"^^"f' CORNELL! T ( (^ UNIVERSITY M^ LIBRARY! [Ui Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026878953 THE TABLE-TALK OF A MESOPOTAMIAN JUDGE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND NEW SERIES VOL. XXVIII THE TABLE-TALK OF A MESOPOTAMIAN JUDGE TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL ARABIC BY D. S. MARGOLIOUTH, D.LiTT. (Oxon), Hon. D.Litt. (Durham) Fellow of the British Academy, and Hon. Member of the Academy of Damascus THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 74 Grosvenor Street, London, W.i. 1922 PREFACE The author of this work, il-MuAassinsonof 'Alison of Mohammed son of DawQd of the tribe Tanukh, figures occasionally in the Chronicles called The Eclipse of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, but not so frequently as his father, 'All, to whom there are several allusions in this book. There is a collec- tion of anecdotes about him in Yaqut's Dictionary of Learned Men^, where we are told that he was bom in Basrah in 329 (began Oct. 6, 940 A.D.) and died in Baghdad in 384 {994 A.D.)^*'^aKer having occupied the position of judge {qdAi) in many towns and districts of Mesopotamia. The work of which the first Part is here^presented in Arabic and EngUsh was according to j^e author ^ commenced in the year 361 (971 A.D.), and according ^o one of YaqQt's authorities it occupied twenty years. Two other works by the same author are in existence ; the collection of tales called al-Faraj ba'd al-Shiddah (Deliverance after Stress), of which we have a Cairene edition ; and a collection of wise sasdngs, called 'C/«zcaMa/-Hife«As!iai:^:E<^» (The Title of Wisdom and Eloquence), of which there is a MS. copy in the Bodleian Library. The account of his work which the author gives in his Preface is dear and accurate ; and such fragments as are to be found in various works of the ten Parts of it which have not yet come to light indicate that the style throughout was uniform.* It was his purpose to record interesting facts which had come to his knowledge by personal experience or by hearsay ; in general he avoided matter which had already appeared in books. He admits that there are exceptions to this rule to be found in his work, and indeed several of the stories already published in the Deliverance after Stress are repeated here. The author belonged to a family which had originally come from Antioch, but in which the Judgeship had become hereditary in Meso- potamia. They followed the tenets of the Mu'tazils, or as they styled themselves " The People of Justice and Monotheism," who by admitting freedom of the will made it possible to beHeve in the justice of the Divine Being, and by denying the Divine Attributes arrived, as they supposed, at a truly Unitarian doctrine. To some extent they were freethinkers, ' vi. 251-267. See also Ibn Khallikan, tr. de Slane, ii. 564. * Yaqut gives the exact day, -5 MuAarram = March 13. * Below p. 6. * Some references are given in the Post-script to the Arabic text. The name is printed correctly in the MatMi' td-Budur. VI PREtACfi as they denied the existence of the Jinii, in consequence whereof (as appears from stories in this book) their women and children were free from the common superstitions. Of the narratives which he introduces some belong to the period covered by the closing volumes of Tabari's Chronicle, others to that recorded by Miskawaihi. The former is very imperfect, and can OTily occasionally be supplemented by that of Ya'qubi ; something however can be gleaned from the Diwans of the poets BuAturi, Ibn al-Rliml {of which only a smaU portion has as yet been published), and Ibn al-Mu'tazz, with whose futile attempt to mount the throne the first pages of Miskawaihi are occupied. BuMuri was attached as court- poet to the whole series of Cahphs beginning with Wathiq (842-847 A.D.), and ending with Mu'ta^id (892-902) ; he tells us much about the internal history of the Caliphate, and especially about the imperial buildings, whereon the chroniclers are silent. His services as encomiast were employed by many of the leading men of the time, with whom he renders us in a way familiar, though there is Uttle originality in his facile verse. He has also a fair number of virulent satires, which contain the sort of matter that in our time gets into the daily papers or the society journals. For the fourth century the Diwans of the Poets which we possess are less concerned with Baghdad and the regions of which it was the metropolis. The chief poet of this age, Mutanabbi, bestows his encomia chiefly on provincial princes ; and Abu Firas (of whom some account is given in this work) is concerned chiefly with the court of the Haia- danids, the family to which he himself belonged, though one of his poems is a sort of historical summary of their exploits at the capital and elsewhere. In no case however would the diwans, even if we had them complete, give us so clear a picture of contemporary life as can be gleaned from Tantikhi's pages. There is a large amount of informa- tion about the celebrities of the time, with whom Tanukh! himself or his authorities were well acquainted ; we are enabled to see something of them at home. Some light is thrown on the ways wherein vast fortunes were acquired, and a strong light on the various modes wherein they were squandered. Various types of charlatan are brought on tihe scene, and we are let into the mysteries of their profession, as " indeed into the even less reputable procedure of the " Artful Dodgers of the time. Vast as is the catalogue of professions which the author in his Preface undertakes to illustrate, it is not clear that he has failed to keep his promise in the case of any even in this first volume of his work. The Maqdmahs of HamadhanI, a somewhat younger contem- PREFACE VH porary, illustrate some of these t3^es ; but TanQkhi's range is vastly more copious, and he is not fettered by the artifices to which the other writer adheres. Of numerous personages mentioned in these pages some account will be found in the Index to The Eclipse of the 'Abbdsid Caliphate. Some of the others are the subject of biographies included in the work of Ibn Khallikan, which is easily accessible. Since fuU Indices to this Book are given at the end of the Arabic text and in the Index men- tioned, it has not been thought desirable to add another to the Translation. For one matter an apology must be added. A few stories have been omitted from the Arabic text on the ground of their obscenity, and some of those left there have not been translated in this. As my friend Mr. Kurd 'Ali in the Journal of the Academy of Damascus has found fault with this procedure, I venture to assign a reason. One of the educational authorities in Cairo pleaded the cause of expurgated editions on the ground that it was desirable to provide good literature in Arabic for those whose literary language it is ; and many a work in classical Arabic contains matter which it is not desirable for the young to see. It may be added that it is frequently of a sort which has no scientific value either ; for there is nothing to be learned from e.g. the bulk of the matter contained in that Baghdader Sittenbild whidi Prof. Mez thought proper to publish. Now the Table-talk is precisely the sort of book which, it might be hoped, would be read with interest, pleasure and appreciation in educated families in those countries where education is in Arabic. I should very much prefer that in such households the book might without danger be left about. The benefit which will thereby accrue outweighs to my mind any disadvantage which arises from the expurgation. In translating the verses of which considerable numbers are cited I have followed the example of Dr. Nicholson, who at times renders such passages in prose, at times reproduces them in verse. I have not endeavoured, as he occasionally has done, to reproduce the original metres ; the natural rh37thms of the two languages are so very different that it is difficult for the reader to perceive what the rhj^hm is intended to be. That there is much in these anecdotes which will be unfamiliar to those who have made no special study of Islamic history must, of course, be admitted ; a few of the technicalities have been explained in an Appendix, but many of the institutions to which there are frequent fusions can only be understood by those to whom study of that sub- Vlll PREFACE ject has rendered them familiar. Even to such persons the system which confines the right of giving evidence to qualified persons seems unworkable ; and the mixture of lawlessness with despotic authority which is exhibited by these stories is hard to visualize. The com- bination of freethinking with gross superstition is also puzzling, though perhaps other periods of history indicate something of the kind. Yet perhaps the impression which most of the anecdotes will leave is rather that of the modemness of Baghdad when it was the metropolis of the CaJiphate than of its distance from the practices and institutions of our days.