The poet and his patron: did Ferdowsi write for Maḥmud's gold, and is the satire on Maḥmud his?

Ferdowsi, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Ferdowsi answers

I did not write for Maḥmud's gold. I began the book long before he had a throne to give, and what I asked of my labour was that it outlast every throne. At the close I say it plainly: five and thirty years I bore my pain in this Wayside Inn in quest of gain, and the years naught helped; they gave my travail to the blast, and my hopes are gone now that my age has all but reached fourscore.1

That is the confession of an old man who hoped for a reward. It is not the confession of a man whose purpose was the reward. And I praised Maḥmud there all the same: may Shah Maḥmud flourish for ever, I have so lauded him that my words will never die.1 A book of kings is dedicated to a king, and that praise stands where such praise belongs. I do not call it irony.

What I claim is something the sultan could neither give nor take. Before the book was ended, men of Persia, well read and of high degree, wrote out my work and would take no fee, and I had from them naught but their praises, while the mouths of their money-bags were tied.1 Then comes the last claim: yet live I shall, the seed of words have I flung broadcast, and henceforth I shall not die.1

That claim never depended on any sultan, and it was true. As for the satire, I will tell you what is in it and where it is set. It opens: "Ho! Shah Maḥmud who hast as victor trod the climes! if man thou fearest not fear God." It reckons the Shahs before him, greater in treasure, host and crown, who dealt justly with their subjects and sought only an honoured name.2

It then turns on the sultan's birth, saying that a slave-girl's brat is a worthless thing though a king may father it, and that he could not heed royal precedent because his kindred are of mean estate and he cannot bear to hear about the great.3 It speaks of the sherbet-seller's fee he gave for thirty years of toil.3 It names its own boast: I have raised these dead, as Jesus did, and the palace of my poetry shall not be marred by storm and rain.4

I will not swear to all of it as my settled word. These verses are found at the head of later copies, and I give you the satire as attributed to me. A man cheated of what he was promised, at the end of thirty-five years, might well have written some of those lines, and some of it may be the work of other hands. What is certain is that the defence of my faith in it is the faith of my Prelude.

I serve the Prophet and ʿAli until Resurrection-morn, even if the Shah should have my body torn asunder.5 Whoever the author of each couplet, the claim beneath them agrees with the closing pages. The poem is built on the memory of the kings, and that memory was not Maḥmud's to buy.

The position in brief

The poet began the book long before Maḥmud and finished it in his reign; he praised him as kings are praised in the prefaces of royal books and hoped, being old and poor, for a reward. The reward did not come as he hoped, and the closing pages say so. The satire set at the head of later copies is attributed to him: some lines may be his, much is the work of others. What the poet claims is not the sultan's gold but the life his words will have when the sultan is forgotten.6789

Sources

  1. For five and thirty years I bore much pain / Here in this Wayside Inn in quest of gain, / But all the five and thirty years thus past / Naught helped; they gave my travail to the blast
    The Shahnama, Vol. IX
  2. Ho! Shah Mahmud who hast as victor trod / The climes! if man thou fearest not fear God
    Satire on Sultan Mahmud
  3. The slave-girl's brat is but a worthless thing / Although it may be fathered by a king.
    Satire on Sultan Mahmud
  4. Have raised these dead, as Jesus did, and made / Their names live, one and all
    Satire on Sultan Mahmud
  5. These two I serve till Resurrection-morn / E'en if the Shah should have my body torn / Asunder.
    Satire on Sultan Mahmud
  6. Such is the famous and exalted throng That I have made the subject of my song, All dead for ages but my poetry Hath caused their names to live again, for I Have raised these dead, as Jesus did, and made Their names live, one and all, and I have laid A servitude upon myself for thee, O king! to keep thy name in memory.
    Satire on Sultan Mahmud
  7. What others say can make no difference To me; I never speak but in this sense, And if the Shah adopt another strain His wisdom weigheth not one barley-grain. When God shall set the Prophet and 'Ali On royal thrones I, if my poetry Came from my love to them, shall in the skies Have five-score like Mahmiid to patronise.
    Satire on Sultan Mahmud
  8. Persians well read and men of high degree Wrote all my work out and would take no fee. I over-looked from far, and thou hadst said That they had rather handselled me instead! Naught but their praises had I for my part, And while they praised I had a broken heart. The mouths of their old money-bags were tied, Whereat mine ardent heart was mortified.
    The Shahnama, Vol. IX
  9. ' ' Barzwi replied: " thou whose crown is higher Than sun and moon! the wearer of king's raiment Hath access to the crown and throne of might, And furthermore, when people shall behold Mine own unworthy self in royal robes, My toes' hearts will be strait and overcast. My friends' cheeks keep their lustre and their bloom.
    The Shahnama, Vol. VII

Where the argument is made

  • The Prelude's praise of Abu Manṣur and The Praise of Sultan Mahmud (vol. I)
  • the praises of Maḥmud set into the later reigns
  • the Account of the Completion of the Shāhnāma (vol. IX) on thirty-five years of labour, the patrons who gave nothing, the praise of Maḥmud and the poet's claim never to die
  • the Satire on Sultan Mahmud transmitted in later manuscript prefaces (in the Warners' translation)

How the argument was received

The most famous story about any Persian poet, and almost all of it legend; the satire's authenticity has been doubted since Nöldeke.