Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/279

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It is astonishing how little is generally known in this country, even by many who probably consider themselves as "well read," regarding the history and literature of Persia. To help to dispel this prevalent ignorance, which is discreditable to us as a great Asiatic power, is the design of this little book by Mr. Arbuthnot, whose former work, Early Ideas: a group of Hindoo Stories, ought to be familiar to most of our members. The author aims at nothing more than a sketch, nevertheless it is comprehensive in plan and lucid in style. The first chapter comprises outlines of Persian History, with useful tables of the several dynasties that have ruled over Persia. In the second chapter we have a sketch of Persian Literature, which Mr. Arbuthnot divides into seven periods, the first and last of which of about two centuries each, and the others of about one century each. The third chapter is devoted to the Greater Poets, at the head of whom is Firdausi, the Homer of Persia, and the fourth chapter to the Lesser Poets, with brief biographical notices and admirably selected translations of their compositions, together with an account of the different kinds of Persian poetry, the ghazel, the kasída, the masnaví, and the quatrain.

But of special interest is the fifth chapter, in which Mr. Arbuthnot furnishes a compendious description of twelve Persian story-books which have been completely or partly rendered into English, beginning with versions of the celebrated Fables of Bidpaï, a work which has been translated into more languages than any other book, with the exception of the Bible. Then follow the Gulistán (Garden of Roses), the Baháristán (Spring Garden), the Nigávistán (Picture Gallery), the Sindibád Náma, the Bakhtyár Náma, the Túti Náma (Parrot-Book), Shamsa-ú-Kuhkuha, Hatim Taï, and the Bahár-i-Dánish (Spring of Knowledge). Specimens are given of the tales, &c. in all these collections, which are not only entertaining but calculated to induce intelligent readers to become acquainted with the books them-