Note 526 — Chapter I · (continued 3)

This first chapter of the Dabistán, here finished, represents the Sabæismus, or the worship of the heavenly bodies, and the formation of society by a race of kings, called the Máhábádiáns, who were succeeded by the Péshdádiáns, and other known dynasties of the Persian kings. We see laid down the principal features of Asiatic monarchies which have been preserved from times immemorial to our days. The Dabistán, it is true, blends the ideas of more recent epochs with those of the highest antiquity, and introduces sects of later times, the origin of which he traces back to the times of Abád, Húshang, and Zohák. It is however clear, that a very ancient religion prevailed in Asia, consisting of two principal points: the first was the adoration of the Creator of all good, whose unity was acknowledged very early by the enlightened class of men; the second point was the detestation of the author of all physical and moral evil. This religion inculcated purity of thoughts, words, and actions, and a tender regard for animal life; not without a great number of liturgical rites, dietetical observances, and other regulating customs in private and public. We may comprise under the general name of “Magismus” the fourteen religions mentioned in this chapter, the last but one of which, namely, that of Zardusht, appears to have been but a new systematic arrangement, not without a partial reform, of the old general religion of Asia, which has also been attributed to a more ancient Zardusht.

The duality of principle (good and bad) seems to come home to the common feeling of mankind; but it implies metaphysical questions about the creation, anteriority, posteriority, derivation and duration of light and darkness, about which the different sects are divided by their dogmas and opinions. That of the Zardushtiáns derived from God light and darkness, and considered the last as a shadow inseparable from the body. Zardusht was a dualist, inasmuch as he adopted light and darkness, as two eternal principles opposed to each other, and also inasmuch as he taught two immediate authors of good and evil, who were independent of, and absolutely contrary to, each other: but he was an unitarian, inasmuch as he subordinated these authors to the eternal decrees of the Supreme Being, who to him was the only principle of the universe, with respect not only to its original creation, but also to all its physical and moral accidents.

Although subdivided into sects, Zardusht’s religion appears to have been dominant, until the forcible introduction of Muhammedanism among the Persians, and zealously supported by the preaching of four wise men, called Sásán, who lived from 240 to 643 of the Christian era.

Here follow the principal epochs of the Zardushtián religion from the time of Gushtasp to the end of the ancient Persian monarchy: