Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/690

 660 PERSIA only Zulali, whose clever romance of &quot; Sultan Malimiid and his favourite Ayaz &quot; (1592) is widely read in the East, Sa ib (died 1677), who is commonly called the creator of a new style in lyric poetry, and, among the most modern, Hatif of Isfahan, the singer of sweet and tasteful odes (died about 1785), deserve a passing notice. But we cannot conclude our brief survey of the national literature of Persia without calling attention to the rise of quite a novel form of Iranian poetry, the drama, which has only sprung up in the beginning of the present century. Like the Greek drama and the Mysteries of the European Middle Ages, it is the offspring of a purely religious cere mony, which for centuries has been performed annually during the first ten days of the month Moharrem, the recital of mournful lamentations in memory of the tragic fate of the house of the caliph All, the hero of the Shfitic Persians. Most of these passion-plays deal with the slaughter of All s son Hosain and his family in the battle of Kerbela. But lately this narrow range of dramatic subjects has been considerably widened; Biblical stories and even Christian legends have been brought upon the Persian stage ; and there is a fair prospect of a further develop ment of this most interesting and important movement. In the various departments of general Persian literature, not touched upon in the foregoing pages, the same wonder ful activity has prevailed as in the realm of poetry and fiction, since the first books on history and medicine ap peared under the Samanids (see above). The most im portant section is that of historical works, which, although deficient in sound criticism and often spoiled by a highly artificial style, supply us with most valuable materials for our own research, especially when they relate contemporary events in which the authors took part either as political agents or as mere eye-witnesses. Quite unique in this respect are the numerous histories of India, from the first invasion of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna to the English con quest, and even to the first decades of the present century, most of which have been described and partly translated in the eight volumes of Elliot s History of India (1867-78). Persian writers have given us, besides, an immense variety of universal histories of the world, with many curious and noteworthy data (see, among others, Mirkhond s and Khwandamir s works under MIRKHOND, vol. xvi. p. 499) ; histories of Mohammed and the first caliphs, partly translated from Arabic originals, which have been lost ; detailed accounts of all the Persian dynasties, from the Ghaznawids to the still reigning Kajars, of Jenghiz Khan and the Moguls (in Juwaini s and Wassaf s elaborate Ta rikhs), and of Timur and his successors (see an account of the Zafarndma under PETIS DE LA CROIX) ; histories of sects and creeds, especially the famous Dabistdn, or &quot;School of Manners &quot; (translated by Troyer, Paris, 1843) ; and many local chronicles of Iran and Tiiran. Next in importance to history rank geography, cosmography, and travels (for instance, the Nuzhat-ulkulub, by Hamdallah Mustaufi, who died in 1349, and the translations of Istakhrf s and Kazwini s Arabic works), and the various ladhkiras or biographies of Sufis and poets, with selections in prose and verse, from the oldest of Aufi (about 1220) to the last and largest of all, the Makhzan-ulyhard ib, or &quot; Treasure of Marvellous Matters&quot; (completed 1803), which contains biographies and specimens of more than 3000 poets. We pass over the well-stocked sections of philosophy, ethics, and politics, of theology, law, and Sufism, of mathematics and astronomy, of medicine (the oldest thesaurus of which is the &quot; Treasure of the shah of Khwarizm,&quot; 1110), of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish grammar and lexicography, and only cast a part ing glance at the rich collections of old Indian folk-lore Indian and fables preserved in the Persian versions of Kalllah u folk-lore Dimnali (see RUDAGI), of the Sindbddndma, the Tritindma, or &quot;Tales of a Parrot,&quot; and others, and at the translations of standard works of Sanskrit literature, the epopees of the Rdmdyana and Mahdbhdrata, the Bhagavad-Gitd, the Yoga-Vasishtha, and numerous Pur anas and Upanishads, for which we are mostly indebted to the emperor Akbar s indefatigable zeal. A complete history of Persian literature is still a desideratum. Hammer s Schone llcdckiinste Persians, Vienna, 1818, is altogether unsatisfactory and obsolete. Concise sketches of Persian poetry are contained in Ouseley s Biographical Notices ; in Fliigel s article in Ersch and Gruber s Allgcmcine Encyklopadie (1842) ; in Eland s papers in the Journal of the Roy. Asiatic Society, vol. vii. p. 345 sq. and vol. ix. p. 122 sq.; and in Barbier do Meynard s Poesie en Perse, Paris, 1877. Real mines of information are the catalogues of Sprenger, Calcutta, 1854 ; Morley, London, 1854 ; Fliigel, 3 vols., Vienna, 1865; and Rieu, 3 vols., London, 1879-83. For the first five centuries of the Hijra compare Ethe s editions and metrical translations of &quot;Rudagi s Vorlaufer mid Zeitgcnossen,&quot; in Morgcnlandischc Forscliungcn, Leipsic, 1875; of Kisa i s songs, Firdausi s lyrics, and Abu Sa id b. Abu 1-Khair s ruba is, in Sitz- ungslcrichte dcr bayr. Akadcmic (1872, p. 275 sq.; 1873, p. 622 sq. ; 1874, p. 133 sq. ; 1875, p. 145 sq. ; and 1878, p. 38 sq.); of Avicenna s Persian poems, in Gottingcr Nachrichtcn, 1875, p. 555 sq. ; and of Asadi and his munazarat, in &quot; Pcrsische Tenzonen,&quot; Vcrhandlungcu des 5(en Orientalist-en- Congresses, Berlin, 1882, part ii., first half, p. 48 sq.; Zotenberg s Chronique dc Talari, Paris, 1867-74; Jurjam s Wis u Rdmin, edited in the Bill. Indica, 1864 (trans lated into German by Graf in Z. D. M. G., xxiii. 375 sq.); and Kasi- mirski s Specimen du diwan dc Mcnoutchchri, Versailles, 1876. On Khakaui, see Khanykoff s &quot; Menioire, &quot; in Journal Asiatique, 6th series, vol. iv. p. 137 sq. and v. p. 296 sq., and Salemann s edition of his ruba is, with Russian transl., Petersburg, 1875; on Farid- uddin Attar, Sacy s edition of the Pandndma, Paris, 1819, and Garcin de Tassy s Mantik-uttair, Paris, 1857; on the Gulslian-i-raz, E. PI. &quot;Whin field s edition, London, 1880 ; and on Amir Khosrau s mathnawis, the abstracts given in Elliot s History of India., vol. iii. p. 524 sq. German translations of Ibn Yamhi were published by Schlechta-Wssehrd, B-rucltstiickc, Vienna, 1852 ; of J;imfs minor poems, by Rosenzweig, Vienna, 1840 ; by Riickert, in Zcitschrift fur die Kunde des Aforgenlandes, vols. v. and vi. , and Zcitschrift dcr D. Morgcnl. Gcsellsch., vols. ii., iv., v., vi., xxiv. , xxv., andxxix. ; and by Wickerhauser, Leipsic, 1855, and Vienna, 1858; German trans lation of Yusuf u Zalikhd, by Rosenzweig, Vienna, 1824, English by Griffith, London, 1881 ; French translation of Lai Id u Majnun, by Chezy, Paris, 1805, German by Hartmann, Leipsic, 1807 ; Hilali s &quot; Kb nig und Derwisch,&quot; by Ethe, in Morgcnldnd. Stud., Leipsic, 1870, p. 197 sq. On the Persian drama, compare Gobineau s Religions ct Philosophies de I Asic ccntralc, Paris, 1866; Chodzko s Thedtre persan, new ed., Paris, 1878; and Ethe, &quot;Persische Pas- sionspiele,&quot; in Morgenldnd. Stud., p. 174 sq. (H. E.) INDEX. Abbas I., 637. Artaxerxes III., 580. Abbas II., 638. Astrabad, 627. Achsernenians, 565. Babylon, 566, 572. Adarbayan, 626. Bactrian Greeks, 587, 589, Afghans, 639, 640, 648 599. sq. Bahram V., 610. Aeha Muhammad, 645. Carnbyses, 567. Alexander, 581. Chinese accounts, 592 sq., Antiochus I., 587. 599. II., 587. Crassus, 596. III., 588. Cyaxares, 563. IV., 589. Cyrus, 564 sq. Ardashir, 606, 607. (satrap), 576, 577. Arsaces I., 587. Darius I., 568, 569. Arsacids, 590. II., 575. Artabanus III., 600. III., 581. IV., 605. Demetrius I., 590. Artaxerxes I., 573. II.. 501. II., 576. Fath All Shall, 647. Gilan, 621, 623, 627. Gotarzes, 601. Hephthalites, 610, 613. Herat, 650, 652. Hormizd IV., 613. Husain, 639. India invaded, 569, 583, 586, 591, 599, 641. Ionian revolts, 570, 573, , 579. Iran, 561. Isma il I., 634 sq. Ispahan, 627, 628, 038, 640. Kajars, 643, 645 sq. Kannan, 626, 645. Kavadh I., 611 sq. Kazvin, 627, 628, 637. Klfosrau I., 612. II., 614. Khurasan, 621, 626, 646, 651. lAitf All Khan, 645. Mashhad, 626, 628, 637. Mazandaran, 621, 623, 627. Medes, 561 sq. Mithradates I., 590, 591. II., 595. Mondliir of llira, 610, 612. Moslems, 615. Muhammad Shah, 649. Nadir Shah, 641 sq. Na.sru d-Din Shah, 651. Nineveh, 563. Orodes I., 596 sq. Pacorus, 597. Parthians, 587, 592. Peroz, 611. Persis, 561, 565, 605. Phraates II., 594. III., 595. ,, IV., 598. Sal awids, 634 sq. Sarakhs, 618. Scythians, 563, 570, 594, 599, 603. Seleucia, 587, 601, 604. Seleucids, 585 sq. Seleucus I., 585. Sevems, 605. Shah Rukh, 643. Sufi, 638. Tahmasp, 636 sq. Shaikh Sufi, 634. Shapiir L, 608. II., 609. Shiraz, 623, 624, 027, 628. Sse, 591, 593, 599. Sulaiman, 639. Tabriz, 626, 628, 633, 637, Tehran, 623, 627, 628. Tigranes (Armenia), 595. Tiinurides, 632, 633. Tiridates, 598. Tochari, 592, 594, 600, 003, 606. Trajan, 603, 604. Vardanes, 601. Volagases I., 602. II., 603. ,, III., 604. Xerxes L, 572. Yazdegerd I., 610. III., 615. Yue-chi, 592, 593, 594,600.