PEOPLEmations.^137 This festival was still honored by Persians as a time for
the exchange of gifts. Mihrijan fell on the sixteenth day of the month
of Mihr, corresponding to October 26. It was supposed to mark the
beginning of cold weather and was also an occasion for presenting
gifts to the monarch.138 The practice of changing carpets, utensils, and
most clothing on that date was continued in Iraq after the conquest,
as was the requirement of offering gifts to the ruler,139 The midwinter
festival of the Kawsaj, on the first day of Adhurmah, was also cele-
brated by Persians in Islamic Iraq. This festival lasted several days and
involved eating walnuts, garlic, fattened meat, and drinking beverages
regarded as appropriate for combatting the cold. During the festival,
a person called the Kawsaj traditionally would ride through the streets
mounted on a mule. Cold water would be poured on him, and he
would call out in Persian, "Garma! garma! (hot! hot!)." This practice
was part of the public rejoicing, probably associated with the return
of the sun after the winter solstice.^140
In many ways the survival of such customs amounted to a post-
Sasanian cultural afterglow. There was a noticeable tendency for the
Persians of early Islamic Iraq to cling to old ways of doing things
while the situation was changing around them. They even attempted
to impose their outlook and practices on the new set of circumstances.
In fact, whether they suffered physical dislocation or not, Persians
found themselves faced with significant changes in their social status
and with cultural erosion, due mainly to the loss of political power.
To the extent that Iranian cultural traditions were identified with
Magianism, the conquest had the effect of accelerating the defection
of Magians from their religion (a trend already underway in the late
Sasanian period) because it had been replaced as the religion of the
ruling class by Islam.
The conquest also altered the nature of the Persian social structure
in Iraq. Although enough representatives of the landed aristocracy
survived to be able to preserve the main outlines of their graded, class
system, according to L0kkegaard^141 the upper levels of this hierarchic
society disappeared with the conquest and those members of the high
aristocracy who survived tended to be demoted in rank. Although this
137 Tiij, p. 146.
13R Ya'qiibI, Ta'r"ikh, I, 199.
139 Mas'iidi, Muruj, II, 337-38; Ya'qL~i, Ta'r"ikh, II, 259.
140 Mas'iidi, Muruj, II, 343.
141 L0kkegaard, Islamic Taxation, p. 168.