APPENDIX III. Burzoe's Introduction 105
APPENDIX IV. The Trial of Afshin, a Disguised Zoroastrian General 135
APPENDIX V. Noeldeke's Introduction to Tabari 142
APPENDIX VI. Letter of Tansar to the King of Tabaristan 159
APPENDIX VII. Some Arab Authors and the Iranian Material
they preserve:—
The Uyunal Akhbar of Ibn Qotaiba 163
Jahiz: Kitab-al-Bayan wal Tabayyin 168
Hamza Ispahani 171
Tabari 174
Dinawari 177
Ibn al Athir 179
Masudi 182
Shahrastani 187
Ibn Hazm 192
Ibn Haukal 195
APPENDIX VIII.
Ibn Khallikan 199
Mustawfi 203
Muqadasi 204
Thaalibi 205
PREFACE
The facile notion is still prevalent even among Musalmans of learning that the past of Iran is beyond recall, that the period of its history preceding the extinction of the House of Sasan cannot be adequately investigated and that the still anterior dynasties which ruled vaster areas have left no traces in stone or parchment in sufficient quantity for a tolerable record reflecting the story of Iran from the Iranian's standpoint. This fallacy is particularly hugged by the Parsis among whom it was originally lent by fanaticism to indolent ignorance. It has been credited with uncritical alacrity, congenial to self-complacency, that the Arabs so utterly and ruthlessly annihilated the civilization of Iran in its mental and material aspects that no source whatever is left from which to wring reliable information about Zoroastrian Iran. The following limited pages are devoted to a disproof of this age-long error.