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As we have already observed, and as we shall have occasion to speak further, this category of literary remains undoubtedly survived in the Musalman literature and partly in the literature of the Arabs. For the study of the Pahlavi literature this class of tracts has already evoked attention and has called forth several editions and translations.
It would not be rash, to assume that some copies of the work contained additional matter taken from other Pahlavi books like the Romance of Bahram. Bahram the high priest of the city of Shapur collected, according to Hamza, more than 20 manuscripts of the Khoday-Nameh and from their divergence made out another independent recension.
The Zend, or commentary, is written in the Pahlavi language. On the question whether or not the Achaemenian kings of Persia, Cyrus I., and so forth, were Zarathustrians, see "Century Bible," Ezra Nehemiah Esther. There are seventy-two chapters in the Yasnas, though they contain a good number of repetitions.
A third offshoot originating from a collateral branch of the second enjoyed princely power from 1237-1349. The Arabs had their governors in Tabaristan who in the first period minted coins with Sasanian impress and with Pahlavi legends; they were, however, from time to time expelled by the people.
Ibn Kallikan says, "It was Mukaffa who composed the book entitled Kalileh Wa-Dimneh. But some state that he is not the author of the work which they say was in Pahlavi, and he translated it into Arabic, and put it in an elegant style. But the discourse at the beginning of the work is by him." Ahmed Ibn Yusuf addressed to Al-Mamun a verse with a present of an embroidered robe on the day of Nauruz.
We notice that their interest goes beyond that of Pahlavi literature proper and they are important also for the history of the literature of Musalman nations. Moreover, they are of interest from a general point of view, for the study of Musalman culture.
These existed, in a more or less incomplete state, down to the ninth century of our era, to which century the Pahlavi work "Dindard" belongs. The Avesta which exists to-day may be divided thus: I. The strictly canonical parts, including the following, which will be more fully described in connection with the summaries. Yasnas, including the Gathas. 2. Vispereds. 3. Vendidads.
It was the masterly memoir by Sylvestre de Sacy, in which the Pahlavi inscriptions of the first Sassanides were deciphered for the first time and in a decisive manner. De Sacy, in his researches, had chiefly relied on the Pahlavi lexicon published by Anquetil, whose work vindicated itself thus better than by heaping up arguments by promoting discoveries.
How they individually set about their work, whether perhaps some of them tapped non-Persian tradition; also, how far one or other of them utilized the novels of which there were probably many in Pahlavi this we are no longer in a position to determine.
He saw that two causes had misled Anquetil: on the one hand, his teachers, the Parsi dasturs, either knew little themselves or taught him imperfectly, not only the Zend, but even the Pahlavi intended to explain the meaning of the Zend; so that the tradition on which his work rested, being incorrect in itself, corrupted it from the very beginning; on the other hand, as Sanscrit was unknown to him and comparative grammar did not as yet exist, he could not supply the defects of tradition by their aid.
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