B. C. 750. and Tartars, as the latter have taken every B. C. 720. B C, 695. opportunity of paffing the Oxus, and laying waste the districts of Khorafan; they have even pushed their conquests so far, as to overturn the power of the Califs, and afterwards to raise a mighty Empire on the banks of the Ganges. MANUCHEHER* made great improvements in the government of Perfia, and was the first who began to fortify his cities with ramparts and ditches. He was fond of im, proving gardens, and of cultivating curious. plants. He was not fortunate in war, though his General and Vizir, the fon of Neriman, was the braveft hero of his age. In his reign the celebrated Roftam is faid to have been born of Rudába, an Indian princess, by Zálzer or The golden-haired, a youth of exquisite beauty and eminent virtues: but, as Roftam was, certainly, a Commander under Cyrus, he muft, if we place him under Manucheher, have lived above an hundred and fifty years; which is scarce credible, though fuch a fiction may be allowed in the poems of Ferdufi. NUZAR †, fon of Manucheher, fucceeded to the diadem, but not to the glory, of his father. While his court was torn in pieces by a number of factions, Afráfiáb, King of B. C. 695. Túrán, a lineal defcendant from Túr, son of Feridûn, paffed the Oxus with a formidable army, and, having defeated the Perfian Monarch, flew him with his own hand. This Invader reigned twelve years in Perfia, but was forced by Zalzer, or The Prince with golden Hair, to repafs the Oxus, and return to his own dominions. It is more than probable, that Afrafiáb was a common name for the Kings of Afiatick Tartary, since the grandfather of Cyrus, whom we commonly call Afyages, bore the same name, and we cannot fuppofe Him to have been the first invader of Perfia*. It was not long before the Turanians invaded B. C. 667. Iran a fecond time, and, by forcing the great commanders of Perfia to defend their own Principalities, reduced the power of the Perfian Kings to a fhadow. Afrafiab, either the monarch above-mentioned, or another of his name, is reckoned the ninth king of Perfia. ZAV† was a prince of the royal line, and B. C, 629.` was placed on the throne by Zalzer, but en * The family of Othman, who now reign at Conftantinople, are willing to be reputed defcendants from this King of Turan, and are flattered with the Epithet of Afrafíáb Jáh, or olạ i̟ Powerful as Afrafíáb. افر زو + B. C. 639. joyed only the title of King, as the Turanians had overrun great part of his Empire, and kept him in continual alarm. These are the Scythians of our Ancient Hiftories, who are faid about this time to have invaded the kingdom of the Medes; but our best hiftorians are apt to confound them with the Scythians of the North. B. C. 633. GERSHASP *, son of Zav, or KISHTASP, as fome writers call him, reigned but a few years, if it could be called reigning, to have the name of King, and to be more helpless than his fubjects: he was the last prince of the Pifhdadians. During the reign of these monarchs in Perfia, if we believe our Chronologers, Dido built Carthage, Homer wrote his Poems, which were afterwards brought into Greece by Lycurgus; the Pyramids of Egypt were raised by Cheops, Cephren, and Nitocris; the Affyrians founded a powerful Dynafty; Athens was firft governed by Archons; and Sabaco, whom the Perfians call Cús Pildend †, or with the Teeth of an Elephant, because he first made use of that beaft in his wars, became famous in Ethiopia, and spread his arms over all Africa. This warriour was contemporary with Feridun, کوس پیلدند + کرشاسب who reigned, as we have feen, seven hundred B. C. 633. and fifty years before Christ, at which time, fays Newton, Sabaco the Ethiopian invaded Egypt. Rome, the rival of Carthage and Athens, was built in the reign of Gershásp. CHAP. II. The Caianian Family. WHILE Zalzer, the most powerful prince of B. C. 610. Perfia, was encamped in his province of Seiftán, the Drangiana of the Greeks, Afrafiab, who had fubdued all Media, confidered himfelf as Sovereign of the Empire. By this time, another fon of Zav, named Cobád, began to distinguish himself in his engagements against the Turanians, and, being affifted by Zalzer, whofe fon Roftam was very young at this time, he was enabled to drive the invaders from Iran, and to place himself upon the throne of his ancestors. Efchylus, who flourished but an hundred years after this event, rightly attributes the recovery of B. C. 610. the Empire to this prince, whom he calls a "The Mede, in his Tragedy of the Perfians: 66 guided his mind: the third was Cyrus, a fortunate Man *." It is evident that these three kings are Cai Cobád †, Cai Cäus, and Cai Cofru or Khofru; whom the Greeks call Cyaxeres, Darius the Mede, and Cyrus. The first fyllable of Cyaxeres is apparently the Cai of the Perfians, which fignifies a Great King, and was prefixed to the names of those three princes, whence the whole race were named Caianians. The Ancients tell us, that Cyaxeres flew the Scythian Chiefs at a feast, to which he had invited them; but the Easterns are filent on this head, and it seems more probable, that the Tartars were compelled by force to repafs the Oxus; our authors make them retire beyond Cholcos and Iberia, confounding, as ufual, the Oriental with the Northern Scythians, Cai Cobád made several wife regulations in his kingdom, and ordered * Μῆδος γὰρ ἦν ὁ πρῶτος ἡγεμὼν σρατᾶ, |