MAGIANSjudge who was in charge of religious matters-was the head of the
hirbadhs, who were responsible for religious matters, judgment, and
carrying out regulations throughout the empire.^3? Hirbadhs are rep-
resented as the most important priests under Hurmizd IV (579-90),38
and Khusraw Parviz (590-628) is said to have built fire temples in
which twelve thousand hirbadhs murmured.^39 During the conquest,
Muslims found hirbadhs in charge of fire temples and engaged in local
administration and defense,4o and the eighth-century Frahang-i Pahla-
vik explains hirbadh as "master of the fire. "41 Arabic tradition de-
scribes the hirbadh as "custodian of the fire,"42 "servant of the fire,"43
and "head of the fire temple."44 Although Chaumont argues that the
reputation of the hirbadh as religious judge and fire-priest was the
result of confusion on the part of Muslims,45 it might just as well
reflect a temporary ascendency of the hirbadhs in the late Sasanian
and early Islamic periods.
This expansion of the authority of hirbadhs underscores the im-
portance of the liturgy in the late Sasanian cult. Later Zoroastrian
tradition records that the sacred texts were organized into twenty-one
divisions (M.P. nasks) and written down under Khusraw Aniishirvan,
who sent sealed copies to the Magians in each of the four divisions
of the empire, commanding them to study this A vesta and its com-
mentary (Zand).46 Although Boyce regards this as a canonization of
the Avesta,4? it is probably inappropriate to think of it in terms of a
separate sacred book of scriptures or an authoritative closed canon.
37 Mas'iidi, Muruj, I, 287. In the same vein, Tha'alibi (Ghurar, p. 485) says that
Ardashir I established the mobadhs and hirbadhs to uphold regulations and to decide
what was permitted and what was forbidden.
38 Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 990-91. Hirbadhs slandered the Christians to Hurmizd IV in
an unsuccessful attempt to provoke their persecution.
39 Ibid., I, 1041-42. There is also a reference to a chief of the murmurers (Ar. ra'is
al-muzamzimtn) under Khusraw Parviz (ibid., I, 1060). Formulations such as herpat
xwatay and hirbadhan hirbadh seem to belong to the late Sasanian period; see Chau·
mont, "Herbad," pp. 177-79 and R. Frye, Sasanian Remains from Qasr-i Abu Nasr
(Cambridge, Mass., 1973), p. 50.
40 Baladhuri, FutulJ, p. 388; Tabari, Ta'rikh, Il, 2896.
41 Chaumont, "Herbad," p. 168.
42 Ya'qiibi, Ta'rtkh, I, 202.
43 Khwarazmi, Mafatib al-'ulum (Leiden, 1895), p. 116.
44 Mas'iidi, Tanbih, p. 37.
4S Chaumont, "Herbad," pp. 166-67.
46 Bailey, Zoroastrian Problems, pp. 169-73; Zaehner, Zurvan, p. 8.
47 M. Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism, vo!. I, Handbuch der Orientalistik, part
1, vo!. 8, sec. 1, book 2A (LeidenlCologne, 1975), p. 20.