“The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A Lay of a Higher Law, Translated and Annotated by His Friend and Pupil F. B.,” by Sir Richard F. Burton. Portland, Maine: Thomas B. Mosher, 1902.

 

3^rd Edition, Limited Printing (1/925) on Van Gelder Paper; Narrow 8vo (approximately 10 cm x 18 cm); [xiii] 123pp. [i]; ¾ Read Leather Binding Over Marble Boards with Matching End-Papers; 5 Raised Bands with Gilt Decorated Compartments, Title, Author, Printing Year; Gilt Borders, Top Edge Gilt with Silk Page Marker.

 

In Very Good+ condition with a strong spine showing no cracking or splitting, strong hinges showing no separation or starting, firm corners and end-caps, and no annotations, foxing, or mold. Outer covers show some general rubbing and shelf-wear; faint waters stains on the two blank pages at both the front and rear, but nowhere else in the text (see Image 4). See Image 6 for complete Table of Contents.

 

“The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1880) is a long English-language poem written by "Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî", a pseudonym of the true author, Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), a well-known British Arabist and explorer. In a note to the reader, Burton claims to be the translator of the poem, to which he gives the English title "Lay of the Higher Law." It is thus a pseudo translation, pretending to have had an original Persian text, which never existed. The Kasidah is essentially a distillation of Sufi thought in the poetic idiom of that mystical tradition; Burton had hoped to bring Sufist ideas to the West.”