Abdullah Ibn Muqaffa
Abdullah Ibn Muqaffa’, Arabic author and translator of Persian origine; 720-756. He was one of the first translators into Arabic of literary works of the Indian and Iranian civilizations, and one of the creators of Arabic literary prose. Under the title “Kalila Wa Dimna” (Panchatanta) he translated into Arabic the Pahlavi version of the celebrated collection of Indian fables, which go back to the Pancatantra. He also translated from Pahlavi into Arabic a royal chronicle composed under the Sasanids (Iranian dynasty), a picture #### of the institutions, customs and hierarchy of the court in the same period, and a biography of the Sasanian kings Khusrow Anushirwan (reign. 531-579) and Khusrow Parwiz (579-628). Ibn Muqaffa’ furhter composed one of the earliest “Mirror for Prices” and a series of reflections on certain political, religious and social problems, addressed to an unnamed caliph who without doubt is the Abbasid Mansur. He probably is also the author of a Manichaean apologia. His works soon became classic in the great Abbasid civilization and exerted a very great influence on the following generations. In Basra, he visited the great scholars: Muslem Ibn Quytabeh, Ma’n Ibn Za’deh, Ibn Abi Leili, Ibn Bushrameh, Abdul Hamid Kateb and Khalil Ibn Ahmad (inportant Arab philologist from Oman; d.791. He was the author of the first Arabic dictionary). Ibn Muqaffa’ was killed by order of the governor of Basra, Mansur Abu Jafar (Abbasid caliph; b. 709. reign. 754-775. He was challenged by Abu Muslem who wished that eastern Persia should be effectively independent. A politician of geius, he established the Abbasid caliphate as a centralised state under the caliph’s control).
Works:
1- Adab al-Kabir
2- Adab al-Saqir
3- Durat al-Yatimah
4- A few couplet poems
Sources :
Islamic encyclopedia