PERSIA
719
PERSIA
of one year. In all large towns there are sub-governors
and village masters. The latter are really the tax-
collectors. The rate of taxation varies in different
parts of the country. The tax on personal property
is light, while the income tax is still lighter, being paid
chiefly in kind. Justice is administered partly by the
shah and partly by the courts and the imams.
Statistics. — The area of modern Persia is about 635,000 square miles, a large part being desert; the population is about 9,000,000, one-fourth of whom are nomads. The estimated jjopulation of the principal cities is: Teheran, 280,000; Tabriz, 200,000; Ispa- han, 70,000; Meshhed, 60,000; Kirman, 60,000; and Yezd, 4.5,000. The principal imports, which amount yearly to about 4.50,000,000 krans (a kran is equivalent to 7 cents of U. S. A. money), are cotton fabrics, sugar, tea, woollens, petroleum, iron and steel goods, and the precious metals. The principal exports, which amount to about 400,000,000 krans annually, are fruits, car- pets, cotton, fish, rice, silk and cocoons, rubber, wool, opium, hides and skins, copper, cereals, and living animals. The modern Persians are Mohammedans. Of these, nearly seven-eighths are Shiites, and only one-eighth Sunnites. Besides, there are about 9000 Parsis, or followers of Zoroaster, 40,000 Jews, 50,000 Armenians, 25,000 Nestorians, and 10,000 Chaldeans (Catholic). Concerning the religion of the ancient Persians, from the- time of the Acha?menian dynasty down to the end of the Sassanian period, covering about twelve centuries (sixth cent. B. c.-seventh cent. A. D.), see Zoroastrianism; the official rehgion of the medieval and modern Persians is Mohammedanism (q. v.).
II. Persian Language and Literature. — The term Persian, as applied both to the people and their language, has now a wider significance than it origi- nally bore. A more appropriate term would be Iran or Iranian. The early inhaliitants of Iran were Aryans, and their languages and dialects, for the last three or four thousand years, belong to the so-called Aryan family. Even the Persian language of to-day, not- withstanding the immense influence exercised upon it by Arabic, is still the lineal offspring of the language spoken by Cyrus, Darius, and the Sassanian kings. This continuity, however, is broken by two great gaps, occasioned by the Greek and Parthian invasions on the one hand, and by the Mohammedan domination on the other, viz., from 331 b. c.-a. d. 227; and 635 and the following years respectively.
The history of the Persian language falls, there- fore, into three well-defined periods, as follows: The Achxmenian Period (550-331 b. c), represented by the edicts and proclamations contained in the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, which, though of considerable extent, are similar in character and style and yield a vocabulary of about 400 words. The language repre- sented by these inscriptions, deciphered by Grotefend, Sir H. Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert, and others towards the middle of the last century, is generally called Old Persian. The Sassanian Period (a. d. 227-651), repre- sented by inscriptions on monuments, medals, gems, seals, and coins, and by a literature estimated as equal in bulk to the Old Testament. This literature is en- tirely Zoroastrian and almost entirely theological and liturgical. The language in which it is written is little more than a very archaic form of the present language of Persia devoid of the Arabic element. It is gener- ally known as Pahlavi, or Middle Persian. Properly speaking, the term Pahlavi applies rather to the script than the language. The Mohammedan Period (from about a. d. 900 until the present day), repre- sented by the Persian language as it was spoken by the Persians after the Arab conquest, and after the adoption of the Mohammedan religion by the vast majority of the inhabitants of Persia. The difference between Late Pahlavi and the earliest form of Mod- ern Persian was, save for the Arabic element generally
contained in the latter, merely a difference of script.
This is generally called Modern Persian, or Neo-
Persian. Of Modern Persian there are many dialects
spoken in different parts of Persia at the present day.
The principal ones are those spoken in Mazandardn,
Ghilan, and Talish in the north; Samn&n in the
northeast; Kashdn, Quhrdd and Na'in in the centre,
with the peculiar Gabri dialect spoken by the Zoro-
astrians inhabiting Yezd, Kirman, Rafsinjan, etc.
Siwand in the south; Luristan, Behbehan and Kurd-
istan in the west; and the Sistdni and Bakhtiyari
idioms.
In Persian literature we recognize four epochs, com- prising (1) The Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions of the Achfemenian kings. (2) The Avesta, the Sacred Books of the Zoroastrians, believed by many to date from Zoroaster's own time (about sixth cent. b. c). (3) The Pahlavi literature, including the contempo- rary Sassanian inscriptions. (4) The Post-Moham- medan, or Modern Persian, literature of the last thousand years, which alone is usually called and un- derstood as Persian literature. To this last may be added the large Arabic literature produced by Per- sians. The literature of the first period is very scanty, consisting mainly of the Acha;menian inscriptions written in the simplest form of the cuneiform script; principal among which is the famous trilingual in- scription of Darius the Great (521-486 b. c), en- graved in the rock on Mount Behistun, near Ham- adan, and memorable in the annals of Assyriology for furnishing scholars with the real clue for describing and interpreting the Assyro-Babylonian language and inscriptions (see Assyria). Most of these Achffme- nian inscriptions date from about the end of the sixth century b. c, although we have specimens as late as Artaxerxes Ochus (359-38 b. c). Very similar to this Old Persian dialect is the language in which the Sacred Books of the Zoroastrians, generally but improperly called the Zend-Avesta, are written. This Zoroastrian, or Avestan, literature is theological and liturgical in character, and its production goes back perhaps to the sixth century B. c, although in its present form it includes many later accretions and redactions, mostly of post-Christian times and co- inciding with the period of the Sassanian dynasty (see Avesta). During the Parthian, or Arsacid dynasty, no literature was produced, except the few inscrip- tions and coins written in Greek.
The Pahlavi literature consists of inscriptions, coins, and several religious, legendary, historical, and literary productions. The inscriptions and the coins belong to the Sassanian dynasty, while the rest ex- tends from their time till about the tenth century. Prof. West divides Pahlavi literature into three classes: (1) Pahlavi translations of Avesta texts, represented by twenty-seven works, estimated to contain about 141,000 words; (2) Pahla\'i texts on religious subjects, represented by fifty-five works, estimated to contain an aggregate of about 446,000 words, mostly commentaries, prayers, traditions, ad- monitions, injunctions, pious sayings, etc.; (3) Pah- lavi texts on non-religious subjects, represented by only eleven works, comprising in all about 41,000 words, but forming by far the most interesting part of Pahlavi literature, as they contain the record of the early legendary history of Iran and Persia, which forms the background of the great epic of Firddsi, the "Shahnameh", or "Book of Kings".
The Modern, or Mohammedan, Persian literature extends from about the tenth century a. d. till our own days, and is by far the richest of the four. The rise, development, and progress of Modern Per- sian literature is intimately connected with the rise, development, and progress of Arabian, or Moham- medan, religious life and literature. The beginning of the ninth century may be said to be the starting- point of the modern national Persian independence
