Vol. VIL, No. 10.] Ruba‘iyat of Abu Sa‘id ibn Abu’l Khayr. 641 
[N.S] 
Quatrain 197. ¢,iley in B.M. for (se in ALS. is incorrect, 
and si ee a clerical error. 
Quat 207. The seme gee in B.M. is great. The 
Ganieers as pees Be there is as follow 
I eslyy'S AF a9 8e le ge ILE dtone 5 Lash 
sr la pric F come oil oyt Gly 5 Hg) SSE 5! 
Quatrain 212. L.2in B.M.is rendered as (yk af aiS aq LPT 
cod 9, and in 1. 3 jl is put down for sss. 
I have done with the variations in the Ruba‘iyat that are 
common in both the collections, and have been excluded from 
the present text. 
In the Preface to the Ruba‘iyat, already published in se 
J.A.S.B. for 1909, I had stated my belief that owing to the 
sence of a complete text of the Ruba‘iyat no complete area! 
tion of the same was issued from the European Press. Since 
the above was written, I am convinced that neither the Quat- 
rains already printed nor those now being printed can be 
said to be a complete collection of Shaykh Abu Sa‘id ibn 
Abu’l Khayr’s verses. As a scholar and Sifi of great ees 
tion, he had occasion to discourse on various topics, all lead 
to the mystic theme—the Doctrine of the Unity of Divine Bein ing. 
Tn the course of his musings and communions with the Eternal 
Soul, and sermons to the selected circle of disciples, he used to 
improvise verses in Arabic as well as in his native Persian by way 
of illustration or emphasis. Sometimes he would utter a whole 
Tetrashich or ode, at another, only a distich or ahemistich. Not 
a poet who is judged by the number of his verses, but a poet 
of poets who would either utter his own or other’s verses, ap- 
ropriate to the theme of his discourse, to emphasize his 
inner et aga age a a soul, and esoteric meanings of the 
holy-wri The Asr Ta ubi id fi Magqamati’sh Shaykh 
Abi Sa‘ id. and also the Halt o Sukhanan-i-Shaykh Abu Sa‘id 
and other books have fortunately preserved for the student 
numerous instances of the Shaykh’ s utterances, which if care- 
fully studied will give the inquirer an insight into the inner life 
of the man. 
Such being the state of = verses, which I daresay he 
composed off-hand, not with a view to their publication to the 
world, it is rather ‘ehonisiet that students of erage 
now and then, come across a few Quatrains of the saint. 
Some students, some scholarly i it tg committed to 
memory, or noted in their bayaz or memoranda, such of the 
them. In this way, and in this way only, have these priceless 
pearls come down to posterity. But this mode of collection 
of the verses has many drawbacks 
