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The Parthian Gōsān and Iranian Minstrel Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Mary Boyce
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Extract

The word gōsān is known to occur twice in Persian literature. One passage is in the poem Vīs u Rāmīn, now shown to be of Parthian origin. Here, while the king Mōbad is feasting with his wife and his brother Rāmīn, a gōsān-i navāgar sings to them. His song is of a lofty tree, shading the whole earth. Beneath it is a sparkling spring, with sand in its sweet water. A bull of Gīlān grazes by it, drinking the water and eating the blossoms at its brink. “May this tree continue to cast its shade,” ends the gōsān, “the water ever flowing from the spring, the bull of Gīlān ever grazing at it!” His pretty song was well calculated, however, to frustrate this pious wish; for it was in fact a dangerous and provocative allegory, the tree representing Mōbad himself, the spring his wife Vīs, and the bull his brother Rāmīn, the queen's lover. This meaning the king instantly divined; but his rage flared up, not against the gōsān, but against his brother, on whom he sprang to kill him.

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Articles
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 89 , Issue 1-2 , April 1957 , pp. 10 - 45
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1957

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References

page 10 note 1 See Minorsky, V., “Vīs u Rāmīn, a Parthian romance,” i, BSOAS., xi (1946), pp. 741–764CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ii, ibid, xii (1947), pp. 20–5; iii, ibid, xvi (1954), pp. 91–2; Henning, W. B., “The Monuments and Inscriptions of Tang-i Sarvak,” Asia Major, n.s., ii (1952), p. 178, n. 2Google Scholar.

page 10 note 2 Vīs u Rāmīn, ed. Minovi, Mujtaba, Tehran, 1314/1935, pp. 29315–45Google Scholar.

page 10 note 3 Minovi, p. 29312, 15; in the edition of W. Nassau Lees (Calcutta, 1865), the word occurs a third time (p. 21910).

page 10 note 4 See von Stackelberg, R., “Lexicalisches aus ‘Wīs o Rāmīn’,” ZDMG., 48 (1894), p. 495Google Scholar.

page 10 note 5 loc. cit., pp. 495–6. Hübschmann, , Armenische Grammatik (1897), p. 131Google Scholar, persisted in reading the word with k, and in separating it therefore from Armenian gusan.

page 11 note 1 Bailey, H. W., “Iraniea II,” JBAS., 1934, pp. 514–15Google ScholarPubMed (where von Stackelberg's remarks on the word gōsān have been slightly misinterpreted).

page 11 note 2 Mujmal at-Tavārīx, ed. Bahār, Malik aš-Šu'arā, Tehran, 1318/1939, p. 69Google Scholar; text with French translation, Mohl, J., “Extraits du Modjmel al-Tewarikh, relatifs à l'histoire de la Perse,” JA., 1841, ii, pp. 515–16, 534Google Scholar.

page 11 note 3 On Mid. Pers. huniyāgar see further below, p. 20 and n. 5.

page 11 note 4 See H. W. Bailey, loc. cit., p. 515; “Ariana,” Donum Natalicium H. S. Nyberg Oblatum, Uppsala, 1954, p. 9, n. 6Google Scholar.

page 11 note 5 The text, which is being prepared for publication, is given here in standardized orthography. I am indebted to Professor Henning for his kind permission to quote it in advance.

page 11 note 6 The regular Manichæan use of Kw'n for “giants, heroes” (see Henning, W. B., “The Book of the Giants,” BSOAS., xi (1943), pp. 53–4)Google Scholar, is an obstacle to seeing in this instance of the word a specific reference to the Kayanian legends.

page 12 note 1 See Nöldeke, Th., Das iranische Nationalepos, 2nd ed., pp. 7–9Google Scholar; Boyce, , “Some remarks on the transmission of the Kayanian heroic cycle,” Serta Cantabrigiensia (Mainz, 1954), pp. 49–51Google Scholar.

page 12 note 2 See Boyce, , “Zariadrēs and Zarēr” (BSOAS., xvii (1955), pp. 471–7)Google Scholar. Professor Henning has convinced me that in this article I gave insufficient weight to Ctesias' substitution of the name Sfendadates for that of Bardiya, which can only, he insists, mean that the fighting fame of the Kayanian Spentodāta had become well-known in Achæmenian Persia by about 400 b.c. Recognition of this fact does not, however, invalidate my main argument, that the available evidence suggests that it was the Parthians who were mainly responsible for preserving the legends of Vištāspa's ancestors. The fame of his son was a part of church-history; but his pagan forbears had only a lineal connection with the faith, and the detailed celebration of their exploits seems, in the early centuries of Zoroastrianism, to have remained largely local and secular.

page 12 note 3 Mos. Xor., I, xiv.

page 13 note 1 It is, of course, well known that the art of the later ašuγ was oral, and it would be remarkable if an oral tradition had come to displace an older written one; but here I propose to confine consideration strictly to the Armenian gusan so-called.

page 13 note 2 Darmesteter gives an excellent example of this in his Chants populaires des Afghans, intro., p. cxci, where he speaks of the deep scorn of the literate Šā'ir for the illiterate, but often highly trained, ḍum.

page 13 note 3 In the Armenian Bible this verse appears as 2 Kings xix, 35. For this information, and much other generous help, including the translation of Armenian passages, I am indebted to the kindness of my colleague, Dr. Charles Dowsett.

page 13 note 4 The references are given by , von Stackelberg, loc. cit., p. 495, n. 3Google Scholar.

page 13 note 5 Faustus of Byzantium, V 7 (ed. Venice, 1933, p. 212, ll. 11 ff.).

page 14 note 1 Ibid., V 32 (ed. Venice, p. 236, ll. 9 ff.).

page 14 note 2 Amm. Marcell. XXX, 1, 18 (Loeb, iii, p. 304).

page 14 note 3 Faustus III 19 (ed. Venice, p. 56, ll. 5–6).

page 14 note 4 Yovhannēs Mandakuni, Čark' Xratakank' xiii (fifth century). This, and the following references with the initials N.B. after them, are from among those given in the dictionary Nor Baṙgirk' Haykazean Lezui (Venice, 1836)Google Scholar, under gusan, and have been translated by Dr. Dowsett.

page 14 note 5 Vardan Vardapet, Commentary on Genesis (N.B. under gusanut'iwn).

page 14 note 6 In Goyan's, G. 2000 let armyanskogo teatra (“2000 years of the Armenian theatre”), Moskow 1952Google Scholar, the early sections of vol. i, devoted to the gusans, appear to be almost entirely speculative.

page 14 note 7 yaysmawurk', 5th November (N.B.).

page 14 note 8 Movses Kalankatuac'i, i, 26, “The canons of Vačagan, king of Albania, established at the council held at Aluen,” no. 12. (Reference and translation from Dr. Dowsett; see also von Stackelberg, op. cit., p. 495, n. 3.) Dr. Dowsett cites a series of Armenian ritual lamentations, collected from written sources, by Abetean, M., Gusanakan Žolovrdakan Taler Hayrenner yev Antuniner, Erevan, 1940, pp. 249–270Google Scholar.

page 15 note 1 N.B. An alternative translation is “let not priests . . . entertain gusans”, the word gusanamut being ambiguous [C.D.]. The injunction is reminiscent of a passage in Alcuin's letter to an eighth-century bishop of Northumbria: “When priests dine together . . . it is fitting . . . to listen to a reader, not to a harpist, to the discourses of the Fathers, not the poems of the heathens” (Mon. Germ. Hist., Epist. Carol, ii, 124; see H. M. and Chadwick, N. K., The Growth of Literature, i, p. 573)Google Scholar. The situations have presumably an element in common, namely the struggle of a literate church against the seduction of a pagan illiteracy.

page 15 note 2 Grigor of Maškuor (d. a.d. 1114), Book of Prayers for Penitents (N.B.).

page 15 note 3 See , von Stackelberg, ZDMG., 48, p. 495Google Scholar; mgosani is the word used to translate Persian gōsān in the Georgian Visramiani (see O. Wardrop's translation, p. 205; Bailey, , JRAS., 1934, p. 514)Google Scholar.

page 15 note 4 References in minstrel-poetry to the minstrels themselves are fairly general; for instances in Anglo-Saxon poetry see Chadwick, , Growth of Literature, i, pp. 596–7Google Scholar.

page 15 note 5 For these references I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Robert Stevenson, who is engaged on a new edition of the text, with English translation. The pagereferences, supplied by him, are to the Tiflis edition, ed. Z. Dchidchinadze, 1896.

page 15 note 6 p. 21.

page 16 note 1 p. 53.

page 16 note 2 p. 125.

page 16 note 3 See O. Wardrop's translation, p. 20, v. 119.

page 16 note 4 Text in Shanidze, A., Ancient Georgian Language and Literature, 9th ed. (Tiflis, 1947), p. 127, l. 1Google Scholar. (I am indebted for this reference to my colleague Dr. D. M. Lang.)

page 16 note 5 op. cit., p. 284.

page 16 note 6 See Marr, , Drevnegruzinskie Odopistsy, 44, 4, 1Google Scholar; 101, 2, 3 (reference from Mr. Stevenson).

page 16 note 7 Matt, ix, 24; see Blake, R. P., The Old Georgian Version of the Gospel of Matthew from the Adysh Gospels, Paris, 1933Google Scholar (Patrologia Orientalis, xxiv/i), p. 50.

page 16 note 8 Cited by Čubinov. Dr. Lang and Mr. Gugušvili have further kindly brought to my attention some interesting material on ritual lamentations for the dead in later Georgia, , in Masalebi Sak'art'velos Et'nograp'iisat'vis (Materialen für die Ethnographie Georgiens), vol. iii, Tiflis, 1940Google Scholar. A recognized form of lamentation appears to have been the singing of extemporized verses describing the life and deeds of the dead man, together with mention of his ancestors. Successful compositions were learnt by heart and passed from generation to generation (intro., pp. xii–xiii).

page 17 note 1 See Lidzbarski, M., Das Johannesbuch der Mandäer, p. 164Google Scholar.

page 17 note 2 Ibid., pp. 166–7.

page 17 note 3 That there was a genuine resemblance between these minstrels and at least one group of “gypsies” is shown by the use of the word gōsān, in the Mujmal at-Tavārīx, for Indian entertainers. If these Indians were from the ḍombha caste of musician-minstrels, then it is their kindred who have for centuries provided minstrelsy for the Afghans and Baluchis, in a way, one would imagine, closely resembling that of the gōsān (see Darmesteter, , Chants populaires des Afghans, intro., pp. cxci, cxciiiGoogle Scholar; Dames, M. Longworth, Popular Poetry of the Baloches, intro., pp. xvi–xvii)Google Scholar. Ḍomi/sa-musicians appear in Sogdian Buddhist translations, for Benveniste, E. (Textes sogdiens, 2, 642, 783)Google Scholar has identified the word in Sogdian rnp.

page 18 note 1 The Draxt ī Asūrīg is considered separately; see below, p. 31.

page 19 note 1 Śārṅgadeva, , Sangítaratnākara, iii, 2–9Google Scholar (Ānandāśrama ed., Poona, 1896, pp. 243–5). I am greatly indebted to Dr. Arnold Bake for his kindness in bringing this passage to my attention, and for furnishing me with a translation of its highly technical contents.

page 19 note 2 i.e. vocal music, instrumental music and dance (A.B.).

page 19 note 3 i.e. the introductory expositions of the rāga being sung (A.B.).

page 20 note 1 Athenæus, xiv, 633 (Locb, vi, pp. 417, 419). Windischmann, F., who brought this passage to light (see his Zoroastrische Studien, Berlin, 1863, pp. 276–7)Google Scholar, infused it with a religious flavour by remarking: “das Lied . . . enthält eine den Zendtexten geläufige Vorstellung, welche den Sieg (Verethragna) in der Gestalt eines gewaltigen Ebers . . . personificirt.” Benveniste, E. and Renou, L. (Vṛtra et Vṛθragna, Paris, 1934, pp. 68–9)Google Scholar also found a connection here with Vṛθragna; but I can myself see no good grounds for reading a religious implication into what appears a perfectly straightforward comparison between a brave and dangerous enemy and a wild boar, a natural comparison in a society which hunted that animal. That the boar's fighting energy made it also a symbol of the God of Victory is surely in this connection accidental.

page 20 note 2 Cyropaedia I, ii, i.

page 20 note 3 Gutschmid, A. v., Kleine Schriften, iii, pp. 138 fGoogle Scholar.

page 20 note 4 Athenæus, xiii, 35, p. 575; see Jacoby, F., Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, iib, pp. 660–1Google Scholar. Chares' final words (ibid., p. 66127–32) suggest a widespread oral transmission of the story.

page 20 note 5 This is the Pahlavi term. Bailey, H. W. (Zoroastrian Problems in the Ninth Century Books, p. 113, n. 1)Google Scholar has argued that huniyāgarmeant “entertainer” in general, and that it was only Pers. xunyāgar which came to be restricted to “minstrel”. This he bases partly on the meaning (which he demonstrates) of adj. huniyāg “delightful”; partly on Xusrau and his Page, § 62 (Asana, J., Pahlavi Texts, p. 32)Google Scholar where the term hunīyāgar appears to include such entertainers as rope-walkers. W. B. Henning regards this usage as particular to this one passage, however, and due to interpolation. Such general entertainers are certainly not mentioned in the corresponding section of the text as preserved by Tha'ālibī, Ghuraru akhbāri mulūki-'l furs, ed. Zotenberg, , pp. 709–10Google Scholar. Apart from this debateable passage, Pahl. huniyāgar appears to be used, like Pers. xunyāgar, for “minstrel”.

page 20 note 6 This appears to be the Manichæan Middle Persian term, occurring as a hapax legomenon; see Henning, W. B., “Ein manichäisches Henochbuch,” Sb. P.A.W., 1934, p. 28, n. 7Google Scholar.

page 21 note 1 See below, pp. 32–7. The distinction has been maintained among those Iranian peoples, such as the Afghans and the Kurds, who have cultivated minstrelsy down to our own times. The literate poet is named šā'ir, whereas the oral poet, who is always a singer and musician too, bears a local name (ḍum, dengbež, etc.).

page 21 note 2 The Letter of Tansar, ed. Minovi, M., Tehran, 1932, p. 12Google Scholar. It is perhaps a pleasant example of Persian traditionalism that it is precisely these four callings which are grouped together by 'Arūḍī, Niẓāmī-i as furnishing “the servants essential to kings” (Chahār Maqāle, Gibb Mem. Series, text, p. 11)Google Scholar. The šu'arā are omitted by Jāḥiz, , Kitāb at-Tāj, ed. Pasha, A. Zeki, Cairo, 1914, p. 25Google Scholar; transl. Ch. Pellat, Paris, 1954, p. 53.

page 21 note 3 Letter, p. 14; see Christensen, A., L'Iran sous les Sassanides, 2nd ed., p. 98, n. 3Google Scholar.

page 21 note 4 See Henning, W. B., “Sogdian Tales,” BSOAS., xi (1945), pp. 465–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Henning considers this Sogdian story to be quite likely of Persian origin (ibid., p. 466).

page 21 note 5 Cairo ed., p. 138; transl., p. 158.

page 22 note 1 Mas'ūdī, , Murūj al-Dhahab, ed. de Meynard, Barbier, ii, pp. 153–4Google Scholar.

page 22 note 2 Mas'ūdī, ii, pp. 156–7.

page 22 note 3 Kitāb at-Tāj, Cairo, ed., pp. 26–7Google Scholar; transl., pp. 54–5; Christensen, loc. cit., pp. 402–3.

page 22 note 4 Mas'ūdī, ii, pp. 157–8. Harun ar-Rašīd is said to have established ranks among his singers, on the Sasanian model (Kitāb at-Tāj, Cairo, ed., pp. 37–8Google Scholar; transl., p. 65); and there is a story that a musician of the second rank at his court, who had delighted the Caliph by his playing, flatly refused to accompany a singer of the first, unless elevated in rank himself. The Caliph acceded to his demand (ibid., Cairo ed., p. 41; transl., p. 69), thus apparently yielding to the same temptation as Bahrām Gōr.

page 22 note 5 Kitāb at-Tāj, Cairo, ed., p. 28Google Scholar; transl., pp. 55–6.

page 22 note 6 Ibid., Cairo ed., p. 25; transl., p. 53.

page 22 note 7 Mas'ūdī, ii, pp. 158–9.

page 22 note 8 Kitāb at-Tāj, Cairo, ed., p. 174Google Scholar; transl., p. 191.

page 22 note 9 In Ṭabarī (Nöldeke, p. 306), musicians are mentioned, together with the marzbāns, as accompanying Xusrau Parwēz to celebrate the finishing of a dam across the Tigris.

page 22 note 10 Kitāb at-Tāj, Cairo, ed., p. 148Google Scholar; transl., p. 166.

page 23 note 1 Šāhnāme, 43, 3262–3.

page 23 note 2 Asana, J., Pahl. Texts, p. 3211 (§ 60)Google Scholar.

page 23 note 3 Ibid., p. 331–2.

page 23 note 4 Ibid., p. 333.

page 23 note 5 Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, p. 709.

page 23 note 6 On Bārbad as a “ballad-singer” see Browne, E. G., “The Sources of Dawlatshah, with ... an excursus on Bārbad and Rūdagī,” JRAS., 1899, pp. 54–61Google Scholar; Literary History of Persia, i (1929), pp. 14–18Google Scholar; on Barbad as a musician see Christensen, A., “Some Notes on Persian Melody-Names of the Sasanian Period,” Dastur Hoshang Mem. Vol., Bombay, 1918, pp. 368–377Google Scholar; L'Iran sous les Sassanides, 2nd ed., pp. 484–6. On the forms of Barbād's name see Browne, , JRAS., 1899, p. 55, n. 1Google Scholar; Lit. Hist., i, p. 15; Christensen, , L'Iran, p. 484, n. 2Google Scholar; Nöldeke, , Nat. epos, 2nd ed., p. 42, n. 2Google Scholar.

page 23 note 7 See Šāhnāme, 43, 3724 ff.; Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, pp. 694–8.

page 23 note 8 Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, p. 694; but another tradition makes Bārbad a native of Fare (see Browne, , JRAS., 1899, p. 61)Google Scholar.

page 24 note 1 Named Sarkaš by Firdausi; by Tha'ālibī, Sarjis; by Niẓāmī (Xusrau u Šīrīn), Nakīsā.

page 24 note 2 Šāhnāme, 43, 3791.

page 24 note 3 Qazwīnī, Guzīde, Tārīkh-ī, Gibb Mem. Series, p. 1223–5Google Scholar; Browne, , JRAS., 1899, p. 57Google Scholar.

page 24 note 4 See Burhān-i Qāṭi', under sī laḥn; Niẓāmī, , Xusrau u Šīrīn, ed. Dastagirdi, V., Tehran, 1313/1934, pp. 190–4Google Scholar. For the names of the “seven royal modes”, and of Sasanian musical instruments, see Mas'ūdī, viii, p. 90.

page 24 note 5 In Dastur Hoshang Mem. Vol., pp. 368–377.

page 24 note 6 Qazwīnī, Zakariyā, Āthāru-l Bilād, ed. Wüstenfeld, F., pp. 230–1Google Scholar; Browne, , JRAS., 1899, pp. 58–9Google Scholar; Lit. Hist., i, pp. 17–18.

page 24 note 7 Yāqūt, , Geographical Dictionary, ed. Wüstenfeld, , iv, pp. 112–13Google Scholar; transl. Barbier de Meynard, pp. 448–9.

page 24 note 8 Ibid.; Zakariyā Qazwīnī, op. cit., p. 296; Browne, , JRAS., 1899, p. 60Google Scholar.

page 24 note 9 Šahrastānī, ed. Cureton, p. 19312–13; transl. Th. Haarbrücker, i, p. 292.

page 25 note 1 Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, p. 704; in his Xusrau it Širin (Tehran, ed., pp. 359–378)Google Scholar, Niẓāmī devotes many verses to a series of songs sung in turn, to stringed instruments, by Bārbad and Nakīsā.

page 25 note 2 Tha'ālibī, pp. 704–5.

page 25 note 3 See Tavadia, J. C., “Sur Saxvan: a Dinner-Speech in Middle Persian,” Journal of the K.R. Gama Oriental Institute, No. 29 (1935), p. 35, § 186, and pp. 74–5Google Scholar.

page 25 note 4 See above, p. 11; and cf. Šāhnāme,356, 862 ff.; Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, pp. 566–7; , Qazwinī, Tārikh-i Guzīde, Gibb Mem. Series, p. 11210–13Google Scholar. In Tha'ālibī's version there is no suggestion, as in the Mujrnal and the Šāhnāme, of a royally subsidized minstrelsy. The people are themselves to employ the singers, have pleasure from them, and reward them justly.

page 25 note 5 A number of passages on feasting and minstrelsy in the Šāhnāme have been collected by F. Rosenberg; see his “On Wine and Feasts in the Iranian National Epic”, translated from the Russian by Bogdanov, L., Journal of the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, No. 19 (1931), pp. 13–44Google Scholar. Similar passages occur in Vīs u Rāmīn.

page 25 note 6 Šahnāme, 12, 22–39; see also Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, p. 156. The incident is reminiscent of Rūdakī's enticing of Amir Naṣr bin Aḥmad.

page 26 note 1 Šahnāme, 12c, 688. (This is the sole occurrence of the word xunyāgar in the poem.)

page 26 note 2 i.e. the Kāren Sōxrā; cf. Nöldeke, Ṭabarī, pp. 130–2.

page 26 note 3 Šāhnāme, 39, 180–2.

page 26 note 4 Although the Sasanian era was not a “heroic age”, the inherited conventions of heroic literature were evidently maintained during it, and survived long enough to influence Firdausi.

page 26 note 5 Andreas-Henning, , Mir. Man., ii, p. 305 = M 2 V II 7–14Google Scholar.

page 26 note 6 Šāhnāme, 10, 64.

page 26 note 7 Ibid., 42, 1710.

page 27 note 1 Browne, (Lit. Hist., i, p. 18)Google Scholar gives, on the authority of al-Bayhaqī, the names of three other Sasanian minstrels (Āfarīn, Xusraioānī, Mādharāstānī); but Christensen, (Dastur Hoshang Mem. Vol., p. 371, n. 2)Google Scholar, is probably right in thinking that these are really misunderstood musical terms.

page 27 note 2 Strabo, xv, 3, 18 (Loeb, vii, p. 179).

page 27 note 3 Letter xii; see Chalathiantz, Grigor, “Fragmente iranischer Sagen bei Grigor Magistros,” WZKM., x (1896), p. 221 (text with German translation)Google Scholar. The English translation given here is Dr. Dowsett's.

page 27 note 4 Asana, J., Pahl. Texts, p. 28, § 13Google Scholar.

page 27 note 5 Reading, with Henning, cng for eygwn. The translations of čigāmag and padwāzīg kardan are also Henning's.

page 27 note 6 In some Parthian Manichæan manuscripts a marginal letter p, held to represent padwaz, is written by alternate verses, seemingly to mark the antiphon. Applied to minstrel-singing, padwāzag perhaps indicates the alternation of songs in rivaby—a mutual capping of achievement, as represented between Bārbad and Sargis—rather than singing in duet.

page 28 note 1 Asana, J., Pahl. Texts, p. 12Google Scholar; see Bartholomae, C., Zur Kenntnis der mitteliranischen Mundarten, iv, p. 22Google Scholar; Benveniste, E., “Le Mémorial de Zarēr,” JA., 1932, i, pp. 280–2Google Scholar. It is an inference that Bastwar's lament was sung.

page 28 note 2 Šāhnāme, 15, 1735–1744; Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, pp. 312–14.

page 28 note 3 Šāhnāme, 12, 426–433.

page 28 note 4 Ibid., 7, 1780.

page 28 note 5 Andreas-Henning, , Mir. Man., ii, p. 3061–4 (= M 2 VII22–9)Google Scholar.

page 29 note 1 Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, p. 541.

page 29 note 2 Kitāb at-Tāj, ed. Cairo, , p. 159Google Scholar; transl., p. 177.

page 29 note 3 Tha'ālibī, Zotenberg, p. 565.

page 29 note 4 Šāhnāme, 35, 461.

page 29 note 5 Ibid., 477.

page 29 note 6 Ibid., 718 (reading with C).

page 29 note 7 Ibid., 846.

page 29 note 8 Ibid., 844–854.

page 29 note 9 Ibid., 1011.

page 29 note 10 Ibid., 1105.

page 29 note 11 Ibid., 1126–1130.

page 29 note 12 Ibid., 35, 1427.

page 30 note 1 Ibid., 13g, 1115–16.

page 30 note 2 See A. Pope, Survey of Persian Art, iv, Plates 163A and B; Christensen, , L'Iran, pp. 470, 471Google Scholar.

page 30 note 3 See Šāhnāme, 34, 166 ff.; Tha'ālibī, pp. 541–3; Qazwīnī, , Tārīkh-i Guzīde, p. 112Google Scholar; Niẓāmī, , Haft Paikar, ed. Dastagirdi, V., Tehran 1315/1936, pp. 108 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 30 note 4 See Gangoly, O. C., Rāgas and Rāgiṇīs, i (Bombay, 1935), Plates vi, ix (pp. 72, 120)Google Scholar; Daniélou, A., Northern Indian Music, ii (London, 1954), p. 47Google Scholar. Dr. Bake further cites a passage from Sir William Jones, On the Musical Modes of the Hindus, (reprinted in Sourindro Mohun Tagore, Hindu Music from various Authors, i, p. 127): “I have been assured by a credible eye-witness, that two wild antelopes used often to come from their woods to the place where a more savage beast, Sira Juddaulah (Siraju-d Daula), entertained himself with concerts, and that they listened to the strains with an appearance of pleasure, till the monster in whose soul there was no music, shot one of them to display his archery.”

page 31 note 1 Strabo, xvi, i, 14 (Loeb, vii, p. 215).

page 31 note 2 Bartholomae, . Mitteliran. Mundarten, iv, pp. 23 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 31 note 3 Benveniste, , “Le texte du Draxt Asūrīk et la versification pehlevie,” JA., 1930, ii, pp. 193–225Google Scholar.

page 31 note 4 On the cultivation of wisdom-literature see Chadwick, , Growth of Literature, iii, p. 883Google Scholar.

page 31 note 5 See Benveniste, E., “Une apocalypse pehlevie: le Zāmāsp Nāmak,” Rev. de Vhist. des religions, 106 (1932), pp. 337–380Google Scholar; Tavadia, J. C., “A Didactic Poem in Zoroastrian Pahlavi,” Indo-Iranian Studies, i (1950), pp. 86–95Google Scholar; “A Rhymed Ballad in Pahlavi,” JRAS., 1955, pp. 29–36; Henning, W. B., “A Pahlavi Poem,” BSOAS., xiii (1950), pp. 641–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 31 note 6 Denkart, ed. Madan, , pp. 16022–1611Google Scholar; see Bailey, , Zor. Problems, p. 113, n. 1Google Scholar.

page 31 note 7 Bert, G., “Aphrahat's des persischen Weisen Homilien, aus dem syrischen übersetzt,” Homilie i, p. 19Google Scholar, in Gebhardt-Harnack, , Texte und Untersuchungen zur Oeschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, iii (1888)Google Scholar.

page 32 note 1 Benveniste, E., JA., 1930, ii, p. 224Google Scholar.

page 32 note 2 Kitāb at-Tāj, Cairo, ed., p. 27Google Scholar; transl., p. 54.

page 32 note 3 Kārnāmak, i, 23.

page 32 note 4 Šāhnāme, 34, 110–11.

page 32 note 5 Asana, J., Pahl. Texts, p. 27, § 10Google Scholar.

page 33 note 1 Reading with Bailey, , Zor. Problems, p. 160Google Scholar.

page 33 note 2 Henning's reading; kāmalc-kār-*hudast, Bailey, loc. cit.

page 33 note 3 See Andreas-Henning, , Mir. Man., ii, pp. 295–6 (= T II D 126 I R, IV)Google Scholar.

page 33 note 4 Christensen, , Les gestes des rois duns les traditions de I'Iran antique, 1936, pp. 116–17Google Scholar, argued that the Achæmenian chronicles were already “en quelque sorte une litterature d'amusements” rather than a factual record. This he based on Esther, VI i. Christensen's deduction from this verse seems hazardous, however. There is no reason why the king of kings, zealous in affairs of state, should not turn in sleeplessness to an objective record of events; and that this was actually the case is suggested by the fact that the reading served to remind him of a task undone, namely the rewarding of Mordecai.

page 34 note 1 See the admirable short survey of the subject by Gershevitch, I., “Iranian Literature,” in Literatures of the East, an Appreciation (ed. Ceadel, E. B., London, 1953), p. 71Google Scholar. In making this characterization, Gershevitch had also in mind the Avestan hymns and the Ossetic Nart Saga.

page 34 note 2 See an-Nadīm, Ibn, Fihrist, ed. Flügel, , p. 304Google Scholar.

page 34 note 3 See, e.g. Bang, W., “Manīchāische Erzähler,” Le Muséon, xliv (1931), pp. 1–36Google Scholar; Henning, W. B., “Sogdian Tales,” BSOAS., xi (1945), pp. 465–487CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 34 note 4 Kitāb at-Tāj, ed. Cairo, , p. 24Google Scholar; transl., p. 52.

page 34 note 5 Ibid., ed. Cairo, p. 113; transl., p. 137.

page 34 note 6 Šāhnāme, 43, 56–9.

page 34 note 7 He is so called, ibid., 43, 69.

page 35 note 1 Daulatšah, ed. Browne, p. 30. On the material to be derived from a partial reconstruction of 'Unṣurī's version, see Shafi, M., “'Unṣurī's Wāmiq wa 'Adhrā,” Proceedings of the XXIIIrd International Congress of Orientalists (ed. Sinor, D., Cambridge, 1954), pp. 160–61Google Scholar.

page 35 note 2 Šāhnāme, 43, 97.

page 35 note 3 It is interesting to see how this fashion was exploited by the sugaring of the Machiavellian Letter of Tansar, a fine specimen of didactic court-treatise, with fables of Indian origin (see Asia Major, n.s., v (1955), pp. 50–8)Google Scholar.

page 36 note 1 See Gabrieli, F., “L'opera di Ibn al Muqaffa',” RSO., xiii (1931–1932), pp. 197–247Google Scholar. It is interesting to note that the innovator Abān al-Lāḥiqī, himself a “poet”, went no further than rendering Persian prose works into Arabicverse (see an-Nadīm, Ibn, Fihrist, ed. Flügel, , p. 119)Google Scholar.

page 36 note 2 See Browne, , JRAS., 1899, pp. 61–9Google Scholar; Lit. Hist., i, pp. 15–17, 455–8.

page 37 note 1 Vīs u Rāmīn, ed. Minovi, , p. 264Google Scholar.

page 37 note 2 Ibid., p. 265.

page 37 note 3 Ibid., p. 267.

page 37 note 4 Ibid., p. 276.

page 37 note 5 Ibid., p. 2613. Minorsky, (BSOAS., xi (1946), pp. 743–4)Google Scholar has interpreted Gurgānī's puzzling use of the word fārsī (p. 277) to mean that his source was in Persian (i.e. in Arabic script); and he dates this therefore, tentatively, to round about a.d. 950. It is difficult to see, however, how this interpretation can be; reconciled with Gurgānī's clear statements that his original was in Pahlavi.

page 37 note 6 On the question of the anonymity of oral poetry see Bowra, C. M., Heroic Poetry (London, 1952), pp. 404–9Google Scholar. Clearly those minstrels have the best chance to be remembered by name who flourish, like Bārbad, towards the end of an oral tradition, or who, like Angares, have their names recorded by a foreign observer.

page 37 note 7 See Minovi, M., Yakī az Fārsiyyāt-i Abū Nuwās, Mevue de la Faculté des. Lettres, Univ. de Téhéran, i, 3 (1954), pp. 76–7Google Scholar.

page 38 note 1 Vīs u Rāmīn, p. 265–7.

page 38 note 2 Ibid., p. 2610.

page 38 note 3 Ibid., p. 2611–12.

page 38 note 4 Ibid., 1. 15 (with variant paimūde, for printed paimūdan, supplied verbally by Professor Minovi).

page 38 note 5 Ibid., 1. 17.

page 38 note 6 Lubābu'-Albāb, ed. Browne, , i, p. 20Google Scholar; see Browne, , JEAS., 1899, pp. 55–6Google Scholar.

page 39 note 1 A notable example is J. Darmesteter (see his Les origines de la poésie persane, Paris, 1887, pp. 1–3)Google Scholar, who wrote before any of the discoveries of Middle Persian verse in this century.

page 39 note 2 See his article, JRAS., 1899, p. 61.

page 39 note 3 See his Indo-Iranian Studies, I (Bombay, 1950), pp. 45–6Google Scholar.

page 39 note 4 See ibid., p. 88; and cf. his “A Rhymed Ballad in Pahlavi”, JRAS., 1955, p. 29. Coyajee, J. C. (in “The House of Gotarzes”, JASB., 1932)Google Scholar, also speaks repeatedly of pre-Islamic ballads and ballad-mongers (see pp. 208, 209, 224).

page 39 note 5 See Henning, W. B., “The Disintegration of the Avestic Studies,” Trans. Philological Society, 1942, pp. 51–6Google Scholar; “A Pahlavi Poem,” BSOAS., xiii (1950), pp. 641–8Google Scholar; Boyce, , The Manichæan Hymn-Cycles in Parthian (Oxford, 1954), pp. 45–59Google Scholar.

page 40 note 1 For some remarks on this vanished music, based largely on oantilated Turfan texts, see Machabey, A., “La cantillation manichéenne,” La Revue Musicale, No. 227 (Paris, 1955), pp. 5–20Google Scholar.

page 40 note 2 See Browne, , Lit. Hist., i, pp. 446–7, 474–7Google Scholar.

page 40 note 3 See 'Arūḍī, Niẓāmī-i, Chahār Maqāle, Gibb Mem. Series, text, p. 27Google Scholar; transl., p. 29.

page 40 note 4 navā-yi bārbad māndast u dastān.

page 41 note 1 Daulatšāh's comment on Rūdakī's famous poem on the Jū-yi Mūliyān, sung by him to the harp (see his Tadhkiratu-'š- Su'arā, ed. Browne, , p. 32)Google Scholar is so pertinent that it seems justifiable to quote it again here. I use Browne's translation (JRAS., 1899, pp. 68–9): “...the verses are extremely simple ... and if in these days anyone were to produce such a poem in the presence of kings or nobles, it would meet with the reprobation of all. It is, however, probable that as Master Rudagi possessed the completest knowledge of harmony and music in that country, he may have composed some tune or air, and produced this poem of his in the form of a song with musical accompaniment, and that it was in this way that it obtained so favourable a reception. In short, we must not lightly esteem Master Budagi merely on account of this poem, for assuredly he was expert in all manner of arts and accomplishments, and has produced good poetry of several kinds . . . for he was a man of great distinction, and admired by high and low.”

page 41 note 2 See Henning, W. B., “A Pahlavi Poem,” BSOAS., xiii (1950), pp. 641–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tavadia, J. C., “A Rhymed Ballad in Pahlavi,” JRAS., 1955, pp. 29–36Google Scholar. The latter poem contains a reference to the Arabic conquest, also “traces of N.Pers. usage in the vocabulary, and even some Arabic words” (Tavadia, p. 29)Google Scholar. The terminus ante quem of the former appears to be a.d. 956 (Henning, p. 648, n. 2); there is nothing in the contents to date it more closely, but Henning (p. 648) points out that “the rhythm would perhaps improve, if one put more modern forms into the text, in place of the conventional heavy-vowelled Middle Persian forms”. Professor Henning has now kindly drawn my attention also to the “Song of Karkoy”, rhymed but not quantitative, preserved in the Tārīx-i Sīstān, ed. Bahār, Malik aš-Šu'arā, Tehran, 1314/1935, p. 37Google Scholar.

page 42 note 1 To the list of works cited by Benveniste, E., JA., 1932, ii, p. 292Google Scholar, with nn. 2–7, can now be added Lescot, R., Textes kurdes, ii (Beyrouth, 1942)Google Scholar; Lorimer, D. L. R., “The Popular Verse of the Bakhtiāri of S.W. Persia,” BSOAS., xvi (1954), pp. 542–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ii, xvii (1955), pp. 92–110.

page 42 note 2 See Ivanow, W., “Rustic Poetry in the Dialect of Khorasan,” JASB., n.s., xxi (1925), pp. 233–313Google Scholar.

page 42 note 3 See op. cit. (based on material gathered in 1914); cf. also Mann, O., Die Mundarten der Lur-Stämme im süd-westlichen Persien (Berlin, 1910), pp. 74–96Google Scholar.

page 43 note 1 Chants populaires des Afghans (Paris, 1888–1890), pp. cxci–ccxvGoogle Scholar.

page 43 note 2 Popular Poetry of the Baloches (London, 1907), pp. xvi–xxxviiiGoogle Scholar.

page 43 note 3 See Mann, O., Die Mundart der Mukri-Kurden (Berlin, 1906), pp. xxvii–xxxGoogle Scholar; and cf. also Chalathianz, Bagrat, “Kurdische Sagen,” Zeitschrift d. Vereins f. Volkskunde, xv (1905), pp. 322–330Google Scholar; xvi (1906), pp. 35–46, 402–414.

page 43 note 1 op. cit.

page 43 note 2 See Longworth-Dames, op. cit., pp. xxxvi–xxxviii.

page 43 note 3 See Darmesteter, op. cit., pp. 1–5.

page 43 note 4 See Lescot, op. cit., pp. vi–vii. It is, of course, possible that parts of the story go back to an earlier date. Lescot's tentative identification of it with the tale of Zariadres and Odatis (pp. xiv–xvii) seems hardly convincing, however.

page 43 note 5 The songs of the Armenian ašuγ, although not strictly relevant to a consideration of Iranian minstrelsy, are yet of interest as representing the development of the Armenian gusan tradition. The principal cycle of stories, centring on David of Sassun, is held to go back to the eighth-tenth centuries, to the struggle of Christian Armenia with the Arabs. It is interesting, in the light of the fusion of Kayanian and Arsacid legends, to see how this material tends to borrow elements from Persian legend. On this cycle of stories see Artasches Abeghian, “Das armenische Volksepos” (Sonderabdruck, , Mitteil. d. Ausland-Hochschule an der Universität Berlin, xlii), Berlin, 1940, pp. 225–238Google Scholar; Chalathianz, Bagrat, “Die armenische Heldensage,” Zeitschrift d. Vereins f. Volkskunde, xii (1902), pp. 138–144, 264–271, 391–402Google Scholar; on the professional minstrel-tradition see Tchobanian, Archag, Chants populaires arméniens, 2nd ed., Paris, 1903, pp. lxxx–lxxxiiGoogle Scholar; B. Chalathianz, loc. cit., pp. 139–140, with some interesting remarks on amateur recitation among peasants (ibid., pp. 141–2), which appear to preserve traces of the old, unrhymed Armenian verse, with uneven number of syllables, which was similar to the old Iranian metres; see the examples gathered by Gray, L. H., “Les mètres paiens de I'Arménie,” Revue des études arméniennes, vi (1926), pp. 159–167Google Scholar; and also the old Armenian hymns, on which see Nève, F., Les hymnes funèbres de I'église arménienne traduites sur le texte arménien du charagan, Louvain, 1855Google Scholar (extrait de la Revue catholique, x (août-déc, 1855)Google Scholar.