Under the later Sassanian kings, the Avesta was transcribed in the later Pehlevi or Parsee script, in which form it has survived to the present day. Of this, however, but a portion remains. The Sassanian dynasty ended with the conquest of Persia by the Mohammedan Arabs in 641 A. D. In the fury of persecution which broke over all Iran at this time, Zoroastrianism as a national faith was crushed, and the sacred literature of Persia was again scattered abroad by the devastating influences of war and fanaticism. To the religion of Zoroaster that of Mohammed succeeded, the Avesta was replaced by the Koran, and the Arabian alphabet supplanted the Persian as a national script and has so remained to the present. The ancient national life of Persia was not crushed out at once, but continued a vigorous though ineffectual resistance for centuries. During these troublous times, probably about the ninth century A. D., a colony of Persians who held fast to their ancient faith, fled from their country, and after many years wanderings, finally established themselves on the western coast of India, from Bombay to Surat. They brought with them the remains of their sacred literature, to which other missing portions were added from time to time, as they could obtain them from their brethren in the faith who remained in Persia, chiefly at Kerman and Yezd. They adopted the language of the Hindus among whom they settled, but steadfastly maintained their religion and customs. It is from the descendants of these refugees—the Parsees of India—that the ancient sacred books of Persia have come into our hands. The Avesta as it now exists, consists of four[6] parts, the Yasna, the Visparad, the Vendidad and the Kordash, or Little Avesta. Each of these parts are remainders of the older collection and are of different dates. The Yasna, a collection of hymns and prayers for divine service, includes the “Gathas,” the most ancient and sacred portion of the Avesta. These are evidently what they claimed to be—the work of Zoroaster. The language in which they are composed is as old, if not more ancient than the Sanskrit of the oldest Vedas. The allusion to these hymns throughout the various parts of the Avesta, shows them to have been in existence long before all other portions of these collections were written. Again, to all to whom Zoroaster is a living personality, the internal evidences of these utterances point distinctly to him as their author. Claiming no higher distinction than a teacher and preacher among his people, there could have been no time in the history of the religion of which he was the founder, than during his own life and work in which they could have had their origin. These devout pleadings with the Divine for his people, that he and they might be led aright, does not savour of the higher spiritual dignities accorded to Zoroaster in later times.