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8 A HISTORY OF SHARVAN AND DARBAND
pp, 228-9),1 while summing up the events of the years of "confusion",
after the disruption of the caliphs' power, quotes names and events
recorded in the Arabic Ta'rikh al-Bab, as preserved by Munejjim-bashi,
It is curious that the independent rulers of Sharvan and al-Bab roused
so little interest in the compiler whose pious feelings attracted him chiefly
towards the glorious times of Islamic conquests and conversions of
infidels. This may be an indication of the circles to which the author
of the compilation belonged and appealed. However, even the pale
shadows of events hinted at in some MSS. under the years 270, 290, 325,
437 and 456 are precious for establishing the connection of the Persian
compilation with our Ta'rtkh al-Bab, As already stated, the last year
of the Rumiantsev copy is 456/1064, and it is significant that the Ta'rikh
al-Bab ends thereabouts. Some additional details in the Darband-nama
also fit into the scheme of the Ta'rikh al-Bab (for example, the explanation
about the rights on the mineral production in Baku) and they will be
quoted as illustrations in our commentary to the text.
However, the sober and matter-of-fact character of our Arabic
extracts is very different from the somewhat nostalgic and sanctimonious
tendencies of the Darband-nama, These differences may be due to the
pruning of the text by Munejjim-bashi, and it is also possible that in
the defective copy which he used, the pious stories about the early times
of the conquest had been lost, but we cannot go beyond these guesses.
More characteristic are the divergent tendencies noticeable in Ta'nkh
al-Bab and the Darband-nama: the former is definitely in favour of the
ruling amirs, whereas the latter puts in evidence the particular rights of
the local aristocracy ("the chiefs", see below, p. 123).
Another local history written in Arabic by a certain MULL! MUHAM-
MAD RAF!' is known to us only in an excerpt.2 It is a collection of
local legends relating to certain descendants of the Prophet's uncles who
migrated to Daghestan from Syria (Sham). It supports the rights of
these worthies and insists on the amount of levies due to them from various
villages. It stresses the importance of the shamkhals of Qadi-Qumukh
said to be of the progeny of one of the Prophet's uncles, even the title
of the shamkhals being derived from the name of the village of Khal (in
1 Its last date is 456/1064. The last date in the "Dora" MS, (Public Library),
see Kazem-Bek, p. 138, is 270; in Kazem-Bek's own copy, l.c,, p. 136, the last years
are 272, 290 and 320. Very likely the concluding pages of the MSS. from which
the epitomes were prepared had been lost.
2 Printed by Kazena-bek as an appendix to his Deybend-ndmeh, pp. 205-23.
A Russian translation was published by Baron P. K. Uslar, in Sbwmk sved. o kavkaz.
gortsakh, V, 1870, 1-30, This eminent Caucasian scholar was fully conscious of
the inconsistencies of the text but hesitated to recognise its spurious character
which, however, is only too obvious.