A literary history of Persia

DOWN TO A.D. looo 4$;on the alleged authority of the Kitab-i-YamM (Le.UtbPshistory of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna), that they amounted toone million and three hundred1couplets. Of these only avery small proportion have come down to our time, thoughmany more than was formerly supposed. Thus Dr. Horn haspointed out in his excellent edition of AsadPs Lugha tu I- Furs(pp. 1 8-2 1 that) Riidagiis cited in that work more often thanany other old poet, and he gives some sixteen couplets from hislostmathnawi of Kalilaand Dimna alone, and there are a goodmany inedited anthologiesand similar works in the BritishMuseum and other largelibraries of Europe which would yielda very considerable quantity of his work. Dr. Eth in hisadmirable monograph on Rudagi 2 has collected together fromsuch sources fifty-two fragments of greater or less length,amounting in all to 242 couplets, and from the additionalsources of information rendered available within the lastthirty years, there is no doubt that this number could nowbe largelyincreased. As Dr. Eth6 has appended Germanverse-translations to all the fragments of Rudagf whichhe has collected in the above-mentioned monograph, itappears unnecessary to give here any further specimens ofhis poetry for the European reader, save the two followingfragments translated by my dear old teacher, Professor Cowell(= Eth, Nos. 20 and 41) :"Bring me yon wine which thou might 'st call a melted ruby in its cup,Or like a scimetar unsheathed, in the sun's noon-tide light held up.'Tis the rose-water, thou might st say, yea thence distilled for purity ;Its sweetness falls as sleep'sown balm steals o'er the vigil-wearied eye.1The poet Rashidi of Samarqand in one of his poems says that hecounted Rudagi's verses, and found that they amounted to thirteen times100,000 (i.e.,one million and three hundred thousand), which is probablywhat Jami was thinking of.* Nachrichten von der Kdnigl. Gesellschaft der Wissenchaflen u. dcr G.A. Universitat zu GStthigen, No. 25, November 12, 1873, pp. 663-742.