276 



A brief notice of some of the 



Arslan t the last sultan of the Seljukian dynasty, who reigned in Irak 

 Persia 3 and died in the 64th year of his age, shortly after completing 

 the Khamseh, A. H. 592. On his death bed he assembled his friends 

 and exhorted them to walk in the paths of piety, and to hold fast the 

 sacred truths of the koran. This done, he smiled and exclaimed— Oh 

 dispenser of mercy ! keep me steadfast in the hope of pardon, and 

 preserve me from eternal punishment in admitting me to the joys of 

 paradise. Whilst thus speaking the sleep of death came upon him, so 

 calmly, so softly, that one would have supposed he was still awake. 



JYizdmi's Makhzen al Asrar is composed in the measure, or Bahr, 

 J\Jutaa i AJoukuf Sari. — The Shirin-iva-khosro in the measure, Hazaj 

 Makhsuf Musaddas. The Leila wa Majnun in the measure, Hazaj 

 Akhzab Makbiiz Makhzuf Musaddas. The Heft Paiker, in the mea- 

 sure, Khajif Muktu, and the Secunder Nameh in the measure, Muta* 

 karib Maksur Musamman. I shall conclude the notice of the con- 

 tents of the Secimder Nameh with a few cursory observations on the 

 Oriental and Grecian accounts of the parentage, &c. of Alexander. 



Alexander of Macedon dyij***-*^^^ is a monarch, even more ce- 

 lebrated in Oriental history, than in the classic annals of Greece and 

 Rome. The accounts regarding his parentage and birth in both are 

 various and conflicting. Some Persian writers contend that he was the 

 son of Darab, sometimes confounded with Darius Nothus, by a daugh- 

 ter of Filikiis or Philip of Macedonia; and half-brother of Dara, 

 Darius Codomanus. This princess is said to have been repudiated, 

 when pregnant by Darius, and sent back to the court of her father, 

 where the birth of her infant, Alexander, took place.' Philip brought 

 up and educated him as his own son. Others affirm that Philip, while 

 engaged in the pleasures of the chace, found the corpse of a beautiful 

 woman in the forest, with a newly-born infant by her side : Philip 

 moved by compassion ordered the funeral rites to be performed over 

 the remains of the unfortunate parent, and adopted the infant, the 

 future conqueror of the world, as his own. According *o Abu-l-faraz, 

 Said, and Yusuf Bin Gorton, quoted by M. Claude-Visdelon, Alexan- 

 der was the son of Olympia, the consort of Philip, by Nectanele, 

 king of Egypt; who having been expelled from his throne by 

 Artaxerxes Ochus, fled in the disguise of an astrologer, and took 

 refuge in Macedonia. 



Nizdmi alludes to the two first of these traditions, and states them 

 to be unworthy of credit. He then proceeds to tell us that Alexander, 

 Secunder j was the son of Filikiis, a celebrated monarch, whose sway 



