History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I.] THE KAVANIAN RULERS. 5

in a series of desperate battles. Zal and his great son Rustam, with a whole family of heroes born of their loins, form the group round which the Persians of every age have loved to associate their most cherished romance and their most intensely national aspirations. The traditional renown of their individual prowess and their military skill is claimed by the modern Parsi as animating his spirit and firing his blood even although now immersed in the peaceful pursuits of trade and commerce. The reign of Gushtasp (B.c. 1300) of the Kayanian dynasty evokes the most reverent feelings in the minds of the Parsis, as being the reign that saw the rise of their great Prophet Zoroaster, and the first promulgation of their religion. It is not to our purpose to trace the history of the several dynasties! of kings who swayed the Persian realm. We have only to give here a general idea of the race from which the Parsis have descended, and we therefore proceed at once to the most magnificent time in their history.

The founder of the Persian empire known to the Greeks was Cyrus the Great (B.c. 558). He was a powerful and magnificent king, whose mighty armies

1 The following are the names of the dynasties that reigned in Persia from the earliest times up to the conquest of the empire by the Arabs, viz.—1, the Mahabadian; 2, the Peshdadian; 3, the Kayanian ; 4, the first Median; 5, the Assyrian; 6, the second

Median ; 7, the Achemenian ; 8, the Parthian or Ascanian ; and 9, the Sassanian.