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Art. V.—On the earliest Persian Biography of Poets, by Muhammad Aúfi, and on some other Works of the class called Tazkirat ul Shuârá

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1848

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References

page 111 note 1 Such as the Heft Aelím of Ahmed Rází the Nafahát ul Uns, Gulzár ul Abrár, and Mejális Múminín, containing the lives of celebrated Sufis and Shiahs; and numerous Tarikhs, especially the Muntakhab ul Tawáríkh, the Tárikhi Guzídah, Jehán Ará, Khulásat ul Tawárikh, &c.

page 112 note 1 The whole of the text, with an elegant German translation, has lately been edited at Vienna by Baron Schlechta-Wssehrd.

page 112 note 2 Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roi.

page 112 note 3 Handschriften Hammer-Purgstall's, Wien. 1840. Article No. 240.

page 112 note 4 Account of the Atesh Kedah, &c. Vol. VII. of the Journal.

page 112 note 5 Several works, on various subjects, bear this title, or one similar.

An abridgement of the celebrated Mesnawi is called Lubbi Lubáb, by Husain Wáîz Káshifi; also one of the Diwans of the poet Núâí () is so named. The title, indeed, appears under such a variety of forms, even in reference to the work now under notice, and is susceptible of so many different meanings, according to altered pronunciation, that the translation is open to conjecture. In this instance it may perhaps be best rendered as the “Marrow, or Quintessence of Biography.”

page 113 note 1 John Bardoe Elliott, Esq., of the Suddur Court of Calcutta. This gentleman did me the honour of addressing to me some valuable observations on Persian poetry and its biographical literature, and in addition to much information connected with my present object, had the kindness to send over from India, for my use, from his own private collection, two of the most important works on the subject, with which I have yet been made acquainted, and of the mere existence of which I should have been uninformed, but for his kind assistance.

page 115 note1

page 115 note 2 Hammer-Purgstall's Handaehriften, No. 174.

page 115 note 3 Assassinated by the emissaries of Hasan Sabah.

page 116 note 1 In the MS. possibly for Muhammad, the son of Muhammad, or perhaps only an accidental repetition, of which there are similar instances in the copy. Later in the preface it occurs Muhammad Aúfi only.

page 116 note 2 of a11 which Persian interpretations the Arabic word is susceptible.

page 116 note 3 The eye of the balance.

page 116 note 4 by the figure Maclúb (Anagram) makes

page 116 note 5

page 117 note 1 The seven verses of the Fátihah, or first chapter of the Coran.

page 117 note 2 This appears to be the proper title of the book, being the one the author himself gives in the only places, in which he mentions it by name. It is variously quoted in the Tazkirahs, as already seen.

page 117 note 3 Another allusion to the fabled fountain of the waters of immortality in the land of darkness, and to Khizr, their guardian: possibly even the allusion to Khizr here has reference to the blue and green colours with which eastern manuscripts are ornamented; Khizr being clothed in green, as the herald of spring and verdure. Thus Ahli says, in the Sihri Halál,

page 118 note 1 Sáhib Ismâïl Ibn Ibád, a Vizir under the Samanian dynasty.

page 118 note 2

page 118 note 3 This differs from the account given in the Khulásat ul Akhbár, and some other histories, but the duration of the dynasty is variously stated.

page 119 note 1 Asaf, the vizir of Solomon, and the pattern for ministers in all succeeding ages.

page 120 note 1 This is only an accidental specimen of the play on words with which the memoirs are usually introduced throughout the work.

page 120 note 2 &c.

page 120 note 3 The Beharistan merely says, which, with many of the other particulars, agrees so literally with the words of the Lubáb, that Al Aufi's Tazkirah must have been used by Jami for this part of his work.

page 121 note 1

page 122 note 1

page 123 note 1

page 123 note 2 A beauty of Persian rhetoric, by which the poet and his mistress or any other person are introduced in dialogue; the repetition of the “said I,” and “said he,” in a poem exceeding the length of a ghazal, becomes insupportable. In this specimen it is carried on through thirty-two couplets.

page 124 note 1

page 124 note 2 Ibn Muclah and Ibn ul Bawwáb were two celebrated calligraphs; the former, the Vizir of the Khalif Muctadir, is said to have invented the Naskhi character, and the latter to have improved it.

page 124 note 3 The epithet Sáhibkirán here seems intended for the Vizir.

page 125 note 1 Among Baron Hammer-Purgstall's MSS., No. 80, is “Mark des Markes” (Marrow of Marrow), a collection of tales, anecdotes, &c, by “the Imam Abul Hasan Ahmed b. Ibrahim, Al Asháarí;” a coincidence in the surname, on which, of course, nothing is to be founded. is explained in Ibn Khallikan's life of Abul Hasan Ashí (qy. the author just mentioned), to mean “descended from Ashâr, i.e., from “Nabt, surnamed Ashâr, or the hairy.”—De Slane's Translation, Vol. II.

Al Makkari, the African historian of Spain, was also called Al Ashârí; on the derivation of which name, see “Notes to the Translation,” &c, by de Gayangos, Don P., Vol. I.Google Scholar

With respect to Muhammad Aúfi's name, it must, of course, be supposed to refer to in Syria, v. Abulfeda's Geogr:—Hajji Khalfa's Haufi would be a native, or inhabitant of the Hauf in Egypt, v. Relation de l'Egypte, par Abdallatif, &c.

page 125 note 2 The copy I have used of Auhadi's Tazkirah being, as mentioned in the notice later, imperfect, I am unable to extend the search for Al Aúfi's life, which might possibly have been found under the letter M (Muhammad). The Riázat does not give it under either letter, and it is possible that the use of an imperfect copy of his authority was also the reason of its omission.

page 125 note 3 No mention is made of the date or circumstances of Attá's death, which took place in the general massacre by the Mongols; and Mr. Elliott's inference that the author of the Tazkirah wrote before, or did not survive, the invasion of Jingizkhan, is thus very materially supported.

page 126 note 1 In Sir William Ouseley's Catalogue of MSS. No. 506, described “Zubdet el Shaar, an admirable work on Persian Poetry,” is probably a copy of the same.

page 128 note 1 The Suhuf, in Taki's life, calls his patron, to whom he dedicates “Ibrahim Aádilsháh Bíjápúrí,” V. Lit. Hindoui, &c, p. 238; that is, of Vizapur in India, which would suppose the author to have visited that country; but no such event is related by his biographer, nor does it appear from his own preface.Google Scholar

page 128 note 2 Khulásat ul Ashâár wa Zubdat ul Afkár. It is often difficult to translate, at all literally, the titles of Eastern works, without producing something ludicrous in our idiom.

page 129 note 1 The brother, or, as some say, cousin of Shaikh Nizami.

page 129 note 2 Zahíruddin died A.H. 598, and Afzaluddin of Kashan, A. H. 666.

page 130 note 1

page 130 note 2 The only note of transcription in the MS. is at the end of the second Mujallad, “finished on Wednesday, 21st of Ramazan, 1038;” and of the fourth Mujallad, “finished Muharram, 1039” (= 1627 A.D.) I was at one time induced to suppose the MS. to be the author's original copy, which these dates would easily permit; but there is no note of its being his autograph, and the omission of one of the volumes would seem to imply it to be a transcript.

page 131 note 1 Under the head of Zikri, in D'Herbelot, we find, “Takieddin Al-Hossaini, nom d'un auteur qui écrit la Vie de cinq Poëtes Persiens dont il a revu et publié les ouvrages. Ces cinq poëtes sont Amak, Souzeni, Reschidi, Feleki, et Omadi.” Possibly D'Herbelot, or the author he followed, had seen a fragment of Takieddin's work, containing only these five lives. They occur nearly together in the first Rukn of the Tazkirah, thus: Amac, Senáí, Illáhi, Muhtagham, Súzani, Abdurrazzác, Hasan, Amádi, Rashíduddín, Watwát, Feleki.

page 132 note 1 The words underlined give the date 988.

In the life of the poet Sádic, in the second Appendix, he says it was then the year 988, when he was engaged in completing his collection; yet at a much earlier stage of his work, the end of Mujallad II., he says, “Up to the present year, 1015,” &c. Was this copy made, perhaps, from different editions of the separate parts ? This would account for the discrepancy of dates, and be supported by the omission of a part already mentioned.

page 132 note 2 This line, as it stands, does not agree with the date, but by omitting the first two letters, forming the word , the remainder would make exactly 1016. In the first line, I read for in the MS., and for

page 133 note 1 and adds, A former proprietor of the MS. has endeavoured to vindicate Daulatshah from so general a censure by suggesting as a reading for but the writing of this copy is so distinct, and the absence of points so unusual, that there seems no doubt of the text; the epithet also, as it now stands, being more likely to be applied where the criticism which follows is unfavourable.

page 134 note 1 Biblioth. Leyden.

page 134 note 2 To be distinguished from his predecessor Takí Káshí, whose work has just been described. Taki Káshí's poetic name was Zikri; Auhadi used his name, Takí, as his Takhallus. In his Tazkirah, he says,

page 134 note 3

page 134 note 4 It is a little difficult to fix this name from the MS., where it appears also sometimes to be Wafác, Wacác, Wacáf. The surname Dakák is found in some of the memoirs of Ibn Khalican,—De Slane's Translation.

page 135 note 1 “Auhadí's Garden (or Paradise) of Imagination.”

page 135 note 2 One of those titles, in which, as in those of many Arabic books, the translatable sense is sacrificed to a sort of rhythm, if not rhyme. The work is generally quoted, more concisely, as the Urfátu'l âáehikín wa ârsátu'l âárifín, also, familiarly, the Urfát.

page 136 note 1 “The Kaabah,” or “Temple of the Learned,” or “of Knowledge.”

page 136 note 2 In the Mejmâ ul Nefáïs, noticed later.

page 136 note 3 Surmeh, or Collyrium for the eyes of Sulaiman; probably, in compliment to Shah Sulaiman Safawi, to whom perhaps it was dedicated.

page 136 note 4

page 137 note 1 I have used the latter MS.; it is an octavo volume, containing 760 pages, written in an Indian hand, without any name or date of transcription. Both copies, which are in all respects very similar, both in form and in handwriting, are furnished with an index, placed before the preface, and referring to the page by figures.

page 137 note 2

page 137 note 3 Author of the Tazkirah called Maikhánah u Butkhánah, noticed later.

page 137 note 4

page 139 note 1 “Eine grosse Zahl von Diehtern aufzufischen,” &c. Geschichte der schœnen Redekünste Persiens, p. 349, where this observation is made on the Tuhfahi Sami.Google Scholar

page 140 note 1 The Sihri Halál of Maulana Ahli of Shiraz, which was itself an imitation of Katibí's Majmâ ul Bahrain.

page 140 note 2 The name of ihe Mosque is not very distinctly written in the MS. It also reads in every instance; while the copies I have consulted of Tahir's work, have always

page 140 note 3 Professor Dom, from a MS. of the Táríkhi Afghán, belonging to the writer of this sketch, has established the pronunciation of to be Lodai. Bulletin Scientifique, St. Petersb. T. x.

page 140 note 4 I have also used, for collation, a copy in the library of the East India House (No. 226), an octavo of 450 pages.

page 141 note 1 Such as the composition of Tarikh, or Chronogram, of Leipogrammatic Verses, and of those called Zú'l Bahrain, Zúl Cáfíatain, double rhymed, and to be scanned according to two different measures, &c.

page 141 note 2 The “Geschichte der Osmanischen Dichtkunst,” and the “History of Hindustani Poetry,” give the memoirs of several Eastern poetesses; their number, however, is far exceeded by those of Persia, as exhibited in the Mirát and in the Atesh Kedah.

page 141 note 3 The Arabic title of the work, as given on the fly leaf of the India House copy, supplies his father's name, calling it the Tazkirah of Shír Khán, Ibn Ali Ahmed Khau Lodi.

page 142 note 1 Written 1007 in the MS. in full, but the word eighty had, no doubt, been omitted.

page 142 note 2

page 142 note 3 This Chronogram is ingenious, but requires explanation. The letters of give the number 1313, from which, abstracting the numerical value of the word , there remains 1102. Thus “Reflection, by removing the veil from the Mirror of Fancy, discloses the date of its completion.” There is a word in the second line wanting in the MS., and I am unable to supply it from the Khazanah, which only gives the figures of the year, but not the verses.

page 143 note 1 MS. of the India House Library, No. 427, containing sixty-five pages in octavo, many of the memoirs being written in a minute hand round the margin, or in spaces which had been blank; probably additions.

page 143 note 2 In a note on the fly leaf the name is written which is probably correct.

page 143 note 3 The title, however, only affords the number 1143.

page 143 note 4 I have the use of two copies of the Ríázat, of which one is in my own collection, a very plainly written quarto manuscript of 500 pages, formerly belonging to Major Turner Macan, who quotes it in the Introduction to his edition of the Shah Nameh. This MS. exends only to the letter The other is a large folio in the India House (Bibliotheca Leydeniana), and is complete. Mr. J. B. Elliott also possesses a copy.

page 144 note 1 Nafahfát ul Uns, Jami's celebrated work on Sufyism, analyzed in the Notices et Extraits, &c.

page 144 note 2 A collection of Anecdotes of Sufi love. The contents are given in Hammer-Purgstall's Catalogue of his Manuscripts.

page 144 note 3 Sometimes written Ríázat, and sometimes Ríáz ul Shuârá.

page 145 note 1 To obtain the required date, recourse must be had to the license Taâmiyah; thus, the Arabic letters of the title of the book give 1613, from which take those of the word Khazán (Autumn) = 658, leaving 955. Insert the numeric value of (Spring) “deprived of its head,” (i. e., the first letter ), viz., 208–2; according to the directions ingeniously concealed in the last two lines, “Autumn departed from the Garden of Poets, when Spring, deprived of its head, had entered.” 1613 + 206 - 658 = 1161.

page 146 note 1 Possibly his poetic name of Wálih,. signifying “distracted lover,” may have been chosen by him from the circumstance of his unfortunate attachment.

page 146 note 2 The Khulasat ul Afkár, No. XI.

page 146 note 3 Those in the India House copy contain twenty-five lines of prose, or fifty couplets of poetry, to a page.

page 147 note 1 Distinguished by the name of A copy of it is contained in the same manuscript with the work now under notice.

page 148 note 1 Alluding, no doubt, to his exile from his country, detailed in his Autobiography.

page 148 note 2 So stated in the life of Hazin, in the Atesh Kedah.

page 149 note 1 History of Hindustani Literature. “Hazin (Muhammad).”

page 149 note 2 In the Library of the East India House, marked No. 47; presented by Kirkpatrick, Lieutenant-Colonel William, 30th May, 1804.Google Scholar

page 149 note 3 I should hare been inclined to read Gurji, the language of Gurjistan, but it is written distinctly with Kh in the MS. in several places.

page 150 note 1 Presented to the Oriental Translation Committee by Sir Alexander Malet, Bart. Numbered 187 in Mr. Morley's Catalogue of the MSS. Octavo, closely written in a good hand, a page containing twenty-two lines.

An extract from this Tazkirah, containing lives of some of the nobles of Hindustan, is sometimes found in a detached form, and bearing the same title as the original; so that a manuscript of the one is frequently described as, and mistaken for, the other. In this state it usually contains about 120 pages, octavo; as in a copy in the East India House Library, and one in my own collection. The extract is also called Khazánahi Umara, that is, “of the Nobles;” and this Arabic plural of Amír, so much resembles the title of the original work, that it produces much ambiguity.

page 150 note 2 One of his ancestors, originally of Wásit, settled in Balgrám.

page 150 note 3

page 151 note 1 is explained in the narrative to mean “one who makes orphan the young lions;” i. e., a great lion-killer, and to have been given as a surname to this person, from his love of the chase.

page 151 note 2 According to the Suhuf, Azad was son of Mir Abdul Jelíl.

page 151 note 3 Author of the Sefínahi Bíkhabar, a Tazkirali alluded to in the Preface, and mentioned later among these Notices.

page 152 note 1 “Prosperous journey;” a Chronogram of the year 1150.

The Feast immediately following Ramazan.

“The great work,” or “duty,” makes a Tarikh = 1151.

Similar to Seferi Khair, but being a year later, an additional unit, expressed by was necessary to complete the date, 1152.

page 152 note 5 M. de Tassy's Biography cites him also as an Hindustani poet, and author of a treatise on Indian Ghazals.

page 152 note 6 These two works are noticed later.

page 153 note 1 Muhammad Aslam was a pupil of Mulla Muhsin Fání, to whom the Dabistan has been attributed. The memoir of Aslam is given in the Suhuf, that of Shah Gulshan in the Ríázat.

page 153 note 2

page 154 note 1 No. 53 of the Leyden Collection.

page 155 note 1 There are seventeen distichs, concluding with

page 156 note 1

page 156 note 2 In the Preface his father is called also Muhammad Tabrízí Isfahání, alluding, as in the son's name, to the origin of the family, from Tabríz.

page 157 note 1 These are mostly well-known works. Nîmat Khan was a sort of Persian Dean Swift. The Táríkhi Nádiri was translated by Sir W. Jones; “The gates of Paradise” is an ethical work, by Muhammad Muhsin Rúdbárí; and Shamsuddin, surnamed Fakír, was a poet of Dehli; vide De Tassy, “Faquir.” The other two require no comment.

page 157 note 2

page 158 note 1 See “Abú Tálib Khán,“ in the valuable Persian notices contributed to the New Biographical Dictionary, 1842.

page 159 note 1 To Mr. Elliott, therefore, I am indebted for the first and last of the works which form the subject of this Essay; the indisputably most ancient, and, it is reasonable to believe, the latest, of all Persian Tazkirahs.

page 160 note 1 I must not be supposed to undervalue the merits of the Nawwab's Tazkirah, and still less the great obligation I am under for the use of it, by thus advocating the claims of the original literature of Persia; we owe very much to the zeal and labour of learned Mahometan Indians in commenting and editing some of its most valuable productions; and as a comprehensive work of vast range and extent, both for its judicious compilation from numerous authorities, and labour of learned criticism, as well as from the paramount advantage its author possesses, in being the most modern writer on the subject, Ibrahim Khalil's Suhuf is justly entitled to preference over all others, as the ground-work of Persian Poetical Biography in an European arrangement.

page 161 note 1 A copy has been since received from India by M. Garcin de Tassy, who, with his usual kindness, and in anticipation of my wishes, has obliged me with the use of it.

page 161 note 2 Lutf Ali Beg appears as a poet also in Abu Talib's Tazkirah, where, in the supplement, two couplets of a Ghazal are attached to his name as Azar, but unaccompanied by a single line of memoir. His contemporary Wálih, in his Tazkirah supplies a short notice of Azar, Lutf Ali Beg, in which after stating his relationship to Weli Muhammad Khan (already known), he mentions Azar's extraordinary poetic talent at an early age, being at that time only twenty-five years old, and adds to the particulars of his literary history, that his first Takhallus was Wálid (Father), which he afterwards changed for that of Nukhat (Perfume), and lastly fixed it as Azar, by which he is usually known. Wátlih does not, of course, mention the Atesh Kedah, which was commenced after the completion of his own Tazkirah.

page 161 note 3 Presented by Sir John Malcolm, May 19, 1827, No. 147 of Mr. Morley's Catalogue. The MS. bears the title &c., to which is added,

page 162 note 1 About half the number contained in the whole, according to Mr. Elliott's account; the division of the alphabet being also in the same proportion, it would seem that we possess just half the entire work.

page 162 note 2 The Nawwab's Hindustani Tazkirah, the Gulzári Ibrahím, was completed the same year:—see M. de Tassy's work.

page 162 note 3 Stewart's Catalogue of Tippoo's MSS,, No. LXVIII.

page 162 note 4

page 162 note 5 “Love and Friendship,” “The Wakeful Eye,” and the “Saltcellar of Divine Truth.” Sherfuddín Hasan, Shefáí, of Isfahan died 1037.

page 163 note 1 Muhammad Culi of Teheran, a contemporary of Lutf Ali Beg Azar.

page 163 note 2 Major Stewart's Catalogue, No. LXXIV., called there the “Loaf and the Cake.”

page 163 note 3 Shaikh Behá uddín Muhammad of Amul in Khorasan, died at Isfahan 1030.

page 163 note 4 Also in Tippoo's Library, No. LXXIV. Sayyid Maulana Husaini Sádát, called Husaini. Hammer's Redekünste, &c. No. LXXII.

page 163 note 5 A poet of the time of Shah Abbas.

page 163 note 6 Mulla Ali Rizáí Tejelli was of Yezd, and died 1088.

page 163 note 7

page 163 note 8 Sirajuddin Ali Khan Arzu is author of the Tazkirah called Majmâ ul Nefáïs, of which mention will be made later.

page 163 note 9 In the manuscript title to this copy, the volume is said to contain eighty-four Mesnawis in all.

page 164 note 1 The author has however, as he states in his preface, taken pains to place together poets with the same, or similar names, so as in some degree to assist still further those who consult his work.

page 164 note 2 At least twenty Tazkirahs are quoted by name in various parts of his work, and lives of thirteen of their authors are found among the memoirs.

page 164 note 3 This Tarikh would appear, therefore, to be the production of Ahmed Hátíf of Isfahan, one of the most distinguished of the very modern poets of Persia. His memoir in the Suhuf relates his intimacy with its author, and he appears in Lutf Ali's work, of whom also he was the contemporary and friend, to have been distinguished for his skill in Chronogram.

page 164 note 4 From a verse of the Indian poet Jurát; vide Life of Nawwab Ali, Ibrahim, “Hist. de la Litt. Hindoui,” &c. The memoir of Jurát in the Suhuf is thus given. The Suhuf frequently alludes to its twin brother, the Tazkirahi Rekhtah, by which name the Gulzári Ibrahim is always designated in that work.

page 166 note 1 Akber Shah reigned from 907 to 1014. Shah Abbas began to reign 994.

page 166 note 2 Rahím was also his Takhallus. A memoir of this distinguished nobleman, who was himself a poet, as well as being celebrated as a patron of poets, is found in the Suhuf. He was born A.D. 964, and died at the age of eighty-two.

page 167 note 1 but as it is written in the Nawwab's other Tazkirah, and, I think, elsewhere in the Suhuf, it may here he a mistake, in repetition of the word “contemporary.”

page 167 note 2 It also stands in the list of Tazkirahs of Poets, page 96 of the Parnasse Oriental; probably inserted on the authority mentioned above.

page 168 note 1

page 168 note 2

page 168 note 3 The letters of the title give 1093.

page 169 note 1 The value of the letters must be doubled for this date.

page 169 note 2

page 170 note 1 Ahmad Shah reigned A.H. 1160 to 1167.

page 170 note 2 Bahadur Shah began to reign A.H. 1119.

page 170 note 3 Muhammad Shah began to reign A.H. 1130.

page 170 note 4 The Yadi Bayza is an allusion to the “White Hand” of Moses. Servi Azád, an image of frequent use among the Persian poets, plays on the name of the author, Ghulámi Alí Azád.

page 170 note 5 These letters give the number 1108 only; possibly it should be by which the additional 40 would be obtained.

page 171 note 1 See Waring's “Tour to Sheeraz,” page 107.

page 171 note 2 Názim of Tabríz was called Sádie; perhaps his Tazkirah, to which no special name is given by the Suhuf or Khazanah, may be the Subhi Sádie?

page 171 note 3 I have since noticed in Sir W. Ouseley's “Catalogue,” &c, the “Subh Sadek,” described as a Tarikh, or History of Kings, and celebrated and learned men, by “Mahammed Sadek Isfahani.” This is probably the same work.

page 171 note 4 I am not aware of the exact title of the work. It is so called in the only authority which mentions it; but the word Sefínah may also here be used only in its comprehensive and very usual sense of book.

page 172 note 1 “The Apple of the Eye.” It is difficult, except from the explanation of the authors themselves, where we have the advantage of it, to guess the application of the titles they give their works. Where they do not contain the author's name, or an allusion to his patron, they are frequently put together merely with a view of forming a chronogram, which, however, in the present instance, cannot be the object.

page 173 note 1 “Incomparable;” therefore, perhaps, the “Incomparable Biography,” or the “Biography of Bínazír.” So Tuhfahi Sami, “The Royal or Sublime Present,” as well as the “Present of Sám (Mirza).”

page 173 note 2 Also in Sir Gore Ouseley's “Notices,” &c.

page 173 note 3 Vol. II., page 374.

page 173 note 4 Bátini appears, as the name of a poet of Balkh; but his biographer, Ibrahim, had no means of giving any account of his works.

page 173 note 5 The MS. described was in the collection of Ardebíl.

page 174 note 1 “Brief Notices of some of the Persian Poets.” 1836. It is, however, more probably the Mirát ul Aálam, or Tárikh of Bakhtáwar Khán, also found in Sir W. Ouseley's Catalogue, and said to contain, besides general history, an account of poets in alphabetical order. No. 371 of the same Catalogue, a Tazkirat ul Shuârái Jehangírsháhí, it is doubtful whether to assign to Persian or Indian biography.

page 174 note 2

page 175 note 1 Von diesen vier Grand- und Ehrensaülen, auf denen der Dom persischer Dichterbiographik und Anthologik ruht—Schcene Redekünste Persiens, Vorrede. Why should not our continued and increasing communication with the East, and our improved knowledge of its literary treasures, which in the last thirty years have multiplied our sources of poetical biography from four to forty, in the same progression, still more than double the present number, till the Valhalla of the Persian Poets shall be like Thebes, , or hundred-gated, a biographical

page 175 note 2 Sir Gore Ouseley's “Notices,” already mentioned, refers also to Nos. III., IV., V., VI., and X. of those now described, and it is probable that his library may contain several others, which might, had I availed myself of the opportunity, have furnished a more complete account of those which are enumerated in the latter part of this sketch.