Researches into the physical history of mankind

Front matter

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Section 1. General observations — Outline of the physical

geography of Iran 1

Section 2. Of three different historical sources of information respecting the old Persian race 6

Greek writers 7

Persian writers 9

Zendish traditions 11

Sections. Ethnological investigation 12

Paragraph 1. Names of Iran and Arii —

Topographical divisions — Languages ... 13 Paragraph 2. Of the modem Persian dialects 14

Paragraph 3. Of the Pehlvi and Zend ... 17 Paragraph 4. Relations of the Zend to the dialects of Persia and to the other Indo- European languages 20

Paragraph 5. Of the information derived

from Cuneiform inscriptions 25

Progress made in the investigation — Results obtained — Language of the de-

cjphered inscriptions 28

Paragraph 6. General results of researches regarding the languages of ancient Iran 32

ANALYSIS OF THE CONTKNTS.

Page.

Section 4. Remains of ancient Persian literature, illustrating the history of the Arian race 35

Paragraph 1. Of the time and place of the cultivation of Magian literature and mythology 35

Paragraph 2. Of the books contained in

the Zendavesta 37

Paragraph 3. Mythos of the Zendavesta —

Zoroastrian Genesis 39

Paragraph 4. Remarks on the Persian

cosmogony — Inferences derived from it 45 Paragraph 5. Further inquiries into the history of the Arian race — Ancient tradition of migration, preserved in the Ven-

didad 47

Original seat of the Arian race 49

Section 5. Of the modern inhabitants of Iran 51

Of the Tajiks or native Persians 51

Of the Iliyahs or Hat 5Q

Iliyat Kurd-zeben or tribes of the Kurdish

language 61

Of the Karaschi 61

Iliyahs of Persian origin 62

Section 6. Of the physical characters of the Persian race 64

Section 7. Of the Kurds 68

Paragraph 1. Land of the Kurds 68

Paragraph 2. Kurdish tribes and castes .. . 69 Paragraph 3. Language and origin of the

Kurds 73

Paragraph 4. Physical character and habits

of the Kurds 76

Paragraph 5. Of the Yezides 78

Section 10. Of the Pushtaneh, Patans, or Affghans 81

1. Tribes of north-eastern Affghans or Berdurani 87

2. South-eastern tribes of Daman 88

3. Mountain tribes of the Soliman mountains 89

4. Western Affghans — Durani 89

5. Of the Ghilji 90

ANALYSIS OP THE CONTENTS. Vll

CHAPTER XI.

History of India — Origin and Physical Description of its Inhabitants.

Page.

Section 1. Geographical survey of India — Subdivision of countries with reference to their great physical boundaries — Corresponding distribution of

races 92

Paragraph 2. General observations on the races of people who inhabit the regions

described in the preceding pages 96

Section 2. Outline of the history of the Hindoos 98

Paragraph 1. Sources of information 98

Paragraph 2. Attempts made to determine the early dates of Indian History — "War

of the Mahabharata 101

Paragraph 3. Of the commencement of the dynasties — Earliest period of Indian antiquity 105

Paragraph 4. Of the history of India during the ages which succeeded the conquests of the Macedonians— Indo-Scythian dynasty — Era of Yikramaditya — Empire of the Prasii or of Magadlia ... 108 Eastern India — Kingdom of Magad'ha ... 113 Paragraph 5. Of the history of the Hindoos from the age of Yikramaditya to the invasion of the Moslims 114*

1. Ayodhya or Oude 115

2. Canouj 115

3. Mewar 116

Paragraph 6. On the history of Buddhism

and the Buddhisttcal chronology of the

Hindoos 117

Note 1 to Section 2. Of the astronomical chronology of the

Brahmans t 125

Note 2 to Section 2. History of the Indo-Scythian or Turkish dynasty which succeeded the Greek dynasty

in Bactria and in western India 127

Greek accounts 129

Vlll

ANALYSI8 OF TOE CONTKNTR.

Page.

Indian accounts ... 130

Chinese accounts 131

Section 3. Of the different languages and nations of India 133 Paragraph 1. General obserrations — Languages of Hindustan 133

Paragraph 2. History of the Dekhan and

of the languages of its inhabitants 137

Paragraph 3. Of relations between the idioms of the Dekhan and those of proper Hindustan — Foreign origin of the

Indian race 142

Paragraph 4. Conclusion 148

Section 4. Results of ethnological inquiries into the history

of India — Limitation of dialects and races ... 151 Paragraph 1. Ancient languages of Hindustan 151

Paragraph 2. Modem idioms of Hindustan 152 Paragraph 3. Languages and races of the

southern family 156

Note 1 to Section 4. History of the states in the Dekhan, elucidated by ancient inscriptions 163

Section 5. Of the aboriginal tribes in the mountainous parts

of India, principally in the Dekhan 166

Paragraph 1. Mountain tribes of the north-western parts of the Dekhan — Bhils,

Kulis, Ramusis 167

4. Waralis and ICatodis 174

Paragraph 2. Mountaineers of the eastern parts of the Dekhan 174

1. Of theGonds 174

2. Of the Palindas or wild tribes of Orissa 176

3. Of the Khoi-Jati or Khonds of the Goomsoor mountains 178

4. Of the Yanadu-jati, a wild people of Sri-hari-cotta 181

Paragraph 3. Mountaineers of the southem parts of the Dekhan — Races inhabiting the Nilagiri hills 183

1. TudasorThodaurs 184

2. Buddugur 185

Sbotion 6.

ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. IX

Page.

S and 4. Emlars and Curumbars 186

5. TheCohatars 187

Paragraph 4. Mountaineers in the eastern

parts of Hindlistan 188

Of the races of people inhabiting the island of Ceylon 190

CHAPTER XII.

Hiitory of India continued — 0/ the Races of People inhabiting the AfountainoM Countries which border on the Himdlaya.

Section 1. General survey 195

Section 2. Indo-Tartar tribes in Bhutan, Nepil, and the Himalayan countries to the eastward of the Gogra and Kali 199

1. Of the Bhotijrahs of the kingdom of Tassisudon 199

2. Aboriginal tribes to the eastward of the Kali river 200

Section 3. Of the Parbatiya tribes inhabiting the Hill-States

to the westward of the rivers Klali and Gogra 204 Paragraph 1 . Of the natives of Kumau or

Kumaon 205

Paragraph 2, Of the Paharias or hill-tribes

of Garhawal, Sirmor, and Bisahur 206

People of the higher region 209

Section 4. History of Kashmir 210

Section 5. Of the Siah-Posh or Kafirs of the Hindu-Khiih 213 Section 6. Aboriginal races in the mountainous countries to the eastward of Bhutan — Tribes of Ahoms, Garros, Cachars, Cossyahs, Cassays or Manipurs, Miris, Abors, Mishmis, Kangtis, Bor« Kangtis, Singphos, Muamarias, Nagas or

Kukis 219

Section 7. General account of the physical characters of the

natives of India 228

Paragraph 1. Of the hypothesis that the aborigines of India and of the Himalaya

were a race of Negroes 228

Vol. IV. b.

X ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.

Page.

Paragraph 2. Description of the Hindoos in General 233

Paragraph 3. Of the physical characters prevalent among particular races, and in

particular districts in India 238

1.. Of the Rajputs of Rajast'han 238

2. People of the Panjab 239

3. Physical characters of the Sindhians 240

4. Of the Sikhs 240

Native tribes of Kattiwar 242

SfiOTZOif 8. Concluding remarks on the tribes of people inhabiting Hindustan and the Dekhan, and on their relations to other Asiatic races 244

CHAPTER XIII.

€f the HaVeanian or the Armenian Race.

Section 1. General survey — Physical geography and boundaries of High Asia 277 ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS

XI

P«ge.

Paragraph 2. Subdiyisions — Interior countries of High Asia— Snrrounding countries 288 Section 2. Of the races of people who still inhabit, or may be

supposed to have originated from High Asia 291 Section 3. Of the sources of information on the history of

the nations of Great Tartary 297

Section 4. Of the Tungusian race, comprehending the Mandshoos, Toung-hous, Kin, Khitans, and

Ourianguites 299

Section 5. History of the Turkish race — Of the Hiong-nu, Thiukiu or Turks of Mount Altai*, and of

the Ouigours 304

Parcufraph 1 . Description of the Hiong-nu 307 Paragraph 2. Of the Thu-kiu or Turks of

Altai* 310

Paragraph 3. Of the Ouigours or anciently-

cirilised Turks 311

Note on the art of writing among the Ouigours 316

Section 6. History of the Turkish race continued — ^Subdivisions— ^Turkish invasions anterior to the Mon-

golianera 318

Paragraph 1. Turkish inroads prior to the age of Tschingghis 318

1. The Kiptschaks or Coraanians 321

2. The Petcheneges 322

3. TheChazars 322

4. The Avars and Bulgarians 324

Section 7. History of the Mongolian race 329

Paragraph 2. Of the early history of the

Mongoles before Tschingghis-khan 336

Section 8. Turkish nations formed on the subdivisions of the

Mongolian empire — Account of this division 340 Section 9. Turkish tribes in the Khanates of Kiptschak or

western Turkistan 342

Section 10. Of the Turkish nations of Jagatai' Turkistan ... 347 Paragraph 1. Of the Seljukiyan and Os-

manli or Ottoman Turks 347

Paragraph 2. Of the present inhabitants of Jagatai' Turkistan — Of the Uzbeks ... 350 k

Xll ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.

Page.

Paragraph 3. Of the Turkomans 353

Paragraph 4. Tartars of Siberia 358

Paragraph 5. Turkish tribes in the countries to the northward of the Caspian Sea 359

Section 11. Races of eastern Turkistan 360

Of the Elirghises or Kirghis-Kasaks 361

Of the physical and moral characteristics of

the Kirghis 365

Section 12. Turks of the Lena and the shores of the Icy

Sea — Sochalar or Yakutes 368

Section 13. Relations between the languages of the nomadic nations of Great Tartary 378

Section 14. Of the physical and moral characteristics of the

nations of Great Tartary 406

Paragraph 1. Of the Mongolian race 406

Paragraph 2. Of the Tungusian race 408

Paragraph 3. Of the yariations which have been noted in the physical characters of

these races 409

Paragraph 4. Of the Turkish race 410

Note 420

Paragraph 5. On the mental developement and moral characters of the nomadic nations 423

CHAPTER XYII.

Of tlie Hyperborean Nations of Asia.

Section 1. General Survey 427

Section 2. Of the IGiasovo or Samoiedes 428

Paragraph 1. History of the Samoiedes .. . 428

Northern Samoiedes 433

Paragraph 2. Physical characters of the

Samoiedes 434

Paragraph 3. Further inquiries into the history of the Samoiedes — Discovery of

their original country 435

Southern Samoiedes 436

Paragraph 4. General observations on this

race and on their languages 440

Section 3. Yenisean Ostiaks 442

ANALYSIS OP THE CONTENTS. Xlil

Page.

Section 4. Aboriginal tribes of north-eastern Siberia 444

Paragraph 2. The Andon Domni or Yu-

kaghiri 446

Paragraph 3. Of the Kamtschatkans or

Kamschadales 447

Paragraph 4. Of the Ainos or Kurilians... 450 Section 5. Of the tribes of people inhabiting the region beyond the Kolyma — ^Tschuktschi, Koriaks,

Namollos, Aleutians 457

Paragraph 2. Of the Aleutian islanders ... 463

CHAPTER XVIII.

History of the Chinese and Indo-Chinese Nations. Section 1. General survey — Countries inhabited by these

Section 2. On the sources of Chinese history 473

Section 3. Of the history of the Chinese ... .» 477

Paragraph 1. Primitive traditions of China 477 Paragraph 2. Of the history of the Chinese, origin, language, and moral characteristics of the people 480

Section 4. Aborigines of China 486

Paragraph 2. The Sifan 487

Paragraph 3. Of the Miao or Miao-sse or

Miao-tseu 488

Paragraph 4. Of the Lolos 490

Section 5. Of the Japanese or inhabitants of Dai Nippon... 491

Paragraph 1. History of Japan 491

Paragraph 2. Languages 493

Paragraph 3. Religion of the Japanese ... 494

Section 7. Of the Indo-Chinese nations 498 \st Division, Races of people inhabiting the

Indo-Chinese peninsula 499

Paragraph 1. RaceofAnam 500

Paragraph 2. The Quan-to 501

Paragraph 3. The people of Tshampa or

Champa 501

Paragraph 4. K'hoh-men or Cambojans... 502 Paragraph 5. Moi 502 xiT ANALYSIS OP THB CONTENTS.

Page.

Paragraph 6. Of the Thay or Lau Race 506 Paragraph 7. Of the Mon or natives of

Pegu 506

Paragraph 8. Of the Karian 507

Paragraph 9. The Pku or Pakun 508

Paragraph 10. The Khy^n 508

Paragraph 11. Of the Marama or Burmahs and of the Rukheng or natives of

Arakhan 510

Suction 8. Of the Bhotijahs or natives of Tibet and Bhutan 512 Section 9. Physical characters of the Chinese, Koreans, and

Japanese 518

Paragraph 2. Of the physical characters of

the Japanese 521

Physical characters of the Koreans 522

Of the varieties in features and complexion which display themselves in these

Variations in the physical characters of

theJapanese 527

Section 10. Of the physical characters of the Indo-Chinese

Section 11. General observations on the languages of the

Chinese and Indo-Chinese nations 540

CHAPTER XIX.

Of the SgrO'Arahian Natiom,

Paragraph 1. Physical characters of the

Arabs 588

Paragraph 2. Physical characters of the

Jews 597

Section 10. Concluding observations on the Syro- Arabian

race 598

CHAPTER XX.

Concluding Observations on the History of the Races of People wJiO Inhabit the Continent of Europe and Asia. Section 1. General survey of the relation between different

families of nations 602

Section 2.« Psychological characteristics briefly contrasted ... 608 Section 3. Physical observations deduced from the comparative survey of European and Asiatic races ... 612

APPENDIX I.

Of the Gipseys and other migratory tribes 615

APPENDIX II.

Of the structure of the Berber language, by F. "W. Newmann,

Esq 617

APPENDIX III.

Remarks on the Haussa language, based upon " the Vocabulary" of the same, " with grammatical elements, by the Rev. J. F. Schon, 1843" 627

ETHNOGRAPHY

EUROPE AND ASIA.

CHAPTER X.

OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN POPULATION OF IRAN, OR

THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE, FROM THE TIGRIS

TO THE INDUS.

Section 1. — General Observations. — Outline of the Physical Geography of Iran

The first appearance of the ancient Medes and Persians, during the sixth century before our era, on the theatre of human affairs, was almost as sudden as that of the Hunns, or Turks, or Mongoles, in a later age. Shortly before the period when they gained the mastery of the world, their name seems to have been unknown to Europe and to Western Asia. The Greeks of the Homeric age, and while the kingdom of Lydia was growing up in Asia Minor, appear never to have heard of the Persians; nor have we any proof that their existence was known, except by the predictions of the Prophets, to the ancient Hebrews. Even in the historical records referring to preceding times, which the Greeks afterwards found in the East, there is no trace of an ancient empire, or even of an independent nation, in the countries between the Tigris and the Indus, dating its existence many generations before Cyrus. The Assyrian Kingdom of Minus and Semiramis and their successors is said to have reached

VOL. IV. B.

to the borders of India. Whence then came that great and powerful race, who suddenly overturned all the dynasties of Asia, subdued the civilised parts of Africa, and of Europe? Were they one, perhaps the first, of those great swarms, who, from the remote regions of High Asia, have poured themselves down in different ages to overrun the Eastern World; or had they been, as it is generally supposed, the primeval inhabitants of some region in the vast extent of Iran, who, like the Arabs in later times, after remaining for ages in quiet obscurity, suddenly emerged, as if moved by some inward impulse, and, like that people, became almost universal conquerors ? In order to answer this question, and various inquiries which are connected with it, we must enter into some investigations.

Before we proceed to the history of the Persian race, it will be advisable to take a brief survey of the geographical features of the country which they inhabited.

Iran, the country of the Arian, or Medo-Persian race, is, for the most part, a plateau, or high table-land. It is bounded on the east by the long valley through which the Indus, after penetrating the barrier of the Hinifilayan chain, takes its course from north to south ; and on the west by the channels of the Assyrian rivers, and by the Persian Gulph. This high region forms a four-sided figure, nearly that of a parallelogram, but having its greatest length on the northern border, which iace3 the Caspian Sea and the plains of Turkistan, and its greatest breadth towards the east and the valley of the Indus. The western border of Iran seems shortened where the land is contracted between the southern extremity of the Caspian and the northern end of the Persian Gulph; while the chains of bordering mountains, taking on this side an oblique direction from north-west to south-east, namely, from Tabriz, or even from Mount Ararat, towards Ormuz and the comer of the Persian Gulph, shorten, by one third, the southern side of the rectangle, or cause the whole outline of this region to assume the form of an irregular trapezium. The whole extent of the space

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. O

included between these boundaries is from 70 to 80 thousand square geographical miles, or about one-tenth part of the whole surface of Asia. A traveller who takes his way from the low valley of the Indus and traverses the eastern border formed by the long chain of the mountains of Soliman, or one who, from the north and from the plains of Turkistan, follows the path of many a nomadic tribe through Ferghana and Badakshan, and passes the Jaxartes and the Oxus, and the borders of Samarkand and Bokhara or of Balkh towards the northern boundary, enters in either direction on an Upland raised between three and four thousand feet in average elevation above the lower country whence he commenced his journey. The Iranian table-land is insulated or surrounded by low tracts, except on the angle which points towards the north-east. In that quarter it is joined by a great isthmus of high land to the lofty region of Eastern Turkistan and Tibet, and the greater plateau of High Asia. This isthmus, as it may be termed, is formed by the Alpine heights of the Hindu- Khiish, or Indian Caucasus, which reach above the level of perpetual snow. The northern boundary of Iran, if we trace it from its eastern extremity, stretches westward from the Hindu-Khiish towards Bamian and Herat, along the northern limit of Khorasan and Kohestan ; it subsides on the borders of Balkh and Herat into hills of moderate elevation,* but rises again further to the westward, in Hyrcania, into the heights of Elburz and the snowy tops of Demavend; thence reaching, -still in the same direction, Georgia, it joins itself to the very nucleus of Mount Taurus. The Imaus and the Paropamisus of the ancients, were parts of this series of mountainous elevations, and were regarded by Strabo and Pliny as a great ramification or northern extension of Mount Taurus.f This northern

* Bitter's Erdknnde. See, also, Lt. A. Conolly's Narrative of an Overland Joomey to India, vol. 1, p. 227.

t PUnil H. N. 6. 27.

The chain of Tanrus was, by the early Greeks, before the expedition of Alexander, confined to Asia Minor. Arrian, but particularly Strabo, following Eratosthenes and Pliny, gives it a much greater extent, and describes it as rising from the coasts of Pamphylia and Cilieia, and reaching, by the Hyrcanlan or

b2

4 PHYSICAL OEOORAPHY.

border faces the midland hollow of the Asiatic continent which contains the Caspian and Aralian Lakes, and the beds of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The low countries of Mazanderan and Ghilan on the shore of the Caspian Sea, are placed beyond and below the northern side of the great Upland. On the western side, where Iran is contracted into its narrowest breadth between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulph, in the meridian of Hamadan or Ecbatana, the Alpine tracts of Armenia and Kurdistan approach its borders; and here the plateau is broken into chains of hills separated by deep hollows or valleys, such as those which contain the Kisilirmak, »and the tributary streams of the Araxes and the Tigris, and the mountain-lakes of Van and Urumiyeh. It loses here the level character of its surface, and rises into lofty heights in the mountain-land of the ancient Medes and the modem Kurds. The western and southern sides of the Iranian Upland are bounded by a vast series of parallel mountain chains, which* run out from, or are a prolongation of,

Caspiau Sea, to Mount Imans, which Straho expressly declares to have been the termlDation of the chain of Tanrns. Pliny likewise mentions the northern chains of Persia as parts of the same Taorus, which he terms " Nnmerosis nominibus iusignis. Imaus prim& parte dictus, mox Smodus, Paropamisus, Circuis, Chambades, Paryadres, Niphates, Taurus, atque ubi se quoque exsuperat, Caucasus."— Strabo, 15. p. 689. Pliny, H. N., 5. 27. Ritter is tlie drst modem writer who has traced these extensive notices to the works of the ancient geographers. See his << Iranische-Welt," s. 550.

* A late eminent writer on the physical geography of these regions, which he has himself visited, and of which he has studied in the country the geographical structure, has deduced, apparently without any acquaintance with the writings of Profipssor Ritter, from his own observations compared with those of others, a result exactly coinciding with that of M. Ritter, and strikingly confirming his general and systematic views. The following is a note appended by Mr. Ainsworth, to the account of Kurdistan, given in a late number of the Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society :—

" It might be added, as one of the great peculiarities of the mountains of Kurdistan and of the Persian Apennines, that they do not con8titute,as is usually the case, chains which rise towards the centre and fall towards the sides ; but a country of mountains gradually rising towards an upland beyond. But this is also tlie case with Taurus, where the waters spring from the northern declivities, as at the Golek Boghaz and the pass of Pelvcrreh, and great rivers, as

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 5

the Southern Taurus, making a great oblique sweep from the north-west towards the south-east. The formation of this great chain is such as to render all the south-western border of the plateau a series of longitudinal valleys and successive elevations, by which the traveller, who passes from the lower lands of Khuzistan, Irak-Arabi, Algezira, or from the low countries of Assyria, after crossing the Tigris, towards the interior, has to ascend over a series of long terrasses or mountain-steps, which are separated by the courses of rivers or longitudinal valleys ; but over which he mounts successively to a higher elevation. To this may be compared, on a small scale, the ascents and valleys of the Jura, or of the Sierra Morena in Spain, or the Lange Kloof in South Africa, or the valleys of Bhutan in Eastern Asia. Such is the description of the country, given by Pliny, who says that the ascent into the interior of Persia from the coast, was compared by the ancients to a great ladder : — " Qu& vero ipsa, scilicet regio maritima, subit ad Medos, * Climax Megale* appellatur locus, arduo montis ascensu, per gradus, introitu angusto ad Persepolin, caput regni dirutum ab Alexandro."* Further eastward, in Mekran, the southern border of the Iranian plateau presents its front immediately against the Indian Ocean. The eastern boundary consists almost uniformly of long mountain-chains, which rise from the south-eastern angle of Beldchistan, and fronting the valley of the Indus, stretch northward, taking the name of Soliman, towards the highest regions of K&biil and Kafiristan.f

the Seihan, GeDiun, Euphrates, and Tigris, find their way through the chains. In the Kurdistan mountains we find the greater and lesser Zab presenting similar phenomena, and the same is the case with regard to the Diyallah in Luristan. The elevation of the g^eat Persian Upland, east of these mountains, is, according to Fraser, at Zergan, 4500, at Isfahan 4000 (Hamadan is evidently higher), at Tabriz, according to Brown, 4500, and from several observations by myself, at tlie Lake of Urumiyeh 4300 feet. The sources of the Zab, according to Col. Monteith, are at an elevation of 7500 feet, which %U1 be found to agree with the thermometer level."— Journal of the Roy.Geog. Soc. of London., Vol. 11, p. 22.

• Pliu. H. N. b. c. 20. t Rittcr, Iran-plateau, 712-

O HISTORY OF IRAN.

The plateau of Iran varies in actual elevation. The south-eastern comer, Beldchistan, is a high country, and the table-land of Kel&t rises, according to Pottinger's estimate, to the elevation of 8000 feet ; at Kabiil the eastern border has still the elevation of 6000 feet; towards the interior and the inland lake of Zarch, and the country of its tributary streams, and the valley of the Hindwend, and the desert plains which surround the lake, the level gradually subsides, but not so far as to render this region one of low or depressed surface. Accurate measurements are wanting in this eastern region of Iran. The elevations of its western parts are better kn^wn, chiefly through the estimates of Mr. Fraser, which have been systematised by Oltmann and Knorr. From these we obtain what Ritter terms a profile of the surface of the plateau, in a line from Abushir through Shiraz, Isfahan, Tehran, and thence eastward to Nishapfir and Meshed, which gives us the medium height between Isfahan and Tehran, 3900 feet. Above this point, particular tracts rise 1000 feet higher. Mount Demavend exceeds the average elevation by 7000 feet, while no part is depressed 1000 feet below the general level.*

Section II. — Of three different historical sources of information respecting the Old Persian Race* — Principal discrepancies.

The people who formed the principal inhabitants of the extensive region now described, are one of the great branches of the Indo-European family of nations. Intermediate between the Indians and the Greeks, they resembled both those races in some of their principal traits of organisation, but yet constituted a peculiar tribe marked by decided characters of their own. A distinct people from the earliest ages, they preserved among themselves an ancient poetical theogony and a mythical history of their origin, and a sacred literature handed down from early times, of which the Magi, a sacerdotal caste corres-

• The greater part of this outline is taken from Professor Karl Hitter's admirable " Uebersicht des Iran-plateaus." Erdk-v-Asien. 13. 0.

GREEK WRITERS. 7

ponding in many respects to tbe Brahmans of the Hindoos, were the guardians and depositories. Remains of this ancient literature, and a part of the sacred books of the Mag], hare been discovered by European scholars in the hands of the Parsees, in India, who are the descendants of the ancient Persians ; but although the authenticity of these books is now generally allowed, a great diflTerence of opinion yet exists as to the era of their origin, and ^en as to the country where they were composed. By some it has been maintained that the compositions, attributed to Zoroaster or to his followers, were written during the reigns of the celebrated princes of Persia, the successors of Cyrus, in Susa, or Persepolis, or at least in the Persia known to the ancient Greeks : others refer them to an era long antecedent to the age of Cyrus, and suppose them to have been composed in Bactria, or in a country beyond the limits of Persia. Although these documents afford us some valuable information respecting the ancient mythology, and the language of the old Persian race, yet the history of the people, as is obvious from what has been said, still requires elucidation which it has not obtained from this quarter.

In attempting to explore the history of Persia, there are two classes of writers from whom we may expect to derive some information. These are the Greek writers who lived near, in respect of time, to the events which we have to investigate, and the native historians of Persia, born in the country, but at a much later period.

The Greek history of Persia, as we have observed, scarcely begins before the age of the great Cyrus. The father of that prince was Cambyses, probably a chieftain of Parsis, or Farsistan, of whom we know nothing but his name and country. The royal clan, or family, were the Achsemenidse. According to some accounts, Cyrus was the third in succession from the foundation of the monarchy by a Median warrior.* Even the history of .

^chylu5, in Per».

the Medes goes back but a few reigns in the account given by Herodotus, the most authentic that could be obtained by him from the people themselves. Herodotus professes to trace the Median kingdom from its origin, when the people first assembled under a political government, and chose Deioces for a king, where a king had never reigned before.

Far different is the account given of the ancient state of Media and Persia in the works of the oriental historians, which some modern writers, following Sir William Jones, have preferred to those transmitted from the Greeks. According to these writers, the Achaemenidae, or the Kaianian dynasty, as they are 'termed, were the restored descendants of an ancient royal house, which had reigned over Iran for centuries in great splendour and magnificence, and whose martial achievements form a celebrated cyclus of oriental poetry. In order to form some idea of the credit due to these accounts, we must consider for a moment the circumstances under which they appear to have had their origin.

During the first century of the Hejira, the ruin and devastation which followed the victories of Omar seem to have swept away nearly all the fruits of intellectual culture in Persia, and to have exterminated the priesthood, who had been the depositories of ancient literature. Some centuries appear to have elapsed before the conquerors and the subdued coalesced into one people, and the natives of Persia, metamorphosed into Moslims, began with a new mind to cultivate their mixed language, and to embellish it with the flowers of poetry. In the eastern court of the Ghaznevide. Sultans, where the fortune of arms in a later period fixed the centre of power and of royal magnificence, on the borders of Afghanistan, the genius of Persian poetry, almost the only poetry that has existed among Mohammedan nations since the commencement of their era, first displayed itself. As the history of the Arabs and of the Khalifat, from whose ruins the new dynasty had just emerged, presented no inspiring themes, the great poet of Mahmoud's court chose for his subject