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XXII. The Magazine of Mysteries (Makhzanu-L-Asrar) by Nizami of Ganja
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
It was, apparently, Sir William Jones who introduced the 
to the Western world. Among his works is a translation of the twenty stories which form the illustrations to the twenty sections (maqālat) of the poem. In the advertisement prefixed to his translation Sir William remarks that the warmest admirers of 
cannot but allow that the sententious brevity of his couplets often renders them obscure, and he warns those who do not know Persian that they have no right to judge from his version of the merits of the original. His renderings are indeed admittedly so literal as to be arid and hardly intelligible, and were intended only to assist the student. Probably he meant to include them in his Grammar. One of the stories, however, namely the tenth, was so interesting and beautiful that it attracted attention in spite of the baldness and incompleteness of the translation, and has often been quoted and admired. Hammer-Purgstall translated it into German, and there is a versified rendering in Alger's Poetry of the East, Boston, 1856. I offer the following prose translation of the story and its moral. I have consulted the Persian commentary on the 
by Muḥammad b. Qiyām, and several MSS. of the poem, but, in spite of this, one or two lines are to me very obscure.
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References
page 954 note 1 
literally “his Joseph”. The expression is here used ironically, for Joseph is celebrated in the East as the type of manly beauty, and is called the “Moon of Canaan”. There is also an allusion to the pit into which he was thrown.
page 954 note 2 Literally “whitened their teeth with that burnt shell”. The commentator says that to whiten the teeth is a phrase for a smile. But it also means to humble oneself. There is also a play upon the practice of using the powder of a burnt shell as a dentifrice. The carcase is called a shell as containing pearls.
page 954 note 3 The Spring is supposed to be proud of his blossoms, and to forget that there is such a thing as the decay of autumn.
page 954 note 4 The commentator explains this as an allusion to the dog's supposed love for the moon, as indicated by his barking at it, and also to the lunar mansions, one of which is the Pleiades. But it seems more probable that the reference is to the dog's teeth being as lustrous as the Pleiades.
page 955 note 1 Heaven and the world are often compared to an old widow who has slain many husbands, i.e. the races of mankind who have possessed her. The concluding couplet is obscure. The Master 
is perhaps 
himself, or it may refer to his spiritual guide.
page 955 note 2 According to the commentator, the meaning is that when holy warriors were martyred the brickmaker buried them, and also gave shelter to all distressed persons, even if they were criminals.
page 958 note 1 The colophon figures, however, should naturally refer to the Hijra, and so vary from those in the canto by ten years.
page 959 note 1 But see Addendum.
page 959 note 2 So called because taken on January 3, 1804, the birthday of the Empress Elizabeth.
page 960 note 1 His name occurs as the copyist of extracts from the 
(Bodleian Catalogue, p. 493, No. 597Google Scholar). The copy gives his home as Shīrāz. The Bankipore Catalogue says 
diwān appears to be lost. But see Sprenger, , p. 523Google Scholar, and Bodleian Catalogue, p. 496, No. 618, and p. 497, No. 619.Google Scholar