from Ibrahim Mumayiz

 My Dear and very dear Sid,

This form address was first used by (I think) Hazlitt when he first came across Fitzgerald,s translation of Omar Khayyam. So impressed was he that he sat down to write a letter to Fitzgerald which began "I have'nt the least idea of who you are,but...." This first sentence quite obviously, and most,most certainly does not apply to us, but I think the addressing phrase certainly does. I was quite overwhelmed by your most detailed  range of learning, and your gracious offer to introduce me to your friends in the UK. I would certainily be pleased to make their acquaintance.

Keep me informed about the publication of your letters to me. Its a great pity if they're not published. There are scores and scores of them. I have a huge pile of them.

It would be great to sit down to a glorious meal and have a glorious chat.

I academically fell in love with you because I was deeply impressed by the way you put things about authors and poets so beautifully and efficiently and nonchalantly earthily as if you had lived with them, eaten with them, drank with them and chatted with them. When we first met in Mosul about 1986, I expecting to find a humdrum ping-pong-question-and-answer chat with you. But a couple of minutes after our embarking upon discussion of literature, I realised that what you were offering was not the usual staple but a meal fit only for Zeus and Hera and the others on top of Mount Olympus, indeed it was godly food for thought, and methought I imagined Zeus pointing his finger at you saying to the others, "He is one of us." Yours, Ib