FOOTNOTES:
[3] Tajnīs: a play upon the words bāz, “a goshawk,” and bāz, “open.”
[4] i.e., Muḥammad.
[5] Qurān, liii, 9.
[6] Humā, the Lammergeyer; vide Journal and Proceedings Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. II, No. 10, 1906.
[7] i.e., the 14 Maʿṣūms, which are Muḥammad, Fāt̤imah, and his descendants the 12 Imāms.
[8] Mīrzā after a name signifies Prince: Mīrzā before a name signifies one whose mother is a Sayyida. But Mĭrzā (with short i) before a name signifies a “clerk, writer, etc.”
[9] Marḥūm, “blessed” (usually only of Muslims by Muslims), signifies “dead and pardoned by God,” i.e., “late.”
[10] Farmān-Farmā—a title, and also a Governor or Viceroy. Ḥusayn ʿAlī Mīrzā, much lauded by the Poet Qā,ānī, was Governor of Fārs.
[11] i.e., “deceased;” vide [note 9.]
[12] i.e., on the Prophet.
[13] ʿAtabāt-i ʿAlīyāt, the “Exalted Thresholds,” is a Shīʿah term for the city of Kerbalā, the burial place of the martyrs Imām Ḥusayn, his family and his followers; sometimes Najaf and Kāz̤imayn are included.
[14] i.e., those buried in those sacred spots.
[15] Amākin-i Musharrafa.
[16] Dāru ’s-Salām is an epithet or a name of Baghdad.
[17] Najaf-i Ashraf; near Kerbalā and the burial place of ʿAlī.
[18] Arẓ-i Aqdas is Mash,had-i Muqaddas.
[19] Probably the place of this name near Teheran, the burial place of the saint from which the place takes its name.
[20] Near Shimrānāt.
[21] Mīr-shikār; in Persia a head game-keeper, but in India a title of any bird-catcher, assistant falconer, etc.
[22] From the Shāh-Nāma.
[23] The Shāh, and in fact all kings, are styled “The Shadow of God.”
[24] A.D. 1868.
[25] The allusion is to some story of the ant presenting Solomon with the leg of a locust.
[26] The book, however, contains only two numbered bābs; the first, pages 1 to 26 (1st Edition) on “The species of Hunting-birds;” and the second, the remaining 157 pages of the book on other subjects. The 2nd bāb, however, commences with: “On the black-eyed birds of prey that have at various times of my life come into my possession and which....”