Note 5 — H. KEVORKIAN COLLECTION

"Thus it is by no means correct to imply that the two or three centuries immediately following the Muhammadan conquest of Persia were a blank page in the intellectual life of its people. It is, on the contrary, a period of immense and unique interest, of fusion between the old and the new, of transformation of forms and transmigration of ideas, but in no wise of stagnation or death. Politically, it is true, Persia ceased for a while to enjoy a separate national existence, being merged in that great Muhammadan Empire which stretched from Gibraltar to the Jaxartes; but in the intellectual domain she soon began to assert the supremacy to which the ability and subtlety of her people entitled her. Even the forms of State organization were largely adapted from Persian models."—Al-Fakhri (ed. Ahlwardt, page 101), on the organization of the Diwans or Government offices.

"In the finance department not only was the Persian system adopted, but the Persian language and notation continued to be used till the time of al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf (about A.D. 700)."—Edward G. Browne, "Literary History of Persia", Vol. I, page 204.