PARSEES (people of Pars or Fars, i.e.. ancient Persia) is the name of the small rem nant of the followers of the ancient Persian religion, as reformed by Zerdusht, of Zoroaster, as lie is commonly called. They are also known under the denomiWatiou of Guebers, under which head some account will be found respecting their recent history and present numbers. The pre-Zoroastrian phase or phases of their primeval religion will probably forever remain shrouded in deep obscurity; so much, however, is fully established by recent investigations that this, and what afterwards became the Brahmanic religion, were originally identical; that in consequence of certain social end political conflicts between the and the Aryans, who afterwards pecii,led liimiustan proper, an undying feud arose, in the course of which the former forswore even the hitherto common faith, and established a counter faith (Ahura). a principal (h,gma of which was the transformation of the ancient, now hostile, gods into demons, end the branding of the entire Deva religion as the source of all mischief and Nvichedness. Zer duslit, the prophet, whose era is given very differently by ancient writers and by modern investigators, placed variously between 500 or 600 B.C. (Ruth) and 1200 n.c. (Haug). hod, like all prophets and reformers, many predecessors, chiefly among tic Soshyantos or fire-priests yet to him belongs the decisive act of separating forever the contending parties. and 'of establishing a new community with a new faith—the Mazda yasna or Parsec religion proper, which absorbed the old Ahura religion of the lire-priests. Referring for a summary of what is known and speculated about the person of the great reformer to the article under his name, we shall here confine ourselves to pointing out, as the characteristics of his leading doctrines, that the principle of his theology was as pure a monotheism as ever the followers of the Jehovistic faith were enjoined. lie taught the existence of but one deity, the Ahura; who is called Mazda5 (: cc Onmuzn), the creator of all things, to whom all good things, spiritual and worldly, belong. The principle of his speculative philosophy is dualism, i.e., the supposition of Iwo piimeval causes of the real and intellectual world; the Vohu Man5, the good mind, or reality (Gaya), and the Akem Mani), or the naught mind, or non-reality (Asiyiliti); while the principle of his moral philosophy is the triad of Thought, Word, and Dt ed. Not hmg. however, did the pure idea of monotheism prevail. The tWo sides of Ahura 3b.zda5's being were taken to be two distinct personages—God and Devil—and they (nett took their due places in the Parsee pantheon in the course of thne:—chiefly through the influ ence of the sect of the Zemliks, or followers of the Zend, i.e., interpretation. Accord ing to Zerdusht, there are two intellects, as there are two lives—one mental and one bodily; and, again, there must he distinguished an earthly and a future life. The immor
tality of souls was taught long before the Semites had adopted this Imlief. There are two abodes for the depa•ted—Heaven (Gard- Demana, the house of the angels' hymns, Yazna, xxviii. 10; xxxiv. 2; cf. Is. vi., Revend., etc.) and Hell (Drfij5-Deinfina, the residence of devils and the priests of the Deva religion). Between the two there is the bridge of the Gatherer or Judge, which the souls of the pious alone can pass. There will be a general resurrection, which is to precede the last judgment, to foretell which Sosiosh (Soskyans), the son of Zerdusht, spiritually begotten (by later priests divided into three persons), will be sent by Ahurnmazdao. The world, which by that time will be utterly steeped,in wretchedness. darkness, and sin, will then be renewed; death, the arch-fiend of creation, will be slain, and life will be everlasting and holy. These are the outlines of the Zoroastrian creed, as it flourished up to the time of Alexander the great, throughout ancient lrania, including Upper Thibet, Cabulistan, Sogdiana, Bactri ana, Media, Persis, etc.; and it is curious to speculate on the consequences which might have followed Marathon and Salamis had the Persians been victorious. The religion of Ormuzd would have dethroned the Olympians, as it dethroned the gods of the Assyr ians and Babylonians; and it would certainly have left its traces upon the whole civilized world unto this day in a much more direct and palpable shape than it now does. From the death of Alexander, however, it gradually lost ground, and rapidly declined under his successors, until, in the time of Alexander Severus, Ardshir •` Arianos" (cf. Mirk hoed ap. de Sacy, Memoires sur dip. Aut. de ice Perse, etc., p. 59), the son of Babegan, called by the Greeks and Romans Artaxerxes or Artaxares, who claimed descent from the ancient royal lineage of Persia, took the field against Artabauus, and slew him (225), thus putting an end to the four hundred years' rule of the Parthians, and founded the Sassanide dynasty. This he effected in conjunction with the national Persians, who hated the " semi-Greek" dynasty of the Arsacithe, their leaning to the foreign, and con tempt for the Z2nd religion, and finally for their powerlessness against the spreading conquests of the Romans. The first net of the new king was the general and complete restoration of the partly lost, partly forgotten books of Zerdusht, which he effected, it is related, chiefly through the inspiration of a Magian sage, chosen out of 40,000 Magians. The sacred volumes were translated out of the original Zend into the vernacular, and disseminated among the people at large, and fire temples were reared throughout the. length and the breadth of the land.