144 erik seldeslachts
Arab conquests.^57 But even in Islam elements are present to which
Buddhism may have contributed more than is generally accepted, like
the madrassa system of education.^58 If Buddhist monuments have not
provided direct prototypes for early Islamic architecture in Central
Asia, then their impact was at least indirect through their in uence on
Zoroastrian architecture in sixth-century Sogdia which itself in uenced
Islamic building practice.^59 Only once in later times Buddhism was
reintroduced in Persia and as far west as the Caucasus, namely under
the Mongol Khans in the thirteenth century, leaving archaeological
traces of temples, monasteries, cave complexes and stpas, but by the
mid-fourteenth century it again disappeared.^60
As far as the pre-Muslim period is concerned, no certain archaeo-
logical traces of Buddhism have as yet been discovered beyond Iran,
in Iraq, Syria, the Caucasus, and further west.^61 Nonetheless, we are
confronted with the intriguing statement by al-Br n that not only
Khorsn and Persia, but also Irak, Mosul, and the country up to the
frontier of Syria were all Samaniyya before the imposition of Magism
(Zoroastrianism) as the religion of state of the Persian Empire, but that
this religion has now retreated to Afghanistan.^62 It is dif cult to take
this literally if “Buddhist” is meant by Samaniyya. A similar statement
elsewhere by the same author, that all people in the eastern part of the
world were Samans before the appearance of B dhsaf (the bodhisattva),^63
might lead us to suppose that al-Br n uses the term Samaniyya to
refer to any Eastern heathen religion other than Zoroastrianism, but
not to Buddhism. However, again giving the impression of talking about
Buddhists, al-Br n goes on to say in the second passage mentioned that
in the border region between Khorasan and India one can still see the
monuments (bahrs and farkhrs) of the people called Shamann by the
(^57) Grenet 2002, pp. 213–214; Zeymal 1999, pp. 415–416.
(^58) Duka 1904; Bulliet 1976, pp. 144–145.
(^59) See the discussion in Litvinskij 1981, pp. 63–64 and Mode 1994 versus
Puga enkova 1991, p. 219.
(^60) Mélikian-Chirvani 1989, p. 498.
(^61) We will not concern ourselves here with nds of ancient Buddha statues or
statuettes from Fars, Russia, Sweden, France, and elsewhere, that are occasionally
reported in (often popular) literature or in the media, since these are either isolated or
uncon rmed and tell us nothing about an eventual accompanying spread of Buddhist
ideas and cults (cf. Jacobson 1927, p. 205, n. 1).
(^62) Or Sumaniyya. al-Br n, India, Book 1; Sachau 1910, vol. 1, p. 21.
(^63) Al-Br n, The Chronology of Ancient Nations, chapter 8; Sachau 1879, p. 188.