1836.] 



Persian poets. 



83 



as appeared by their names thus inscribed in the pictures ; J,^ £ 



Amal-i-Shumdl , the work of Shumal ; J> J^jc. -Amal-i-Bhakuti 



the work of Bhakuti, &c. From the number and excellence of the pic- 

 tures, Mr. Ouseley judges the manuscript to have been highly valued. 

 Among the different Asiatics, into whose possession it had fallen, and 

 whose names and seals it bears, one had noticed that he paid for it the 

 sum of seven hundred rupees (about £70) ; and another, in a more 

 recent hand, remarked that it cost him 1,500 rupees (about £150). 



It is stated that Firdousi produced several other poems. Among 

 them is one on the loves of Fussuf-wa-Zuleikha, very rarely met with. 

 His Shah-ndmeh may be truly called the Iliad of the Persians : we are 

 told, that the poems of Homer were so universally admired by the 

 Greeks, that every man, who had any pretensions to learning, could 

 repeat, from memory, passages from the Iliad and Odyssey, and it was 

 accounted a mark of gross ignorance not to be able to do this. Such 

 is the case, we are informed by modern travellers (a), to the pre- 

 sent day in Persia, as regards the Shah-ndmeh of Firdousi : and, more- 

 over, the melancholy fate of this poet powerfully reminds us of that of 

 the Grecian bard, who, when living, begged his bread, but, dead, seven 

 cities contended for the honour of his birth-place. 



" Smyrna, Chio, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Argos, Athena?, 

 Orbis de patritl certat, Homere, tua." 



Firdousi has been compared to Nizdmi fa celebrated poet of whom 

 notice will be taken hereafter), but excels him, as all other Persian 

 poets, in fire, sublimity, sweetness and pathos, and in freedom from the 

 superabundant metaphor, and that endless suite of tasteless similes, &c„ 

 so well known to Persian poets, of more modern date, under the 

 title of " Ibdret-i-rungin. He has been censured by many, on account 

 of the absurdity and incredibility of the supernatural creations, with 

 which a great number of the episodes of his heroic are crowded. 

 But, should they not pause to consider, that the earlier portions of even 

 the best accredited chronicles of the various kingdoms of the world, 



(#) Mr. Scott Waring, speaking of the Persians, observes that " It is the custom with 

 them to converse upon literary subjects, and repeat a variety of verses before supper," 

 and that the extent of their memory is really astonishing, being abie to repeat almost any 

 ode that happens to be mentioned. Further that " another amusement, among those -who 

 can afford it, is listening to a Shah-namu-kJivon, a person who repeats and acts various 

 passages of Firdousi's epic poem, called the Shah-namu. This is an amusement of a 

 very superior kind, and one which a stranger is sure to delight in. They act the differ- 

 ent descriptions of the poet with great spirit, particularly the account of the battle be- 

 tween Roostum, the hero of the poem, and Sohrab." 



For further corroboration of this, vide Sir John Malcolm's Persia. 



