Chapter II · The Zoroastrians in Persia

Let us now turn to the Zoroastrians who had remained behind in their fatherland. Although it is only by the way that we have to treat of this subject, it is nevertheless proper not to leave out of notice this nucleus of the Mazdien community who have remained so faithful to the religion of their ancestors, and who have been so tried in their long residence in the midst of powerful and pitiless conquerors. We shall have occasion, besides, in the course of this work, to look back upon these far-off regions, to note the frequent relations between the Parsis of Persia and their brethren of India, and the inestimable benefits secured by the wealthy Parsis of Bombay for the unfortunate Guebres of Yezd and Kirman.

Two hundred years after the Mahomedan conquest the condition of Persia had entirely changed. The national spirit was dead, and the entire population had embraced Islamism. It is in the presence of changes so sudden and so complete that one feels justified in raising the disquieting question of the influence of race and surroundings on the history of a nation. We do not need to address ourselves to modern thinkers to find it clearly formulated.

As we have seen, the followers of Zoroaster who would not accept the religion of Islam expatriated themselves. Those who could not abandon their country, and continued to cling to their old religion, had to resign themselves to frightful sufferings. These dwelt chiefly in Fars and Khorassan. European travellers who have visited Persia at different periods, have all been struck by their miserable and precarious condition, and have felt interested in their language, religion, and customs. We quote here some of them:

Pietro della Valle, at the time of his sojourn in Persia, studied them closely, and this is what he has to say:

About the same time (1618), Figueroa, the ambassador of Philip III. in Persia, remarks as follows:

“In the most eastern part of Persia, and in the province of Kirmân, which forms its frontier to the east, there have remained some of those ancient and true Persians, who, although they have mixed with the others, and by uniting themselves to their conquerors, have become like one people, all the same retain their primitive mode of living, their customs and their religion. Thus, at this day, they adore the sun as did the ancient Persians during the period their empire was the first in this world, and, following their example, they invariably keep in their houses a lighted fire, which they keep up unextinguished with as much care as the Vestal Virgins of Rome did.” (The Embassy of Don Garcias de Silva de Figueroa in Persia. Trans. Wicquefort, Paris, 1667, in 4to, p. 177.)

Thevenot (1664–67) declares that “there are in Persia, at the present day, and particularly in Kerman, people who worship the fire like the Persians of old, and these are the Guebres. They are recognised by a dark yellow coloured material of which the men and women like to have their dresses and veils made, these being the only ones who wear this colour. Moreover, the Guebre women never cover their faces, and generally speaking, they are very well formed. These Guebres have a language which with its characters is understood only by them, and they are also very ignorant.” (Continuation of the Travels in the East, Second Part, p. 116; Paris, 1674.)

With Daulier (1665) we shall enter the quarters of the Guebres assigned to them by the Persian king. “If you go about a quarter of a mile from Julpha in the direction of the mountain you will see a fine village composed of one long street. It is called Guebrabad, and is the dwelling-place of the Guebres, or the Gauvres, who are said to be descended from the old Persians who worshipped the fire. The king has given them this place to live in, having destroyed them in many other places. They are dressed in a fine tan-coloured woollen stuff, the dress of the men being of the same form as that of the other Persians. But the women’s dress is entirely different. They keep their faces uncovered, and wear round their heads a loosely tied scarf with a veil to cover their shoulders not ill resembling our gipsies. Their drawers are like the upper part of Swiss hose, reaching to their heels. Most of their stuffs are manufactured at Kirman, a large town on the south coast of Persia, where there are several of this sect. They are so reserved on the subject of their religion that it is difficult to know anything certain about it. They do not bury their dead, but leave them in the open air in an enclosure. I entered some of their houses, where I saw nothing particular except that the women, far from avoiding us, as the others do, were very glad to see and speak to us” (The Beauties of Persia, p. 51).

Towards the same time (1665–1671) when Chardin went to Persia he found the Zoroastrians spread over the Caramanian desert, and chiefly in the provinces of Yezd and Kirman. He calls them Guebres from the Arabic word Gaur, infidels or idolaters, pronounced Giaour by the Turks.

“The Persian Fire-Worshippers (vol. ix. pp. 134 et seq.) are not so well formed, nor so fair, as the Mahomedan Persians, who are the Persians of this day. Nevertheless the men are robust, having a fairly good stature, and are well featured. The women are coarse, with a dark olive complexion, due, I think, more to their poverty than to nature, for some among them have rather fine features. The men wear their hair and beards long; they put on a short-fitting vest and a long woollen cap. They dress in cotton, woollen, or mohair stuff, and prefer the brown or dead-leaf colour as being perhaps most suited to their condition.

“The women are very coarsely dressed. I have never seen anything showing such bad grace, nor anything further removed from galanterie....

“The dress of the Guebres so greatly resembles the Arab dress that one would think the Arabs copied it from them when they conquered their country. They work either as ploughmen or as labourers, or fullers and workers in wool. They make carpets, caps and very fine woollen stuffs.

“... Their chief occupation is agriculture; ... they regard it, not only as a fine and innocent employment, but also as a noble and meritorious one ...

“These Ancient Persians are gentle and simple in manners, and live very peacefully under the guidance of their elders, who are also their magistrates, and who are confirmed in their authority by the Persian Government.” Then follow numerous details concerning their manners, beliefs and temples. The chief temple was then near Yezd, and the high priest, the Dastoor Dastooran, resided there. (Ed. of Amsterdam, J. L. Delorme, MDCCXI.)

Ker-Porter (1818–1820) speaks also of the Guebres: “Some of them,” he says, “poor and faithful to their religion, not having the means of gaining a distant shelter, remained slaves on their native soil, their souls raised to Heaven, their eyes bent to the ground, weeping over their profaned sanctuaries. While the wealthier ones were flying to the mountainous regions of the frontiers, or to the shores of India, these few faithful ones ended in finding comparative security in their extreme poverty, and took refuge in Yezd and Kirman, far from the eye of the conquerors. Yezd, even now, contains from four to five thousand of their descendants; and on account of their relatively large number they are allowed to practise their faith in a more open manner than in the smaller localities. In general they are excellent cultivators, gardeners and artisans, &c.” (Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c., vol. ii. p. 46, London, 1821–1822.)

There are five reservoirs, abambars, fifty mosques, eight madressas, and sixty-five public baths; a post office ensures a regular weekly service with Bander-Abbas and Bushire; the telegraph puts it in communication with Kirman and Ispahan. Commerce flourishes; about the middle of this century eighteen hundred manufactories gave work to nine thousand workmen. Nowadays the number is, however, less.

It is here that we find, grouped together, the scattered remnants of the Zoroastrian community. The Guebres gave themselves up chiefly to gardening and the cultivation of mulberry trees, notably of the species of brown fibre, the wearing of which was formerly incumbent on them. But a great change has taken place, and such a trader now possesses a thousand camels. There are schools there, four Fire Temples, and several Towers of Silence. About twenty kilometres to the south-west is the town of Taft, where was preserved for a very long time the permission to keep up openly the sacred fire. The community has a high priest, and also a lay chief, Ardeshir Meherban. Some of the Guebres are naturalised Englishmen, and thanks to them, for the last fifty years the trade of Yezd has grown by their intercourse with India. Their rôle is similar to that performed in the open ports of Japan by the compradores and the Chinese agents into whose hands nearly all business passes. This activity is due to the efforts of their co-religionists in India, for in spite of their recognised probity and practical intelligence, the Guebres have long been exposed to the most humiliating vexations.

The condition of the Zoroastrians who had remained behind in Persia had been, as we have said, always miserable. In 1511, they wrote to their co-religionists who had taken refuge at Naosari, that since the reign of Kaïomar, they had not endured such sufferings, even under the execrable government of Zohak, Afrasiab, Tur and Alexander! As a matter of fact, the connection between the two communities, which had been broken, was happily renewed since the end of the fifteenth century. At this period Changa Asa, a rich and pious Parsi of Naosari, had at his own expense sent a learned layman, Nariman Hoshang, with the view of acquiring from the members of the Iranian clergy certain information regarding important religious questions. (Parsee Prâkâsh, pp. 6–7.)

In another letter to their co-religionists in India dated from Serfabad, September 1, 1486, Nariman Hoshang declared that all the Iranians had been desiring for centuries to know if any of their co-religionists still existed on the other side of the world! After an absence of several years he returned to India, and eight years later went back to Persia, where he collected the most curious information. These statements are confirmed by the letters of the Guebres addressed to the Parsi community of India (1511), in which it is said that “since their departure from Persia to the arrival of Nariman Hoshang (in all thirty years) the Mazdiens had not known that their co-religionists had settled in India, and that it was only through Nariman Hoshang that they had come to know of it.”

From that period the relations between the Guebres and the Parsis were sufficiently close. As far back as 1527, one Kama Asa, from Cambay, had gone to Persia and procured a complete copy of the Ardá-Viráf-Námeh. In 1626 the Parsis of Bharooch, Surat, and Naosari sent to Persia a learned man of Surat, Behman Aspandiar, charged with numerous questions; he brought back the answers, and also two religious books, the Vishtasp-Yasht and the Vispered (Parsee Prâkâsh, p. 11). The information thus obtained by intelligent emissaries for a long time guided the Parsis in their decisions regarding social and religious questions, and formed the collection of the Rivâyâts. At the same time the members of the community in India were not in a position to alleviate the miseries of their Persian brethren, and each century brought to the latter a new increase of sufferings and troubles.

It is said that under the reign of Nadir-Shah and his successors, they had again to elect between the frightful alternative of conversion or death. At the time of the siege of Kirman, of which we have spoken (p. 55), many Zoroastrians were put to the sword, and their quarters laid waste and destroyed for ever.

The same traveller, speaking of the Zoroastrians who at present reside in Kirman, expresses himself in these terms: “The Guebres there are more maltreated than their brethren in Yezd. They have only two copies of the Vendidad and of the Yasna and a rather large number of the Khorda-Avesta, with which, however, they will not part. Here nobody reads Pehlvi. They complain bitterly of Aga Mahomed Khan having given up the city to plunder, of the destruction of most of their sacred books, and of the massacre of the faithful.”

Two localities, situated not far from Yezd and held sacred by tradition, Koh-i-Chakmaku and Akda, preserved the memory of their ancient glorious days through a legend concerning the two daughters of Yezdezard, Khatun Banu and Hyat Banu, who had at one time disappeared without leaving any trace behind them. After the fall of the king, his family, finding no protection in Madaïn, had taken refuge in the citadel of Haft Ajar; but they were soon obliged to disperse. Meher Banu shut herself up in the fortress of Gorab; Khatun Banu directed her steps to more secret places. In her hasty march the princess, exhausted and dying of thirst, met a burzigar (farmer) busy cultivating the soil, and asked of him a little water to drink. There being no stream or tank near, the peasant offered her his cow’s milk, and commenced milking the animal; but the moment the vessel overflowed with the fresh and foaming liquid, the cow with a kick upset it. The unfortunate girl, thus deprived of this last comfort, feverishly continued her way, and reaching the mountain in an agony of despair, threw herself upon the ground, praying to the Almighty to protect her, either by stopping the pursuit of her enemies or by screening her from mortal sight. Hardly had she finished her prayer when she disappeared in a cleft of the rocks, which opened before her and closed upon her immediately. At the same moment the burzigar, who had discovered the retreat of the princess, arrived with a refreshing drink, only to find her little band of mourning followers. On hearing of her strange disappearance he ran to his stable and sacrificed the cow in the very place where the king’s daughter had disappeared. Soon the faithful ones came to offer, in their turn, similar sacrifices, and the place was called Dari-Din, “the Gate of Faith.” Hosts of pilgrims repaired to this place every year, but these sacrifices of blood were repugnant to the feelings of the Parsis of Bombay. However, as it was right and seemly to honour a place marked out by ancient tradition, Mr. Maneckji Limji Antaria substituted in the place of this barbarous custom ceremonies more in accordance with modern Zoroastrian practices. The sacrifice of the cow was suppressed, and an influential member of the Bombay community furnished means to raise a beautiful monument with spacious quarters to lodge the pilgrims.