Pahlavi Literature Research Articles

“The Righteous in Paradise are Ageless, Immortal, Fearless …”: An Edition and Annotated Translation of the Dādestān ī Mēnōg ī Xrad 7

Abstract The destiny of the soul after death occupies an important place in religious literature. Chapter 7 of the Pahlavi book Dādestān ī Mēnōg ī Xrad (“The Judgments of the Spirit of Wisdom”), which belongs to the genre of andarz literature and contains mostly practical wisdom for Zoroastrian laymen, presents a detailed description of the architecture and role of three otherworldly abodes that await souls in the afterlife. This description contains many architectural and religious features, which characterize these abodes in most Pahlavi literature. The narrative structure of the chapter constitutes a dialogue between a wise man (dānāg) and the Spirit of Wisdom. In the latter’s responses, a descriptive tripartite division of the afterlife is presented. This architecture of heaven and hell reflects different Zoroastrian traditions that were developed to adapt the afterlife to the tripartite ethical tenets of Zoroastrianism.

Dahmān Āfrīn and Srōš: Analyzing a Connection

Abstract This article investigates the theme, known from two passages of Pahlavi literature (Šāyist nē Šāyist 13.43 and Dēnkard 9.22.1), of the multiple comings of the deities Dahmān Āfrīn and Srōš to the world at night in order to give it increase. The article highlights that this theme reflects some characteristics of the Dahmā Āfriti prayer (which Dahmān Āfrīn personifies), and of the deity Sraoša (of whom Srōš is the equivalent) according to the Avestan tradition. Furthermore, the article highlights that this theme also reflects certain characteristics of the Dahmā Āfriti and of Srōš, as well as of the deity Dahmān Āfrīn, in the Zoroastrian tradition of the Sasanian to early Islamic times. The article analyzes these characteristics, and proposes some considerations on the relationship between Dahmān Āfrīn and Srōš. It also points out that a connection between Dahmān Āfrīn and Srōš is preserved in modern and contemporary Zoroastrian rituals.

The zīndag ruwān ceremony in historical perspective

AbstractThe Pahlavi syntagm zīndag ruwān (NP zende/zinde ravān), literally “living soul / soul of the living”, designates a Zoroastrian funerary ceremony to be performed by priests on behalf of a person in his/her lifetime for the benefit of his/her own soul. It is particularly ordered by that person as a pre-emptive means to ensure that the funerary prayers will be recited, even if relatives are unable to do so, and to guarantee the protection of the god Sraoša in the passing away to the afterlife. In this contribution, I discuss the most relevant aspects of this Zoroastrian ceremony that can be extracted from the Pahlavi literature, and consider that its changes from older periods until modern times are due to diachronic, diatopic and socio-economic variables.

Kangdiz in Pahlavi Literature

Abstract Though Kandiz seems to be depicted in the early Avestan sources, only in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature does this fortress-city receive a rich and detailed description. Kangdiz becomes a significant and essential place, strongly connected to the legend of Zoroaster and the eschatological events of the final times. In its geographical, architectural, and religious transformation Kangdiz is often enriched with features belonging to other special Iranian places, such as the shelter of Jam. The fame and the narrative model of this city survives the first centuries of the Islamic conquest. This article presents the architecture and the geography of Kangdiz as found in Pahlavi sources and to define its eschatological role in the context of the Zoroastrian myth and religion.

On the Emergence of the Iranian Apocalypse Between the Sixth and Seventh Centuries

The Iranian apocalyptic texts belong to the body of Pahlavi literature that was written in the ninth and tenth centuries. While most scholarship points to the early Islamic reworking and redaction of these apocalyptic accounts, which is clearly evident in the overlapping narratives, various late Sasanian historical and apocalyptic material still seems to be detectable. This article reassesses the identification of some Iranian apocalyptic figures, in order to discuss the origin of some literary models that were likely shared with some coeval neighboring traditions. It will thereby situate the emergence of Iranian apocalyptic ideas between the end of the sixth to the first decades of the seventh century.

Zoroastrian Doctrine of Formation of Heavenly Bodies in Pahlavi Texts

This article is about the doctrine of the formation of celestial bodies in Pahlavi texts. The doctrine is peculiar. It clashes not only with the accounts of the Gāϑā and the Younger Avesta but also with the general cosmology of Pahlavi literature. Nonetheless it must be authoritative since it is found in our main sources of Zoroastrian (Pahlavi) cosmogony and there does not seem to be an alternative account of the formation of celestial bodies. It thus prompts us to look for its background. This article presents and discusses the texts that contain the Pahlavi doctrine, examines its Avestan roots, and shows the influence of Presocratic cosmogonic speculations on the doctrine. Further, comparative material allows us to propose a conceptual genealogy of the basic constituents of the doctrine.

The Standard Doctrine of Creation in Zoroastrian Pahlavi Texts

AbstractThe main scheme of creation in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature is adopted from the Young Avesta. In this scheme Ohrmazd creates the world in the manner of a skillful craftsman who conceives of the form of his product and then fashions it in matter. The number of the constituents of the world and the sequence in which they are created are already fixed in the Avesta. Pahlavi authors draw on Greek philosophical tradition to rationalise their account of the creation of the world. The article also explores some of the complications that their philosophical elaboration of the Avestan scheme occasions.

Non-Iranian historical lands in Pahlavi literature

AbstractAlthough Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature preserves few geographical and ethnographic descriptions of non-Iranian historical regions, the popular bookAyādgār ī Jāmāspīgdevotes several chapters to an extensive account of the landscape, social customs and religious practices of India, China, Arabia, Barbary, Ceylon (or the region of Slavs), Mazandarān and Turkestan. These descriptions share many similarities with the accounts of Muslim geographers between the ninth and twelfth centuriesce, though they also contain many Late Sasanian elements. In providing an English translation of these passages, this article aims to identify the inhabitants of these regions as well as to provide a more precise chronology of the chapters. It argues that Zoroastrian authors in the first centuries of the Islamic era, taking as a model the new Islamic science of geography, wrote or reworked these chapters with the intention of redefining and mapping the new world around them.

Zoroastrians, Islam and the Holy Qur’ān. Purity and Danger in Pahlavi Literature in the Early Islamic Period (Seventh–Tenth Centuries)

Abstract This paper will reflect on how Pahlavi texts after the Islamic conquest conceptualize conflicts between Islamic norms and Zoroastrian rules, in particular those concerning purity. The paper will therefore be concerned with the representation of Islam and Islamic practices within the Mazdean community. For this reason, the issue of the reception of the Holy Qur’ān within Pahlavi literature will also need to be addressed. The paper will formulate some hypotheses on what goals the Mazdean intellectual elites (in this case, essentially their clergy) tried to achieve through their representation of Islam. It will also discuss how this representation connected with the economic and social transformation that this community underwent with the end of the Sasanian Empire, in particular with the changes in landholding that had been among the main sources of wealth and power for the Sasanian aristocracy.

The Pahlavi Literature of the 9th Century and Greek Philosophy

Since the Hellenistic times (if not earlier) Iran participates in the philosophical development of classical Greece. In the times of the Sasanians some knowledge of Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic thinking is detectable, and treatises were written for Xosrō I by philosophers who were well acquainted with the writings of Aristotle. It was always maintained that also Sasanian Zoroastrianism was affected through these Greek-Iranian contacts. But it is remarkable that among the Zoroastrian writings of the 9th-10th centuries only two books–Dēnkard 3 and Škand Gumānīg Wīzār–seem to be substantially influenced by Aristotelian/Neo-Platonic terms and concepts. The paper deals with the question whether the Greek elements within these texts should not better be understood as the fruit of a Zoroastrian participation in the general interest of the Islamic world in Greek thinking in Abbasid Baghdad.

Dēnkard III Language Variation and the Defence of Socio-Religious Identity in the Context of Early-Islamic Iran

AbstractThe aim of the present paper is to illustrate as a case study, the linguistic and stylistic peculiarities characterizing the third book of the Dēnkard, one of the most authoritative texts in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature (9th-10th CE). The analysis will consider these features as part of a coherent system, styled to serve the dialectic strategies pursued by the Zoroastrian high priests in response to the pressures their own community was facing in the early Islamic period. In order to provide a more comprehensive overview on DkIII language distinctiveness, the research will underline the outward/inward dynamics, addressing both the relation of this theological dialectic with the surrounding socio-cultural environment and the leadingrole claims of a group within a politically subordinated community

The Term for Muslims in Pahlavi Literature

Until recently, it was a common thought that followers of the Prophet Muhammad never have been mentioned in Middle Persian texts by their real name. The only known use of the term Muslim(s) found at the turn of the century in the 5th book of Dēnkard, has been enriched by two new attestations identified in the Pahlavi texts Nāmagīhā ī Mānūščīhr and Zand-ī Wahman Yasn.

Some Passages on Turkic Peoples in Zoroastrian Pahlavi Literature

Abstract Following on similar contributions focusing on geographical chapters and subjects in Pahlavi literature, in this article the author briefly presents the main evidence on the presence of Turkic people and on place names relative to the vast area of Turkestân, as found in Middle Persian Zoroastrian texts.

Zoroastrian Exegetical Parables in the Škand Gumānīg Wizār

The parable has received little attention as a form in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature. Taking a first step to correct this deficit, this article examines an extended parable that appears in the Škand Gumānīg Wizār, the ninth century theological and political treatise. The parable likens Ohramzd’s conflict with Ahriman and his creation of the world to a gardener’s attempt to keep hungry vermin from his garden by means of a trap. Borrowing tools developed in the study of rabbinic exegetical parables and poetics, the article argues that the garden parable not only aims to make a theological point as part of its immediate context in the Škand Gumānīg Wizār, but also it itself is an interpretation of the Zoroastrian account of creation. The article shows how the parable reinterprets inconsistencies and contradictions in that cosmogony, relating to the account of creation just as rabbinic parables relate to the gaps in canonical, biblical narratives.

Parallel Versions of Vīdēvdād 11

The Pahlavi literature of the Sasanian and post-Sasanian periods preserves not only many fragments of Pahlavi translations of lost Avestan texts, but also parallel versions of those attested in the extant Avestan manuscripts. Their differences are generally interpreted on the assumption of the existence of an underlying common Avestan text. However, the structural comparison between the Pahlavi translation of Vīdēvdād 11 in the Pahlavi text Zand ī Fragard ī Juddēwdād and its Avestan text in the Vīdēvdād Sāde and the Pahlavi Vīdēvdād manuscripts could point to the existence of two or even three different Avestan versions of the same chapter (fragard).

Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction: Origins of the Sāhib-Qirān

AbstractThis paper seeks to look at the origins, employment, and claims associated with the title sāhib-qirān. Occurring throughout the mediaeval to modern period, with special prominence during the early modern, the title underwent various transformations within particular polities and beyond. While any discussion of the sāhib-qirān must give significant place to the life and career of Timur, the title is far older than the Central Asian conqueror. As is shown, roots of the title and its historical background suggest a pre-Islamic Iranian origin, particularly traced in Pahlavi literature.

Impurity/No Danger

Previous articleNext article No AccessImpurity/No DangerA. Kevin ReinhartA. Kevin Reinhart Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 30, Number 1Aug., 1990The Body Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/463212 Views: 26Total views on this site Citations: 23Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1990 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Katrina Daly Thompson Making Space for Embodied Voices, Diverse Bodies, and Multiple Genders in Nonconformist Friday Prayers: A Queer Feminist Ethnography of Progressive Muslims’ Performative Intercorporeality in North American Congregations, American Anthropologist 122, no.44 (Sep 2020): 876–890.https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13478Siad Darwish Flowers in Uncertain Times: Waste, Islam, and the Scent of Revolution in Tunisia, Ethnos 45 (Jun 2020): 1–22.https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1696859Michele Campopiano Zoroastrians, Islam and the Holy Qur’ān. Purity and Danger in Pahlavi Literature in the Early Islamic Period (Seventh–Tenth Centuries), Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies 5, no.11 (Jul 2018): 75–98.https://doi.org/10.1515/jtms-2018-0004Mahmoud Pargoo Expansion and Contraction of Scripture: The Ritual (Im)purity of Unbelievers According to Shīʿa Jurisprudence, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 29, no.22 (Sep 2017): 215–239.https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2017.1371439Tiffany Cone Charisma and Ritual: Social Distance and Proximity, (May 2018): 119–139.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74763-7_5Etty Terem , Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 60, no.1-21-2 ( 2017): 115.https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341421Nor Haliza Johari, Rusmadiah Anwar, Muhamad Fairus Kamaruzaman Ablution Tap Design: A Solution for Water Consumption, (Mar 2016): 165–172.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0237-3_17Amy Paris Langenberg Buddhist Blood Taboo: Mary Douglas, Female Impurity, and Classical Indian Buddhism, Journal of the American Academy of Religion (Aug 2015): lfv059.https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfv059Elyse Semerdjian NAKED ANXIETY: BATHHOUSES, NUDITY, AND THE DHIMMĪ WOMAN IN 18TH-CENTURY ALEPPO, International Journal of Middle East Studies 45, no.44 (Oct 2013): 651–676.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743813000846 Reinheitsvorstellungen im Islam, (Apr 2013): 427–446.https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737001113.427Susanna Trnka Cleanliness in a Caste-less Context: Collective Negotiations of Purity and Pollution among Indo-Fijian Hindus, Anthropological Forum 22, no.11 (Feb 2012): 25–43.https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2012.652586Naheem Jabbar SYMBOLOGY AND SUBALTERN RESISTANCE IN HĪRA MANDI MOHALLA, Interventions 13, no.11 (Mar 2011): 95–119.https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2011.545582Ron E. Hassner Blasphemy and Violence1, International Studies Quarterly 55, no.11 (Mar 2011): 23–45.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2478.2010.00634.xRobbie Duschinsky Slaughtered innocents: child victims in political discourse during the Second Intifada and Gaza conflict, Social Semiotics 21, no.11 (Feb 2011): 33–51.https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2011.535669Maribel Fierro Conversion, ancestry and universal religion: the case of the Almohads in the Islamic West (sixth/twelfth–seventh/thirteenth centuries), Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 2, no.22 (Jun 2010): 155–173.https://doi.org/10.1080/17546559.2010.495289Shuruq Naguib Horizons and Limitations of Muslim Feminist Hermeneutics: Reflections on the Menstruation Verse, (Nov 2009): 33–49.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6833-1_3Shuruq Naguib And Your Garments Purify: tahāra in the Light of tafsīr, Journal of Qur'anic Studies 9, no.11 (Apr 2007): 59–77.https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2007.9.1.59 Brannon Wheeler Touching The Penis in Islamic Law Wheeler, History of Religions 44, no.22 (Jul 2015): 89–119.https://doi.org/10.1086/429229 Janina M. Safran Rules of Purity and Confessional Boundaries: Maliki Debates about the Pollution of the Christian Safran, History of Religions 42, no.33 (Jul 2015): 197–212.https://doi.org/10.1086/375036Janina M. Safran Identity and Differentiation in Ninth-Century al-Andalus, Speculum 76, no.33 (Oct 2015): 573–598.https://doi.org/10.2307/2903880Amreen Jamal The Story of Lot and the Qurvln's Perception of the Morality of Same-Sex Sexuality, Journal of Homosexuality 41, no.11 (Jun 2001): 1–88.https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v41n01_01David Pinault Blood, Rationality, and Ritual in the Shia Tradition, (Jan 2001): 29–55.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-04765-6_3Marion Holmes Katz Canonical prayer (ṣalāt) and supplication (duʿāʾ), (): 10–43.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139034333.002

The Old Iranian Calendars Again

Most Iranists are probably acquainted with some of my writings on Iranian chronology and systems of time-reckoning. One of the essential points in my outline of the history of the Iranian calendars is the theory I put forward about the date of the creation of a fixed religious year, co-existing and running parallel with the civil year, which was a vague one. This fixed year, called in Pahlavi literature Vihēǰakīk, was, however, theoretical and without any application in daily life. It was used only by the Zoroastrian clergy for the purpose of ascertaining the original position of the religious festivals and keeping them in or about their astronomical positions. By the ‘original position’ is meant the places these most important religious days occupied in the tropical year at the time of instituting the Vihēǰakīk year, which time may or may not have been the epoch of the initial adoption of the Mazdayasnian or ‘Young Avestan’ civil year in Iran. The date I proposed was 441 B.c., or at any rate some time in the first decade of the second half of the 5th century B.c.