Note 70 — PART I.

The Dabistán (see Pers. text, Calcutta edit., p. 69, and English transl., vol. I. p. 145) quotes verses containing this profession, addressed by Khosru Parviz to a Roman emperor, whose name, however, is not mentioned. During the reign of this Persian king, two emperors ruled in the East, namely, Mauritius, whose daughter Parviz married, and Heraclius, by whom he was defeated towards the end of his life. I found it probable, but had no authority to assert (see vol. I. p. 145, note 2), that the above-stated profession was made to Mauritius; but those verses by themselves deserve attention, as they establish the adherence of Parviz to the religion of Hoshang, in contradiction to several historians, according to whom he adopted Christianity: this assertion seems founded upon his great attachment to the celebrated Mary, or Chirín, his Christian wife, and daughter of a Christian emperor, the said Mauritius.