2

for the shafts of censure, nevertheless submits with the tongue of humility in the audience-hall of apology, and on the standing-ground of respectful representation, to the orators arrayed with eloquence, and the eloquent invested with oratory, this apophthegm, 'IIe that is commanded is excused'; and in reply to the threatening sentence, Whoever composes, makes himself a butt,' he offers this rejoinder deserving of acceptance, He who composes produces something new.' 3

When equity informs the sight we pass
I for my failure am with shame oppressed;
For none amid the ranks of pious men,
No faults are seen by merit-searching eyes,

VERSE.

As pearls, what are in truth but beads of glass.
Do not with sarcasm wound anew my breast.
Reproach the fallen, or th' abased contemn :
And we may well the blame of fools despise.

HEMISTICH.

To ev'ry fault the eye of favour's closed.

May God graciously guide us to that which He loves, and be pleased with and seal up our states and our hopes and our fates happily and fairly; and this book, which is entitled the 'Anvár-i Suhailí,' has fourteen chapters after the manner that is herewith particularly detailed :

Chapter I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

On avoiding the talk of slanderers and calumniators.
On the punishment of evil doers, and their disastrous end.
On the agreement of friends, and the advantages of their
mutually aiding one another.

On the subject of attentively regarding the circumstances of
our enemies, and not being secure as to their stratagems
and machinations.

On the detriment of giving way to negligence, and of permitting the objects of desire to escape from one's hands.

On the calamitious results of precipitation, and the injuriousness of haste.

VII. Of vigilance and deliberation, and of escaping from the injuries of foes.

VIII. On avoiding the malevolent, and not relying on their professions of attachment.

IX.

X.

Of the excellence of clemency, that it is the best attribute of kings, and the most pleasing quality of the mighty. On the subject of requiting actions by way of retribution.

bar.

1 The lithographed edition and MSS. read bar zabán, while the edition of 1851 omits the

2 Shi'ár is an under garment, disár one worn above another.

3 The printed edition has a different reading, man anṣafa, 'Whoever deals justly.'

Chapter XI.

On the detriment of seeking more and failing in one's object. XII. Of the excellence of mildness and calmness, and tranquillity and composure, especially in kings.

XIII. On the shunning the speeches of the perfidious and the traitorous by kings.

XIV. On abstaining from regard to the vicissitudes of time, and the basing one's actions on the decrees and will of God.

After the list of the chapters the story commences, which will form the source of the narrative: and success is from the One God.

CHAPTER I.

ON AVOIDING THE TALK OF SLANDERERS AND CALUMNIATORS.

INTRODUCTION.

THE jewellers of the street of the bázár of meanings, and the money-changers of the mint of eloquence, and the portrait-painters of the marvels of narration, and the statuaries of the wonders of romance, have adorned the frontispiece of the volumes of history after this manner; and have decked and embellished the title-page of the scrolls of nocturnal conversations in this wise: to wit, that -In former times, in the remote limits of the empire of China, there was a king, the fame of whose wealth and successful fortune had passed through all quarters and directions of the world, and the tale of whose magnificence and regal dignity was manifest like the sun at noonday. Celebrated princes had drawn the ring of obedience to him through the ear of their soul, and kings of exalted rank had for him put on the shoulders of their hearts the saddlecloth of allegiance,1

VERSE.

Like Farídún2 in pomp was he, Jamshíd3 in regal state,
Like Dárá1 widely-sheltering, and like Sikandar 5 great :
Flame and water blent together by his justice and his might,

As moon-like beauties' cheeks, whereon commingle red and white,

On the border of the carpet of his daily-increasing fortune, world-subduing nobles and right-counselling Vazírs always belted on the cincture of obedience to the waist of their soul: and at the foot of his throne, stable as the firmament, venerable sages and men wise in counsel, sate ever in the chair of loyalty. His treasury was stored with jewels of various kinds, and coins of divers sorts; and his army, numerous and renowed, exceeded the limits of calculation and reckoning. His valour was combined with generosity, and his dominion was joined with due repression of crime.

He scarred the faces of the rebel horde,

DISTICHS.

And clove his foeman's forehead with the sword;

The bloody by his justice vanquished stand; Relieved, the helpless own his bounteous hand.

1 The ring in the ear and the cloth on the shoulder are marks of servitude in the East. Faridún was the seventh king of Persia, of the first dynasty, famous for overthrowing the tyrant Zahhák, and for the justice and magnificence of his reign.

3 Jamshid was the fourth monarch of the first or Peshdádyan dynasty of Persia. He was dethroned by Zahhák. These comparisons are more trite in Persian poetry than Diana's bow or Phoebus' rays with us.

Dárá is Darius Codomanus, whom Orientals make the cousin of Sikandar or Alexander.

5 Alexander.

And they called that king Humáyún Fál,' since by his comprehensive justice the state of his subjects was fortunate, and by his perfect benignity, the condition of the indigent and poor was linked and conjunct with freedom from care and with tranquillity. If the officer of justice does not exert himself in controuling the condition of the subject, the thief of wickedness with the aid of oppression will bring ruin on the fortunes of high and low; and if the ray of the candle of equity does not illumine the dark hovel of the distressed, the shades of oppression will cast a gloom, like the heart of the tyrannical, over all regions and quarters of the state,

DISTICHS.

God's favour is his best security.

He'll see misrule his empire devastate.

A monarch's fortunes in his justice lie; Repents he of his justice; then, too late, And this King had a Vazír, a cherisher of his subjects and a diffuser of mercies, whose world-adorning intellect was wont to be the light of the dormitory of the state; and whose right-aiming purpose would, by a single deliberation, solve a thousand difficult knots. The weighty anchor of his benignity secured the ship of the ocean of sedition in that troublous whirlpool; and the rough blast of his chastisement tore up, root and branch, the skirt-detaining boughs of the thorn-thickets of injustice.

VERSE.

A single scheme a hundred hosts o'er-threw.
A single letter could a kingdom win.

2

So well his soul its purpose could pursue, Did he the ordering of the state begin, And forasmuch as the affairs of the empire derived perfect lustre from his auspicious counsels, they call him Khujistah Ráí; and Humáyún Fál embarked in no undertaking without his advice, nor commenced any matter small or great, without consulting him, nor belted the waist of war in the plain of battle without his permission, nor took his seat on the throne of mirth and enjoyment in the palace of festivity without a signal from him and assuredly it behoves illustrious monarchs and fortunate princes, according to the injunction, And consult them in your business,' not to enter upon state deliberations without the aid of the counsels of sagacious and eminent men; and to direct the administration of their affairs and their mandates, according to the advice of consummate ministers and intelligent counsellors; so that, according to the purport [of the saying] A people consults not without God's guiding them to the most perfect matter,' whatever proceeds from them is consistent with what is most advisable, and comprehends the security of the world and the welfare of the children of Adam.

1 Humáyún Fál, i.e., Fortunate presage.

3

2 That is, Fortunate mind or opinion.

3 See p. 2, note 7, where a portion of the same verse of the Kur'an is noticed. Fl. ch. iii., 153; Mar., 160; Sale, p. 30, 1. 16: And as to the mercy granted unto the disobedient from God, thou, O Muhammad! hast been mild towards them; but if thou hadst been severe and hard-hearted, they had surely separated themselves from about thee. Therefore forgive them, and ask pardon for them; and consult them in the affair of war.'

COUPLET.

In all things counsel should be taken;-where 'Tis not, advantage will be wanting there. It happened that one day Humáyún Fál went forth to the chase. Khujistah Ráí, like fortune, waited on the stirrup of Humáyún, and1 the spacious extent of the hunting-ground was a cause of envy to the sky above, on account of the auspicious footsteps of the King; and the celestial eagle, in the expectation of becoming the prey of the royal falcon, turned towards the centre of the earth. The hunting animals, having broken their bonds and having sprung forth from their fetters and confinement, put themselves in motion in pursuit of game. The hunting pard, covered with its leopard skin, became eyes all over its body, to gaze the better on the beauty of the dark-eyed antelopes; 2 and the dog, with its lion-like claws, in the desire of capturing the hare, learned a thousand kinds of vulpine artifices. The high-soaring hawk, like a far-flying arrow from the thumb-stall of the archer, set his face towards the zenith and the food-providing falcon with the wound of its blood-spilling talons, tore out the arteries from the throat of the quarry.

3

DISTICHS.

Forth leapt the light-winged falcons, swift to soar,
Sharpening their talons in the quarry's gore;
Now swept the hawk destructive through the sky,
Parrot nor francolin was left on high:

On every side the ambushed leopard strains,

No passage for the bounding deer remains;

And by its coursings, fleet Arabia's hound,

Makes scant for flight the plain's extremest bound.

And when the King had finished the sport of the chase, and had emptied the desert of beasts and the air of birds, his retinue obtained leave to depart, and the King and his Vazír bent their steps towards the capital; but during that time their caftans of steel were rendered soft as wax by the heat of the sun; and from the warmth of the horse-armour, which boasted an equality with a flame of fire, the swift-paced courser was burnt up on the spot,

4

DISTICHS.

Mine, then, and mountain to fire-temples grew,

The earth was baked, and scorched heaven's vault of blue:

The birds concealed amid the branches slept,

The beasts within their lurking-places crept.

1 The printed edition omits wa.

2 That is, The spots on the leopard are said to arise from his vehetnent desire to gaze on the antelope, as some philosophers tell us that monkeys obtain prehensile tails from their desire to hang on trees.

3 This word may also mean 'captive-taking.'

The dictionary renders khaftán, a vest worn under armour'; but the addition of faulád shows that this sense is inadmissible here.

C