[41] See Transact. of the Lit. Soc. of Bombay, vol. II.: “On the Authenticity of the Desátir, with remarks on the Account of the Mahabadi Religion contained in the Dabistan,” by William Erskine, esq., p. 360. [42] The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies, Novemb. 1820, p. 421 _et seq._ [43] The work quoted, p. 360. [44] The Asiatic Journal, November, 1820, p. 421 _et seq._ [45] An Essay on the best means of ascertaining the affinities of Oriental languages, by baron W. Humboldt, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. II. part I. p. 213. [46] Colonel Harriot on the Oriental Origin of the Gypsies. _Ibid._, 518. [47] Erskine, _loco cit._, p. 372. [48] See _Réflexions sur l’Étude des Langues asiatiques, adressées à sir James Mackintosh_. Bonn, 1832, pp. 51-52. [49] See Asiatic Researches, vol. VIII. Lond. ed. 8. p. 254. [50] See _Heidelberger Jahrbücher der Literatar Vom Jänner te Juni 1823_, Nᵒˢ 6. 12. 13. 18. 20. [51] See _Journal asiatique, tome XII. juillet 1833_, pp. 24-26. [52] _Ibidem_, pp. 20-21. Deri was spoken on the other side of the Oxus, and at the foot of the Paropamisus in Balkh, Meru, in the Badakhshan, in Bokhara and Bamian. The Pehlevi was used in Media proper, in the towns of Rai, Hamadan, Ispahan, Nehawend, and Tabriz, the capital of Azar bíján.――Beside the Deri and Pehlevi, Persian dictionaries reckon five other dialects, altogether twelve dialects, of ancient and modern Persian. [53] _Tholuck_. _Sufismus, sive Theosophia Pantheistica_, p. 111. [54] Norris, Asiatic Journal, November, 1820, p. 430. [55] Clio, lib. I. [56] In the Bible it is called Paras, or Faras, and reckoned as extensive as Great and Little Armenia, or as Hungary, Transylvania, Slavonia, Croatia, and Dalmatia together.――(See _Gatterer’s Weltgeschichte II^{ter} Theil, Seite 9_.) [57] In the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. [58] See _Observations sur les Monumens historiques de l’ancienne Perse, par Étienne Quatremère_. _Journal des Savans_, _juin et juillet_ 1840, pp. 347-348. [59] The Orientals place him in the tenth century B. C. [60] According to Richardson (see the preface of his Dict., p. vi), the Farsi was peculiarly cultivated by the great and learned, above 1200 years before the Muhammedan era, _i. e._ above 600 years B. C., which epoch is commonly assigned to Gushtasp’s reign. [61] See Hammer’s _Schöne Redekünste Persiens, Seite 3 et seq._