be a fixed, much less a final one. That is not yet in sight. The preliminary studies of the older Persian mystical literature and especially of Sanáʾí and ʿAṭṭár) have scarcely begun. Even on the narrowest ground, such a text would require for its preparation and construction a larger number of ancient MSS. than I have beenable to consult; it might then be possible to determine more precisely the relation of these MSS. to each other and to the archetype which, in my judgement, we are still far from having fully recovered. I have referred to the importance of C for establishing the text of Book I, and if a MS. of the same authority, containing the entire Mathnawí, should some day be brought to light, it would probably entail a revision of all our texts of the poem. Again, though this volume, with the translation which is to follow it, has occupied most of my time during the last four years, it leaves many problems unsettled, as must happen when the earlier part of a work is published before the later portions have been studied in detail. This is not the best way to edit the Mathnawí, but in the circumstances there was no other. In writing the commentary I may find reason to reject or modify the views which I now hold as to the interpretation of certain passages; and of course a change of view may involve changes in the text.
The appended list of corrections is largely made up of misprints due to occasional indistinctness in the Beyrout type. Errors of more consequence are marked with an asterisk.
I gratefully acknowledge the generous help I have received indifferent ways not only from colleagues and friends to whose kindness I have long been accustomed — Professor E. G. Browne, Professor A. A. Bevan, Dr. F. W. Thomas, and Mr. E. Edwards — but also from many friends, some of them personally unknown to me, who have shown their interest in the work by giving or lending valuable manuscripts and books and supplying me with information. To Indian scholars, including past and present Government Research Students in this University, I owe a great deal. For instance, Muḥammad Shafíʿ, one of my former pupils and now Professor of Arabic at Lahore, most kindly procured and sent to me