“When Rúdagí reached this verse,” adds the oldest authority for this narrative (Nidhámí-i-'Arúḍí of Samarqand), “the Amír was so much affected that he descended from his throne, bestrode the horse of the sentinel on duty, and set off for Bukhárá in such haste that they carried his riding boots after him for two parasangs, as far as Burúna, where he put them on; neither did he draw rein anywhere till he reached Bukhárá; and Rúdagí received from the army the double of that five thousand dínárs [which they had promised him in the event of his success].”
Thus Rúdagí was as much harper, ballad singer, and improvisatore as poet, resembling, probably, the minstrels whose taṣnífs, or topical ballads, may be heard to-day at any Persian entertainment of which music and singing form a part; resembling also, as has been pointed out, that dimly visible Bárbad or Bahlabad of the old Sásánian days. Of the ten men reckoned by the Persians incomparable each in his own way, he was one; and herein lay his special virtue and merit, that when aught must be made known to King Khusraw Parwíz which none other dared utter for terror of the royal displeasure, Bárbad would weave it dexterously into a song, and sing it before the king. Parwíz had a horse called Shabdíz, beautiful and intelligent beyond all others; and so greatly did the king love Shabdíz that he swore to slay that man who should bring the tidings of his death. So when Shabdíz died, the Master of the Horse prayed Bahlabad to make it known to the king in a song, of which Parwíz listening divined the purport and cried, “Woe unto thee! Shabdíz is dead!” “It is the king who sayeth it,” replied the minstrel; and so escaped the threatened death and made the king's oath of no effect. Thus is the tale told by the Arab poet, Khálid b. Fayyáḍ, who lived little more than a century after Khusraw Parwíz:—
“And Khusraw, King of kings, him too an arrow
Plumed from the wings of Death did sorely smite,
E'en as he slept in Shírín's soft embraces
Amidst brocades and perfumes, through the night
Dreaming of Shabdíz whom he used to ride,
His noble steed, his glory and his pride.He with an oath most solemn and most binding,
Not to be loosed, had sworn upon the Fire
That whoso first should say, ‘Shabdíz hath perished,’
Should die upon the cross in torments dire;
Until one morn that horse lay low in death
Like whom no horse hath been since man drew breath.Four strings wailed o'er him, while the minstrel kindled
Pity and passion by the witchery
Of his left hand, and, while the strings vibrated,
Chanted a wailing Persian threnody,
Till the King cried, ‘My horse Shabdíz is dead!’
‘It is the King that sayeth it,’ they said.”
Other minstrels of this old time are mentioned, whose names alone are preserved to us: Áfarín, Khusrawání, Mádharástání,* and the harper Sakísá,* beings yet more shadowy than Bárbad, of whose notes not so much as an echo has reached our time. Yet can we hardly doubt that those old Sásánian halls and palaces lacked not this ornament of song, whereof some reflex at least passed over into Muhammadan times. For though the modern Persian prosody be modelled on that of the Arabs, there are types of verse—notably the quatrain (rubá'í) and the narrative poem in doublets (mathnawí) —which are to all appearance indigenous. Whether, as Darmesteter seems to think,* there is sufficient evidence to warrant us in believing that romantic poetry existed in Persia even in Achæmenian times is too problematical a question to be discussed in this place.
Hitherto we have considered only the history of the Persian language and the Persian power in the narrower sense of the Wider view of the Íránian people. term. We have now to extend the field of inquiry so as to include the whole Íránian people and their literary remains. The ground on which we now enter is, unfortunately, much less sure than that which we have hitherto traversed; the problems which we shall encounter are far more complicated, and their solutions are, in many cases, uncertain and conjectural.
The oldest Persian dynasty, the Achæmenian, with which
we began our retrospect of Persian history, rose by the fall of
The Medes.
a power not less famous than itself, that of
the Medes, whom from our earliest days we
are accustomed to associate with the Persians. In the
modern sense of the term, indeed, they were Persians, but of
the West, not of the South, having their centre and capital at
Ecbatana (Hagmatána of the Old Persian inscriptions, now
Hamadán), not at Persepolis (Sásánian Istakhr, near Shíráz, the
present chief town of Fárs). The actual boundaries of Media
cannot be precisely defined, but, roughly speaking, it extended
from the Mountains of Ázarbáyján (Atropatene) on the north
to Susiana (Khuzistán) on the south, and from the Zagros
Mountains on the east to about the line of the modern Tihrán-
The Medes, unfortunately, unlike the Persians, have left no records of their achievements, and we are consequently Sources of Medic history. dependent for information concerning them on the records of other nations who had direct or indirect knowledge of them, notably the Assyrians, Jews, and Greeks. As regards the Assyrian records, Amadana (Hamadán), the capital of the Medes, is mentioned in an Assyrian records. inscription of Tiglath Pileser (circ. B.C. 1100) as a subject territory;* and it is again mentioned in an inscription of the ninth century before Christ. Salmonassar-Sargon (B.C. 731-713) boasts that he had made his name feared in distant Media, and the same region is Jewish records. referred to by his successor Sennacherib, and by Esar-haddon (B.C. 680-669). In 2 Kings xvii, 6 we read that “in the ninth year of Hoshea” (B.C. 722) “the King of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes;” and this statement is repeated in verse 11 of the next chapter.
*Of the three Greek historians whose works are primary sources for this period, Herodotus merits the first mention, both Greek records. Herodotus. Ctesias. on account of his veracity (to which the cuneiform inscriptions bear abundant testimony) and because his history alone of the three is preserved to us in its entirety. Ctesias, who flourished in the fifth century before Christ, was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, and professed to derive his information from the Persian royal archives. This statement at least affords evidence of the existence of such documents, which are also referred to in the Book of Esther, where we read (chap. vi, 1) that King Ahasueras, being unable to sleep, “commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles;” and (chap. ii, 23) that the plot against the king's life devised by Bigthan and Teresh and disclosed by Mordecai “was written in the book of the chronicles before the King.” Whether because Ctesias imperfectly understood or deliberately misrepresented these records, or because the records themselves were falsified (a thing which modern analogies render conceivable), the prevailing view is that little reliance can be placed on his narrative, which, moreover, is only preserved to us in a Berosus. fragmentary condition by much later writers, such as Photius (A.D. 820-891). Berosus was a Chaldæan priest who lived in the time of Alexander the Great and his immediate successors, and translated into Greek, for his patron Antiochus of Syria, the records of his country. Of his work also fragments only are preserved to us by later writers, Polyhistor and Apollodorus (first century before Christ), who are cited by Eusebius and Syncellus.
The Medes, according to Herodotus, were the first of the
peoples subject to Assyria who succeeded in securing their
independence, after they had borne the yoke for 520 years.
Deioces.
This took place about B.C. 700, and a year
or two later Deioces (<text in Greek script omitted>), the first of
the four Medic kings mentioned by Herodotus, established
himself on the throne. An Assyrian record of B.C. 715
mentions a Dayaukku (= Deioces) who had been led away
Phraortes.
captive; and in B.C. 713 King Sargon of
Assyria subdued the Bit Dayaukku, or “Land of
Deioces.” Phraortes (Fravartish in the Old Persian inscriptions)
succeeded in B.C. 647, and extended his rule over the Persians
Cyaxares.
as well as his own countrymen, the Medes.
He in turn was succeeded in B.C. 625 by
Cyaxares (Huvakhshatara), who, in conjunction with the
Babylonian king, destroyed Nineveh in B.C. 607, and concluded
peace with the Lydians in B.C. 585, in consequence
of a total eclipse of the sun which took place on May 28th
of that year, and which was regarded by both sides as an
indication of Divine displeasure. In the same year, probably,
he died, and was followed by his son Astyages, who was
Astyages.
overthrown by Cyrus the Achæmenian in B.C.
550, when the power passed from the West-