The Kasidah

'Translated' by Sir Richard Burton under the pseudonym of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî after his return from Mecca in 1854, The Kasidah, an important Sufi text, was not published in English until 1880. Burton’s preface to the reader begins, ‘The Translator has ventured to entitle a “Lay of Higher Law” the following composition, which aims at being in advance of its time; and he has not feared the danger of collision with unpleasant forms as the “Higher Culture.”