"As the Pagan Arabians had a number of dialects, they had alfo a variety of characters; but all of them were fo perplexed in their for mation, and so difficult in their ufe, that about the beginning of the seventh century they adopted the invention of Moramer Ebn Morra, a native of Babylonian Irak. In this character the Alcoran was originally written it was afterwards improved under the denomination of Cufik; and continued in ufe till the appearance of the Nikhi, in the tenth century of our era. As this new mode of writing foon univerfally prevailed, the other gradually declined; and it is now only to be found in the manufcripts and infcriptions of the first ages of the Hejra. The Nifkhi, which, with fome variation and corruption, is the fame which now prevails in Arabia, Perfia, India, and other Eattern countries, is generally afcribed to Ebn Moklah, vizir to the Khalifs Al Moktader, Al Kaher, and Arrad, who reigned from 908 to 940 of our era: but it afterwards underwent the alterations and improvements of many eminent penmen of diftinguished rank; particularly of Nezam and Tograi, vizirs to the Sultans Jelalledin and Mafud; and of Yakut, fecretary to Al Mostasem, the last of the Khalifa of Bagdad."

Of the ancient Perfian our author obferves it opens a wide field for unfatisfactory enquiry.

"Dr. Hyde derives it from that of Media; which is much the fame as deducing one jargon of the Saxon Heptarchy from another. The union of thofe people, named by Europeans, the Medes and Perfans, is of fuch high antiquity, that it is loft in darkness; and long precedes every glimmering we can difcover of the origin of their 1peech: whatever their language was, therefore, it must have evidently been very early the fame, with the fimple and common variation of provincial idiom. But in this tongue we have no genuine remains. We are told, indeed, that it was the language in which Zoroafter promulgated his religion and laws; but this advances not our enquiry: for where or when did Zoroafter live? and where do the works which have been attributed to him exift? The writers both of the East and West speak fo vaguely, and differ fo pointedly, with regard to this perfonage, that it is compleatly impoffible to fix either the country or the period which gave him birth: whilst the Zeratufht of the Perfians bears fo little refemblance to the Zoroaster of the Greeks, that uniefs Dr. Hyde, and other Orientaliits, had refolved, at all events, to reconcile the identity of their perions, we fhould have much difficulty to difcover a fingle fimilar feature. Thofe fragments of his fuppofed works which the learned Doctor has given us, under the tide of the Sadder, are the wretched rhymes of a ma dern Parfi Detour (prieft), who lived about three centuries ago: from that work we cannot then have even the glimpse of an original tongue, nor any thing authentic of the genius of the law-giver: whilft the publications of M. Anquetil du Perron (Oriental interpreter to the king of France) carry fuch palpable marks of the total or partial fabrication of modern times, as give great weight to the opinion of Sir John Chardin; That the old dialect of Perfia (excepting what remains in the prefent language) is entirely loft; that no

books

books now exist in it; and that the jargon and characters of the Parfis of Carmania and Guzerat are barbarous corruptions or inventions of the Guebre priests; without the leaft fimilitude to the inscriptions ftill difcernible to the ancient ruins of Perfepolis."

This opinion of Sir John Claudin is here fupported by fome obfervations on Mr. Anquetil's Zend Avesta.

Our author proceeds to confider the modern idiom of Perfia; and to point out the origin of that fingular and intimate connestion, which it has long maintained with the language of Arabia. In the difcuffion of this fubject he gives a concife hiftory of the Perfian literature; from which we fhall take a fhort extract relative to its moft flourishing period.

"From the end of the tenth, till the fifteenth century, may be confidered as the most flourishing period of Perfian learning. The Epic Poet Firdoufi, in his romantic history of the Persian kings and heroes, difplays an imagination and fimoothness of numbers hardly inferior to Homer. The whole fancied range of Perfian enchantiment he has interwoven in his poems, which abound with the noblest efforts of genius and he has ftamped a dignity on the monsters and fables of the Eaft, equal to that which the prince of Epic poetry has given to the mythology of antient Greece. His language may, at the fame time, be confidered as the moft refined dialect of the older Perfian or Deri; the Arabic being introduced with a very fparing hand: whilt Sadi, Jami, Hafez, and other fucceeding writers, in profe as well as verfe, have blended in their works the Arabic without reserve; gaining, perhaps, in the nervous luxuriance of the one language, what may feem to have been loft in the fofter delicacy of the other.

"From the above period, a literary rivalship feems to have fub'fifted amongst the Mohammedan princes who had difmembered the Khalifat; every Sultan confidering it as an object of the first confcquence, to number amongst his friends, the moft celebrated poets or philofophers of their age. No expence was therefore fpared o allure them to their courts; and no refpect was wanting to fix a continuance of their attachment †.

* See Dictionary &li Shab namé. Father Angelo, author of the Gazophylacium Lingua Perfarum, who went a miffionary to the East in 1663, fays. (p. 199) that the language of the Shah name is confidered, in Perfia, as the idiom of their ancient kings and heroes; and that it is ftill fpoken in the province of Shirvan, near the Cafpian Sea, by a people who live in tents. This, if authentic, furnishes another ftrong argument, that all the difference between the Ancient and Modern dialects, confifts entirely in a diverfity of character, and in the present intermixture of the Arabic.

+ The Eaftern princes feem to have carried their attachment to men of genius to a very fingular excefs: imprifoning them even when they fufpected them of an intention to retire. If they happened to escape, an enbaffy with prefents and apologies fometimes followed the men of learning; and peremptory demands were often made, where gentler methods had not the defired effect: a demand however feldom complied with, if the power

of

"Amongst the most magnificent of thofe royal patrons of Perfian literature were three contemporary princes, who reigned towards the end of the eleventh century; and were remarkable not only for their abilities and liberality, but for the fingular and uninterrupted harmony which diftinguifhed their correfpondence. Thefe were Malekhah Jelaleddin, king of Perfia; Keder ben Ibrahim, Sultan of the Gheznęvides; and Keder ben Khan, the Khakan, or king of Turqueftan, beyond the Gihon. The Khakan was uncommonly fplendid: when he appeared abroad he was preceded by 700 horfemen with filver battle-axes, and was followed by an equal number bearing maces of gold. He fupported, with moft magnificent appointments, a literary academy in his palace, confifting of a hundred men of the highest repu tation in the Eaft: Amak, called alfo Abon'l'najib Al Bokhari, who was the Uftadu'l'fhoara, or chief of the Poets, exclufive of a great penfion, having, amongst other articles of Eastern luxury, a vait number of male and female flaves; with thirty horfes of state richly caparifoned, and a retinue in proportion, which attended him wherever he went. The Khakan ufed often to prefide at their exercises of genius: on which occafions, by the fide of his throne were always placed four large bafons filled with gold and filver; which he diftributed with a liberal hand, to those who principally excelled."

What a wonderful contraft doth this account afford to the neglected state of genius, in this age and country, of boafted

of the fovereigns with whom they had taken refuge, bore any proportion tò that of their competitors. I fhall mention two examples. Khakani, a celebrated Perfian poct of the twelfth century, was a great favourite with the Sultan of Shirvan; but becoming at laft difgufted with the world, he defired leave to retire into the religious order of the Dervishes. The Sultan refusing him permiffion, he fled; but was purfued, brought back, and imprifoned for feveral months. Here he compofed one of his fineft elegies: but he was at length fet at liberty; and foon after obtained leave to put his defign in execution. Mahmoud, Sultan of Ghezna, having invited fome men of genius from the court of his fon-in-law, the king of Kharezmé, the celebrated Avicenna, who was of the number, refuled to go and retired to the capital of the Sultan of Jorjan.-Mahmoud ordered immediately a number of portraits of this great phyfician to be copied, and fent them all around, in order to difcover his retreat. The fame of his cures had, in the mean time, reached the Sultan of Jorjan who fent for him to vifit a favourite nephew, whofe malady had perplexed the faculty. Avicenna fuppofed it to be concealed love and, in the idea that the fair object might be one of the ladies of the king's Haram, he defied the chamberlain to defcribe the curiofities of the palace, whilft he felt the prince's pulle. On the mention of a particular apartinent, he perceived an uncommon emotion in his patient; but the naming of the lady, who lived in it. entirely removed his doubts. The fequel is a perfect counterpart of the famous ftory of Antiochus and Stratonice: the prince was made happy. The king conceiving a great defire to fee a phyfician of fuch penetrating genius, feut for him; and difcovered him, the moment he appeared, by one of the portraits which he had received from Sultan Mahmoud. But no menaces could induce the king of Jorjan to deliver him up. He rewarded him, on the contrary, with riches and honours; and protected him, as long as he chufed to continue at his court, against the all-powerful refentment of that formidable monarch,

Vol. VI.

311

philo

philofophy and literature! And what a pitiful figure do the poets and patrons of thefe times, make in comparifon with those of the ancient Perfians! What is the paltry penfion of a hundred a year and a butt of fack, given to Will Whitehead, poet laureat to George the third, compared with that, and its appendages, allowed to Amak, called alfo Abou'l'najib Al Bokhari, the Uftadu'l'fhoara to Khakan, King of Turqueftan! -To be fure a penfion hath been given to one learned doctor for writing hard words; to another for writing fcandalous words, and a third to an Irish fchool-mafter for teaching us how to pronounce them: but alas! alas! though a butt of fack be given for the butt end of a birth-day fong; we hear of nothing of a penfion being given to any of the Reviewers, notwithflanding their fuperiority to any poet, orator, hiftorian or philofopher in the world; being, as they are, profeffedly mafters of all languages, all arts and all fciences!-Loyal as we are, therefore, to our prefent gracious fovereign, can we help exclaiming, "Oh, that we had lived in the days of Khahan king of Turqueftan !"-But to return to our author; who proceeds in his eulogium on the literature of the Perfians and Arabians, as follows:

"For near three hundred years, the literary fire of the Perfians and Arabians feems indeed to have been almoft extingnifhed; nothing hardly, during that time, which deferves attention, being known, at leaft, in Europe: yet enough exifts, to give us a very high opinion of the genius of the Eaft. In tafte they are undoubtedly inferior to the Greeks, to the Romans, and to the best writers of modern Europe; but, in invention, they are excelled, perhaps equalled by none. The Arabians are diftinguifhed by a concifenefs of diction, which borders fometimes upon obfcurity. The Perfians affect, on the contrary, a rhetorical luxuriance; which, to a European,' wears the air of unnecellary redundance. If, to thefe leading ditinctions, we add a peculiarity of imagery, of metaphor, of allufion; derived from the diffe rence of government, of manners, of temperament; and of fuch natural objects as characterife Afia from Europe; we fhall fee, at one view, the great points of variation between the writers of the Eat and Weft. Amongst the Oriental hiftorians, philofophers, thetoricians, and poets, many will be found, who would do honour to any age or people: whilft their romances, their tales, and their fables, fand upon a ground, which Europeans have hardly yet found powers

to reach.

"In various other lights, the ufefulness of the Perfian and Arabic languages will appear evident, on the flightest examination. The high political confequence of the Perfian, in the affairs of India, is too ob vious and too generally acknowledged to require arguments to enforce it; whilft the Arabic, totally neglected, or studied with inattention, has never been viewed, in Hindollan, by Europeans, in the important light it merits."

Having traced the progrefs, of the Arabic and Perfian languages, as far as is confiftent with reafon or conducive to utility, our learned author proceeds to examine the lights which Eastern language and literature may throw upon ancient hiftory and mythology. In this inveftigation, he is unavoidably led to question the opinions of fome of the most eminent men in the literary world; who, as he obferves, little acquainted with the languages of the Eaft, and entangled in the labyrinths of fyftem, have built upon a basis of no folidity, and extended error, inftead of difcovering truth.

Of Hiftory in general, he fenfibly obferves, that its chief object is to improve the great fyftem of focial life, by inftructing mankind in the experience of former ages.

To answer this important end, it is by no means neceffary that every fact we read fhould be strictly true in all its parts. The Cyropædia of Xenophon, or the Telemaque of Fenelon, may convey leffons, on a variety of points, with an efficacy not inferior to the most unquestionable truths. Where no probability is therefore destroyed; no chronology obviously injured; no fuperior authority evidently oppofed: where the great lines are confiftent with the fituation of the principal agents; and the confequences arife naturally from the events: fuch facts are entitled to our belief; and to question them muft difplay a very unneceffary, and a very unprofitable fcepticifim. But, where the annals of one nation are tortured into co-incidence with the imaginary eras of another; where mighty details are given, the traces of which cannot be difcovered in the countries most eminently interested; where fober truth and rational evidence are facrificed to vanity, fiction, or exaggeration; fuch narrations should acquire no authority, because tranfmitted by the most celebrated of the ancient writers, and copied by compilers of modern times. We should look upon them as fables of mere amusement; and proportion our admiration to their fecondary merits alone; elegance of tafte, ingenuity of invention, and excellence of tile.

"When we reflect on the uncertainty of almost every thing merely human: when we obferve the obfcurity with which all history is involved in its beginnings: when we confider how few writers record the facts of their own oblervation; and the fufpicious mediums through which they derive their knowledge: when we view the partiality of mankind for their country, their party, their opinions; with the neceffity, which even the most enlightened, and moft unbiaffed minds, have found of fwimming with the ftream of popular prejudice; we muft candidly contefs, that no particular clafs of historians have any folid claim to poffets themfelves exclufively of our belief; in oppofition to others, whofe narratives, though rational, are repugnant to thofe which we have been accustomed to receive. Audi alteram partem is an old and an excellent maxim; and impartiality ought ever to imprefs it on our minds, where opportunity furnishes the means. With channels of information, to which the ancients were compleatly ftran

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