Iranian Influence on Moslem Literature Part 4

[Footnote 6: Tabari "Annales" Vol. 3, 1309, 9-15, and Browne A literary History of Persia, 1, 332.]

Besides Muqaffa a number of writers of the epoch of the development of Arabic Musalman literature interested themselves in themes connected with Persian antiquities. One of them, Aban Ibn Abdul Humiad ar Rakas.h.i.+ otherwise known as Aban al-Lahiki chose a number of themes from ancient Persian literature and according to the Fihrist versified them (119, 1-6-163, 7-10). Such subjects were--_Kalila and Dimna,_ the _Book of Barlaam and Yuasef, the Book of Sindbad_, the _Book of Mazdak_ and finally books on two popular representative of the Sasanian dynasty, namely, the _Book of the acts of Ardasher_ and the _Book of the acts of a.n.u.s.h.i.+rvan._[1]

[Footnote 1: Versification of the history of a.n.u.s.h.i.+rvan is also to be met with in later Parsi literature, see, Sachau, Contribution to the knowledge of the Parsi literature, J.R.A.S. 1870 page 258.]

Another author, Ahmed Ibn Tahir Taifur, wrote according the Fihrist (146, 21) a special Book of Hormuz son of Kisra a.n.u.s.h.i.+rvan.[1] No doubt, further more, writers of Persian origin followed in their books on _Adab_ Persian models. Such probably was the book of Adab by an author whose name has been mutilated in the Fihrist (139, 15, 18). There is another cla.s.s of writings which bears relation to this one and which is mentioned in the Fihrist. It is quite possible that on this literary Persian tradition, were based also some of the tracts under the t.i.tle of "_Books on counsels_" a considerable number of which we meet with in the Fihrist.[2]

[Footnote 1: See the essay of Baron Rosen on the anthology of Ahmed Ibn Abi Tahir.]

[Footnote 2: 78, 15; 105, 10; 293, 12; 204, 17-18; 204, 29; 207, 21; 210, 23; 212, 22-23; 217, 4-5; 220, 25; 222, 14; 234, 23; 281, 20; 282, 5.]

Ethico-didactical treatises in the form of counsels, maxima or testaments, const.i.tute a singular group of literary mementos the genesis of which in the Musalman literature maybe established only after an examination of similar books in the Persian writings of the Sasanian times. Examples of a like cla.s.s of testaments, literary compilations under the t.i.tle, for the most part, of pseudo-graphs going up to pre-Moslem period we have already noticed in the _Book of the counsels of Ardasher_ and the _Pand Nameh_ of Kisra a.n.u.s.h.i.+rvan.

CHAPTER V

The _Taj Nameh_ as mentioned in the Fihrist page 305, and page 118, and repeatedly referred to in the _Uyunal Akhbar_, Part I, of Ibn Kutayba 65

The Persian book with ill.u.s.trations mentioned by Masudi in his _Kitab at Tambih_, page 106-7 and the ill.u.s.trations in the scrolls in the castle of s.h.i.+z 68

_PAHLAVI BOOKS STUDIED BY ARAB AUTHORS_.

We have indicated in the preceding chapter the translations of Ibn al Muqaffa from Persian books into Arabic. Besides those of an ethico-didactic contents, among them there were books of historical character. All these translations have not come down to us. Extracts of these renderings into Arabic, however, have been preserved in the original and sometimes in paraphrase. Unusually important was the translation of the book called the _Khuday Nameh,_ the value of which has long been appreciated by science. Questions of vital importance in connection with this history are its relation to the _Shah Nameh_ and the examination of its various translations in the Musalman period. The loss of this book, perhaps the most important monument of Middle Persian literature, is to be particularly deplored in that with it has perished the connecting link of the historical evolution of Iran, incorporating the religious and clerical legislature in an official redaction. Of capital importance also was another book called the Ain Nameh[1] or the Book of Inst.i.tutes, a valuable source of the internal history of the Sasanian Empire, comprising a descriptive table of official dignitaries or the _Gah Nameh._[2] Judging by the clue given in the Fihrist (118,28) it would appear that the _Book of Taj_ also was a historical one since it has been explained that the book treated of the "Acts of a.n.u.s.h.i.+rwan."

As a matter of fact, among the books written by the Persians on epic and historical subjects and indexed in the same Fihrist (305, 8-13) has been mentioned the _Book of Taj._[3]

[Footnote 1: See below and also my book on _The Materials from Arabic sources,_ &c., 63-66. Like Masudi in his _Kitab_ at Tambih, Asadi in his _Lughal al-Furs_ (Asadi's _neupersischen Worterbuch Lughat al-Furs,_ edited by P. Horn, 1897, 110, 1), identifies the word _ain_ with the word _rasam,_ practice or custom. As regards the word _ain_ in the Iranian languages see Horn _Grundriss der neu persischen Etymologie_, 15-16; Hubschmann, _Persische Studien_ 11, and B.G.A. IV, 175, and VIII, Glossarium IX. To understand the ancient usage of the term the modern Parsi expression _Dad wa ain din_ in the sense of religious law and custom helps us. In this phrase the word _dad_ corresponds to the modern Musalman _shariyat_ and the word _ain_ to _adat_. Regarding its special meaning in the Umayyad times see J. Wellhausen _Das Arabische Reich und sein Sturz_ 189.]

[Footnote 2: Most probably in connection with the materials of this book stood A collection of Persian genealogy written by the well-known Ibn Khurdadbeh (Fihrist 149, 4), representing a peculiar ant.i.thesis to the numerous selections of Arab tribal and family genealogies.]

[Footnote 3: Here are first mentioned the two books translated by Jabala ibn Salim, namely, the _Book of Rustam and Isfandiyar_ and the _Book of Behram Chobin_ (the well-known Romance of the King about which, sea Noeldeke's Tabari 474-478), and further the _Book of Shahrzad and Aberviz_ (which no doubt was connected with the _Thousand and one Nights_), the _Book of Kar Nameh_ or the "Acts" of a.n.u.s.h.i.+rwan belonging to the same cla.s.s of books as the _Kar Nameh of Ardas.h.i.+r_. Then the books that interest us are the _Book of Taj_, the _Book of Dara and the Golden Idol_, the _Ain Nameh_, the _Book of Behramgor and his brother Na.r.s.eh_ and finally, one more _Book of a.n.u.s.h.i.+rwan._]

It is possible that the book of Ibn al Mukaffa was not the first translation of the Persian book since this t.i.tle is applied by not a few other Arabic writers of the time to some of their own works. (For example, Abu Ubaida, See Goldziher _Muhammed Studien_ 1,198).

In his time Baron Rosen called attention to quotations from a certain _Book of Taj_ in _Uyunal Akhbar_ of Ibn Qutaiba.[1] These quotations are only to be found in the first part of the _Uyunal Akhbar_. All these quotations, eight in number, bear a didactic character, and excepting three, refer back to Kisra Abarviz and contain his testament to his sons (two), secretaries, treasurers and _hajibs_. Of the remaining three one bears on general maxims of practical politics. Another is a testament of an ancient Persian king to his Wazir. And the third is a maxim of one of the secretaries of a king. In this manner all these citations are of an ethicodidactic nature; only they have been invested with a historical environment and under ordinary circ.u.mstances would represent the general type of writings on political conduct for rulers, standing for the cla.s.s of literature designated _Furstenspiegel_. A similar cla.s.s of citations is preserved in the "speeches from the throne" and the counsels of the Sasanian kings which we come across in various Arab historical and anthological works bearing on Sasanian Persia, as also in the Shah Nameh.

[Footnote 1: Baron Rosen, Zur arabischen Literatur geschichte der altern zeit, 1. Ibn Qutaiba; _Kitab Uyunal Akhbar_ (Melanges Asiatiques, VIII, 1880, 745-779, especially 774-775). These citations correspond to those in the edition of Brockelmann as follows: 21, 12-16; 27, 11-15; 32, 2-8; 44, 13-45, 4; 67, 13-66, 8; 84, 8-16; 107, 2-17; 120, 16-121, 5.]

Gutschmid already noticed in his time that by the Persian historians to each Sasanian ruler was ascribed a maxim and indicated that with reference to Ardas.h.i.+r and Anos.h.i.+ravan these maxims may be taken as the basis since the _Book of Counsels_ of the former was well-known and a large number of edifying proverbs of the latter had found admittance into the national language.[1] Let us add that, as we showed above, there has been preserved a similar cla.s.s of _Books of Counsels_, the reputed author of which is Anos.h.i.+ravan. The putative dicta of the other Sasanian kings Gutschmid considered as fabricated being designed to be brief characterisations of each of them. Gutschmid further advanced the conjecture that these apophthegms formed the texts under the portraits of the kings in the book which was used by Hamza Ispahani[2] and which was seen by Masudi.[3] According to the information supplied us by the latter (Masudi) he saw this book in Istakhr in an aristocratic Persian family, and that it included, besides information of a scientific character, the history of the Persian kings and their reigns and a description of the monuments erected by them.[4] In the book were the portraits of the Sasanians and it was based on the doc.u.ments found in the royal archives. And the portraits also were prepared from the materials deposited there. The book was completed in A.H. 113 (A.D.

731), and it was translated for the Khalif Hisham from the Persian into the Arabic language.

[Footnote 1: Gutschmid, Kleine schriften, III, 35-36.]

[Footnote 2: About this book see Gutschmid, III, 150-151.]

[Footnote 3: B.G.A. VIII, 106, 5-107, 5. Translation by Carra de Vaux 150-151. See Christensen 90-91.]

[Footnote 4: Gutschmid 150, 151.]

We called attention above to the information supplied by Istakhri and Ibn Haukal regarding the castle of s.h.i.+z and the preservation in it of the archives and the portraits of the Sasanian kings. It is highly probable that for the reproduction of these portraits of the sovereigns the authors were guided as much by the bas-reliefs, not far from this castle, as by the tradition regarding them which was embalmed in older books belonging to the cla.s.s mentioned by Masudi which undoubtedly existed in the Imperial archives.[1] Along with the literary tradition there must have survived the artistic tradition. It is highly probable that the peculiar Persian art of illuminating ma.n.u.scripts which was yet unknown according to Masudi in his own time,--the embellis.h.i.+ng of books with gold, silver, and copper dust was practised by the Manichians whose calligraphy[2] delighted the Musalman authors and whose style of ill.u.s.trating ma.n.u.scripts must have been fas.h.i.+oned after the art displayed in those books which in the tenth century were preserved in the castle of s.h.i.+z[3] and which at an earlier period were widely desseminated among the Parsi circles.

[Footnote 1: Connected with ancient tradition, but dependant upon modern science, are the portraits of the Sasanian kings in the recently published _Nameh Khusrawan_, Tehran 1285, (A.D. 1868).]

[Footnote 2: In connection with the art of the Persian calligraphist and ill.u.s.trative of the Sasanian epoch stand the indications of the ancient Moslem writers regarding the Avesta, which is reported to have been inscribed by Zoroaster in gold ink on parchment and also writings in gold ink of certain ancient Persian books. According to the _Zafar Nameh_, a.n.u.s.h.i.+rwan directed that the maxims of Buzurjamihr should be written down in golden water,--(ba-abizar). From early Sasanians also comes the custom of writing on valuable parchment or paper. Masudi speaks of the purple ink of these books.]

[Footnote 3: See Browne, "A Literary History", I, 165-166.]

Now we revert to the supposition of Gutschmid. Had he known the quotations from the _Book of Taj_ in _Uyunal Akhbar_ he would have adduced them in confirmation of his hypothesis, and he would have compared the book mentioned by Masudi with the _Book of Taj_ referred to among the Persian books enumerated in the Fihrist. On the basis of the last-mentioned work it may be affirmed that in the Sasanian times there existed a certain _Taj Nameh_ comparable to the _Khuday Nameh_ and _the Ain Nameh_. The extracts in the _Uyunal akhbar_ do not contain anything of a special nature with reference to king a.n.u.s.h.i.+rwan so that the _Book of Taj_ on the "Acts of a.n.u.s.h.i.+rwan" mentioned in the Fihrist among the books of Ibn al Mukaffa could hardly have comprised what has been quoted in _Uyunal akhbar_. The materials at our disposal are too scanty to establish its relation with the Sasanian _Book of Taj_.[1]

[Footnote 1: The supposition (Zotenberg, Thaalibi XLI,) according to which Firdausi saw an ill.u.s.trated "Book of Kings" rests on a misunderstanding. The fact is that certain verses have been incorrectly translated by Mohl (IV, 700-701, Verses 4071-4075).

Mohl translated the pa.s.sage as follows: "There was an aged man named Azad Serw who lived at Merv in the house of Ahmad son of Sahl; _he possessed a book of kings in which were to be found the portraits and figures of the Pehlwans_. He was a man with a heart replete with wisdom and a head full of eloquence, and a tongue nourished with ancient tradition; he traced his origin to Sam, son of Nariman, and he knew well the affairs regarding the fights of Rustam."

A more correct translation would be: "There was a certain old man by name of Azad Serw living in Merv with Ahmad son of Sahl. _He had a Book of Kings. In figure and face he was a warrior_; his heart was full of wisdom, his head full of eloquence, and in his mouth there ever were stories of the ancient times. He traced his origin back to Sam, son of Nariman, and preserved in his memory many a tale of the battles of Rustam."]

CHAPTER VI

The list of the translators from Persian into Arabic as given in the Fihrist, (244, 25-245, 6) 75

The different categories of these translators

Omar ibn al Farrukhan of Tabaristan (Fihrist 273, 14-18) and his _Kitab al Mahasin_ 79

Other authors of books of a.n.a.logous t.i.tles in the first centuries of Islam,--the relation of these books to the books of "Virtues and Vices" (cf. Baihaqi, pseudo-Jahiz) and the connection of these books with the Parsi religious idea of the licit and the illicit,--_Al Mahasin wal Masavi_, and the _Shayast la Shayast_. 83

_TRANSLATORS FROM PAHLAVI_.

In the Fihrist (244, 25-245, 6) are stated a number of names of the princ.i.p.al translators from the Persian into the Arabic language.

a.s.suredly this list is far from complete. The author names only a few calling attention to only particular translators. The pa.s.sage in question in the Fihrist has been more than once utilised. The entire section has not been exhaustively examined. We believe that from it we can infer the general character of the contents of those translations which were prepared from Persian into Arabic and can gather some further indices regarding this list of names.

To examine the list of translators in order. First of all as may be expected is mentioned Ibn al Muqaffa about whom the Fihrist speaks in detail at another place. Then follow the family of Naubakht; Musa and Yusuf, the sons of Khalid; Abul Hasan Ali ibn Zyad at Tamimi--of his princ.i.p.al translations is mentioned "the Tables of Shahriyar;" Hasan ibn Sahal mentioned at the head of astronomers; Balazuri; Jabala ibn Salem, secretary of Hisham; Ishak ibn Yazid, translator of the Persian history ent.i.tled _Khuday Nameh_; Muhammad ibn al Jahm al Barmaki; Hisham ibn al Kasim; Musa ibn Isa al Kisravi; Zaduya ibn Shahuya al Isfahani; Muhammad ibn Behram al Isfahani; Behram ibn Mardanshah, Mobed mobedan of the City of Sabur in Fars; Umar ibn al Farrukhan of whom special mention is made by the author of the Fihrist.

An examination of the aforesaid names of translators in order would, it seems to us, afford material for the solution of the problem regarding the different varieties of Persian literary tradition in the first centuries of Islam. Ibn al Muqaffa stands in the first place belonging to him by right. He was a genuine encyclopaedic translator familiar with the Arab society with all its influence of spiritual Sasanian life of Persia finding expression in its literature. He translated scientific, epico-historical, and ethico-didactic books. Hence we can understand that in the Fihrist has been a.s.signed to him a special notice as noted by us above.

The family of Naubakht, mentioned next, represents a group of scholars mentioned separately in the Fihrist.[1] The head of the Naubakhts, was an astronomer to the Khalif Mansur and his son Abu Sahl succeeded to his father's occupation. The grandsons of Naubakht wrote books on astronomy as well as jurisprudence. Persian literary tradition is earliest recognised in the astronomical works of the grandsons of Naubakht. The author of the Fihrist places this Hasan ibn Sahl, as already indicated by Flugel, at the head of astronomers. And the same scientific character no doubt was attached to the activities of Musa and Yusuf,[2] the sons of Khalid mentioned there as well as at Tamimi, the author of the astronomical tables _Zichash Shahriyar_. In this manner these translators mentioned after Ibn al Mukaffa const.i.tuted in a manner a peculiar group of scholars who prepared translations from Pahlavi into Arabic.

[Footnote 1: 176, 20-177, 9; 177, 9-19; 274, 7-13; 275, 25-6. See Ibn al Kifti 165, 1-5 and 409, 3-14.]

[Footnote 2: See Ibn al Kifti, 1711, 10-11.]

Balazuri and Jabala ibn Salem have already been mentioned above. The first translated into verse a Book of the Counsels of Ardes.h.i.+r and the second the Book of Rustam and Isfandiyar as well as the romance of Behram Chobin. In this way the themes handled by these writers may be called epico-historical and ethico-didactic. Purely historical questions interested the seven succeeding translators from Ishaq ibn Yazid to Mobed Behram. These persons are sufficiently known in their special departments of literature. They were the translators into the Arabic language of the _Khuday Nameh_.[1] Accordingly we may group them in a cla.s.s by themselves.