'A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English; with a Dissertation on the Languages, Literature, and Manners of Eastern Nations' [‎11v] (27/1826)

VI
DISSERTATION.
being subdivided into the Zabant Dan, or the
language of the court, and the Zabdni Farsi, the
dialect of Persia at large. It is to this tongue,
which seems to have been peculiarly cultivated by
the great and the learned above twelve hundred
years before the Muhammadan era, that we should
apparently point our researches for Persian lite
rature previous to that period ; and not to the
uncourtly Pahlavl. So early neglected by the su
perior orders of men, and confined entirely amongst
the boorish mountaineers and unlettered peasants,
it appears equally improbable, that men of genius
should have preferred this rude idiom to the polish
ed Dari; as to suppose a Voltaire to have written
in the Bas Breton; or an Addison in the most
rugged of our county-dialects . 8
The Dari was improved with uncommon care
by the Sassanian princes ; many of whom, as well
as their viziers and great officers, published works
in it; which, though at present hardly known, are
mentioned with high approbation by succeeding
writers. Amongst the chief of those royal and
noble authofs was Ardeshlr Babegan, the first
prince of this dynasty, who began his reign A.D.
202 . He wrote a Kdr-ndmah or journal of his
achievements; and also a work of morality; which
being afterwards improved by Nushirvan the Just,
(who flourished in the sixth century), was sent by
him to all his governors, as the invariable rule of
their conduct. The Zafar-ndmah, written by Bu-
zur, vizier to Nushirvan, is better known; having
been modernized by the celebrated physician
and vizier Avicenna, about the beginning of the
eleventh century. Those books, could they now
be recovered in their original language, would ap
parently be an acquisition far superior to a thousand
such volumes as M. AnquetiTs Zand Avastd. Ex
clusive of their intrinsic value, with regard to Per-
sian history, manners, politics, and morals, they
would show the precise distinction between the
ancient and modern idioms. If what Dr. Hyde
has given us,as the words of Ardeshlr, is authen
tic, his language, though called Old Persian by
that very learned gentleman, is actually, when de-
cyphered, the modern dialect in ancient charac
ters : and if his book is written in the same tongue
(which is probably the case), the whole difference
between the language of the early kings of Persia,
and that of the present hour, seems to rest entirely
in the difference of character, and in the introduc
tion of the Arabic ; which began to take place in
the seventh century of the Christian era . 9
Before this period the Arabians, confined within
their own peninsula, made no figure on the theatre
of Asia; and were, in a political light, known only
to be despised by the Grecian and the Persian
powers. But the enthusiasm, genius, and intre
pidity of one extraordinary man suddenly changed
the scene, and gave a beginning to revolutions
equally rapid as complete. The numerous Arabian
tribes Muhammad, by various means, converted to
his faith, or subjected to his power; but died
before any impression was made upon the adjacent
states. Abubakar led the way to foreign conquest;
and his successor Omar, in the short space of four
years, saw the Caliphat extended from Egyptto the
frontiers of India. Persia was one of the noblest
acquisitions of the Muhammadan arms; the decisive
victory of Kddissla, in the year 636, throwing this
mighty empire under the Arabian yoke, as that of
Arbela had formerly subjected it to Alexander.
The consequences however of the two revolutions
had nothing similar: the Macedonian conquest pro
duced only a change of princes ; the Kayanian dy
nasty of Persian kings giving way to the successors
of their Grecian conqueror: but that of the Ara
bians proved a radical subversion of every charac
teristic circumstance which distinguishes nation
from nation. The ancient government of the
Persians was overturned; their religion proscribed;
tneir laws trampled upon ; and their civil transac
tions disturbed by the forcible introduction of the
lunar for the solar calendar: whilst their language,
which the laws of nature preserved from immediate
and absolute annihilation, became almost over
whelmed by an inundation of Arabic words; which,
from that period, religion, authority, and faction,
incorporated with their idiom . 10