[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [General histories](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general) › [Muntakhab al-tawārīkh](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh) › [Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig) › 245 # Muntakhab al-tawarikh 245: XXXII. JADA'I. Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 245 - **Language:** English ### [245](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.245) He is Mir Sayyid 'Ali, the painter, a versatile man, each page of whose paintings is a masterpiece, and who may be described “ Thou art one who hast not experienced the delicious torment of the night of separation, Nor seen thyself shrinking from (the fierce delight of) the day of reunion. The thorn of reproach has not detained thy skirt, Thou hast not seen thyself with thy head drooping on thy breast like a bud. Never has thy love been constant, Thou hast not felt the sweet anguish of the beloved’s neglect ; With no one hast thou held discourse of love, Thou hast a heart which has nothing to regret.” “ My heart, at the sight of another in the arms of the beloved, is like the bird Which the school-boy, from fear of the master, suddenly releases.” “ Now that, after an age, my eye falls on the ravisher of my heart The veil of shame falls between us, so that I cannot see her face.” “ I am not one to tell my tale to a messenger, Or to base pretensions on what a messenger may say.” “ From one glance of thine in the assembly of me and my friends What quarrels had we not among ourselves ? ” His father, Shah Quli Khan, composed the following quatrain : — “Sometimes I break my vow of repentance and sometimes the wine bottle, Once, twice, incessantly I break my flute. O Lord, deliver me from the evil promptings of my spirit! How often shall I repent and again break my vow of repentance?” Praised be God! Even a clod has broken into flame! One day after the return from the journey to Patna, Jadhī, Qāẓī Shams-ud-dīn Qazwīnī, and some other poets, began to argue about a couplet of Husain Sanā’ī’s, viz:— “If, for example, thou sittest behind a mirror, a person Standing before it sees his own image with the face reversed.” When I drew near to them they asked me the meaning of the couplet which formed the subject of discussion. I replied, “Such is the state of things nowadays that it is impossible to draw any distinction between the poetry of one’s friends and (the actions of) Rīhāl.” Now this Rīhāl, who lived in the days of Sultān Husain Mīrzā Darbārī, was a wag and a linguist, a man of disguises, who used to go into social assemblies and into colleges clad in the turban, the clothes, and the trappings of a learned man and accompanied by a body of pupils. He would first introduce his theses and discuss them in a very orderly manner, thus making himself attractive to all present. He would next introduce sophistries confused with meaningless arguments, until even the most learned doctors were thrown into perplexity. - [Previous: 244](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.244) - [Next: 246](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.246) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.245](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.245) · Pramāṇa