The article discusses the date of the Middle Persian text "Cities of Eranshahr" in the light of Sasanian primary sources and of the Khwaday-namag, a chronicle of Sasanian kings that has only survived in Arabic tradition. Accordying to the author, the Middle persian text contains important information that date back to the sasanian period.
Šahrestān has often been translated “provincial capital”, especially in works dealing with the history of Sasanian Iran. Through a painstaking analysis of Middle Persian occurrences of this word the author shows that it should be translated “city” or “fortified city”.
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.
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