{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/saab/saab33.htm","path":"isl/saab/saab33.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/saab/saab33.htm","text":"Salaman and Absal, by Jami, tr. Edward Fitzgerald, [1904]\nWhat follows concerning the Royal Game of Ch\u00fag\u00e1n comes from the Appendix to Vol. 1. of Sir William Ouseley's Travels in the East.\nFird\u00fasi tells of Siavesh and his Iranian (Persian) Heroes astonishing Afrasi\u00e1b of Tur\u00e1n with their Skill at this Game 600 years before Christ; and Gushtasp (Hystaspes), to the sound of Drum and Trumpet, drives the Ball Invisible with his Blow. Niz\u00e1mi sets Sh\u00edr\u00edn and her Maidens playing at it, against her King, Khusrau Parv\u00edz, and his Ministers;\nOuseley however (allowing for Poetic License) believes the Game was played \"through almost every Reign of the Sassanian Dynasty\u2014as much esteemed by the Mahommedan Kings as by their Fire-worshipping Predecessors.\"\n\"We find the Greek Emperor, Manuel Commenus, with his Byzantine Princes and Nobles, enjoying this Amusement on Horse-back in the 12th Century; the Wooden Ball having been exchanged for one more soft, form\u2019d of stuff 'd Leather; and the Stick, or Wand, instead of a Hammer-like Head, terminating in a Hoop; which, as our Battledores or Tennis-rackets, presented to the Ball a reticulated space. This Imperial Sport is well described by the Historian Cinnamus, who\nprobably was a Spectator.\" It went by the slightly altered name Tsukanisterion\u2014which word, however, since Ch\u00fag\u00e1n means the Bandy-stick employed, more properly signifies, I suppose, the Ground played on; and equally related to the Persian, had they chosen to affix, as so often, the Verb common to themselves, the Greeks, the Latins, and us, and called the place of Exercise Ch\u00fag\u00e1nist\u00e1n; or Ch\u00fag\u00e1n-stand.\nPi\u00e9tro della Valle, who saw it played in Shah Abbas\u2019 time (1618), calls it \"Pallamaglio,\" and found both Game and Name subsisting in the Florentine \"Calcio\"\u2014only that the Florentine played a-foot, and the Persian \"piu nobilmente a Cavallo.\" The Spanish Jesuit Ovalle found it also (also on Foot) under the name of \"Chueca,\" in South America, in 1646.\nDucange finds Name and Game also in the \"Chicane\"of Languedoc, from which he naturally thinks it borrowed; not daring to push Derivation to the English word \"Chiquen,\" he says, \"qui signifie un Poullet; en sorte que \u2018Chiquaner\u2019 seroit imiter les Poullets qui ont cout\u00fbme de courir les uns apres les autres pour arracher les morceaux du Bec,\" etc.\nEnglishmen know the Game well (on Foot too, and with such Leather Balls as the Persians perhaps knew not how to harden), under many Forms and Names\u2014Golf, Stow-Ball, Shinty, Hocky, Bandy, etc.\nAnd now with regard to the Frontispiece. It is \"accurately copied\" from an Engraving in Sir William's Book, which he says (and as those who care to look into the Bodleian for it may see), is \" accurately copied from a very beautiful Persian MS., containing the Works of Haf\u00edz, transcribed in the Year 956 of the Hejirah, 1549 of Christ; the MS. is in my own Collection. This Delineation exhibits the Horsemen contending for the Ball; their short Jackets seem peculiarly adapted to the Sport; we see the M\u00edl, or Goals; Servants attend on Foot Holding Ch\u00fag\u00e1ns in readiness for other Persons who may join in the Amusement, or to supply the place of any that may be broken. A young Prince\u2014as his Parr, or Feather, would indicate\u2014receives on his Entrance into the Meidan, or Place of Exercise, a Ch\u00fag\u00e1n from the hands of a bearded Man very plainly dressed; yet (as an intelligent Painter at Ispahan assured me, and as appears from other Miniatures in the same Book) this Bearded Figure is meant to represent Haf\u00edz himself,\" etc.\nThe Persian legend at the Top Corner is the Verse from Haf\u00edz which the Drawing illustrates;\nThough the Sticks, or Bats, are here represented long, they really were (as Chardin and others report) so short as to\ncause the Rider to stoop below the Saddlebow to strike; which, the Horse going full gallop, was great part of the Difficulty. And Tabri describes Events in the Eighth Century (just before his own Time), when Harun Alraschid was still little, so that when on Horseback, \"he could not reach to strike the Ball with a Ch\u00fag\u00e1n.\" Ouseley also, judging from the Illustration (in which Persian Artists are not very accurate), thinks the Ch\u00fag\u00e1n sticks were only generally, or partially. semicircular at the striking End. But that they were so (varying perhaps a little in degree as our Bandy sticks do) is proved by the Text of the Present Poem, as also by a previous line in the Original, where\u2014\nAnd passages in Haf\u00edz speak of his Heart as being carried off by his Beloved's Eyebrow; which no Persian Lover ever dreamt of but as arched indeed.\nAs the \"Fair One\" of Persian Mysticism is the Deity's Self\u2014so the Points of that Beauty (as in our Canticles) adumbrate so many of the Deity's Attributes; varying however with various Poets, or their Commentators. Sir W. Jones speaks of The Hair as emblematic of \"The Expansion of Divine Glory\"\u2014The Lips as of \"Hidden Mysteries\"\u2014The Down of the Cheek as \"Spirits round the\n[paragraph continues] Throne,\" whose central point of excessive Light is darken\u2019d into the Mole upon the Cheek!\u2014Tholuck, from a Turkish Commentary, interprets the Ringlets as \"The Divine Mysteries;\" the Forehead their Manifestation, etc.\nThe Beauty of Abs\u00e1l, though Sensual, yet seduces Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n (The Soul) with its Likeness to the Divine; and her Tresses, as we see, play their part, involving him in their Intricacies. The following Ode of J\u00e1mi's on the subject very happily entangles the Ear with its repetitions of that mysterious Zulf which closes the first two, and every alternate Line, to the End. \"Le Texte de cette Ode,\" says De Sa\u00e7y, \"est d\u2019une Charme inexprimable que l\u2019on chercheroit inutilement dans une Traduction.\" The Persian therefore is here vocalized as nearly as possible in English Notes, to give the Reader a Notion of the harmony which is its chief Merit. But I subjoin for the Lover of literal Translation a very literal one, which he can if he chooses place word for word under the Persian, and, if he will accept a very little help at starting, may construe into what form he pleases: supplying for himself a Verb and a Point where the Reader of the original has to do so.\nThe apostrophized \u2019i (here written, but in Persian only pronounced) either denotes that the following Noun, Pronoun, or Adjective belongs to it as Genitive or\n[paragraph continues] Epithet\u2014as in the first line \"dil\u2019i man\" =\"heart of I (Me);\" or acts merely as a passing Note of harmony (with a People who hate all harshness but in Deed) between any two Consonants and a third, or between any consonanted long Vowel and a succeeding Consonant, unless that long Vowel's Consonant be n. \"Tam\u00e1m \u2019i zulf\" in line 3 is an instance of the \u2019i in its latter use. In both cases it is common in quantity.\nThe ra in the 5th and last lines mark the Dative.\nAy dil\u2019\u00ed man sayd\u2019i dam\u2019\u00ed zulf\u2019i t\u00f3\n D\u00e1m\u2019i dilh\u00e1 gashta n\u00e1m\u2019\u00ed zulf\u2019i to\n Banda shud dar zulf\u2019i t\u00f3 dilh\u00e1 tam\u00e1m\n Dam \u016d band \u00e1mad tam\u00e1m\u2019\u00ed zulf\u2019i to\n D\u00e1d\u2019i tashr\u00edf\u2019 \u00ed gh\u016dl\u00e1m\u2019 \u00ed-bandar\u00e1\n Zulf\u2019i t\u00f3 ay man gh\u016dl\u00e1m\u2019 \u00ed zulf\u2019i t\u00f3\n L\u00e1ik\u2019\u00ed rukhs\u00e1r\u2019i gulrang\u2019 \u00ed t\u014f n\u00edst\n Juz nik\u00e1b\u2019 f mushkif\u2019\u00e1m\u2019 \u00ed zulf\u2019i t\u00f3\n Ram kunand az dam\u2019 i murgh\u00e1n way aj\u00e1b\n J\u00e1n\u2019 i b\u00ed \u00e1r\u00e1m\u2019i r\u00e1m\u2019\u00ed zulf\u2019 i to\n Zulf\u2019i t\u00f3 b\u00e1l\u00e1\u2019i mah d\u00e1rad mak\u00e1m\n Bas buland \u00e1mad mak\u00e1m \u2019i zulf\u2019i to\n Subh\u2019i \u00edkb\u00e1l\u2019 ast\u2019i t\u00e1l\u00ed\u2019 har naf\u00e1s\n Banda-J\u00e1m\u00ed-r\u00e1 zi sh\u00e1m\u2019i zulf\u2019i t\u00f3.\nAh heart I prey snare Ringlet You\n Snare Hearts become name Ringlet you\n Bound are in Ringlet you Hearts wholly\n Snare and bond become wholly Ringlet you\n Give honour Slave-bound p. 59\n Ringlet you Ah I Slave Ringlet you\n Worthy cheek rose-colour\u2019d you not is\n Except Veil musky-natured Ringlet you\n Escape make from Snare Birds Ah strange\n Soul without peace obsequious of Ringlet you\n Ringlet you above Moon has place\n Very high is place Ringlet you\n Dawn Bliss is revealed every breath\n Bondman-J\u00e1mi from Night Ringlet you.","title":"Salaman and Absal: Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n and Abs\u00e1l: Appendix","type":"page"}