704 
PERSIA. 
Abraham; and in his way back to Perfia he traverfes the 
Arabian Irak, where he pays his devotions at the tomb 
of Ali and his fon HufTeyn. 
The Perfians have a great number of religious feftivals 
in celebration of the birth and death of their prophets 
and faints, the principal myfteries of their faith, and the 
moft memorable events of their religion. It would be 
too long to enumerate all thefe feftivals; we (hall there¬ 
fore confine our notice to a few of them. 
The conclufion of the Ramazan gives occafion for one 
religious feftival called the Beiram , which lafts five or 
fix days, and is kept with the greater enthufiafm becaufe 
it terminates the drifted faft. “The Ramazan was now 
over,” fays Mr. Morier: “the new moon, which marks 
the termination, was feen on the preceding evening juft: 
at fun-fet, when the fhips at anchor fired their guns on 
the occafion ; and, on the morning of our vifit, the 
Beiram was announced by the difcharge of cannon. A 
large concourfe of people, headed by the Peifh Namuz, 
went down to the fea-fide to pray ; and, when they had 
finifhed their prayers, more cannon were difcharged. 
Juft before we pafled through the gates of the town in re¬ 
turning from our vifit, we rode through a crowd of men, 
women, and children, all in their beft clothes, who, by 
merry-making of every kind, were celebrating the feaft. 
Among their fports, I difcovered fomething like the 
round-about of an Englifh fair, except that it appeared 
of a much ruder conftruftion. Itconfifted of two rope- 
feats fufpended, in the form of a pair of fcaies, from a 
large (lake fixed in the ground. In thefe were crowded 
full-grown men, who, like boys, enjoyed the continual 
twirl, in which the conduftor of the Sport, a poor Arab, 
was labouring with all hisftrength to keep the machine.” 
The Aid-el-Corlan, or Feftival of the Sacrifice, is alfo 
attended with great rejoicings. It was inftituted in com¬ 
memoration of Abraham, wdio, out of obedience to the 
Almighty, would have facrificed his fon IJhmuel, whom 
the Arabs regard as their progenitor, and whom they 
fubftitute in this inftance to Ifaac. Some days before the 
corhan, every family buys a fheep without fpot or defeft, 
an emblem of the corporeal and fpiritual purity of 
Ifhmael. On the day of the feftival, this viftim is deco¬ 
rated with ribbons, pearls, and ornaments of every kind ; 
its forehead, feet, and other parts of the body, are ftained 
with henna, a powder made of the leaves of the cyperus; 
after being thus adorned and paraded about, it is Slaugh¬ 
tered, and pieces of the fiefti are lent by the family to its 
friends and the poor. On the return of the people from 
the facrifice, Scaffolds are erefted before the governor’s 
palace, in the public places, and in the ftreets; and rope- 
dancers, wreftlers, muficians, fingers, and dancers, amufe 
the multitude there during the reft of the day. 
On the 21ft of Ramazan, a folemn feftival is held in 
honour of Ali. For this purpofe, a covered gallery is 
conftrufted fomewhere out of the town, where the chief 
men of the place take their Ration. In front of this gal¬ 
lery is a kind of pulpit, eight feet high, covered with 
cloth. Here the preacher appointed to pronounce the 
panegyric of the facred perfonage, reads for an hour or 
two in a bookintitled Model Nameh, Book of theMurder, 
containing a hiftory of the death of Ali, chanting without 
intermiftion in a loud and doleful voice. There are cer¬ 
tain paflages of which he pronounces only the firft word, 
leaving fome of the congregation to finifh. At the end 
of each paflage they repeat this imprecation ; “ May the 
curfeof God be upon the murderer of Ali!” and all the 
people refpond, “ Rather more than lefs.” After the 
Sermon, the people return in proceflion to the town : 
three camels bear reprefentations of the tombs of Ali, 
and his two fons, Haflan and Hufleyn. Thefe are fol¬ 
lowed by three chefts covered with blue cloth, containing 
the fpiritual treatifes which they wrote ; horfes carrying- 
bows, turbans, and flags ; and men bearing on their heads 
little boxes covered with feathers and flowers, and con¬ 
taining the Koran. The proceflion is clofed by mufi¬ 
cians and young men performing a variety of dances. 
The firft ten days of the month of Moharrem are de~ 
voted to a folemn mourning, in memory of the death of 
Hufleyn, the fon of Ali. During this period the Per- 
fians drefs themfelves in mourning, affeft all the external 
appearances of forrow, abftain from (having their heads, 
from bathing, and even from changing their clothes. On 
the eve of the firft of Moharrem, the mofques are hung 
with black. The next day the pulpits are drefied in the 
fame manner; the ahhond and pijh-namm, inferior minif- 
ters of religion, afcend them, and narrate the particulars 
of the murder of Hufleyn with all the inflexions of voice 
that are calculated to render them more pathetic. The 
congregation from time to time beat their breads, ejacu¬ 
lating “ O Hufleyn ! Alas, Hufleyn !” Parts of the hif¬ 
tory of this imam are in verfe, and are chanted to a dole¬ 
ful tune. Various epifodes of this hiftory are daily repre- 
fented by itinerant minftrels, (as the circumftances of the 
Paflion of Chrift are exhibited in the catholic countries 
of Europe ;) and banners, to which arefaftened piftures 
relating to it, are carried about the ftreets, followed by 
a concourfe of men and boys, fome perfonating Hufleyn’s 
foldiers, and others his enemies. The two parties fome- 
times come to blows, and thefe (ham-fights terminate in 
the death of one or two of the combatants. 
The reprefentation of the marriage of young Caflem, 
Haflan’s fon, with the daughter of his uncle Hufleyn, 
forms one of the amufing incidents of this funeral fefti¬ 
val. A young man afts the part of the bride, who is at¬ 
tired in a rich wedding drefs, and accompanied by her re¬ 
latives, who fing a mournful elegy on the death of the 
bridegroom; for it fhould be obferved that Caflem was 
(lain before the confummation of the marriage. At part¬ 
ing from his bride to go to the fight, Caflem takes the 
moft affefting farewell of her ; and, with a prefentiment 
of his fate, he gives her, in token of his love, a mourn¬ 
ing robe which (lie puts on. At this moment the people, 
tranfported with rage, rufh upon the effigy of the caliph 
Yezid, the murderer of the Ali family, and tear'it in 
pieces. 
Mr. Scott Waring mentions a feftival celebrated by the 
Perfians for the death of the caliph Omar. They ereiSl a 
large platform, on which they fix an image, disfigured and 
deformed as much as poflible. Addrefling themfelves to 
the image, they begin to revile it for having fupplanted 
Ali the lawful fuccefi'or of the Prophet: at length, hav¬ 
ing exhaufted all their expreflions of abufe, they Suddenly 
attack the image with (tones and (licks, till they have 
(hattered it into pieces. The infide is hollow and full of 
fweetmeats, which are greedily devoured by the mob who 
attend the ceremony. 
We (Itall fay nothing of the feftivals inftituted in com¬ 
memoration of fome of Mahomet’s miracles; fuch as the 
cleaving of the moon, the parturition of the (tone, the 
fpeaking camel, &c. becaufe thefe are common both to 
Perfians and Turks, and we (hall have occafion to refume 
the fubjeft under the article Turkey. 
But we (hall advert to a very pleafing topic whereon 
thefe two nations differ widely, as indeed they do in 
many others. The Perfians, unlike other profeflors of 
the Mahometan faith, manifeft a fpirit of toleration to¬ 
wards thofe whom they regard as infidels, worthy of the 
imitation of many a Chriftian community. To (how how 
this fpirit is encouraged by the prefent government, either 
from a principle of juftice or from political motives, we 
(hall adduce a circumftance that happened fome years 
fince in the province of Adherbijan ; under the adminis¬ 
tration of Abbas Mirza, heir-apparent to the throne. 
One day, in the month of January 1807, a Perfian belong¬ 
ing to the houfebold of the prince-royal thought fit to 
inlult publicly an Armenian merchant in the city of Ta- 
breez, and to abufe him in the groflelt manner, for no 
other reafon than the difference of their religions, the 
Armenian being a Chriftian. Not content with person¬ 
ally affronting the Chriftian merchant in an outrageous 
manner, this Perfian fervant launched out into the moft 
atrocious language againft Chrift, his gofpel, the (ign of 
z the 
