Early Religious Poetry of Persia

9781417947669

1417947667

1911. Moulton writes: Speaking generally, this early Persian religious poetry interests the thinker more than the man of letters. It has not a little beauty, and the student of religion lets his plummet down into its depths with increasing wonder. But there is no modernity about it, and no mirage of antiquity to quicken a poet's fancy. The oldest and most important parts of it are sermons in metre, and perhaps rather dull sermons too for those who are not seriously minded. Yet it may be hoped that before this little book comes to its last page the modern reader may be stirred to some interest in the doctrine of God and Man proclaimed perhaps thirty centuries since by the Prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), whose dim figure through the mists of time looms large among the highest thinkers of humanity. Contents: The Aryans and their Language; General Description of the Avesta; Avestan Verse-forms; Early History of the Religion; Zarathushtra; After Zarathushtra; The Gathas: Literary features; Contents of the Gathas; and The Yashts and Later Avesta.