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History of Iranian Literature HISTORY OF IRANIAN LITERATURE JAN RYPKA HISTORY OF IRANIAN LITERATURE Written in collaboration with OTAKAR KLIMA, VERA KUBICKOvA, FELIX TAUER, nIH BECKA, nIH CEJPEK, JAN MAREK, I. HRBEK AND J. T. P. DE BRUUN Edited by KARL JAHN (University of Leyden) D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY DORDRECHT-HOLLAND DEJINY PERSKE A TADZICKE LITERATURY First'published by Nakladatelstvi Ceskoslovenske akademie ved, Praha 1956 Translated from the German by P. van Popta-Hope, and enlarged and revised by the authors © 1968. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1968 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without permission from the publisher ISBN-13: 978-94-010-3481-4 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-3479-1 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-3479-1 Frontispiece: The Prophet, seated on Buraq, passing over the Ka'bah at Mecca on his miraculous night-journey. From Or. 6810, a copy of the Khamseh of Ni'l'iimi dated 900/1494-5, which bears autograph notes of the Mughal Emperors Jahiingir and Shah Jahan. (By courtesy ofthe Trustees ofthe British Museum.) OTAKAR KLIMA AVESTA. ANCIENT PERSIAN INSCRIPTIONS MIDDLE PERSIAN LITERATURE FOREWORD Some justification seems to be necessary for the addition of yet another History of Iranian Literature to the number of those already in existence. Such a work must obviously contain as many novel features as possible, so that a short explanation of what my collaborators and I had in mind when planning the book is perhaps not superfluous. In the first place our object was to present a short summary of the material in all its aspects, and secondly to review the subject from the chronological, geo­ graphical and substantial standpoints - all within the compass of a single volume. Such a scheme precludes a formal and complete enumeration of names and phenom­ ena, and renders all the greater the obligation to accord most prominence to matters deemed to be of greatest importance, supplementing these with such figures and forms as will enable an impression to be gained of the period in question - all this is far as possible in the light of the most recent discoveries. A glance at the table of contents will suffice to give an idea of the multifarious approach that has been our aim. We begin at the very first traces of evidence bearing on our subject and continue the narrative up to the present day. Geographically the book embraces Iran and its neighbouring countries, while it should be remarked that Iranian literature in its fullest sense also includes Indo-Persian and Judeo-Persian works. The absence of a section on modem Afghan literature must be compensated by the works of H. J. de Dianous and A. Gerasimova and G. Girs (cf. Bibliography, B VIII). New substrata of our subject are laid bare in the extensive contribution on Tajik literature and in that on folklore, though in respect of the former it must be admitted that Soviet works on the subject have not been taken into account. New, in relation to the German version of our book, is the separate section on scholarly literature. Another feature that may be regarded as an innovation consists in the references to Iranian (mainly modem studies), Russian and Soviet sources. It cannot be denied that this has been done before in the West, but such references are mostly rare and in­ adequate. The result of this omission in other works has been that important factual v FOREWORD material and a multitude of valuable opinions have been lost to the reader unacquaint­ ed with these spheres of learning. Of course one must not censure unjustly, for it must be borne in mind that in the meantime the measure of Iranian studies in the country itself and in the Soviet-Union has increased out of all proportion compared with the achievements of former times. This advance is indeed highly gratifying. The present version of the History ofIranian Literature differs from its predecessors in various and in some cases special ways. As can be seen from the Bibliography (B I) it resembles most closely the second Czech edition (1961) which, however, in its turn varies considerably in compass and detail from the original edition (1955) and the German version (1959). It is clear that a work of this kind requires constant revision and emendation in order to bring it up to date, not to mention the rectification of the errors that are bound to creep into an opus covering such a wide field, however conscientiously the authors endeavour to avoid them. It lies in the nature of things that a History of this kind can never be regarded as being definitively concluded. Moreover a considerable period of time was required before the manuscript was ready for the press. This lapse of time, together with the distance separating those engaged on the work, could not but have some disadvantages. Some of the authors, prompted by experience, even completely altered the arrangement of their contributions. In view of the years that have passed since the publication of the original edition, it is not surprising that many a reversal of opinion has taken place, and it has unfortunately been impossible to incorporate all of these in the present volume. In certain cases, however, they are mentioned in the notes. Many of these revised views may be accounted for by the appearance of numerous new publications and reports of recent investigations, the results of which we have also regrettably been obliged to omit. An extensive use has therefore been made of this material in the Bibliography. The latter, though only providing a selection of titles, occupies an unusually large amount of space and has been acclaimed with enthusiasm by the critics of the former editions. The object of this Bibliography was obviously not only to present a collection of works, but as it were to expand the range of the book itself, for it enables the reader to pursue his interests further in any given direction. In order to facilitate orientation, an alphabetical list is given of the special subjects included in the Bibliography, arranged according to the individual poets and prose-writers, only very occasionally according to the works themselves in cases where they are better known than their authors. Learned prose, as such instantly recognizable, has already been assembled in the relevant section of the Bibliography, always under the name of the author in question. Amphilologica1 figures such as 'Omar Khayyam, Avicenna and others, are dealt with, as is fitting, both in the section on polite literature and in that on scholarly prose. Textual or note references to a passage in the Bibliography are made by means of a special capital letter for each section. The zeal demonstrated by Iranian scholars for research and composition, which has found valuable support in the activity of the native publishing houses, added to vi FOREWORD the large amount of specialized study being carried on outside Iran, has obliged the authors of the History of Iranian Literature to exercise the utmost restraint in their choice of works to be enumerated. The stream of new publications has waxed and is still waxing to such an extent that it seems to be boundless. Quality, up-to-dateness and importance have had to be the decisive factors for selection. In order to keep pace with this tumultuous advance, and at the same time to confine the size of the Bibliography to reasonable limits, some sort of compromise had to be sought: some of the titles appearing in previous editions have to our great regret been dropped so as to make way for new ones. Older titles of special significance have of course been retained. It should be mentioned that in recent years Iranian bibliography has flour­ ished exceedingly thanks to the efforts of men such as Iraj Afshar, to whom one cannot be adequately grateful. Further particulars are to be found in our Bibliography (B I). An excellent supplementary source to our own selection for tlIe non-Persian works is J. D. Pearson's Index Islamicus, published in the years 1906-1955, 1956-1960 (see Bibliography, B I). In consequence of an alteration in the date of publication of Volumes 7-9 (1343-1344 A.H. = 1964-1966 A.D.) of Rdhndma-i kitdb, it has alas been impossible to make use of this excellent bibliographical periodical to the extent we should have liked. On the other hand we have been able to enlarge the section dealing with the classical period by the addition of a selection of good Georgian works, albeit only such as were provided with a summary in Russian. The term 'New Persian' (or 'Neo-Persian') is usually denoted by 'Persian'; similarly, for the sake of brevity, by 'verse' is to be understood 'distich' or 'couplet'. As regards the indication of dates according to the solar Hijra system, it has been deemed suffi­ cient to omit the 'A.D.' equivalent since a simple calculation, x+ 621 (e.g. 1343 solar + 621 = 1964 A.D.) will remove any doubt. On the other hand it was considered im­ perative to quote lunar dates next to those of the Christian era throughout. If here or there an error has crept in despite the extremely careful revision that has been carried out, we may perhaps be excused in view of the very large number of dates given and of the general uncertainty as to their accuracy. This foreword cannot be brought to a close before mention has been made of all those persons who have given us tlIeir advice and assistance.
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