'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎90] (137/905)

90
DIVISIONS OF IRAN.
[CHAP. IV.
precepts of Zoroaster and other sages inculcated a lofty,
chivalrous spirit, with a profuse generosity, which still lingers,
though but faintly, in the East; and, that the grand basis
of good conduct, the love of truth, was not lost sight of,
whatever it may be in the present times, is evident from the
account given by Herodotus himself, 1 of the great disgrace
attached to an untruth. 2
PerSfunder Scarcely two centuries elapsed before the mighty empire,
'Abbas. which had been organized by Darius Hystaspes, was over
turned by the arms of Alexander; and the Persian state
experienced such a succession of changes in power and extent,
in consequence of the subsequent invasions of the Scythians
and Arabians, that it had almost ceased to be known as an
empire, when the modern kingdom began to spring up under
Ismael Sefi. The warlike successors of this monarch con
tinued gradually to recover portions of the original territory;
until, according to Cluverius, the kingdom of Abbas the
Great, in 1636, had a part of the Paropamisian range to the
north, the river Indus to the east, the Indian Ocean and
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. to the south, and, finally, it had the river
Euphrates and the great Caucasian range for its western and
north-western boundary. 3 These limits are also given to
Persia, about the same period, by another geographer (Gol-
nitius), and likewise by two distinguished travellers, Herbert 4
and Chardin; 5 and, with the exception of the temporary loss
of Kandahar by treason, 6 the Persian sovereign continued to
laws, and the management of the bow and javelin.—Xenophon, Cyropsed.,
lib. I., cap. ii., § 4, &c., p. 7.
1 Herod., I., cxxxvi. 2 Ibid., cxxxviii.
8 Cluverius, Introduction to Geography, book V., cap. 12. The river Oxus,
the Caspian, and Mount Caucasus, to the north; Indus to the east; Indian
Ocean and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. to the south; the Euphrates, Mount Niphates,
and Araxes to the west.
4 From KanddMr to Babylon, 1320 miles; and from Georgia to the Sea of
Gedrosia, 1480 miles.—Some Years' Travels into Africa, Asia, Persia, and
Hindiistdn, by Thomas Herbert, Esq. London, 1638.
5 From Georgia to the Indus, 550 farsangs; and 300 broad, from the Oxus
to the Indian Ocean.—Chardin, Vol. IV., p. 4.
6 Alimerdan-Kan delivered this city up to the Great Mogul in 1618, and
Shah Abbas recovered it in 1650.—Ogilby's Asia, p. 195.