The Persian, sources of the compilation of Ibn Miskawaihi 54
Preponderance of the Persian element in the evolution of the Musalman
morals 57
The "Book of Adab" by Ibn al Muqaffa and other similar Arabic works 59
_IRANIAN COMPONENTS OF ADAB LITERATURE IN ARABIC_
At the head of works under the title of ethico didactic writings, which
have come down to us stands a group most characteristically denominated
_Adab ul Arab val Furs_ belonging to the pen of a writer of the 10th and
11th centuries, Ibn Miskawaihi whose name is pronounced in Persian Ibn
Mushkuya. At the basis of this collection lies the ancient Persian
pseudepigraphical book _Javidan khired_, or "Eternal wisdom." But in the
body of it there is a series of literary monuments of Sasanian
literature and its descendants.[1] The author is known, besides, by his
philosophical works, as a historian[2] and as such he is particularly
important for the history of the Buides.[3] And his Persian origin would
point to his sympathy for Persian literary tradition. As a matter of
fact, his ethico-didactic collection is based on a book of the Sasanian
epoch. It would appear that this circumstance has undoubted significance
for the determination of the influence in the compilation of Moslem
ethical ideals. However, in contradiction to this basal fact and
notwithstanding that in the province of the development of Islam as a
religion, Persian element played an important part,[4] the development
of the Moslem ethical tracts in contemporary literature, for the most
part, is dependent upon more antique, specially Greek, tradition. J.
Goldziher recognizing the importance of the influence of Parsism on
Islam says the exact demonstration of the dependence of these phenomena
on the culture historical facts, whose consequences they are, would be
the most interesting task which those studying Islam in its present
position can place before themselves. Many of the dominating views
regarding the original spirit of Islam would receive the needed
correction by such investigation.
[Footnote 1: On this work and its manuscripts see my _Material from Arab
sources_ 68-69.]
[Footnote 2: For Miskawaihi as a philosopher see Boer 116-119.]
[Footnote 3:--He was the treasurer and a close friend of the Buide
Adudad-Daula.]
[Footnote 4: For a general sketch of Moslem ethics in ancient times see
Carra de Vaux, _Gazali_, 129-142, and _Encyclopaedia of Islam_ 4,
244-246.]
Let us examine three points regarding the influence on Moslem morals and
general conduct. In the first place stand the moral writings of
ecclesiastical character. The morality is rooted in and based on the
moral of the Bible and then on the developed Moslem law and has absorbed
in itself some of the elements of the ethics of Christianity. In the
second place, there is a series of ethical documents of a most valued
nature in the shape of proverbs, dicta, maxims, fables, constituting a
kind of moral philosophy, often independent of each other, varied in
their character, and different as to time and the place of their
compositions. Here we may separate a certain stratum of Persian element,
and an analysis of them may reveal partly contemporary knowledge and
partly elements of foreign religious ethics. The third but not the last
place in importance is occupied by the Greek ethical tradition in which
latterly are discernible important Christian constituents. Recent
studies have yielded us as their result, this structure of Musalman
ethics. But it is to be noted that the theoretical deductions at first
sight do not find confirmation in facts. For we do not know which Greek
books on ethics were translated in the beginning of the period of the
scientific development of Islam, and for the support of our thesis we
have to point to the possibility of oral transmission of Hellenic
ethical tradition through Syriac scholars, although this circumstance
does not militate against our hypothesis. Besides a small amount of
translations from Greek ethical works, especially the books of
Aristotle, there are observed among the works embodied in this tradition
a series of pseudographs which, however, can have only an external
relation with the Greek sciences and which would rather lead to the
second group of the influences on Musalman ethical monuments namely, the
group of monuments of "Oriental wisdom." The most typical of the
pseudographical _wisaya_, or "Testaments" are ascribed to Aristotle,
Pythagoras, and others. To our mind, they are derived from Persian
tradition to the same extent, if not in a larger extent than from the
Christian. Actual studies demonstrate that the basal work for this epoch
was the book above-mentioned of Ibn Miskawaihi which as we saw above,
issued from Persian literary tradition. And the character of that
tradition can be explained from exterior circumstances without an
analysis of its contents. The fact is that Ibn Miskawaihi worked upon
that class of Persian material, for instance the _Pand Nameh_ or
_Andarz_, which had nothing to do with the province of the indefinite
gnomic literature but which had the character of a catechism and
therefore expresses a definite system of religious morals, the morals of
Parsism.[1] The appreciation of the influence of Parsism on Islam has
only just commenced. But we are already in a position to emphasise the
great influence, which Parsi ethics have exercised on Islam and this
influence has been attested by a number of Greek and Christian
witnesses. So far, for an acknowledgment of this influence serves a
purely external fact, namely, a glance at the bibliography of the
ancient ethico-didactic tracts in the Musalman literature and an
examination of the contents of the book of Ibn Muskawaihi. A number of
additional facts confirm this hypothesis.
[Footnote 1: For a general review of the morals of Parsism see A.V.W.
Jackson's G. I. Ph. Vol. II, 678-683.]
Well-known is the importance enjoyed in the beginning of the epoch of
the development of the Arabic Musalman literature, by the activities of
the Parsi Ibn al Muqaffa.[1] He is famous as the first commentator of
the Greek books on logic in Arabic literature, but he is particularly
renowned as the efficient supporter of the Persian literary tradition
and its translator into the Arabic literature. His rendering of _Kalila
and Dimma_ is well-known. It enjoys a prime role in the migration of
this collection of stories to the West. Well-known also is his
translation of the Persian book of _Khoday Nameh_,--that is, the
official chronicle of the Sasanian times and of the _Ain Nameh_, the
Institutes of the time. We shall have occasion to speak about these
books later on. To him also belong the books closely connected with the
Sasanian epoch, namely, the _Book of Mazdak_ the _Book of Taj_ to which
we shall refer further on. It is interesting that he is also the reputed
author of two books on Adab, perhaps among the most ancient ones in
Arabic literature.[2] One of these books called the Smaller was probably
contained in the other which is called the Larger and has the purely
Persian title of Mah farra Jushnas. (This is how the title is to be read
according to Hoffmann and Justi).[3] Since the interest of Muqaffa was
concentrated in the province of Persian culture it is indisputable that
his activity was not confined in this direction to one book and the
contents of the book have vestiges in a high degree of dependence on
Persian motifs. This is proved by a variety of circumstances. We have
descended to us his book called _Al Yatima_, a tract on that aspect of
morals which was especially diffused in the Sasanian epoch and was
devoted to politics and in form represented the species of writings
called Furstenspiegel.[4] A tradition of this kind of literature for
long continued to live in the Musalman writers and the typical
representative of the species seems to be the famous _Siyasat Nameh_, of
Nizam-ulmulk, the Saljuk Wazir. On some occasions it directly serves as
a source for the internal history of the Sasanian domination. It bears
particularly on didactic literature though it has been as yet very ill
studied from the comparative standpoint. The Sasanian influence is
perfectly obvious. Some portions of Al Yatima of Ibn Muqaffa may be
parallelled to corresponding remnants from Pahlavi literature in the
_Kabus Nameh_ and the _Siasat Nameh._[5] We know further that books
under the title of Persian Adab were spread among those who sympathised
with Mazdaism and Manichism in the circle of Moslem society.[6] These
books by their character were comparable to books on Mazdak but also to
Kalila wa Dimna.
[Footnote 1: Fihrist, 118, 18-29, and Ibn al Qifti's _Tarkh al hukama_
edited by Lippert, page 220, 1-10.]
[Footnote 2: Brockelmann, On the rhetorical writings of Ibn all Mukaffa,
Z.D.M.G. 53, 231-32.]
[Footnote 3: Hoffmann "Extracts from Syrian acts of Persian martyrs",
1880 page 289 note, and Justi, _Namenbuch_ 186.]
[Footnote 4: Precise information regarding its contents is rather to be
found in Ibn al Qifti than in the _Fihrist_. In the former the heading
is _Fi taat us Sultan_, in the latter _Fi rasail._ See _La perle
incomparable ou_ l'art du parfait courtisane de Abdallah ibn al-Muqaffa,
1906. See the French translation from the Dutch rendering of this
tract.]
[Footnote 5: On the political ideas of the latter see Pizzi, Le idee
politiche di Nizam-ul-Mulk G.S.A. 1., 131-141.]
[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 Rakashi
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
Anushirvan._[1]
[Footnote 1: Versification of the history of Anushirvan 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 Anushirvan.[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 class 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 title 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, constitute 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 class of testaments, literary compilations
under the title, 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 Anushirvan.