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SHORT HISTORY

OF

PERSIA.

399

CHAP. I.

The Pifhdadian Family.

CHRIST,

890.

CAIUMARAS*, whom fome have fup- Before
pofed to be the King of Elam mentioned in
the Scripture, founded the Perfian Empire,
and fixed the feat of it in the province of
Azarbigian. He was oppofed in his noble
enterprises by the inhabitants of the moun-
tains and forefts, who, like the wild Tartars
and Arabs, dwelled in tents or caverns, and
led a rambling life among rocks and in deferts.
The rude appearance of these Savages, com-
pared with the more polished manners of
those, who first began to be civilized, gave
rife to the fiction of Demons and Giants among
the Perfians, who call them Dives † and re-
present them as declared enemies to Man.

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1

B. C. 865.

B. C. 835.

HUSHENG *, Grandfon of Caiumaras, was, probably, contemporary with Minos, and,. like him, was eminent for his Justice and excellent Laws, which gained him the furname of Pifhdad, or The Legiflator, whence the first race of Perfian Kings took the name of Pifhdadians. He taught Agriculture to his fubjects, and made great improvements in the art; he advised them to water their fields with artificial canals, a custom still frequent in Perfia, where the foil is uncommonly dry. He alfo difcovered mines of iron in his kingdom, which metal he wrought into weapons, and tools for husbandry. He was the first, who bred dogs and leopards for hunting, and introduced the fashion of wearing the furs of wild beafts in winter. He is also faid to have built the city of Shufter or Sufa, to have extended the bounds of his Empire, and to have penetrated as far as the coaft of the Indian Sea.

TAHMURAS fucceeded his father Hufeng; he built feveral cities in the two provinces of Irak, and among them Babel or Babylon, and Niniveh, near the ruins of which the cities of Bagdad and Mufel are now fuppofed to ftand. He affigned the government

طهورت + پیشداد + هوشنگ

of these cities, with large territories annexed B. C. 835. to them, to his moft illuftrious Ministers, who are known to us by the names of Affyrian and Babylonian Monarchs, though, most probably, they payed homage to the fovereign. lords of Iran.

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This prince encouraged arts and manufactures, and particularly the planting of rice, and the breeding of filk-worms; he first used a complete fuit of armour, and civilized many barbarous nations, whence he was called Divbend *, or, The Tamer of Giants.

GEMSHID† finished the City of Iftakhar, B. C. sov. or, as the Greeks called it, Perfepolis, which his uncle Tahmuras had begun, and the ruins of which are ftill fhown, by the name of Cheblminár ‡, or, The Forty Pillars. He introduced the use of the Solar Year among the Perfians, and ordered the first day of it, called Nurúz §, when the Sun enters the Ram, to be folemnized by a fplendid festival. This gave a beginning to Aftronomy among his fubjects, and at the fame time, perhaps, to the idolatrous respect, which the common people afterwards fhowed to the Sun. Gemfbid, or Gem, for he is known by both names, was a

دیوبند * جمشید +

نوروز

چهل منار

VOL. X.

D D

Yet

B. C. 800. wife and magnificent prince: he was the first, who instituted publick baths, and encouraged his fubjects to dive for pearls in the Green Sea, or Perfian Gulf; he invented tents and pavilions, and difcovered the ufe of lime in building: he built a ftrong bridge over the Tigris, which, according to the Afiatick writers, was demolished by the Greeks. this illuftrious monarch was unfortunate in war: he was driven from his throne by Zohác, a native of Arabia, and spent the remainder of his life in travel. The Queen, his wife, faved her fon Feridun from the ufurper, and educated him in a diftant retreat. The Perfians fay, that musical inftruments were invented in the reign of Gemfhid; and they add, that Pythagoras and Thales were his Contemporaries.

B. C. 780.

B. C. 750.

ZOHAC*, the Ufurper, was a detestable Tyrant: his cruelty forced the Perfians to revolt, and a General, named Gáo, having defeated him, drew the young Feridun from his retirement, and placed him upon the throne.

FERIDUN† is confidered by the Perfians as a model of every virtue: he gave the province of Irak or Parthia to his Deliverer Gao, as a principality for life; and having fent for

ضحاك * فریدون +

the standard, which that officer ufed in his B. C. 750. battle against Zohác, he adorned it with precious ftones, and preferved it in his treasury *,

Feridun, wishing to spend the last years of his life in a ftudious retirement, divided his vaft dominions between his three fons: he allotted Syria and the western provinces to Salm, who was, perhaps, the Salmanaffer of the Jews; he gave the country beyond the Oxus to Túr, whence the Tranfoxan Regions were called Turán, and affigned the kingdom of Khorafan and all the heart of his Empire to Irage, his youngest fon, whose share took the name of Irán, which it ftill retains. The two elder brothers, thinking this divifion partial, made war against Irage, and flew him in a cruel manner; they would even have dethroned Feridun, had not Manucheher, fon of Irage, a youth of great hopes, led a powerful army against them, and avenged the death of his father. This divifion of the Perfian empire into Iran and Turan has been a fource of perpetual diffenfions between the Persians

*This Standard, which bore for many ages the name of Gaváni,is faid to have been brought into the field by the laft King of the Saffanian race, when hiş army engaged the Arabs at Cadeffia, in the year 636 of our æra; but it was taken by Saad, Omar's general, who diftributed the jewels, which adorned it, among his officers.

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