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sure that its composition belongs to the time after that period and is more or less modern.
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
On coins târîkhs are very rare; in fact, the only instance which I can at this moment remember is the large gold coin, or rather medal, struck by Jahangir, with a chronogram by Asaf Khân (metre short ramal):-*
شد چو خورزین سکه نوراني جهان آن تاریخ مملکت آفتاب
The world is illuminated by this sunlike coin; hence the sun of the kingdom' is its chronogram. This gives 1014 A.H., the year of Jahangir's accession.
But although the composition of chronograms first became a distinct branch of poetry, and a subject deserving the care of genius, towards the end of the 9th century of the Hijrah, we must not think that târîkhs were entirely unknown to earlier ages. We have chronograms written long before the time of Jâmî, but their manner is quite different from what we now understand by a târîkh. Instead of words or sentences, we merely find unmeaning combinations of Arabic letters, mere mnemo-technical vocables, arbitrarily strung together with insipid rhymes. A few examples will suffice. The oldest inscription with a chronogram that is known to me is the Arabic inscription of Zafar Khan's Mosque at Tribeni, Hûgli District,† which ends with the following line (metre tawil):
صاد ها
من سنين و حاء بتارين وخاء حروف الوقف حسبان قائس
Its date is expressed by the waqf letters, , and, according to the reckoning of him who
counts.
This gives 90+8+ 600, or 698 A.H., or A.D. 1298.
To the seventh century of the Hijrah also belongs the following chronogram given by Minhaj-i-Siraj (Ruba't metre) :
سلخ ماه شوال لقب آدینه خا بود و میم و دال تاریخ عرب شد کوچ نمر خان و طغانخان زجهان
او اول شب گذشت و این آخر شب
"
Friday, the last of the month of Shawwál, and and, was the Arabic tarikh,-When Timur Khăn and Tughin Khán left the world,
Ain translation, pp. 413, 572.
+ See Jour. As. Soc. Beng. 1870, Pt. I. p. 286.
t Tab. Nasirt, edit. Bibl. Indica, p. 248. The name of
[AUGUST, 1874.
the former in the beginning, the latter in the end, of the night.
This gives Friday, 29th Shawwâl 644, or 9th March 1247 A.D.
To a much earlier period belongs the following chronogram, which embodies the principal facts of Avicenna's life (metre khafif) :
حجت الحق ابو علي سينا در شجع آمد از عدم بوجود
در شعا كل علم حاصل کرد در تکز کرد این جهان پدرود
Abú 'Ali Sind, the evidence of truth, was born + ε (373 A.H.); he had learnt +~+1 (394 A.H.); he ++j (427 A.H.
in
+ all sciences in
left this world in
or 1036 A.D.)
Abul Fazl gives this tarikh in the Ain-i-. Akbart (my text edition, p. 280), and adds that the ancients but rarely cultivated the art of composing chronograms.
People would smile now-a-days if a modern poet were to imitate the ancients in this sort of composition.
The above examples sufficiently show the nature of ancient târîkhs; and it is easy to see why classical writers looked upon the composition of such mnemo-technical rhymes as below the dignity of poetry. It seems, however, that in the 8th century of the Hijrah mnemo-technical combinations were cleverly expressed so as to deserve at least the name of happy hits. Thus Timur's invasion of Rûm in 805 (1402-3 A.D.) was expressed by the târîkh L, 800+1+4; but, instead of entering the three letters as a mere mnemo-technical vocable, the chronicler hit upon the ingenious sentence
غلبت الروم في ادني الارض
Rúm, in the end of the earth, was conquered, or rather, Rúm was conquered in the year given in the end of the word (earth), i.e. in st 805 A.H. Chronograms of this nature show the transition from ancient to modern târikhs. After the middle of the 9th century of the Hijrah we look in vain in histories or Tazkirahs for chronograms composed according to the old method.
In 885 (A.D. 1480), when the poet Jâmî in
the historian is generally written Minhaj us Sirkj, which has no sense. The Izdfat between Minhaj and Siraj means 'son of. See also Jour. As. Soc. Beng. 1878, Pt. I. p. 246, note.
