province of migratory subjects, and although to Persia belongs often
only the rôle of the transmitter, nevertheless, collections of stories
of this class undoubtedly had their assigned place in the Sasanian epoch
and the dependence of the core of the _Thousand and One Nights_ on the
Persian stories collected in the _Hazar Afsan_[1] is indisputable. We
shall not, therefore, stop here further regarding facts which have been
decided more than once. We will only observe that in connection with the
Persian literary age of the Sasanians we have to indicate a series of
works of the character of epic tales arisen from the ancient historical
period of the western boundary of Persia and representing "stories of
the Babylonian kingdom" which have been enumerated among the books of
this class and also among Persian books,--a circumstance which proves
that these tales originated in Sasanian literature. Finally, just as in
historical and especially in narrative literature, Persian tradition
survived to the Musalman times so also it continued to live in the
writings of the ethico-didactical category. The importance of the
Pahlavi translation of the book of _Kalileh and Dimneh_ for the
migration of this collection of tales to the West is well-known. The
significance of Pahlavi translations is not less evident with regard to
the _Hazar Afsan_ in connection with the _Thousand and One Nights_.
Still Persian tradition in the field of ethico-didactic literature has
been studied and appreciated much less than in the historical and story
literature. We have now to examine a few questions in connection with
the Persian tradition regarding the ethico-didactic literature of the
early Musalman epoch. We shall devote the following chapter to its
study.

[Footnote 1: Fihrist 304, 10-305, 2. Fihrist 306, 6; Fihrist 305, 7.]