influence has been attested by a number of Greek and Christian witnesses. So far, for an acknowledgment of this influence serves a purely external fact, namely, a glance at the bibliography of the ancient ethico-didactic tracts in the Musalman literature and an examination of the contents of the book of Ibn Muskawaihi. A number of additional facts confirm this hypothesis. [Footnote 1: For a general review of the morals of Parsism see A.V.W. Jackson's G. I. Ph. Vol. II, 678-683.] Well-known is the importance enjoyed in the beginning of the epoch of the development of the Arabic Musalman literature, by the activities of the Parsi Ibn al Muqaffa.[1] He is famous as the first commentator of the Greek books on logic in Arabic literature, but he is particularly 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 parallelled to corresponding remnants from Pahlavi literature in the _Kabus Nameh_ and the _Siasat Nameh._[5] We know further that books