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The part played by them in the conservation of the Persian literary tradition 30 The different varieties of this tradition; scientific, epico-historic, legendary and ethico-didactic 32 We have demonstrated above that in the time subsequent to the Arab conquest Iranian tradition found a congenial asylum in the bosom of the Parsi priesthood.
Ibn al Muqaffa stands in the first place belonging to him by right. He was a genuine encyclopaedic translator familiar with the Arab society with all its influence of spiritual Sasanian life of Persia finding expression in its literature. He translated scientific, epico-historical, and ethico-didactic books.
We have indicated in the preceding chapter the translations of Ibn al Muqaffa from Persian books into Arabic. Besides those of an ethico-didactic contents, among them there were books of historical character. All these translations have not come down to us. Extracts of these renderings into Arabic, however, have been preserved in the original and sometimes in paraphrase.
And his Persian origin would point to his sympathy for Persian literary tradition. As a matter of fact, his ethico-didactic collection is based on a book of the Sasanian epoch. It would appear that this circumstance has undoubted significance for the determination of the influence in the compilation of Moslem ethical ideals.
The sympathy of these persons for the Persian literary tradition could not have been confined to the translation of scientific works, but must have extended to the preservation of Persian ethico-didactic tradition in literature.
Not only redactions of Persian historical books like Khuday Nameh and the Ain Nameh, not only diverse monuments of Persian ethico-didactic literature but also books with Pahlavi titles appear in the index of the books of the flourishing period of Arabic literature in Fihrist.
So far, for an acknowledgment of this influence serves a purely external fact, namely, a glance at the bibliography of the ancient ethico-didactic tracts in the Musalman literature and an examination of the contents of the book of Ibn Muskawaihi. A number of additional facts confirm this hypothesis. Vol.
Balazuri and Jabala ibn Salem have already been mentioned above. In this way the themes handled by these writers may be called epico-historical and ethico-didactic. Purely historical questions interested the seven succeeding translators from Ishaq ibn Yazid to Mobed Behram. These persons are sufficiently known in their special departments of literature.
We have now to examine a few questions in connection with the Persian tradition regarding the ethico-didactic literature of the early Musalman epoch. We shall devote the following chapter to its study. They are almost exclusively of Persian origin 38
The significance of Pahlavi translations is not less evident with regard to the Hazar Afsan in connection with the Thousand and One Nights. Still Persian tradition in the field of ethico-didactic literature has been studied and appreciated much less than in the historical and story literature.
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