against this, and to ask for his intervention with the Prince Archbishop. The misfortune,' he wrote, 'would not trouble me, if it did not deprive me of the means of returning to my native country.' In January 1542 he addressed to the Emperor Charles a long letter, in which he again complained of the Inquisition for destroying the Arabic manuscripts, and again entreated that those which remained might be handed to him, but still without success. In the meantime, forgetting his troubles and misfortunes in Fez, he again turned his eyes to that country in the hopes of recovering his manuscripts. William was sent over to renew his relations with the King, and Clenardus prepared to return there; but before doing so he determined to compose an Epistle addressed to all Christians- De Professione Arabica militiaque constituenda adversus Machometum.' This was really an autobiography, most entertaining as far as it goes, but unfortunately it breaks off with his residence at Braga. It was while he was writing this Epistle that death overtook him, as seems probable, in September 1542, only a few days after his last letter to the good Bishop of Cape de Verde. The Marquis of Mondexar caused him to be buried in the Mosque of the Alhambra, which Ferdinand and Isabella had converted into a Christian Church. Besides a Latin Grammar, there was found among his papers the Arabic Grammar and Lexicon, of which he so often speaks in his letters, and which he had intended to print at Louvain. These writings, entrusted to his friend Juan Perez, of Valentia, are probably lost.

The extracts we have given from the letters of Clenardus are but specimens of the entertaining character of the collection, which is full of interest. We know of no other scholar of the later Renaissance who has revealed to us so much of his real self in so lively and so modern a fashion. We are far from suggesting that Clenardus was in any sense a great man, or that he played an important part in the world; but the combination of the genial, jovial, and good-tempered Dutchman with the ardent and enthusiastic scholar and student, arouses in his readers the same sort of affectionate regard that we feel for his great countryman and contemporary Erasmus.*

*Notices of Clenardus and his writings will be found in the following works:- Analectabiblion,' by the Marquis du Roure (Paris, 1837); Notice sur Nicolas Cleynaerts de Diest, son enseignement, ses œuvres et ses voyages," in • Annuaire de l'Université Catholique de Louvain' (1844, Louvain); Relation d'un Voyageur Chrétien sur la ville de Fez et ses écoles dans la première moitié du XVI siècle," in Messager des Sciences historiques de Belgique' (Année 1845, Gand).

ART.

ART. VI.-1. Persia and the Persian Question. By the Hon. George N. Curzon, M.P. 2 vols. London, 1892.

2. A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople in the years 1808 and 1809. By James Morier, Esq. London, 1812.

3. Travels in the East. By Sir W. Ouseley. London, 1812. 4. The History of Persia, from the most Early Period to the Present Time. By Colonel Sir John Malcolm, K.C.B., K.L.S. 2 vols. London, 1815.

5. Publications of the Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Church. London, 1886-92.

6. Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan. (Isabella L. Bird). 2 vols.

London, 1891.

By Mrs. Bishop

PERSIA possesses a twofold attraction for civilized Europe,

which may be described as historical and æsthetic on the one hand, and political and practical on the other. Under the first head its archæology and past associations supply an ample field for the research of the student and specialist, while its religion and philosophy, poetry and literature, cannot fail to invoke the sympathies of the man of letters. Under the second, the statesman will recognize the presence of an important factor in the burning question of Central Asia, which we partly discussed in the article on 'Russia, India, and Afghanistan,' in our last number.

It cannot be said that our knowledge of the Shah's dominions has suffered in recent years from any lack of interest or consideration on the part of Englishmen. Indeed, throughout the century now drawing to its close, the bibliography of Persia has been cumulative to repletion, and the original contributions made to it by our own countrymen are of paramount value in the account. Among a host of worthy names those of Malcolm, Morier, Ouseley, and Fraser stand out pre-eminently as the earlier authorities in ancient and current history, national character, and local geography. At a later period, travellers and explorers, like Rawlinson and Layard, brought their intellectual energies to bear upon problems in archæological exploration and language decipherment, the solutions of which have shed light upon the long latent annals of Assyria, Media, and the satrapies of Cyrus, and are even now illuminating the heretofore invisible ruins of a Hittite Empire. More recently still, Boundary Commissions have not been unproductive of personal narratives in respect of people and countries visited ; and within the last twelve months our libraries have been further

further enriched by the record of new travels in Persia from the fluent pen of the ever-welcome Mrs. Bishop, and the larger and more comprehensive work of the Hon. George Curzon. If on the present occasion we propose to give our chief attention to the last-named publication, we shall not ignore the existence of other writings which have helped us in our Persian studies.

Having realized how inadequate are 'our existing sources of knowledge about Persia,' and that there is 'genuine and imperative need for a compendious work dealing with every aspect of public life' in that country, with its inhabitants, provinces, cities, lines of communication, antiquities, government, institutions, resources, trade, finance, policy, and present and future development '-Mr. Curzon accepts the responsibility. of supplying the want. His book, therefore, the result of three years' almost uninterrupted labour,' a six months' personal experience of the lands described, and previous travel in adjacent regions,' is issued in the hope that, until superseded by a better, it may be regarded as the standard work in the English language on the subject to which it refers.'

Persia and the Persian Question' does not profess. to be historical. The Preface informs us there will be a good deal of that element in its pages; but the introductory chapter, in proclaiming the field of Persian history to be one still calling for the enterprise of some English student, combining the rare gifts of familiarity with Oriental tongues, historical knowledge, and classical erudition,' makes no pretence of occupying that field. A desideratum is clearly indicated which the present generation should be able to meet. Yet English historians of Persia have not been wanting in the nineteenth century. When Sir John Malcolm's quartos appeared in 1816, the worth of their contents and industry of the author were readily admitted; and his work has never been superseded or laid on the shelf as obsolete. Since his time, Mr. R. G. Watson, an able officer of the Indian Army, who did good service on the staff of the Legation at Tehran and the Embassy at Constantinople, has added some useful pages of comparatively recent chronicle; and Clements Markham, the distinguished geographer, has displayed his versatile research as a historian of Persia, up to the twenty-sixth year of Shah Nasru'd-dîn. What is wanted, however, is a modernized Malcolm, modified both in style. and outward form to suit the taste of the present hour, and completed up to date. The fabulous and legendary beginnings of the old Empire should be compressed, and, as far as possible, reconciled with synchronic events related by classical writers; and a readable history, not necessarily long or savouring of

prolixity,

prolixity, started from the reign of Ardashir Babakan, the contemporary of Alexander Severus in the third century of the Christian era. From this epoch the data procurable may be held fairly authentic. For material from which to reconstruct an Ancient Persia, we cannot perhaps do better than consult the learned disquisition of Professor Nöldeke, under that head, contributed to the ninth edition of the Encylopædia Britannica.' The compilation subsequently supplied to the series entitled the Story of the Nations' cannot be mentioned with it in the same breath. Mr. Curzon does not profess, as we have already said, to give a history of Persia, though the earlier record of important provinces, tribes, and cities,' to which his Introduction alludes, together with the statement of the steps by which Persia has passed, and is still passing, from barbarism to civilization,' belong to the department of history. But with respect to archæology the case is different. chapter on 'Persepolis and other Ruins,' consisting of eighty closely-printed octavo pages in small type, is a bold venture into the domains of specialists, whose views he either supports or seeks to demolish, without partiality, favour, or affection ; reasoning for or against the theories of acknowledged experts, or launching independent theories of his own, in a spirit of cautious criticism, which, fortified as it is by argument and logical inference, cannot lightly be put aside or ignored. We may therefore take up this subject first.

His

Among the ruins and remains of ancient grandeur observed in the valley of the Polvar and Marodasht, north of Shiráz, and credited to the two distinct epochs of the Achæmenian and Sassanian dynasties, our traveller has much to say about the comparatively well-investigated rock-tombs called Naksha-iRustam, with the later sculptures beneath them, and the thousand and one marvels of never-tiring nor exhausted Persepolis. In respect of the former, while giving due honour to the beautifully illustrated works of continental artists and archæologists which have appeared up to date, he is not forgetful of the services rendered by notable Englishmen, such as Morier, Ouseley, and Ker Porter. But his own report is clear and comprehensive, and in it he seems to have gleaned and methodized all that is essential for a complete and popular description.

Mr. Curzon does not hesitate to accept the popular belief that the site known to the Persians as the Takht-i-Jamshîd is not only that of a palace-platform of the Achæmenian kings . . . but the Persepolis of the ancient world;' and the gist of his conclusions to this effect is summed up in the following

terms:

'From

From the early Istakhr, whose ruins we have seen at the mouth of the valley of the Polvar, to the cliff wall and rock-tombs of Naksh-i-Rustam on the north, and to the palace-platform on the south, and far out, may be, on the fronting plain, we may presume the royal city of Darius and of Xerxes to have stretched. That city -like most Oriental cities, a compound of mud and clay-has perished off the face of the earth; and its successors have done likewise; but in the rock sepulchres, the fortified valley gateway, and the pillared platform, we have the indestructible boundary features, between which was outspread its vast extent. On the royal platform, whether it was inside or outside the precincts of the city, the monarchs resided during their short visits to the ancient capital of the dynasty; and there were enacted the gorgeous scenes that both accounted for its erection, and are still displayed upon its ruins.' (Vol. ii. p. 185.)

In preceding pages he had explained the reason that, prior to the Macedonian invasion, the locality and its wondrous buildings had been unknown in Europe:

'It was in his winter-quarters at Susa, or in his summer palace at Ecbatana, that foreign ambassadors or refugees usually found the Great King. To Persepolis, which boasted a middle temperature, he appears only to have come at springtime, to receive the first-fruit offerings of his people, the reports of his officers, and the tribute of his subjects. The great platform, with its palaces and halls, was a place of ceremonial resort rather than of habitual occupation; but its proximity to the Pasargadæ of Cyrus, and its own associations, rendered it a site of peculiar importance. There its kings sat in state; there they worshipped at the fire-altars of the Magian faith; there, according to Persian tradition, Darius laid up the Avesta, written in gold and silver letters upon 12,000 tanned ox-hides; and there six of the Achæmenian monarchs were laid to rest. But while the platform was devoted to the pomp and the residence of the sovereign, around it, and far over the adjoining plain, must have stretched the city of the shopkeepers, the middle and lower classes, and the artisans; and in the ruins on the Polvar, generally denoted Istakhr,

are to be traced the probable relics of its shrunken greatness. With the invasion of Alexander and the conflagration of one or more of the palaces by his command, . . . Persepolis drops suddenly into the background: its name all but vanishes from existence; and when, after the blank interval of Seleucid domination (during the overthrow of which it retained sufficient importance to be plundered by Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 B.C.), it reappears under the Parthian dynasty, the city which in 200 A.D. was the seat of a local Governor has changed its title, and is known as Istakhr.' (Vol. ii. p. 133.)

The theory here adopted, and the arguments by which it is supported, are in the main those of Nöldeke; and in order to

dispose