Maulānā Saifī of Bukhārā was another;[1144] he was a Mullā complete[1145] who in proof of his mullā-ship used to give a list of the books he had read. He put two _dīwāns_ together, one being for the use of tradesmen (_ḥarfa-kar_), and he also wrote many fables. That he wrote no _mas̤nawī_ is shewn by the following quatrain:— Though the _mas̤nawī_ be the orthodox verse, _I_ know the ode has Divine command; Five couplets that charm the heart _I_ know to outmatch the Two Quintets.[1146] A Persian prosody he wrote is at once brief and prolix, brief in the sense of omitting things that should be included, and prolix in the sense that plain and simple matters are detailed down to the diacritical points, down even to their Arabic points.[1147] He is said to have been a great drinker, a bad drinker, and a mightily strong-fisted man. `Abdu'l-lāh the _mas̤nawī_-writer was another.[1148] He was from Jām and was the Mullā's sister's son. Hātifī was his pen-name. He wrote poems (_mas̤nawī_) in emulation of the Two Quintets,[1149] and called them _Haft-manẕar_ (Seven-faces) in imitation of the _Haft-paikar_ (Seven-faces). In emulation of the _Sikandar-nāma_ he composed the _Tīmūr-nāma_. His most renowned _mas̤nawī_ is _Laila and Majnūn_, but its reputation is greater than its charm. Mīr Ḥusain the Enigmatist[1150] was another. He seems to have had no equal in making riddles, to have given his whole time to it, and to have been a curiously humble, disconsolate (_nā-murād_) [Sidenote: Fol. 181.] and harmless (_bī-bad_) person. Mīr Muḥammad _Badakhshī_ of Ishkīmīsh was another. As Ishkīmīsh is not in Badakhshān, it is odd he should have made it his pen-name. His verse does not rank with that of the poets previously mentioned,[1151] and though he wrote a treatise on riddles, his riddles are not first-rate. He was a very pleasant companion; he waited on me in Samarkand (917 AH.). Yūsuf the wonderful (_badī_)[1152] was another. He was from the Farghāna country; his odes are said not to be bad. Āhī was another, a good ode-writer, latterly in Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā's service, and _ṣāḥib-i-dīwān_.[1153] Muḥammad _Ṣāliḥ_ was another.[1154] His odes are tasty but better-flavoured than correct. There is Turkī verse of his also, not badly written. He went to Shaibāq Khān later on and found complete favour. He wrote a Turkī poem (_mas̤nawī_), named from Shaibāq Khān, in the _raml masaddas majnūn_ measure, that is to say the metre of the _Subḥat_.[1155] It is feeble and flat; Muḥammad _Ṣāliḥ_'s reader soon ceases to believe in him.[1156] Here is one of his good couplets:— A fat man (Taṃbal) has gained the land of Farghāna, Making Farghāna the house of the fat-man (Taṃbal-khāna). Farghāna is known also as Taṃbal-khāna.[1157] I do not know whether the above couplet is found in the _mas̤nawī_ mentioned. Muḥammad _Ṣāliḥ_ was a very wicked, tyrannical and heartless person.[1158]