and I ignore everything else it contains, just as I do with the book Kalīla wa Dimna.

Ibn al-Zayyāt then turned to the mobadh and asked, “What do you say?”

The mobadh replied, “He eats animals that have been strangled and forces me to eat them too, claiming, ‘Their meat is softer.’ He also said to me, ‘I have gone along with these people in everything I loathe: I even ate olive oil, rode a camel, and wore sandals. The only things I have never done are shave my pubic hair and undergo circumcision.’” (The mobadh was a Zoroastrian who embraced Islam later.)

Afshīn said, “Tell me about this speaker— is he trustworthy in his own religion?”

They answered, “No.”

“So how can you believe him?” Afshīn retorted.

Marzubān rose and asked, “Afshīn, how do the people of your dominion address their letters to you?”

He replied, “Exactly as they wrote to my forefathers: ‘To the god, from his servant.’”

Ibn Abī Dāwūd exclaimed, “What have you left for Pharaoh after that?”

Afshīn answered, “I feared they would be thrown into disorder if I changed their customary formula.”

Iṣḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Muṣʿabī said, “How can we accept any oath from you when you claim what Pharaoh claimed?”

Afshīn responded, “Iṣḥāq, this is merely a text that ʿUjayf once read to ʿAlī ibn Hishām, and you have read it to me—so consider from whom you yourself received it.”

Māzyār was then brought forward.

They asked him, “Do you know him?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Did you exchange letters with him?”

“No.”

They pressed further, “Did he write to you?”

Māzyār answered, “His brother wrote to me on his behalf, saying: ‘No one has been supporting this white religion except me, you, and Bābak. As for Bābak, his foolishness got him killed. If you rebel, the Caliph will have no one who dares fight you but me, and I have with me the cavalry, the men of valor, and the warriors. Should I be dispatched against you, none will remain to oppose us save the Arabs, the Maghribīs, and the Turks. The Arab is like a dog—I toss him a crust and then smash his head with a mace. These wolves—meaning the Maghribīs—are but a single mouthful. As for the Turk, after an hour his arrows are spent, the cavalry sweeps over him in one charge, and the religion will return to what it once was.’”