Muntakhab al-tawarikh 77.5.5

77.5.5

And he drew the pen of obliteration through the grants of land and pensions of the old servants of the crown [Afghans, Blochm.], and to every one who bore the disgrace of coming to his levees he gave a sayurghal, but not unless. But still, compared with this [niggard] age, in which demurs are made to the giving of a single acre of land (P. 30), or even less, as madad i ma‘ash, one might call Shaikh Gada-i a very “world-giver.” Then the princes and nobles of the kingdom, as many as came, flew into a rage at the advancement, honour, and unseasonable exaltation of Shaikh Gada-i, and some of them consoled themselves with these words : — When a fool is exalted through riches, In the assembly, above the wise and excellent, He is still the last in all good qualities, As though the accusative were to prevent the nominative. If an Emperor sit humbled, It is neither disgrace to him, nor praise to you. Dost thou not see that the Sura Ikhlas Comes after “ May the hands of Abu Lahab perish ?” And my Sayyid Ni'mat-i Rusuli, who has been mentioned, repeated the distich, and made it well known in mosques and monasteries. And in the mosque, and in Shaikh Gada-i’s own tribunal they wrote up his disgraceful deeds, until he came to read them and had them erased. Still it was no good: and this is one of the lampoons: “Mention not Gada-i’s name, eat not his bread Since beggary is bad, Gada-i’s face is black.”