ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a short guide to early Arabic sources (seventh through eleventh centuries) for the study of Zoroastrianism and, through them, examines the Muslim perception of Zoroastrians and the Zoroastrian religion. These sources show a range of opinions and attitudes towards Zoroastrians and represent many different genres of Arabic literature as they developed in the first centuries of Islam. In some cases, Arabic authors knew Zoroastrians and even their chief priests, who appear to have been active participants in Islamic society and intellectual circles. Arabic sources suggest the role that Zoroastrian priests played in shaping Muslim perceptions of Zoroastrianism as they promoted their own authority as leaders of the Zoroastrian community. Zoroastrians were at times persecuted and their religion refuted, but they were also incorporated into Islamic society, history, and law through a process which left its own mark on the Zoroastrian religion. Thus, Arabic sources are crucial for understanding what happened to Zoroastrianism after the Sasanian period.
