Fol. 179b.The all-surpassing head of the poet-band was Maulānā ‘Abdu’r-raḥmān Jāmī. Others were Shaikhīm Suhailī and Ḥasan of ‘Alī Jalāīr[1136] whose names have been mentioned already as in the circle of the Mīrzā’s begs and household.
Āṣafī was another,[1137] he taking Āṣafī for his pen-name because he was a wazīr’s son. His verse does not want for grace or sentiment, but has no merit through passion and ecstacy. He himself made the claim, “I have never packed up (būlmādī) my odes to make the oasis (wādī) of a collection.”[1138] This was affectation, his younger brothers and his intimates having collected his odes. He wrote little else but odes. He waited on me when I went into Khurāsān (912 AH.).
Banā’i was another; he was a native of Herī and took such a pen-name (Banā’i) on account of his father Ustād Muḥammad Sabz-banā.[1139] His odes have grace and ecstacy. One poem (mas̤nawī) of his on the topic of fruits, is in the mutaqārib
measure;[1140] it is random and not worked up. Another short
poem is in the khafīf measure, so also is a longer one finished towards the end of his life. He will have known nothing of music in his young days and ‘Alī-sher Beg seems to have taunted him about it, so one winter when the Mīrzā, taking ‘Alī-sher Beg with him, went to winter in Merv, Banā’i stayed behind in Herī and so applied himself to study music that before the heats he had composed several works. These he played and sang, airs with variations, when the Mīrzā came back to Herī in the heats.Fol. 180. All amazed, ‘Alī-sher Beg praised him. His musical compositions are perfect; one was an air known as Nuh-rang (Nine modulations), and having both the theme (tūkānash) and the variation (yīla) on the note called rāst(?). Banā’i was ‘Alī-sher Beg’s rival; it will have been on this account he was so much ill-treated. When at last he could bear it no longer, he went into Aẕarbāījān and ‘Irāq to the presence of Ya’qūb Beg; he did not remain however in those parts after Ya‘qūb Beg’s death (896 AH.-1491 AD.) but went back to Herī, just the same with his jokes and retorts. Here is one of them:—‘Alī-sher at a chess-party in stretching his leg touched Banā’i on the hinder-parts and said jestingly, “It is the sad nuisance of Herī that a man can’t stretch his leg without its touching a poet’s backside.” “Nor draw it up again,” retorted Banā’i.[1141] In the end the upshot of his jesting was that he had to leave Herī again; he went then to Samarkand.[1142] A great many good new things used to be made for ‘Alī-sher Beg, so whenever any-one produced a novelty, he called it ‘Alī-sher’s in order to give it credit and vogue.[1143] Some things were called after him in compliment e.g. because when he had ear-ache, he wrapped his head up in one of the blue triangular kerchiefs women tie over their heads in winter, that kerchief was called ‘Alī-sher’s comforter. Then again, Banā’i when he had decided to leave Herī, ordered a quite new kind of pad for his ass andFol. 180b. dubbed it ‘Alī-sher’s.
Maulānā Saifī of Bukhārā was another;[1144] he was a Mullā complete[1145] who in proof of his mullā-ship used to give a list of the books he had read. He put two dīwāns together, one being for the use of tradesmen (ḥarfa-kar), and he also wrote many fables. That he wrote no mas̤nawī is shewn by the following quatrain:—
Though the mas̤nawī be the orthodox verse,
I know the ode has Divine command;
Five couplets that charm the heart
I know to outmatch the Two Quintets.[1146]
A Persian prosody he wrote is at once brief and prolix, brief in the sense of omitting things that should be included, and prolix in the sense that plain and simple matters are detailed down to the diacritical points, down even to their Arabic points.[1147] He is said to have been a great drinker, a bad drinker, and a mightily strong-fisted man.