4. The empire of Central Persia, under the Arabs, down to its extinction by the Mahomedans in 651 A.D.
5. The dominion of the Kaliphs down to its destruction in 1258 A.D.
6. The last period continuing to our own time.
The mythic and historical periods of Persia resemble two diverging lines, of which the undoubted fact of the reign of Kai-Khorus forms the connecting point. Whilst the historical line grows more and more distinct as it proceeds, the mythic line retreats farther and farther into the dim region of the unknown. Passing from the known to the unknown, we must assign to the development of Zend thoughts, institutions, mode of writing, and mode of building, a greater antiquity than to the Assyrian and Babylonian monuments. Of Persian remains we possess nothing but skeleton buildings, which, from the entire absence of connecting walls, lead us to infer that they were still mere tents, and that the textile fabric had not yet undergone the further process of incrustation in stucco or stone sculpture.
This is not the case with Nineveh and Babylon, the great towns, or, as we should say, the great empires, on the Tigris and Euphrates. Through the indefatigable exertions of the Right Hon. Mr. Layard, M. Botta, Lord Loftus, and Mr. Rassam, we possess now, in London and Paris, tablets with records more than 3,000 years old. The boundary stones prove that some fixed laws regulated territorial property, even at these remote periods. The personal ornaments, consisting of mother-of-pearl studs, silver rings, bracelets, gold and pearl earrings, beads, and shell-bosses with bronze pins, testify to a high civilisation. The mode of writing in Nineveh and Babylon was borrowed from the Zend people; and the religious conceptions of the Persians are undoubtedly older than the already-complicated idolatry based on the astronomical notions of the Assyrians and Babylonians.
The Zend-Avesta (meaning the living word) may be said to be like an Egyptian Nile-meter, erected on the primeval soil of history, measuring the yearly deposits and alluvial sediments of by-gone ages. Through the pure crystals of myth and poetry we may see the inner formation of society, whilst from without the vast construction of history is mysteriously going on. We wander through endless lines of Memnon statues, all resounding with the legends of past ages, in perusing the Zend-Avesta, and are suddenly led before the fountain of all matter, at which the high-priest stands, commanding in the harmony of the seven planets the birth of the world, and the origin of all things.
Our first parents, according to the Zend-Avesta, dwelt in Eriene Veedjo, or Iran Veji, or Aria, Aturia, Asshuria, meaning the fiery or bright land, figuratively the blessed land, in a happy garden, the paradise, assigned to them by Ormuzd—contraction of Ahura-Mazda (the divine Being or the Great Lord). From this they were driven by Agrômainyus, Ahriman, the murderer from the beginning, who changed the seasons, transforming the seven beautiful summer months into ten cold and dreary winter months, leaving only two tolerably warm months. The division of the year into twelve months is clearly proved by this mythic statement. Can anyone count the ages, and describe the means by which Persians, Chaldæans, Medes, Egyptians, and Indians arrived at a systematic arrangement of time, dividing the year into twelve months? After the reign of the Abads (fathers, abbas) Azer-Abad ruled; then Dshey-Afram, Kedor-la-Omer (Cadam, Adam) followed; he ruled 560 years, and attained the venerable age of one thousand years. We find here, as in all old records, the tendency to ascribe to man a longevity which he has long lost. Like shadows which are more gigantic in the rising and setting sun than in the broad mid-day, historical facts in the first dawn of consciousness are exaggerated and turned into fables, which again vanish in the bright light of scientific criticism. Cadam was followed by Siamek, who was succeeded by Tahamur, who conquered the Devas, or evil spirits. He learned from them the art of writing and reading, constructed aqueducts and viaducts, and taught his people music and the use of iron. The Aryans on this side of the Himâlâyas had passed the savage state (the palæolithic period of art), entered into the nomadic (the neolithic period), settled down and used bronze instruments, and then were taught, no longer as with the Indians, Egyptians, and Greeks by a divinity, but by one of their rulers, to extract iron from the ore and to work it. With Tahamur we step into the iron or historical age.
Dshemshid, the Greek Achæmenes, the Biblical Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, pierced the earth with a golden dagger—allegorically meaning that he improved agriculture. Dshemshid ruled 616½ years; he built Persepolis, or Takt-i-Dshemshid (the throne of Dshemshid). He was, however, conquered by Zahok and sawn into two pieces, meaning that the empire of Dshemshid had been divided by Zahok, who was a descendant of the cursed race of Aad. He is said to have been the Sesostris, or Sesoosis, of the third dynasty of the Egyptians, the 332nd king after Menes the builder of Memphis, a great conqueror who went to India, took possession of Thracia and Skythia, and united Æthiopia, Libya, and Egypt into one mighty empire in the fortieth century B.C. He is also said to have been Ninus, who with Semiramis, the night-born queen of doves, and the daughter of the water-sprung Derceto, is set down as the builder of Nineveh, and the founder of the empire of Babel. Takt-i-Dshemshid existed before either Nineveh or Babylon; its priority is borne out not only by these records, but, as we have said, by the very ruins left of the Persian metropolis. The name Parsagad, or Passagarda, means ‘camp of the Persians,’ and points to an early, unsettled state of society; as also do the ruins, which may be divided into two classes:—
1. The ancient Persian monuments of Dshemshid.
2. The monuments of the reign of the Sassanides.