1836.] Notes on the Antiquities of Bdmidn. 7 19 



membered that Ariana or Khordsdn, formed a portion of the Baetrian 

 empire, as recorded by Strabo. Professor Heeren remarks — " No- 

 thing, however, is said of the two chief provinces of the Persian em- 

 pire, Persis and Susiana, nor of their capitals, Persepolis and Susa, nor 

 of Babylon, which, nevertheless, were the customary residences of the 

 kings of Persia, and in particular of Darius Htstaspis." So re- 

 markable an omission will cease to surprise, when probably at the 

 epoch of Zerdesht, we may suspect those provinces, and also Babylon, 

 were under the rule of the Arsakian princes — and therefore could not 

 be enumerated by him as forming part of the kingdom of Gustasp. 

 They were also under the spiritual influence of those false Magi, in 

 the estimation of Zerdesht, against whom he is so severe, and whom 

 he stigmatizes a kdf raster — a term for infidel preserved by Muham- 

 medans of this-day in kafr. The possible fact of a powerful indepem- 

 dent monarchy in Bactria subsequent to the Greek one, gives rise to 

 many singular reflections on the probable relative position it occu- 

 pied with respect to the Arsakian : and we may divine other reasons 

 besides those already known, which induced some of the latter Arsa- 

 kian princes to fix their capital at Babylon, or rather Ctesiphon. We 

 feel, however, that the time has not arrived for delicate speculations, 

 neither can we venture to fix with certainty the epoch of the Kaiani- 

 an monarch, but we do feel confident that materials exist to fix it, — 

 and we do cherish the hope that it is possible to destroy that flagrant 

 monster of fiction and prodigy of national vanity, Persian history. If 

 the Lohrasps and Gustasps prove to be Baetrian monarchs, as in- 

 deed Zerdesht tells us they are, we may ask whether Queen HoiMAi 

 may not be Semiramis, and Rustam may turn out to have flourished 

 a little before the age of Muhammed. The same sources of informa- 

 tion are open to us, as were to Shah Ismael when he wrote to 

 Sheibani Khan, " That if the right of succession to a throne was 

 decided by hereditary descent only, it was to him incomprehensible 

 how the empire had descended through the various dynasties of Pesh- 

 dadians, Kaianians and the family of Chengis to himself Sheibani." 

 As for the Zendavesta, however, it may be admitted that a Zer- 

 desht flourished in the reign of Gustasp. It is by no means certain 

 that that work as now preserved was written by him ; on the contra- 

 ry, the dialect in which it is written, would seem to be proof that it 

 was not — for it must assuredly be the most recent of all the dialects 

 ' of the Pehlevi — if Pehlevi at all ; and accordingly on reference to 

 coins, we discover the first traces of it on the very last of that series, 

 (whether Sassanian or Peshdadian) which bears them, and then not 

 in the legends of the coins, but as marks manifestly punched on them 

 after they had been in circulation ! 

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