The mirage is common ; and the dangerous Bad i-simum often blows between the months of May and August, injurious to everything with life,— even camels and. other hardy animals perish,—and killing men sometimes instantaneously, or after hours or even days of suffering.
Nowhere else than in Persia is the zodiacal light, known as the Subh-i-sadiq, more beautifully seen.
Azerbijan climate is healthy and bracing, the soil is remarkably fertile, and the inhabitants are hardy, active, and industrious. Khormati contains more fertile territory than the British Isles, and could easily furnish sustenance for twenty million people. Bailie Fraser described the Goorgan part of Khorasan as one of the loveliest regions in the world.' Baron de Bode, a Russian traveller in Khorasan in 1836 and 1848, affirmed the district south of the Kopct Dagh to combine the excel lences of an English landscape and the scenery of the Caucasus.' The most ancient of the races that ruled in Persia was the Peshdadian dynasty. Of the four teen known names of this dynasty, the first was Kaiumaxs, who reigned at Balkh. In this line, the names occur of Jamshid, who reigned at Perse polis; Feridun, who was restored by Kawa, the blacksmith ; and Afrasiab, who was king of Turkestan.
The Kaianian dynasty followed the Peshdadian, and amongst its rulers were Kai Kobad (Kai signifies the mighty) ; Kai Kaus, son or grandson ; Rust am, his general ; Kai-Khrtsru, grandson, Cyrus the Great; Lohrasb, son of Orond Shah; Gusbtasp, his son, Hystaspes of Grecian history ; Isfendiar, his son, Apanda or Astyages of Ardashir ; Darab and Dara, the Darius overcome by Alexander.
The authentic history of this region begins about B.C. 710 with Djoces, a Mede, who, as also his son Phraortes, fell in attacks on Assyria. Cyaxares, king of the Medes, son of Phraortes, about B.C. 606, combining with Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, and with the Arabians, Persians, and Armenians, overran Assyria, and took and destroyed Nineveh.
After the death of Alexander, Persia as well as Syria fell to the lot of Seleucus Nicator, who established the dynasty of the Seleucidm. Anti ochus Soter succeeded Seleucus Nicator ; and in the reign of his successor, Antiochus Theos, Arsaces, a Scythian, who came from the north of the sea of Azof, induced the Persians to throw off the Greek yoke, founded the Parthian empire, and made Rhages his capital. This was likewise
the period of the foundation of the Bactrian kingdom by Theodotus, the governor of it, who, finding himself cut off from Syria by the Persian revolution, declared his independence. Arsaces is called Asteh by eastern writers, and is said to have been a descendant of the ancient Persian kings. When he gained the kingdom, it is said he promised to exact no tribute, and merely to consider himself as the head of a confederacy of princes, united for the double object of main taining their independence and freeing Persia from a foreign yoke. This is the commencement of that era of Persian history called by eastern writers Muluk-ut-tuwaif, or commonwealth of tribes, called by the Persians the Ashkanians and Ashganians, known to the Greeks as the Arsaeidm, from B.C. 253 to A.D. 223, in which year Ardashir Babegan-bin-Sasan, the Artaxerxes of the Greeks and Romans, founded the Sassanian dynasty, which ruled till A.D. 632. Amongst this dynasty were Shahpur, who defeated the emperor Valerian near Edessa ; also Khusru Nushirwan, famed for his benevolence, and who largely extended his dominions, took Antioch and Jerusalem, and all Egypt southwards to Nubia. 90,000 Christians Are said to have been slain when Jerusalem was then taken.
Persia was overrun by the Arabs, A.D. 632-636, and was held by the khalifs for 600 years.
It was at Nahavend, in A.D. 632 (Hijira 21), that the celebrated battle of Kadesia was fought, in which, after three days, the troops of the khalif Omar, commanded by the Arab chief Noman, who was there slain, defeated the Persians, in the reign of Yezdejird, one of the Sassanide princes. This monarch, shortly after his defeat, was killed by a miller of Merv, with whom he had taken refuge. The dynasty of the Sassanides had reigned in Persia 415 years. It became extinct with Yezde jird, and Persia then fell under the dominion of the khalifs, who compelled the population to embrace Islamism. The Nahavend is built just at the foot of the north-east range of hills, upon some craggy points. In the centre of the town rises the citadel, a most imposing-looking structure, and really of some strength.' It crowns the top of the highest of the craggy points upon which the place is built, and is supported by immensely solid mud walls from without, rising at least 100 feet high.