II

THE ZOROASTRIANS IN PERSIA

Let us now turn to the Zoroastrians who had remained behind in
their fatherland. Although it is only by the way that we have to
treat of this subject, it is nevertheless proper not to leave out
of notice this nucleus of the Mazdien community who have remained
so faithful to the religion of their ancestors, and who have been so
tried in their long residence in the midst of powerful and pitiless
conquerors. We shall have occasion, besides, in the course of this
work, to look back upon these far-off regions, to note the frequent
relations between the Parsis of Persia and their brethren of India,
and the inestimable benefits secured by the wealthy Parsis of Bombay
for the unfortunate Guebres of Yezd and Kirman.

Two hundred years after the Mahomedan conquest the condition of Persia
had entirely changed. The national spirit was dead, and the entire
population had embraced Islamism. It is in the presence of changes
so sudden and so complete that one feels justified in raising the
disquieting question of the influence of race and surroundings on the
history of a nation. We do not need to address ourselves to modern
thinkers to find it clearly formulated.

According to Renan, as far back as the second century, Bardesane
had wondered that "If man is the creature of his surroundings and
of circumstances, how is it that the same country is seen to produce
human developments entirely different? If man is governed by the laws
of race, how is it that a nation which has changed its religion, for
example, become Christian, comes to be quite different from what it
used to be?" [35] We have only to substitute the epithet Mahomedan for
the epithet Christian to bring the question to the point. How, in fact,
could such a radical change be effected, and to what degree of despair
must the Zoroastrians have reached, to submit to the levelling laws of
Islam? If we attempted to explain this we should have to go back to
the history of the internal agitations and the policy of the Persian
Court, and their study would draw us away too far. We have noticed
only the chief events of its history, without stopping to gather any
instruction from facts. Let it suffice to say that the same causes
made the Arabs victorious over the Byzantine emperor and the Persian
Shah-in-Shah, and that these causes were the weakness and exhaustion
of the national dynasties in the presence of the vital elements of the
conquerors. The