"over thee; neither attack him in his retreat, for thou hast already got rid of

"him."

(1) The life of Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Marzubâni is given by our author.

(2) I am inclined to think that this Abu Jaafar Ibn Shîrzâd was the same person whom the author of the ad-Dual al-Islâmiya calls Ahmad Ibn Sâlih Ibn Shîrzâd al-Kutrubulli. According to this writer, he possessed great abilities and became vizir to al-Motamid, but he held his post for about a month only, and died A. H. 266 (A. D. 879-80).—(MS. No. 895. fol. 235.)

(3) See vol. I. page 630, note (3).

(4) About five hundred thousand pounds sterling.

(3) See the life of Muhammad Ibn az-Zaiyât.

AL-FUDAIL IBN IYAD AT-TALAKANI.

Abû Ali al-Fudail Ibn lyâd Ibn Masûd Ibn Bishr at-Tâlakâni al-Fundìni, a celebrated ascetic and one of the Men of the Path (1), drew his origin from a family of the tribe of Tamim which had settled at Tâlakân. He commenced his life as a highway robber and intercepted travellers on the road from Abiward to Sarakhs, but his conversion was operated by the following circumstance: As he was climbing over a wall to see a girl whom he loved, he heard a voice pronounce this verse of the Koran: Is not the time yet come unto those who believe, that their hearts should humbly submit to the admonition of God (2)? On this, he exclaimed:

O Lord! that time is come." He then went away from the place, and the approach of night induced him to repair for shelter to a ruined edifice. He there found a band of travellers, one of whom said to the others: "Let us set "out;" but another answered: "Let us rather wait till daylight, for al-Fudail is on the road and will stop us." Al-Fudail then turned his heart to God, and assured them that they had nothing to fear. He ranked He ranked amongst the greatest of the Saiyids (or saints). Sofyan Ibn Oyaina (vol. I. p. 578) relates the following anecdote concerning him: "Harûn ar-Rashid called for us, and when

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we entered into his presence, al-Fudail followed, with his cloak drawn over "his face, and said to me: 'Tell me, Sofyân! which of these is the Com

"mander of the faithful?'-'There he is;' said I, pointing out ar-Rashid. He then addressed (the khalif) in these terms: 0 thou with the handsome "face! art thou the man whose hand governeth this people and who hast taken "" that duty on thy shoulders? verily, thou hast taken on thyself a heavy burden!' "Ar-Rashid wept on hearing these words, and ordered to each of us a purse of 66 money. We all received the gift, except al-Fudail ; and ar-Rashîd said to him : “O Abù Ali! if thou dost not think it lawful to accept it, give it to some poor "debtor, or else feed therewith the hungry, or clothe the naked.' He requested,

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however, the permission to refuse it; and, when we went out, I said to him : “Thou hast done wrong, O Abû Ali! why didst thou not take it and spend it "in works of charity?' On this he seized me by the beard, and exclaimed : ‘O “Abû Muhammad! how canst thou, who art the chief jurisconsult of this city "and a man whom all look up to, how canst thou make such a blunder? had "the money been lawfully acquired by those people (the khalif and his officers) “it had been lawful for me to accept it."—It is related that ar-Rashid once said to him: "How great is thy self-abnegation!" to which he made answer : "Thine is greater."-"How so?" said the khalif.—“Because I make abnega"tion of this world, and thou makest abnegation of the next; now, this world "is transitory and the next will endure for ever."-The following anecdote is related by az-Zamakhshari in his Rabî al-Abrûr, Chapter on Food: “ Al-Fudail "said one day to his companions: What say you of a man who, having some "dates in his sleeve, sits down in the privy and throws them into it one after "the other?' They answered that he must be mad. 'Then,' said he, 'whoso“ever throws them into his belly till he fills it is yet more insane; for that privy "is filled from this one." " It was a saying of his that, when God loves a man, he increases his afflictions, and when he hates a man, he increases his worldly prosperity. He said another time: "If the world with all it contains were "offered to me even on the condition of my not being taken to an account for "it, I should shun it as you would shun a carrion, lest it should defile your "clothes."-" The display (3) of devotional works," said he again, "to please men is hypocrisy, and acts of devotion done to please men are acts of poly"theism." Other sayings of his were: "I am certainly disobedient to God, " and I perceive it in considering the tempers of my ass and of my slave (for they "do not always act to please me)."-"If I had the power of offering up a prayer

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"which should be certainly fulfilled, I should ask for nothing else than a proper "imâm (or head of the Moslim community); for with a good imâm, the people "would enjoy peace."-" For a man to be polite to his company and make "himself agreeable to them, is better than to pass nights in prayer and days in fasting."-Abu Ali ar-Ràzi (4) said: "I kept company with al-Fudail during thirty years, and I never saw him laugh or smile but on one occasion, and, that 66 was the death of his son. On my asking him the reason, he replied: "What"ever is pleasing to God, is pleasing to me.'" His son was a generous-minded youth, and ranks among the greatest of the holy men; he was one of those who died through love for the Creator. They are all mentioned in a book which I heard read a long time ago, but I cannot now recollect the name of the author. It was said by Abd Allah Ibn al-Mubarak (vol. II. p. 12) that, when al-Fudail 581 died, sadness (in person) was removed from the world. He was born at Abiward— some say at Samarkand-he passed his youth at Abiward and then went to Kûfa, where he heard Traditions; from thence he removed to Mekka and continued to reside there till his death, which occurred in the month of Muharram, A.H. 187 (January, A. D. 803) — Tâlakâni means belonging to Tâlakân in Khorâsân (vol. I. p. 216).-Fundini means native of Fundin, a village in the dependencies of Marw. -Abiward is a small town in Khoràsàn.-Samarkand is the greatest city of Transoxiana: Ibn Kutaiba says in his Kitâb al-Maârif, under the head of Shamir Ibn Ifrikis, king of Yemen: "This prince went forth with a vast army, and en"tered Irak, whence he set out for China; he directed his course through Fars, Sijistan and Khorâsân, taking cities and castles, slaying and making captives. “He entered the city of as-Soghd and destroyed it, for which reason it was called "Shamirkend (5), which means: Shamir destroyed it; kend, in Persian, signifying to destroy. This name was then altered to suit the genius of the "Arabic idiom and it became Samarkand (). This city was afterwards "rebuilt and it still retains the name."

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(1) See vol. I. page 239.

(2) Koran, surat 57, verse 15.

(3) In place of, as given in the printed text and the MSS., I am confident we must read 5.

(4) According to the author of the Tabakat al-Hanafiya (MS. fonds St-Germain, No. 132, fol. 102), Abù Ali ar-Râzi was an imâm (of the law) and had been taught jurisprudence by the celebrated Abû Yûsuf.

ADUD AD-DAWLAT IBN BUWAIH.

Abû Shujâa Fannâkhosrû, surnamed Adud ad-Dawlat (the arm of the empire), was the son of Rukn ad-Dawlat Abû Ali al-Hasan Ibn Buwaih ad-Dailami. The remainder of the genealogy has been already given in the life of his uncle Moizz ad-Dawlat Ahmad (vol. I. p. 155). When his uncle Imâd ad-Dawlat was on his death-bed in Fars, he received the visit of his brother Rukn ad-Dawlat, and they agreed that Abû Shujaa Fannâkhosrû should be put in possession of that province; it was at this period that he received the title of Adud ad-Dawlat. We have already spoken of his father (vol. I. p. 407), of his eldest uncle, Imâd adDawlat (vol. II. p. 332), and of his cousin Bakhtyâr (vol. I. p. 250); but none of them, notwithstanding their great power and authority, possessed so extensive an empire and held sway over so many kings and kingdoms as Adud ad-Dawlat. In fact, he not only united his relations' states to his, (and we have already mentioned, in the lives of each, what these states were,) but he joined thereto Mosul, Mesopotamia, and other provinces; having brought countries and nations into subjection, and reduced the most refractory to obedience. He was the first monarch after the promulgation of Islamism who was addressed by the title of Malik (king), and the first also for whom prayers were offered up from the pulpits of Baghdad after those offered for the prosperity of the khalif. Another of his titles was Tâj al-Millat (crown of the faith), and this led Abû Ishak as-Sàbi to give the title of atTâji (the imperial, or coronarius) to the history of the Buwaih family which he composed by this prince's orders. Of this circumstance we have already spoken (vol. I. p. 31). Adud ad-Dawlat possessed a considerable degree of information in various sciences, and, being a man of talent, he loved the society of the learned. It was for him that the shaikh Abû Ali 'l-Fàrisi composed his grammatical treatises, the Idah and the Takmila (vol. I. p. 380). The greatest poets of the day visited his court and celebrated his praises in magnificent kasidas; one of them was al-Mutanabbi (vol. I. p. 102), who arrived at Shiraz in the month of the first Jumâda, A. H. 354 (May, A. D. 965), and recited his celebrated kasida rhyming in h, wherein he bestows on the prince the following eulogium:

Having seen all other kings, I journeyed on till I saw their master-him whose 382 hand controls their fate, and who orders it to strike or to spare them-Abû Shujâa of

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Persia, Adud ad-Dawlat Fannåkhosrû Shahanshâh (king of kings). Such are his names; they cannot make him better known, but it gives us pleasure to pronounce them.

This was the first kasida he recited in his presence; and a month had not elapsed when he pronounced another, rhyming in n, and containing the following passage, in which he mentions the Valley of Bawwan (Shib Bawwán):

My steed said (to me) in the Valley of Bawwân: "Must we then quit this (delightful spot) for the battle-field? Adam, thy forefather, has given thee the example of dis"obedience and taught thee how to abandon Paradise." I replied: "When thou seest “Abû Shujâa, thou wilt forget the rest of men and think of this spot no more; for "mankind and the world itself are but a road whereby to reach him who has no equal “amongst men."

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He afterwards praised him in a number of other poems, and the same year, in the beginning of Shaabân, he recited to him the kasida rhyming in k, in which he offers his adieu to the prince and promises to revisit his court. This was the last piece composed by al-Mutanabbi, as he was killed on his way home. It contains the following passage:

I now depart after closing up my heart with the seal of thy love, lest any other mortal should essay to harbour there. (I depart,) burdened with (a debt of) lasting gratitude, so heavy that I have not strength to move. I fear that its weight will break down my camels; (but) then, they will not bear me (from thee) to another. It is perhaps God's will that this journey enable me (later) to fix my abode at thy court. Were it possible, I should keep my eyes closed and shut out the sight (of all other men) till I see thee again. Deprived of thy presence, how shall I endure with patience? thy copious bounties have overwhelmed me, and yet they seemed to thee insufficient.

How ingeniously has he said in the same poem :

When we part, whom shall I find to replace thee? since (the merit of) all other men is but a false illusion! I am like an arrow shot into the air; it finds nought to retain it and returns again.

His praises were celebrated also by the greatest poet of Irak, Abou 'l-Hasan Muhammad as-Salami, a person whose life will be found in this work. The admirable kasida which he recited to Adud ad-Dawlat contains this passage:

To reach thee, a man who made the sight of thy palace the term of his camel's journey, crossed the wide-extended desert. I, and my courage in the depths of darkness, and my sword, were three (closely-united) companions, like the stars of (the constellation