IN this chapter I propose to speak of the principal writers of the period described in the last, leaving only the Persian poets, concerning at least three of whom there is a good deal to be said, for the concluding chapter of this volume. These writers may be divided into three classes, viz. (1) those of Persian birth who wrote exclusively or chiefly in Persian; (2) those of Persian birth who wrote exclusively or chiefly in Arabic; and (3) non-Persian authors who wrote in Arabic, but who, either because of some special connection with Persia or Persian topics, or because of their influence and importance in the world of Islám generally, cannot be altogether passed over even in a book treating primarily of the Literary History of Persia only. Practically, however, it will be more convenient to ignore this distinction, and to consider them together, class by class, according to the subject on which they wrote, with­out regard to the language which they employed, since at this time the Arabic language was still generally used in Persia as the language of culture, learning, and science, and only fell from this position with the fall of the Caliphate and the destruction of Baghdád, the metropolis of Islám.

Let us begin with the historians, biographers, and geo­graphers, to the most important of whom we have already had Historians, bio­graphers, and geographers. frequent occasion to refer. Foremost amongst these, and, indeed, amongst the chroniclers of all time and all lands, is 'Izzu'd-Dín ibnu'l-Athír al-Jazarí (that is, a native of Jazíratu'bni 'Umar, near Mosul),

Ibnu'l-Athír. the author of the great chronicle known as al-Kámil (“the Perfect” or “Complete”), which contains the history of the world, as known to the Muslims of that period, from the earliest times down to the year A.H. 628 (= A.D. 1230-31). The biographer Ibn Khallikán, who visited him at Aleppo in November, A.D. 1229, speaks of him in the highest terms, praising equally his modesty and his learning. As this biographical notice can be read by all in de Slane's translation (vol. ii, pp. 288-290), I shall refrain from citing it here, and will only add that he was born in May, A.D. 1160, and died in the same month of A.D. 1233. His great work, the “Perfect” Chronicle, was published in its entirety by Tornberg at Leyden in 1851-76 in fourteen volumes, and at Buláq in A.H. 1290-1303 (= A.D. 1873-86), in twelve volumes. Unfortunately the Egyptian edition, which alone can be easily obtained now, has no index, so that its utility is considerably impaired; a serious matter in a book of reference indispensable to the student of Muhammadan history. Besides this great chronicle, Ibnu'l-Athír wrote a history of the most eminent Companions of the Prophet, entitled Usdu'l-Ghába (“Lions of the Thicket”), published at Cairo in five volumes in A.H. 1280 (A.D. 1863-64); a revised abridgement of the Ansáb, or “Genealogies,” of as-Sam'ání, unpublished; and a history of the Atábeks of Mosul, printed in full in vol. ii of the Recueil des historiens arabes des croisades.

Another general historian of merit who belongs to this period, and who, like Ibnu'l-Athír, wrote in Arabic, is the Jacobite Christian Yuḥanná Abu'l-Faraj, better known as Barhebræus (Ibnu'l-'Ibrí, i.e., “the son of the Jew,” his father Ahrún, or Aaron, having been converted from Judaism to Christianity), or by the name Gregorius, which he assumed in Abu'l-Faraj Barhebræus. A.D. 1246, when he was made Bishop of Gubos, near Maláṭiyya. He was born at that town in A.D. 1226, fled with his father, who was a physi­cian, from the terror of the advancing Mongols, to Antioch in 1243, and thence visited Tripoli. In 1252 he was promoted to the see of Aleppo, and in 1264 he was elected Mafriyán, or Catholicus, of the Eastern Jacobites, during which period he resided alternately at Mosul and in Ádharbayján (Tabríz and Marágha), in the north-west of Persia. He died at the last-mentioned place on July 30, A.D. 1286. His history, the Mukhtaṣaru Ta'ríkhi 'd-Duwal (“Abridgement of the History of Dynasties”), was originally written in Syriac, and the Arabic version was made towards the end of his life at the request of certain Muslims of note. It was published by Pococke with a Latin translation at Oxford in A.D. 1663; a German trans­lation appeared in A.D. 1783; and a new and excellent edition by the Jesuit Ṣáliḥání was printed at Beyrout in A.D. 1890. This last, which comprises 630 pages, contains, besides the text, a short life of the author, a full index of names, and useful chronological tables. The history treats of ten dynasties, viz. (1) the Patriarchs (al-Awliyá) from the time of Adam; (2) the Judges of Israel; (3) the Kings of Israel; (4) the Chal-dæans; (5) the “Magians,” i.e. the Persian Kings from the mythical Gayúmarth down to the last Darius, who was defeated and killed by Alexander the Great; (6) the ancient or “idolatrous” Greeks; (7) the Kings of the “Franks,” by which term he means the Romans; (8) the Byzantine or “Christian” Greeks; (9) the Muslims; (10) the Mongols, whose history is carried down to the accession of Arghún in A.D. 1284. A very interesting account of Barhebræus and his times is given by Professor Nöldeke in his Sketches from Eastern History (pp. 236-256 of the English translation of Mr. John Sutherland Black), and to this we refer such as desire further information about his life and work.

Of the general historians who wrote in Persian during this period, the most notable is, perhaps, Minháj-i-Siráj of Júzján,

Minháj-i-Siráj. near Balkh, the author of the Ṭabaqát-i-Náṣirì, which I have several times had occasion to cite in the preceding chapter. He was born about A.D. 1193, and, like his father and grandfather, was originally in the service of the House of Ghúr. In A.D. 1226 he came to India, and attached himself first to Sulṭán Náṣiru'd-Dín Qubácha, but when, about a year later, this prince was overthrown by Shamsu'd-Dín Íltatmish, he passed into the service of the conqueror, to whose son, Náṣiru'd-Dín Maḥmúd Sháh, he dedicated his history, which he completed in September, A.D. 1260. Further particulars of his life are given in Rieu's Persian Catalogue, pp. 72-3, and in Sir H. M. Elliot's History of India, vol. ii, pp. 260-1. His history is divided into twenty-three sections, beginning with the Patriarchs and Prophets, and ending with the Mongol Invasion, concerning which he gives many interesting particulars not to be found elsewhere. Part of the work has been published by Captain Nassau Lees and translated by Major Raverty in the Bibliotheca Indica. The published portion of the text unfortunately comprises only those dynasties which were connected with India, and omits entirely the sections dealing with the Táhirís, Ṣaffárís, Sámánís, Daylamís (House of Buwayh), Seljúqs, Khwárazmsháhs and other dynasties of much greater interest to the student of Persian history. Towards the end of the book is given a very curious Arabic qaṣída ascribed to Yaḥyá A'qab, one of the disciples of 'Alí ibn Abí Ṭálib, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, fore­telling the calamities of the Mongol Invasion. This poem, with a Persian prose translation, occurs on pp. 439-443 of the printed text.

One other general history composed during this period deserves, perhaps, a passing mention from the fact that it was one of the earliest Arabic chronicles published in Europe. This is the Kitábu'l-Majmú'i'l-Mubárak of Jirjís (or 'Abdu'lláh) b. Abi'l-Yásir b. Abi'l-Makárim al-Makín b. al-'Amíd, whereof the text, accompanied by a Latin translation, was printed at Al-Makín. Leyden in A.D. 1625, by the learned Dutch Orien­talist Erpenius (Thomas van Erpe), with the title Historia Saracenica, arabice olim exarata a Georgio El macino et latine reddita opera Th. Erpenii. An English translation by Purchas appeared in the following year, and a French transla­tion by Vattier in 1657, so that this book, with the later chronicle of Abu'l-Fidá, Prince of Ḥamát (born A.D. 1273, died A.D. 1331), was for a long while the chief Arabic source for the history of Islám accessible to European scholars. On this ground only is it mentioned here, for the author, who was born in A.D. 1205 and died in A.D. 1273, was an Egyptian Christian, not connected in any way with Persia.

We pass now to those historians and biographers who treated of a particular dynasty, monarch, period, province, town, or Special historians and biographers. class, including those who wrote biographical dictionaries. In the chapter treating of the House of Subuktigín or Dynasty of Ghazna, we repeatedly had occasion to refer to al-'Utbí's Ta'ríkhu'l-Yamíní, or history of Sulṭán Maḥmúd Yamínu'd-Dawla of Ghazna.

Al-Jurbádhaqání. This book, originally written in Arabic, was in the period now under discussion translated into Persian by Abu'sh-Sharaf Náṣiḥ of Jurbádhaqán, or, to give it its Persian name, Gulpáyagán, a place situated between Iṣfahán and Hamadán. The translation, as shown by Rieu, who gives copious references to the literature bearing on this subject (Persian Catalogue, pp. 157-8), was made about A.D. 1205-10, and is represented in the British Museum by a fine old manuscript transcribed in A.D. 1266. A lithographed edition was published at Ṭihrán in A.H. 1272 (= A.D. 1855-56), and this Persian translation of al-'Utbí's work has itself been trans­lated into Turkish by Dervísh Ḥasan, and into English by the Rev. James Reynolds. The relation between it and its Arabic original has been carefully studied by Professor Nöldeke in vol. xxiii of the Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie (Vienna, 1857, pp. 15-102). He points out (p. 76) that the Persian version is, save for the letters, documents, and poems cited in the original Arabic from al-'Utbí's work, of the freest kind, the translator's object being not so much to produce an accurate rendering as a rhetorical imitation of his original; hence he considers himself at liberty to change, omit, and add as much as he pleases.