A literary history of Persia

268 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAMFor our knowledge of the Shu'ubi controversyand theliterature which itevoked, of which echoes only are preservedin the works of al-jahidji (f A.D. 869) and Ibn 'AbdRabbihi (t A.D. 940), we are chiefly indebted to Goldziher'sexcellent Muhammedanische Studien, alreadyso freelycited inthis chapter/ Amongst the defenders of the Persian pretensionshe enumerates Ishaq b. Hassan al-Khurrami (\ A.D. 815-16),a native of Sughd, who, in one of his verses, boasts x that hisfather is Sasan, and Kisra, son of Hurmuz, and the Khaqanhis cousins ;Abu 'Uthman Sa'id b.Humayd b. Bakhtagan(t A.D. 854-5), who composed books on the superiority ofthe Persians over the Arabs; 2 Abu Sa'id ar-Rustami (tenthcentury of our "era), in whom," says Goldziher, " thenational cry of the Persians against the Arabs sounds its lastnotes ;" and that great scientist, Abu Rayhan al-Birum(t A.D. 1048). Amongst the most notable of their opponents,the champions of Arab superiority, are enumerated thehistorians Ibn Qutayba (t A.D. 883 or 889) and al-Baladhuri(t A.D. 892), 3 both of whom were of Persian origin,4 althoughthey wrote exclusivelyin Arabic. To them may be added aPersian-writing Persian of a later epoch, Nasir-i-Khusraw, thepoet, traveller, and Isma'iH propagandist (t circ. A.D. 1074),who in his Diwan (lith.ed. of Tabriz, A.M. 1280, p. 150),says : Bi-din kard fakhr dn-ki ia n'tz-i-hashrBidu muftakhir shud 'Arab bar 'AjamKhasis-ast u bi qadr bi-din, agarFaridun-sh khdl-ast, u Jamshid 'am." 'Twas in Religion that he gloried by whom till the Day ofJudgementThe Arabs excel the Persians in glory.He who lacks religion is ignoble and mean,Though Feridun be his maternal, and Jamshid his paternaluncle."* Goldziher, op. cit., p. 163. Fihrist, p. 1233 Goldziher, op. cit., p. 166.Brockelmann. Gcsch. d. Arab. Lit., vol. i, pp. 120 and 141.