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The Middle-persian Word For ‘Beer ’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

In BSOAS XIII, 1950, p. 642, n. 8, I referred to the Pahlavi word for ‘beer’, which had lurked unrecognized in the Frahang-i Pahlavik (v, 2 = xxxi, 2–3), and quoted the Karnamag passage vii, 8 (Sanjana). There it is related that Ardashir, fleeing in disguise, was hospitably received by two friendly brothers. They housed and fed his horse, led him into their dwelling, and seated him in the place of honour. ‘And they sacrificed dron and asked Ardashir “Please speak the vaj and eat and do not worry ”…Ardashir's mind was comforted by these words, he spoke the vaj and ate. They had no wine, but brought “beer ”forward and arranged the meal…’. The passage shows in an unobtrusive way how everyday occasions were encompassed by religious ceremony in pious Zoroastrian society:any meal began with the vaj (the saying of grace, as it were), sacrificial bread (dron) and wine, or at least beer, formed necessarily part of it.

Type
Notes and Communications
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1955

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References

page 600 note 1 o …man ‘resembling, like ’occurs several times in that text.

page 601 note 1 Syriac 'wSq (Lagarde, Oes. Abh., 11) is presumably mere transcription of the standard Arabic form.

page 601 note 2 Medicinally, draughts were made of it with vinegar, or barley-water, or honey (ace. to Tuifatu ‘IMu ’minin);it was highly regarded as a beneficial drug in a long series of illnesses.