A literary history of Persia

10 INTRODUCTORYI./education, he attained such proficiency in Writing, Riding,and other accomplishments that he became famous throughoutall Pars." So also we read in the account which the greathistorian Tabari J gives of the reign of Shapur, the son andsuccessor of Ardashir, that " when he came to the place wherehe wished to found the city of Gunde^Shaptir, he met there anold man named Bel, of whom he enquired whether it wouldbe permitted him to build a town on this site. Bel answered,4 If I atmy advanced age can learn to write, then is it alsopermitted thee to build a town on " this spot,' by whichanswer, as Noldeke has pointed out, he meant to imply(though in the issue he proved mistaken) that both thingswere impossible. To the Pahlawi script, in short, might wellbe applied the Frenchman's well-known definition of speech" "as the art of concealing thought ; it had no intrinsicmerits save as a unique philological puzzle ; and, once deprivedof the support of ancient religion, custom, and a conservativepriesthood, it could not hold its own against the far morelegible and convenient Arabic character, of which, moreover,a knowledge was essential to every Muslim. But the factcannot be too strongly insisted upon that the peculiarity ofPahlawi (as will be more fully explained presently) layin thescript only, and that a Pahlawi book read aloud by a Zoroastrianpriest or scribe of the ninth century of our era would havebeen perfectly intelligible to a contemporary PersianMuhammadan;and that if the latter had taken it down in the Arabict*See the excellent article on Tabari (Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarir ofAmul in Tabaristan, b. A.D. 839, d. A.D. 923) in the ninth^edition of thefncydopcedia Britannica. The publication of the text of this immenseT4\ and most preciousTchronicle by Profe.asgjLjie_-Goeje o f Leyden and otherArabic scholars is^distinguished one of the greatest TecenTachievementsof Oriental learning. A German translation of the portion of this chroniclewhich deals with the history of the Sasanian period, accompanied by amost valuable Introduction and copious notes and appendices, has beenpublished by Professor Nldeke(Ley4enjj[^879) under the title Gcschichte'der Perser und Araber ziir Zeit tier Sasaniden? The story here cited willbe found in its entirety at p. 41 of the last-named work.