Abou Ben Adhem : autograph manuscript copy of the poem signed, [ca. 1844].

Abu Ishaq ibn Adhem, d. 782, renowned for his piety, was a native of Balkh, province of Khorasan, Persia. According to the legend, he made a pilgrimage of twelve years duration, from Damascus to Mecca, alone, on foot, and without provisions, genuflecting a thousand times each mile.
Part of an album of manuscript poems and letters of nineteenth-century English and American authors collected by Mrs. Annie Fields, author and literary hostess in Boston. Manuscripts in the album are described in individual records; see MA 925 for more information.