[462] Samarah is a town in Chaldæa, from which the Samaritan Jews have their name, and which was for some time the seat of the Muselman empire (Herbelot).—A. T.
[463] Jâafriyah is a town in the Arabian Irak, so called from its builder, Jâfar, the original name of the khalif who assumed the title of Matavakhel al Allah, “he who confides in God.”—A. T.
[464] He had then reigned fourteen years and two months. The Turks were excited to murder him by his own son Montassar, in the town of Makhuriah, on the very spot where Khosru Parviz had been put to death by his son Shiruyah (Siroes)—(Herbelot).—A. T.
[465] According to the above statement, the tree would have been planted 604 years before our era, that is, about the time of Gushtasp, king of Persia, if the years above stated be taken for solar years; but if for lunar (that is for only 1408 solar) years, the epoch of the plantation of the cypress would be 562 years B. C., and 548, if the computation be referred to the end of Mutawakhal’s life.—A. T.
[466] Hakim Mirtas, in the text, may be a proper name.—A. T.
[467] The Sad-der naser (in prose) is an abridgment of practical and ceremonial theology, called Sad-der, or “one hundred doors,” because the hundred chapters of which it is composed are like so many doors leading to heaven. Some Parsees think that the original was written in Pehlvi. It is positively said in the beginning of this treatise that it has been drawn from the law: which proves that it makes no part of the Zend-Avesta (Zend-Av., t. I. 2. P. Notices, pp. xxix. xxx).
The Sad-der nazem (in verse) was versified by a Persian called Shahmard, the son of Malek Shah, and terminated in the month of Isfendermad (February) of the year 864 from the installation of Yezdejerd, 1495 A. D., and brought from Kirman to India by the Dustúr Pashutan Daji. This work has been translated into Latin by the learned Hyde (ibid., p. xxxiv). The Dabistan gives only a short abstract of it.—A. T.
[468] See p. [298], where the same tale occurs.
[469] Yasht (see [note], p. 258) signifies with the Parsees in general prayers accompanied by efficacious benedictions, but is here used to imply the panegyrics of several celestial spirits, in which are enumerated their principal attributes and their relation to Ormuzd and his productions, as distributors of the blessings which this secondary principle spreads over nature, and as declared enemies of Ahriman and his ministers. According to the Parsees, each Amshasfand and Ized had a peculiar Yasht; but of all these compositions there only remain in the Zand eighteen which are authentic, and a small part of the Yasht of Bahman.—D. S.