The Persians have few fortified towns, and though they have the complete command of an ample gulf, with the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris, yet they do not pos sess one ship of war. Nadir Shah built a royal navy, and had one vessel of eighty guns, but the Persian fleet fell with the death of that usurper ; and even the maritime trade of this country is now conducted by foreign vessels. The most lucrative part of this trade was formerly carried on by Ormus and Goutbroon, but that is now discontinued, having been ruined by their perpetual wars. At present, however, the imports by the Persian Gulf may be estimat ed at the annual amount of half a million Sterling. These consist of rice, sugar, and cotton ; Bengal muslins ; spice ries from Ceylon and the Moluccas ; white and blue coarse linen from Coromandel ; cardamon, pepper, and Indian drugs; woollen cloths, cutlery, and other European goods. Two-thirds are brought by the English, and the rest by the Moors, Indians, Arabians, and Armenians. The exports to India are, tobacco, all sorts of fruits pickled and preserv ed, wines, distilled waters, horses, Persian feathers, and Turkey leather of all sorts and colours. To Turkey they send tobacco, galls, thread, goats hair, stuffs, mats, box work, &c. The specie which they receive for the silks of Ghilan, and the wool of Caramania, pays for the shawls of Cashmere, and the woollens of England. From Astracan they receive cutlery, woollen cloths, watches, jewellery, and fire-arms ; for which they give in return bullion, raw silk, pearls, shawls, carpets, wine, and horses. Persia, has, however, been at. no time a commercial country ; and the trifling trade which it now enjoys, is principally carried on by Armenians, a most industrious and respectable people, who are found in all the commercial towns in the empire, while the natives attend chiefly to their horses and the chase, neither improving their own property nor the re sources of their country.
The coins current in this kingdom are mostly foreign. Among these are the Turkish piastre, the ducat, and the venetian. The tomaun, which is worth nearly. three pounds seven shillings Sterling, is the coin of greatest amount, except a very large piece, value one thousand tomauns, which the king has struck for the luxury and magnificence of his own treasury. The following table will show the value of the different denominations of money at present in use. It may be observed, however, that all accounts are kept in dinars and piastres, and that those in italics have only a nominal existence.
The pincipal Persian gold weight is the miscal, equal 72 English grains ; and the common commercial weight is the maund, of which there are several, viz.
The lineal measures are the large guerre or arish, equal to 38.71 English inches; and the tic, which is in general use, is 24.831 inches. The parsang, or Persian league, is equal to three English geographical miles. The artuba, or ardub, is the corn measure, which is divided into 25 Ca fzichas, 50 ehenicas, or 200 sextarios, and is equal to 1:849 Winchester bushels ; and the legana, or liquid measure, which contains 30 chenicas, or 120 sextarios, is equal 10-} English wine gallons.
The most early dialect in Persia was the Zend, in which the Zenda-vesta, or sacred books of Zoroaster, were writ ten. It has been maintained that this language was spoken in Aderbijan; but it is more probable that it never was a vulgar, but always a sacred language, like the Sanskrit. The next in antiquity is the Pehlevi, or the idiom of he roes and warriors, which seems to have prevailed in Irak, and was the language of the court during the reigns of the Kaianian dynasty. Except the sacred books, (which were also translated into Pehlevi,) all works written in Persia prior to the Mahomedan conquest were in this dialect. By degrees, however, the Pehlevi was superseded by the Par see, or dialect of Farsistan; and this in its turn was banish ed from the court by the Arabians. The Parsee was again restored by the Dilemee princes about the middle of the tenth century ; and in course of time assumed its present form, which is so mixed with Pehlevi and Arabic, that it is difficult to separate the words that belong to these seve ral languages. At the present day it is perhaps the most
celebrated of all the oriental tongues for strength, variety, and harmony ; but it is now giving way in the north of Per sia, and even in Teheran the capital, to the ruder language of the Turks. The Deri dialect is often mentioned by Per sian authors; hut this term is supposed to signify only the most polished idiom of the common language of the coun try; and in that sense may equally apply to the Pehlevi, the Parsee, or the modern Persian. In general, the lite rature of this country approaches nearer to the European in solidity and clearness of thought and expression, than that of any other Asiatic nation. The oldest remains of Persian literature is the famous Shah Namah of Ferdosi. This noble epic poem abounds with numerous passages of exquisite beauty. which would not disgrace the must end netit classic authors. Among 'he didactic poets, Safi ranks the highest ; and Hafiz is the Anacreon of the east. Some of the Persian romances are exceedingly beautiful ; but the greater number of their entertaining stories are known only from oral tradition. Story-telling has become an art in this country, which is attended both with profit and re putation. It, however, requires considerable talent and great study; and none can arrive at eminence in this pro fession, unless he possess a cultivated taste and a retentive memory. The monarch has always a story-teller in atten dance, to amuse his leisure hours, to sooth his mind when disturbed with the toils of public affairs, or to beguile the fatigue of a long match ; and the same tale is not allowed at any time to be repeated on pain of punishment. Poetry and romance are in fact the, favourite studies among all ranks ; and the finest passages of their best writers are re peated and relished by the lowest classes of the people. In music and painting, however, they have made very little progress. Their strains, though often pleasing, are always monotonous, and are greatly deficient in variety of expres sion; and their pictures, though excelling in brilliancy of colouring, are gaudy and insipid. They are very success ful in taking likenesses ; but they have not the slightest idea of perspective, and very little of light and shade. Their historical compositions are not entitled to much con sideration. They are in general written in an inflated style, and full of exaggeration and embellishment. And this character of them will not surprise us, when we are inform ed that a historiographer is retained by each king for the express purpose of transmitting to posterity the glory of his own exploits. The sciences are very little understood in this country. They have a limited knowledge of ma thematics and algebra ; and they study astronomy chiefly from its connection with judicial astrology,--a science in which all ranks have the greatest faith. They are, how ever, totally ignorant of the Newtonian system, and follow the system of Ptolemy, both with respect to the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the shape and surface of the earth. Chemistry, in like manner, is studied only as a step to the occult science of alchemy ; but the modern discoveries in that science are unknown in Persia. They are equally ig norant of medicine and surgery, being totally unacquaint ed with anatomy and the circulation of the blood. Their physicians have a high idea of their own talents, and super stitiously adhere to their favourite theory, however oppos ed by the known practice of Europeans. They class all diseases and remedies under four heads, hot, cold, moist, and dry ; and the great principle of their system is to ap ply a remedy of a quality opposite to the disease. Their skill consequently consists in ascertaining to which of the classes the disease belongs,and the remedy follows of course.