The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-14

Arabic script is still used by the peasants
inhabitng the valleys Of the Alpuxarras
Mountains In their love letters. The Pah-
I lawf script was even more closely associated
in the Eastern mind with the Zoroastrian
religion than was the Arabic charac ar
| with the faith of Islam; and. when a Persian
was converted from the former TO the latter
| creed. he gave up. a. a rule, once for all,
a method Of writing which was not only
! cumbrous and ambiguous in the highest
| degree. hut also fraught with heather
associations Mr. Browne would apply Ia
the Pahlawf script the well-kuown definition
| Of speech rs the art Of con"oalin" thought;
I II has no intrinsic merits, save as a il,ia
| pathological puzzle; aud, once derived Of
! the support of religion ancient custom
| and Il conservative priesthood, il could not
| hold It's own against the far more lrgiblc
and convenient Arabic character. of which.
moreover, knowledg" was essential to
every Mosem.
Our author is careful impress on rs.
however. the fac that tn popularity Of
Pahla"l lay in the script o ily, and that
| Pahla"i book READ aloud bv a Ioroastrlan
priest or professioi al .crib Of the ninth
! century Uf our era woui. nave been per
ieoty intelligihle to a contemporary Persian
| Mohamnedan; and that If the latter adj
taken II down in the Arabic character a. lac
| heard II read. what he wrote would have
| been simply modern" Persian in it, most
archaic form. without the adnIixture of
Arabic words. Indeed, So comparatively
slight are tn. changes which the Persian
| spoken language seems to have undergone
since the Sasanian period that If II were
possible for an educated Persian of the
| present day to b. thrust back suddenly
| over period of fourteen or fifteen hundred
wears he would probably be able 70 UNDER
stand az least good deal of what his coun-
| trymen OF that period were saying Far
| wider + the gulf which separates Sdsauian
| or Middle Persian from Old Persian, and
HKst = Lii.
have travelled backwards in time for some
SIX centuries would have comprchendsd
hardly a word of what was said al the Achi.-
menian court.
N B. ne Il ds it tnpo.. i'll, to fix a
dpf.iie da at which m,i.rn Persian
may be sad 10 have begu He thil &
| II probaDl' tina Persiaa cory rt~ TO Islam
| bega to write their la guaga i.I he Arab @
chai &C er very soon after the Arab con-
| quest-tial Is TO say, some time IL the
| 'ighth century OF our era. The first a.
| tempts OF this sort would ma uiaiiy be mere
nemora. da and notes. followed, PERHAPS
| ny small manuals OF lstructiou IN the doc
trlies OF Ian. Fray nantary utt"ra ca.
| IN PERSIAN, and even brief nara ives, are
recorded here ard there in the pages Of
| AIRY Arabic wri ers, and these, n lnG~t ,
| serve 70 show that the Persia Of lat Sasa-
man and early No lamm"dap times was
| "ssrntially the sam as that which is met
win IN the earliest monuments of m 1dern
PersiaH literature. OF actual books Of
| any extent the Persian tran lGtion pi Ia
barl history Che original b. ing. O cou ~.
| IN Aralic), made for Manser T. the : ma id
| prince In A. ID: s63; the Ma ria VI dicl Of
| Abu Mansur MuwaIap, comp, sed Tor ~ q
same royal patron, AID preserved to -
| IN VIENNA manuscript dated A. D. 1855;
and the second volume Of an old com,
inen'ary on the Koran, belonging, appar-
| 'ntly, TO abou, the same period, ar. 20
ar As Is known. the oldest surviving sped
mems " Is gee ally assumed hat in
| i r~ilh a. in Arabic, verse preceded pros,
and u l. seems to he cor firmcd hy the au-
nor OF The Oldest eS'aGt biography Of
| Per. ian p oets. who fonu-h,i Early IN the
thrr""ttr century 4 cur era, who .a V
| ma IN art Persian T. ,"m W., COMPOSED In
| A,D SO Il that our author deems il sa'.tu
user - that modern Persian literature
| especially poetry. had begun to flourish
| COZ ierably in Khorasan during the first
| na!f of the tenth CENTURY. especially during
.e reign of the Samarid prir c.. Mar ii
q. u. $1,000, aud thus covers a period OF
early thousand yeas, during which
lime the la guasc has changed so little
| tat the verses oil az early pc Ike Rudagi
arr az ast as iItell gjbn to a Persian o,
io-dav a. l. Shakespeare To modern
Englishman.
| Ii will he obvious from what : here said
about the birth date Of modern Persian
that, what the oidIary reader under
stands by Persian Literature is almost all
reserved Tor treatment III the authors
second volume. What We have bcforr
us II the Prolegomena with which the stu
dent OF Persian Literature ought to be made
acquainted il he il 10 acquire an historical
knowledge Of the subject. Among tie
interesting preliminary quest ions which
are here discussed we will nov rentjon
but two. Did such a person as Ioroastcr
YER live; and what was the date Of the
Aves'a, as the B BILE Of the Xoroastrians
Is called? Touching these long-Cuntro-
vertcd points, Mr. Browne a,ocpts the
conclusions reached bv Prof A ' " II ans
jackson Of Columbia University, New York,
which are q MS set forth "Zoroas;cr
was a perfectly historical parsonage.
member Of tie Med an tribe Of II q Magi
He flourish cd about the middle Of the sew
enth century before Christ hat j.. during
he domff on Of tie Medes. and before the
rise Of the AC' armenian power. and d cd
about b. {. $50. aged II He was a ma
tive Of Western Persia CAtropatere, or
Medal, but his first notable success was
gained in Bactria (Ralkh, vi ere H., sue
coeded in converting X ne V shtaspa tGush-
tasp). The Gathas (admttodlv the old
est portion Of the Avesta) reflect with fiie-
'tv the substance Of Ioroasters original
preaching in Balkh. From Bactria the
religion of Zoroaster spread rapdlv
'hroughout Persia. and was dominant in
Ears Persia proper under the later AciRm-
onians, But the date of its introduction
nio This part Of Iran ard Of it, adoption
by TIE PEOPLE and rulers Of Persia is UNI
certain"