Ethico-didactical treatises in the form of counsels, maxima or testaments, constitute a singular group of literary mementos the genesis of which in the Musalman literature maybe established only after an examination of similar books in the Persian writings of the Sasanian times. Examples of a like class of testaments, literary compilations under the title, for the most part, of pseudo-graphs going up to pre-Moslem period we have already noticed in the _Book of the counsels of Ardasher_ and the _Pand Nameh_ of Kisra Anushirvan. CHAPTER V The _Taj Nameh_ as mentioned in the Fihrist page 305, and page 118, and repeatedly referred to in the _Uyunal Akhbar_, Part I, of Ibn Kutayba 65 The Persian book with illustrations mentioned by Masudi in his _Kitab at Tambih_, page 106-7 and the illustrations in the scrolls in the castle of Shiz 68 _PAHLAVI BOOKS STUDIED BY ARAB AUTHORS_. We have indicated in the preceding chapter the translations of Ibn al Muqaffa from Persian books into Arabic. Besides those of an ethico-didactic contents, among them there were books of historical character. All these translations have not come down to us. Extracts of these renderings into Arabic, however, have been preserved in the original and sometimes in paraphrase. Unusually important was the translation of the book called the _Khuday Nameh,_ the value of which has long been appreciated by science. Questions of vital importance in connection with this history are its relation to the _Shah Nameh_ and the examination of its various translations in the Musalman period. The loss of this book, perhaps the most important monument of Middle Persian literature, is to be particularly deplored in that with it has perished the connecting link of the historical evolution of Iran, incorporating the religious and clerical legislature in an official redaction. Of capital importance also was another book called the Ain Nameh[1] or the Book of Institutes, a valuable source of the internal history of the Sasanian Empire, comprising a descriptive table of official dignitaries or the _Gah Nameh._[2] Judging by the clue given in the Fihrist (118,28) it would appear that the _Book of Taj_ also was a historical one since it has been explained that the book treated of the "Acts of Anushirwan." As a matter of fact, among the books written by the Persians on epic and historical subjects and indexed in the same Fihrist (305, 8-13) has been mentioned the _Book of Taj._[3]