Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

92 HISTORY OF PERSIA
The Ziyarid Dynasty, A.H. 316-434 (928-1042).
During the reign of Nasr II. the province of Tabaristan
was recovered for the House of Ali by Hasan bin Ali-
Utrush, but a few years later, in A.H. 316 (928), a
certain Mardawij bin Ziyar contrived to seize it and
to occupy Isfahan and the country beyond Hamadan as
far as Holwan. He established a dynasty which was
noted for its devotion to learning and which endured for
rather over a century, although no member except
its
founder played a leading role on the stage of Persia.
The best known of his successors was Kabus, A.H. 366
403 (976-1012), the patron of Al-biruni, who dedicated
to him his famous Chronology of Ancient Nations
and resided at his court for many years.
Nor was he
merely a patron of letters he was himself a poet of
:
no mean order, writing both in Arabic and in Persian. 1
In the latter language he composed an exquisite quatrain,
translated as follows :
Mirth's King the Rose is, Wine Joy's Herald eke ;
Hence from these two do I
my pleasure seek ;
Would'st thou, O Moon, inquire
the cause of this ?
Wine's taste thy lips recalls, the Rose thy cheek !
The career of Kabus was extremely chequered.
He
protected Fakhr-u-Dola, one of the Buwayhid princes,
against his two brothers, the powerful Azud-u-Dola and
the Muayyid-u-Dola, and in consequence was driven out
of his princedom for many years. Upon his return,
although he was famed for " his learning, piety, munificence,
magnanimity, wisdom, prudence, and intelligence," 2
his nobles, exasperated by his cruelty, deposed him and
afterwards had him secretly murdered.
In 1908
I visited his tomb, which, as Ibn Isfandiyar
states, is "outside Gurgan on the road to Khorasan." As
the illustration shows, it is a lofty decagon with a curious
conical roof, which is visible for miles across the level
steppe.
The Kufic inscription, which is in duplicate bands
1
Browne, cit. cfi. p. 470.
2 Vide Ibn Isfandiyar's History of Tabaristan, which is a mine of information about
this period. In the Kabus Nama an amusing story is given to prove how well informed
Kabus kept himself of what went on at the neighbouring courts. Vide Qucrry's
translation, p. 413.