GHEBERS, geberz or geberz, GABERS, GUEBERS, GHAVERS (Turk. Ghiaur, or Ghaur). The adherents in Persia of the ancient religion founded or reformed by Zoroaster. As worshipers of Ormazd in Iran they correspond to the Parsis or Zoroastrian exiles in India. This small band, eight or ten thousand in num ber, stands with the Parsis to-day as the sole representatives of the faith of the Prophet of ancient Iran.
The name Giber, Geber, Gheber, or Gueber, as infidel, is familiarly applied to the fire-worship ers in Persia; for example, in Moore's Latta Rookh and in Byron's "Giaour." The origin of the name is open to discussion. It is com monly explained as a derivative from the Arabic Kafir, which is applied as unbeliever to all non Mohammedans, and is supposed to have been given first to the Persian Zoroastrians by their Arab conquerors in the seventh century A.D. This explanation is doubtful on phonetic grounds. A second suggestion seeks to trace in gaber a tribal name or designation as implied in the name Khabar of the Talmud (Jebam. 63b., Gitt. 17a, etc.), and in Origen, Contra Celsos, 6291, who mentions Kabirs or Persians, and declares that Christianity has borrowed nothing from them. If a guess might be hazarded, one might be tempted to connect the word with the Pahlavi or Middle Persian gabrd, found also in Chal dean, in the sense of 'man,' which is applied to the Zoroastrians in the form or Magian man; and then assume a generalization in the sense of 'people, gentiles,' with the deroga tory significance of unbeliever, infidel, pagan, heathen, as in the Gentiles of the Bible. An other name applied by the Afohammedans to this sect is A or fire-worshipers; or again //qua, from the Magi, their ancient priesthood; or also Feral, i.e. Parsi, from Fars or Pars, the name of the Province of Persia. They desig nate themselves, however, as (`those of the Good Faith').
The vicissitudes and misfortunes of these fol lowers of the ancient Persian creed through history have been many and varied. Passing
over the earlier history, to be dealt with in other articles, the battle of Nehavend (c.641 A.D.), and the final conquest of Iran by Islam, wrought a complete change in the religious tenets of Persia. The creed of Onnazd and of Zoroaster sank before the rising crescent of Allah and his Prophet; the Avesta gave place to the Koran; and the teachings of Mohammed were adopted by the Persians generally. Only a few sought freedom to worship Ormazd through flight and exile in India; these formed the later sect of the Parsis (q.v.). The small remnant that chose both to abide by their ancestral faith and to re main in their old home met with cruel persecu tion and oppression. So great, in fact, have been the trials of these devoted Zoroastrians for their faith, that within the last two hundred years they have dwindled down from a hundred thousand to a mere handful of representatives that still preserve the early creed. Through hardships they have been reduced largely to poverty and ignorance; but, thanks to the laud able efforts of their well-to-do brethren, the Par sis of Bombay, and the more liberal govern ment of modern Persia, their condition has been greatly ameliorated within the last generation, and still more is being done to restore them to a fitting status of religious freedom in the land that gave them birth. Most of them that exist to-day are to be found in Yezd and Kirman, a few also in Teheran, Ispahan, Shiraz, Urumiah, or about the eternal fire of the naphtha wells of Baku. But, scattered as they are, downtrodden as they have been, they have still kept alive in Iran the spark of their fading worship there, and they still maintain a high reputation for honor, uprightness, morality, and obedience to law that characterizes their more fortunate Parsi brethren in India, and they may rightly claim their title to being men of the 'Good Faith.' See AVESTA ; PARSIS ; PERSIA ; ZOROASTER.