Muntakhab al-tawarikh 206: I. GHAZĀLĪ OF MASHHAD.

206

When his life was attempted in 'Irāq on account of his infidelity and intemperance, he fled thence to the Dakan and afterwards came to Hindūstān. The Khān-i-Zamān sent him one thousand rupees for his expenses, and wrote from Jaunpūr a witty epigram which contained an enigma on the poet's name:
“O Ghazālī, I adjure thee by the claims of the lord of Najaf That thou come to the slaves of the peerless one! Since thou art without honour in that country Take thy head, and come out of it.”
He was for some time with the Khan-i-Zaman and afterwards entered the emperor’s service and received the title of Maliku-sh-Shu‘ara. He compiled several divans and a book of masnavis. It is said that he has written no fewer than forty or fifty thousand couplets. Although his compositions do not rank very high, yet his poems, as regards both quality and quantity, are superior to those of any of his contemporaries. He had great facility of expression in the language of the mystics. He died very suddenly in Ahmadabad on Friday, Rajab 27, A.H. 980 (Dec. 3, A.D. 1572), and his majesty ordered that he should be buried in Sarkhej, the resting-place of many of the great saints and famous kings of old. Qasim Arsalan wrote this chronogram for the date of his death, taking it down from the dictation of Qasim Kahi:
“Last night Ghazali, that accursed dog, Went drunk and defiled to hell. Kahi wrote the date of his death ‘A base infidel departed from this world.’”
Another chronogram:—
"Ghuri was a treasure-house of hidden meaning, His resting-place is the pure earth of Sarkhej. The date of his death, with the difference of one year only, Is given by the words, ‘Ahmadabad and the dust of Sarkhej.’"
The following is the opening couplet of an ode which I have not been able to discover in any diwan written by him:—
"We heard a noise and opened our eyes from the sleep of nothingness, We saw that the night of strife had not passed away, and fell asleep again."