162 THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., ON ISLAM: 
directly through Jewish fables, is indirectly borrowed from 
Persia, where he was known in Avestic times as (ag>poau yb 
or as obe, _ynbrossas)* Vidatus or Astévidhotus 'To the 
same religion Muhammad was indebted for his Road, or 
Bridget (Lil) over Hell, which the ancient Persians called 
aa 
Chinavat (in mod. Persian ¥44s>). Many of the strange and 
absurd ideas found in more recent Muhammadan works may 
be traced to the same source, as for example the theory that 
the earth is sevenfold, or built in sevent storeys, one above 
the other. These seven storeys of the earth are the seven 
( Jury bss or eJapp].vy) KarshvaresS of the Avesta, and to 
a great extent correspond, and are certainly of common 
origin with the seven (217:) dvipas of the Hindts. It is 
remarkable as showing the extent of the influence which 
Zoroastrianism had even before Muhammad’s time exercised 
upon Arabia, that the word for “the faith” or “ Religion” 
S 
most frequently used in the Qur’an (5) din, is not a pure 
Arabic word at all, but is the Avestic (js fro as 4) da’na, which 
is used quite as technically in the early Zoroastrian Scriptures 
as its Arabicised form is in the Qur’an.|| In fact nearly all that 
Islam teaches about the angels, the work and nature of evil 
spirits, and kindred subjects, is derived either directly from a 
Zoroastrian or Magian source, or indirectly so through the — 
medium of later Jewish legends which were deeply coloured 
through the influence of Persian myths. 
* Yesht X, 93; Fargand V, 25, 31. 
+ Penrice (“ Dict. of Koran,” s.v.) says that Ll nc comes from no verbal 
root in the Arabic language. It is just the form the Persian word would 
take when introduced into Arabic. 
j ‘Ardisu’t Tijin, pp. 5-9; Qisasu’] Anbiya, pp. 4-6, ete. 
; Yasna LXIV; Yesht X, etc. 
|| Fargand IT, 1-3; Yesht XVI, etc. The word in the Avesta means 
primarily law, doctrine. Ahura Mazda is represented as giving his daéna 
to Yima and afterwards to Zarathustra (Zoroaster). Hence the Arabic 
meaning of the word = Religion, 
