ggers to destroy thee." This
passage is quoted in the preface to the Shah Nameh, collated by order of
Bayisunghur Khan, as the production of the poet Unsari. Unsari was one
of the seven poets whom Mahmud appointed to give specimens of their
powers in versifying the History of the Kings of Persia. The story of
Rustem and Sohrab fell to Unsari, and his arrangement of it contained
the above verses, which so delighted the Sultan that he directed the
poet to undertake the whole work. This occurred before Firdusi was
introduced at Court and eclipsed every competitor. In compliment to
Mahmud, perhaps he ingrafted them on his own poem, or more probably they
have been interpolated since.]

[Footnote 46: Jemshid's glory and misfortunes, as said before, are the
constant theme of admiration and reflection amongst the poets of
Persia.]

[Footnote 47: These medicated draughts are often mentioned in Romances.
The reader will recollect the banter upon them in Don Quixote, where the
Knight of La enumerates to Sancho the cures which had been performed
upon many valorous champions, covered with wounds. The Hindus, in their
books on medicine, talk of drugs for the recovery of the dead!]

[Footnote 48: Zuara conducted the troops of Afrasiyab across the Jihun.
Rustem remained on the field of battle till his return.]

[Footnote 49: Manijeh was the daughter of Afrasiyab.]

[Footnote 50: Theocritus introduces a Greek singing-girl in Idyllium xv,
at the festival of Adonis. In the Arabian Nights, the Caliph is
represented at his feasts surrounded by troops of the most beautiful
females playing on various instruments.]

[Footnote 51: Kashan is here made to be the deathplace of Alexander,
whilst, according to the Greek historians, he died suddenly at Babylon,
as foretold by the magicians, on the 21st of April, B.C. 323, in the
thirty-second year of his age.]

THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

[_Translation by Edward Fitzgerald_]

Introduction

It is seldom that we come across a poem which it is impossible to
classify in accordance with European standards. Yet such a poem is
Omar's "Rubaiyat." If elegiac poetry is the expression of subjective
emotion, sentiment, and thought, we might class this Persian masterpiece
as elegy; but an elegy is a sustained train of connected imagery and
reflection. The "Rubaiyat" is, on the other hand, a string of quatrains,
each of which has all the complete and independent significance of an
epig