The Parsi Clergy and the Musalman Iranophile party of the Shuubiya 26
The part played by them in the conservation of the Persian literary
tradition 30
The different varieties of this tradition; scientific, epico-historic,
legendary and ethico-didactic 32
_PARSI CLERGY PRESERVE TRADITION_
We have demonstrated above that in the time subsequent to the Arab
conquest Iranian tradition found a congenial asylum in the bosom of the
Parsi priesthood. There it was maintained and developed orally as well
as in a written form. The most competent among the Persian historians
who employed the Arabic language in those times turned to the Parsi
clergy for information. Of this we have first-hand proof in their own
works and in the quotations from other works preserved in later authors.
For example, they frequently remark "the Mobedan-mobed related to me",
"the _mobed_ so and so told me" and so on. In their quest for ancient
Persian books, too, Arab authors searched for them among the Parsi
priesthood and it was only there that they found them. Thus it was the
merit of the Parsi community that it conserved Iranian traditions daring
unfavourable times and handed them on to Moslem Persia under more
auspicious conditions.
Involuntarily we are led to a comparison, to their advantage, with the
activity of the Iranophile party of the same times in the Moslem
community, the party of the Shuubiya,[1] In their capacity as promoters
of learning and exponents of literature they concentrated their activity
in the cultured centre of the Khalifate at Baghdad and other cities, and
being familiar with Persia played an important part in the development
of Moslem culture of the Middle Ages. But in the preservation of the
Iranian tradition they turned to much restricted and greatly exclusive
Parsi circles. In the second half of the tenth century and in the
eleventh century the currents which were preparing the Persian
renascence party were lost and their significance forgotten. But for
the purpose of illuminating historical questions a careful examination
of these currents deserves our undivided attention. It was owing to them
that literary materials were preserved which were sometimes direct
translations from books belonging to the Sasanian period. The course by
which these materials found their way into Arabic literature can be
definitely traced. They came from Parsi centres through older circles
of Moslem civilisation which were sympathetic towards Persia. Generally
speaking they were trustworthy transmitters. As a matter of fact the
Shuubiya turned only to the Parsi circles for materials and in the
explanation of the material they did not distinguish them from their
other sources. Their sources betray themselves by an exaggerated Parsi
partiality where the penchant of these circles is clearly manifest. And
these are intimately connected with certain questions of daily
life,--the struggle for power between the Arab and the Iranian element
in the Khalifate. Enthusiastic partisans of the Persian element, these
circles as a counterblast to the poverty of civilizing factors of the
pre-Islamic Arab nation, turned to the glories of Persia, principally
of the Sasanian past. Iranophile writers had no need for inventions,
since historical truth was on their side. The effectiveness of their
method was indisputable. In this connection Iranian tradition among the
Musalmans as transmitted by Arab writers must take precedence of a
similar transmission, the Christian literature of the East, where all
possibility was excluded of polemics such as obtained under the Moslem
domination between the pro-Iranian and anti-Iranian parties. It is,
therefore, to be regretted that the literary activities of the Musalman
circles sympathising with Persian culture have descended to us only in
occasional extracts and are sometimes confined only to the titles of
books written by them.
[Footnote 1: For details, Goldziher. _Muhammedanische Studien,_ I,
147-310.]
We noticed above the revival of scientific activities in Sasanian
Persia. This activity for the most part has its significance in its
quality of being a connecting link, in the first place, as the
transmitter of Greek knowledge to the East, and secondly, as the unifier
of this knowledge with the heritage which Sasanian Persia had received
from scientific works belonging to Semitic culture, as well as from the
science of India. The principal representatives of this activity were
not Persians, but Christians, mainly the Syrian Nestorians, and
Monophysites from the school of Edessa.[1]
[Footnote 1: For a general account of the character of this activity see
T.J. de Boer, _History of Philosophy in Islam_, 17-20.]
What was the share in these operations of the Persians themselves it is
hard to tell. But at all events, it was not considerable.[1] The general
character of this activity does not leave particular room for wide
creative science, since it has expressed itself pre-eminently in
compilations, translations of philosophical, astronomical, astrological,
medical, mathematical and ethical commentaries on Greek and some Indian
authors. It was not in this field that the activity of the Persian
sacerdotal community in the Sasanian epoch was concentrated. And
latterly in the period of the development of analogous scientific work
dining the eastern Khalifate under the Abbasides the principal role
belonged just to the same class of scholars, Christian Syrians, with
just this difference that the activity of the latter continued among the
Musalman alumni of various nationalities whilst in Sasanian Persia their
operations were cut short by the unfortunate circumstances of the Arab
inroads. It is interesting that in the Abbaside period the translations
made from the Persian authors or authors belonging to Persia appertain
to a certain special _genre_ of works of a technical nature, books on
warfare[2], on divination, on horse-breaking[3], on the training of
other animals, and on birds[4] trained to hunting. These special
treatises were of no abstract scientific contents but referred to the
practical demands of life.
[Footnote 1: As regards philosophical traditions of Sasanian Persia in
the Musalman epoch principally we may refer to the influence of the
system of "_Zervanism_" on the adherents of the system of "_Dahar_", de
Boer 15 and 76.]
[Footnote 2: See my studies on the _Ain-Nameh_.]
[Footnote 3: See my book on _Materials from Arabic Sources for Culture
History of Sasanian Persia_.]
[Footnote 4: Fihrist 315.]
A different kind of importance attaches to histories devoted to
government and national life of the Sasanian period and to the epic and
literary tradition of Persia. Their value as history has been
acknowledged and appreciated by the progressive circles of the Musalman
community. Contemporary researches directing the greatest attention to
this aspect of Iranian movement appreciated its value and thanks to
their works, we are enabled to speak with some clearness regarding
books of exceeding importance. Traces of ancient Iranian epic tradition
are observable in some Greek writers, Ktesias, Herodotus, Elian, Charen
of Mytelene and Atheneus. But it has survived in a considerable quantity
in the Avesta.[1]
[Footnote 1: The principal works for investigating the Persian
historical and literary tradition are, besides the introduction to his
edition and translation of the Shah-Nameh by Mohl, Noeldeke's German
_History of the Persians, and Arabs at the time of the Sasanians_, his
introduction, and his Iranian national epic G.I.Ph. II, 130--212; Baron
Rosen, _On the question of the Arabic translations of the Khudai Nameh_
(Paraphrase by Kirst in W.Z.K.M.X, 1896); H. Zotenberg, History of the
Kings of Persia by Al-Thalibi, Arabic text with translation, especially
Preface, XLI-XLIV. A number of profound ideas and ingenious suggestions
are made in the various articles and reviews by Gutschmid. (See Appendix
V, p. 141).]
The most recent and pregnant exposition is by Lehmann.
It existed also in official writings of the Sasanian times, recensions
of which, we possess in several Arab histories and in the Shah Nameh.
Like the scientific literature these writings were subjected to a final
redaction towards the close of the Sasanian dynasty and it is this
recension that has mainly come down to posterity. Alongside of official
writings of a general character, there existed various books of
epic-historical contents, for instance, the _Yadkari-Zariran_.[1] As in
these writings, so in the versions appearing from them at later times,
the materials embodied were of a kindred nature, like the Romance of
Behram Chobin, Story of Behram Gor, the narrative of the introduction
into Persia of the Game of Chess. Besides these there were writings
relating to local histories. It is noteworthy that the epic element was
and is preserved with persistence by the Parsis. Mohl notes that the
majority of Persian epic poems, excepting the Shah Nameh, has been
preserved only in manuscripts belonging to Parsis[2]. Farther
development of this phase of Persian literary tradition bifurcated into
two directions. It has been shown that the official chronicles of the
Sasanian times exercised influence on the development of the Musalman
science of history. On the other hand, the epic was resuscitated in
heroic romances and tales[3]. Alongside of the historical traditions and
the epos stands the romantic poesy which has entered into Musalman
literature in a marked degree in the shape of Iranian tradition. At the
time this species of poetry prospered in Arabic literature there was a
strong Persian influence and some of its representatives were
undoubtedly inclined to Persian literary motifs, for instance, the
Shuubite Sahal Ibn Harun.[4]
[Footnote 1: We refer mainly to the epic cycle of Soistan for the views
of the authorities on which see Mohl (LXII) and Noeldeke _National
Epic_, 80-81. As a supplement to the bibliography furnished by Noeldeke
see V. Rugarli, the _Epic of Kershasp_, G.S.A.I., XI, 33-81, 1898.]
[Footnote 2: LXVII, note 2.]
[Footnote 3: On the process of the latter nature see Mohl LXXII ff.
Regarding one of the principal representatives of the later stage of
this development see Abu Taher Tarsusi, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1, 115.]
[Footnote 4: Fihrist 120, 1-13. For this kind of poetry see Fihrist 306,
8-308, 14, and compare also the books characterised at page 314, 1-7.]
To the same type of literary monuments we have to add the vast field of
story literature. Although a considerable portion of it belongs to the
province of migratory subjects, and although to Persia belongs often
only the rôle of the transmitter, nevertheless, collections of stories
of this class undoubtedly had their assigned place in the Sasanian epoch
and the dependence of the core of the _Thousand and One Nights_ on the
Persian stories collected in the _Hazar Afsan_[1] is indisputable. We
shall not, therefore, stop here further regarding facts which have been
decided more than once. We will only observe that in connection with the
Persian literary age of the Sasanians we have to indicate a series of
works of the character of epic tales arisen from the ancient historical
period of the western boundary of Persia and representing "stories of
the Babylonian kingdom" which have been enumerated among the books of
this class and also among Persian books,--a circumstance which proves
that these tales originated in Sasanian literature. Finally, just as in
historical and especially in narrative literature, Persian tradition
survived to the Musalman times so also it continued to live in the
writings of the ethico-didactical category. The importance of the
Pahlavi translation of the book of _Kalileh and Dimneh_ for the
migration of this collection of tales to the West is well-known. The
significance of Pahlavi translations is not less evident with regard to
the _Hazar Afsan_ in connection with the _Thousand and One Nights_.
Still Persian tradition in the field of ethico-didactic literature has
been studied and appreciated much less than in the historical and story
literature. We have now to examine a few questions in connection with
the Persian tradition regarding the ethico-didactic literature of the
early Musalman epoch. We shall devote the following chapter to its
study.
[Footnote 1: Fihrist 304, 10-305, 2. Fihrist 306, 6; Fihrist 305, 7.]