“The Persians have taken more pains than almost any other nation to preserve their records in writing; yet it has been their fate, in common with most other nations of antiquity, to be indebted for the stability of their fame to foreign historians. Notwithstanding the pains they took to register the acts of their government, the original documents of their history, with a few accidental exceptions, have altogether perished. And the inscriptions of Persepolis, like the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, will, in a manner, have outlived themselves, unless a complete key be discovered to the alphabet in which they are composed.”
Now, as a set off to these extracts, it will be necessary to remark that, though true in substance, they are only so as descriptive of a particular epoch. Empire after empire rolled over, in succession, before that which the historian here delineates, and which was but the motley combination of a rugged swarm of mountaineers, who stalked with ferocious insensibility over the consecrated relics of monumental glory.
Herodotus and Arrian were the authorities that seduced him into this mistake, the former of whom states that “the Persians originally occupied a small and craggy country, and that it was proposed in the time of Cyrus that they should exchange this for one more fertile; a plan which Cyrus discouraged as likely to extinguish their hardy and warlike pursuits”; and the latter, that “the Persians, when, under Cyrus, they conquered all Asia, were a poor people, inhabiting a hilly region”;[209] but those writers were as misinformed, as to all events and particulars relating to this locality, anterior to the time specified above, as any of their contemporaries; and when we reflect how very recent an era in the history of the world was that in which Cyrus appeared, it will be seen how fragile a substratum was that which the professor had adopted for the erection of his materials. We read accordingly, in Terceira’s Spanish history of that country, that “there was not at that time (A.D. 1590) one man in Persia (these were the direct descendants of Cyrus’s men) that understood their ancient letters, for having often seen some plates of metal with ancient inscriptions on them, I made inquiry after the meaning of them; and men well versed in their antiquities, and studious, told me that was Fars kadeem, ancient Persian, after the old fashion, and therefore I should find no man that understood it.”
Indeed the reasonings of Heeren himself,—and learned I cheerfully acknowledge them,—would seem to make him rise above the narrowness of his Grecian supporters.
“Even previous,” says he, “to the time when the Arabs, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, overran and subdued Persia, they were the more open to settlers from the North and East, from the circumstance that Persia was situated on the great highway of nations, by which the human race spread itself from East to West. All that is meant to be asserted is, that the various races who successively had dominion in these parts, all belonged to the same original stock.
“This fact, which the observations of the best modern travellers tend to confirm, may explain how it has come to pass that many districts, anciently celebrated for their fertility, are at present barren and unproductive. A single invasion, by destroying the water-courses, is sufficient to reduce, in a short time, a fertile and flourishing country to an arid desert; and to how many such disastrous contingencies has not Persia at all times been exposed!”
“Another fact, suggested by the languages of Asia and the ancient dialects of Persia, is too important to be passed over in silence. Not only in the Persian territory but in other parts of Eastern Asia, particularly the two Indian peninsulas, we find languages which still subsist, mixed up with others which are preserved to us only in a few written names. To this class belong, in Persia, the Zend and Pahlivi, already mentioned; in Hindustan, the celebrated Sanscrit, as well as the Pali in the Burman peninsula.
“Accordingly, we shall venture to consider as the same parent stock the race which bore rule in Iran, comprehending all the inferior races, and which may be termed in general the Persian or Medo-Persian, inasmuch as the countries in its occupation were termed, in a wider sense, the land of Persia.
“They have been denominated by Rhode (Heilige sagen, etc.) the people of Zend, not improperly, if we consider the Zend as the original language of all the race ... not confined to Persis, properly so called, but extending over the steppes of Carmania and to the shores of the Caspian. Even at the present day they are comprised under the general name of Persia, though Farsistan, the original country of the Persians, forms a very small part of this territory.
“The Semitic and the Persian were, therefore, the principal languages of Asia; the latter being spoken as far as the Indus. Our knowledge of the languages prevalent on the other side of that river is as yet too defective to enable us to speak with anything like certainty. Possibly it may be reserved for our own age to arrive at important conclusions on this subject, if the affinity between the Zend and the Sanscrit, the sacred languages of Persia and Hindustan, should be established,—if the spirit of discovery which characterises the British nation should succeed in rescuing from oblivion some more remains of ancient Indian literature, and a second Anquetil Duperron present the public with the sacred books of the Brahmans, with the same success that his predecessor has illustrated those of the Parsees.”