نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [ظ‎‎٦‎٦‎٤] (١٨١٤/١٣٤٥)

306
PERSIA
in bygone days. They have five books, the principal of which is
the Sidra or Book of Adam, written in a dialect of. the Aramaic
language, with an alphabet closely allied to the Syriac. Though
the present Sidra is post-Mohammedan in date, its language and
ideas alike point to an earlier origin. The Sabians are monogamous
and do not practise circumcision, but have peculiar ordinances with
regard to the eating of meat. Some of them also entertain a hazy
belief in the gnostic idea of dualism, or a war of lival principles.
But no two travellers ever received from them either a coherent or
a consistent account of their faith. In appearance and dress they
are not to be distinguished from the Arabs, among whom their lot
is cast. They only intermarry amongst themselves; but their
general poverty and obscurity are reflected in theii numerical
decline. 1
I have more than once indicated that in ancient days the whole
country which I have been describing was the scene of greater
Ruins of population and busier life, and of a truly royal rule,
the past Evidences of bygone splendour, both of the Elamite or
Susian period, that mysterious blank space in history, ot the
Acheemenian times, the golden age of the Medes and Persians,
and of the later but still notable Sassanian epoch—in each of which
Persia attained to considerable grandeur—lie scattered throughout
this region from east to west. In the neighbourhood of Bizful,
where the mountain ranges are succeeded by the plains of Susiana
or Elam, occurs the most stately of these monuments to a vanished
order, in the shape of the great mounds of Shush, or Susa.
A problem that agitated and divided the savants of an earlier
generation, 2 and misled even so penetrative a critic as Bawlinson
1 For a short bibliography of the Sabians, I may mention, in addition to the
standard works of D’Anville, Assemann, D’Herbelot, Hyde, Ritter, De Sacy,
Picart, Hottinger, Gobineau, the following: Tavernier, bk. iii. cap. vim ; bangles on
Chardin, vol. vi. pp. 136-152; Sir. W. Onseley, Travels, vol. i. app. xii. ,^Dr. o ,
Travels, vol. i. pp. 330-4; (Sir) H. bayard, Early Adventures, vol. ii. pp. 163-4,171- I
De Bode, Travels, vol. ii. pp. 171-9 ; Madame Dieulafoy, La Perse, p. 547; and ■ e
following learned essays : Gesenius, Mandaer o Zabier, 1817 ; Chwolsohn, i. sa wr
und Ssabismus, 1856; Noldeke, Mundart der Mandaer, 1862, and Ma
GrammaWt, 1875 ; Edinburgh Review, Only 1880 ; Siouffi, Etudes sur la re l( P
des Soubbas on Sabiens, Paris, 1880 ; Babelon, Les Mandites, lew histoire et to
doctrine, Paris, 1882. Vide also A. H. Schindler, Proc. of the R Nov- _
2 Among those who debated the Shushan-Susa question, ma) e C1 ®
names of Ouseley, Kinneir, Gosselin (ed. of Strabo), bong, Barbie du oca »^
Hoeck, D’Herbelot, D’Anville, Vincent, Mannert, Von Hammer. A hm m g