Muntakhab al-tawarikh 241: XXIX. Taqi ed-din of Shushtar.

241

He has recently entered the imperial service and is well versed both in those sciences which call for the exercise of the reason and in traditional knowledge. He is well acquainted with poetry and has poetic genius. The following couplets are his:— “ If I be not enabled to steal a glance at Thy face, I can at least fill my mouth with sweetness by thinking on Thy lip : If Thou hast planted me like a herb on the earth, Where shall I find the hand and the heart that will enable me to end my earthly pilgrimage ? ”
He is at present employed, by the emperor’s command, in turning the Shahnama into prose, or in other words in converting fine linen into sackcloth, or in unravelling a rope to make oakum.