d conjecturally as _Rushna nibik_.[2] Such a name of a book we
know to exist in Middle Persian literature.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Kitab Adab Jawanshir_].

[Footnote 2: As regards the mutilation of Persian proper names in the
Fihrist, such comparatively wellknown books as _Khuday_ Nameh appear in
some of the manuscripts of the Fihrist as Baktiyar Nameh instead of
_bakhuday Nameh_; see Rosen's essay on the Translations of the Khuday
Nameh, 177.]

[Footnote 3: West; Sacred Books of the East Vol. V. page 241, note 1,
and Sacred Books of the East Vol. III, 169. [The first authority is not
quite clear to me. The second authority is evident: "writing which the
glorified Roshna, son of Atur-frobag, prepared--for which he appointed
the name of the _Roshan Nipik_." Tr.] _Re_ the name of Rushen see Justi
_Namenbuch_ 262 under the word Rozanis.]

* * * * *

Books of this title in Pahlavi literature related to a variety of
religious problems and treated of ethicodidactic themes. The same title,
further, we find in the Middle Persian literature. This is the title of
the wellknown book of Nasir-i-Khusrao, namely, _Rushnai Nameh_, a
considerable portion of which manifests Shia and Sufistic influences and
which by its nature must have been connected with ethico-didactic
literature.[1] It is quite possible that Ar Rayhani interested himself
in Persian of ethics and morality literature and in Persian _Adab_ and
gave his book the name of the 'Book Light' which treated of questions of
this nature. This book formed, as no doubt its author did, the uniting
link between the didactic Parsi clerical writings and the ethical
literature of Islam.

[Footnote 1: GIPh Vol. II, 280.]

Now reading as Rushana Nibik the title of the book of Ar Rayhani
occurring in the Fihrist, we establish a historical fact in literature.
Not only redactions of Persian historical books like _Khuday Nameh_ and
the _Ain Nameh_, not only diverse monuments of Persian ethico-didactic
literature but also books with Pahlavi titles appear in the index of the
books of the flourishing period of Arabic literature in Fihrist. This is
a phenomenon of outstanding importance for the appreciation of the
significance of Persian literary tradition in the first centuries of
Islam.

APPENDIX I

_INDEPENDENT ZOROASTRIAN PRINCES OF TABARISTAN._

In the mountains to the south of the Caspian Sea the Persians defended
themselves longer than in the r