"Another subject of division animated them again, one against
the other. Darab had for his father Kaous, of whom I have spoken
before, who had received from Dastoor Djamasp the first smatterings
of astronomy, according to the principles of Oulough Beg. This
Dastoor Mobed having been perfected since then under another Parsi
come from Kirman about thirty-six years ago, showed by the Tables of
Oulough Beg that the Nao rouz (the first day of the year) ought to be
advanced by a month, and that consequently there had been an error
till then. A letter of the Dastoors of Yezd, dated the 22nd of the
month Aban, of the year 1111 of Yezdezard (1742, A.D.) and brought
by the Parsi Espendiar, confirmed the discovery of Kaous, but did
not tend to protect him from the hatred of his compatriots. It went
so far that Darab, sixteen or seventeen years ago, was obliged to
withdraw to Damann amongst the Portuguese, and Kaous to Cambay among
the English. When I arrived at Surat, almost all the Parsis of India
followed the party of Manscherdji because he was rich and powerful;
Darab, whose knowledge was recognised even by his adversaries, had
some disciples who, in the sequel, showed themselves more freely when
the authority of Manscherdji had been lowered at Surat with that of
the Dutch, whose agent he was."
[91] Mulla Firoz succeeded his father Mulla Kavas as Dastoor of the
Kadmis (1802); when hardly eight years old he had accompanied Mulla
Kavas to Persia and had learned Persian and Arabic. In 1786 he wrote
in Persian a curious recital of his voyage, Derich Kherde Manjumi. In
1830 he published the Avijeh Din to refute the arguments of Dastoor
Edalji Dorabji Sanjana. The governor of Bombay, Mr. Jonathan Duncan,
engaged him to teach Persian, and to translate the Desatir. Mr. Duncan
having died, Mulla Firoz continued his work in concert with Mr. William
Erskine, and finished it in 1819. He died in 1830 (Parsee Prakash,
p. 229) and bequeathed his collection of books in Zend, Pehlvi,
&c., to the Kadmi community; the library which contains them is
situate in "Fort," and bears his name. We owe to Mulla Firoz a poem
on the conquest of India by the English, the George Namah, which
was terminated and published in 1837 by his nephew and successor,
Dastoor Rastamji Kaikobadji. On the death of the latter (1854)
(Parsee Prakash, p. 635), the Kadmis combined to found a madressa
which they called Mulla Firoz (Parsee Prakash, p. 647).
[92] Edalji Dorabji Sanjana was esteemed for his piety and merits. He
was in his time one of the first savants in Zend and Pehlvi; he
was equally perfect in Sanscrit. We owe to him several works on the
Mazdiene religion, amongst others a book entitled Khorehe Vehijak,
which brought forth in reply the Avijeh Din of Mulla Firoz. He died
in 1847 (Parsee Prakash, p. 495).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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