The Rashīdī History 110.4

110.4

This prince was adorned with various virtues, and clad with numberless good qualities, above all of which bravery and humanity had the ascendant. In the composition of Turki poetry he was second only to Amir Ali Shir. He has written a Divan, in the purest and most lucid Turki. He invented a style of verse called "Mubaiyan," and was the author of a most useful treatise on Jurisprudence, which has been adopted generally. He also wrote a tract on Turki Prosody, superior in elegance to any other, and put into verse the Risala'i-Validiyyah of his Holiness. Then there is his Vakai or Turki History, which is written in a simple, unaffected, and yet very pure style. (Some of the stories from that work will be reproduced here.) He excelled in music and other arts. In fact, no one in his family before him ever possessed such talents as his. Nor did any of his race ever perform such wonderful exploits, or experience such strange adventures, as did he. He was twelve years of age when his father, Omar Shaikh Mirza, died. In his Vakai, which, though in Turki, is written in very elegant and florid style, he says: "On Monday, the 4th of Ramazan, Omar Shaikh Mirza having flown from the top of the precipice with his pigeon and his pigeon-house, became a falcon, at the age of thirty-nine." This occurred in the year 899, and after his father's death Bábar Pádisháh was raised to the throne, being, at that time, twelve years of age.