123 



PERSIAN NAVIGATORS. 



mians.' Scholars have not yet shown why the 

 Arab, so rich in nomenclature, borrowed the 

 purely Persian word from his complement the 

 6 Ajam.' They have forgotten that the Persians, 

 who of late years have been credited with the 

 unconquerable aversion to the sea which belongs 

 to the Gallas and the Kafirs, were once a maritime 

 people. ' The indifference or rather the aversion 

 of Persians to navigation 5 (M. Guillain, i. 34, 

 35) must not be charged to the ancient 6 Purs.' 

 Between a.d. 531 — 579, when Sayf bin Dhu 

 Yezin, one of the latest Himyarite rulers, wanted 

 aid against the Christian Abyssinians, who had 

 held southern Arabia for 72 years, he applied to 

 Khusrau I., better known as Anushirawan, the 

 23rd king of the. Sassanian dynasty, which 

 began with Ardashir Babegan (a.d. 226), and 

 which ended with Yezdegird III. (a.d. 641), 

 thus lasting 415 years. The c Just Monarch' 

 sent his fleet to the Boman Port ' (Aden), and 

 slew Masruk. In his day the Persians engrossed, 

 by means of Ilira, Obollah, and Sohar, the rich 

 tracts of Yemen and Hindostan ; while Basrah 

 (Bassorah) was founded by the Caliph Omar, in 

 order to divert the stream of wealth from the 

 Pted Sea, a diversion which will probably soon be 

 repeated. In a.d. 758 the Persians, together 



