[Footnote 8: "PERSIAN influence increased at the court of the CALIPHS, and reached its zenith under AL-HADI, HARUNU'R-RASHID, and AL-MAMUN. Most of the ministers of the last were PERSIANS or of PERSIAN extraction. In BAGHDAD, PERSIAN fashions continued to enjoy an increasing ascendancy. The old PERSIAN festivals of the NAWRUZ, MIHRGAN, and RAM were celebrated. PERSIAN raiment was the official court dress, and the tall, black, conical PERSIAN hats were already prescribed as official by the second ABBASID Caliph (in A.H. 153: A.D. 770). At the court the customs of the SASSANIAN Kings were imitated, and garments decorated with golden inscriptions were introduced, which it was the exclusive privilege of the ruler to bestow. A coin of the Caliph AL-MUTAWAKKIL shows us this Prince actually clothed in true PERSIAN fashions".--VON KREMER, Streitzuge, page 32.] The foundation of the MUHAMMADAN EMPIRE was RELIGION. It was to the Holy Standard that the nations bent [CONTINUED ON PAGE TWENTY-THREE] * * * * * _"Lips sweet as sugar on my pen bestow, And from my book let streams of odour flow."_ --J'AMI. ILLUSTRATED AND ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT The complete volume of "YUSUF-OU-ZALIKHA", the popular poem by the famous mystic poet J'AMI, based on the Biblical story of JOSEPH and POTIPHAR'S WIFE. The scribe, MIR ALI SULTANI. The colophon reads: "Terminated by the sinner, humble MIR ALI SULTANI the penman, may God forgive his sins and shelter his faults. Terminated in the month of MOHARRAM AL HARAM in the year A.H. 944 (in letters) (A.D. 1537) in the glorious city of BUKHARA." The Dedication in the handwriting of the scribe, in ornate gold lettering, reads: "For his majesty, the AUGUST, the just, the possessor of virtues, the great KHAGAN GHAZI ABD-UL-AZIZ BAHADUR KHAN, may his domain last forever." The autograph of the Emperor SHAH JAHAN, the "GREAT MOGUL", on the magnificently decorated mount reads: "In the name of God compassionate and merciful this YUSUF-OU-ZALIKHA treasured on the occasion of BLESSED ACCESSION." (A.D. 1627) In confirmation of the foregoing, it is of great interest that JAHANGIR makes special reference in his memoirs (Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri) to an incident, as of highest importance, that he was presented by ABD-AL-RAHIM KHAN, KHAN-I-KHANAN, with a superb copy of J'AMI'S poem YUSUF-OU-ZALIKHA, transcribed by MIR ALI SULTANI, "Prince of Penmen", and that the gift was appraised at "a thousand Muhr". [Illustration: COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED AND ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT OF "YUSUF-OU-ZALIKHA", BY THE FAMOUS MYSTIC POET J'AMI] ONE OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE MANUSCRIPT YUSUF-OU-ZALIKHA ZALIKHA in old age, broken and in poverty, meets YUSUF in the market place in Egypt.