362 INDO-IRANIAN LITERATURE 



mented by a knowledge of the Modern Persian and its dialects, and 

 still further elaborated by a study of the coins and gems, have helped 

 to place Iranian linguistics on as firm a basis as that of any other 

 group of languages and materially to further the science of com- 

 parative philology. The Modern Persian, moreover, with its admix- 

 ture of Arabic and loss of inflections, both due to the Muhammadan 

 conquest, offers an interesting linguistic parallel to English with its 

 leveled case-endings, analytic structure, and vast infusion of Romance 

 words due to the Norman-French invasion. In the matter of lin- 

 guistic purity and the avoidance of foreign words in a national epic, 

 the Persian poet Firdausi, author of the Shah Namah (A.D. 1000) 

 affords an excellent parallel to the English poetic chronicler Laya- 

 mon, author of the Brut (A.D. 1200) ; the one is as free from Arabic 

 words, which later became popular, as the other from elements 

 derived from the Norman-French. 



Our own vocabulary to-day owes something to Persia. So common 

 a word as van, used in moving furniture, is an abbreviation of 

 caravan (which has been etymologized in the folk-speech as "carry- 

 van ") and is as much Persian as the name shah itself, or his tiara. 

 The same is true of the words paradise, and Peri, magic, and bakhshish, 

 which have a history as old as the Avesta. The Persian term bazaar 

 is current in English, and shawls, sashes, awnings, turquoises, and taffeta 

 are standard articles in our linguistic supply as well as in the business 

 market. Products so generally common in America as the orange, 

 lemon, melon, and peach (the latter word having come through the 

 medium of the French from the Latin malum Persicum, "Persian 

 apple") are Iranian in name as well as in origin. The vegetable 

 spinach is Persian, and asparagus traces its lineage apparently 

 through the Greek <Wapayos ultimately to Avestan sparegha, "shoot, 

 stalk." * The list of our linguistic indebtedness to Persia might be 

 increased by adding a score or more words, like julep, which is really 

 an arabicized form of the Persian gulab, " rose-water," hazard, applied 

 to taking one chance in a thousand (Pers. hazar), while gul and 

 bulbul are familiar to every one who reads poetry about the night- 

 ingale and rose of Persia. 2 



The title of Persian literature to a place among the great literatures 

 of the world is a recognized one, and it is perhaps in this domain that 

 she can make the greatest claim upon our interest. In antiquity and 

 compass Persian literature may rank behind its cousin, the Sanskrit of 

 India, and its monuments may not date so far back as the Egyptian, 

 Assyrian, and Old Babylonian, nor may its compositions make pre- 

 tensions to rival the Psalms in loftiness, nor its style to match the 



1 This vegetable has gained much by being transplanted to the West, if I may 

 judge by the asparagus which now grows in Persia. 



2 For a list of Persian words in English consult the appendix to Skeat, Etymo- 

 logical Dictionary of the English Language. 



