A Literary History of the Arabs Part 35

[Sidenote: Histories of the Prophet and his Companions.]

Historical traditions relating to the Prophet were put in writing at an early date (see p. 247). The first biography of Mu?ammad (_Siratu Rasuli 'llah_), compiled by Ibn Is?aq, who died in the reign of Man?ur (768 A.D.), has come down to us only in the recension made by Ibn Hisham ( 834 A.D.). This work as well as those of al-Waqidi ( 823 A.D.) and Ibn Sa'd ( 845 A.D.) have been already noticed.

Other celebrated historians of the 'Abbasid period are the following.

[Sidenote: Baladhuri.]

A?mad b. Ya?ya al-Baladhuri ( 892 A.D.), a Persian, wrote an account of the early Mu?ammadan conquests (_Kitabu Futu?i 'l-Buldan_), which has been edited by De Goeje, and an immense chronicle based on genealogical principles, 'The Book of the Lineages of the n.o.bles' (_Kitabu Ansabi 'l-Ashraf_), of which two volumes are extant.[657]

[Sidenote: Dinawari.]

Abu ?anifa A?mad al-Dinawari ( 895 A.D.) was also of iranian descent. His 'Book of Long Histories' (_Kitabu 'l-Akhbar al-?iwal_) deals largely with the national legend of Persia, and is written throughout from the Persian point of view.

[Sidenote: Ya'qubi.]

Ibn Wa?i? al-Ya'qubi, a contemporary of Dinawari, produced an excellent compendium of universal history, which is specially valuable because its author, being a follower of the House of 'Ali, has preserved the ancient and unfalsified Shi'ite tradition. His work has been edited in two volumes by Professor Houtsma (Leyden, 1883).

The Annals of ?abari, edited by De Goeje and other European scholars (Leyden, 1879-1898), and the Golden Meadows[658] (_Muruju 'l-Dhahab_) of Mas'udi, which Pavet de Courteille and Barbier de Meynard published with a French translation (Paris, 1861-1877), have been frequently cited in the foregoing pages; and since these two authors are not only the greatest historians of the Mu?ammadan East but also (excepting, possibly, Ibn Khaldun) the most eminent of all who devoted themselves to this branch of Arabic literature, we must endeavour to make the reader more closely acquainted with them.

[Sidenote: ?abari (838-923 A.D.).]

Abu Ja'far Mu?ammad b. Jarir was born in 838-839 A.D. at amul in ?abaristan, the mountainous province lying along the south coast of the Caspian Sea; whence the name, ?abari, by which he is usually known.[659] At this time 'Iraq was still the princ.i.p.al focus of Mu?ammadan culture, so that a poet could say:--

"I see a man in whom the secretarial dignity is manifest, One who displays the brilliant culture of 'Iraq."[660]

Thither the young ?abari came to complete his education. He travelled by way of Rayy to Baghdad, visited other neighbouring towns, and extended his tour to Syria and Egypt. Although his father sent him a yearly allowance, it did not always arrive punctually, and he himself relates that on one occasion he procured bread by selling the sleeves of his shirt. Fortunately, at Baghdad he was introduced to 'Ubaydullah b.

Ya?ya, the Vizier of Mutawakkil, who engaged him as tutor for his son. How long he held this post is uncertain, but he was only twenty-three years of age when his patron went out of office. Fifteen years later we find him, penniless once more, in Cairo (876-877 A.D.).

He soon, however, returned to Baghdad, where he pa.s.sed the remainder of his life in teaching and writing. Modest, unselfish, and simple in his habits, he diffused his encyclopaedic knowledge with an almost superhuman industry. During forty years, it is said, he wrote forty leaves every day. His great works are the _Ta'rikhu 'l-Rusul wa-'l-Muluk_, or 'Annals of the Apostles and the Kings,' and his _Tafsir_, or 'Commentary on the Koran.' Both, even in their present shape, are books of enormous extent, yet it seems likely that both were originally composed on a far larger scale and were abbreviated by the author for general use. His pupils, we are told, flatly refused to read the first editions with him, whereupon he exclaimed: "Enthusiasm for learning is dead!" The History of ?abari, from the Creation to the year 302 A.H. = 915 A.D., is distinguished by "completeness of detail, accuracy, and the truly stupendous learning of its author that is revealed throughout, and that makes the Annals a vast storehouse of valuable information for the historian as well as for the student of Islam."[661] It is arranged chronologically, the events being tabulated under the year (of the Mu?ammadan era) in which they occurred. Moreover, it has a very peculiar form. "Each important fact is related, if possible, by an eye-witness or contemporary, whose account came down through a series of narrators to the author. If he has obtained more than one account of a fact, with more or less important modifications, through several series of narrators, he communicates them all to the reader _in extenso_. Thus we are enabled to consider the facts from more than one point of view, and to acquire a vivid and clear notion of them."[662] According to modern ideas, ?abari's compilation is not so much a history as a priceless collection of original doc.u.ments placed side by side without any attempt to construct a critical and continuous narrative. At first sight one can hardly see the wood for the trees, but on closer study the essential features gradually emerge and stand out in bold relief from amidst the mult.i.tude of insignificant circ.u.mstances which lend freshness and life to the whole. ?abari suffered the common fate of standard historians. His work was abridged and popularised, the _isnads_ or chains of authorities were suppressed, and the various parallel accounts were combined by subsequent writers into a single version.[663] Of the Annals, as it left the author's hands, no entire copy exists anywhere, but many odd volumes are preserved in different parts of the world. The Leyden edition is based on these scattered MSS., which luckily comprise the whole work with the exception of a few not very serious lacunae.

[Sidenote: Mas'udi ( 956 A.D.).]

'Ali b. ?usayn, a native of Baghdad, was called Mas'udi after one of the Prophet's Companions, 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud, to whom he traced his descent. Although we possess only a small remnant of his voluminous writings, no better proof can be desired of the vast and various erudition which he gathered not from books alone, but likewise from long travel in almost every part of Asia. Among other places, he visited Armenia, India, Ceylon, Zanzibar, and Madagascar, and he appears to have sailed in Chinese waters as well as in the Caspian Sea. "My journey," he says, "resembles that of the sun, and to me the poet's verse is applicable:--

"'We turn our steps toward each different clime, Now to the Farthest East, then West once more; Even as the sun, which stays not his advance O'er tracts remote that no man durst explore.'"[664]

He spent the latter years of his life chiefly in Syria and Egypt--for he had no settled abode--compiling the great historical works,[665] of which the _Muruju 'l-Dhahab_ is an epitome. As regards the motives which urged him to write, Mas'udi declares that he wished to follow the example of scholars and sages and to leave behind him a praiseworthy memorial and imperishable monument. He claims to have taken a wider view than his predecessors. "One who has never quitted his hearth and home, but is content with the knowledge which he can acquire concerning the history of his own part of the world, is not on the same level as one who spends his life in travel and pa.s.ses his days in restless wanderings, and draws forth all manner of curious and precious information from its hidden mine."[666]

[Sidenote: The _Muruju 'l-Dhahab_.]

Mas'udi has been named the 'the Herodotus of the Arabs,' and the comparison is not unjust.[667] His work, although it lacks the artistic unity which distinguishes that of the Greek historian, shows the same eager spirit of enquiry, the same open-mindedness and disposition to record without prejudice all the marvellous things that he had heard or seen, the same ripe experience and large outlook on the present as on the past. It is professedly a universal history beginning with the Creation and ending at the Caliphate of Mu?i', in 947 A.D., but no description can cover the immense range of topics which are discussed and the innumerable digressions with which the author delights or irritates his readers, as the case may be.[668] Thus, to pick a few examples at random, we find a dissertation on tides (vol. i, p. 244); an account of the _tinnin_ or sea-serpent (_ibid._, p. 267); of pearl-fishing in the Persian Gulf (_ibid._, p. 328); and of the rhinoceros (_ibid._, p. 385). Mas'udi was a keen student and critic of religious beliefs, on which subject he wrote several books.[669] The _Muruju 'l-Dhahab_ supplies many valuable details regarding the Mu?ammadan sects, and also regarding the Zoroastrians and ?abians. There is a particularly interesting report of a meeting which took place between A?mad b. ?ulun, the governor of Egypt (868-877 A.D.), and an aged Copt, who, after giving his views as to the source of the Nile and the construction of the Pyramids, defended his faith (Christianity) on the ground of its manifest errors and contradictions, arguing that its acceptance, in spite of these, by so many peoples and kings was decisive evidence of its truth.[670] Mas'udi's account of the Caliphs is chiefly remarkable for the characteristic anecdotes in which it abounds. Instead of putting together a methodical narrative he has thrown off a brilliant but unequal sketch of public affairs and private manners, of social life and literary history. Only considerations of s.p.a.ce have prevented me from enriching this volume with not a few pages which are as lively and picturesque as any in Suetonius. His last work, the _Kitabu 'l-Tanbih wa-'l-Ishraf_ ('Book of Admonition and Recension'),[671] was intended to take a general survey of the field which had been more fully traversed in his previous compositions, and also to supplement them when it seemed necessary.

[Sidenote: Minor historians.]

We must pa.s.s over the minor historians and biographers of this period--for example, 'Utbi ( 1036 A.D.), whose _Kitab al-Yamini_ celebrates the glorious reign of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna; Kha?ib of Baghdad ( 1071 A.D.), who composed a history of the eminent men of that city; 'Imadu 'l-Din of I?fahan ( 1201 A.D.), the biographer of Saladin; Ibnu 'l-Qifti ( 1248 A.D.), born at Qif? (Coptos) in Upper Egypt, whose lives of the philosophers and scientists have only come down to us in a compendium ent.i.tled _Ta'rikhu 'l-?ukama_; Ibnu 'l-Jawzi ( 1200 A.D.), a prolific writer in almost every branch of literature, and his grandson, Yusuf ( 1257 A.D.)--generally called Sib? Ibn al-Jawzi--author of the _Mir'atu 'l-Zaman_, or 'Mirror of the Time'; Ibn Abi U?aybi'a ( 1270 A.D.), whose history of physicians, the _'Uyunu 'l-Anba_, has been edited by A. Muller (1884); and the Christian, Jirjis (George) al-Makin ( 1273 A.D.), compiler of a universal chronicle--named the _Majmu' al-Mubarak_--of which the second part, from Mu?ammad to the end of the 'Abbasid dynasty, was rendered into Latin by Erpenius in 1625.

[Sidenote: Ibnu 'l-Athir ( 1234 A.D.).]

A special notice, brief though it must be, is due to 'Izzu 'l-Din Ibnu 'l-Athir ( 1234 A.D.). He was brought up at Mosul in Mesopotamia, and after finishing his studies in Baghdad, Jerusalem, and Syria, he returned home and devoted himself to reading and literary composition.

Ibn Khallikan, who knew him personally, speaks of him in the highest terms both as a man and as a scholar. "His great work, the _Kamil_,[672]

embracing the history of the world from the earliest period to the year 628 of the Hijra (1230-1231 A.D.), merits its reputation as one of the best productions of the kind."[673] Down to the year 302 A.H. the author has merely abridged the Annals of ?abari with occasional additions from other sources. In the first volume he gives a long account of the Pre-islamic battles (_Ayyamu 'l-'Arab_) which is not found in the present text of ?abari; but De Goeje, as I learn from Professor Bevan, thinks that this section was included in ?abari's original draft and was subsequently struck out. Ibnu 'l-Athir was deeply versed in the science of Tradition, and his _Usdu 'l-Ghaba_ ('Lions of the Jungle') contains biographies of 7,500 Companions of the Prophet.

[Sidenote: Geographers.]

An immense quant.i.ty of information concerning the various countries and peoples of the 'Abbasid Empire has been preserved for us by the Moslem geographers, who in many cases describe what they actually witnessed and experienced in the course of their travels, although they often help themselves liberally and without acknowledgment from the works of their predecessors. The following list, which does not pretend to be exhaustive, may find a place here.[674]

[Sidenote: Ibn Khurdadbih.]

1. The Persian Ibn Khurdadbih (first half of ninth century) was postmaster in the province of Jibal, the Media of the ancients. His _Kitabu 'l-Masalik wa-'l-Mamalik_ ('Book of the Roads and Countries'), an official guide-book, is the oldest geographical work in Arabic that has come down to us.

[Sidenote: I??akhri and Ibn ?awqal.]

2. Abu Is?aq al-Farisi a native of Persepolis (I??akhr)--on this account he is known as I??akhri--wrote a book called _Masaliku 'l-Mamalik_ ('Routes of the Provinces'), which was afterwards revised and enlarged by Ibn ?awqal. Both works belong to the second half of the tenth century and contain "a careful description of each province in turn of the Muslim Empire, with the chief cities and notable places."

[Sidenote: Muqaddasi.]

3. Al-Muqaddasi (or al-Maqdisi), _i.e._, 'the native of the Holy City', was born at Jerusalem in 946 A.D. In his delightful book ent.i.tled _A?sanu 'l-Taqasim fi ma'rifati 'l-Aqalim_ he has gathered up the fruits of twenty years' travelling through the dominions of the Caliphate.

[Sidenote: Yaqut.]

4. Omitting the Spanish Arabs, Bakri, Idrisi, and Ibn Jubayr, all of whom flourished in the eleventh century, we come to the greatest of Moslem geographers, Yaqut b. 'Abdallah (1179-1229 A.D.). A Greek by birth, he was enslaved in his childhood and sold to a merchant of Baghdad. His master gave him a good education and frequently sent him on trading expeditions to the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. After being enfranchised in consequence of a quarrel with his benefactor, he supported himself by copying and selling ma.n.u.scripts. In 1219-1220 A.D.

he encountered the Tartars, who had invaded Khwarizm, and "fled as naked as when he shall be raised from the dust of the grave on the day of the resurrection." Further details of his adventurous life are recorded in the interesting notice by Ibn Khallikan.[675] His great Geographical Dictionary (_Mu'jamu 'l-Buldan_) has been edited in six volumes by Wustenfeld (Leipzig, 1866), and is described by Mr. Le Strange as "a storehouse of geographical information, the value of which it would be impossible to over-estimate." We possess a useful epitome of it, made about a century later, viz., the _Mara?idu 'l-I??ila'_. Among the few other extant works of Yaqut, attention maybe called to the _Mushtarik_--a lexicon of places bearing the same name--and the _Mu'jamu 'l-Udaba_, or 'Dictionary of Litterateurs,' which has been edited by Professor Margoliouth for the Trustees of the Gibb Memorial Fund.

[Sidenote: The foreign sciences.]

[Sidenote: Translations from the Greek.]

[Sidenote: Ma'mun's encouragement of the New Learning.]

As regards the philosophical and exact sciences the Moslems naturally derived their ideas and material from Greek culture, which had established itself in Egypt, Syria, and Western Asia since the time of Alexander's conquests. When the Syrian school of Edessa was broken up by ecclesiastical dissensions towards the end of the fifth century of our era, the expelled savants took refuge in Persia at the Sasanian court, and Khusraw a.n.u.shirwan, or Nushirwan (531-578 A.D.)--the same monarch who welcomed the Neo-platonist philosophers banished from Athens by Justinian--founded an Academy at Junde-shapur in Khuzistan, where Greek medicine and philosophy continued to be taught down to 'Abbasid days.

Another centre of h.e.l.lenism was the city of ?arran in Mesopotamia.

Its inhabitants, Syrian heathens who generally appear in Mu?ammadan history under the name of '?abians,' spoke Arabic with facility and contributed in no small degree to the diffusion of Greek wisdom. The work of translation was done almost entirely by Syrians. In the monasteries of Syria and Mesopotamia the writings of Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy, and other ancient masters were rendered with slavish fidelity, and these Syriac versions were afterwards retranslated into Arabic. A beginning was made under the Umayyads, who cared little for Islam but were by no means indifferent to the claims of literature, art, and science. An Umayyad prince, Khalid b. Yazid, procured the translation of Greek and Coptic works on alchemy, and himself wrote three treatises on that subject. The accession of the 'Abbasids gave a great impulse to such studies, which found an enlightened patron in the Caliph Man?ur.

Works on logic and medicine were translated from the Pehlevi by Ibnu 'l-Muqaffa' ( about 760 A.D.) and others. It is, however, the splendid reign of Ma'mun (813-833 A.D.) that marks the full vigour of this Oriental Renaissance. Ma'mun was no ordinary man. Like a true Persian, he threw himself heart and soul into theological speculations and used the authority of the Caliphate to enforce a liberal standard of orthodoxy. His interest in science was no less ardent. According to a story told in the _Fihrist_,[676] he dreamed that he saw the venerable figure of Aristotle seated on a throne, and in consequence of this vision he sent a deputation to the Roman Emperor (Leo the Armenian) to obtain scientific books for translation into Arabic. The Caliph's example was followed by private individuals. Three brothers, Mu?ammad, A?mad, and ?asan, known collectively as the Banu Musa, "drew translators from distant countries by the offer of ample rewards[677] and thus made evident the marvels of science. Geometry, engineering, the movements of the heavenly bodies, music, and astronomy were the princ.i.p.al subjects to which they turned their attention; but these were only a small number of their acquirements."[678] Ma'mun installed them, with Ya?ya b. Abi Man?ur and other scientists, in the House of Wisdom (_Baytu 'l-?ikma_) at Baghdad, an inst.i.tution which comprised a well-stocked library and an astronomical observatory.

Among the celebrated translators of the ninth century, who were themselves conspicuous workers in the new field, we can only mention the Christians Qus?a b. Luqa and ?unayn b. Is?aq, and the ?abian Thabit b. Qurra. It does not fall within the scope of this volume to consider in detail the achievements of the Moslems in science and philosophy. That in some departments they made valuable additions to existing knowledge must certainly be granted, but these discoveries count for little in comparison with the debt which we owe to the Arabs as pioneers of learning and bringers of light to mediaeval Europe.[679]

Meanwhile it is only possible to enumerate a few of the most eminent philosophers and scientific men who lived during the 'Abbasid age. The reader will observe that with rare exceptions they were of foreign origin.

The leading spirits in philosophy were:--

[Sidenote: Kindi.]

1. Ya'qub b. Is?aq al-Kindi, a descendant of the princely family of Kinda (see p. 42). He was distinguished by his contemporaries with the t.i.tle _Faylasufu 'l-'Arab_, 'The Philosopher of the Arabs.' He flourished in the first half of the ninth century.

[Sidenote: Farabi.]