Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire by Touraj Daryaee

Author:Touraj Daryaee [Daryaee, Touraj]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: I.B.Tauris
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

MIDDLE PERSIAN TEXTS

In relation to non-monumental and non-religious Middle Persian literature we also should mention papyrus, and ostraca, as well as writing on silver vessels. The papyri are important because they give us information on the Sasanian military and in the way in which letters were composed. The papyri were mainly the product of late Sasanian period, specifically the product of the period in which King Khusro II had conquered Egypt and the military apparatus were in charge of that region. The papyri include the list of foodstuffs to be transported, which give us some insights into the diet of the Persian soldiers abroad. This consisted of bread (nān), meat (gušt), and wine (may), and sometimes fowl. Also the title of several officers and typical salutary formula are found with the word of praise (namāz).17 These documents also tell us something about the nature of writing and literacy in the Sasanian world, where at least those serving as officers knew how to read and write. The formulaic manner in which the letters are composed also tell us that they were probably schooled in the art of writing. The letters also use the Zoroastrian calendar system and most names are Zoroastrian. However, we should remember that by the late Sasanian period, Christians and others could also have had Iranian names. We also find non-Iranian names such as Samuel (Shamuel) as merchants who appear to have cooperated with the Sasanian forces in Egypt. The recent Middle Persian documents found and housed at Berkeley informs us that within the Iranian Plateau parchments and leather were used for writing. These documents are also economic in nature and appear to be mainly related to central Iran.

The Middle Persian texts are the main corpus of our study.18 They are mainly the product of Zoroastrian priestly writing and so they are colored by a religious outlook, where the idea of “profane” does not, if rarely, exist, although some have been seen as less theological than others.19 We can firmly believe that there was a larger amount of Middle Persian literature in various genres, but because of the hardship on the Zoroastrian community throughout the ages, only those books that were of utmost importance for the religion and communal solidarity were copied by the priests and the rest were lost. Personal choice and taste were also to preserve some of the more rare texts that do survive. Even within the surviving texts, there are different genres which are dealt with separately in their appropriate headings below. They are, however, diverse enough to give us an understanding of Persian mentalities, views of the Persian view of life, religion, and the cosmos according to men. We will divide this large corpus into the following categories:

• Commentaries on the Avesta (zand).

• Philosophical and debate texts.

• Apocalyptic texts.

• Didactic texts (andarz).

• Geographical and epic texts.

• Legal texts (dādīg).

• Cultural texts.

• Dictionaries (frahang).

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