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3^ ,
" SECONP DISCOURSE. ON POETS
small-stoned, and luscious, s& that you wduld say they contained
no earthly elements. A cluster of Kalanjari grapes sometimes
'
attains a weight of five maunds, and each individual grape five
dirhams' weight, they are black as pitch and sweet as sugar, and
one can eat many by reason of the lusciousness that is in them.
And besides these there were all sorts of other delicious fruits.
So the Amir Nasr ibn Ahmad "
sawr, Mihrgan and its fruits,
and was mightily pleased therewith. Then the narcissus began
to bloom, and the raisins were plucked and stoned 1 in Malin,
and hung up on lines, and packed in store-rooms and the Amir
;
with his army moved into the two groups of hamlets called Ghura
and Darwaz. There he saw mansions,.of which each one v^as like
highest paradise, having before it ,a garden or pleasure ground
with a northern aspect. There they wintered, while the Mandarin
oranges began to arrive from Si'stan and the sweet oranges from
Mazandaran and ; sp they passed the winter in the most agree-
able manner. ,.,
When [the second] spring came, the Amir sent the horses to,
Badghis and moved his camp to Malin [to a 'spot] between two
streams. And when summer came and the fruits again ripened,
Amir Nasr ibn Ahmad said, "Where shall we go for the summer ?
For there is no pleasanter place of residence than this. Let us
wait till Mihrgan." And when Mihrgan came, he said, " Let us
enjoy Mihrgan at Herat and then go"; and so from season to
season he continued to procrastinate, until four years had passed
in this way. For it was then the heyday of the Samaniari prosperity,
and the land was flourishing, the kingdom unmenaced by
foes, the army loyal, fortune favourable, and heaven auspicious ;
yet withal the Amir's attendants grew weary, and desire for home
arose \vithin them, while they beheld the king quiescent, the air
of Herat in his head and the love of Herat in his heart; and in
the course of conversation he would . v compare, nay prefer Herat
to the Garden of Eden, and would exalt its charms above those
2
of a Chinese . temple *
So they perceived that he intended to remain there for that
summer also. Then the captains of the army and nobles of the
kingdom went to Master Abu 'Abdi'llah Rudagi' 3 than whom
,
there was none more honoured of the king's intimates, and none
whose words found so ready an acceptance. And they said to
him, "We will present thee with five thousand dinars if thou wilt
contrive some artifice whereby the king may be induced to depart
1 For this meaning of munaqqa the editor refers to the artxle Zabtb in the
TvkfatKt-M'ffmatin of Muhammad Mii'min al-Husayni. For an account of this
work, which was completed in A.D. 1669, see Fonahn's Zur Qtiellenkundt* der
Persischen Medizin^ pp. 89-91.
2 Or "Chinese Spring." See n. 2 on p. 22 supra.
3 See Ethe's excellent monograph and his article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica ;
p. 62 of \\utJ.R.A.S. for January, 1899 ;
and Note XIV at the end, second paragraph;