Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 15 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Description This is a page of running prose narrative, page 5 of "The Astronomer-Poet of Persia." The text recounts a story about a vow made among schoolmates of the Imam Mowaffak: whoever attains fortune must share it equally with the others. The narrator, who becomes administrator under Sultan Alp Arslan, is eventually located by his old schoolfriends and honors the vow. One friend, Hasan, demands a government position; when granted one, he grows discontented and attempts court intrigue against his benefactor, leading to his disgrace. The passage concludes by noting that after subsequent misfortunes, Hasan became head of the Persian sect of the Ismailians.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA. v ‘ pupils of the Imam Mowaffak will attain to fortune. ‘ Now, even if we all do not attain thereto, without ‘ doubt one of us will; what then shall be our mutual ‘ pledge and bond?’ We answered, ‘ Be it what you ‘please.’ ‘ Well,’ he said, ‘let us make a vow, that ‘to whomsoever this fortune falls, he shall share it ‘equally with the rest, and reserve no pre-eminence ‘ for himself.’ ‘Be it so,’ we both replied, and on ‘ those terms we mutually pledged our words. Years ‘rolled on, and I went from Khorassan to Trans- ‘ oxiana, and wandered to Ghazni and Cabul; and ‘when I returned, I was invested with office, and ‘rose to be administrator of affairs during the ‘ Sultanate of Sultan Alp Arslan.’ “ He goes on to state, that years passed by, and both his old school-friends found him out, and came and claimed a share in his good fortune, according to the school-day vow. The Vizier was generous and kept his word. Hasan demanded a place in the government, which the Sultan granted at the Vizier’s request ; but discontented with a gradual rise, he plunged into the maze of intrigue of an oriental ' court, and, failing in a base attempt to supplant his benefactor, he was disgraced and fell. After many mishaps and wanderings, Hasan became the head of ~ } the Persian sect of the Ismailians,—a party of Hiwe- COMmMICoOoOoOKS.c©