{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/saab/saab34.htm","path":"isl/saab/saab34.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/saab/saab34.htm","text":"Salaman and Absal, by Jami, tr. Edward Fitzgerald, [1904]\nPage 1. Laila, Majn\u00fan.\u2014all well-known Types of Eastern Lovers. Sh\u00edr\u00edn and her Suitors figure in Sec. XX.\nPage 1. To Cozen the World.\u2014the Persian Mystics also represent the Deity Dice-ing with Human Destiny behind the Curtain.\nPage 2. Censor.\u2014\"the Appollonius of Keat's Lamia.\"\nPage 2. No Room for Two.\u2014This S\u00faf\u00ed Identification with Deity (further illustrated in the Story of Sect. XIX.) is shadowed in a Parable of Jelaladd\u00edn, of which here is an outline. \"One knocked at the Beloved's Door; and a Voice asked from within, 'Who is there?' and he answered,' It is I: Then the Voice said, This House will not hold Me and Thee.' And the Door was not opened. Then went the Lover into the Desert, and fasted and prayed in Solitude. And after a Year he returned, and knocked again at the Door. And again the Voice asked, 'Who is there?' and he said, 'It is Thyself!' and the Door was opened to him.\"\nPage 3. The Poet's Name.\u2014the name \"Jami,\" also signifying \"A Cup.\" The Poet's Y\u00fasuf and Zulaikha opens also with this Divine Wine, the favourite Symbol of Haf\u00edz and other Persian Mystics. The \"Tavern\" spoken of is The World.\nPage 4. Old Stories.\u2014\"Y\u00fasuf and Zulaikha,\" \"Layla and Majn\u00fan,\" etc.\nPage 4. Glasses Turn\u2019d to Four.\u2014first notice of Spectacles in Oriental Poetry, perhaps.\nPage 4. \"The Master,\" whose Verse is quoted, is Jellalladd\u00edn, the Great Sufi Teacher. The \"King Himself\" is Yac\u00fab Beg, whose Father's Vision appears in the next Section.\nPage 7. Sh\u00e1hzem\u00e1n.\u2014\"Lord of the World, Sovereign; Hasan, Beautiful, Good.\" Hasan Beg of Western Persia, famous for his Beauty, had helped J\u00e1mi with Escort in a dangerous Pilgrimage. He died (as History and a previous line in the Original tell) before Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n was written, and was succeeded by his Son Y\u00e1c\u00fab.\nPage 8. Y\u00fan.\u2014or \"Yavan,\" Son of Japhet, from whom the Country was called \"Y\u00fanan,\"\u2014Ionia, meant by the Persians to express Greece generally. Sikander is, of course, Alexander the Great, of whose Ethics J\u00e1mi wrote, as Nizami of his Deeds.\nPage 9. K\u00e1f.\u2014the Fabulous Mountain supposed by Asiatics to surround the World, binding the Horizon on all sides.\nPage 9. Ser\u00e1b.\u2014mir\u00e1ge; but, of two Foreign Words, why not the more original Persian? identical with the Hebrew Sh\u00e1r\u00e1b; as in Isaiah XV. 7; \"The Sh\u00e1r\u00e1b (or Mir\u00e1ge) shall become a Lake;\"\u2014rather, and better, than our Version, \"The parched Ground shall become a Pool.\"\u2014See Gesenius.\nPage 11. The Deluge: in the K\u00faran God engages to save Noah and his Family meaning all who believed in the Warning. One of Noah's Sons (Canaan or Yam, some think) would not believe. \"And the Ark swam with them between waves like Mountains, and Noah called up to his Son, who was separated from him, saying, 'Embark with us, my Son, and stay not with the Unbelievers.' He answered, 'I will get on a Mountain which will secure me from the Water.' Noah replied, 'There is no security this Day from the Decree of God, except for him on whom he shall have Mercy.' And a Wave passed between them, and he became one of those who were drowned. And it was said, 'Oh Earth, swallow up thy waters, and Thou, oh Heaven, withhold thy Rain!' And immediately\nthe Water abated and the Decree was fulfilled, and the Ark rested on the Mountain Al Judi, and it was said, 'Away with the ungodly People!'\u2014Noah called upon his Lord and said, 'Oh Lord, verily my Son is of my Family, and thy Promise is True; for Thou art of those who exercise Judgment.' God answered, 'Oh Noah, verily he Is not of thy Family; this intercession of thine for him is not a righteous work.'\"\u2014Sale's Kur\u00e1n, Vol. II. p. 21.\nPage 13. A Ring to Lead by.\u2014'Mihar,' a Piece of Wood put through a Camel's Nose to guide him by.\nPage 14. Sulayman and Balk\u00eds.\u2014Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.\nPage 15. \"Mussulman\" is very usually derived from the same \"Salem\" element as \"Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n.\" So \"Solomon,\" etc.\nPage 16. The Eye's Baby: literally, Mardumak\u2014the Mannikin, Or Pupil, of the Eye, corresponding to the Image so frequently used by our old Poets.\nPage 17. Years and Courage: the same Persian Word serving for Both.\nPage 17. The Ball.\u2014the Game of Ch\u00fag\u00e1n, for Centuries the Royal Game of Persia, and adopted (Ouseley thinks) under varying modifications of Name and Practice by other Nations, was played by Horsemen, who, suitably habited, and armed with semicircular-headed Bats or Sticks so short the Player must stoop below the Saddle-bow to strike, strove to drive a Ball through a Goal of upright Pillars. See Frontispiece and Appendix.\nPage 18. Fitting The Cord.\u2014bows being so gradually stiffened, to the Age and Strength of the Archer, as at last to need five Hundredweight of Pressure to bend, says an old Translation of Chardin, who describes all the Process up to bringing up the String to the Ear, \"as if to hang it there\" before Shooting. Then the First Trial was, who could shoot highest; then, the Mark, etc.\n\"Premi\u00e8rement, \u00e0 bander l\u2019arc; dont l\u2019Art consiste \u00e0 le bien tenir, \u00e0 le bander, et \u00e0 laisser partir la Corde \u00e0 l\u2019aise, sans que la main gauche qui tient l\u2019arc, et qui est toute \u00e9tendue, ni la main droite qui manie la Corde, remuent le moins du monde. On en donne d\u2019abord d\u2019aises \u00e0 bander; puis de plus durs par degr\u00e8s. Les maitres de ces Exercises apprennent \u00e0 bander l\u2019arc devant soi, derri\u00e8re soi, \u00e0 cot\u00e9 de soi, en haut, en bas\u2014bref, en cent postures diff\u00e9rentes, toujours vite et aisement. Ils ont des arcs fort difficiles \u00e0 bander, et, pour essayer la force, on les pend contre un mur \u00e0 une Cheville, et on attache des poids \u00e0 la Corde de l\u2019arc \u00e0 l\u2019endroit o\u00f9 l\u2019on appuie la coche de la Fl\u00eache. Les plus durs portent cinque cents pesant avant d\u2019\u00eatre band\u00e9s,\" etc.\u2014Sir John Chardin, Vol. III. 437. He elsewhere says, \"La bont\u00e9 d\u2019un Arc consiste, comme on le dit en Perse, en ce que d\u2019abord il soit rude \u00e0 bander, jusqu\u2019 \u00e0 ce que la Fl\u00eache soit \u00e0 moiti\u00e9 dessus; et qu \u2019ensuite il soit mou et ais\u00e9, jusqu\u2019 \u00e0 ce que le bout de la Fl\u00eache soit entr\u00e9 dans la Corde.\"\nPage 19. The Pleiads.\u2014i.e. compactly strung, as opposed to Discursive Rhetoric, which is compared to the scattered Stars of The Bier and its Mourners, or what we call The Great Bear. This contrast is otherwise prettily applied in the Anvari Soheili\u2014\"When one grows poor, his Friends, heretofore compact as The Pleiads, disperse wide asunder as The Mourners.\"\nPage 19. H\u00e1tim's Bounty.\u2014The Persian Type of Liberality, infinitely celebrated.\nPage 20. An Alien Shah.\u2014the Hero of the Story being of Y\u00fanan\u2014Ionia, or Greece generally, (the Persian Geography not being very precise,)\u2014and so not of The Faith.\nPage 21. Adorning the Bows: with dark Indigo Paint, as the Archery Bow with a thin Papyrus-like Bark.\nPage 21. A Grain of Musk.\u2014a 'Patch,' sc.\u2014\"Noir comme le Musc.\"\u2014De Sacy.\nPage 23. Fortune's Shadow.\u2014alluding to the Ph\u0153nix, the Shadow of whose wings foretold a Crown upon the Head it passed over.\nPage 27 and elsewhere\u2014The Throne is spoken of as 'under Foot.' The Persepolitan Sculpture still discovers its King keeping his Chair as Europeans do with a separate Footstool. But in J\u00e1mi's time The Throne was probably of the same Fashion that Chardin saw Sol\u00edman twice crowned on 200 years after\u2014perhaps the very same\u2014\"Un petit Tabouret carr\u00e9,\" 3 feet high, Golden and Jewelled, on which the Prince gathers up his feet in Oriental fashion, so as it serves for Throne and Footstool too. \"Ce Tabouret, hors le Temps qu\u2019il sert \u00e0 cette C\u00e9remonie se garde avec grand Soin dans le Tr\u00e9sor Royal qui est au Donjon de la Forteresse d\u2019Ispahan,\" where also, to prove the Conservatism of Persia so far as Habits go,\" J\u2019ai\u2019vu,\" he says, \"des Habits de Tamurlan; ils sont taill\u00e9s tout comme ceux qu\u2019on fait aujourd\u2019hui, sans aucune difference.\" So the Mirrors used in Persia 200 years ago were commonly of polished Metal, just as J\u00e1mi so often describes. [Sol\u00edman's 2nd Coronation came about because of his having fallen so ill from Debauchery, that his Astrologers said his first must have taken place under an Evil conjunction of Stars\u2014so he must be crowned again\u2014which he was\u2014Chardin looking on both times.]\nPage 27. Rakhsh.\u2014\"Lightning.' The name of Rustam's famous Horse in the Shah-Nameh.\nPage 27. \"Kai\" which almost signifies \"Gigantic King,\" properly belongs to Khusrau, 3rd King of the Kaianian Dynasty; but is here borrowed for Parv\u00edz as a more mythical Title than Shah or King.\nPage 27. Khusrau Parv\u00edz (Chosroc The Victorious), Son of Nosh\u00edravan The Great; slain, after Thirty Years of Prosperous Reign, by his Son Shir\u00faeh, who, according to some, was in Love with his Father's Mistress Sh\u00edr\u00edn. See further, Section XXI., for one of the most dramatic Tragedies in Persian History.\nPage 28. The Pen of \"K\u00fbn\"\u2014\"Esto!\"\u2014The famous Passage of Creation stolen from Genesis by the Kur\u00e1n.\nPage 28. Seven and Four: Planets?\u2014adding Sun, Moon, and the Nodal Dragon's Head and Tail; according to the Sanscrit Astronomy adopted by Persia.\nI have proposed \"The Planets\" for those mysterious \"Seven and Four.\" But there is a large Choice, especially for the ever mystical \"Seven\"\u2014Seven Commandments; 7 Climates; 7 Heavens, etc. The \"Four\" may be the 4 Elements, or even the 4 acknowledged Mahommedan Gospels\u2014namely, The Pentateuch, Psalms, New Testament, and Kur\u00e1n. For Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n, though fabled 'not' of The Faith, yet allegorically represents The Mirror of all Faith, and as The original Form of the Human Soul might be intuitively enlightened with all the Revelations that were to be\u2014might even be, in esoteric Suf\u00edism, The Come and Coming Twelfth Im\u00e1m who had 'read' all the previous Eleven; it being one Doctrine in the East that it is ever the 'Last' and most perfect Prophet who was 'First' Created and reserved in the Interior Heaven nearest to God till the Time of his Mission should come.\nSir John Chardin quotes Seven Magnificats written in gold upon azure over Shah Abbas\u2019 Tomb in the great Mosque at K\u00f3m\u2014composed, he says, \"par le docte Hasan-Cazy,\" mainly in glory of Ali the Darling Im\u00e1m of Persia, but of which the First Hymn \"est tout de Mahomet.\" This has some passages so very parallel with the Sage's Address to Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n, that (knowing how little worth such parallels are, especially in a Country where Magnificent Titles of Honour are stereotyped ready to be lavished on Prophet or Khan) nevertheless really seemed borrowed by \"le docte Hasan-Cazy,\" who probably was hard set to invent any new. They show at least how J\u00e1mi saluted his 'Alien' Prince with Titles due to Mahomet's Self, and may perhaps light any curious Reader to a better understanding of these Seven and Four. He calls Mahomet \"Infaillible Expositeur des Quatre Livres\"\u2014those Gospels;\u2014[So Sir John: but the Kur\u00e1n being one, this looks rather addrest to Ali than Mahomet.]-\n[paragraph continues] \"Conducteur des huit mobiles\" the 8 Heavens of the Planets, says the Editor; \"Gouverneur des Sept Parties\" the Climates; \"Archetype des Choses cr\u00e9\u00e9es; Instrument de la Creation du Monde: le plus relev\u00e9 de la race d\u2019Adam. Ce Peintre incomprehensible, qui a tir\u00e9 tout d\u2019un seul Coup de Pinceau 'Koun Fikoun,' n\u2019a jamais fait un si beau portrait que le Globe de ton Visage.\"\nPage 29. The Ten Intelligences.\u2014this passage finds its explanation in the last Section.\nPage 32. Gau and Mahi.\u2014The Bull and Fish\u2014the lowest Substantial Base of Earth. \"He first made the Mountains; then cleared the Face of Earth from Sea; then fixed it fast on Gau; Gau on Mahi; and Mahi on Air; and Air on what? on Nothing; Nothing upon Nothing, all is Nothing\u2014Enough.\" Attar quoted in De Sacy's Pendnamah, XXXV.\nPage 32. The Sidereal Dragon, whose Head, according to the Paur\u00e1nic (or Poetic) Astronomers of the East, devoured the Sun and Moon in Eclipse. \"But we know,\" said Ramachandra to Sir W. Jones, \"that the supposed Head and Tail of the Dragon mean only the Nodes, or Points formed by Intersections of the Ecliptic and the Moon's Orbit.\" Sir W. Jones\u2019 Works, Vol. IV. P. 74.\nPage 33. \"Iram Garden.\" \"Mahomet,\" says Sir W. Jones, \"in the Chapter of The Morning, towards the end of his Alcoran, mentions a Garden called 'Irem,' which is no less celebrated by the Asiatic Poets than that of the Hesperides by the Greeks. It was planted, as the Commentators say, by a King named Shed\u00e1d,\"\u2014deep in the Sands of Arabia Felix\u2014\"and was once seen by an Arabian who wandered far into the Desert in search of a lost Camel.\"\nPage 34. W\u00e1mik.\u2014Another Typical Lover of Azra, a Virgin.\nPage 35. A Mirror.\u2014mythically attributed by the East\u2014and in some wild Western Avatar\u2014to this Shah's Predecessor, Alexander the Great.\n[paragraph continues] Perhaps (V. Hammer thinks) the Concave Mirror upon the Alexandrian Pharos, which by Night projected such a fiery Eye over the Deep as not only was fabled to exchange Glances with that on the Rhodian Colossus, and in Oriental Imagination and Language to penetrate \"The World,\" but by Day to Reflect it to him who looked therein with Eyes to see. The Cup of their own Jamsh\u00edd had, whether Full or Empty, the same Property. And that Silver Cup found in Benjamin's Sack\u2014\"Is not this it in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he Divineth?\u2014Gen. XLIV. 5. Our Reflecting Telescope is going some way to realize the Alexandrian Fable.\nPage 35. The Cup of Happiness and Tears. \u03ba\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03b7\u03c1\u03b1 \u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd \u1f21\u03b4\u03bf\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b4\u03b1\u03ba\u03c1\u03c5\u03c9\u03bd \u03ba\u03b9\u03c1\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u03b5\u03be\u03b5\u03c0\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd \u03b1\u03c7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b5\u03c2 \u03bc\u03b5\u03b8\u03b7\u03bd.\nPage 36. Hurl\u2019d Him, Etc.\u2014One Story is that Khusrau had promised if Firh\u00e1d cut through a Mountain, and brought a Stream through, Sh\u00edr\u00edn should be his. Firh\u00e1d was on the point of achieving his Work, when Khusrau sent an old Woman (here, perhaps, purposely confounded with Fate) to tell him Sh\u00edr\u00edn was dead; whereon Firh\u00e1d threw himself headlong from the Rock. The Sculpture at Beysit\u00fan (or Besit\u00fan), where Rawlinson has decyphered Darius and Xerxes, was traditionally called Firh\u00e1d's.\nPage 36. Will Discharged.\u2014He Mesmerizes Him!\u2014See also further on this Power of the Will in Sections XXIII. and XXVI.\nPage 38. The Minion.\u2014\"Shah\" and \"Sh\u00e1hid\" (Mistress)\u2014a sort of Punning the Persian Poets are fond of.\nPage 41. Anguish.\u2014\nPage 44. \"Zuhrah.\" The Planetary and Celestial Venus.\nPage 45. The Spirit.\u2014\"Maany.\" The Mystical pass-word of the S\u00faf\u00eds, to express the Transcendental New Birth of The Soul.\nPage 46. My Son.\u2014one sees J\u00e1mi taking Advantage of his Allegorical Shah to read a Lesson to the Real\u2014whose Ears Advice, unlike Praise, scarce ever reached unless obliquely. The Warning (and doubtless with good Reason) is principally aimed at the Minister.\nPage 49. The Story is of 'Generals,' though enacted by 'Particulars.'\nPage 50. \"These Intelligences are only another Form of the Neo-Platonic D\u00e6mones. The Neo-Platonists held that Matter and Spirit could have no Intercourse\u2014they were, as it were, 'incommensurate.' How then, granting this premise, was Creation possible? Their answer was a kind of gradual Elimination. God the \"Actus Purus,\" created an \u0152on; this \u0152on created a Second; and so on, until the Tenth \u0152on was sufficiently Material (as the Ten were in a continually descending Series) to affect Matter, and so cause the Creation by giving to Matter the Spiritual 'Form.'\nSimilarly we have in Suf\u00edism these Ten Intelligences in a corresponding Series, and for the same End.\nThere are Ten Intelligences, and Nine Heavenly Spheres, of which the Ninth is the Uppermost Heaven, appropriated to the First Intelligence; the Eighth, that of the Zodiac, to the Second; the Seventh, Saturn, to the Third; the Sixth, Jupiter, to the Fourth; the Fifth, Mars, to the Fifth; the Fourth, The Sun, to the Sixth; the Third, Venus, to the Seventh; the Second, Mercury, to the Eighth; the First, The Moon, to the Ninth; and The Earth is the peculiar Sphere of the Tenth, or lowest Intelligence, celled The Active.''","title":"Salaman and Absal: Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n and Abs\u00e1l: Notes","type":"page"}