, which returned from its winter quarters at Baghdad to Sultaniyya in the spring of 1327. Abu Sa'id, growing daily more impatient of Dimashq Khwaja's arrogance and im- morality, only awaited a reasonable excuse to destroy him. 1 A translation of this letter is given by d'Ohsson, vol. iv, pp. 662-3. 2 D'Ohsson, vol. iv, p. 664. This appointment was made on May i, 1318. The first archbishop resigned in 1323, and was succeeded by Guillaume d'Ada. CH. i] DEATH OF AMfR CHtfBAN 55 Nor had he to wait long, for about this time it was discovered that Dimashq was engaged in an intrigue with one of Uljaytu's former concubines. Finding himself detected, he endeavoured to escape, but was overtaken and Kh *j a q put put to death, and his head was exhibited over to death in one o f the gates of Sultaniyya. This took place on August 25, I327 1 . He left four daughters, of whom the most notable was Dilshdd Kh^tun. She was married first to Abu Sa'i'd, to whom she bore a posthumous daughter who died in infancy, and afterwards to Shaykh Hasan Il-khanf, to whom she bore Sultan Uways and another son. This Sultan Uways reigned at Baghdad from 1356- 1374, and was, as we shall see, a notable patron of poets and men of letters and learning. Abu Sa'i'd, having taken this decisive step, resolved to exterminate Chuban and his whole family. Chuban, warned of the king's intention, first put to death the Death of wazir, Ruknu'd-Dm Sa'in, and then collected Chubdn his troops, to the number of seventy thousand, and marched westwards, first to Mashhad and then to Simnan, whence he sent the venerable Shaykh 'Ala'd-Di'n to intercede for him with Abu Sa'i'd. The Il-khan was not to be moved, and Chuban continued his advance westwards until he arrived within a day's march of Abu Sa'i'd. All seemed to be in Chuban's favour, until some of his most important amirs deserted to the king, taking with them some thirty thousand men. Thereupon Chuban retreated, first to Savva, where he left his wives Karduchi'n and Sati Beg, and then to Tabas. His followers continued to desert him until he was finally left with only seventeen persons. He then decided to take refuge at Herat with Ghiyathu'd- Din Kurt, who, however, betrayed him, and caused him and his chief officers to be strangled. His body was, by the Il-khan's order, conveyed to al-Madfna with great pomp, 1 Ibn Batiita gives a full account of the death of Dimashq Khwaja. See vol. ii, pp. 117-119. 56 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK i and there buried in the tomb which he had prepared for himself 1 . Abu Sa'i'd was now free to marry Baghdad Khatun, but, though she soon acquired a great influence over him, he did not cease persecuting her family. Another of Fate of Chuban s son Timtir-Tash, Chuban's sons,Ti'mur-Tash, who was governor of Asia Minor, took refuge at the Egyptian court, where he arrived on January 21, 1328. He was at first well received, sumptuously entertained, and given an allowance of 1500 dinars a day; but the urgent demands of Abii Sa'i'd for his extradition, combined with the intrigues of the Egyptian Sultan's courtiers, soon decided the latter to get rid of him. For a while he hesitated between the extradi- tion and the execution of his once powerful guest, but finally he decided to kill him, fearing lest, if he were sent to Abu Sa'i'd, the intercession of his sister Baghdad Khatun and his old friend Ghiyathu'd-Din, the son of the great Rashi'du'd- Di'n, now himself prime minister, might induce the f 1-khan to forgive him, and that, should this happen, he would certainly seek to revenge himself on the Egyptians. Timur- Tash was therefore put to death in prison on the night of Thursday, August 22, 1328, and his head, embalmed and placed in a casket, was sent to Abu Sa'i'd. Of the waztr Ghiyathu'd-Din b. Rashidu'd-Di'n the con- temporary historian Hamdu'llah Mustawfi ofQazwin speaks in enthusiastic terms in his Ta'rikh-i-Giizida, Ministry of Ghi- /-. i T T i i i i- i i yathu'd-Dinb. or Select History, which is dedicated to him. Rashidu-d-Dm / fluenced Persian thought, such as the Fusiisu l- Hikam and other writings of Shaykh Muhiyyu'd-Din ibnu'l- 'Arabi, and the writings of Shaykh Sadru'd-Dm of Qonya (Iconium), which were the sources whence such (3) Arabic histori- . , T-II > i T^/ T ' > J J cai, geographical mystical poets as Fakhru d-Din Iraqi derived and biographical t ne j r inspiration. Thirdly, and most important, Arabic historical, geographical and biographical works which throw light on the persons, places, circum- stances and ideas which we shall meet with in the course of our investigations. Amongst these special mention must be made of the lives of physicians ( Tabaqatu'l-Atibbd) 1 See Nuzhattfl-Quliib (ed. G. le Strange), vol. xxiii, I of the " E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, p. 122, 11. 21 et seqq. - See Brockelmann's Gesch. d. Arab. Lift., vol. i, pp. 416-418. 64 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a 1 (d. 668/1270); the great biographical work of Ibn Khallikan (d. 681/1282) entitled Wafaydtu'l- A'ydn*; the Athdru'l-Bildd ("Monuments of the Lands") of Zakariyya b. Muhammad al-Qazwinf 3 (d. 682/1283) ; the general history, especially important for the Mongol period, entitled Mukhtasant d-Duwal of Abu'l-Faraj Bar-Hebraeus (d. July 30, 1289)*; the well-known history of Abu'1-Fida, Prince of Hamat (d. 732/1331), entitled Al-Mukhtasar f{ Ta rikh? l-Bashar* ; and the illuminating travels of Ibn Batuta 6 (d. 779/1377), which extended over a period of 24 years (1325-1349) and included not only Persia but the greater part of Asia from Constantinople to India and China, and from Arabia to Afghanistan and Transoxiana. The student of Persian history and literature who ignores these books is cut off from some of the richest sources of trustworthy information, yet they are constantly Value of the neglected even by experts who write authorita- Atharul-Bilad J tively on the Persian poets and other kindred topics. Take only the " Monuments of the Lands " of al-Qazwi'm above mentioned, consider the following list of eminent Persian poets to whom reference is made under the towns wherein they were born or where they spent their lives, and see how much information about them is given which is vainly sought in the Persian tadhkiras or " Memoirs " commonly consulted on such matters 7 : Anwari (p. 242), 1 Brockelmann's Gesch. d. Arab. Litt., vol. i, pp. 325-6. The text was printed at Cairo in 2 vols., 1299/1882. 2 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 326-8. This work is accessible to the English reader in the excellent translation of the Baron McGuckin de Slane, 4 vols., London and Paris, 1843-1871. 3 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 481-2 ; published by Wiistenfeld together with the better known but less valuable 'Aja'ibTi'l-Makhluqdt, or " Wonders of Creation " of the same author at Gottingen in 1818. 4 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 349-350. I have not used Pococke's edition (Oxford, 1663), but the text printed at Beyrout in 1890. 5 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 44-46. 6 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 256-7 ; edited with a French translation by Defre"mery and Sanguinetti in 4 vols. (Paris, 1853-1858, and 1869-1879). 7 The references are to the pages of Wiistenfeld's edition, which is CH. n], TA'RlKH-I-JAHAN-GUSHA 65 'Asjadf (p. 278), Awhadu'd-Din Kirmani (p. 164), Fakhrf of Jurjan (p. 351), Farrukhi (p. 278), Firdawsf (pp. 278-9 and a verse from the Shdhndma quoted on p. 135), Jalal-i-Tabi'b (p. 257), Jalal-i-Khwarf (p. 243), Khaqani (pp. 272-3, where 3 bayts of his poetry are cited, and p. 404), Abu Tahir al-Khatuni (p. 259), Mujfr of Baylaqan (p. 345), Nizami (pp. 351-2), Nasir-i-Khusraw (pp. 328-9), Abu Sa'fd ibn Abi'l-Khayr (pp. 241-2), Sana'i (p. 287), Shams-i- Tabasi (pp. 272-3), 'Umar-i-Khayyam (p. 318), 'Unsuri (p. 278)and Rashidu'd-Din Watwat (pp. 223-4). Here, then, we have notices, some fairly full and containing matter not to be found elsewhere, of 19 important Persian poets who flourished before or during the thirteenth century, these being in many cases the oldest notices extant 1 , since the Lubdbul-Albdb of 'Awfi and the Chahdr Maqdla, "Four Discourses," of Nizami-i-'Arudi of Samarqand are almost the only Persian works of greater antiquity which treat more or less systematically of the lives of Persian poets. And this is only one subject out of many interesting to the student of Persian dealt with in this most entertaining work. We must now pass to the historians, who, as I have already said, are by far the most important writers of this period, for, while other periods, both earlier and later, have produced poets alike more numerous and more celebrated, none have produced historians comparable in merit to these. Of 'Ata Malik-i-Juwaym"s Tdrikh-i-Jahdn-guslid or " History of the World-Conqueror " (i.e. Chingiz Khan), repeated mention was made in a preceding The Ta'rikh-i- vo i ume 2 b u t something more must be added Jahan-gushd here. It was completed in 658/1260, but con- the standard one. The work has not been translated, so far as I know, into any European language. 1 On p. 334 of the AthdruH-Bildd the author tells us that he met Shaykh Muhiyyu'd-Din ibnu'l-'Arabf in 630/1232-3, while the author's autograph copy of the book is dated 674/1275-6, so that its composition lies between these limits. 2 Lit. Hist, of Persia, vol. ii, where the chief references are pp. 434, 435. 443 and 473- B. P. 5 66 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i eludes with the events of the year 655/1257, notably the destruction of the Assassins by the author's master and patron Hulagu Khan. Some few MSS. contain an Appendix describing the sack of Baghdad, which took place in the following year, but this is probably an addition by a later hand. The work comprises three parts, of which the first deals with the history of Chingfz Khan and his ancestors, and his successors down to Chaghatay ; the second relates the history of the Khwarazm-shahs, especially of the two last rulers of this dynasty, Qutbu'd-Di'n Muhammad and his son Jalalu'd-Dfn ; while the third treats of the Isma'i'lf sect and especially of Hasan-i-Sabbah and his successors, the Assassins of Alamut. The work is therefore not a general history, but a historical monograph on Chingfz Khan and his predecessors and successors, to which are added accounts of the two chief dynasties with which he came in conflict in Persia and Mesopotamia. Further par- ticulars about this most valuable and original history are given in an article which I contributed to the J.R.A.S. for January, 1904, pp. 1-17, and the first and second of the three volumes which it comprises have already appeared (in 1912 and 1916 respectively) in the " E. J. W. Gibb Memorial " Series (xvi, I and xvi, 2), edited by my learned friend Mirza Muhammad ibn 'Abdu'l-Wahhab of Qazwin, who has prefixed to the first volume 1 a full and critical account of the work and its author, and of the family of statesmen to which he belonged, He died in March 1283. His brother Shamsu'd-Dfn the Sdhib-Dzwdn wrote this verse on his death : "He and I, thou wouldst say, were two lamps which in unison shone ; One lamp burneth still, but alas ! for the other is gone ! " 1 English Introduction, pp. xv-xcii ; Persian ditto, ^.5 -^. Ill ^>U^%tu! r / ffij^b&Jj^t^jtf&jUj^ jw^J^ttu^^ j^oy tj^U*D>v J ^f>cC^l**t/J '>&Jj&^w^ bj*i$^>.yfajQj^ 7^ ; A 6^ J^M^ii^2J!nI^^ W^>^^frfc^^&j$jJ\^ bUtjLu&J tM^j&j&b -^bxjbJ^//^-^ U^L^ Colophon of the oldest MS. of the Tdrikh-i-Jahdn-gushd in the Bibliotheque Nationale, dated A.H. 689 (A.D. 1290) To face p. 66 CH. n] TA'RIKH-I-WASSAF 67 The following chronogram on his death was composed by Sadru'd-Dm 'All, the son of Nasiru'd-Dm of Tus 1 : O J* -5 The Tarikh-i- Wassdf was intended, as its author in- forms us, to be a continuation of the above-mentioned his- tory, and may therefore most conveniently be mentioned next, although it is of slightly later date than the Jdmi'u't- Tawdrikh, of which we shall next speak. Its proper title is Tajziyatu'l-A msdr wa Tazjiyatiil-A'sdr (the "Allotment of Lands and Propulsion of Ages"), and its author, though commonly known simply as Wassdf (the " Panegyrist ")or Wassdf-i-Hadrat(\he "Court Panegyrist "), was properly named 'Abdu'llah ibn Fadlu'llah of Shiraz. He was employed in the collection of revenue for the Mongol Government, and was a protege of the great minister Rashidu'd-Din, who presented him and his book to Uliaytu. as he himself relates 2 , at Sultaniyya on Dr Rieu's esti- J * TT-I- "T-.-H mate of its merits June I, A.D. 1^12. HlS history, as RlCU Well says 3 , "contains an authentic contemporary record of an important period, but its undoubted value is in some degree diminished by the want of method in its arrangement, and still more by the highly artificial character and tedious redundance of its style. It was unfortunately set up as a model, and has exercised a baneful influence on the later historical compositions in Persia." That these criticisms are fully justified will be denied by no one who has occasion to use the work, and indeed the author himself 1 Both these verses are taken from the Mujmal of Fasihf, f. 466 of the Raverty MS., sub anno 68 1. 2 Pp. 544 etseqq. of the fine Bombay lithograph of 1269/1852-3. 3 Cat. of Pers. MSS. in Brit. Mus., p. 162. 52 68 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i declares that to write in the grand style was his primary object, and that the historical events which he records served merely as the material on which he might embroider the fine flowers of his exuberant rhetoric. Uljaytii, we are told, was unable to understand the passages read aloud to him by the author on the occasion of his audience ; and the reader who is not a Persian scholar may form some idea of his pompous, florid and inflated style from the German translation of the first volume published with the text by Hammer in 1856. We could forgive the author more readily if his work were less valuable as an original authority on the period (1257-1328) of which it treats, but in fact it is as important as it is unreadable. It com- prises five volumes, of which the contents are summarily stated by Rieu (op. cit., pp. 162-3), and there is, besides the partial edition of Hammer mentioned above, an excellent lithographed edition of the whole, published at Bombay in Rajab, 1269 (April, 1853). Here, perhaps, mention should be made of a quasi- historical work similar in style but far inferior in value to that just mentioned, I mean the Mu'jam Mu'jam ft , J . ., . . AthdriMuiukii- fi Athdri Mtilukt I- l Ajam, a highly rhetorical account of the ancient Kings of Persia down to Sasanian times, written by Fadlu'llah al-Husayni and dedicated to Nusratu'd-Din Ahmad b. Yusuf-shah, Atabek of Lur-i-Buzurg, who reigned from 1296 to about 1330. This book, which is vastly inferior to the other histories mentioned in this chapter, has been lithographed at Tihran, and manuscripts of it are to be found in most large Oriental libraries 1 . We now come to the great fdmfu't-Tawdrikk, or "Compendium of Histories," of which incidental mention has been made in the last chapter in con nee - e -^i v '~ tion with its illustrious author Rashfdu'd-Dfn / awarlKn Fadlu'llah, equally eminent as a physician, a 1 See Rieu's Pers. Cat., p. 811 ; Ethe*'s Bodleian Cat., No. 285 ; Ethels India Office Cat., Nos. 534-5. CH. n] RASHfDU'D-DfN FADLU'LLAH 69 statesman, a historian, and a public benefactor. Of his public career and tragic fate we have already spoken, but something more must be said not only of the scope and contents of his history, but of his private life and literary activity. His history, unfortunately, has never yet been published in its entirety, and manuscripts of it are compara- tively rare, but amongst the published portions is his life of . , Hiilasru Khan, edited by Quatremere at Paris Quatremere s J *-' critical account in 1836, with a French translation and many valuable notes, under the title of Histoire des Mongols de la Perse, ecrite en per s an par Raschid-eldin, publiee, traduite en franqais, accompagnee de notes et dun memoire sur la vie et les outrages de Cauteur. From this excellent memoir, to which those who desire fuller and more detailed information are referred, the following salient facts of Rashidu'd-Dm's life and works are chiefly taken. He was born at Hamadan about A.D. 1247, and was His birth in 1247 111- i i /- asserted by his enemies to have been of Jewish origin. His grandfather Muwaffaqu'd-Dawla 'Alf was, with the astronomer Nasiru'd-Din Tusi and Ra'isu'd-Dawla, an unwilling guest of the Assassins of Alamut when that place was taken by Hulagu in the very year of our author's birth, and was at once received into Hulagu's service. As court-physician Rashi'du'd-Din enjoyed considerable in- fluence and honour during the reign of Abaqa, but it was in the reign of Ghazan, whose accession took place in A.D. 1295, that his many merits were first fully recognized, and three years later, on the dismissal and execution He becomes * Prime Minister of the prime minister Sadru'd-Din Zanjdni, zani QI29 8 called Sadr-i-Jakdn, he was chosen by Ghazan, conjointly with Sa'du'd-Din, to succeed him. In A.D. 1303 Rashi'du'd-Din accompanied Ghazan as Arabic secretary in the campaign against the Syrians, and it was during this period, while the Mongol court was established at 'Ana on the Euphrates, that he presented to Ghazan the author of the Tarikh-i- Wassdf, as has been already mentioned (p. 42), on March 3, 1303. 70 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i During the reign of Uljaytu(or Khuda-banda)Rashidu'd- Dfn enjoyed the same high position as under his predecessor, and received from the new king several singular add increaMd"* marks of favour and confidence. He also built honour under j n Sultanivya, the new capital, a fine suburb, Khuda-banda / J named after him Rashidiyya, containing a magnificent mosque, a college, a hospital and other public buildings, and some thousand houses. In December, 1307, he was instrumental in establishing the innocence of two Shafi'ite doctors of Baghdad, Shihabu'd-Din Suhrawardi and Jamalu'd-Din,whohadbeen accused of carrying on a treason- able correspondence with Egypt 1 . Some two years later he built another beautiful little suburb, near Ghaza- He founds and - , t i i i j i endows the niyya, the town which had grown up round suburb called Ghazan's mausoleum, to the East of Tabriz, Rab'-i-Rashfdt and, at great expense, brought thither the river Saraw-rud through channels hewn in the solid rock'-. Immense sums of money were required for these and other admirable works of piety and public utility, but Rashi'du'd- Din, as he himself declares, had received from the generous Uljaytvi such sums as no previous sovereign had ever bestowed on minister or courtier. On the transcription, binding, maps and illustrations of his numerous literary works he had, according to the Ta'rikh-i- Wassdf, expended no less a sum than 60,000 dinars (^36,000). Early in the year 1312 Rashidu'd-Din's colleague Sa'du'd- Di'n of Sawa fell from power and was put to death, the prime mover in the intrigue of which he was the victim SS^ bein g the clever and unscrupulous 'Ali-shah, who at once succeeded the dead minister in his office. Soon afterwards a dangerous intrigue was directed against Rashidu'd-Di'n, but happily it recoiled on its authors and left him unscathed. Whether he, on the other hand, was responsible for the barbarous execution of SayyidTaju'd- 1 Quatremere, Hist, des Mongols, pp. xvi-xvii. The Shihabu'd-Din here mentioned is not, of course, Sa'df's teacher, who died 632/1234-5. 2 See G. le Strange's Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, pp. 162-3. CH. n] FALL AND DEATH OF RASHfDU'D-DfN 71 Din, the Naqibn'l-Ashrdf, or " Dean of the Shan'fs " (i.e. the descendants of 'Ah') is a doubtful question, which Quatremere answers in the negative. In 1315 such acrimonious disputes broke out between Rashidu'd-Din and 'Ah'-shah, as to who was responsible for Fan and death of thejack of money to pay the troops, that Rashidu'd-Din Uljaytu' assigned to the management of each one different provinces of Persia and Asia Minor. Nevertheless 'Ah'-shah continued his campaign of calumny against his colleague, who succeeded only with the greatest difficulty in saving himself from disaster. The same rivalry and intrigue continued after the death of Uljaytu and the accession of Abu Sa'id, until finally Rashi'du'd-Din, having succumbed to the attacks of his traducers, was deprived of his office in October, 1317, and ultimately, on July 18, 1318, at the age of over seventy years, was put to death with his son Ibrahim, a lad of sixteen years of age, on a charge of having poisoned the late king. His property was confiscated, his relatives were persecuted and despoiled, his pious founda- tions were robbed of their endowments, and the his foundations Rab'-i-Rashidi,the suburb which he had founded, and desecration was given over to rapine. He was buried in the mausoleum which he had prepared for his last resting-place, but his body was not suffered to rest there in peace, for about a century later Mi'ranshah the son of Timur- i-Lang, in one of his fits of insane brutality, caused it to be exhumed and buried in the Jews' cemetery. 'Ah'-shah, in order to testify his joy at his rival's fall, presented magnifi- cent presents to the Sanctuary at Mecca, and, escaping the retribution which overtook most of his accomplices, died peaceably in his bed six years later (in 1324), being, as already remarked, the first minister of the Mongol Il-khans who had the good fortune to die a natural death. Of Rashi- du'd-Din's son Ghiyathu'd-Din, who resembled him in virtue and learning, as well as in his public career and his sad end (for he too was ultimately put to death in the spring of 1336) mention has been already made in the preceding chapter. 72 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i For the conception of the Jdmi'u't- Tawdrikh the credit, in Quatremere's opinion 1 , belongs to Ghazan Khan, who, foreseeing that the Mongols in Persia, in spite ande^ecudon f their actual supremacy, would in course of ofttejdmfv time inevitably be absorbed by the Persians. ' t-Tawdrikh J desired to leave to posterity a monument ot their achievements, in the shape of a faithful record of their history and conquests, in the Persian language. For the accomplishment of this great task he chose (and no better choice could have been made) Rashidu'd-Di'n, at whose disposal were placed all the state archives, and the services of all those who were most learned in the history and antiquities of the Mongols. The minister, though engrossed by the state affairs of a vast empire, yet succeeded in finding time to prosecute his researches and commit them to writing, though, according to Dawlat-shah 2 , the only time at his disposal for this purpose was that which intervened between the morning prayer and sunrise. Before Rashidu'd-Din's history of the Mongols was completed, Ghazan died (May 17, 1304), but his successor Uljaytu ordered it to be finished and dedicated, contents of the as originally intended, to Ghazan ; whence this a- portion of the work, generally called the first ,. **,! j -/,/ r, - ' volume,is sometimesentitled la nkh-i-Ghazam, the " Ghazanian History." Uljaytu also ordered the author to write a companion volume containing a general history of the world and especially of the lands of Islam, and a third volume dealing with geography. This last has either perished, or was never actually written, but only projected, so that the work as we now know it comprises only two volumes, the first on the history of the Mongols, written for Ghazan, the second on general history. The whole work was completed in 710/1310-11, though two years later the author was still engaged on his supplementary account of Uljaytu's reign. 1 Hist, des Mongols, p. Ixviii. 2 P. 217 of my edition. CH. n] THE jAMPU'T-TAWARfKH 73 The contents of this great history are briefly as follows : VOL. I, ch. i. History of the different Turkish and Mongol tribes, their divisions, genealogies, pedigrees, legends, etc., in a Preface and four sections. ch. ii. History of Chingfz Khan, his ancestors and successors, down to Ghazan Khan. VOL. II, Preface. On Adam and the Patriarchs and Hebrew Prophets. Part i. History of the ancient kings of Persia before Islam, in four sections. Part 2. History of the Prophet Muhammad and of the Caliphate, down to its extinction by the Mongols in 1258; of the post-Muhammadan Persian dynasties of Persia, viz. the Sultans of Ghazna, the Seljuqs, the Khwarazmshahs, the Salgharid Atabeks of Fars, and the Isma'i'lis of the West and of the East ; of Oghuz and his descendants, the Turks ; of the Chinese ; of the Jews ; of the Franks and their Emperors and Popes ; and of the Indians, with a long and full account of Sakyamuni (Buddha) and of the religion which he founded. The above is the arrangement actually adopted in the manuscripts of the India Office and the British Museum, but the divisions proposed by the author in his Intro- rangem^of duction are slightly different, for he intended to tbe/dmi'ut- begin the second volume with the history of Tawdrlkh / 7 the reigning king Uljaytu from his birth until 706/1306-7, and to add a supplement at the end of the same volume continuing the history of this monarch year by year. This confusing arrangement is not actually observed in most manuscripts, which, if they contain Uljaytu's reign at all, put it in its natural place, at the end of vol. i, after Ghazan. Few if any of the extant manuscripts are, however, complete, though every part of the history is contained in one or other of them. In the J.R.A.S. for January, 1908 (pp. 17-37) I have given a fuller analysis of the contents, together with a scheme for the complete edition which is so much needed. 74 HISTORIANS OF THE IL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i Ignoring the complicated and confusing divisions made by Scheme for a tne aut hor, I proposed to publish the whole complete edition book in seven volumes, of which the first three, of the Jam? u't- . . TawMkh in containing the history of the Turks and Mon- seven volumes go j g> WQuld correspond to yol j Q f the original, and the last four to vol. ii, as follows : Series L Special history of the Mongols and Turks. VOL. I, from the beginning to the death of Chingfz Khan. VOL. II, from the accession of Ogotay to the death of Timur (Uljaytu), the grandson of Qubilay Khan 1 . VOL. in, from the accession of Hulagu 2 to the death of Ghazan, including the continuation of the history of the later Il-khans down to Abu Sa'i'd compiled as a supplement to this portion of Rashi'du'd-Din's work in the reign of Shah Rukh and by his command. Series II. General history. VOL. IV. The Introduction, the history of the ancient kings of Persia down to the fall of the Sasanian dynasty, and the biography of the Prophet Muhammad. VOL. V. The entire history of the Caliphate, from Abu Bakr to al-Musta'sim. VOL. VI. The history of the post-Muhammadan dynasties of Persia (Ghaznawis, Seljuqs, Khwarazmshahs, Sal- ghan's and Isma'ilis). VOL. VII. The remainder of the work, comprising the history (from their own traditions and statements) of the Turks, Chinese, Israelites, Franks and Indians. The Jdmi'ut-Tawdrikh is remarkable not only for the extensive field which it covers and the care with which it has been compiled from all available sources, both written 1 This is the portion which M. Blochet has published in the " E. J. W. Gibb Memorial " Series, vol. xviii. 2 The portion of this volume dealing with Hulagu was, as already stated, published by Quatremere under the title Q{ Histoire des Mongols de la Perse, vol. i (Paris, 1836). IV Enthronement of Ogotay, the son and successor of Chingiz, from an old MS. ot tiae fdmfiit-Tawdrikh in the Bibliotheque Nationale. To face p. 74 CH. n] OTHER WORKS BY RASHfDU'D-DfN 75 and oral, but for its originality. It is doubtful whether any Persian prose work can be compared to it in value, at any rate in the domain of history, and it is the more to be re- gretted that it remains unpublished and almost inaccessible. " I will dwell no longer," says Quatremere 1 , " on the proofs of the extreme importance of Rashfdu'd-Din's compilation ; this excellent work, undertaken in the most favourable cir- cumstances, and with means of performing it never before possessed by any single writer, offered for the first time to the peoples of Asia a complete course of universal history and geography." The same writer illustrates the thorough- ness of Rashidu'd-Di'n's work by indicating the extent to which he drew on Chinese sources, written and oral, in writing that portion of his history which bore reference to Khata (Cathay) 2 , and expresses a regret, which all must share, that the geographical portion of his work is lost, or at least still undiscovered. Perhaps, as Quatremere conjec- tures 3 ,it perished in the destruction and looting of the Rab'-i- Rashidi which immediately followed Rashidu'd-Di'n's death. Rashidu'd-Din composed numerous other works besides the Jdmi'iit- Tawdrikk, and of these and their contents a detailed account is given by Quatremere 4 . S the h r 7fn by Amongst them is the KitdbiM-Ahyd wcil-Athdr Rashidu d-Din -' (the "Book of Animals and Monuments"), which comprised twenty-four chapters treating of a variety of matters connected with meteorology, agricul- Kitdbu'i-Ahyd tu arboriculture, apiculture, the destruction wa l-Athar of noxious insects and reptiles, farming and stock-breeding, architecture, fortification, ship-building, min- ing and metallurgy. This work is unhappily lost. Another of Rashidu'd-Di'n's works was the Tawdihdt, or " Explanations," a theological and mystical work, of which the contents are arranged under a pre- face and nineteen letters. It was written at the 1 Op. laud., p. Ixxiv. 2 Ibid., p. Ixxviii. 3 Ibid., p. Ixxxi. 4 Ibid., pp. cxii-cxlvi. 76 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i request of Uljaytu, and is described by Quatremere from a manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale. This was followed by another theological work entitled Miftdhu't-Tafdsir, the " Key of Commentaries," treating of the divine eloquence of the Qur'dn, its com- ' mentators and their methods, Good and Evil, rewards and punishments, length of life, Pro- vidence, Predestination and the Resurrection of the Body. To these topics are added a refutation of the doctrine of Metempsychosis, and a definition of sundry technical terms. " The Royal Treatise " (ar-Risdlatus-Siiltdniyya) is another similar work, undertaken on Ramadan 9, 706 (March 14, 1307), as the result of a discussion ar-Risdiatu's- Qn theological matters which had taken place Sultdmyya o , in the presence of Uljaytu. The Latd'ifu'l-Haqaiq, or " Subtle Truths," comprises fourteen letters, and begins with an account of a vision in which the author, on the night preceding Ra- &%e l ~ madan 26, 705 (April 11, 1306), dreamed that he was presented to the Prophet. Its contents also are theological. This and the three preceding works are all written in Arabic, and together form what is known as the Majmrta-i-Rashtdiyya, or " Collection of the works of Rashi'du'd-Din," of which a beautiful manuscript, dated 710/1310-11, exists at Paris. Another manuscript of the same library 1 contains a Persian translation of the Latd 'ifitl-Haqd'iq, and there are also preserved there two copies of an attestation of the orthodoxy of Rashidu'd-Din's theological views, signed by seventy leading doctors of Muslim theology. This attestation was drawn up in con- sequence of accusations of heterodoxy made against Rashid by a malicious fellow whose enmity had been aroused by the frustration of his endeavours to appropriate an emolu- ment from a benefaction for scholars and men of learning made by Ghazan Khan on his death. Another of Rashfd's works, of which, unhappily, only 1 Ancien Fonds Persan, No. 107, fif. 1-70. CH. n] RASHfD'S CARE FOR HIS BOOKS 77 the general nature of the contents is known, is the Baydnu'l- Haqd'tq, or " Explanation of Verities," com- B Haqq l ~ prising seventeen letters, dealing mostly with theological topics, though other subjects, such as the small-pox and the nature and varieties of heat, are discussed. The elaborate precautions (precautions which, alas ! in the event proved inadequate) taken by Rashidu'd-Din to preserve and transmit to posterity the fruits of Precautions J taken by his literary labours are very fully detailed by Kashidu'd- ,-*. \ , i i_ i_ n . Din for the Quatremere, and can only be briefly recapitu- preservation lated in this place. First, he caused several copies of each of his works to be made for lending to his friends and to men of letters, who were freely permitted to transcribe them for their own use. Then he caused Arabic translations of all his Persian, and Persian transla- tions of all his Arabic works to be prepared, and of both versions he caused numerous copies to be deposited, for the use of anyone who might desire to read or copy them, in the mosque-library of the quarter called after him Rab'-i- Rashidi. He also caused one large volume, containing all of his treatises with the necessary maps and illustrations, to be prepared and deposited in the above-mentioned public library, giving it the title of Jdnritit-tasdnifir-Rashidi 1 , or "Complete collection of the works of Rashidu'd-Din." Of four more works treating of Medicine and the Mongol system of government he caused trilingual versions, in Chinese, Arabic and Persian, to be prepared. He further accorded the fullest liberty to anyone who desired to copy any or all of these books, and, not content with this, assigned a certain yearly sum from the revenues with which he had endowed his mosque in order to have two complete transcripts of his 1 That this is the correct title appears from the text of this docu- ment, published by Quatremere together with the translation. See his Hist, des Mongols, p. cxlix, 1. 3. The Majmu'a contained four treatises only (see the preceding page), while the Jdmi 1 contained everything Rashfd had written. 78 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i works, one in Arabic and one in Persian, made every year, and presented to one of the chief towns of the Muhammadan world. These copies were to be made on the best Baghdad paper and in the finest and most legible writing, and to be carefully collated with the originals. The copyists were to be carefully chosen, having regard both to the excellence and the speed of their work, and were to be lodged in the precincts of the mosque, as the administrators of the bequest might direct. Each copy, when finished, bound and ornamented, was to be carried into the mosque and placed on a book- rest between the pulpit and the mihrdb, and over it was to be repeated a prayer for the author, composed by himself, and conceived in the following terms 1 : "(9 God, who revealest the most hidden secrets, and gives t knowledge of history and traditions ! As Thou hast graci- ously guided thy servant Rashid the Physician, Rashidu'd- who standeth in need of Thine Abundant Mercy, Dm sprayer in the composition of these works > which comprise investigations supporting the fundamental dogmas of Islam, and minute researches tending to elucidate philosophical truths and natural laws, profitable to those who meditate on the in- ventions of Art, and advantageous to such as reflect on the ^vonders of Creation, even so hast TJiott enabled him to con- secrate a portion of his estates to pious foundations, on condition that from these revenues should be provided sundry copies of these books, so that the Muslims of all lands and of all times may derive profit therefrom. Accept, O God, all this from him with a favourable acceptance, and cause his efforts to be remembered with thanks, and grant forgiveness for all sins, and pardon all those who shall help to accomplish this good work, and those who shall read or consult these works and put in practice the lessons which they contain. And bestow 1 The original of this prayer is given by Quatremere on p. clxx of his Hist, des Mongols, and the translation, which is more elegant than literal, on pp. cxl-cxli. The translation here given is from the Arabic original. V faii*&&-'Js& Colophon of Qiir'an transcribed for Uljaytd, Rashidu'd-Din and Sa'du'd-Din in A.H. 710 (A. D. 1310-11) Or. 4945 (Brit. Mus.), f. i a To/ace />. 7 s CH. n] ELABORATE PRECAUTIONS 79 on him a good recompense, both in this world and the next ! Verily Thou art worthy of fear, yet swift to forgive ! " This prayer was also to be inscribed at the end of each copy so completed, and was to be followed by a brief doxology, also formulated by Rashidu'd-Din,and a colophon penned by the administrator of the bequest, stating at what epoch and for what town each copy had been made, and giving his own name and genealogy, so that he also might be remembered in the prayers of the faithful. Finally the completed copy was to be submitted to the qddis, or judges, of Tabriz, who should certify that all the formalities pre- scribed by the author had been duly carried out ; and it was then to be sent to the town for which it was destined, and deposited in a public library where it could be freely used by all students, and even borrowed against a bond for such sum as the librarian might deem suitable. A copy of the Arabic version of the MajmiVa-i-Rashidiyya, together with the Baydnul-Haqd'iq and the Kitdbu'l-Ahyd wal-Athdr, was also to be made for one of the Professors on the foundation, who was daily to read and expound to the students some portion of the contents.- Besides this, each lecturer on the foundation was obliged to make a copy of one of these \vorks,either in Arabic or Persian,during the period occupied by his course of lectures, failing which he was to be dismissed and replaced by one more diligent than himself. The copy, when made, was to be his own, to sell, give away, or keep as he pleased. All facilities were to be accorded to persons desirous of copying any of these works in the library, but they were not allowed to be removed from its walls. In conclusion the successive administrators of the funds were exhorted to carry out zealously and literally the wishes of the benefactor, and curses were invoked on any administrator who should fail to do so. Yet, as Quatremere observes 1 , in spite of all these elabo- rate precautions, " we have lost the greater part of the works of this learned historian, and all the measures which he took 1 Op. laud., p. cxlv. 8o HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i have not had a more fortunate success than the precautions devised by the Emperor Tacitus to secure the preservation of his illustrious relative's writings. The action of time and the vandalism of man, those two scourges which have robbed us of so many masterpieces of antiquity, have also destroyed numerous other productions, less brilliant without doubt, but not less useful; and while worthless compilations are spread abroad in all directions and load the shelves of our libraries, we are left to lament bitterly a number of important works, of which the loss is irreparable." Of one such work, however, not apparently known to Quatremere, I am the fortunate possessor. This is a col- lection of Rashi'du'd-Di'n's letters, mostly on A MS. collection f of Rashidu-d- political and financial matters, addressed to his sons and others who held various offices under the Mongol government, and collected, arranged and edited by his secretary Muhammad of Abarquh. For two manuscripts of this work, one old, the other a modern copy of the first, made, apparently, for Prince Bahman Mi'rza Bahd'u'd-Dawla, I am indebted to the generosity of my friend Mr G. le Strange, who obtained them from the late Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler 1 . A third manuscript volume, in English, is entitled in Mr le Strange's hand : Summary of the Contents of the Persian MS. Despatches of Rashiditd- Din: copied from notes supplied by Sir A. H. Schindler, and afterwards corrected by him: Dec. 1913. In view of the ex- treme rarity of this work and the interest of its contents, a list of the 53 despatches and letters which it contains and the persons to whom they are addressed is here appended. 1. Preface of the editor Muhammad of Abarquh, de- fective at beginning. 2. Letter from Rashidu'd-Dfn to Majdu'd-Din Isma'il Falf. 3. Answer to the above. 4. From Rashidu'd-Dfn to his son Amir 'All, Governor 1 See my article on the Persian Manuscripts of the late Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler, K.C.I. E., in ihzJ.R.A.S. for Oct. 1917, pp. 693-4. CH. n] LETTERS OF RASHfDU'D-DfN 81 of Iraq-i-'Arab, ordering him to punish the people of Basra for rebellious conduct. 5. From the same to his son Amir Mahmud, Governor of Kirman, reprimanding him for oppressing the people of Bam. 6. From the same to his servant Sunqur Bawarchi, Governor of Basra, instructing him as to the policy he should pursue. 7. From the same to his sister's son Khwaja Ma'ruf, Governor of 'Ana, Haditha, Hit, Jibba, Na'usa, 'Ashra(?), Rahba, Shafatha (?) and Baladu'l-'Ayn, appointing him Governor of Rum. Written from Sultdniyya in 690/1291 (or possibly 696/1296-7). 8. From the same to the Na'ibs of Kdshan concerning the pension of 2000 dinars assigned to Sayyid Afdalu'd- Din Mas'ud out of the revenues of Kdshan. 9. From the same to his son Amir Mahmud (see No. 5 supra) ordering the distribution of food to the poor of Bam, Khabi's, etc. 10. From the same to his son Khwdja Sa'du'd-Dfn, Governor of Antioch, Tarsus, Sus, Qinnasrfn, the 'Awasim and the shores of the Euphrates, giving him fatherly advice as to the methods of administration he should adopt, and warning him against sloth, wine-drinking, and over-fondness for music and dissipation. 11. From the same to his son 'Abdu'l-Mu'min, Governor of Simnan, Damghan and Khwar, ordering him to appoint the Qadi Shamsu'd-Din Muhammad b. Hasan b. Muham- mad b. 'Abdu'l-Kan'm of Simnan Chief Judge of that district. 12. From the same to Shaykh Sadru'd-Dm b. Shaykh Bahd'u'd-Di'n Zakariyya condoling with him on the death of a son. 13. From the same to Mawlana Sadru'd-Din Muham- mad Turka'i concerning a revised and emended scale of taxation to be applied to the people of Isfahan and other places. B.P. 6 82 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i 14. Proclamation from the same to his son Amir 'Ah', Governor of Baghdad, and to the people of that city, small and great, concerning the appointment of Shaykh Majdu'd- Din as Shaykhu'l-Islam and the provision to be made for the professors, officers and students of the khdnqdh of the late Ghazan Khan. 1 5. From the same to Amir Nusratu'd-Din Sitay, Go- vernor of Mawsil, and Sinjar, concerning Sharafu'd-Din Hasan Mustawfi. 1 6. Answers from the same to philosophical and reli- gious questions propounded by Mawlana Sadr-i-Jahan of Bukhara. 17. Letter from the same to his son Khwaja Jalal, asking for 40 young men and maidens of Rum to be sent to him at Tabriz to form the nucleus of a population for one of the five villages he has included in his park in the Rab'-i-Rashi'di. 1 8. From the same to Khwaja 'Ala'u'd-Din Hindu re- questing him to obtain and send various medicinal oils for the hospital in the Rab'-i-Rashidi. 19. From the same to his son Amir 'Ah', Governor of Baghdad, concerning allowances and presents to various theologians. 20. From the same to his son Khwaja 'Abdu'l-Lati'f, Governor of Isfahan, giving him good advice. 21. From the same to his son Khwaja Jalalu'd-Dfn, Governor of Rum, also giving good advice, and ordering various quantities of different herbs and drugs for his hos- pital at Tabriz. 22. From the same to his son Amir Shihabu'd-Dfn, then Governor of Baghdad, giving him good advice, and summarizing the revenues of Khuzistan. 23. From the same to Mawlana Majdu'd-Din Isma'fl Fall, inviting him to be present at the marriages which he has arranged for nine of his sons with various noble ladies. 24. From the same to Qara-Buqa, Governor of Kayff and Palu. CH. n] LETTERS OF RASHfDU'D-DfN 83 25. From the same to Mawlana 'Afifu'd-Dm Baghdad*. 26. From the same in answer to a letter from the Mawlds of Qaysariyya (Caesarea) in Rum. 27. From the same to his son Amir Ghiyathu'd-Din Muhammad on his appointment as Inspector of Khurasan by Khuda-banda Uljaytu. 28. From the same to the people of Si'was concerning the Alms-house for Sayyids founded there by Ghazan {Ddrus-Siyddat-i-Ghdzdnf) and the necessity of its proper maintenance. 29. From the same from Multan in Sind to Mawlana Qutbu'd-Dm Mas'ud of Shiraz, giving an account of the journey to India which he undertook at the Il-khan's com- mand to greet the Indian kings and bring back various drugs and spices not obtainable in Persia. 30. From the same to Takhtakh Inju as to complaints of his tyranny made by the people of Fars, concerning which he is sending his son Ibrahim to report. 31. From the same concerning Mawlana Muhammad Rumi, and the teaching in the college at Arzanjan, of which he has been appointed Master. 32. From the same to Shirwan Shah, ruler of Shabaran and Shamakhi, inviting him to visit the Garden of Fath- abad which he has made. 33. From the same to the revenue officers of Khuzistan, concerning various financial and administrative matters, and the sending of Khwaja Siraju'd-Dm of Dizful to audit the accounts, make investigations, and report. 34. From the same to. his son Khwaja Majdu'd-Dm, ordering him to collect stores for the army destined for the occupation of India. 35. From the Seljuq ruler of Arzanjan, Malik Jalalu'd- Din Kay-Qubad b. 'Ala'u'd-Din Kay-Qubad, asking advice on sundry matters; with Rashidu'd-Dfn's replies. 36. Rashi'du'd-Din's reply to a letter from Mawlana Sa- dru'd-Din Muhammad Turka'i, written duringa dangerous ill- ness and containinghis last will and testament as to thedivision 62 84 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i amongst his children of his numerous and extensive estates and other property. To the Rab'-i-Rashidi he bequeaths a library of 60,000 volumes of science, history and poetry, including 1000 Qur'dns by various excellent calligraphers, of which 10 were copied by Yaqiit al-Musta'simf, 10 by Ibn Muqla and 200 by Ahmad Suhrawardi. He enumerates by name his 14 sons, viz. (i) Sa'du'd-Di'n, (2) Jalalu'd-Di'n, (3) Majdu'd-Din, (4) 'Abdu'l-Lattf, (5) Ibrahim, (6) Ghi- yathu'd-Din Muhammad, (7) Ahmad, (8) 'All, (9) Shaykhi, (10) Pi'r Sultan, (n) Mahmud, (12) Humam, (13) Shihabu 'd-Di'n, (14) 'Ah'-shah ; and his 4 daughters, viz. (i) Farman- Khand, (2) Ay Khatun, (3) Shahf Khatiin, (4) Hadiyya Malik. 37. Rashfdu'd-Dfn to the same, concerning a book which he had written and dedicated to him, and sending him a present of money, choice garments, a horse and various food -stuffs. 38. From the same to the people of Diyar Bakr con- cerning the digging of a new canal to be called after him- self, and the establishment and population of 14 villages on both sides of it, with names and plan of the new villages, which are for the most part named after his 14 sons. 39. From the same to his son Jalalu'd-Di'n, Governor of Rum, concerning the digging of a new canal from the Euphrates to be called after his late lord Ghazan Khan, and the foundation of 10 villages, of which the plan and names are again given. 40. From the same to his agent Khwaja Kamalu'd-Din Siwasi, Mustawfi of Rum, ordering him to send, by means of a merchant named Khwaja Ahmad, certain presents in cash and in kind to ten learned men in Tunis and the Maghrib (names given) in return for ten books (titles given) in 36 volumes which they had sent to the Minister, of whose generosity they had heard. 41. From the same to the authorities at Shi'raz ordering them to make certain specified presents in cash and in kind to Mawlana Mahmud b. Ilyas who had written a CH. nj LETTERS OF RASHfDU'D-DfN 85 book entitled Lataif-i-Rashidiyya and dedicated it to Rashfdu'd-Dm. 42. From the same to the authorities at Hamadan con- cerning the maintenance of the Pharmacy (Ddrti-khdnd) and Hospital (Ddru'sh-Shifd) which he had founded there, and which he is sending a physician named Ibn Mahdf to inspect and report on. Written from Caesarea (Qaysariyya) in 690/1291. 43. From the same to his son Ami'r Mahmud, Go- vernor of Kirman, recommending to his care and assist- ance Khwaja Mahmud of Sawa, whom he is sending on a mission to India, to Sultdn 'Ala'u'd-Dm, and also to collect money due to Rashidu'd-Din from his estates there. 44. From the same to his son Pir Sultan, Governor of Georgia, concerning the King's projected expedition to Syria and Egypt, and an intended punitive expedition of 120,000 men under ten Mongol amirs (names given) which is to pass through Georgia to chastise the rebellious people of Abkhaz and Trebizonde, and which Pir Sultan is to accompany, leaving the government of Georgia in the hands of his deputy Khwaja Mu'i'nu'd-Dm. 45. From the same to Shaykh Safiyyu'd-Dm of Ardabil giving, after many compliments, a list of the supplies of meat, fowls, rice, wheat, butter, honey, mast, perfumes and money which he proposes to supply to the aforesaid Shaykh's monastery (khdnqdh) for the festival to be held there in commemoration of the Prophet's birthday. 46. Letter from Malik Mu'mu'd-Din, Parwana of Rum, to Rashfdu'd-Dm, complaining of Turkman depredations in his province. 47. Letter from Malik 'Ala'u'd-Din accompanying the presents of precious stuffs, aromatic drugs, animals, con- serves, spices, dried fruits, carpets, oils, plate, rare timber, ivory, etc., which he is sending from India by way of Basra to Rashidu'd-Dm. 48. Letter from Rashidu'd-Din to his son Amir Mahmud, then engaged in studying Sufiism in Kirman. 86 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i 49. Letter from the same to his son Amir Ahmad, at that time Governor of Ardabfl, containing seven recom- mendations (wasiyyat\ and expressing regret that he is occupying himself with Astrology. 50. Letter of condolence from the same to Mawlana Sharafu'd-Din Tabasf on the death of his son, and ordering Shamsu'd-Di'n Muhammad of Abarquh to supply him yearly with certain specified provisions. 51. Letter from the same to his son Sa'du'd-Din, Go- vernor of Qinnasn'n, describing the completion of the Rab'-i- Rashidi at Tabriz, with its 24 caravansarays, 1 500 shops and 30,000 houses; its gardens, baths, stores, mills, workshops, paper-mills and mint; its workmen and artisans, brought from every town and country, its Qnr'dn-readers, muadh- dhins and doctors of theology, domiciled in the Kticha-i- 'Ulamd ("Rue des Savants"); its 6000 or 7000 students; its 50 physicians from India, China, Egypt and Syria, each of whom is bound to give instruction to ten pupils; the hospital (Ddru'sh-Shifd) with its oculists, surgeons and bone-setters, to each of whom are assigned as pupils five of the writer's servants; and the allowances in kind and in money made to all of them. 52. Letter from the same to his son Khwaja Ibrahim, Governor of Shiraz, describing the campaign against Kabul and Si'stan, and demanding various arms and munitions of war in specified quantities. 53. Letter from the same to several of his sons con- cerning the attributes of learning, clemency, reason and generosity. The MS. breaks off abruptly in the middle of this letter. These letters, which ought to be published, are of extra- ordinary interest on account of the light they throw on the character and manifold activities of this most remarkable man, at once statesman, physician, historian and patron of art, letters and science. We have already noticed the tragic fate which overtook him and to a large extent brought to naught his careful and elaborate plans for the preserva- CH. n] HAMDU'LLAH MUSTAWFf 87 tion of his books and the beneficent institutions which he founded for the promotion of learning and charity; and the least we can do in pious memory of a truly great scholar is to perpetuate what is left of his writings. But if Rashidu'd-Di'n failed to secure the immortality of all his works, he set a fruitful example to other historians, Hamdu'iiah so t ^ iat ** * s ^ ar S e ^y due to him that this period Mustawfi of is so conspicuous for merit in this field of know- ledge. We have seen how he helped Wassaf and brought him to the Il-khan's notice. We shall now con- sider the work of his most illustrious follower, Hamdu'iiah Mustawfi' of Qazwfn. Of his life little is known save what he tells us incidentally in his works. He professed to be of Arab origin, tracing his pedigree to Hurr b. Yazid ar- Riyahi, but his family had long been settled in Qazwin. His great-grandfather, Amfnu'd-Din Nasr, was Mustawfi of 'Iraq, but later adopted the ascetic life, and was finally slain by the Mongols. His brother, Zaynu'd-Dfn Muham- mad, held office under Rashidu'd-Dm, and he himself was appointed by the same minister, about 1311, superintendent of the finances of Qazwin, Abhar, Zanjan and Tarumayn. For the rest, he tells us that he had from his youth upwards eagerly cultivated the society of men of learning, especially that of Rashidu'd-Di'n himself, and had frequented many learned discussions, especially on history; so that, though not by training a historian, he resolved to employ his leisure in compiling a compendious universal history. Three of his works, the Tdrikh-i-Gttzida, or " Select History," the Zafar-ndma, or " Book of Victory," and the Nus-hatti'l- Qulub, or " Heart's Delight," have come down to us. Of these, the first two are historical, the third geographical. The Tarikh-i-Guzidavjz.s composed in 730/1330, and is Ta'rtkh- dedicated to Rashfdu'd-Di'n's son Ghiyathu'd- Din Muhammad, who was made Prime Minister in May, 1328, and, as we have seen, was put to death in sources of May, 1336. The author enumerates about two i-Gu^da l dozen of his sources, which include (i) the 88 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK r Siratun-Nabi, or Biography of the Prophet (probably Ibn Hisham's 1 ); (2) the Qisasu'l-Anbiyd (probably ath- Tha'labfs 2 ) ; (3) the Risdla-i-Qushayriyyd*; (4) the Tadh- kiratul-Awliyd (probably Farfdu'd-Din 'Attar's 4 ); (5) the Tadwin of Imamu'd-Di'nal-Yafi'i 5 ; (6) the Tajdribu' l-Umam* (probably of Ibn Miskawayhi); (7) the Mashdribu't-Tajd- rib\ (8) the Diwdnu'n-Nasab" 1 ; (9) the Chronicle of Muham- mad Jan'r at-Taban' 8 ; (10) the history of Hamza of Isfahan 9 ; (n) the Tcirikhul-Kdmil of Ibnu'l-Athir 10 ; (12) the Zub- datu't-Tawdrikh of Jamalu'd-Din Abu'l-Qasim of Kashan; (13) the Nizdmiit-Tawdrikh of the Qadi Nasiru'd-Din al-Baydawi 11 ; (14) the ' Uyiinu't- Tawdrikh of Abu Talib 'AH al-Khazin al-Baghdadi; (15) the Kitdlml-Mctdrif of Ibn Qutayba 12 ; (16) the Tarikh-i-Jahdn-gushd of 'Ata Malik-i-Juwayni 13 ; (17) Abu Sharaf Jarbadhaqani's Persian translation of a.\- ( Uibi"sKztd&u7-Yamfnf 1 *; (18) the Siydsat- 1 Edited by Wiistenfeld, Gottingen, 1858-1860; German trans- lation by Weil, Stuttgart, 1864. 2 Printed at Cairo in 1312/1894-5, with the Abridgement of al-Ya"fi'i's Rawditr-Raydhin in the margins. 3 Printed at Bulaq, 1284/1867-8. 4 Edited by Dr R. A. Nicholson in my Persian Hist. Text Series, vols. iii and v. 5 See Hajji Khalifa (ed. Fliigel), vol. ii, p. 254, No. 2773, where 623/1226 is given as the date of the author's death. 6 Vols. i, 5 and 6 have been published in fac-simile in the " E. J. W. Gibb Memorial " Series, (vii, i ; vii, 5 ; vii, 6). 7 Probably one of the works on Genealogy entitled Kitdbtfl-Ansdb. 8 Published at Leyden in 15 vols. (1879-1901) by an international group of eminent Arabic scholars presided over by the late Professor de Goeje. 9 Edited with Latin translation by Gottwaldt, Leipzig, 1844-1848. 10 Ed. Tornberg, 14 vols., Leyden, 1851-1876 ; Cairo, 12 vols., 1290- 1303/1873-1886. 11 This work and its author will be discussed further on in this chapter. 12 Ed. Wiistenfeld, Gottingen, 1850. 13 The first two of the three vols. constituting this work, edited by Mirzd Muhammad of Qazwin, have appeared in the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, xvi, i and xvi, 2. 14 The Arabic original was lithographed at Dihlf in 1847, and printed CH. n] THE TA'RfKH-I-GUZIDA 89 ndma (here called Siyarul-Muluk) of Nizamu'1-Mulk 1 ; (19) the Shdhndma of Firdawsf 2 ; (20) the Saljuq-ndma of Zahiri of Nishapur; (21) the Majma'u Arbdbil-Maslak of Qadi Ruknu'd-Dm Juwayni ; (22) the Istizhdru'l-Akhbdr of Qadi Ahmad Damghani; and lastly (23) the Jdmtu't- Tawdrikh* of the author's late martyred master and patron Rashidu'd-Dm Fadlu'llah. After the enumeration of his sources, most of which, as will appear from the foot-notes, are directly accessible to . us. the author describes the different eras used Different eras used in com- by different peoples, some of whom date from Adam, others from the Deluge, others from Abraham or Moses, others from the destruction of Pharaoh, others from the building of the Ka'ba or the Abyssinian in- vasion of Yaman, while the Greeks date from Alexander, the Copts from Nebuchadnezzar, and the pre-Islamic Quraysh from the year of the Elephant. He then discusses the confusion in chronology arising from these differences as to the terminus a quo, which is increased by the fact that the philosophers deny that the world had a beginning, while the theologians assert that it had a beginning and will have an end, but decline to define or specify either. The learned men of India, China and Europe assert that Adam lived about a million years ago, and that there were several Adams, each of whom, with his descendants, spoke a special lan- guage, but that the posterity of all save one (viz. the Adam of the Hebrews) died out. Most of the Muslim doctors of Persia, on the other hand, reckon the period between Adam and Muhammad as six thousand years, though some say more and some less. Astronomers reckon from the Deluge, since which, at the time of writing (viz. in the year 698 of in Cairo with al-Manmi's commentary in 1286/1869-70. Jarbadhaqani's Persian translation was lithographed in Tihran in 1272/1855-6. 1 Edited and translated by Schefer (Paris, 1891, 1893). 2 The three printed editions are Turner Macan's (Calcutta, 1829), Jules Mohl's (Paris, 1838-1878) and Viillers and Landauer's (Strass- burg, 1877-1884, 3 vols., ending with Alexander the Great). 3 See above, pp. 68-9, 72-5. 90 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i the Era of Yazdigird, i.e. about A.D. 1330) 4432 years are considered to have elapsed. The Ta rtkh-i-Guzida comprises an Introd\iction(Fattha), Contents of s ^ x cna pters (Bdb), each of which is divided the ra'rtkh- into numerous sections (Fas/), and a conclusion (Khdtima), as follows: Introduction. On the Creation of the Universe and of Man. Chapter /, in two sections. (i) Major Prophets, and (2) Minor Prophets, and Sages, who, not being Pro- phets, yet worked for the cause of true religion. Chapter II. The Pre-Islamic Kings of Persia, in four sec- tions, viz. : 1 i ) Pishdadiyan, eleven Kings, who ruled 2450 years. (2) Kayaniyan, ten Kings, who ruled 734 years. (3) Mulukut-Tawd'if (Parthians), twenty -two Kings, who ruled 318 years 1 . (4) Sasaniyan, thirty-one Kings, who reigned 527 years 2 . Chapter III. The Prophet Muhammad and his Companions and Descendants, in an introduction and six sections, viz. : Introduction, on the pedigree, genealogy and kin of the Prophet. (1) Life of the Prophet, his wars, his wives, secre- taries, relations and descendants. (2) The Orthodox Caliphs, who are reckoned as five, al-Hasan being included. Duration, from 10 Rabi" I, A.H. ii to 13 Rabi" I, A.H. 41 (June 6, 632-July 17, 661), when al-Hasan resigned the supreme power to Mu'awiya the Umayyad. 1 The period between Alexander the Great and the fall of the Parthians (really about 5 50 years) is always under-estimated byMuham- madan writers, with the one exception (so far as I know) of Mas'udi, who, in MisKitdbdt- Tanbih wa!l-Ishrdf(pp. 97-9), explains the political and religious motives which led the founder of the Sasanian Dynasty, Ardashir-i-Bdbakan, to reduce it deliberately by about one half. 2 This period is over-estimated by more than a century. The duration of the dynasty was from A.D. 226 to 652. CH. n] THE TA'RIKH-I-GUZIDA gi (3) The remainder of the twelve Imams, excluding 'Ah' and his son al- Hasan, who was poisoned in 49/669-70. Duration, 215 years and 7 months, from 4 Safar, A.H. 49 to Ramadan, A.H. 264 (March 14, 669-May, 878). (4) Notices of some of the chief "Companions" (As- hdb) and "Followers" (Tdbi'un) of the Prophet. (5) The Umayyad " Kings " (not regarded by the author as Caliphs), fourteen in number. Dura- tion, 91 years, from 13 Rabi' I, A.H. 41 to 13 Rabi' I, A.H. 132 (July 17, 66i-Oct 30, 749). (6) The 'Abbasid Caliphs, thirty-seven in number. Duration, 523 years, 2 months and 23 days, from 13 Rabf i, A.H. 132 to 6 Safar, A.H. 656 (Oct. 30, 749- Feb. 12, 1258). Chapter IV. Post-Islamic Kings of Persia, in twelve sec- tions, viz. : (1) Saffarids, three Kings, who reigned 35 years, from 253/867 to 287/900, after which date their posterity continued for some time to rule over Sistan. (2) Samanids, nine Kings, who reigned 102 years and 6 months, from Rabi" II, A.H. 287 to Dhu'l- Qa'da, A.H. 389 (April, 900 to Oct.-Nov. 999). (3) Ghaznawis, fourteen Kings, who reigned 155 years (30 years over most of Persia, and the remaining years in Ghazna), from 390/1000 to 545/1150-1. (4) Ghun's, five Kings, who reigned for 64 years, from 545/1150-1 to 609/1212-13. (5) Daylamis (or House of Buwayh), seventeen Kings, who reigned for 127 years, from 321/933 to 448/1056-7. (6) Seljuqs, in three groups, viz.: (a) Of Persia, fourteen Kings, who reigned for 161 years, from 429/1037-8 to 590/1194. (b) Of Kirman, eleven Kings, who reigned for 150 years, from 433/1041-2 to 583/1187-8. 92 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i (c) Of Asia Minor, eleven Kings, who reigned for 220 years, from 480/1087-8 to 700/1300-1. (7) Khwarazmshahs, nine Kings, who reigned for 137 years, from 491/1098 to 628/1230-1. (8) Atabeks, in two groups, viz.: (a) Of Diyar Bakr and Syria, nine Kings, who reigned for 120 years, from 481/1088-9 to 6oi/ 1204-5. (b} Of Pars (also called Salgharids), eleven Kings, who reigned for 120 years, from 543/1148-9 to 663/1264-5. (9) Isma'ih's, in two groups, viz.: (a) Of North Africa and Egypt (the Fatimid Caliphs), fourteen anti-Caliphs, who reigned for 260 years, from 296/908-9 to 556/1160. (b} Of Persia (the Assassins of Alamut), eight pontiffs, who ruled for 171 years, from 483/ 1090-1 to 654/1256. (10) Qara-Khita'i's of Kirman, ten Kings, who reigned for 85 years, from 621/1224 to 706/1306-7. (i i) Atabeks of Luristan, in two groups, viz.: (a) Of Lur-i-Buzurg, seven rulers, who reigned for 1 80 years, from 550/1155-6 to 730/1329- 30. (b) Of Lur-i-Kuchak, eleven rulers, who reigned 150 years, from 580/1184-5 to 730/1329-30. (12) Mongol Il-khans of Persia, thirteen Kings, who had reigned at the time of writing 131 years, from 599/1202-3 to 730/1329-30. "Hereafter," adds the author, " let him who will write the con- tinuation of their history." Chapter V. Account of men notable for their piety or learning, in six sections, viz.: (1) Imams and Mujtahids (12 are mentioned). (2) " Readers" of the Quran (9 are mentioned). (3) Traditionists (7 are mentioned). (4) Shaykhs and Sufi's (about 300 are mentioned). CH. n] THE TA'RIKH-I-GUZIDA 93 (5) Doctors of Divinity, Law and Medicine (about 70 are mentioned). (6) Poets, of whom about 5 Arabic and 87 Persian poets are mentioned. The biographies of the latter have been translated and published by me in the J.R.A.S. for October 1900 and January 1901, and as a separate reprint. Chapter VI. Account of Qazwin, the author's native town, in seven sections, viz.: (1) Traditions concerning Qazwin. Some 40 are given, of which 36 are said to be from an auto- graph copy of the Tadwin of ar-Rafi'i 1 . Nearly all these agree in describing Qazwin as one of the "Gates of Paradise." (2) Etymology of the name of Qazwfn. (3) Notable buildings of Qazwin ; its nine quarters and architectural history from the time of Shapur I, who was its original founder; its conquest by the Arabs, and conversion to Islam. (4) Its environs, rivers, aqueducts (qandts), mosques, and tombs. Some of its inhabitants are said still to profess secrstly the religion of Mazdak. (5) Notable men who have visited Qazwin, including "Companions" and "Followers" of the Prophet, Imams and Caliphs, Shaykhs and 'ulamd, Kings and wazirs, khdqdns and amirs. (6) Governors of Qazwin. (7) Tribes and leading families of Qazwin, including Sayyids; l ulamd; Iftikharis (of whom the actual representative, Malik Sa'fd Iftikharu'd-Dfn Mu- hammad b. Abu Nasr, had learned the Mongol and Turki languages and writing", and had translated 1 See G. le Strange's ed. and translation of our author's Nuz- hatu'l-Qulub ("E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, vols. xxiii, I, pp. 56-8 and xxiii, 2, pp. 62-3), where many of these traditions are given on the same authority. See also p. 88 supra, n. 5 ad calc. 94 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK I Kalila and Dimna into the first, and the Sindibdd- ndma into the second); Bazdaris or Muzaffaris; Bishan's ; Durham's ; Hanafis ; Hulwanis ; Kha- lidi's; Khali'Hs ; Dabfran ; Rafi'fs ; Zakam's ; Zu- bayn's ; Zadanis ; Shirzads ; Tausi's ; 'Abbasfs ; Ghaffarfs ; Fi'lwagushan ; Qadawis ; Qarawuls ; Tamfmfs; Karajfs or Dulafis (one of whom was the cosmographer and geographer Zakariyya b. Muhammad b. Mahmud) ; Kiyas or Kaysfs ; Makanis ; Mustawfis (the author's own family, said to be descended from Hurr b. Yazid ar- Riyahi) ; Mu'minan ; Mukhtaran ; Mu'afiyan or Mu'afaniyan ; Marzubanan ; Nfshapuriyan ; and Bula-Ti'muris or Tababakan. Conclusion. A tree of dynasties, or genealogical tree, based on that devised by Rashi'du'd-Dfn, but improved. This tree is, however, omitted in all the manuscripts which I have seen. Having regard to the extent of the field covered by the Tarikh-i-Guzida, and its comparatively modest size (some 170,000 words), it is evident that it is of the nature of a compendium, and that no great detail can be expected from it. It is, however, a useful manual, and contains many interesting particulars not to be found elsewhere, while for contemporary history it is of first-rate importance, so that the need for a complete edition of the text had long been felt. Until the year 1910 the only portions accessible in print were : (1) The whole of chapter iv, on the Post- Islamic dy- nasties of Persia, edited in the original, with French translation, by M. Jules Gantin (Paris, 1903). Pp. ix + 623. (2) The whole of chapter vi, except the first section on the Traditions, containing the account of Qazwin, translated into French by M. Barbier de Meynard, and published in the Journal Asiatique for 1857 (Ser. v, vol. 10, pp. 257 et seqq.}. CH. n] THE ZAFAR-NAMA 95 (3) Section 6 of chapter v, the account of the Persian poets, translated by myself in the J.R.A.S. for October 1900 and January 1901. In 1910, however, a fac-simile of a fairly accurate and ancient MS. (transcribed in 857/1453) was published in the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series (vol. xiv, i), and this was followed in 1913 by an abridged English translation, with full Indices, by myself and Dr R. A. Nicholson (vol. xiv, 2), so that the whole work is now accessible to scholars, who can form their own opinion of its value. In the preface of the Tdrikh-i-Guzida, Hamdu'llah Mustawfi speaks of a great historical poem on which he was then engaged, and of which he had at that ndma time (/3O/I33O) completed fifty and odd thou- sand couplets out of a total of 75,000. This poem, entitled Zafar-ndma, the " Book of Victory," was actually completed five years later. It is essentially a continuation of Firdawsf's Shdh-ndma, and the only known manuscript (Or. 2833 of the British Museum, a huge volume of 779 folios, transcribed in Shiraz in 807/1405, and bought in Persia by Mr Sidney Churchill for the Museum about I885 1 ) contains besides the Zafar-ndma the revised text of the Shdh-ndma on which the author had spent six years. The Zafar-ndma begins with the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and comes down to the author's own time, viz. to the year 732/1331-2, when Abu Sa'id was still reigning. It comprises, as already said, 75,000 couplets, 10,000 couplets being assigned by the author to each of the seven and a half centuries of which he treats, or, ac- cording to the main chronological divisions of the work, 25,000 couplets to the Arabs, 20,000 to the Persians, and 30,000 to the Mongols. The author was forty years of age when he began it, and spent fifteen years on its composition, so that he must have been born about 680/1281-2. From 1 For full description of this precious MS. see Rieu's Persian Sup- plement, No. 263, pp. 172-174, and also the Athenaeum for 1885, p. 314. 96 HISTORIANS OF THE iL-KHANl PERIOD [BK i Dr Rieu's description, it is evident that the historical value of this work is by no means to be neglected: "the author," he says (loc. cit., p. 173), "is very precise as to facts and dates, and his third book will be found valuable for the history of the Mongol period. He gives, for instance, on f. 5i2 a , a very vivid description of the wholesale slaughter wrought by the Mongols in his native place, Qazwfn. His information was partly derived from his great-grandsire, Ami'n Nasr Mustawfi, who was ninety-three years old at the time." The following extract from this portion may serve as a specimen : d ' JkJ ****' j""* JU 6J*\ rt,7,t,.f-. A^A - 3 ^ J VI * u Mongol siege of a Chinese town, from an old ws..o{ t\\eJdmi l u't-Taivdrikh in the Bibliotheque Nationale To face p. 96 CH. ii] THE ZAFAR-NAMA 97 ljJb jt j^j-ilj jJiLJ ^5**^ 'j^J tjt ^ O J j jJ AJbj ' jLiXJ 4jl5l jjut JJU "Thence 1 to the town of Qazwfn, Subutdy 2 Like raging tiger came right speedily. The tale of years at six, one, seven stood When that fair town became a lake of blood, And Sha'bdn's month had counted seven days 3 When it was filled with woe and sore amaze. The governor who held the ill-starred town Muzaffar named, a ruler of renown, Was, by the Caliph's most august command, Set to control the fortunes of the land. When came the hosts of war and direful fate Firm as a rock they closed the city gate. Upon the wall the warriors took their place, And each towards the Mongols set his face. Three days they kept the ruthless foe at bay, But on the fourth they forced a blood-stained way. 1 I.e. from Zanjdn. 2 The MS. has ^U*~ (n for b\ but see the TcHrikh-i-Jahdn-gushd ("E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, xvi, i), p. 115, 1. 17. 3 Sha'bdn 7, A.M. 6i7 = October 7, A.D. 1220. B. p. 7 98 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i Fiercely the Mongols entered Qazwin Town And heads held high before were now brought down. No quarter in that place the Mongols gave : The days were ended of each chieftain brave. Nothing could save the townsmen from their doom, And all were gathered in one common tomb. Alike of great and small, of old and young, The lifeless bodies in the dust they flung : Both men and women shared a common fate : The luck-forsaken land lay desolate. Many a fair one in that fearful hour Sought death to save her from th' invaders' power : Chaste maidens of the Prophet's progeny Who shone like asteroids in Virtue's sky, Fearing the lust of that ferocious host Did cast them down, and so gave up the ghost. Much in that land prevails the Shafi'ite ; One in a thousand is a Hanafite 1 ; And yet they counted on that gory plain Twelve thousand Hanafites amongst the slain ! In heaps on every side the corpses lay, Alike on lonely path and broad high-way. Uncounted bodies cumbered every street : Scarce might one find a place to set one's feet. In terror of the Mongol soldiery Hither and thither did the people fly, Some seeking refuge to the Mosque did go, Hearts filled with anguish, souls surcharged with woe. From that fierce foe so sore their straits and plight That climbing forms the arches hid from sight. The ruthless Mongols burning brands did ply Till tongues of flame leapt upwards to the sky. Roof, vault and arch in burning ruin fell, A heathen holocaust of Death and Hell ! " Yet a third work produced by this industrious writer is the well-known geographical and cosmographical treatise entitled the Nuz-hatul-Qulub, or " Heart's De- light." Manuscripts of it are fairly common, but until 1915 the text was only generally ac- cessible in the indifferent lithographed edition published 1 Cf. Nuz-hatu? l-Qulub (Gibb Series, xxiii, i), p. 59, last line. CH. n] THE NUZ-HATU'L-QULUB 99 at Bombay in 1311/1893-4. In 1915, however, a critical edition of the text was brought out by Mr G. le Strange in the " E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series (vol. xxiii, i), and the English translation (vol. xxiii, 2), which is now in the Press, will shortly follow. 'T'he.Nuz-hatu'l-Qulub was composed five years later than the Zafar-ndma, during the period of anarchy which suc- ceeded Abu Sa'id's death, to which the author alludes with feeling. He was persuaded, he says, to undertake the work at the request of certain friends, who felt the want of a Persian work on geography, most of the works on that sub- sources of the J ect Dem g in Arabic. He enumerates amongst Nuz-katu'i. his sources the following works, which he has supplemented from his own observations during his travels through Persia: the Suwaru'l-AqdUm of Abu Zayd Ahmad b. Sahl al-Balkhf 1 ; the Tibydn of Ahmad b. Abi 'Abdi'llah; the Road-book (Masdlik wa'l-Mamdlik) of Abu'l-Qasim 'Abdu'llah ibn Khurdadhbih 2 ; and a work entitled the Jahdn-ndma; besides nineteen other works, of which the enumeration will be found in Rieu's Persian Catalogue, pp. 418-419. The work is primarily divided into an Introduction (Fdtihd), three Discourses (Maqdla), and an Appendix (Khdtima). The third Maqdla is the impor- tant part of the work: all that precedes this deals with cosmography, the heavens, the earth, the three kingdoms, and man. This third Maqdla, which contains the geo- graphical portion of the work, deals first with the geography of the two holy cities of Arabia and of Jerusalem; then with the geography of Persia, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, with an appendix on the physical geography of Persia; then with the countries bordering on Persia, and some other lands never included in the Persian Empire. 1 This author is perhaps identical with the " Ibnu'l-Balkhi " whose Fdrs-ndma Mr G. le Strange intends to publish in the Gibb Series. - He wrote about 230-4/844-8. See Brockelmann, vol. f, pp. 225-6. The text is included in de Goeje's valuable Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicoruin. 72 ioo HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i The Conclusion treats of the wonders of the world, espe- cially of Persia. The book is of considerable value for a knowledge of the geography and condition of mediaeval Persia, and was largely used by Mr G. le Strange in the com- pilation of his Lands of the Eastern Caliphate before he published the edition mentioned on the preceding page. Mention has been already made at the beginning of this chapter (p. 63 supra) of a small historical manual entitled Nizdmu't-Tawdrikh (the "Order of Histories" Al- rsaydawi s or " Dates ") by the well-known judge and 0rW-commentator Nasiru'd-Din al-Baydawi, whose father held the same office under the Atabek Abu Bakr b. Sa'd-i-Zangi, the patron of the great poet Sa'di. This dull and jejune little book, compiled in the year 6/4/ 1275, with a continuation, apparently added by the author, down to 683/1284-5, and a further continuation, probably by another hand, to 694/1294-5, contains an outline of general history from the time of Adam to the date last mentioned. It has not been published, and is probably not worth publishing, since it is doubtful whether it con- tains anything new or valuable, and whether it is calculated to add to the fame which its author enjoys as a juriscon- sult, theologian and commentator 1 . Another still unpublished historical manual of this period is that properly entitled Rawdatu Ulil-Albdb fi tawdrikhil- Akdbir wa'l-Ansdb (the "Garden of the Intelligent, on the histories of the great, and on genealogies") com- faJkl^' P iled in 717/1317 by Abu Sulayman Da'ud of Banakat (or Fanakat) in Transoxiana 2 . It is better known as the Tdrikh-i-Bandkati, is obviously and indeed admittedly inspired by Rashidu'd-Din's great work, 1 For further particulars see Rieu's Persian Cat., pp. 832-4. 2 Ibid., pp. 79-80. The only copy to which I have access is a MS. (unfortunately defective at beginning and end) from the Library of the late Sir A. Houtum-Schindler. It formerly belonged to that great bibliophile Prince Bahman Mirzd Bahd'u^d-Dawla. CH. n] THE TA'RJKH-I-BANAKATI 101 and comprises nine sections, called qism, as follows: (i) Pro- phets and Patriarchs; (2) ancient Kings of Persia; (3) the Prophet Muhammad and the Caliphs; (4) Persian dynas- ties contemporary with the'Abbasid Caliphs; (5) the Jews; (6) the Christians and Franks; (7) the Indians; (8) the Chinese; (9) the Mongols. In one respect it shows very clearly the influence of Rashidu'd-Din's wider conception of history, for more than half the book is devoted to the non-Muslim peoples mentioned in the headings of the last five qisms, to wit the Jews, the European nations, including the Roman Emperors and the Popes, the Indians, the Chinese and the Mongols. The accounts given of these nations, though for the most part brief and dry, show some real knowledge of the chief facts, while the statements of non-Muslim religious doctrines are fair and devoid of acri- mony or fanaticism. Baydawi, on the other Contrast be- J . , tweenthe hand, like most Persian historians not directly SSwild inspired by Rashi'du'd-Dfn, practically ignores Banakati, and all history except that which is connected with Islam and the Muhammadan peoples, the an- cient Kings of Persia, and the Hebrew Prophets and Patri- archs. This contrast between these two historical manuals is probably in large measure due to the fact that Baydawi lived in Ears, which, as we have seen, lay outside the great stream of communication between East and West set in motion by the Mongol dominion, while the author of the Tdrikh-i-Bandkati was from Transoxiana, and, as poet- laureate of Ghazan Khan (70 1/1301 -2), was doubtless familiar with the Mongol court and the many foreigners from distant lands who frequented it. His information about the Jews, Christians, Indians, Chinese and Mongols, though largely directly borrowed, often in the same words, Wider range . of Banakatfs from the pages of Rashidu d-Dm, was never- SerS? e and theless undoubtedly supplemented by what the author learned orally from representatives of the peoples in question. In no Persian history before the Mongol period and in few after it do we find so many 102 HISTORIANS OF THE fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i references to places, people, and historical events beyond the ken of most Muslim writers ; places like Portugal, Poland, Bohemia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Catalonia, Lombardy, Paris and Cologne ; people like the Roman Emperors from Romulus downwards, and the Popes from St Peter to the Pope contemporary with the author, who is said to be the two hundred and second in succession ; and events like the different Church Councils, the Conversion of Britain to Christianity in the time of Pope Eleutherius, the Nestorian heresy, and the like. As a specimen of one of the more interesting passages the following account of printing from wood blocks in China is worthy of atten- tion. Having described the care with which the Chinese transcribe historical and other passages from their ancient books, he says : " Then, according to a custom which they have, they were wont and still continue to make copies from that book in Account of such wise that no change or alteration can find Chinese print- ft s wav j n { O th e text. And therefore when they ing from the i t 11 r Ta'r{kk-i- desire that any book containing matter of value BanUatt t o them should be well written and should re- main correct, authentic and unaltered, they order a skilful calligraphist to copy a page of that book on a tablet in a fair hand. Then all the men of learning carefully correct it, and inscribe their names on the back of the tablet. Then skilled and expert engravers are ordered to cut out the letters. And when they have thus taken a copy of all the pages of the book, numbering all [the blocks] consecutively, they place these tablets in sealed bags, like the dies in a mint, and entrust them to reliable persons appointed for this purpose, keeping them securely in offices specially set apart to this end on which they set a particular and defi- nite seal. Then when anyone wants a copy of this book he goes before this committee and pays the dues and charges fixed by the Government. Then they bring out these tab- lets, impose them on leaves of paper like the dies used in minting gold, and deliver the sheets to him. Thus it is CH. n] OTHER MINOR CHRONICLES 103 impossible that there should be any addition or omission in any of their books, on which, therefore, they place complete reliance; and thus is the transmission of their histories effected." A third minor history of this period is the Majmctu'l- Ansdb ("Collection of Genealogies") of Muhammad ibn 'Ah' of Shabankara, who, like Fakhr-i-Bana- ^Anb ajm 1 ' katf > was a P et as wel1 as a historian. Of this book there seem to have been two editions, the first issued in 733/1332-3, the second three years later and one year after the death of Abu Sa'i'd. This work contains a summary of general history from the Creation to the time of writing, but I have unfortunately been unable to obtain or read a copy, and am indebted for these meagre par- ticulars to Rieu's admirable Persian Catalogue, pp. 83-4. According to Ethe 1 the original edition perished when the house of Rashidu'd-Dm's son Ghiyathu'd-Dm Muhammad was pillaged, and the author rewrote the book from memory, completing this second edition, according to Ethe, in 743/ 1342-3. Two rhymed chronicles of this period also deserve notice, the Shdhinshdh-ndma ("Book of the King of Kings"), or Chingiz-ndma (" Book of Chingiz"), of Ahmad of Tabriz, containing the history of the Mongols down to 738/1337-8 in about 18,000 verses, and dedicated to Abu Sa'i'd; and the Ghdzdn-ndma of Nuru'd-Dm ibn Shamsu'd-Dm Mu- hammad, composed in 763/1361-2. Both works are very rare. Rieu has described a MS. of the first, copied in 8oo/ 1397-8, acquired by the British Museum at the sale of the Comte de Gobineau's library in i885 2 ; and I possess a fine MS. of the latter, copied at Tabriz in 873/1468-9 for the Royal Library of Abu'n-Nasr Hasan Beg Bahadur Khan, and given to me in August, 1909, by Dr Rida Tawfi'q, then 1 India Office Pers. Cat., cols. 10 11, Nos. 21 and 22. 2 Persian Suppl. Cat., No. 201, p. 135. 104 HISTORIANS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i CH. n Deputy for Adrianople in the Turkish Parliament. Both works are written in the same metre (the mutaqdrib) as the Shdh-ndma of Firdawsi, of which they are imitations, but the second is only about half the length of the first (some- thing between 9000 and 10,000 couplets) 1 . Neither of these two works appears to be of any exceptional merit either as history or poetry, though useful information about the period of which they treat could no doubt be extracted from them by patient examination. 1 In the short prose preface describing how the poem came to be written for Sultan Uways, who had restored the pension enjoyed by the author, then fifty years of age, under Ghazan Khan, the number of verses is stated as 10,000. CHAPTER III. THE POETS AND MYSTICS OF THE IL-KHANI PERIOD. From the literary point of view the period which we are now considering is, as we have seen, chiefly remarkable for the quality and quantity of historical writers which it produced. That it was also rich in poetical talent cannot be disputed, but this is less remarkable, since at hardly any period was there a dearth of poets in Persia. Almost every well-educated Persian can produce moderately good verses on occasion, and it would be a hopeless and useless task even to mention all of those who, transcending the rank of mere versifiers, can fairly claim to be poets. Severe selection is necessary but not easy, for on the one hand due regard must be paid to the judgement of the poet's own countrymen, even when it does not entirely accord with our own ; and on the other hand care must be taken not to overlook any poet of originality and talent merely because he has not found favour with the Persian biographers, who, especially in their treatment of contemporaries, are apt to be swayed by personal, political, and even religious prejudices and pre- dilections. In the period with which we are now dealing there lived at least a score of poets whose claims to consideration The two greatest cannot be denied. The two greatest by far poets whosur- were Jalalu'd-Din Rumf and Sa'di of Shfraz, of pTriod^aiaiu'd. whom the former died in 672/1273 at the age of DmRumiand 55 an( j t h e latter about 690/1291 at the very Sa'di, discussed } in a previous advanced age, as is generally asserted, of no lunar years. Both these poets, therefore, belong rather to the period preceding this, and have accordingly 106 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i been already discussed in a previous volume 1 , to which the reader is referred. They might with equal justice have been included in this volume, which is the poorer for their omission, since their literary activity extended into the period which it covers, and both poets came into relations with some of its leading personages, Sa'di with the Sdhib-Diwdn and his brother 'Ala'u'd-Din of the great Juwayni family, and even with Abaqa Khan himself 2 , and Jalalu'd-Di'n Rumi with the unfortunate Parwana of Rum, Mu'inu'd-Dm, who was put to death by Abaqa for suspected complicity with the Egyptians in 675/I276-/ 3 . It would be easy to devote many pages to each of them in this place without repeating anything that has been said before, but the difficulty is to limit rather than to extend the scope of this chapter, and, in spite of all temptations to the contrary, they must there- fore be omitted here. For similar reasons I shall content myself with a very brief mention of three other poets of this time whom many Persian students, especially such as have pur- Oimssion of poets . . T . T ,. who, though they sued their studies in India, would place next wrote m Persian, t ^ ^ great poets mentioned above ; I mean were not of Per- sian race or resi- Amir Khusraw and Hasan of Dihli and Badr- i-Chach, all of whom are highly esteemed in India, but none of whom, so far as is known, ever visited, much less resided in Persia. To reduce the subject-matter of this book within any reasonable limits, it becomes more and more necessary to exclude the great and increasing number of Indian writers of Persian. Two considerations besides that of space seems to me to justify this Grounds for ex- _ . . . eluding Indian- procedure. The first is that, owing to the greater Persian literature j n t- eres f- j n i n di a which naturally prevails in 1 Lit. Hist, of Persia, vol. ii, pp. 515-539. 2 See the English Introduction to vol. xvi, i, of the " E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series (the Jahdn-gushd of Juwayni, edited by Mirzci Muhammad), pp. lii-liv. 3 See Bar-Hebraeus' Mukhtasardd-Duival (Beyrout ed. of 1890), pp. 501-3. CH. in] INDIAN WRITERS EXCLUDED 107 England, far more has been written about these Indian- Persian authors, whether poets or historians, than about the purely Persian men of letters. The second is that, so far as a foreign student may be permitted to express an opinion on matters of literary taste, this Persian literature produced in India, has not, as a rule, the real Persian flavour, the tjtdf as the Irish call it, which belongs to the indigenous product. Without making any invidious comparisons, it will hardly be contested that there is just as good reason for treating the abundant Persian literature produced in India from the middle of the thirteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century as a separate subject as for a similar procedure in the case of the English literature produced in England and that produced in America; and that therefore the omission of Amir Khusraw from this chapter is as justi- fiable as the omission of Walt Whitman from a modern English literary history, especially as a very long notice of the former is given in Elliot's History of India 1 . The same observation applies in lesser degree to the Persian writings produced in Afghanistan and Turkey respectively, though Persian still remains the natural speech of a large number of Afghans, and Turkish Sultans (notably the great Sah'm " the Grim 2 ") have not disdained, even when at war with the Persians, to make use of their language for literary purposes. Exceptions will be made, however, especially in the period succeeding that included in this volume, in the case of native-born Persians who, attracted by the munificence of the Moghul Emperor of Dihlf, emigrated to India in the hopes of disposing of their intellectual wares more profitably than was possible in their own country. The attention of those who read Urdu should be called 1 Vol. iii, pp. 524-566. 2 A most sumptuous edition of this Persian Diwdn of Sultdn Sah'm, edited by the late Dr Paul Horn of Strassburg, was printed by com- mand of the German Emperor for presentation to the late Sultdn 'Abdu'l-Hamid in 1904. Of this rare and beautiful work I am fortunate enough to possess a copy. io8 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i to a very excellent modern book entitled Shi'rul-Ajam Note on a good (" Poetry of the Persians") by the late Shibli Nu- modem Urdu 'mam, lithographed at 'AH-garh in two volumes work containing ... critical studies of in or about 1325/1907, and containing critical Persian poets studies of about a. score of the classical poets of Persia from Firdawsi arid his predecessors to Hafiz. Amongst these a long notice 1 is devoted to Amir Khusraw of Dihli, which contains incidentally a good deal of information about his friend, contemporary and fellow-poet Hasan of Dihli. Those who do not read Urdu may be referred to another excellent and scholarly work produced by Indian scholarship under the auspices of my friend Sir Edward Denison Ross, the Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Public Library at Bankipore, of which the first volume, containing the Persian poets from Firdawsi to Hafiz, was published at Calcutta in 1908. Twenty pages of this volume (pp. 176-195) are devoted to Amir Khusraw and his various works, and the four following pages to his friend Amir Hasan. Both were disciples of the great Saint Nizamu'd-Di'n Awliya, who died in 725/1324, only seven months before Amir Khusraw, who was buried beside him. Amir Hasan only survived them a few (pro- bably two) years. Amir Khusraw, not less notable as a musician than as a poet, was of Turkish race, his father Amir Sayfu'd-Dfn Mahmud having fled before the Mongols from Brief account of the region of Ba lkh to India, where he finally Amir Khusraw settled at Patyali. There the poet was born in 651/1253. He was therefore seventy-one years old when he died, and " lived to enjoy the favour of five successive kings of Dihli." He was enormously productive ; Dawlat- shah credits him with nearly half a million verses. Of these " Mirza Baysunqur, after ceaseless efforts, succeeded in collecting 120,000," but having subsequently discovered 2000 more from his ghazals, he " concluded that it would be 1 Op. laud., vol. ii, pp. 107-195. CH. HI] AMfR KHUSRAW OF DIHLf 109 very difficult for him to collect the complete work of the poet, and gave up the idea for ever 1 ." Although, for the reasons given above, I do not propose to speak at length of Amir Khusraw, yet, in accordance with the well-known Arabic saying 2 of which the gist is that what cannot be fully included need not therefore be wholly omitted, I shall give here " for good luck and a blessing" (tayammun an wa tabarruk*"} one short extract from his Layld wa Majmin in which he mourns, with a remark- able touch of feeling, the death of his mother and younger brother, both of whom died in 698/1298-9. The poet's love for his mother, which is in strong contrast with his lack of appreciation of his daughter, is one of the most attractive features of his character 3 . 1 See the Bankipore Catalogue mentioned above, vol. i, pp. 176-7, and my edition of Dawlat-shah, p. 240. 2 ' 4JL> Jjlj -N) J^ jj jj N) U 3 The five verses addressed to his daughter, who appears to have been called 'Afifa, will be found on p. 125 of vol. ii of the Shfritl- 'Ajam, and the verses to his mother on pp. 126-7. no POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i "A double radiance left my star this year : Amir Khusraw's Gone are m y brother and my mother dear. lament on his ., _,. j j i_ mother's death My two ""' moons have set and ceased to shine In one short week through this ill luck of mine. By double torture I am racked of Fate, By double blow doth Heaven me prostrate. Double my mourning, double my despair ; Alas that I this double grief must bear ! Two brands for one like me is't not a shame ? One fire's enough to set the stack aflame. One breast a double burden should not bear, One head of headaches cannot hold a pair. Beneath the dust my mother lieth dead ; Is't strange if I cast dust upon my head ? Where art thou mother mine, in what strange place ? Canst thou not, mother, show me thy dear face ? From heart of earth come smiling forth once more, And take compassion on my weeping sore ! Where'er in days gone by thy feet did fall That place to me doth Paradise recall. Thy being was the guardian of my soul, The strong support which kept me safe and whole. Whene'er those lips of thine to speed were stirred Ever to my advantage was thy word. To-day thy silence makes its dumb appeal, And lo, my lips are closed as with a seal ! " Badr-i-Chach, another poet of Transoxiana, has a con- siderable reputation in India but is practically unknown in Persia. The town of Chch or Shsh of which he claimed to be the " Full Moon " (Badr) is the modern Tashkand. His poetry, which I have never read, but of which Sir H. Elliot has translated specimens in his History of India 1 , is reputed very difficult, a common characteristic of the Persian poetry produced by men of Turkish race or writing under Turkish influence and patron- age, but not in itself, from our point of view, a reason for including him in this survey. 1 Vol. iii, pp. 567-573. CH. in] QANI'f AND PtiR-I-BAHA in Mention may here be made of a little-known poet called Qani'i, who fled from his native town of Tus in Khurasan before the terrible Mongol invasion, escaped to Qani'i India, and thence made his way westwards by Aden, Mecca, Medina and Baghdad to Asia Minor, where he attached himself to the court of the Seljuq rulers of Qonya (Iconium), for whom he composed an immense versi- fied history of the dynasty on the model of the Shdh-ndma, and a metrical rendering of the celebrated Book of Kalila and Dimna, of which a manuscript (Add. 7766) belonging to the British Museum is described by Rieu 1 , from whom these particulars are taken. In virtue of these and other poetical productions, of which he boasted that they filled thirty volumes and amounted to 300,000 bayts, he received the title of Maliku'sh-Shtfard (" King of Poets " or Poet Laureate), and he lived long enough to compose an elegy on the death of the great Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, who died, as already mentioned, in 672/1273. Another early but little-known poet of this period is Pur-i-Baha-yi-Jami',to whomDawlat-shah 2 devotes an article containing but few facts about his life, to which pur-i-Baha-yi- o ther biographical works, such as the Haft Jami / Iqlim, Atash-kada, Majma'u'sh-ShiJ'ard, etc. add but little. His original patron was Khwaja Wajihu'd- Dm Zangi'(Dawlat-shah)or Tahir-i-Faryumadf (//#/? /<7/z'#z), but he afterwards enjoyed the patronage of the great Sahib Diwdn. He seems to have been fond of quaint conceits and tours de force, and Dawlat-shah cites an ingenious poem of his, containing 28 bayts, in which he made use of as many Mongol and Turkish words and technical terms as possible, as when he says 3 : 1 Rieu's Brit. Mus. Pers. Cat., pp. 582-4. 2 Pp. 181-5 of my edition. 3 Loc. tit., p. 182, lines 22-3. ii2 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANi PERIOD [BK i " The wizards of thy tresses, like the pens of the bakhshis, Have practised on thy cheek the Uyghiir writing 1 ." The following quatrain, addressed to a friend who had lost a tooth, is also rather neat. ._* " If a pearl is missing from thy sweet casket Thy dignity is in no wise diminished in the matter of beauty. A hundred moons shine from the corners of thy cheek What matter if one star be missing from thy Pleiades ?" The two following poems by Pur-i-Baha, written in the grand style cultivated by court poets, and filled with elaborate word-plays and far-fetched metaphors, are chiefly interesting because they can be exactly dated. The first refers to the destruction of Nishapiir by an earthquake in 666/1267-8, and the second to its restoration in 669/1270-1 by order of Abaqa. Both are taken from that rare work the Mujmal of Fasi'hi of Khwaf 2 . 1 See d'Ohsson, vol. i, p. 17, who defines "les Games " (Qdmdri) as "ministres de leur culte grossier, qui e"taient a la fois magiciens, interpretes des songes, augures, aruspices, astrologues et mddecins." The bakhshis were the scribes who wrote the old Uyghur character, which continued to be used in Turkistan until the fifteenth century of our era. 2 Only four MSS. of this work are known to exist, two in Petrograd and two in Cambridge. See my article on this rare book in the number of the Muston published at the Cambridge University Press for the exiled Belgian professors in 1915, pp. 48-78. CH. in] PtiR-I-BAHA 113 j t ' U) (^I " Through the shakes and knocks of the earthquake shocks it is upside down and awry, So that 'neath the Fish is Arcturus 1 sunk, while the Fish is raised to the sky. That fury and force have run their course, and its buildings are over- thrown, And riven and ruined are whole and part, and the parts asunder strown. Not in worship, I ween, are its chapels seen with spires on the ground low lying, While the minarets stoop or bend in a loop, but not at the bedesmen's crying. The libraries all are upside down, and the colleges all forsaken, And the Friday Mosque in ruins is laid, and the pulpits are shattered and shaken. Yet do not suppose that this ruin arose from the town's ill destiny, But ask of me if thou fain wouldst see the wherefore of this and the why. 1 Arcturus (SimdK) is accounted one of the highest stars in heaven. In the popular cosmogony of the less educated Muslims, the earth is supposed to be supported by a great fish (Samak in Arabic, Mdhi in Persian) which swims in a vast ocean contained by banks of cloud. Hence the Arabic expression minds- Samak ila's-Stmdk ("from the Fish to Arcturus"), corresponding to the Persian az mdh td bi-mdhi ("from the Moon to the Fish"), meaning from the highest to the lowest. B. P. 8 n 4 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK r 'Twas because the Lord had such high regard for this old and famous place That He turned His gaze ou its fashions and ways with the eyes of favour and grace, And such was the awe which His glance inspired, and His Light's effulgent rays That with shaking feet to earth it fell for fear of that awful blaze. For did not the Mountain of Sinai once fall down and crumble away Where Moses stood, and the Face of God to behold with his eyes did pray ? " " The buildings of Nishapur Time had striven to displace And Ruin wide from every side had thither turned its face. God willed that men should once again its buildings strive to raise In the reign of just Abdqa, the Nushirwan of our days. Of all the world the lord is he, of all the earth the king, Foe-binder, world-subduer he, all kingdoms conquering. It happened in the year six-hundred and three-score and nine That from its ruins rose again this city famed and fine. CH. in] IMAMf OF HERAT 115 Venus and Sol in Taurus, Ramadan was ending soon ; In Gemini stood Mercury, in Pisces stood the Moon. May this new town's foundation to thee a blessing bring, And every desert in thy reign bear towns as flourishing ! By thy good luck Nishapiir old is now grown young again, Like to some agdd dotard who his boyhood doth regain. Three things, I pray, may last for aye, while earth doth roll along : The Khwaja's 1 life, the city's luck, and Pur-i-Baha's song ! " Not very much need be said, or indeed, is known, about Imami of Herat, whose full name, according to the author of the Tarikh-i-Guzida, was Abu 'Abdi'llah Imami of Herdt , 11 A i / T- 1 i TT Muhammad b. Abu Bakr b. 'Uthman. He was the panegyrist of the rulers and ministers of Kirman, and died, according to the Majmctul-Fusahd'*' in 667/1268-9. An extraordinarily complicated acrostic on his own name, composed by him according to the terminology of the state accountants, will be found in the Guzida 3 . The highest compliment which he ever received was probably that paid him by his contemporary Majdu'd-Din Hamgar, in reply to a versified question addressed to the latter poet by Mu'inu'd- Din the Parwana, Malik Iftikharu'd-Din,Nuru'd-Din Rasadi, and the Sdhib-Diwdn Shamsu'd-Din, enquiring his opinion as to the respective merits of himself, Sa'di and Imami' 4 . His reply was as follows : " Though I in song am like the tuneful birds, Fly-like I sip the sweets of Sa'di's words ; Yet all agree that in the arts of speech Sa'di and I can ne'er Imami reach." 1 Probably the Sdhib-Diwdn is meant. a Vol. i, p. 98. :i See my translation of this section of the work (ch. v, 6) in the J.R.A.S. for Oct. 1900 and Jan. 1901, pp. 13-15 of the separate reprint. 4 These verses are given by Dawlatshah, p. 166, 1. 24 p. 167, 11. 1-9 of my edition. 82 n6 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i To this Imami replied in the following complimentary quatrain 1 : "Though throned in power in eloquence's fane, And, Christ-like, raising song to life again, Ne'er to the dust of Majd-i-Hamgar's door, That Sahbdn of the Age 2 , can I attain." Sa'di, on the other hand, vented his spleen in the following verse : " Whoe'er attaineth not position high His hopes are foiled by evil destiny. Since Hamgar flees from all who pray or preach, No wonder he ' can ne'er Imami reach 3 .' " The poems of Imami, so far as I am aware, have never been published, nor are manuscripts of them common. In my necessarily limited investigations I have made use of the British Museum manuscript Or. 2847. One of the prettiest of his poems which I have met with occurs on f. Q8 a of that manuscript, and runs as follows : ii s*o I 1 British Museum MS. Or. 3713, f. 179''. 3 Sahbdn ibn Wa'il, an ancient Arab, whose eloquence is proverbial. 3 There is an untranslateable pun here, for fmdmi means the posi- tion of an Imdm, or leader in prayer, as well as being the poet's nom de guerre. 4 MS.>**> which I have emended on account of the metre. CH. in] IMAMf OF HERAT 117 " We celebrate the New Year's Feast but once in all the year ; A Feast perpetual to me affords thy presence dear. One day the roses hang in clusters thick upon the tree ; A never-failing crop of roses yield thy cheeks to me. One day I gather violets by the bunch in gardens fair, But violets by the sheaf are yielded by thy fragrant hair. The wild narcissus for a single week the field adorns ; The bright narcissus of thine eye outlasts three hundred morns. The wild narcissus must its freshness lose or vigil keep 1 : To thy narcissus-eyes no difference waking makes or sleep. Fragrant and fair the garden jasmine is in days of Spring, But round thy hyacinths 2 the jasmine-scent doth ever cling. Nay, surely from thy curls the hyacinths their perfume stole, These are the druggist's stock-in-trade and those food for the soul. Those from a ground of silver 3 spring, and these from heaps of stone ; Those crown a cypress-form, while these adorn some upland lone. There is a garden-cypress which remains for ever green, Yet by thy cypress-stature it appears uncouth and mean." Imami was for some time patronized by Fakhru'1-Mulk 1 A flower "keeps vigil" when it is fully open. 2 " Hyacinth " (sunbtit) is a common poetical metaphor for hair. 3 Meaning the fair, silver-like skin. u8 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK I of Khurasan 1 , who on one occasion submitted to him the following versified enquiry 2 : " What says that master of the Law, chief scholar of our land, Our guide in doctrine and belief, to this which we demand : Suppose a cat at dead of night feloniously should steal A cage of pigeons or of doves, and make therefrom a meal, Would Retribution's Law revealed the owner justify If he in vengeance for the birds should doom the cat to die ?' ; To this enquiry, Imami answered as follows : "A subtle question this indeed ! The palate of the mind Therein thy nature's fragrance fair and reason rare doth find ! No vengeance falls upon the cat, for nowhere hath implied Our Prophet in his Holy Law that such is justified. Have cats which hunt for birds less right than catkins 3 on the tree ? Their claws upon the branch they spread whene'er a bird they see. So, if his own white arm he seeks to keep secure from pain, Let him avoid with Pussy's blood his hand and arm to stain. If he the pigeon seeks to save, the dove to keep alive, To hang their cages out of reach he surely could contrive ! " Poetical interrogations of this sort seem to have been the fashion at this time, for certain people of Kashan addressed a similar versified question as to the respective merits of the poets Anwari and Zahir of Faryab to Majdu'd-Di'n Hamgar, and to this same question Imami also thought good to reply in verse. The text and trans- lation of this correspondence, including the question and the two answers, all in verse, are given in the Tarikk-i- Guztda*, to which the curious reader is referred. Majdu'd- Dm Hamgar's reply contains the date when it was written, viz. the end of Rajab, 674 (Jan. 19, 1276), and both he and Imami agree in preferring Anwari to Zahir, a judge- ment in which nearly all competent critics will concur. 1 Apparently that same minister Fakhru'1-Mulk Shamsu 'd-Dawla, to whom several of Imami's poems are dedicated. 2 For the original verses, which it would be superfluous to reprint here, see my edition of Dawlatshdh, p. 169. 3 Catkins are called gurba-i-bid, "willow-cats," in Persian. 4 See pp. 60-64 of the separate reprint of my translation of this por- tion (ch. v, 6) published in \heJ.R.A.S. for Oct. 1900 and Jan. 1901. CH. in] MAJDU'D-DfN HAMGAR 119 Majdu'd-Din's claim to prefer Imami's poetry not only to his own but to Sa'di's, on the other hand, cannot be taken seriously, and must have been prompted by some personal motive, such as a desire to please Imami or to annoy Sa'df. All Persian writers who have noticed this matter at all have expressed amazement at the view which Majdu'd-Dm Hamgar saw fit to advance; for in truth Imami's poetry, so far as we can judge from the specimens given by Dawlat- .shah 1 and in the Atash-Kada"- and the Majma'u'l-Fusakd*, has no special distinction or originality, while Sa'di's claim to be reckoned among the half-dozen greatest poets of his country has never been disputed, Majdu'd-Di'n Hamgar was, according to the Tarikh-i- Guzida, a native of Yazd, and a protege of Baha'u'd-Din Juwayni, the high-handed governor of Fars, who Majdu'd-Dm died 678/I27Q 4 . When the poet came from Hamgar I ' ? Yazd to Isfahan, he left his elderly wife behind him, but she soon followed him. News of her arrival was brought to the poet by one of his pupils, who said, " Good news ! Your lady has alighted in the house." " Good news," replied Majdu'd-Din, " would rather be that the house had alighted on her ! " The lady, to whom this speech was reported, reproached her husband for his unkind words, quoting the quatrain of 'Umar Khayyam beginning : " Days changed to nights ere thou wert born, or I 5 ." " Before me, perhaps," replied Majdu'd-Dm, "but Heaven forbid that day and night should have existed before thee!" According to Dawlatshah 6 , Majdu'd-Dm Hamgar boast- ed descent from Nushfrwan the Sasanian, and was on this 1 Pp. 167-170 of my edition. '* P. 137 of the lithographed edition of 1277/1860-1. :! Vol. i, pp. 98-101. 4 See p. 21 supra. 5 See E. H. Whinfield's text and translation in Triibner's Oriental Series (1883), No. 33 (pp. 24-5). 6 P. 176 of my edition. 120 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i account a somewhat privileged person at the courts which he frequented. To this alleged genealogy the poet alludes in the following verses 1 : 'JUj ' J'J ^>w 1 Cited in the Afajffia i u'/-Fusa/ui, vol. i, p. 596. CH. in] MAJDU'D-DfN HAMGAR 121 " My virtues all a cruel age hath made for me a bane ; My youthful blood the aged Sphere hath shed in grief and pain. The envious Mercury 1 hath plucked the pen from out my hand, The arching Heaven hath drawn a bow to smite me where I stand. O Sphere, what vvould'st thou of me, a poor, bare-footed thing ? O Time, what seek'st thou from me, a bird with broken wing ? Make of the falcon's eyes a dish to satisfy the owl : Make of the lion's thighs the food for which the jackals prowl. In no wise like the noisy drum will I his blows bewail, Although his lashes on my back descend as falls the flail. O foot of trouble's elephant, prithee more gently press ! O hand of this ignoble Sphere, increase my dire distress ! Through tribulations bravely borne my heart hath grown more bright, As mirrors gain by polishing in radiancy and light. What time the rose-bush from the dust doth raise its flowering head, The sapling of my luck (what luck !) hath withered and is dead. My fault is this, that I am not from some base seed upgrown : My crime is this, that noble is the pedigree I own. The sons of Sasn, not Tigin, my ancestors I call ; I'm of the race of Kisrd, not the household of InaT 3 . My verse is sweet and exquisite as union with the fair : My pen in picture-painting hath the gifts of fancy rare. No eye hath seen an impulse mean impede my bounty's flow : The ear of no petitioner hath heard the answer ' No ! ' When youth is gone, from out the heart all love of play is cast : And lustre fadeth from the sun which hath the zenith passed." Majdu'd-Di'n Hamgar wrote poems in praise of Shamsu'd- Din Muhammad the Sdhib-Diwdn as well as of the Atabek Sa'd b. Abu Bakr. Manuscripts of his poems Quatrains of afe fa fc fi jj manuscr jpt (Qr. 3713) Majd-i-Hamgar > J/ " in the British Museum, transcribed in the years A.D. 1293-8 by the poet's grandson, contains a number of his quatrains. Unlike the quatrains of 'Umar Khay- yam, Abu Sa'i'd b. Abi'l-Khayr, and other masters of this style of verse, Majdu'd- Din's quatrains deal less with 1 Mercury is the planet which presides over the destinies of authors, scribes and poets. * Tigin or Tagin is a suffix of Turkish names (e.g. Subuk-tigin, Alp-tigin, etc.} and Indl is another common Turkish name or title. Kisra is the Arabic form of Khusraw (" Chosroes "), the proper name of Nushirwdn and Parwiz, and the generic name for all the kings of the Royal House of Susan. 122 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i mystical and philosophical ideas than with concrete things and persons. Some are merely abusive epigrams, such as the following : " Born of a mother of accursed womb From Ganja's town to Abkhdz thou didst come, Where that dog-training swineherd nurse of thine Fed thee on dog's milk and the blood of swine." The following, expressing the poet's love of travel, is too ingenious in its word-plays to admit of adequate translation : ->* J^ " O heaven, never turn aside my reins from wandering : Give me my bread from Sarandfb (Ceylon), my water from Sarab: Grant me each evening (shdni) a loaf of bread from Bamiyan, And every morning (bam} give me a draught of water from Sham (Damascus) 1 ." In the two following quatrains he laments his advancing age: J ' 1 Sarandzb, from the Sanskrit Sivarna-dipa, is the name given by the Arab geographers to Ceylon, and Sardb is a town in Adharbayjan. There is a kind of word-play between these two names, but a much more complete one in the second half of the quatrain between bam (morning) and Bdmiydn (north-west of Afghanistan) on the one hand, and shiim (evening) and Sham (Damascus) on the other. The last is an example of the " complete word-play." CH. in] MAJDU'D-DfN HAMGAR 123 " Fiery and fluent, once my heart did hurl Spontaneous verses forth, each verse a pearl : Then Love, Desire and Youth were mine. These three Not e'en in dreams I now can hope to see ! " " This foot of mine no more the stirrup suits ; For me no more are spurs and riding-boots. Oppressed by aches and age, there now remains No foot for stirrup and no hand for reins." Here is another very insulting quatrain, but again no record remains of the person to whom it was addressed : " Compared to thee a pig's a pretty sight : Beside thy face an ape's the heart's delight. Thy temper's uglier than e'en thy face, Compared to it thy face is fair and bright." Some of the quatrains are acrostics on names, as, for example, the following : " The [sum of the] numbers of the letters in that graceful charmer's name Is exactly three hundred and sixty, like the divisions of the heavens. The third letter is one-ninth of the fourth letter, While the first letter is one-sixth of the second letter." 124 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i The name appears to be Nashdt (JUJ), for ,j = 50, CH= 300, t = i, and J = 9, which yields a total of 360 and fulfils the two other conditions. The following is addressed to his sweetheart : aj "No means have I by thee to pitch my tent, Nor money in thy street a house to rent : My ears and eyes serve only to this end, To hear thy voice and on thee gaze intent." That Majdu'd-Dfn Hamgar reached an advanced age is suggested by some of the quatrains just cited,whilein another he describes himself as over eighty, but I have not been able to ascertain the precise dates of his birth and death. Mention must now be made of a poet of far greater talent and originality than those of whom we have spoken above, namely Fakhru'd-Dm Ibrahim of Hama- dan, better known by his poetical nom de guerre, or takhallus, of 'Iraqi. Notices of his life are found in most of the later biographies of mystics and poets, notably in the Nafakdtu'l-Uns of Jami' 1 and in the Majdlisu'l- 'Ushshdq of Husayn Mirza Bayqara ; but in the absence of contemporary testimony the particulars there given must be received with a certain reserve, while from his writings, almost entirely of a mystical and erotic character, little or nothing is to be gleaned as to his personal adventures. He is the typical qalandar, heedless of his reputation, and seeing in every beautiful face or object a reflection, as in a mirror, of the Eternal Beauty. " Love," as one of his biographers says, " was predominant in his nature," and hence his ghazals have an erotic character which has exposed him to very harsh strictures on the part of some European critics, notably 1 Pp. 700-704 of Nassau Lees's edition. CH. in] 'IRAQI' 125 Sprenger 1 , who find scandalous in a Persian sentiments which in Plato they either admire or ignore. According to Jami, 'Iraqi was born at Hamadan, and in childhood learned the Qur'dn by heart and could recite it melodiously and accurately. When he was about seventeen years of age, a party of qalandars, amongst whom was a very beautiful youth, came to Hamadan, and, when they left, 'Iraqi, attracted by the beauty of the young dervish, followed them to India. At Multan he became the disciple of Shaykh Baha'u'd-Dm Zakariyya, of whom he says in one of his poems : " If thou shouldst ask of the world ' Who is the guide of men ?' Thou wilt hear from heaven no other answer than ' ZakariyyaV" Soon after his arrival there the discipline of a chilla, or forty days' retirement and meditation, was imposed upon him, but on the tenth day the other dervishes came to the Shaykh and complained that instead of meditating in silence he was singing a ghazal or ode which he had composed, and which in the course of a few days was in the mouths of all the revellers in the city, who were singing it in the taverns to the accompaniment of the harp and zither. This ghazal, which is one of 'Iraqi's best-known poems, is as follows : 1 Catalogue of the Library of the King of Oude, pp. 440-1. iz6 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i " The wine wherewith the cup they first filled high Was borrowed from the Sdqi's languorous eye. Since self-possessed the revellers they found The draught of selflessness they handed round. The loved one's wine-red lips supplied the cup : They named it ' Lover's wine,' and drank it up. No rest the hair of those fair idols knows, So many a heart it robs of its repose. For good and bad a place within our hall They found, and with one cup confounded all. They cast the ball of Beauty on the field, And at one charge compelled both worlds to yield. The drunken revellers from eye and lip The almond gather, and the sugar sip. But that sweet lip, desired of all, most fair, Maketh harsh words the helpless lover's share. CH. in] 'IRAQf 127 They loosen and set free their locks of jet That they therewith for hearts a snare may set. A hundred messages their glances dart ; Their eyebrows signal secrets to the heart. They speak in confidence and silence claim, And then their secrets to the world proclaim. Where'er in all the world is grief and gall They mix them up, the mixture ' Love' they call. Why should they seek to hurt 'Iraqi's fame, Since they themselves their secrets thus proclaim ? " When Shaykh Baha'u'd-Dm heard the last couplet, he said, " This finishes his business ! " He then called to 'Iraqi in his cell," Do you make your supplications in wine- taverns? Come forth!" So 'Iraqi came forth, and the Shaykh clothed him in his own khirqa or dervish-cloak, raised him from the ground to which he had cast himself, and subsequently gave him in marriage his daughter, who afterwards bore him a son named Kabfru'd-Din. Twenty-five years passed, and Shaykh Baha'u'd-Din died, naming 'Iraqi as his successor. The other dervishes, however, disapproved of this nomination, and complained to the King of 'Iraqi's antinomianism. He thereupon left India and visited Mecca and al-Madina, whence he proceeded to Asia Minor. At Qonya (Iconium) he attended the lectures of the celebrated Shaykh Sadru'd-Din of that city on theFustis of Shaykh Muhiyyu'd-Din ibnu'l-'Arabi 1 , and composed his most celebrated prose work, the Lamctdt (" Flashes " or " Effulgences "), which was submitted to the Shaykh and won his approval. The powerful nobleman Mu'fnu'd-Din the Parwana was 'Iraqi's admirer and disciple, and built for him, it is said, a khdnqdh or monastery at Tuqat, besides showing him other favours. On his death, 'Iraqi left Asia Minor for Egypt, where also he is said to have been well received by the reigning Sultan, whose favour he retained, notwithstanding the efforts of his enemies to traduce him. In Syria, whither he subsequently proceeded, he met with an equally good reception, and there, after six 1 See vol. ii of my Lit. Hist, of Persia, pp. 497-501. ia8 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i months' sojourn, he was joined by his son Kabiru'd-Din from India. There also he died, on the 8th of Dhu'l-Qa'da, 688 (Nov. 23, 1289) and was buried in the Salihiyya Cemetery at Damascus, beside the great mystic Shaykh Muhiyyu'd-Di'n ibnu'l-'Arabi, who had predeceased him by 50 years, and whose influence in Persia, still prevalent even in our days, was largely due to 'Iraqi, Awhadu'd-Di'n of Maragha, and others of the same school. The following poems from 'Iraqi's Diwdn may serve besides that already given, as typical of his style : CH. m] 'IRAQI 129 " From head to feet thou art gracious, pleasant and sweet, O Love ! Thee to prefer to life 'twere right and meet, O Love ! To thee doth aspire the heart's desire of all, O Love ! A hunter of hearts art thou to hold us in thrall, O Love ! To mine eyes appear thy features fair and dear, O Love ! Awake or asleep like a crystal stream so clear, O Love ! Though Beauty's wine doth incarnadine thy cheek, O Love ! Bear with thy comrades, nor causeless quarrels seek, O Love ! They melt in air, hope's promises false and fair, O Love ! Excuses, I ween, you'll find enough and to spare, O Love ! Kisses sip from thine own fair lip. and behold, O Love ! The Water of Life with its savour so sweet and so cold, O Love ! In the dust hard by thy path I die at thy door, O Love ! That a draught of wine on this dust of mine thou mayst pour, O Love ! Jewels of speech on all and each thou dost hurl, O Love ! So that every soul in its ear may wear a pearl, O Love ! None do I see in grace like thee, and I'm sure, O Love ! Thou art soul incarnate and spirit essential and pure, O Love ! In mine eyes and heart thou hast thy part and share, O Love ! Thou dost hide or appear, now dark and dim, now clear, O Love ! Never a moment on earth from North to South, O Love ! May 'Irdqi aspire to have his desire of thy mouth, O Love ! " The following is the first strophe of a very fine Tarji 1 - band: B. P. 130 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i " Cups are those a-flashing with wine, Or suns through the clouds a-gleaming ? So clear is the wine and the glass so fine That the two are one in seeming. The glass is all and the wine is naught, Or the glass is naught and the wine is all : Since the air the rays of the sun hath caught The light combines with night's dark pall, For the night hath made a truce with the day, And thereby is ordered the world's array. If thou know'st not which is day, which night, Or which is goblet and which is wine, By wine and cup divine aright The Water of Life and its secret sign : Like night and day thou mayst e'en assume Certain knowledge and doubt's dark gloom. If these comparisons clear not up All these problems low and high, Seek for the world-reflecting cup That thou mayst see with reason's eye That all that is, is He indeed, Soul and loved one and heart and creed." Here is a fragment of another ode : CH. m] 'IRAQf 131 " Forth from the Veil came that fair Cup-bearer, in hand the cup ; He tore our veils asunder, and our vows forthwith broke up ; Showed us His visage fair, and straightway us of sense bereft, Then sat Him down beside us, when of us no trace was left. His locks the knots unloosed ; our spirits' bonds were cast aside; Our souls abjured the world, and to His curls their fortunes tied. There in His fragrant tresses we remained in frenzy fine, Intoxicated with the proffered cup of ruby wine. Lost at His hands, our hearts for refuge clung unto His hair, E'en as the drowning man will catch at straws in his despair. And when His tresses' chains became the bonds of hearts that raved, From their own being they escaped and from the world were saved." Of the following ode a spirited translation was made, but not published, by my friend Sir E. Denison Ross. The translation here given resembles and is suggested by his, but is not identical with it, for I cannot lay my hands on the copy which I received, nor can I remember it in detail. Lo 92 The ' nttma 1 32 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i " Save love of thee a soul in me I cannot see, I cannot see ; An object for my love save thee I cannot see, I cannot see. Repose or patience in my mind I cannot find, I cannot find, While gracious glance or friendship free I cannot see, I cannot see. Show in thy face some sign of grace, since for the pain wherewith I'm slain Except thy face a remedy I cannot see, 1 cannot see. If thou wouldst see me, speed thy feet, for parted from thy presence sweet, Continued life on earth for me I cannot see, I cannot see. O friend, stretch out a hand to save, for I am fallen in a wave Of which the crest, if crest there be, I cannot see, I cannot see. With gracious care and kindly air come hither and my state repair ; A better state, apart from thee, I cannot see, I cannot see. Some pathway to 'Iraqi teach whereby thy gateway he may reach, For vagrant so bemused as he I cannot see, I cannot see. 1 ' Besides his lyric poetry 'Iraqi composed a mathnawi poem entitled the 'UshsJidq-ndina, or " Book of Lovers," but this I have not read, nor is a copy of it at present . access ible to me. I therefore pass to his most notable prose work, the Lama'dt (" Flashes," or " Effulgences "), a mystical treatise inspired, as already mentioned, by the teachings of " the most great doctor" (ash- Skaykhtil-akbar) Muhiyyu'd-Din ibnu'l-'Arabi, by origin of the famous Arabian tribe of Tayy, an d by birth a Moor of Andalusia. The Lamddt is a comparatively small book, containing, perhaps, between 7000 and 8000 words, and, though written in prose, includes numerous pieces of verse. The The Latna'dt . . . . . . _ , , r many-sided and talented Jami, of whom we shall speak in a later chapter, wrote a commentary on it, entitled Ashfatul-Lama'dt 1 (" Rays of the Flashes "), in the preface to which he says that he began by being ilTworT 1 " 10 " f prejudiced against the work and its author, but, being requested by one of his spiritual guides to study and collate the text, he found it to consist of "graceful phrases and charming suggestions, verse and prose combined together and subtleties in Arabic and Persian intermingled, wherein the signs of [human] know- 1 Lithographed, with other Sufi tracts, at Tihran in 1303/1885-6. CH. in] 'IRAQI'S LAMA' AT 133 ledge and [superhuman] gnosis were apparent, and the lights of rapture and ecstasy manifest, so that it would awaken the sleeper, cause him who was awakened to apprehend secret mysteries, kindle the fire of Love, and put in motion the chain of Longing." The book is divided into 28 " Flashes" (Lam'a), probably in correspondence with the number of letters in the Arabic alphabet. As a specimen I give the opening pages, down to the end of the first Lam'a, the prose portion in translation only, the verses both in translation and in the original. "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Forgiving. " Praise be to God who illuminated the countenance of His Friend with the Effulgence of Beauty, so that it gleamed with Light ; and made visible therein the limits of Perfec- tion, and rejoiced therein with joy ; and raised him up by His hand and chose him out while Adam was not yet a thing mentioned, nor had the Pen written, nor the Tablet been inscribed. [His friend, who was] the Treasure-house of the treasures of Being, the Key of the Store-houses of Bounty, the Qibla of Desire and the Desired One, the Possessor of the Standard of Praise and the Laudable Station, the tongue of whose high degree declares : ' Though in outward form I seem one of Adam's progeny, Yet the underlying truth claims for me paternity V 1 This verse, as JU3I &}jj oW j' ^ Jl) Within the Veil Love sings its air: Where is the lover to hear it, where ? 1 This is the title of a treatise by Shaykh Ahmad Ghazzali on Love, the Lover, and the Beloved. 136 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i Each moment it chants a different lay, And ever some melody fresh doth play. All the Universe echoes its song: Who hath heard such an anthem long? Its secret out from the world doth leap: How can an Echo its secret keep ? I tell no tales, but loud and clear From the tongue of each atom its secret hear. Every moment with every tongue it tells its secret to its own ear ; every instant with all its ears it hears its speech from its own tongue ; every minute with all its eyes it flashes its beauty on its own vision ; every second in every aspect it presents its being to its own notice. Hear from me its description as it really is : It speaks with me through speaking and through speechless 1 ; Through lowered eyelashes and glancing eyes. Knowest thou what it whispers in my ears ? I am Love, for the which in these worlds there is found not a place : The 'Anqd am I of the West 2 , who hath never a trace. 1 I.e. through articulate and inarticulate creatures, through the organic and the inorganic. 2 The true explanation o^Anqd-yi-Mughrib is doubtful. See Lane's Arabic- English Lexicon, s.v. CH. in] 'IRAQI'S LAMA'AT 137 By my glance and my eyebrow the world I have captured, I trow, Heed not that I do not possess either arrow or bow. Revealed in the face of each atom am I, like the sun ; So apparent am I that my form is apparent to none. I speak with all tongues, and with every ear do I hear Though, strange as it seems, I have neither a tongue nor an ear. I am all that exists in all worlds, so 'tis patent and clear That neither in this world nor that have I rival or peer. FOREWORD. Know that in each ' Flash ' of these ' Flashes ' some hint is given of that Reality which transcends differentiation, whether you call it Love or Attraction, since there is no dearth of words ; and some suggestion is made as to the manner of its progress in diverse conditions and cycles, of its journey through the degrees of dissociation and es- tablishment, of its manifestation in the form of ideas and realities, of its emergence in the garb of Beloved and Lover, and finally of the absorption of the Lover in the Beloved formally, of the inclusion of the Beloved in the Lover ideally, and of the comprehension of both together in the Majesty of its Unity. There divergences are reconciled, ruptures are made whole, the Light is concealed within the Light, and the Manifestation lies latent within the Mani- festation, while from behind the pavilions of Glory is cried: ' JJ*L 4DT y U ^ J ^1 O, is not all save God hollow and vain ? The identity [of each] disappears [in the other], leaving neither sign nor trace, and they merge in God, the One, the All-compelling. FIRST FLASH, Setting forth the pre-existence of Love to both Beloved and Lover, and the manner of their production by it, which takes place in the First Differentiation ; and setting forth that wherein each stands in need of the other. The derivation of both Lover and Beloved is from Love, which, in its Abode of Glory, is exempt from differentiation, 138 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i and, in the Sanctuary of its own Identity, is sanctified from inwardness and outwardness. Yea, in order to display its perfection, in such way as is identical with its Essence and [equally] identical with its Attributes, it shows itself to itself in the Mirror of Loverhood and Belovedness, and reveals its Beauty to its own Contemplation by means of the Seer and the Vision. Thus the names of Loverhood and Beloved- ness appeared, and the description of the Seeker and the Quest became manifest. It showed the Outward to the Inmost, and the Voice of Loverhood arose : it showed the Inmost to the Outward, and the name of Belovedness was made plain. J^U ^j jAU No atom doth exist apart from It, that Essence single: 'Tis when Itself it doth reveal that first those ' others ' mingle. O Thou whose outward seeming Lover is, Beloved thine Essence, Who hitherto e'er saw the Object Sought seek its own presence ? Love, by way of Belovedness, became the Mirror of the Beauty of Loverhood, so that therein it might behold its own Essence, and by way of Loverhood the Mirror of Belovedness, so that therein it might contemplate its own Names and Attributes. Although but one object is beheld by the Eye of Contemplation, yet when one face appears in two mirrors, assuredly in each mirror a different face appears. * * ftio a 5 , * tot * iSti * 6 ' r > ' H J t f tie , * U>JI O^jkfi cuil !>l ' 'u'l-Fusahd, vol. ii, pp. 94-98 ; Haft Iqlim, under Isfahdn, etc. Jamf, however, (Nafakdt, p. 707) reverses the roles of these two cities. 2 Dated 916/1510-11. The text comprises about 4500 couplets. i 4 2 POETS & MYSTICS OF fL-KHANf PERIOD [BK i verses 1 , including qasidas and quatrains, of which a selection is given by the biographers. The following may serve as examples of his style : (Part of a qasida taken from the Haft Iqltm}. Jj lw J C*O J> IJJ 'J^! (^5-** " How long wilt pride in beard and turban take ? That Friend adopt as friend : all else forsake. With stir and movement fill thy heart with pain : 1 Dawlatsh