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The Inscriptions of Tang-I Azao
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 June 2018
Extract
Although your scholarly fame, Sir Ralph, rests principally on your achievements as a comparative linguist, your work on certain Asoka inscriptions has shown that you are no less at home in the field of epigraphy. I gratefully recall how generously you helped me when, some years ago, I struggled with a particularly difficult inscription (also attributable to Asoka) from the Indo-Iranian borderland. This interest in matters of epigraphy encourages me to hope that you will not disdain, as a modest tribute, the following notes on some new inscriptions, discovered at a place not far beyond the confines of ancient India.
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- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1957 , pp. 335 - 342
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1957
References
Page 335 note 1 An old town, also called on the upper Herī-rūd. Cf. Nuzhat-al-qulūb, transl. Le Strange, p. 152 (’Chast‘) ; Le Strange, Eastern Caliphate, 410 (’Khasht‘) ; Markwart, Wehrot, 166, n. 2 ; Minorsky, Hudūd, 343.
Page 335 note 2 Not counting the inscribed (?) Parthian or Sassanian (?) bas-relief in the mountains to the south of Sar-i-pul, which was discovered by the French general J. P. Ferrier in 1845 (see his Caravan journeys, London, 1856, p. 229). Attempts to locate it have, I understand, been made recently, but without success.
Page 336 note 1 On the various routes see Markwart, Wehrot, 166 sqq.
Page 336 note 2 I mentioned it, with due reserve, in an article on Middle Iranian contributed to the Handbuch der Orientalistik; it has not yet been published.
Page 337 note 1 Bühler, Ind. Palaeographie, 5 sq. ; Wackernagel, Altind. Gramm., I, 222. The change d/l may be due to transmission through an Eastern Iranian dialect in which dipi- was pronounced δipi-. The contrary opinion, that lipi- belonged to Skt. li(m)p- ‘smear‘ (Pisani as quoted by Kent, Old Persian, 191), cannot be maintained.
Page 337 note 2 On d/nsee BSOAS, x, 4, 1942, 949, n. 4.
Page 337 note 3 The final -g was lost relatively early, as is shown by Middle Persian words borrowed by Syriac (Hoffmann, Märtyrerakten, 283 sq.) and by transcriptions of Western Iranian texts into Sogdian. This accounts for the MPers. loanword nby ‘book‘ in Syriac, which there collided with the indigenous word for‘ prophet'. The confusion of the two is well illustrated by a quotation from Baumstark, Gesch. syr. Lit., 110, ‘die Originalausgabe … umfasste … 360 … Gedichte, die … in 12 Bänden angeordnet waren, deren jeder wieder in zwei … Halbbände oder “ Propheten “ zerfiel'.
Page 337 note 4 Final .ē according to the grammatical tradition, supported by several unexceptionable rhymes ; cf. also Pazend nevē (Mx. xxvii, 23). The change in the quality of the vowel may have taken place in the later Middle Persian period : nibīg became nibēg under the influence of nibēs- ‘to write ‘.—The alternative Persian pronunciation nuvē/nubēis comparatively late.
Page 337 note 5 Except occasionally where Mohammed is considered as representative of a class, as e.g. in the definition of mursal given by Bal'amī:
Page 337 note 6 In prose it was freely used in the tenth century, e.g. by Bal'amī in the History(where continually ‘in the Qur'ān ‘) ; it does not once occur in the Shāhnāme.
Page 338 note 1 In certain Pahlavi inscriptions of the later period, also in some Sogdian material from Bukhara, the units are in fact placed first, contrary to normal usage.
Page 338 note 2 The hastais far too short for final Kaf(= 500), which otherwise might have seemed attractive (on account of the Kabul inscr., see below). Dāleth and Rēš are well distinguished in both inscriptions, and in this place Res(= 200) is clearly inadmissible. The sequence would be no less troublesome in either case.
Page 338 note 3 Written with the ligature mentioned above.
Page 338 note 4 = Julian day 2, 158, 896.
Page 339 note 1 So quite clearly according to the independent photographs I owe to the kindness of Dr. Bivar ; W.-J. Fischel, however, who was the first to state the correct year-date, speaks of ’le signe , avec ses deux traits horizontaux ‘.
Page 339 note 2 First letter of the last line (read ?).
Page 339 note 3 Once in (which certainly cannot be read
).
Page 340 note 1 The readings previously given a r e frankly impossible. One should perhaps transcribe the name as *Smē'īl, Imālah-formof (I)smā'il.
Page 341 note 1 The appearance of a typical Parsi word in Jewish Persian would not be surprising, cf. P. Horn, Idg. Forsch., ii, 148.
Page 341 note 2 Line 29 q'r ‘y prmwdy'š skt qwnzwm (kār ī farmūdī-aš saxt kunom) ‘I deal energetically with the tasks you have set'.
Page 341 note 3 cf. the opening of the Dandan-Uiliq letter:
Page 344 note 4 In the Dandan-Uiliq letter it is mostly written as a separate word, .
Page 342 note 1 In the Dandan-Uiliq letter initial Alef is generally omitted before vowels other than , e.g.
= uftād,
= īzed(Pers. īzad),
= ēdūn.
Page 342 note 2 Especially in words of Arabic origin, e.g. ‘tribe‘ = qabīlah.It has been assumed that the spelling indicates pronunciation with
(qab
lat), see Bacher, ZDMG, LI, 401 ; it could also have been caused by the common change from -ū-to -ī- in many Persian dialects, which would tend to provoke inverse spellings.
Page 342 note 3 Support for the assumption that p'-mwd = pa-umīdmay possibly be found in a passage of the Dandan-Uiliq letter, line 13, where (qab
=‘ hope‘ seems to be the correct reading (p’tw wmwd d'rwm). The continual confusion of dūr ‘far‘ with dēr ‘long‘ in Pahlavi may have been preceded by the change to dīr in the pronunciation of both words.
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