46 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



five days to the end of each year, which they 

 called the fupernumerary days. Nebuchadnezzar 

 king of Babylon began to reign in the year of the 

 world 3257, and, by the agreement of all chro- 

 nologifts, 747 years before the common sera. 

 The sera and year of Nebuchadnezzar fhoirld be 

 clearly determined, in order to be made ufe of in 

 drawing lights from the aftronomic obfervations 

 of Ptolemy. The year of the Moors was much 

 the fame with that of the Egyptians. 



XIV. The Pcrfians had anciently the Tezdegird 

 year* which agreed in all refpe&s with that of Ne- 

 buchadnezzar, except that it began on the i6th 

 of July, and that of Nebuchadnezzar on the 

 26th of February, of the Julian year. The five 

 days that were added they called Mufteraka : but, 

 under the reign of the fultan Gelal, they changed 

 their year, and adopted the fpace of the folar 

 year; that is, 365 days, 5 hours, 49 min. 15", 

 o' ; ', 48"". They ft ill reckoned 30 days to each 

 month, and the 5 Mufteraka at the end of the 

 year : but after inferting fix or feven times in 

 the fourth year an intercalary day, they made 

 once, in five years only, a biffextile. They called 

 it the Gelaltan year \ and it proves that the Per- 

 fians have been, for time immemorial, very ex- 

 pert in aftronomy -, that they knew very accu- 

 rately the fpace of the folar year, and how to in- 

 tercalate the days in the molt proper manner, in 

 order to make the equinoxes and folftices fall al- 

 ways on the fame days of the year. 



The 



