Introduction 
5 
that first letter of the first ode was Aleph, the 
second of the second Ba, the third of the third Jim, 
and so on !  I take great credit to myself for the fact 
that with only six transpositions my provisional 
order became that of the poet. 
 
 
THE POEM 
 
Abdullah el Haji flourished in circa 1600 A.D., 
well after the classic era of Persian poetry.  But his 
style is highly praised by competent judges, though 
the older school regret the way in which he has 
broken away from tradition in : 
(a) the introduction of coarse expressions. 
(b) the undue exercise of poetic license :  such as 
(1) his extension of the usual license re the 
genitive kasra to all kasra sounds. 
(2) his occasional breach of the rule which 
forbids two inert consonants to occur togeth-
er, though a friendly commentator inge-
niously asserts that he does this only to add 
to the grimness of verses describing anger, 
punishment, terror, death, or some unplea-
sant idea. : 
(3) his treatment of the Tarjiband :  and  
(4) his trick of inventing words to carry out 
some extravagant metaphor or paranoma-
sia :   
(c) his novel symbolism, which they deplore as 
likely to confuse even the most pious : 
(d) per contra, his novel symbolism as likely to 
be understood of even the least instructed :  and  
(e) his constant gibes at Sadi.  (I must admit that 
I was quite unable to see the point of any single 
one of these, though Mahbub took a deal of pains 
to shew me.  They appear to depend on subtle 
points of grammar and phraseology.)