Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/18

2 The domains of theology, law and history in their early rise overlap and are not sharply defined from one another.

No student of Arabic literature fails to be impressed with the fact that the bearers of the torch of learning among the Arabs were in most cases of foreign and particularly of Persian stock. This is to be explained by the fact that public opinion considered it contemptible for the Arab to busy himself with the pursuit of knowledge to the neglect of the noble art of warring. To this general tendency, however, studying anecdotes, transmitting traditions, and remembering stories—especially if they commemorated the deeds of heroes, orators and poets, formed a conspicuous example. We read in al-Mas‘ûdi that Mu‘âwiyah the founder of the Umaiyad dynasty "devoted one-third of the night to the reading of the news and battles of the Arabs and non-Arabs." We also read in al-Bayân that al-Manṣûr the Abbasid caliph after long hesitation decided to put abu-Muslim al-Khurâsâni to death as a result of hearing an anecdote about Sapor the Persian king. One of the favorite sayings in early Islam was the following found in al-‘Iḳd al-Farîd : "For kings the study of genealogy and histories, for warriors the study of battles and biography, and for merchants the study of writing and arithmetic."

The chief source from which history writing flowed was tradition (ḥadîth). It was a pious custom that when Moslems met, one should ask for news (ḥadîth), and the other should relate a saying or anecdote of Muḥammad. Each event is related in words of eyewitnesses or contemporaries and transmitted to the final narrator through a chain of intermediate reporters. The authenticity of the reported fact