Iranian Influence on Arabic Literature....(V)

According to Ahmad Amin, the Egyptian Scholar the Persian adab (Literature) penetrated Arab adab in several ways:

1. Many of the Iranian converts to Islam learned Arabic language and their children began to write Arabic poetry. Many Iranian poets appeared during the Umayyids who wrote Arabic verses, one of these was Zyad al-A’ajam who was born in Isfahan and resided in Khorasan. Abol-Faraj-Isfahani in Al-Aghani tells us that "the reason why they nicknamed him al-A’ajami was that he talked Arabic without the proper Arabic accent like the Persian language but his poems were very fine.
   
   Another family of poets were Yasars who were indeed among the greatest and the most well-known Persian who recited Arabic poetry.Three of the sons of Yasar of Nesa, Esma’il, Mohammed, and Ibrahim, were writing Arabic poetry and yet they were excessively devoted to Iran.

2. Other Iranians who wrote Arabic poetry were Abol-Abbas A’ajami and Musa Shahavat from Azarbaijan. All these poets, although wrote Arabic poetry they were brought up in Iran and were transferring Persian adab into Arabic. They were in fact, used to express Persian adab in Arabic frame. The idea behind these poems were Iranian and it was the Persian soul and Persian idioms and manners of expressions that were being reflected into Arabic and arabicized and so enriched the Arabic language.
   
   Ahmad Amin writes "at a glance one can see that the Arabs in every point or every way they turned or for every necessity of life were obliged to use Persian words. Besides the words themselves they adopted the phrase-making ideas and expressions used by the Persians in explaining various matters or in defining things.

3. The third way of the influence of Persian adab in Arabic adab was through the moral sayings of Iranians. The Islamic morals was influenced in three ways: first by the edicts of the religion and verses of Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet, second by the Greek philosophy, and third by the short stories concerning the biography of the ancient kings of Iran and their ministers and philosophers.
   
   The Iranian maxims and proverbs were translated in profusion into Arabic. The result of many years of experience were summarized in a few sentences. Hassan Bosry, the Iranian, in Umayyid times translated many of these philosophic sayings of Iranian kings into Arabic.
   
   Many Persian axioms and maxims were translated by Ibn - Qotaybeh in "Oyun-al-Akhbar" and by Tartush in "Seraj-al-Moluk" and by Jahiz in "Kitab-al-taj," and by Ibn Abdaryeh in "Al-Iqd-al-Farid". Ibn Moqaffa’ in his "Kitab al Adab al Kabir" propagated the Iranian wisdom and adab into Arabic language.

4. The fourth way by which the Persian adab penetrated into Arabic language was through its music. The Arabs copied their songs from Iranian  models and sang their poems to the rhythm of these songs. Iranians had a great influence in Arabic music and songs. (Dr. Ahmad Amin, Partow-i-Iran)
   
   The Iranian Bazms or "pleasure parties" influenced Arabic life a great deal. The Iranian Bazms were not only limited to musical entertainments but were literary gatherings. In these parties poetry was recited and they matched verses with songs. Besides these, literary parties had many other advantages. In these parties they told very fine literary tales and delivered fine speeches and told very amusing jokes. Poets and scholars, in the hope of gaining promotion to higher and better positions contested each other in these parties and innovations were offered by these participants whereby enriching the literature of the country.

5. The fifth way through which Iranian adab enriched Arabic was through the style and manner of writing letters and edicts and orders to each official according to his position and status in the hierarchy of the government. How to address Kings, princes, ministers, officials, and in general, how to preface an edict or official proclamation etc...

The first scribe of Islam, who tried to create a special style in writing official correspondence, was the Iranian Abdol-Hamid Katib, the scribe of Marvan ibn Mohammed the last Umayyid Caliph. Ibn-Khalakan says that:

Abdol-Hamid was a mavali from Anbar. He is the first who increased the size of the letters and began the letters with the praise of God. He is the first who opened the buds of erudition, and simplified the scribes task and freed the poetry from certain set rules and formulas. He was the master of all the scribes and the best teacher and guide for them.

Ibn Halale Askary in his book called "Divan al Ma’ani" says:

who ever learns the erudition in one language and,then learns another language, can easily transfer that science to the new language. Abdol-Hamid, the well-known Katib who has formulated the principles of the science of composition, has transferred this science from Persian into Arabic.