Vol. VII, No. 11.] Quatrain by the late Mr. Azoo. 717 
[N.S.] 
words that emphasize the conclusion, and as such constitutes 
the figure of IR rarely well OTE (isd! Ge ), making 
the end as effective as the beginn 
The second line of the Nabis “he third part) abounds in 
figures, both of grammar and rhetoric ; especial mention may 
be made of the rhyming or final aliieerition in islam-in‘am, 
the antithesis in mur-inha, and the linear word-play in ‘bal 
and bj, The whole line is a clever piece of composition in 
which imperatives are aoe after the example of al- 
Mutanabbi in one of his odes n honour of Sa yfu-’d-Daulah. 
Nicholson has considered this kind of composition of sufficient 
importance to give the whole of aorta s line, and a full 
account of an anecdote connected with i 
IV. 
The Method of Calculation. 
The principal merit of the quatrain is, however, in its 
chronogrammatical character. The plan o of calculation is 
simple ; the number of years is divided in two, one-ha 
allotted for dotted letters and one-half for letters without dots, 
in each of the four hemistichs of the quatrain. 8, ess 
than twenty-eight sph ograms are formed (vide Table attached), 
each giving 1910, the year of accession. ifficulties 
such a ane may be gathered from the fact that as 
is, perhaps, the first attempt of this nature since Nasif in 1861 
wrote his quatrain. Orientals delight to exercise their ingenuity 
in such subtleties, and only the difficulty of the operation has 
kept poets from making the attempt. In such attempts = 
correct use of' words, and even their complete sense, are ofte 
sacrificed to the exigencies of the numerical value of the fron 
In this example the words, their sound, sense and numerical 
value are all exactly what they should be. The — 
of course, gives a very poor idea Hh the = The correct 
(a). 
9% Iva oe cee own oe $7 
eos sel BAT se yi ye (1) 
ow Qa ed ad a 
pase! pial ya at Jb; (2) 
| Literary History of Arabia, page 305, 
