SECTION A INDO-IRANIAN LITERATURE 



(Hall 8, September 24, 3 p. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR MAURICE BLOOMFIELD, Johns Hopkins University. 

 SPEAKER: PROFESSOR A. V. W. JACKSON, Columbia University. 



OUR INTEREST IN PERSIA AND THE STUDY OF HER 

 HISTORY, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE 



BY A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON 



[Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson, Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages, 

 Columbia University, since 1895. b. New York, February 9, 1862. Graduate of 

 Columbia University, 1883; A.M. 1884; L.H.D. 1885; Ph.D. 1886. Instructor in 

 Anglo-Saxon and Iranian Languages, Columbia, 1887-90; University student, 

 Halle, Germany, 1887-89; Adjunct Professor of English Language and Literature, 

 Columbia, 1891-95. Member of American Oriental Society, American Philo- 

 logical Society, Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellschaft. Author of A Hymn of 

 Zoroaster, Yasna, xxxi; An Avestan Grammar, in comparison with Sanskrit; 

 An Avestan Reader; Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran; also many articles 

 in Journal of American Oriental Society.} 



TO-DAY when all eyes are turned toward the East watching the 

 struggle for supremacy between Japan and Russia, the interest in 

 the Orient and its development is greater than ever before. As an 

 Eastern nation, therefore, Persia merits our attention, but she has 

 also peculiar claims upon our interest which it is the purpose of this 

 address to emphasize. 



Of all the great historic nations which came into contact with 

 Greece and Rome, Persia alone has maintained her independence 

 to the present time. Her monarchs have been rulers for three thou- 

 sand years, and her shah, sitting upon the Peacock Throne at Tehran, 

 may boast his claim to sovereign sway as inheritor of Jamshid's 

 kingly rule in the legendary past of Iran and as successor to the 

 sceptre of the Median Deioces and the crown of Cyrus the Great. 

 The story of the foundation of a mighty empire by the conquering 

 arm of Cyrus and its development by the organizing hand of Darius 

 is rich in historic interest. The struggle with Greece, the first signs 

 of Persian decadence under Xerxes and Artaxerxes, the blow struck 

 by Alexander, which overthrew the Achsemenian throne, furnish 

 fruitful themes for its historian to discuss. If there were time to 

 dilate upon the period of Parthian rule which followed, I might 

 account for the hatred for Persia felt by Rome and summed up in 



