Avesta of particular manuscripts. A pre-Sasanian history of the Avesta, if it had one, is in the realm of legend and myth. The oldest surviving versions of these tales are found in the ninth to 11th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition (i.e. in the so-called "Pahlavi books"). The legends run as follows: The twenty-one "nask"s ("books") of the Avesta were created by Ahura Mazda and brought by Zoroaster to his patron Vishtaspa ("Denkard" 4A, 3A). Supposedly, Vishtaspa ("Dk" 3A) or another Kayanian, Daray ("Dk" 4B), then had two copies made, one of which was stored in the treasury, and the other
The Good Book (book) like the influence of the Bible...no". Writing in First Things, R.J. Snell notes that Grayling's book, which draws its form and arrangement from religious authors, ignores the actual writings of religious authors: "A collection including Virgil but not Dante, Cicero but not Augustine, Aristotle but not Maimonides, Livy but not Boethius, Kant but not Kierkegaard, and Goethe but not Dostoyevsky is a truncated selection, especially when the standard for exclusion is some supposed taint by religion." Grayling discussed "The Good Book" with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, before a large audience on London's South Bank, and with Richard Holloway,