kinship.

The inconsistency in the spelling of Arabic words has not altogether been avoidable being due partly to a desire to adhere to the orthography adopted by authors whom I have consulted.

SIMLA, G.K. NARIMAN.

September, 1917.

CHAPTER I

Iranian literary tradition in the opening centuries of Islam 1

The character of the Persian history during the Sasanian epoch 6

Importance of this epoch according to the Arab writers of the first centuries of Islam 10

The position of the Parsi community and the centres of the preservation of Persian tradition during the period of the Khalifat in Tabaristan, Khorasan and Fars 15

The castle of Shiz in the district of Arrajan in the province of Fars described by Istakhri, p. 118, 2-4; 150, 14-7; Ibn Hauqal, p. 189, 1-2; cf. the translator of the Khoday Nameh, Behram, son of Mardanshah of the city of Shapur in the province of Fars 19

This castle was the residence of those acquainted with the Iranian tradition (the badhgozar) and here their archives were lodged 20

ARABIC WRITERS AS SOURCES OF SASANIAN CULTURE.

To the Iranian element belongs a very rich rôle in the external as well as the internal history of Islam. Its influence is obvious and constant in the history of the Moslem nations' spread over centuries. Whenever the circumstances have been favourable it has been clearly manifest; when the conditions have been hostile it is not noticeable at the first glance but in reality has been of great consequence. The causes of this are very complicated. And it is necessary on account of its universal value to examine a wide concatenation of facts. But from a general point of view there is no doubt that it has its roots principally in the continuity of the historical and cultural traditions. Particular significance attaches to the circumstance that just in the epoch preceding the Arab conquest Persia had experienced a period of national revival after the horrors that its sovereignty had undergone, at the hands, for instance, of Alexander the Great.[1] Therefore for the study of Iranian tradition in Islam the period of the Sasanian dynasty preceding the Arab conquest has a special significance.

[Footnote 1: This is explained by the hatred given expression to in the
Parsi tradition regarding Alexander. Comp. J. Darmesteter La Legende de
Alexandre chez les Parses. Essais Orientaux, Paris 1883, pp. 227-251.]

The Sasanian dynasty issuing from a small principality in the south of Persia—a principality which, properly speaking bears the title of the "kernel of the Persian nation"—occupies a considerable position in Persian history. Wide imperial aims were united with a plenitude of solid organisation of government so perfect that it passed into a proverb among the Arabs. In this last connection the Sasanian tradition survived for a long time a number of Moslem dynasties. The powerful influence which Iranian tradition exercised was felt by the Abbaside Khahlifs and after them by the Turkish Seljuks. But not only the science of government, a good deal of other matters of cultural and historical importance in the latter times have their explanation in the Sasanian epoch. Placed on the confines of the Greco-Roman world on the one hand, and China and India on the other, Sasanian Persia served during the course of a long time as a central mart of exchange of a mental as well as of a material nature. As against the Achaemenides, emulating the high Semitic culture of the West and the Hellenistic endeavours preceding the Parthian dynasty, the Sasanians pre-eminently were the promulgators of the Iranian principles. Alongside of this, however, although in a subordinate position, the development of the Hellenistic movement and the ancient Irano-Semitic syncretism continued to proceed. Simultaneously an ethical amalgamation proceeded especially in Western Persia where Semiticism was powerful for a lengthened period, Nevertheless, the Sasanians continued the unification of the Iranian inhabitants of central and western Persia. The political system of the Sasanian emperors[1] was based on this fusion. Before it pales the importance of the other facts regarding the political organisation of the Sasanians,—centralisation of government in a manner so that the elements of feudal constitution made themselves felt throughout the existence of the empire and even after the Arab conquest, when it left traces in circles representing Iranian traditions.

[Footnote 1: On the constitution of the Sasanian government, see A. Christensen, L'empire des Sasanides, le peuple, l'etat, la cour, 1907.]

The Iranophile tendencies which dominated the Sasanian epoch developed in intimate cooperation with the State religion (Mazdaism) and the Parsi priesthood. Among the latter continued the production of literary works. Besides, the redaction of the sacred books was completed in these times. Among them were conserved and propagated Persian ethical ideals, which found expression in literary forms, in ethico-didactic tracts, like those which we notice just in the same circles in later times. To the same end were preserved national traditions and ritual, some of which had nothing to do with Mazdaism. The ethical ideals of the church found strong support in the feudalistic circles comprising the larger and the smaller landholders, the dehkans who, with particular zeal, preserved ancient heroic traditions.

Alongside of these national currents in the Sasanian empire there operated in full force those factors of cultural exchange of which we spoke above. Of those factors the most important that deserve our attention are questions regarding education and instruction. In this connection, Sasanian Persia found itself under powerful influences from the West. There are sufficient reminiscences of neo-Platonic exiles from Greece at the Sasanian Court and of the school of medicine in which the leading part belonged to Hellenic physicians. At the same time in the same field we have to examine other influences. For Sasanian Persia did not remain stranger to the sciences of India. We have information regarding the renascence of the activity of the translators of scientific works into the Persian language and the tradition of this activity survived down to the Moslem times. In connection with this theoretical scientific activity stood high perfection in exterior culture issuing to a considerable degree from exchange of materials. And even here the Sasanian tradition has survived the dynasties; in the study of the commerce and industry as well as the art of the Moslem epoch we have necessarily to refer back to the preceding times of the Persian history.

In pre-Moslem Arabia the high development of the civilisation of Sasanian Persia was well known. Among the subjects of the great Persian sovereigns in the western provinces of their empire there were a large number of Arabs who in commercial intercourse carried, to tribes of the Syrian desert and further south to the Arabian peninsula, reports regarding the great Iran Shahar. Not only legends of the heroic figures of the Iranian epic—Rustam and Isfandiar—but religious views and persuasions of the Persians found a place and were spread among the Arab clans. Thus we know that "fire-worshippers" were settled among the Arab tribe of the Temim.[1]

[Footnote 1: See for example Ibn Rustah (B.G.A. VII, p. 217, 6-9).]

As regards the political influence of the Persians on the tribes of Arabia a vast deal has been related in the pre-Moslem epoch. As is well-known, thanks mainly to the Persian influence, there was a small Arab kingdom of the Lekhmides in the South-Western portion of the