Volume 2

A literary history of Persia / by Edward G. Browne.

  • Edward Granville Browne
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A literary history of Persia / by Edward G. Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    marred not only by occasional repetitions, but by a certain disconnectedness and lack of uniformity for which I crave the reader’s indulgence. On the other hand I have through¬ out endeavoured to use original sources and to form independent views, and in this I have been aided by several rare works, inaccessible or hardly accessible to my predecessors, of which I may specially mention the Chahar Maqala (“Four Discourses ”) of Nidhdml-i-cArudi of Samarqand, the Lubabu l-Albab of Muhammad ‘Awfl, the MiSajjam of Shams-i-Qays, and my notes on the Rahatu s-Sudur of ar-Rawandf, the Jahan-gusha of cAta Malik-i-Juwayni, the Jam^Ft-Tawdrlkh of Rashidffd- Dln Fadlu’llah, and other similar books. The work itself has had my whole heart, and I would that it could also have had my undivided attention. For Islam and the Perso-Arabian civilisation of Islam I have the deepest admiration ; an admiration which it is especially incumbent on me to confess at a time when these are so much mis¬ understood and misrepresented by Europeans ; who appear to imagine that they themselves have a monopoly of civilisation, and a kind of divine mandate to impose on the whole world not only their own political institutions but their own modes of thought. Year by year, almost, the number of independent Muslim States grows less and less, while such as still remain— Persia, Turkey, Arabia, Morocco, and a few others—are ever more and more overshadowed by the menace of European interference. Of course it is in part their own fault, and Asiatic indifference and apathy combine with European “earth-hunger” and lust of conquest to hasten their dis¬ integration. To the unreflecting Western mind the ex¬ tinction of these States causes no regret, but only exhilarating thoughts of more “ openings ” for their children and their capital; but those few who know and love the East and its peoples, and realise how deeply we are indebted to it for most of the great spiritual ideas which give meaning and value to life, will feel, with Chesterton’s “ Man in Green,” that with