Praise be to God who is high above all things, and blessings be on
Mohammed, the elected, the best of all created beings, and on his
family, the guides of righteousness and truth.
One of the exquisite plans in God's management of the affairs of his
creation, one of the glorious benefits which he has bestowed upon
the entirety of his creatures, is that categorical decree of his,
not to leave in his world any period without a just guide, whom he
constitutes as a protector for his creatures, with whom to take refuge
in unfortunate and sorrowful cases and accidents, and upon whom to
devolve their affairs, when they seem indissolubly perplexed, so that
the order of the world should rest upon—and its existence be supported
by—his genius. And this decree (that the affairs of mankind should be
governed by a prophet) has been settled upon them as a religious duty,
and has been linked together with the obedience toward God, and the
obedience toward his prophet, through which alone a reward in future
life may be obtained—in accordance with the word of him, who is truth
and justice—and his word is judgment and decree, "O ye believers, obey
God, and obey the prophets, and those among yourselves who are invested
with the command."
ERA OF THE CREATION.—The first and most famous of the beginnings of
antiquity is the fact of the creation of mankind. But among those
who have a book of divine revelation, such as the Jews, Christians,
Magians, and their various sects, there exists such a difference of
opinion as to the nature of this fact, and as to the question how to
date from it, the like of which is not allowable for eras. Everything,
the knowledge of which is connected with creation and with the history
of bygone generations, is mixed up with falsifications and myths,
because it belongs to a far remote age; because a long interval
separates us therefrom, and because the student is incapable of keeping
it in memory, and of fixing it (so as to preserve it from confusion).
God says: "Have they not got the stories about those who were before
them gone but God knows them." (Surah ix, 71.) Therefore it is becoming
not to admit any account of a similar subject, if it is not attested
by a book, the correctness of which is relied upon, or by a tradition,
for which the conditions of authenticity, according to the prevalent
opinion, furnish grounds of proof.
If we now first consider this era, we find a considerable divergence of
opinion regarding it among these nations. For the Persians and Magians
think that the duration of the world is 12,000 years, corresponding
to the number of signs in the zodiac and of the months; and that
Zoroaster, the founder of their law, thought that of those there had
passed, till the time of his appearance, 3,000 years, intercalated with
the day-quarters, for he himself had made their computation, and had
taken into account that defect, which had accrued to them on account
of the day-quarters, till the time when they were intercalated and
made to agree with real time. From his appearance to the beginning of
the Aera Alexandri, they count 258 years; therefore they count from
the beginning of the world to Alexander 3,258 years. However, if we
compute the years from the creation of Gayomarth, whom they hold to
be the first man, and sum up the years of the reign of each of his
successors—for the rule of Iran remained with his descendants without
interruption—this number is, for the time till Alexander, the sum
total of 3,354 years. So the specification of the single items of the
addition does not agree with the sum total.
A section of the Persians is of the opinion that those past 3,000
years which we have mentioned are to be counted from the creation
of Gayomarth; because, before that, already six thousand years had
elapsed—a time during which the celestial globe stood motionless, the
natures (of created beings) did not interchange, the elements did not
mix—during which there was no growth, and no decay, and the earth was
not cultivated. Thereupon, when the celestial globe was set a-going,
the first man came into existence on the equator, so that part of him
in longitudinal direction was on the north, and part south of the line.
The animals were reproduced, and mankind commenced to reproduce their
own species and to multiply; the atoms of the elements mixed, so as to
give rise to growth and decay; the earth was cultivated, and the world
was arranged in conformity with fixed forms.
The Jews and Christians differ widely on this subject; for, according
to the doctrine of the Jews, the time between Adam and Alexander is
3,448 years, whilst, according to the Christian doctrine it is 5,180
years. The Christians reproach the Jews with having diminished the
number of years with the view of making the appearance of Jesus fall
into the fourth millennium in the middle of the seven millennia, which
are, according to their view, the time of the duration of the world, so
as not to coincide with that time at which, as the prophets after Moses
had prophesied, the birth of Jesus from a pure virgin at the end of
time, was to take place.
ERA OF THE DELUGE.—The next following era is the era of the great
deluge, in which everything perished at the time of Noah. Here, too,
there is such a difference of opinions, and such a confusion, that you
have no chance of deciding as to the correctness of the matter, and do
not even feel inclined to investigate thoroughly its historical truth.
The reason is, in the first instance, the difference regarding the
period between the Aera Adami and the Deluge, which we have mentioned
already; and secondly, that difference, which we shall have to mention,
regarding the period between the Deluge and the Aera Alexandri. For the
Jews derive from the Torah, and the following books, for this latter
period 1,792 years, whilst the Christians derive from _their_ Torah for
the same period 2,938 years.
The Persians, and the great mass of the Magians, deny the Deluge
altogether; they believe that the rule of the world has remained with
them without any interruption ever since Gayomarth Gilshah, who was,
according to them, the first man. In denying the Deluge, the Indians,
Chinese, and the various nations of the East, concur with them. Some,
however, of the Persians admit the fact of the Deluge, but they
describe it in a different way from what it is described in the books
of the prophets. They say, a partial deluge occurred in Syria and the
West at the time of Tahmurath, but it did not extend over the whole
of the then civilized world, and only a few nations were drowned in
it; it did not extend beyond the peak of Hulwan, and did not reach the
empires of the East. Further, they relate, that the inhabitants of the
West, when they were warned by their sages, constructed buildings of
the kind of the two pyramids that have been built in Egypt, saying: "If
the disaster comes from heaven, we shall go into them; if it comes from
the earth, we shall ascend above them." People are of opinion that the
traces of the water of the Deluge, and the efforts of the waves, are
still visible on these two pyramids half-way up, above which the water
did not rise. Another report says, that Joseph had made them a magazine
where he deposited the bread and victuals for the years of drought.
It is related that Tahmurath on receiving the warning of the Deluge—231
years before the Deluge—ordered his people to select a place of good
air and soil in his realm. Now they did not find a place that answered
better to this description than Ispahan. Thereupon, he ordered all
scientific books to be preserved for posterity and to be buried in a
part of that place least exposed to obnoxious influences. In favor of
this report we may state that in our time in Jay, the city of Ispahan,
there have been discovered hills, which, on being excavated, disclosed
houses, filled with many loads of that tree-bark with which arrows and
shields are covered, and which is called Tuz, bearing inscriptions, of
which no one was able to say what they are and what they mean.
These discrepancies in their reports inspire doubts in the student,
and make him inclined to believe what is related in some books, that
Gayomarth was not the first man, but that he was Gomer ben Yaphet ben
Noah, that he was a prince to whom a long life was given, that he
settled on the Mount Dumbawand, where he founded an empire, and that
finally his power became very great, whilst mankind was still living in
elementary conditions, similar to those at the time of creation and of
the first stage of the development of the world. Then he, and some of
his children, took control of the guidance of the world. Toward the end
of his life, he became tyrannical, and called himself Adam, saying: "If
anybody calls me by another name than this, I shall cut off his head."