Page:Persian Literature (1900), vol. 1.djvu/29

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SPECIAL INTRODUCTION
xiii

erature may be proud. None like unto them rose again in Persia, if we except the great Jami. At the courts of Sháh Abbas the Great (1588–1629) and of Akbar of India (1556–1605), an attempt to revive Persian letters was indeed made. But nothing came that could in any measure equal the heyday of the great poets. The political downfall of Persia has effectually prevented the coming of another spring and summer. The pride of the land of the Sháh must now rest in its past.

Columbia University, June 11, 1900.