PREFACE THIS book is an elaborate study of a woman whose whole life was dominated by love. It is certainly one of the oldest novels in the world. Thus it will appeal to historical and linguistic students, but its intrinsic merits give it a claim to universal interest. The love-letters deserve notice as early specimens of this kind of composition, and the lyrical passages (the songs of Ramin) are also worthy of attention. Originally written in Pahlaví, it is a relic of that literature of old Persia which was almost destroyed by Moslem zeal. The picture it gives of the life, manners, and morals of a remote age is invaluable. It is a presentment of the attitude of the time towards the most fascinating of all social relations. Of its moral tone the reader will be able to judge. The perjury, treachery, cowardice, and roguery of the chief characters are mercilessly set forth. The author sometimes shows his contempt for them; he perpetually poses as an ethical teacher; but he is evidently fond of Vis and Ramin, and will not have them blamed, for they are the slaves of relentless Fate in its most forceful form. The modern reader will probably find them less immoral than Tristan and Isolde. The survival of the tale in Persian literature is due to a poetical version of great excellence, the text of which was published at Calcutta in 1864-65, under the title: Wis, o, Rámín: An Ancient Persian Poem, by Fakr al-Din, As'ad al-Astarabadi, al-Fakhri, al-Gurgani. Edited by Captain W. Nassau Lees, LL.D., and Munshi Ahmad Ali (in Bibliotheca Indica, New Series, No. 53). Of this poem a long account was given by K. H. Graf in vol. xxiii., Zeitschrift d. Deutschen 100031 |