A literary history of Persia

DOWN TO A.D. 1000 453(2) Flruz al-Mashriqi) whom 4 Awf{ next mentions, lived inthe time of 4 Amr b.Layth the Saffirid (A.D. 878-900). Ofhis verses likewise only two couplets are handed down :"A bird the Arrow is strange bird of doom/Souls are its prey, the quarry of its quest:It borrows for its use the eagle's plume,Thereby to claim the eaglet as its guest."(3) Abu Salik of Gurgan concludes the short list of Tahindand Samanid poets. Two separate fragments of his verse, eachconsisting of two couplets, are cited by 4 Awff.The remaining twenty-eight poets mentioned in this chapterall belong to the Samanid period, but some of them were underthe patronage of the House of Buwayh Mansur b. 'AH(e.g.,al-Mantiq{ ar-Raz{ and Abu Bakr Muhammad b. 'AHKhusrawl of Sarakhs, both of whom were patronised bythat generous minister the Sdhib Isma'fl b. 'Abbdd), others(e.g.)the last-mentioned poet, and Abu'l-Qdsim Ziyadb.Muhammad Qumrf of Gurgdn) sung the praisesof theZiyarids of Tabaristan, others (e.g., Daqfqf and Manjik) ofthe Chaghanf or Farfghuni rulers, and others of the earlyKings of Ghazna ;while some half-dozen seem to have hadno special patron. Most of them are mentioned, and theirextant verses cited, by Eth r in his already cited article(published in Professor Fleischer's Festschrift,entitled MorgenlBndischeForschungen y Leipzig, 1875, pp. 35-68), and onlya few of the most notable need detain us here. Three or fourare described as Dhufl-Lisanayn (" Masters of the two languages"),or bilingual poets, composing verses both in Arabicand Persian : of these are Shaykh Abu'l-Hasan Shahfd ofBalkh, Abu Bakr Muhammad b. 'AH Khusrawf of Sarakhs,and Abu 'Abdi'llah Muhammad b. 'Abdu'lldhJunaydf,who is stated by 'Awfl to be mentioned in the1Of the thirty-one poets included by 'Awfi in this chapter, Ethementions about twenty, and adds two or three more.