Revised translation of the Chahár maqála : ("Four discourses") of Nizámí-i-ʼArúdí of Samarqand, followed by an abridged translation of Mírzá Muhammad's notes to the Persian text / by Edward G. Browne.

  • Nizami Aruzi
Date:
1921
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Revised translation of the Chahár maqála : ("Four discourses") of Nizámí-i-ʼArúdí of Samarqand, followed by an abridged translation of Mírzá Muhammad's notes to the Persian text / by Edward G. Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and the Supreme Paradise. In the course of this harangue, in his great distress and extreme despair, he complained of the House of Saljuq, in such wise that the orators of Arabia and the rhe¬ toricians of Persia are fain to confess that after the Companions of the Prophet (God’s blessing rest on all of them), who were the disciples of the Point of the Prophetic Function (vv) and the expounders of his pithy aphorisms, no one had composed a discourse so weighty and eloquent. Said al-Mustarshid:—“We entrusted our affairs to the House of Saljhq, but they rebelled against us:—‘ and the time lengthened over them, and their hearts were hardened) and most of them are sinnersV” that is to say, withdrew their necks from our commands in [matters appertain¬ ing to] Religion and Islam. Anecdote IX. The Gur-Khan of Khita fought a battle with the King of the World Sanjar, the son of Malikshah, at the gates of Samarqand, wherein such disaster befel the army of Islam as one cannot describe, and Transoxiana passed into his power2. After putting to death the Imam of the East Husamu’d-Dfn3 (may God make bright his example, and extend over him His Peace!), the Gur Khan bestowed Bukhara on Atmatigin4, the son of the Amir Bayabam5 and nephew of Atsiz Khwarazmshah, and, when he retired, entrusted him to the Imam Tdju l-Islam Ahmad ibn ‘Abdu’l-4 Aziz, who was the Imam of Bukhara and the son of Burhan6, so that whatever he did he might do by his advice, and that he should do nothing without his orders, nor take any step without his knowledge. Then the Gur-Khan turned back and retired to Bars khan7. Now his justice had no bounds, nor was there any limit to the effectiveness of his commands; and, indeed, in these two 4 Qur'an, lvii, 15. 1 he meaning of the Arabic is repeated in Persian in the text. 2 See Mirkhwand’s History of the Saljuqs, ed. Vullers, pp. 176-180. Sir E. Denison Ross has pointed out to me that Gur-Khan is a generic title. (See History of the Moghuls of Central Asia by Elias and Ross, pp. 287 et seqq., and also Schefer’s Chrestomathie Per sane, vol. i, pp. 34 et seqq.) See also Mirza Muhammad’s note on p. n V of the text, and Note IX at the end. 3 Husamu’d-Din ‘Umar ibn Burhanu’d-Din ‘Abdu’l-‘Aziz ibn Maza. See Note XI at the end. 4 The correct form of this name is uncertain, but Alptigin, the reading of the lithographed edition and of Schefer, op. cit., p. is certainly wrong. See note on p. u < of the text, and Note X at the end. 5 This name also is uncertain, and there are almost as many variants as there are texts. See Note X at the end. 6 I.e. Burhanu’d-Din ‘Abdu’l-‘Aziz mentioned in the last footnote but two. See Note XI at the end. 7 The name of a city in Eastern Turkistan near Khutan. See G. le Strange’s Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, p. 489, and Barthold in vol. i, part 4, p. 89, of the Zapiski, or Mem. de /’Acad. Imp. des Sciences de St Petersbourg, z>iiie Strie. Classe hist.-philol., 1893-4.
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