3. Pahlawí texts on non-religious subjects, represented by only eleven works, comprising in all about 41,000 words. This Non-theological Pahlawí works. class of Pahlawí literature is at once the most interesting and the least extensive. A large non­theological literature no doubt existed in Sásánian times, and many works of this class no longer extant (notably the Khudháy-námak, or “Book of Kings,” which will be dis­cussed in the next section) are known to us by name, and to some extent in substance, through the early Arabic and Muhammadan Persian writers. The same cause which led to the loss of the scientific and philosophical nosks of the Avesta (the hátak mánsarík: see p. 97 supra), namely, the comparative indifference of the Zoroastrian priests, who were practically the sole guardians of the old literature after the fall of the Sásánian Empire, to all books which did not bear im­mediately on their own interests, led, no doubt, to the loss of the greater part of the profane literature of the Sásánian period. The works of this class now extant are so few that they may be enumerated in full. They comprise: (1) The Social Code of the Zoroastrians in Sásánian Times. (2) The Yátkár-i-Zarírán (also called the Sháhnáma-i-Gushtásp and the Pahlawí Sháhnáma), translated into German by Geiger in the Sitzungsberichte d. phil. und hist. Classe d. Kais. bayer. Akad. d. Wissenschaften for 1890, ii, pp. 243-84, and further dis­cussed by Nöldeke two years later in the same periodical.* (3) The Tale of Khusraw-i-Kawátán (Núshírwán) and his Page. (4) The extremely interesting Kárnámak-i-Artakh-shatr-i-Pápakán , or “Gests of Ardashír Bábakán,” the founder of the Sásánian dynasty, of which the Pahlawí text* (which appears, however, to be edited with little criticism) was pub­lished at Bombay in 1896 by Kayqubad Ádharbád Dastúr Núshírwán, while an excellent German translation, with critical notes and a most luminous Introduction, by Professor Nöldeke of Strassburg, appeared at Göttingen in 1878. Of this book I shall have occasion to speak much more fully in connection with the Sháh-náma, or “Book of Kings.” It and the two preceding ones may be classed together as the sole survivors of the “historical novel” of Sásánian times; though the contents or titles of others are known to us through Arabic writers (such as Mas'údí, Dínawarí, and the author of the invaluable Fihrist), while the substance of one, the Book of the Gests and Adventures of Bahrám Chúbín, has been in part reconstructed by Professor Nöldeke (Geschichte der … Sasaniden, Leyden, 1879, pp. 474-487). The remaining books of this class (mostly of small extent) are: (5) The Cities of Írán; (6) the Wonders of Sagistán; (7) the Dirakht-i-Asúríg , or “Tree of Assyria”; (8) the Chatrang-námak, or “Book of Chess”; (9) Forms of Epistles; (10) Form of Mar­riage Contract, dated to correspond with November 16, A.D. 1278; and (11) the well-known Farhang-i-Pahlawík, or “Old Pahlawí-Pázend Glossary,” published at Bombay and London by Hoshang and Haug in 1870.

Besides the Pahlawí literature, there also exists a modern Persian Zoroastrian literature, of which the most important Persian Zoroastrian literature. works are: the Zartushtnáma (“Book of Zoro­aster”) in verse, composed at Ray in Persia in the thirteenth century; the Sad-dar (“Hundred Chapters”), a sort of epitome of the Zoroastrian faith in three recensions (one prose, two verse), of which the first is the oldest; the 'Ulamá-i-Islám (“Doctors of Islám”); the Riwáyats, or collections of religious traditions; the Qiṣṣa­i-Sanján , or narrative of the Zoroastrian exodus to India after the Muhammadan conquest of Persia; and several Persian versions of Pahlawí texts. These are discussed by West in an Appendix to his article in the Grundriss (pp. 122-129). I know of no literary activity amongst the Persian Zoroastrians of Yazd and Kirmán in recent times, and though amongst themselves they continue to speak the peculiar Gabrí dialect already mentioned, their speech in mixed society scarcely Existence of verse in Sásánian times. differs from that of their Muhammadan fellow-citizens, and their letters are entirely copied from the ordinary models.

The question of the existence of poetry in Sásánian times has been already discussed at pp. 14-16 supra. If it ever existed, no remnants of it, so far as is known, have survived till the present day.

As has been already pointed out, the substance of a certain number of Pahlawí works which have perished is preserved to some extent by some Muhammadan writers, especially the earlier Arabic historians (that is, Arabic-writing, for most of them were Persians by race), such as Ṭabarí, Mas'údí, Dínawarí, and the like, who drew for the most part their materials from Arabic translations of Pahlawí books made by such men as Ibnu'l-Muqaffa', who were well acquainted with both languages. Of such translations a con­siderable number are enumerated in the Fihrist, but Ibnu'l-Muqaffa''s rendering of Kalíla and Dimna (brought from India in the time of Núshírwán “the Just,” together with the game of Chess, and translated for him into Pahlawí) is almost the only one which has survived in its entirety. Amongst the early Arabic writers, the best informed on Persian topics include, besides Ṭabarí († A.D. 923), al-Jáḥidh († A.D. 869), al-Kisrawí († A.D. 870), Ibn Qutayba († A.D. 889), al-Ya'qúbí († A.D. 900), Dínawarí († A.D. 895), Mas'údí (flourished in the middle of the tenth century), especially his Murúju' dh-dhahab and Kitábu't-tanbíh wa'l-ishráf, Ḥamza of Isfahán (A.D. 961), al-Bírúní (end of tenth and early eleventh century), al-Baládhurí († A.D. 892), the author of the Fihrist, Muḥammad b. Isḥáq (end of tenth century), and others. Amongst Persian works, Bal'amí's translation of Ṭabarí's history (A.D. 963), the anonymous Mujmalu't-Tawáríkh, and Firdawsí's great epic, the Sháhnáma, of which we shall speak immediately, are perhaps the most important from this point of view.