Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/470

 284 RUINED TUS, THE HOME OF THE POET FIRDAUSI

Mahmud ordered that sixty thousand dinars worth of indigo should be given to Firdausi, and that this indigo should be carried to Tus on the King's own camels, and that apologies should be tendered to Firdausi.^ For years the Minister [al-Maimandi, the friend of Firdausi] had been working for this, and at length he had achieved his work ; so now he caused the camels to be loaded, and the indigo safely reached Tabaran [a part of the city of Tus]. But even as the camels entered the Rudbar Gate, the corpse of Firdausi was borne forth from (hlrun) the Gate of Rizan [orRazan]. Now at that time there was in Tabaran a preacher, whose fanaticism was such that he declared that he would not suffer Fir- dausi's body to be buried in the Musulman Cemetery because he was a Rafidi [Shiite] ; and nothing that men could say would serve to move him. Now, inside (daruri) the gate there was a piece of property (milk) belong- ing to Firdausi, which they call the Garden of Firdausi, or Paradise ; 2 and in that garden, which was his property, they made his grave ; and there he

��1 The text of the Chahdr Makdla (ed. Mirza Muhammad, in the Gibh Memorial Series, ed. Browne, p. 51) has the word dinar, referring to gold pieces, while Ibn Isfandiar's text (ed. Ethd, ZDMG. 48. 93) has dirham, re- ferring to silver coins. The former reading is to be preferred, judging from the whole point of the story. On the ' indigo ' (nil) compare the epithet ' Indigo Gate ' referred to below.

2 In this particular sentence I have departed from Professor Browne's rendering, which is 'outside the gate ' because the text of the Chahdr Makdla and that of Ibn Isfandiar both say darun, 'inside ' the gate, unless we are to consider that this word was misread for bh'un, which is less likely, judging from the sequel. The precise wording of the text in Ibn Isfandiar's version of the story (ed. Eth6, ZDMG. 48. 94) is : Firdausird darun darvdzah milki hud — Bdgh-i Firdausi mignf- tand — dar an bdgh, kih milk-i u hud (these four words omitted in manu-

��script 0) dafn kardand, 'inside the gate there was a piece of property be- longing to Firdausi — they call it the Garden (Paradise) of Firdausi — and in that garden, which was his property, they made his grave.' The text of the Chahdr Makdla (ed. p. 51) has darUn darvdzah hdghi bud, milk Firdausi urd, dar dn hdgh dafn kardand, ' inside the gate was a special garden, Firdausi's own property, and in that garden they made his grave.' The account by Daulatshah (1437 a.d.) agrees in the main points, as noted below.

3 The rendering here adopted (with the special departures noted) is by Browne, JBAS. 1899, pp. 83-84, and Lit. Hist. Persia, 2. 137-138 from the Chahdr Makdla of Nizami of Samar- kand (completed before 1150 a.d.) ed. Mirza Muhammad, p. 51 (Gibh Memo- rial Series, London, 1910), supple- mented by the text of the same story given by Ibn Isfandiar (1216 a.d.) ed. Eth6, ZDMG. 48. 93-94.

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