“My Friend is unrelated to aught of ruth:
He gave me to drink of the Cup which He quaffs, as doth host
with guest.
And when the Cup had gone round, He called for the sword
and the headsman's carpet:
Thus fares it with him who drinks Wine with the Dragon in
Summer.”

His master and teacher Junayd (also, as it would appear, Junayd of Baghdad. a Persian), who died in A.D. 910, was only a little less celebrated, and not much more orthodox.

Amongst other eminent men who died during the Caliphate of al-Muqtadir were Isḥáq b. Ḥunayn, like his father a physician Other eminent men of al­Muqtadir's Caliphate. and translator into Arabic of works on Greek Philosophy († A.D. 911); an-Nasá'í, the tradi­tionist († A.D. 914); Abú Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá ar-Rází, the eminent physician known to mediæval Europe as Rhazes († A.D. 923 or 932), whose most celebrated work, the Manṣúrí, was dedicated to the Sámánid Prince Manṣúr b. Isḥáq; the historian al-A'tham of Kúfa, whose History of the Early Caliphs is remarkable for its strong Shí'ite bias, and is only known to us through its much later Persian translation (lithographed at Bombay A.H. 1305); Muḥammad b. Jábir b. Sinán al-Baṭṭání, the astronomer, known to mediæval Europe as Albategnius († A.D. 929); and the poet Ibnu'l-'Alláf († A.D. 930), a friend of Ibnu'l-Mu'tazz, whose cruel death, which could not be openly deplored, is supposed to form the real subject of the celebrated poem professedly written on the death of a favourite cat killed by a pigeon-fancier on account of its depredations.* Lastly we may mention Ibn Muqla, the famous calligraphist, who was wazír to al-Muqtadir and his two immediate successors.

The short reigns of the next four Caliphs, al-Qáhir, ar-Ráḍí, al-Muttaqí and al-Mustakfí (A.D. 932-946), were chiefly A.D. 932-946.— Rise of the Bu­wayhid power. remarkable for the rise of the Buwayhid power, of which the first beginnings have been already mentioned. With the help of their Daylamí and Gílání troops, the three sons of Buwayh, 'Alí 'Imádu'd-Dawla, Ḥasan Ruknu'd-Dawla and Aḥmad Mu'izzu'd-Dawla, having successively subdued Iṣfahán, Arraján, Nawbandaján, Kázarún, Shíráz, Kirmán and Ahwáz, obtained effective control of Baghdad itself during the short reign of al-Mustakfí, who, besides the honorific titles given above in italics, conferred on the third brother the style and rank of Amíru'l-Umará, or Chief Noble.* These Buwayhids were Persians and Shí'ites: they claimed (though, as al-Bírúní holds,* on insufficient grounds) descent from the Sásánian King Bahrám Gúr; and they were generous patrons of literature and science. Their beneficent influence. Philosophy especially, which had been stifled by Turkish ascendancy and Ḥanbalite fanaticism, as well as by the growing strength of al-Ash'arí's doctrines, once more revived, and soon found expression in the formation of that remarkable fraternity of encyclopædists known as the Ikhwánu'ṣ-Ṣafá, or “Brethren of Purity,” who The Ikhwánu'ṣ­Ṣafá. summed up the physical and metaphysical sciences of their time in a series of fifty-one tracts, the contents of which have been largely rendered accessible to European readers by Professor F. Dieterici's numerous publications on this subject. In the Caspian The Ziyárids in Ṭabaristán. provinces the House of Ziyár maintained an authority curtailed in other directions by their own protégés, the Buwayhids; which authority was wielded for thirty-two years (A.D. 935-957) by Washmgír, the son of Ziyár and brother of Mardáwíj.

In the north-east of Persia, Khurásán and Transoxiana the Sámánid power, represented by Naṣr II and his son Núḥ, was The Sámánids. still at its height, and the literary revival of which their Court was the centre continued in full vigour. But it must not be supposed, as has sometimes been done, that the encouragement of Persian literature for which these princes are so remarkable indicated any tendency or desire on their part to repress or restrict the use of the Arabic language. Abundant evidence of their liberal patronage of Arabic letters is afforded by the entire fourth volume of the Yatímatu'd Dahr, the celebrated Arabic anthology of Abú Manṣúr 'Abdu'l-Malik ath-Tha'álibí of Níshápúr (b. A.D. 961, d. A.D. 1038). The substance of this portion of his work has been rendered accessible to the European reader by M. A. C. Barbier de Meynard in two articles published in the Journal Asiatique for Feb.-March, 1853 (pp. 169-239), and March-April, 1854 (pp. 291-361), under the title “Tableau littéraire du Khorassan et de la Transoxiane au quatrième siècle de l'Hégire”; but one passage of the original work (Damascus ed., vol. iv, pp. 33-4) so strongly emphasises this point that it is here given in translation:—

“Bukhára was, under the Sámánid rule, the Focus of Splendour, the Shrine of Empire, the Meeting-place of the most unique Literary splen­dour of Bukhárá under the Sámánids. intellects of the Age, the Horizon of the literary stars of the World, and the Fair of the greatest scholars of the Period. Abú Ja'far Muḥammad b. Músá al-Músawí related to me as follows. ‘My father Abu'l-Ḥasan received an invitation to Bukhárá in the days of the Amír-i-Sa'íd [Naṣr II b. Aḥmad, reigned A.D. 913-942], and there were gathered together the most remarkable of its men of letters, such as Abu'l-Ḥasan al-Laḥḥám, Abú Muḥammad b. Maṭrán, Abú Ja'far b. al-'Abbás b. al-Ḥasan, Abú Muḥammad b. Abu 'th-Thiyáb, Abu'n-Naṣr al-Harthamí, Abú Naṣr adh-Dharífí, Rijá b. al-Walíd al-Isbahání, 'Alí b. Hárún ash-Shaybání, Abú Isḥáq al-Fársí, Abu'l-Qásim ad-Dínawarí, Abú 'Alí az-Zawzaní, and others belonging to the same class.* And when these were settled in familiar conver­sation one would engage with another in plucking the fringes of some discussion, each offering to the other fragrant flowers of dialectic, and pursuing the perfumes of Culture, and letting fall in succession necklaces of pearls, and blowing on magical knots.* And my father said to me, “O my son, this is a notable and red-letter day: make it an epoch as regards the assembling of the standards of talent and the most incomparable scholars of the age, and remember it, when I am gone, amongst the great occasions of the period and the notable moments of thy life. For I scarcely think that in the lapse of the years thou wilt see the like of these met together.” And so it was, for never again was my eye brightened with the sight of such a gathering.’”

Amongst the men of learning and letters who died during these fourteen years were the following: Abu'l-Ḥasan Necrology of the years A.D. 932- 946. al-Ash'arí († A.D. 935), the chief promoter of the orthodox reaction, to whom most justly might the Mu'tazilites to whom he owed his education apply the words of the poet:—

U'allimuhu'r- rimáyata kulla yawmⁱⁿ,
Fa-lamma 'shtadda sá'iduhu, ramá-ní!

“I taught him daily how to use the bow,
And when his arm grew strong he laid me low!”

Ibn Durayd, the philologist († A.D. 934), author of the Arabic lexicon entitled the Jamhara. Sa'íd b. al-Baṭríq, better known as Eutychius († A.D. 929), the Christian patriarch of Alexandria, author of a well-known history. Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi of Cordova († A.D. 940), poet and historian. Al-Kulíní (or Kulayní, † A.D. 939), a celebrated theologian of the Shí'a, author of the Káfí. The physicians Sinán b. Thábit b. Qurra († A.D. 942), his son Ibráhím († A.D. 947), and 'Ubaydu'lláh b. Jibríl b. Bôkht-Yishú' († A.D. 941). The theologian al-Máturídí († A.D. 944); Ibn Serapion († circ. A.D. 945), the author of the very interesting descrip­tion of Baghdad published and translated in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society by Mr. Guy le Strange in 1895; the historian as-Ṣúlí († A.D. 946), a converted Magian of Gurgán; and the Ṣúfí saint ash-Shiblí (d. A.D. 946) of Khurásán, the disciple of Junayd of Baghdad, and fellow-student of Ḥusayn b. Manṣúr al-Ḥalláj. For religious manifestations this period was not remarkable: the Carmathians, as has been already noted, discouraged by the scandals connected with their false Mahdí Ibn Abí Zakariyyá, were remarkably quiet: their eminent general Abú Ṭáhir al-Jannábí died in A.D. 944: the power of the Fáṭimid Caliphs was seriously checked in North Africa;* and a few years later (A.D. 950) we find the Black Stone restored to Mecca and Carmathian soldiers in the service of the Buwayhid prince Mu'izzu'd-Dawla.