FOR many years I had cherished a desire to write a history of the intellectual and literary achievements of the Persians, somewhat on the lines of that most admirable work, Green's Short History of the English People, a work which any writer may be proud to adopt as a model, but which few can hope to rival and none to surpass. Considering the immense number of books which have been written about Persia, it is strange that so few attempts should hitherto have been made to set forth in a comprehensive yet comparatively concise and sum­mary form the history of that ancient and most interesting kingdom. Excellent monographs on particular periods and dynasties do indeed exist in plenty; but of general histories of Persia those of Sir John Malcolm and Clements Markham are still the chief works of reference in English, though they no longer represent, even approximately, the present level of knowledge (enormously raised in recent times by the unremit­ting labours of an ever-increasing band of students and scholars), in addition to which they both deal rather with the external political conditions of Persia than with the inner life of her people.

Conscious of the magnitude and difficulty of the task, and constantly engaged in examining and digesting the abundant and almost unexplored materials which every large collection of Oriental manuscripts yields, I might probably have con­tinued to postpone indefinitely an attempt for which I felt myself ever more rather than less unprepared, had I not received almost simultaneously two separate invitations to contribute a volume on Persian Literature or Literary History to a series which in each case was of conspicuous merit, though in plan, scope, and treatment the difference between the two was considerable. In choosing between the two, I was less influenced by priority of appeal, extent of remunera­tion, or personal predilection, than by the desire to secure for myself the ampler field and the broader—I had almost said the more philosophical—plan. The model placed before me in the one case was Jusserand's charming Literary History of the English People, the conception and execution of which (for reasons more fully explained in the Introductory chapter of the following work) so delighted me that I thereupon decided to make for the series to which it belonged the effort which I had long contemplated. For it was the intellectual history of the Persians which I desired to write, and not merely the history of the poets and authors who expressed their thoughts through the medium of the Persian language; the manifesta­tions of the national genius in the fields of Religion, Philosophy, and Science interested me at least as much as those belonging to the domain of Literature in the narrower sense; while the linguistic vehicle through which they sought expression was, from my point of view, indifferent. I trust that my readers will realise this at the outset, so that they may not suffer disappointment, nor feel themselves aggrieved, because in this volume more is said about movements than books, and less about books written in Persian than about those written in Pahlawí, Arabic, or some other language.

It was originally intended that the work should be com­pleted in one volume, carrying the history down to the present day. But I soon convinced myself (and, with more difficulty, my publisher) that this was impossible without grave modification (and, from my point of view, mutilation) of my original plan. At first I hoped to carry this volume down to the Mongol Invasion and the extinction of the Cali­phate of Baghdad in the thirteenth century, which, as I have elsewhere observed (pp. 210-211 infra), is the great turning-point in the history of Islám; but even this finally proved impracticable within the limits assigned to me, and I ulti­mately found myself obliged to conclude this part of my work with the immediate precursors of Firdawsí, the writers and poets of the Sámánid and Buwayhid dynasties.

This division is, perhaps, after all the best, since the Prolegomena with which the student of Persian literature ought to be acquainted are thus comprised in the present volume, while the field of Persian literature in the narrower sense will, with the aid of one chapter of recapitulation, be entirely covered by the second, with which it is intended that this should be supplemented. Thus, agreeably to the stipula­tions imposed by my publisher, the two volumes will be independent one of the other, this containing the Prolegomena, and that the History of Persian Literature within the strict meaning of the term.

My chief fear is lest, in endeavouring to present to the general reader the results attained by Oriental scholarship, and embodied for the most part in books and periodicals which he is unlikely to read, or even to meet with, I may have fallen, so to speak, between two stools, and ended by producing a book which is too technical for the ordinary reader, yet too popular for the Orientalist by profession. To the former rather than the latter it is addressed; but most of all to that small but growing body of amateurs who, having learned to love the Persian poets in translation, desire to know more of the language, literature, history, and thought of one of the most ancient, gifted, and original peoples in the world. In a country which offers so few inducements as England to what may be called the professional study of Oriental letters and languages, and which consequently lacks well-organised Oriental schools such as exist at Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and other Continental capitals, it is chiefly with the amateur (and I use the word in no disparaging sense, but as meaning one whose studies are prompted by taste and natural inclina­tion rather than by necessity) that the future extension and development of these studies lies. To him (or her), therefore, this book is especially addressed; and should it prove of use to any of those whose interest in the East is more real and abiding than that of the ordinary reader, but who have neither the opportunity nor the apparatus of study necessary to the professional student, I shall deem myself amply rewarded for my labour in compiling it.

Concerning the system of transliteration of Oriental names and words here adopted little need be said; it is essentially that approved by the Royal Asiatic Society for the transcrip­tion of the Arabic character, and will be readily understood by all who are familiar with that script. That consistency (or, as I fear may be said by some of my critics, pedantry) has com­pelled me to write Ḥáfidh, Nidhámí, 'Umar, Firdawsí, &c., for the more popular Háfiz, Nizámí, Omar, and Ferdousi may be regretted from some points of view, but will at least generally save the student from doubts as to the correct spell­ing in the original character of the names occurring in the following pages. I only regret that this consistency has not been more complete, and that I have in a few cases (notably Ádharbáyján, Ázarbáyján) allowed myself to be swayed by actual usage at the expense of uniformity. But at least the reader will not as a rule be puzzled by finding the same name appearing now as 'Uthmán, now as 'Usmán, and again as 'Osmán, according as it is sought to represent its Arabic, its Persian, or its Turkish pronunciation.

And so I commend my book to the benevolent reader, and, I hope I may add, to the not less benevolent critic. Of its many defects, alike in plan and execution, I am fully con­scious, and to others, no doubt, my attention will soon be called. But “whose desireth a faultless friend remains friend-less,” says a well-known Eastern adage, and it is no less true that he who would write a flawless book writes nothing. I have admitted that I felt myself unprepared for so great a task; but I should have felt equally unprepared ten or twenty years hence, the subject ever widening before our eyes more rapidly than the knowledge of it grows in our minds. Even the most imperfect book, if it breaks fresh ground, may, though itself doomed to oblivion, prepare the way for a better.

EDWARD G. BROWNE.

SEPTEMBER 14, 1902.