A History of Agriculture in India v2.c55.s2.7

v2.c55.s2.7

'Having afterwards been appointed to compose the *Shah-nama*, he wrote a thousand verses, and took them to the king, who highly applauded them, and made him a present of a thousand dinars. When Firdausi had finished writing the *Shah-nama*, he took the book, which contained 60,000 verses, to the Sultan, expecting that he would get a *dinar* for each verse, as he had done before; but some envious persons of mean disposition, indulging their malignity, wondered what must be the value of that poet who was worth being exalted by such a large gift, and they made the Sultan give him 60,000 *dirhams* instead. When Firdausi came out of the bath, and they brought those *dirhams* before him, he was exceedingly vexed at the circumstance, and gave 20,000 *dirhams* to the bath-keeper, 20,000 to a sherbet-seller who had brought some beverage for him, and the remaining 20,000 *dirhams* he gave to the person who brought the money. Having composed about forty verses, as a satire upon the Sultan, he introduced them into the beginning or conclusion of the *Shah-nama*, and fled to Tus.