A literary history of Persia

274 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAMknown law-book of the same name compiled by the ImamMalik b. Anas (d. 795). Amongst the oldest Arabic pioseworks of which copies actually exist are the Kitab-Sz-Zuhd (onAsceticism) of Asad b. Musa b. Ibrahim (t A.D. 749) the;KitAbu l~y awami 1 (on Oneiromancy) of Muhammad b. Shirin(see p. 263, n. I supra] and the Kitdbu'l-hhara bi-' i ilmil- ( 'ibara;of Muhammad b. 'All b. 'Umar as-Sdlimi. Last, but not least,is the Umayyad prince Khalid b. Yazid (t A.D. 704), whostudied Alchemy with a monk named Marianus, composedthree treatises on Occult Science, and had for his pupil thecelebrated occultist Jdbir b.Hayydn (circ. A.D. 776).Brockelmann in his admirable Geschichte der ArabhckenLitieratur (Weimar, 1897- )divides the earlier portion othis subject into the following periods :I. The purely Arabian literature (almost entirely consistingof poems composed by pagan, and a few Jewish and Christian,poets), from the earliest times till the time of the Prophet.II. The literature (also purely Arabian, and, with theexception of the Qur'An, poetical) of the Prophet and histime.III. The literature (also purely Arabian) of the Umayyadperiod (A.D. 661-750).IV. The classical period (A.D. 750-1000) of Muhammadanliterature, composed in the Arabic language, but no longerexclusively, or even mainly, by Arabs.V. The post-classical period (A.D. 1000-1258) of the same,down to the Mongol invasion, sack of Baghdad, and extinctionof the 'Abbdsid dynasty.Of these periods the first three but slightly concern us, andall that is needful for our purpose has been already said. Theperiods subsequent to the Mongol invasion lie also beyondthe scope of this work, since even before this momentousevent the national life of Persia had been definitely detachedfrom that of Arabia and Western Asia, and the Persianlanguage had become the main vehicle of Persian thought.