EPIGRAM ON SULTAN MAHMOUD

’Tis said our monarch’s liberal mind
Is like the ocean unconfined.
Happy are they who prove it so;
’Tis not for me that fact to know:
I’ve plunged within its waves, ’tis true,
But not a single pearl could view.

-Ferdowsi (Abu ʾl-Qasim Ferdowsi Tusi) (935 – 1020) Iran

This poem made me curious about the particular sultan Ferdowsi was referring to, so I poked around. The poet lived in Medieval Iran, and from this detailed Wikipedia list of the Monarchs of Iran, it must have been Mahmoud of Ghazni he was writing about. I learned from another site more about the backstory of this cleverly insulting verse, how it is an example of the relationship challenges between artists and their patrons going back centuries:

“In addition to his military prowess, Mahmud was also a patron of learning and the arts, and Ghazni became a cultural center second only to Baghdad. The great Persian poet Ferdowsi presented his epic poem the Shanameh (Book of Kings) to Mahmud in 1010 CE. Although the Shahnameh is recognized as the greatest and most influential work of Persian literature, Mahmud was not so impressed, and instead of paying Ferdowsi the promised one gold dinar per couplet, instead only gave him a silver dirham per couplet. Despite this unfortunate incident, Mahmud is nonetheless considered a great patron of the arts.” 

Below are examples of the bilingual coins used during Mahmud’s reign, with Arabic on one side and Sanskrit on the other: