A literary history of Persia

N349Persia, then, at the epoch of which we are now speaking,was beginning to struggle into a new national life,and to givefresh expression to its marked preference for the Shi'itedoctrine. For Ya'qub b. Layth, if we are to credit the longaccount of his successful revolt againstthe Caliphate (for such,in effect,itwas) given by the Nidhamu'1-Mulk in his " Treatiseon the Art of Government " (Siydsat-ndma ed.y Schefer,pp. 11-17) h stron ac* g Shf'ite leanings ; though of course whatis there saicl about his relations with the Fatimid Caliph (whoonly began to establish his power some thirty-five years afterYa'qub's death)is an absurd anachronism. And in theBiography of eminent Shakes lithographed at Tihrdn inA.H. 1268 (A.D. 185 1-2) under the title of Maj&lhii'l-Miimmln *(" Assemblies of True Believers ") the Saffarids are includedamongst the adherents of the ShI'a cause. The evidence thereadduced for Ya'qub's religious standpoint is rather quaint.Information was communicated to him that a certain AbuYiisuf had spoken slightingly of 'Uthman b. 'AffSn ;andthat a Sistanf noble of this name wasYa'qiib, thinkingintended, ordered him to be punished. But when he wasinformed that it was the third Caliph, the successor of 'Umar,who had been thus reviled, he countermanded the punishmentat once, saying, "I have nothing to do with the 'Companions.*"A third great event belonging to this period was theformidable rebellion of = negro slaves(Zanj Ethiopian)which for nearly fourteen years (A.D. 869-883)5caused the utmost alarm andT^beiifon.anxiety to themetropolis of Isldm. The scene of this stubbornand, for a long while, successful revolt was the marshes lyingbetween Basra and Wasit, and the leader of these Africanaccessible by my translation of it in the J. R. A.S. for 1899) by Dr. Etheand Professor Noldeke.1The utility of this valuable work, written about A.D. 1585, by SayyidNuru'llah b. Sayyid Sharif al-Mar'ashi of Shushtar, is, unfortunately,greatly marred by the fact that in the lithographed edition the pages arenot numbered, and there are no indices.