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Sorena Firouzi; Mahsa Veisi
Abstract
Regarding the background of the inscribing of Zoroaster's poems, there are two general views: archaic and contemporary. The archaic view is documented in Pahlavi texts and reflected in the writings of some historians from the Islamic era, who suggest that these religious texts were written before Alexander's ...
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Regarding the background of the inscribing of Zoroaster's poems, there are two general views: archaic and contemporary. The archaic view is documented in Pahlavi texts and reflected in the writings of some historians from the Islamic era, who suggest that these religious texts were written before Alexander's invasion. However, the opinion of contemporary scholars emphasizes a delay in this process.This research is based on a historical approach and textual content analysis on one hand, and an assessment of the writing situation on the Iranian plateau relevant to the first half of the first millennium BC, on the other hand. It first examines the evidence and arguments of both views and then analyzes the subject based on the temporal and geographical components related to the time of Zoroaster and the Achaemenid era. The purpose of this article is to estimate the oldest possible time for the composition of the oldest part of the Avesta attributed to Zoroaster through evaluating the evidence related to Zoroastrian hymns.The article asserts that there are effects of inscribing Zoroaster's poems at the time of their composition, and discusses what kind of script and writing system could have been used, as well as the reasons for its existence.Contrary to the beliefs of some modern Western scholars, this study demonstrates that the Avestan texts, including Zoroaster's poems (Gathas), were written before Alexander's invasion. The article concludes by discussing the matter of the script or language referred to as "Aryan" by Darius the Great and its connection to the topic.At the end of the article, the issue of the script or language referred to as "Aryan" by Darius the Great and its relation to the subject is discussed. This article states that the aforementioned script has no connection with Persian cuneiform or Old Persian language. Rather, the intention was to write in the Bactrian (Aryan) language of Darius' era, which was either in a common Aramaic script or a script derived from it.
Ehsan Afkande; Bagher Ali Adelfar
Abstract
Geographical concept of “Haft karšvar” could be traced back to the Proto-Indo-Iranian period. After the separation of Indians and Iranians, due to geographical circumstances and religio-political changes, original Indo-Iranian narrative of seven part of the Earth, turned into its current ...
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Geographical concept of “Haft karšvar” could be traced back to the Proto-Indo-Iranian period. After the separation of Indians and Iranians, due to geographical circumstances and religio-political changes, original Indo-Iranian narrative of seven part of the Earth, turned into its current versions. A comparison of old Iranian and Indian texts, specially Avesta and vīspā̊ŋhō Purāṇa, shows that in outline of original Indo-Iranian narrative, the Earth was divided into seven parts which contained a central part surrounded by other six parts. In the middle of central land, there had been a heavenly mountain and a miraculous tree. In the beginning, amongst these seven parts which had been separated from each other by some obstacles, only central part was inhabited by mankind. After mankind’s divergence from the prototypical progenitor, the other six parts were also inhabited. In the Avestan tradition – same as Indian – due to climate conditions of eastern Iranian plateau, original names of seven parts were replaced by the new ones. Furthermore, it seems that from the perspective of older Yašts composers, Bactria was considered to be central part of the Earth. Afterwards, with the expansion of Mazdaean religion and transmission of political center to the western part of Iranian plateau, Avestan concept of “Haft karšvar” also changed. In the middle Persian texts, since the central part was considered in the western Iran, direction of the Avestan western part was turned into the east and vis versa. The heritage of septet division of the Earth, can be seen independently, also in the Achaemenid sources which we can see a fading trace of septet division in the organization of Achaemenid satrapies.
