Muntakhab al-tawarikh 22: SULTAN SHAMSU-D-DIN IYALTIMISH
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 22
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SULTAN SHAMSU-D-DIN IYALTIMISH
22.1.1
Called by the title of "Yamin-i-Amir-al-Muminin" (Right hand of the Commander of the Faithful.) In the year 607 H, ascended the imperial throne of Dehli; and the reason of the name Iyaltimish is that, his birth occurred on the night of an eclipse of the moon, and the Turks call a child born under these circumstances Iyaltimish. His father was the chief of many of the tribes of Turkestan. His kinsmen under pretence of taking him for a walk took Iyaltimish into a garden and sold him like Joseph to a merchant, from there he happened to be taken to Bokhara, and thence in the time of Sultan Muhammad Sam to Ghaznin; and in these days Sultan Qutbu-d-Din after the conquest of Nahrwalah and the taking of Gujrat had gone to Ghaznin, and since without permission of Sultan Muhammad Sam no one could purchase Iyaltimish he asked permission from the Sultan to sell him. Sultan Muhammad Sam said that since he had given orders that no one there should buy that slave they were to take him to Dehli and sell him there.
22.1.2
Sultan Qutbu-d-Din after his return from Ghaznin bought a slave named Ibak, a namesake of his own, and Iyaltimish, at Dehli for 100,000 tangahs; at first he called him Amir Tamghach, and appointed him to the Amirship of Tabarhindah, and at the time when Sultan Qutbu-d-Din fought with Taju-d-Din Yaldoz, Ibak his slave tasted the cup of death. At that time he made Iyaltimish an especial favourite, and after the capture of Gwaliar he made him Governor of that place, and subsequently bestowed upon him the rule of Baran and its environs, and since he began to shew signs of extraordinary hardiness he entrusted the country of Badaun to him, and in the war of Muizzu-d-Din with the Khokhars (as has been already related), Iyaltimish having got together a huge army from Badaun and the foot of the hills, joined hands with Sultan Muizzu-d-Din in the service of Sultan Qutbu-d-Din, and armed as he was having forced his horse into the river engaged the enemy bravely several Jalalu-'d-Din Mangbarni son of Khwarazm Shah who having suffered defeat at the hands of Changiz Khan after Taju-d-Din, came to Ghaznin and thence from fear of the incursions of Changiz Khan had gone to Lahore with his family and relations; and Sultan Jalalu-'d-Din not being able to withstand him went towards Sindh and Siwistan and from there by way of Kuch and Makran arrived at Kirman and Iraq.
22.1.3
And in the year 622 H. Sultan Shamsu-d-Din, took an army towards Behar and Lakhnauti and brought Sultan Ghiyasu-d-Din Khalji, who has been before mentioned, into obedience, and having accepted the present above mentioned, established the khutba and sikka in his own name and having given his elder son the title of Sultan Nasiru-'d-Din Mahmud made him his heir, and having made over that country to him returned to the metropolis of Delhi. Eventually Malik Nasiru-'d-Din Mahmud having fought with Ghiyasu-'d-Din on the confines of Lakhnauti got the upper hand, and having taken him prisoner put him to death, and great booty fell into his hands which he divided into portions and sent it as rewards to each of the nobles of Dehli. [It was well known that when Najm arrived in this country from Dehli in the service of Hazrat Khwaja Qutbu-d-Din Ushi Dutij had arrived here and said I have composed a in praise of Sultan Shamsu-d-Din. Read the Fatihah that I may get the accustomed reward.” They read the Fatihah and he having been admitted to the Sultan's presence read this Matla': Oh thou from dread of whom bullion has sought refuge, Whose sword has sought from the infidels property and elephants.
22.1.4
The Sultan by the mere reading of that matla' learnt it by heart and repeated it, and when the poem was finished he asked How many couplets does this Qasidah contain? The answer was fifty and three. He thereupon ordered them to give him fifty-three thousand white tangahs.] Sultan Shamsu-d-Din in [the year] 623, H. made an attack upon Ranthanbhur and having brought an army thither reduced that fortress, and in the year 624 H. having directed a large army to attack and capture the fort of Mandur, brought that fort together with the Siwálik hills into the circle of his conquest and returned to Dehli, and in this same year Amír Ruhani who was one of the most learned men of that time came to Dehli from Bukhárá in the affair of Changíz Khán, and wrote several brilliant odes of congratulation upon these victories, of which the following verses are an extract. The faithful Gabriel carried the tidings to the dwellers in heaven, From the record of victories of the Sultán of the age Shamsu-’d-Dín, Saying—‘Oh ye holy angels raise upon the heavens, Hearing this good tidings, the canopy of adornment, That from the land of the heretics the Sháhansháh of Islám Has conquered a second time the fort resembling the sky; The Sháh, holy warrior and Ghází, whose hand and sword The soul of the lion of repeated attacks praises. And there are also other many charming poems attributed to him, of which the following ode is one:
22.1.5
From the tongue of the pen my own story I tell in the words of the pen On the page of my life, though the writing of grief has been traced by the pen Since I lived in this world with the pen all my days have been black as the pen And swift as I write my account, so fierce is the point of the pen That like to my own gentle voice is the sharp loud lament of the pen. Although in the midst of my loss I reap always rewards from the pen, Still no one will mention my state to my Lord save the tongue of the pen. ’Tis from Khwaja Mansur bin Sa‘id thrives the market of test of the pen That great one whose words load the burden of truth on the van of the pen. He has mounted his beautiful thoughts on the steed of his swift running pen. In the road of just ruling he gallops, light holding the rein of the pen. His skill hand in hand with his wisdom reveals hidden arts of the pen.
22.1.6
And in the year 626 H. Arab Ambassadors came from Egypt bringing for him a robe of honour and titles, and out of joy at this they built triumphal arches in the city and held banquets. And in this same year the tidings arrived of the death of his son Sultan Nasiru-d-Din, Governor of Lakhnauti, and the Sultan, after completing the duties of mourning, gave his name (i.e., Nasiru-d-Din) to his younger son after whom the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri is named. In the year 627 H., he proceeded against Lakhnauti and quieted the disturbances of those regions, and after entrusting the government of that place to Izzu-l-Mulk Malik ‘Alau-d-Din Jani returned to the capital and in the year 629 H. reduced the fortress of Gwaliar. Malik Taju-d-Din the Secretary of State, wrote the following quatrain upon the taking of that fort, and they engraved it upon stone — Every fort which the king of kings conquered He conquered by the help of God and the aid of the faith That fortress of Kalewar and that strong castle He took in the year six hundred and thirty
22.1.7
It is apparently the date of the siege which accounts for the difference of one year. And in the year 631 H. having made an incursion in the direction of the province of Malwah and taken Bhilsa, and also captured the city of Ujain, and having destroyed the idol temple of Ujain which had been built six hundred years previously, and was called Mahakal, he levelled it to its foundations, and threw down the image of Rai Vikramajit from whom the Hindus reckon their era (the author of this selection, by the order of the Khalifa of the time, the Emperor, the Shadow of the Deity, in the year 972 H. and again anew in the year 1003 with the assistance of Hindu pundits translated 32 stories about him, which are a wonder of relation and strange circumstance, from the Hindui into the Persian tongue and called it Nama Afza — ) and brought certain other images of cast molten brass placed them on the ground in front of the door of the mosque of old Dehli and ordered the people to trample them underfoot: and a second time he brought an army against Multan, this expedition was in every way unfortunate for him, and a very severe bodily illness afflicted him, he so returned and came to Dehli, and in the year 633 H, (1235 A. D.) left this lodging house of the world for the eternal mansions of the next world. The duration of his sultanate was twenty-six years. Verse. For this reason this heart-enthralling palace became cold. Because when you have warmed the place, they say to you Rise!
22.2.1
And the prince of poets (on him be mercy) says: — [In all Hindustan you saw the dust of the troops of Iyaltimish Look now drink your wine, others walk in his plain] It is the same Dehli one would say, yet where is his victorious canopy? It is the same kingdom at all events, where has that royal dignity of his gone? The earth is a house of mourning, and mourns too for its own sake At the time of the birth of that child whom they see weeping. It is a well known story that Sultan Shamsu-d-Din was a man of a cold temperament, and once upon a time he desired to consort with a pretty and comely girl, but found that he had not the power. The same thing happened several times: one day the girl was pouring some oil on the head of the Sultan and shed some tears upon the Sultan’s head. He raised his head and asked the cause of her weeping, after a great deal of hesitation she answered: I had once a brother who was bald like you and that reminded me of him, and I wept. When he had heard the story of his being imprisoned it became evident that she was the own sister of the Sultan, and that God (to be glorified and exalted) had preserved him from this incestuous intercourse.
22.2.2
The writer of these pages heard this story from the lips of the Khalifah of the World, I And his mother Turkan Khatun, who was a Turkish slave girl, having gained absolute power, used to vex the other concubines of the Sultan against whom her envious heart burned, in various ways, and put to death Qutbu-d-Din the eldest son of the Sultan by another concubine. The treasury became empty, and Malik Ghiyasu-d-Din Muhammad Shah the younger brother of the Sultan, who was ruler of Oudh, refusing to acknowledge his authority revolted against him, and Malik ‘Izzu-d-Din and Kabir Khan Sultani governor of Multan, and Malik Saifu-d-Din feudatory of Hansi, entering into correspondence with one another raised the standard of opposition. Sultan Ruknu-d-Din Firoz Shah had arrived in the neighbourhood of Mansurpur and Tarayan with the intention of quelling this disturbance, and before this occurrence Nizamu-l-Mulk Junaidi the Wazir and Agent of the territory of Hindustan, fearing the Sultan had fled to Kilughari and had gone in the direction of Kol and joined hands with Malik ‘Izzu-d-Din Muhammad Salari; and other trusty Amirs who had remained in the army having fled from the vicinity of Mansurpur went to Dehli and having sworn fealty to Razziyah Khatun who was the eldest daughter of Sultan Shamsu-d-Din, and his heir apparent according to her father's will, and a woman endowed with excellent qualities, brave, generous, and intelligent, raised her to the throne and imprisoned Turkan Khatun.
22.2.3
When the Sultan having returned from the army, arrived at Kilukhari, the troops of Sultan Razziyah went out to meet him, and having seized him without fighting imprisoned him, and he died in prison. The duration of his reign was six months and a fraction. Do not set thy heart upon the world, for it is a stranger Like the singer who is every day in a new house Among the poets of that age [and the master of that time] of Ruknu-d-Din was Shihab Muhamra Bodaoni as Mir Khusru on him be mercy says in one of his opening odes: In Budaon Muhamra rises intoxicated from sleep If there comes forth from this melody the sound of the birds of Dehli
22.2.4
And Maliku-l-Kalam Fakhru-l-Mulk ‘Amid Tuhki mentions him as a master: and since the speech of the modern (poets) after the appearance of the cavalcade of the Prince of poets has become like the stars at the time of the raising of the banner of the glorious sun, and like the seven poems at the time of the descent of the inspired revelation upon the best of men, and the Lord of the world on him be peace, remains concealed as by a curtain — men speak and write less concerning them, nay more they do not even possess them — accordingly, in harmony with the saying, The first comer has the best of it, I have thought it incumbent upon me to include a few odes from that eminent author as a benediction and blessing, in this composition of mine, and to leave a memorial for his friends, and to establish my own connection with the master, and to display upon the dais of evidence the excellencies of that doughty knight of the arena of eloquence, and more especially to fulfil the demands of fellow-citizenship. The master poet Shihāb Muhammad [Badaoni] then says as follows: — I am Alif in the table of existence and of no value as a sign. My existence depends upon the duration of the existence of others, my own existence is transitory. I stand at the end of the row in the hope of obtaining a better position, having rested from all movement with the attributes of insignificance. I have not the attributes of Alif for Alif has no crookedness.
22.2.5
All my writing has become crooked on the page of desire. There is the song of the nightingale, the rose is happy; while I am careless like the lily. Like Alif I have no sense, have I to do with ten tongues? Since I can seize it while thus at rest, why should I pursue? Since I cannot see openly how can I follow a hidden path? stratagem, I can recognize no distinction between earth and heaven, although I am like the heaven in my whirling, and like the earth stationary. I am not like water in freshness, nor like fire in sublimity, nor like the wind in sweetness, nor like the earth in heaviness. I am not made out of these four elements. I am composed of the exuviae of the kennel. The refuse of the sewer water has boasted of piety. My wisdom, as though incarnate, seems to have taken to praise my faults; my avarice, huge as a mountain, has girded its loins for taking presents. I am become fixed in the way of avarice, not a sign of truth remains in me. The oppression of my vices has overwhelmed the mercies of the Sacred Book. My greediness has so deceived me that the dire sensual appetites have taken away from my heart with disgrace the blessings of the readings of the ‘ashars. My inner nature as well as my body is devoid of meditation and recollection. My eye like my ear is inclined to the singing women and their songs. I desire brilliant speeches to fall from my tongue which is like a well-tempered sword. My pen has made me bent like a sickle in the pursuit of my daily bread.
22.2.6
My speech has failed me because its glory was in the relation of this story. Yes! all this loss of honour was owing to inordinate desire for bread. I am that mean one, less than the least, who am not worth a groat, if you think me worth a barleycorn, you will not buy me for nothing. Oh Shihab it is strange that you in this road of kingly affairs are neither the Amir of the Eight Squares nor the Knight of the Seven Places. You are not an angel, nor are you a devil, from what workshop are you? You are not a sojourner nor yet a traveller, from what court are you? Your heart and intellect are careless of the tortures of the grave, you have dressed yourself in Gurkhani silk. You have become utterly regardless from lust owing to desire for license, from urgent desire, means of false accusation you have planted the foot of success. Sorrow for the tulip-cheeked beloved has shut fast the door of your wisdom. The vein of your eye has shed blood from desire for the cup of red wine. You are corrupt like the wind, you stand paralysed like the earth. You are a pearl of transitory existence, a shell empty mouthed. With breath like the burning lightning you are the enchanter of bad and good; with heart like a flint, you are the whetstone of dry and moist. Naturally with desire you revolve like the sky in its figura-designing, from your youth hating with greed, you are like a child in weakness.
22.2.7
You carry the sorrow of the seven (heavens) and the four (elements) in your heart, and every moment from pride you are put to a hundred thousand devices in the performance of one genuflection. You are as coarse as the earth, and yet your speech is always of the moon in the heavens; you will not reach the dignity of a king from the station of a doorkeeper. You yourself owing to frivolity have not attained even for a moment, freeing yourself from the imperfections of the world, to the religious duties at stated times.
22.3.1
From the advice of the holy men may you be informed at least once, that in these two worlds at any rate you are famous for creating dissensions.
Perversity springs from your heart as pride springs from foolishness. Evil arises from your body as rashness does from youth.
You are the moisture of the gullet of hypocrisy, the blast of the forge of tyranny, you are the flower of the garden of inordinate desire, and the mud which befouls the reservoir of the soul.
When present you melt the soul, perchance you spring from the heat of Tamuz; in your ode you scatter snow perchance you are of the breath of autumn.
You like a child seek throughout your life after vain images; from your fancifulness the sorrows of time have made you old in your youth.
Poetry is but a desire, and its metre is like the mirage which is void of water. This breath of life is grief to me, but its savour is better than the water of life.
When your desire becomes collected that fancy becomes enjoyment, when your breathing is harmonious, it becomes a scatterer of pearls.
How long this desire of the imagination? make one breath pearl-scattering in praise of that man whose equal wisdom has not seen even from the beginning, The King of the throne of "Kun" is Muhammad who pitched the tent of dignity by the side of the door of the Protector from the house of Ummahani.
He was a mortal of angelic beauty, a sky with the lowliness of earth. Like the sky he was pure in body; like the Angels he was pure in soul.
22.3.2
He was a pearl whose place was in the treasury of God, and he was a moon whose brightness shone forth from the sky of eternity.
He was such a pearl that nothing of more value than his nature was ever produced by the medium of the elements from the sea of heaven.
He was such a moon that in every early morning the face of the star of Yaman became black as coal from shame at his cornelian-like lips.
So sweet-tongued a prophet that the salvation of his disciples comes by faith in his words, from the eloquence of his utterances.
So eloquent in pearl-like speech that the beauty of his utterance makes the heart's blood like the hidden wealth of the mine, a royal treasure.
The brightness of the eastern sun is shamed by the beauty of his face, and the stature of the cypress of the garden is bowed before the perfect uprightness of his form.
By his accountantship he has adopted the way of absolute monarchy; and by his eloquence he has opened the door of auspicious government.
The attraction of secret desire, by revelation has drawn him from the expanse of the natural world to the ocean of spiritual existence.
By the good tidings of his friend, his heart became intoxicated with the hope of a meeting. The son of Abu Qahafah has drunk from the cup of his friendship.
His speeches have founded a fortress for the decrees of God. ‘Umar by his justice became the builder of it, by right government.
22.3.3
One, third in order, has placed the footstep in this way, whose path to the enjoyment of this world was not obstructed by pride.
His fourth pillar was ‘Ali who at the time of battle made the face of the sun pale from the glitter of his sword.
Oh, King! I entreat you by your friends deliver me during the whole of my life by your aid from the calamity of foolish friends.
He who demanded from me this Qasida, may his life like my Qasida be ornamented with the jewels of meaning.
The following also he wrote, imposing upon himself the necessity of introducing the words “hair” and “ant,” in a declaration of the unity of God and in praise of the Prophet, may the peace of God be upon him:
Although with tongue, I split hairs at the time of discourse, still in the praise of God, by reason of amazement, I am dumb as the ant.
And in the pursuit of the fairy-faced ones with chainlike locks, through desire often have I bound fast, like the ant, my life to my waist with my heart.
And for the sake of the amber-eyed and sugar-lipped ones, in my fancy I have bored the hair of speech a hundred ways by way of trial.
That I might have a store like the ant, in his praise I have cleft the hair into halves, and have not received one jot from any one in recognition.
Henceforth, like the ant, I will gird my loins at the door of the Incomparable one, and from the foot of each hair, with a hundred tongues will I proclaim his gracious aid.
22.3.4
How can I open my lips, I that am voiceless as an ant and a fish. Nay rather will I make each hair a tongue to scatter pearls.
With this ant-like writing and these sugar-like words, by means of poetical arrangement I will split the hair in the declaration of the unity of God the discerner of secrets.
That God to whose workmanship each several hair bears witness, and all that exists, ant and fish and snake, wild beasts and birds, men and genii.
He who alone is self-existent, and is not within the bounds of computation, from whose wisdom in both worlds nothing is hidden, neither the track of the ant nor the point of the hair.
If, though as a single hair, his favour is shed upon the egg of an ant, from it there will issue in a single moment a hundred Jamshids, each one like a hundred Jamshids.
Oh Thou by whose power hair and blood and bone take shape, Oh Thou who art surety for the daily supply of food to bird and ant and snake and fish.
In the body of every ant there is an exact account of thy equity, on the point of each hair there is a boundless praise of thy bounty.
The eye of thy mercy provides sustenance for every ant and locust. The hand of thy favour tints the hair of all both old and young.
The pen of thy skill shows that of which a manifest sign is shewn on the body of every ant, and appears on the end of every hair.
The mole on the cheek of the brides appear like spots on a mirror.
The hair on the face of kings appears like ants upon the Arghawan.
22.3.5
By thy order it is that the stomachless ant is hungry in the way.
By this bounty it is that the motionless hair upon the body is satisfied.
He who did not turn away his head from your door even by a hair's breadth, the ant, although tongueless, began to praise him like the lizard.
When he like the fish became sleepless and fasting in devotion to you then without doubt with the sword of the finger he split the moon into two parts like a hair.
He was a sign like the true dawn, hair-splitting in his speech. His followers were as successful as ants in opposing the scorpions of religion.
The silvery body of the seven heavens, would become (black) like ants, when he cast aside the covering from his dark locks.
For the ants of religion he carried away so much provision that there remained on the point of each hair an evidence of that bounty for ever and ever.
Oh thou Creator, I have made every hair a tongue, but yet like an ant I complain in my heart of my voicelessness to sing thy praise.
If thou hadst illumined the eye of the ant like the thread of hair, without the permission of thy mercy this caravan would not have passed.
I am like an ant in water, or like a hair in the fire, because this sugar-scattering mind of mine is not fit for this relation.
I have the foot of effort in the stirrup of devotion to you like the ant; as long as one single hair remains of me I will not desist from this endeavour.
22.3.6
How can my burden be in the least degree lightened apart from thy consent? How can I gird my loins like the ant through avarice, in the service of this one or that?
Although like the ant I have been crushed by the (iron) hand of desire
Yet I never contemplated the slightest idea of profit or loss apart from thee.
Since this is from thee I am happy, although my heart is distraught and pained; my heart is like the eye of the ant and my condition is like the hair of the heart-ravishing one.
If the ant brought the foot of a locust into the presence of Solomon, Shihab would have come headlong to thy door with the feet of his soul about his head as hair.
22.4.1
The ant of thy generous table O Salih showed him (Shihab) that path of rectitude.
O Lord! grant him protection in crossing that hair-like bridge over the fire.
On the point of each hair of his you have a hundred favours, for this reason that the heart of an ant is not vexed by him so much as a hair's breadth in this world.
Oh Lord! keep a watch upon the enemy of the king's dominions, for this is best, that he should be as a hair in the fire and as an ant in the running water.
And he also wrote in praise of Sultan Ruknu-d-Din Firoz, imposing upon himself the necessity of introducing four things, as follows:—
Every moment this old wolf lion-hearted infant-eating
Does with me that which the elephant and rhinoceros do at the time of contest.
The elephant-like sky wears away my body as does the rhinoceros.
The time like a lion takes away my patience like a wolf.
I have not the strength of the rhinoceros, and the sky is like a fierce elephant towards me.
It displays the boldness of a lion like the old wolf of the time.
The elephant did not so treat the rhinoceros, nor did the wolf so treat the sheep
As the lion-like heaven treated this being who is thin as hair from oppression.
The Lion of the sky has the craft of the wolf and the strength of the rhinoceros.
For this cause he heaps pain continually on my heart like the load of an elephant.
A maddened elephant in this wolf-haired rhinoceros. Even if mankind are like male lions still sooner or later he effects their ruin.
22.4.2
The sky, the overthrower of the rhinoceros, the conqueror of the lion, if, in play, like the wolf it brings against the life of Rustum a strong move like “pilband.”
The wolf of my patience casts off from him the waterproof like a lion if the elephant of this coerulean castle has made me over to his charge like a rhinoceros.
The lion of the sky, like the elephant in colour, a wolf by nature, takes and tears to pieces the armour of my patience like the hide of the rhinoceros.
Last night when the sun of the sky became elephant coloured in the hide of the rhinoceros, countless Josephs appeared from the wolves of the heaven.
My life is in the hands of the lion, and under the foot of the rhinoceros of pain, until from the elephant bodied sky the tail of the wolf became evident.
The claw of the lion and the horn of the rhinoceros, the tears of the elephant and the hair of the wolf.
Although these four are of use in making the amulet of heart's attachment,
Of what use are the special properties of the lion and rhinoceros and the wolf and the elephant, when that silvery cheeked one demands from me gold more than the weight of an elephant.
Since I do not possess the ferocity of the rhinoceros, the heart of the lion, and the breath of the wolf, I will go to meet my beloved with an elephant load of sorrow.
Hasan Dehlavi also says,
.iil^ tS ol— jia Uj\j ok— ^ jyU.1
Alas ! that the “ pilband ” of thy love cannot easily be overcome.
22.4.3
The reflection of thy elephant-coloured sword if it falls upon lion and wolf makes their eyes which are like the jujubes of Gurgan to become like the pomegranate.
If the breeze of your lion-standard blows upon the dust of the world the maddened rhinoceros will seek shelter from the elephant, wolf from the sheep.
When thou brandishest thy elephantine mace, the lion casts away its teeth, the wolf its claws, the rhinoceros its gall-bladder, and the snake its head-stone.
Rhinoceros-like in attack, wolf-like in gait, lion-like in bravery, elephant-like in body is thy steed, Oh hero! hundreds of thousands like Rustam are thy slaves.
Oh King! In thy praise I have become more powerful than wolf and rhinoceros, lion and elephant, the order of the Lord who rules the sky.
Thou art elephant-bodied, lion-conquering, thy mace if it so wishes, can place the rhinoceros firmly on the head of the sky like the tail of the wolf.
That Wazir who to the punishment of the wolf of the sky has given his heart, like the rhinoceros and the elephant and the lion, instead of being confused.
Without the craft of the wolf, and the power of the rhinoceros, his determination strikes the head of the elephants with the driving hook and brings sparks to the eyes of the lions.
In thy kingdom, Oh King! from the strategy of thy caution the lion has laid aside its oppression, the wolf its deceit, and the rhinoceros its disorder through fear of thee.
22.4.4
Oh thou, whose order is like the decree of fate, thou from whose dignity the Emperor like Fate overcomes the rhinoceros, the wolf, the lion and the elephant.
Skin, and horn, and hair, and tear, of wolf, rhinoceros, lion and elephant will be of use in the way of life, and heart, and nature, and speech.
to adhere any longer, and does not coagulate milk. Whilst it is extracting the poison its colour changes, and when it is thrown into milk it returns to its original condition.
Another test is, when you rub it upon black or blue woollen cloth the cloth becomes white, if rubbed very hard for a long time the cloth becomes black and all whiteness disappears.
Another test: When it is placed in a porcelain vessel in lemon juice, it begins to move in a circular fashion. This test is not peculiar to this stone, but most shells and snails too, shew the same phenomenon. (Ma'zanu-l-Adwiyah).
The Bahru-l-Jawahir says only —
Hajaru-l-Haiyyah. The stone Padzahr (Bezoar stone,) some kinds are heavy and black, some are ashen-grey, and some have three stripes.
For your armour and shoes, when did the wolf-natured sky select tears and skin from the elephant and lion and rhinoceros?
For that purpose again and again, this old wolf from the elephant and lion and the rhinoceros, brings as an offering its hide and skin and teeth as a present of rare value.
The she-wolf drives away the lion as a good omen, if in hunting it comes in sight of your rhinoceros-conquering elephant.
22.4.5
Elephant-bestower, I desire a desert place in Badāon, even though these regions are the abodes of the wolf and rhinoceros and the lion.
As long as the lion and the elephant are co-partners in awe, and the wolf and the rhinoceros are alike in writing, so long may your wolf-crafty enemy, Oh rhinoceros-destroyer and elephant-like in strength, be humbled in the dust before the lion of your portico.
May your enemies bereft of life become like the lions and elephants and wolves and rhinoceros at the end of the stony line in the public baths.
Linked texts (1)
- Muntakhab al-tawārīkh — ʿAbd al-Qādir Badāʾūnī 1590, Persian