lost his life (330 B. C.); after which Alexander made himself master of the whole empire (329 B. C.). On the dissolution of the Macedonian empire, after the death of Alexander (323), the Seleucides (see Seleucus) ruled over Persia until 246 B. C. They were succeeded by the Arsacides, who founded the empire of the Parthians, which existed until 229 A. D. Ardshir Babekan (Artaxerxes) then obtained the sovereignty of Central Asia, and left it to his descendants, the Sassanides, who ruled 407 years. With them begins, according to Hammer (q. v.), the romantic character of Persian chivalry; and the six most renowned rulers of this dynasty, among whom are Behramgur, Chosroes, Parwis, and Nushirvan, are the subjects of Persian romances. Ardshir, son of Sassan, ruled from 218 to 241. The wars which he carried on with the Romans were continued under his successor, Shapur (Sapor I, until 271), against Gordian and Valerian (the latter of whom fell into the hands of Sapor, and was treated in a most revolting manner), and were not terminated until the peace of king Narses with Diocletian (303). When Sapor the Great (from 309 to 380) had become of full age, the empire again recovered strength. He punished the Arabs for their incursions,and took the king of Yemen prisoner, and demanded from the emperor of Constantinople the cession of all the country to the Strymon, as Ardshir had once done. Constantine the Great, Constantine II and Julian resisted his demands; but Jovian purchased peace by a cession of the five provinces in question and the fortress of Nisibis. Sapor also extended his conquests into Tartary and India. War and peace successively followed, without any important events, after the death of Sapor. Under Artaxerxes II (until 383), Sapor III (until 388), and Vararanes IV (until 399), the empire flourished. Arabs, Huns and Turks successively appear on the field, as allies or enemies of Persia. Yezdegerd I (until 420), a friend of the Christians, conquered Armenia in 412. In the year 420, Vararanes V ascended the throne by the aid of the Arabs. He was victorious against Theodosius II, defeated the Huns who invaded his empire, and conquered the kingdom of Yemen. He was succeeded by Vararanes VI (until 457) and Hormisdas III. In the year 457, Firus (Pheroses) ascended the throne by the assistance of the Huns, but afterwards made war against them, and lost his life in battle in 483. Valens, or Balash (from 488 to 491) was stripped of a part of his

His

territories by the Huns, and obliged to pay them a tribute for two years. The Sassanides, however, soon regained their greatness and power. Cobad (until 531) subdued the Huns; and, though he had recovered his throne, in 498, by their assistance, yet, at a later period, he waged a successful war against them, against Athanasius, the Indians, and Justinian I. youngest son and successor, Chosrou Anushirvan (from 531 to 579) was distinguished for his uncommon wisdom and valor. Under him the Persian empire extended from the Mediterranean to the Indus, from the laxartes to Arabia and the confines of Egypt. He waged successful wars with the Indians and Turks, with Justinian and Tiberius, and the Arabs, whom he delivered from the oppression of petty tyrants, and suppressed the rebellions of his brother and his son. The Lazians in Colchis, wearied with the Greek oppression, submitted themselves to him; but, when he attempted to transfer them into the interior of Persia, they again placed themselves under the dominion of Justinian, whose arms were now victorious. Anushirvan died of grief during the negotiations for peace. War continued under Hormuz (Hormisdas IV, from 579 to 591) until the reign of Chosrou II (until 628), under whom the Persian power reached its highest pitch. By successful wars he extended his conquests, on the one side to Chalcedon (616), on the other over Egypt to Lybia and Ethiopia, and finally to Yemen. But the fortune of war was suddenly changed by the victorious arms of the emperor Heraclius. Chosrou lost all his conquests, and his own son Sirhes made him prisoner, and put him to death (628). The decline of Persia was hastened by continued domestic feuds. Sirhes, or Kabad Shirujeh, was murdered in the same year. His son Ardshir (Artaxerxes) III, but seven years old, succeeded him, and was murdered, in 629, by his general Serbas (Sheheriar). The chief Persians prevented Serbas from ascending the throne; and, after numerous revolutions, succeeding each other so rapidly that the historians have confounded the names, Yezdegerd III, a nephew of Chosrou, ascended the throne in 632, at the age of sixteen. He was attacked by caliph Omar, in 636, and Persia became a prey to the Arabs and Turks. Yezdegerd lost his life in 651.-With the conquest of Persia by the caliphs begins the history of the modern Persian empire. The dominion of the Arabs (see Caliph) lasted 585 years, from 636 to 1220. As some of the Arab

governors made themselves independent, and Persian and Turkish princes possessed themselves of single provinces, Persia continued to be divided into numerous petty states. Among the principal dynasties were, in the north and north-east, 1. the Turkish house of the Thaheridis in Khorasan, from 820 to 872; 2. the Persian dynasty of the Soffarides, which dethroned the one last named, and ruled over Khorasan and Farsistan until 902; 3. the Samanide dynasty, which established its independence on Khorasan in 874, under Ahmed, in the province Mavaralnar, and lasted to 999. Ishmael, Ahmed's son, dethroned the Soffarides, and became powerful; and under his descendants originated, 4. the Gaznavides, in 977, when Sebektechin, a Turkish slave and governor of the Samanides at Gazna and Khorasan, made himself independent at Gazna. His son Mahmood subdued, in 999, Khorasan, and, in 1012, Farsistan, and thus put an end to the dominion of the Samanides. He subsequently conquered Irak Agemi (1017) from the Bouides, and even extended his conquests into India. But his son Masud was stripped of Irak Agemi and Khorasan by the Seljooks (from 1037 to 1044); and the Gaznavides, weakened by domestic divisions, became, under Malek Shah (1182), a prey to the Gourides. 5. The sultans of Gour (Gourides) became powerful, in 1150, by means of Aladdin Hosain, but lost their ascendency, after several great reigns, partly by the encroachments of the princes of Khowaresm, and partly by domestic dissensions. 6. The dynasty of the Khowaresmian shahs (from 1097 to 1230) was founded by Aziz, governor of the Seljooks in Khowaresm, or Karasm, where he rendered himself independent. Tagash (1192) destroyed the empire of the Seljooks, and took Khorasan from the Gourides. His son Mohammed conquered Mavaralnar, subdued the Gourides and Gazna, and occupied the greater part of Persia. But, in 1220, the great khan of the Monguls (q. v.), Gengis Khan (q.v.), and his heroic son Gelaleddin Mankbern, deprived him of his dominions; and he died in 1230, after a struggle of ten years, in a lonely hut in the mountains of Curdistan. In western and northeastern Persia reigned, 7. Mardawig, a Persian warrior, who founded a kingdom at Dilem, in 928, which soon extended over Ispahan, but was destroyed by the Bouides. 8. The Bouides (sons of Bouia, a poor fisherman, who derived his origin from the Sassanides), by their valor and prudence, extended their sway over the

greater part of Persia, and, in 945, even over Bagdad. They were chiefly distinguished for their virtues and love of science, and maintained themselves until 1056, when Malek Rahjm was obliged to yield to the Seljooks. 9. The Seljooks, a Turkish dynasty, as is supposed, driven by the Chinese from Turkestan, first became powerful in Khorasan, with the Gaznavides. Togrulbeg Mahmood, a brave and prudent warrior, drove out the son of Mahmood, the Gaznavide sultan, in 1037; extended his dominion over Mavaralnar, Aderbijan, Armenia, Farsistan, Irak Agemi, and Irak Arabi, where he put an end to the rule of the Bouides at Bagdad, in 1055, and was invested with their dignity, as Emir el Omrah, by the caliphs. Some of his descendants were distinguished for great activity and humanity. The most powerful of them, Malek Shah, conquered also Georgia, Syria and Natolia (Roum). But the empire gradually declined, and was divided into four kingdoms, which were destroyed by the shahs of Khowaresm (1162 and 1195), the atabeks of Aleppo (1139), and the Monguls (1194). Gengis Khan established the power of the Tartars and Monguis in Persia (1220-1405). Those Persian provinces which had been acquired by Gengis Khan fell to his youngest son, Tauli, in 1229, and then to the son of the latter, Hulaku, at first as governors of the Mongolian khans, Kajuk and Mangu. Hulaku extended his dominion over Syria, Natolia and Irak Arabi. He or his successor became independent of the great khan, and formed a separate Mongolian dynasty in those countries, which sat on the throne till the death of Abusaid, without heirs, in 1335. His successors, also descendants of Gengis Khan, had merely the title of khans of Persia. The empire was weak and divided. Then appeared (1387) Timurlenk (Tamerlane) at the head of a new horde of Monguls, who conquered Persia, and filled the world, from Hindoostan to Smyrna, with terror. But the death of this famous conqueror was followed by the downfall of the Mongul dominion in Persia, of which the Turkomans then remained masters for a hundred years. These nomadic tribes, who had plundered Persia for two centuries, wrested, under the reigns of Kara Jussuf and his successors, the greatest part of Persia from the Timurides, were subdued by other Turkoman tribes under Usong Hassan (1468), and incorporated with them. They sunk before Ishmael Sophi (1505), who artfully made use of fanaticism for his political purposes, and

whose dynasty lasted from 1505 to 1722. Ishmael Sophi, whose ancestor Sheikh Sophi pretended to be descended from Ali, took from the Turkomans of the white ram, Aderbijan (1505 to 1508) and part of Armenia, slew both their princes, and founded upon the ruins of their empire, after having conquered Shirvan, Diarbeker, Georgia, Turkestan and Mavaralnar, an empire which comprised Aderbijan, Diarbeker, Irak, Farsistan and Kerman. He assumed the name of a shah, and introduced the sect of Ali into the conquered countries. His successors, Thamas (1523 to 1575), Ishmael II (from 1576 to 1577), Mohammed (1577 to 1586), Hamzeh (1586), Ishmael III (1587), carried on unsuccessful wars against the Turks and the Usbecks. But the great shah Abbas (1587 to 1629), reëstablished the empire by his conquests. He took from the Turks Armenia, Irak Arabi, Mesopotamia, the cities of Tauris, Bagdad and Bassora; Khorasan from the Usbecks; Ormuz from the Portuguese, and Kandahar from the Monguls; and humbled Georgia, which had refused to pay tribute. He introduced absolute power into Persia, transferred his residence to Ispahan, and instituted the pilgrimage to Meshid, in order to abolish that to Mecca among the Persians. The following rulers, Shah Sesi (1629 to 1642) and Abbas II (1642 to 1666) had new wars with the Turks and Indians; with the former on account of Bagdad, which was lost; and with the latter on account of Kandahar, which was reconquered in 1660. Under shah Soliman, however, (1666 to 1694), the empire declined, and entirely sunk under his son Hussein. The Afghans in Kandahar revolted, in 1709, under Mirweis; and his son Mir Mahmud conquered the whole empire, in 1722. A state of anarchy followed. Mahmud, having become insane, was dethroned by Asharf, in 1725: the latter was subdued by Thamas Kuli Khan, who, with the assistance of the Russians and Turks, placed Thamas, son of Hussein, on the throne in 1729. But, when the latter ceded Georgia and Armenia to the Turks, Kuli Khan dethroned him, and placed his minor son, Abbas III, on the throne. He recovered, by conquest or treaties, the provinces ceded to the Russians and Turks, and ascended the throne under the title of Shah Nadir, Abbas III having died in 1736. He restored Persia to her former importance by successful wars and a strong government; conquered Bahareim (1735) and Balk (1736) from the khan of Bucharia, Kanda

har (1738); invaded (1739) Hindoostan, and obliged the great mogul Mohammed to cede to him some provinces on the Indus and most of his treasures. But, in 1747, Nadir was murdered by the commanders of his guards, and his death threw the empire again into new confusion. Four kingdoms were now formed: 1. Khorasan and Segistan; 2. Kandahar, or the eastern provinces; 3. Farsistan, or the western provinces; and, 4. Georgia. The latter, for the most part, retained its own princes, who, at length, submitted to Russia. In Kandahar and the East, Ahmed Abdallah founded the empire of Afghanistan. (q. v.) He was victorious at Panniput, and ruled with absolute sway in India. His residence was Kabul. He was succeeded, in 1753, by Timur; the latter by Zeman. In the two other kingdoms, the Curd Kerim Khan, who had served under Nadir, and was of low extraction, succeeded in establishing tranquillity, after long and bloody wars, by subduing Mohammed Khan, who fled, and perished at Mazanderan. His wisdom, justice and warlike skill gained him the love of his subjects and the esteem of his neighbors. He did not call himself khan, but vekil (regent). He fixed his residence at Shiraz in 1755, and died in 1779. New disturbances arose after his death. His brothers attempted to get possession of the throne, to the exclusion of his sons. A prince of the blood, Ali Murat, occupied it in 1784; but a eunuch, Aga Mohammed, a man of ancient family and uncommon qualities, had made himself independent in Mazanderan. Ali Murat, who marched against him, died in consequence of a fall from his horse, and left the sceptre to his son Yafar, who was defeated by Aga Mohammed at Jezd Kast, and fled to Shiraz, where he perished in an insurrection. His son Luthf Ali made several desperate efforts to recover his throne; but Aga Mohammed was victorious, and appointed his nephew Baba Khan his successor, who has reigned since 1796, under the name of Feth Ali Shah. He fixed his residence at Teheran, in order to be nearer the Russians, who threatened him in Georgia and the neighboring provinces. By the peace of 1812, the Persians were obliged to cede to Russia the whole of Daghestan, the Khanats of Kuba, Shirvan, Baku, Salian, Talishah, Karaachb, and Gandsha, resigning all claims to Shularegi, Kharthli, Kachethi, Imeritia, Guria, Mingrelia and Abchasia, and were obliged to admit the Russian flag on the Caspian (See Russia.) Feth Ali (born in

sea.

words, but even of whole phrases, was owing partly to necessity, because words were wanting in Parsee to express many new ideas,—and partly to an affectation of elegance. In this manner was formed the modern Persian. The Arabian words which it contains have, in some instances, remained unchanged, and have sometimes been changed and inflected in the Persian manner. The resemblance between the Persian and Teutonic is not so great, that a German could, as Leibnitz said, at once understand whole Persian verses, but it is certainly striking, and proves, without justifying us in adopting useless hypotheses, that the German, which came from Asia, sprung from the same source with the language of the early inhabitants of Persia. The same is true of the Celts, Sclavonians and Thracians, of whose languages traces are also to be found in the Persian. According to Hammer, the present Persian is, of all the Eastern languages, the most nearly allied to the German. In the country which, according to Mirchond, was anciently called Germania, and, according to Eddussi, Erman, the old Persian is the native dialect; so that the name Germani is not of Roman origin. In the simplicity of its grammatical construction, the Persian language resembles the English; in its power of compounding words, the German. We pass over the dialects of the Persian language, merely mentioning that the most cultivated of them, the refined Parsee, which has become the language of the court and of literature, is called Deri (court language, from dar, door), and that the popular language is called Valaat. The written character of the Persian language is the Arabic, with the addition of four letters with three points, which are not in the Arabic. Their books are most frequently written in the character called Talik. The Persian literature, of which the Magi were in possession until the introduction of Mohammedahisin, has nothing to show in its old dialects, the Zend and Pehlvi, but the works above-mentioned, and the Persepolitan inscriptions, which are in part unintelligible. What escaped destruction in the time of Alexander, was destroyed under the caliphs, and a few fragments only were preserved among the fugitive Parsees or Guebers. Persian civilization declined during the first period of the Arabian dominion; even in the tenth century, no traces of any literature are to be found among the Persians. Learning first revived in Persia in the time of the Abassides, and Arabian literature was already

on the decline, when the Persian, favored by the Bouides and Seljooks, revived. Among the princes who encouraged learned men and poets by personal favor and rewards, the Bouide Azad Eddaulet in the middle of the tenth century, the Gaznavide sultans Mahmood Sebektechin and Keder Ben Ibrahim, and the Seljook sultan Malek Shah, with his vizier Nazam el Maluk, and Keder Chan Chacan, deserve to be mentioned. The flourishing ! period of literature continued till the time of Gengis Khan, in the thirteenth cen tury. Under Timur, in the fourteenth century, and the Turks, in the fifteenth, it continually declined, and in the sixteenth, was almost entirely extinct. The oppres sions and disturbances to which Persia has since been continually subject, have prevented the revival of learning. The old Persian language is now almost superseded by the Turkish; the Parsees alone speak it. But the Persians possess rich literary treasures of the earlier periods, particularly in poetry, history, geography, &c. We must limit ourselves chiefly to a notice of that portion which has been touched by Europeans. The most brilliant part of Persian literature is poetry. (See Hammer's History of Persian Polite Literature (in German, Vienna, 1818). Among the poets are the following: Rudigi, the father of modern Persian poetry, who translated in verse Pilpay's fables; the epic poet Ferdusi (q. v.), author of the Shahnameh, or Book of Kings (of which Görres has given an abridgment), who lived at the beginning of the eleventh century; and his contemporaries, the celebrated lyric poets, Ansari (the first king of poets) and Ahmed Essedi of Thus. Also distinguished as lyric poets are Anweri or Enweri, of Bednah, in Khorasan (died 1200), who was unsurpassed in the Cafide, and inferior only to Hafiz in the ode (two of his poems are contained in the Asiatic Miscellanies); Chakani, his contemporary and rival; Chodscha Hafiz Schemseddin Mohammed, best known under the name of Hafiz (q. v.); Shahi, probably a pupil of Djami; Hatefi, Emir Chosrou, Senai, Shefali, and many other writers of the divan, who are mentioned in Hammer's work above referred to. To the lyric poets of Persia also belong the Turkish emperor Selim I, the unfortunate Shah Allum (see Franklin's Life of Shah Allum), and the Shah Feth Ali. Asa lyric, mystic and moral poet, Sheik Sadi (q. v.) is the most celebrated, not only in the East, but also among us. Ferideddin Attar, a contemporary of Sadi's, was the