PERSIA. 
705 
the crofs and other emblems of our religion. Thefe blaf- 
phemies roufed the indignation of the Armenian to fuch 
a degree, that, to punilh the aggreffor and to avenge his - 
religion before the public, he laid hands on him, and, 
after giving him a found beating, left him extended on 
the ground, and returned to his own houfe. The man, 
covered with dirt and blood, prefently got up, and went 
to the palace of the prince his mailer, to prefer his com¬ 
plaint againft the Armenian merchant, by whom he had 
been fo roughly handled. He took good care to conceal 
from the prince the real caufeof their quarrel, and inter¬ 
larded his ftory with many falfe allegations againft the 
merchant. Abbas had too much penetration not to per¬ 
ceive the means by which his fervant hoped to ftrengthen 
his complaint; lie neverthelefs, liftened with patience to 
his whole depofition, which embraced a variety of cir- 
cumftantial details that had all the appearance of truth, 
but in reality were nothing but fi&ions. He then fum- 
moned before him the Armenian merchant, and deter¬ 
mined toexaminehim in full divan, and hear what he had 
to fay in his defence. At the fame time he ordered the 
perfons who had witnefied the fray to attend. After 
hearing their declarations and evidence, the divan was 
convinced that the fervant had without provocation 
attacked the Armenian, and uttered blafphemies againft 
the Chriftian religion, and that for thefe caufes only the 
merchant had beaten the Perfian. 
With a view to prevent fimilar offences in future, to 
give fatisfa&ion, as it were, to the Chriftians refident in 
the country, and to adminifter juftice with the fanftion 
of thofe who are the guardians of the laws of Mahometan 
ftates, Abbas convened a divan compofed of the Sheik- 
ul-Iflam, and the principal ulemas of the city of Tabreez, 
and propofed the following queftions, w'hich he required 
them toanfwer. 
1. Was the Lord Jefus (Hazreti-Iyfa) a real prophet 
by God ?— Arifiver. Yes. 
2. Are the laws contained in his noble Gofpel (Indjili- 
flieryO juft or not ?—They are juft. 
3. Is it permitted by our laws to blafpheme the Lord 
Jefus and his noble Gofpel ?—No, it is unjuft. 
Upon thefe unanimous decifions of the ulemas, called 
in fuch cafes fetva, or fentence, the prince-royal ordered 
the merchant to be fet at liberty, and his ov/n fervant 
to be punifhed with a hundred ftrokes of the baftinado ; 
moreover he difmifled him from his fervice, as a warning 
to all who fhould be difpofed to infult the profeflbrs of a 
different religion from their own. 
Similar fentiments were difplayed by the monarch him- 
felf on a more recent occafion. In April 1815, the vici¬ 
nity of the capita) was vifited with an extraordinary 
drought. The Shiek-ul-Iflam of that city imagined that 
he was performing an aflion well pieafing to God and 
his majefty, in perfuading the populace, that the drought 
and the confequent dearth of the produdlions of the foil, 
were a puniftiment inflidled by the Almighty', becaufe 
people frequented the taverns kept by the Armenian 
Chriftians ; and that, to appeafe the divine wrath, they 
ought to deftroy thofe haunts of impiety. By fuch lan¬ 
guage, the Sheik-ul-Ifiam inflamed the minds of his hear¬ 
ers, who tumultuoufly proceeded to that quarter inhabi¬ 
ted by the Armenians, and, in the prefence of the Sheik, 
demolifhed one of their churches, and pulled down the 
houfes of feveral dealers in wine. It was not long be¬ 
fore the king was informed of this outrage. He ordered 
the Sheik-ul-Iflam, and the perfons whom he had infti- 
gated to its commiflion, to be brought before him. 
“ Audacious wretches !” faid he, “ who commanded you 
to aft thus? What law authorifes fuch proceedings? Is 
the Sheik-ul-Iflam your fovereign, or the ruler of this 
country ? Ye have violated the laws of my dominions ; 
by them I condemn you : depart from my prefence.” 
The legal penalties were immediately enforced, and the 
culprits were obliged to pay the Armenians an indemni¬ 
fication of a thoufand tomans. His majefty then fent 
for the principal perfons of the Armenian nation: “ It 
is my with,” faid he to them, “ that all my fubjefls, of 
what religion foever they be, fhould enjoy a juft liberty 
and live unmolefled under the proteflion of my royal au¬ 
thority.” He then promifed to inflift condign punilh- 
ment on the Sheik-ul-Iflam ; and exhorted them to pray 
to God for the prefervation of his life. At the fame 
time lje ordered his treafurerto pay to thefe notables the 
futn of three thoufand tomans out of his privy purfe, as 
a compenfation to the Chriftians for the injury they had 
fuftained. He moreover commanded that the Armenian 
church fhould be repaired at the expenfe of government, 
and that reftitution fhould be made for fuch furniture 
and effe6ls as had been damaged or deftroyed. 
If the preceding fadls exhibit a laudable relaxation of 
Mahometan rigour towards thofe whom they regard as 
infidels, the following whimfical anecdote proves the Per. 
flans to be the leaft fanatic of all Mufiulmans, in permit¬ 
ting doubts to be publicly raifed among themfelves 
againft points of faith inculcated by their own religion. 
A mollah, preaching one day in a mofque, ftrongly in- 
fifted on the examination which the deceafed have to un¬ 
dergo from the angels of death, Nekyr and Monkyr, as 
foon as they are depofited in the tomb. “ Don’t believe 
a word of it !” cried one of the congregation ; “ for one 
of my flaves died a few days fince; I filled his mouth 
with rice, and, on digging him up again to-day, the rice 
was juft as I left it. Now it is morally impoflible for a 
man to give anfwers,even to angels, with his mouth full.” 
But, in an abfolute government, fo much depends 
upon the caprice of the monarch, upon the whim of the 
moment as W'e may fay, that we do not take upon us to 
affirm that every Chriftian, Jew, or Pagan, is, or has caufe 
to be, quite at his eafe in the kingdom we are treating of. 
It is certain that the Soils, a very ancient left, the origin 
of whofe name is veiled in obfcurity, have been treated 
with great rigour by the prefent moft gracious, moft mer¬ 
ciful, molt tolerant, monarch, Feth Ali Shah. 
The name, as fir R. K. Porter informs us, is fpelt by 
different writers in a variety of ways ; for inftance, Suffi,- 
Sooffee, Sefi, and Sophi. The Arabic term, which bears 
all thele fpellings, means wife, holy ; and is fuppofed to 
be derived from a root-word, lignifying“ be pure, clean 
and the feft who aflurfte that title arrogate a peculiar de¬ 
gree of wifdom and purity beyond all other believers. 
But the Monthly Reviewers inform us, that “ the Arabic 
word is erroneoufly underftood by fir R. Porter. It is a 
noun fignifying wool, and the fed; is faid to be fo named 
from an allufion to the coarfe mantles afteded by its 
teachers: but the coipoi or o-otpta, of the Greeks is the 
moft probable derivation.” (M. R. Jan. 1823.) We 
think fo too; but, be that as it may, and whatever be 
the name they bear, whether in old or in modern philofo- 
phy, the fame common vanity of human reafon, that has 
milled enthufiaftic and felf-confident minds from the be¬ 
ginning of man’s hiftory until now, may be recognifed in 
the felf-denying theories of thefe wild deifts. Inflamed 
by the poetic fancies of an ardent imagination, nothing 
feemed to them too exalted for their conceptions, too fub- 
limely pure for their participation ; in fine, deriving 
their exiftence from God himfelf, not by creation, but by 
emanation, they fet forth with fo peculiar and myftical a 
pretenflon to holinefs, that the ignorant vulgar, confoun¬ 
ded with the excefs of light to which they pretended, 
yielded implicit credit and confequent homage to fuch 
fuperior fandlity. Indeed, the great reputation acquired 
by Sooffee (or Sefi)-u-deen, one of the moft eminent of 
thefe philofophic devotees, fmoothed the road for his 
defcendants to mount the throne of Perfia. (See p. 
678.) Ifmael the Firlt, of the pofterityof this celebrated 
alcetic, became king A. D. 1500; and, in honour of his 
holy anceftor, the dynafty he founded took the name of 
Sooffee, Sefi, or Sophi; and hence came the monarchs of 
that race to be designated, even in European courts, by 
the name of the Sophi, without any additional title. 
But the princes of the Sooffee defeent were too fenfible 
of the value of ftationary laws, moral and religious, to 
fupport 
