PERSIANSseems to be a perfectly valid judgment, adequate account must be
taken of the survival of individuals belonging to the highest level of
the Sasanian hierarchy. Mas'iidi claims that descendants of the highest
aristocracy (Ar. abna' if-mufilk) and members of the traditional four
classes continued to live in the Sawad and preserved their genealo-
gies.^142 Otherwise, the Arabic tradition insists that the Sasanian royal
family was proscribed from any settlement in the Sawad, and all it
admits is the survival as captives of some of the women of the royal
family. This attitude seems to be tendentious, based on the need to
justify the confiscation of the crown lands and royal property in the
Sawad by asserting they had been abandoned by the flight of Yaz-
dagerd Ill.
Actually, some members of the royal family seem to have preserved
their landed interests, at least for a while, by coming to terms with
the Muslims. The best example is Bis!am, son of Narsi, who was called
dihqan of Burs at the time of the conquest. Immediately after Qadi-
siyya, he extended his hospitality to Khalid ibn 'Urfu!a, who was
pursuing the remnants of the Persian army. Bi~tam tied the floating
bridges together for Zuhra, who was engaged in a similar pursuit, and
informed Zuhra of the Persian force gathered at Babil. Afterwards, as
dihqan of Babil and Khutarniyya, his poll tax was annulled, he was
allowed to keep his lands subject to kharaj, and he was granted a
stipend of two thous~nd dirhams by 'Umar 1.^143 Firiiz, son of Yaz-
dagerd, turns up as dihqan of Nahr Malik after the conquest with a
stipend of two thousand dirhams granted by 'Umar, and also may
have been a member of the royal family, as may Riizbih, son of Bu-
zurjmihr, son of Sasan.144 Other members of the high aristocracy also
survived; the list of those granted two-thousand-dirham stipends by
'Umar included Hurmuzan and the son of Nakhirjan.^145
The Persian nobles-even members of the high aristocracy-also
managed to preserve their local influence and authority by acquiring
positions in the Nestorian Church organization and by putting their
lands under monastic ownership. Beginning in the catholicate of
IshO'yahbh III (647-658), who was himself a member of a family of
142 Mas'udi, Muruj, I, 327.
143 Baiadhuri, Futul}, pp. 259, 457-58; Tahari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2421; Ya'quhi, Ta'r'ikh,
n, 176.
144 Ya'quhi, Ta'rlkh, n, 176.
145 Baiadhuri, Futul}, pp. 457-58; Yai).ya ihn Adam, Khariij, p. 51; Ya'quhi, Ta'rikh,
n, 176.