of Tīmūr and his successors (see an account of the Zafarnāma under Petis de la Croix), histories of sects and creeds, especially the famous Dobistān, or “School of Manners” (translated by Shea and Troyer, Paris 1843); and many local chronicles of Iran and Tūrān. Next in importance to history rank geography, cosmography, and travels (for instance, the Nuzhat-ulḳulūb, by Ḥamdallah Mustaufī, who died in 1349, and the translations of Istakhrī’s and Kazvīnī’s Arabic works), and the various tadhkiras or biographies of Sufis and poets, with selections in prose and verse, from the oldest of ʽAufī (about 1220) to the last and largest of all, the Makhzan-ulgharā’ib, or “Treasure of Marvellous Matters” (completed 1803), which contains biographies and specimens of more than 3000 poets. We pass over the well-stocked sections of philosophy, ethics and politics, of theology, law and Ṣūfīsm, of mathematics and astronomy, of medicine (the oldest thesaurus of which is the “Treasure of the shāh of Khwārizam,” 1110), of Arabic, Persian and Turkish grammar and lexicography, and only cast a parting glance at the rich collection of old Indian folk-lore and fables preserved in the Persian version Indian Folk-lore. of Kalīlah u Dimnah (see Rūdagī), of the Sindbādnāma, the Ṭūtīnāma, or “Tales of a Parrot,” and others, and at the translations of standard works of Sanskrit literature, the epopees of the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata, the Bhagavad-Gitā, the Yoga-Vasishtha, and numerous Purānas and Upanishads, for which we are mostly indebted to the emperor Akbar’s indefatigable zeal.
Authorities.—The standard modern discussions of Persian literature are those of E. G. Browne, Literary History of Persia (1902, seq.), and Hermann Ethé, in vol. ii of Geiger and Kuhn’s Grundriss der iranischen Philologie (Strassburg, 1906); also the latter’s Hofische und romantische Poesie der Perser (1887), and Mystische, didaktische und lyrische Poesie und das spätere Schriftthum der Perser (1888). See also P. Horn, Geschichte der persischen Litteratur (1901). Concise sketches of Persian poetry are contained in Sir G. Ouseley’s Biographical Notices of Persian Poets (1846); in G. L. Flügel’s article in Ersch and Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyklopädie (1842); in N. Bland’s papers in the Journ. of the Roy. As. Soc., viz. 345 seq. and ix. 122 seq.; and in C. A. C. Barbier de Meynard’s Poésie en Perse (Paris, 1877). Real mines of information are the catalogues of A. Sprenger (Calcutta, 1854); W. H. Morley (London, 1854); Flügel (3 vols., Vienna, 1865); and C. Rieu (3 vols., London, 1879–1883). For the first five centuries of the Hegira compare Ethé’s editions and metrical translations of “Rūdagī’s Vorläufer und Zeitgenossen,” in Morgenländische Forschungen (Leipzig, 1875); of Kisā’ī’s songs, Firdousī’s lyrics, and Abū Sa‛īd b. Abū ’l-Khair’s rubā‛īs, in Sitzungsberichte der bayr. Akademie (1872, p. 275 seq.; 1873, p. 622 seq.; 1874, p. 133 seq.; 1875, p. 145 seq; and 1878, p. 38 seq.); of Avicenna’s Persian poems, in Göttinger Nachrichten (1875, p. 555 seq.); and of Asadi and his munāżarāt, in “Persische Tenzonen,” Verhandlungen des 5ten Orientalisten-Congresses (Berlin, 1882, pt. ii, first half, 48 seq.); H. Zotenberg’s Chronique de Tabarí (Paris, 1867–1874); Jurjanī’s Wīs u Rāmīn, ed. in the Bibl. Indica (1864) (trans. into German by C. H. Graf in Zeitschrift der morgenländischen Gesellschaft, xxiii. 375 seq.); and A. de B. Kasimirski’s Spécimen du dīwān de Menoutchehri (Versailles, 1876). On Khāḳāni, see N. de Khanykoff’s “Mémoire,” in Journal asiatique, 6th series, vol. iv. p. 137 seq. and vol. v. p. 296 seq., and C. Salemann’s edition of his rubā‛īs, with Russian trans. (Petersburg, 1875); on Farīd uddīn ‛Aṭṭār, S. de Sacy’s edition of the Pandnāma (aris, 1819), and Garcin de Tassy’s Mantiḳ-uṭṭair (Paris, 1857); on the Gulshan-i-rāz, E. H. Whinfield’s edition (London, 1880); and on Amīr Khosrau’s mathnawīs, the abstracts given in Elliot’s History of India, iii. 524 seq. German translations of Ibn Yamīn were published by O. Schlechta-Wssehrd, Bruchstücke (Vienna, 1852); of Jāmī’s minor poems, by V. von Rosenzweig (Vienna, 1840); by Ruckert, in Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vols. v. and vi., and Zeitschrift der morgenl. Gesellsch., vols ii, iv., v., vi., xxiv., xxv. and xxix.; and by M. Wickerhauser (Leipzig, 1855, and Vienna, 1858); German translation of Yūsuf u Zalīkhā, by Rosenzweig (Vienna, 1824), English by R. T. H. Griffith (London, 1881); French translation of Lailā u Majnūn, by A. L. de Chézy (Paris, 1805), German by A. T. Hartmann (Leipzig, 1807); Hilālī’s “König und Derwisch,” by Ethé, in Morgenländ. Stud. (Leipzig, 1870, p. 197 seq.). On the Persian drama, compare J. A. de Gobineau’s Religions et philosophies dans l’Asie centrale (Paris, 1866); A. Chodzko’s Théâtre persan (new ed., Paris, 1878); and Ethé, “Persische Passionspiele,” in Morgenländ. Stud., p. 174 seq. (H. E.)
PERSIGNY, JEAN GILBERT VICTOR FIALIN, Duc de (1808–1872), French statesman, was born at Saint-German Lespinasse
(Loire) on the 11th of January 1808, the son of a receiver
of taxes. He was educated at Limoges, and entered the cavalry
school at Saumur in 1826, becoming maréchal des logis in the
4th Hussars two years later. The share taken by his regiment
in supporting the revolution of 1830 was regarded as insubordination,
and next year Fialin was dismissed from the army.
He became a journalist, and in 1833 became a strong Bonapartist,
assuming the title of comte de Persigny, said to be dormant
in his family. He planned the attempt on Strassburg in 1836
and that on Boulogne in 1840. At Boulogne he was arrested and
condemned to twenty years' imprisonment in a fortress, shortly
afterwards commuted into mild detention at Versailles, where
he wrote a book to prove that the Pyramids were built to prevent
the Nile from silting up. This was published in 1845 under the
title, De la Destination et de l’utilité permanente des Pyramides.
At the revolution of 1848 he was arrested by the provisional
government, and on his release took a prominent part in securing
the election of Louis Napoleon to the presidency. With Morny
and the marshal Saint Arnaud he plotted the restoration of the
empire, and was a devoted servant of Napoleon III. He
succeeded Morny as minister of the interior in January 1852,
and later in the year became senator. He resigned office in
1854, being appointed next year to the London embassy, which
he occupied with a short interval (1858–1859) until 1860, when he
resumed the portfolio of the interior. But the growing influence
of his rival Rouher provoked his resignation in 1863, when he
received the title of duke. A more dangerous enemy than
Rouher was the empress Eugénie, whose marriage he had opposed
and whose presence in the council chamber he deprecated in a
memorandum which fell into the empress’s hands. He sought
in vain to see Napoleon before he started to take over the
command in 1870, and the breach was further widened when
master and servant were in exile. Persigny returned to France
in 1871, and died at Nice on the 11th of January 1872.
See Mémoires du duc de Persigny (2nd ed., 1896), edited by H. de Laire d'Espagny, his former secretary; an eulogistic life, Le Duc de Persigny (1865), by Delaroa; and Emile Ollivier’s Empire libéral (1895, &c.).
PERSIMMON, the name given to the fruits of Diospyros virginiana in the United States. The tree which bears them belongs to the order Ebenaceae, is usually from 30 to 50 ft. in height, and has oval entire leaves, and unisexual flowers on short stalks. In the male flowers, which are numerous, the stamens are sixteen in number and arranged in pairs; the female flowers are solitary, with traces of stamens, and a smooth ovary with one ovule in each of the eight cells—the ovary is surmounted by four styles, which are hairy at the base. The fruit-stalk is very short, bearing a subglobose fruit an inch or rather more in diameter, of an orange-yellow colour, and with a sweetish astringent pulp. It is surrounded at the base by the persistent calyx-lobes, which increase in size as the fruit ripens. The astringency renders the fruit somewhat unpalatable, but after it has been subjected to the action of frost, or has become partially rotted or “bletted” like a medlar, its flavour is improved. The fruit is eaten in great quantities in the southern states of America, and is also fermented with hops, corn-meal or wheat-bran into a sort of beer or made into brandy. The wood is heavy, strong and very close-grained and used in turnery. The tree is very common in the South Atlantic and Gulf states, and attains its largest size in the basin of the Mississippi. It was brought to England before 1629 and is cultivated, but rarely if ever ripens its fruit. It is easily raised from seed and can also be propagated from stolons, which are often produced in great quantity. The Chinese and Japanese cultivate another species, the Diospyros Kaki, of which there exist numerous ill-defined varieties. The fruits are larger than those of the American kind, variable in shape, but have similar properties. An astringent fluid, known as shibu, rich in tannin, is expressed from the green fruit and used in various industries. The tree is hardy in the south of England and in the Channel Islands.
PERSIS (mod. Fars, q.v.), the south-western part of Iran (Persia), named from the inhabitants, the Iranian people of the Pārsa (Fars); their name was pronounced by the Ionians Persai, with change from a to e, and this form has become dominant
