Isāghūjī: His translation from a Syriac version of Porphyry's Isagoge (Introduction), became the standard introductory logic text in the Arabic and broader Muslim world.
Prefaced by a putative autobiography of Borzūya and an account of his voyage to India, the full work was done into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa', who introduced it with a prologue of his own and may have been responsible for four added stories.
Though there are many Arabic manuscripts of Kalīla wa Dimna, Ibn al-Muqaffa''s version is not among them, and the oldest dated copy was written almost five centuries after his death.
That he aimed at an idiomatic rather than a slavishly literal rendering is generally agreed, and all indications are that he achieved clarity of expression by simplicity of diction and plain syntactical structures.
A mixture of legend, myth, and fact, it served as a quasi-national history inspired by a vision of kingship as a well-ordered autocracy with a sacred duty to rule and to regulate its subjects' conduct within a rigid class system.
Ibn Qutayba is thought to have preserved parts of the Āʾīn-nāma, for in his Oyun a number of passages are quoted, albeit without ascription, with the opening words I have read in the Aiin (or Kitāb al-āʾīn).
The quotations bear on topics such as court manners and customs, military tactics, divination and physiognomy, archery, and polo, subjects typical of various works on Sasanian institutions, protocol, entertainment, general savoir faire, and so on.
Apart from adding various illustrative verses, some...in elegant Persian, Ibn al-Muqaffa evidently inserted Quranic and Biblical quotations, presumably as a concession to Muslims.
Be that as it may, his Sasanian text is still Iranocentric: ...we are the best of Persians, and there is no quality or trait of excellence or nobility which we hold dearer than the fact that we have ever showed humility and lowliness…in the service of kings, and have chosen obedience and loyalty, devotion and fidelity.
More positively, he urges the prince to cultivate men of religion and moral perfection as potential aides and intimates, to take advice, even if unpalatable, from those best qualified to give it, to keep abreast of his officials' conduct, to be sparing with his favors, and so on.
The Ādāb is cast in the parallelistic mode of expression born of the early Khotba and expanded and elaborated in Omayyad hortatory compositions, unembroidered with contrived rhyming of the sort found in later Abbasid prose literature.
After an opening eulogy, purposefully complimentary but devoid of extravagant panegyric, he discusses the army, praising the Khorasanis in Iraq but suggesting that, as an ethnically mixed body exposed to heterodox thinking, they should be taught only the tenets of a clear, concise religious code issued by the caliph.
Concern for the army's standing, morale, and future loyalty leads him to suggest reforms, including the removal of fiscal duties from the military, officer recruitment from the ranks based on merit, religious education, inculcation of integrity and loyalty, regular pay linked to inflation, and maintenance of an efficient intelligence service throughout Khorasan and peripheral provinces, regardless of cost.
He calls for vigilance and good intelligence in Iraq to counter discontent in Basra and Kufa and pleads for deserving Iraqis to be afforded scope for the exercise of their talents in government service.
In view of wide divergences in legal theory and practice, born of local precedents or flawed personal reasoning, he suggests to the caliph a scrutiny and resolution of all conflicts of law by his own command and the imposition of unity by a comprehensive enactment.
In the past, ministers and secretaries—the approach is tactful—brought the entourage into disrepute: men unworthy of access to the caliph became members to the exclusion of, for instance, scions of the great families of early Islam.
After a few lines on Arabia he closes with a proposal for mass education aimed at achieving uniformity of orthodox belief through a body of paid professional instructors.
Other compositions and occasional pieces attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffa' are the Yatima tania a short, sententious epistle on good and bad rulers and subjects ; may be authentic, though the long resāla entitled Yatimat al-soltan and the collection of aphorisms labeled Hekam certainly are not.