ABSTRACT
I N the last chapter I have spoken chiefly of the Zoroastrians; in this I propose to say something concerning my dealings with the Babls of Yezd, of whom also I saw a good deal. And first of all a few words are necessary as to the relations subsisting between the votaries of these two religions, the oldest and the newest which Persia has produced. Their relation; to one another are of a much more friendly character than are the relations of either of them towards the Mul;1ammadans, and this for several reasons. Both of them are liable to persecution at the hands of the Mul;1ammadans, and so have a certain fellowfeeling and sympathy. Both of them are more toletant towards such as are not of their own faith than the Mul;1ammadans, the Zoroastri'ans, as already said, regarding "the virtuous of the seven climes" as their friends, and the Babls being commanded by Beh:i to "associate with men of all religions with spirituality
and sweet savour," and to regard no man as unclean by reason of his faith. Moreover the Babis recognise Zoroaster as a prophet, though without much enthusiasm, and are at some pains to conciliate and win over his followers to their way of thinking, as instanced by the epistles addressed by Beha from Acre to certain of their number; while some few at least of the Zoroastrians are not indisposed to recognise in Beha their expected deliverer, Shah Bahram, who, as Dastur Tir-andaz informed me, must appear soon if they were to be rescued from their abasement, and "the Good Religion" re-established. The Dastur himself, indeed, would not admit that Beha could be this promised saviour, who, he said, must come before the next Nawrtlz if he were to come at all; but others of his co-religionists were less confident on this point, and in Kirman I met at least one who was, so far as I could ascertain, actually a Babi~ The marked predilection towards the Babis displayed by Manakji, the late Zoroastrian agent at Teheran, at whose instigation the Tdrfkh-i-Jadld, or "New History" of the Bab's "Manifestation," was written, must also have re-acted powerfully on his Zoroastrian brethren I.
