as a gift several lithographed editions of Persian commentaries on the Mathnawí, while Mr. ʿAbdu ʾl-Májid of Daryabad, Bara Banki, with whom I have been in frequent and profitable correspondence, was so obliging as to send to Cambridge for my private use his own copies of rare Persian and Arabic MSS. preserved in Indian libraries [1]. And amongst my chief benefactors I must certainly reckon Ḥusayn Dánish Bey, a Persian resident in Constantinople, described by Professor Browne as "a notable man of letters both in Persian and Turkish", who, besides obtaining for me a copy of Ismáʿíl Anqiraví's Commentary, had the extraordinary kindness to present me with a carefully collated MS. of Fíhi má fíhi written by his own hand [2].
The second volume of this edition, comprising the English translation of Books I and II, is almost ready for the Press and should be published in about a year from now.
Cambridge, December 1924.
- ↑ Two of these are copies of an early (4th century) treatise on Ṣúfism, entitled القصد الى اللّه and wrongly attributed to Junayd. I hope ere long to publish the text and translation which I have prepared.
- ↑ Concerning Fíhi má fíki see my paper, "The Table-talk of Jaláluʿddín Rúmi", in the Centenary Supplement to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1924), p. 225 foll. Students of Persian literature will be glad to learn that the work is being edited by Mr. ʿAbdu ʾl-Májíd from the Constantinople transcript and several Indian MSS. I was indebted to him for my first opportunity of studying it, and wish now to express my gratitude to Prof. Muḥammad Shafíʿ and Mr. A. C. Woolner, Honorary Librarian of the Panjáb University, through whose efforts a copy of the Ratupur State Library MS. was obtained and lent to me for a long period.
