[1160] Maulānā Badru’d-dīn (Full-moon of the Faith) whose pen-name was Hilālī, was of Astarābād. It may be noted that two dates of his death are found, 936 and 939 AH. the first given by de Saçy, the second by Rieu, and that the second seems to be correct (Not. et Extr. p. 285; Pers. Cat. p. 656; Hammer’s Geschichte p. 368).
[1161] B.M. Add. 7783.
[1162] Opinions differ as to the character of this work:—Bābur’s is uncompromising; von Hammer (p. 369) describes it as “ein romantisches Gedicht, welches eine sentimentale Männerliebe behandelt”; Sprenger (p. 427), as a mystical mas̤nawī (poem); Rieu finds no spiritual symbolism in it and condemns it (Pers. Cat. p. 656 and, quoting the above passage of Bābur, p. 1090); Ethé, who has translated it, takes it to be mystical and symbolic (I.O. Cat. p. 783).
[1163] Of four writers using the pen-name Ahlī (Of-the-people), viz. those of Turān, Shīrāz, Tarshīz (in Khurāsān), and ‘Irāq, the one noticed here seems to be he of Tarshīz. Ahlī of Tarshīz was the son of a locally-known pious father and became a Superintendent of the Mint; Bābur’s ‘āmī may refer to Ahlī’s first patrons, tanners and shoe-makers by writing for whom he earned his living (Sprenger, p. 319). Erskine read 'ummī, meaning that Ahlī could neither read nor write; de Courteille that he was un homme du commun.
[1164] He was an occasional poet (Ḥ.S. iii, 350 and iv, 118; Rieu’s Pers. Cat. p. 531; Ethé’s I.O. Cat. p. 428).
[1165] Ustād Kamālu’d-dīn Bih-zād (well-born; Ḥ.S. iii, 350). Work of his is reproduced in Dr. Martin’s Painting and Painters of Persia of 1913 AD.
[1166] This sentence is not in the Elph. MS.
[1167] Perhaps he could reproduce tunes heard and say where heard.
[1168] M. Belin quotes quatrains exchanged by ‘Alī-sher and this man (J. Asiatique xvii, 199).
[1169] i.e. from his own camp to Bābā Ilāhī.