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 analogous titles 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
principal translators from the Persian into the Arabic language.
Assuredly this list is far from complete. The author names only a few
calling attention to only particular translators. The passage 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
principal 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
entitled _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 assigned 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 constituted 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 Ardeshir 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
class by themselves.
[Footnote 1: Compare the essay of Rosen mentioned above _On the
question of the Arabic translations of the Khuday Nameh_, 173-176, and
182-186.]
The next author mentioned at this place in the Fihrist as a translator
stands by himself,--Umar ibn al Farrukhan. He is altogether unknown as a
translator of historical works. Hence he was not included in the group
of persons mentioned before. On the other hand, had he been set down in
this passage of the Fihrist as a translator of scientific works he would
have been assigned a place not at the close of the list but in the
middle of the translators of this class of books, that is, after Ibn
Muqaffa and in the midst of the descendants of Naubakht and other
persons mentioned above. Therefore we think that Umar ibn Farrukhan was
a translator of another species of work or, may be, works. In support of
our assumption we must call attention to that place in the Fihrist where
are enumerated the books of this author and to which an-Nadhin himself
refers in the analysis of the number of translators from Persian into
Arabic.
Besides this place in the Fihrist, Umar ibn Farrukhan of Tabaristan has
been mentioned in two other places. Once briefly,[1] (268, 25-26) as the
annotator of the astronomical book of Dorotheya Sidonia and in another
place (277, 14-18) in a few lines[2] specially devoted to him. Here he
is mentioned as the annotator of Ptolemy as translated by Batrik Yahuya
ibn al Batrik and as the author of two books, one of astronomical
contents and the other entitled _Kitab al Mahasin_, that is the book of
good qualities and manners.[3] This latter book demands a few lines from
us.
[Footnote 1: Ibn al Qifti 184, 9--10.]
[Footnote 2: Ibn al Kifti 241, 20-242, 12. (This has been pointed out in
the Fihrist Vol. II, 110-111, and in ZDMG XXV, 1871, 413--415.) Further
mention of him in the same book 98, 9 and 184, 10.]
[Footnote 3: An account of the literary activity of this author was
given in the work of H. Suter, _Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der
Araber und ihre Werke_, Abhandiungen Zur Geschichte der mathematischer
Wissenschaften Supplement zum, 45 Jahrgang der Zeitschrift fur
Mathematik und Physik, Leipzig, 1900, 7-8. Haji Khalfa cites only the
astrological books of Omar Ibn Farrukhan I, 198 and V, 35, 386. See also
Justi _Namenbuch_ 95, Nos. 15 and 19.]
Umar ibn Farrukhan is mentioned in the section of books on astronomy,
mathematics, physics, mechanics, and music. In this group are mentioned
a number of writers who composed works on these sciences, beginning with
Euclid and ending with the contemporary authors of an-Nadhin. In the
midst of them, an-Nadhin has also mentioned the grandsons of Naubakht.
Not one of them wrote any _Kitab al Mahasin_ which appears, therefore,
to be the independent work of Umar ibn Farrukhan. This book, further,
could not have been of a scientific astronomical, or mathematical nature
as is obvious from its subject-matter which related to good manners and
conduct. This book has been mentioned in this group only because here
are enumerated the works of Umar ibn Farrukhan. And good manners and
conduct constituted, as we saw above, a favourite theme of Parsi
literature: wherefor the book heads the list. Similar to it are the
contents not only of _Andarzes_ and _Pand Namehs_ but of a series of
tracts on religious subjects. Hence we think that it was mainly owing to
this book that Umar ibn Farrukhan was included among the number of
principal translators from Persian into Arabic and came to be enumerated
among the translators to whom is ascribed a certain amount of
speciality. For he was the solitary representative of his category of
translators of ethicodidactic books intimately connected with the
problems of the Paris religion. Possibly Umar ibn Farrukhan was the
first to introduce this species of literature into Arabic, and we must
add, employed for his material as well as ideas Parsi tracts. Originally
from Tabaristan, he, in the words of Ibn al Qifti, was introduced to Abu
Maashar al Balkhi, stood well with Jaffer the Barmecide, and
subsequently with Fazl ibn Sahl, the Wazir who recommended him to his
sovereign al-Mamum. And for this Khalif Mamun he prepared a number of
translations. The sympathy of these persons for the Persian literary
tradition could not have been confined to the translation of scientific
works, but must have extended to the preservation of Persian
ethico-didactic tradition in literature.
Books with the title of _Kitab al Mahasin_ are to be met with in the
Fihrist, if not often, several times. A book with this title (77, 21)
has been ascribed to the celebrated Ibn Qutaiba. It was composed
doubtless after the book of Umar ibn Farrukhan, for Qutaiba flourished
at the close of the reign of Mamun and his literary activities could be
referred to the ninth century. Qutaiba undoubtedly interested himself in
Persian literary materials. Hence it can be concluded that his _Kitab al
Mahasin_ was not foreign to the materials and in form could be the first
imitation of Farrukhan. Further it is interesting to note that books
with this title were attributed especially to Shia authors such as Abu
Nadar Muhamed ibn Masud al Ayashi who wrote _Kitab al Mahasin al Akhlak_
or a book of good morals (195, 10) and Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Khallid
al Barki who wrote _Kitab al Mahasin_ (2213-4, also 7-9). And the
interest of Shia authors in Persian tradition was unquestionable. A book
with the same title of _Kitab al Mahasin_ is ascribed to a certain Ibn
al Harun, (148, 17) an author who has been assigned in the Fihrist a
place among the writers on Adab and as responsible for a book called
_Kitab al Adab_. Now the discussion of Adab as we said above is
intimately connected with Persian tradition. And this tradition probably
survived in the books which had for their theme "the good qualities of
Adab."[1] We believe that all these books were devoted to Persian
literary tradition, in close relation to which stands the book on "good
qualities and manners" mentioned in the Fihrist as translated from the
Persian language into Arabic by the man from Tabaristan, Umar ibn al
Farrukhan.
[Footnote 1: For instance, _Mahasin al Adab of Ispahani_, see
Brockelmann, _Geschichte der Arabischen Litterature_ I. 351.]
Co-related with these books on "good qualities" stand, in our opinion,
the books on "good morals and their opposite," or "goodness and
wickedness," _Kutub al Mahasin wal Azdad_, or _Kutub al Mahasin wal
Masawi_. Although in the Fihrist we do not come across books with this
title, we have a book so named from the beginning of the tenth century
whose author was Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al Baihaki.[1] Under the title of
_Kitab al Mahasin wal Azdad_ we likewise possess a work ascribed to
Jahiz.[2] Both these books evidently go to a common origin.[3] It is
quite possible that antithesis was originally not excluded from these
_Kutub al-Mahasin_, from which were developed a special species of
educative treatises,--those on "good qualities and their opposites."
Continuing our comparison with the Parsi literature, we notice that a
similar kind of antithesis is most commonly employed there.
[Footnote 1: Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al Baihaki, _Kitab al-Mahasin val
masavi_, herausgegeben von Dr. F. Schwally, Geissen 1902.]
[Footnote 2: _Le livre des beautes et des antithesis attribue a Abu
Othman Amr ibn Bahr al-Djakiz_, texte arabe publie par G. Van Vloten
Leyde; 1898.]
[Footnote 3: See the review by Barbier de Meynard of the edition of
_Mahasin wal Azdad_ in the Revue Citique, 1900, 276.]
In the Parsi ecclesiastical literature of an ethical nature we find
definitely settled what is "proper" and, on the other hand, what is
"improper."[1] It is well known that books under this title,--"the
proper and the improper" or "the licit and the illicit"--are to be found
among the Pahlavi tracts the time of whose composition can be fixed
somewhere between the seventh and the ninth centuries A.D.[2] Comparing
the Pahlavi tracts with reference to these questions with Arabic books
on good and bad qualities and manners, we have to bear in mind the
general features, general outline, as well as the conditions of
civilisation of the period when these books were written, in other
words, the circumstances of their intimate relation generally of a
cultural nature, particularly of a literary form obtaining between the
Arab and Persian nations, and between Islam and Parsism. Not only in
detail, but also in their nature these books must be differentiated in
proportion as were different the clergy who wrote these ethical tracts
from didactic works of a strong legendary element belonging to the pen
of secular people. These literary monuments must be differentiated quite
as much as their authors and with reference to them we may institute the
same parallel which we suggested above between the Parsi clergy and the
Iranophile party of the Shuubiya.
[Footnote 1: Shayed-na-shayed.]
[Footnote 2: _Shayast la-shayast_ West Pahlavi Texts, Part I, 1880.
Sacred Books of the East, Vol. V. 237-407.]
Furthermore, associated with these literary features was also that class
of Arabic books, so well known and the period of which interests us, the
books on _Questions and Answers._[1]
[Footnote 1: Kitab al Masael wa Jawabat.]
And this is precisely the form in which some of the better known of the
Parsi books have been cast, for instance, the _Minog-i-Khrad_[1] and the
_Dadistan_[2] The second of these books decidedly belongs to the ninth
century. Its contents no doubt, were strongly divergent from others
owing to its dependence on altered conditions.
[Footnote 1: Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXIV, 1-15.]
[Footnote 2: Sacred Books of the East XVIII, 1-277.]
We have already indicated the importance of the citations in early
Arabic anthologies incorporated from Persian historical works.[1] This
nature of quotations are to be found also in books on "good and bad
morals and conduct." Further we find embedded in Arabic works a
considerable amount of matter of great importance, a circumstance of
vital moment for the investigation of the survival of Persian literary
tradition. A number of passages similar to those found in these books
are undoubtedly embodied in various Arabic anthologies. We give below
from the two works _al Mahasin wal Masavi_ and _al Mahasin wal Azdad_
extracts bearing on Persian subjects.[2]
[Footnote 1: See Noeldeke "National Epos" 13.]
[Footnote 2: See Part II.]
The list of Persian subjects comprised in these Arabic books afford us a
sufficient idea of the wealth and variety of the material on these
points to be recovered from Arabic discourses on manners and morals.