لطفا منتظر باشید ...
Notes
1. We should say 'intellectual reasons' rather than
'scientific reasons', since it is not appropriate to use
the latter term, and to a certain extent is not pertinent
to the prophet.
2. Heraclius the First (about 575-641 A.D.), Emperor
of Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) from 610 to 641 A D.
Mo'in Dictionary Vol. 6.
3. A name given by the Arabs to Cyrus, governor of
Alexandria Mo'in Dictionary 6.
4. Negus is the title of rulers of Abyssinia, similar
to Khusrow fur Iranian kings, and Caesar for Emperors of
Rome. (Various Arabic sources).
5. Haaris bin-Abi-Shenlr, a Ghassani king residing in
Damascus who died in the year of capture of Mecca,
(Similar Arabic Arabic sources.)
6. ".... Moreover, the language of the Arabs was
similar to those of their neighbours, having the same
Semitic root. And as it can be seen to-day, much as in
that period, the Arabic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Hebrew,
Abyssinian and Phoenician languages are similar, their
relation resembling the relation between colloquial and
the scholastic Arabic. At that time if an Arab travelled
from Hejaz to Iraq or Abyssinia or Phoenicia he could
follow the local language without an interpreter,"
History of Islamic Civilisation, Gergie Zeydan.
Translated by Javaher Kalam, p. 9
7. Ya'qubi recorded: The Arabs placed poetry above all
knowledge and philosophy and if a poet understanding and
discerning poetry was found in the tribe, they invited
him to their seasonal markets of the year such as their
pilgrimage to recite his poetry in front of various
tribes, and considered this a sign of honour and
distinction for themselves. They had nothing else to give
but poetry. History of Ya'qubi, Vol. I, p. 342.
8. Ya'qubi's book gives this name as Bani-Teem,
sub-tribe of Mundher-bin-Sawi, but the correct name is
Bani-Tamim, because Mundher bin Sawi was Tamimi and not
Timi, Book of Mustadrak Hawashi, p. 531.
9. A village in Yemen where Sahari cloths were made.
Ya'qubi History, Vol. I.
10. Ruler of Omman, History of Ya'qubi, Vol. 1, p 349.
11. Ya'qubi speaks of 'Shahr Fair' before this one
under the patronage of a tribe of Qada'a, called Malhreh
History of Ya'qubi, Vol. I, p 35.
12. Al-Qur'an, Chapter 85 (Boruj), Verses 4 onwards.
13. The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 2 (Baqarah), verse 62;
Chapter 6 (Ma'idah), verse 69. Chapter 22 (Hajj), Verse
17.
14. Abu Ghubshan, History of Ya'qubi, Vol. 1, p. 307.
15. Akhassa min-Safqat-e-Abi Ghabshan, History of
Ya'qubi, Vol. 1, p. 307.
16. This house was preserved for a long time, but I
don't know whether it has survived as an important
historical monument.
17. At first the Greeks applied the title 'Berber' to
all non-Greeks, using it to mean wild, uneducated and
coarse. The Romans used it for all nations outside
Greco-Roman culture. Brukhaus Encyclepedia; Wil Durant's
History of Civilisation, Vol. 4, p. 30.
18. In subsequent discussion, it will become apparent
that Abyssinia played a noteworthy role in the history of
Islam in that period.
19. According to the statistics for the years 1976 and
1986 the two provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran had the
highest population density, whereas the population
density f or Iran excluding Urumia Lake but including the
unpopulated desert areas, the average was 20.5 per square
kilometers f or 1976, and 30.3 f or 1986. In the year
1976 Gilan had an average of 107, and in 1986 141.9.
Mazandaran came third with a slight difference after
Hamdan. The total population of Gilan and Mazandaran for
1986 was 5,536,018. The population of Tehran has not been
taken into account owing to its attraction and numerous
other appeals. For Tehran the average in the year 1976 as
194.2, and f or 1986 it was 301 per square kilometers.
Source: Iranian Center of Statistics.
20. It would appear that f or King Darius, horses had
more value than the human beings since he has mentioned
horses before human beings.
21. Meaning through the Red Sea via the strait of Aden
to the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf, either of which
lay in Iranian domain.
22. The word class system should not be applied to
what exists today, since there is almost no such thing
to-day, with India's exception. The use of the term
'classes' in connection with civilised countries would be
wrong. One could use the word 'group' or 'existing
groups' instead.
23. Here we are dealing with the time of Darius.
24. Ancient Iran, by Hassan Pimia, Vol. 2, p. 1,500.
25. Shahnameh, Ferdowsi, Vol. 1, p. 26.
26. Shahnameh of Tho'alebi's, translated by Mahnloud
Hedayat, p. 6.
27. In the time of Darius, western Rome was of no
significance, and the civilised lands of those days
included a small Greece, and to some extent the island of
Sicily and southern part of Italy and Rome which were
collectively of little account.
28. History has referred to Azarbayjan in one case as
the place where Zoroaster made his appearance, and Susa
(Shoosh) capital of the Achaemenid kings as another spot,
and again elsewhere in eastern Iran in the deserts of
Baluchestan.
29. History of Judaism in Iran, Vol. 1, pp. 25 onward.
30. Ancient Iran, Hassan Pimia, Vol. 2, p. 52.
31. In the Torah the namme of Darius, son of
Histaspes, has been mentioned in a few places: once in
the Book of Azra, Chapter Six, Verse 1, saying:
"Then King Darius ordered a search in the library of
Babylon which held treasures". and then in Verse 15
of the same chapter related to Darius' order f or
building a temple: "This temple was completed on the
third of Azar in the sixth year of Darius' reign."
Likewise, the Book of Prophet Zachariah (a.s.), too,
mentions, him in Chapter 1, Verse 1 and Chapter 7, Verse
1. It should be mentioned that in ancient times, we come
across the names of two other Dariuses, namely the Median
Darius the last Median king, and Darius the 2nd or 3rd
who was vanquished by Alexander, and they should not be
mistaken f or Darius the Great.
32. All calendar years given here must be approximate,
since the calendar took an exact form only a few
centuries ago, Calendars used to be carried owing to the
different ways of Compilation and thus a difference of
one or two years is possible. Although these dates are
related to a source, yet that source itself may have
variation.
33. Crete, the old name of which was Kandie, is a
Greek island in the south of Greece, with an area of
8,618 square kilometers.
34. Sicily, an island with an area of 25,740 square
kilometers, was colonised by the Phoenicians, then Greeks
and in 241 A.D. by the Romans. Later on the Vandals and
Normans invaded it, and finally in 1860 it was annexed to
Italy.
35. The Sassanide rule began in 224 A.D. and ended in
652 A.D. with the murder of Yazdgerd III.
36 It seems that the system of inquisition had existed
in the Zoroastrian ecclesiastical organisation.
37 This shows that the assignment of ordinary
attendants, too, had to be confirmed by the King as well
as the head priest.
38 This is one of the Zoroastrian injunctions.
39. This remark shows the degree of influence wielded
by the clergy and religion in the government of Ardshir
Babakan, founder of the Sassanid dynasty.
40. Antioch was a famous ancient city built by Slukus
I about 300 B.C. and named it after his father Antiocus.
This city was occupied and pillaged by the Sassanid king,
Shapour I in the years 258 and 260 A.D. Antioch held
importance owing to the Christian religious councils
convened there. Delhkhoda Persian Dictionary.
41. Henri Masse (1886-1969), born in Lorraine where he
was educated, and for further studies went to Nancy and
then to Paris in the school of Oriental Studies at the
Sorbonne University. He became familiar with Sanskrit and
Pahlavi languages and archaeology. He learnt Persian from
Mirza Muhammad Mahalati, the eye specialist and assistant
professor at the same school, and from Clement Huart. He
visited Iran five times, and more than half of his 62
works are related to Iranian literature and history,
especially about Sa'di, Hafez and Ferdowsi.
42. Nestorious (380-451 A.D.) Bishop of Constantinople
(428-431 A.D.), unlike the bishops of Alexandria who
believed in the divinity of Jesus, believed that Jesus
was the son of a human mother, and the unity of divinity
and humanity in Jesus resembles the unity of a man and
woman after marriage, namely two separate natures in a
single body. He was exiled to the Lybian desert f or this
belief and excommunicated.
43 Constantine the 1st (274-337 A.D.), vanquishing
Maxence by the walls of Rome in 312 A.D. caused the
recognition of Christianity as the official religion of
the Rorhian emhhpire, transferred the capital to
Byzantine which was given the name of Constantinople.
This city was in 45 A.D. captured by Sultan Muhammad II
of the Ottomans. Eastern Roman empire existed from 330 to
1461 A.D. - Dehkhoda Persian Dictionary. Vol.. 5 and 6
44. Manichaeus (215-276 A.D.) in his youth studied
philosophy, science and various religions, and at the age
of 24 he claimed prophethood. After being treated with
disfavor by Shapoor the 1st, he was exiled from Iran, and
he travelled to India, Tibet and China, and in 272 A.D.
returned to Iran after Shapoor's death. Hormoz, Shapoor's
successor, allowed him to propagate his faith freely, and
he found many followers in a short time. He was killed by
Bahram I after Hormoz. Among his works are the books of
Shapoorgan in Pahlavi and Arjang in which he employed
pictures to attract the illiterate, thereby he was
nicknamed 'the painter' - Dehkhoda Persian Dictionary
Vol. 6; History of Iranians and Arabs in the Sassanid
time, Theodore Noldke, pp. 123, 611 and 615.
45. Of course this communistic idea of sharing wealth
and women has a Platonic root, a matter which is
questionable.
46. Khosrow I Anushirvan became king in 53 1 A.D. When
the question of whether Anushirvan or Kavous should
succeed Qubad was being decided in a religious session,
the Mazdakis were defeated and the soldiers who had
encircled them, killed them all including Mazdak and his
leading priests - Rise of Mazdak by Nasrollah Falsafm,
and History of Iranians and Arabs in Sassanid time, by
Abass Zaryab, p. 688 onward.
47. Between the death of Khosrow Parvis II (627 A.D.)
until the succession by Yazgerd the 3rd, these
individuals reigned in Iran: Ghobad II, Shiruya son of
Khosrow Parviz (627-629 A.D.), Ardshir III son of
Shiruya, Khosrow III son of Ghobad I, Javanshir son of
Khosrow Parviz (629 A.D.), Purandokht daughter of Khosrow
Parviz (630 A.D.), Goshtasb-Bandeh son of Ghobad I,
Azarmidokht daughter of Khosrow Parviz, Hormoz V grandson
of Khosrow Parviz, Khosrow IV grandson of Khosrow Parviz,
Firus II grandson of Anushirvan, Khosrow V grandson of
Anushirvan, (631 A.D.), Yazgerd III (632-652 A.D.). The
Sassanid rulers were 37 in number, eleven of whom after
the death of Khosrow Parviz, ruled only f or six years of
the total life of this dynasty which was 429 years.
48. For further information refer to
"Makatib-ar-Rasul" translated by Ali Ahmadi
Mianji, and "Muhammad (a.s.) and the Kings" by
Ahmad Saberi, and "Watha'iq" by Muhammad
Hamidullah.
49. The process followed in reading the inscriptions
was in the following manner. Carsten Niebuhr published
copies of the three lingual inscriptions in the year
1788, and then in the year 1798 Gerhard Tychsen, a German
scholar, based his theory on the assumption that the
inscriptions were in three different languages.
In 1802 a Danish scholar, Friedrich Munter, took another
step in deciphering the inscriptions. The man who
succeeded in discovering the key to the ancient Persian
writing was a young German teacher named Friedrich Grotef
end who presented his discovery to the Scientific society
of Gottingen. The Danish scholar Rasmus Kristian Rask
(1787-1832) professor of Oriental languages of Copenhagen
University in 1826, and ten years later in 1836 the
French scholar Burnouf, and later on Christian Lassen
completed this research. The three scholars mentioned in
the above text must have been Grotefend, Rask and
Burnouf. For further information refer to "Silent
Languages" by Johanes Friedrich, p. 54 onward; also
Brookhaus German Encyclopedia, Vol. 15, and British
Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, under Rask.
50. With regard to the naming of Egypt in connection
with the Greek word Aigyptos which has appeared in
different forms in European languages, there are numerous
interpretations. One of these is the etymology of a Greek
word meaning 'dark' which led to the deduction that the
use of this word f or the land of Egypt is due to the f
act that the colour of the waters of the Nile near the
delta is dark, and it is supposed that the word Kemt
which has been the original name of this land meaning
'black' conforms with the above appellation.
51. Ramses is the name of a family of Egyptian
pharaohs from the 19th and 20th dynasties. Ramses II was
the third ruler of the 19th dynasty, and one of the most
famous pharaohs of Egypt. Qamus, the holy book, mentions
him as a contemporary of Moses (a.s.), his son who
pursued the Israelis, and was drowned, to be his
thirteenth son. It should be remembered that the word
'pharaoh' is the Common name of all the rulers of ancient
Egypt whom the Greeks called Pharaon. The word may have
entered Arabic through Syriac language. The pharaohs were
spread over 26 dynasties with a history of almost three
thousand years.
52. Hammurabi is the most famous king of Babylon who
united the whole of that realm. Historians used to
believe that he lived in about 1900 B.C., but recently
the date has been revised to a period from 1728 to 1686
B.C. He carried out great administrative reforms which
are described as his famous code. These laws were
discovered in Susa in 1902 A.D., and are kept in the
Louvre Museum. "Silent Languages" pp. 34-35,
and German Encyclopedis of Brookhaus, Vol. 8.
53. The word 'Aton' means the sun, but it is not clear
whether their god had been the sun, or whether it was
regarded as the greatest thing for man and as a sign of
God. In my studies, I have not come across any specific
information, however, some people consider it to be a
sign of God.
54. Scientific from the viewpoint of Christianity.
55. The Neoplatonics were a group of scholars in the
Alexandrian academic circle who, in one respect, revived
Plato's and in another respect produced new research in
philosophy and learning as an independent subject. The
founder of this school was Ammenius Saccas of Egypt who
lived at the end of the second century and beginning of
the third century A.D. in Alexandria. The philosophy
which is attributed to the Neoplatonics is related to
Flotin, an Egyptian Greek who had originally been a
Roman, living in Alexandria. He had the opportunity of
contact with Ammenius Saccas.
56. The Ptolemies were the descendants of Alexander's
generals from Macedonia fourteen of whom ruled Egypt
after Alexander' s death (323-30 B.C.). In Roman language
a king was called Ptolemy.
57. By Laura Vaccia Vaglieri, professor of Arab
literature and Islamic civilisation at the Naples
University of Italy, translated into Persian by Sayyed
Ghulam Reza Sa'idi.
58. Since 312 A.D. when Christianity became the state
religion of the empire.
59. Ya'qubi's History, Vol. 1, p. 235 onward.
60. Those statistics belong to the year 1960. In 1986
the population was 42,289,000. Defence and Foreign
Affairs handbook, 1986, etc.
61. The last Abyssinian emperor, Haile Selassie, had
to abdicate in 1974, and was superseded by a Marxist
government after a coup d'etat.
62. In the north of Abyssinia around lake Tanasea live
a group of Jews. They are black-skinned and are called
Falasha. They consider themselves to be descendants of
Menelik, son of the Queen of Shiba and Prophet Solormmon.
Tluough this group many Hebrew words have entered the
Abyssinian tongue. In the government of Jafar Numeiri in
Sudan and with the aid of the Marxist government of
Ethiopia and on the pretext of this uncertain lineage.
twenty thousand of this group have been transferred to
occupied Palestine.
63. The name of this priest is recorded as Fromentius
who was appointed by Anthanasius, a famous bishop of
Alexandria as the head of the Chr.istian mission in
Abyssinia.
64. In 1487 A.D. John II sent two men named Alfonso de
Paiva and Petroda Covilha in search for Yuhenna, a priest
and muythical ruler. In their travel to the east these
two obtained informuation to the effect that Yuhenna is
the eruperor of Abyssinia. They also gathered information
in Aden about the naval route to India.
Paiva died in this journey, but Covilha managed after
much trouble to reach the court of Eskander, Emperor of
Abyssinia (1478-1494) who died soon after. Lebna Dengeh,
successor of Eskandar (1508-1540) prevented Covilha's
return, and this led to an exchange of letters between
him and Queen Helena, the next ruler of Portugal. In this
correspondence the Abyssinian emuperor asked the aid of
the Portuguese for confronting the Muslirmms. As during
this time Vasco da Gama had gone round Africa and had
reached India, the king of Portugal sent a new mission
via this route to Abyssinia in 1520 A.D. Fischer
Weltgechichte, Vol. 32, (Afrika), 1983.
65 The name of this priest was Francisco Alvarez who
was sent as a member of the Portuguese military mission
to Abyssinia in 1520 A.D. He wrote a detailed book about
this period of Abyssinian history.
66. At the time of this discussion Britain still held
Aden as a naval base in southern Yemen.
67. In ancient Abyssinia the most important language
was Ge'ez which is now used as a literary language by the
clergy of Ethiopian church. This language together with
Arabic and at least seventy other living tongues (such as
Tigre', Tigrinia, Amharic etc.) are prevalent in
Ethiopia, and they are regarded as Semitic tongues. The
most important of these since seven hundred years ago
when it was a national language, is Amharic which is
spoken by many millions. Das noderne Laenderlexikon, Vol.
1.
68. In any discussion with Christians who claim that
Islam had been spread by means of the sword while
Christianity was a religion of love and peace, or that
Judaism had such and such advantages, they should be
reminded of these historical facts and the extent to
which force and sword had been employed in the spread of
Christianity.
69. The Abyssinians ruled over Yemen for 72 years,
namely Eryat for 20 years, Abraha (killer of Eryat) for
23 years, Yeksoom son of Abraha for 17 years, Massrouq
another son of Abraha for 12 years when Vahraz with his
Iranian army killed him in the year 570 A.D. Yaqubi's
History, Vol. 1, p. 204.
70. As he recited: "O God, everyone defends his
own house; so You, too defend yours. Let not the Cross
and their forces unjustly overcome Your forces. If You do
this, it must lead to a situation when You accomplish
Your tasks through them." Ya'qubi History, Vol. 1,
p.329.
71. 'Nahjul-Balagha', translation by Feyzul-Islam, pp.
31 and 1,187; Forou'-e-Kafi, Vol. 4, Book of Al-Hajj;
Bahar-al-Anwar, Vol. 96; Book of El-Hajj wal-Umra.
72. These two years are mentioned in history as the
period when the Prophet contacted other tribes in order
to win their support.
73. In the sixth year of migration many of the
injunctions had not yet been revealed to the Prophet.
74. It is commonly seen that in royal decrees that the
name of the sovereign is placed first at the top to be
followed by the name of the addressee, even though from
the viewpoint of composition the latter's name should
come first but the royal prerogative forbids that!
75. At that time a part of Yemen was a satellite of
Iran. This incident is related to the time after Abraha's
campaign.
76. Holy Qur'an, Chapter 9 (Towba), Verses 25
onward.
