The earliest traces of the Pahlawí language (of which, as already pointed out, the apparent mingling of Semitic and Pahlawí legends on coins (B.C. 300—A.D. 695). Íránian words, brought about by the use of the Huzvárish system, is the essential feature) occur, as first pointed out by Levy of Breslau in 1867,* on sub-Parthian coins of the end of the fourth and beginning of the third century before Christ—in other words, soon after the end of the Achæmenian period; and Pahlawí legends are borne by the later Parthian, all the Sásánian, and the early Muhammadan coins of Persia, including amongst the latter the coins struck by the independent Ispahbads of Ṭabaristán, as well as those of the earlier Arab governors. The Pahlawí coin-legends extend, therefore, from about B.C. 300 to A.D. 695, when the Umayyad Caliph 'Abdu'l-Malik abolished the Persian currency and introduced a coinage bearing Arabic legends.
*The Pahlawí inscriptions date from the beginning of Sásánian times, the two oldest being those of Ardashír and Pahlawí inscriptions. Shápúr, the first and second kings of that illustrious house (A.D. 226-241 and 241-272); and they extend down to the eleventh century, to which belong the inscriptions cut in the Kanheri Buddhist caves in Salsette near Bombay by certain Pársís who visited them in A.D. 1009 and 1021. Intermediate between these extremes are ten signatures of witnesses on a copper-plate grant to the Syrian Christians of the Malabar coast. The grant itself is engraved in old Tamil characters on five copper plates, and a sixth contains the names of the twenty-five witnesses attesting it, of which eleven are in Kufic Arabic, ten in Sásánian Pahlawí, and four in the Hebrew character and Persian language.
* Of the age of the Pahlawí literature, properly so called, we
have already spoken (pp. 7-8 supra). It was essentially the
Pahlawí
literature.
Persian literature of the Sásánian period, but was
naturally continued for some time after the fall of
that dynasty. Thus the Gujastak Abálish námak,
to which reference has already been made, narrates a discussion
held between an orthodox Zoroastrian priest, Átur-farnbag
son of Farrukh-zád, and a heretical dualist (perhaps a Mani-
Of actual written Pahlawí documents, the papyrus-fragments from the Fayyúm in Egypt, which West supposes to date from Pahlawí manuscripts. the eighth century of our era, are the most ancient, and after them there is nothing older than the MS. of the Pahlawí Yasna known as “J. 2,” which was completed on January 25, A.D. 1323. Pahlawí manuscripts naturally continue to be transcribed amongst the Pársís down to the present day, though since the introduction of Pahlawí type, and the gradual publication by printing or lithography of the more important books, the function of the scribe, here as in the case of other Eastern languages, has in large measure fallen into abeyance.
The Pahlawí literature is divided by West, who is certainly Extent and character of the Pahlawí literature. the greatest living authority on it, and who is in this portion of our subject our chief guide, into three classes, as follows:—
1. Pahlawí translations of Avesta texts, represented by twenty-
2. Pahlawí texts on religious subjects, represented by fifty-five
works, estimated to contain about 446,000 words. This
class contains, besides commentaries, prayers, traditions
(riwáyats), admonitions, injunctions, pious sayings, and the
like, several important and interesting works, amongst which
the following deserve particular mention. The Dínkart
The Dínkart (9th
century).
(“Acts of Religion”), “a large collection of
information regarding the doctrines, customs,
traditions, history and literature of the Mazda-
“By Allah, I would answer ‘Nay!’
Though on al-Sirat's bridge I stood,
Which totters o'er the burning flood,
With Paradise within my view,
And all its houris beckoning through.”
And these houris also seem to find their more spiritual prototype
in the fair maiden who meets the departed soul of the
righteous man, and who, on being questioned, declares herself
to be the embodiment of the good deeds, the good words, and
Mátígán-igujastak
Abálish.
the good thoughts which have proceeded from
him during his life. The “Book of the accursed
Abálish,” already mentioned more than once, was
published by Barthélemy in 1887, with the Pázend and Pársí-