ABSTRACT
Mu‘izzı-’s poetry resembles Farrukhı-’s in several ways; he followed the tradition of panegyric established by ‘Uns.urı-and Farrukhı-, admiring them, quoting them, and occasionally imitating them without acknowledgement, as his own poetry was to be imitated by Sana-’ı-and others. His ethnic origin, background and personality, however, were very different from Farrukhı-’s. He was Persian by birth, a Khura-sa-nı-from Nı-sha-pu-r, born c.440/1048-9, the son of a professional poet and royal panegyrist, ‘Abd al-Malik Burha-nı-
Nı-sha-pu-rı-. According to the account of Mu‘izzı-’s early life that he gave to Niz.a-mı-‘Aru-d. ı-in 510/1116-7 (CM 46-49), Burha-nı-was Amı-r al-shu‘ara-’ to Alp Arsla-n, the second Seljuq sultan (455-65/1063-72), and had taken his laqab from the title Burha-n amı-r al-mu’minı-n granted to Alp Arsla-n by the Caliph al-Qa-’im, just as Mu‘izzı-, in his turn, was to take his own laqab from the title Mu’izz al-Dı-n granted by the same caliph to Alp Arsla-n’s son and successor Maliksha-h (465-85/1072-92). Burha-nı-died in Qazvı-n very early in Maliksha-h’s reign; in a famous line of verse quoted by Niz.a-mı-‘Aru-d. ı-and by ‘Aufı-(p. 299) he states that he is dying and commends his son to Maliksha-h as a worthy successor. There has been some doubt about the authorship of this line, as a lacuna and some confusion in ‘Aufı-’s text associates it with the work of another writer, Adı-b Mukhta-r Zauzanı-, a patron of both Burha-nı-
and Mu‘izzı-; but Niz.a-mı-‘Aru-d. ı-plainly took Burha-nı-to be the author. A number of Mu‘izzı-’s poems are dedicated to patrons of his father, and
he makes much play, as will be seen, with his claim to be the rightful heir to his father’s fame and position: ‘the nightingale’s child’ (Dı-va-n pp. 634-6/575-7). It is, unfortunately, impossible to judge how far Mu‘izzı-’s praise of his father is justified, because little of Burha-nı-’s work has survived, and the virtual absence of references to him in anthologies and works of literary criticism suggests that his dı-va-n disappeared at an early stage. Ra-duya-nı-, who was more or less contemporary with Mu‘izzı-, quotes Burha-nı-once in Tarjuma-n al-bala-gha, but in the following two centuries his name seems to have been forgotten; for example, he is not mentioned in Rashı-d Vatva-t’s H. ada-’iq alsih. r, or in Shams-i Qays’s al-Mu’jam, both of which contain numerous references to Mu‘izzı-. Mu‘izzı-himself quotes his father’s poetry only once, in
a qas.ı-da to Mu‘in al-Mulk Abu-’1-Qa-sim ‘Alı-b.Sa‘ı-d, who was for many years deputy to Fakhr al-Mulk b.Niz.a-m al-Mulk and his son Sadr al-Dı-n Muh.ammad when they held the vizierate under Sanjar (?495-500/?1102-7 and 500-11/1107-17 respectively). ‘A du--bayt of Khwa-ja Burha-nı-suits you, for you are the proof [burha-n] of every du--bayt.’ The du--bayt in question assures the patron that his name and lineage will last till the day of judgment, and is strongly religious in flavour, with two quotations from the Qur’a-n (pp. 612-4/557-9). Another du--bayt, in praise of a successful warleader, perhaps Alp Arsla-n, is quoted by Ra-duya-nı-as an example of a muqatta’ (a short poem), and he comments on its verbal and literal dexterity (pp. 110-13, 256-57). Thirdly, Iqba-l, in the preface to his pioneering edition of Mu‘izzı-’s dı-va-n (pp. 2-4), quotes three lines, whether complete in themselves or part of a longer poem, from a manuscript literary miscellany (jung) in his possession, addressing the patron in conventional terms, but suggesting that the poet is in some distress of body or mind:
O pupil of the eye, don’t leave our sight, and, O dear life, don’t leave our breast.
