A Literary History
 
of Persia
 
From Firdawsí to Sa'dí
 
By
 
Edward G. Browne, M.A., M.B.
 
Sir Adams' Professor of Arabic, Fellow of Pembroke
 
College, and sometime lecturer in Persian in the
 
University of Cambridge
 
London
 
T. Fisher Unwin
 
Adelphi Terrace
 
1902
 
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!