Persian hagiography This material formed the basis for the surviving hagiographical material of Zarathustra, which is found in Middle Persian or Pahlavi texts including the "Dēnkard" and the "Wizidagiha", and in New Persian texts including the "Zaratosht-nama" and the "Shahnameh". Using and developing the historiographical methods of the "muḥaddithūn" (scholars of the sayings and history of the Prophet), Persian scholars drew on oral tradition and their own observations to write about holy figures. However, many hagiographies also drew on earlier written sources, often adapting those sources to reflect the writers' own view of sainthood. For example, in the twelfth century CE, Muḥammad
Zoroaster eastern Iran, including Central Asia, remain tentative". Zoroaster is recorded as the son of Pourušaspa of the Spitaman or Spitamids (Avestan "spit" mean "brilliant" or "white"; some argue that Spitama was a remote progenitor) family, and Dugdōw, while his great-grandfather was Haēčataspa. All the names appear appropriate of the nomadic tradition, as his father's means "possessing gray horses" (with the word "aspa" meaning horse), while his mother's is "milkmaid". According to the tradition, he had four brothers, two older and two younger, whose names are given in much later Pahlavi work. His training for the priesthood probably started very early,