for its firm adherence to the national religion.[1] On his accession Ardeshír undertook the restoration of the Avesta, a great part of which had been neglected or altogether lost, and under the supervision of the Magi he caused a purification or reformation of the faith of Zarathushtra to be begun.[2] This work was continued by his successors, but, as no canon of scripture had been formed, there were many conflicting sects, and not until the reign of Sapor II[3] (c. 330) was the text of the sacred book fixed beyond dispute. Then Adarbâd, a holy man, produced his recension of the Avesta among the assembled Magi, and offered to submit himself to the ordeal of fire in proof of its strict orthodoxy. Molten brass was poured upon his breast, he passed the test unscathed, and his reading of the tenets of Mazdeism was never afterwards contested.[4]*
- ↑ See the letter of Tansar to the king of Tabaristân (Ilyrcania); Journal asiatique, 1894, i (text and French transl.). This, according to Darmsteter, is the earliest and most authentic document of Zoroastrianism. The best MS. is in the East India House. From it we learn that under the Parthians the unity of Iran was gradually dissolved into a number of principalities, in which each king claimed a practical independence and set up a fire-altar of his own. Ardeshír extinguished all these subordinate fire-altars and made himself supreme in his capital of Istakhr. The letter has been largely interpolated at a later date, especially by the long apologue of the King of the Apes. Partly against Darmsteter see Mills' Zoroastrianism, 1905, etc.
- ↑ He treated the traditions of the old religion pretty freely and abolished whatever did not accord with his scheme of restoring the empire of the Persians; ibid.
- ↑ Properly Shahpûr, meaning "king's son."
- ↑ See Darmsteter, op. cit., p. xlvii. The story of Arda Viraf's visit to heaven and hell (part of the lost Spend Nask) under the influence of a narcotic in the presence of a great conventicle of the Magi, in search of spiritual guidance for the restoration of Mazdeism, seems to be a mere legend to be referred to the sixth century rather than to the times and
