1868.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 6 1'2X 



ghazals ; but he declined on the ground that he had wasted sufficient 

 time in the composition. Strict Muhammadans look upon making 

 poems as a worldly, and therefore useless,- occupation ; they make, 

 however, an exception in favour of religious poetry. Thus Badaoni, 

 the historian of Akbar's time, one of the greatest zealots the Islam has 

 produced, complains in his work* that, in his youth, be occupied him- 

 self with making poems, an occupation fit, as he says, for the ages of 

 heathenism, and at variance with the spiritual nature of man. 



It must, however, be borne in mind that Orientals are apt to explain 

 love poetry, or poems sung in praise of wine, in a mystical sense, in 

 which case they consider such poetry lawful ; and although there 

 are examples on record of poets who freely indulged in love and 

 wine, as Fughdni of Shirdz, who provided himself with a leg of beef, 

 and remained concealed in a tavern during the Ramazan, the instances 

 are far more numerous of those who lived abstemiously, and never per- 

 haps touched a drop of wine. For a European mind it may look like an 

 anomaly that a Muhammadan poet should choose to speak of forbidden 

 things as wine, often in the most sensual manner, in order to describe 

 the mysterious aspirations of the heart to Grod ; but the biographies 

 of many poets, and the evidence of their works, as in the case of 

 Nizami, prove the anomaly to be a fact. Hence the names of great 

 poets, as Nizami, Sa'di, and Hafiz, appear now-a-days surrounded by a 

 halo of sanctity, and their tombs are frequently resorted to by pil- 

 grims. 



The example of the classical poets compels a modern poet to speak 

 of love and wine ; in fact, besides these two subjects, he has little 

 freedom. He is even tied in the choice of his metres. The Gul i 

 Kushti, a poem by Mir Najat, the Zalikhd by a poet like Firclausi, 

 are continually found fault with, because they are not written in the 

 metres which are now believed to be appropriate. For an Indian 

 especially , whose language is not Persian, it is a difficult thing to 

 write Persian verses. This can only be accomplished after years of 

 study ; for the metricaL art will require as much application as the 

 study of the language itself. 



The language of Prince A'zamuddin's poems is,on the whole, flowing. 

 It shews occasional traces of archaisms, which prove the learning of 

 the poet and his Indian origin ; and although his thoughts do not 

 * Vol. III. p. 239, ed. Bibl. Ind. 



