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



Qull was a native of Hisar Shadman and he translated the 

 second part of the Memoirs in or after 994 (1586), that is, ten 

 years after the death of Maill of Herat, as given by Taqi and 

 others. It seems impossible then to identify him with the 

 more celebrated of the two Mailis. It is possible, however, that 

 he is the Maill of Hisar Shadman. It is singular that none of 

 the anthologists give this Maill 's real name. They all speak of 

 him only by his pen-name. Muhammad Qull may have been a 

 son or other relative of Maill of Herat, and may, therefore, 

 have assumed his pen-name. Or he may have done so merely 

 because his real name closelv resembled the real name of Maill 

 of Herat. That Maill was of Turkish origin and is called Maill 

 Turk in the Atashkada, Bombay lithograph, p. 25. That 

 Muhammad Qull knew Turk! we know from his translating the 

 Memoirs, and we may conjecture that Maill of Hisar also knew 

 Turki, from the place of his birth. If Maill of Hisar was a poet, 

 though an undistinguished one, so also was probably Muham- 

 mad Qull, for the preface to his translation shows that he was a 

 master of poetic diction. Another point of resemblance be- 

 tween Mirza Qull Maill of Herat and Muhammad Qui! Moghal, 

 if not between him and Maill of Hisar, is that both were 

 patronised by Akbar, and in the service of his officer Naurang 

 Khan. According to Badayuni, Maill of Herat was eventually 

 poisoned by Naurang Khan, but this is not mentioned by Taqi, 

 and is a doubtful story. If it is true, it probably took place 

 early in Naurang Khan's career, for Maill is said to have died 

 in Malwa, and Naurang left that country for Gujarat and died 

 there. 



Though Maill of Herat's poetry is spoken of in high terms 

 by Badayuni III, 329, and by Lutf 'All, the author of the 

 Atishkada, it does not seem to be much read nowadays. Ap- 

 parently, he was a vain, amatory poet, and also a trencher- 

 parasite. But he died young, and perhaps before he had at- 

 tained his full strength. The most copious extracts from his 

 poems are those given in the Supplement to Taqi of Kashan's 

 anthology. Badayuni has also one or two long extracts, and 

 the Atishkada (see Bland's notice, p. 357 of R.A.S.J. VII O.S.) 

 quotes 160 lines. The author of the Bankipore Catalogue II, 

 170, quotes Taqi Auhadi as saying that he possessed a collection 

 of Maill' s odes, etc., containing 2,500 verses, and that he had 

 also seen an equally large number of amatory poems. But 

 Taqi of Kashan seems to reduce the number to 1,500. There is 

 a copy of Maill' s Divan in the British Museum, Rieu II, 666, 

 but it is in such bad Shikast that I could make little or nothing 

 of it. The odes in prai se of Akbar and Naurang Khan are written 

 on the margins of the MS. , and the one in praise of Naurang Khan 

 is on pp. 13 and 136. The Bankipore copy is a modern one. 

 Badayuni, III. 330 quotes a couplet where Mailf uses a striking 

 image in speaking of himself as a despairing lover. He is, * ie 



