702 
PERSIA. 
mod frequented gates of the city, as a warning to other 
thieves. This horrid fpeftacle was difplayed for three 
days. 
Another cruel punifflment referved for robbers, who, 
fince the acceffion of Feth Ali Shah, have been treated 
with peculiar feverity, is the following: The tops of two 
young trees are pulled down by means of a rope; one of 
the legs of the criminal is fattened to each of them, and 
the ropes are fuddenly loofed : the force with which the 
trees return to their original eredl pofition, tears the 
body of the unfortunate wretch in two. Impaling, cut¬ 
ting off the hands and legs, and immuring between four 
walls, were punifflments ufual in Perfia in Chardin’s time. 
The death inflifted on grandees who have incurred the 
anger of the king varies according to his pleafure. The 
moft common is beheading: but, if the fault be attended 
with aggravating circumllances, ingenious cruelty eafily 
finds out refinements of fuffering. As to females, they 
frequently owe the prefervation of their lives to the no¬ 
tion entertained by the Perfians that their blood produces 
ill-luck. This notion has probably given rife to the pu- 
nifhment referved for them, which confifts in muffling 
them up clofely in their veils, and precipitating them 
from the top of a tower. (Jourdain, tom. iv. p. i.) 
Religion.— We have already (p. 673) dated the rea- 
dinefs with which the Perfians adopted foreign cuftoms, 
even from thofe they had conquered. We fliall not be 
furprifed therefore, that, having been themfelves van- 
quithed by the Saracens, they fflould have adopted, with¬ 
out trouble or perfecution, the Mahometan religion. But, 
as this conqueft took place during the caliphate of Omar, 
thefecond caliph after Mahomet himfelf, we are not fo 
well able to account for the Perfians being of the feft of 
Ali. 
The principles of Mahometanism have been fully 
given under that article, vol. xiv. We (hall therefore 
endeavour to confine ourfelves to thefe particulars where¬ 
in the Perfians differ from the Turks. The chief of thefe 
is, their belief “ that Ali, the fon-in-lavv of the Prophet, 
is the lieutenant of God.” This article of faith, which 
is rejected with horror by the Turks, is the grand fchifm 
which divides the Muffulmans; the partifans of Ali being 
called Shiites, or Heretics j and the followers of Omar 
Sunnites, or Believers. 
The hatred of the Sunnites and Shiites increafed in the 
fequel. Under the caliphs of the dynaftyof the Abbaf- 
fides, it frequently degenerated into fury ; and it was con- 
f.dered a meritorious adtion in a man to kill another of a 
contrary opinion to his own. The Shiites found warm 
protedlors among the Abbaffides, wliofe zeal, however, 
only paved the way to freffl fcenes of carnage. How of¬ 
ten have the ftreets of Bagdad, “ the City of Peace,” the 
Rome of the Mahometan world, been drenched with the 
blood and ftrewed with the carcaffes of its inhabitants ! 
The deftrudtion of the caliphat of Bagdad by Hulagou, 
put an end to the religious diffenfions, or at lead to the 
fanaticifm which kept them up: a million of inhabitants 
perifhed by the hand of that Tartar. Among his fuccef- 
fors, however, there were forne who adopted the dodtrine 
of the Shiites : fuch were Gazan Khan, and his brother 
Mobammed-Koda-bendeh, though the latter, indeed, af¬ 
terwards recanted. At length Ifmael Ardebili, founder 
of the lioufe of the Softs, embraced it; he fpread it with 
his vidlories, and in his zeal laid facrilegious hands on the 
tombs of the Sunnites, deftroyed their mofques, and cru¬ 
elly perfecuted fuch of his fubjedts as rejected his doc¬ 
trine. Seiim I. who then occupied the throne of Tur¬ 
key, availed himfelf of the pretext of religion, to declare 
war againft Ifmael: and in the letter which he addreffed 
to the Perfian monarch, previoufty to this declaration, he 
gives a curious expofttion of the motives of piety and zeal 
by which he profeffed to be influenced. Ifmael was van- 
quiflted in the battle of Tchaldiran, but neverthelefs 
continued his efforts for the propagation of the tenets of 
the Shiites, which the majority of the Perfians have ever 
fince his reign efpoufed. This difference of creed has laid 
the foundation of that antipathy which prevails between 
them and the Turks to this day. 
When Nadir Shah had contrived that the crown fflould 
be offered to him, he accepted it only on condition that 
the Shiites fiiould in future abftain from anathematizing 
the firft three caliphs, and holding feftivals in honour 
of Ali and Huffeyn. (See p. 685.) It muff have been a 
fingular fpedtacle, though not unparalleled in hiftory, to 
fee that ferocious conqueror affembling the dodtors, enter¬ 
ing into theological difcufflons, and arguing like a ca- 
fuift: he exhorted the Perfians to return to more mode¬ 
rate opinions, to adopt merely the explanation of the 
Koran by the Imam Djafar-el-Sadik, one of Ali’s de- 
fcendants, and to afl'ume the name of Djafari. Thefe 
indications of extraordinary moderation were at firft per- 
fuafive; but it was not, as may eafily be conceived, ei¬ 
ther philanthropy or pity that had adtuated this barba¬ 
rian. His objedt was to conciliate by this conduit, the 
Arabs, the Curds, and the Turcomans, who compofed the 
greater part of the army, and who were Sunnites. It was 
probably his intention alfo, to pave the way to the more 
eafy conqueft of Turkey, by removing the caufe of reli¬ 
gious animofity. Thefe defigns he thwarted by the im¬ 
policy of his own conduit: he imagined that a new point 
of faith may be eftablifhed by force of arms, and that it 
is not more difficult to rule confciences than to govern 
men. He increafed the hatred of his fubjeits, fflook his 
power, and perifhed without obtaining the leaft fuccefs. 
Had he been better informed, the hiftory of paft ages 
would have taught him, that a religion never fflines with 
brighter luftre than when it is furioufly attacked, and 
that periods of perfecution furnifh occafions for its proud- 
eft triumphs. 
The Perfians are the moft decided Unitarians in the 
world. They not only profefs the unity of God, but 
they infift alfo on a finglenefs of perfon in his effence, 
and charge the Chriftians with blafphemy in adoring a 
deity compofed of three perfons. All their divines agree 
upon this point, as well as on the omnifc : ence and om¬ 
nipotence of the Divinity : they differ only in this par¬ 
ticular, that fome confider thefe qualities as attributes, 
while others hold them to be part of the effence of 
God. 
They believe in the refurredtion, the laft judgment, 
and a future ftate. As foon as the body is depofited in 
the tomb, the two angels.of death, Monkyrand Nekyr, 
appear and queftion the deceafed refpedting his religion, 
faith, and works. His anfwers are infcribed in a great 
book, which will be delivered in at the day of judgment. 
After this examination, the fouls of the good proceed to 
Barzak, and thofe of the wicked to the valley of Bairouth : 
there they abide till the general refurredtion, neither en¬ 
joying nor fuffering, but by anticipation of their eternal 
happinefs or mifery. An intermediate place between 
paradife and hell receives for eternity the fpirits of thofe 
who have not done either good or evil. On the day of 
refurredtion the fouls will appear, together with the bo¬ 
dies which formerly belonged to them: they will affemble 
in a vaft plain near Mecca. The judgment will take 
place by means of a pair of fcales, each of which will be 
as large as the fuperficies of the heavens. In one, called 
the fcalc of light, will be placed the book of good adtions ; 
in the other, or th efcale of darlinefs, the book of bad ac¬ 
tions. After this examination, the fpirits will crofs the 
famous bridge, Ponli-Jirath, laid over hell, on which the 
feparation will take place. The good will traverfe it 
with the rapidity of lightning which flalhes and difappears, 
but the wicked will be tumbled from it into the internal 
regions. 
We have feen that it is an article of the Perfian con- 
feffion of faith, that Ali was the lieutenant of God: in 
an axiom which is very common with them, they demon- 
ftrate the refpedt which they pay him. “ Mahomet (fay 
they) is a City of Knowledge, and Ali is the Gate to it.” 
Setting 
3 
