| PAGE | |
| Persian Shepherd Boy | [ Frontispiece] |
| A Street of Shops | [ 15] |
| A Baby in Hammock | [ 20] |
| Ladies’ Out-door and In-door Costumes | [ 25] |
| Persians at Prayer | [ 43] |
| Reading the Quran to the Sick | [ 58] |
| A Persian School | [ 64] |
| A Mission Hospital | [ 90] |
CHILDREN OF PERSIA
CHAPTER I
MUHAMMAD
Before we look at the Persian children of to-day, let us go back nearly thirteen and a half centuries to the year of our Lord 570, and take a look at two adjoining countries in Europe and two adjoining countries in Asia.
In Western Scotland, St Columb is teaching the people Christianity, and is writing out copy after copy of the Bible, until tradition tells that he copied it out three hundred times.
In England the heathen Saxons are conquering the Midlands and crushing out the Christianity of the Britons.
In Persia there is a Christian Church, but most of the people are Zoroastrians, that is, they belong to the Parsee religion. They worship God and believe in a prophet called Zoroaster, who lived long before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so knew nothing about Him. He seems to have taught his people much that was very good, but their religion has become full of superstitions.
Lastly, we must go to Arabia, where a Muhammadan legend describes a curious scene.