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About this edition

This book was translated by Edward Sachau into English and edited in London in 1879. It had apparently been earlier translated into German (edited by Sachau) in 1878.

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THE CHRONOLOGY

OF

ANCIENT NATIONS

 

AN ENGLISH VERSION OF THE

ARABIC TEXT OF THE ATHAR-UL-BAKIYA

OR

"VESTIGES OF THE PAST,"


COLLECTED AND REDUCED TO WRITING BY THE AUTHOR IN A.H. 390—1, A.D. 1000.

TRANSLATED AND EDITED, WITH NOTES AND INDEX, BY

DR. C. EDWARD SACHAU
PROFESSOR IN THE ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN.


LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND OF GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND

BY W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13 WATERLOO PLACE,
PUBLISHERS TO THE INDIA OFFICE.
1879.

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CONTENTS

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE - p. v
PREFACE - p. 1

CHAPTER I. On the Nature of Day and Night, of their Totality and of their Beginnings - p. 5

CHAPTER II. On the Nature of that which is composed of Days, viz. Months and Tears - p. 11

CHAPTER III. On the Nature of the Eras and the different Opinions of the Nations regarding them - p. 16

CHAPTER IV. The different Opinions of various Nations regarding the King called Dhu-al-Karnaini or Bicornutus - p. 43

CHAPTER V. On the Nature of the Months which are used in the preceding Eras - p. 52

CHAPTER VI. On the Derivation of the Eras from each other, and on the Chronological Dates, relating to the Commencements and the Durations of the Reigns of the Kings, according to the various Traditions - p. 84

CHAPTER VII. On the Cycles and Year-points, on the Moleds of the Years and Months, on their various Qualities, and on the Leap-months both in Jewish and other Years - p. 141

CHAPTER VIII. On the Eras of the Pseudo-prophets and their Communities who were deluded by them, the curse of the Lord be upon them - p. 186

CHAPTER IX. On the Festivals in the Months of the Persians - p. 199

CHAPTER X. On the Festivals in the Months of the Sughdians - p. 220

CHAPTER XI. On the Festivals in the Months of the Khwarizmians - p. 223

CHAPTER XII. On Khwarizm-Shah's Reform of the Khwarizmian Festal Calendar - p. 229

CHAPTER XIII. On the Days of the Greek Calendar as known both among the Greeks and other Nations - p. 231

CHAPTER XIV. Of the Festivals and Fast-days in the Months of the Jews - p. 268

CHAPTER XV. On the Festivals and Memorable Days of the Syrian Calendar, celebrated by the Melkite Christians - p. 282

CHAPTER XVI. On the Christian Lent, and on those Feasts and Festive Days which depend upon Lent and revolve parallel with it through the Year, regarding which all Christian sects agree among each other - p. 299

CHAPTER XVII. On the Festivals of the Nestorian Christians, their Memorial and Fast Days - p. 306

CHAPTER XVIII. On the Feasts of the ancient Magians, and on the Fast and Feast Days of the Sabians - p. 314

CHAPTER XIX. On the Festivals of the Arabs in the time of Heathendom - p. 321

CHAPTER XX. On the Festivals of the Muslims - p. 325

CHAPTER XXI. On the Lunar Stations, their rising and setting, and on their Images - p. 335

ANNOTATIONS - p. 367
INDEX - p. 449

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From the PREFACE

IT was Sir Henry Rawlinson who first directed public attention to this work of Albiruni, in his celebrated article on Central Asia in the "Quarterly Review" for 1866, in which he gave some valuable information derived from his own manuscript copy, now the property of the British Museum ... Containing, as it does, all the technical and historical details of the various systems for the computation of time, invented and used by the Persians, Sogdians, Chorasmians, Jews, Syrians, Harranians, and Arabs, together with Greek traditions, it offers an equal interest to all those who study the antiquity and history of the Zoroastrian and Jewish, Christian and Muhammadan religions.

The work of Albiruni has the character of a primary source. Oriental philologists are accustomed to see one book soon superseded by another, Barhebraeus by Ibn-al'athir, Ibn-al'athir by Al-Tabari. Although it is likely enough that on many subjects in this book we shall one day find better authenticated and more ancient information, I venture to say, that, as a whole, it will scarcely ever be superseded. It is a standard work in Oriental literature, and has been recognised as such by the East itself, representing in its peculiar line the highest development of Oriental scholarship. Perhaps we shall one day find the literary sources themselves from which Albiruni derived his information, and shall be enabled to dispense with hisextracts from them. But there are other chapters, e.g. those on the calendars of the ancient inhabitants of Central Asia, regarding which we shall, in all likelihood, never find any more ancient information, because the author had learned the subject from hearsay among a population which was then on the eve of dying out. As the first editor and translator of a book of this kind, I venture to claim the indulgence of the reader. Generations of scholars have toiled to carry the understanding of Herodotus to that point where it is now, and how much is wanting still! The work of generations will be required to do full justice to Albiruni. A classical philologist can edit a Greek text in a correct form, even though he may have no complete understanding of the subject-matter in all possible relations. Not so an Arabic philologist. The ambiguity of the Arabic writing — proh dolor! — is the reason why a manuscript expresses only three-quarters of the author's meaning, whilst the editor is compelled to supply the fourth quarter from his own knowledge and discernment. No number in any chronological table can be considered correct, as long as it is not proved by computation to be so, and even in the simplest historical narrative the editor and translator may most lamentably go astray in his interpretation, if there is something wrong with the method of his research.

I have boldly attacked the sometimes rather enigmatic style of the author, and if I have missed the mark, if the bewildering variety and multiplicity of the subject-matter have prevented me reaching the very bottom of every question, I must do what more or less every Oriental author does at the end of his work, humbly ask the gentle reader to pardon my error and to correct it.
 

EDWARD SACHAU.
 

Berlin, 24th May, 1879.

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Peculiarities

The Chronology of Ancient Nations provides a monthly calendar of weather and climatic information translated from ancient Greek, Egyptian and Roman sources. In an Indiana State University research paper, it was extrapolated, from descriptive citations of heat and cold, hydrometeors and wind, that precipitation distribution and wind direction in Egypt between c. 100 BCE - 100 CE differed from those of the present.

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QUOTES

p. 18: So the Jews expect the coming of the Messiah who was promised to them at the end of 1,335 years after Alexander, expecting it like something which they know for certain. In consequence of which many of the pseudo-prophets of their sects, as e.g. Al-ra'i, 'Abu-Isa Al-isfahani, and others, claimed to be his messengers to them. This expectation was based on the assumption that the beginning of this era (Æra Alexandri) coincided with the time when the sacrifices were abolished, when no more divine revelation was received, and no more prophets were sent. Then they referred to the Hebrew word of God in the 5th book of the Thora, (Deut. xxxi. 18) ... which means: "I, God, shall conceal my being till that day." And they counted the letters of the words ... which gives the sum of 1,335.

p. 39: For instance, the Persians in the time of Zoroastrianism used to date successively by the years of the reign of each of their Kings. When a king died, they dropped his era, and adopted that of his successor. The duration of the reigns of their kings we have stated in the tables which will follow hereafter ... As a second instance we mention the Ishmaelite Arabs. For they used to date from the construction of the Ka'ba by Abraham and Ishmael till the time when they were dispersed and left Tihama.

p. 186: WE shall explain the method of dating the eras by the pseudo-prophets. For in the intervals between the prophets and kings whom we have mentioned, pseudo-prophets came forward, the number and history of whom it would he impossible to detail in this book. Some of them perished without having gained adherents, not leaving anything behind them but a place in history. Whilst others were followed by a community who kept up their institutes and used their method of dating. It is necessary, therefore, to mention the eras of the most notorious among them, for this affords a help, also, for the knowledge of their
history ... The first mentioned is Budhasaf, who came forward in India after the 1st year of Tahmurath. He introduced the Persian writing and called people to the religion of the Sabians. Whereupon many people followed him.

p. 243: Winterly air (Euctemou, Philippus, and Dositheus); changing wind (Egyptians); south wind (Hipparchus). This day is cold (Arabs), during which the coal is kindled. The Persians say: "The Summer has put his hands into the water." On this day the moisture of the wood is flowing from the lowest parts of the trees to the highest, and the frogs begin croaking.

p. 285: Commemoration of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, who are mentioned in the Coran. The Khalif Almu'tasim had sent along with his ambassador another person who saw the place of the Seven Sleepers with his own eyes, and touched them with his own hands ... 'Ali b. Yahya, the astronomer, relates that on returning from his expedition, he entered that identical place, a small mountain, the diameter of which at the bottom is a little less than one thousand yards. At the outside you see a subterranean channel which goes into the interior of the mountain, and passes through a deep cave in the earth for a distance of three hundred paces. Then the channel runs out into a sort of half-open hall in the mountain, the roof being supported by perforated columns. And in this hall there is a number of separate compartments. There, he says, he saw thirteen people, among them a beardless youth, dressed in woollen coats and other woollen garments, in boots and shoes. He touched some hairs on the forehead of one of them, and tried to flatten them, but they did not yield. That their number is more than seven, which is the Muhammadan, and more than eight, which is the Christian tradition, is perhaps to be explained in this way, that some monks have been added who died there in the same spot. For the corpses of monks last particularly long, because they torture themselves to such a degree that finally all their moist substances perish, and between bones and skin only very little flesh remains. And therefore their life is extinguished like a lamp when it has no more oil.

p. 349: Sa'd-Al'akhbiya ... consists of four stars, three forming an acute-angled trigone, and one standing in the middle, as it were the centre of a circumscribed circle. The central star is Sa'd, and the three surrounding stars are his tents. According to others, this Station was called so because at the time when it rises all reptiles that had been hidden in the earth come forth. These stars stand on the right hand of Aquarius. God is all-wise!

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