Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c10.32

c10.32

Firdausī was stung to the quick by the Sulṭān’s injustice, which dashed all his hopes, and a literary man as he was, he avenged this wrong in a literary way. He composed about 40 verses which hurled a biting satire at the Sulṭān, incorporated them into the Shāh-Nāmah, and fled to Ṭūs, his native city, to be out of reach of the power he attacked. One day, some time after this incident, Aḥmad bin Ḥasan Maimandī, who was also one of the poets who enjoyed the Sulṭān’s patronage, was out a-hunting with the Sulṭān, and having come close, repeated several verses out of the Shāh-Nāmah, which were exceedingly applauded. Being asked by Maḥmūd whose poetry it was, Ḥasan answered that it was composed by Firdausī. The Sulṭān