1S60.] The Kirdn-us-Sddam of Mir Khusrau. 227 



others who witnessed them, — the story of the contest between the 

 Sultan Kai Kobad and his father, and that of the Mahratta Princess 

 Dawal Devi, and her marriage with the crown prince Khizr Khan. 

 "We have a copy of each of these poems in the Society's Collection ; 



1. No. 541. jyJ&a-JloljS, 163 foil. 12 lines in a page.* 



2. No. 990. jj~=* j$*>\ *<iaju*^, or, as it is sometimes called, 

 ^Ij dj& j &[±j»ajL : '&«a3, — it contains 4200 baits. 



The present paper will confine itself to the former poem, the latter 

 may be similarly taken up at some future opportunity. 



Dr. Sprenger has given a brief notice of the Kirdn-us-Sd 'dain in his 

 Catalogue of the Oude MSS. but his account lacks his usual accuracy, 

 as the more detailed analysis in the following pages will sufficiently 

 testify. He says of it that " It is an historical poem, the heroes are 

 Nasir-ud-Din and Moizz-ud-Din, but the facts are so much clad in 

 allegories that the only historical value of the book is, that it offers 

 us a specimen of the singular taste of the age in which it was com- 

 posed." The style of the poem (as of all Khusrau's works) is full 

 of exaggeration and metaphorical description, but the facts of the 

 history are generally given with tolerable fidelity. In fact, few 

 historical poems in any language adhere more closely to the actual 

 order and character of the events, and when we compare Ferishta's 

 account with the poetical version, we are struck by their great agree- 

 ment in the main points. 



The poem is composed in a singular form, and I do not remember 

 any Persian work from which Khusrau may be said to have borrowed 

 it. The main body of the poem is like an ordinary Masnavi, as 

 for instance any one of Khusrau's own Khamsah, composed in the 

 Metre — kj kj — — oo — ■ — - ^ — 

 Jane pater Jane tuens, omnium 

 Principium fons et origo Deum ; 

 but the rubrics of the different Chapters are (like those in Spenser's 

 Faery Queen) in a different metre 



— kj — — \j \j — — u v — — \J \j — ,t 



* The Kiran-us-Sa'dain was lithographed, with a commentary, at Lucknow, 

 A. H. 1261, but, since the mutiny, copies have become very scarce. 



f Dr. Sprenger, not observing this peculiar novelty, has apparently confused 

 these two different initial lines of the poem. 



2 II 2 



