ET-TABARY'S CONQUEST OF PERSIA BY THE ARABS. TRANSLATED FROM THE TURKISH BY JOHN P. BROWN, Esq., DRAGOMAN OF THE UNITED STATES LEGATION AT CONSTANTINOPLE. ET-TABARY'S CONQUEST OF PERSIA BY THE ARABS. INTRODUCTION. THE following translation is made from the Annals of Abu Ja'far Muhammed Ibn Jarir Et-Tabary, a native of Tabaristân, on the southern shore of the Caspian sea, as his name indicates, who was born A. H. 224 or A. D. 838-39, and died at an advanced age, A. H. 310 or A. D. 923, at Baghdâd, where his high reputation as a jurisconsult and historian had long drawn around him many inquirers after his opinion on points of Muslim law, and pupils in the traditions of Arab history. Ibn Khallikân, the celebrated biographer of the thirteenth century, in his Memoirs of Illustrious Men, speaks of Et-Tabary as follows: "Abû Ja'far Muhammed Ibn Jarîr Ibn Yezid Ibn Khâlid Et-Tabary, who bore also the name Yezid Ibn Kethîr Ibn Ghâlib, master of the interpretation of the Kurân, and of the history of important events, was a teacher of many branches of learning, including interpretation, tradition, logic, history, and others; and he was the author of elaborate works relating to various departments of knowledge, which give proof of the extent of his learning and the greatness of his merit; and he was one of those teachers who labor to perfect, not conceding to the authority of any person; . . . . and his narration of events was relied upon, and his Annals are the most perfect of annals, and the best grounded;"* and the erudite Quatremère of Paris asserts, that from an historical encyclopedia of Et-Tabary "later writers, Arab, Persian, and others, have drawn the materials of their narratives, not thinking it possible to find a guide more enlightened, more judicious, and more faithful."+ * Ibn Khallikân, ed. De Slane, pp. 639-40. The work, here translated from, was originally composed in the Arabic, although only a portion of it is known to be extant at the present day in that language. But about the middle of the fourth century of the Hijrah it was translated into the Persian, being at the same time abridged, by order of one of the Sâmânides. The Persian version no where gives the line of tradition in support of statements respecting post-Muhammedan times, which in the original is always to be found and is sometimes drawn out to a great length; and where the original states a fact in several different ways, the Persian version adopts one account, and passes by the others. In this version, also, there is less than in the original of that minute circumstantiality in the narrative of the conquests of the Arabs, which shows that EtTabary must have written from the reports of eye-witnesses, or of those immediately concerned in the events related. On the other hand, with respect to the ancient history of Persia, the Persian translator has added to Et-Tabary's work information derived from the historical records of his own nation. Notwithstanding these modifications, however, the Annals of Et-Tabary, in their Persian form, acquired so high a reputation, that while the original was neglected, the version itself was translated, at different times, into other languages, and even back into the Arabic. Among these secondary versions is the Turkish, of an uncertain date, of which Mr. Brown has rendered a portion into English. As to the question when this Turkish version was made, Mr. Brown assures us, that "its style and phraseology show the writer to have lived at a period when Ottoman literature had not attained its present degree of refinement ;" and he adds to the conjectures hitherto entertained upon this point, that "the late Es'ad Effendy, Ottoman historiographer, of whom he made inquiry on the subject, informed him that, in a work which he had recently read, he found it mentioned, that a daughter of Muhammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, had read the Turkish translation of Et-Tabary, which places its composition prior to the reign of that sovereign; and that this most erudite Ottoman was of opinion, that the Turkish translation was made at Kûnîyeh in Asia Minor, under one of the Seljukides, and has an indistinct recollec |