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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster Edward Granville Browne Digitized by Google - . A LITERARY HISTORY OF INDIA. By R. W. FRAZER,LL.B. A LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND. By DOUGLAS HYDE, LL.D. A LITERARY HISTORY OF AMERICA. By BARRETT WENDELL. A LITERARY HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. By J. H. MILLAR,LLB. A LITERARY HISTORY OF PERSIA. By EDWARD G. BROWNE,M.A. (In Two Volumes.) Other Volumesin Pretaration. A LITERARY HISTORY OF RUSSIA. By E. H. MINNs. A LITERARY HISTORY OF ARABIA. By R. A. NICHOLSON,M.A. A LIT~RARY HISTORY OF ROME. By J. WIGHT DUFF, M.A. A LITERARY HIS'iO~V OF THE JEWS. By ISRAEL ABRAHAMS,M.A. A LITERARY HISTORY OF SPAl~' By JAMES FITZ• MAURICE-KELLY. A LITERARY HISTORY OF FRANCE. ETC. ETC. ETC. Digitized by Coogle N CD Q. A PERSIAN POET or THE LATE THIRTEENTH CENTURY PRESENTING A Q~iDA OR PAN!GYRIC TO A MONGOL PRINCE OR GoVERNOR. This miniature is from a Persian Manuscript containing selected poems from the Diwans of Six PerslaD poets. The manuscript was transcribed in A.H. 714 (= A.D 131S), formerly belonged to Shah lsma'i! the Safawi, and is now in the India Office Library (~o. 132 --' :'\0. 903 of - Elhc:'s Catalogue). As the artist himself lived in the Mongo! Period, the details of costume may be regarded as authoritative : while the difference of physiognomy between the Persian and the six :\olongols is dearly apparent. Digitized by Coogle A Literary History of Persia From Firdawsl to Sa'df By Edward G. ~rowne, M.A., M.B., F.B.A. Sir Thoma Adam,'Profeuor of Arabic, Fellow of Pembroke Coli., aad IOmetimeLecturerin PeniaD ill the Uaivenity of Cambridae London T. Fisher Unwin Adelphi Terrace 1906 Digitized by Coogle D L :, ~-0 12... s (. ~_) (All rilhis reserued.) ~.1 , Digitized by Coogle j DEDICATION ALTHOUGH this book of mine is all unmeet, Light of mine eyes, to lay at thy dear feet, I think that Alchemy which worketh still Can turn to gold this copper, if it will, Enlarge its merits and ignore its ill. Can I forget how, as it neared its end, A happy chance permitted me to blend Rare intervals of worship ill-concealed, Occasions brief of love but half revealed, Long days of hope deferred, short hours of bliss, Into a happiness so full as this? Now come I, Dearest, for my book to claim Even so great an honour as thy name! Digitized by Coogle Preface THE present volume is a continuation or that which I published in the same series four years ago, and carries the Literary History of Persia on from the beginning of the eleventh to the middle of the thirteenth century of our era. This period, comparatively short as it is, includes most of the greatest poets and writers of the Persians, and I hardly anticipate that I shall be accused by any competent critic of discussing it with undue detail. Should I succeed in carrying out my original plan, by continuing the history down to our own times, I believe that the remaining six centuries and a half can be adequately treated in one volume equal in size to this. Of the defects of this book, now that it is all in type, I am fully sensible. They arise largely from the fact that it was chiefly written during vacations, and that two months or more often elapsed between the completion of one chapter and the beginning of the next. Under present conditions the U ni• versity of Cambridge is far from being the best place in the world for quiet, steady, regular work; and though the books of reference indispensable for a compilation of this kind were there, leisure was only to be found elsewhere, even as the poet Si'ib says :- Shigufa b4 thamar hargiz na-gardad jam' dar yak j,i: Mulufl-ast anii ba-ham ni'mat u dindtin shafJad payda! U Never in one place are found the luscious fruit and blossom fine; Vain it is for one to hope both teeth and dainties to combine I.. In consequence of this, the book, as I am well aware, is ix Digitized by Coogle x PREFACE marred not only by occasional repetitions, but by a certain disconnectedness and lack of uniformity for which I crave the reader's indulgence. On the other hand I have through• out endeavoured to use original sources and to form independent views, and in this I have been aided by several rare works, inaccessible or hardly accessible to my predecessors, of which I may specially mention the Chahtlr Maqtl/a (" Four Discourses'') of NidhAm(.i-'Ani4f of Samarqand, the Lubtlbu'l-A/bdll of Multammad 'Awfi, the MuCajjam of Shams..i-Qays, and my notes on the Rtlbatu'[-$udur of .ar-Rawandl, the Jahtln-gushtl of 'A~ Malik-i-J uwaynl, the Jam;Cu't- Tawarlkh of Rashldu'd• Din FacJ.lu'IIah,and other similar books. The work itself has had my whole heart, and I would that it could also have had my undivided attention. For IsIam and the Perso-Arabian civilisation of Islam I have the deepest admiration; an admiration which it is especially incumbent on me to confess at a time when these are so much mis• understood and misrepresented by Europeans; who appear to imagine that they themselves have a monopoly of civilisation, and a kind of divine mandate to impose on the whole world not only their own political institutions but their own modes of thought. Year by year, almost, the number of independent Muslim States grows less and less, while such as still remain• Persia, Turkey, Arabia, Morocco, and a few others--are ever more and more overshadowed by the menace of European interference. Of course it is in part their own fault, and Asiatic indifference and apathy combine with European " earth-hunger" and lust of conquest to hasten their dis.. integration. To the unreflecting Western mind the ex.. tinction of these States causes no regret, but only exhilarating thoughts of more "openings" for their children and their capital; but those few who know and love the East and its peoples, and realise how deeply we are indebted to it for most of the great spiritual ideas which give meaning and value to life, will feel, with Chesterton's" Man in Green," that with Digitized by Coogle PREFACE xi the subsidence of every such State something is lost to the world which can never be replaced. Yet this is not, perhaps, a question which can be settled by argument, any more than it can be settled by argument which is better, a garden planted with one useful vegetable or with a variety of beautiful Howers, each possessing its own distinctive colour and fragrance. But this at least must be admitted by anyone who has a real sympathy with and understanding of the Spirit of the East, that it suffers atrophy and finally death under even a good and well-meaning European administration; and that for this reason Constantinople, Damascus, Shfm and Fez, for all their shortcomings, do possess something of artistic and in.. tellectual, even, perhaps, of moral value, which Cairo, Delhi, Algiers, and Tunis are losing or have lost. Whether Islam is still bleeding to death from the wounds first inflicted on it by the Mongols six hundred and fifty years ago, or whether the proof given by Japan that the Asiatic is not, even on the physical plane, necessarily inferior to the European may lead to some unexpected revival, is a question of supreme interest which cannot here be discussed.