the importance of being earnest.
here i am, in the british library again, minding my own business and tracking down sources… looking for manly men of the indo-persian world, preferably between 1600 and 1850, who rode horses.
specifically, i was looking for one manly man, such a man he wrote an entire treatise about being a man [but then forgot to sign his name]. it was the perfect lead, page numbers and everything! what more could a nerdy girl want in life? … the right page in the right book. that’s what i want.
it turns out that three like-minded nerds wrote about this particular man, and all three got the book number wrong. not name, number. in the stacks of the british library, books are numbered. and i spent the majority of today pouring over add. 16817 desperately looking for a mirza – a gentleman – when all i could come up with was adam and noah and their travails. adam? could i be reading that wrong? i kept asking myself… noah? really? couldn’t that be ‘mirza’? no. it can’t.
after finally convincing myself that i am not actually stupid. that i can read persian, even bad handwriting persian from a really long time ago. that i will not have to face my professors and say that i could not tell the difference between ‘mirza’ and ‘noah’, i finally got the catalogue of persian manuscripts down off the shelf. you see, i’d been waiting for it to download, but the connection here on the third floor is ssssoooo ssssllllloooowwww that the thing just would not download. i took a break. i went to the bathroom. i had some tea. and still not finished? FINE then. i’ll get the original down [off the shelf just next to me]… lazy? yes. i am lazy.
and when i opened it up expecting it to tell me, ‘why yes, monica. you really should have paid more attention in persian class instead of wasting time singing the happy birthday song each day.’ it was like a party celebrating the wonder that is good [but slow] scholarship!
so for all of those who come after me. all of those yearning to read about manly men, gentlemen, and their horses.
aziz ahmad’s article has a typo. the british museum copy of the mirzanama [or mirza nama] [or mirza namah] is NOT add. 16817. that book is about noah and adam. no matter how hard you search, you will not be rewarded. the actual mirzanama is in add. 16819!
for that, i think we all need to sing the happy birthday song in persian! because it really is my favorite. and my slackoffiness has paid off once again! so here it is…
happy doing whatever you love!
