Mullah

Mullah (a title merely; SEE MOLLAH ) Firuz BENKAWUS a modern Persian ecclesiastic, noted as a poet, was born at Bombay in 1759. When only a youth he accompanied his father to Persia, and became acquainted with the rich poetical literature of that country. He then conceived the idea of composing an epic poem like Ferduisi's Chah-Nameh, taking, however, his subject from modern history. He called it George-Naizeh. It treats of the conquest of the East Indies by the English, and elevates poor George III to the character of a hero. Containing 110,000 verses, it was to extend to the battle of Punah (1816), but the author died in his native city in 1831 before he had completed it. His nephew, Mullah Rustem ben-Kaikobad, published (Bombay, 1837, 4to) a part of the first volume, with a prospectus of the whole work. The poem has since appeared complete at Calcutta (1839, 3

volumes, 4to). But these poetical labors did not only not interfere with the performance of Firuz's duties as high-priest of the Parsees, but he also devoted himself to ecclesiastical studies, and published an edition of the Desatir, or sacred writings of the ancient Persian prophets in the original tongue, etc., together with an English translation of the Desatir, and a commentary by M. Erskine (Bombay, 1818, 2 volumes, 8vo). He published two essays in response to Hachem of Ispahan, to prove that the Persian intercalar era dates not from Zoroaster, but is of more modern origin. They were both printed at Bombay, one in 1828 (1 volume fol.), the other in 1832 (4to). All his books and manuscripts Mullah Firuz bequeathed to the grand library of the Parsees,