The two oldest Arabic prose works of importance (except the Qur'án) which have come down to us are Ibn Isḥáq's († A.D. 767) Biography of the Prophet in the recension of Ibn Hishám († A.D. 834),* and a work on genealogy by Ibnu'l-Kalbí († A.D. 763-4), of which manuscripts exist in the libraries of the British Museum and the Escorial.* Manu­script notes, however, were constantly made at an earlier date, during the first century of the Flight, by such men as Abú Hurayra, 'Abdu'llah b. 'Amr b. al-'Aṣí, az-Zuhrí* († A.D. 742) and Ḥasan of Baṣra,* who in some cases ordered that these notes should be burned at their death, because they were mere aids to memory, “and what they knew these scholars had handed on by word of mouth.” Indeed, as Goldziher has shown,* there existed till well into the second century after the Flight a strong feeling against the writing down of traditions, so that 'Abdu'r-Raḥmán b. Harmala al-Aslamí († A.D. 762) had to obtain a special permission from his teacher Sa'íd b. al-Musayyib to reduce his teachings to writing, on the pretext that his memory was not strong enough to retain them without such aids. The grounds on which this objection rested were chiefly two: a fear lest the books wherein these holy sayings of the Prophet were recorded might not be treated with enough respect; and a fear lest, on the other hand, they might, as had happened in other religions, become invested, to the prejudice of the Book of God, with an undue authority. Against this objection stood the truer view embodied in such sayings as: “Knowledge not put on paper is lost;” “What is committed to memory passes away, but what is written remains;” “The best teacher of traditions is the written record;” and the Imám Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal's reputed aphorisms, “Publish traditions only after written texts,” and “the book is the most faithful recorder.”* Naturally such objections did not exist in the case of profane literature, and, in the short section which he devotes to the prose-literature of the Umayyad period, Carl Brockelmann* mentions the following early works and writers: the Southern Arabians Wahb b. Munabbih (of Persian origin)* and 'Abíd b. Shariya, both of Ṣan'a, of whom the former died at an advanced age in A.D. 728, and the latter in the reign of 'Abdu'l-Malik (A.D. 685-705); Abú Mikhnaf Lúṭ b. Yaḥyá al-Azdí, celebrated for his historical romances (d. circ. A.D. 750); the already-mentioned az-Zuhrí (d. A.D. 742); and his pupil Muḥammad b. 'Abdu'r-Rahmán al-'Ámirí († A.D. 737), author of an older Muwaṭṭa' than the well­known law-book of the same name compiled by the Imám Málik b. Anas (d. 795). Amongst the oldest Arabic prose works of which copies actually exist are the Kitábu'z-Zuhd (on Asceticism) of Asad b. Músá b. Ibráhím († A.D. 749); the Kitábu'l-Jawámi' (on Oneiromancy) of Muḥammad b. Shírín (see p. 263, n. 1 supra); and the Kitábu'l-Ishára bi-'ilmi'l-'ibára of Muḥammad b. 'Alí b. 'Umar as-Sálimí. Last, but not least, is the Umayyad prince Khálid b. Yazíd († A.D. 704), who studied Alchemy with a monk named Marianus, composed three treatises on Occult Science, and had for his pupil the celebrated occultist Jábir b. Ḥayyán (circ. A.D. 776).

Brockelmann in his admirable Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (Weimar, 1897- ) divides the earlier portion of his subject into the following periods:—

I. The purely Arabian literature (almost entirely consisting of poems composed by pagan, and a few Jewish and Christian, poets), from the earliest times till the time of the Prophet.

II. The literature (also purely Arabian, and, with the exception of the Qur'án, poetical) of the Prophet and his time.

III. The literature (also purely Arabian) of the Umayyad period (A.D. 661-750).

IV. The classical period (A.D. 750-1000) of Muhammadan literature, composed in the Arabic language, but no longer exclusively, or even mainly, by Arabs.

V. The post-classical period (A.D. 1000-1258) of the same, down to the Mongol invasion, sack of Baghdad, and ex­tinction of the 'Abbásid dynasty.

Of these periods the first three but slightly concern us, and all that is needful for our purpose has been already said. The periods subsequent to the Mongol invasion lie also beyond the scope of this work, since even before this momentous event the national life of Persia had been definitely detached from that of Arabia and Western Asia, and the Persian language had become the main vehicle of Persian thought. The fourth and fifth periods, on the other hand, concern us closely; for during the first (A.D. 750-1000) the Persian tongue had scarcely re-emerged, as a literary language, from the eclipse which it suffered at the Arab Conquest; and during the second, although it was once more widely and successfully cultivated for all literary purposes, there was in Persia a large co-existent Arabic literature produced by Persians. The Arabic literature produced in Persia after the Mongol Invasion was far more restricted in scope, and was mainly confined to the domains of Theology, Philosophy, and Jurisprudence.

From the Persian point of view, then, whence we here regard the matter, it is the Arabic literature of 'Abbásid times with which our concern chiefly lies, and, in the present chapter, those writers who belong to what we have defined as “the Golden Age” (A.D. 749-847). A list of the most important of these, arranged in order of the dates of their decease, here follows.

(1) Ibnu'l-Muqaffa' († A.D. 757), the converted Magian, who, not­withstanding the fact that he was born a Persian and a Zoroastrian, is counted by Ibn Muqla († A.D. 939) and Ibn Khaldún the Moor († A.D. 1405-6) amongst the past-masters of the Arabic tongue. He was also, as has been already remarked, an accomplished Pahlawí scholar, and translated from this language many works into Arabic. Of these, his Arabic version of Kalíla and Dimna, still a classic in all Arabic-speaking countries, alone survives in its entirety, his much more important translation of the Pahlawí “Book of Kings” (Khudháy-náma) being only known to us by citations in later histories.

(2) Ibn 'Uqba († A.D. 758), the oldest biographer of the Prophet, whose work, as it would seem, is unfortunately entirely lost.

(3) Muḥammad b. as-Sá'ib al-Kalbí († A.D. 763), who, together with his son Hishám b. al-Kalbí († A.D. 820), was well versed in the history of the ancient Arabs.

(4) 'Ísá b. 'Umar ath-Thaqafí († A.D. 766), one of the founders of Arabic grammar, the teacher of both Khalíl b. Aḥmad (the alleged inventor of the Science of Prosody in Arabic) and the great Síbawayhi, the Persian.

(5) Ibn Isḥáq († A.D. 767), the biographer of the Prophet, whose work (though possibly, as de Goeje thinks, still extant in its original form in the Kyüprülü Library at Constantinople) is known to us only in the recension of Ibn Hishám.

(6) Abú Ḥanífa an-Nu'mán († A.D. 767), one of the four orthodox “Imáms” of the Sunnís, the founder of the Ḥanafí school, of Persian origin, and in strong sympathy with the descendants of 'Alí.

(7) Ḥammád b. Sábúr (Shápúr) ar-Ráwiya († A.D. 772-775), of Persian (Daylamite) origin, the collector and editor of the seven ancient Arabic poems known as the Mu'allaqát.

(8) Jábir b. Ḥayyán, the occultist (circ. A.D. 776; see p. 274 supra).

(9) Muḥammad b. 'Abdu'lláh al-Azdí (circ. A.D. 777), who wrote a history of the Conquest of Syria.

(10) Abú Duláma († A.D. 777), a negro, “more jester and Court-fool than poet,” who enjoyed the favour of the Caliphs al-Manṣúr and al-Mahdí.

(11) Bashshár b. Burd († A.D. 783), the blind Persian sceptic and poet, to whom reference has already been made.

(12) Al-Mufaḍḍal aḍ-Ḍabbí († A.D. 786), tutor to the Caliph al-Mahdí during his youth, who made a collection of old Arabic poems not less important, though less celebrated, than the Mu'allaqát.

(13) As-Sayyidu'l-Ḥimyarí (“the Ḥimyarite Sayyid,” † A.D. 789), a zealous Shí'ite, “whose poems” (mostly in praise of the Prophet and his family) “are distinguished,” says Brockelmann (p. 83), “like those of Abu'l-'Aṭáhiya and Bashshár, by simplicity of language.”

(14) Khalíl b. Aḥmad († A.D. 791), the grammarian and prosodist mentioned under (4) supra.

(15) Síbawayhi († A.D. 793), the Persian grammarian, also mentioned under (4) supra.