Guide to the References

This editorial guide explains Nicholson’s historical references. Their page numbers belong to the editions he used, not to the new pagination of this reading edition.

The main abbreviations

T. is the Tabrīz edition of the Dīvān, published in 1280 A.H., which Nicholson describes as edited by Riẓā Kulī Khān, known as Hidāyat. Lakh. is the Lakhnau edition, 1295 A.H. R. is Vincenz von Rosenzweig’s Auswahl aus den Diwanen (Vienna, 1838). A.H. denotes the Islamic calendar. Nicholson describes these editions and his manuscript sources in Introduction, § 9.

(T. 15. 1) means page 15, couplet 1 of the Tabrīz edition. A beyt is a couplet; a miṣrā‘ is a half-line. An attached small a, sometimes raised, identifies the marginal text: T. 7. 12a is the twelfth couplet in the margin of page 7, counted from the top. For references to the Tabrīz edition’s preface, the second number is a line number rather than a couplet number. See Nicholson’s Abbreviations and Appendix III.

Finding a passage

References to these selections commonly give a Roman poem number followed by an Arabic couplet number. For example, I. 7 means Poem I, couplet 7; its commentary is under Notes, Poem I. After another work’s title, a Roman numeral may instead identify its volume or book; read it with that title. A bare historical page reference can be followed in the 1898 facsimile. Body footnote calls and the corresponding collected notes share a label: for example, [xli.2] means note 2 on original page xli. The label lets print readers locate the note without relying on an ebook link.

Kor. means the Kor’ān; Roman and Arabic numbers give the chapter and verse as Nicholson cites them. Historical verse numbering may differ from a modern edition. ibid. refers to the preceding cited work or location; cf. means compare; seq. and seqq. mean the following passage or passages. Other titles and publication details are in the List of Books Quoted.

For the Mas̤navī, Nicholson’s Notes refer to the Bombay edition of 1280 A.H. Appendix IV supplies a comparison with the Lakhnau and Būlāq editions. Appendix III locates the forty-eight selected poems in other editions of the Dīvān. Different editions need not share page or poem numbers.

Three original index references have been corrected here: “Abū Lahab” points to XXXII. 2 (printed XXIII. 2 in 1898); “Evolution” points to XII. 6–10 (printed XI. 6–10 in 1898), and the world “regarded as a cube” points to XXXIX. 10 (printed XXXIX. 9). The original readings remain visible in the facsimile.

Where to consult the sources

The complete 1898 edition, including the omitted Persian and Arabic, can be consulted at archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.52959. Use its printed page numbers, not the viewer’s image count. To consult T., Lakh. or another cited work, use the title, place, date and editor given above, in § 9, or in the bibliography when searching a research-library catalogue. These are separate historical books; the Nicholson facsimile does not reproduce them in full. The Bibliothèque nationale de France records R. under catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb303448497.

Source references are retained even where the quoted original script has been omitted. They are not promises of an English translation of every cited passage. The references reproduce Nicholson’s historical apparatus; checking their transcription does not establish that every locator in every external source is free from error.