The ancient Persians reckoned a new era from the accession of each successive monarch, and as Yezdejird had no successor, the date of his acces sion to the throne, 16th Juno A.D. 632, has been brought down to the present time, thus making the year A.D. 1867 their year 1235-36. In their calculations, only 365 days are allowed to the year; leap year is unknown to them, though it is alleged that in every 120 years one month was added to make it correspond with the solar year. year is divided into twelve months of thirty (lava each. and five days, or Gatlia, as they are caned, are added at the end to make up the deficiency. The months are,• 1. Farvardia.14. fir. 7. Metier. 10. Deb.
2. Ardibellest. 5. .Amanlatl. i 3 Aban. Rahman.
3. Khurdah. I 6. Sharivar. 10. Attar. 112. Asfandyar. Oaths, 5 days.
The Parsecs do not now divide their time into weeks, but mine the 30 days of their mouths each after a celestial being-7 Amsshashpitnd, and 23 Izad—supposed to preside over them. These are as follow :— The 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22d days are sacred to Hormazd, and thus afford evidence of an older division into weeks.
The Parsees of India are divided into two sects, —the Shahanshahi or Rasami, and the Kadimi or Churigar, the former of whom constitute the larger portion of the race. This division origin ated about the beginning of the 18th century, when a Persian priest named Jamasp arrived in India, and found that his co-religionists differed from their brethren of Iran in their calculation of time by a full month, and in other minor points relating to their liturgy. Serious disputes arose in consequence, which ended in the forma tion of the two sects, the Rasami adhering to their own views, and the Kadimi adopting the opinions imported by Jamasp, and thus agreeing with their Persian brethren. The difference lies in their computation of time, and in some slight variations in the forms of prayer. Those that begin their year a month earlier are styled Kadimi, and the rest Rasami, i.e. customary, and Shaharhai, for which some one proposed to substitute Shahan shahi (' of the kings of kings'), and this absurd change has ever since been adopted. The Kadimi Parsee era of Yezdejird, or Dareai Naoroz, or sea reckoning, is made use of in nautical calculations among Asiatic mariners ; and the new year always commences on the 1st of Farvardin, which falls about the 25th of August, one month earlier than the commencement of the Rasami new year. With the Rasami Parsees the new year begins on the let day of Farvardin, which in A.D. 1867 fell about the 24th of September, a month later than the commencement of the Kadimi new year.
About A.D. 1705, Jalaludin Malikshah, finding that the commencement of this year in Persia had anticipated the epoch by 112 days, ordered that in future the Persian year should receive an additional day whenever it should be necessary to postpone the commencement of the following year, in order that it might occur on the day of the sun's passing the same point of the ecliptic.
U'mar Khyam, one of the astronomers appointed by him to construct a calendar, is said to have discovered that 8 intercalations in 33 years very nearly adjusts the calendar, giving the length of the year 365d. 5b. 49m. Scaliger and others say this was the period actually adopted, though Delambre shows that the Persian intercala tion combines the two periods of 29 years with 7 in tercalations, and of 33 years with 8 intercalations.
The Persian word Gab'r, applied to the Parsees, means any non - Muhammadan. According to the dictionary Burhan-i-Kattea Gab'r is used in the sense of Magh, which signifies a fire worshipper. Gab'r math- i-Magh bashad, keh stash purust ast. This is sometimes written, and very often pronounced, Gavr, by a change of letters frequent in Persian, as in other languages. Gavr, we learn from the dictionary Jehangiri, means those fire-worshippers who observe the religion of Zertusht (or Zoroaster), and they are also called Magh. But Origen, in the 3d cen tury, defending Christianity against Celsus, an Epicurean, who had alluded to the mysteries of Mithra, uses Kabir as equivalent to Persians. Let Celsus know,' says he, that our prophets have not borrowed anything 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 Kbaber (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. Meninski says, Ignicola, magus infidelis, quivis paganus.' The word is familiar to the people of Europe under the aspect of Guebre. It is a term applied by the Persians to the Persian-speaking part of the Teimeni tribe of the Char Aimak.—Stuort's Jour. Residence in N. Persia, p. 171 ; Elliot's Gloss. ; Ouseley's Tr. i. pp. 150, 217 ; Postans' W. India, i. pp. 110, 120 ; Muller, Chips, p. 180 ; Professor Daddabhai Naoroji and Dr. Ihne, in Proc. Bombay Lit. Soc.; The Parsecs, pp. 61, 70 ; Wilson's Glossary ; Menant on the Parsees ; Bom bay Almanac ; De Bode's Travels.