CONTENTS:- 1. The Bustan 2. On Justice and Administration of Government 3. On Beneficence 4. On Love 5. On Contentment 6. On Education 7. The Masnavi 8. The Fairest Land 9. Joseph and Zuleika 10. The Rubaiyat
DESCRIPTION
The knowledge which mediaeval Europe had of India and Persia was mostly indirect, and, as might be expected, deficient both in correctness and extent, resting, as it did, on the statements of classical and patristic writer on hearsay and on oral communication. In the accounts of the classic writers, especially in those of Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy, truth and fiction were already strangely blended. Still more was this the case with such compilers and encyclopaedists and Solinus, Cassiodorus and Isidorus of Sevilla, on whom the mediaeval scholar depended largely for information. Aristotle and Theopompus were more or less familiar with Zoroastrian tenets, and allusions to the prophet, of ancient Iran are not infrequent in classic writers. But their information concerning him is very scanty and inaccurate. To them Zoroaster is simply the great magian, more renowned for his magic art than for his religious system.
