Pirdausi 91 Pirishta promised to add lustre to the age in which he lived. Having fortunately succeeded in procuring a copy of the Bastan Nama, he pirrsued his studies with unremitting zeal, and soon produced that part of the poem in which the battles of Zuhak and Fareidun are described. _ The performance was universally read and admired, and it was not long before his fame reached the ears of the Sultan, who immediately invited him to his court. It is related that when Firdausi, on the invitation of the Sultan, reached the capital of Ghazni, he happened to pass a pub- lic garden where the three royal poets, Dnsari, A sjadi and Farrukhi were enjoying themselves. The poets observed him approach and at once agreed that if the stranger chanced to have any taste for poetry, which they intended to put to test, he should be admitted to their friendship, and in order to decide as to his merits they settled among themselves to repeat each in his turn a hemistich, and leave to Firdausi to complete the fourth, but at the same time satisfied in their own minds, that there was no other word in the Persian language that would rhyme with the three, which they had taken care to pre-occupy. Firdausi joining them and hearing the proposal, promised to exert his powers. They then commenced each with an extem- poraneous hemistich : TJnsari The light of the moon to thy splendour is weak, Asjadi The rose is eclipsed by the bloom of thy cheek ; Farrukhi .... Thy eye-lashes dart through the folds of the Joshan, Firdausi .... Like the javelin of Geo in the battle with Pushan. The poets were astonished at the readiness of the stran- ger, and ashamed at being totally ignorant of the story of Geo and Pushan, which Firdausi related as described in the Bastan Nama. They immediately treated him with the greatest kindness and respect, and afterwards intro- duced him to Mahmud, as a poet capable of undertaking the Shahnama. Mahmud considered himself never so much honored as when Firdausi set his foot at Ghazni ; he was never more proud, than that Firdausi was by his com- mand, composing, in his faultless verse, a historj- of the monarchs of Persia, his predecessors No reward then appeared to him too great to offer, to induce the poet to undertake the task, no promises too splendid to excite him. "Write, unequalled one," cried he^ " and for every thousand couplets a thousand pieces of gold shaU be thine." Firdausi obeyed, but resolved to accept no re- ward till he had completed the work he had undertaken, and for thirty years he studied and laboured that his poem might be worthy of eternal fame. In this he succeeded, and presented an elegant copy of his book to Mahmud, but the patience of the Sultan was exhausted, his enthusiasm was gone, his liberality had faded awav, and when the 60,000 couplets of the Shahnama was ended, there was a pause, which brought to the poet disappointment and to the monarch such everlasting disgrace as has obliterated aU his triumphs. Mahmud received the book, coldly ap- plauded his diligence and dismissed him. Many months elapsed, and Firdausi heard no more of his work : he then took occasion to remind the king of it by the following epigram : 'Tis said our monarch's liberal mind, Is like the ocean imconfined, Happy are they who prove it so, 'Tis not for me that truth to know. I've plunged within its waves, 'tis true, But not a single pearl could view. ^ Shamed, picqued, and offended at this freedom, the Sul- tan ordered 60.000 pieces of silver dirhams to be sent to the author, instead of the gold which he had promised. Firdausi was in the bath at the time the money arrived and his rage and amazement exceeded all bounds when he foimd himself thus insulted. He immediately distributed the paltrj- sum amongst the attendants of the bath and the slave wio brought it. The excited poet then re- lieved his mind by a satire full of stinging invective, and caused it to be transmitted to the favorite Wazir who had instigated the Sultan against him ; it was carefully sealed up, with directions that it should be read to Mahmud on some occasion when his mind was perturbed with affairs of State, as it was a poem likely to afford him entertain- ment. Firdausi having thus prepared his vengeance, quitted the court and was safely arrived in Mazandaran where news reached him that his Unes had fully answered the purpose he had intended they shoidd do. Mahmud had heard and trembled, and too late discovered that he had ruined his own reputation for ever. After his satire had been read by Mahmud, the poet feared to remain too long in one place : he sought shelter in the court of the Khalif of Baghdad, in whose honor he added a 1000 couplets to the Shahnama, and who rewarded him with 60,000 gold dinars which had been withheld by Mahmud. Mahmud pretended to have discovered that his Wazir had deceived him in attributing impiety to Firdausi, and he at once sacrificed that favorite, dismissing him with disgrace. Thinking, by a tardy act of liberality, to repair his former meanness, Mahmud dispatched to Firdausi the 60,000 pieces he had promised, a robe of State, and many apolo- gies and expressions of friendship ; but the poet was dead, having expired in his native town full of years and honours, surrounded by his friends and kindred. Firdausi died at Tus (now called Mashhad) his native country in 1020 A. D., 411 A. H., aged 89 years; but Haji Khalfa says, he died in 102.5 A. D., 416 A. H. Besides the Shahnama, he is the author of other poems called " Abiat Firdausi." Pirdausi-al-Thauil, a Turkish historian, and author of the Tm-kish work called " Shahnama" which comprises the history of all the ancient kings of the East. Bayazid or Bajazet II, to whom the book was dedicated, ordered the author to reduce it fi-om its original bulk of 300 volumes to 80. Firdausi, however, felt so mortified at this proposal, that he preferred leaving the country altogether, and emigrated to Khurasan, in Per. sia. Firdausi flourished in loUO A. D. Firish.ta, whose proper name is Muhammad Kasim, and who is the author of the historj- called " Tarikh Firish- ta," was bom at Astrabad on the borders of the CaspianSea, about the year 1570 or 1550 A. D.. 978 or 958 A. H. His father, a learned man, by name Ghulam 'All Hindu Shah, left his native country when our author was verj- young and travelled into India. He eventually reached Ahmad- nagar in the Dakhan during the reign of Murtaza Nizam Shah I, and was appointed by the Sultan to instruct his son Miran Husain. in the Persian language, but he soon died after his selection, and Firishta was left an orphan in early youth. After the death of JIurtaza Nizam Shah in 1589 A. D., 996 A. H., he proceeded to Bijapur, and was presented by DUawar Khan, minister to Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II, by whose request he wrote the history which goes by his name, in the year 1023 Hijri (1614 A. D.) The year of his death is altogether imknown. Briggs supposes that it occurred in 1612 A. D., 1021 A. H., making him only 41 years of age. M. J. Mohl supposes him to have revised his work up to at least 1623 A. D., 1033 A. H.. making his age not less than 73. as he supposes him to have been born in 1550 A. D. Firishta styles his work, " Gulshan-i-Ibrahimi," and " Naui-as Nama." Its for- mer name is derived from the king to whom it was dedi- cated ; and hence it is frequently quoted under the name of " Tarikh Ibrahimi." The latter name was given to it in commemoration of the new capital, Nauras, which his patron Ibrahim 'Adil Shah, commenced biulding in the year 1599 A. D. The first and second books, gi-ing an account of the Dehli emperors down to Akbar, were translated into English by Colonel Dow in 1768. The history of the Dakhan by Captain Jonathan Scott. But
