Untitled

'
1
g
tf OTE XIV. POETS AND WRITERS IN ANECDOTE XI J,
> . >
A.H. 489 (A.D. 1096). Rtina, from which h,e took his nisba, wa?s a place
near Lahore, not, as^asserted in the Ta'rikh-'i-Guzida, in.Khawa.ran of
Kl/urasan, nor, as the Majma i
uU-Fusahd states, near Nishaptir.
Mas'ud-i-Sa'd-i-Salman. On thjs poet Mjrza Muhammad
wrote a long critical based on a
notice, careful study of his poems,
which I translated into Etfgn'sh^and published in t\\zJ.R.A.S. for 1905
(pp. 693-740) and 1906 (pp. 11-51). The s'ubstance of this, which he
has .summarized in the Persian notes (pp. 142-150 and 178-182) to this
text, is here given in a still more condensed form. The poet's family came
origjnally from Hamadan in Persia, but he himself was born at Lahore,
of which, in several passages in his poems, he speaks as his native place.
Five Kings of the House of Ghazna were the objects of his panegyrics,
to wit Ibrahim,, Mas'tfd III, Shirzad, Arslan and Bahramshah, whose
reigns extended over a period of 96 lunar or 93 solar years (A.H. 451-
547 = A.D. 1059-1152). His special patron was Sultan Ibrahim's son
Mahmud,,who was made governor of India in A.H. 469 (A.D. 1076-7),
an event which the poet asserts to have been foreshadowed fifty years
earlier by the great astronomer al-Biriini in his Tafhim 1 . This is the
earliest date explicitly mentioned by Mas'ud-i-Sa'd. He was probably
born about A.H. 440 (A.D. 1048-9) and died about A.H. 515 (A.D. 1121-2).
In A.H. 480 (A.D. 10878) he shared the suspicion and disgrace into
which his master fell and was imprisoned in different fortresses for ten
years. At the end of this period
i
'
1 17
he was set free at the intercession of
Abu'l-Qasim, one of Sultan Ibrahim's courtiers, and returned to his
father's estate in India. In A.H. 492 (A.D. 1098-9) Sultan Ibrahim died
andwds succeeded by his son Mas'iid III, who conferred the government
of India on his son Shirzad, with whom he sent Qiwamu'1-Mulk Abii
Nasr Hibatu'llah of Pars as commander-in-chief and adviser. This man,
being an old friend of the poet, made him governor of Jalandar, a
dependency of Lahore ; but soon afterwards fell into disfavour in which
his clients were involved, and Mas'tid-i-Sa'd was again imprisoned ki
the fortress of Maranj for another period of eight or nine years. Finally,
about A.H. 500 (A.D. 1106-7), he was released at the intercession of
Thiqatu'1-Mulk Tahir ibn 'AH ibn Mushkan. Being now sixty years of
age and worn out Vjy his long confinements, he retired from public life
and spe.nt the remainder of his days in seclusion. Many contemporary*
poets, such as 'Uthman Mukhtari of Ghazna, Mu'izzi and Sana'i (who
first collected and edited his poetry) bear witness to his pre-eminence
in their a*rt.
Jamalu'd-Dfn Muhammad ibn Nasir al-'Alawi and his brother
Sayyid Hasan ion Nasir of Ghazna were two well-known poets of the
court of Bahramshah, as w&s also Shihabu'd-Din Shah 'All Abu Rija.
See 'Awfi^s Lubdbu'l-Albdb, vol. ii, pp. 267-282.
' There is a faint probability that Ahmad-i-Khalaf may have been
the son^of Khalaf ibn Ahmad, the ruler of Sistan, a probability enhanced
by the fact that the latter bore the kunya of Abii Ahmad, although
there is no other record of the existence of such a son.
>
1 See the verses from this interesting poem cited on pp. 144-5 f tne Persian notes,
and note i at the foot of the latter.