liars, _hommes d'esprit_ and yet
incurable cowards. To explain the history and to elucidate the character
of this composite people great tomes have been written. I am conscious
myself of having added no inconsiderable quota to their bulk; but if
all this solid literature were to be burned by an international hangman
to-morrow, and were "Hajji Baba" and the "Sketches" of Sir John Malcolm
alone to survive, I believe that the future diplomatist or traveller who
visited Persia, or the scholar who explored it from a distance, would
from their pages derive more exact information about Persian manners,
and acquire a surer insight into Persian character, than he would gain
from years of independent study or months of local residence. Together
the two works are an epitome of modern and moribund Iran.

GEORGE N. CURZON.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Of Hajji Baba's birth and education.

CHAPTER II

Hajji Baba commences his travels--His encounter with the Turcomans, and
his captivity.

CHAPTER III

Into what hands Hajji Baba falls, and the fortune which his razors
proved to him.

CHAPTER IV

Of his ingenuity in rescuing his master's money from the Turcoman, and
of his determination to keep it.

CHAPTER V

Hajji Baba becomes a robber in his own defence, and invades his native
city.

CHAPTER VI

Concerning the three prisoners taken by the Turcomans, and of the booty
made in the caravanserai.

CHAPTER VII

Hajji Baba evinces a feeling disposition--History of the poet Asker.

CHAPTER VIII

Hajji Baba escapes from the Turcomans--The meaning of 'falling from the
frying-pan into the fire' illustrated.

CHAPTER IX

Hajji Baba, in his distress, becomes a saka, or water-carrier.

CHAPTER X

He makes a soliloquy, and becomes an itinerant vendor of smoke.

CHAPTER XI

History of Dervish Sefer, and of two other dervishes.

CHAPTER XII

Hajji Baba finds that fraud does not remain unpunished, even in this
world--He makes fresh plans.

CHAPTER XIII

Hajji Baba leaves Meshed, is cured of his sprain, and relates a story.

CHAPTER XIV

Of the man he meets, and the consequences of the encounter.

CHAPTER XV

Hajji Baba reaches Tehran, and goes to the poet's house.

CHAPTER XVI

He makes plans for the future, and is involved in a quarrel.

CHAPTER XVII

He puts on new clothes, goes to the bath, and appears in a new
character.

CHAPTER XVIII

The poet returns from captivity--the consequences of