514 APPENDIX In the year 963 Mohammad Bilami " translated " Tabari into Persian, by the order of Mansiii- 1., the Samanid sovereign of Transoxiana and Khurasan. This " translation " (which was subsequently translated into Turkish) has been rendered into French by Zotenberg (1867-74). But the reader will be disappointed if he looks to finding a traduction in our sense of the word. Bilami's work is far from being even a free rendering, in the freest sense of the term. It might be rather described as a history founded exclusively on Tabarl's compilation ; — Tabari worked up into a more artistic form. References to authorities are omitted ; the distinction of varying accounts often disappears ; and a connected narrative is produced. Such were the ideas of translators at Bagdad and Bukhara ; and Weil properly observes that Ibn al-Athir, for instance, who does not pretend to be bound to the text of Tabari, will often reproduce him more truly than the pro- fessed translator. For Persian history, the chief ultimate source of Tabari was the Khudhai-nama or Book of Lords (original title of what was afterwards known as the Shah-nama or Book of Kings), officially compiled under Ohosroes I. (see above, vol. iv. , p. 362), and afterwards carried down to a.d. 628, in the reign of Yezdegerd III. This work was rhetorical and ver}' far from being impartial ; it was written from the standpoint of the nobility and the priests. It was "translated" into Ai-abic by Ibn MukafFa in the eighth century ; and his version, perhaps less remote from our idea of a translation than most Arabic works of the kind, was used by the Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria (see below). Tabari did not consult either the I'ehlevi original or the version of Ibn Mukaffa, but a third work which was compiled from Ibn Mukaffa and another version. See the Introduction to Nol- deke's invaluable work. For Tabari's sources for the history of Mohammad, see above. For the successors of Mohammad, Tabari had Ibn Ishak's book on the Moslem conquests and Wakidi (see above) ; and a history of the Omayyads and early Abbasids by (All ibn Mohammad al) Madaini (a.d. 753-840). An independent and somewhat earlier source for the military history of the Saracen conquests is the Book of the Conquests by Abii-1-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya al Biladhubi, who flourished in the ninth century (ob. a.d. 892) at the court of Bagdad. Among the sources which he cites are Wakidi, Ibn Hisham, and Madaini. His work has been printed but not translated ; and has Vjeen used by Weil and Muir for their histories of the caliphate. Weil has given an abridg- ment — very convenient for reference in studying the chronology — " Die wichtig- sten Kriege und Eroberungen der Araber nach Beladori," as an Appendix in vol. iii. of his Gesch. der Chalifen. Another extant historical work is the Book of Sciences by (Abd-Allah ibn Muslim) Ibn Kutaiba (ob. c. 889), a contemporary of Biladhuri. It is a brief chronicle, but contains some valuable notices. Contemporary with these was Ibn Abd-al-Hakam, who died in Egypt, a.d. 871. He wrote a Book of the Conquests in Egypt and Africa. See above, p. 459, note 158. A much greater man than any of these was the traveller Masddt (Abii-1- Hasan All ibn al-Hu.'sain), born c. a.d. 900, died 956. He travelled in India, visited Madagascar, the shores of the Caspian, Syria, and Palestine, and died in Egypt. He wrote an encyclopsedic work on the historj- of the past, which he reduced into a shorter form ; but even this was immense ; and he wrote a compendium of it under the title of The Golden Meadows, which has come down to us (publ. in Arabic with French translation, 1861-77). It contains valuable information re- specting the earlj' history of Islam, and the geography of Asia. He differs from contemporary Arabic historians in the multiplicity of his interests, and his wide view of history, which for him embraces not merely political events, but litera- ture, religion, and civilisation in general.
