When this was done, Isaacs began.
"I am going to try and make a long story short.

We Persians like to listen to long stories, as we like to sit and look on at a wedding nautch.

But we are radically averse to dancing or telling long tales ourselves, so I shall condense as much as possible.

I was born in Persia, of Persian parents, as I told you, but I will not burden your memory with names you are not familiar with.

My father was a merchant in prosperous circumstances, and a man of no mean learning in Arabic and Persian literature.