(16) Abú Yúsuf Ya'qúb al-Anṣárí († A.D. 795), jurisconsult and pupil of Abú Ḥanífa.

(17) Málik b. Anas († A.D. 795), the second of the four orthodox “Imáms,” the Founder of the Málikite school.

(18) Marwán b. Abí Ḥafsa († A.D. 797), poet, a Jew of Khurásán.

(19) Muslim b. al-Walíd († A.D. 803), court-poet of Hárúnu'r-Rashíd and protégé of the Barmecides and Faḍl b. Sahl.

(20) Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan ash-Shaybání († A.D. 804), the Ḥanafí jurisconsult, and for a while Qáḍí of Raqqa in the reign of Hárúnu'r-Rashíd.

(21) 'Alí b. Ḥamza al-Kisá'í († A.D. 805), the grammarian, a Persian by birth, entrusted by Hárúnu'r-Rashíd with the education of his two sons al-Amín and al-Ma'mún.

(22) Al-'Abbás b. al-Aḥnaf († A.D. 806), another half-Persian poet of the Court of Hárúnu'r-Rashíd, chiefly celebrated for his love-poems.

(23) Abú Nuwás († A.D. 806-813), also half Persian by birth, one of the most brilliant and shameless poets of Hárúnu'r-Rashíd's Court. His discreditable adventures, ready resource, and unfailing wit are familiar to all readers of the Arabian Nights.

(24) Ibn Zabála († A.D. 814), a pupil of Málik b. Anas, who wrote a History of Madína.

(25) Yaḥyá b. Biṭríq (who flourished about A.D. 815), one of the translators of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers into Arabic.

(26) Hishám b. al-Kalbí († A.D. 819-820), the historian; see (3) supra.

(27) Ash-Sháfi'i († A.D. 820), the third of the four orthodox “Imáms” of the Sunnís, founder of the Sháfi'ite school.

(28) Quṭrub († A.D. 821), grammarian and philologist, pupil of Síbawayhí and ath-Thaqafí.

(29) Al-Farrá († A.D. 822), grammarian, pupil of al-Kisá'í, and, like him, of Persian origin.

(30) Al-Wáqidí († A.D. 823), the great historian of the Muslim conquests, who was liberally patronised by Yaḥyá the Barmecide, and, on his death, left behind him 600 great boxes of books and manuscript notes, each one of which required two men to carry it.

(31) Abú 'Ubayda Ma'mar b. al-Muthanná († A.D. 825), a philologist of strong Shu'úbí tendencies and of Jewish-Persian origin, the rival of al-Aṣma'í, and the bitter satirist of the Arab tribes. See p. 269 supra.

(32) Abu'l-'Aṭáhiya († A.D. 828), one of the most notable poets of this epoch, who, alike in his earnestness, his religious pessimism, and his extreme simplicity of speech, stands in the sharpest contrast to his contemporary the dissolute, immoral, and time-serving Abú Nuwás.

(33) Al-'Akawwak († A.D. 828), a poet and panegyrist of Persian extraction.

(34) Ibn Qutayba († A.D. 828), a historian of the first rank, also a Persian. Of the twelve works composed by him which Brockelmann enumerates (i, pp. 120-123) the best known are his Kitábu'l-Ma'árif (ed. Wüstenfeld, 1850), his Adabu'l-Kátib, or Secretary's Manual (Cairo, A.H. 1300), and his 'Uyúnu'l-Akhbár, now being published by Brockelmann at Berlin.

(35) Al-Aṣma'í († A.D. 831), the grammarian and philologist, a prominent member of that circle of learned men wherewith Hárúnu'r-Rashíd surrounded himself.

(36) Ibn Hishám († A.D. 834), the editor of Ibn Isḥáq's Biography of the Prophet; see (5) supra.

(37) Al-Akhfash “the intermediate” (al-Awsaṭ), or “the second” († A.D. 835, or earlier), grammarian and philologist, a pupil of Síbawayhi, and probably, like his master, of Persian extraction.

(38) Qusṭá b. Lúqá, a Christian of Ba'labakk (Baalbek), a notable translator and compiler of medical, astronomical, and mathematical works, flourished about this time. He was still famous in Persia as an authority on these subjects in the middle of the eleventh century of our era, when Náṣir-i-Khusraw wrote:—

Har kasí chízí hamí-gúyad zi tíra ra'y-i-khwísh,
Tá gumán áyad-'t k'ú Qusṭáy bin Lúqá-stí.

“Every one, in his benighted ignorance, propounds some theory,
That thou may'st suppose him to be a Qusṭá b. Lúqá.”

(39) Al-Madá'iní († A.D. 840-845), a prolific writer on history, of whose works, unfortunately, only the titles (of which 111 are enumerated in the Fihrist) are preserved to us.

(40) Al-Kindí († A.D. 841), the eminent Arabian philosopher and physician.

(41) Ibnu'l-A'rábí († A.D. 844), a well-known grammarian of Indian origin, the step-son and pupil of al-Mufaḍḍal (see No. 12 supra).

(42) Abú Abdi'lláh Muḥammad b. Sallám al-fumaḥí († A.D. 845), the author of a Biography of Poets (Ṭabaqátu'sh-Shu'ará), which is unfortunately lost, and is only known to us by citations.

(43) Ibn Sa'd († A.D. 845), secretary to the celebrated al-Wáqidí (see No. 30 supra), author of the great Kitábu't-Ṭabaqáti'l-Kabír, which is to be published in the near future at Leyden.

(44) Abú Tammám († A.D. 846), panegyrist of the Caliph al-Mu'taṣim and later of 'Abdu'lláh b. Ṭáhir, the governor of Khurásán, but better known as the author of the great Anthology of ancient Arabic poetry called the Ḥamása, “wherein,” says his commentator at-Tabrízí, “he showed himself a better poet than in his own verses.”

(45) Díku'l-finn († A.D. 849), the Syrian Shu'úbí and Shí'te poet.

Other names might be added, but for our present purpose these are sufficient, since they serve to indicate how large a proportion (thirteen out of forty-four) of the most celebrated contributors to “classical” Arabic literature were of Persian extraction. For fuller particulars of their works and cha­racteristics the reader must refer to von Kremer, Brockelmann, and other writers on the Litteraturgeschichte and Culturgeschichte of the Arabs.