The frontispiece represents those ruins at Istakhar, which are generally called <Arabic> Chehel Minar, “the Forty Pillars,” or <Arabic> Takht-i-Jemsheid, “the Throne of Jemsheid.” Most travellers and antiquaries suppose Istakhar to have been the ancient Persepolis, and these columns the remains of Darius’s palace: the natives sometimes call them Khaneh Dara <Arabic> “the House of Darius,” as Kæmpfer informs us. Of the view given by that most ingenious traveller, in his Amœnitates Exoticœ, p. 325, the frontispiece is a reduced copy.
The Pehlavi gem, represented in the vignette of the title page, is supposed to be placed (without any regard to proportion) on a fire altar, of which the idea is taken from medals of the Sassanides. As even a vignette may be rendered instructive, I have given, on the upper part of the altar, some of the arrow-headed or Persepolitan letters, from Niebuhr, Kœmpfer, &c.; so that the young student of Persian antiquities may have before him, at one view, specimens of the two most ancient characters of Iràn. I have placed, as guardians of the altar, an Azhdeha, <Arabic> or Dragon, and the Simorgh, <Arabic> a bird of immense bulk and strength, both imaginary creatures, whose names are well known to the readers of Persian romance; their figures are taken from paintings in the Shah Namah and other manuscripts.
The gem (of the real size) is from a paste in Mr. Tassie’s collection; and thus described in his Catalogue, Vol. I. p. 67, No. 679: “Sardonyx—a figure in a long robe, with a globe or lotus on the forehead, holding a small cup in the right hand: In the field are the sun and moon, with an inscription,” &c. An engraving of the gem, enlarged, is also given in the second Vol. pl. XIII, but the characters are inaccurately imitated; they appear on the paste to form two words, which I would read thus, using Hebrew letters to describe the Pehlavi: <Hebrew> in modern Persick <Arabic> Atoun Shahpouhri, fignifying “The fire-genius of Shapour.”
Atoun, in Pehlavi, according to M. Anquetil du Perron,* was synonimous with Ader, or Atere; “the several fires which have appeared to men under particular forms, and the Genii themselves, who preside over those fires.”* Thus the Atoun Bourzin, in two passages of the Boun dehesh,* is styled Ader Bourzin, in the Ieschts Sades,* where, and in other parts of the Zendavesta, we find the Ader of Behram, of Goshasp, &c. The figure seems to be that of a female: in the Vendidad Sadè we find an address to female spirits: “Je prie ces femelles, assembleé toujours vivante,” &c.*
From the Ferhung Borhan Katee (which, like the Ferhung Jehangeeri, has a very long and curious article on fire-worship) it also appears that the same word signified a fire-temple, and the angel or Genius that presided over it. Thus we find, that <Arabic> Azer Gushasp was the name of a fire temple erected by Gushtasp at Balkh, &c. <Arabic> “and it is the name of the angel that superintended, or presided over, the fire.”
If the authority of M. Anquetil du Perron be admitted, my explanation of this gem will, probably, be found satisfactory: I offer it, however, (as every conjecture on doubtful matters) with extreme diffidence, and shall most readily adopt any well-founded emendation.
The MAP, though small, will serve to shew the relative situations of the provinces and chief cities of Persia. I have devoted some months to the construction of another, comprehending the same extent of country, but so enlarged in scale as to occupy a space of six feet by five. This will contain many hundred names of towns, rivers, mountains, ruins, rebats and caravanserais, wells, monuments, &c.; inserted from original manuscripts, which are not to be found in Mr. Wahl’s very excellent map,* nor in any other hitherto published.
In the head-piece, prefixed to this Appendix, are representations of three gems, of the real size, taken from impressions in paste. Of the two uppermost, the original cornelians are preserved in the British Museum—one represents a female with a child on her lap; some of the letters are defaced, but the name of <Hebrew> Hormisdi, <Arabic> appears sufficiently legible in Pehlavi; the other characters seem to form <Hebrew> apistan, <Arabic> alluding, perhaps, to the infant state of Hormisdi, at the breast* of his nurse or mother, whose name may probably be added. Not having yet had leisure to study the inscription attentively, I shall not, in this place, offer any further conjectures on the subject.
For the same reason I present to the reader, without any observation, the figure of a winged Lion, with a Pehlavi inscription.
The third gem, is described in Tassie’s Catalogue (Vol. I. p. 74) as an Oriental garnet, containing “The portrait of an Indian chief—with Indian characters, something like the Sanscrit.” As I suspect the characters to partake more of Pehlavi than Sanscrit, they are here submitted to the inspection of Antiquarian Orientalists.
The rude outlines, which the reader will perceive in this head-piece, represent the combat of Rustam with the Dive Sefeed, or white giant; reduced from a painting in my Shah Nameh, of which a large engraving will be found in the Oriental Collections, Vol. II. p. 53; and another combat of some warrior with a monster, winged and horned, from a Persepolitan seal in cornelian, preserved, with many others of the same kind, in the British Museum. Similar combats are sculptured on the marbles at Persepolis; and it is possible that the ancient heroes celebrated in the Shah Nameh, and represented in these sculptures, may be the same.*