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We know of a few of the numerous writings, large and small, of Ibn Kelbi which are enumerated for us in the Fihrist and which probably are at the root of Tabari's chapters. It is quite possible that Tabari borrows many of the secondary sources of Ibn Kelbi.
Besides this place in the Fihrist, Umar ibn Farrukhan of Tabaristan has been mentioned in two other places. Here he is mentioned as the annotator of Ptolemy as translated by Batrik Yahuya ibn al Batrik and as the author of two books, one of astronomical contents and the other entitled Kitab al Mahasin, that is the book of good qualities and manners. This latter book demands a few lines from us.
We believe that all these books were devoted to Persian literary tradition, in close relation to which stands the book on "good qualities and manners" mentioned in the Fihrist as translated from the Persian language into Arabic by the man from Tabaristan, Umar ibn al Farrukhan.
They were the translators into the Arabic language of the Khuday Nameh. Accordingly we may group them in a class by themselves. The next author mentioned at this place in the Fihrist as a translator stands by himself, Umar ibn al Farrukhan. He is altogether unknown as a translator of historical works. Hence he was not included in the group of persons mentioned before.
Great importance for this problem lies in that portion of the Fihrist which when first edited had elicited little interest, and where are enumerated the titles of books of ethico-didactic character, Persian, Greek, Indian, Arabic, by well-known authors and by anonymous writers . We are aware that in the Fihrist there are partly Arabic, partly Persian, titles of books which have come down to us in a mutilated form, but at the same time some of them have reached us in their correct shapes and others are often easily restorable.
In this section of the Fihrist we have in all forty-four titles of books. Among them a large number can be directly traced to Persian origin and a portion were evidently written under Persian influence. To the first class we have no hesitation in assigning fourteen names of books, since as we shall see, two of them or possibly three pertain to one and the same work.
Then there are nine books by authors who are partly unknown and partly belong to the same period of Persian influence and who have been mentioned in other places in the Fihrist. Of the remaining 19 books a considerable number is to be found to have issued from Persian sources.
In figure and face he was a warrior; his heart was full of wisdom, his head full of eloquence, and in his mouth there ever were stories of the ancient times. The different categories of these translators Assuredly this list is far from complete. The author names only a few calling attention to only particular translators. The passage in question in the Fihrist has been more than once utilised.
First of all as may be expected is mentioned Ibn al Muqaffa about whom the Fihrist speaks in detail at another place. An examination of the aforesaid names of translators in order would, it seems to us, afford material for the solution of the problem regarding the different varieties of Persian literary tradition in the first centuries of Islam.
Besides several literary monuments of later ages, for the solution of this question, capital importance attaches to the information given in the Fihrist of an-Nadhim which is the fundamental source of the history of entire Arabic literature bearing on our period.
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