Ten Great Religions: An Essay in Comparative TheologyClarke, James Freeman
Islamic
Ten Great Religions: An Essay in Comparative Theology
Clarke, James Freeman
Christianity and other religions; Religions
"This argument of Remusat's," says another learned Orientalist, M.
Felix Neve, "is of irresistible force, and we have formerly heard a
similar one maintained with the greatest confidence by M. Quatremère,
of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, and we allow
ourselves to quote the opinion of so highly qualified a judge upon this
point. Before the last century it would have been absolutely impossible
to forge in Europe a series of names and titles belonging to a
Christian nation of Western Asia; it is only since the fruits of
Assemam's labors have been made public by his family at Rome, that
there existed a sufficient knowledge of the Syriac for such a purpose;
and it is only by the publication of the manuscripts of the Vatican,
that the extent to which Nestorianism spread in the centre of Asia, and
the influence of its hierarchy in the Persian provinces could have been
estimated. There is no reason to suppose that missionaries who left
Europe in the very beginning of the seventeenth century could have
acquired a knowledge which could only be obtained from reading the
originals and not vague accounts of them."
The sagacity of M. Saint Martin, who was for a long time the colleague
of M. Quatremère, has pointed out in a note worthy of his erudition,
another special proof, which is by no means to be neglected.
"Amongst the various arguments," he says, "that might be urged in favor
of the legitimacy of the monument, but of which, as yet, no use has
been made, must not be forgotten the name of the priest by whom it is
said to have been erected. The name _Yezd-bouzid_ is Persian, and at
the epoch when the monument was discovered it would have been
impossible to invent it, as there existed no work where it could have
been found. Indeed, I do not think that, even since then, there has
ever been any one published in which it could have been met with.
"It is a very celebrated name among the Armenians, and comes to them
from a martyr, a Persian by birth, and of the royal race, who perished
towards the middle of the seventh century, and rendered his name
illustrious amongst the Christian nations of the East." Saint Martin
adds in the same place, that the famous monument of Si-ngau-Fou, whose
authenticity has for a long time been called in question from the
hatred entertained against the Jesuit missionaries who discovered it,
rather than from a candid examination of its contents, is now regarded
as above all suspicion.
Chapter III.
Brahmanism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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