Iranian Influence on Moslem Literature Part 16

Ibn Khallikan adds that "Mihyar and Mirzawaith are both Persian names.

Their signification is unknown to me."

VOLUME III.

Instances of hybrid compound names, the Iranian component being retained.

Izz ad-Din Kaikaus son of Ghiath ad-Din Kaikhosru. (P. 487).

Ala ad-Din Kaikobad. (P. 489).

Abu Mahfuz Ibn Firuz. (P. 384).

Abu Manzur Al Muzaffar Ibn Abi I-Husain Ardeshir. (P. 365).

Abu Mansur-Sheherdar Ibn Shiruyah. (P. 11).

Sultan ad-Dawlat, Fanakhrosru (which is no doubt equivalent to Panah Khurso.) (P. 278).

The word _abna_ signifies _sons_. It was generally employed to designate persons one of whose parents was an Arab and the other of a foreign race. At the time of Mahomed and afterwards there was in Yeman a great number of _Abna_ whose fathers were Persians and whose mothers were Arabs. (P. 334).

Dress of the Ulema. (P. 273).

Yahya Ibn al Munajjim whose real name was Abban Hasis, the son of Kad, the son of Mahavindad, the son of Farrukhdad, the son of Asad, the son of Mihr, the son of Yezdigerd, the last of the Sasanian kings of Persia.

Story of the onagar with the inscription on its ear written by Bahramgor in the Kufic character. Ibn Khallikan quotes Al Khawarezmi's _Mafatih-al-Ulum._ (P. 85).

[Sidenote: Old castles.]

Istakhri refers to the castle of Jiss in the district of Arrajan about which we have a more exhaustive notice by other writers. "Here lived the Magians," says Istakhri, "and here also are to be found memorials of the past of Persia. The place is strongly fortified. The castle of Iraj is also strongly fortified. The fastnesses which cannot be subjugated are so many that it is not possible to detail them."

Describing the city of Jur Istakhri says that it was built by Ardeshir.

"It is said that here water used to be collected as in a lake. The king had taken a vow to build a city and to erect a fire temple at the place where he had defeated his enemy. He had the place drained, and when it was dried he built the city of Jur on the site. The city in its extent is like Istakhr, Sabur, and Darabgird. It had mud walls and moats and many gates, the eastern one being called the gate of Mihr, the western the gate of Bahram, the northern the gate of Hormuz, and the southern the gate of Ardeshir. In the centre of the city is a building with a cupola built by Ardeshir. It is said that it is so high that it commands a view of the city and its surroundings. _High at its top is a fire altar_.[1]" (P. 56).

[Sidenote: Languages of Iran.]

In another portion of his book Istakhri describes the inhabitants as thin, with little growth of hair and of brown colour. "In the colder tracts," he continues, "the people are of a taller stature with a thick growth of hair and very fair. They speak three languages,--the Parsi, which everybody speaks and which is employed in their letters and their literature; the Magians who dwell among them use the Pahlavi in their writings, but it needs for a thorough understanding an explanation in Parsi; and Arabic which is the language used in the correspondence of the Sultan, the Government Boards, the grandees and the Amirs." (P. 67).

[Footnote 1: This goes to confirm the hypothesis of Sir John Marshall that the curious structure with probably a fire-altar at the top excavated by him at Taxila near Rawal Pindi is a Zoroastrian _atash-kadeh_.]

[Sidenote: Tardy Converts.]

In the same place he makes mention of a numerous settlement of the Magians. "Here are," he says, "a goodly number of Magians in the neighbourhood of Istakhr. There is a large stone building with carvings and pillars about which the Persians relate that it is the mosque of Solomon; the son of David, and that it is the work of genii. In bulk it is comparable to the buildings in Syria and Egypt" "In the neighborhood of Sabur is a mountain on which the representations of all the kings, governors, servitors of temples and grand mobeds who were celebrated in the times of the Persian monarchy are to be found. On the pedestals of these figures are engraved the events in connection with and the deeds of these personages." Describing the Karen mountains Itakhri says, "The mountainous region is inaccessible and the inhabitants hold commerce with no one outside. During the Omayad period they persisted in their adherence to Zoroastrianism, and they could not be subjugated, and were worse than the inhabitants of the Koz mountain. But when the Abbasides came to power they embraced Islam. These Magians were extraordinarily brave. Yakub and Amru the sons of Leith, commenced their rule and power here and drew their supporters from these hills." "Mokan," says Istakhri, "contains many villages which are inhabited by the Magians."

(P. 71.)

MESOPOTAMIA AND PERSIA IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

IN THE NUZHAT AL KULUB OF HAMD-ALLAH

MUSTAWFI

BY G. Lestrange.

The following fire-temples are mentioned:--At [Transcriber's note: word unreadable] there was an ancient fire temple called Ardahish. (P. 56)

A dragon was slain by king Kaikaushro who then built on the spot a fire temple afterwards known as Dayr Kushid. (P. 69).

Turshid was the chief city of the Kohistan province and near it was the village Kishwaz famous for the great cypress trees planted by Zoroaster as related by Firdausi in the Shah Nameh, (Turner, 1. Macar Vol. 4, line 1061). Near Tushiz were four famous castles one of which was called Arthush Gah or the Fire temple. (P. 80).

Herat was watered by the ca.n.a.ls of the river Hari Rud. It had a famous castle called Sham Iram built over the ruins of an ancient Fire temple on a mountain two leagues distant from the city. Mustawfi adds a long account of the town, its markets and its shrines, giving the names of the various ca.n.a.ls derived from the Hari Rud. (P. 85).

AL MUQADASI.

(BIBLIOTHECA INDICA)

[Sidenote: Zoroastrians are treated like Jews and Christians.]

The religious bodies which enjoy rights of subjects under the protection of law are four,--the Jews, the Christians, the Majus, and the Sabiah.

(P. 67-69).

[Sidenote: Nauruz and Miherjan.]

The worshippers of idols in Sind are not of the Dhimma, nor those under the protection of Islam; it is on this account that they are exempted from the poll tax. _The Majus are counted with the Dhimma; for Omar ordered them to be treated in the same way as the people of the book (the Jews and Christians;_) the fact that we call the followers of one and the same code of doctrines by two names, one of praise and one of blame, does not arise from eulogising or reviling on our part; our object is merely to shew what others think of any sect, and by what names they call them. (P. 7).

THAALIBI.

EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY H. ZOTENBERG.

And Behram was matchless among kings, perfect in manners and facile of tongue. For he used to converse on the days of public a.s.semblies and courtly meetings in Arabic and in matters of receiving pet.i.tions and granting of the gifts in Persian, and when giving public audiences he used the Dari language, and when playing polo he used Pahlavi, and Turkish while at war, and when out hunting the language of Zabulistan and in legal matters Hebrew, in questions of medicine the Indian language, in Astronomy the language of the Greeks, and while on voyage he used the Nabatian language and while speaking with women he used the speech of Herat. (P. 555).

That Thaalibi knew the correct distinction between Pahlavi and Persian can be seen from the fact that he says at p. 633 of his history with reference to the book of _Kalileh wa Dimna_ as follows:--When Burzuyeh arrived at the court and presented himself before a.n.u.shirwan he recounted to him what had happened to him and announced to him as a happy event that he was in possession of the book. Then he made a present of it to the king. (a.n.u.shirwan was charmed with it and he gave the order to translate the book into Pahlavi.) Burzuyeh requested and got from the king the permission to place at the head of the first chapter the king's name, and a notice of his life. And the book remained carefully guarded with the kings of Persia until Ibn Muquaffa translated it into Arabic and Rudaki at the command of Amir Nasr Ibn Ahmad turned it into Persian verse.

Reference to _Kitab al Ain_. (P. 14.)

Reference to the murder and burial of the last Sasanian king, (P. 748.)