Untitled

i;6
,
'
SECOND DISCOURSE. ON POETS
Mahmud expressing himself as greatly indebted to his Minister.
But the Pfjme Minister had enemies who were continually
casting the dust of misrepresentation into the c6p of his rarlk,'
acid Mahmud (t^) consulted with them *as to what he should give
Firdawsi. They replied, " Fifty thousand fiirhams, and even that
'
is too much, seeing that he is in belief a Rafidi and a Mu'tazilite.
(
Of his Mu'tazilite views 'this verse Is a proof:
,
'
Thy gaze the Creator can never descry;
Then wherefore, by gazing, dost weary thine eye ? '
" while to his Rafidi proclivities these' verses of his witness :
man conceives the world as a sea, wherefrom the fierce wind has
stirred up waves.
1
Thereon are seventy ships afloat, all with sails set,
And amongst them one l
vessel, fair as a bride, decked with colour like the
t eye of the cock, ,
Wherein are the Prophet and ''AH, with all the Family of the Prophet and
his Vicar.
If thou desirest Paradise in the other World, take thy place by the Prophet
and his Trustee.
If ill accrues to thee thereby, it is my fault : know this-, that this way is, my
way.
In this I was born, and in this I willpass away ; knqw for a surety
am as dust at feet of 'Alt.'"