Untitled

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE POET ,
Believers, (may his life* be long, and 'the umbrella of his dynasty
victorious !), marched on Ghazna to avenge those two kings, the
F'rince-martyr and the Laudable Monarch 1
,
'3*1
and Sultan Bahram-
shah fled before him. lit vengeance -for those two royal victims,
whom they had treated with such indignity, and of whom they
had spoken so lightly, he sacked the city of Ghazna, and destroyed
the buildings raised by$ Mah'mud, Mas'ud and I'Drahim, but he
bought with gold the poems written in their praise, and placed
them in his library. Alike in the army and in the city none
dared call them king, yet the Conquer9r himself would read
from the Shdhndma what Abu'l-Qasim Firdawsi says :
Of the child in its cot, ere its lips yet are dry
From the milk of its mother, l Mahmud !' is the cry !
A mammoth m strength and an angel in style,
With a bounty like Spring and a heart like the Nile,
Mahmttd, the Great King, who such order doth keep
That in peace from one pool drink the wolf and the sheep /"
All wise men know that herein was no reverence for Mahmud,
but l
'only admiration of Firdawsi and his verse. Had Sultan
Mahrpud understood this, he would presumably not have left
that npble man disappointed and despairing.
EXCURSUS. On the quality of the Poet and his verse.
.,
Now the poet must be of tender temperament, profound in
thought, sound in genius, a powerful thinker, subtle of insight.
He must be 'well versdd in many divers sciences, and eclectic
amidst divergent customs ;
for as poetry is of advantage in every
science, so is every'science of advantage in poetry. And the poet
must be of pleasing conversation in social gatherings, of cheerful
countenance on festive occasions ; and his verse must have attained
to such a -level as to be written pn the page of Time (r.) and
celebrated on the tongues of the noble, and be such that they
transcribe it in book and recite it in cities. For the richest
portion and most excellent part of poetry is immortal fame, and
dntil it>be thus recorded and recited this idea will not be realized.
And if poetry does not rise to this level, its influence is ineffectual,
for it will die before its author. So, being impotent for the im-
>
^ 1
Qutb'd-Din Muhammad and Sayfu'd-Din Surf, both killed by Bahramshah the
Ghaznawi towa/4s the middle of the sixth century of the Flight. From his devastation
of (Vhazna (550/1 155-6) their brother 'Ala'u'd-Din Husayn the Ghiirf received the title
of fahdn-s&z ("the World-consumer"). See Note XV at the end.
u