GUEIERS, GlIEBERS, GABERS, GIIAVEItS (Turk. Ghkur or Glum)), the followers of the ancient Persian religion as reformed and consolidated by Zerdusht (Zoroasterl. This name, Guebers, which is commonly, but against all linguistic laws, derived from the Arabic Kafir (a word applied to all non-Mohammedans, and supposed to have been first bestowed upon this sect by their Arabth conquerors in the 7th c.), is evidently nothing but an ancient proper name taken from some pre-eminent tribe or locality, since the Talmud (Jebam. 63 b., Gat 17 a. etc.) already knows them only by this name (Cheber); and Origen (Contra Gels. vi. 291) speaks of Kabirs or Persians, asserting that Christianity has adopted nothing from them. They are also called atesh perest, or fire worshipers; Parsees, or people of Pars or Fars—i.e., Persia; madjoos, front their priests the magi; and by themselves " Those of the excellent belief;" or MazdaaRmun, worship ers of Ormond. For the orig'n, nature, and early history of this religion, see Zono ASTER, ZEND-AVESTA, SON-WORSHIP. When the Persian empire became subject to the Mohammedan rule, the great mass of the inhabitants were converted to the religion of Islam. A very small number still clinging to the ancient religion, fled into the wilder ness of Khorassan, or the island of Hormuz; but even this remnant was for many centuries the victim of constant oppression. Mahmoud the Ghiznevide, Shah Abbas,
and others, are conspicuous by their untiring persecution of them; and the manner in which they were held up to general detestation is best shown by the position assigned them in most popular Mohammedan tales as sorcerers and criminals. At this present moment, there are, according to the very latest native information, about 8,000 Guebers scattered over the vast dominions of their ancestors, chieflyiu Yezd and twenty-four sur rounding villages. There are a few at Teheran,'a few at ispahan, at Shiraz, and some at Baku, near the great naphtha mountain, but all plunged in the depths of ignorance, and with very few exceptions, of poverty. They have a high reputation for honor, probity, obedience to the law, chastity, and endurance. Another portion, after various migrations—which are told at length in the written by Behram (1509 A.D.)—reaclied India, where they are now settled under the name of Parsees. chiefly in Bombay, where they are very numerous, forming a population of above 50,000, or afiout. 8 per cent of the whole population. See PARSEES.