Iranian Influence on Moslem Literature, Part I | Page 9

forgotten. But for the purpose of
illuminating historical questions a careful examination of these currents

deserves our undivided attention. It was owing to them that literary
materials were preserved which were sometimes direct translations
from books belonging to the Sasanian period. The course by which
these materials found their way into Arabic literature can be definitely
traced. They came from Parsi centres through older circles of Moslem
civilisation which were sympathetic towards Persia. Generally speaking
they were trustworthy transmitters. As a matter of fact the Shuubiya
turned only to the Parsi circles for materials and in the explanation of
the material they did not distinguish them from their other sources.
Their sources betray themselves by an exaggerated Parsi partiality
where the penchant of these circles is clearly manifest. And these are
intimately connected with certain questions of daily life,--the struggle
for power between the Arab and the Iranian element in the Khalifate.
Enthusiastic partisans of the Persian element, these circles as a
counterblast to the poverty of civilizing factors of the pre-Islamic Arab
nation, turned to the glories of Persia, principally of the Sasanian past.
Iranophile writers had no need for inventions, since historical truth was
on their side. The effectiveness of their method was indisputable. In
this connection Iranian tradition among the Musalmans as transmitted
by Arab writers must take precedence of a similar transmission, the
Christian literature of the East, where all possibility was excluded of
polemics such as obtained under the Moslem domination between the
pro-Iranian and anti-Iranian parties. It is, therefore, to be regretted that
the literary activities of the Musalman circles sympathising with
Persian culture have descended to us only in occasional extracts and are
sometimes confined only to the titles of books written by them.
[Footnote 1: For details, Goldziher. Muhammedanische Studien, I,
147-310.]
We noticed above the revival of scientific activities in Sasanian Persia.
This activity for the most part has its significance in its quality of being
a connecting link, in the first place, as the transmitter of Greek
knowledge to the East, and secondly, as the unifier of this knowledge
with the heritage which Sasanian Persia had received from scientific
works belonging to Semitic culture, as well as from the science of India.
The principal representatives of this activity were not Persians, but

Christians, mainly the Syrian Nestorians, and Monophysites from the
school of Edessa.[1]
[Footnote 1: For a general account of the character of this activity see
T.J. de Boer, History of Philosophy in Islam, 17-20.]
What was the share in these operations of the Persians themselves it is
hard to tell. But at all events, it was not considerable.[1] The general
character of this activity does not leave particular room for wide
creative science, since it has expressed itself pre-eminently in
compilations, translations of philosophical, astronomical, astrological,
medical, mathematical and ethical commentaries on Greek and some
Indian authors. It was not in this field that the activity of the Persian
sacerdotal community in the Sasanian epoch was concentrated. And
latterly in the period of the development of analogous scientific work
dining the eastern Khalifate under the Abbasides the principal role
belonged just to the same class of scholars, Christian Syrians, with just
this difference that the activity of the latter continued among the
Musalman alumni of various nationalities whilst in Sasanian Persia
their operations were cut short by the unfortunate circumstances of the
Arab inroads. It is interesting that in the Abbaside period the
translations made from the Persian authors or authors belonging to
Persia appertain to a certain special genre of works of a technical
nature, books on warfare[2], on divination, on horse-breaking[3], on the
training of other animals, and on birds[4] trained to hunting. These
special treatises were of no abstract scientific contents but referred to
the practical demands of life.
[Footnote 1: As regards philosophical traditions of Sasanian Persia in
the Musalman epoch principally we may refer to the influence of the
system of "Zervanism" on the adherents of the system of "Dahar", de
Boer 15 and 76.]
[Footnote 2: See my studies on the Ain-Nameh.]
[Footnote 3: See my book on Materials from Arabic Sources for
Culture History of Sasanian Persia.]

[Footnote 4: Fihrist 315.]
A different kind of importance attaches to histories devoted to
government and national life of the Sasanian period and to the epic and
literary tradition of Persia. Their value as history has been
acknowledged and appreciated by the progressive circles of the
Musalman community. Contemporary researches directing the greatest
attention to this aspect of Iranian movement appreciated its value and
thanks to their works, we are enabled to speak with some clearness
regarding books of exceeding importance. Traces of ancient Iranian
epic tradition are observable in some Greek writers, Ktesias, Herodotus,
Elian, Charen of Mytelene and Atheneus. But it has survived in a