"As to the Armenian Christians, although

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they are born subjects to Persia, and in"termixed with the inhabitants, yet there are "very few of them who understand the language fundamentally. It was natural to

"expect, that Mirza Mehdee, and the Persian "Mullahs, would be more solicitous to please

Nadir, and to support the credit of Maho"medanism, than to divest themselves of prejudices, and become masters of so import"ant a subject. This translation was dressed

66

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up with all the glosses which the fables of "the Koran could warrant. Their chief "guide was an ancient Arabic and Persian "translation. Father de Vignes, a Romish "Priest, was also employed in this work, in "which he made use of the Vulgate edition. They were but six months in completing "this translation, and transcribing several fair "copies of it.

"In May following, Mirza Mehdee with "the Persian Mullahs, and some of the Chris"tian Priests, set out from Ispahan for the "Persian Court, which was then held in en66 campment near Teheran. Nadir received "them with some marks of civility, and had

a cursory view of the performance. Some "part of it was read to him; on which occa"sion he made several ludicrous remarks on "the mysterious parts of the Christian Reli

"gion; at the same time he laughed at the Jews, and turned Mahomed and Ali equally "into ridicule."And after some expressions of levity, intimating that he could himself make a better religion, than any that had yet been produced, "he dismissed these church"men and translators with some small pre"sents, not equal in value to the expence of "the journey." *

This version of the Gospels, prepared by command of Nadir Shah, is probably the same with that which is sometimes found in the hands of the Armenian Priests in India. A copy was lately shewn to an Oriental scholar in Bengal, † who observed, "that if this "was the same, he did not wonder at Nadir's " contempt of it."

The number of natives, professing Christianity in Persia, and ready to receive a translation of the Scriptures, is very considerable. They consist of four or five classes, viz. the Georgian, the Armenian, the Nestorian, the Jacobite, and the Romish Christians. The Georgians have the Bible in the Georgian Language, which was printed at Moscow in 1743; but the language is not so generally cultivated among the higher ranks as the Persian. It probably bears the same relation to the Per

*Hanway's Travels.

+ Rev. H. Martyn.

sian, which the Welch does to the English. The Armenians have a version of the Bible in their own proper tongue, but the copies are few in number. The Nestorian and Jacobite Christians use the Syriac Bible: but it is yet more rare than the Armenian. There are, besides, multitudes of Jews in Persia, who, as well as these different classes of Christians, commonly speak the vernacular language of the country.

The Persian Language is known far beyond the limits of Persia proper. It is spoken at all India, and is the

the Mussulman Courts in

usual language of judicial proceedings under the British Government in Hindoostan. It has been called the great Eastern language of correspondence and state affairs ;" and is to be estimated as next in importance to the Arabic and Chinese, in regard to the extent of territory through which it is spoken; it being generally understood from Calcutta to Damascus.

Here then is a language, spoken over nearly one quarter of the globe, the proper tongue of a great kingdom, in which an attempt has already been made by royal authority to obtain a translation of the Christian Scriptures; and

See Richardson's Dissertation on the Persian Language.

where there are, at a low computation, two hundred thousand Christians ready to receive them. Many of the Persians themselves would read the Bible with avidity, if presented to them in an inviting form. The cause of the little jealousy concerning Christianity in Persia, compared with that which is found in other Mahomedan States, is to be ascribed to these two circumstances; first, That Christianity has always existed in Persia: the Christian natives forming a considerable part of the population; and, secondly, That the Persians themselves profess so lax a system of Islamism that they have been accounted by some Musselmans a kind of heretics.

It will form an epoch in the history of Persia, when a version of the Old and New Testaments shall begin to be known generally in that country. But the narrative of Nadir Shah's attempt sufficiently proves that no ordinary scholar is qualified to undertake it. The author of such a translation must be a perfect master of the Arabic Language, the mother of the Persic, and familiar with the popular and classical Persian. He must, moreover, have access to the Scriptures in their original tongues. Such a person, we think, has been found in SABAT of Arabia, who is accounted by competent judges, "to be the first Arabic

"scholar of the age."

He has been employ

ed for nearly four years past in translating the Scriptures into the Persian and Arabic Languages, in conjunction with Mirza Fitrut of Lucknow, and other learned natives. Mirza is himself a Persian by descent, and a man of liberal learning among his countrymen. He visited England some years ago, and was afterwards appointed a Persian teacher, and a translator of the Scriptures in the College of Fort-William. These versions by Sabat and Mirza, are conducted under the superinten dance of the Rev. Henry Martyn, who is himself an Arabic and Persian scholar, and skilled in the original tongues of the Sacred Scriptures. He is a Chaplain to the Honourable the East India Company, and is now stationed at Cawnpore in Bengal, where his learned coadjutors also reside. The Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, translated by Sabat into the Persian Language, have already been printed; and 800 copies are stated in the last report, dated May 1810, to have been deposited in the BIBLIOTHECA BIBLICA, at Calcutta, for sale:

ད:

*See Report of Translations by Rev. Henry Martyn, hereafter quoted.