Part 35 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Histories of the Prophet and his Companions.]

Historical traditions relating to the Prophet were put in writing at an early date (see p. 247). The first biography of Mu?ammad (_Siratu Rasuli 'llah_), compiled by Ibn Is?aq, who died in the reign of Man?ur (768 A.D.), has come down to us only in the recension made by Ibn Hisham ( 834 A.D.). This work as well as those of al-Waqidi ( 823 A.D.) and Ibn Sa'd ( 845 A.D.) have been already noticed.

Other celebrated historians of the 'Abbasid period are the following.

[Sidenote: Baladhuri.]

A?mad b. Ya?ya al-Baladhuri ( 892 A.D.), a Persian, wrote an account of the early Mu?ammadan conquests (_Kitabu Futu?i 'l-Buldan_), which has been edited by De Goeje, and an immense chronicle based on genealogical principles, 'The Book of the Lineages of the n.o.bles' (_Kitabu Ansabi 'l-Ashraf_), of which two volumes are extant.[657]

[Sidenote: Dinawari.]

Abu ?anifa A?mad al-Dinawari ( 895 A.D.) was also of iranian descent. His 'Book of Long Histories' (_Kitabu 'l-Akhbar al-?iwal_) deals largely with the national legend of Persia, and is written throughout from the Persian point of view.

[Sidenote: Ya'qubi.]

Ibn Wa?i? al-Ya'qubi, a contemporary of Dinawari, produced an excellent compendium of universal history, which is specially valuable because its author, being a follower of the House of 'Ali, has preserved the ancient and unfalsified s.h.i.+'ite tradition. His work has been edited in two volumes by Professor Houtsma (Leyden, 1883).

The Annals of ?abari, edited by De Goeje and other European scholars (Leyden, 1879-1898), and the Golden Meadows[658] (_Muruju 'l-Dhahab_) of Mas'udi, which Pavet de Courteille and Barbier de Meynard published with a French translation (Paris, 1861-1877), have been frequently cited in the foregoing pages; and since these two authors are not only the greatest historians of the Mu?ammadan East but also (excepting, possibly, Ibn Khaldun) the most eminent of all who devoted themselves to this branch of Arabic literature, we must endeavour to make the reader more closely acquainted with them.

[Sidenote: ?abari (838-923 A.D.).]

Abu Ja'far Mu?ammad b. Jarir was born in 838-839 A.D. at amul in ?abaristan, the mountainous province lying along the south coast of the Caspian Sea; whence the name, ?abari, by which he is usually known.[659] At this time 'Iraq was still the princ.i.p.al focus of Mu?ammadan culture, so that a poet could say:--

”I see a man in whom the secretarial dignity is manifest, One who displays the brilliant culture of 'Iraq.”[660]

Thither the young ?abari came to complete his education. He travelled by way of Rayy to Baghdad, visited other neighbouring towns, and extended his tour to Syria and Egypt. Although his father sent him a yearly allowance, it did not always arrive punctually, and he himself relates that on one occasion he procured bread by selling the sleeves of his s.h.i.+rt. Fortunately, at Baghdad he was introduced to 'Ubaydullah b.

Ya?ya, the Vizier of Mutawakkil, who engaged him as tutor for his son. How long he held this post is uncertain, but he was only twenty-three years of age when his patron went out of office. Fifteen years later we find him, penniless once more, in Cairo (876-877 A.D.).

He soon, however, returned to Baghdad, where he pa.s.sed the remainder of his life in teaching and writing. Modest, unselfish, and simple in his habits, he diffused his encyclopaedic knowledge with an almost superhuman industry. During forty years, it is said, he wrote forty leaves every day. His great works are the _Ta'rikhu 'l-Rusul wa-'l-Muluk_, or 'Annals of the Apostles and the Kings,' and his _Tafsir_, or 'Commentary on the Koran.' Both, even in their present shape, are books of enormous extent, yet it seems likely that both were originally composed on a far larger scale and were abbreviated by the author for general use. His pupils, we are told, flatly refused to read the first editions with him, whereupon he exclaimed: ”Enthusiasm for learning is dead!” The History of ?abari, from the Creation to the year 302 A.H. = 915 A.D., is distinguished by ”completeness of detail, accuracy, and the truly stupendous learning of its author that is revealed throughout, and that makes the Annals a vast storehouse of valuable information for the historian as well as for the student of Islam.”[661] It is arranged chronologically, the events being tabulated under the year (of the Mu?ammadan era) in which they occurred. Moreover, it has a very peculiar form. ”Each important fact is related, if possible, by an eye-witness or contemporary, whose account came down through a series of narrators to the author. If he has obtained more than one account of a fact, with more or less important modifications, through several series of narrators, he communicates them all to the reader _in extenso_. Thus we are enabled to consider the facts from more than one point of view, and to acquire a vivid and clear notion of them.”[662] According to modern ideas, ?abari's compilation is not so much a history as a priceless collection of original doc.u.ments placed side by side without any attempt to construct a critical and continuous narrative. At first sight one can hardly see the wood for the trees, but on closer study the essential features gradually emerge and stand out in bold relief from amidst the mult.i.tude of insignificant circ.u.mstances which lend freshness and life to the whole. ?abari suffered the common fate of standard historians. His work was abridged and popularised, the _isnads_ or chains of authorities were suppressed, and the various parallel accounts were combined by subsequent writers into a single version.[663] Of the Annals, as it left the author's hands, no entire copy exists anywhere, but many odd volumes are preserved in different parts of the world. The Leyden edition is based on these scattered MSS., which luckily comprise the whole work with the exception of a few not very serious lacunae.

[Sidenote: Mas'udi ( 956 A.D.).]

'Ali b. ?usayn, a native of Baghdad, was called Mas'udi after one of the Prophet's Companions, 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud, to whom he traced his descent. Although we possess only a small remnant of his voluminous writings, no better proof can be desired of the vast and various erudition which he gathered not from books alone, but likewise from long travel in almost every part of Asia. Among other places, he visited Armenia, India, Ceylon, Zanzibar, and Madagascar, and he appears to have sailed in Chinese waters as well as in the Caspian Sea. ”My journey,” he says, ”resembles that of the sun, and to me the poet's verse is applicable:--

”'We turn our steps toward each different clime, Now to the Farthest East, then West once more; Even as the sun, which stays not his advance O'er tracts remote that no man durst explore.'”[664]

He spent the latter years of his life chiefly in Syria and Egypt--for he had no settled abode--compiling the great historical works,[665] of which the _Muruju 'l-Dhahab_ is an epitome. As regards the motives which urged him to write, Mas'udi declares that he wished to follow the example of scholars and sages and to leave behind him a praiseworthy memorial and imperishable monument. He claims to have taken a wider view than his predecessors. ”One who has never quitted his hearth and home, but is content with the knowledge which he can acquire concerning the history of his own part of the world, is not on the same level as one who spends his life in travel and pa.s.ses his days in restless wanderings, and draws forth all manner of curious and precious information from its hidden mine.”[666]

[Sidenote: The _Muruju 'l-Dhahab_.]

Mas'udi has been named the 'the Herodotus of the Arabs,' and the comparison is not unjust.[667] His work, although it lacks the artistic unity which distinguishes that of the Greek historian, shows the same eager spirit of enquiry, the same open-mindedness and disposition to record without prejudice all the marvellous things that he had heard or seen, the same ripe experience and large outlook on the present as on the past. It is professedly a universal history beginning with the Creation and ending at the Caliphate of Mu?i', in 947 A.D., but no description can cover the immense range of topics which are discussed and the innumerable digressions with which the author delights or irritates his readers, as the case may be.[668] Thus, to pick a few examples at random, we find a dissertation on tides (vol. i, p. 244); an account of the _tinnin_ or sea-serpent (_ibid._, p. 267); of pearl-fis.h.i.+ng in the Persian Gulf (_ibid._, p. 328); and of the rhinoceros (_ibid._, p. 385). Mas'udi was a keen student and critic of religious beliefs, on which subject he wrote several books.[669] The _Muruju 'l-Dhahab_ supplies many valuable details regarding the Mu?ammadan sects, and also regarding the Zoroastrians and ?abians. There is a particularly interesting report of a meeting which took place between A?mad b. ?ulun, the governor of Egypt (868-877 A.D.), and an aged Copt, who, after giving his views as to the source of the Nile and the construction of the Pyramids, defended his faith (Christianity) on the ground of its manifest errors and contradictions, arguing that its acceptance, in spite of these, by so many peoples and kings was decisive evidence of its truth.[670] Mas'udi's account of the Caliphs is chiefly remarkable for the characteristic anecdotes in which it abounds. Instead of putting together a methodical narrative he has thrown off a brilliant but unequal sketch of public affairs and private manners, of social life and literary history. Only considerations of s.p.a.ce have prevented me from enriching this volume with not a few pages which are as lively and picturesque as any in Suetonius. His last work, the _Kitabu 'l-Tanbih wa-'l-Ishraf_ ('Book of Admonition and Recension'),[671] was intended to take a general survey of the field which had been more fully traversed in his previous compositions, and also to supplement them when it seemed necessary.

[Sidenote: Minor historians.]

We must pa.s.s over the minor historians and biographers of this period--for example, 'Utbi ( 1036 A.D.), whose _Kitab al-Yamini_ celebrates the glorious reign of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna; Kha?ib of Baghdad ( 1071 A.D.), who composed a history of the eminent men of that city; 'Imadu 'l-Din of I?fahan ( 1201 A.D.), the biographer of Saladin; Ibnu 'l-Qifti ( 1248 A.D.), born at Qif? (Coptos) in Upper Egypt, whose lives of the philosophers and scientists have only come down to us in a compendium ent.i.tled _Ta'rikhu 'l-?ukama_; Ibnu 'l-Jawzi ( 1200 A.D.), a prolific writer in almost every branch of literature, and his grandson, Yusuf ( 1257 A.D.)--generally called Sib? Ibn al-Jawzi--author of the _Mir'atu 'l-Zaman_, or 'Mirror of the Time'; Ibn Abi U?aybi'a ( 1270 A.D.), whose history of physicians, the _'Uyunu 'l-Anba_, has been edited by A. Muller (1884); and the Christian, Jirjis (George) al-Makin ( 1273 A.D.), compiler of a universal chronicle--named the _Majmu' al-Mubarak_--of which the second part, from Mu?ammad to the end of the 'Abbasid dynasty, was rendered into Latin by Erpenius in 1625.

[Sidenote: Ibnu 'l-Athir ( 1234 A.D.).]

A special notice, brief though it must be, is due to 'Izzu 'l-Din Ibnu 'l-Athir ( 1234 A.D.). He was brought up at Mosul in Mesopotamia, and after finis.h.i.+ng his studies in Baghdad, Jerusalem, and Syria, he returned home and devoted himself to reading and literary composition.

Ibn Khallikan, who knew him personally, speaks of him in the highest terms both as a man and as a scholar. ”His great work, the _Kamil_,[672]