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iii
and arts. It was here that the Aryans for the
first time took to settled life and framed a rudi-
mentary form of democratic government. Again
it was here that Zoroaster preached his mono-
theistic religion and taught men the lesson of right
thinking, right speaking and right acting. Later
on, in the fourth century B. C., it became a part
of the Macedonian Empire and came into direct
touch with Greek philosophy and culture. It
was about the middle of the third century B. C.,
during the reign of Asoka the Great, that Buddh-
ism found its way into the country. It was
on the Afghan soil that Greek realism mingled
with Indian spiritualism, resulting in the Greco-
Buddhist art. Again in the seventh and eighth
centuries it came gradually under the influence
of Islamic culture and this has remained to be
the dominating factor of Afghan life to this
day.
The palmy days of Islam in Afghanistan
received a severe setback in the early part of the
13th century, when the ruthless Mongolian hordes,
under the leadership of Changiz Khan, poured
into the country, leaving death and destruction in
their wake. The flourishing seats of arts and
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.