A Comparative Study on Scientific Explanation of Rain Production in Pahlavi Texts and the Classical Greek and Islamic Texts

Cloud formation and rain production have been always of the important concerns in the Iranian plateau and have always occupied the minds of its inhabitants. The expression of this topic in the Pahlavi writings of the Parthian and Sassanian periods prove this claim. In this writings, the description of rain is mixure of myth, science and spiritual affairs. This article aims to find out the ancient Iranian ideas on cloud formation and rain production within the pahlavi writings –the Parthian and especially Sasanian periods- and compare them with the Greek philosophers’ opninons such as Aristotale as well as scientific literature belonging to the Islamic period. This paper tries to shed a light on an attitude of the ancient Iranians about natural sciences and geography and specificall