History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I.] PARSIS ARRIVE IN INDIA. 27

+the Gulf. The only information now in our possession, and to any extent reliable, is gleaned from a work entitled Kissah-i-Sanjan, which was compiled in the year 1600 by a Zoroastrian priest named Behman Kaikobad Sanjana, who resided at Navsari, a town situated about twenty miles south of Surat. According to that writer, the first port in India at which the earliest refugees arrived was Diu,’ a small island in the Gulf of Cambay, lying to the south

(638-639) prompted the despatch of a fleet to ravage the Thana coasts (Elliot’s History, i, 415). Both Tabari (838-921) and Magudi (900950) state that the district round Basra and the country under the King-of Oman were considered by the Arabs to be part of India (Chronique de Tabari, ii. 401 ; Prairies @Or, iv. 225), and in the seventh century it is noticed that Indians were settled in the chief cities of Persia enjoying the free exercise of their religion (Reinaud’s Abuljeda, I.-IL. ceclxxxiv.) It is worthy of note that from the sixth century, when they began to take a leading part in the trade of the East, Persians not only visited India but sailed in their own ships as far as China (Reinaud’s Abulfeda, 1-1. ecclxxxiii.) About the time when they came to India, Parsis were settled in China as missionaries, traders, and refugees. Anquetil du Perron (Zend Avesta, I. ecexxxvi.) speaks of Persians going to China in the seventh century with a son of Yazdezard. According to Wilford (As. Res., ix. 235), another party of refugees went in 750, when the dynasty of the Abbasid Khalifs began to rule. In 758 the Arabs and Persians were so strong in Canton that they stirred up a riot and plundered the city (Reinaud’s Abulfeda, L.-I1. ceclxxxv.) In 845 there is a mention of Muhapas or Mobeds in Canton (Yule’s Cathay, I. xcvi.), and about sixty years later Macudi notices that there were many fire temples in China (Prairies @Or, iv. 86.)’—Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, p. 247.

1 “Div or Diew was one of the earliest seats of the Portuguese power in India. It was regarded by Albuquerque as an excellent port for a settlement, one that would secure, from its advantages both marine and terrene, the permanency of the country’s influence in Hindustan. After several fruitless efforts, the infamous Nugna