BABYLON AND PERSIA

2 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.influence of foreign conquest, enforced change of re¬ligion, and mixture of races. And the religion whichthe.se exiled descendg.nts of the ancient Persianshave preserved along with purity of race and timehonoredcustoms, is that of ancient Eran, the old andwidely .spread faith, the prophet of which, SpitamaZarathushtra, was vaguely known and reverencedby the writers .i Greek and Roman antiquity, aswell as by tha' -r .scholars of Europe, under thename of Zoroaster.2. It is custoinary to sweep under the head" Heathen Religions " all except the three greatSemitic religions: Judaisin, Christianity, and Lslamisin,or the religion of Mohammed. It is doubtfulhow far so coinprehensive a designation may be cor¬rect in individual instances. In that of the Parsis,at least, it appears decidedly rash, since they earnest¬ly, emphatically profess the worship of the one trueGod, and a horror of any kind of polytheism a formof belief which, surely, should win thein aplaceamong monotheists, as must be shown by a brief re¬view of their religious tenets and practices.3. It was in the year 641 A.D. that the Arab in¬vaders, in the heyday of their fervor for the faith ofwhich their prophet Mohammed had taught them toconsider themselves the heaven-sent bearers, won thebattle, (on the field of Nehavend, fifty miles fromancient Ecbatana), which changed the destmies ofEran, and turned its people, dreaded and victoriousfor four centuries under their last national kings, theSassanian dynasty, into a conquered, enslaved, andfor a long time ruthlessly oppressed and ill-treated