Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/56

 32 MAHMUD OF GHAZNI Unsuri and Farrukhi and Asjudi, among the earliest poets of the Persian revival, and above all Firdausi, the Persian Homer, in whose " Shah Namah " the leg- endary heroes of ancient Iran live for ever these were among the men to whom Mahmud was gracious, and who in return made Ghazni and its master renowned beyond the fame of glorious war. There is no need to repeat here the oft-told story of Firdausi 's wrath at the silver guerdon with which the Sultan crowned the famous epic. Sixty thousand pieces of silver- even though the poet had been promised gold rep- resent something like 2,500, and would be a welcome remuneration for a library of epics in the present day. Milton had to be content with the two hundred and fiftieth part of such a sum for " Paradise Lost." The notable part of the story is, not that the poet indig- nantly spurned the gift, threw it loftily among the menials, and then rewarded Mahmud 's kindness and support by a scathing satire such outbreaks belong to the genus irritabile'but that the great Sultan at last forgave the insult and sent a second lavish gift, of 50,000 guineas, to appease the offended poet in his exile. It was the usual irony of fate that, if the Orien- tal tradition be true, the reward reached Firdausi 's home in Khorasan just at the moment when his body was being borne to the grave. Though one must acquit the Sultan of any want of appreciation of Firdausi 's great work, or indeed of lit- erary and scientific achievement in general, tradition will have it that he was avaricious; and there is a