people. But in an ethnological sense, the extent of1 the
Arian country was, even according to Strabo, much wider;
for that geographer expressly informs us, that the name
of Ariani comprehended the Persians and Medes, as well
as the northern Bactrians and Sogdians; and, headds,
what is very important as a proof, that all these nations
spoke dialects of one language.* That the same name was
recognised by the Persians themselves as thé designation
of their race, we know from other sources. In Pehlvi
inscriptions on coins of the Sassanidse, deciphered by M..
Silvestre de Sacy, the princes of that dynasty are styled
Kings of Kings, and Sovereigns of the Arii and Anarii,
meaning Monarchs of Iran and countries beyond Iran.f
The aame of Airya, in Zend, according to M. Burnouf,-
corresponds with the Aria of the Greeks.$ In Pehlvi it
is Eeriene, and Eeriene Yeedjo or the “ Pure Iran?ds in
the Pehlvi parts of the old Persian Scriptures, the primitive
seat of the Arian race, the offspring of Kaiomorts. *
We collect from the evidence* of these remarks thé'
ancient name of the Arian race, and the fact that the whole
people of Iran spoke one language. ^Through the history
of this language we shall be enabled to .proceed further
into that of the race. For this purpose we. must %egin
from modern times.
Paragraph 2.—Of the Modern Persian dialects.
Perhaps there is no modern writer whose opinion would
be likely to carry greater weight, in regard to the groupe
of languages belonging to the modern Persians and the Persians
of the middle. ages, than Herr Von Hammer. In
a memoir by that learned oriental scholar, on the language
and literature of Persia, I find some remarks which are
important to my purpose.
* Ettri Uepaai, Mjjfloi, Baicrpioi irpoaapKTOi nat 'SoySiavoi iro>e 6p,oyXurroi
voipa pixpov»—Strabo, p. 734.
f Silv. de Saey, Mem. sur les laser, de Nakschi Roustam. Ritter, Erdkunde,
v. As. B. 6. s. 33
t The name of Airya, in Zend; corresponds with the Aria and Ariana of the
Greek geographers. It is Eeriene, in Pelhvi.
Von Hammer begins by admitting what indeed nobody
will deny,—that the modern Persian belongs to the great
family of languages, which he terms, Indo-Sclavo-Germanic.
He remarks further, that' it approaches more, nearly than
any other Asiatic idiom to the Germanic and Teutonic
languages. ' v
We must distinguish, he says^tbe Persian from the
Median or Arian language ; he means the Zend, an idiom
which, though prevalentf in Persia as a sacred language
(witness the Magian books, and the cuneiform inscriptions),
is yet distinct from the Persian, and has few direct relationsr
with it.
We »must here observe, that this, ©pinion pf Von Hammer
is, clearly contradictory to that of~the learned men who
have made the Zend language their peculiarfstudyj .they all
find, as wo.isTiall perceive, extensive relations between the
ancient and'modern languages of the Persian empire.
We learn,, says Von' Hammer, from | ancient historical
notices, that there were two distinct dialects in Persia from
remote time'sthe1'eastern or Deri, and the-western, or .
ÜPehiÉÉ' Thé Deri was spoken beyond the Oxus, and at"the .
fopt of thev Paropamisus, at Balkh, Meron, in Badakshan,
at Bokhara, and Baroian.rvTh* Pehlvi was in use-in
Media proper, in the towns of Rei, Hamadan or Ecbatana,
Isfahan, Nehawend, and at Tabriz, thp; capital of Ader-
beijan. Pehlvi prevailedtill the conquest of the Moslims.
J it was the language of thé historical' books from which
Ferdusi drew the relations of the Shahnameh, of some
inscriptions such as that of Nakshi Rustam, and Pehlvi
legends are read on the-coihs of the Sassanidae.* Fer-
' dusi mentions no other old Persian than the Pehlvi;
and no" written monument, anterior to ‘thé' conquest,' is
known in any other language, or éharaetër. From this
remark we shall find that the Zend and’ the language of
the cuneiform inscriptions are exceptions.
* The Pehlvi, and the characters of Sassanide coins, gave way after the
conquest, to the Cufic, which were used till the 6th age of the Hejira, and. are
found in the oldest Persian MS. in Europe. This is a medical dictionary,» by
the son of tile poet Esedi, A. D. 1055.