is an elegant couplet of Jámi on this celebrated A. D. 590. Beauty and her lovers: When Shirín, says he, opened her lips, that shed fweetness around, fhe Stole the heart of Parviz, and the foul of Ferhad *.

This prince is faid to have received a letter from Mahomed, inviting him to embrace the new fect of the Arabians; but, as he was extremely addicted to the popular religion of his country, he tore the letter with great difdain.

Parviz, if we believe the Eafterns, was a lover of mufick, and a patron of those who profeffed that art: his chief Musician was Barbúd, who compofed a favourite tune called Aurengi, or Royal, and invented a fort of lute, known by his name; whence M. d'Herbelot fuppofes, a little too haftily, that the Greeks formed their word Barbiton, not reflecting, that Anacreon and Horace ufed that word many ages before the birth of Parviz. The Perfians, like the ancient Greeks, call their musical modes, or Perda's, by the names of different countries or cities, as the mode of Ipahan, the mode of Irak, the mode of

* In Perfian

لب شیرین بشکرریز بکشان دل از پرویز برد و جان زفرهان

A. D. 590. Hejáz, or the Arabian mode. Whether these modes, like ours, mean a fucceffion of founds relating by just proportions to one principal note, or only a particular fort of air, it has not been in my power to learn. If we may argue from the softness of the Perfian language, the strong accentuation of the words, and the tenderness of the fongs which are written in it, we may conclude that the Perfians must have a natural and affecting melody, which is, certainly, true mufick; but they seem to be very little acquainted with the Theory of that fublime art: and, indeed, the Europeans knew as little of it, till it was explained to them by Rouffeau of Geneva, who has written upon the fubject like a Philofopher, an Artist, and a Man of Tafte.

A.D. 629.

After the death of Parviz, the Empire. began to decline: the five Princes, and the two Queens who fucceeded to Shirúieh, or Siroes, as they were eminent neither in peace nor in war, are not worthy of a place in History.

The Arabs, under the command of Omar, were perpetually making inroads upon the Perfian Empire, and finally overthrew it by the defeat of YEZDEGIRD who was

يزدجرد *

killed in the middle of the feventh century; and A D. 623. by his death the family of Saffan became ex

tinct.

CHAP. IV.

The Mohammedan Dynafties.

OMAR was fucceeded by a race of Califs, the Popes of Afia, who affumed at once a regal and a priestly character, the one as conquerors of Perfia, and the other as fucceffors of Mahomed. The family of OMMIA preserved their power and dignity; but, under the house of ABBAS, the Califate was reduced to a fhadow of fovereignty, and their Empire was divided among a number of independent Princes.

The divifion of the Empire prepared it for diffolution; the fons of GENGHIZ, who led a numerous army of Tartars over the Oxus, found the conquest of Perfia an easy task. It is related, that Holagu, a Mogúl prince, who put an end to the Califate in the thirteenth century, was incited to befiege Bagdad, by

the great aftronomer Naffireddin, who had taken offence at the Calif's behaviour to him; so that the fubverfion of a splendid Empire was owing to the refentment of a private Philofopher *. The Genghizians were followed by TIMUR, improperly called Tamerlane, whofe dominions extended from the Ganges to the borders of Mufcovy, and from the Archipelago to the frontiers of China; which kingdom he was beginning to invade at the time of his death. The metropolis of his Empire was Samarcand, a rich and flourishing city, the ancient Maracanda, fituated in the beautiful valley of Sogd, about a day's journey from Cash, the place of his birth. At the opening of the fifteenth century, not many months before his death, he celebrated the nuptials of his fons and grandfons by a fumptuous feftival in a delightful plain called Gánigult, or The Treasury of Rofes. All the riches of Xerxes and Darius, of which our hiftorians talk fo extravagantly, were trifling in comparison of the jewels and gold exhibited on this occafion.

His vaft poffeffions were inherited by the illuftrious SHAROKH, who diftributed them

* M. d'Herbelot treats this anecdote as a fable.

شان كل +

among

his children. In his reign the princes of the BLACK RAM grew very powerful and infolent; they were, however, reduced by UZUN HASSAN, or Hafan 'the Tall, who was the fixth king of the WHITE RAM, and fubdued many provinces of Perfia, but was defeated by Sultan Mahomed II. who took Conftantinople in the middle of the fifteenth century. These two families were distinguished by the Rams of different colours, which were painted on their enfigns.

The fons of Haffan weakened their Empire by their violent diffenfions; and, in the beginning of the fixteenth century, left it open to ISMAIL, whose grandfather Funeid had married a daughter of Haffan. This prince is confidered as the founder of the Sefi family, but his ancestor SHEIKH SEFI was the true caufe of its rife. The story of that fingular man deferves to be told at full length. When Timur returned to Perfia, after his victories in Syria, he paffed through Ardebil, a large city of Media. There lived at that time in this city a man named Sefieddin, or the Purity of Religion, by contraction Sefi, who was much refpected by the Citizens, as a philofopher of fingular virtue and piety, and a reputed defcendant from the prophet