“All the bright flowers that fill the land, Ripple of waves on rock or sand, The snow on Fusiyama’s cone, The midnight heaven, so thickly sown With constellations of bright stars, The leaves that rustle, the reeds that make A whisper by each stream and lake, The saffron dawn, the sunset red, Are painted on these lovely jars. Again the skylark sings, again The stork, the heron, and the crane Float through the azure overhead, The counterfeit and counterpart Of nature reproduced in art.” CHAPTER VIII. PERSIA. Persia, and its Influence.--History.--Conquests.--Religious Revolutions.--Zoroaster.--Mohammed.--Geographical Position.--General View of Influences bearing upon Art.--Decoration.--Flowers and Symbols.--Conventional Styles.--Whence came the Monsters Appearing upon Wares.--Metallic Lustre. [Illustration: Fig. 139.--Persian Faience Plaque. (Robert Hoe, Jr., Coll.)] It is unfortunate, considering the great importance of Persia in the history of ceramic art, that it should have been a debatable ground to travellers and ceramists. Of the extended influence of Persia upon neighboring countries there can be no doubt. The Arabs acquired from that people much of the knowledge which they subsequently brought to Europe, and which will be treated of more fully as Saracenic and Mauresque. Persia gave a language to the Mussulmans of India, and supplied her with at least suggestions in the plastic art. Her art, in fact, spread far beyond the wide bounds of that empire, which extended from India on the east to the Mediterranean on the west, and from the Black Sea and Caucasian range on the north to the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. To have an exact knowledge of the problems with which we have now to deal, the several great revolutions recorded in the history of Persia may be briefly summarized. These changes were both religious and political in character. Beginning with Cyrus the Great, we find the empire as above described, about the year B.C. 559, when Media became tributary to Persia, into which other kingdoms were afterward merged in quick succession. The empire lasted until B.C. 331, when Alexander the Great included Persia in his grand series of Asiatic conquests. On Alexander’s death, when the tributaries of Macedonia were divided, Seleucus Nicanor obtained Persia for his share; and the Grecian dynasty lasted until the Parthians revolted, and met with such success that a Parthian dynasty was founded which lasted for nearly five hundred years. This brings us down to the year 229 of our era, when Artaxerxes headed a revolt and laid the foundation of the second Persian empire. This is known as the Sassanian Dynasty, which held the sovereignty until the incursion of the Arabs, more than four hundred years later. Persian independence was reasserted after the lapse of a second period of four