A literary history of Persia

448 THE LITERATURE OF PERSIArare manuscripts, I have not been able at present to read orexamine at leisure. Two only need be mentioned, of whichthe first and most importantis the DumyatuTh-^T /M '*-$?r of al-Husayn b. 'AH al-Balcharzf (t A.D.1074-5). Of this work the British Museumpossesses at least two manuscripts (Add. 9994and Add.22,374), and its contents are fully described at pp. 265-271of the old Arabic Catalogue. It comprises seven chapters,of which the firsttreats of the poets of the Arabian Desert andHijaz (27 notices) the second of the ; poets of Syria, DiyarBakr, Mesopotamia, Adharbayjdn, and other lands west ofPersia proper (70 notices) ;the third of the poets of 'Iraq(64 notices) the; fourthof the poets of Ray, al-Jibal,Isfahan, Pars, and Kirman (72 notices) the; fifth of thepoets of Jurjan, Astarabad, Qumis, Dihistan, and Khwarazm(55 notices) the sixth of the; poets of Khurasan, KuhistanBust, Sistan, and Ghazna (225 notices) ;and the seventh ofeminent literarymen who were not poets (20 notices). Inthis work one is struck not only by the very large numberof natives of Persia who appear as the authors of Arabic verse,but by the essentially Persian names or titles of manyof them.Some were recent converts from Zoroastrianism (perhaps insome cases actual Zoroastrians), such as Ibn Mahabzud (i.e. yM&h-afaud) " the Magian " (al-Majusi), and Mahyar b.Marzuya of Daylam, who was converted to Islam in A.D.1003-4 by the Sharif ar-Radf, a much more famous poet thanhimself; 1 others have names, such as Khusraw Firuz,Durustuya, and Fana-Khusraw (for Panah-fChusraw), ortitles, such as DihkhuJa, Div-dadf, so essentiallyPersian thatno doubt as to their origin is possible. Other later worksof the same class are the Zaynatuz-Zaman of Shamsu'd-DinMuhammad of Andakhud, the Kharidatu l-^asr of 'Imadu'd-&c.Dln al-Katib al-Isfahani,1See de Slane's transl. of Ibn Khallikan, vol. Hi, p. 517 ;and T. W.Arnold's Preaching of Isldm (London, 1896), p. 180.