Faizi

[4][5] In pursuance of the literary practice then in vogue, Faizi planned to produce a Panj Ganj (literally five treasures) or Khamsa in imitation of the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi.

At the age of 30, he started writing five works: the Nal o Daman (a Persian imitation of the famous Indian epic Nala and Damayanti), the Markaz ul-Advar (The Centre of the Circle), the Sulaiman o Bilqis (Solomon and Balkis – the queen of Sheba), the Haft Kishvar (The Seven Zones of the Earth) and the Akbarnama (The History of Akbar).

[1] He wrote a number of books in Arabic which include "Swati al-Ilham" and "Mawarid al-Kalam" (written without dotted letters) and translated Bhaskaracharya's celebrated Sanskrit work on mathematics, Lilavati, into Persian.

Notwithstanding his spiritual and worldly perfections, he took no step without my concurrence, indiscreet as I am, and devoting himself to my interests, advanced my promotion and was an aid to good intentions.

In his poems he speaks of me in a manner which I cannot sufficiently acknowledge, as he says in his eulogium: My verse may share both great and little worth to subhraj, Its theme sublime—I lowlier than the earth.

A father's virtues shall it far proclaim And vaunt the glory of a brother's fame: He, touchstone of all wisdom, who inspires My strain with sweetness that a world admires; If through a riper age, I pass him by, In merit, centuries between us lie.

In this work I have already written of him and poured forth the anguish of my heart, and quenched its furnace with the water of narration and broken the dam of its torrents and alleviated my want of resignation.