Hajji Baba evinces a feeling disposition--History of the poet Asker.
We made our retreat by the same road we came, but not with the same
expedition, on account of our prisoners. They sometimes walked and
sometimes rode.
The general appearance of the poet had, from the first moment,
interested me in his misfortunes; and being a smatterer in learning
myself, my vanity, perhaps, was flattered with the idea of becoming the
protector of a man of letters in distress. Without appearing to show
any particular partiality to him, I succeeded in being appointed to keep
watch over him, under the plea that I would compel him to make verses;
and conversing in our language, we were able to communicate with
each other with great freedom without the fear of being understood. I
explained my situation, and informed him of my intentions to escape, and
assured him that I would do everything in my power to be useful to him.
He seemed delighted to meet with kind words, where he expected nothing
but ill-treatment; and when I had thus acquired his confidence, he
did not scruple to talk to me freely about himself and his concerns.
I discovered what I had before suspected, that he was a man of
consequence, for he was no less a personage than the court poet,
enjoying the title of _Melek al Shoherah_, or the Prince of Poets. He
was on his road from Shiraz (whither he had been sent by the Shah on
business) to Tehran, and had that very day reached Ispahan, when he had
fallen into our hands. In order to beguile the tediousness of the road
through the Salt Desert, after I had related my adventures, I requested
him to give me an account of his, which he did in the following words:
I was born in the city of Kerman, and my name is Asker. My father was
for a long time governor of that city, during the reign of the eunuch
Aga Mohammed Shah; and although the intrigues that were set on foot
against him to deprive him of his government were very mischievous,
still such was his respectability, that his enemies never entirely
prevailed against him. His eyes were frequently in danger, but his
adroitness preserved them; and he had at last the good fortune to die
peaceably in his bed in the present Shahs reign. I was permitted to
possess the property which he left, which amounted to about 10,000
tomauns. In my youth I was remarkable for the attention which I paid
to my studies, and before I had arrived at the age of sixteen I was
celebrated for writing a fine hand. I knew Hafiz entirely by heart,
and had myself acquired such a facility in making verses, that I might
almost have been said to speak in numbers. There was no subject that I
did not attempt. I wrote on the loves of Leilah and Majnoun;[19] I never
heard the note of a nightingale, but I made it pour out its loves to the
rose; and wherever I went I never failed to produce my poetry and chant
it out in the assembly. At this time the king was waging war with Sadik
Khan, a pretender to the throne, and a battle was fought, in which his
majesty commanded in person, and which terminated in the defeat of the
rebel. I immediately sang the kings praises. In describing the contest
I made Rustam appear standing in a cloud over the field of battle; who
seeing the king lay about him desperately, exclaims to himself, Lucky
wight am I to be here instead of below, for certainly I should never
escape from his blows. I also exerted my wit, and was much extolled
when I said, that Sadik Khan and his troops ought not to repine after
all; for although they were vanquished, yet still the king, in his
magnanimity, had exalted their heads to the skies. In this, I alluded
to a pillar of skulls which his majesty had caused to be erected of
the heads of the vanquished. These sayings of mine were reported to the
Shah, and he was pleased to confer upon me the highest honour which a
poet can receive; namely, causing my mouth to be filled with gold coin
in the presence of the whole court, at the great audience. This led to
my advancement: and I was appointed to attend at court, and to write
verses on all occasions. In order to show my zeal, I represented to the
king, that as in former times our great Ferdousi had written his Shah
Nameh, or the History of the Kings, it behooved him, who was greater
than any monarch Persia ever possessed, to have a poet who should
celebrate his reign; and I entreated permission to write a Shahin Shah
Nameh, or the History of the King of Kings; to which his majesty was
most graciously pleased to give his consent. One of my enemies at court
was the lord high treasurer, who, without any good reason, wanted to
impose upon me a fine of 12,000 tomauns, which the king, on the plea
that I was the first poet of the age, would not allow. It happened
one day, that in a large assembly, the subject of discussion was the
liberality of Mahmoud Shah Ghaznevi to Ferdousi, who gave him a miscal
of gold for every couplet in the Shah Nameh. Anxious that the king
should hear what I was about to say, I exclaimed: The liberality of his
present majesty is equal to that of Mahmoud Shah--equal did I say?--nay
greater; because in the one case, it was exercised towards the most
celebrated poet of Persia; and in my case, it is exercised towards the
humble individual now before you.
All the company were anxious to hear how and when such great favours
had been conferred upon me. In the first place, said I, when my
father died, he left a property of 10,000 tomauns; the king permitted
me to inherit it; he might have taken it away--there are 10,000 tomauns.
Then the lord high treasurer wanted to fine me 12,000 tomauns; the king
did not allow it--there are 12,000 more. Then the rest is made up of
what I have subsisted upon ever since I have been in the Shahs service,
and so my sum is made out. And then I took to my exclamations of May
the king live for ever!--may his shadow never be less!--may he conquer
all his enemies!--all of which I flattered myself was duly reported to
his majesty: and some days after I was invested with a dress of honour,
consisting of a brocade coat, a shawl for the waist, and one for the
head, and a brocade cloak trimmed with fur. I was also honoured with the
title of Prince of Poets, by virtue of a royal firman, which, according
to the usual custom, I wore in my cap for three successive days,
receiving the congratulations of my friends, and feeling of greater
consequence than I had ever done before. I wrote a poem, which answered
the double purpose of gratifying my revenge for the ill-treatment I
had received from the lord high treasurer, and of conciliating his
good graces; for it had a double meaning all through: what he in his
ignorance mistook for praise, was in fact satire; and as he thought
that the high-sounding words in which it abounded (which, being mostly
Arabic, he did not understand) must contain an eulogium, he did not
in the least suspect that they were in fact expressions containing
the grossest disrespect. In truth, I had so cloaked my meaning, that,
without my explanation, it would have been difficult for any one to have
discovered it. But it was not alone in poetry that I excelled. I had a
great turn for mechanics, and several of my inventions were much admired
at court. I contrived a wheel for perpetual motion, which only wants one
little addition to make it go round for ever. I made different sorts of
coloured paper; I invented a new sort of ink-stand; and was on the high
road to making cloth, when I was stopped by his majesty, who said to me,
Asker, stick to your poetry: whenever I want cloth, my merchants bring
it from Europe. And I obeyed his instructions; for on the approaching
festival of the new years day, when it is customary for each of his
servants to make him a present, I wrote something so happy about a
toothpick, I which I presented in a handsome case, that the principal
nobleman of the court, at the great public audience of that sacred
day, were ordered to kiss me on the mouth for my pains. I compared his
majestys teeth to pearls, and the toothpick to the pearl-diver; his
gums to a coral-bank, near which pearls are frequently found; and the
long beard and mustachios that encircled the mouth to the undulations of
the ocean. I was complimented by everybody present upon the fertility
of my imagination. I was assured that Ferdousi was a downright ass when
compared to me. By such means, I enjoyed great favour with the Shah; and
his majesty being anxious to give me an opportunity of acquiring wealth
as well as honours, appointed me to be the bearer of the usual annual
dress of honour which he sends to his son, the prince of the province
of Fars. I was received at Shiraz with the greatest distinctions, and
presents were made to me to a considerable amount; which, in addition
to what I had levied from the villages on the road, made a handsome sum.
The event of last night has deprived me of all: all has been stolen from
me, and here you see me the most miserable of human beings. If you do
not manage to help me to escape, I fear that I shall die a prisoner.
Perhaps the king may be anxious to release me, but certainly he will
never pay one farthing for my ransom. The lord high treasurer is not my
friend; and since I told the grand vizier, that with all his wisdom he
did not know how to wind up a watch, much less how it was made, I fear
that he also will not care for my loss. The money, with which I might
have purchased my ransom, the barbarians have taken; and where to
procure a similar sum I know not. It is my fate to have fallen into this
disaster, therefore I must not repine; but let me entreat you, as you
are a fellow Mussulman--as you hate Omar, and love Ali--let me entreat
you to help me in my distress.[20]
[Illustration: The princes tent-pitcher strikes Hajji over the mouth
with his slipper. 6.jpg]