1. Introduction

The earliest Orientalist who suggested the direct influence of Zoroastrianism on Islam was Goldziher.^[1] His work gained so much popularity that it was translated into English^[2] and became the basis on which further arguments concerning the Zoroastrian influences on Islam were developed. One such alleged influence of Zoroastrianism on Islam was the ascent of the Prophet to the heavens as mentioned briefly in the Qur'an and discussed in detail in the hadith literature. It has been claimed that this event as well as the details in it had been borrowed from the well-known Iranian "Divina Commedia" called Arda Wiraz Namag.^[3]

As expected, the  missionaries were not far behind and they jumped on this bandwagon pretty early. Tisdall made a similar argument that Arda Wiraz Namag was indeed the source of the event of ascension of the Prophet to the heavens and his witnessing of denizens of heaven and hell. The Chinwad bridge mentioned in Arda Wiraz Namag was compared with the bridge over the Hell as mentioned in the hadith literature. Tisdall even made a claim that the book Arda Wiraz Namag was composed some 400 years before the hijra.^[4] Instead of embarking upon a critical scholarship, Ibn Warraq satisfied himself by lifting and expanding the arguments of Tisdall. Like Tisdall, he claimed that

This ascent to heaven (or Miraj in Arabic) can be compared to the account in the Pahlavi text called Arta (or Artay) Viraf written several hundred years before the Muslim era.^[5]

Again quoting Tisdall, Steven Masood also says that:

... the ascent of Muhammad to heaven and the passing visit to hell and paradise may be found in Zoroastrian tales dating some four hundred years before the time of Muhammad.^[6]

As expected, the claim that Arda Wiraz Namag was written "several hundred years before the Muslim era" remained unsubstantiated either by Ibn Warraq or by Masood. One can also add `Abdallah `Abd al-Fadi,^[7] Geisler and Abdul Saleeb^[8] into the category of Tisdall's faithful followers. Anis Shorrosh, on the other hand, belongs to a class of his own. After mentioning Prophet's night journey, he talks about the "original" source and says:

The original Hindu source is Arta Viraf Namak.^[9]

His claim of Arda Wiraz Namag being a "Hindu source" certainly shows "originality". However, such "originality" stops short of any proper substantiation. Hence to refute these unsubstantiated arguments it would be sufficient to show that Arda Wiraz Namag was redacted after the advent of Islam.

2. Dating Arda Wiraz Namag

Before making a claim of borrowing, it would be a good idea to see the textual stability and dating of the sources. Ibn Warraq accepted Tisdall's dating without even undertaking investigation into the nature of the textual source. It is well-known that the Zoroastrian sources like the Rabbanic literature underwent many redactions and that they were finally redacted a few hundred years after the advent of Islam.

There are two historical persons mentioned in Arda Wiraz Namag: Âdurb