forbes on persian

abu Hasan

abu Hasan

Administrator
not the business magazine - but one m.duncan forbes, member of the royal asiatic society and orientalist who published an elementary grammar book on persian. equally useful today as it was published in 1869, the opening lines of the book are telling:
PREFACE.
​
The object of the following Work is to facilitate the acquisition of a language universally allowed to be the richest and most elegant of those spoken in Modem Asia. To the general scholar, the Persian recommends itself, from its vast stores of graceful and solid literature. To the traveller in the East, a knowledge of it is as essential as that of the French used to be in Europe. Lastly, to those gallant bands of British Youth, who annually resort to India, destined to become, in their turn, the guardians of our Eastern Empire, an acquaintance with Persian is of the utmost importance. In the first place, it is the Court language of the Musulman Princes, and that of the higher classes generally; and in the second place, a knowledge of it is requisite for the proper attainment of the Hindustani, or popular language, which is spoken and understood, more or less, in every part of the country.
​
the importance of persian among the educated class and elite in india, of the huge influence on the 'hindustani' which turned out to be urdu in modern nomenclature and the undertone of the british imperialist.

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find the book here:
http://www.archive.org/details/agrammarpersian00lagoog

there is no pdf to download right away, but if you click on the http link, it takes you to the listing from where you right click and save the file.

http://ia311314.us.archive.org/0/items/agrammarpersian00lagoog/

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if pdf is not available, then make one for yourself from djvu files. [even though after reading the book through djvu, you will realize how painfully slow pdf is]
1. download a free djvu reader: windjview is highly recommended. http://windjview.sourceforge.net/

2. install a pdf writer: cutePDF is recommended.
http://www.cutepdf.com/

3. open the djvu file in the djvu reader and print. select the cutePDF printer and print. save the pdf file when prompted.
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is it right to say that persian was the second language of islam, i.e. after arabic, most islamic texts were in persian, but now it's urdu?
 
thank you abu hasan, can you please explain how to use or look for islamic books on archive.org. or how it works. shukran jazilan.
 
please explain how to use or look for islamic books on archive.org
Click to expand...
i do it in the old fashioned manner. those who have raided libraries in the past (when a librarian did not have a computer to search for the book you were looking for) and used card-indexes and their wits to zero in on a book, can enjoy the archive.org (though you may not get the pleasure of digression - running into a book that you didn't know about, but turned out to be a favorite).

go to the archive.org site. in the left box on the top type: "arabic content" and in the right box select: "Texts". and then download the internet.

this link.

that is what i did and ran through all pages one by one and downloaded about 60GB. thereafter, i opened every pdf and renamed the files appropriately and put them into categories. use firefox and use download-them-all plugin (when you can choose multiple files..see related post)

though these files are useful in travel [and books i have not been able to find in the stores], i still don't find them a replacement for the printed book and the speed with which you can read and find in a printed book - old-fashioned, but it works for me. the psychological satisfaction of holding a book in hand and turning the pages is another little joy that is sacrificed with the pdf. but hey, you carry a library with you [get a 350GB usb drive].

there are some sites [most likely salafi] like waqfeya which index most of these pdf files.

there are also sites where you get 'our-kinda' books too.
http://www.dahsha.com/index.php?catid=116

look here for aqidah and here for tasawwuf.[though many links are broken]

http://www.aslein.net has plenty of such reference links, but one has to search for the links. search for 'pdf' or 'archive.org'; those who can read arabic can navigate the forums, like this thread for example.


---------------
in the end, after hoarding the books, i was reminded of an admonition and felt pity on my own deplorable state:
is the hoarder of books any different from one who hoards gold and silver? and is the voraciousness for books not similar to the avarice and greed of hoarding gold and silver? is not the infatuation with books not like the hoarding miser who has amassed a treasure of gold and silver?

just as wealth is of no use unless it is spent, knowledge is of little use unless acted upon.​
which reminds us of lines attributed to imam shafiyi:
inna'l faqīha huwa'l faqīhu bi fiýlihī
laysa'l faqīhu bi nuţqihi wa maqālihī
a true scholar is one whose knowledge shows in his actions and deeds,
one does not become a scholar by speech and talking

​
astaghfirullah. wa billahi't tawfiq.
 

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wholehearted thank you and JazakAllah khair. one more thing if its not too much trouble; where and how can i enable my keyborad to romanise arabic or transliteration symbols-that which is standardised version in the west. my apologies, i have very basic computer skills coming from traditional darse nizami! & luma.
 
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