Greek and some Indian
authors. It was not in this field that the activity of the Persian
sacerdotal community in the Sasanian epoch was concentrated. And
latterly in the period of the development of analogous scientific work
dining the eastern Khalifate under the Abbasides the principal role
belonged just to the same class of scholars, Christian Syrians, with
just this difference that the activity of the latter continued among the
Musalman alumni of various nationalities whilst in Sasanian Persia their
operations were cut short by the unfortunate circumstances of the Arab
inroads. It is interesting that in the Abbaside period the translations
made from the Persian authors or authors belonging to Persia appertain
to a certain special _genre_ of works of a technical nature, books on
warfare[2], on divination, on horse-breaking[3], on the training of
other animals, and on birds[4] trained to hunting. These special
treatises were of no abstract scientific contents but referred to the
practical demands of life.

[Footnote 1: As regards philosophical traditions of Sasanian Persia in
the Musalman epoch principally we may refer to the influence of the
system of "_Zervanism_" on the adherents of the system of "_Dahar_", de
Boer 15 and 76.]

[Footnote 2: See my studies on the _Ain-Nameh_.]

[Footnote 3: See my book on _Materials from Arabic Sources for Culture
History of Sasanian Persia_.]

[Footnote 4: Fihrist 315.]

A different kind of importance attaches to histories devoted to
government and national life of the Sasanian period and to the epic and
literary tradition of Persia. Their value as history has been
acknowledged and appreciated by the progressive circles of the Musalman
community. Contemporary researches directing the greatest attention to
this aspect of Iranian movement appreciated its value and thanks to
their works, we are enabled to speak with some clearness regarding
books of exceeding importance. Traces of ancient Iranian epic tradition
are observable in some Greek writers, Ktesias, Herodotus, Elian, Charen
of Mytelene and Atheneus. But it has survived in a considerable quantity
in the Avesta.[1]

[Footnote 1: The principal works for investigating the Persian
historical and literary tradition are, besides the introduction to his
edition and translation of the Shah-Nameh by Mohl, Noeldeke's German
_History of the Persians, and Arabs at the time of the Sasanians_, his
introduction, and his Iranian nationa