Exordium
(DEDICATED TO THE PERSIAN READER ONLY)
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Forgiving
PRAISE be to GOD, the Maker of Land and Sea, the Lord of “‘BE,’ and it shall be”:1Ḳur’án, ii, 111; iii, 42, etc. Who brought me forth from the place of my birth, obedient to His saying, “Journey through the Earth”:2Ḳur’án, vi, 11; xxvii, 71, etc. Who guarded me from the dangers of the way with the shield of “No fear shall be upon them and no dismay”:3Ḳur’án, ii, 36, 59, 106, etc. Who caused me to accomplish my quest and thereafter to return and rest, after I had beheld the wonders of the East and of the West!
BUT AFTERWARDS. Thus saith the humblest and unworthiest of His servants, who least deserveth His Bounty, and most needeth His Clemency (may God forgive his failing and heal his ailing!): When from Kirmán and the confines of Bam I had returned again to the city on the Cam, and ceased for a while to wander, and began to muse and ponder on the lands where I had been and the marvels I had therein seen, and how in pursuit of knowledge I had forgone the calm seclusion of college, and through days warm and weary, and nights dark and dreary, now hungry and now athirst I had tasted of the best and of the worst, experiencing hot and cold, and holding converse with young and old, and had climbed the mountain and crossed the waste now slowly and now with haste, until I had made an end of toil, and set my foot upon my native soil; then, wishful to impart the gain which I had won with labour and harvested with pain (for “Travel is travail”4So Burton has well translated the Arabic proverb: “Es-seferu ḳiṭ‘atun mina’s-saḳar.” (“Travel is a portion of hell-fire.”) say the sages), I resolved to write these pages, and, taking ink and pen, to impart to my fellow-men what I had witnessed and understood of things evil and good.
Now seeing that to fail and fall is the fate of all, and to claim exemption from the lot of humanity a proof of pride and vanity, and somewhat of mercy our common need; therefore let such as read, and errors detect, either ignore and neglect, or correct and conceal them rather than revile and reveal them. For he is lenient who is wise, and from his brother’s failings averts his eyes, being loth to hurt or harm, nay, meeting bane with balm. WA’S-SALÁM.