THIS volume concludes the task which I undertook more than twenty-two years ago, and which represents the labour of a life-time, for ever since I began the study of Persian in the summer of 1880, being then only eighteen years of age, the desire to write a complete Literary History of Persia has increasingly possessed me. The first instal­ment, “from the earliest times until Firdawsí,” carried the history down to the early days of the eleventh century of the Christian era, and was published in 1902; and the con­tinuation, down to the Mongol Invasion in the middle of the thirteenth century, in 1906, both these volumes being published by Mr Fisher Unwin. Fourteen years elapsed ere the third volume, entitled A History of Persian Litera­ture under Tartar Dominion (A.D. 1265-1502), saw the light. The reasons which led me to issue it in a form and under a title differing somewhat from its predecessors are explained on p. viii of the Preface, but essentially it constitutes the third volume of the Literary History of Persia, just as this, which deals with the last four centuries (A.D. 1500-1924), and is entitled, as foreshadowed in the same Preface (p. ix), A History of Persian Literature in Modern Times, is to be regarded as the fourth and last volume of the work.

Although I cannot regard this present volume as superior to its three predecessors in form or interest, and am fully aware of its defects, I think that it contains more new matter and represents more original research than the others. Owing to the opinion prevalent not only in Europe, but to a considerable extent in Turkey and India also, that poetry is the only department of Persian literature which merits much attention, and that little poetry worth reading has been produced since the time of Jámí, the literature of the last four centuries has been very much neglected, and the sources of which I have made use are almost exclusively Persian, and, until the nineteenth century is reached, when printing and lithography were gradually introduced into Persia, chiefly manuscript. In the formation of my Persian library I have always had regard to the requirements of my work rather than to mere beauty of illumination, illustration, or hand-writing, and I have been singularly fortunate in acquiring the very interesting collection of the late Sir Albert Houtum Schindler and a number of the rare and precious manuscripts collected by the late Ḥájji 'Abdu'l-Majíd Belshah. To Mr A. G. Ellis I am indebted for the generous loan, often for a period of several years, of many rare books to which I could not otherwise have obtained access; while for constant and ungrudging help I am under the deepest obligations to his successor in the Oriental Book Department of the British Museum, Mr E. Edwards, as well as to Dr L. Barnett, the Head of that Department.

I wish that I could have profited more by the counsel of my Persian friends, especially Mírzá Muḥammad Khán of Qazwín and Ḥájji Mírzá Yaḥyá of Dawlatábád, during the progress of this work, but to my old acquaintance Ḥusayn Dánish Bey of the Ottoman Public Debt, a notable man of letters both in Persian and Turkish, I am indebted for many valuable and illuminating observations. Another old friend, Sayyid Ḥasan Taqí-záda, fortunately chanced to visit this country after an absence of some fourteen years while the last sheets of this book were passing through the Press, and he most kindly read through the proofs and favoured me with numerous observations and corrections which will be noticed under the Errata and Addenda. From well-read and intelligent Persians the European student of their language can learn many things not to be found in books, at any rate in books to which he has access, while their taste and judgement, even if at times he cannot wholly agree with them, are almost always suggestive and deserving of consideration. Only a few days ago I received a visit from the learned Shaykh Káẓim ad-Dujaylí, an Arabic-speaking Shí'a of 'Iráq who has recently joined the teaching staff of the London School of Oriental Studies, and I enquired of him what, in his opinion, were the best Arabic books on Shí'a doctrine. He at once named the five following works, none of which I had previously heard of, much less seen, though all have been printed or litho­graphed in Persia:

(1) Kashfu'l-Ghiṭá fí Akhbári Áli'l-Muṣṭafà, by Shaykh Ja'far al-Kabír.

(2) Kitábu'l Qawánín, by al-Qummí.

(3) Kitábu Rasá'ili'sh-Shaykh Murtaḍà al-Anṣárí.

(4) Jawáhiru'l-Kalám, by Shaykh Muḥammad Ḥasan.

(5) Kitábu'l-Wasá'il, by Ḥájji Mírzá Ḥusayn an-Núrí.

I will not attempt to thank individually all those who by their sympathy and interest have encouraged me in my book, or who by their skilful craftsmanship have given it form and substance. The writing of it has been a pleasure, and the completing of it is a source of thankfulness and satisfaction. Even its errors and imperfections will, I trust, by provoking criticism and stimulating research, serve to advance and extend our knowledge of the subject, and if, as I hope, I have been single-minded in this aim, I shall prefer the reasoned criticism of competent scholars to the undiscriminating praise of over-zealous friends, even as Sa'dí says:—

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Thou who recountest my virtues, thou dost me harm in sooth:
Such is my outward seeming, but thou hast not known the truth.”

EDWARD G. BROWNE.

June 12, 1924.