Religion of the Crescent

170	THE RELIGION OF THE CRESCENT.

from it. In his early manhood the Kings of Persia claimed and exercised¹ sovereign sway over many parts of Arabia. Their tales were very popular among the Arabs, and are spoken² of in the Qur'an as exercising much influence over them. And along with the heroic legends of Iran, it was natural that some of its religious tenets also should gain access to their minds. Much that he tells us about the Jinn³ or Genii-beings made of subtle

¹ Especially over the kingdom of Hirah in the north-east, and also over the Arabs of 'Iraq-i-'Arabi. Vide Abu'l Fida, "Hist. Ante-Islamica," Fleischer's ed., p. 126. The Persians had also in Muhammad's time succeeded the Abyssinians in the sovereignty of Yaman (Ibn Ishaq, quoted by Koelle, "Mohammed," p. 11).
² Surah xxvii. 70; Vide also Ibn Hisham, Siratu'r Rasul, p. 124, Egypt. ed., pt. i.
³ Surahs vi. 100, 128[101,129]; xv. 27; xxvi. 212; xli. 24, 29[25,29]; &c. Much that is related of Solomon in the Qur'an is almost identical with Persian legends about Yima Khshaeta (Avesta) or in modern Persian Jamshid. These legends were current among the Arabs of his time, and were regarded by Muhammad as true and (apparently) as recorded in the inspired writings of the Jews!
There is a curious old Persian book not long since discovered, written in Pahlavi in the Perso-Arabic character, but with an amplified translation in the Dari form of Persian. It is called the "Heavenly Dasturs" (in the original, دَسَاتِيرِ آسْمَانِى ). Every treatise in it is attributed to a different prophet, and the second sentence in each treatise runs thus: فه شيد شمتاى هرشندة هرششكر "In the Name of GOD the Merciful, the Gracious,"—the very formula used
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THE ORIGIN OF ISLAM.

171

fire and intermediate between angels and men—is clearly traceable to this source. The very word جِنّىَّ (jinni) the Arabic name for such a being, is the Avestic (jaini), a wicked (female)¹ spirit. The Hur حورٌ or houris of the Muhammadan Paradise are unmistakably identical with the ()² Pairikas of the Avesta (in Modern Persian Peris), "female³ genii endowed with seductive beauty, dwelling in the air and attaching themselves to the stars and to light." The Arabic

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at the beginning of every Surah but one in the Qur'an; in Arabic,

بِسْمِ الله الْرّحْمَنِ الّرَحِيمِ‫.

The first clause in each treatise is

هوزاميم فة مزدان هز هزماس

identical with the Qur'anic نَعُذُ باللهِ الخ . Al Baidhawi and Jalalan (Comment. on Surah xxv.) tells us that the أَسَاطِير mentioned in Surahs xxv., xxvi. 70, xlvi. 16, lxviii. 15, was a book well known in Mecca before Muhammad's time, and in which the doctrine of the Resurrection was taught. Is there any possibility of a connection between the دساتير and the اساطير ? Ibn Hisham (vol. i., p. 124) speaks of the influence which stories of "Rustam and Asfandiyar and the kings of Persia" exercised in Muhammad's time over the Arabs.
¹ The word occurs e.g. in Yasna x., 4, 2, 53. A great number of evil spirits of various kinds are mentioned in the Avesta, among which are jainis, jahis, daevas, drujes, nasus, the Yatus, &c.
² Yasna ix. 61; Yesht x. 26, 34; &c.
³ C. de Harlez, "Manuel de la Langue de l'Avesta," s.v.

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