precepts of Zoroaster and other sages inculcated a lofty,
chivalrous spirit, with a profuse generosity, which still lingers,
though but faintly, in the East; and, that the grand basis
of good conduct, the love of truth, was not lost sight of,
whatever it may be in the present times, is evident from the
account given by Herodotus himself,1 of the great disgrace
attached to an untruth.2
Scarcely two centuries elapsed before the mighty empire,
which had been organized by Darius Hystaspes, was overturned
by the arms of Alexander; and the Persian state
experienced such a succession of changes in power and extent,
in consequence of the subsequent invasions of the Scythians
and Arabians, that it had almost ceased to be known as an
empire, when the modern kingdom began to spring up under
Ismael Sefi. The warlike successors of this monarch continued
gradually to recover portions of the original territory;
until, according to Cluverius, the kingdom of Abbas the
Great, in 1636, had a part of the Paropamisian range to the
north, the river Indus to the east, the Indian Ocean and
Persian Gulf to the south, and, finally, it had the river
Euphrates and the great Caucasian range for its western and
north-western boundary.3 These limits are also given to
Persia, about the same period, by another geographer (Gol-
nitius), and likewise by two distinguished travellers, Herbert4
and Chardin;5 and, with the exception of the temporary loss
of Kandahar by treason,6 the Persian sovereign continued to
laws, and the management of the how and javelin.—Xenophon, Cyropeed.,
lib. I., cap. ii., § 4, &c., p. T
' Herod.. I. CxXXvi. 8 Ibid., cxxxviii.
8 Cluverius, Introduction to Geography, book V., cap. 12. The river Oxus,
the Caspian, and Mount Caucasus, to the north; Indus to the east; Indian
Ocean and the Persian Gulf to the south; the Euphrates, Mount Niphates,
and Araxes to the west.
4 From Kanddhar to Babylon, 1320 miles; and from Georgia to the Sea of
Gedrosia, 1480 miles.—‘Some Years’ Travels into Africa, Asia, Persia, and
Hindustan, by Thomas Herbert, Esq. London, 1638.
5 From Georgia to the Indus, 550 farsangs; and 300 broad, from the Oxus
to the Indian Ocean.— Chardin, Vol. IV., p. 4.
6 Alimerdan-Kan delivered this city up to the Great Mogul in 1618, and
Shah Ahhas recovered it in 1650.—Ogilby’s Asia, p. 195.
possess (towards the close of the seventeenth century) Turkistan
to the north, Kandahar on the east; with the territories of
Armenia, Kurdistan, Baghdad, &c., to the north-west and
west i1 the whole being flanked and protected by the mountainous
countries which terminated its eastern and western
extremities. Since that period, however, a great change has
taken place, in consequence of the loss of the rest of Afghanistan
on one side; and, more recently, some of the fairest
and richest provinces at the opposite extremity. There are
now three great divisions of ancient fran, each of which
belongs to a separate government.
Affghanistan, the most distant of these sections, stretches
westward of the Indus, until, in the deserts of Kirman and
Seistan, it touches the second division, or Modern Persia.
The latter kingdom is now limited to the central space, and
has a superficies scarcely exceeding that of the former territory
; from which it spreads westward, gradually becoming
narrower, till it terminates near Ararat. The provinces lost
to Turkey and Russia, together, form the third division.
The former of these fill up the space on the western side of
the Shah’s dominions, by extending from the Zagros to the
left bank of the Euphrates; and the latter occupy the space
eastward, between the left bank of the Araxes and the
Caucasus, as far as the Caspian Sea. But as the three
divisions of Iran contain many ancient provinces, and even
kingdoms, to which the deepest interest is attached, it
becomes necessary to notice the divisions particularly; and,
in doing so, the precedence belongs to those parts which
have occupied the first place in the history of the world.
Chaldea and Armenia will, therefore, be the subjects of the
following Chapter.
1 Ogilby’s Asia, p. 2. London, 1763.