The processes of development in the “Third World” are of great concern to historical sociologists and economic historians. However, despite the great interest displayed by the founding fathers of sociology in the nineteenth century in similar questions, and despite their historical orientation and liking of historical periodization, present day sociologists tend to be uninterested in both this subject matter and this orientation. In this respect they have lagged behind economists interested in questions of development and economic historians.

Following in Marx & Weber's tradition of social-economic science the objective of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of historical analysis for a deeper understanding of the problem of economic development. From the outset tha basic question will be the proper use of history to construct the historical processes of development both in the past and the future.

A considerable amount of Persian poetry has been translated into other languages including English. Quite frequently these translations are free renderings of the original, only vaguely conveying the message of the poet. Other translators have tried to be more faithful to the original and to give the English reader a closer understanding of the meaning. However, even such attempts do not enable the reader to experience the poem as in the original language with its poetic felicities. The following is an attempt to present a Persian poem in a different way, by providing a literal translation accompanied by a commentary. The literal translation is accompanied by the Persian text so that those who have even the slightest familiarity with the language may be able to experience the poem in a fuller and deeper way. In addition the lines of the literal translation are numbered so that the reader may refer to the related subjects under discussion.

As with the majority of great national figures of the Middle Ages, we know relatively little about the facts, and, in particular, about the dates of the life of the major Persian language poet of the twelfth century, ode-writer to the Shirvānshāhs, son of a carpenter of Shirvān, Afẓāl al-dīn Ibrāhīm Khāqānī.

A brief sketch of the biographical information concerning the poet, which was compiled from oriental sources by N. Khanikoff almost a century ago, was then somewhat expanded and supplemented by K. G. Zaleman. With some insignificant variations and additions, this sunmary was then reproduced in all the works on Khāqānī up to our day. The question of the role of Transcaucasian elements In the works of Khāqānī was raised in the study carried out by Ju. N. Marr, in cooperation with K. I. Chajkin, during the last year of his life. Following the excellent tradition of V. A. Žukovskij, both sought first of all to extract bibliographical material from the poet's divan itself.