1836.] 



Persian poets. 



77 



upwards of C0,009 distiches, was completed after thirty years indefati- 

 gable labour. 



.While Fir do ust was thus engaged, many insidious attempts 

 were made by his enemies, to ruin him in his sovereign's es- 

 timation, by asserting that his religious opinions were not or- 

 ihodox, and, in fact, that he was at heart a Skia or Rafizi (a) ; 

 grounding their allegations on some lines, in the commencement of the 

 Skah-nameh. Mahmud, who was a bigoted Sunm\ became infuriated, 

 and, sending for Firdousi, ordered him to be trampled to death by ele- 

 phants ; but, softened by his earnest protestations of innocence, and by 

 the intercession of his generous friend Anseri, was eventually induced 

 to pardon him, on condition that he should, thenceforward, carefully 

 eschew all heterodox opinions. 



When the Shah-nameh was completed, Firdousi presented it to the 

 Sultan, in the full hope of receiving, as before, a dinar of gold for each 

 couplet, or of obtaining some equivalent, in an appointment at court. 

 But these expectations were doomed to be fatally disappointed. Some 

 envious persons, among the rest Ayaz (a courtier who had on a former 

 occasion attempted to ruin Firdousi), and Abu Sahil Hcmaduni, by their 

 insinuations that his former heretical tenets still remained unchanged, 

 persuaded Mahmud that sixty thousand (b) da-hams of silver would be 

 ample recompence for a Rajizi. The Sultan, yielding a ready ear to 

 their poisonous calumnies, instead of sixty thousand dinars of gold 

 sent sixty thousand dirhams of silver only. Firdousi, in disdain, took 

 the money, distributed a third in charity, and bestowed the remainder on 

 a Fakai (a vender of fdka, a fermented liquor resembling beer), and on 

 the attendant of his bagnio, where he happened to be, at the time when 

 the Sultan's messenger arrived. This done, according to Doulet Shah, 

 he hid himself for some days in Ghdzneh, and surreptitiously obtained 

 possession of the copy of his poem from the royal archives, and insert- 

 ed therein a spirited and bitter satire against Mahmud. Others say 



(a) Mohammedans are divided into two great sects— the Sunnites and the Shiites, 

 or paxtizans of Ali (these are again numerously sub-divided). " The chief points wherein 

 they differ are, 1. That the Shiites reject Abu Beer, Omar and Othman, the three 

 first Khalifs, as usurpers and intruders ; whereas the Sunnites acknowledge and respect 

 them as rightful Imams. 2, The Shiites prefer Ali to Mohammed, or, at least, esteem 

 them both equal ; but the Sunnites admit neither Ali, nor any of the prophets to be 

 equal to Mohammed. 3. The Sunnites charge the Shiites with corrupting the Koran, 

 and neglecting its precepts; and the Shiites retort the same charge on the Sunnites. 

 4. The Sunnites receive the Sunna, or book of traditions of their prophet, as of cano- 

 nical authority ; whereas the Shiites reject it as apocryphal, and unworthy of credit. 

 And to these disputes, and some others of less moment, is principally owing the anti- 

 pathy which has long reigned between the Turks, who are Sunnites, and the Persians, 

 who are of the sect of Ali." — Sale' a preliminary discourse, Sec. 8. p. 2'67. 



(10 A dirham, according to Shakspeare, is a silver coin, of which from 20 to 25 have 

 at different times passed current for a dinar, which is nearly equal to a ducat, or sequin, 

 about 3 shillings. 



