renowned as the efficient supporter of the Persian literary tradition
and its translator into the Arabic literature. His rendering of _Kalila
and Dimma_ is well-known. It enjoys a prime role in the migration of
this collection of stories to the West. Well-known also is his
translation of the Persian book of _Khoday Nameh_,--that is, the
official chronicle of the Sasanian times and of the _Ain Nameh_, the
Institutes of the time. We shall have occasion to speak about these
books later on. To him also belong the books closely connected with the
Sasanian epoch, namely, the _Book of Mazdak_ the _Book of Taj_ to which
we shall refer further on. It is interesting that he is also the reputed
author of two books on Adab, perhaps among the most ancient ones in
Arabic literature.[2] One of these books called the Smaller was probably
contained in the other which is called the Larger and has the purely
Persian title of Mah farra Jushnas. (This is how the title is to be read
according to Hoffmann and Justi).[3] Since the interest of Muqaffa was
concentrated in the province of Persian culture it is indisputable that
his activity was not confined in this direction to one book and the
contents of the book have vestiges in a high degree of dependence on
Persian motifs. This is proved by a variety of circumstances. We have
descended to us his book called _Al Yatima_, a tract on that aspect of
morals which was especially diffused in the Sasanian epoch and was
devoted to politics and in form represented the species of writings
called Furstenspiegel.[4] A tradition of this kind of literature for
long continued to live in the Musalman writers and the typical
representative of the species seems to be the famous _Siyasat Nameh_, of
Nizam-ulmulk, the Saljuk Wazir. On some occasions it directly serves as
a source for the internal history of the Sasanian domination. It bears
particularly on didactic literature though it has been as yet very ill
studied from the comparative standpoint. The Sasanian influence is
perfectly obvious. Some portions of Al Yatima of Ibn Muqaffa may be