In Praise of the Vizier Mirza Taleb Khan

Mirza Taleb Khan, a vizier with the worth of Asaf and the grandeur of Jamshid, the kind of minister wisdom itself has never seen. Long ago, the heavens, to support the realm, had handed him the seal of the vizier's office. Then it took the seal back for a while, so that people would learn no one had ever been so faithful a guardian of state and faith as he. Now again, in the days of the fortunate king, his just rule rings out like a struck basin announcing fairness everywhere. In his time, from all four corners of the world, the ear of the age has heard not a single groan of complaint. By his good fortune, across all six directions, no royal throne has lacked a worthy king to sit on it. Shah Safi, whose bounty is such that without it not even an unborn child remains in the womb of hope. The king set the seal of the vizier's office on his finger, and so a piece of earth rose to the rank of heaven. When my lofty, star bright nature wished, that night, to draw from Mercury the words to mark this date, Mercury, the moment the king entrusted the writing to him, said: such a king deserves such a vizier.