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,<br />
NOTE III. GREAT STYLISTS , ,<br />
note which he has been g*ood enough tx? send me, proves that'the name<br />
Tamgh&j was applied by early Muhammadan writers to a defiryte and<br />
,real city, identified by him on the strongest evidence witn Khan Baligh f<br />
("Cambaluc") or Pekin, also called jJ&. ("the Middle Capital,")<br />
and jjub ("the Great Capital").<br />
See also F. W. K.<br />
Millar's Uigurica I (Berlin, 1908), p. 13, n. i adcalc.<br />
'<br />
III. Writers adduced as models of style.<br />
(Text, p. 13; Persian notes, pp. 95-101.)<br />
'The Sahib Abu'l-Qasim Isma'il ibn 'Abbad at-Talaqani<br />
died in 385/995-6. Yaqvit, who consecrates a long notice to him in his<br />
Irs/iddu'l-AriJi, or " PictionaYy<br />
.<br />
of Learned Men 1<br />
,'' says<br />
that there are<br />
two places called Talaqan, one in Khurasan, and the other, from which<br />
the Sahib came, between Qaewin and Abhar. Mirza Muhammad,<br />
however-, in a long manuscript note on this passage, proves conclusively<br />
that he was a native of Isfahan.<br />
' Shamsu'l-Ma'ali Qabus ibn Washmgir ibn Ziyar, Prince<br />
of Tabaristan, was put to death by his son Miniichihr and nobles in<br />
403/1012-3. Of him also Yaqiit gives a fairly lengthy notice 2 . He<br />
corresponded with the Sahib above mentioned, and was very celebrated<br />
for his skill in this form of composition. Many of his letters were<br />
collected by Abu'l-Hasan 'Ah' ibn Muhammad al-Yazdadi, and extracts<br />
are given by Muhammad ibn Isfandiyar in his History of Tabaristan as<br />
well jas by Yaqut. I have recently acquired a MS. of Yazdadi's com-<br />
pilation entitled Kamdlu'l-Baldgha (the " Perfection of Eloquence ").<br />
Abu'l-Faraj Qudama ibn Ja'far ibn Qudama ibn Ziyad<br />
al-Baghdadi was born and brought up a Christian, but was converted<br />
to Islam by the Caliph al-Muktafi, and died in 337/948-9. A short<br />
notice of him also occurs in Yaqiit's Irshdd?, where some dozen of 4iis<br />
works are enumerated, of which three, the Kitdbrfl-Khardj, the Naqdu<br />
'n-Nathr and the Kitdbrfsh-Sh?r are noticed by Brockelmann (vol. i,<br />
p. 228). HarM mentions him in his Maqdmdt as a model of eloquence.<br />
"The Maqamatji-Hamidf were composed in 551/1156-7 by the<br />
Qadi Abii Bakr 'Utnar ibn Mahmiid, entitled Hamidu'd-Din al-Mahmudi<br />
al-Balkhi, who died in 559/1163-4. This work has been lithographed<br />
at Kanpiir (Cawnpore) in 1 and at Tihran in<br />
268/18^1-2, 1290/1873-4.<br />
There is sr very fine MS. of the i3th century of the Christian era in the<br />
British Museum (Add. 7620).<br />
The mention of thej Maqdmdt of Hami'di in this place is of great<br />
importance in fixing the date of composition of the Chahdr Maqdla as<br />
post^ntJr to 551/1156-7, for since Sultan Sanjar, who is repeatedly (e.g.<br />
pp. 40 and 87 of the text) referred to as still<br />
living, died in 552/1157-8,<br />
it is evidenj; that this date lies between these two limits (A.H. 551-552;<br />
A.D. 1156-1157).<br />
1<br />
,Vol. ii, pp. 273-343 of Prof. D. S. Margoliouth's edition in the " E. J. W. Gibb<br />
Memorial" Series (vi, i, London, Luzac and Co., 1909).<br />
2 3<br />
Ibid., vol. vi, pp. 143-152.<br />
Ibid., vol. vi, pp. 203-205.