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124*,<br />
tfoTES ON THE SECOND DISCOURSE<br />
in trust, and which we in turn should transmit to our descendants<br />
untampered with and unaltered. For should it be allowed that from<br />
onc^<br />
the Ume of Pirdawsi until now, a period of nearly a thousand years*<br />
everyone should emend the verses of the Shdh-ndma in accordance with<br />
his own whims and fancies, no trace or sign would now remain of<br />
this Royal Treasure, this Mine of Jewels a-m" Coral, which constitutes<br />
. the greatest literary glory of Persia, arid is the guarantee of the per-<br />
petuation of our national tongue.<br />
" I actually heard a certain Persian scholar in Paris say :<br />
'<br />
My Fate<br />
father, besides having no rival in all sciences and accomplishments,<br />
possessed a special talent* wherein no one could equal him. This fyas<br />
that any 'manuscript work of an ancient writer, from the beginning, end<br />
or middle of which some leaves had be^n lost, used to be given to<br />
my father, who, in the course of one or two nights, would supply the<br />
missing portion with a composition of his own in the same style and cast<br />
as the rest of the book, and would add it to the original and it so<br />
;<br />
closely resembled! the other chapters and sections of the book that no<br />
scholar or savant cguld decide whether these leaves formed part of the<br />
book or were an addition to it.'<br />
original<br />
"<br />
May God guide us into the Way<br />
c<br />
of Rectitude !<br />
Note XX. Azraqi (Anecdote XVII).<br />
(Text, p. 43 ; Persian notes, pp. 174-178.)<br />
Abu" Bakr Zaynu'd-Dm ibn Isma'il al-Warraq (" the book-seller ") of<br />
Herat, poetically surnamed Azraqi, would appear from a verse in tfneof<br />
his poems (p. 174 of the Persian notes) to have borne the proper name of<br />
Ja'far. His father Isma'il was the contemporary of Firdawsi, who, when<br />
he fled from Sultan Mahmtid's wrath, was for six months in hiding in<br />
his house at Herat.<br />
t Most of Azraqi's panegyrics are in praise of two Saljuq princes',<br />
Tughanshah ibn Alp Arslan, mentioned in the last note, and Amiranshah<br />
ibn Qawurd. This Qawurd was the first of the Saljuq rulers of Kirman,<br />
but, as his son Amiranshah did not ascend the throne, the date of his<br />
death is not recorded, though he predeceased his Brother Sultanshah,<br />
9 who died A.H. 476 (A.D. 1083-4).<br />
Taqiyyu'd-Din of Kashan gives A.H. 527 (A.D. 1132-3) as the date<br />
of Azraqi's death, which, however, must have taken place at least forty<br />
years earlier. For in the first place 'Awfi says that " he was antecedent<br />
to Mu'izzi," and secondly he makes no mention in his poems of Malikshah<br />
or Sanjar or their nobles and ministers, which omission v/ould be almost<br />
inconceivable if he lived in their time. Thirdly, Azraqi's father was the<br />
contemporary of Firdawsi, who died sometime before A.H. 421 (A.D. 1030),<br />
and it is evidently extremely improbable that he could have had a son<br />
who was still living a century later. It is probable that Azraqi died before<br />
A.H. 465 (A.D. 1072-3).<br />
lRashidu'd-Dfn Watwat in his Had&iqrfs-Sihr ("Gardens of Magic")<br />
criticizes Azraqi for his far-fetched and fantastic comparisons, and<br />
especially comparisons to non-existent things, so that, for example, he<br />
compares burning charcoal to a sea of musk with golden waves.<br />
"<br />
,<br />
'<br />
'