“The dreamer who this vision saw, Demanded with becoming awe, What sacred names the happy pair In Irem-bowers were wont to bear. A voice replied: ‘That sparkling moon Is Lailī still—her friend Majnūn; Deprived in your frail world of bliss, They reap their great reward in this!’” Zyd wakened from his wondrous dream, and, rejoicing, told the story of his glad vision. The sons of the desert took up the mystic theme, and still repeat the promise that pure and loyal love can never fail of its final reward. “Saki! Nizāmī’s song is sung; The Persian poet’s pearls are strung; Then fill again the goblet high! Thou wouldst not ask the reveler why Fill to the love that changes never! Fill to the love that lives forever! That purified by earthly woes, At last with bliss seraphic glows. CHAPTER XV. THIRD PERIOD. GENGHIS KHĀN—JALAL-UDDIN RŪMI—SĀ’DĪ—WORKS OF SĀ’DĪ—THE BŪSTĀN—THE PEARL— KINDNESS TO THE UNWORTHY—SILENCE THE SAFETY OF IGNORANCE—DARIUS AND HIS HORSE-KEEPER—STORIES FROM THE GŪLISTĀN—THE WISE WRESTLER—DANGERS OF PROSPERITY—BORES. The third period of Persian poetry, which may be called the mystic and moral age, is assigned to the thirteenth century. It was at this time that Genghis Khān, the Tartar chief, swept like a mountain torrent over the East. His first attack was upon the countries beyond the Oxus, where the devotees of science had taken refuge during the invasion of Persia by the Arabs. Bokhāra and Samarcānd were then the homes of scholars and the centres of civilization. Their colleges and libraries were celebrated throughout the Orient, but during the great Tartar invasion these cities were both destroyed, being stormed and burned by the Tartar horde, while more than two hundred thousand lives were sacrificed to the cruelty of the invading host. Bagdad was also devastated, the colleges destroyed and the most valuable books in the libraries were thrown into the Tigris. During these stormy times the courts of the descendants of the Selucidæ were sought by scholars as places of refuge, some of their princes being literary men. A prince of this dynasty, by the name of Alladin Kaikūbad, became somewhat celebrated in the world of letters, and during his reign Iconium became the refuge of scholars from the Asiatic nations, who felt that on the western frontiers of the continent they were more secure from the attacks of the barbarians. The brightest ornament of this court was the mystic poet and philosopher, JALAL-UDDIN RŪMI.[266]