The term Shikand-Gumânîk Vijâr (or according to Raham Asha: Shak ud gumânîgîh vizâr “Resolution of the doubts” is a Persic (“Pahlavi”) name applied to a Zoroastrian apologetic from the ninth century. The author of this treatise, Mardân-farrokh son of Ohrmazddâd, gives himself as a man in search of truth and eager to set his dualistic doctrine on a solid foundation while establishing its superiority over the Monotheistic Religions –- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -–, and also over Manichaeism, all of which he refutes in great detail.

The book is divided into two parts:

One of them is theoretical, in the form of replies to various questions put to him by a certain Mihrayyâr î Mahmadân, and expositions of theories of cosmogony and cosmology, all tending to establish the truth of dualism.

The other part, which is a polemic, deals with the four religions, and also with the dahriyya, the sophists and the atheists. Here is a confrontation not only of the established religions but of those currents of irreligious or even anti-religious thought against which all the others must do battle.

The original Persic (“Pahlavi”) text of Sh. G. V. has not yet been discovered. It is to the Pâzand-Sanskrit version of Neryosang that we must still look for the nearest approach to th original text of the work.

An edition of Pâzand and “Pahlavi” texts with the Sanskrit version was prepared by Dastûr Hôshangji (ed. H. J. jamasp-Asana & E. W. West, Bomaby, 1887). It has been translated into English by E.W. West (SBE, xxiv, Oxford, 1945).

The recent translation into Persian by Mrs. P. Shakiba is welcome.

Decisive Resolution of the Doubts Translation and Exposition of the Pâzand Text of Mardân Farrokh’s "Shikand-Gumânîk Vijâr
Parvin Shakiba (Shambayati),
Champaign, 2001
ISBN: 0-971 55 62-0-2