First. The period of the Zend (living), the most ancient of the Persian languages; it was from a remote, unknown age spoken in Media, Bactria, and in the northern part of Persia. This language partakes of the character both of the Sanskrit and of the Chaldaic. It is written from right to left, and it possesses, in its grammatical construction and its radical words, many elements in common with the Sanskrit and the German languages.
Second. The period of the Pehlvi, or language of heroes, anciently spoken in the western part of the country. Its alphabet is closely allied with the Zendic, to which it bears a great resemblance. It attained a high degree of perfection under the Parthian kings, 246 B.C. to 229 A.D.
Third. The period of the Parsee or the dialect of the southwestern part of the country. It reached its perfection under the dynasty of the Sassanides, 229-636 A.D. It has great analogy with the Zend, Pehlvi, and Sanskrit, and is endowed with peculiar grace and sweetness.
Fourth. The period of the modern Persian. After the conquest of Persia, and the introduction of the Mohammedan faith in the seventh century A.D., the ancient Parsee language became greatly modified by the Arabic. It adopted its alphabet, adding to it, however, four letters and three points, and borrowed from it not only words but whole phrases, and thus from the union of the Parsee and the Arabic was formed the modern Persian. Of its various dialects, the Deri is the language of the court and of literature.
2. ZENDIC LITERATURE.--To the first period belong the ancient sacred books of Persia, collected under the name of _Zendavesta_ (living word), which contain the doctrines of Zoroaster, the prophet and lawgiver of ancient Persia. The Zendavesta is divided into two parts, one written in Zend, the other in Pehlvi; it contains traditions relating to the primitive condition and colonization of Persia, moral precepts, theological dogmas, prayers, and astronomical observations. The collection originally consisted of twenty-one chapters or treatises, of which only three have been preserved. Besides the Zendavesta there are two other sacred books, one containing prayers and hymns, and the other prayers to the Genii who preside over the days of the month. To this first period some writers refer the fables of Lokman, who is supposed to have lived in the tenth century B.C., and to have been a slave of Ethiopic origin; his apologues have been considered the model on which Greek fable was constructed. The work of Lokman, however, existing now only in the Arabic language, is believed by other writers to be of Arabic origin. It has been translated into the European languages, and is still read in the Persian schools. Among the Zendic books preserved in Arabic translations may also be mentioned the "Giavidan Kird," or the Eternal Reason, the work of Hushang, an ancient priest of Persia, a book full of beautiful and sublime maxims.