Somayeh-sadat Tabtabei; Alireza Hosseini
Abstract
Abū-Helāl ʻAskari, is a scholar with Iranian root, who was born in the fourth century A.H. in Xūzestān. He, like many other Iranian authors of his age, chose to write his works in Arabic. Al-avāʼel is the title of his historic - literary book on ethnic groups, and its ninth chapter is dedicated ...
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Abū-Helāl ʻAskari, is a scholar with Iranian root, who was born in the fourth century A.H. in Xūzestān. He, like many other Iranian authors of his age, chose to write his works in Arabic. Al-avāʼel is the title of his historic - literary book on ethnic groups, and its ninth chapter is dedicated to the "ʻajam", with outstanding reports on pre-Islamic -specifically the Sassanid- era. His Iranian origin and acquaintance with the Persian language, led to valuable considerations on the meaning and origin of some words such as Mehmān and Mehregān. Al-avāʼel, including valuable unique accounts on Iran, outranks other literary and historical works in Persian or Arabic. According to the studies, researchers' unfamiliarity with Al-avāʼel has resulted in its oblivion; therefore, in this paper firstly Abu-helāl is introduced, then those accounts of the book which are related to Iran are translated, studied, and explained.
