Untitled

PREFACE
. .
r I ^\VO reasons haVe led me *o publish this revised translation
-*- of the Chahdr Maqdla* or "Four Discourses," of Nizaifif-i-
'Arudi of Samarqand. The first is that the translation which I
originally published in the July
and October numbers of the
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1899, and which also
appeared |is a separate reprint, is exhausted, and is now hardly
sbtainable. The seccflid is that that translation contains many
defects and errors which it is now possible to amend and correct,
partly through the learning and critical acumen brought to bear
on the text by Mi'rza Muhammad of Qazwfn, whose admirable
edition, accompanied by copious
critical and historical notes in
Persian, was published in this Series (xi, i) in 1910; and partly
from the fact that the most ancient and correct MS. of the work
at present discovered 1
, that preserved in the Library of 'Ashir
Efendi at Constantinople (No. 285), was not available when I
matfe my original translation, while it has served as the basis for
Mi'rza Muhammad's text. Hence my old translation is not only
practically unobtainable, but, ap*rt
from the defects inherent in
,
a first attempt of this sort, no longer entirely corresponds with
what is now the accepted Persian text, so that it is at times
liable to confuse and puzzle, rather than to help, the student. The
old translation l&s been carefully revised throughout, and the
proofs have all been read by Mi'rza Muhammad, who supplied
many valuable criticisms, together with a good deal of new
material in the note t s. They have also been diligently read by
Muhammad Iqbal,
one of the Government of India Research
Studcvnts at Cambridge, who has made, many useful suggestions
and saved me from numerous small errors. To these and to other
i
friends who have helped me in a lesser degree I am deeply in-
debted, but, special thanks are due to Mr Ralph Shirley, editor
1 It was copied in Herat in 835/1431-2. ,
I
i
i