THIS second volume, which completes the translation of the first part of Mirkhond’s ‘General History,’ contains a good deal of interesting matter. The Moslem version of our Bible stories is continued from the death of Mûsa [Moses] to the mission of I’sa [Jesus], with details of his birth, life, and death, which tend to confirm Gibbon’s statement that ‘the wonders of the genuine and apocryphal gospels are profusely heaped on his head;’ and the Latin Church has not disdained to borrow from the Koran some stories connected with his virgin mother. In addition to the above, the biographies of Alexander the Great, of certain philosophers, and of the kings of the first four Persian dynasties, from an unknown period B.C., up to A.D. 632, are given at some length. To these are also added some stories connected with early Christianity, and others on the excellence of knowledge and wisdom.
Since the publication of the first volume of this series, I have come across an interesting work by Mr. Edwin Johnson, entitled, ‘The Rise of Christendom’ (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., 1890). The object of his book is apparently to prove that the religious literature of the Jews and Christians is based upon the Koran and the Chronicles of Tabari, and that the teachings of the Synagogue and the Church followed the traditions of the Mosque. He says ‘the rise of Hebrew literature in Spain from the latter decades of the tenth century, or from the beginning of the eleventh, is a fact of the utmost importance with reference to the rise of Christendom,’ both of which are closely connected with the Moslem preachings and teachings at Cordova and elsewhere.
Though Judaism, Christianity, and Muhammadanism followed each other in their line of prophets from Adam to Muhammad, Mr. Johnson maintains that ‘the Arabians were our first teachers of the Book, and it is due to historic circumstances, as Gibbon points out in a lively passage, that our Oxford divines are not now defending and expounding the Moslem form of the Bible—that is, the Koran— rather than the Testaments.’
It is impossible in a short preface to give further details of this interesting book. It must be read to be understood, and even then the reader must possess a good knowledge of classical and theological literature. But with reference to the present work, particular attention may be called to Mr. Johnson’s chapter on ‘The Traditions of the Mosque,’ founded on the Koran and Tabari’s Chronicles. Mirkhond used the same sources of information, with the addition of numerous Arabic and Persian histories, and he is thus able to give several versions of the stories handed down to us. Still, in the main it will be found that the traditions of the Mosque as related by Mr. Johnson correspond with the traditions handed down to us by our author, and the two together give a good and correct description of the Jewish and Christian stories and legends from the Muhammadan point of view.
In all the sacred writings which have come down to us from ages past, it is now impossible to ascertain what was really the work of the original authors, or what may be considered as strictly appertaining to them, and left by them either as oral tradition or in writing. Since those times so much has been added, altered and interpolated by copyists, translators, and enthusiasts, that one can only say, as Mirkhond so frequently says in this work, that ‘God knows best the true state of the case,’ or that ‘all knowledge is with God,’ or that ‘God alone knows what is true.’ In all religions the first absolute necessity for belief in them is faith, which has never been better described than as ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’
While this volume was going through the press, there came the sad news of the death of the esteemed translator of it. Mr. Edward Rehatsek died in Bombay on December 11, 1891, aged 72. He arrived in India the beginning of December, 1847, and had therefore completed a residence of forty-four years in that country without ever leaving it. During the whole of that period he was constantly engaged in studying Oriental languages and Oriental literature, translating works from various languages, writing articles for newspapers, reviews, magazines and journals, and preparing papers for learned societies.
Space will not permit of giving here a detailed list of his many writings on many subjects. It is to be hoped, however, that this will be prepared in time, and published perhaps in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, so that it will be possible to be able to refer to much interesting matter now spread over a large surface. Such an account of his literary life and work will show that he was both intelligent and intellectual, and endowed with the qualities of patience, perseverance, and industry, to an extraordinary degree.
Here it will be sufficient to state that for the Oriental Translation Fund New Series he had completed and forwarded translations of the following works:
(1) ‘The Nigaristân, or Picture Gallery,’ by Muin-uddin Jawini, A.D. 1334; considered by many to be superior to Sa’di’s ‘Gulistân, or Rose Garden.’ [Not yet printed.]
(2) ‘Biography of our Lord Muhammad, the Apostle of Allah,’ according to the tradition of Ibn Hishâm, obtained from Ibn Ishâk; the best and most trustworthy life of the prophet now existing, and written during the eighth century A.D. [Not yet printed.]
(3) The whole of the first two parts of Mirkhond’s ‘General History.’
Of the last-mentioned work, this volume completes the first part. The first two volumes of the second part will contain the life of the Apostle Muhammad, while the third will give the lives of his four immediate successors.
At the time of his death Mr. Rehatsek was working at the translation of the third part of this voluminous history, and in one of his last letters, after describing his maladies, he finishes by saying, ‘Hope, however, never dies; and as work occupies the mind, and keeps off despair, I am determined to translate for you, though slowly, the third part of the “Rauzat-us-safa,” so as to make the history of the Khalifahs complete.’
Whether this translation should be continued and completed by others is a question that can be decided hereafter.
F. F. ARBUTHNOT.
18, PARK LANE,
LONDON, W.