189; Yakubi
(ibid VII), 270, 271, 273, &c.

[Footnote 1: _See_ the enumeration of the noteworthy buildings of
ancient Persia as given in Makdisi (B.G.A. III), p. 399, and
Ibn-ul-Fakih (_ibid_ V), p. 267.]

The remains of the structures, monuments of art from the Sasanian times
and the ages preceding them attracted the attention of the Arabs and
they have left descriptions of the same in more or less detail.[1] From
the information of the same Musalman writers we possess accurate
accounts of the inhabitants of Persia and their religions. Thus, for
instance, Yakubi indicates that the inhabitants of Isfahan, Merv, and
Herat, consisted mainly of high-born Dehkans.[2] Makdisi notices a
considerable number of fire-worshippers in several provinces of Persia,
for instance, Irak and Jibal.[3]

[Footnote 1: Istakhri, p. 203, Ibn Hauqal, p, 266, 256, Makdisi pp. 396
and 445, Ibn Rusteh, p. 166.]

[Footnote 2: Yakubi, pp. 274, 279-280.]

[Footnote 3: Makdisi, pp. 126, 194.]

ISTAKHRI AND IBN HAUQAL[1]

_Relate that the inhabitants of several localities of Kerman during the
entire Umayyad period openly professed Mazdaism._

In a more detailed fashion, however, the Arab writers notice the Mazdian
dwellers of Fars, the heart of the Persian dominion. Makdisi says that
in Fars existed the customs of fire-worshippers but that the
fire-worshipping inhabitants of the capital of the province of Shiraz
had no distinguishing mark on their clothes; from which it follows that
in that age these people were in no way differentiated from the Musalman
subjects.[2] Istakhri[3] and Ibn Hauqal[4] relate that the bulk of the
inhabitants of Fars consisted of fire-worshippers and they were there in
larger number than anywhere else, Fars being the centre of sacerdotal
and cultural life of the empire in the days of Persian independence.
Very minute information is supplied us by these writers[5] regarding the
ancient castles and fire-temples scattered over the whole of Fars in
abundance. The latter is of capital importance since here was the
residence of those two classes of Persian society, noblemen and priests,
who were the staunchest conservators of the ancient national tradition.

[Footnote 1: Istakhri, p. 164; _Ibn_ Hauqal, p. 221.]

[Footnote 2: _See_ Makdisi, pp. 421, 429.]

[Footnote 3: P. 130.]

[Footnote 4: P. 207.]

[Footnote 5: Istakhri, pp. 116-119; also p. 100. Ibn Hauqal, 187-190;
also p. 181.]

It is undoubted that the po