Persian literature : ancient and modern /

Front matter

Z(o

PRINCETON, n. j.

^ ~Ri Tchie Srni'+li ,TD D

Chapter II. The Cuneiform Inscriptions

EARLY LITERATURE — HISTORIC TABLETS — THE INSCRIPTIONS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR — THE FALL OF BABYLON — CYRUS, THE ACH.EME- NIAN — BEHISTUN INSCRIPTIONS — DARIUS AT PERSEPOLIS — INSCRIPTIONS OF XERXES — iii

IV

Table Of Contents

ARTAXERXES — A LATER PERSIAN TABLET —

RESUME 30

Chapter III. The Poetry And Mythology Of The Tablets

PRIMITIVE MYTHOLOGY — ANU — SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS — ACCADIAN POEM — ASSUR — HEA — NIN-CI-GA L — SIN, THE MOON GOD — HEA- BANI — NERGAL — MERODACH — NEBO — NINIP — CHEMOSH — INCANTATIONS TO FIRE AND WATER — IM — BAAL— TAMMUZ — ISHTAR — ISH- TAR OF ARBELA — ISHTAR OF ERECH —

LEGEND OF ISHTAR AND IZDLBAR — ISHTAR,

QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY — THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR 53

Chapter IV. Persian Mythology

THE COMMON SOURCE OF MYTHOLOGY — MYTHICAL MOUNTAINS — RIVERS — MYTHICAL BIRDS — AHURA MAZDA — ATAR — THE STORM GOD — YIMA — THE CHINVAT BRIDGE — MITHRA — RESUME 80

Division II. — Period of the Zend-Avesta.

Chapter V. The Zend-avesta

DERIVATION AND LANGUAGE — DIVISIONS — AGE OF THE ZEND-AVESTA — MANUSCRIPTS — ZAR-

TABLE OF CONTEXTS,

V

ATHUSTRA — THE EARLY PARSlS — THE MOD- ERN PARSlS 109

Chapter VI. The Teachings Op The Zend-avesta

THE OATIIAS — THE WAIL OF THE KINE — THE LAST GATHA — THE MARRIAGE SONG — THE YASNA — COMMENTARY ON THE FORMULAS —

THE YASNA HAPTANG-H AITI — THE SRAOSHA

YAST — THE YASNA CONCLUDING . . . 127

Chapter VII. Teachings Of The Zend-avesta, Concluded

THE VENDlDAD — FARGARD II — THE VARA OF YIMA — THE LAWS OF PURIFICATION — DIS- POSITION OF THE DEAD — PUNISHMENTS —

THE PLACE OF REWARD — THE VISPARAD — TEACHING OF THE MODERN PARSlS . . 14G

Division III. — The Time of the Mohammedan Conquest and the Koran.

Chapter VIII. The Koran

THE SUCCESSOR OF THE ZEND-AVESTA — AUTHOR OF THE KORAN — FIRST REVELATIONS — THE HIGRAH — CONTINUED WARFARE — DEATH OF MOHAMMED — RECENSION OF THE TEXT — TEACHING OF THE KORAN — HEAVEN —

VI

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

HELL — PREDESTINATION — POLYGAMY — LIT- ERARY STYLE OF THE KORAN . . 165

Division IV. — The Period Succeeding the Mohammedan Conquest.

Chapter IX

the anwar-i-suhali.

HISTORY OF THE WORK — PREFACE — THE BEES AND THEIR HABITS — THE TWO PIGEONS —

THE BLIND MAN AND HIS WHIP — AMICABLE INSTRUCTION — THE PIGEONS AND THE RAT — THE ANTELOPE AND THE CROW — THE ELEPHANT AND THE JACKAL — GEMS FROM THE HITOPADESA 189

Chapter X. Persian Poetry

SEVEN ERAS — THE FIRST PERIOD — ITHE HOMER

of Iran — the shah namah — history of

THE PERSIAN EPIC — FIRDUSl — INVECTIVE — MUTESIIIM — THE SHAIl’S REPENTANCE —

DEATH OF FIRDUSl — THE POEM . . . 214

Chapter XI. Story Of Tiie Shah Namah

SAM SUWAR — THE SImORGH’S NEST — TnE FATHER’S DREAM — RUDABEH — THE MAR- RIAGE— RUSTEM — TIIE TURANIAN INVASION — THE WHITE DEMON

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Vll

Chapter XII. The Heft-khan, Or Seven Labors Of Rustem

A LION SLAIN BY RAKCSH — ESCAPE FROM THE DESERT — TIIE DRAGON SLAIN — THE EN- CHANTRESS— CAPTURE OF AULAD — VICTORY OVER DEMONS — SEVENTH LABOR, THE WHITE DEMON SLAIN — THE MARRIAGE OF RUSTEM — SOHRAB 252

Chapter XIII. Isfendiyar

THE HEFT-KHAN OF ISFENDIYAR — THE BRAZEN FORTRESS — THE CONFLICT WITH RUSTEM —

THE FALL OF THE WARRIORS . . . 272

Chapter XIV. Second Period

ANWARI — NIZAMI — LAILl AND MAJNUN — A FRIEND — THE WEDDING — DELIVERANCE —

THE MEETING IN THE DESERT — DEATH OF

THE LOVERS— VISION OF ZYD . . . 284

Chapter XV. Third Period

GENGHIS KHAN — JALAL-UDDIN RUMI — SA’DI —

WORKS OF SA’DI — THE BUSTAN — THE PEARL — KINDNESS TO THE UNWORTHY — SILENCE,

THE SAFETY OF IGNORANCE — DARIUS AND HIS HORSE-KEEPER — STORIES FROM THE vm

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

GULISTAN — THE WISE WRESTLER — DANGERS OF PROSPERITY — BORES .... 309

Chapter XVI. Later Periods

THE FOURTH PERIOD — LITERARY KINGS — HAFIZ PIR-I-SEBZ — SHIRAZ — THE FEAST OF SPRING — MY BIRD — FIFTH PERIOD — JAMI — THE WORKS OF JAMI — RECEPTION — THE SIXTH PERIOD — THE SEVENTH PERIOD . . 321

Chapter XX. Meher And Mushteri— Continued

THE CAPTIVES — ARREST AND TRIAL — ROYAL

FAVOR — THE SENTENCE .... 383

CHAPTER XXL

MEHER AND MUSIITERI— CONCLUDED.

THE WEDDING — A COUNCIL — ROYAL CAVAL- CADE— THE MESSENGER — RECEPTION . . 392

Conclusion

SUMMARY — PRIESTLY RULE — RUSSIAN OPPRES-

SION

Preface

n THERE is a growing interest in the literatures of the Orient, but the difficulties in this field of investigation have been so great that few students have taken time to recover the gems from the worthless matter surrounding them. The author of the present volume, however, has chosen to devote years of persistent effort to the work of collecting and condensing the historic facts pertaining to this subject, and giving them to the public, together with the finest thoughts to be found upon the pages of these early manuscripts.

No labor has been spared to attain accuracy of statement, no difficulties have been ignored in these years of research, and the results, so far as completed, are now before the reader in two volumes : the one recently published on Hindu Literature, aud the present work on Persian Literature.

Although this book was partially written long before the publication of its predecessor, still it might never have been completed, but for the kindly reception which a generous public gave to the preceding volume.

Cordial thanks are due to the American press, which not only gave to “ Hindu Literature” hundreds

xi

XII

PREFACE.

of favorable notices, but in many instances devoted whole columns to able reviews of the work.

It is also a rare pleasure to acknowledge the courtesies of the British press, and especially the great kindness of leading European scholars, who have sent words of warm approval and congratulation to the author.

In the present volume the subject has been simplified as far as possible, by arranging the work in four chronological divisions ; the epoch of Persian poetry being again divided into seven distinct periods, corresponding to the times of the leading poets, who have been called “The Persian Pleiades.”

Not only does their literature present seven leading poets, but this number appears to have a peculiar charm for the Persian literati, and hence we find in this field of Eastern fable, the “Seven Evil Spirits” of Ann, the “Seven Labors of Rustem,” the “Seven Great Feats of Isfendiyar,” “ The Seven Fair Faces ” of Nizami, the “Seven Thrones” of Jami, and various other combinations of the same number.

In this as well as previous works, the author wishes to acknowledge the great value of the Chicago Public Library, where a wealth of Oriental lore is ever at the service of the student ; here are valuable works which bear on the history and literature of the Sanskrit, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Persian, Arabic and other Asiatic tongues, besides many volumes in the modern languages.

Among the literati of Europe the author is in-

PREFACE.

Mil debted to such men as Prof. A. II. Sayce, Sir M. Monier- Williams, W. St. Chad Boscawen, Prof. F. Max Muller, Dr. llaug. Dr. L. II. Mills, and Ernest A. Budge; also Profs. Darmesteter, Eastwick, Atkinson, Davie and Owsley, the credits being given where the quotations are made.

Grateful acknowledgement is especially made to Prof. A. II. Sayce, of the Oxford University; to Sir M. Monier- Williams, and to Mr. Tlieo. G. Pinches, of the British Museum, each of these distinguished scholars having examined portions of the manuscript and affixed their valuable notes thereunto.

Cordial thanks are also due to Dr. R. Rost, of the India Office in London, who laid before the artist all the illuminated Persian manuscripts in that vast collection of Eastern lore, and to the honorable Council of the India Office, who placed these rare literary treasures at the author’s service without the customary precaution of taking a bond therefor. The frontispiece is a section of the illuminated title-page of a Persian manuscript of priceless value. This is a copy of the Shah Namah, which is a large folio, the pages being beautifully written in four columns. Each page is illuminated with delicate paintings, which are a triumph of art. This old manuscript, which is now invaluable, was purchased for the India House Collection at the celebrated Hastings sale about twenty-five years since. Our illustration gives only a portion of the page, and thus the full size of the figure has been

XIV

PREFACE.

preserved, which is far better than to mar the beauty of the work by reducing it.

The author is also desirous of expressing thanks to S. C. Griggs & Co. for the beautiful typography of these volumes : it is a matter of congratulation that the courage of this house in assuming the publication of works, which are generally supposed to be needed only by scholars, has been so fully justified.

Carlyle has said, “ If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach the hearts of others.” If this be true, no apology is needed for the preparation of these volumes upon Oriental literature, for the work is constantly pursued with an intense love of the subject, and it is hoped that the reader will share to a certain extent the enthusiasm of

THE AUTHOR.

PRONUNCIATION.

A LITTLE attention to the diacritical points will enable the reader to readily pronounce the proper names in Persian literature.

These points, however, have been largely omitted in the foot-notes, the system of pronunciation being fully indicated in the body of the book.

A — a is pronounced as in rural.

A— a tar, father, etc.

I — i

ft

tt

fill.

I— I

ft

tt

police.

U— u

if

it

fall.

U — u

ft

it

riide.

Ri — ri

ft

a

merrily.

Ri — ri

if

a

marine.

N — n

if

1 1

like n in the F

N — n

a

tt

none (nun).

H — h is a distinct aspirate.

Kh — kh sounded like ch in

church.

Kh — kh pronounced

as in

inMorn.

C— c

if

a

as efi in church.

Ch— ch

ft

1 1

churcAAill.

T— t

a

a

irue.

Th— th

f(

1 1

ani/iill.

D — d

a

a

iirum.

Dh— dh

i t

tt

red 7/aired.

i i

1 1

sure.

XV

^rOltyf^M, !t% .

Fac Simile of a Portion of a Page of the Oldest Zend Manuscript. (See Page 117.

PERSIAN LITERATURE.

DIVISION I.

The Early Tablets and Mythology.

Chapter I

niSTORIC OUTLINE.

ORIGIN OF PERSIAN LITERATURE — ACCAD AND SUMER — LITERATURE OF NINEVEH — BABYLON — IRAN OR PERSIA — PHYSICAL FEATURES — PERSIAN ART — MANUSCRIPTS — EARLY LITERATURE — THE ARABIAN CONQUEST — LITERATURE OF MODERN PERSIA — PER- SIAN ROMANCE.

TT' VERY nation has a literature peculiarly her own, even though it may find its sources in foreign fields. As Persia was founded upon the ruins of more ancient monarchies, as she gathered into the halls of her kings the spoils of conquered nations, so also her literature was enriched by the philosophy and science, the poetry and mythology of her predecessors. The resistless horde, which poured down from the mountains and swept all of Western Asia into its current, formed the

PERSIAN LITERATI' RE.

kindred tribes into a single monarchy, and this monarchy gathered unto herself, not only the wealth and military glory, but also the culture and learning of the nations she had conquered. The whole civilized world was taxed to maintain the splendors of her court; the imperial purple was found in the city of Tyre, and her fleets also came from Phoenicia, for the experience of this maritime people was indispensable to their Persian masters. Indian groves furnished the costly woods of aloe and of sandal that burned upon her altars, while Syria and the islands of the sea filled her flagons with wine.

The richest fruits were brought from the sunny shores of Malay, and even the desert sent tributes of incense and gold. Herds of camels came from Yemen, and horses of the finest Arabian blood were found in the royal stables. What wonder, then, that the nation which rifled continents to supply her magnificence should appropriate also the wealth of the world of letters that came under her sway? In the background of Persian power there lies an historic past which is replete with the literary treasures of the Orient.

ACCAD AND SUMER.

There is the far away land of ancient Babylonia, with her territory divided into Aecad1 and Sumer or Sliinar. These were the northern and southern divisions of the country.

According to Prof. Sayce, “ the whole of Babylonia was originally inhabited by a non-Semitic race, but the

lAccad is first mentioned as one of the beginnings of the kingdom of Nimrod in Genesis x, 10.

HISTORIC OUTLINE.

Semites established their power in Accad, or North Babylonia, at an earlier date than they did in Sumer in the south; the non-Semitic dynasties and culture lingered longer therefore in Sumer.”1

Their land was the home of the palm tree, and from the highlands, where their rivers found their source, down to the shores of the Persian Gulf, it presented a wealth of foliage and blossoms. Fields that were covered with ripening grain awaited the sickle of the reaper, while the fruit trees bent beneath their burdens, and the vines gleamed in the sunlight with clusters of gold and purple.

Although we know little of this primitive people, a few of their imperishable records have come down to us, and light is thus thrown upon the literary culture which prevailed from the Euphrates to the Nile long before the Exodus. We have the inscriptions 2 of Dungi, the king of “ Ur of the Chaldees,” and also “ king of Sumer and Accad.” We have, too, a portion of the clay tablets recounting the glory of Sargon I, who carried his conquests into the land of the Elamites, and even subdued the Hittites in northern Syria. The independent states of Babylonia also were brought under his sway, and he claimed to be “the sovereign of the four regions of the world,” while his Accadian subjects gave him the name of “the king of justice and the deviser of prosperity.” He was the patron of letters, and in the library3 of this old Semitic king, in the city of

1 Mr. Theo. G. Pinches, in his notes on this chapter, says: “ The Sumerians are generally regarded as of the same race as of the Arcadians. Sumerian is a dialect of Akkadian. Sumer and Akkad both contained Semitic and non-Semitic inhabitants.”

3 The catalogue of the astronomical works in the library of Sargon I

PERSIAN LITERATURE.

Accad, there was written on pages of clay a work on astronomy and astrology in seventy-two books.

Long before the poets of India, of Greece or of Persia began to weave their gorgeous web of mythology, the seers of Accad and of Shinar watched beside the great loom of Nature, as she wove out the curtains of the morning and the crimson draperies of the setting sun. They listened to the battle of the elements around their mountain peaks, and dreamt of the storm-king; they heal'd the musical murmurs of the wind, as it whispered to the closing flowers; they felt the benediction of the night, with its voices of peace, and the divine poem of earth’s beauty found an echo in their hearts.

The bloom of Accadian poetry may be placed about four thousand years before our own times, when the primeval teachings of Nature had become the theme of the poet, and been voiced in the measures of song.

But the scientific impulse of ancient Accad remained an impulse only, the methods of science were undiscovered, and the student was led astray by his own fancies and misconceptions ; still amidst all the false science of a primitive Chaldea there were germs of truth, which have been developed even in our own times. The classic writers said truly that Babylonia was the birthplace of astronomy. It was also the birthplace of mathematics; and although their figures were simple, the Chaldeans attained quite a proficiency in their calculations. The library at Larsa or Senkcreh was famous

instructs the reader to write down the number of the book lhat he needs, and the librarian will thereupon give him the tablet required.— Sayce, /fab. Lit., p. !>.

HISTORIC OUTLINE.

for its mathematical works, and it formed a nucleus for students from various portions the country.

LITERATURE OF NINEVEH.

On the banks of the Tigris, a great city lifted her battlements and arches towards the skies, and became the home of Assyrian Kings. According to Diodorus' her walls were an hundred feet high, and so broad that four chariots could be driven abreast upon them, while fifteen hundred towers, apparently impregnable, arose from their massive foundations. Nineveh was the home of imperial splendor, and twenty-two kings were taxed to supply the materials for her costly palaces where the finest sculptures of the East were found. Assyrian art covered her angles with graceful curves, and built her temples with their gilded domes, while the interior walls were adorned with sculptured slabs of white alabaster. The germs of Greek art, as well as Greek mythology, were found in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates, for here were Doric and Ionic columns ; here were Corinthian capitals, with architrave, frieze and cornice, and yet the latest of these must have been carved before the earliest date which has been assigned to any work of Grecian art. Though her culture was confined to certain classes, and the great mass of her population could not discern between their right hands and their left, still, for centuries Nineveh2 was the

1 Diodorus, Sec. 23.

2 The word Nineveh is made up of sigus which mean city, couch and Nana respectively, all of which means the resting place of the chief god, Nana. (E. A. Budge.) The great commerce of Nineveh— the fact that her merchants were greatly “ multiplied"— is illustrated by the large collection of contract tablets in the British Museum.

PERSIAN LITERATURE.

mistress of the East, even Babylon being subject to her power.

She reached the zenith of her glory under the rule of Assnr-bani-pal (the Sardanapalus of the Greeks). He was the grand monarch of Assyria, and under his reign the treasures of the world flowed to this common centre, while the name of Nineveh was feared from the frontiers of India to the shores of the Higean sea. Ambitious in his schemes of conquest, and luxurious in the splendors of his court, he nevertheless confided his military movements largely to the hands of his ablest generals, and devoted much attention to the accumulation of his strange library at the capital city. Here he gathered the literary treasures of the Orient, and scribes were kept busy copying and translating early works, or writing original books, either in the Assyrian or the Accadian tongue. The decaying literature of Babylonia was forwarded to Nineveh, where it was copied and edited by the Assyrians. A new text was the most valuable present that any city could send to this literary king, and it was received with the enthusiasm exhibited by a modern scholar on the reception of a rare manuscript. It is to the library of Assur-bani-pal, that we are indebted for much of our knowledge of Babylonian literature — stored away in those curious vaults, were thousands of books written upon pages of clay. There were historical and mythological works, legal records, geographical and astronomical documents, as well as poetical productions. There were lists of stones and trees, of birds and beasts, besides the official copies of treaties, petitions to the king, and the royal proclamations. Strangers came from the court of Egypt, from Lydia, and from Cyprus

HISTORIC OUTLINE.

to this ancient seat of learning. But while the king was absorbed in his favorite pursuits, the spirit of revolution was abroad in the land, — Elam, Babylonia, Arabia, Palestine, Egypt and Lydia made a common cause against tho reigning monarch, the insurrection being led bv the king's own brother, the viceroy of Babylon. This great revolt shook the very foundations of the Assyrian monarchy, and ushered in the decline of an empire which extended from the borders of India to the Nubian mountains, and from the sands of Arabia to the snowy peaks of the Caucasus.

In a few years even Nineveh was captured and utterly destroyed, while her empire was shared between Media and Babylon.

BABYLON.

This was “ the golden city ” that gathered unto herself the wealth of conquered kingdoms and the dominion of many tribes. The multitude of gods in her pantheon represented the ideals of the various races of men who laid their offerings at her feet.

Babylon was the “ hammer of the whole earth,” and she forced the tributes of the nations into her treasury, and their legions into her armies. She was “the glory of kingdoms,” and she gathered the culture of a thousand years into a great historic result that contained the arts and science, the literature, the wealth, and the commerce of half the world. The culmination of her power was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the Augustus of the Babylonian age.

He reconstructed the fallen temples of her idols and carried the hideous images in triumphal processions to their palatial courts.

PERSIAN LITERATURE.

Gold, silver and precious stones made bright the altars and temples of Baal, of Merodach, of Nebo, of Molech, and of Ashtaroth.

The choicest cedars were brought from the mountains of Lebanon. “ The cedar of the roofing of the walls of Nebo, with gold I overlaid. . . . Strong

bulls of copper, and dreadful serpents standing upright on their thresholds I erected. The cell of the lord of the gods — Merodach, I made to glisten like suns the walls thereof, with large gold like rubble stone. . . . I had them made brilliant as the sun.” Nebuchadnezzar was the undisputed master of Western Asia, and the walls of his palace were hung with historic pictures of Chaldean thrones, and draped with the most gorgeous tapestries of the Eastern looms, while in his princely halls the cool air fell from glittering fountains, and the royal abode was filled with music, light, and costly perfume. He built the wondrous hanging gardens, where the almond trees waved their sprays of silvery blossoms, and the palms tossed their plumes in the sunlight, — there the pink fingers of the dawn opened the hearts of the roses, and white lilies nestled amid the green slopes and fragrant shades, while the breezes came up from the great river laden with the breath of lotus blossoms and the soft music of her waves. This haughty king was also the patron of letters, and his inscriptions throw a vivid light upon his pride of power, and magnificence — his constant devotion to his idols, and his never ceasing admiration of his capital city, — “ this great Babylon which 1 have built.” His books were written largely upon stone, and stored away beyond the reach of conquering kings.

HISTORIC OITLIXE.

The literary treasures, which may even yet lie buried beneath her soil, probably belong to the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, and owe their existence to him. In his days, too. there flourished the family of Egebi, who were tradesmen. This Jewish family is mentioned as early as the reign of Esar-haddon, and for five successive generations they deposited their legal documents in earthen jars which served the purpose of safes. These thrifty capitalists continued in prosperity even to the end of the reign of Darius the Great, and although coined money was then unknown and the precious metals 'were reckoned by weight, they, like the Rothschilds of our own day, loaned money to the kings of their generation, and their well kept records are of great value as a chronological index of the times2 in which they were written. The literature of the Babylonians, like that of the Hindus, claims a fabulous antiquity. They enumerated ten kings who lived before the flood, whose reigns occupied four hundred and thirty-two thousand years, or more than forty-three centuries each, and during this immense cycle of time, there were strange creatures, half man and half fish, who ascended from the ocean and taught the tribes of Babylonia the rudiments of civilization. There were men with the bodies of birds and the tails of fishes,

t The problem of the relative value of gold and silver had been solved to a certain extent in this ancient kingdom, a silver shekel being one-tenth the value of a gold shekel, and the silver half shekel one twentieth of the value of the gold shekel. The drachma, or silver half shekel, is supposed to be the most ancient type of the English shilling, as one-twentieth of the English gold sovereign.

2 For the empire of Nebuchadnezzar, the records of the Egebi family are invaluable — dated deeds extending, year by year, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to the close of that of Darius Ilystaspes.— Sayce, An. Emp., p. 105.

PERSIAN LITERATURE.

and men also with the beaks and faces of birds who in other respects wore the form of humanity.

But their literature was not all fable, though they really cared very little what the condition of their country had been before the deluge, for they were engaged in recounting the conquests of their own kings, and the power and splendor of their idols. Babylon, the Queen of the East, with her arts and sciences, with her painting and sculpture, was like other Asiatic cities, a hot-bed of moral corruption ; even her religion was a craze of sorcery and enchantments — of witchcraft and horrible sensuality. Her high priests were astrologers and soothsayers, while her gods were the personification of evil. “ Moloch demanded the best and dearest that the worshipper could grant him, and the parent was required to offer his eldest or only son as a sacrifice, while the victim's cries were drowned by the noise of drums and flutes. When Agathokles defeated the Carthaginians, the noblest of the citizens offered in expiation three hundred of their children to Baal- Moloch ” 1

The worship of Ishtar2 demanded that every female devotee should begin her womanhood by public prostitution in the temple of the goddess, and young girls were often burned upon her altars, while young men were either burned or mutilated. Abominations even more revolting than these were practiced in connection with the worship of Bel, and the nations around her drank of her wine and were maddened with the frenzy of her corruption. What wonder, then, that even before the “Lady of Kingdoms” reached the zenith of her i Snyce— An. Emp., p. 19.r>.

Astarte or AshuiroU).

HISTORIC OUTLINE.

glory, the cry of the prophets had rung out in unmeasured denunciation of her crimes? “Therefore 1 will execute judgment upon the graven images ot Babylon . . . and all her slain shall fall in the

midst of her . . . the treacherous dealeth treacher-

ously, and the spoiler spoileth. (to up, (> Elam, besiege, 0 Media. . . . Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.”1

Elam and Media combined their forces, and set their troops in battle array, while hundreds of banners waved in the sunlight. “ Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen,” and they marched to the “ two leaved gates ” of the city. Every sword in the ranks was true to the young commander, and his victory was easily won. Babylon was conquered, and the story of her decay was written upon her forehead. The seat of government was removed, the city was left in desolation, and her gates were smitten with destruction. Ruin fell upon her battlements, the owl and the bittern dwelt amidst her prostrate columns, while the wild beasts of the desert made their den in her fallen palaces.

Iran or Persia.

Persia is often called Iran, this being the name which the Persians themselves gave to their kingdom. Persepolis was for a long time the capital, but for almost twelve centuries after the fall of that beautiful city, the capital was located at Shiraz. The oldest certain use of the name Persia is found in the prophets,2 and i Jer. li, 47 ; Isa. xxi, 3-9.

2 Ezekiel xxvii, 10; xxxviii, 5.

PERSIAN LITERATURE.

the kingdom was formed by the combination of the Medians with the Persians. These hardy mountaineers were brave and merciless, their troops of horsemen, armed with lance and quiver, swept down from the highlands with irresistible force, and drew the wandering tribes of the East into one great army. Frugal in their mode of life, strong in nerve and sinew, and severe in military discipline, even their kings believed that nothing was so servile as luxury and nothing so royal as toil.

The hardy tribes of Iran which Cyrus led to victory were trained to manly exercise ; they taught their children to endure hardship, to ride, to shoot and to tell the truth. They were strangers to dissipation, and so loyal to age that parricide was inconceivable to them. The royal edict was so inflexible that “ the laws of the Medes and Persians” passed into a proverb. Their loyalty to their kings degenerated into servility, even legal injustice being considered a benefit to the victim, for which he should be duly grateful. No edict was too severe to be promptly obeyed, the very cruelty of their kings being considered a mark of greatness ; they buried men alive in honor of the elements, they flayed their officials for bribery, while mutilation and stoning were legal punishments.