medan inhabitants we shall only remark that they are Shiites (q. v.) of the sect of Ali, and have among them some remains of the ancient iMagi, with a sect of mod- ern intidels called Sujis (q. v.). See Buchanan, Research- es, p. 167-170 ; Yeates, Indian Church History, p. 40-47 ; Life if the Per. II. Martyn ; London Missionary Reyis- te'r, 1822, p. 45 ; 1823, p. 25.
Persian Versions. At an early period there seems to liave existed a translation of the Old Testa- ment in the Persian language. There is no doubt that, like the Chaldee, such a version was prepared for use in the synagogue and in the education of the people. From the Talmud {Sota, 49 b) we know at least that the Persian language along with the holy language "is mentioned as a vernacular." Chrysostom {Homil. ii, in Joann.) and the Syrian bishop Theodoret (in his Be cu- randis Grcecorum affect. i,5) speak of such a version, and according to Maimonides the Pentateuch was translated into Persic long before Mohammed (Zunz, Bie yottesd. Vortr.d.Juden, p. 9). But the Persian translation of the Pentateuch which has come down to us, and which was printed at first at Constantinople in 154G, and then in the fourth part of the London Polyglot (the Hebrew char- acter having been used in the fiirmer case and the Per- sian in the latter), is of later origin. This is particularly apparent from the name B(d)el being rendered Bagdad (Gen. X, 10) — a proof that it owes its origin to a period at least later than the 8th eentury (for Bagdad was built in the year 762 [145 of the Hegira]). According to the inscriptions in the Constantinopolitan edition, this translation was made by R. Jacob ben-Joseph Tawus. A question has been raised whether the formula ini3 " 3~"in", he reposes in Paradise, refers to Tawus's father or Tawus himself. Flirst, who inclined to the latter view, made Tawus flourish in the loth centu- ry, while Lorsbach, Zunz, Koliiit, and Munk, inclin- ing to the former view, put the age of the author in the 16th century. On this point the latter thus ex- presses himself in his Notice stir Rabbi Saadia Gaon, p. 64: "II suffit de Jeter un seul coup-d'oeil sur la version de Rabbi Y'acob pour se convaincre qu'un tel langue Persan ne peut surmonter a une epoque oil la langue Persane se parlait et s'ecrivait encore avec beaucoup de purete, et oil les mots Arabes n'y abondaient pas encore, ... Si je ne me tntnipe, Rabbi Y'acob est un ecrivain tres-modorne, et il me semblc meme resulter des termes dont se sert a son egard I'editeur du Pentateuque de Constantinople, que c'etait un contemporain, et que sa version etait, des I'origine, destinee a cette edition du Pentateuque." It may now be regarded as settled that the author of this version did not live in the 9th cen- tury (Rosenmiiller), nor in the loth century (Fiirst, Ginsburg), but in the IGth (Zunz, Lorsbach, Kohut, Munk), and that he was bom between 1510 and 1514 (?). As to the name of the author there is a diversity of opinion, inasmuch as some take it for a proper noun (Jawiis means peacock- in Persic), others for an adjec- tive : Tusensis, ex urbc Persica Tus (where a celebrated Jewish school flourished). AVe are inclined to the for- mer view. As to the version itself, Tawus rendered slavishly the Hebrew text. He uses euphemisms, and avoids anthropomorphisms and anthropopathies; some- times he follows the Targums, often Saadia's Arabic version and Kimchi's and Aben-Ezra's commentaries, and sometimes he leaves the Hebrew untranslated (as in Gen. vii. 1 1 : xii, 6. 8 ; xvi. 14 ; xxii, 14 ; xxviii, 3 ; 1, 11 ; Exod. iii, 14; xvii, 7; Numb, xxi, 28; xxxiv, 4, 16; Deut. iii, 10; iv, 4; xxxii, 51), On the whole, this version is of little critical value.
Besides the Pentat'euch, there is also a Persian ver- sion of the Prophets and Hagiographa, as well as of the Apocrypha, in tlie Paris library. Thus Catal. im- prime MS. Ilebr. No. 34 contains the version of (Jcn- esis and Kxodiis, with the Hebrew original after eacli verse. No. o5 contains the version of Leviticus, Nimi- bers, and DeutcrcJnomy, in a similar manner. No, 40
PERSIAN VERSIONS
985
PERSONALITY
contains Job and Lamentations, as well as a Persian elegy, or •IJ'^p, tor the 9th of Ab, bewailing the destruc- tion of the Temple (comp. Taanith, iii, 488 a). No. 44 contains Isaiah and Jeremiah in Hebrew characters. No. 45 Daniel, as well as an apocryphal history of this prophet (the latter published in Hebrew characters, with a German transl. by H. Zotenberg,in jMerx's .4 rddojur wissenschciflHche Erforschung des Allen Testaments, i, 385 sq. [lialle, 18G9]). No. 40, written in the year 140!), also contains Daniel, with various readings of older MS., Fond de St. Germ.-des-Pres. No. '224 contains the book of Esther with the Hebrew original, as well as a Kab- binical Calendar in Persian, completed in 1290, and ex- tending to 1522. No. 236 contains a version of the Apoc- rypha in Hebrew characters, written in lOUO; the book of Tobit is different from the common (ireek text; Ju- dith and Bel and the Dragon agree with the Vulgate, ■while the book of Maccabees is simply the Afcgillath An- tiochus, DlZ'l^i:3X pb;i'2, Hebrew and Persian. See Maccabeus. Books of. A direct version from the Hebrew of Solomon's writings existing in Parisian MSS. was discovered by Hassler (comp. Studien iind Kritiken for 1829, p. 4G9 sq.). Tlie Imperial Public Library at St. Petersburg, which of late has bought the collection of Hebrew MSS. of the famous Karaite Abr. Firkowiez and of the Odessa Society, has also some MSS. with a Persian version. Thus Harkavy and Strack in their Catidog describe No. 139 as a Persian version of the Minor Prophets, containing Micah i, 13 to Mai. iii, 2. No. 140, the Haphtaroth in Hebrew, with the Per- sian version. The Hebrew has the vowels and accents; the Persian has no vowels, and is written in Persian (Arabic) letters. No. 141, Pentateuch with Persian version. The Hebrew text has the vowels, which often differ from our present system. The Persian version, which is written in smaller letters, and which follows, verse bj'^ verse, the original, differs very much from that published in the London Polij'ilot (vol. iv). No. 142, Job with the Persian (ch. xxiii, 14-xxix, 24; xli, 23- xlii «); of the Hebrew, only the initial words of each verse are given (with vowels, but without accents.) On these raanucripts, comp. Harkavy and Strack, Catcdog der Jlebrdischen Bibelhandschriflen in St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg and Leips. 1875), p. 165 sq.