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

I thoughts through the medium Of the Per-
sian language. The Manifestations Of the
national genius in the fields Of religion
! philosophy and science interest him al
least as much as those belonging to the
domain Of literature in the narrower sense:
lille the ling uistic vehicle through which
they sought expression is, from his point OF
! view, Indifferent. The outcome of this
purpose is that more il said n the volume
before us about intellectual movements
than about books, and less rbout book
written in Persian than about those written
In Paula 4 Arabic, or some other language.
, We should add that the auther has ad-
dressed himself rather to the ordinary
reader than to the Orientalist by profess
| SIGN: and most Of all to the small. but grow
ing body Of amateurs Who. having learned
, TO love the Persian poets in translation
| desire to know more of the lang uage. litera-
ture, history and thought Of one Of the most
ancient, gifted and original peoples in the
world. Az regards the authors method of
| translltera,ing Oriental names and words
! it should be noted that, for the most part
| he follows the system approved by the
Royal Asiatic Society for the tram cTiption
Of the Arabic characters. Thus il hap
pens that he writes Hafidh, Ndha mi. 'Cmar
! Firdaw-i, for Hafiz. Miami. Omar and
| Firdousi. In few cases, however, he has
allowed himself to be swayed by usage al
! the expense Of uniformity.
Mr.. Browne begins by pointing out that
the term Persian" used by us. aud by the
Jews. Greeks, Syrians, Arabs and other
| foreigners, has "A wider adjudication than
that which 1t originally bore. The Per
| >iaus called themselves Irani and their
land Iran, and of this land Parasa, the
| Persis of the Greek, the modern Ears, Is
! bat one province out Of several provinces
! Because, however. that province gave
! birth TO the two great dynasties the Ache
| neulan In the sixth century before, and
| the Sasanian in the third century after
! Christi which made their arms formidable
and their name famous in the West, its
| meaning Was extended IA to include
| tho whole people and country which We call
! Persia, just AZ the IT b Of Angles gave
| their name TO England. As in the isle
Of Britain Angles. Saxons and Jutes vera
| merged into one English people. and the
dialects Of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex
: in one English language, 50 in Iran, the In
habi,aits 81 Parthia. Nicola and Perss be-
came In course If time blended In one Per-
sian people. and their kindred dialects IN
one Persian tongue. The Persian language
Of to-day. Farsi, the language Of Fars,
il then the lineal offspring OF the language
which Cyrus and Darius spoke, in which
the proclamatious engraved by their COM
mancls on the rocks Of Behistun and the
walls and columns Of Persepolis are drawn
up, These Inscriptions Of the AchRmen-
lea, L Ia. rIl.,I ia p. rain from u
$50 until the last Darius was overthrow
by Alexander the Great. b. c $50, are sufii-
GENTLY extensive and well understood
to show what the Persian language was
more than twenty-four hundred years ago.
Remote, however, as il the period from
witch the earliest written monuments OF
the Persian language date. these monu-
lneuts do not present an uubroken series
On the contrary, heir continuity If broker
between the Ac, - n"uiai period and the
present day by Two great gaps correspond
ing With two great foreign invasione which
shattered the Persian power and reduce
the Persian ltopi" to the position of 1t
subject race. The fir, Of these. heginLill
with he Greek invasion under Alexander
and cnding with the overthrow Of tn,
Par hiau by the Sasaiiai. dynasty, EN-
braces period ui about Ave centuries ai.d
a hail (B {. $50 A, u. 226l. The secoI-d,
bcgL.rh.g wiki the Arab invasion a..u
Mobammcdau conquest. which destroyed
he S,..Liln dynasty and overt brew The
IoroaSt rau religion. " ugh much shorter,
had far deeper and mo c ycrmal eat effects
upon the people, ih,Gl "a, and lar guage oi
Persia. The Arab conquest may he said to
haze beer. completed by the dealt OF the ia,t
oasaiiaA X ng. \, D, 65l or G5Z. he END
II the Arab leriod C;uuot bc definitely
fixed. In a certain, r"us,, 1t endured until
the sack Of Bigdad and murder Of Al
Mustasln Biah, the last Abbasid tahph
ia \, ID. l25s, by the Mpngols u.Idcr tin
graz dson of Le.ghiz Khan. Long before
this tn" Arab power had passed into "a,
han. ads Of the Persian and Turkish vassalr,
and, broadly speaking, the revival of the
Persian language proceeded pan Pdssp
With the detachment of the Per-lan PROV
inccs from the direct COnuOlo OF the Cal, Ms
admin ,'ration aud the uprising Of the local
dyl.asti les. OF these dy a les, the Iahirids
GA. ID. S?Ol are some. limos accounted tn,
frs; but, Ia our authors opinion, they
should rather to- held 10 begin with the
Sal n ids "a. ID. S8O, Sama!ids "a. ID. SD,
M.d Buwayhids "a. D. 1927, and To reach
their full development il the Gha2nawids
and Selluks. al account of which TWO last
named dynaSties IL reserved for I h. authors
sccoi.d volume
The history, then, of the Persian language,
falls iato three well-defned periods The
represented 10y the "dic,s aud proclama-
iol.s cont aimed ia the Persian cMiriiorm
ii. scrip ions, which, though Of CONSIDERABLE,
uXteIi are similar In character and style,
and yield "A vocabulary of not much more
than four hun .drcd separate words. The
language reprcsc'. ted by these Inscriptions,
AID by them only, il generally called Ola
Persian. Tn" second. or Sasarian period,
is represented by inscriptions on moIIu-
meuts, medals, gems, seals and coins, and
10y literature estimated rs about equal
IN bulk TO the Old Testament, This litera-
ture il entirely XOroastrian, and almost
entirely theological and liurgical. The
language In which il Is written, when dis
"i'aLgled from the graphic system used
Ia represent il, proves Ia be little more than
a very archaic form az the present speech
Of Persia, devoid 81 the Arabic element,
II is known generally a. Pahlavf sometimes
rs Middle Pcr.sl. Properly speak, g,
he term PAIL WI applies rather to the script
han To thu la:.guage, but, following the
general usage, our author retains It. IL.
speaking Of the official language OF Sasarian
Persia. The script coutn. ued to I've used
on the coins Of the early caliphs for more
than a CO Itury after the Arab conquest Of
lrau; and for al least az long additions
continued 30 bc made bv the Zoroastrilus
Of Persia 10 the Pnha, iterature Thu
latest Of these additions, however, hardly
reach beyond the uilth century 81 our era
Practically speak, q. the natural, ~ OPP