Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T23:46:15.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Non-Iranian historical lands in Pahlavi literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2019

Domenico Agostini
Domenico Agostini*
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature preserves few geographical and ethnographic descriptions of non-Iranian historical regions, the popular book Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg devotes 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 centuries ce, 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.

Keywords

Pahlavi literatureZoroastrianismSasanian IranGeographyEthnographyEarly Islam
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 82 , Issue 3 , October 2019 , pp. 453 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to dedicate this work to Professor Shaul Shaked on the occasion of his eighty-sixth birthday. I am also indebted to Professor Frantz Grenet for his insightful suggestions.

References

Agostini, Domenico. 2012. “Rediscovering the Jāmāspi: a walk in four steps”, Iranian Studies 45/2, 169–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agostini, Domenico. 2013. Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg. Un texte eschatologique zoroastrien. (Biblica et Orientalia 50.) Rome: Gregorian and Biblical Press.Google Scholar
Agostini, Domenico. 2014. “Pehlevi, Pâzand et Pârsi: trois systèmes d’écriture au service de Zoroastre”, Eurasian Studies 12, 177–88.Google Scholar
Agostini, Domenico. 2016. “Greek echos in Pahlavi literature: a preliminary survey of calques and foreign terms”, Linguarum Varietas 5, 13–24.Google Scholar
Agostini, Domenico and Stark, Sören. 2016. “Zāwulistān, Kāwulistān and the land Bosi – on the question of a Sasanian court-in-exile in the Southern Hindukush”, Studia Iranica 45, 17–38.Google Scholar
Anklesaria, Behramgore Tehmuras. 1956. Zand Ākāsīh. Iranian or Greater Bundahišn. Transliteration and Translation in English. Bombay: Rahnumae Mazdayasnan Sabha.Google Scholar
Azarnouche, Samra. 2014. “Deux modes de transmission dans la tradition scriptuaire zoroastrienne: Interdépendance du pehlevi et du pāzand”, Eurasian Studies 12, 81–99.Google Scholar
Bailey, H.W. 1930–32. “The word ‘but’ in Iranian”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 6, 279–83.10.1017/S0041977X00092752CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbier de Meynard, Ch. and Pavet de Courteille, A. 1861–77. Maçoudi, Les prairies d'or. Texte et traduction (9 vols). Paris: Imprimerie impériale.Google Scholar
de Blois, François. 1990. Burzōy's Voyage to India and the Origin of the Book of Kalīlah wa Dimnah. London: Royal Asiatic Society.Google Scholar
Bopearachchi, O. 1993. “La circulation des monnaies d'origine étrangère dans l'antique Sri Lanka”, in Gyselen, R. (ed.), Res Orientales 5. Bur-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 63–87.Google Scholar
Bosworth, C.E. 1983. “Iran and the Arabs before Islam”, in Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran Vol. 3/1. The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 593–612.Google Scholar
Bosworth, C.E. 1999. The History of al-Tabari Vol. 5: The Sasanids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Boyce, Mary. 1987. “Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg”, in Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.), Encyclopædia Iranica Vol. 3. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 126–7.Google Scholar
Brunner, Christopher. 1983. “Geographical and administrative divisions: settlements and economy”, in Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran Vol. 3/2. The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 747–77.10.1017/CHOL9780521246934.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cereti, Carlo G. 1991. An 18th Century Account of Parsi History. The Qesse-ye Zartoštiān-e Hendustan. Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale.Google Scholar
Cereti, Carlo G. 1996. “Again on Wahrām ī Warzāwand”, in La Persia e l'Asia Centrale da Alessandro al X secolo. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 629–39.Google Scholar
Cereti, C.G. 2000. “Central Asian and Eastern Iranian peoples in Zoroastrian apocalyptic literature”, in Bálint, C. (ed.), Kontakte zwischen Iran, Byzanz und der Steppe im 6.–7. Jahrhundert. Budapest, Naples and Rome: Publicationes Instituti Archaeologici Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 193–207.Google Scholar
Cereti, Carlo G. 2001. La Letteratura Pahlavi. Milan: Mimesis.Google Scholar
Cereti, Carlo G. 2004. “Middle Persian geographic literature: the case of the Bundahišn”, in Gyselen, Rika (ed.), Contribution à l'histoire et la géographie historique de l'Empire Sassanide (Res Orientales 16). Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 11–36.Google Scholar
Cereti, Carlo G. 2007a. “Middle Persian geographic literature II: chapters X and XII of the Greater Bundahišn”, in Gyselen, Rika (ed.), Des Indo-grecs aux Sassanides: données pour l'histoire et la géographie historique (Res Orientales 17). Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 55–64.Google Scholar
Cereti, Carlo G. 2007b. “Some primary sources on the early history of the Parsis in India”, in Vahman, Farī dūn and Claus Pedersen, V. (eds), Religious Texts in Iranian Languages. Symposium Held in Copenhagen May 2002. Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 211–21.Google Scholar
Ch'en, Kenneth. 1964. Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Christensen, Arthur. 1936. L'Iran sous les Sassanides. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Compareti, Matteo. 2002. “The Sasanians in Africa”, Transoxiana 4, 1–6. www.transoxiana.org/0104/sasanians.htmlGoogle Scholar
Compareti, Matteo. 2006–07. “Further evidence for the interpretation of the ‘Indian Scene’ in the pre-Islamic paintings at Afrāsyāb (Samarkand)”, The Silk Road 4/2: 32–42.Google Scholar
Crone, Patricia. 2012. The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran: Rural Revolt and Local Zoroastrianism. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daryaee, Touraj. 2002. Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr: A Middle Persian Text on Late Antique Geography, Epic and History. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers.Google Scholar
Daryaee, Touraj. 2009. Sasanian Persia. London: I.B. Tauris.10.5040/9780755694174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daryaee, Touraj. 2012. Iranian Kingship, the Arab Conquest and Zoroastrian Apocalypse: The History of Fārs and Beyond in Late Antiquity (600–900 ce). Mumbai: The K.R. Cama Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Decret, François. 1974. Mani et la tradition manichéenne. Bourges: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar
de la Vaissière, Étienne. 2006. “Les Turcs, rois du monde à Samarcande”, in Compareti, Matteo and de la Vaissière, Étienne (eds), Royal Nawruz in Samarkand. Proceedings of the Conference Held in Venice on the pre-Islamic Painting at Afrasiab (Supplemento n°1 alla Rivista degli Studi Orientali LXXVIII). Pisa and Rome: Instituto Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali, 147–62.Google Scholar
Dhabhar, E.B.N. 1912. The Epistles of Mânûshchîhar. Bombay: Fort Printing Press.Google Scholar
Eduljee, H.E. 1991. Kisseh-i Sanjan. Bombay: K.R. Cama Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Faller, Stefan. 2000. Taprobane in Wandel Der Zeit. Stuttgart: Fr. Steiner Verlag.Google Scholar
Frye, Richard N. 1975. The Golden Age of Persia. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Frye, Richard N. 1983. The History of Ancient Iran. Munich: Beck.Google Scholar
Golden, Peter. 1992. An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Gnoli, Gherardo. 1980. Zoroaster's Time and Homeland: A Study on the Origins of Mazdaism and Related Problems. Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale.Google Scholar
Gnoli, Gherardo. 1989. “Avestan geography”, in Ehsan Yarshater, Encyclopædia Iranica Vol. 3. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 44–7.Google Scholar
Gray, L.H. 1929. The Foundation of the Iranian Religion (Journal of the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute 15). Bombay: The K.R. Cama Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Grenet, Frantz. 2005. “An archaeologist's approach to Avestan geography”, in Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh and Stewart, Sarah (eds), Birth of the Persian Empire (The Idea of Iran Vol. 1). London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 29–51.Google Scholar
Grenet, Frantz. 2015. “Le chapitre apocalyptique du traité pehlevi Ayâdgar î Jâmâspîg”, in Schiltz, V. (ed.), De Samarcande à Istanbul: étapes orientales. Hommages à Pierre Chuvin Vol. 2. Paris: CNRS Editions, 103–14.Google Scholar
Hewsen, Robert H. 1992. The Geography of Ananias of Širak: The Long and the Short Recensions. Wiesbaden: L. Reichert Verlag.Google Scholar
Hodivala, Shahpurshah Hormasji. 1925. Parsi History. Bombay: Shahpurshah Hormasji Hodivala.Google Scholar
Humbach, H. 1978. “Mithra in India and the Hinduized Magi”, in Études Mithraiques (Acta Iranica 17). Tehran and Liège: Bibliothèque Pahlavi, 229–52.Google Scholar
Huyse, Philip. 2008. “Late Sasanian society between orality and literacy”, in Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh and Stewart, Sarah (eds), The Sasanian Era. The Idea of Iran Vol. 3. London: I.B. Tauris, 140–55.Google Scholar
Imam, S.A. 1990. “Cultural relations between Sri Lanka and Iran”, in Bandaranayake, S., Dewaraja, L., Silva, R. and Wimalaratne, K.D.G. (eds), Sri Lanka and the Silk Road of the Sea. Colombo: Sri Lanka National Commisssion for UNESCO and the Central Cultural Fund, 173–8.Google Scholar
de Jong, Albert. 2003. “Pazand and ‘retranscribed’ Pahlavi: on the philology and history of late Zoroastrian literature”, in Paul, L. (ed.), Persian Origins: Early Judaeo-Persian and the Emergence of New Persian (Iranica 6). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 67–77.Google Scholar
King, Anya. 2011. “Tibetan musk and medieval Arab perfumery”, in Akasoy, Anna, Burnett, Charles and Yoeli-Tlalim, Ronit (eds), Islam and Tibet: Interactions along the Musk Routes. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 145–61.Google Scholar
Klíma, Otakar. 1968. “Avesta, Ancient Persian and Middle Persian”, in Rypka, Jan (ed.), History of Iranian Literature. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1–67.Google Scholar
Kobyliński, Z. 2005. “The Slavs”, in Fouracre, P. (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History Vol. 1: c.500–c.700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lazard, Gilbert. 1963. La langue des plus anciens monuments de la prose persane. Paris: C. Klincksieck.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, D.N. 1971. A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Madan, Dh.M. 1912. The Complete Text of the Pahlavi Dinkart (2 vols). Bombay: Fort Printing Press.Google Scholar
Markwart, Joseph. 1930. “Woher stammt der Name Kaukasus?”, Caucasus 6, 25–69.Google Scholar
Markwart, Joseph. 1931. A Catalogue of the Provincial Capitals of Ērānshahr (Pahlavi Text, Version and Commentary), (ed. Messina, G.). Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico.Google Scholar
Martinez, A.P. 1982. “Gardīzī’s two chapters on the Turks”, Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 2, 109–217.Google Scholar
Messina, G. 1939. Ayātkār i Žāmāspīk. Libro apocalittico persiano (Biblica et Orientalia 9). Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico. 1939Google Scholar
Minorsky, Victor. 1942. Sharaf al Zamān Ṭāhir Marvazī on China, the Turks and India, London: The Royal Asiatic Society.Google Scholar
Minorsky, Victor. 1970. Hudūd al-‘Ālam. ‘The regions of the world’: A Persian Geography, 372 A.H.–982 A.D. London: Luzac.Google Scholar
Moazami, Mahnaz. 2014. Wrestling with the Demons of the Pahlavi Widēwdād. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004269224CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molé, Marijan. 1967. La légende de Zoroastre selon les textes pehlevis. Paris: C. Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Molnár, Ádám. 1994. Weather Magic in Inner Asia, with an appendix, ‘Alttürkische Fragmente über den Regenstein’ by Peter Zieme. Bloomington: Indiana University.Google Scholar
Monchi-Zadeh, Davoud. 1975. Topographisch-historische Studien zum iranischen Nationalepos. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Monneret de Villard, U. 1937–38. “Note sulle influenze asiatiche nell'Africa orientale”, Rivista degli Studi Orientali 17, 303–49.Google Scholar
Moriyasu, Takao. 2004. Die Geschichte des uigurischen Manichäismus an der Seidenstraβe. Forschungen zu manichäischen Quellen und ihrem historischen Hintergrund (tr. Chr. Steneck). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Moriyasu, Takao. 2015. “New developments in the history of East Uighur Manichaeism”, Open Theology 1, 316–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pakzad, Fazlollah. 2005. Bundahišn. Zoroastrische Kosmogonie und Kosmologie I. Kritische Edition (Ancient Iranian Studies Series 2). Tehran: Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia.Google Scholar
Palladino, Martina. 2017. “The sun-worshipping Śākadvīpīya Brāhmaṇas: An analysis of their history and customs from ancient times to the present” Doctoral dissertation, University of Bologna.Google Scholar
Panaino, Antonio. 1996. “The year of the Maga Brāhmaṇas”, in La Persia e l'Asia Centrale. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 569–87.Google Scholar
Provasi, E., Zieme, Peter and Palumbo, Antonello. 2003. “La Conversione degli Uiguri al manicheismo”, in Gnoli, Gherardo (ed.), Il Manicheismo Vol. 1. Milan: Lorenzo Valla, 249–77.Google Scholar
Sachau, E.C. 1910. Alberuni's India (2 vols). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.Google Scholar
Shaked, Shaul. 1984. “From Iran to Islam: notes on some themes in transmission”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 4, 31–67.Google Scholar
Shapira, Dan. 2001. “Was there geographical science in Sasanian Iran?”, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 54, 319–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapira, Dan. 2002. “Zoroastrian sources on black people”, Arabica 49, 117–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapira, Dan. 2010. “The coming of Wahram: Iranian political messianism from the Chinese borderland”, Studia Asiatica 11, 117–33.Google Scholar
Shapira, Dan. 2007. “Iranian sources on the Khazars”, in Golden, Peter, Ben-Shammai, Ha. and Roná-Tas, A. (eds), The World of the Khazars. New Perspectives. Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar Colloquium. Leiden: Brill, 291–306.Google Scholar
Shimin, G. 1998. “The Uighur kingdom of Kocho”, in Asimov, M.S. and Bosworth, C.E. (eds), History of Civilizations of Central Asia Vol. 4/1. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 200–6.Google Scholar
Sundermann, Werner. 1990. “Bodhisattva”, in Yarshater, E.(ed.),Encyclopædia Iranica Vol. 4. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 317–8.Google Scholar
TD1. 1970. The Bondahesh. Being a Facsimile Edition of the Manuscript TD1. Tehran: Iranian Culture Foundation.Google Scholar
Utas, Bo. 1976. “Non-religious book Pahlavi literature as a source to the history of Central Asia”, Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 24, 115–24.Google Scholar
Watson, W. 1983. “Iran and China”, in Yarshater, E. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran Vol. 3/1. The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
West, E.W. 1882. Pahlavi Texts Vol. 2 (Sacred Books of the East 18). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
West, E.W. 1892. Pahlavi Texts Vol. 4 (Sacred Books of the East 37). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yarshater, Ehsan. 1983. “Iranian national history”, in Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran Vol. 3/1. The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 359–477.10.1017/CHOL9780521246934CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoshida, Yutaka. 2017. “Relationship between Sogdiana and Turfan during the 10th–11th centuries as reflected in Manichaean Sogdian texts”, Journal of the International Silk Roads Studies 1, 113–25.Google Scholar