Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/299

Rh that the Muhammadans had after all a more marvellous history than the Hindús. The book consists of a string of eighty-eight stories.

(1.) Extols the King Qubád Kamrán of Persia, and relates the story of Bazar Chamhar, the son of Bakht Jamál. Bazar Chamhar kills Al-Qash, the minister of Qubád Kamrán, who had murdered his father and becomes minister in his stead.

(2.) Tells the story Qubád, a woodcutter, who becomes a very rich man through the sagacity of Dilárám, the discarded Queen of Qubád, the King. In the end Qubád the king receives back Dilárám into favour.

(3.) Relates the rise of Anúshírwán (or Nausherwán) of Persia and his queen Mihar Angez. In his reign Amír Hamza is born, and Anúshírwán sends the minister, Bazar Chamhar, to Makka (Mecca) to congratulate the family on the occasion.

(4.) Relates the return of Bazar Chamhar.

(5.) Khwája Khizar meets Amír Hamza in the wilds and gives him a horse, Qaitás, and the arms of the former Prophets from under a tree. Amír Hamza conquers Suhel Yamaní and Tauq-bin-Hairán with their armies in single combat, and then defeats Munazzar Sháh and Prince Na’mán. He next defeats Princess Humá-i-Tájdar at chess, and makes her over to her lover Sultán Baklish.

(6.) He conquers Hushám, a nobleman of Khaibar, who had defeated the King of Persia, and restores to that monarch all the booty that Hushám had taken at the capture of Madáín, the Persian capital.

(7.) He conquers Sangráwáhal, and kills the Governor thereof.

(8.) The King of Persia, by his ambassador the son of Bazar Chamhar, sends him a robe of honour (khila’t), a talismanic banner made by Bazar Chamhar, and the "tent of denial." The Prophet Muhammad, through Khwája Khizár, bestows special arms on Amír Hamza and on Bazar Chamhar's son. While the two are travelling to Madáín Amír Hamza kills a tiger single handed, which had so terrified ’Umar, a noble, that he had climbed a tree.

(9.) Amír Hamza has a triumphal entry into Madáín. He lifts up there the king's throne of enormous weight in his two hands, and has