ABSTRACT
IN this chapter I propose to depart from the chronological sequence of events which I have hitherto striven to observe, and to consider together four poets of the later Seljuq period, who are, by the general consent of their countrymen, amongst the greatest masters of verse whom Persia has produced. T h e y were not strictly contemporary, and only one of them can be called a Seljuq poet, but they may conveniently be discussed and contrasted in a single chapter, since they are all figures in the literary world of Persia too important to be summarily dismissed. These four poets are Anwari of Khawardn in Khurasdn, who, though he survived Sanjar some thirty or forty years, achieved his reputation in that monarch's reign ; Khiqanf, the poet of Shirwanshdh, born at Ganja (now Elizavetpol) in A.H. 500 (A.D. 1 1 0 6 - 7 ) ; Nidhamf, also born at Ganja some thirty-five years later ; and Dhahiru 'd-Dln Farydbi, born at Farydb near Balkh, who, during the latter part of the twelfth century, frequented in turn the Courts of Tughanshah of Nishapur, Husamu'd-Dawla Ardashir of Mazandaran, and the Atdbeks of Adharbayjin, and finally died at Tabriz about the beginning of the thirteenth century,
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ANWAR/ 3 65
O f these four poets Anwarf is at once the most ancient and the most Celebrated, and in the following well-known verse
is even ranked as one of the three greatest poets AdwsiL ,
whom Persia has produced : —
Dar shi'r si tan payambaran-and, Qawlist ki jumlagi bar an-and : Firdawsi u Anwari u Sa'di, Har chand ki 'La nabiyya ba'd?*
It is difficult for an European student of Persian, however anxious he may be to give due weight to the opinion of native critics, to think of Anwar( as the equal of Firdawsi and Sacdi, or as the superior of Ndsir-i-Khusraw or Nidhdmf, but this is partly because, as I have already pointed out, the panegyricand most of Anwarfs qasidas were panegyrics-however skilfully constructed, can seldom arouse much enthusiasm, save in the heart of him whose praises it celebrates. A friend of mine, Mfrza Muhammad, one of the most learned and scholarly Persians whom it has ever been my good fortune to meet, is of opinion that Anwari's reputation rests mainly on the comparatively small number of his qasidas which are not panegyrics, and this view is probably the true one. In most other forms of verse, such as the ghazal and quatrain, Anwari is not specially distinguished, though his fragments (muqatta^at) often reveal a strong individuality.
