W.T. H. JACKSON, in the "foreword" to the English translation of The Fihrist by Bayard Dodge correctly states: that the Fihrist "surely, was a work which fitted the purpose of this series, for it provided a link of a unique kind between several civilizations." Then he adds: "[i]n this tenth-century work is a compendium of the knowledge possessed by a learned Arab of Baghdad, knowledge in great part derived from earlier cultures, particularly Hellenic and Roman" when only 3% of the total book is dedicated to naming ancient Greek philosophers, mathematicians, and physicians and no mention is made of anything derived from Roman or Hellenic cultures. Dodge takes the name of the author of al-Fihrist, nadim (boon companion or court jester), literally as a courtier attached to the court of the Buyid Mu'izz al-Dowlah and no where questions the possibility of al-Nadim being an Iranian mawali. Dodge does not take into account or analyze the major events which were taking place inside the Iranian plateau during al-Nadim's time which may be significant for understanding which works were included in al-Fihrist such as: the rulership of the Samanids who sponsored original works of Arabic and Persian works and commissioned the translations of the Tafsir and History of al-Tabri into Persian, or the completion of the Twelver Sh'ii's first Hadith compendium of al-Kafi by Kolini, and Mu'izz al-Dowlah's reinstitution of the Sasanian title shahansha (king of kings) and Nowruz (the Iranian New Year) celebrations in his capital in Shiraz. This paper argues that al-Nadim should not be considered a typical Islamic scholar as traditional and orientalist scholarship has previously done. al-Nadim was a child of the post-Sasanian "multi religious era" and his invaluable book, al-Fihrist, reflects the transitional period from the Sasanian era to the early Islamic period. In this last regard, we find that over 30% of the subject topics he deals with are in regard to Iranian history, and the remainder refers to the books written by many Iranian scholars who were clients of Arab tribes. Though many of the works of al-Nadim lists are no longer extant, the paper examines the titles of the texts that were in his lifetime to delineate the possible interests of this compiler and his multi-cultural and religious milieu.