PERSIA. €$ 



guage, as we do the French. The pure Persic is said to be spoken 

 in the southern parts, on the coast of the Persian gulf, and in Ispahan;, 

 but many of the provinces speak a barbarous mixture of the Turkish, 

 Russian, and other languages. 



The Persians write like the Hebrews from the right to the left ; 

 are neat in their seals and materials for writing, and wonderfully ex- 

 peditious in the art. The number of people employed on their manu- 

 scripts (for no printing is allowed there) is incredible. 



The Lord's prayer in Persian is as follows : Ei Padere ma kib der 

 osmoni; /:ac bunched mam; tu bay ayed fxadeschabi tu; schnvad chwaaste 

 tu benzjunaaukib der osmon niz derzcmin; beh mara jmrouz nan kef af 

 rozi'z mara; ii'adar quasar mara kondhon ma zjunaukihma viz mig 

 sarim orman mara; wador ozmujisch minedazzmara; likin chalas kun 

 mara ez efcherir. A men. 



Antiquities. ...The monuments of antiquity in Persia are more 

 celebrated for their magnificence and expence, than their beauty or 

 taste. No more than nineteen columns, which formerly belonged to 

 the famous palace of Persepolis, are now remaining Each is about 

 fifteen feet high, and composed of excellent Parian marble. The ruins 

 of other anc em buildings are found m many parts of Persia but they 

 are void of that elegance and beauty displayed in the Greek architec- 

 ture. The tombs of the kings of Persia are stupendous .vorks ; being 

 cut out of a rock, and highly ornamented with sculptures. The chief 

 of the modern monuments is a pillar to be seen at Ispahan, sixty feet 

 high, consisting oi the sculls of beas's, erected by Shah Abbas, after 

 the suppression of a rebellion. Abbas had vowed to erect such a co- 

 lumn of human skulls ; but. upon the submission of the rebels, he 

 performed his vow by substituting those of brutes, each of the rebels 

 furnishing one. 



Hisi ky... The Persian empire succeeded the Assyrian or Babylo- 

 nian. Cyrus laid its foundation about 5.>6 years before Christ, and re- 

 stored tne Israelites who bad been captive at Babylon to liberty. It 

 ended in the person of Darius, who was conquered by Alexander, 329 

 years before Christ. Alexander's empire was dhided among his great 

 general officers, whose descendants, in less than three centuries were 

 conquered by the Romans. The latter, however, never fully subdued 

 Persia; and the natives had princes of their own, from Arsaces, called 

 Arsacides, who more than once defeated the Roman legions. The 

 successors of those princes survived the Roman empire itself, but 

 weie subdued by the famous Timur-Leng, or Tamerlane, whose pos- 

 terity were supplanted by a doctor of law, the ancestor of the Sen" or 

 Sophi family, and who pretended to be descended from Mahommed 

 himself. His successors, troni him sometimes caned Sophis. though 

 some of them were valiant and politic, proved in general to be a dis- 

 grace to humanity, by their cruelty ignorance, and indolence, which 

 brought them into sucii disrepute with their subjects, barbarous as 

 they were, that Hussein, a prince of the Sefi race, who succeeded in 

 1694, was murdered by Manmud, son and successor to the famous 

 Miriweis; as M ah mud himself was by Esref, one of his general offi- 

 cers, who usurped the throne Prince Thamas, the representative of 

 the Sefi family, Had escaped from the rebels, and, assembling an army, 

 took into his service Nadir Shah, who defeated and ki tied Esref, and 

 re-annexed to the Persian monarchy all the places dismembered from 

 it by the Turks and Tartars during their late rebellions/ At last the 

 secret ambition of the Nadir broke out; and alter assuming the name 



