ESḤĀQ

 

ESḤĀQ b. ṬOLAYQ (or Ṭalīq), the secretary responsible for translating the financial dīvāns of Khorasan into Arabic in 124/741-42. Next to nothing is known about him. He was a man (mawlā?) of the Banū Nahšal, a sub-tribe of the Banū Tamīm in Khorasan. Although the change of the land records from Pahlavi into Arabic had started in Iraq in about 78/697, they had remained in Pahlavi in eastern provinces, where most of the scribes were Zoroastrians (majūs; Jahšīārī, p. 67). Naṣr b. Sayyār, the governor of Khorasan, upon orders from Iraq, moved to stop the employment of non-Muslims in government offices. He commissioned his friend Esḥāq b. Ṭolayq with the duty to transfer the dīvāns. From a single, remaining verse by Esḥāq we learn that he named his son Naṣr as an expression of gratitude to Nasṛ b. Sayyār (Jahšīārī, p. 67; Ṣafadī, p. 416).

Bibliography:

Abū ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad Jahšīārī, Ketāb al-wozarāʾ wa’l-kottāb, Cairo, 1938.

Ṣalāḥ-al-Dīn Ḵalīl Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī be’l-wafayāt VIII, Wiesbaden, 1971.

M. Sprengling, “From Persian to Arabic,” AJSLL 56, 1939, p. 214.

(Mohsen Zakeri)

Originally Published: December 15, 1998

Last Updated: January 19, 2012

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Vol. VIII, Fasc. 6, p. 598