485 Ṭabarí, iii, 404, l. 5 sqq.

486 Ṭabarí, iii, 406, l. 1 sqq.

487 Murúju ‘l-Dhahab, ed. by Barbier de Meynard, vol. iv, p. 47 seq.

488 When the Caliph Hádí wished to proclaim his son Ja‘far heir-apparent instead of Hárún, Yaḥyá pointed out the danger of this course and dissuaded him ( al-Fakhrí, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 281).

489 Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 105.

490 Mas‘údí, Murúju ’l-Dhahab, vol. vi, p. 364.

491 See, for example, Haroun Alraschid, by E. H. Palmer, in the New Plutarch Series, p. 81 sqq.

492 Cf. A. Müller, Der Islam, vol. i, p. 481 seq.

493 Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 112.

494 Literally, "No father to your father!" a common form of imprecation.

495 Green was the party colour of the ‘Alids, black of the ‘Abbásids.

496 Al-Nujúm al-Záhira, ed. by Juynboll, vol. i, p. 631.

497 The court remained at Sámarrá for fifty-six years (836-892 a.d.). The official spelling of Sámarrá was Surra-man-ra’á, which may be freely rendered 'The Spectator's Joy.'

498 My account of these dynasties is necessarily of the briefest and barest character. The reader will find copious details concerning most of them in Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia: Ṣaffárids and Sámánids in vol. i, p. 346 sqq.; Fáṭimids in vol. i, pp. 391-400 and vol. ii, p. 196 sqq.; Ghaznevids in vol. ii, chap. ii; and Seljúqs, ibid., chaps, iii to v.

499 Ibn Abí Usaybi‘a, Ṭabaqátu ’l-Atibbá, ed. by A. Müller, vol. ii, p. 4, l. 4 sqq. Avicenna was at this time scarcely eighteen years of age.

500 ‘Abdu ’l-Hamíd flourished in the latter days of the Umayyad dynasty. See Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 173, Mas‘údí, Murúju ’l-Dhahab, vol. vi, p. 81.

501 See Professor Margoliouth's Introduction to the Letters of ‘Abu ’l-‘Alá al-Ma‘arrí, p. xxiv.

502 Abu ’l-Mahásin, al-Nujúm al-Záhira, ed. by Juynboll, vol. ii, p. 333. The original Ráfiḍites were those schismatics who rejected ( rafaḍa) the Caliphs Abú Bakr and ‘Umar, but the term is generally used as synonymous with Shí‘ite.

503 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 148, last line and foll.

504 D. B. Macdonald, Muslim Theology, p. 43 seq.

505 I regret that lack of space compels me to omit the further history of the Fáṭimids. Readers who desire information on this subject may consult Stanley Lane-Poole's History of Egypt in the Middle Ages; Wüstenfeld's Geschichte der Faṭimiden-Chalifen(Göttingen, 1881); and Professor Browne's Lit. Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, p. 196 sqq.

506 Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 441.

507 See the Introduction.

508 Ibn Khaldún, Muqaddima(Beyrout, 1900), p. 543 seq.—De Slane, Prolegomena, vol. iii, p. 296 sqq.

509 Cf.Goldziher, Muhamm. Studien, Part I, p. 114 seq.

510 Read mashárátí ’l-buqúl(beds of vegetables), not mushárátas my rendering implies. The change makes little difference to the sense, but mashárat, being an Aramaic word, is peculiarly appropriate here.

511 Aghání, xii, 177, l. 5 sqq; Von Kremer, Culturgesch. Streifzüge, p. 32. These lines are aimed, as has been remarked by S. Khuda Bukhsh ( Contributions to the History of Islamic Civilisation, Calcutta, 1905, p. 92), against Nabatæans who falsely claimed to be Persians.

512 The name is derived from Koran, xlix, 13: " O Men, We have created you of a male and a female and have made you into peoples(shu‘úb ^an) and tribes, that ye might know one another. Verily the noblest of you in the sight of God are they that do most fear Him." Thus the designation 'Shu‘úbite' emphasises the fact that according to Muḥammad's teaching the Arab Moslems are no better than their non-Arab brethren.

513 Muhamm. Studien, Part I, p. 147 sqq.

514 The term Falsafaproperly includes Logic, Metaphysics, Mathematics Medicine, and the Natural Sciences.

515 Here we might add the various branches of Mathematics, such as Arithmetic, Algebra, Mechanics, &c.

516 ‘Abdu ’l-Raḥman Jámí (õ 1492 a.d.).

517 I am deeply indebted in the following pages to Goldziher's essay entitled Alte und Neue Poesie im Urtheile der Arabischen Kritikerin his Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie, Part I, pp. 122-174.

518 Cf.the remark made by Abú ‘Amr b. al-‘Alá about the poet Akhṭal (p. 242 supra).

519 Diwan des Abu Nowas, Die Weinlieder, ed. by Ahlwardt, No. 10, vv. 1-5.

520 Ed. by De Goeje, p. 5, ll. 5-15.

521 Cf.the story told of Abú Tammám by Ibn Khallikán (De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 350 seq.).

522 See Nöldeke, Beiträge, p. 4.

523 Ibn Khaldún, Muqaddima(Beyrout, 1900), p. 573, l. 21 seq.; Prolegomenaof Ibn K., translated by De Slane, vol. iii, p. 380.

524 See Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. ii, p. 14 sqq.

525 Aghání, xii, 80, l. 3.

526 Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. i, p. 46 seq., where the reader will find the Arabic text of the verses translated here. Rückert has given a German rendering of the same verses in his Hamâsa, vol. i, p. 311. A fuller text of the poem occurs in Agháni, xii, 107 seq.

527 Díwán, ed. by Ahlwardt, Die Weinlieder, No. 26, v. 4.

528 Ibn Qutayba, K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará, p. 502, l. 13.

529 For the famous ascetic, Ḥasan of Baṣra, see pp. 225-227. Qatáda was a learned divine, also of Baṣra and contemporary with Ḥasan. He died in 735 a.d.

530 These verses are quoted by Ibn Qutayba, op. cit., p. 507 seq. 'The Scripture' ( al-maṣḥaf) is of course the Koran.

531 Die Weinlieder, ed. by Ahlwardt, No. 47.

532 Ibid., No. 29, vv. 1-3.

533 Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 169, p. 100; De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 393.

534 Cf. Díwán(ed. of Beyrout, 1886), p. 279, l. 9, where he reproaches one of his former friends who deserted him because, in his own words, "I adopted the garb of a dervish" ( ṣirtu fi ziyyi miskíni). Others attribute his conversion to disgust with the immorality and profanity of the court-poets amongst whom he lived.

535 Possibly he alludes to these aspersions in the verse ( ibid., p. 153, l. 10): " Men have become corrupted, and if they see any one who is sound in his religion, they call him a heretic" ( mubtadi‘).

536 Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya declares that knowledge is derived from three sources, logical reasoning ( qiyás), examination ( ‘iyár), and oral tradition ( samá‘). See his Díwán, p. 158, l. 11.

537 Cf. Mání, seine Lehre und seine Schriften, by G. Flügel, p. 281, l. 3 sqq. Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya did not take this extreme view ( Díwán, p. 270, l. 3 seq.).

538 See Shahrastání, Haarbrücker's translation, Part I, p. 181 sqq. It appears highly improbable that Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya was a Shí‘ite. Cf.the verses ( Díwán, p. 104, l. 13 seq.), where, speaking of the prophets and the holy men of ancient Islam, he says:—

" Reckon first among them Abú Bakr, the veracious, And exclaim 'O ‘Umar!' in the second place of honour. And reckon the father of Ḥasan after ‘Uthmán, For the merit of them both is recited and celebrated."

539 Aghání, iii, 128, l. 6 sqq.

540 Transactions of the Ninth Congress of Orientalists, vol. ii. p. 114.

541 Díwán, p. 274, l. 10. Cf.the verse (p. 199, penultimate line):—

" When I gained contentment, I did not cease (thereafter) To be a king, regarding riches as poverty."