Iranian Influence on Moslem Literature, Part I | Page 6

these people were in no way differentiated from the Musalman
subjects.[2] Istakhri[3] and Ibn Hauqal[4] relate that the bulk of the
inhabitants of Fars consisted of fire-worshippers and they were there in
larger number than anywhere else, Fars being the centre of sacerdotal
and cultural life of the empire in the days of Persian independence.
Very minute information is supplied us by these writers[5] regarding
the ancient castles and fire-temples scattered over the whole of Fars in
abundance. The latter is of capital importance since here was the
residence of those two classes of Persian society, noblemen and priests,

who were the staunchest conservators of the ancient national tradition.
[Footnote 1: Istakhri, p. 164; Ibn Hauqal, p. 221.]
[Footnote 2: See Makdisi, pp. 421, 429.]
[Footnote 3: P. 130.]
[Footnote 4: P. 207.]
[Footnote 5: Istakhri, pp. 116-119; also p. 100. Ibn Hauqal, 187-190;
also p. 181.]
It is undoubted that the position of the Parsi community after the
Moslem conquest was comparatively comfortable. Still sometimes it
was darkened by excessive fanaticism and the intrigues of the followers
of other faiths. Although sometimes the Parsis could push themselves
forward to positions of officials and instructors and played an important
part in the history of the Khalifate, generally speaking, this community
was a close one leading a more or less exclusive life, a circumstance
enabling the conservation of national peculiarities and attachment to
antiquity. As time went on, however, the condition of their existence
necessarily became worse and the consequence was the gradual
emigration of a portion of the community from the motherland to
Western India.
In the entire Parsi literature we come across only one historical
composition which recounts this emigration. But the narrative is so
obscure that of the main occurrence in it there must have remained only
a general memory.[1] This book is called the "Kisseh-Sanjan" and was
written at a very late date at the very close of the 16th century, so that
the data given in it have to be looked upon as a reverberation of ancient
tradition.[2]
[Footnote 1: The modern historian and Parsi scholar Karaka, in
analysing the events subsequent to the Arab conquest follows the views
of the old School of writers regarding this epoch as a complete
destruction of all the previous organisation and the triumph of

fanaticism of the new faith. See D.F. Karaka, History of the Parsis, Vol
I; on the history of the Parsis subsequent to the Arab invasion see page
22 ff.]
[Footnote 2: E.B. Easrwick, Translation from the Persian of the
"Kisseh-Sanjan" or "History of the arrival and settlement of the Parsis
in India." J.B.B.R.A.S., I. 1844, pp. 167-191. (See also Vol. 21, extra
number, 1005, pp. 197-99).]
From the circumstances detailed in this book it appears that the
emigrators after the establishment of Musalman domination passed a
hundred years in a mountainous locality and only after the lapse of
these long years migrated to Hormuz, from where they proceeded to the
peninsula of Gujarat and finally after negotiations with the local chief
settled in Sanjan. Subsequently fresh refugees joined them from
Khorasan. From this last we can infer that the emigration was gradual
and this is confirmed by the fact that in case of migration in a mass the
diaspora of the Parsis would have left some traces in the Arabic
literature. Further there is no doubt that considerable number of Parsis
remained behind in their country and their descendants are the modern
Persian Guebres who, together with the Parsis of India, may be called
the only preservers of ancient Iranian tradition to the present times.
Thus, throughout Persia in the first centuries of Islam national elements
with, changed fortunes persisted in their existence. It is, however, to be
remarked that their success was not uniform in, every quarter of the
country, that their fate depended to a considerable extent upon the
geographical position and the historical life of the various provinces of
the land. Western provinces owing to their proximity to the centre of
the Arab ruling life had more than the rest to mingle with, the Arab
stream, and to participate in the cycle of events in the Arabic period of
the history of the Musalman East. Central Persia, owing to its
geographical position, could not constitute the point d'appue of the
Persian element. For the latter the most favourably situated provinces
were those in the North, East, and South, Tabaristan, Khorasan, and
Fars.
TABARISTAN.

As is well-known throughout the floruit of the Arab empire this
province found itself in almost entire independence of the central
power. Local dynasts called the Ispahbeds enjoyed practical
independence and in those times Arabo-Moslem influences simply did
not exist. Local rulers,--Bavendids, Baduspans, Karenides--appeared
successively or simultaneously following the traditions left to them by
the Marzbans or the land holders and partly