PERSIA (LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND RELIGION) PERSPECTIVE. 479 



guage, Ouseley has published a fragment of theC/ei- 

 mat (the seven climates), in his Oriental Collections, 

 and an abstract of the Persian translation of the 

 geography, written in Arabic, by Ibn Haukal. Upon 

 chronology, Gravius (Greaves) published a valu- 

 able Persian work, Epochs Celebriores (Persian and 

 Latin, London, 1650). No work of the Persian phy- 

 sicians has been translated ; but we may mention the 

 valuable work of Abulmansur Mowafin Ben Ali, 

 which is in Vienna. Geometry and astronomy were 

 also cultivated with ardour by the Persians. Nase- 

 reddin of Thus translated, and Maimon Raschid com- 

 mented upon Euclid. Omar Chehan (in 1072), in 

 the reign of Malek Shah, calculated the solar year 

 at 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 48 seconds ; and 

 among the astronomical tables, computed by Persians, 

 the most valuable are those prepared by Nasereddin, 

 at the command of Hulaku Ilekan, and called by 

 his name, but not completed till five years after Ile- 

 kan's death (1269), and those drawn up in the first 

 half of the fifteenth century, under the superinten- 

 dence of Ulug Beigh, by a large number of astron- 

 omers, and which were published by Greaves and 

 Hyde. Hulaku Ilekan (1259) established an astron- 

 omical academy at Maragha, and erected an obser- 

 vatory, of which Nasereddin had the superintendence. 

 Ulug Beigh also erected one at Samarcand. A Persian 

 calendar, under the title Ruznameh nauruz, has like- 

 wise been printed. (See Epoch, p. 552.) We must 

 also mention Beck's Ephemerides Persarum per to- 

 tum Annum (Vienna, 1695, folio), and Welch's Ta- 

 bulae JEquinoctiales (Augsburg, 1676, 4to). 



The works upon Mohammed, the Mohammedan 

 religion, the legends of the saints, &c., are numerous, 

 but for us of little interest. The Persian abridgment 

 of the Vedas, entitled Oupnek'hat, although almost 

 unintelligible by us (translated into Latin by Anquetil 

 du Perron, 1804, 2 vols, 4to. ), and the Desatir (q. v.), 

 are important monuments. The Pentateuch of 

 Moses in the Persian language, translated by a Jew 

 of Thus, is in Walton's Polyglot. Of the Gospels 

 there are two translations ; one in the Polyglot above- 

 named, and the other published by Wheelock (Lon- 

 don, 1657, fol.). Their value has been indicated by 

 Rosenmuller. 



The Persians have paid great attention to their 

 own language : of this, the number of lexicograph- 

 ical and grammatical works extant affords abundant 

 proof. The small Persian-Turkish dictionary of 

 Shahidi is only for beginners. That of Ardeshir is 

 more celebrated, and also the Naemet Allah (Delight 

 of God), adopted by Castellus as the basis of his; 

 but the two most celebrated are the Ferhangi Jehan 

 Guir, and the Ferhangi Schuari. The latter was 

 published in 1742, and another by Seid Ahmed, in 

 1804, at Constantinople. This view is sufficient to 

 show the importance of the Persian language, since, 

 besides being in the East, especially in India, what 

 the French is in Europe, it possesses valuable trea- 

 sures, not only of native literature, but also of trans- 

 lations from the Arabic, different Indian and other 

 languages, the originals of some of which are lost, 

 and of others, are inaccessible to us. We are also 

 copiously supplied with aids in this study. The 

 grammars of Jones and Richardson (not to mention 

 earlier ones) are now surpassed by Gladwin's Persian 

 Moonshee, and especially by Lumsden's Persian Gram- 

 mar (2 vols., fol.) In Germany, Wilken has pub- 

 lished the best Persian grammar. Of the dictiona- 

 ries the most complete are Meninski Lexicon Arabico- 

 Persico-Turcicum (2d edit., 4 vols., folio). Richard- 

 son's Dictionary, Persian, English and Arabic, &c., 

 a new edition, with additions and improvements, by 

 Wilkins (London, 1806, 2 vols., 4to) ; Barretto's 

 Persian and Arabic Dictionary (2 vols.) ; and Hop- 



kins's Abridgment of Richardson (in 1 vol., 1810), 

 are the best. Much valuable information is con- 

 tained in Jones's Commentaries ; Ouseley's Oriental 

 Collections, and Persian Miscellanies ; Gladwin's 

 Dissertations on the Rhetoric, Prosody and Rhyme 

 of the Persians ; in the Fundgruben des Orients 

 [Mines of the East) ; in the valuable works of J. von 

 Hammer, &c. See Oriental Literature. 

 PERSIAN JERA. See Epoch. 

 PERSIAN GULF ; a sea, or inland lake, bounded 

 by Persia and Arabia, except at the eastern extremi- 

 ty, where it communicates with the Arabian sea ; 

 about 500 miles from east to west, and from 120 to 

 250 from north to south. The principal river which 

 runs into it is the Euphrates. The south coast, in 

 particular, is celebrated for its pearl fishery. Most 

 of the coast belongs to colonies of Arabians. 

 PERSIAN WHEEL. See Wheel, Persian. 

 PERSIUS. Aulus Persius Flaccus, a Roman sati- 

 rical poet, was born, A. D. 34, at Volterra, in Etru- 

 ria, and died in 62. According to some, Luna was his 

 birth-place. His family was of the equestrian order, 

 and he received his education at Rome. He was on 

 friendly terms with some of the most eminent men 

 of the time, and was much beloved on account of 

 the purity and amenity of his manners. He died at 

 he age of twenty-eight years. The Stoic Cornutus, 

 one of his first teachers, published six satires by him, 

 which present a picture of the prevailing corruption, 

 in contrast with the standard of Stoic wisdom and 

 the old Roman severity. They are distinguished for 

 vigour, conciseness, and austerity of tone. Their 

 obscurity arises in part from their allusions to sub- 

 jects now unknown, and in part from their abrupt 

 and concise style. They are usually published with 

 the satires of Juvenal. The best editions are those 

 of Casaubon (Leyden. 1695) and Konig (Gottingen, 

 1804), with commentaries. Dryden and Gifford, among 

 others, have translated them into English. Madan's 

 edition of Juvenal and Persius, with a prose transla- 

 tion and English notes (1789), was reprinted in 1813. 

 PERSONIFICATION, in the fine arts, poetry 

 and rhetoric ; the representation of an inanimate 

 ubject as a person. This may be done, in poetry 

 and rhetoric, either by giving epithets to inanimate 

 subjects which properly belong only to persons, or 

 by representing them as actually performing the part 

 of animated beings. In the latter case, the name 

 prosopopoeia is also used. Strictly speaking, we may 

 be said to personify whenever we apply an epithet 

 expressive of life to an inanimate subject, as awak- 

 ening nature, raging storm ; but a little reflection 

 will show us that ordinary language is full of per- 

 sonifications of this kind nay we could not speak 

 without them. The word personification is there- 

 fore generally applied only to a formal representa- 

 tion of a thing as a person. The more the ima- 

 gination prevails among a people, the more common 

 are personifications. Take, for instance, the tales 

 of the Arabs. As reflection acquires the ascenden- 

 cy, personifications are less used. Many of the 

 mythuses are personifications of powers of nature of 

 events of history. 



PERSPECTIVE; the art of copying the appear- 

 ance of objects, as seen from a certain point of view. 

 It enables the artist to represent objects on a given 

 surface, as if the surface were transparent, and the 

 objects were seen through it. As we see by means 

 of the rays of light which proceed in straight lines 

 from the objects, to our eyes, perspective rests on 

 optical principles. As the drawing of the form of 

 an object is an arrangement of lines and angles ac- 

 cording to geometrical principles, perspective may 

 be considered as a branch of geometry. That part 

 of perspective which relates to the form of the ub- 



