“The Muslims were the army, and their wars were for the faith, not for the things of this world, and there were never lacking amongst them those who would expend a fair portion of their wealth in charitable uses and offerings, and who desired not in return for their faith and their support of their Prophet any recompense save The organisation of the díwáns. from God; nor did the Prophet or Abú Bakr impose on them any fixed contribution, but when they fought and took spoil, they took for themselves a share of the spoils fixed by the Law, and when any wealth flowed into Madína from any country it was brought to the Prophet's Mosque and divided according as he saw fit. Thus matters continued during the Caliphate of Abú Bakr; but in the year A.H. 15 (A.D. 636), during the Caliphate of 'Umar, he, seeing how conquest succeeded conquest, and how the treasures of the Persian Kings were passing into their possession, and how the loads of gold, silver, precious stones and sumptuous raiment continually followed one another, deemed it good to distribute them amongst the Muslims and to divide these riches between them, but knew not how he should do or in what manner effect this. Now there was in Madína a certain Persian marzubán, who, seeing 'Umar's bewilderment, said to him, ‘O Commander of the Faithful! Verily the Kings of Persia had an institution which they called the díwán, where was recorded all their income and expenditure, nothing being excepted therefrom; and there such as were entitled to pensions were arranged in grades so that no error might creep in.’ And 'Umar's attention was aroused, and he said, ‘Describe it to me.’ So the marzubán described it, and 'Umar understood, and instituted the díwáns…”
In the finance department not only was the Persian system
adopted, but the Persian language and notation continued to
be used till the time of al-Ḥajjáj b. Yúsuf (about A.D. 700),
when, as we learn from al-Baládhurí (pp. 300-301), Ṣáliḥ the
scribe, a son of one of the captives taken in Sístán, boasted to
Zádán, the son of Farrukh, another Persian, who held the
position of chief scribe and accountant in the Revenue Office
of Sawád (Chaldæa), that he could, if he pleased, keep the
accounts wholly in Arabic; which al-Ḥajjáj, to whom his
words were reported, ordered him to do. “May God cut off
thy stock from the world,” exclaimed Zádán's son Mardán-
Meanwhile, as has been already pointed out, Zoroastrianism,
though cast down from its position of a State religion, by no
means disappeared from Persia, and the bands of exiles who
fled before the Arab invasion first to the islands of the Persian
Gulf and then to India, where they founded the Pársí colonies
which still flourish in and about Bombay and Surat, were but a
minority of those who still preferred Zoroaster to Muḥammad
and the Avesta to the Qur'án. Pahlawí literature, as we have
seen, continued side by side with the new Arabic literature
produced by the Persian converts to Islám; the high priests of
the Magian faith were still persons of importance, in pretty
constant communication with the Government officials, and
still enjoying a large amount of influence amongst their
co-religionists, to whom was granted a considerable measure of
self-government;*
and the fire-temples, even when laws were
promulgated ordering their destruction, were in practice
seldom molested, while severe punishment was sometimes
inflicted by the Muhammadan authorities on persons whom
an indiscreet zeal led to injure or destroy them.*
Three
centuries after the Arab Conquest fire-temples still existed in
almost every Persian province, though at the present day,
according to the carefully compiled statistics of Houtum-
“In the face of such facts,” says Arnold (op. laud., pp. 180-181), “it is surely impossible to attribute the decay of Zoroastrianism to violent conversions made by the Muslim conquerors. The number of Persians who embraced Islám in the early days of the Arab rule was probably very large from the various reasons given above, but the late survival of their ancient faith and the occasional record of conversions in the course of successive centuries, render it probable that the acceptance of Islám was both peaceful and voluntary. About the close of the eighth century Sámán, a noble of Balkh, having received assistance from Asad ibn 'Abdu'lláh, the governor of Khurásán, renounced Zoroastrianism, embraced Islám, and named his son Asad after his protector: it is from this convert that the dynasty of the Sámánids (A.D. 874-999) took its name. About the beginning of the ninth century Karím ibn Shahriyár was the first King of the Qábúsiyya dynasty who became a Musalmán, and in A.D. 873 a large number of fire-worshippers were converted to Islám in Daylam through the influence of Náṣiru'l-Ḥaqq Abú Muḥammad. In the following century, about A.D. 912, Ḥasan b. 'Alí of the 'Alid dynasty on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, who is said to have been a man of learning and intelligence, and well acquainted with the religious opinions of different sects, invited the inhabitants of Ṭabaristán and Daylam, who were partly idolaters and partly Magians, to accept Islám; many of them responded to his call, while others persisted in their former state of unbelief. In the year A.H. 394 (A.D. 1003-4), a famous poet, Abu'l-Ḥasan Mihyár, a native of Daylam, who had been a fire-worshipper, was converted to Islám by a still more famous poet, the Sharíf ar-Riḍá, who was his master in the poetic art.* Scanty as these notices of conversions are, yet the very fact that such can be found up to three centuries and a half after the Muslim Conquest is clear testimony to the toleration the Persians enjoyed, and argues that their conversion to Islám was peaceful, and, to some extent at least, gradual.”
For a time, however, the intellectual as well as the political life of Persia and Arabia were so closely connected and even identified with each other that in the next chapters, dealing with the evolution of Islám and the origin of its principal sects and schools of thought under the Umayyad and 'Abbásid Caliphs, it will be necessary to speak of the two together, and to treat of some matters more closely connected with the latter than with the former.