the court language in the time of the Sassanian monarchs,
and, according to some authorities, as far back as that of
Cyrus : it contains many words which belong to the Chaldaic
and Syriac tongues, and Sir William Jones was of opinion
that one of these must have been its root; hut it is now
generally presumed that the root of the Pehlevi is the
Aramaic itself. The cognates of the latter spread westward
and eastward, and one of them, the Chaldee, can scarcely he
distinguished from the parent root. Another, the Parsi,
being a softer language than the Pehlevi, became general in
Fársistan, and gave rise to the Deri, or modern Persian.
The Pehlevi, however, is still partially used in Shirván,1 and
also by some of the Gabrs of the eastern provinces, as well as
by a numerous section of the natives of India ; but among the
Parsees it is largely intermixed with the Hindustani and
other native dialects, which are less or more connected with
the Sanscrit. The affinity of the latter to the Parsi is so
great that a learned philologist has pronounced it to be one
of its derivatives. \
The number of words which are identical among the different
dialects of Irán, Túrán, and some portion of the territory
more eastward, goes far to show, that at a period anterior to
anything like connected history, there must have been some
common language ; and this was probably the Aramaic. Perhaps
one-third of the inhabitants of írán are nomadic, and
» iis section, by its habits, as well as mode of life, constitutes
a race separate from the other, or fixed portion ; which, as we
know, consists of Persians, Kurds, Armenians, Arabs, Jews,
and Parsees.
The religion of the last, or that of the Gabrs, naturally
carries us back to that particular ^period, anterior to the time
of the Magi, when the Iranians followed the Chaldean creed,
which acknowledged one supreme, eternal, incomprehensible
Being, the maker and governor of the world. At first, sacrifices
were offered on the tops of mountains, without any other
temple or altar ;2 and subsequently in the Mithraic cave.3
1 Khanat of Tálish.—Aperçu des Possessions Russes, &c., Tome III.,
p. 191, &c. 2 Herod., lib. I., cap. 132. 2 Ibid., cap. 131.
Then came the Magi, who held, that a knowledge of the
Creator was only to be obtained by an intimate acquaintance
with his works; particularly with the movements of the
heavenly bodies. These persons, being in possession of all
the science of the age, acquired, in consequence, unbounded
power over the minds of the people: they taught the worship
of the sun, moon, and planets; they also inculcated reverence
for parents, affection for the human race, and compassionate
tenderness for the brute creation.1
Zoroaster subsequently endeavoured to restore the purer
Chaldean doctrine of one immortal and beneficent Being
(Zerwan), the Creator of the universe; and he added the
contending principles of good and evil. Hormuzd represented
the former, and under him, as his deputies, were angels presiding
over the months and days ; these were supposed to be
assisted by the agency of the priests, who were to preserve in
a pure state the four elements of man, of which light, the
highest (represented by the sun2), was the especial type of
Hormuzd. Ahriman, or the evil principle, with his angels
of destruction, was represented by darkness, over which the
light was at length to triumph.3
In the third century B.C., Artaxerxes endeavoured to purge
the religion of the Persian sage from the corruptions intro:
duced in the time of the Macedonians and Parthians, when
there was bestowed on the symbol itself (fire) that devotion
which was originally intended for the Deity only. The religion
of Zoroaster continued to be that of the state until the
flood of the Arabian conquest in the seventh century, when
some of the so called Jaurs (Kafirs, or unbelievers) preserved
their ancient tenets at the expense of a forced exile into Kir-
man, or the countries more eastward; whilst the rest unwillingly
submitted. The sword of Muhammed was not to be
successfully resisted ; and the new doctrines were received in
the divided forms now known as Sunnie and Shi’ah. After
1 Malcolm’s History of Persia, Vol. I., p. 496.
2 Herod., b. I., c. 31, says,' the Persians worshipped the sun, the moon,
earth, fire, water, and the winds.
3 Malcolm’s History, Vol. I., p. 497.