INTRODUCTION 
 
As everybody now-a-days is perfectly well aware, 
a knowledge of the Persian language is practically 
a necessity for all sojourners in Mohammedan In-
dia.  In the North-West, even more than Urdu, it is 
the lingua franca of the upper classes :  it is the 
tongue spoken in the courts of the Believing 
Princes :  it is the dialect alike of love and of litera-
ture :  and its possession is a very talisman from 
Kabul to Yarkand. 
As a subaltern stationed at R... P..., though in a 
British regiment, I found it my first duty to acquire 
a thorough grounding in the tongue of Hafiz, for 
these as well as professional reasons.  Thus I made 
the acquaintance of Munshi Mahbub Tantra, a 
Kashmiri from Bandipur, but one residence of 
nearly 30 years in Shiraz and Bushir.  My know-
ledge of the writings of Richard Burton came in 
very handy, as also the vague studies of Oriental 
mysticism with which I had amused my leisure 
hours :  so that a genuine friendship soon sprang 
up between pupil and teacher. 
After some months, indeed, — and this is how I 
find myself transformed into that glorious being, 
an Editor — the munshi, with the childlike frank-
ness of the Kashmiri, blurted out :  The Sahib is 
not like other sahibs ;  they begin by casting dirt at 
my people for their bad life, and end by spitting 
upon my beard, bidding me procure for them a fat 
and fair boy :  but the Asylum of the World, who 
lives like a great prince and a fakir (mean-
ing :  “ You have illimitable resources, but are ab-
stemious ”) 
really 
understands 
the 
‘ hikmat-i-