New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-04-27
THE WRITINGS OF PERSIA.
MEAGRE HISTORY OF A NOBLE LITERATURE.
PERSIAN LITERATURE. Ancient and Modern. BY
Elizabeth A. Reed. PIP. xiv, 4l9. :. {. Grggs
10

tured 10y the Turks, and th1t The learned men VINO
were doing their lives away In that city OF delight
had not been scattered with their treasured Greek
literature the face of Western Europe suppose
that Napoleon had never lived to shake the burden
some and obnoxious skeleton Of fcudal!sm TO pieces
The inany Of the modern world without the results
Of these tempcs uous Interruptions in the calm flow
OF history would De something almost Impossible to
imagine But The Renaissance and The campaigns OF
Napoleon lc taken together 10 furnish parallel
for what happened when Tie McdoPersian power
broke loose from lis EGmic mOOrIDss. scattered The
learning Of Assyria and Egypt far west as the
Greek colonies % Italy and sicily. rcvOu,ionzed the
political systems of Asia, and converted the Orient
TO practical mouotheism that lasted in it, purity
for three centuries. and in its mpury persists even
10 this day.
II Is the fact that the mcrgcnce Of Persia was 50
eIcctual in the spread O; civilization narrowly CON
fined hitherto which makes is early literature inter
esLIg. even though only partially comprehensive.
one OF the counts In he indictment To BE- brought
against the book cited at the head Of this article Is
that willie 1t assert, and rciterate, almost to wear
The dependence of Persian literature the older
learning o. the Euphlate, Valley. its imgmentaTy
efforts at proof leave the matter almost wholly 10
The imagination Of IN. reader Whether il be true
not. The theory OF intimate relationship. that of
parent and offspring between tie old Tnrano semitic
culture and later so-called Aryan civilization j.
the most reasonable that has yet been offered to
tie public ny persons expert in Oriental antiquity.
IL deserves most careful popular treatment. thor
aspects. one important fact the ore which Is
most per>sen,y ignored is that the PeIsians known
10 history constituted political organization and not
q race. hat the bond Of unity among item one
Of politics language ard rel. son. and not one OF
blood. The word -iryan has done more mischief 10
historic realism than almost any other word ever in
vented. L would hardly be an eXlgccration TO say
that from tie eighth century before Christ onward
there was not enough downright pure Persian blood
between the Caspian sea and the mouth of the
Euphrates stock the arteries OF halfdOzen v<or
Gus families. When the Achocmenid princes issued
from their primitive olScurily the LORDS of AnSan
and undertook the conque>t Of the world. unaided
ought convince Is that they rejected 10 help
that offered them. The subsequent organization
OF the empire in which the prncely families enjoyed
tie privileges OF wearing uara, o, marriage with
royalty. Of ire TO the royal presence and of
hereditary ru.orsAp. show that the triuu plant po
ca, organism combination Of iud pendent parties
like the teuoal systems o Continental Europe, not q
conquest, with overshadowins leader. by = united
race IN the OF Gen-his Khan or ramerane. or
even-speaLins with some reserye-oi william in
England.
\ significant fact bearing on this point f, that
Zoroastrianisu, tie so-caed Aryan religion. not
the pretended faith o. the early Persian mon
srchs. subordinate rulers. and after they had
risen 10 supreme power the Archaemenid princes
chung. doubtless for political reasons. TO the idolatry
which grew up in Chaldoeo and was preserved. aug
ulen,ed and perfected by the Assyraus. Cyrus and
the other gods OF Babylon. restored their temples,
enriched and ennobed their priests took part in The
ceremonies haEowed in the popular mind by long ages
o, use and looked the ms ;e Tor favors. 1t is Of
record that Cyrus offered a petition 10 Merodach and
ssked the aid for his Cambyses that atore
tine tho weak but pious Nabonid had besought for
his son Belshaz,ar. The Egyptian monuments show,
whatever Cambyses may have done in the fits of in
sanity 70 which b subject. that lie petite
enough in his sober moments to express tervent de-
N.t-h -aF- Nd 10
ceremonious about the burial Of Apis. These
two kings dc not seem 10 have known or paid
any regard TO the stern prohibition against the &c
Element OF the sacred element OF FIRE, prohibition
which included the Of the funeral pyre COM
mon with Western nations NJ various times. Cyrus
doomed Croesus TO be burned TO death. and was
tissuaded 10; By religious prejudice. but Herodotus
says, by q witlicsm. Cambyses willingly allowed the
Helenzing Amasis. King Of Egypt, the honors OF the
fiery funeral Even Darius. who protested the re-
Nron attributed 10 his race comparatively late
convert, for told that in the Behisiun i>crip
ton he vaunted Lis devotion the gods In restoring
the temples which Gaumata the Ma gan had DESTROYED.
The contrast IS very srea: be such utternce
and that credited the hing the Nedi1n In
scription. where he l. supposed TO say that BE- has
caused 10 be written book in the Aryan tongue.
hook which never before existed possibly The Av4s'a
Containing TIE text % The divine law tie forms VI
prayer. a translation and q commentary. sue. facts
these have led scholars like Du PerrOn Roeih.
spiese Foi-l and Others argue that ZoroaStcr him
self WAS no mythical creation Of prehistoric times but
q comparatively modern personage. the friend Of
Darus's father Hystapes. Their aggressive Euh>mer-
ism can WI bs pardoned fl view OF the results 70
which II may lead Il certainly looks-as Floic said
as Darius found the popularity Of a new reuaen
too strons for ancient preiudces and At last quietly
accepted TIE reform part Of the Persian movement.
AID allowed claim that the God Of Zoroa,ter
Sss 20 b. credited with the Persian victory.
But tbs transition BY which the Acaocme.ii princes
passed from real polite devotion 20 the -i> o.;
their masters, the As,yri4ns. 10 a religion presumably
that Of their own occupied period OF centuries.
Darius reckone1 nne generations from Acha4mcnrs
himself. N all that tine both princes and people
In the closest contact with ASsyra and BABYLON
upon this the presumption must rest o.
infusion OF The primeval southern culture into the
habits and beliefs and prose and poetry Of the more
northern trbes T e triumph o; the Pcrsans was 10
nroad OF bSrborsns, like tue invasion 4 the Roman
Empire by Gauls or thc Huns: 1t revolution
from within By men who likely b. iubued
with the general civilization Of the times as those
against whom they retelled. Under such circumstances
the burden u proof in Of apparently ac,-
dental confidence between Assyral and Persian lit
e-atre. upon those who DENY ne possibility Of
loans from one 10 another, and talk vaguely Of
tie tendency Of Humanity 10 reproduce tie sam"
thOus l. under similar conditions l. IS On
haes like these that proof D. given OF the a>ser
ton In this book tst the Persian Empire gathered TO
Itself the culture OF ancient Nincveh the poo
dreams OF Chaldea7 and that the Persian mythology.
like that Of other Aryan Races. i, tracedblt 10
system o! sensual doairy wica hurished In the val
lev Of the EuvArates The origin Of her MYTHS
found in tie sacred groves of Basil and around ;-e
altlrs OF AsA,arotl7 But It is simply impossible 10
suppose that such borrowing could have occurred
II the Medo Pcrsians had been they are sometimes
pictured. not only In this volume but in Others. As
- rcs.stleSs horde. presumably OF barbarans. which
poured down from the mountains, swept all OF Western
Asia into It's current and formed tie kindred tribes
into single monarchy There is not scintilla Of
evidence that any sudden Eruption occurred IN this
Had the Persian movement been Of ilis
KIND. those engaged IN Il would have vanished. -
their contemporary sCytAlans did after sweeping Ike