GABAR. PERS. A person not a Mahomedan, in general, but commonly a Zoroastrian, a Parsee or fire-worshipper • an idol-worshipper, an infidel; any unbeliever in kahomedanism in general; but the word is more specially applied to a fire worshipper. Meninski says, Ignicola, naagus infi delis quivis pagartus.' The woad is more familiar to the people of Europe under the spellings Gaour and Guebre. A small remnant of fire-worhippers exists in Persia, chiefly at Yezd in Khorasan; but most of their countrymen have emigrated to India, where, especially at Bombay, they flourish under the name of Parsee. According to the dictionary, Burhan-i-Kattea, Gabar is used in the sense of Magh, which signifies a fire-worshipper, Gabar mani-i-Magh bashad, keh atash pnrust a.st, i.e. Gabar means a Magh, which is a fire-worshipper. This is sometimas written, and very often pro nounced, Gavr, by a change of letters frequent in Persian, as in other languages. Gavr, we learn from the dictionary Jahangiri, means those fire worshippers who observe the religion of Zardusht (or Zoroaster), and they are also called Magh. But Origen, in the 3d century, defending Chris tianity against Celsus, art Epicurean, who had alluded to the mysteries of Mithra, uses Kabar as equivalent to Persians. Let Celsus know,' says he, that our prophets have not borrowed any thing from the Persians or Kabirs' (Orig. contr. Cels. lib. vi. p. 291, Cantab. 1658). A Jewish writer, quoted by Hyde (Hist. Relig. Vet. Pers., cap. xxix.), declares that the Persians call their priests (in the plural) Chaberin (or Khaberin), whilst the singular, Chaber or Khaber (occurring in the Talmud), is explained by Hebrew commentators as signifying Parsai or Persians. On this subject Hadrian Reland has offered some remarks in Dissert. ix. de Persicis Talmudicis (see his Dissert. Miscell. part ii. p. 297, Traj. ad Rhen. 1706). Dr.
Hyde, however, as above cited, thinks that Chaber or Chaver denoted both a priest and a layman. There can be no doubt but that the usages of a people which regard their dead are important evidences of the faith professed by them, or, if not clearly indicating it, that they may show what faith is not professed. The semi-exposure adopted by the Siah-posh has contributed probably to their being suspected to be a remnant of the Gabar, or followers of the reformer Zartusht, but no account has been he,ard of the least mention of fire-worship amongst them. There is the certainty that within the last three centuries there were people called Gabar in the Kabul countries, particularly in Lughman and Bajur ; also that in the days of Baber there was a dialect called Gabari. We are also told that one of the divisions of Kafiristan was named Gabrak, but it does not follow that the people called Gabar then professed the worship of fire. That in former times fire worship existed to a certain, if limited, extent, in Afghanistan, is evidenced by the pyrethrm, or fire-altars, still crowning the crests of hills at Gard-dez, at Bamian, at Seghan, and at other places. Near Bamian is also a cavern, containing enormous quantities of human bones, apparently a common receptacle of the remains of Gabar corpses ; and to the present day the Parsees expose their dead on tower sunamits, but Tibetans, Chinese, and Hindus often lay their dead on plains or in rivers. At Murki Khel, in the valley of Jalalabad, and wader the Safed Koh, human bones are so abundant on the soil that walls are made of them. There is every rea,son t,o suppose it a sepulchral locality of the ancient Gabar ; coins are found in some number there.—Ouseley's Travels, i. p. 150.