century of the
Hegira, the city of Herat will afford a lively contrast of private zeal
and public toleration. [202] Under the payment of an annual tribute, the
Mahometan law secured to the Ghebers of Herat their civil and religious
liberties: but the recent and humble mosch was overshadowed by the
antique splendor of the adjoining temple of fire. A fanatic Iman
deplored, in his sermons, the scandalous neighborhood, and accused the
weakness or indifference of the faithful. Excited by his voice, the
people assembled in tumult; the two houses of prayer were consumed
by the flames, but the vacant ground was immediately occupied by the
foundations of a new mosch. The injured Magi appealed to the sovereign
of Chorasan; he promised justice and relief; when, behold! four thousand
citizens of Herat, of a grave character and mature age, unanimously
swore that the idolatrous fane had never existed; the inquisition was
silenced and their conscience was satisfied (says the historian Mirchond
[203] with this holy and meritorious perjury. [204] But the greatest
part of the temples of Persia were ruined by the insensible and general
desertion of their votaries.

It was insensible, since it is not accompanied with any memorial of time
or place, of persecution or resistance. It was general, since the whole
realm, from Shiraz to Samarcand, imbibed the faith of the Koran; and the
preservation of the native tongue reveals the descent of the Mahometans
of Persia. [205] In the mountains and deserts, an obstinate race of
unbelievers adhered to the superstition of their fathers; and a faint
tradition of the Magian theology is kept alive in the province of
Kirman, along the banks of the Indus, among the exiles of Surat, and in
the colony which, in the last century, was planted by Shaw Abbas at
the gates of Ispahan. The chief pontiff has retired to Mount Elbourz,
eighteen leagues from the city of Yezd: the perpetual fire (if it
continues to burn) is inaccessible to the profane; but his residence is
the school, the oracle, and the pilgrimage of the Ghebers, whose hard
and uniform features attest the unmingled purity of their blood. Under
the jurisdiction of their elders, eighty thousand families maintain an
innocent and industrious life: their subsistence is derived from some
curious manufactures and mechanic trades; and they cultivate the earth
with the fervor of a religious duty. Their ignorance withstood the
despotism of Shaw Abbas, who demande