Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 89 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 89: 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" (page 63). The text presents two contrasting passages: first, a Dervish (Islamic holy man) desperately pleading with a Saint for prayer to relieve his troubles, and the Saint's cautionary reply against blind petition to Allah; second, a moralizing speech apparently addressed to a Shah, warning against slavery to appetite and the corrupting effects of intoxicating drink, which the speaker suggests becomes a "noose to draw the Crown." The page is formatted as poetry with quotation marks indicating dialogue.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SALAMAN AND ABSAL. ea rrr rt rm a ei a ae ee Once more to the Dervish running, Catches at his garment—crying— ‘© Oh my only Hope and Helper ! “One more Prayer! That Géd, who laid, ‘“* Would take this trouble from my head !” But the Saint replied “ Remember “ How that very Day I warn’d you * Not with blind petition ALLAH Trouble to your own confusion ; ‘“* Unto whom remains no more “To pray for, save that He may pardon “ What so rashly prayed before.” ‘‘So much for the result; and for the means— * Oh Suan, whd would not be himself a slave, ‘* Which Sau least should, and of an appetite ‘* Better let Azrael find him on his throne * Of Empire sitting childless and alone, ‘‘ Than his untainted Majesty resign “To that seditious drink, of which one draught ‘¢ Still for another and another craves, ———_ >.< —___ ‘*‘ Among the basest of his slaves enslav’d— ; “ Till it become a noose to draw the Crown | , DOO : —_—_____-—>@% (C@ IG Gi (C@