The arrangement, as well as the nomenclature, of the Maqámát in the Ṭihrán edition differs considerably from that which obtains in the manuscript described by Dr. Rieu. Several of them are of the nature of munádharát, or disputa­tions, as, for example, between Youth and Old Age, between an orthodox Sunní and a “heretical” Shí'í, or between a Physician and an Astronomer. Others deal with such things as Spring, Love, Autumn, and Madness. Others, again, con­tain enigmas, riddles, or acrostics, or deal with legal questions or mystical speculations. Two of the descriptive Maqámát, on the cities of Balkh and Samarqand, inspire hopes of more definite and tangible information, and even of autobiographical particulars, but the form ever prevails over the matter of the discourse, and we find our hopes doomed to disappointment. The laboured and artificial style of these Maqámát does not readily lend itself to translation, and, since the form is every­thing and the substance entirely subordinate, to give any idea of the original it is necessary to paraphrase rather than to translate. The following attempt, taken from the description of Balkh * before and after it had been harried and looted by the barbarous Ghuzz in A.H. 548 (A.D. 1153), may serve as a sufficient sample of the whole:—

“But when to the confines of that country I at length drew near —and to those journeying from Balkh did lend my ear—far otherwise did things appear.

‘Who news of absent friends doth seek to know,
Must needs hear tidings both of joy and woe.’

“Thus spake informants credible:—'Haste thee not, for thy goal and aim—is no more the same—as that of days which are past—and a season which did not last:—those fragrant breezes now are changed to the desert's deadly gale—and that sugar-sweetness is transformed to draughts of lethal bale;—of those sweet beds of basil only thorns remain—and of those cups of pleasure naught save an aching pain.—What boots it to behold thy fair-faced fere—in weeds of woe and garments dark and drear—or to witness the spring-land of thy mays—a prey to dispraise—withered and sere?