EDITOR’S PREFACE.

The growing interest in Oriental literature has led me to think that a reprint of my father’s translation of the Sháh Námeh would be acceptable to the public. As one of the “Chandos Classics” it will be brought in a cheap form before a class of readers who would otherwise have no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the “Iliad of the East.”

My father’s work was the first attempt to translate the Sháh Námeh into English. It was printed by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1832, and was honoured by the Royal Gold Medal. The eminent Orientalist, the late Professor H. H. Wilson, in a notice of my father’s literary and artistic labours, says, “His most considerable work was an abridged version and epitome of the great poem of Firdausí, the Sháh Námeh; the narrative in its level passages being translated in prose, and many, rising into poetry and passion, in blank verse or occasionally in rhyme. At the end the episode of Sohráb is reprinted. The great length, and in many respects tediousness, of the entire Sháh Námeh, renders it little likely that a translation of the whole poem would ever be acceptable to an English public, and from this abridgment they may be able to appreciate with some degree of accuracy the merits of the composition.”

In 1838 my father was appointed Superintending Surgeon of the Army of the Indus in the first Affghan Expedition, and was present at the siege and capture of Ghizni. He published a narrative of the Campaign up to the surrender of Dost Mahomad Khan, and a series of lithographic drawings entitled Sketches in Affghanistan. In the former he gives a description of Mahmúd’s tomb, near Ghizni, which he visited with deep interest, and I venture to quote some lines he wrote upon the spot.

“How little thought I. when with pleasing toil,
I sought to foster on another soil
The poet’s flowers of beauty, that kind fate
Would bring me here to Ghizni, now so late
In life, with pilgrim feelings to survey,
The scenes of Mahmúd’s glory in decay;
To seek the spot Firdausí loved to tread.
To think him present—and by fancy led
Wander delicious bowers and groves among.
Listening with fresh delight to his romantic song.
And this is Mahmúd’s tomb, memorial frail.
Had fame not cherished his heroic tale;
The sandal doors no perfume now retain.
Brought by himself from Somnat’s holy fane.
And though pure marble shields his honoured bier.
Corroding years display their footsteps here;
A mulberry bower adorns and marks the place.
Where silent sleeps the monarch of his race.”

In editing the new Edition I have carefully revised the work. I have recast some sentences—have omitted some passages—and have corrected various errors of the press.

J. A. ATKINSON.

LONGSIGHT RECTORY, MANCHESTER,
June, 1886.

CONTENTS

• Cover

• Editor’s Preface

• Kaiúmers

The system of Sir William Jones in the printing of Oriental words has been kept in view in the following work, viz. The letter a represents the short vowel as in bat, á with an accent the broad sound of a in hall, i as in lily, í with an accent as in police, u as in bull, ú with an accent as in rude, ó with an accent as in pole, the diphthong ai as in aisle. au as in the German word kraut or ou in house.

KAIÚMERS.

According to the traditions of former ages, recorded in the Bastan-námeh, the first person who established a code of laws and exercised the functions of a monarch in Persia, was Kaiúmers. It is said that he dwelt among the mountains, and that his garments were made of the skins of beasts.

His reign was thirty years, and o’er the earth
He spread the blessings of paternal sway;
Wild animals, obsequious to his will,
Assembled round his throne, and did him homage.
He had a son named Saiámuk, a youth
Of lovely form and countenance, in war
Brave and accomplished, and the dear delight
Of his fond father, who adored the boy,
And only dreaded to be parted from him.
So is it ever with the world—the parent
Still doating on his offspring. Kaiúmers
Had not a foe, save one, a hideous Demon,[9]
Who viewed his power with envy, and aspired
To work his ruin. He, too, had a son,
Fierce as a wolf, whose days were dark and bitter,
Because the favoring heavens in kinder mood
Smiled on the monarch and his gallant heir.
—When Saiámuk first heard the Demon’s aim
Was to o’erthrow his father and himself,
Surprise and indignation filled his heart,
And speedily a martial force he raised,
To punish the invader. Proudly garbed
In leopard’s skin, he hastened to the war;
But when the combatants, with eager mien,
Impatient met upon the battle-field.
And both together tried their utmost strength,
Down from his enemy’s dragon-grasp soon fell
The luckless son of royal Kaiúmers,
Vanquished and lifeless. Sad, unhappy fate!

Disheartened by this disastrous event, the army immediately retreated, and returned to Kaiúmers, who wept bitterly for the loss of his son, and continued a long time inconsolable. But after a year had elapsed a mysterious voice addressed him, saying:—“Be patient, and despair not—thou hast only to send another army against the Demons, and the triumph and the victory will be thine.

Drive from the earth that Demon horrible,
And sorrow will be rooted from thy heart.”

Saiámuk left a son whose name was Húsheng, whom the king loved much more even than his father.

Húsheng his name. There seemed in him combined,
Knowledge and goodness eminent. To him
Was given his father’s dignity and station.
And the old man, his grandsire, scarcely deigned
To look upon another, his affection
For him was so unbounded.

Kaiúmers having appointed Húsheng the leader of the army, the young hero set out with an immense body of troops to engage the Demon and his son. It is said that at that time every species of animal, wild and tame, was obedient to his command.

The savage beasts, and those of gentler kind,
Alike reposed before him, and appeared
To do him homage.

The wolf, the tiger, the lion, the panther, and even the fowls of the air, assembled in aid of him, and he, by the blessing of God, slew the Demon and his offspring with his own hand. After which the army of Kaiúmers, and the devouring animals that accompanied him in his march, defeated and tore to pieces the scattered legions of the enemy. Upon the death of Kaiúmers Húsheng ascended the throne of Persia.

[9] The first encounter in the Sháh Námeh is between the son of Kaiúmers and a demon. There does not seem to exist among the Persians any very well defined notion respecting these demons, diws, or dives. They are, however, generally represented in human shape, with horns, long ears, and sometimes with a tail, as Lord Monboddo says, “depending from their gable ends,” yet possessed of superior power and intelligence. They are also enchanters, and sorcerers. The most renowned were those of Mazinderán, whom Rustem overthrew. They were always considered superior to common human beings, and always the most effective allies, and the most formidable foes. They were often of caliban-aspect, giants; and though they had the faculty of vanishing whenever they chose, we frequently see them dispatched and slain in battle, in the common way, by sword or battle-axe. They are sometimes like spirits of the storm, wild and destructive, and sometimes they are of less consequence, and occupied in inferior duties. Jemshíd had many in his service. The demons taught Tahúmers the use of letters, after he had conquered them, and had acquired the appellation of Diw-búnd, or the chainer of demons. Diw, or demon, means also a god, or personage of a higher class in the scale of earthly beings.