DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22900#0096
54
HISTORY OF THE PARSIS.
[CHAP. II.
changed. Lands once fertile had become dreary
wastes, and fields where the golden corn had waved,
now deserted by the husbandman, afforded pasture
for wild animals ; while the ploughshares were beaten
into swords, and the pruning-hooks had been ex-
changed for spears. Hence the country which had
been the home of peace and prosperity was thrown
into the greatest confusion, and hordes of robbers,
driven to crime by the distress of the times, traversed
every part of the land, perpetrating the most cruel
atrocities.
Persia once fallen never revived, but sank gra-
dually into its present insignificance. Perhaps no
country in the world has witnessed so many revolu-
tions as that unhappy land. The tyrants who have
filled the throne owed their" elevation to treachery
and bloodshed. The followers of every religion, with
the exception of that of Islam, have endured constant
persecution, while those of the inhabitants who
adhered to the ancient faith of Zoroaster have
experienced the greatest barbarities. Constant op-
pression and tyranny have naturally reduced their
numbers. In less than two centuries after the
invasion the greater part of the population had
embraced Islamism. In the tenth century of the
Christian era remnants of the Zoroastrian population
were only to be found in the provinces of Fars and
Kerman; and the reader may form an idea of
HISTORY OF THE PARSIS.
[CHAP. II.
changed. Lands once fertile had become dreary
wastes, and fields where the golden corn had waved,
now deserted by the husbandman, afforded pasture
for wild animals ; while the ploughshares were beaten
into swords, and the pruning-hooks had been ex-
changed for spears. Hence the country which had
been the home of peace and prosperity was thrown
into the greatest confusion, and hordes of robbers,
driven to crime by the distress of the times, traversed
every part of the land, perpetrating the most cruel
atrocities.
Persia once fallen never revived, but sank gra-
dually into its present insignificance. Perhaps no
country in the world has witnessed so many revolu-
tions as that unhappy land. The tyrants who have
filled the throne owed their" elevation to treachery
and bloodshed. The followers of every religion, with
the exception of that of Islam, have endured constant
persecution, while those of the inhabitants who
adhered to the ancient faith of Zoroaster have
experienced the greatest barbarities. Constant op-
pression and tyranny have naturally reduced their
numbers. In less than two centuries after the
invasion the greater part of the population had
embraced Islamism. In the tenth century of the
Christian era remnants of the Zoroastrian population
were only to be found in the provinces of Fars and
Kerman; and the reader may form an idea of