people suffered from the carelessness of their kings;
individual energy was powerless against the invasion of disciplined
and fanatical tribes, commanded by generals like Omar and his officers.

The Persian nation was singularly maltreated. [36] The national unity
was broken. Each province accommodated itself in the best way it could
to the regime imposed by circumstances and by the inclinations of
local chiefs. From that time the boundaries of the ancient kingdom
underwent changes from century to century. In the tenth century,
Taher, governor of Khorassan, threw off the heavy yoke of the Caliphs
of Bagdad, and established, in his province, the authority of the
Taherides. After them came the Saffarides, the Samanides and all those
foreign dynasties that divided the sovereignty amongst themselves,
such as the Ghaznevides, the Seldjoukides, &c.; finally there came,
with all its calamities, the torrent of invasions to which succeeded
the reigns of the Sophis, and of those dynasties, cruel and grasping,
which have succeeded each other on the throne of Persia without doing
anything for the true welfare of the people.

As we have seen, the followers of Zoroaster who would not accept
the religion of Islam expatriated themselves. Those who could not
abandon their country, and continued to cling to their old religion,
had to resign themselves to frightful sufferings. These dwelt chiefly
in Fars and Khorassan. European travellers who have visited Persia
at different periods, have all been struck by their miserable and
precarious condition, and have felt interested in their language,
religion, and customs. We quote here some of them:

Pietro della Valle, at the time of his sojourn in Persia, studied
them closely, and this is what he has to say:

"These past few days I have been to see their new town [37] (that
of the Gaures), or, let us say, their separate habitation, which,
like the new Ciolfa inhabited by the Christian Armenians, like the
new Tauris, or Abbas-Abad, where dwell the Mahomedans brought from
Tauris, adjoins Ispahan, just as if it were a suburb; and although,
at present, it is separated from it by some gardens, nevertheless
with time,--for the number of inhabitants greatly increases every
day,--Ispahan and this habitation of the Gaures>, with the two others
aforesaid, will make but one place. I am therefore doubtful whether to
call them separate citadels, or suburbs, or rather considerable parts
of this same town