A literary history of Persia

478 THE LITERATURE OF PERSIAruary 12, A.D. 1231. The Pharmacology (Kitabul-Abnlya *-anIfaqaiqi'l-Adwiya} is preserved in the unique Vienna Codex, aextant Persianstill more ancient MS. (infact the oldest extantPersian MS.) dated Shawwal, A,H. 447 (= January,A.D. 1056), which derives a special interest fromthe fact that it was transcribed by the poetTus, better known by his pen-name Asadf, the nephew of thegreat Firdawsf. This work has been beautifully printed in its'All b. Ahmad ofentirety, with a preface, notes, and facsimiles of three leaves,by Dr. Seligmann (Vienna, 1859), while a German translationof it has been published with notes by Abdul-Chalig Achundow(i.e.,'Abdu '1-Khaliq, son of the Akhund or schoolmaster) ofBaku. Bal'amf's Persian translation of Tabad's historyexistsinmany fine old MSS., of which several are enumerated in thepreface (pp. v-vii)to the first volume of M. Hermann Zotenberg'sChronique de Abou-Djafar Mohammed ben Djarir benTezid Tabarij traduite sur la version per sane d'Abou AH1Mohammed BePami ffaprhles manuscrits de Paris^ de Gotha, deLondres et de Canterbury (Paris, 4 vols., 1867-1874). Of thePersian translation of Tabad's Commentary, made about thesame time as Bal'amf's translation of the same great scholar'sThere exists a rare Persian work known asHistory, there is a manuscript (ADD. 7601) dated A.H. 883(A.D. 1478) in the British Museum.the Marzubanndma,of which extracts have been published by the lateM. Charles Schefer in his Chrestomathie PersaneThe uWnnaama " (Paris, 1885; vol. ii, pp. 1 94-2 1 1 of the Notes,and pp. 172-199 of the texts).This is a translationmade by Sa'd of Warawfn towards the end of the twelfthcentury of our era from an original composed in the Mdzandaranfdialect by the Ispahbad Marzuban somewhere aboutA.H. 400 (= A.D. 1009-1010). To the same writer isascribed a poem entitled Nlkl-narna ; and it is interesting tonote the considerable use made inliterature (of which there isa good deal of scattered evidence) of this and other cognatedialects, and to compare the similar state of things which pre-