F JtA. 8s ~T 36a m - ms D" ^etvervS' YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ardeshir G. Sirior Awarded to Mr. Minoo Nadir shah Mo gal..,........ for proficiency in the Examination for the year 1944 _ 1945. Sapur Faredun Desai Bombay, 14,8,1947. . Jt. Secretary.THE HAJIABAD INSCRIPTION. TAKEN FROM PLASTER CASTS IN THE MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. tablets JT<&. 1, 2,, 3, Jj., comprise the Chaldobo-GPehlvi Version. ^Tablets J\fos. § and 6 give the cornmevjcement of the Bassanian coiunterpart text.EARLY SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS, SEALS AND COINS. BY EDWARD THOMAS, E s a, LATE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE. LONDON: TRUBNER & Co., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1 8 6 8.STEPHEN AUSTIN, PRINTER, HERTFORD.PREFACE. The original design of the present Memoir was limited to the introductory classification of the Pehlvi Inscriptions of the early Sassanidae, and the embodiment of their texts in a printed form, as a preliminary measure towards an ultimate correction and amplification, in situ, which the seeming promise of the available materials might perchance secure for them from enterprising philologera or antiquarians. At the commencement, the leading interest seemed to centre in the long though broken Inscription at Pai Kuli, and it was chiefly the desire of placing a transcript of these epigraphs before the public, in their cognate Pehlvi type, that suggested the article which appears in the Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Society. As, however, the enquiry proceeded, a far more extended series of inscriptions, of similar character, were found to exist, though chiefly accessible only in the unsatisfactory form of artists' copies; these were also subjected to the process of definition in type,vi PREFACE. a,jid are ready for direct revision from the sculpturVl • t * i originals. *Up to this point my intention had been merely to act as,the clerical preparer 8f the imperfect materials whieh were to serve as a basis "for more exact data and more crucial tests, to be contributed by others; but as my attention was excited by Ahe singular phraseology and the subject matter to be found in the Hajfabad manifesto of Sapor, I ventured upon a tenta-tive analysis of that document, and completed the preliminary study of the subject by a full examination and synopsis of the alphabets in which these inscrip-tions were written, ani likewise supplemented to the bo'dy of the essay illustrations derived from coins and gems,* concluding with an attempt to trace the initial date and eastward spread of the associate Pelilvi alpha-, bets during the Parthian domination.CONTENTS. • • • ___________• •• • , ^ PAGK Introduction........*................................................................................................................................................1 Original design of the Memoir.......................................................» 3 Derivation of Alphabets..................................................................................................................................5 Antiquity of Phoenician Writing ............................................................................................................6 Ethiopian Alphabet in the time of Sargon ......................*..................................7 Progress of Phoenician Writing in Asia ............................#...........................10 Chaldaeo-Pehlvi Alphabet ............................................................................................................................10 • Method of Writing................................................................................................................................................11 Sassanian Pehlvi Alphabet............................................................. 11 Method of Writing................................................................................................................................................12 Comparison of the Joint A^ihabets ......................................................................................................16 Hebrew Alphabet adapted to the definition of Modern Persian....................................23 Table of Pehlvi Alphabets.....................................................................................................................25 „ Pehlvi and Zend Alphabets.......................................................................26 Inscription No. 1. Triliteral (double Pehlvi texts with Greek translation) of Ardeshir Bkbekan ........................*..................................27 Inscription No. 2. Sassanian Pelilvi of fLrdeshir...............................•.... *30 Inscription No. 3. P&i Ktili—Sassanian..........................................................................................38 „ „ Chaldao-Pehlvi ...r................................ „ Note by Sir H. Rawlinson on the site of Pai Kiifi..................56 Inscription No. 4. Trilingual of Sapor..................?.........................................................60 Inscription No. 5. Sassa^kn Pehlvi of Sapor...............................................61 Inscription Nt. 6. The H^jikbkd bilingual Inscription of Sapor ........................70 „ Modern text of ditto ..........................................................................................74 „ Commentary on ditto ..............................................................................73yiii CONTENTS. • ^GE Inscription No. 6. Tentative Translation of the Haj'iabad Inscription of Sapor J8 \ • Inscription No. j. Sassajiian Pehlvi of Narses...................•................... 102 Inscriptions Nos. 8 and 10. Sassanian Pehlvi of Sapor Il.^and III. at T&i:-* * B ust&.n.....................*..........................................................................104 Inscription No. 9. Legends from the Signets of Yarahran Kerman Shah............106 „ Unpublished Seal of that King........................^..............Ill InscriptionNo.il. Sjpsanian Pehlvi of Sapor II. at Persepolis ..............................115 Insertion N^. 12. Ditto of SapJr III. at Persepolis........*....?......*..............116 Inscription No. 13, at Firoz&Md......*............................................................................................116 Sassanian Seals .........................................................T..................................117 Coins* .........................................................................................................................................119 Parthian Coins............................................................................................................................................................121 Sub-Parthian Coins.............................................................................................128 Coins of Atropatene ........................................................................................................................................133 Sassanian Coins •................................................................................................................................................134SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. So long ago as the year 1847, duriifg a temporary absence frojn my duties in India, I volunteef ed to undertake the Classification of certaia imperfectly determined and but partially deciphered series of coins in the East India House collection— in continuation and completion of Professor Wilson's comprehensive description of the more popular departments of Central-Asian Numismatics already embodied ip. his Ariana Antiqua. Among the subdivisions so treated may be cited the Kufic Mintages of the Grhaznavides, a detailed notice of which was inserted in the J ournal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1848 (vol. ix.),1 as well as a second article, bearing more immediately upon the subject under review, on^ " the Pehlvi Coins of the early Muhammadan Arabs," which appeared in the twelfth volume o£ that Journal. In entering upon the examination of the available specimens of the latter class of national representative currencies, I found myself called upon to encounter a novel and very difficult branch of Oriental Palaeography, the study of which, indeed, had but recently been inaugurated by the publication of Profess^ Olshausen's Inost instructive work "Die Pehlwie-Legenden: "2 wljile it was manifest* that the obscure "language, of which #this imperfect afphabet constituted the graphic exponent", was dependent for its elucidation upon still more fragmentary and defective grammatical or lexicographical m€fens: obstacles wl^ch the Since accelerated progress of modern ethnography has, up to this time, failed to^remove. Ender these conditions I 1 A further paper on the same subject willie found in vol. xvii. J.R.A.S.for 1858. 2 Die Pehlwie-Legenden auf den Miin«en der letzten Sasaniden, etc. Kopen-hagen, 1843. A translation of this work is to be found in the Lonftn Numismatic Chronicle, vol. ix., 1848. 12 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. . • naturally approached this new investigation with suffidfent diffidence, and sought to secure the critical soundness of.eftnf suggestive* deductions that might present themselves^ by a decisive appeal to every archgeological ^est within reach. Foremost among these were the monumental writings o£ the earlier Saasanian kings, who, in traditional imitation o£ the Achsemenians, from indeed, they boasted a but temporarily obscured descent—indulged ostentatiously in nigral sculpture and .attendant lapidary «epi»r aptiy. The Rock .Inscriptions of Ardashir Babekan and his proximate successor are couched in duplicate versions, varying diarec-tically, and written in mere modifications o£ the same normal alphabet; the one ordinarily employed to define the Pehlvi of Eastern Persia, and out of whose literal elements modern. Zend was elaborated, is now conventionally termed " Sas -sanian:" it'counterpart transcript, which adheres more closely to CJialdsean literal forms, was once designated " Parthian," from its occasional official employment under that ifitrusive dynasty, but has latterly been known as Chaldseo-PehLfi. The parallel versions of the original inscription of Sapor I. in the Hajiabad Cavern, which had been secured many years ago in the form of direct plaster impressions by Sjr E. Stannus,1 sufficed to furnish a thoroughly trustworthy outline of the manipulative type of each letter of the concurrent alphabets; these forms were separately compared, selected examples copied, and, finally, the duplicate series were incorporated into a classified table, which may be cited with still undiminished confidence, as freely/representing thq, epochal current forms of the^ join4 Pehlvi characters^ and as furnishing an fcfficieflt iH.usftat;on of the divarications from«a given standard gradually introduced in succeeding ages. On a later occasion, following up the same subject, I availed "myself of another . hopeful source of palaeographia datk, afforded by the signers and seals of the Persian nation at large*fabricated during the period the Sassanian rule, 1 The original impressions are now lpJDublin ; secondary cast? are to be found in the Assj®ian Room in the British Museum, and the Royal Asiatic Society possesses parallel reproductions. It is from the latter that the illustrative Photograph has been derived.• SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 3 • • the tdentificatory legends of which almost uniformly followed ,th£ Eastern type of the concurrent systems of writing. I hacj scarcely, however, arranged my materials fctr the elucidation of this branch of tjie enquiry, when I was called upon to return to the scene of more important avocations; but desiring \hat the various Antiquarian remains I had succeeded in bringing together should be placed aC the disposal of those who might, perchance, have both greater leisure apd ability to do justice to ♦he ftu which offers a more dubious range of identification among the derivative Ethiopian forms of bi, »f"| be, extending even toJ;he Amharic Jcha, and many other possible renderings; b^t the most curious coincidence is in th^near connection of the sign with the Sanskrit oMSTorthern India (Prinsep's Essays^ ii. p. 40, pi. xxxviii.). ^ The third character, whiSh almost "seeijis to have been in a transition stage at the time these seals were fashioned, may be reduced in the modern alphabets to the Ethiopian ff| ta or tHfma; but of the prevailing coincidences of formation under the general Ethiopian scheme there can be little question. The imperfect outline , which recurs on four occasions, may be an Amharic If Ja, or olher consonantal combination ofy, with a different vowel: an approximate likeness is also to be detected to tke Coptic j; or the old §gure may, perchance, conftitute the prototype of the modern Himyaritic m. 1 Herodotus, ii. 94; vii. 70. Kawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. 650; iii. 264, note 1; iv. p. 220. J. R. A. S. xv.«233.SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 9 • ite career of Phoenician writing in Mesopotamia and the ppoamate provinces of Western Persia, during the nine" centuries and a half intervening between th£ reigns of Sargon and Ardeshir Batekan, can only be obscurely traced. # We jknow that «the same twenty-two letters, which fulfilled their foreign mission in the creation #of the alphabets of Greece and Rome, penetrated but little changed in their normal forms to the pillars of Hercules ; while in th» opposite direction, under the treatment of the Yedic Aryans, they ccjpstituied the basis of an elaborate alphabet of forty-nine signs, tlfe date of whose adaptation is unascertained, but which has now been discovered to have attained full and complete development from Bactria up to thp banks of the Jumna, in 250 b.c.1 How the priginal alphabet matured its literal forms nearer home we are not in a condition to determine;2 there is little^oubt but that Cuneiform writing on its part maintained its position in official and commercial documents for a far longer period than might have been anticipated, but whether this extended vitality was due to the improved intelligence of professional scribes, to its superior accuracy of definition as compared with the lftnited scope of Phoenician,3 or to the more material question of the dieapnesss and duraljjlity of the clay, whose surface, on the 1 Prinsep'B Essays, ii. 114; Journ. It. A. S. vol. i. N.S. p. 468; Numismatic Chronicle, vol. iii. N.S. (1863) pp. 229, 235, " Bactrian Alphabet." 2 M. de Vogue has given us a comprehensive resume of the progress of Phoenician writing to the westward, which I quote in his own words:— " 1. Anterieurement au VI® siecle, 1'alphabet commun a toutes les populations semitiques de la Syrie est 1' alphabet phenicien archaique, souche de l'ecriture grecque et de tous les syst&mes graphiques de l'occident. 2. Vers le Vie siecle, l'ecriture phenicienne type, celle que j'ai appelee Sidonienne, se constitue defini-Tivemenfk le plus beau monument de cette^criture est le celebre sarcophage d' Esmunazif ; en meme temps la branche* arameenne se separe de la souchf corif-mune. Le caractere principal de ce nouvef alphabet*est l'oftverture des boucles des lettres beth, daleth, ain, resch. Mats pendant deux si&cles environ, a cote de ces formes nouvelles se maintient un certain nombre de formes anciennes; 1'alteration de toutes les lettres n'est pas simultanee* de sorte que 1'alphabet conserve un caractere mixte qui m'a conduit affui donner le nom d' Ajjfimeo-Phe-tfiicien. Le meilleur exemple de cette ecriture est l'inscription du Lion d' Abydos. 3. Vers la fin du V. siecle, l'alphabet arameen se constitue definitivement sur les pierres gravees, sur les medailles des satrap® de l'Asie jnineure." Rev. Arch. ix. (1864), p. 204. 9 3 M. Oppert makes some interesting ^marks upon this subject; among the rest, " L'epigrSphie assyrienne, d'ailleys, malgre les complications inherentes & l'ecriture anarienne, a un avantage precieux sur l'6pigraphie des autres peuples semitiques. Les mots y sont separes et les voyelles sont exprimes, ce qui constitue un avantage encore plus important pour l'interprete des textes."—Journal Asiatique, 1863, p. 478.10 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. other hand, was so eminently unfitted for the reception of the curved lines of the latter, we need not now s£op to enquire. # Many incidental examples of the local Phoenico-Bab^onian of various epochs are to be found associated with the concurrent Cuneiform on the clay flablets described, by Sir H^ Rawlinson (b.c! 700-500).1 Towards the westward tlie Persian Satraps of tjie Achse-menidae employed the indigenous Phoenician,3 and anonymous Darics, presumably of the Great king, Ifear tipon their surf&ctes the wo^d ^T/b ®imiiar characters.3 But the earliest occasion upon which we cai\ detect a tendency towards the identities and characteristics subsequently developed in the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi is upon the coinage of Artaxias of Armenia, B.C. 189.4 In this instance the letters \ D, and ty notably dejjfirt from the style of the Phoenician of Sargon, and seem to have already assumed a near approach to the forms ultimately accepted as conventional in the alphabet reproduced in the woodcuts (p. 25). The peculiarities of this type of writing may afterwards be traced through the Armeno-Partbian coinages,5 and irregularly on the Imperial Parthian mintages, both in silver and copper, dating from 113 a.d. up to the close of the dynasty.6 These, with jihe casual appearanoe of some of the more marked Chaldseo-Pehlvi forms on the dubiously-classed money of Characene,7 added to the odd juxtaposition of some of their special symbols with the local writing on the Herman coins of Koaes (Kobad),8 complete the list of examples at present known. , Of the fellow or Sassanian^Pehlvi alphabet no writing what* everfhas as yet been discovered prior to Ardeshir I^bekan, 1 Journ. R. A. S. (new series), vol. i. pp. 187, 244. 2 M. de Luynes " Essai $ur la Numismatique des Satrapies et de la Phenicie. Paris, 1846. 3 Gesenkis, PI. 36, fig. c.; Mionnet, Nos. 36, 36. Tresor de Numismatique, PI. lxvi. figs. 1, 2. ' 4 Numismatic Chronicle, xviii. 14J; vol. vi. N.S. p. 245, and vii. 237. 5 Numisftatic Chronicle, vol. vi. N.S. 1866, note, p. 245. 6 Numismatic Chronicle, xii. 68 • xvii. 164; Lindsay, Coinage of Parthia, pi. iv. figs. 87, 89, 90, 93-96. , • 7 Prinsejfs Essays, i. 32. B Numismatic Chronicle, iv. p. 220. (A new coin in the possession of General Cunningham gives the local name ij full DK13).p ^SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. U wiiji the exception of isolated letters, probably referring to local* mints occasionally to be met with on the fiejd of soma of th^Drachmas of the Parthians.1 * The differences ^between the rival alphabets we are jnore immediately concerned witfi, will be seen to be rather constructive than fundamental; ong leading theory evidently regulated •the contrasted forms of the letters in each, the eventual divarications of the two systems, «s in so many parallel cases, iSeing due to the fortuitously mgst sirflt-ablg and readily available material for the reception Sf. the writing, which se often determined the ultimate method of graphic definition. The seemingly more archaic structure of the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi clearly carried with it the reminiscence pf Babylonian teachings, in which the formation of the letters was largely influenced by the obvious facilities «f delineation. The ancient scribes of the Assyrian sculptures are represented as making use of a reed, or other description of pen, with which they wrote upon a flexible leather or parchment scroll) employing the indicator or, possibly, the first and second fingers of the left hand, to support the material at thef.point of contact of the pen in the ordinary line of writing ; under these conditions the roost obvious tendency would be towards down strokes, and thus it is found that almost every letter of Sargon's Phoenician consists primarily of a more or less perpendicular line, the minor discriminations being effected by side strokes more varied in construction but of less thickness amd prominence; as time went on, the practice enveloped itself ftf forming as many letters as possible after one and, the same process*of manipulation, the essgntial deference betweefl tlfe characters being marked by scarcely perceptible variations in the leading design; hence arose the perplexing result of the general sameness and uniformity, ftid consequent difpculty of recognition of the imperfectly contrasted letters so marked in Chaldaeo-Pehlvi, anc^etill so troublesome ia modern JEEebrew. The course followed by the pen in the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi * • 1 Parthian coin of Sanabares, dated 313 (a.d. 2), in the British Mufeum, with a Parthian D s and a Sassanian M a on the obverse -field. See also Numismatic Chronicle, xvii, 169; Lindsay, pi. xi. Arsace»XXX.12 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. • caligraphy was singularly repetitive, starting from a gflven point at the top of the line of writing, it proceeded sliglrtl^ downwards with & backward sweep, more or less prolonged ; from,this angle the characteristic perpendicular curve commenced, to be supplemented by the concluding turn of th^ pen which so o'ften constituted the effective definition of the value of the letter. This formation is followed in the letters % and leas obviously in J. The letters PI, D, and 12 commence with similar leading lines, but h^efliscfiminating mar^tf aclded by a second application of the pen; in like manner 1 is distinguished from 1 by a separate foot crescent, a sign which finds its parallel in the dot of the Syriac ?. The remaining letters also had much in common, but in these instances the initial point of the character was thrown slightly backyards on the head-line of the writing, ancf the down-stroke proceeded more abruptly, finishing with a minute and* nearly uniform curve to the left; under this heading may be classed the simple forms * and J, and the combined outlines H, b (3), H, and Even the letter X probably consisted originally of an inclined duplication of the with a prolonged foot-line connecting the two down-strokes. The single exception to the descending^curves is afforded by the letter 1, which must be supposed to have been constructed like the upward arch of the associate fi, which in the Syriac waw grew into a round o, the Chaldseo-Pehlvi form of which, passing through the Sassanian 2, finally settled itself into the Arabic 5. . P The variation in the configuration of the letters of tha» Sassffnian Pehlvi, as compared with its fellow alpt^ibet of more determined Semitic aspect, may be attributed to the simple action of a different method of manipulation, involving a less restrained naovement of the hand, and greater freedom in the onward or backward sweep of the pen than wa» compatible with th$ conventional restrictions of the caligraphy of Western Asia. There is every reason to believe that the ancient races to the east of flje Tigris, in commen with the partially civilized populations ranging over Central Asia and the Himalayas, very earty in the world's history, appreciatedSASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 13 the Utility of birch-bark, and, even in the infancy of letters,1 i£s applicability# to the purposes of writing would readily have suggested itself. At all events, we* have "direct and independent evidence of its use in Afghanistan some centuries jp.c.,2 and ve can cite verjP credible and unconstrained testimony to the fact that much of the sacred literature of the Ancient Persians was engrossed upon this substance,3 con- 1 To showiiow fornq| of -writing; in early times must have been determined by circumstances and accessible materials, it may be noted that even so late as therfays of Muhammad, when there were civilized teasers from the many nuuon* around thei®, the Arabs had still to engross the stray sayings of theii* Prophet upon Stones and other strange and jeadily available substances. Sir Wm. Muir tells us, " after each passage was recited by Muhammad before the Companions or followers who happened to be present, it was generally committed to writing by some one amongst them upon palm-leaves, leather, stones, or such other rude material as conveniently came to hand." Life*of Mahomet. London, 1861. Vol. i. p. iii.—Dr. Sprenger, ^n his Life of the Prophet (German edit. Berlin, 1865, iii. p. xxxix.), enumerates leather and parchment, slate, palm-leaves, camel's shoulder-blades. Said's copy was written on leaves of palm or on scrolls and papyrus. % 2 H. H. Wilson. Ariana Antiqua, pp. 59, 60, 83, 84, 94, 106-7, 111. 3 I am quite aware that tradition affirms that the substan<£ employed was 12,000 " Cow-skins" or parchments (Masaudi, French edition, ii. p. 125. Hyde de relig. vet. Persar. 318), which might be understood as perfectly consistent with all the probabilities if it were admitted that, of the two copies of the sacred books mentioned in the subjoined extract from the Dinkard, the one deposited at Persepolis and the other at Ispahan, that the former was written in the Qtaldaeo-Pehlvi on skins, and the latter in the corresponding alphabet «n birch-bark. The following passages from the Dinkard, lately published by Dr. Haug, plating to the original collection, destruction, and subsequent attempts at the recovery of the sacred writings of the Zoroastrians are of sufficient interest, both historically and geographically, to claim a notice in this place. This portion of the Pehlvi text is admitted to have been added and incorporated only on the final rearrangement of the scattered materials of the ancient books. Nor does Dr. Haug himself seem quite satisfied with his own interpretation, which, considering the degraded character of the text, is scarcely to be wondered at. 1. "The book 'Dinkard' is a book on the religion, that people may obtain (a knowledge of) the good religion. The book ' Dinkard' has been compiled from ill the knowledge acquired (to be) a publication of the M§zdayasnian (Zoro-•strian) jeligion. 2. It was at first made^by the first disciples of the prophet Zertoshf Sapetmen.....3. The excellent king Kai Visht&sp ordfered tj write down tMI information on each subject, qf cording ty the original information, embracing the original questions and ^pswers, and deposited them, from the first to the last, in the treasury of Shaspig&n (" Pasargadse," Haug). He also issued orders to spread copies (of the original). 4. Of th^pe he sent afterwards one to the castle (where) written documents (weje preserved), that the knowledge might be kept there. 5. During the destruction of the Iranian town®(Persepolis. 'The dazhu-i-nipisht is supposed to have been the library of that metropolis—Haug) by the unlucky robber Alexander "^jl] after it had come into his posses- sion, that (copy which wasj^in the castle (where) writftn documents (were kept) was burnt. The other which was in the treasury of Shashpig&n fell into the hands of the Itomans [^jIj^JS^] (Gjeeks). From it a Grecian translation was made that the sayings -of antiquity might become Ardeshir B&bek&n, the king of kings [^l&b (j^j* ^Jjb'jl ]14 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. siderable remains of which, indeed, preserved with untisual ^care, were discovered at Isfahan by the Arabs in a.d. 961.1 This material, while it would on the one hand, in its ^jnootk surface, offer ample facilities for the unchecked flow of the • appeared. He camg to restore the Iranian empire; lie collected all the writing! from the various places were they were scattered. ... It (the Dmkart) was then (thus) restored, and made just as perfect as the original light (copj) which had been kept in the treasury of Shapin (' Shaspigkn*—Haug) [ = See extract from Hamza? note 1, below.] ".The beginning of the Arcftii Viraf Naraah " (from t\fo I^hlavf MSS.). 1. " If, is*kus reported that after the religion had been received and established by the holy Zertoshtj it was up to the completion of 300 years in its purity,and men were without doubts (there were no heresies). 2. After (that time) the evil 6pirit, the devil, the impious, instigated, in order to make man doubt the truth of religion, the wicked Alexander, the Roman jAXLm&j] J, residing in Mudhrai (Egypt) that he came to wage a heavy fight «and war against the Iranian country. 3. He killed the ruler of Iran, destroyed the residence ^Lj^ and empire, and l^id it waste. 4. And the religious books, that is, the whole Avesta and Zand, which were written on prepared cow-skins with gold ink, were deposited at Istakhr Babegan, in the fort of the library. But Aharman, the evil-doer, brougkt Alexander, the Roman, who resided in Egypt, that he burnt (the books), and killed the D^sturs, the Judges, the Herbads, the Mobeds," etc. [^jl^jy^ j } ul^.?^ 3 u]/?f"3^ "An old Zand- Pahlavi Glossary, or the " Farhang-i-oim yak," the original Pehlvi work upon which j^quetil's vocabulary was based, edited by Hoshengji Jamaspji, and printed under the supervision of Dr. Martin Haug. Stuttgart, 1867." 1 Hamza IsfahS.ni (obiit. a.h. 350, a.d. 961) gives an interesting narrative of the discovery of certain ancient Persian archives, written on birch-bark. I quote the substance of the passage in the Latin translatfbn of Dr. Gottwaldt—Anno cccl. (a.d. 961), latus'ejus aedificii quod Saraveih nominatur atque intra urbem Djei (Isfahan) situm est, corruit et domum retexit, in qua fere L utres erant, e corio confecti atque inscripti literis, quales antea nemo viderat. Quando ibi depositi fuissent, ignotum erat. Cum a me quaesitum esset, quae de mirabili illo sedificio scirem, hominibus promsi librum Abu Maschays, astrologi Balchensis, cujus nomen est: Liber de diversitate Tabularum astronomicarum. Ibi ille: Reges (Persarum), inquit, tanto studio tenebantur disciplinas conservandi, tanta cupiditate eas pe»omne aevum perpetuandi, tanta sollicitudine eas ab injuriTs aeris et hum^ defendendi, ut iis inter«naterias scriptorias earn eligerent, (jjiae illaff iqjuri|p optime ferret, vetustati diutissyne resisteret ac mucori et obliteration! minime obnoxia esset, id e^i librum (f orticem interiorem) fagi, qui libit vocatur tuz. Hoc exemplum imitati Seres et Iidi atque populi iis finitimi ad arcus, quibus ad sagitandum utuntur .... Ad arcem igitur, quse nunc intra Djei sita est, profecti ibi disciplinas deposuerunt. IUud a^dificium, nomine Saraveih, ad nostra usque tempora perduravit; ^itque ex eo ipso cognitum est, quis id condi-derit, propterea quod abhinc multos annos latere ejus tedificii collapso camera in conspectum venit, ex argilla secta constructa, ubi multi majorum libri inventi* sunt, in quibus depositae erant var^e eorum disciplinae, omnes lingua persica antiqua script! in cortice Hamzae Ispahanensis^Annalium Libri, x. pp. 152, xxv.) St. Petersbourg, 1844.—Abli Rihkn A1 Biruni (circa 940 a.d.) also records : Mais dans les provinces du centre et»du nord de l'lnde, on ejpploie l'ecorce interieure d^in arbre appele touz |jjyj]*C5est avec l'ecorce d'un arbre du meme genre qu'on recouvre les arcs ; celle-ci se nomme boudj (Bhfirjja). Renaud, Mem. sur l'lnde, p. 305. * JBee also Prinsep's Essays, ii. 45.SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 15 • • pen,*would, in the extreme tenuity of its texture, demand sonfe.more equable and uniform support than the primitive" expedient of extended forefingers: and, as improved"appliances were enlisted in its cause, it may have come to be held in Reserved favour, especially when its other merits, so gravely enlarged upon by the local annalist, are takeif into consideration. Certain it is that to this* day, among the Bhoteahs and other natives of the Himalaya, birch-bar^: maintains its ancient udfes, attdU many a petition and other documents go-grossed on its surface find their \yay among the '^stamped papers " and the like civilized records of the Courts of the British Government in those mountains. It is then to the enhanced freedom of penmanship incident to the employment of birch-bark that I am disposed to attribute the leading peculiarities of this style of writing. The material in question secured to the amanuensis an unchecked power of forming curves and an unrestrained action of the pen in any given direction ; but its ultimate effect upon the identity of the Sassanian character was mainly due to the gift of continuous onward movement in the line of writing, which eventually developed itself into the Kufic scheme, where a single line drawn "from right to lqft constituted the basis of the entire alphabet in its conjunct form,1 and the innate contrast between the two styles of writing maintains itself to the last, and may be detected at the present day in the pervading descending stroke of the Hebrew finals, and in the prolonged sweep, in the general line of writing, of certain Arabic terminal letters; while, Hjider the larger and more comprehensive vie^ of the same question we may trace in the contrasted formation'and »ela# tive location of the short vo^elf, a practical "and conclusive illustration of the original caligraphic type of either system. The ruling ideal of this Pehl\j scheme of writing pro-seeded upon a groundwork of curves, the leading model of which declares itself in the letter I, which commenced to-wards the top of the general line of writing, being extended slightly upward and continue^* backwards and downwards, , 1 I do not know whether the singular identity of the employment of a central leading-line, in our own Oghams, has as yet beyi the subject of notice.16 SASSANIAN INSCKIPTIONS. • « after the fashion of a reversed Roman C. This formation 'enters more or less into the composition of the letters c^J j, (j*j, (jZi, '^•J, j, and i long. In*process of time, as the writing became more cursive, the initial point of the if, and of those letters which mone immediately followed its tracing, was thrown higher up and further back in thl ordinary line, while the concluding turn of the curve was prolonged and occasionally run into other letters. the single character in this alphabetical series that wa# discriminated in its jhutl form, from its normal initial or medial representative, was the short i; and the manner in which this was effected would almost imply that it was intended in the very act to check the onward flow of the writing in the way of an upward stop, as the final was made to commence even below the middle of the horizontal line of letters and the concluding point of the three-quarters of a circle was not allowed to reach the ordinary foot lines [ f} ]. It remains for me ti, whence it finally progressed into the Pehlvi jj, the Zend jj, and the Arabic I have still to advert to two very serious difficulties in the decipherment of these alphabets; the one dependent upon the great sinfllarity existing between the signs for e |nd z the .Chardaeo-Pehlvi, which often renders them hopelessly indistinguishable; this is thlfe case even in the positive reproduction of the inscription at HajiaJjad, so it may be imagined what amount of reliance is to be placed upon the drawings of mere copyists. As a general rule .the letter e is simple an<^ direct in it* downward course, while the z is more curved in its sweep, and more marked in the initill and final points. The second obstruction to ^assured interpretation consists more in the oral sound to be attributed to the several letters a=R and L =l in the Sassanian writing. At times it wouldSASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 19 • seem that these letters were knowingly used indifferently; cm other occasions ignorance of or insensibility to the true force of the Semitic rj may have prevailed; though in some instances, again, discrimination in their contrasted employment is evident, especially in words in which «a complication already exists, arising out of the Community of the sounds of r and w inherent in their common sign a.1 If, in addition to these constrwctjf e difficulties, we add the imperfect phonetic aptitude or the want of system in the use of the syAbols^for tJ-ii and d-J-T, i^f-G and CS-K.; aijd more important than all, the authorised dialectic interchange of b, <__.> p (<_> f), and j w, we have offered a goodly list of reasons why European interpreters have jnade such scant progress in Pehlvi readings. • One of the most curious questions in the whole range of this enquiry is presented in the history of that strangely influential vowel in the Persian tongue, the lettea i; we have already seen the important part played by the normal form of that character in the supplementary definition of the con® current signs of the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi, and attention has.been drawn to a somewhat parallel fundamental inflifence exercised by the typical curve of the Sassanian i, among the other letters of its own alphabet; it is further clear that neither of the very differently-fashioned letters of the joint Pehlvi systems of writing can be referred to corresponding Semitic originals as the latter are ordinarily determined; all of which adhere with mote or less fidelity to a vague reminiscence of tli archaic ^V. A singular evidence of the community of Aryanifcta. in alphabets suggests itself in these facts, though, I am not prepared to claim anjf Noachi&n antiquity for the coincidence, but merely desire to show that the various branches of the Aryan pastoral races, as thejare Imown to the modern world,2 only began to understand and appreciate tjie value of f» 1 and l£L.—tul^j and —CJt^-J and CUjJSj . It is a curious fact that all the early Numismatic legends use a both for b and w. J) does not app^r till later, and then oi#y irregularly. See J.R. A.S. xiii» 178. 2 Report of the Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, 9th April, 1866; Athenaeum, April, 1866 ; Numismatic Chronicle (1866) vol. vi. p. 172; Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, July, 1866, p. 138. •20 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. • (the art of writing when they came into contact with urban population^ in their own migatory advance and domestication among more civilized peoples, or when they achieved, in force, the conquest of earlier-settled nationalities. In this present case, at least, it is strange that the self-same leading*idea shoul^ have prevailed throughout, in the adoption of the crude form of the yowel i, within a range that can be traced upwards from our own capital or italic I, through the Roman and Etruscan outline ^f the letter, and the independent Grfteli design,1 whose buk slightly modified shape is found typical in Armenia2 some centuries B.C., and which re-appears almost identically irf its normal tracing with our own matured result, in the Bactrian reconstruction, under Aryan treatment,3 of the simple elements of the once current writing of Babylon. • The Sassaaian alphabet manifestly incorporated the olcl Phoenician fjJ =i (the Persian Cuneiform Yf) 4 into its own system, and as it was already in possession of an ordinary short %; the Semitic letter wa^ devoted to the representation of the long or duplicated sound of that vowel.5 A curious course 1 The following forms of the Greek iota approach very closely to the Chaldteo- Pehlvi outline ^ J" J . See also Gesenius, pi. ii.; Mionnet, volume "Planches," etc , 1808, pi. xxxi. Nos. 1, 2 ; " Inscriptiones GrE?cse VetustissimEc," H. G. Rose (Cambridge, 1825), table i. Nos. 11, 15, 18. etc.; "Corpus Inscriptionum Grse-carum," A. Boeekh (Berlin, 1828), p. 6. " Sed imprimis insignis est litterse Iota forma ^ , quse etiam in sere Petiliensi reperitur, et turn in nummis aliquot urbium Magnse Gra3cia3, turn in nummo Gortyniorum, . . . derivata ex Oriente."—Swin-ton, Insc. Cit. Oxford, 1750. 2 Coins of Artaxias, Numismatic Chronicle. October, 1867, No. 3 [ | ], 3 The Bactriaff medial i is composed of a single line thus In romposj^Jon ^t crosses the body of the leading consonant. The initial i is foxM^cI by the addition of the sloping lins to the short a, thus ^'.—Numismatic Chronicle, N.S. iii. pi. vi.; Prinsep's Essays,-ii. p. 161. • • 4 There is some similarity of i^eas in the form of the Pali J of Asoka's Inscriptions. Ex. gr. £ ghi, £ ghi. 5 M. Francois L&iormant has devoted a lengthy article in the Journal Asiatique of Aout-Septembre, 1865«(pp. 180-226)^.0 "E'tudes Patoographiques sur 1'Alphabet Pehlevi, ses diverses varietes et son origine," in which he has done me the honour to quote largely from my first paper on Pehlvi writing which appeared in the twelfth volume of thi| Journal, 1849, as well as from a parallel notice on Arsacidan coins, etc., inserted in the Numismatic Chronicle of proximate date, without seemingly having been aware of the publication of my second contribution on the same subject, which was printed in our Journal for 1852 (vol. xiii. p. 373). M. Lenormant hasmot been altogether fortunate in the passagesSASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 21 atteilded the maturation of this literal sign, in the parallel alphabet, whichfc though in the retention of its primitive1 forms, claiming so much more of a Semitic aspect, provided itself, from other sources, with a short i, and lost all trace of jhe proper Semitic of Saigon's time, and hence had to invent anew the long I required for the di^p expression of the language it was eventually called upon to embody. The process by which this was effected is instructive, and may be said, in its • • • of my Essay which he has selected for adverse criticism,—a licencg, however, I must confess he has been wisely chary of indulging in. # • Mi Le Normant is mistaken in supposing tjjat Sir H. Rawlinson ever designed to insert a long K final in the word Baga, so that his over-officious attempt at correction, in this instance, proves altogether superfluous (J.R.A.S. x. pp. 93, 94, 187), but the implication, in the general run of the text, is, that I myself had attributed this error to Sir Henry, which I certainly never contemplated doing, nor, as far as I can gather from anything I have printed, did I give any colour for • supposition that I desired so to do (J.R.A.S. xii. 264; Numismatic Chronicle, xii. 74). Sir Henry undoubtedly suggested that the group qf letters ordinarily following the king's titles in the Sassanian coin legends and inscriptions should be resolved into the letters b. g., and hence he inferred, most correctly, that the term in question was Baga, divine (Sanskrit supposing that, ^n the ordinary course of Aryan tongues, the several consonants optionally carried the inherent short vowel a. My correction merely extended ttf the separation of the character composing the second portion of the group into the since universally accepted g. i. M. Lenormarit has gone out of his way to assert that "Le savant ^pglais a pretendu, en effet, que le pehlevi ne possedait pas de D." T^his is not quite an accurate statement of the case. If I had not recognised the existence and frequent use of an (jw, which letter duly appears in my alphabets (J.R.A.S. xii. pi. i.), I could have made but very litHe progress in Pehlvi decipherments. The question I did raise with regard to the origin of the earliest form of the Sassanian (xii. 266), as found in the Hajiabad sculptures, was not only perfectly legitimate and fairly and frankly stated, but there is even now no resisting the associate facts that the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi version of Inscription No. vi. infra, makes use of the f in the penultimate of |THTD, and that the corresponding of the Sassanian text J^is susceptible of teing resolved into the typical elements ofJJ. Moreover, it must be borne' in mind that the Chalda30-Pehlvi D was still unidentified, though I even thjif suggested the attribution which since thrown new light upon the entire ^lition (N.C. xii. 78). In short, the point of interest at thai time jvas to determine the course and progress of the (Incrimination and graphic expression 8f the approximate sounds of z and s in the alphabets under discussion. » As regards my proposed rectification of M. De Sacy's in Boman, which M. Lenormant confidently designates as '' inutileib^nt contests par M. Edward Thomas" (J.A. p. 193), I am sanguine that^the ample data adduced below will satisfy more severe critics that the mistaken interpretation M. Lenormant insists lupon sharing, in common with so many of Anquetil's anciqpt errors, may be safely left to find its own correction. • Finally, I am bound to ]#ace on record 1 distinct protest against the general accuracy of M. Lenormant's illustrative facsimiles. I imagined, in the first instance, that the French artist had reproduced in a crude and clumsy way the conscientious originals of the Engl^gh fngraver; but I &ee that M. Lenormant claims whatever credit is due upon that score for himself, in the'declaration, " nous avons releve' nous-meme les figures que nous donnons sur les platves offerts a la Socitfte Asiatique de Londres par M. Rawlinson" (J.A. p. 188).22 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. very mechanism, to add an independent proof of the *true Value attaching to the fellow character The configur- ation of the xjj tlearly proceeded upon the duplication of the simple or short z ( f ); and in order to avoid the possible confusion of the new compound ^ith the ordinary a con-^ eluding curve was carried upwards and backwards from the second i through its own down-strOke and into tl*e leading letter. . course of time both these double letters disappear from public documents, but tfte Sassanian letter is preserved in the Parsi alphabet,1 and is but little changed in its Zend fornl ^. "While the short i was subjected to considerable modifications, till, on the Arabico-Pehlvi coins it appears as —J in its independent definition, or in the latest introductory stage towards the Naskhi " J£asrah-i-Izafat." As regards the true force of the fellow letters, though we may, for simplicity sake, designate them as long or double i's, it is clear that the duty they had to perform in the less matured orthography of the third century a.d. will be re-presefited by a very extended range of optional transcriptions when reduced into the elaborated characters of the present day, leaving the ChaldEeo-Pehlv^ letters to answer for their parallel power in the double The Sassanian counterpart must clearly be admitted to stand, according to the context, for ^, lJ> lS or > and their several medial correspondents. ^ , An apt illustration of the difficulty the limited charactess of the Cl^ldseo-Pehlvi had%to contend with in the d^iitiori (tf tlfe mixed Aryan^and Semitic speech they had to respond to, has lately been contributed, on the occasion of the natives of Persia having bee^' called upon*to reconstruct an alphabet suitable for the expression of their modern tongue out of the self-same literal elements they had abandoned so many cen- * A 1 Spiegel? Grammatik der Parsisprache. Leipzig? 1851. I observe that Dr. Hang still adheres to the old lesson his Parsi instructors at Surat so erroneously taught Anquetil in 1760, and persists ir^ interpreting the power of this letter as See preface to the " Farliang-i-ohn^ak," p. 21. Though Jae seems at one time (1862) to have been prepared to accept the reading of j, converting the old 'Boman' into lBarj.' "Sacred language of the Parsees," Bombay, 1862. p. 45.SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 23 turias ago. The motive for this experiment arose out of the deSire of our Bible Society to furnish the Jewish converts in* Persia with a version of the New Testament in the Hebrew character, with which they were already familiar, but textually couched the sjfcken language of the country.1 The subjoined table will show how this singular compromise was effected, and its details are of considerable value in the present inquiry, as giving us a clearer perception of how the modern ear prepared to deal with the sounds of the actually current speech, and how, vpith a clear fielcf and enlarged and matured powers of alphabetical deVelopment, tTiose sounds were he^d to be critically defined and discriminated in the general reconstruction of the ancient alphabet. * Hebrew Alphabis: adapted to the definition of the Persian Language.® 1 = K t — b. u° = * . = 3 = 1 J = n J> = = y <_> V = 3 J = n I = tD 'j = b CD = n j = T = b r = 12 LU = ri J = T t = & • J £ = i j t = j j — 1 £ = ) D i_J = t a = n z — n A u* = CO X = J = T = P LS = One of the most curious results of this adaptive revival of the ^pcieijt letters is to prove to us, what I have already persever-ingl^gontended for, that is, the ifse of some form of*a double i, and some acknowledged method of writing such a compound with a view to avoid the possible confusion of the independent repetition of the short vowel, amid a series of letters in their nature so imperfectly discriminated inter se. Examples of • 1 The New Testament in question, designated " Jud.eo-Pe%sic," was printed by Messrs. Harrison & Co.Hn 1847, under me editorship of Mr. E. JJorris, from a text arranged by the natives of Persia according to their own perceptions of equivalent letters. 2 Michaeli's Arabische Gramm^ik ^Gott. 1781) arranged the (jjscriminative marks as follows:— n = fl = cD, n = , j = , 5 = "1 = j, * = u>> * = J>>13 = ^ b = 5 tp = J' n =24 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. •f ' such repetitions occur here in every page, as " a Levite," "a'place;" WDDK OJT, namely, Ju&as Iscariot" (John iii. 3); fifil ^ im^lM, [he] "went towards Jericho." In its medial duplicate form it occurs in Wl 12 px TT, " in the law of Mx>ses" (Luke xxto 44); but its most frequent appearand is in verbs, as TUX T^KKO, etc., where the introductory y is absolute, lite kasrah form of the short i is expressed by the sign over the line, thus, % Xhe," p inS hjNb YT, "in the ho&se*of my father" (John xiv. 2). • The •comparative table of alphabets inserted below will^ I triyst, prove sufficiently explanatory in itself, though it may be needful to indicate the derivation of and authority for some of the less common forms. The excellent series'of Numismatic, Phoenician was cut for the Due de.Luynes, for the illustration of his work on the Satrapies. The outlines are chiefly derived from the forms of the Phoenician alphabet in use on the coins of Cilicia and Cyprus. The old Syriac may be useful in the present instance among the asSociated ^ehlvi alphabets for the purposes of comparison, in its near proximity in point of date and local employment. This font was prepared under the supervision of the late Df. Cureton, whose account of the sources from whence it was derived is as follows :— " It was principally copied from MSS. of the sixth century, and represents the earliest form of the character known to us. It is identical with that of the most ancient MS. in the British Museum—date a.d. 411; but the tforms of the letters are made a little n^)re carefully than they were written by the person who copied that MS., and imitate more elosely t%)se of some better scribe, althoug^bouTa cgntusy later." The modern'PehNi was engraved by Marcellin Legrand of Paris, under the direct superintendence of M. Jules Mohl, and to my understanding offers the best and closest imitation of the ancient writing as yet produced. I have so far de-, parted from Jthe primary intention of tl^e designers as to employ the'letter to which they had assigned the value of a Jchj as the more appropriate Representative of the simple h, in order ^0 avoid the confusion incident to the use of the unpointed ii, which in the original scheme was called upon to do duty indifferently for either a or h.U1 EH H PQ < W PH i—i > M ' w PH H C GQ SJ « r • P4 « ca Q a « M n N £ n «6 n < tr— .r- a - J ^ ff r * t = i % - •r— o 1 6 p r o ^ PP rl • 25 t ^ q LLJ O - Z-2 O UJ S2 z CO OEW r-i t .E. A < c \ % » X, e. 0 a < ej d p A •n ms: CM * A 1 9 'b ll ri J * > V 3 - 3 J? rv-J ^ O . 1/ — *> .A Y 3 a .Si a a M -a Ph o « 4 a ii H £1 i—26 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. • • In order to complete the alphabetical illustrations connected with the later history of Sassanian writing, I append a comparative table of the Pehlvi and Zend characters, which in itself demonstrates the direct derivation of the latter series from it^mire crude model* and enables us to trace the amplification and elaboration of the earlier literal forms to meet the wants of the more refined grammar of the Zend, a reconstruction which seems to have been aided by the high degree ^ perfection already reached in the alphabetical definitions of cognate Aryan languages. " | • PEHLYI AM) ZEND ALPHABETS. vowels. Shoet Towels, Pehlvi, ju a. ) u. • • » Zend, • aj a. 1 e> j i. > u. • Long Towels, Pehlvi, Mi ca. ji. • • Zend, au a. $ u. %e. ao e. >> Zend, 0. ^ 0. • do. • consonants. . gruttueals, * Pehlvi, ^ k. hu. 3 9> • » Zend, 3 Ji. 6ikh. ya q. yjh. Palablls, Pehlvi, • Q^ch. >> Zend, y ch. • Dentals, Pehlvi, ft t. 3 d. >> Zend, p t. qc> th. (a th. d. Q^dh. Labials, Pehlv'i, 0 P- • „ Zend, <2> p. • j b. • Semi-Yowjils, Pehlvi, $ i 9r y. ) r. > • • • )> •Zend? rv (w med0 y. 7r. (j (» med.) q. a Pehlvi, • ) v. or w. • m h. • >> Zend, oxf it. h. • Sibilants, # • Pehlvi, • sh. J*- >> Zend, m s. (g.) tip sh. ao s. J Nasals, # Pehlvi, j K. * • • ■f m. w Zend, y n. ^ an. ^3 9- 9SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 27 • Inscription No. 1. • . . *. • The first inscription of the series nnder review is engraved upon the most prominent of the Sassanian sculptures at I^ksh-i-Ruatam,1 wherein Ormazd is represented as bestowing a second or Imperial cydaris upon Ardeshir Babekan on the occasion of his final victory over the last of the Arsacidse, whose prostrate body is exhibited on the battle-field beneath the feet of the equestrian group, and whose individuality^ distinctly marked by the snake-crested helmet#of th*e ^VTede.2 Ormazd's costume consists of a highjnural crown, with cjpsely twisted curls rising in a mass above it; his beard is cut square, and his flowing locks are curled elaborately over his shoulders, above and behind ^hich float the conventional Sassanian fillets.3 In his left hand he holds a sceptre or baton, ergct, and with 1 Ker Porter, vol. i. pi. xxiii. p. 548; Flandin, vol. iv. pi. 1^2. A similar sculpture, reproducing the same leading figures on foot, is copied in pi. xxvii. Ker Porter; Flandin, 192, 3. 2 Astyages—Ifc^l > " a dragon;" J^, " a s«rpentMoses of Khorene, i. 123,167. Sia=Mar, "serpent," Anquetil, ii. p. 497; Rawlinson, J.R.A.S. xv# 242; Zohak of the Shah N&.mah, Haug, 167. ^Slf^, " a serpen^" a name of Krishna and Indra, " subduing a demon!" The Dahak of the Yasna is described as " tribus-oribus-praeditum, tribus-capitibus," etc. (Kossowicz). Masaudi's tradition speaks of "^leux serpents nes sur les epaules deDahhak" (iii. p. 252). Les descendans d'Astyages etablis en Armenie portoient encore le nom de Yischabazouni ce que signifie race de dragon. Cette denomination leur yenoit du nom du roi des Mddes.—St. Martin, i. 285. » 3 Elandin's copy, in plate 182 of his work, altogether omits these pennants, though Ormazd has them to the fall in other plates, 186, 192 bis ; (Ker Porter, xxvii. No. IV Ormazd is frequently represented in other composi-tioBB amid these sculptures. For instance, in plate 44, Flandin, at Firoz&Md, whei* he ^gain appears in the act of presenting a cydaris to Ardeshir. This J>as relie^jg remarkable for the subsequent addition of a modern PeUvi legend, which is only dubiously intelligible in Flandin's copy. Ormazd is depicted 1n a new and modified form in the bas-relief at¥Tik-i-Busfen (ph lxvi. Ker Porter, vol. ii.; Malcolm's Persia, yol. i. p. 259; and pL 14, Flandin, yol. i.), where he ^introduced as apparently sanctioning the final abdication of Ardeshir and the transfer of the Sassanian diadem to Sapor.* Ormazd in this case stands at the back of the former monarch, with Mb feet resting on a lotus flower; he holds the p%3uliar baton or sceptre in the usual position, but this time with loth hands; and instead of the hitherto unvarying mural crown, the htad seems uncovered, but closely bound with the conventional diadam, with its broad pendant fillets, while the head itself is encircled with rays of glory, after the Western idea of a nimbus.f * The association of Sapor in the govewnent, or perhaps only his recogni^on as heir apparent, is illustrated by the coins of the period. See Num. Chron. xv. p. 181. + A similar form is given to Ormazd's head-gear in the coin of Hormisdaa II., quoted p. 42 post.28 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. • • his right he extends towards the conqueror a circlet, to which are attached the broad wavy ribbons so exaggerated in their dimensions at this period. Ardeshlr wears a close-fitting scull-cap shaped helmet, from the centre of which ascends a glflbe-like tfelloon, which is supposed to typify some form of fire or other equivalent of our Western halo. The head-piece is encircled with, a diadem, from which $epend the Dynastic flowing fillets, and the hornet is completed for defensive purposes*by cheek-plates and a slcTping back-plate. The beard seems to have been injure^ if we are to trust JKer Porter's copy; but Flandio represents it as ending in a tied point, a fashion seemingly only introduced by Sapor. The hair is disarranged, possibly to indicate the recent combat- The remaining details of the sculpture are unimportant in their bearing upon the present inquiry, but it must be noted that the inscriptions, in either case, are wit upon the shoulder of the horse bearing the figure each of the triple legends are designed to indicate, so 'that there can be no possible doubt about the identification of tke persons, or the intentional portraiture of the contrasted divinity and Tdng; the former of which is of peculiar interest in disclosing the existing national ideal of the form and external attributes of Ormazd, so distinctly defined as " the god of the Arians" by Darius himself in his celebrated Cuneiform record at Behistun, iv. 12, 13 (J.R.A.S. xv. 130, 144), The style of the legend embodying the monarch's titles, though tinned with ever-prevailing Oriental hyperbole^ is modest in regard to the ^xtent of his dominions, wj^cl^are confined to Iran proper; and the like reserve is maintained in the epigraphs upon bo& Ardeshir's money, and many, if not all, of Sapor's coins though the inscriptions at Pai Kulf, if they are found hereafter to have emanated from the founder of the dynasty about which there may still be some vagme doubt—-wotdd seem to prave that the$An Iran, or countries other than Iran, in modern speech, associated as Iran and • 1 Varahfan I. seems to have been the ffrst to record the An irTin on his currency, but want of space in the field of the coins may well have counselled previous omissions.SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 29 • • Turarif had already been comprehended in Ardeshir's later conquests. # Inscription No. 1.—ArdeshIr, Babik, a.d. 226, at ifaksh-i-Rustam. i is a transliteration, in irwdern Hebre\g letters, of the original Chaldceo-Pehlvi Lapi-> dary Text.* ft is a transliteration, in modem Persian characters, of the associate Sassanian-Pehlvi Text. lu is a transcript of the original Greek translatiSh, which is appended to the duplicate Oriental epigraphs. * priKfcotapta nnBTtrnK jn» "Dr&i- " " • 1 ill. lOTTO TO TrPOSnnON MA2AA2NOy ©EOT APTAfapou BASIAeaS « idsks nn jnw p Ji^ iJi ^ t^^rrr^ BA^IAeXlN APIANwN ejc-yevOTS ©EflN TIOT ©EOT nAIIA/coT BAaiXEHS. Image of the person of [Orjmazd-worshipper, divine Artahshatr, King of Kings of Ir&n, of celestial origin from god, the son of divine Papak^ King! No. la. ■arfot IMN ^ns I- ^ • • JJ J/V^ L^j U' • • III. TOTTO TO nPOSnnON AIOS ©EOT. Image of the person of Ormazd, God ! 3 1 The debased C=2, £=E, and to=n, of the original inscription, have been Replaced by the ordinary modern type forms of the several letters. 2 The reading of Ormazd's name in the Chaldseo-Pehlvi is doubtful in the later copies (De Sacy, p. 22; Ker Porter, PI. xxiii.; and Flandin, Vol. iv. PI. 180); but it is obvious, as above given in Flower's reproduction, a.d. 1667 (Hyde, p. 547) pand it Chardin's facsimile of 1674 (PI. lxxiii. vol. ii,) * . 3 Mosrof the linguistic details of this, or, peftiaps, a less curt transition, have for long past been comparatively uncontested. The Zanii I have not as yet kad an opportunity of fairly or fully submitting to«public crititism. »The Mazd-Yaqna elements of the compound it has been the custom of late to recognise as " Ormazd-^)rshipper," may perchance requii^ re-examination when discovered to be associated with the full and direct definition of the nam® of Ormazd, in apparent contrast to the abbreviated form, on one and th® same stone. Bagi, with its palpable context of the Semitic A'lhii, has from the first been accepted in its true purport, though doubts and difficulties remained in regard«to the" correct definition of the final gi, which ar4 now, I imagine, fully disposed of. • Minu Chatri (and ™ 13D) were freely interpreted by De Sacy with the aid of the Gfeek transcript, and all that more recent philology has been called upon to contribute has been the more exact determination of the joots and incidental formation of the compound in the now recognised or , " Mundus superior,'h and the Chitra of such constant recurrence in the Cuneiform inscriptions and in the nominal combinations of the archaic Persian speec]}.30 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. • • Inscription No. 2. This inscription is engraved on an unfinished tablet, to 4h*e left hand, and immediately outside of the area of the bas-relief at Naksh-i-Rajab (Ker Porter, xsvii. No.#2; Flandin, 192 B), embodying ojie of the many representations of i£rdeshir's ceiving the cydaris from Qrmazd: but there is nothing in the absolute relation of the two sculptures to show that the inscription in (Question was intended to refer to this particular gPDup *>f the dynastic#memorials graven on the surrounding rtfcks, though .the probabilities are greatly in favour of such a supposition. Ker Porter does not seem to have been aware <*f the existence of this side compartment;1 and although Morier2 alludes to the single figure who is portrayed in the act of engrossing the identical record, he Joes not appear 4;o have detected the inscription itself. It was left for M. Flandin3 to repeat, in all innocence, a discovery which, in earlier times, had already been placed on record by Ouseley ;4 but to the former artigt we are indebted for the only full copy known in Europe, which has evidently been most carefully traced .on the spot and elaborately engraved in his work; but however meritorious as a studied and conscientious drawing, it is that and nothing more: had M. Flandin been but in the smallest degree acquainted with the crude forms of the eighteen letters of the alphabet employed in the text, the value of his labours would have been infinitely enhanced* possibly with far less patient toil to himself. As it is, this epigraph, tl*3 most full and perfect of the entire series, is disappointing in the extreme* and it is only by very bolcf ^uesseg (such as no prpfessed savanfc would adventure), that any recon- 1 Ker Porter, i. 573. 2 Morier, "Persia, Armenia, etc." p. 138. ^ 3 Dans le coin a gauche4 et en haut du rocfcer, en dehors du cadre ou est sculpte le bas-relief, est line figure dont le buste seul a ete execute. Peu visible par la maniere dont elle est rendue, elle £tait en partie cachee par un arbrisseau qui avait pris racine dan^ line fissure du roc. En relevant les branches pendantes p