1. "Persia" was strictly the name of a tract of no verj' large dimensions on the Persian Gulf, which is still known as Fars, or Farsiston, a corruption of the ancient appellation. This tract was bounded on the west by Susiana or Elam, on the north bj' ISIedia, on the south by the Persian Gulf, and on tiie east by Car- mania, the modern Kerman. It was, speaking gener- allj', an arid and unproductive region (Herod, ix, 122 ; Arrian, Exp. Alex, v, 4 ; Plato, Leg. iii, p. G95, A) ; but contained some districts of considerable fertility. The worst part of the countrj^ was that towards the south, on the borders of the gulf, which has a climate and soil like Arabia, being sandy and almost without streams, subject to pestilential winds, and in many places covered with particles of salt. Above this miserable region is a tract very far superior to it, consisting of rocky mountains — the continuation of Zagros — among which are found a good many fertile valleys and plains, especially towards the north, in the vicinity of Shiraz. Here is an important stream, the Bendamir, which, flowing through the beautiful vallej' of Merdasht and by the ruins of Persepolis, is then separated into numerous channels for tlie pur- pose of irrigation, and, after fertilizing a large tract of country (the district of Kurjan), ends its course in the salt lake of Baktigan. Vines, oranges, and lemons are produced abundantlj' in tiiis region ; and the wine of Shiraz is celebrated throughout Asia. Fartlier noith an arid country again succeeds, the outskirts of the Great Desert, wliich extends from Kerman to Mazen- deran, and from Kashan to Lake Zei'rah.
Ptolemy {Geogr. vi, 4) divides Persia into a num- ber of provinces, among which the most important are
Map of the Persian Empire, showing the ancient Satrapies.
Paraetacene on the north, wiiicb was sometimes reck- oned to Media (Herod, i, 101 ; Stepli. Byz. ad voc. napairaKo), and Mardj'cne on the south coast, the countr}' of the Mardi. The chief towns were Pasar- gad£B, the ancient, and Persepolis, the later capital. Pasargada; was situated near the modern village of Murgaub, 42 miles nearly due north of Persepolis, and appears to have l)een the capital till the time of Dari- us, who chose the far more beautiful site in the valley of the Bendamir, where the Cliehel Minar, or "Fort}' Pillars," still stand. Sec Pkrsfcpoms. Among other cities of less importance were Parajtaca and Gabaj in the mountain country, and Taoce upon the coast. See Strab. XV, 3, § l-8;"piin3', H. N. vi, 25, 26; I'tolem. Geogr. vi, 4 ; Kinneir, Persian Empire, p. 54-80 ; Mal- colm, Hist, of Pirsia, i, 2; Ker Porter, Travels, i, 458, etc. ; Rich, Journeg from Bushire to Persepolis, etc.
2. While the district of Fars is the true original Persia, the name is more commonly applied, both in Scripture and by profane autliors, to the entire tract which came by degrees to be included within the lim- its of the Persian empire. This empire extended at one time from India on the east to Egypt and Thrace upon the west, and included, besides portions of Eu- rope and Africa, the whole of Western Asia between the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian, and the Jaxartes upon the north, the Arabian desert, the Per- sian Gulf, and the Indian Oceanupon the south. Ac- cording to Herodotus (iii, 89), it was divided into twen- ty governments, or satrapies ; but from the inscriptions it would rather appear that the number varied at dif- ferent times, and when the empire was most flourish- ing considerably exceeded twenty. In the inscription upon his tomb at Naksh-i-Rustam, Darius mentions no fewer tlian thirty countries as subject to him be- sides Persia Proper. These are — ^ledia, Susiana, Par- thia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana, Chorasmia, Zarangia, Arachosia, Sattagydia, Gandaria, India, Scythia, Bab- j'lonia, Assj'ria, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, Cappadocia, Saparda, Ionia, (European) Scj'thia, the islands (of the ^gean), the country of the ScodroS, (European) Ionia, the lands of the Tacabri, the Budians, the Cush- ites or Etliiopians, tlie Mardians, and the Colchians.
The name " Persia" is not found in the older records of tlie Bilile, but after the Babj'lonian period it occurs frequenti}' (2 Chron. xxxvi, 20, 22 ; Ezra iv, 5 sq. ; vi, 14 sq. ; Esth. i, 3 ; viii, 10; 1 Mace, i, 1), meaning the great Persian kingdom founded by Cj'rus. The only passage in Scripture where Persia designates the tract which has been called above " Persia Proper" is Ezek. xxxviii, 5. See Elaji.
3. Modern Persia or " Lran" is bounded on the north b}' the great [ilain of Kiiiva, the Caspian Sea, and the Trans-Cauc.isian provinces of Russia ; on the east b}' Bokiiara, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan; on the south
liy the Strait of Ormuz and the Persian Gulf; and on the west by the Shat-el-Arab and Asiat- ic Turkey. It contains about 545,000 square miles, and con- sists for the most part of a great table-land or elevated plateau, which in the centre and on the east side is almost a dead level ; but on the north, west, and south is covered witli a broad belt of mountain-region, here and tliere interspersed with tracts of desert and small fertile plains. The mountain- system of Persia has its root in the north-west corner of the kingdom, and is a contin- uation of the Taurus, i\rnieni- an, and Caucasian chains. The Taurus cliain enters Persia a lit- tle to the north-east of Lake Van and then turns in a south-