A literary history of Persia

StackAnnexPtPrefaceFOR many yearsI had cherished a desire to write a history ofthe intellectual and literary achievements of the Persians,somewhat on the lines of that most admirable work, Green'sShort History of the English People, a work which any writermay be proud to adopt as a model, but which few can hope torival and none to surpass. Considering the immense numberof books which have been written about Persia, it is strangethat so few attempts should hitherto have been made to setforth in a comprehensive yet comparatively conciseand summaryform the history of that ancient and most interestingkingdom. Excellent monographs on particular periods anddynasties do indeed exist in plenty but of;general histories ofPersia those of Sir John Malcolm and Clements Markham arestill the chief works of reference in English, though they nolonger represent, even approximately, the present level ofknowledge (enormously raised in recent times by the unremittinglabours of an ever-increasing band of students andscholars), in addition to which they both deal rather with theexternal political conditions of Persia than with the inner lifeof her people.Conscious of the magnitude and difficulty of the task, andconstantly engaged in examining and digesting the abundantand almost unexplored materials which every large collectionof Oriental manuscripts yields, I might probablyhave continuedto postpone indefinitely an attemptTttfor which I felt