Iranian Influence on Moslem Literature, Part I | Page 8

a locality in the district
of Arrajan called the castle of Shiz."
From this information we learn that in one of the castles of Fars down
to the tenth century there were preserved manuscripts written probably
in the Pahlavi language containing narratives from Persian history and
illustrated with, portraits after the style of the Sasanian reliefs to be
found in the rocks in the district of Sabur.[1] This strong mountain
fastness was probably little accessible to the Arabs and afforded an
asylum to the mobeds, dehkans and others interested in the past of their
country.
[Footnote 1: That is after the style of the Sasanian bass-reliefs which
were preserved in his time on the rocks in the vicinity of Shapur and
the most famous type of which are the bass-reliefs representing the
triumphs of the Sasanian Shapur I, over the emperor Valentine].

These facts generally important for the history of the preservation of
the epic, historic and artistic traditions of Iran, are particularly
important for the investigation of the sources of the Arabic translations
of the Sasanian chronicles and of the epopee of Firdausi. As we know,
the translators of these chronicles were Persian "fire-worshippers" or
Musalmans who had adopted Islam only externally and had remained
true to the ancient Persian religion. Among them the foremost is called
Mobed belonging to the city of Sabur in the province of Fars. He is
important as a worker in the Iranian historical tradition and about him
we shall have occasion to speak later on. This Mobed probably made
Arabic translations of Sasanian chronicles from materials in the
archives in the castle of Shiz. Further, the information adduced by us
above regarding the castle refers to times a little previous to the age of
Firdausi and undoubtedly among the materials in these archives were
the sources of the Shah Nameh which were available to Firdausi
through intermediate versions. Finally, we see that these Sasanian
histories were illustrated, a fact which is confirmed by the statement of
other Arab writers as we shall see later on. Generally the district of
Arrajan enjoyed its ancient glory with reference to its cultural
connections. Yakut[1] has preserved for us the information that at
Raishahar in the district of Arrajan there lived in the Sasanian times
men, versed in a peculiar species of syllabary who wrote medical,
astronomical and logical works.
[Footnote 1: "Muajjam ul Buldan", ed. Wustenfeld, II, p. 887. This
passage has been translated by Barbier de Maynard in his
"Geographical, Historical and Literary Dictionary of Persia", in French,
pp. 270-271. See also Fihrist II, p, 105.]
What we have studied above establishes the existence of Persian
literary tradition in its national form for several centuries after the Arab
invasion. Now we have to survey wherein lie the characteristic features
of this tradition and what were its main contents. And we pass on to
their consideration.
CHAPTER II

The Parsi Clergy and the Musalman Iranophile party of the Shuubiya
26
The part played by them in the conservation of the Persian literary
tradition 30
The different varieties of this tradition; scientific, epico-historic,
legendary and ethico-didactic 32
PARSI CLERGY PRESERVE TRADITION
We have demonstrated above that in the time subsequent to the Arab
conquest Iranian tradition found a congenial asylum in the bosom of
the Parsi priesthood. There it was maintained and developed orally as
well as in a written form. The most competent among the Persian
historians who employed the Arabic language in those times turned to
the Parsi clergy for information. Of this we have first-hand proof in
their own works and in the quotations from other works preserved in
later authors. For example, they frequently remark "the
Mobedan-mobed related to me", "the mobed so and so told me" and so
on. In their quest for ancient Persian books, too, Arab authors searched
for them among the Parsi priesthood and it was only there that they
found them. Thus it was the merit of the Parsi community that it
conserved Iranian traditions daring unfavourable times and handed
them on to Moslem Persia under more auspicious conditions.
Involuntarily we are led to a comparison, to their advantage, with the
activity of the Iranophile party of the same times in the Moslem
community, the party of the Shuubiya,[1] In their capacity as promoters
of learning and exponents of literature they concentrated their activity
in the cultured centre of the Khalifate at Baghdad and other cities, and
being familiar with Persia played an important part in the development
of Moslem culture of the Middle Ages. But in the preservation of the
Iranian tradition they turned to much restricted and greatly exclusive
Parsi circles. In the second half of the tenth century and in the eleventh
century the currents which were preparing the Persian renascence party
were lost and their significance