Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/298

276 Arslan, the last sultan of the Seljukian dynasty, who reigned in Irak Persia; and died in the 64th year of his age, shortly after completing the Khamseh, A. H. 592. On his death bed he assembled his friends and exhorted them to walk in the paths of piety, and to hold fast the sacred truths of the koran. This done, he smiled and exclaimed— Oh dispenser of mercy! keep me steadfast in the hope of pardon, and preserve me from eternal punishment in admitting me to the joys of paradise. Whilst thus speaking the sleep of death came upon him, so calmly, so softly, that one would have supposed he was still awake.

Nizámi's Makhzen al Asrar is composed in the measure, or Bahr, Mútaui Moukuf Sarí.—The Shirin-wa-khosro in the measure, Hazaj Makhzúf Musaddas. The Leila wa Majnun in the measure, Hazaj Akhzab Makbùz Makhzùf Musaddas. The Heft Paiker, in the measure, Khafif Muktu, and the Secunder Nàmeh in the measure, Mutakàrib Maksur Musamman. I shall conclude the notice of the contents of the Secunder Nameh with a few cursory observations on the Oriental and Grecian accounts of the parentage, &c. of Alexander.

Alexander of Macedon وكندرمفدونيه is a monarch, even more celebrated in Oriental history, than in the classic annals of Greece and Rome. The accounts regarding his parentage and birth in both are various and conflicting. Some Persian writers contend that he was the son of Darab, sometimes confounded with Darius Nothus, by a daughter of Filikùs or Philip of Macedonia; and half-brother of Dara, Darius Codomanus. This princess is said to have been repudiated, when pregnant by Darius, and sent back to the court of her father, where the birth of her infant, Alexander, took place. Philip brought up and educated him as his own son. Others affirm that Philip, while engaged in the pleasures of the chase, found the corpse of a beautiful woman in the forest, with a newly-born infant by her side: Philip moved by compassion ordered the funeral rites to be performed over the remains of the unfortunate parent, and adopted the infant, the future conqueror of the world, as his own. According to Abu-l-farax, Said, and Yusuf Bin Gorion, quoted by M. Claude Visdelon, Alexander was the son of Olympia, the consort of Philip, by Nectanele, king of Egypt; who having been expelled from his throne by Artaxerxes Ochus, fled in the disguise of an astrologer, and took refuge in Macedonia.

Nizàmi alludes to the two first of these traditions, and states them to be unworthy of credit. He then proceeds to tell us that Alexander, Secunder, was the son of Filikùs, a celebrated monarch, whose sway