Volume 2

A literary history of Persia / by Edward G. Browne.

  • Edward Granville Browne
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A literary history of Persia / by Edward G. Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    565/596 (page 541)
    KAMALU'D-DlN ISMA'lL the Atabeks of Fars, Sa’d b. Zangi and his son and successor, Abu Bakr b. Sa‘d, both of whom we have already met with as patrons of Sa‘di. Kamalu’d-Din was one of the many illus¬ trious victims who perished at the hands of the Mongols. According to Dawlatshdh (pp. 152-3 of my edition) he was both rich and liberal ; but, meeting with ingratitude from some of the recipients of his favours, he reviled and cursed the people of Isfahan in verses whereof this is the purport :— “ 0 Lord of the Seven Planets, send some bloodthirsty pagan To make Dar-i-Dasht like a [bare] plain (dasht), and to cause streams (ju) of blood to flow from Jupara l1 May he increase the number of their inhabitants by cutting each one into a hundred pieces t ” His malign wish was soon only too completely fulfilled, for the Mongol army under Ogotay entered Isfahan in or about a.d. 1237, and proceeded to torture, plunder, and massacre in its usual fashion. At this time, according to Dawlatshah (who, as has been already pointed out, is of little weight as an authority, and much addicted to romance), Kamalu’d-Din Ismacil had adopted the ascetic life and habit of the Sufis, and had retired to an hermitage situated outside the town, in con¬ sequence of which he was not for some time molested. The Isfahdnls took advantage of this to deposit in his custody some of their treasures and valuables, which he concealed in a well in the courtyard of his hermitage. One day, however, a Mongol boy armed with a crossbow fired at a bird in this courtyard, and in doing so dropped his u drawing-ring ” (zih- gtr)f which rolled into the well wherein the treasure was * These are two districts of Isfahan, introduced on account of the word¬ play to which each of them is here made to lend itself. See Le Strange’s Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, p. 205. 3 On the “ Mongolian loose” and “drawing-ring ” in shooting with the bow, see the volume on Archery in the Badminton Library (London, 1894), pp. 79-81.