PER 
F E R 
feventieth ^ear of his age, (the 374th of the Hejra,) he 
finifhed'his Shah Nameh, which confided of one hundred 
thoufand lines; and, prefenting them to the fultan, de¬ 
manded his reward. Mahmoud, being a poet himfelf, 
exprelfed his approbation of Ferdofi in verfe, and ordered 
the ftipulated fum to be paid to him ; but the vizir be¬ 
ing the poet’s enemy; fent him, in Pealed bags, 60,000 
filver, initead of gold, dinars. Thefe were brought to 
him as he was bathing ; and Ferdofi, conceiving the filver 
dinars to be a defigned affront of the fultan, immediately 
diftributed them to .thefe about him, 'gwing'20,000 to 
the-keeper of the bath, 20,000 to a fruiterer who attend¬ 
ed, and 20,000 to the Have who brought the money. 
The poetic courtiers, long envious of Ferdofi’s fitpe- 
rior talents, interpreted this (printed conduct of the poet 
os difrefpeCtful to the fultan ; who was, by various in- 
finuations, at laft-irritated againft him, ‘and obliged him 
to fly from Ghezny. Ferdofi fled; but he could neither 
be difgraced nor impoverifired. Though abandoned by 
the fultan of Ghezny, various princes courted and pro¬ 
tected him. His flight ferved only to diffufe his fame. 
At Bagdad he had apartments afligned him in the vizir’s 
palace ; and the caliph, charmed with the productions of 
his mufe, ordered him the fum that had been withheld 
by the fultan. The enraged Mahmoud, hearing of his 
fame at Bagdad, demanded him to be delivered up ; and, 
to avoid his anger, the poet was obliged to repair to 
This. Here, as a boy was repeating to him his verfes, lie 
fuddenly expired ; and, juft as the people were carrying 
him to his grave, cl prefent of 60,000 dinars arrived from 
the fultan, wfiofe refentment was now removed. Thefe 
were tendered to, but refufed by, his daughter; who, 
in honour of her father, ereCted a famous (tone flair-cafe 
on the banks of the river where he bathed when he re¬ 
fufed the fi-xty thoufand filver dinars ; the ruins of which 
were to be feen a few years finee at Tus. ft is related, 
alfo, that the fultan expended the 60,000 dinars in build¬ 
ing a public edifice to the memory of the poet. 
Thus was Ferdofi carefTed when living; and though 
the fumptuous rponument ereCted by Mahmoud to his 
memory is perifhed, his poems remain an everlafting mo¬ 
nument of his learning and abilities. Homer was never 
more admired by the Greeks, than was Ferdofi by the 
Perfians: his Shah Nameh is the Iliad of Perfia. To his 
poems they attribute (even qualities ; the bafis of know¬ 
ledge, the fpring of excellence, a model of hiflory, the 
true portrait of religion, the exciting of joy, the exciting 
of fqrrow, and the real diferimination of every fpecies of 
intelligence. The account, therefore, of this poet nnd- 
•his works, as given by Chardin, and copied into inoft of 
our Englifh treatifes of biography, is extremely erroneous 
and degrading. This has been lately evinced by Mr. 
Champion, who, in 1790, favoured the world with an 
Englilh tranflation of. the Shall Nameh ; and from wliofe 
work the prefent biographical (ketch is drawn. That 
ingenious author, wliofe aim- is to co-operate with the 
late Sir. W. Jones in diffufing a more ex ten five know¬ 
ledge of Perfic literature, obferves, that “ the limilies 
of Ferdofi are p!eni//ima nedlaris •, his invention is lively 
and vigorous. When we confider the aflonifhing length 
of the production, and the conftant'fiame that animates 
the whole, preferving an equal blaze, leaves the mind of 
a common reader in.aftonithment, and leads the poetical 
genius through unknown regions of the imagination. If 
Ferdofi is too luxuriant, he is carried on by the rapidity 
of his powers, and difplays fuch extenfive fertility, that 
the critic, incapable of reaching the fublimity of his con¬ 
ceptions, may judge of him by the coldnefs of his own 
feelings. "I be reflections of Ferdofi are animated and 
moral; the verfifications fmocth and polifhed ; a quality, 
though pofleffed in general by the Perfiap poets, is height¬ 
ened by the poefis dipina vis ,—and gives that beauty to the 
range of enchantment which at once feizes on the avenues 
of the heart 5 nor can the judgment, in its cooled mo- 
3C3 
ment, cenfure the exuberance. The annals of the Per- 
fian kipgs and heroes would have been cold and infipid, 
and only would have been p'eVufed as they,might have 
related to hiflorical fads. Ferdofi, piercing through the 
bounds of nature, created new worlds, and making them 
fubfervient to his plan, regulated his own fphere with 
fuch fuperior ability, that the conduCt of, his poems ap¬ 
pears in the natural order of that imaginary creation dig¬ 
nified by himfe.lf: they may notbear the touchfione of 
truth; but the fables of the eaft admitted them. 'There 
are no fatiguing xligreflions. Every fucceeding poet has 
copied Homer. Ferdofi followed or imitated none, his 
genius was 'above all tranflation, the invention was'his 
own. The (lory is a recital of aCtions that really hap¬ 
pened, in a certain degfee embellifhed by fable : Afiatic. 
fplendour favoured fuch magnificent deferiptions.” 
When (fay the ingenious editors of the Monthly Pre¬ 
view) we compare Ferdofi with Homer, we mean not to 
intimate that the poem of the former was ftriftly epic. 
The Shah Nameh mud not be'tried by the rules of Arif- 
totle. It does not relate a complete aCtion, which has a 
beginning, a middle, and an end, and which is enlivened 
by amufing epifodes ; but it is, as we have already hint¬ 
ed, a feries of hiflorical poems, in which the author lias 
taken the fame liberty with the Perfian hi (lory, that Ho¬ 
mer took with the account of the fiege of Troy. Angels, 
demons, and fairies, are affociated with the kings and 
warriors of Perfia, as gods and goddefles are with the 
heroes of the Iliad. The' Shah Nameh may be thought 
heavy, as it has no unity of defign, and no general- in- 
tereft ; but it evinces the genius and perfeverance of Fer¬ 
dofi, conveys information, and deferves attention, as a 
mod celebrated fpecinten of eaftern poetry; though the 
very nature of the poem, and its great length, will pre¬ 
vent many from perufing the whole of it. Some idea of 
the (late of Perfic literature in the eleventh century, as 
well as of the imagery of the poem itfelf, nvay be gathered 
from perufing the arguments prefixed to the fir ft three 
books: 1. “The elevation of Kiumers, and the, attack 
of the daemons —Kiumers, the firft monarch who reigned 
in Perfia, and his fon Seamuck, are attacked by the dae¬ 
mons, jealous of their increailng power; Seamuck is killed 
in a (ingle combat with a young daemon, which clofes the 
firft aCtion. The intelligence carried to Kiumers caufes 
the highed lamentations; lie determines on revenge; and 
aflembling his army, places Hofhung, the fon of Sea¬ 
muck, at the head of liis troops. His advice to him. 
The daemons meet them in the field, where the old king 
gains a complete victory. The daemon, by wliofe provvels 
Seamuck had fallen, is killed by Hofhung. Kiumers 
dies. Reflections on the inftability of life. 2. The in¬ 
troduction of agriculture; the difeovery of mines; the 
rife of the religion of the Magi. The character of Ho¬ 
fhung: lie forms various implements; attention to cul¬ 
tivation; to mining; to policy ; the worfhip of fire in- 
ftituted; the loom firft in life. Ferdofi concludes his 
reign with moral reflections. 3. Tahmuraz, the enchainer 
of dtemons, affenihles the learned. The Magi addrelfes 
them on the fubjeCt of his future government. He im¬ 
proves on the plan of Hofhung. The character of the 
vizir. Pie feizes on the leader of the daemons, wbofe 
followers affemble, clioofe a leader, and conduCt their 
forces againft Tahmuraz. Are routed. Their offers of 
fubmiflion. Different arts introduced through their me¬ 
dium. The death of Tahmuraz. The reflections inci¬ 
dental to his death.” 
FERD'WIT, exercitus ,&:vita pezna, Sax.] An¬ 
ciently ufed for being quit of manflaughter, committed 
in the army. Flcta, 1 . 1. It is rather a fine impofed on 
perfons for not going forth in a military expedition ; to 
which duty all perfons, who held land, were in nece.ffity 
obliged : and.^a negleCt or omiflion of this common fervice 
to the public, was punilhed with a pecuniary mulCt called 
the ferdwit, towel. 
A 
