one of the descendants of Sultán Mahmúd-i Ghází of Ghazní, who is celebrated by the sage Sanáí,1 issued a command, so that the most eloquent of eloquent men and the most powerful of rhetoricians, Abú'l Ma'álí Naṣru'lláhbin-Muhammad-bin-Al-Hamíd (God rest his soul, and grant him increasing triumph in the mansions of Paradise!) translated it from the copy of Ibn-i Mukann'a, and this book, which has now become celebrated by [the name of] Kalílah and Damnah, is the translation of the aforesaid learned man2; and, in truth, its style in elegance resembles the sweetness of life; and in freshness it is like many-hued coral; and its fascinating words are like the loveallurements of honey-lipped mistresses, whose charms provoke dissension; and its life-increasing meanings may be compared to the ringlets of tender youths, who delight the heart. VERSE. Its words are like the ringlets of the beauties of Chigil; 3 Its meanings, [sparkling] underneath its letters' inky night, Are brilliant as the sunny ray, or like the moon-beams bright. To the blackness of its letters, which may be termed the collyrium of the jewels of meaning, a place might be given on the white page of the tablet of the visual organ; and to the whiteness of its paper, which may be called the dawn of the morning of joyousness, a location might be assigned on the dark pupil of the world-viewing eye. COUPLET. On the white tablet of a Húrí's eye 't were duc, That Eden's penman traced its letters' inky hue. And, although those who sit on the throne of the court of style are unanimous in praise of the magnificence of the words, and in applauding the eloquence of its compounds, HEMISTICH. Truly the word is that which Hazám3 said; nevertheless, through the introduction of strange words and by overstraining the language with the beauties of Arabic expressions and hyperbole in metaphors and similes of various kinds, and exaggeration and prolixity in words and obscurity of expression, the mind of the hearer is kept back from enjoyment of the meaning of the book, and from apprehending the pith of the 1 Sanaí (or Sináí) was a celebrated Persian poet, often styled Khwajah or Hakim Sanáí. His proper name was Muhammad-bin-Adam, and he was the author of a religious poem called the fláhí Námah, consisting of prayers and hymns, also of some odes, and of a religious poem called the Hadikah, or 'palm-plantation.' He flourished about 1180 A.D. 2 Lit., Our Lord. 3 A city (says the Dictionary) in Turkestán, famous for handsome men and expert archers. 4 The Orientals to this day believe that if pearls, rubies, or other jewels are dissolved and mixed with collyrium, they produce a most beneficial effect on the eyes. From the same notion, I have been advised to look constantly at a turquoise ring to refresh the weary sight. 5 I am ashamed to say I can throw no light on this dictum of Ḥazam. The lithographed edition reads Hazám-i, and one MS. Huzám. subject; and the disposition of the reader also is unable to perform the task of connecting the beginnings of the story with the terminations, and of adjusting the commencements of the discourse with the conclusions; and this circumstance will undoubtedly be a cause of disrelish and a source of ennui both to the reader and the hearer, especially in this age, so characterized by fastidiousness, in which the minds of its children have become nice to such a degree that they expect1 to perceive the meaning without its being decked out on the richly ornamented bridal-bed, as it were, of language; how much more when in some of the words they may require to employ a minute comparison of the dictionary, and to examine glossaries with care. Hence, too, it all but came to pass that a book of such preciousness [as this is] was almost neglected and abandoned, and that the people of the world were deprived of its advantages and excluded from them. On this account, at the present time, His Highness the seal of sovereignty, whose luminously gifted nature comprehends all perfections, and whose sublimely characterized qualities have risen from the dawning-place of excellence and spirituality, the magnanimous Lord, who, notwithstanding his proximity to His Majesty the Sultan of the age and the Khákán3 of the time, the spreader of the carpet of security and peace, the Diffuser of the marks of goodness and beneficence, the Sun of the zenith of the Khaláfats and empire, the Jupiter of the zodiac of dominion and principality, COUPLET. King! thou art balm to eyes of princes, ruler thou of east and west! 4 Abú 'l-Ghází Sultán Husain, realm and doctrine on thee rest. (May God perpetuate his kingdom and his power!) yea, notwithstanding the being looked on with favour by the glances of that high personage, endowed as they are with the properties of the philosopher's stone, [still] he has shaken free his magnanimous skirt from the dust of worldly pageants ('But the present life is only a deceitful provision') and has not permitted the page of his pure heart to be inscribed with 1 One MS. reads mi-dánand for mí-dárand, which is the reading of the lithographed edition and that of 1851. 2 Kashf-i ma'ání, ‘Manifestation of Meanings,' is the title of certain glossaries. 3 A title of the ruler of Turkestán, see p. 6, note 4. It is applied generally to any monarch. 4 Husain Mírzá, king of Khurásán, son of Manşúr, the son of Baikarah, the son of 'Umar Shekh, second son of Timúr or Tamerlane, was surnamed Abú 'l Ghází, on account of his victories; for he defeated and put to death Jadighiar, the son of Muhammad Mirza, the son of Baissancor, the son of Shah Rukh, fourth son of Tamerlane, who had made himself master of Khurásán, and of the city of Hírát, his capital, in A.H. 875 = A.D. 1470. He also carried on many wars and obtained signal victories over the Uzbak Tátárs, who had chased Bábar from Transoxiana. He was a great patron of learned men; and Khondemir finished his history at his Court, A.H. 904. He died A.H. 911 A.D. 1505. (See D'Herbelot, s.v.) = 5 Kur'an, Mar., ch. iii. 186; Sale, p. 53, l. 10: 'Every soul shall taste of death, and ye shall have your rewards on the day of resurrection; and he who shall be far removed from COUPLET. The magic of this five-day, fleeting dream— Land and domains-which fools perpetual deem, and has kept in full view, [as a guide] to his own affairs, this saying of happy tendency COUPLET. Fairer the mole of self-restraint upon the cheek of might; and regards the promoting of the wishes of the oppressed and the disappointed, and the furthering of the affairs of the bereft, as the means of acquiring provision for the final state; nor has suffered himself to be stigmatized with neglecting the meaning of this excellent memento, COUPLET. Fortune's ten-day fickle friendship is a false, bewildering spell : Deem advantage lies in serving those, my friend! who love thee well.1 And he is the great Amir, the place where all excellencies and high qualities' centre through the sublimity of his spirit, the favoured with the gifts of the sole King, the Orderer of the state and of religion, the Amir Shekh Ahmad, celebrated by the title Suhaili,3 (may God bestow on him, as an especial distinction, the peace of Salmán amd the perfection of Kumail, who, without compliment, is the star Canopus, shining from the right hand of Yaman, and a sun, diffusing radiance from the dawning-place of affection and fidelity. COUPLET. Where'er, Canopus! falls thy ray, and where Thou risest, fortune's marks are surely there. With a view to the universal diffusion of what is advantageous to mankind, and the multiplying what is beneficial to high and low, he condescended to favour me with an intimation of his high will that this humble individual, devoid of ability, and this insignificant person of small capital, Husain-bin 'Alí-u'l-Wá'iz, known by the name of Káshifi (May God most High strengthen him with His hidden favours),5 should be bold enough to clothe the said book in a new dress, and bestow fresh adornment on the beauty of its tales of esoteric meaning, which were veiled and concealed by the curtain of obscure hell-fire, and shall be admitted into Paradise, shall be happy; but the present life is only a deceitful possession.' 1 These lines occur in the third ode of Háfiz; Calcutta lithographed edition, p. 34, 1. 7. ? It should be as in both the lithographed and MS. editions, wa'l-maʼalí. The printed edition has dropped the wa. 3 Of this worthy I know no more than that he was the Generalissimo of Sultán Husain above mentioned [see p. 9, note 4], that he was surnamed Suhaili, and that at his instigation, Kashifi completed his new translation of Bidpáí's Fables. 4 This word Kumail signifies in Arabic 'accomplished,' and is the surname of several illustrious persons. A king of this name reigned in Egypt, A.D. 1218, and was the nephew of Saladin, and a great conqueror. See D'Herbelot, vol. i., page 246 for Salmán sce D'Herbelot, vol. ii., p. 802, but it is doubtful to whom the allusion applies. 5 The lithographed edition reads bi'l-lut fu'l khafi for the bi'l-lu! fu'l-ḥakki of the printed edition. words and the wimple of difficult expressions, by presenting them on the stages of lucid style and the upper chambers of becoming metaphors, after a fashion that the eye of every examiner, without a glance of penetration or penetration of vision, may enjoy a share of the loveliness of those beauties of the ornamented bridal-chamber of narrative, and the heart of every wise person, without the trouble of imagining or the imagining trouble,' may obtain the fruition of union with those delicately reared ones of the closet of the mind. DISTICHS. Thus spake the man of eloquence to me, "O gardener of the garden of debate! So plant the trees of hidden meaning that Shall thus address thee, "O thou fortunate! And as there was no evading obedience to that peerless mandate, and the maxim Wisdom is from Yaman,' shewed itself from the dawning-place of the light of Canopus, COUPLET. Wisdom from Arabia come-so the Prince of Arabs 2 said; 1 After prayer for the blessing of God, and asking leave, I entered on this undertaking; and, whatever has flowed from the tongue of my pen and the pen of my tongue from the invisible world,-that has been written down: and [the reader] must know that the basis of the book Kalílah and Damnah is on practical wisdom,3 and by practical wisdom is meant knowledge of the actions of the will and the practices natural to the human race, in a manner that may be conducive to the ordering of the affairs of the world to which we must return, and the present world of men, and may tend to arriving at perfection in those things at which men aim. And this kind of wisdom is first of all divided into two kinds, the one, that which may be referred to each person individually; the second, that which relates to a body of men viewed in association. The former of these, which is referable to each person individually, and in which the society of another is not supposable, they call 'refinement of morals;' and the other, which has reference to a collective body, admits of a second two-fold division,-the one, partnership in abode and 1 These intolerable insipidities are considered beauties of style. 2 That is, Muḥammad. Canopus, after which star Shehk Ahmad was called, rose to the right of the heavens looking from Hírát, and consequently in the direction of Arabia; and the Prophet said that wisdom came from Arabia, wherefore wisdom might be looked for under the auspices of this Canopus. Such is the meaning of this trifling. 3 The hikmat-i'amali is φρόνησις opposed to 'ilm, ἐπιστήμη and dunάί, σοφία. habitation, which they call domestic economy; and the other community in city and country, and, moreover, in clime and realm, which is named civic economy; and the said book comprehends the three kinds that have just been mentioned, and various advantages connected with the latter sorts, and that which has reference to refinement of morals,' is not treated of, save incidentally. Wherefore, although the means existed of adducing somewhat as to the excellencies of morals, we were loth to allow of a complete change in the arrangement of the book, and hence avoiding the hindrance of an increase to its chapters, we adhered to the same plan that had been adopted by the sage of Hind, and having dropped the first two chapters, in which no extraordinary advantage was discoverable, and which did not enter into the original design of the book, we wrote the other fourteen in a clear and easy style, and included in the composition the tales in the way of dialogue between the King and the Brahman, after the manner mentioned in the beginning: and before introducing the opening chapters, we thought it necessary to commence with a story, which may serve as a source of the narrative; and further, since the style adopted in the said book is to employ as a medium obscurity of expression, so, if in the composition of the said work the reins of narration have turned from the usual road in which authors write, and from the mode of composition of ordinary writers to the path of descent, the excuse will be plain. COUPLET. I that have strung these pearls of sense, indite No word but that which others bade me write. It is further to be noted that in the midst of the tales I have but briefly availed myself of the various sorts of Arabic expressions, by introducing certain verses from the Kur'án and sayings of the Prophet necessary to be mentioned, and traditions and well-known proverbs; and have not clogged the work by employing Arabic verses, but have adorned the page of the narrative with the jewels of Persian poetry, which is inlaid like blended gems and gold. DISTICHS. Let thy discourse be blent in skilful wise, Since now in this the changeful mind finds ease, Now that delights, and this has ceased to please. Moreover, in the place where the different chapters are written, wherever the introduction of a story or the recital of a maxim seemed pertinent, in accordance with the observation, HEMISTICH. 'Tis fit that nosegays should with grass be bound. I shall proceed with the steps of boldness on the road of self-discretion, and this poor person, though he sees that in attempting this work he is a mark |