[83] I have (see vol. I. p. 26, [note 1]) derived this name from the Sanscrit yas, “glory, honor.” In Burhan Katii it is interpreted by “what is convenient.”
[84] Loco cit., p. 342.
[85] Journ. des Savans, février 1821, p. 69.
[86] See Réflexions sur l’Étude des Langues orientales, loc. cit., p. 51.
[87] See the development of these ideas in Erdkunde von Carl Ritter, VIIIter Theil; IIIter Buch, West-asien Seiten 105-109, with reference to E. Burnouf Comment. sur le Yacna, pp. 461, 563.
[88] We may be here permitted to call to mind the eras of the Chaldeans, who, according to Berosus, Epigenes, Diodorus of Sicily, Abydenus counted 490,000, 720,000, 473,000, 463,763 years. They are said to have exhibited, before Alexander’s conquest in Asia, historical annals for 150,000 years.
[89] See [p. lxvii].
§ II.—The Peshdadian, Kayanian, Ashkanian, and Sassanian Dynasties—their religious and political institutions.
After the four dynasties mentioned follows the Gilshanian, monarchy, founded by Gilshah, or Kayomers, “the king or form of earth.”[90] We are now upon well-known ground, and hear familiar names of four races: the Péshdadian, Kayanian, Ashkaniun, and Sassanian, to which, altogether, the Dabistán attributes a period of 6024 years, differing considerably from that of other Asiatic chronologers.[91]