Hamza al-Isfahani


Ḥamza ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Mū'addib al-Iṣbahānī Abū ‘Abd Allāh, commonly known as Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī or Hamza Esfahani, was a Persian philologist and historian, who wrote in Arabic during the 'Abbasid and Buyid eras. He spent most of his life in his native town, Isfahan, and visited Baghdad at least three times during his lifetime. He had contact with many important scholars and historians, among them al-Tabari and Ibn Durayd. He wrote a history of Isfahan, a famous chronology of pre-Islamic and Islamic dynasties known as Taʾrīk̲h̲ sinī mulūk al-arḍ wa ’l-anbiyāʾ, and some other works on lexicography and poetry.

Biography

Like many other medieval Iranian scholars, details regarding the life of Hamza are obscure. He was born in the city of Isfahan in, where he spent most of his life and was the son of a schoolmaster. The city had served as an important center in western Iran under the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian Empire. During the 9th-century, many Zoroastrians and other adherents of non-Zoroastrian, Iranian faiths continued to reside in the city. During the late 9th-century or early 10th-century, the city started to gain a large Muslim community, which, nevertheless, preserved their ancient lore. Some scholars such as A.C.S. Peacock have theorized Hamza to possibly have been a secret Zoroastrian, but other scholars have disagreed with this statement.
Despite his keen interest in Iranian affairs and the pre-Islamic history of the country, Hamza preferred to write in Arabic, like the rest of the literary elite of Isfahan. The city seemingly served as a major hub for the collection and transmission of the numerous modifications of the Middle Persian history text Khwaday-Namag. Hamza made much use of the work, as demonstrated in his Sini Muluk al-ard w'al-anbiya. Not many scholars in Isfahan were familiar with Middle Persian, and it is uncertain if Hamza himself had any knowledge of it. Hamza was seemingly a distinguished citizen of Isfahan, due to his broad knowledge, which also earned him opponents, who referred him to as "drivel merchant." In his work, Hamza immediately puts emphasis on the importance of Iran at the center of the world, a common trend in the historiography of the period as also seen in the works of al-Tabari and Abu Hanifa Dinawari.

Extant works

Tā’rīkh sinī mulūk al-arḍ wa’l-anbiyā’al-Durra al-fākhira fī’l-amthāl al-sāʼiraSawāʼir al-amthāl ʻalá af’alal-Amthāl al-ṣādira ‘an buyūt al-shi’rDīwān ‘Abī Nuwās
  • ''al-Tanbīh ʻalá ḥudūth al-taṣhīf''

Partially extant works

  • ''al-Muwāzana bayn al-‘arabī wa’l-fārsīya''

Lost works

Tā’rīkh IṣbahānIṣbahan wa-‘akhbāruhaKitāb al-tashbīhāt‘Anwā’i al-du’ā’Kitāb rasā’ilal-Atamāthīl fī tabāshīr al-surūrKitāb jama’ feyh ‘akhbār ‘esharat min al-shu’arā’ al-muhdithuīn ‘awaluhum BashārDīwān sh’ar ‘Abi TamāmMaḍāhik al-‘ash’ārA’yād al-furs

Other works

Hamza also edited a recension of the Kitāb Naqd al-Shi’r by Qudāma ibn Ja’far, but he only added chapter divisions.

Published editions and translations

Tā’rīkh sinī mulūk al-arḍ wa’l-anbiyā
  • * Schultens, Albert. Historia imperii vetustissimi Joctanidarum in Arabia felice. Harderwijk: Ioannem van Kasteel. pp. 18–45.
  • * Rasmussen, Jens Lassen. '. Copenhagen: J.F. Schultz.
  • * Gottwaldt, J.M.E.. '. Wrocław: n.p.
  • * Gottwaldt, J.M.E.. Hamzae Ispahanensis annalium libri X. 2 vols. Saint Petersburg & Leipzig: Leopold Voss.. – 2nd ed.. Berlin: Kawiani.
  • * Aḥmad, Mawlawī Kabīr al-Dīn. Tārīkh mulūk al-ard. Kolkata: Mazhar al-Ajaib.
  • * Daudpota, U.M.. “The Annals of Ḥamzah al-Iṣfahānī". The Journal of the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute. 21–24: 58–120.
  • *. Tā’rīkh sinī mulūk al-arḍ wa’l-anbiyā’. Beirut: Dar Maktabat al-Hayah.
  • * Sha’ār, Ja'far. Tārikh-i payāmbarān va šāhān. Tehran: Bonyād-i Farhang-i Irān. – 2nd ed.. Tehran: Amir Kabir.
  • * Adang, Camilla. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 32: 286–310.
  • * al-Tibrizī, Jawād. Tā’rīkh sinī mulūk al-arḍ wa’l-anbiyā’. Beirut: Dar al-Warrak.
  • * Hoyland, Robert G.. The 'History of the Kings of the Persians' in Three Arabic Chronicles: The Transmission of the Iranian Past from Late Antiquity to Early Islam. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. pp. 26–78.