Having said thus much of the ‘Anvár-i Suhailí’ itself, and of its Sanskṛit originals, it remains that some notice be taken of the Translations which have been made into other languages, and of which the Baron DE SACY has given a full account in the ‘Mémoire Historique’ prefixed to his edition of Calila et Dimna.’ This profound scholar is of opinion, that, after the physician Burzuyah had brought the works of which the ‘Anvár-i Suhailí’ is an expansion, into Persia (see p. 6 of this translation) during the reign of Núshírwán; they were immediately translated into Pahlaví, under the same reign, that is, circa A.D. 570. This version perished, no doubt, in the invasion of the Arabs. At least, no copy has yet been discovered.
was made by the person whose name it bears, under the second Khalíf
of the ’Abbásís, Manṣúr, (see p. 7 of this translation) between the years
136—
This was made towards the close of the eleventh century, by order of the Emperor Alexis Comnenes. It is chiefly remarkable for the substitution of Greek proper names for the Oriental ones. Thus, a king of the rats is called <greek">, and three rats, his counsellors, are termed <greek">, <greek">, and <greek">.
Nothing certain is known of the Translator. The version contains two additional Chapters, the Sixteenth and Seventeenth, the former of which, being the story of ‘the Two Swans and the Duck,’ was found by M. de Sacy in one Arabic MS.: the latter, or the story of ‘the Dove and the Fox,’ he was unable to discover in any Arabic version.
Omitting a Syriac version doubtfully mentioned by M. de Sacy, and of which nothing certain is known, we come next to
(See p. 7 of this translation). This poet, called also Ustád Abú’l Ḥasan, was born blind, and flourished at the court of Sulṭán Naṣr bin Aḥmad, the third prince of the Sámánides, who, it is said, presented him with 80,000 dirams for his metrical version, which, however, seems not to have survived to modern times.
This was executed (see p. 8 of this translation) by command of Bahrám Sháh, thirteenth sulṭán of the Ghaznivites, who died A.D. 1151. It is filled with Arabic quotations, and difficult and obsolete words; and its reputation has been entirely lost sight of in the blaze of the more elegant version executed by Ḥusain Vá’iz. As enough has already been said of the latter, we have only further to observe that it was made about the beginning of the 15th century, and proceed to notice
This was made by the celebrated Abú’l-Faẓl, vazír of the renowned Akbar. His intention was to simplify the translation of Ḥusain Vá’iz, and render it more intelligible. He further introduced two Chapters which Ḥusain Vá’iz had retrenched. Of these the one is the Preface or Introduction of the Arabic translator, ’Abdu’lláh bin Al-Muḳaff’a; and the other is the life of Burzuyah before his journey to India to procure the Fables. Abú’l Faẓl seems to have fallen into the error common to many others, of supposing that Buzurjmihr, the Grand Vazír of Núshírwán, and not Burzuyah, was the Pahlaví translator of the book. M. de Sacy has proved, however, that this is not the case.
Mr. Colebrooke says of this version, ‘The ‘’Iyár-i Dánish’ comprises sixteen chapters, ten of which, as Abú’l Faẓl states in his preface, were taken from the Hindí original, entitled ‘Kartak and Damnak,’ and six were added by Buzurjmihr; namely, the four last, containing stories recited by the Bráhman Bídpáí in answer to the questions of King Dábishlím; and the two first, consisting of a preface by Buzurjmihr, with an introduction by Burzuyah. Both these introductory chapters had been omitted by Husain Vá’iz, as foreign to the original work: but he substituted a different beginning, and made other additions, some of which are indicated by him, and the rest are pointed out by Abú’l Faẓl; who has, nevertheless, retained them as appendages not devoid of use, and therefore admissible in a composition intended solely to convey moral instruction. The whole of the dramatic part, including all the dialogue between Dábishlím, King of India, and Bídpáí, a Bráhman of Sarándíp, as well as the finding of Húshang’s legacy, appears to have been added by the translators, although the appellations of the king and of the philosopher, are stated to be of Indian origin. For Abú’l Fazl has inserted the story at the close of the second chapter; after expressly declaring, in one place, that the substance of the work begins with the third; and in another, that the two first were added by the author of the Pahlaví translation.’
This is a close Hindústání translation of the ‘’Iyár-i Dánish,’ and was made A.D. 1803, by Maulaví Ḥafizu’d-dín, for the use of the College of Fort William, at the suggestion of Dr. Gilchrist. It is written in good plain language, and is a very useful book for students. The editor was Captain Thomas Roebuck, a scholar of extraordinary industry and ability, to whom Urdú literature is much indebted. This translation obtained the highest pecuniary reward ever bestowed at the College.
This was made in the first half of the tenth century of the Hijrah, under the reign of the Emperor Sulaimán I., by ’Alí Chalabí bin Sálih, Professor at Adrianople, in the College founded by Murád II. It is a close translation of the ‘Anvár-i Suhailí,’ but when the Persian verses are obscure, they are often suppressed, and Turkish verses substituted.
There are some other Turkish versions, and amongst them a poetical one by Jamálí.
The Hebrew version was translated into Latin by John of Capua, towards the close of the fifteenth century, and published under the title of ‘Directorium Humanæ Vitæ, alias Parabole Antiquorum Sapientum;’ and from it several Italian, Spanish, and German translations were made. An Italian imitation of the ‘Directorium,’ ascribed to Doni, was translated into English, and printed in 1570. A Greek version (perhaps that of Sethus) from the Arabic, was edited in 1697, with a Latin interpretation, by Starkius. In French, a part of the Fables appeared in 1644, under the title of ‘Le Livre des Lumières (Anvár-i Suhailí) on la Conduite des Royes;’ the translator is named David Said, of Isfahán. The work was, however, little known in Europe, till Galland, the French translator of the ‘Arabian Nights’ Entertainments,’ undertook a version of the first four chapters from the Turkish of ’Alí Chalabí. The remaining ten chapters were afterwards supplied by Cardonne, Professor of the Persian Language at the Royal College of Paris, from the same original, as appears by the title ‘Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokman, traduites d’Ali Tchelebi ben Saleh, auteur Turc.’ The English work, ‘Instructive and Entertaining Fables of Pilpay, an ancient Indian Philosopher,’ of which a fifth edition was published in 1775, is said to have been taken from another French translation, which was made from the Persian and published in 1709.
It only remains that a few words be said of the present translation.* It is perhaps the only version of the whole of Ḥusain Vá’iz’s work which pretends to exact faithfulness. The Preface and the First book are much more literal than the remaining parts, and this greater scrupulousness at the beginning is intended for the benefit of students. No difficulty has been intentionally slurred over, and though it cannot be doubted that many mistakes will be found in so long a work, it is hoped that they will be indulgently viewed; and that the labor, at least, which has been expended upon the translation, more especially upon the Verses, which amount to between five and six thousand, will be appreciated. In fact a few words of approbation are the only encouragement that either the Translator or the Publisher can look for; as, so little suited are Oriental works in general to the European palate that, to use the words of Ḥusain Vá’iz (in a somewhat different sense), they would make
EDWARD B. EASTWICK.
Haileybury, September 28th, 1854.