d above the information of the Arab geographers of the
tenth century regarding the abundance of fire-temples and castles in
Fars. They relate that there was no village or hamlet of this province
in which there was no fire-temple. Residence was taken up in strong
castles by the native aristocrats whose ideals were rooted in the
Sasanian epoch. Just in these geographers, Istakhri and Ibn Hauqal, is
to be found information of unusual importance, so far as we can judge,
regarding the conservation of the Parsi tradition in Fars These authors
have been up to now not only not appreciated but their significance for
our question has not yet been adequately recognised.

Istakhri and Ibn Hauqal enumerating the castles of Fars declare as
follows regarding the castle of Shiz:[1]

"The castle of Shiz is situated in the district of Arrajana. There live
fire-worshippers[2] who know Persia and her past. Here they study. This
castle is very strong."

[Footnote 1: Istakhri, p. 118, 2-4; Ibn Hauqal, p, 180, 1-2.]

[Footnote 2: In the text occurs the Persian word _badgozar_, that is to
say, the rhapsodists, the relators of the national traditions; on this
word see B.G.A. III, pp. 182-83, and Vuller's _Lexicon Persico-Latinum_
S.V. For a parallel to the archives of the Achamenide empire _see_ F.
Justi, _Ein Tag aus den Leben des konigs Darius._]

Further we read the following in Istakhri (page 150, 14-17):--

"In the district of Sabur on the mountain there are likenesses of all
the noteworthy Persian kings and grandees, of illustrious preservers of
fire, high _mobeds_ and others. Their portraits, their acts and
narratives about them are successively recorded in volumes. With
particular care are preserved these volumes by the people living in a
locality in the district of Arrajan called the castle of Shiz."

From this information we learn that in one of the castles of Fars down
to the tenth century there were preserved manuscripts written probably
in the Pahlavi language containing narratives from Persian history and
illustrated with, portraits after the style of the Sasanian reliefs to
be found in the rocks in the district of Sabur.[1] This strong mountain
fastness was probably little accessible to the Arabs and afforded an
asylum to the _mobeds, dehkans_ and others interested in the past of
their country.

[Footnote 1: That is after the style of the Sasanian bass-reliefs which
were preserved in his time on the rocks in the vicinity