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122 the most marvelous literary achievements and the greatest single production of the age. In the opinion of competent judges, there is no oriental work in Persian that has greater literary merit or more valuable information than Mirkhond's history. It is comprised of seven large volumes and a geographical appendix. The author had just compiled the sixth volume when he died at Balkh after a lingering illness (1498 A. D.). He had worked on these six volumes for a period of thirty-three years. The last and seventh volume was compiled by his grandson, Khondmir. Jami: Abdur Rahman Jami, the last classical Persian poet, was born in 1414, at Jam, a village in Herat. He was endowed with such extensive and varied learning that he was thought peerless in his own time. Even princes, who were themselves men of erudition and possessed great talents, lavished upon him the most unbounded praise and the highest honours. He was an intimate friend of Sultan Abu Said (1452-1467) and his successor, Sultan Hussain Bayaqra (1467-1504). Alisher had geat admiration for the vast knowledge and exemplary character of Jami. Jami has a lucid, fascinating style and a magnificent diction. He was not only a great poet but a moral writer and teacher as well. He died at Herat in 1492. Sultan Hussain Mirza himself was a man of great talents and fine literary taste. He invited to his court the most cultured spirits of the time and appointed them to responsible government posts. During the Timurid period the cities of Afghanistan became brilliant with architectural masterpieces. Herat, the capital, was magnificently embellished with palaces, mosques, shrines and madrasas (college). New materials and new techniques came into use, some of them reflecting Chinese influence. Marble,