at laft, as a full reward, that he might have leave to kifs his fhoulders; which being granted, an ugly ferpent immediately took poft in each, and gnawed itself a den in his flesh. Either fome forcerer, or the devil in a dream, fuggefted to Zoak ari inhuman remedy for this evil; viz. that of wafhing these ulcers frequently with the warm blood of men; or, as others fay, applying to them the brains of men newly flain. At first the tyrant put to death criminals of all forts; but, when there were no more of thefe, he fell without mercy upon the innocent, that he might have wherewithal to alleviate his pain. The priefts, and other perfons in authority, employed all the arguments they could ufe, to engage him to have recourse rather to the blood or brain of fheep; but to no purpose: thofe, however, who were intrufted with the care of these unhappy wretches deftined to flaughter, for the tyrant's eafe, often, out of mere pity, let them make their efcape: fo that, flying to the mountains, in order to preserve themselves and their benefactors from danger, they there formed themselves into a particular nation, called fince the Curdes. All his reign long Zoak caufed Phridun, the fon of his predeceffor, to be fearched for, but to no purpofe; his mother took care to hide him out of the reach of Zoak, and his other enemies: however, the tyrant difcharged his wrath upon her father, whom he put to death, as he did many others, whom he suspected inclined to the intereft of the young Phridun. The chief caufe of thefe proceedings was a dream, wherein the tyrant beheld three men, who came to attack him; these, he thought, threw him down, and bound him: afterwards, one of them gave him a mortal wound on the head; then the other two loosened his girdle, tied his feet therewith, and carried him into the territory of Damavand. Having applied to the most skilful interpreters of dreams in his dominions, to know what this fignified, they unanimously agreed, that it portended the loss of his kingdom, and of his life, becaufe, among the Perfians, the girdle is a mark of dignity: now this Zoak conceived could never be done but by Phridun, and his party. Among the numbers put to death, on various accounts, by Zoak, were the fons of a certain smith, whose name was Gao, or, as others write it, Kaoh. This man, driven to madness af the fight of his childrens blood, ran up and down the streets, crying out for juftice and help against the tyrant, holding up a leathern apron in his hand, as if it had been a standard. In a fhort time, the army he got together became very formidable; fo that he made himfelf mafter of various ftrong forts, and great cities, particularly of the city Heri, or Herat, the capi L ་་ 1 tal of Chorafan, where he ftaid for fome time, to put his affairs in order and when he found, that he was in a condition to offer Zoak battle, he made a long oration to encourage his people, affuring them, amongst other things, that he had not taken arms with any view to his private advantage; but that, as foon as he had reftored them to their liberty, he would leave them to elect whom they would for a king. The people, with one accord, offered the fovereignty to him; which he as pofitively refused, telling them, that as the fenfe he had of his own injuries had put him upon first taking arms, fo he would never confent to injure others; that Phridun, the fon of Giamfchid, was their lawful prince; that they ought to bring him immediately from his retreat, and put him at their head. Popular humours are eafily turned: the army, on this fpeech, grew as loyal to Phridun, as they had been grateful to the fmith. Phridun obferving the spirit of his people, and being informed, that Zoak's army were by no means hearty in his intereft, he marched, with the utmost expedition, to meet him; and the armies engaging, after a brifk action, Zoak's troops abandoned him, and he was taken prifoner: whereupon Phridun ordered him to be conducted to the mountains of Damavand, and gave directions for his being imprisoned in a cave there. This victory being gained about the time of the autumnal equinox, the Perfians inftituted a feaft in memory thereof, which they called Mihirgjan, or rather Mihrag jân Y (E). PHRIDUN, y HYDE rel. vet. Perf. c. 8. p. 158. D'HERBELOT, biblioth. orient. art. Feridoun, Gaoh. (E) The history of Zoak makes a prodigious figure in the Perfian romances; what is related in them of him being too abfurd as well as fabulous, it would be to no purpose to swell out a note with fuch stories. It is very like ly, that the poets, immediately after the time of this cruel prince, drew the most invidious charaeters of him they could devife, and heightened all the mifchievous things he did with the utmoft force of their inventions. If we conceive to ourselves poets writing with this view, and, at the fame time, reflect on the genius of oriental writers in ge neral, and of poets in particular, we need not be at a lofs for all the ftrange things that we now read of Zoak, and yet allow the first authors of them to have been men of good fenfe too. Metaphors well understood, allufions readily apprehended, and allegories eafily explained, in one age, appear all as matters, or, at leaft, as circumftances, of fact, in ages which fucceed; and hence it comes to pass, that a stroke of poetic fatire, or the rhetorical flourish of an author, is mifapprehended for a strict affertion, and fo delivered by hiftorians, who come after, and transcribe all PHRIDUN, Aphridun, or Feridoun. This prince proved Phridun. one of the greatest, wifeft, and moft fuccefsful monarchs that ever ruled in the eaft. His firft act, after being quietly feated on the throne, was to make Kaoh the fmith general of his armies; after which he fent him towards the western parts of his dominions, in order to reduce fuch provinces, as, during the troubles of the kingdom, had fhaken off the Perfian yoke. Kaoh spent twenty years in this enterprize, in which space he added many fine countries to the Perfian empire. At length the king recalled him, and made him governor of Aderbayagjan, which he ruled ten years, with equal fatisfaction to the people and his prince, and then died much regretted by Phridun, who, to do honour to his memory, gave all his estates among his relations; and then, taking his fons into his own court, bred them there in a moft honourable manner, and, when they grew up, gave each of them greater poffeffions than their father had acquired 2. To fhew his gratitude yet more, he made the leathern apron, which Kaoh had hung upon a stick at the beginning of the infurrection, the royal ftandard of Per fia, calling it dirfefch Kaviani, i. e. the standard of Kaoh, Z MIRKHOND, hist. sect. 7. all they find, without weighing or confidering how or in what manner it was written. The first historians, in all countries, were poets; the fecond race profe-writers, who copied from them; and hence it is, that antient hiftorians are full of grave fables, which, through length of time, are hard to be understood: this has been the fate of Greece, and of Rome, of Britain, of Ireland, and why not of Perfia? But fiction, though it may obfcure, yet it does not abfolutely deftroy truth. Zoak was, in all probability, an Arabian invader, who, after making himfelf ma fter of Perfia, ufed his new fubjects ill, till the weight of the loads he laid upon them grew too heavy to be borne, and then they did, what a people may always do, throw them off their fhoulders, and would bear no more. As to what we are told of his being confined in the caverns of that he might perpetuate his name and fervices to all pofterity. This standard he adorned with precious ftones, to which his fucceffors continually adding, it became at laft of fuch ineftimable value, that, being taken by the Arabians in the battle of Cadefia, it enriched the whole army 2. As Phridun was defirous of restoring peace and good order throughout all his dominions, he fent perfons, not only of great parts, but eminent for their integrity, to govern all the provinces under his dominion. He married also, with a view of intereft only, the daughter of his predeceffor Zoak, by whom he had two fons, Salm and Tur; but these proving, like their grandfather, haughty, obftinate, and cruel, he took a Perfian lady to his bed, by whom he had a fon, named Irege, equally wife and courteous; fo that he became at once the darling of his father, and the delight of the people. Thus things paffed on, till Phridun, feeling himself beginning to decline under the weight of age and illness, fummoned his grandees together, and, having informed them of his defign to quit the regal dignity, defired to know, which of his fons they wished he should make his fucceffor. These lords unanimously answered, that, if he would no longer govern himself, they defired to have Irege for their prince; to which Phridun affented: but, to prevent his brothers from taking this ill, he gave Tur all the eastern provinces of his empire; to Salm the provinces on the other fide; and reftrained Irege within the compafs of Perfia, Affyria, and Mefopotamia. From this divifion came the names of Turon and Iran, the one fignifying that great extent of country which lies to the east of Perfia, and the other Perfia itself, and the provinces dependent thereon. As for Tur, he built a noble city, which he made the capital of his territories, calling it, after his own name, Turon, and the country Turqueftan. This city was feated in the province of Mauaralnahar, in the neighbourhood of the Cafpian fea; and hence the nation inhabiting that tract of country acquired the name of Turks c. However large those shares might be which Salm and Tur had received from their father, they ftill hated him, and their brother Irege, whofe ruin they concerted together, Things being at laft ripe 'for the execution of their projects, Salm and Tur marched each with great forces into Aderbayagjan; and, having joined their armies, fent a fort of manifefto to their father, wherein they fet forth, that, with juft reason, they were displeased with the kindness which he had fhewn Irege, whom they stiled a baftard; and declared at the fame time, that they would never lay down D'HERBELOT. biblioth. oriental. art. Dirfefch. b HYDE sel. vet. Perfar. c. 35. P. 417. D'HERBELOT, biblioth. orient, art. Feridoun, C MIRKHOND, hift. ubi fupra, their arms till he was depofed, and the countries divided between them, which hitherto had been in his poffeffion. Phridun, juftly difpleased at this undutiful behaviour, fent immediately his orders to Irege, to draw together all the forces he was able, and to march against his brothers. Irege, however, defired the king to have recourse to milder measures, in hopes of preserving the peace of the empire. Phridun was of a contrary opinion, and determined to reduce the rebels by arms. But Irege, unwilling to do his brothers any wrong, took with him fome of his wifeft counsellors, and went with them to his brothers camp, in order, if poffible, amicably to adjust the differences between them. They, who wifhed for nothing more, immediately seized him, and ftruck off his head; which having ftuck on a pole, they infolently fent to their father. Phridun was exceffively grieved at his fon's misfortune, and therefore refolved to carry on the war against Salm and Tur; in order to which, he gave the dominions of Irege to his fon Manugeher, who immediately marched with an army against his uncles. They, defpifing his youth, quickly came to an engagement, in which the two brothers were routed, and loft their lives by the hand of Manugeher, who, after this glorious. victory, returned in triumph to his grandfather Phridun, who was now grown blind. When he heard the acclamations of the people at the entrance of Manugeher, he asked, who it was that prefumed to enter his prefence in fuch a manner. The young victor cried out, It is your grandfon Manugeher, the avenger of the blood of Irege, who hath flain Salm and Tur with his own hand. Phridun then received him with open arms, and with all the demonftrations of paternal fondness. Afterwards he took the tagi or tiara from his head, and put it on that of Manugeher or Manugjar, declaring him thereby fovereign of Perfia, appointing at the fame time one Soam or Soham, a perfon of great wisdom and valour, to be his vizird. Within a short space after this, Phridun died, full of years and glory (E). d D'HERBELOT. biblioth. orient. art. Soham. (E) The oriental writers are univerfally agreed, that the terms Touran and Iran, expreffive of the two great empires on the other and on this fide the Oxus, called by them the Gjeihun, took rife at this time. It may feem ftrange, that fuch large tracts of country fhould receive ap pellations from perfons who lived and governed them fo fhort As a time; for it appears, that Irege, Tur, and Salm, all died in the life-time of Phridun, and within a fmall space after the partition of his dominions among them. But, when this is more throughly confidered, the wonder will cease. The monarchs of these extenfive kingdoms were, during a long courfe of ages, at war with each other; and this enmity proceed. |