rahim son of Masab and Muhammad bin Abdal Maliq al
Zayyad. They then brought Afshin who was yet not in rigorous
imprisonment, and there were present people who were prepared to cause
Afshin to shed tears. There was nobody in the house belonging to any
high position except the sons of Mansur, for, the people had left. Those
present were Muhammad bin Abdal Maliq al Zayyad and there were Mazyar,
the ruler of Tabaristan, the Mobed, and the Marzban son of Urkesh, one
of the chieftains of Sughd, and two people from among the Sughdians.
Then Muhammad Ibn Abdal Maliq called the two people whose clothes were
torn and asked them how they were. They then uncovered their backs which
were torn of the flesh. Muhammad turning to Afshin asked "Do you know
these?" "Yes, this man is the Mauzzin and this, one is the Imam who made
a mosque at Ashrushana, and I struck each of them a thousand lashes, and
that was because there was a covenant between myself and the kings of
Sughd including a clause to the effect that I should leave each
community to its own religion. But these two people attacked a shrine
which had images in it, a shrine which was at Ashrushna, and they took
out the images and turned the shrine into a mosque. I therefore struck
them one thousand lashes for this transgression of theirs."

Then Muhammad asked Afshin, "What is the book which you have got which
you have adorned with gold and gems and brocade? Its contents are
impious with reference to God?" Afshin replied, "This is a book which I
have inherited from my father and it contains the manners of the
Persians, and as regards the impiety to which you refer I take advantage
of the book in so far as the manners are concerned and I leave all the
rest. And I found it bejewelled and as there was no occasion for me to
take off the gems I left it as it was just as you have left with
yourself the book _Kalileh and Dimneh_ and the _Book of Mazdak_ in your
house. For I don't think the book would make me lose my Islam."

Then came forward the Mobed and referring to Afshin said, "This man is
used to eating animals that have been strangled and he suggested the
eating of it to me alleging that the flesh was more fresh than the flesh
of slaughtered animals. And he used to kill a black goat every Wednesday
and tearing it up with his sword he would pass through the two halves,
and he would then eat the flesh. And one day he told me, 'I have entered
this community [Islam] with reference t