so popular as to become finally a _Volksbuch_.[51]

The account of Olearius is of special interest to us. It gives an
excellent description of Persia, and above all it gives us valuable
information on the literature and language. Olearius is struck by the
similarity of many Persian words to corresponding words in German and
Latin, and hints at the kinship of these idioms, though, looking only at
the vocabulary and not at the structure, he supposes Persian to be
related to Arabic.[52] He tells us of the high esteem in which poetry
was held by the Persians, and notices that rhyme is an indispensable
requisite of their poetic art. He also mentions some of their leading
poets, among them Sa'di, Hafid, Firdausi and Nidami.[53]

* * * * *

But what interests us most is the translation which he made of the
_Gulistan_, published in 1654, under the title of _Persianischer
Rosenthal_. True, it was not the first in point of time. As early as
1634 du Ryer had published at Paris an incomplete French version, and
shortly afterwards this version was translated into German by Johann
Friedrich Ochsenbach of Tuebingen, but apparently without attracting much
notice.[54] In 1644, Levin Warner of Leyden had given the Persian text
and Latin version of a number of Sa'di's maxims,[55] while Gentius had
published the whole text with a Latin translation at Amsterdam in 1651.
But it was the version of Olearius that really introduced the _Gulistan_
to Europe.

The edition of Olearius, from which we have cited, contains also a
translation of the _Bustan_, called _Der Persianische Baumgarten_, made,
however, not directly from the Persian, but from a Dutch version.
Besides this, the edition contains also the narratives of two other
travellers, Juergen Andersen and Volquard Iversen, as well as an account
of Persia by the French missionary Sanson. Iversen, in speaking of the
Parsi religion, gives an essentially correct account of the Zoroastrian
hierarchy, of the supreme god and his seven servants, each presiding
over some special element, evidently an allusion to Ahura Mazda and his
six Amesha Spentas, with the possible addition of Sraosha.[56] Sanson
states that the _Gavres_ have kept up the old Persian language and that
it is entirely different from modern Persian,[57] a distinct recognition
of the existence of the Avestan language. The eighteenth century saw the
discovery of the _Avesta_ by Anquetil du Perron, and