1918.] The Poet Shaikh Mufakhkhar-al-din Azari. 465 
of Isfandiyar, from whom the king claimed descent. I have 
from it. Copies of it were probably always rare for it is not 
palace. They are in the usual strain of Persian encomiastic 
poetry em 
. set o Pad 
w—ebe bye) AS o—ao yas Jone 
eae 
oma Ws wt AL jt FO» lof 
awl wel Sy5 as wane wl a® view! 
ual Sc Oead yie Sieln ga 
“ How great this lofty palace and how vast! 
“The sky seems but its lowest portico. 
“ But this comparison lacks reverence : 
“For the world’s king, Anmad Bahman, dwelleth here. 
Azari was homesick and his object in writing the verses 
Was to gain leave to return to his home rather than a reward. 
The stone was placed above the gateway without the king's 
Owledge, and when he saw it he asked who had written the 
Verses. His son, ‘Ala-al-din Ahmad, told him that Azari was 
the author and informed him of the object with which they 
had been written, adding that the poet was further prepared, 
at aoaa od 
has been ascertained from a contemporary inscription, from gn 
See and from historians other than Firishta, is here ranks’ ho of 
1 J.A.8.B., Ixxiii, Part I, extra number, 1904; and Imperial Gazetteer 
udia, ii, 385. ‘ 
