Histoire des Rois des Perses par Aboû Manṣoûr 'Abd al-Malik ibn Moḥammad ibn Ismá'il al-Tha'âlibî: texte arabe publié et traduit by M. ZotenbergReview by: E. G. B.Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (Jan., 1901), pp. 161-164Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25208284 .

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histoire des rois des perses. 161

While congratulating M. Huart on what he has already

accomplished, we pray him not to defer longer than

necessary tho completion of this most interesting and

important work.

E. G. B.

Histoire dks Rois des Perses par Abou Mansour 'Abd

al-Malik ibn Mohammad ibn Ism&'il al-Tha'&libl: texte

arabe publie et traduit par M. Zotenberg. pp. xiv, 700.

(Paris : Imprimerie Nationale, 1900.)

It is with the greatest pleasure that we welcome this

magnificent volume, which docs honour alike to the fine

scholarship of M. Zotenberg and the typographical skill

of the Imprimerie Nationale. Since his retirement from

the Curatorship of the Oriental MSS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale?a retirement deeply deplored by all those who

had experience of his unfailing amiability and readiness to help with his vast knowledge of Muhammadan literature

all whose studies led them to frequent the manuscript room

of that great Library?M. Zotenberg has observed a seclu

sion of which we now see the rich fruits. The work which

he has now so successfully produced is of the greatest interest, especially to students of ancient Persian history and legend, alike from its rarity, its authorship, its subject matter, and the period of Arabic literature to which it

belongs. First, as regards its rarity, three manuscripts only are

known to exist. The finest of these, dated a.h. 597 or 599

(a.d. 1201 or 1203), is preserved in the library of Damad

Ibrahim Pasha at Constantinople, in the printed catalogue of which (Constantinople, a.h. 1312) it is described, at

p. 64 (No. 916), as the Ghuraru's-siyar of Husayn b. Muhammad al-Marghani. To this manuscript attention was originally called by that unfortunate martyr of science,

M. F. E. Schulz, in 1828, at which epoch it was ignorantly classed by the Turkish custodians of the library as part of the great history of Ibn Khaidun. Its real nature

j.h.a.s. 1901. il

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162 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

and interest having been signalized by Schulz, a transcript of it was made in 1836 for the Bibliothdque Nationale

(then Royale). This transcript (Fonds arabe, No. 1,488), denoted C. (Constantinople Codex), is one of the two MSS.

on which M. Zotenberg's text is based. The other (Fonds

arabe, No. 5,053) appears to date from the sixteenth

century, was bought at Mosul in 1891, and is denoted M.

(Mosul Codex). As regards the authorship of the work, while it is

ascribed in M. to ath-Tha'&libi, it is, as we have seen,

attributed in C. to Husayn b. Muhammad al-Marghani. There actually existed a person of this name, a general in

the service of the House of Ghur; but, as M. Zotenberg shows in his long and carefully-reasoned preface, there is

every reason to believe that, as indicated in the Mosul

Codex, the well-known and prolific writer Abu Mansur

'Abdu'l-Malik ath-Tha'&libi, born at Nish&pur in a.d. 961, died in a.d. 1038, was the real author. Of his works

some thirty are enumerated by Brockelmann at pp. 284-6

of the first volume of his excellent Geschichtc der Arabischen

Litteratur. Of these the best known are the Yatimatu'd

Dahr, an account of the more notable poets of his own

and the preceding generations, printed at Damascus in

a.h. 1304; the Latd'ifu'l-Ma'drif, edited by de Jong in

a.d. 1867; the Mubhy; the Bardu'l-akbdd, etc. (see pp. ix-xi

of the present volume, ad calc). The work before us was, as M. Zotenberg shows, composed probably between a.h. 408

and 412 (a.d. 1017-1021), and is dedicated to Prince Abu'l

Mudhaffar Nasr b. N&siru'd-Din Abi Mansur, the brother

of the great Sult&n Mahmud of Ghazna. In its entirety, it comprises not only the history of the ancient Kings of

Persia down to the Arab invasion, but also of those of

Yemen, Hira, and Ghassan, and the biography of the

Prophet; while a second volume (which, unfortunately, has

not, so far as is known, come down to us) treated of the

Muhammadan dynasties down to the author's time.

Of the first volume "

la partie importante . . ., la seule

qu'il nous a paru utile de publier," says M. Zotenberg

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histoire des rois des perses. 163

(p. xviii), " est celle qui est consacree tl 1'histoire des rois de

Perse, composed a peu pr?s tl la rafime epoque et dans le

mSme milieu, et aussi d'apres les memes sources, que le

Sehdhndmch de Firdausi." Lately, thanks to the publication of a considerable number of important Arabic historical and

other works, such as those of al-Biriini, al-Ya'qtibi, Dinawari,

Tabari, and the like, and the admirable monographs of

Professor Noldeke (Das Iranische Nationalcpos, in the Grundriss

der Iranischen Philologie, 1896) and Baron llosen (K'voprosu ob arabsldkh perevodakh Khudti'e-n&ma, in the Vostochniya

Zamyetki, 1895), we know far more about Firdawsi's sources

than formerly; while for two portions of his Shdhndma (the

reign of Ardashir Babakan and the Zarir-legend) we are

now able, thanks to Noldeke and Geiger, to compare that

celebrated epic with the original Pahlavi versions of the

corresponding episodes. The result of such comparison is at

once to lower our estimate of Firdawsi's originality, and to

raise our opinion of his fidelity to the ancient tradition.

Apart from his well-known indebtedness to his predecessor

Daqiqi, to whom he owes the part of his poem dealing with

the reign of Gushtasp and the advent of Zoroaster, we now

know that, apart from Arabic and Persian prose versions of

'the Khudti e-ndma, or "Book of Kings" (see pp. xxiv-xxv

of the present work), Firdawsi was not the first to present the epic in Persian verse; for ath-Tha'alibi, in the text

.now rendered accessible to us by M. Zotenberg, twice cites

(pp. 263 and 457) "the author of the book of the Shdhndma"

in a manner which makes it pretty certain that he does not

allude to Firdawsi's work (which had already appeared, and

was presumably known to our author, who lived in the same

entourage), and twice refers explicitly (pp. 10 and 388) to an

epic poem on the ancient Kings of Persia composed in Persian

mathnaui (or muzdawij) verse by one Mas'udi of Merv, a poet not otherwise known to us.

The volume before us is in every respect a model of a

really interesting text, thoroughly well edited and translated,

provided with a most scholarly introduction, and irreproach able as regards typography and other material adjuncts, and

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164 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

reflects equal credit upon M. Zotenberg and the Imprimerie Nationale. The points wherein this version of the old

Persian legend differ from Firdawsi's are well stated in the

Introduction (pp. xxvii-xl), and cannot be discussed iu

the brief limits of this review. The author's narrative is

enlivened by numerous interesting illustrations and parallels drawn from later times, and by many pretty and well-chosen

verses. Amongst the former, an anecdote related (p. 431)

concerning Qabus b. Washmgir (reigned in Jurjan, a.d. 976

1012) is instructive, as an instance of the cold-blooded and

purposeless ferocity in which a cultivated prince of that timo

and place could at times indulge. Amongst the latter we

may cite the following, which strongly recalls the well-known

lines in the Hitopadesa:?

" Youth, accumulation qf wealth, lordship, want qf judgement? Each by itself even is hurtful: how much more so all four

together ? "

The Arabic verses (cited d propos of the last Darius,.

p. 402) run?

" // // a cinq sortes d'ivresses; Vhomme qui en est attcint devient'

la proic du sort:

Cclles dc la richesse et de la jeuncsse, Virrcsse de Vamour, ci

celies dn vin et pouvoir."

Niishirvan's disbelief in popular education is also illus

trated by two excellent couplets in'Arabic (p. 608), which we

recommend to those who regard the education of the masses

as a panacea for ail evils.

E. G. B.

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