Muhammad in the Dasatir-i-Asmani

The Dasātīr-i-Asmani is a work of the Zoroastrian school of Ešrāqī (Illuminationists), founded by Āzar Kayvān (b. between 1529 and 1533; d. between 1609 and 1618).^[1] It contains fifteen sections which are said to have been revealed to fifteen successive prophets, and at the end of each section, with the exception of the last one, there is a prophecy about the next prophet.^[2]

Popular Islamic scholars like Dr. Zakir Naik have stated that Prophet Muhammad is among those individuals who have been prophesied about, saying "The sum and substance of the prophecy mentioned in Dasatir is, that when the Zoroastrian people will forsake their religion and will become dissolute, a man will rise in Arabia, whose followers will conquer Persian and subjugate the arrogant Persians ... This Prophecy relates to no other person but to Muhammad (pbuh)."^[3]

The Dasātīr is written in a fabricated language made of Persian, Hindi, Avestan, Sanskrit, and Arabic words, employing a motley of distorted grammatical conventions, and often makes use of Persian prefixes or suffixes.^[4] The accompanying Persian “translation” of the Dasātīr with commentary is ascribed to the sixteenth prophet, Sāsān V who lived at the time of Khosrau II (590-628 AD). However, he linguistic characteristics of the Persian used also indicates that it was written in the 16^th-17^th centuries.^[4]

As a result, most scholars, however, consider both to be almost certainly the work of its founder, Āzar Kayvān,^[4][5] and a "proven fabrication" from the 16^th-17^th centuries.^[6] Both were published in two volumes in Bombay in 1818-19 under the title The Desātir, or the Sacred Writings of the Ancient Persian Prophets, Together with the Commentary of the Fifth Sāsān