A Literary History

of Persia

From the Earliest Times until Firdawsi

By

Edward G. Browne, M.A., M.B.

Contents

		PAGE
PREFACE		vii
BOOK I
ON THE ORIGINS AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE, LANGUAGES, AND LITERATURES OF PERSIA
CHAPTER
I.	INTRODUCTORY	3
II.	THE DISCOVERY AND INTERPRETATION OF THE IN-SCRIPTIONS AND DOCUMENTS OF ANCIENT PERSIA, WITH OTHER PHILOLOGICAL MATTER	39
III.	THE PRE-MUHAMMADAN LITERATURE OF THE PERSIANS, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR LEGENDARY HIS-TORY, AS SET FORTH IN THE BOOK OF THE KINGS	88
BOOK II
ON THE HISTORY OF PERSIA FROM THE RISE OF THE SÁSÁNIAN TO THE FALL OF THE UMAY-YAD DYNASTY (A.D. 226-750.)
IV.	THE SÁSÁNIAN PERIOD (A.D. 226-652)	127
V.	THE ARAB INVASION	185
VI.	THE UMAYYAD PERIOD (A.D. 661-749)	209
BOOK III
ON THE EARLY 'ABBÁSID PERIOD, OR GOLDEN AGE OF ISLÁM
VII.	GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLÁM (A.D. 749-847) FROM THE ACCESSION OF AṢ-ṢAFFÁḤ TO THE DEATH OF AL-WÁTHIQ	251
VIII.	THE DEVELOPMENTS OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLÁM	279
IX.	THE GREAT PERSIAN HERESIARCHS OF THIS PERIOD	308
BOOK IV
ON THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE DECLINE OF THE CALIPHATE, FROM THE ACCESSION OF AL-MUTAWAKKIL TO THE ACCESSION OF SULTÁN MAḤMÚD OF GHAZNA
(A.D. 850-1000)
X.	THE GENERAL PHENOMENA OF THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE DECLINE OF THE CALIPHATE (A.D. 847-1000), FROM THE ACCESSION OF AL-MUTAWAKKIL TO THE ACCESSION OF MAḤMÚD OF GHAZNA	339
XI.	THE STATE OF MUSLIM LITERATURE AND SCIENCE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GHAZNAWÍ PERIOD	377
XII.	RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS OF THIS PERIOD	391
	I. The Ismá'ílís and Carmathians, or the “Sect of the Seven”
XIII.	RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS OF THIS PERIOD	416
	II. The Ṣúfí Mysticism
XIV.	THE LITERATURE OF PERSIA DURING THIS PERIOD	445
BIBLIOGRAPHY		481
INDEX		497