BORES.
A busy student complained to his teacher that his time was constantly taken up by visitors. People, whose time is of no value to them, do not consider that any one else may value theirs; they therefore present themselves continually and gossip of people or things, merely to pass away the time and waste the golden hours. “How can I be relieved of them?” pleaded the pupil. His tutor replied, “To such of them as are poor, lend money, and from those that are rich, ask favors; then you may rest assured that they will cease to trouble you. If a beggar were the leader of the Mohammedan army, the infidels would flee to China, through fear of his importunity.”
CHAPTER XVI.
LATER PERIODS.
THE FOURTH PERIOD—LITERARY KINGS—HĀFIZ—PĪR-I-SEBZ—SHĪRĀZ—THE FEAST OF SPRING—MY BIRD—FIFTH PERIOD—JĀMI—THE WORKS OF JĀMI—RECEPTION—THE SIXTH PERIOD—THE SEVENTH PERIOD.
The fourth period, which began at the close of the thirteenth century and continued until the beginning of the fifteenth, represents the highest development of lyric poetry and rhetoric, although these were stormy times in the political and literary world.
During this period Persia had many men of culture, and, indeed, she boasted of one literary king.
Sultān Ahmed Ilkhāni, who reigned over Bagdad, Azerbaijān, and some parts of Asia Minor, conducted his court with great pomp and splendor. He was one of the most accomplished men of the age, being an artist and illuminator as well as a musical composer. His beautiful calligraphy, in various languages, was highly celebrated, and his poetical productions, in both the Persian and Turkish tongues, were considered very meritorious. His moral character, however, presented a sad contrast to his intellectual attainments, and his remorseless cruelty made him an object of detestation to his subjects. He was entirely merciless when intoxicated with opium, and on these occasions he would put people to death on the most trivial pretenses. His conduct provoked the enmity of the influential families of Bagdad, and at length the public sentiment against him became so strong that letters were written by the principal men, inviting Amir Timūr (Tamerlane) to the conquest of their country, and pledging him their assistance. The invitation was gladly accepted, and when the hostile intentions of the conqueror became known, the poetical Sultan sent him the following message:
“Why should we bare our neck on the block of misfortune?
Why should we despond at every trifling attack of adversity?
Like the Sīmūrgh, let us pass over seas and mountains