“Zinda'st nám-i-farrukh-i-Núshírwán bi-'adl,
Garchi basí guzasht ki Núshírwán na-mánd.”

“The blessed name of Núshírwán doth still for justice stand,
Though long hath passed since Núshírwán hath vanished from
the land.”

For the Christians, too, Núshírwán, as we learn from Dínawarí (p. 72), entertained the greatest contempt. When Núshírwán's opinion of the Christians. his son Anúsha-zádh, who had espoused the faith of his Christian mother, revolted against him, and his viceroy at Ctesiphon wrote to him for instruc­tions, he wrote in his reply as follows: “Let not the multitude of the people affright thee, for they have no enduring might. How, indeed, shall the Christians endure, when it is prescribed in their religion that if one of them be smitten on the left cheek, he shall offer the right also?”

To return now to the scope of this chapter. Being unable to do more than glance at certain points in the history of this Scope and plan of this chapter. period, I propose to speak especially of its beginning and its end; the first, which is largely mixed with legend and fable, in order that I may have an opportunity of comparing certain episodes therein as sung by Firdawsí in the Sháhnáma with the same episodes as narrated in the Pahlawí Kár-námak-i-Artakshatr-i-Pápakán; the last, as having an immediate connection with the Arab Con­quest which marks the inauguration of the modern, or Muham­madan period. Besides this, two religious movements of this epoch—those associated with the names of Manes (Mání) and Mazdak—deserve some notice, as early instances of that passion for philosophical speculation which is so remarkable a characteristic of the Persians, who have probably produced more great heresiarchs than any other nation in the world. Of these two men the first was born, according to his own state­ment, * during the reign of Ardawán (Artabanus) the last Parthian king, and was contemporary with the founder of the Sásánian dynasty; the second, as we have seen, was put to death by Núshírwán in A.D. 528 or 529, at which time the Sásánian power was at its height, though the first symptoms of its decline were not far distant. This chapter will therefore fall into four divisions—namely, (1) The Legend of Ardashír and the foundation of the Sásánian dynasty; (2) Manes and the Manichæan doctrine; (3) Núshírwán and Mazdak; (4) the last days of the House of Sásán.