ok, it's getting late at night, and I'm too tired to go look for my books, so I'm going to give a bit of an answer out of my head. you can correct me if I mess up [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
I am confused about the Istari/Maiar thing myself, although at the moment I would speculate that "Istari" is just the name of the Maiar that came to Middle-earth as the wizards (i.e. Gandalf, Saruman).
as for Saruman's fate and Gandalf "surviving" the balrog, I believe that I read in one of my books that after one of the Istari's mortal bodies was destroyed, they went back to wherever they came from (I don't remember from whence they came). it also said that Gandalf was sent back after his battle with the balrog; I suppose that Saruman wasn't sent back after his body was killed.
that's all I can speculate. my eyes are starting to blur over. it's time to turn off this stupid machine and go to bed...
|