584 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1910. 



accounts of Mail! g 



Librarian to the India Office, is, in imitation of Dr. Sprenger, 

 oddly described as ,; Mr. Hall of Benares." The volume 

 is rightly described by Dr. Sprenger as a splendid folio of 622 

 pages of 24 lines each. There are some differences in the 



ven in the Supplement, p. 260 et seq., and in 

 the second edition, p. 12336 et seq., owing to Taqi's having 

 afterwards obtained some additional information. Though the 

 Supplement was finished eight years after the first edition of 

 the anthology, it is earlier than the second edition, which Taql 

 was working at in 997 (1589) and apparently down to 1016 

 A.H. (1607-08). According to the Supplement, Maill, whose 



Qui 



but accord- 



ing to the second edition, he was born in Mashhad, though 

 some persons said that his father was a native of Herat and 

 had afterwards lived in Mashhad. Both accounts state that 

 Maili left Herat for Sabzawar and attached himself to Sultan 

 Ibrahim Mirza, who was the son of Bahram Mlrza and a grand- 

 son of Shah Ismail. Mail! in some way displeased his patron and 



:o Qazwin There too he couid not stay, 

 and went off to Gilan to Khan Ahmad Mlrza, the ruler thereof. 

 But he and Mir Jahanglr, who was Khan Ahmad' s prime 



ree and so Maill had to leave Gilan. This 



must have happened not later than 974 (1566-67) for Khan 

 Ahmad was dispossessed and imprisoned by Shah Tahmasp in 

 that year (Maasiru-1-Umara I. 558). The Supplement of Taql 

 contains, among many other verses of Maili's, a satire by him 

 upon Mir Jahanglr. From Gilan Mail! went back to his native 

 country of Khurasan, but he did not find residence there con- 

 genial to him and so departed to India where Akbar was reign- 

 ing. According to Dr. Sprenger 's Catalogue, p. 43, which is 

 the foundation of the remarks in other Catalogues, Taql says 

 that Maill died on the road. But Taql does not say so. What 

 he says is_that Maill " had not settled in that country (hinoz 

 daran diyar rahl-i-iqarnat niyanda khta) when Death, the Sum- 

 moner, rolled up_the carpet of his life." This is not inconsis- 

 tent with Badayuni's statement that Maill was for years in the 

 service of Naurang Khan, one of Akbar's officers, and which 

 statement is corroborated by the fact that his diwan contains an 

 ode to Akbar and two to Naurang Khan (Rieu, Persian Cat. II. 

 6666). Taqi's Supplement also, p. 264a, contains a panegyric 

 by Maill on Akbar, and it is not likely that this would he 

 written until Maill had arrived in India. Taql does not give 

 the date of Maili's departure for India, but the Nafalsu-1- 

 Maasir, an early authority, says, Sprenger 54, he went there 

 in 979 (1571-72). As according to Taql, and Khushgo, Maili 

 did not die till 984 (1576-77), this would allow of his having 

 resided in India for five years. Both of these anthologists give 

 the chronogram of his death, and Taql, p. 12346, gives the 

 whole verse, which he savs was made bv Mir Tarikh (?) of Masn- 



