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AZRAQI'S HAPPY IMPROVISATION ,<br />
'49<br />
Ahmad Badi'hi two pieces in the first house 1 and it tvas the<br />
;<br />
Amir's throw. He threw with the most deliberate care, in order<br />
to"cast two sixes, instead of which he threw two ones, whereat<br />
he was mightily vexed and lost his temper (for which, indeed, h?<br />
had good cause), while his anger rose sp high and reached such<br />
a pitch that each moment he was putting his hand to his sword,<br />
while his courtiers tremDled like the leaves of a tree, seeing that<br />
he was a King, and withal a boy angered at such spite of Fortune.<br />
Then Abu Bakr Azraqi arose, and, approaching the minstrels,<br />
recited this :<br />
quatrain ,<br />
JU. ti O<br />
" Reproach not Fortune with discourteous tricks,<br />
If by the King, desiring double six,<br />
Two ones were thrownj for whomsoever he calls<br />
Face to the earth before him prostrate falls"<br />
When I was at Herat in the year A.H. 509 (A.D. 1115-1116),<br />
Abu Mansur the son of Abu Yusuf related to me that the Amir<br />
Tughanshah was so charmed and delighted with these two verses<br />
that he kissed Azraqi on the eyes, called for gold, and successively<br />
placed five hundred dinars in his mouth, continuing thus<br />
to reward him so long as one gold piece was left. Thus did he<br />
recover his good humour and such largesse did he bestow, and<br />
the cause of all this was one quatrain. May God Almighty have<br />
rriercy on both of *<br />
them, by His Favour and Grace !<br />
ANECDOTE XVIII.<br />
'In the year A.H. 472 (A.D. lO/g-ioSo) 2 a certain spiteful person<br />
laid a statement before Sultan Ibrahim to the effect that his son,<br />
Amir Mahmud Sayfu'd-Dawla, intended to go to 'Iraq to wait on<br />
Malikshah. The King's jealousy was aroused, and it so worked<br />
on him tha't suddenly he had his son seized, bound, and interned<br />
1 For the explanation of thfs passage I am indebted to my friend Mirza 'Abdu'l-<br />
Ghaffar of the Persian Legation. The six " houses" on each side of the backgammon<br />
board are named (proceeding from left to right) as follows : (i) khdl-khdn or yak-gdh,<br />
(2) du-khan, (3) si-khdn, (4) chahdr-khdn, (5) haf-dar^ (6) shish-khdn or shish-dargdh.<br />
Trfe numbers contained in these names allude to the numbers which must be<br />
thrown with the.dice to get the pieces which occupy them off the board.<br />
2<br />
'Phe MSS. and L. all have "572," an evident error, for (i) Sultan Ibrahim the<br />
Ghaznawj weigned A.H. 451-492 (A.D. 1059-1099); (2) Malikshah reigned A.H. 4^5-<br />
1121 or<br />
485 (A.D. 1072-4052) ; (3) the poet in question died in A.H. 515 or 525 (A.D.<br />
'i 130) f (4) the Chahdr Maqdla, as we have already seen, was written during the lifetime<br />
of Sultdn 'Ala'u'd-Din Husaynya^z-.r^z, i.e. before A.H. 556 (A.D. 1161).<br />
B. 4<br />
> .