This book is a tribute to Abdul Kassem Ismael, the tenth-century grand vizier of Persia. It is said that wherever Ismael traveled, he took his 117,000-volume library strapped to his four hundred camels. To expedite his reading pleasure, the camels that made up his mile-long bookmobile caravan were trained to walk in alphabetical order, each flock carrying the titles beginning with one of the thirty-two letters of the Persian alphabet.