The present translation has been made from a copy of the original Teheran edition to which marginal notes have been added by a former owner. For the versification I am indebted to the assistance of poetical friends.
D. C. P.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mīrzā after (not before) a name signifies Prince.
[2] In his translation of the Journal he transliterates his name Asaad Y. Kayat. K͟hayyāt̤ is a common family name amongst Syrian Christians.
II
FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE TEHERAN LITHOGRAPHED EDITION
THE
“BĀZ-NĀMA-YI NĀṢIRĪ”
A TREATISE ON FALCONRY DEDICATED TO NĀṢIRU ’D-DĪN SHĀH OF PERSIA
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Let us embroider this Treatise on Falconry with the design of the Praise of the All-Sufficient; and let us exalt our Pen by a votive offering of praise to the Great Fashioner, in the path of whose worship the wings of those falcon-like Pure Spirits of the Saints are spread wide open,[3] like as the portals of His Mercy are opened wide in the faces of those that truly love Him. Let us also praise the matchless beauty and grandeur and perfection of that high-soaring Bird,[4] the robe of whose being God adorned with this sacred verse: “And was at the distance of two bow-strings, or even less.”[5]
We further extol the Family, the Humā[6] of whose noble spirit soars aloft on the pinions of sure belief and true knowledge, winging its way to the eyrie of union with the Eternal Phœnix:—