Chapter XLII: State Of The Barbaric World.—Part II

In the rapid career of conquest, the Turks attacked and subdued
the nation of the Ogors or Varchonites 3011 on the banks of the
River Til, which derived the epithet of Black from its dark water
or gloomy forests. 31 The khan of the Ogors was slain with three
hundred thousand of his subjects, and their bodies were scattered
over the space of four days’ journey: their surviving countrymen
acknowledged the strength and mercy of the Turks; and a small
portion, about twenty thousand warriors, preferred exile to
servitude. They followed the well-known road of the Volga,
cherished the error of the nations who confounded them with the
Avars, and spread the terror of that false though famous
appellation, which had not, however, saved its lawful proprietors
from the yoke of the Turks. 32 After a long and victorious march,
the new Avars arrived at the foot of Mount Caucasus, in the
country of the Alani 33 and Circassians, where they first heard
of the splendor and weakness of the Roman empire. They humbly
requested their confederate, the prince of the Alani, to lead
them to this source of riches; and their ambassador, with the
permission of the governor of Lazica, was transported by the
Euxine Sea to Constantinople. The whole city was poured forth to
behold with curiosity and terror the aspect of a strange people:
their long hair, which hung in tresses down their backs, was
gracefully bound with ribbons, but the rest of their habit
appeared to imitate the fashion of the Huns. When they were
admitted to the audience of Justinian, Candish, the first of the
ambassadors, addressed the Roman emperor in these terms: “You see
before you, O mighty prince, the representatives of the strongest
and most populous of nations, the invincible, the irresistible
Avars. We are willing to devote ourselves to your service: we are
able to vanquish and destroy all the enemies who now disturb your
repose. But we expect, as the price of our alliance, as the
reward of our valor, precious gifts, annual subsidies, and
fruitful possessions.” At the time of this embassy, Justinian had
reigned above thirty, he had lived above seventy-five years: his
mind, as well as his body, was feeble and languid; and the
conqueror of Africa and Italy, careless of the permanent interest
of his people, aspired only to end his days in the bosom even of
inglorious peace. In a studied oration, he imparted to the senate
his resolution to dissemble the insult, and to purchase the
friendship of the Avars; and the whole senate, like the mandarins
of China, applauded the incomparable wisdom and foresight of
their sovereign. The instruments of luxury were immediately
prepared to captivate the Barbarians; silken garments, soft and
splendid beds, and chains and collars incrusted with gold. The
ambassadors, content with such liberal reception, departed from
Constantinople, and Valentin, one of the emperor’s guards, was
sent with a similar character to their camp at the foot of Mount
Caucasus. As their destruction or their success must be alike
advantageous to the empire, he persuaded them to invade the
enemies of Rome; and they were easily tempted, by gifts and
promises, to gratify their ruling inclinations. These fugitives,
who fled before the Turkish arms, passed the Tanais and
Borysthenes, and boldly advanced into the heart of Poland and
Germany, violating the law of nations, and abusing the rights of
victory. Before ten years had elapsed, their camps were seated on
the Danube and the Elbe, many Bulgarian and Sclavonian names were
obliterated from the earth, and the remainder of their tribes are
found, as tributaries and vassals, under the standard of the
Avars. The chagan, the peculiar title of their king, still
affected to cultivate the friendship of the emperor; and
Justinian entertained some thoughts of fixing them in Pannonia,
to balance the prevailing power of the Lombards. But the virtue
or treachery of an Avar betrayed the secret enmity and ambitious
designs of their countrymen; and they loudly complained of the
timid, though jealous policy, of detaining their ambassadors, and
denying the arms which they had been allowed to purchase in the
capital of the empire. 34

3011 (return) [ The Ogors or Varchonites, from Var. a river,
(obviously connected with the name Avar,) must not be confounded
with the Uigours, the eastern Turks, (v. Hammer, Osmanische
Geschichte, vol. i. p. 3,) who speak a language the parent of the
more modern Turkish dialects. Compare Klaproth, page 121. They
are the ancestors of the Usbeck Turks. These Ogors were of the
same Finnish race with the Huns; and the 20,000 families which
fled towards the west, after the Turkish invasion, were of the
same race with those which remained to the east of the Volga, the
true Avars of Theophy fact.—M.]

31 (return) [ The River Til, or Tula, according to the geography
of De Guignes, (tom. i. part ii. p. lviii. and 352,) is a small,
though grateful, stream of the desert, that falls into the Orhon,
Selinga, &c. See Bell, Journey from Petersburg to Pekin, (vol.
ii. p. 124;) yet his own description of the Keat, down which he
sailed into the Oby, represents the name and attributes of the
black river, (p. 139.) * Note: M. Klaproth, (Tableaux Historiques
de l’Asie, p. 274) supposes this river to be an eastern affluent
of the Volga, the Kama, which, from the color of its waters,
might be called black. M. Abel Remusat (Recherchea sur les
Langues Tartares, vol. i. p. 320) and M. St. Martin (vol. ix. p.
373) consider it the Volga, which is called Atel or Etel by all
the Turkish tribes. It is called Attilas by Menander, and Ettilia
by the monk Ruysbreek (1253.) See Klaproth, Tabl. Hist. p. 247.
This geography is much more clear and simple than that adopted by
Gibbon from De Guignes, or suggested from Bell.—M.]

32 (return) [ Theophylact, l. vii. c. 7, 8. And yet his true
Avars are invisible even to the eyes of M. de Guignes; and what
can be more illustrious than the false? The right of the fugitive
Ogors to that national appellation is confessed by the Turks
themselves, (Menander, p. 108.)]

33 (return) [ The Alani are still found in the Genealogical
History of the Tartars, (p. 617,) and in D’Anville’s maps. They
opposed the march of the generals of Zingis round the Caspian
Sea, and were overthrown in a great battle, (Hist. de Gengiscan,
l. iv. c. 9, p. 447.)]

34 (return) [ The embassies and first conquests of the Avars may
be read in Menander, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 99, 100, 101, 154, 155,)
Theophanes, (p. 196,) the Historia Miscella, (l. xvi. p. 109,)
and Gregory of Tours, (L iv. c. 23, 29, in the Historians of
France, tom. ii. p. 214, 217.)]

Perhaps the apparent change in the dispositions of the emperors
may be ascribed to the embassy which was received from the
conquerors of the Avars. 35 The immense distance which eluded
their arms could not extinguish their resentment: the Turkish
ambassadors pursued the footsteps of the vanquished to the Jaik,
the Volga, Mount Caucasus, the Euxine and Constantinople, and at
length appeared before the successor of Constantine, to request
that he would not espouse the cause of rebels and fugitives. Even
commerce had some share in this remarkable negotiation: and the
Sogdoites, who were now the tributaries of the Turks, embraced
the fair occasion of opening, by the north of the Caspian, a new
road for the importation of Chinese silk into the Roman empire.
The Persian, who preferred the navigation of Ceylon, had stopped
the caravans of Bochara and Samarcand: their silk was
contemptuously burnt: some Turkish ambassadors died in Persia,
with a suspicion of poison; and the great khan permitted his
faithful vassal Maniach, the prince of the Sogdoites, to propose,
at the Byzantine court, a treaty of alliance against their common
enemies. Their splendid apparel and rich presents, the fruit of
Oriental luxury, distinguished Maniach and his colleagues from
the rude savages of the North: their letters, in the Scythian
character and language, announced a people who had attained the
rudiments of science: 36 they enumerated the conquests, they
offered the friendship and military aid of the Turks; and their
sincerity was attested by direful imprecations (if they were
guilty of falsehood) against their own head, and the head of
Disabul their master. The Greek prince entertained with
hospitable regard the ambassadors of a remote and powerful
monarch: the sight of silk-worms and looms disappointed the hopes
of the Sogdoites; the emperor renounced, or seemed to renounce,
the fugitive Avars, but he accepted the alliance of the Turks;
and the ratification of the treaty was carried by a Roman
minister to the foot of Mount Altai. Under the successors of
Justinian, the friendship of the two nations was cultivated by
frequent and cordial intercourse; the most favored vassals were
permitted to imitate the example of the great khan, and one
hundred and six Turks, who, on various occasions, had visited
Constantinople, departed at the same time for their native
country. The duration and length of the journey from the
Byzantine court to Mount Altai are not specified: it might have
been difficult to mark a road through the nameless deserts, the
mountains, rivers, and morasses of Tartary; but a curious account
has been preserved of the reception of the Roman ambassadors at
the royal camp. After they had been purified with fire and
incense, according to a rite still practised under the sons of
Zingis, 3611 they were introduced to the presence of Disabul. In
a valley of the Golden Mountain, they found the great khan in his
tent, seated in a chair with wheels, to which a horse might be
occasionally harnessed. As soon as they had delivered their
presents, which were received by the proper officers, they
exposed, in a florid oration, the wishes of the Roman emperor,
that victory might attend the arms of the Turks, that their reign
might be long and prosperous, and that a strict alliance, without
envy or deceit, might forever be maintained between the two most
powerful nations of the earth. The answer of Disabul corresponded
with these friendly professions, and the ambassadors were seated
by his side, at a banquet which lasted the greatest part of the
day: the tent was surrounded with silk hangings, and a Tartar
liquor was served on the table, which possessed at least the
intoxicating qualities of wine. The entertainment of the
succeeding day was more sumptuous; the silk hangings of the
second tent were embroidered in various figures; and the royal
seat, the cups, and the vases, were of gold. A third pavilion was
supported by columns of gilt wood; a bed of pure and massy gold
was raised on four peacocks of the same metal: and before the
entrance of the tent, dishes, basins, and statues of solid
silver, and admirable art, were ostentatiously piled in wagons,
the monuments of valor rather than of industry. When Disabul led
his armies against the frontiers of Persia, his Roman allies
followed many days the march of the Turkish camp, nor were they
dismissed till they had enjoyed their precedency over the envoy
of the great king, whose loud and intemperate clamors interrupted
the silence of the royal banquet. The power and ambition of
Chosroes cemented the union of the Turks and Romans, who touched
his dominions on either side: but those distant nations,
regardless of each other, consulted the dictates of interest,
without recollecting the obligations of oaths and treaties. While
the successor of Disabul celebrated his father’s obsequies, he
was saluted by the ambassadors of the emperor Tiberius, who
proposed an invasion of Persia, and sustained, with firmness, the
angry and perhaps the just reproaches of that haughty Barbarian.
“You see my ten fingers,” said the great khan, and he applied
them to his mouth. “You Romans speak with as many tongues, but
they are tongues of deceit and perjury. To me you hold one
language, to my subjects another; and the nations are
successively deluded by your perfidious eloquence. You
precipitate your allies into war and danger, you enjoy their
labors, and you neglect your benefactors. Hasten your return,
inform your master that a Turk is incapable of uttering or
forgiving falsehood, and that he shall speedily meet the
punishment which he deserves. While he solicits my friendship
with flattering and hollow words, he is sunk to a confederate of
my fugitive Varchonites. If I condescend to march against those
contemptible slaves, they will tremble at the sound of our whips;
they will be trampled, like a nest of ants, under the feet of my
innumerable cavalry. I am not ignorant of the road which they
have followed to invade your empire; nor can I be deceived by the
vain pretence, that Mount Caucasus is the impregnable barrier of
the Romans. I know the course of the Niester, the Danube, and the
Hebrus; the most warlike nations have yielded to the arms of the
Turks; and from the rising to the setting sun, the earth is my
inheritance.” Notwithstanding this menace, a sense of mutual
advantage soon renewed the alliance of the Turks and Romans: but
the pride of the great khan survived his resentment; and when he
announced an important conquest to his friend the emperor
Maurice, he styled himself the master of the seven races, and the
lord of the seven climates of the world. 37

35 (return) [ Theophanes, (Chron. p. 204,) and the Hist.
Miscella, (l. xvi. p. 110,) as understood by De Guignes, (tom. i.
part ii. p. 354,) appear to speak of a Turkish embassy to
Justinian himself; but that of Maniach, in the fourth year of his
successor Justin, is positively the first that reached
Constantinople, (Menander p. 108.)]

36 (return) [ The Russians have found characters, rude
hieroglyphics, on the Irtish and Yenisei, on medals, tombs,
idols, rocks, obelisks, &c., (Strahlenberg, Hist. of Siberia, p.
324, 346, 406, 429.) Dr. Hyde (de Religione Veterum Persarum, p.
521, &c.) has given two alphabets of Thibet and of the Eygours. I
have long harbored a suspicion, that all the Scythian, and some,
perhaps much, of the Indian science, was derived from the Greeks
of Bactriana. * Note: Modern discoveries give no confirmation to
this suspicion. The character of Indian science, as well as of
their literature and mythology, indicates an original source.
Grecian art may have occasionally found its way into India. One
or two of the sculptures in Col. Tod’s account of the Jain
temples, if correct, show a finer outline, and purer sense of
beauty, than appears native to India, where the monstrous always
predominated over simple nature.—M.]

3611 (return) [ This rite is so curious, that I have subjoined
the description of it:— When these (the exorcisers, the Shamans)
approached Zemarchus, they took all our baggage and placed it in
the centre. Then, kindling a fire with branches of frankincense,
lowly murmuring certain barbarous words in the Scythian language,
beating on a kind of bell (a gong) and a drum, they passed over
the baggage the leaves of the frankincense, crackling with the
fire, and at the same time themselves becoming frantic, and
violently leaping about, seemed to exorcise the evil spirits.
Having thus as they thought, averted all evil, they led Zemarchus
himself through the fire. Menander, in Niebuhr’s Bryant. Hist. p.
381. Compare Carpini’s Travels. The princes of the race of Zingis
Khan condescended to receive the ambassadors of the king of
France, at the end of the 13th century without their submitting
to this humiliating rite. See Correspondence published by Abel
Remusat, Nouv. Mem. de l’Acad des Inscrip. vol. vii. On the
embassy of Zemarchus, compare Klaproth, Tableaux de l’Asie p.
116.—M.]

37 (return) [ All the details of these Turkish and Roman
embassies, so curious in the history of human manners, are drawn
from the extracts of Menander, (p. 106—110, 151—154, 161-164,) in
which we often regret the want of order and connection.]

Disputes have often arisen between the sovereigns of Asia for the
title of king of the world; while the contest has proved that it
could not belong to either of the competitors. The kingdom of the
Turks was bounded by the Oxus or Gihon; and Touran was separated
by that great river from the rival monarchy of Iran, or Persia,
which in a smaller compass contained perhaps a larger measure of
power and population. The Persians, who alternately invaded and
repulsed the Turks and the Romans, were still ruled by the house
of Sassan, which ascended the throne three hundred years before
the accession of Justinian. His contemporary, Cabades, or Kobad,
had been successful in war against the emperor Anastasius; but
the reign of that prince was distracted by civil and religious
troubles. A prisoner in the hands of his subjects, an exile among
the enemies of Persia, he recovered his liberty by prostituting
the honor of his wife, and regained his kingdom with the
dangerous and mercenary aid of the Barbarians, who had slain his
father. His nobles were suspicious that Kobad never forgave the
authors of his expulsion, or even those of his restoration. The
people was deluded and inflamed by the fanaticism of Mazdak, 38
who asserted the community of women, 39 and the equality of
mankind, whilst he appropriated the richest lands and most
beautiful females to the use of his sectaries. The view of these
disorders, which had been fomented by his laws and example, 40
imbittered the declining age of the Persian monarch; and his
fears were increased by the consciousness of his design to
reverse the natural and customary order of succession, in favor
of his third and most favored son, so famous under the names of
Chosroes and Nushirvan. To render the youth more illustrious in
the eyes of the nations, Kobad was desirous that he should be
adopted by the emperor Justin: 4011 the hope of peace inclined
the Byzantine court to accept this singular proposal; and
Chosroes might have acquired a specious claim to the inheritance
of his Roman parent. But the future mischief was diverted by the
advice of the quaestor Proclus: a difficulty was started, whether
the adoption should be performed as a civil or military rite; 41
the treaty was abruptly dissolved; and the sense of this
indignity sunk deep into the mind of Chosroes, who had already
advanced to the Tigris on his road to Constantinople. His father
did not long survive the disappointment of his wishes: the
testament of their deceased sovereign was read in the assembly of
the nobles; and a powerful faction, prepared for the event, and
regardless of the priority of age, exalted Chosroes to the throne
of Persia. He filled that throne during a prosperous period of
forty-eight years; 42 and the Justice of Nushirvan is celebrated
as the theme of immortal praise by the nations of the East.

38 (return) [ See D’Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 568, 929;)
Hyde, (de Religione Vet. Persarum, c. 21, p. 290, 291;) Pocock,
(Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 70, 71;) Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p.
176;) Texeira, (in Stevens, Hist. of Persia, l. i. c. 34.) *
Note: Mazdak was an Archimagus, born, according to Mirkhond,
(translated by De Sacy, p. 353, and Malcolm, vol. i. p. 104,) at
Istakhar or Persepolis, according to an inedited and anonymous
history, (the Modjmal-alte-warikh in the Royal Library at Paris,
quoted by St. Martin, vol. vii. p. 322) at Wischapour in
Chorasan: his father’s name was Bamdadam. He announces himself as
a reformer of Zoroastrianism, and carried the doctrine of the two
principles to a much greater height. He preached the absolute
indifference of human action, perfect equality of rank, community
of property and of women, marriages between the nearest kindred;
he interdicted the use of animal food, proscribed the killing of
animals for food, enforced a vegetable diet. See St. Martin, vol.
vii. p. 322. Malcolm, vol. i. p. 104. Mirkhond translated by De
Sacy. It is remarkable that the doctrine of Mazdak spread into
the West. Two inscriptions found in Cyrene, in 1823, and
explained by M. Gesenius, and by M. Hamaker of Leyden, prove
clearly that his doctrines had been eagerly embraced by the
remains of the ancient Gnostics; and Mazdak was enrolled with
Thoth, Saturn, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Epicurus, John, and Christ,
as the teachers of true Gnostic wisdom. See St. Martin, vol. vii.
p. 338. Gesenius de Inscriptione Phoenicio-Graeca in Cyrenaica
nuper reperta, Halle, 1825. Hamaker, Lettre a M. Raoul Rochette,
Leyden, 1825.—M.]

39 (return) [ The fame of the new law for the community of women
was soon propagated in Syria (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iii.
p. 402) and Greece, (Procop. Persic. l. i. c. 5.)]

40 (return) [ He offered his own wife and sister to the prophet;
but the prayers of Nushirvan saved his mother, and the indignant
monarch never forgave the humiliation to which his filial piety
had stooped: pedes tuos deosculatus (said he to Mazdak,) cujus
foetor adhuc nares occupat, (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. p.
71.)]

4011 (return) [ St. Martin questions this adoption: he urges its
improbability; and supposes that Procopius, perverting some
popular traditions, or the remembrance of some fruitless
negotiations which took place at that time, has mistaken, for a
treaty of adoption some treaty of guaranty or protection for the
purpose of insuring the crown, after the death of Kobad, to his
favorite son Chosroes, vol. viii. p. 32. Yet the Greek historians
seem unanimous as to the proposal: the Persians might be expected
to maintain silence on such a subject.—M.]

41 (return) [ Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 11. Was not Proclus
over-wise? Was not the danger imaginary?—The excuse, at least,
was injurious to a nation not ignorant of letters. Whether any
mode of adoption was practised in Persia, I much doubt.]

42 (return) [ From Procopius and Agathias, Pagi (tom. ii. p. 543,
626) has proved that Chosroes Nushirvan ascended the throne in
the fifth year of Justinian, (A.D. 531, April 1.—A.D. 532, April
1.) But the true chronology, which harmonizes with the Greeks and
Orientals, is ascertained by John Malala, (tom. ii. 211.)
Cabades, or Kobad, after a reign of forty-three years and two
months, sickened the 8th, and died the 13th of September, A.D.
531, aged eighty-two years. According to the annals of Eutychius,
Nushirvan reigned forty seven years and six months; and his death
must consequently be placed in March, A.D. 579.]

But the justice of kings is understood by themselves, and even by
their subjects, with an ample indulgence for the gratification of
passion and interest. The virtue of Chosroes was that of a
conqueror, who, in the measures of peace and war, is excited by
ambition, and restrained by prudence; who confounds the greatness
with the happiness of a nation, and calmly devotes the lives of
thousands to the fame, or even the amusement, of a single man. In
his domestic administration, the just Nushirvan would merit in
our feelings the appellation of a tyrant. His two elder brothers
had been deprived of their fair expectations of the diadem: their
future life, between the supreme rank and the condition of
subjects, was anxious to themselves and formidable to their
master: fear as well as revenge might tempt them to rebel: the
slightest evidence of a conspiracy satisfied the author of their
wrongs; and the repose of Chosroes was secured by the death of
these unhappy princes, with their families and adherents. One
guiltless youth was saved and dismissed by the compassion of a
veteran general; and this act of humanity, which was revealed by
his son, overbalanced the merit of reducing twelve nations to the
obedience of Persia. The zeal and prudence of Mebodes had fixed
the diadem on the head of Chosroes himself; but he delayed to
attend the royal summons, till he had performed the duties of a
military review: he was instantly commanded to repair to the iron
tripod, which stood before the gate of the palace, 43 where it
was death to relieve or approach the victim; and Mebodes
languished several days before his sentence was pronounced, by
the inflexible pride and calm ingratitude of the son of Kobad.
But the people, more especially in the East, is disposed to
forgive, and even to applaud, the cruelty which strikes at the
loftiest heads; at the slaves of ambition, whose voluntary choice
has exposed them to live in the smiles, and to perish by the
frown, of a capricious monarch. In the execution of the laws
which he had no temptation to violate; in the punishment of
crimes which attacked his own dignity, as well as the happiness
of individuals; Nushirvan, or Chosroes, deserved the appellation
of just. His government was firm, rigorous, and impartial. It was
the first labor of his reign to abolish the dangerous theory of
common or equal possessions: the lands and women which the
sectaries of Mazdak has usurped were restored to their lawful
owners; and the temperate 4311 chastisement of the fanatics or
impostors confirmed the domestic rights of society. Instead of
listening with blind confidence to a favorite minister, he
established four viziers over the four great provinces of his
empire, Assyria, Media, Persia, and Bactriana. In the choice of
judges, præfects, and counsellors, he strove to remove the mask
which is always worn in the presence of kings: he wished to
substitute the natural order of talents for the accidental
distinctions of birth and fortune; he professed, in specious
language, his intention to prefer those men who carried the poor
in their bosoms, and to banish corruption from the seat of
justice, as dogs were excluded from the temples of the Magi. The
code of laws of the first Artaxerxes was revived and published as
the rule of the magistrates; but the assurance of speedy
punishment was the best security of their virtue. Their behavior
was inspected by a thousand eyes, their words were overheard by a
thousand ears, the secret or public agents of the throne; and the
provinces, from the Indian to the Arabian confines, were
enlightened by the frequent visits of a sovereign, who affected
to emulate his celestial brother in his rapid and salutary
career. Education and agriculture he viewed as the two objects
most deserving of his care. In every city of Persia orphans, and
the children of the poor, were maintained and instructed at the
public expense; the daughters were given in marriage to the
richest citizens of their own rank, and the sons, according to
their different talents, were employed in mechanic trades, or
promoted to more honorable service. The deserted villages were
relieved by his bounty; to the peasants and farmers who were
found incapable of cultivating their lands, he distributed
cattle, seed, and the instruments of husbandry; and the rare and
inestimable treasure of fresh water was parsimoniously managed,
and skilfully dispersed over the arid territory of Persia. 44 The
prosperity of that kingdom was the effect and evidence of his
virtues; his vices are those of Oriental despotism; but in the
long competition between Chosroes and Justinian, the advantage
both of merit and fortune is almost always on the side of the
Barbarian. 45

43 (return) [ Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 23. Brisson, de Regn.
Pers. p. 494. The gate of the palace of Ispahan is, or was, the
fatal scene of disgrace or death, (Chardin, Voyage en Perse, tom.
iv. p. 312, 313.)]

4311 (return) [ This is a strange term. Nushirvan employed a
stratagem similar to that of Jehu, 2 Kings, x. 18—28, to separate
the followers of Mazdak from the rest of his subjects, and with a
body of his troops cut them all in pieces. The Greek writers
concur with the Persian in this representation of Nushirvan’s
temperate conduct. Theophanes, p. 146. Mirkhond. p. 362.
Eutychius, Ann. vol. ii. p. 179. Abulfeda, in an unedited part,
consulted by St. Martin as well as in a passage formerly cited.
Le Beau vol. viii. p. 38. Malcolm vol l p. 109.—M.]

44 (return) [ In Persia, the prince of the waters is an officer
of state. The number of wells and subterraneous channels is much
diminished, and with it the fertility of the soil: 400 wells have
been recently lost near Tauris, and 42,000 were once reckoned in
the province of Khorasan (Chardin, tom. iii. p. 99, 100.
Tavernier, tom. i. p. 416.)]

45 (return) [ The character and government of Nushirvan is
represented some times in the words of D’Herbelot, (Bibliot.
Orient. p. 680, &c., from Khondemir,) Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii.
p. 179, 180,—very rich,) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. vii. p. 94,
95,—very poor,) Tarikh Schikard, (p. 144—150,) Texeira, (in
Stevens, l. i. c. 35,) Asseman, (Bibliot Orient. tom. iii. p.
404-410,) and the Abbe Fourmont, (Hist. de l’Acad. des
Inscriptions, tom. vii. p. 325—334,) who has translated a
spurious or genuine testament of Nushirvan.]

To the praise of justice Nushirvan united the reputation of
knowledge; and the seven Greek philosophers, who visited his
court, were invited and deceived by the strange assurance, that a
disciple of Plato was seated on the Persian throne. Did they
expect, that a prince, strenuously exercised in the toils of war
and government, should agitate, with dexterity like their own,
the abstruse and profound questions which amused the leisure of
the schools of Athens? Could they hope that the precepts of
philosophy should direct the life, and control the passions, of a
despot, whose infancy had been taught to consider his absolute
and fluctuating will as the only rule of moral obligation? 46 The
studies of Chosroes were ostentatious and superficial: but his
example awakened the curiosity of an ingenious people, and the
light of science was diffused over the dominions of Persia. 47 At
Gondi Sapor, in the neighborhood of the royal city of Susa, an
academy of physic was founded, which insensibly became a liberal
school of poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric. 48 The annals of the
monarchy 49 were composed; and while recent and authentic history
might afford some useful lessons both to the prince and people,
the darkness of the first ages was embellished by the giants, the
dragons, and the fabulous heroes of Oriental romance. 50 Every
learned or confident stranger was enriched by the bounty, and
flattered by the conversation, of the monarch: he nobly rewarded
a Greek physician, 51 by the deliverance of three thousand
captives; and the sophists, who contended for his favor, were
exasperated by the wealth and insolence of Uranius, their more
successful rival. Nushirvan believed, or at least respected, the
religion of the Magi; and some traces of persecution may be
discovered in his reign. 52 Yet he allowed himself freely to
compare the tenets of the various sects; and the theological
disputes, in which he frequently presided, diminished the
authority of the priest, and enlightened the minds of the people.
At his command, the most celebrated writers of Greece and India
were translated into the Persian language; a smooth and elegant
idiom, recommended by Mahomet to the use of paradise; though it
is branded with the epithets of savage and unmusical, by the
ignorance and presumption of Agathias. 53 Yet the Greek historian
might reasonably wonder that it should be found possible to
execute an entire version of Plato and Aristotle in a foreign
dialect, which had not been framed to express the spirit of
freedom and the subtilties of philosophic disquisition. And, if
the reason of the Stagyrite might be equally dark, or equally
intelligible in every tongue, the dramatic art and verbal
argumentation of the disciple of Socrates, 54 appear to be
indissolubly mingled with the grace and perfection of his Attic
style. In the search of universal knowledge, Nushirvan was
informed, that the moral and political fables of Pilpay, an
ancient Brachman, were preserved with jealous reverence among the
treasures of the kings of India. The physician Perozes was
secretly despatched to the banks of the Ganges, with instructions
to procure, at any price, the communication of this valuable
work. His dexterity obtained a transcript, his learned diligence
accomplished the translation; and the fables of Pilpay 55 were
read and admired in the assembly of Nushirvan and his nobles. The
Indian original, and the Persian copy, have long since
disappeared; but this venerable monument has been saved by the
curiosity of the Arabian caliphs, revived in the modern Persic,
the Turkish, the Syriac, the Hebrew, and the Greek idioms, and
transfused through successive versions into the modern languages
of Europe. In their present form, the peculiar character, the
manners and religion of the Hindoos, are completely obliterated;
and the intrinsic merit of the fables of Pilpay is far inferior
to the concise elegance of Phaedrus, and the native graces of La
Fontaine. Fifteen moral and political sentences are illustrated
in a series of apologues: but the composition is intricate, the
narrative prolix, and the precept obvious and barren. Yet the
Brachman may assume the merit of inventing a pleasing fiction,
which adorns the nakedness of truth, and alleviates, perhaps, to
a royal ear, the harshness of instruction. With a similar design,
to admonish kings that they are strong only in the strength of
their subjects, the same Indians invented the game of chess,
which was likewise introduced into Persia under the reign of
Nushirvan. 56

46 (return) [ A thousand years before his birth, the judges of
Persia had given a solemn opinion, (Herodot. l. iii. c. 31, p.
210, edit. Wesseling.) Nor had this constitutional maxim been
neglected as a useless and barren theory.]

47 (return) [ On the literary state of Persia, the Greek
versions, philosophers, sophists, the learning or ignorance of
Chosroes, Agathias (l. ii. c. 66—71) displays much information
and strong prejudices.]

48 (return) [ Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. DCCXLV. vi.
vii.]

49 (return) [ The Shah Nameh, or Book of Kings, is perhaps the
original record of history which was translated into Greek by the
interpreter Sergius, (Agathias, l. v. p. 141,) preserved after
the Mahometan conquest, and versified in the year 994, by the
national poet Ferdoussi. See D’Anquetil (Mem. de l’Academie, tom.
xxxi. p. 379) and Sir William Jones, (Hist. of Nadir Shah, p.
161.)]

50 (return) [ In the fifth century, the name of Restom, or
Rostam, a hero who equalled the strength of twelve elephants, was
familiar to the Armenians, (Moses Chorenensis, Hist. Armen. l.
ii. c. 7, p. 96, edit. Whiston.) In the beginning of the seventh,
the Persian Romance of Rostam and Isfendiar was applauded at
Mecca, (Sale’s Koran, c. xxxi. p. 335.) Yet this exposition of
ludicrum novae historiae is not given by Maracci, (Refutat.
Alcoran. p. 544—548.)]

51 (return) [ Procop. (Goth. l. iv. c. 10.) Kobad had a favorite
Greek physician, Stephen of Edessa, (Persic. l. ii. c. 26.) The
practice was ancient; and Herodotus relates the adventures of
Democedes of Crotona, (l. iii p. 125—137.)]

52 (return) [ See Pagi, tom. ii. p. 626. In one of the treaties
an honorable article was inserted for the toleration and burial
of the Catholics, (Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. p. 142.)
Nushizad, a son of Nushirvan, was a Christian, a rebel, and—a
martyr? (D’Herbelot, p. 681.)]

53 (return) [ On the Persian language, and its three dialects,
consult D’Anquetil (p. 339—343) and Jones, (p. 153—185:) is the
character which Agathias (l. ii. p. 66) ascribes to an idiom
renowned in the East for poetical softness.]

54 (return) [ Agathias specifies the Gorgias, Phaedon,
Parmenides, and Timaeus. Renaudot (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec.
tom. xii. p. 246—261) does not mention this Barbaric version of
Aristotle.]

55 (return) [ Of these fables, I have seen three copies in three
different languages: 1. In Greek, translated by Simeon Seth (A.D.
1100) from the Arabic, and published by Starck at Berlin in 1697,
in 12mo. 2. In Latin, a version from the Greek Sapientia Indorum,
inserted by Pere Poussin at the end of his edition of Pachymer,
(p. 547—620, edit. Roman.) 3. In French, from the Turkish,
dedicated, in 1540, to Sultan Soliman Contes et Fables Indiennes
de Bidpai et de Lokman, par Mm. Galland et Cardonne, Paris, 1778,
3 vols. in 12mo. Mr. Warton (History of English Poetry, vol. i.
p. 129—131) takes a larger scope. * Note: The oldest Indian
collection extant is the Pancha-tantra, (the five collections,)
analyzed by Mr. Wilson in the Transactions of the Royal Asiat.
Soc. It was translated into Persian by Barsuyah, the physician of
Nushirvan, under the name of the Fables of Bidpai, (Vidyapriya,
the Friend of Knowledge, or, as the Oriental writers understand
it, the Friend of Medicine.) It was translated into Arabic by
Abdolla Ibn Mokaffa, under the name of Kalila and Dimnah. From
the Arabic it passed into the European languages. Compare Wilson,
in Trans. As. Soc. i. 52. dohlen, das alte Indien, ii. p. 386.
Silvestre de Sacy, Memoire sur Kalila vs Dimnah.—M.]

56 (return) [ See the Historia Shahiludii of Dr. Hyde, (Syntagm.
Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 61—69.)]