D?nkard III language variation and the defence of socio-religious identity in the context of Early-Islamic Iran
The aim of the present paper is to illustrate as a case study, the linguistic and stylistic peculiarities characterizing the third book of the D?nkard, one of the most authoritative texts in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature (9th-10th CE). The analysis will consider these features as part of a coherent system, styled to serve the dialectic strategies pursued by the Zoroastrian high priests in response to the pressures their own community was facing in the early Islamic period.