Following the manner of Jami and his era, later poets mixed poetry and prose more and more, so that a single style was employed for all kinds of writing. History, poetry, philosophy, chancery documents and correspondence were all executed in the same way, and so it has continued for three centuries now. Happily we’re in a position to present an example of the newest style of all.
When the Persian ambassador Mirza Abu al-Hasan Khan was in St Petersburg, he was asked for a few lines in his own hand.58 He was amiable enough to write a page which we include here in translation:
I have travelled in the whole world, I have associated with many people, every nook offered me something of use, every blade of grass a spike of grain, but even so, I’ve seen no place comparable to this city or its lovely houris. May God’s blessing remain upon it forever!
How well did that merchant speak who fell amongst robbers all aiming their arrows at him:59 ‘A king who suppresses trade seals the gates of salvation in his army’s face. What rational person could wish to visit his land, given its reputation for injustice? If you want to acquire a good name, treat merchants and envoys with respect. Great men treat travellers well in order to gain high renown. The country which does not shelter strangers soon perishes. Be a friend to strangers and travellers, since they should be considered the means to good reputation; be hospitable, cherish those who are passing through, guard against being unjust to them. He who observes this counsel of an envoy will surely draw advantage from it.’
It is related that ῾Umar ibn ῾Abd al-῾Aziz60 was a mighty king but at night, in his little chamber, he spoke in utter humility and lowliness, and turning his countenance towards the throne of his Creator, he said, ‘O Lord! You have entrusted mighty matters to the hand of a weak slave. For the sake of the majesty of the pure and the holy of Your realm, grant me righteousness and justice, preserve me from human wickedness. I fear that the heart of an innocent man might be troubled because of me and that the curse of the oppressed may lie heavily on my neck. A king should ever be mindful of the sovereignty and existence of the Highest Being, and of the continual mutability of earthly things; he should consider that the crown may pass from a worthy head to an unworthy one and not allow himself to be led by pride. For a king who is arrogant, who despises both friend and neighbour, cannot thrive for long on his throne; no one should let himself become puffed up because of a few days of fame. The world is like a fire that has been kindled along the way; he who takes what he needs to light his path suffers no evil but he who takes more [than he needs] gets scorched.’
When Plato was asked how he had lived in this world he replied, ‘In pain came I into the world, my life was sustained astonishment, and I leave the world unwillingly, having learned nothing except that I know nothing.’ Keep away from him who undertakes something in ignorance and from a pious man who is untutored; both of them may be likened to the ass that turns the millstone without knowing why. A sword is lovely to look upon but its effects are distasteful. A man who is well disposed associates with strangers but the man of evil intentions is estranged from his nearest and dearest. A king said to someone named Buhlul, ‘Give me counsel.’61 He replied, ‘Do not envy the cheapskate, nor the unjust judge, nor any wealthy man who knows nothing of household management, nor the magnanimous fellow who needlessly squanders his money, nor the scholar who is lacking in discernment. In this world one acquires either a good name or a bad one; since one can make a choice between the two, and since too everyone, good or bad, must die, happy is he who prefers the reputation of a virtuous man.’
These lines Mirza Abu al-Hasan Khan, of Shiraz, wrote, in accord with the request of a friend, in the year 1231 of the Hijra, on a day of Jumada al-thani – May 1816, according to the Christian reckoning – during his sojourn in the capital St Petersburg, as extraordinary envoy of His Majesty, Fath ῾Ali Shah Qajar, of Persia.62 He expresses the hope that an ignorant man will be forgiven with indulgence for undertaking to write a few lines.
As it is now clear from the foregoing that a certain kind of poetry and prose has persisted for some three centuries, and the style of personal and business correspondence, both in public and in private, has remained the same, so too do we learn that in more recent times there are still poets at the Persian court who hand on a chronicle of the days – hence, of all that the emperor undertakes and what then transpires – composed in verse and handsomely written, to a specially appointed archivist. In the immutable Orient, as this makes clear, since the times of Ahasuerus, who had such chronicles read aloud to him during sleepless nights, no further alteration has taken place.
We note here that such reading aloud occurs with a certain declamation, which is performed with emphases, with rising and falling tones, and must have much in common with the way in which French tragedies are declaimed. This prompts the reflection that the Persian couplet forms a comparable contrast, like the two halves of the alexandrine.
This very persistence may also be the reason that Persians still love, cherish and honour their poems after eight hundred years; we ourselves have witnessed that an Oriental regards and handles a superbly bound and preserved manuscript of the Masnavi with as much awe as if it were the Qur’an.