Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 107 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 107: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose poetry from what appears to be a narrative work titled "Salámán and Absál." The visible text consists of quoted verse dialogue between a Muezzin (Islamic prayer-caller) and a rooster, discussing divine matters and the rooster's fallen state. The passage employs religious and mystical language, including Islamic phrases like "Lá Alláh Illá 'lláh" and references to the rooster's former celestial status. The poetry explores themes of spiritual degradation through earthly temptation, with the rooster lamenting its reduced circumstances among "poor hens" and "dung." The page number indicates this is mid-narrative rather than an opening.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SALAMAN AND ABSAL. “ That Mirror, sullied by the breath impure, “ Or form of carnal beauty fore-possest, ‘“‘ Be made incapable of the Divine. ‘“ Supreme is thine Original degree, “Thy Star upon the top of Heaven; but Lust “ Will bring it down, down even to the Dust !” 1 “ There is no God but God ; Muhammad is his Prophet.” Quoth a Muezzin to the crested Cock— Oh Prophet of the Morning, “ Never Prophet like to you “ Prophesied of Dawn, nor Muezzin “ With so shrill a voice of warning ‘* Woke the sleeper to confession © “ Orying, ‘ LA ALLAH ILLA ’LLAH, “ MUHAMMAD RASULUHU.” “ One, methinks, so rarely gifted “ Should have prophesied and sung “ In Heav’n, the Bird of Heav’n among, ‘“* Not with these poor hens about him, “ Raking im a heap of dung.” “ And,” replied the Cock, “im Heaven “ Once I was ; but by my foolish 7 COMmicoooks.conm