Tahmu rafh. TAHMURASH, furnamed Diùbend, i. e. the humbler of the devil, fuppofed by fome to be the fon, by others the grandfon of Hufhang, and, by a third party, his coufin, fucceeded that famous monarch, and governed with great reputation; for, finding that the wars of his predeceffor had introduced both poverty and confufion in his dominions, he, to remedy the first, remitted all taxes for three years; and, to reduce things into order, made new laws, and took care, that the magiftrates fhould every-where put them in execution. He is the firft Perfian prince recorded to have had a vizier or prime minifter; it is very poffible, that the disorder in which he found the affairs of his empire, engaged him to make use of fuch an officer. This king fortified the frontiers of Perfia, to prevent fudden invafions; and fhewed fo happy a mixture of wisdom and valour in his difpofition, that feveral of the neighbouring nations, ftruck with the felicity of his fubjects, voluntarily fubmitted themselves to him, and acknowleged him for their fovereign. At laft, after a glorious reign of thirty years, a peftilence, which raged throughout his dominions, and deftroyed, with equal rapidity, both man and beast, cut the thread of his life at Balch, to the great grief of his fubjects P. " P MIRKHOND. hift. fect. 4. D'HERBELOT. tit. TAHMURASH. "The paffions of men may, by long acquaintance, be thoroughly known; but the paffions of women are infcru"table: therefore they ought to be fevered from men, left the mutability of their tempers fhould infect others. Their "natures, humours, and con "ftitution, require restraint: large and coarfe ftones are " employed in ordinary buildings; marble and alabafter in palaces; but diamonds we "lock up in cabinets; and as " "ing again, beware therefore 66 things are rare, or common, "of fmall value, or of great "price, we fet them to fhew, or "Thut them up close (4)." (4) Humaioun Nameb. ap. Beauchamp's effays, "felt. 3. GJEM GJEMSHID, or Giamfchid, or rather Gjem Schid, his Gjemname being Gjem, to which Schid, as a furname, was added, shid. because of his wonderful beauty, Schid, in the Perfic language, fignifying the fun; his eyes having fuch a luftre, that none could look him steadily in the face; tho' some authors are of opinion, that he received this addition to his name, 3 not from the beauty of his perfon, but from the glory which refulted from his actions. It is not very certain whether this prince was the fon of his predeceffor, his nephew, or his grandfon; but all agree, that he was of the family of Kejomaras, and had a juft right to the throne. The reputation of his ancestors infpired him with a laudable ambition of equalling at least, if not excelling them. With this view, he encouraged all learned and wife men to come to his court, where he highly preferred them: amongst the rest were two perfons of fingular abilities, on whom he chiefly relied; the one a few, fays our author Mirchond, whose name was Fael Iffuf Rabban, and the other a Greek, called Fithagores, i. e. Pythagoras: but this must be a mistake; for though we have no certainty as to the chronology of these times, yet it is eafy to difcern, from the circumftances of things, that Gjemfchid flourished at a confiderable diftance from Pythagoras. But fuch errors as these are not infrequent in oriental writers, through their want of understanding thoroughly the hiftory of Greece; of which, however, they have most of them a general idea. By the advice, in all probability, of these wife counsellors, Gjemfchid divided his fubjects into three claffes; the firft confifting of foldiers; the second of hufbandmen; and the third of artizans 9. In his time, music vocal and inftrumental, and aftronomy, were first introduced into Perfia. He was alfo the firft who built granaries in PerEfia, into which he caused every year a certain quantity of corn to be carried, that, in cafe of any deficiency in their harvests, famine might not be felt. In his time likewife wine came to be efteemed, or rather brought into general use, throughout his territories, from the following accident; A woman, who was much in Gjemfchid's good graces, was afflicted with an inveterate head-ach, which all the physicians in the court of Gjemfchid were not able to alleviate or remove: this woman went into the place where the king's wine was kept, and drank of it very freely; and, finding that it, in fome measure, relieved her, the returned thither again, after refting herself for fome hours, and drank yet a greater quantity, which completed her cure: this he told to the king; and, it being divulged through the court, every body be 9 MIRKHOND. hist. fect. 5. gan gan to regard wine as an univerfal medicine, capable of removing the moft ftubborn difeafes. Among the most illuftrious events of this great monarch's reign, we may justly place the rectification of the calendar, which he undertook and perfected, inftituting two years, a civil or ordinary year, and an ecclefiaftic year, in which there was, in the space of one hundred and thirty years, à month intercalated. He likewise instituted the Nauruz, i. e. the folemn obfervation of the new year; concerning which we are told that it had its rife thus: King Gjemfchid, going in progrefs through his provinces, arrived in Aderbayagjan; and, fhewing himself on a royal throne to his people, the fun fhone with fuch luftre on his crown, adorned with precious ftones and feathers, that the people fhouted aloud, and faid, This is Nauruz, i. e. the new day; whence the king took the opportunity of inftituting a feftival, wherein, befides the prefents made to the prince, it was usual for him to receive and grant the petitions of all forts of people, to release prifoners, and to do all other acts of clemency and benevolence which could be expected from him. As to the particular ceremonies attending this feftival, the reader may probably be pleafed to know, that it lafted fix days. On the first of these the king gratified his people, or, if the phrase may be allowed, his commons. The fecond day he paid the fame regard to the learned men attending his court. On the third, his priests and privy counsellors presented their petitions. On the fourth, he heard the fuits of his nobility and kindred. On the fifth, thofe of his children. The fixth belonged to himself. In the evening of the fifth day, a young man, handfome in his perfon, was picked out, and appointed to wait at the king's door all night. At day-break he entered the chamber without ceremony upon which the king, with an air of familiarity, asked him whence he came, whither he went, what his purpose, and his name, wherefore he came, and what he carried: to which the youth answered, I am Al Manfur, i. e. Auguft; my name is Al-Mobarek, i. e. the Bleffed; I came hither from GOD, bearing the new year. Then he fat down, and immediately entered the nobility, bearing each a filver veffel, in which were wheat, barley, peas, vetches, pulfe, a fugarcane, and two pieces of gold fresh from the mint. Out of this bason first the wafir or vizier, then the treafurer, afterwards the nobility, according to their rank, each offered his filver veffel to the king. At the conclufion of the ceremony, a very great loaf, made of feveral kinds of corn, was brought in, and placed before the king, who, after eating fome of it HYDE rel. vet. Perfar. c. 14. himself, intreated fuch as were prefent, to eat the reft, in these words, This is a new day of a new month, the beginning of a new year it is fit, therefore, that we renew our ties to each other. Then rifing up, in his royal robes, he folemnly blessed his nobility, beftowing on them rich gifts. The evening of this day the Perfians called Phriftaph, on which they did every thing that might testify joy, and strong hopes of feeing a pleafant year. A great part of his reign Gjemfchid remained in Sigjiftan, thinking it the propereft province of his empire for his court, till affairs in the east were thoroughly fettled: then he changed it for the Proper Perfia, where he erected the noble city of Eftechar, which moft take to be the Perfepolis of the Greeks, though fome believe it the city of Schiras. If what the antient Perfian writers deliver of the extent of this city of Eftechar be true; viz. that it contained a square of twentyfour leagues; then it is poffible, that both opinions may be true: but if we measure the probability of this account by the other things related of this prince; fuch as, that he made the tour of the whole earth, was fkilled in the occult Iciences, and poffeffed a magic cup of incomparable virtues'; we may fafely reftrain the bounds of this city: and though we allow it to have been very great, especially for thofe times, yet we may conceive it not to have taken up more than a third part of the Ifpace they have affigned it. It is univerfally allowed, that Gjemfchid gave himfelf up intirely to the ftudy of the arts of reigning; and fome fay, that he was much helped in his political contemplations by confidering the tranfactions among the bees; and that he drew many customs from the hive into the court of Perfia. Among other inventions, the fignet-ring is afcribed to him, and that mode which ftill prevails throughout the eaft, of preferring the left hand to the right, as the more honourable: he likewife directed, that the different degrees of people fhould be diftinguishable, from their garb: in a word, he made it the whole bufinefs of his life to render his kingdom flourishing, and his people happy; in which he fucceeded to his utmost wish. But this great felicity proved the fource of the deepest misfortunes; for, having reigned long and gloriously, he unaccountably took it into his head, that he was immortal; fent pictures of himself throughout his empire, and ordered them to be worshiped with divine honours. This madness foon loft him the hearts of the people; fo that the province of Sigjiftan, by the perfuafion of a certain great captain, who was related to the king, and whofe name was Abad, took arms; and, when they had formed themselves into a regular army, marched, under the command of Zoak or Dahac, towards Schiras, CASUINI, ap. Hyde, p. 237. Ꮓ VOL. V. where Dehoc. where Gjemfchid met him with a powerful army, which he had raifed. The engagement was fierce and bloody; but, in the end, Gjemfchid was defeated, and taken prisoner: upon which the tyrant ordered him to be immediately fawn afunder; which was performed in Zoak's fight. This is the account given by Mirchond, and the best Arabian hiftories: others fay, that he escaped from the battle, and wandered through his dominions. He left behind him a fon, whose name was Phridun or Aphridun, of three years old, whom his mother Phramak found means to conceal from his enemies, and to breed up privately, till providence enabled him to afcend the throne of Perfia u. DEHOC, Dabac, Zahak, Zoak: fome authors affirm, that the name of this prince is only an alteration of a nickname beftowed on him by the Perfians; viz. Deh-ak, fignifying, that he had ten ill qualities, which made him hateful and abominable; and that his real name was Piurah (D). As this monarch gained the crown by his fword, fo he governed fiercely, and with little regard to his fubjects. He was, however, a perfon of great genius, and deeply skilled in the occult sciences in one word, he is reprefented to us as a completely wicked man; one whofe abilities anfwered the evil intentions of his foul, and whofe perfon ftruck beholders with horror; for he had a meagre pallid vifage, eyes wild and fparkling, an air fierce and haughty; at the fame time that his body was deformed, and his whole appearance terrible. The natural fournefs of his temper was irritated by a sharp and incurable disease, confifting in two painful ulcers, one on each fhoulder, the anguish of which resembled the pain following the bite of a ferpent; whence the story inferted in a famous oriental romance, that the devil, having for many years obeyed him, demanded, u D'HERBELOT. tit, Gjemfchid. (D) It is very uncertain of what family this prince was; fome report that he was lineally" defcended from Siamek, the fon of Kejomaras; others, that he was an Arabian, the fon of Uluan, defcended in a direct line from Abad, the chief of the Adites. The truth feems to be, that he was an Arab by the father's fide, but defcended of the houfe of Kejomaras by the mother. There is indeed another fabulous genealogy or two, which fearce deserve to be men- tioned, because they are glaringly falfe; the one fuppofes but two generations between him and Adam, the other, that he was defcended from Ham, the fon of Noah, and is to be looked on as the Nimrod of the Scriptures. It is very likely, that all these stories were invented to difgrace a prince whofe cruelty rendered him odious, or that they happened through some mistakes in reading or tranfcribing the works of antient poets. at |