'A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English; with a Dissertation on the Languages, Literature, and Manners of Eastern Nations' [‎12r] (28/1826)

DISSERTATION.
vn
The worship of the ancient Persians had unques
tionably been very early corrupted. The reve
rence paid to the Sun and to Fire, which Zoroaster
appears to have considered merely as representa
tives of Omnipotence, the fountain of light, seems
to have been an idea too refined for the gross
capacities of the vulgar: who, without regard to
the great invisible Prototype, turned all their
thoughts to the adoration of those ostensible deities.
Much absurd and barbarous superstition must in
consequence have crept in, and clouded by degrees
the purer faith of their ancestors. Ijpon other
grounds it will be difficult to account for that
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singular severity with which Alexander first, and
afterwards the Arabian Caliphs, reprobated the
tenets of the Magi; destroyed their books ; and
persecuted, with unrelenting rigour, all who made
profession of their religion . 11
The Grecians and Romans had enlarged senti
ments of toleration. I hey adopted the gods of
all the nations they subdued: and, in the belief,
that every people and every place had their tutelary
divinities, they were at uncommon pains to please,
and were equally careful in avoiding all offence.
From Arrian we learn, that Alexander sacrificed
to the Babylonish gods and other Asiatic deities,
though then unknown in Greece : and we are told
by Pliny, that the first endeavour of the Romans,
when besieging a city, was to discover the name
of the’ guardian divinity (without which, it seems,
they could make no invocation) ; when, by pro
mises of greater honours than he had hitherto en
joyed, they endeavoured to bribe him to betray
his former votaries. Such having been the ex
tended ideas of the old Polytheists, we are forced
to conclude, That some singular circumstances of
intolerance and horror had marked the Magian
rites, which peculiarly provoked the vengeance of
their Macedonian conqueror . 12
A similar reason must account for that uncom
mon severity with which they were crushed by
their Moslem masters. These enthusiasts, it must
be confessed, knew little of the tolerant principles
of the ancient Greeks *, and considered it as a re
ligious duty to establish their new faith with fire
and sword. To the Christians, Jews, Sabeans, and
other sects, they paid, however, some show of
respect; and permitted them, if averse from Mos-
lemism, to follow their old belief, on paying a cer
tain extraordinary tribute. But their fury against
the Magi knew no bounds ; destruction or conver
sion being the only alternatives they deigned to
offer. The body of the nation chose the last;
whilst the small remainder of confirmed enthusiasts
sheltered themselves in the mountains of Kuhistan.
Some retired to the isle of Ormuz; whence they
afterwards embarked for Diu; and at length,
towards the close of the eighth century, they ob
tained permission to settle in Surat, and other
places in the territory of Guzerat: where their
descendants, under the denomination of Parsees or
Guebres, by avoiding all intermarriage with the
aboriginal natives of Hindustan, still maintain them
selves a distinct body of harmless and unpowerful
people. It may be said, perhaps, that the religion
and learning of the Magi was by no means the
single object of Muhammadan devastation ; the
destruction of the famous library of Alexandria
being another memorial of the execrable zeal of
the Caliph Omar. It is true, that this great but
bigoted prince, considering all books which coin
cided with the Kur’an to be superfluous, and all that
opposed its doctrines to be pernicious, issued his
barbarian mandate to destroy that noble monument
of ancient learning and magnificence: but still
there was nothing striking in the persecution of the
Egyptians ; the general mode of an advanced
tribute being all that was exacted, for permission
to follow the various religious systems, which pre
vailed in that country previous to the conquest . 13
These singular events, which marked the fate
of the Persian religion, joined to the unsuccessful
researches which have hitherto been made, seem
to furnish strong collateral evidence in support of
the foregoing arguments, and lead us to conclude,
with every circumstance of probability, that the
original works of the Persian lawgiver have long
ago fallen a sacrifice to the ravages of time and ot