1910 · PDF PAGE 1
The Scented Garden
THE SCENTED GARDEN OF ABDULLAH THE SATIRIST OF SHIRAZ
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Page 1 of 11910 · PDF PAGE 3
The Scented Garden
TRANSLATED FROM A RARE INDIAN MS. BY THE LATE MAJOR LUTIY AND ANOTHER THE SCENTED GARDEN OF ABDULLAH THE SATIRIST OF SHIRAZ LONDON : PRIVATELY PRINTED 1910
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1910 · PDF PAGE 47
The Scented Garden
The Material Basis of Spiritual Sensation1. 39 BAGH-I-MUATTAR - I - ABDULLAH EL HAJI,2 CALLED EL QAHAR3 ————— I THE ABYSS As I placed the rigid pen4 of my thought within the inkstand of my imagination, I tasted the bliss of Allah ; and withdrawing, beheld Night and the Void like an hollow vortical shell.5 But it was only Habib’s podex ;6 and EL QAHAR would rather pos- sess Habib’s podex than the universe. 1. I am alone responsible for these capital summaries ; but a well known lady mystic in Lon- don assures me that they are just. 2. [Persian t…
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1910 · PDF PAGE 19
The Scented Garden
Introduction 11 when we compare them with the nameless bestiali- ties of Kwaw, or the frank paederasty of Abdullah. But, apart from the fact that paederasty : forni- cation : ‘ St-George ’ : ‘ matrimonial ’ in Persia and England respectively, we may at least suspend judgment while we consider this symbolism in de- tail with a view to discovering why (unless from caprice) el Haji chose this particular indulgence to mirror that supreme passion of the human heart, the craving for unity with the All-One. “ Make room for me ” quoth the poet of Salam…
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1910 · PDF PAGE 75
The Scented Garden
…05 = 21 x 5, or the Perfect Crown 3 x 7 [Per- sian text] in the 5 quarters of the perfected Man, the Cross replaced by the Pentagram. 2. Abdullah — the unredeemed man ; Cf. Rev. III. 17. 3. A common medical practice in the East. 4. The worst of insults. The great excuse for the podex is its superior tightness — supposing that Persians thought an excuse necessary. 5. Laila — perhaps the Evil Jinn. Laila means “ night ” ; and Lilith is the chief of the succubi, much feared by good Muslim. It was reserved for Mr Thomas Lake Harris and his English …
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1910 · PDF PAGE 122
The Scented Garden
…to be au- thentic. This latter view has guided us to some extent in this edition. (There are altogether some 80 or 100 extant Ghazals of Abdullah ; fortunately in the keyletter we have a certain check on this particular series. Major Lutiy wrote his note under the idea of issuing the whole in a single vo- lume. Ed.)
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1910 · PDF PAGE 95
The Scented Garden
…ed Qazi. I am repaid pouch the hundred dirhams1 thereof. For, supping with him, thou didst make him exceedingly drunk. Then, introducing Abdullah Kaffur,2 that catamite of our grandfathers, thou didst present to the besotted fellow that poxy podex with its heaped haemorrhoids, like a well whose wall has been broken down. Now therefore that ass-membered one — Allah forget him !—is very sick. Neither from his nose nor from his member will men be able to read that he is a Jew,3 O beloved one with a nose like a rose- tinted ivory statue and a membe…
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1910 · PDF PAGE 13
The Scented Garden
…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…
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1910 · PDF PAGE 121
The Scented Garden
… but in all the beauty He has created.” This at least is the line of defence attempted by those orthodox Muslim who cannot quite forgive Abdullah — or forget him.
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1910 · PDF PAGE 108
The Scented Garden
… that colour. 6. I suspect, maugre Mahbub’s head, that this is “ writ sarcastic.” The pompous old dullard must have seemed to our lively Abdullah very much as Southey did to Byron. Yet the Eastern is a terrible slave to convention, and may perhaps acquiesce in Hafiz as the undergraduate of to-day acquiesces in Milton. 7. The central thought of these two chapters is represented in the Buddhist philosophy, per- haps ; but in the Hindu practice, certainly. It is true that the Hindu claims the extinction of self in Parabrahm (Jivatma in Paramatma) …
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1910 · PDF PAGE 22
The Scented Garden
…et that this heresy is a legacy from the Guebres with their Aormuzd and Ahriman—had impressed itself profoundly on the mind of the young Abdullah. Or he may have attached an ex- aggerated importance to that mystic phenomenon which Bulwer Lytton calls the ‘ Dweller of the Thre- shold ’, that moment of intensest agony which se- parates Work from Reward, and serves as a sure diagnostic5 to discriminate between the happy-go- lucky “ union with God ” of the mere church-goer — an emotional glow of pious exhilaration — and the splendid and illuminatin…
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1910 · PDF PAGE 16
The Scented Garden
…in to curse and to swear, saying : I know not the ” book. Of late I have amused myself by asking stray Persians “ Have you ever heard of Abdullah el Haji ? ” and when they denied all knowledge of him quoting : “ Forget, an if thou wilt, the scribe ! The lovely script to heart by laid ! ” The reason is of course that it is held exquisitely sacred : and seeing that the nature of the symbol- ism renders it open to the prurient jest or prudish reproach of the notoriously foul-minded Anglo- Saxon, the Persian, who is nothing if not dignified, is jus…
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1910 · PDF PAGE 77
The Scented Garden
…Or wast thou ashamed, shooting the peppercorns ?3 No, by Allah, for thou hast no shame. It may be because I have clothed the male ass of Abdullah the tailor in costly trappings and made him pass throughout the whole city in charge of the pimp Mohammed Shaib the Maghraby4 saying : “ I go to fetch Habib from the House of El Qahar as a beautiful bride to this my master Khar-i-zakar-i-asal.5 The people of this city are laughing, Habib ; it is at thee ! Even thy Nubian called out in the ba- zaar : “ Beware, O presumptuous one ! Remember the ass that…
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1910 · PDF PAGE 20
The Scented Garden
12 Introduction Abdullah is blamed. Mildly blamed, for none would dare express downright disapproval of so exalted an adept ; but it is no doubt for this reason that the Bagh-i-muattar is only allowed to circulate in private, even among Persians themselves ; bes- towed rather upon the already accomplished mys- tic than upon the mere inquirer into the ‘ hikmat ’, and denied existence to the question of the infidel. Perhaps owing to some curious trick of my brain, I found myself (one fine day) in the state which, as far as I can gather, Hindu wri…
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1910 · PDF PAGE 21
The Scented Garden
…dinary intelligence to erect a complete system of philosophy, practical and transcendental, on these sound if slender foundations. True, Abdullah approaches Calvin
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