The article dwells on the epistolary legacy of Persian-Tajik man-of-leters Abulhamid Katib (the VIII-th century) who wrote in Arabic. Proceeding form the compositions of the pre-Islamic Iranian literature and those ones pertaining to the mediaeval period, the author comes to the conclusion that after the conquest of Maverannkhr by Arabs many paragons of pre-Islamic Iranian prose were translated into Arabic. It is asserted that the style of Abd al-Hamid used by him in messages was borrowed from the pre-Islamic Iranian epistolary art. The issues non-discussed beforehand are touched on, here refer, for example, epistolary traditions of pre-Islamic Iranian culture and civilization especially brightly reflected in the majority of his letters: “The Letter to Secretaries”, “The Letter on the Occasion of the Victory”, “The Letter Eulogizing Fraternity”, “The Letter from Marvan Mukhammad to Abdullah, his Son and Successor to the Throne; Being Composed by Abdulhamid Katib”; the letters in question presented a new thematics in Arabic officialese. It is stated that the writer’s epistolary legacy exerted a considerable influence over epistolary genre development of the works pertaining to the Persian-Tajik literature in the period when no few literary productions were written in Arabic.
Abulhamid Katib, epistolary genre, influence of Pekhlevi literature upon the Arabic one, the period of the works written in Arabic in Persian-Tajik Literature, literary ties
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