Note 180 — KING JALI’AD OF HIND AND HIS WAZIR SHIMAS; FOLLOWED BY THE HISTORY OF KING WIRD KHAN, SON OF KING JALI’AD, WITH HIS WOMEN AND WAZIRS.[55] (continued 3)

Arab. “Khitáb” = the exordium of a letter preceding its business-matter and in which the writer displays all his art. It ends with “Ammá ba’d,” lit. = but after, equivalent to our “To proceed.” This “Khitáb” is mostly skipped over by modern statesmen who will say, “Now after the nonsense let us come to the sense”; but their secretaries carefully weigh every word of it, and strongly resent all shortcomings.