Later epic poets turned their attention towards more recent historical events and produced rhymed chronicles interspersed with poetical pictures of battles and conquests. The historian Hamdullab Mustaufi wrote a Zafar-nama of 75,00o couplets narrating the events from the birth of the Prophet Mo hammed down to the year 1331. Other poets sang the deeds of Timfir, of the Safavi kings and of the later sovereigns. In India too this kind of poetry was very popular. One of the last produc tions in this style is the huge kirj-nama, i.e., "George-nama," which in 44,00o distichs gives a poetical history of India from its discovery by the Portuguese till the conquest of Poona by the British in 1817.
Heroic fiction, pure and simple, drew its inspiration from various sources : the apocryphal exploits of Alexander the Great were sung in numerous Iskandar-ncimas, of which the earliest and the'most original was completed by Nizdmi (q.v.) about 1202; the subjects of other poems were borrowed from the chivalrous times of the Bedouin Arabs; some were devoted to the heroic exploits of the saints of Islam, especially of the Caliph Ali.
Romantic fiction too was born in the time of Firdousi. Love episodes in the Shah-nama, like that of Zal and Ruddba, are characterized by occasional transitions from the epic to the romantic note. Firdousi's second great math navi Yiisuf-u-Zulaikha is entirely romantic. It represents the oldest poetical treatment of the Biblico-Moslem story of Joseph, which later on tempted many Persian poets, such as Jdmi. Some tales of the Sasanian times were likewise popular among the poets: the Vis-u-Ramin, composed by Fakhr ad-din As'ad Jurjani about 1048, is noteworthy for its resemblance to the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The highest triumph in Persian romantic poetry was scored by Nizdmi
Encomiasts.—Panegyrics, which form an important depart ment of Oriental literatures, are less apt to interest an average reader, but Persian qasidas merit the special attention of all Per sian students, owing to a wonderful mastery of language and expression displayed by their best-known authors. This sort of literature could thrive only under the benevolent looks of the patrons (mamdith) and it will suffice to enumerate the courts which chiefly attracted and encouraged the poets.
What was commenced by the poets of Sultan Mahmud's "Round table," such as 'Unsuri, Farrukhi, Minuchihri (whose divan has been edited by Kazimirski, 1886) and others, reached its per fection in the celebrated group of court-poets who gathered in Mary around the throne of the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar 18– I157), viz., the "King of Poets" Amir Muizzi, killed in
by a stray arrow from his master's bow ; Adib Sabir, drowned in the Oxus (in ) by the order of the Kh5.rizm-shah Atsiz, whose designs against Sanjar he had discovered, and Auhad ad-din Anvari (d. about 1189), perhaps the most celebrated Persian qasida writer. Among Anvari's poems, the one entitled by the Euro pean translators "the Tears of Khorasan" (Browne, II., p. 386) is especially famous; it is a sort of message to Sanjar, then a captive of the Ghuz Turks, describing the sufferings of the people under the invader's yoke.
Of the poets patronized by Sanjar's rival Atsiz the best-known is Rashid Vatvat (the "Swallow," so nicknamed for his small stature), who died in 1182 and left besides a series of qasidas, a valuable treatise on poetry.
Another group of famous qasida-writers is that of Shirvan (in Transcaucasia) and Azerbaijan. The most serious of Anvari's rivals was Khaqdni (d. 1199), court-poet to the
Khdidni was well versed in many of the contemporary sciences and had a profound knowledge of Persian lexicology, which makes it particularly difficult to comment on his qasidas.
Some other notable poets lived under the aegis of the noble Sacidi family whose members held high offices in Isfahan. To this group belonged Sharaf ad-din Shafarva (d. 1204) and Jamal ad din (d. 1192). The latter's son Kamdl ad-din Ismail, who enjoyed a still higher reputation, perished at the hands of the Mongols about 1237.
The first example of a bitter personal satire had been given by Firdousi in his famous invective against Sultan Mahmud. Anvari's sarcasms were pungent but not so reviling. A curious figure is that of 'Ubaid of Zakan, who lived under the Mongols and died in 1370. Many of his jokes are ribald and untranslatable, but his Akhltiq al-a,shraf or "Ethics of Aristocracy" is a clever social satire opposing the "adopted" morale to the old "abrogated" idea of virtue. Satirists of a special kind are Bushaq of Shiraz (beginning of the 15th century), a sort of comic Brillat Savarin singing exclusively of food, and his counterpart Mall Qdri of Yazd, author of sartorial poems.