Arabic Beyond the Arabs
Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ: Ruzbih, who carried Persian books into Arabic
ابن المقفّع: «رُوزْبِه» الذي نقل كتب الفرس إلى العربيّة
His Persian name was Ruzbih, and he came from a town in the province of Fars; on becoming a Muslim he took the name ʿAbdallah. Ibn al-Nadim counts him among the translators from Persian into Arabic, «master of both languages, eloquent in each». He translated several Persian books, among them Kalila wa-Dimna and the book of the crown on the life of Anushirvan, and his Arabic became the road by which readers of Arabic came to know the literature of Persia.
- In brief
- Master of both tongues, eloquent in each
- Outside Arabic
- Rūzbih · Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ
«واسمه بالفارسية روزبه … وكان أحد النقلة من اللسان الفارسي إلى العربي، مضطلعًا باللغتين، فصيحًا بهما.»
Ibn al-Nadim lists al-Adab al-Kabir and al-Adab al-Saghir among his translations from Persian, so the card does not call them his own works. He was killed about 142 AH (759).
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