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104-552: The Bridge's appearance varies depending on the observer's asha , or righteousness. As related in the text known as the Bundahishn , if a person has been wicked, the bridge will appear narrow and the demon Chinnaphapast will emerge and drag their soul into the druj-demana (the House of Lies), a place of eternal punishment and suffering similar to the concept of Hell . If a person's good thoughts, words and deeds in life are many,

208-688: A voiceless r . Miller suggested that rt was restored when a scribe was aware of the morpheme boundary between the /r/ and /t/ (that is, whether the writer maintained the –ta suffix). Avestan druj , like its Vedic Sanskrit cousin druh , appears to derive from the PIE root * dhreugh , also continued in Persian دروغ / d[o]rūġ "lie", Welsh drwg "evil", and German Trug "fraud, deception". Old Norse draugr and Middle Irish airddrach mean "spectre, spook". The Sanskrit cognate druh means "affliction, afflicting demon". In Avestan, druj- has

312-492: A Christian Psalter fragment, which still retains all the letter distinctions that Inscriptional Pahlavi had except the one between t and ṭ ; and the Pahlavi found in papyri from the early 7th century CE, which displays even more letter coincidences than Book Pahlavi. The Manichaean script was an abjad introduced for the writing of Middle Persian by the prophet Mani (216–274 CE), who based it on his native variety of

416-547: A currently more popular one reflecting the Sassanid-era pronunciation, as used by C. Saleman, W. B. Henning and, in a somewhat revised form, by D. N. MacKenzie (1986). The less obvious features of the usual transcription are: A common feature of Pahlavi as well as Manichaean spelling was that the Aramaic letters ṣ and ḥ were adapted to express the sounds /t͡ʃ/ and /h/ , respectively. In addition, both could use

520-474: A different shape from a historical point of view, by under- or overlining them: e.g. the heterogram for andar 'in' is transliterated B YN , since it corresponds to Aramaic byn , but the sign that 'should' have been b actually looks like a g . Within Arameograms, scholars have traditionally used the standard Semitological designations of the Aramaic (and generally Semitic) letters, and these include

624-942: A large number of diacritics and special signs expressing the different Semitic phonemes, which were not distinguished in Middle Persian. In order to reduce the need for these, a different system was introduced by D. N. MacKenzie , which dispenses with diacritics as much as possible, often replacing them with vowel letters: A for ʾ , O for ʿ , E for H , H for Ḥ , C for Ṣ , for example ORHYA for ʿRḤYʾ ( bay 'god, majesty, lord'). For ''ṭ'', which still occurs in heterograms in Inscriptional Pahlavi, Θ may be used. Within Iranian words, however, both systems use c for original Aramaic ṣ and h for original Aramaic ḥ , in accordance with their Iranian pronunciation (see below). The letter l , when modified with

728-569: A less common view is that /x/ and /ɣ/ were uvular instead. Finally, it may be pointed out that most scholars consider the phoneme /w/ as being still a labial approximant, but a few regard it as a voiced labial fricative /v/ . The initial clusters of /s/ and a stop ( /sp-/ , /st-/ , /sk-/ ) had acquired a prosthetic vowel /i/ by the time of the Manichaean Middle Persian texts: istāyišn ( ՙst՚yšn ) 'praise' vs Pahlavi stāyišn ( ՙst՚dšn' ) 'praise'. Stress

832-547: A list of what are otherwise all physical creations, aṣ̌a takes the place of fire. Asha Vahishta's association with atar is carried forward in the post-Gathic texts, and they are often mentioned together. In Zoroastrian cosmogony, each of the Amesha Spentas represents one aspect of creation and one of seven primordial elements that in Zoroastrian tradition are the basis of that creation. In this matrix, aṣ̌a/arta

936-461: A script derived from Aramaic . This occurred primarily because written Aramaic had previously been the written language of government of the former Achaemenids , and the government scribes had carried that practice all over the empire. This practice had led to others adopting Imperial Aramaic as the language of communications, both between Iranians and non-Iranians. The transition from Imperial Aramaic to Middle Iranian took place very slowly, with

1040-433: A secondary derivation, the adjective drəguuaṇt- ( Young Avestan druuaṇt- ), "partisan of deception, deceiver" for which the superlative draojišta- and perhaps the comparative draoj(ii)ah- are attested (Kellens, 2010, pp. 69 ff.). Aṣ̌a "cannot be precisely rendered by some single word in another tongue" but may be summarized as follows: It is, first of all, 'true statement'. This 'true statement', because it

1144-571: A slow increase of more and more Iranian words so that Aramaic with Iranian elements gradually changed into Iranian with Aramaic elements. Under Arsacid hegemony , this Aramaic-derived writing system for Iranian languages came to be associated with the Parthians in particular (it may have originated in the Parthian chancellories ), and thus the writing system came to be called pahlavi "Parthian" too. Aside from Parthian, Aramaic-derived writing

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1248-472: A special horizontal stroke that shows that the pronunciation is /l/ and not /r/, is rendered in the MacKenzie system as ɫ . The traditional system continues to be used by many, especially European scholars. The MacKenzie system is the one used in this article. As for Pahlavi, c is used for the transliteration of original Aramaic ṣ and h for the transliteration of original ḥ . Original Aramaic h , on

1352-627: A theme, and all four call on the Truth. It is Airyaman that – together with fire – will "melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and it will be upon the earth like a river" ( Bundahishn 34.18). In Zoroastrian tradition, metal is the domain of Xshathra [Vairya] , the Amesha Spenta of "[Desirable] Dominion", with whom Aṣ̌a is again frequently identified. Dominion is moreover "a form of truth and results from truth." In Denkard 8.37.13, Asha Vahishta actually takes over Airyaman's healer role as

1456-553: A thousand of these in the Book Pahlavi variety. In addition, their spelling remained very conservative, expressing the pronunciation of the Arsacid period. The two most important subvarieties are: Other known Pahlavi varieties are the early Pahlavi found in inscriptions on coins issued in the province of Pars from the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century CE; the relatively conservative Psalter Pahlavi (6th–8th centuries CE), used in

1560-724: Is aṣ̌aŋāč "having aṣ̌a following". One of Haoma 's stock epithets is aṣ̌avazah- "furthering aṣ̌a " ( Yasht 20.3; Yasna 8.9, 10.1.14, 11.10 et al.). Atar "possesses strength through aṣ̌a " ( aṣ̌a-ahojah , Yasna 43.4). In the Zoroastrian calendar , the third day of the month and the second month of the year are dedicated to and named after aṣ̌a and Asha Vahishta (calledارديبهشت Ordibehesht in Modern Persian both in Iranian Calendar and Yazdgerdi calendar). A special service to aṣ̌a and Aṣ̌a, known as

1664-555: Is haiθiia- "true". Similarly, the adjective corresponding to Vedic ŗtá- "truth" is sátya- "true". The opposite of both aṣ̌a/arta- and haithya- is druj- "lie" or "false". In contrast, in the Vedas the opposite of both ŗtá- and sátya- is druh- and ánŗta- , also "lie" or "false". However, while the Indo-Iranian concept of truth is attested throughout Zoroastrian tradition, ŗtá- disappears in post-Vedic literature and

1768-406: Is a major difficulty for scholars. It has also been pointed out that the Pahlavi spelling does not express the 3rd century lenitions, so the letters p , t , k and c express /b/ , /d/ , /ɡ/ and /z/ after vowels, e.g. šp' for šab 'night' and hc for az 'from'. The rare phoneme /ɣ/ was also expressed by the same letter shape as k (however, this sound value is usually expressed in

1872-404: Is active in good thoughts, Sraosha in good words and Aṣ̌a in good deeds. ( Denkard 3.13-14). Aṣ̌a is thus "represented as active and effective." Subject to context, aṣ̌a/arta- is also frequently translated as "right working" or "[that which is] right". The word then ( cf. Bartholomae's and Geldner 's translations as German language " Recht ") has the same range of meaning of "right" as in

1976-546: Is also what was commonly understood by the term as attested in Greek myth of Isis and Osiris 47, Plutarch calls the divinity Αλήθεια Aletheia , "Truth." The adjective corresponding to the noun aṣ̌a/arta , "truth", is Avestan haithya- ( haiθiia- ), "true", the opposite of which is also druj- . Avestan haithya- derives from Indo-Iranian *sātya that in turn derives from Indo-European *h 1 s-ṇt- "being, existing". The Sanskrit cognate sátya - means "true" in

2080-472: Is established." The synonymy of aṣ̌a and "existence" overlaps with the stock identification of Ahura Mazda as the creator (of existence itself). Truth is existence (creation) inasmuch as falsehood is non-existence (uncreated, anti-created). Also, because aṣ̌a is everything that druj- is not (or vice versa), since aṣ̌a is, druj- is not. This notion is already expressed in the Avesta itself, such as in

2184-432: Is expressed in a synchronic alternation: at least at some stage in late Middle Persian (later than the 3rd century), the consonants /b/ , /d/ , /ɡ/ appear to have had, after vowels, the fricative allophones [ β ] , [ ð ] , [ɣ] . This is slightly more controversial for /ɡ/ , since there appears to have been a separate phoneme /ɣ/ as well. A parallel development seems to have affected /d͡ʒ/ in

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2288-674: Is in conformity with the reality' or 'poetic (religious) formula with inherent fulfillment (realization)'". The kinship between Old Iranian aṣ̌a-/arta- and Vedic ŗtá- is evident in numerous formulaic phrases and expressions that appear in both the Avesta and in the RigVeda . For instance, the *ŗtásya path, "path of truth", is attested multiple times in both sources: Y 51.13, 72.11; RV 3.12.7, 7.66.3. Similarly "source of truth," Avestan aṣ̌a khá and Vedic khâm ṛtásya (Y 10.4; RV 2.28.5) The adjective corresponding to Avestan aṣ̌a/arta-

2392-580: Is in this particular late form of exclusively written Zoroastrian Middle Persian, in popular imagination the term 'Pahlavi' became synonymous with Middle Persian itself. The ISO 639 language code for Middle Persian is pal , which reflects the post-Sasanian era use of the term Pahlavi to refer to the language and not only the script. In the classification of the Iranian languages, the Middle Period includes those languages which were common in Iran from

2496-399: Is likewise preserver of ŗtá- . Asha Vahishta is closely associated with fire . Fire is "grandly conceived as a force informing all the other Amesha Spentas , giving them warmth and the spark of life." In Yasht 17.20, Angra Mainyu clamours that Zoroaster burns him with Asha Vahishta. In Vendidad 4.54-55, speaking against the truth and violating the sanctity of promise is detected by

2600-399: Is nevertheless often the old pronunciation or a transitional one that is reflected in the Pahlavi spelling. 2. Voiceless stops and affricates, when occurring after vowels as well as other voiced sounds, became voiced: This process is thought not to have been taken place before Sassanid Pahlavi, and it generally is not reflected in Pahlavi spelling. A further stage in this lenition process

2704-420: Is not far removed from Heraclitus' conception of Logos . Both Avestan aṣ̌a/arta and Vedic ŗtá- are commonly translated as "truth" as this best reflects both the original meaning of the term as well as the opposition to their respective antonyms . The opposite of Avestan aṣ̌a/arta is druj- , "lie." Similarly, the opposites of Vedic ṛtá- are ánṛta- and druh , likewise "lie". That "truth"

2808-657: Is not preserved in post-Vedic texts. On the other hand, sátya- and ánrta- both survive in classical Sanskrit. The main theme of the Rig Veda, "the truth and the gods", is not evident in the Gathas. Thematic parallels between aṣ̌a/arta and ŗtá- , however, exist such as in Yasht 10, the Avestan hymn to Mithra . There, Mithra, who is the hypostasis and the preserver of covenant, is the protector of aṣ̌a/arta . RigVedic Mitra

2912-411: Is of cardinal importance to Zoroastrian theology and doctrine . In the moral sphere, aṣ̌a/arta represents what has been called "the decisive confessional concept of Zoroastrianism". The opposite of Avestan aṣ̌a is 𐬛𐬭𐬎𐬘 druj , "deceit, falsehood". Its Old Persian equivalent is arta- . In Middle Iranian languages the term appears as ard- . The word is also the proper name of

3016-665: Is present when Ahura Mazda fixed the course of the sun, the moon and the stars ( Yasna 44.3), and it is through aṣ̌a that plants grow ( Yasna 48.6). "Right working" also overlaps with both Indo-European *ár- "to (properly) join together" and with the notion of existence and realization (to make real). The word for "established", ar ə ta- , also means "proper". The antonymic anar ə ta- (or anar ə θa- ) means "improper". In Zoroastrian tradition, prayers must be enunciated with care for them to be effective. The Indo-Iranian formula *sātyas mantras ( Yasna 31.6: haiθīm mathrem ) "does not simply mean 'true Word' but formulated thought which

3120-441: Is seldom possible to distinguish between moral principle and the divinity. Later texts consistently use the 'Best' epithet when speaking of the Amesha Spenta; only once in the Gathas is 'best' an adjective of aṣ̌a/arta . Avestan aṣ̌a and its Vedic equivalent ṛtá both derive from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ṛtá- "truth", which in turn continues Proto-Indo-European * h 2 r-to- "properly joined, right, true", from

3224-725: Is spelt mtr' . In contrast, the Manichaean spellings are gʾh , ngʾh , šhr , myhr . Some other words with earlier /θ/ are spelt phonetically in Pahlavi, too: e.g. gēhān , spelt gyhʾn 'material world', and čihr , spelt cyhl 'face'. There are also some other cases where /h/ is spelt /t/ after p : ptkʾl for pahikār 'strife', and /t/ may also stand for /j/ in that position: ptwnd for paywand 'connection'. There are some other phoneme pairs besides /j/ and /d͡ʒ/ that are not distinguished: h (the original Aramaic ḥ ) may stand either for /h/ or for /x/ ( hm for ham 'also' as well as hl for xar 'donkey'), whereas

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3328-427: Is that Arsacid word-initial /j/ produced Sassanid /d͡ʒ/ (another change that is not reflected in the Pahlavi spelling). The sound probably passed through the phase /ʒ/ , which may have continued until very late Middle Persian, since Manichaean texts did not identify Indic /d͡ʒ/ with it and introduced a separate sign for the former instead of using the letter for their native sound. Nonetheless, word-initial /j/

3432-570: Is the name given to the middle stage of development of the numerous Iranian languages and dialects . The middle stage of the Iranian languages begins around 450 BCE and ends around 650 CE. One of those Middle Iranian languages is Middle Persian, i.e. the middle stage of the language of the Persians, an Iranian people of Persia proper , which lies in the south-western highlands on the border with Babylonia . The Persians called their language Parsig , meaning "Persian". Another Middle Iranian language

3536-474: Is the origin of fire, Avestan atar , which permeates through all Creation. The correspondence then is that aṣ̌a/arta "penetrates all ethical life, as fire penetrates all physical being." In the liturgy Asha Vahishta is frequently invoked together with fire. ( Yasna l.4, 2.4, 3.6, 4.9, 6.3, 7.6, 17.3, 22.6, 59.3, 62.3 etc.). In one passage, fire is a protector of aṣ̌a : "when the Evil Spirit assailed

3640-417: Is true, corresponds to an objective, material reality that embraces all of existence. Recognized in it is a great cosmic principle since all things happen according to it. "This cosmic [...] force is imbued also with morality, as verbal Truth, 'la parole conforme', and Righteousness, action conforming with the moral order." The correspondence between 'truth', reality and an all-encompassing cosmic principle

3744-521: The Chinvat bridge across which souls must pass. According to a lost Avestan passage that is only preserved in a later (9th century) Pahlavi text, towards the end of time and the final renovation, Aṣ̌a and Airyaman will together come upon the earth to do battle with the Az, the daeva of greed ( Zatspram 34.38-39). The third Yasht , which is nominally addressed to Asha Vahishta, is in fact mostly devoted to

3848-672: The Pahlavi Psalter (7th century); these were used until the beginning of the second millennium in many places in Central Asia , including Turpan and even localities in South India . All three differ minimally from one another and indeed the less ambiguous and archaizing scripts of the latter two have helped to elucidate some aspects of the Sasanian-era pronunciation of the former. The vowels of Middle Persian were

3952-658: The imperial variety of the Aramaic alphabet used in the chancelleries of the Achaemenid Empire . As is typical of abjads, they express primarily the consonants in a word form. What sets them apart from other abjads, however, is the use of Heterograms , and more specifically Aramaeograms , i.e. words written in Aramaic (sometimes, in later periods, with distortions) but pronounced in Middle Persian: e.g. LY (Aramaic 'to me') for man 'me, I'. There were about

4056-701: The sabao Wirkak excavated at Xi'an, but another fragmentary depiction appears on the funerary couch in the Miho Museum. In Yazidism , the Silat Bridge is a bridge in Lalish that leads to the most holy Yazidi shrine. It symbolizes the connection and crossing over from the profane earthly world and the sacred, esoteric world. As in Zoroastrianism, the Silat Bridge in will also play a role at

4160-481: The w and n have the same graphic appearance. Furthermore, letters used as part of Aramaic heterograms and not intended to be interpreted phonetically are written in capitals: thus the heterogram for the word ān is rendered ZK , whereas its phonetic spelling is transliterated as ʾn' (the final vertical line reflects the so-called 'otiose' stroke, see below ). Finally, there is a convention of representing 'distorted/corrupt' letters, which 'should' have appeared in

4264-442: The "old" language (i.e. Middle Persian) and Aramaic-derived writing system. In time, the name of the writing system, pahlavi "Parthian", began to be applied to the "old" Middle Persian language as well, thus distinguishing it from the "new" language, farsi . Consequently, 'pahlavi' came to denote the particularly Zoroastrian, exclusively written, late form of Middle Persian. Since almost all surviving Middle Persian literature

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4368-442: The "perfect" time, at which instant the world was created and at which instant time will stop on the day of the final renovation of the world. Middle Persian Middle Persian , also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script : 𐭯𐭠𐭫𐭮𐭩𐭪 , Manichaean script : 𐫛𐫀𐫡𐫘𐫏𐫐 ‎ , Avestan script : 𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬯𐬍𐬐 ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became

4472-458: The ' Jashan of Ardavisht', is held on the day on which month-name and day-name dedications intersect. In the Fasli and Bastani variants of the Zoroastrian calendar , this falls on April 22. Rapithwin, one of the five gah s (watches) of the day, under the protection of Aṣ̌a. ( Bundahishn 3.22) This implies that all prayers recited between noon and three invoke Aṣ̌a. Noon is considered to be

4576-412: The 10th–11th centuries, Middle Persian texts were still intelligible to speakers of Early New Persian. However, there are definite differences that had taken place already by the 10th century: Texts in Middle Persian are found in remnants of Sasanian inscriptions and Egyptian papyri , coins and seals, fragments of Manichaean writings , and Zoroastrian literature , most of which was written down after

4680-792: The 7th-century, the Sassanids were overthrown by the Arabs. Under Arab influence, Iranian languages began to be written in Arabic script (adapted to Iranian phonology ), while Middle Persian began to rapidly evolve into New Persian and the name parsik became Arabicized farsi . Not all Iranians were comfortable with these Arabic-influenced developments, in particular, members of the literate elite, which in Sassanid times consisted primarily of Zoroastrian priests. Those former elites vigorously rejected what they perceived as ' Un-Iranian ', and continued to use

4784-420: The Aramaic distinctions between ḥ and h and between k and q were not always maintained, with the first often replacing the second, and the one between t and ṭ was lost in all but Inscriptional Pahlavi: thus YKTLWN (pronounced о̄zadan ) for Aramaic yqṭlwn 'kill', and YHWWN (pronounced būdan ) for Aramaic yhwwn 'be', even though Aramaic h is elsewhere rendered E . In the rest of this article,

4888-488: The Aramaic script of Palmyrene origin. Mani used this script to write the known book Šābuhrāgān and it continued to be used by Manichaeans until the 9th century to write in Middle Persian, and in various other Iranian languages for even longer. Specifically the Middle Persian Manichaean texts are numerous and thought to reflect mostly the period from the 3rd to the 7th centuries CE. In contrast to

4992-447: The Arsacid sound values, but is known from the more phonetic Manichaean spelling of texts from Sassanid times. As a result of these changes, the voiceless stops and affricates /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , /t͡ʃ/ rarely occurred after vowels – mostly when geminated, which has protected them from the lenition (e.g. waččag , sp. wck' 'child'), and due to some other sound changes. Another difference between Arsacid and Sassanid-era pronunciation

5096-445: The Avesta also retain some old features, most other Zoroastrian Book Pahlavi texts (which form the overwhelming majority of the Middle Persian corpus as a whole) are linguistically more innovative. In view of the many ambiguities of the Pahlavi script, even its transliteration does not usually limit itself to rendering merely the letters as written; rather, letters are usually transliterated in accordance with their origin regardless of

5200-539: The Avesta, the "radiant quarters" of aṣ̌a is "the best existence", i.e. Paradise (cf. Vendidad 19.36), entry to which is restricted to those who are recognized as "possessing truth" ( aṣ̌avan ). The key to this doctrine is Yasna 16.7: "We worship the radiant quarters of Aṣ̌a in which dwell the souls of the dead, the Fravašis of the aṣ̌avan s; the best existence (=Paradise) of the aṣ̌avan s we worship, (which is) light and according all comforts." 'Aṣ̌a' derives from

5304-629: The Avestan text, the Yasna , there is a description of the Chinvat Bridge. The Vendidad also describes the Chinvat Bridge in fargard 19. Dimitris Lyacos 's second part of the trilogy Poena Damni With the People from the Bridge alludes to the Chinvat Bridge. In the book a bridge functions as part of the setting of a makeshift performance but also as a narrative element that connects the world of

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5408-536: The Chinvat Bridge as straight upward, rather than curvilinear. Three divinities are thought to be guardians of the Chinvat Bridge: Sraosha (Conscience), Mithra (Covenant) and Rashnu (Justice). Alternate names for this bridge include Chinwad , Cinvat , Chinvar or Chinavat . The last gateway to Heaven and Hell; As-Sirāt in Islam is similar to concept of Chinvat. In the 71st chapter of

5512-454: The English language: truth, righteousness, rightfulness, lawfullness, conformity, accord, order (cosmic order, social order, moral order). These various meanings of "right" are frequently combined, such as "the inexorable law of righteousness," or as "the eternal fitness of things that are in accord with the divine order." As (the hypostasis of) regularity and "right working", aṣ̌a/arta-

5616-545: The Gathas and is in turn reflected in Zoroastrian tradition. In Bundahishn 26.8, Vohu Manah stands at the left hand of God, while Aṣ̌a stands at the right. Yasht 1, the hymn dedicated to Ahura Mazda, provides a list of 74 "names" by which the Creator is invoked. In the numbered list of Yasht 1.7, 'Asha Vahishta' "Best Truth" is the fourth name. A later verse, Yasht 1.12, includes 'Aṣ̌avan' "Possessing Truth" and 'Aṣ̌avastəma' "Most Righteous". In Yasna 40.3, Ahura Mazda

5720-557: The Gathas—is only systematically described in Zoroastrian tradition (e.g. Bundahishn 3.12), aṣ̌a is the second (cf. Yasna 47.1) of the six primeval creations realized ("created by His thought") by Ahura Mazda. It is through these six, the Amesha Spentas that all subsequent creation was accomplished. In addition to Asha Vahishta's role as an Amesha Spenta and hence one of the primordial creations through which all other creation

5824-483: The Manichaean script and a maximally disambiguated transliterated form of Pahlavi do not provide exhaustive information about the phonemic structure of Middle Persian words, a system of transcription is also necessary. There are two traditions of transcription of Pahlavi Middle Persian texts: one closer to the spelling and reflecting the Arsacid-era pronunciation, as used by Ch. Bartholomae and H. S. Nyberg (1964) and

5928-560: The Pahlavi scripts, it is a regular and unambiguous phonetic script that expresses clearly the pronunciation of 3rd century Middle Persian and distinguishes clearly between different letters and sounds, so it provides valuable evidence to modern linguists. Not only did it not display any of the Pahlavi coalescences mentioned above, it also had special letters that enabled it to distinguish [p] and [f] (although it didn't always do so), as well as [j] and [d͡ʒ] , unique designations for [β] , [ð] , and [ɣ] , and consistent distinctions between

6032-529: The Pahlavi spellings will be indicated due to their unpredictability, and the Aramaeograms will be given priority over the 'phonetic' alternatives for the same reason. If a word expressed by an Arameogram has a grammatical ending or, in many cases, a word-formation suffix, these are generally expressed by phonetic elements: LYLYA ʾn for šab ʾn 'nights'. However, verbs in Inscriptional Pahlavi are sometimes written as 'bare ideograms', whose interpretation

6136-539: The Sasanian era. The language of Zoroastrian literature (and of the Sasanian inscriptions) is sometimes referred to as Pahlavi – a name that originally referred to the Pahlavi scripts , which were also the preferred writing system for several other Middle Iranian languages. Pahlavi Middle Persian is the language of quite a large body of literature which details the traditions and prescriptions of Zoroastrianism , which

6240-498: The Zoroastrian calendar , below. Although there are numerous eschatological parallels between Aṣ̌a and Aši "recompense, reward" (most notably their respective associations with Sraosha and Vohu Manah), and are on occasion even mentioned together ( Yasna 51.10), the two are not etymologically related. The feminine abstract noun aši/arti derives from ar- , "to allot, to grant." Aši also has no Vedic equivalent. In Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology , which—though alluded to in

6344-461: The aid of brilliant fire". In Yasna 34-44 devotees "ardently desire [Mazda's] mighty fire, through aṣ̌a." In Yasna 43–44, Ahura Mazda "shall come to [Zoroaster] through the splendour of [Mazda's] fire, possessing the strength of (through) aṣ̌a and good mind (=Vohu Manah)." That fire "possesses strength through aṣ̌a " is repeated again in Yasna 43.4. In Yasna 43.9, Zoroaster, wishing to serve fire, gives his attention to aṣ̌a . In Yasna 37.1, in

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6448-681: The bridge will be wide enough to cross, and the Daena , a spirit representing revelation, will appear and lead the soul into Garo Demana (the House of Song). Those souls that successfully cross the bridge are united with Ahura Mazda . Often, the Chinvat Bridge is identified with the rainbow, or with the Milky Way galaxy, such as in Professor C.P. Tiele's "History of Religion ". However, other scholars such as C.F. Keary and Ferdinand Justi disagree with this interpretation, citing descriptions of

6552-429: The cluster *θr in particular), but it had been replaced by /h/ by the Sassanid period: The phoneme /ɣ/ (as opposed to the late allophone of /ɡ/ ) is rare and occurs almost only in learned borrowings from Avestan and Parthian , e.g. moγ (Pahlavi mgw or mwg 'Magian'), maγ (Pahlavi mγ ) 'hole, pit'. The sound /ʒ/ may also have functioned as a marginal phoneme in borrowings as well. The phoneme /l/

6656-411: The coinciding forms: thus, even though Book Pahlavi has the same letter shapes for original n , w and r , for original ʾ and ḥ and for original d , g and y , besides having some ligatures that coincide in shape with certain individual letters, these are all transliterated differently. For instance, the spelling of gōspand 'domestic animal' is transliterated gwspnd in spite of the fact that

6760-518: The consumption of "water, blazing, of golden color, having the power to detect guilt." This analogy of truth that burns and detecting truth through fire is already attested in the very earliest texts, that is, in the Gathas and in the Yasna Haptanghaiti . In Yasna 43–44, Ahura Mazda dispenses justice through radiance of His fire and the strength of aṣ̌a. Fire "detects" sinners "by hand-grasping" ( Yasna 34.4). An individual who has passed

6864-468: The creation of Good Truth, Good Thought and Fire intervened" ( Yasht 13.77) In later Zoroastrian tradition, Asha Vahishta is still at times identified with the fire of the household hearth. In addition to the role of fire as the agent of Truth , fire, among its various other manifestations, is also "the fire of judicial ordeal, prototype of the fiery torrent of judgement day, when all will receive their just deserts 'by fire and by Aṣ̌a' ( Y 31.3)." In

6968-630: The divinity Asha, the Amesha Spenta that is the hypostasis or "genius" of "Truth" or "Righteousness". In the Younger Avesta , this figure is more commonly referred to as Asha Vahishta ( Aṣ̌a Vahišta , Arta Vahišta ), "Best Truth". The Middle Persian descendant is Ashawahist or Ardwahisht ; New Persian Ardibehesht or Ordibehesht . In the Gathas —the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism, thought to have been composed by Zoroaster —it

7072-531: The early Middle Persian of the Arsacid period (until the 3rd century CE) and the Middle Persian of the Sassanid period (3rd – 7th century CE) is due to a process of consonant lenition after voiced sounds that took place during the transition between the two. Its effects were as follows: 1. Voiced stops, when occurring after vowels, became semivowels : This process may have taken place very early, but it

7176-457: The end of times in Yazidism (Kreyenbroek 2005: 39). Asha Asha ( / ˈ ʌ ʃ ə / ) or arta ( / ˈ ɑːr t ə / ; Avestan : 𐬀𐬴𐬀 Aṣ̌a / Arta ) is a Zoroastrian concept with a complex and highly nuanced range of meaning. It is commonly summarized in accord with its contextual implications of 'truth' and 'right' (or 'righteousness'), 'order' and 'right working'. It

7280-623: The fall of the Achaemenid Empire in the fourth century BCE up to the fall of the Sasanian Empire in the seventh century CE. The most important and distinct development in the structure of Iranian languages of this period is the transformation from the synthetic form of the Old Period ( Old Persian and Avestan ) to an analytic form: The modern-day descendants of Middle Persian are New Persian and Luri . The changes between late Middle and Early New Persian were very gradual, and in

7384-424: The fiery test ( garmo-varah , ordeal by heat ), has attained physical and spiritual strength, wisdom, truth and love with serenity ( Yasna 30.7). Altogether, "there are said to have been some 30 kinds of fiery tests in all." According to the post- Sassanid Dadestan i denig (I.31.10), at the final judgement a river of molten metal will cover the earth. The righteous, as they wade through this river, will perceive

7488-421: The first Yasht , dedicated to Ahura Mazda , in which the "fifth name is the whole good existence of Mazda, the seed of Asha" ( Yasht 1.7). Similarly, in the mythology of Gandar ə βa , the 'yellow-heeled' dragon of the druj- that emerges from the deep to destroy the "living world (creation) of Aṣ̌a" ( Yasht 19.41) In the ethical goals of Zoroastrianism ("good thoughts, good words, good deeds"), Vohu Manah

7592-479: The following: It has been doubted whether the Middle Persian short mid vowels /e/ and /o/ were phonemic , since they do not appear to have a unique continuation in later forms of Persian and no minimal pairs have been found. The evidence for them is variation between spelling with and without the matres lectionis y and w , as well as etymological considerations. They are thought to have arisen from earlier /a/ in certain conditions, including, for /e/ ,

7696-624: The healer of all spiritual ills and Airyaman then only retains the role of healer of corporeal ills. Although Airyaman has no dedication in the Siroza, the invocations to the divinities of the Zoroastrian calendar , Airyaman is twice invoked together with Aṣ̌a. ( Siroza 1.3 and 2.3) Aogemadaecha 41-47 prototypes death as a journey that has to be properly prepared for: As mortals acquires material goods as they go through life, so also should they furnish themselves with spiritual stores of righteousness. They will then be well provisioned when they embark on

7800-399: The journey from which they will not return. Aṣ̌a's role is not limited to judgement: In Bundahishn 26.35, Aṣ̌a prevents daevas from exacting too great a punishment to souls consigned to the House of Lies. Here, Aṣ̌a occupies the position that other texts assign to Mithra , who is traditionally identified with fairness. For the relationship between Aṣ̌a, eschatology and Nowruz , see in

7904-467: The later forms are an (Manichaean ՚n ), and meh (Pahlavi ms and Manichaean myh ); indeed, some scholars have reconstructed them as monosyllabic any , mahy even for Middle Persian. Middle Persian has been written in a number of different scripts. The corpora in different scripts also exhibit other linguistic differences that are partly due to their different ages, dialects and scribal traditions. The Pahlavi scripts are abjads derived from

8008-496: The letter p to express /f/ , and ṣ to express z after a vowel. The widespread use of Aramaeograms in Pahlavi, often existing in parallel with 'phonetic' spellings, has already been mentioned: thus, the same word hašt 'eight' can be spelt hšt or TWMNYA . A curious feature of the system is that simple word stems sometimes have spellings derived from Aramaic inflected forms: the spellings of verb stems include Aramaic inflectional affixes such as -WN , -TWN or -N and Y- ;

8112-469: The literary language of the Sasanian Empire . For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Persian continued to function as a prestige language . It descended from Old Persian , the language of the Achaemenid Empire and is the linguistic ancestor of Modern Persian , the official language of Iran (also known as Persia) , Afghanistan ( Dari ) and Tajikistan ( Tajik ). "Middle Iranian"

8216-414: The living with the world of the dead. American poet Charles Olson references the Chinvat Bridge ("Cinvat" in his reading) in his epic, The Maximus Poems; a work which deals with Avestan mythology, among numerous others. Representations of bridges on early medieval Sogdian funerary couches have been identified as the Chinvat Bridge. The most notable of these appears on the east wall of the funerary couch of

8320-410: The molten metal as a bath of warm milk. The wicked will be scorched. For details on aṣ̌a's role in personal and final judgement, see aṣ̌a in eschatology , below. Fire is moreover the "auxiliary of the truth," "and not only, as in the ordeal, of justice and of truth at the same time." In Yasna 31.19, "the man who thinks of aṣ̌a , [...] who uses his tongue in order to speak correctly, [does so] with

8424-422: The other concepts, only Vohu Manah "Good Purpose" appears nearly as often (136 occurrences). In comparison, the remaining four of the great sextet appear only 121 times altogether. Although a formal hierarchy is not evident in the Gathas, the group of six "divides naturally into three dyads ." In this arrangement, Aṣ̌a is paired with Vohu Manah. This reflects the frequency in which the two appear (together) in

8528-437: The other hand, is sometimes rendered as ẖ . For original ṭ , the sign ṯ is used. The special Manichaean letters for /x/ , /f/ , [β] , /ɣ/ and [ð] are transcribed in accordance with their pronunciation as x , f , β , γ and δ . Unlike Pahlavi, the Manichaean script uses the letter Ayin also in Iranian words (see below) and it is transliterated in the usual Semitological way as ՙ . Since, like most abjads, even

8632-597: The pairs [x] – [h] and [r] – [l] . Since knowledge of Pahlavi decreased after the Muslim conquest of Iran , the Zoroastrians occasionally transcribed their religious texts into other, more accessible or unambiguous scripts. One approach was to use the Avestan alphabet , a practice known as Pazand ; another was to resort to the same Perso-Arabic script that was already being used for New Persian , and that

8736-586: The praise of the airyaman ishya ( airy ә mā īšyo , "Longed-for airyaman "), the fourth of the four great Gathic prayers. In present-day Zoroastrianism it is considered to invoke Airyaman just as the Ashem Vohu , is the second of the four great Gathic prayers, is dedicated to Aṣ̌a. All four prayers (the first is the Ahuna Vairya , the third is the Yenghe Hatam ) have judgement and/or salvation as

8840-479: The presence of a following /n/ , sibilant or front vowel in the next syllable, and for /o/ , the presence of a following labial consonant or the vowel /u/ in the next syllable. Long /eː/ and /oː/ had appeared first in Middle Persian, since they had developed from the Old Persian diphthongs /ai/ and /aw/ . The consonant phonemes were the following: A major distinction between the pronunciation of

8944-489: The root * h 2 ar . The word is attested in Old Persian as arta . It is unclear whether the Avestan variation between aṣ̌a and arta is merely orthographical. Benveniste suggested š was only a convenient way of writing rt and should not be considered phonetically relevant. According to Gray, ṣ̌ is a misreading, representing – not /ʃ/ - but /rr/, of uncertain phonetic value but "probably" representing

9048-629: The same Proto-Indo-European root as ' Airyaman ', the divinity of healing who is closely associated with Asha Vahishta. At the last judgement, the common noun airyaman is an epithet of the saoshyans , the saviours that bring about the final renovation of the world. The standing epithet of these saviour figures is ' astvat ә r ә ta ', which likewise has arta as an element of the name. These saviours are those who follow Ahura Mazda's teaching "with acts inspired by aṣ̌a" ( Yasna 48.12). Both Airyaman and Asha Vahishta (as also Atar ) are closely associated with Sraosha "[Voice of] Conscience" and guardian of

9152-442: The same position, possibly earlier; not only was it weakened to a fricative [ʒ] , but it was also depalatalised to [z] . In fact, old Persian [d͡ʒ] and [ʒ] in any position also produced [z] . Unlike the case with the spirantisation of stops, this change is uncontroversially recognised for Sassanid times. The lenition of voiceless stops and affricates remained largely unexpressed in Pahlavi spelling, which continues to reflect

9256-446: The sense of "really existing." This meaning is also preserved in Avestan, for instance in the expression haiθīm var ə z , "to make true" as in "to bring to realization." Another meaning of "reality" may be inferred from the component parts of the aṣ̌a/arta : from (root) ŗ with a substantivizing -ta suffix. The root ŗ corresponds to Old Avestan ar ə ta- and Younger Avestan ə r ə ta- "established", hence aṣ̌a/arta "that which

9360-411: The spellings of pronouns are often derived from Aramaic prepositional phrases ( tо̄ 'you' is LK , originally Aramaic lk 'to you', о̄y 'he' is OLE , originally Aramaic ʿlh 'onto him'); and inalienable nouns are often noun phrases with pronominal modifiers ( pidar 'father' is ABYtl , originally Aramaic ʾby 'my father', pāy 'foot' is LGLE , originally Aramaic rglh 'his foot'). Furthermore,

9464-522: The state of affairs in living Middle Persian only indirectly. The surviving manuscripts are usually 14th-century copies. Other, less abundantly attested varieties are Manichaean Middle Persian , used for a sizable amount of Manichaean religious writings, including many theological texts, homilies and hymns (3rd–9th, possibly 13th century), and the Middle Persian of the Church of the East , evidenced in

9568-451: The transition of /θ/ to /h/ in some words (in front of /r/ this reflex is due to Parthian influence, since the Middle Persian reflex should have been /s/ ). In such words, the spelling may have s or, in front of r – t . For example, gāh 'place, time' is spelt gʾs (cf. Old Persian gāθu ) and nigāh '(a) look' is spelt nkʾs ; šahr 'country, town' is spelt štr' (cf. Avestan xsaθra ) and mihr 'Mithra, contract, friendship'

9672-635: The transliteration). Similarly, the letter d may stand for /j/ after a vowel, e.g. pʾd for pāy 'foot' – this is no longer apparent in Book Pahlavi due to the coincidence of the shapes of the original letters y , d and g , but is already clearly seen in Inscriptional and Psalter Pahlavi. Indeed, it even appears to have been the general rule word-finally, regardless of the word's origins, although modern transliterations of words like xwadāy ( xwtʾd ) and mēnōy ( mynwd ) do not always reflect this analogical / pseudo-historical spelling. Final īy

9776-475: The use of original Aramaic h is restricted to heterograms (transliterated E in MacKenzie's system, e.g. LGLE for pāy 'foot'). Not only /p/ , but also the frequent sound /f/ is expressed by the letter p , e.g. plhw' for farrox 'fortunate'. While the original letter r is retained in some words as an expression of the sound /r/ , especially in older frequent words and Aramaeograms (e.g. štr' for šahr 'country, town', BRTE for duxt 'daughter'), it

9880-509: Was Parthian , i.e. the language of the northwestern Iranian peoples of Parthia proper , which lies along the southern/south-eastern edge of the Caspian sea and is adjacent to the boundary between western and eastern Iranian languages. The Parthians called their language Parthawig , meaning "Parthian". Via regular sound changes Parthawig became Pahlawig , from which the word 'Pahlavi' eventually evolved. The -ig in parsig and parthawig

9984-698: Was a regular Middle Iranian appurtenant suffix for "pertaining to". The New Persian equivalent of -ig is -i . When the Arsacids (who were Parthians) came to power in the 3rd-century BCE, they inherited the use of written Greek (from the successors of Alexander the Great ) as the language of government. Under the cultural influence of the Greeks ( Hellenization ), some Middle Iranian languages, such as Bactrian , also had begun to be written in Greek script . But yet other Middle Iranian languages began to be written in

10088-529: Was adopted for at least four other Middle Iranian languages, one of which was Middle Persian. In the 3rd-century CE, the Parthian Arsacids were overthrown by the Sassanids , who were natives of the south-west and thus spoke Middle Persian as their native language. Under Sassanid hegemony, the Middle Persian language became a prestige dialect and thus also came to be used by non-Persian Iranians. In

10192-419: Was on the last syllable. That was due to the fact that any Old Persian post-stress syllables had been apocopated : It has been suggested that words such as anīy 'other' (Pahlavi spelling AHRN , AHRNy d , Manichaean ՚ny ) and mahīy 'bigger' (Manichaean mhy ) may have been exceptionally stressed on the first syllable, since the last one was apocopated already in the course of the Middle Persian period:

10296-506: Was realized, Truth is one of the "organs, aspects or emanations" of Ahura Mazda through which the Creator acts and is immanent in the world. Although Vohu Manah regularly stands first in the list of the Amesha Spenta (and of Ahura Mazda's creations), in the Gathas Asha Vahishta is the most evident of the six, and also the most commonly associated with Wisdom (Mazda). In the 238 verses of these hymns, Aṣ̌a appears 157 times. Of

10400-457: Was referred to as Pārsī. Since these methods were used at a relatively late linguistic stage, these transcriptions often reflect a very late pronunciation close to New Persian. In general, Inscriptional Pahlavi texts have the most archaic linguistic features, Manichaean texts and the Psalter exhibit slightly later, but still relatively early language stages, and while the Pahlavi translations of

10504-425: Was regularly written y d . In the same way, (w)b may also correspond to a w in the pronunciation after a vowel. The fortition of initial /j/ to /d͡ʒ/ (or /ʒ/ ) is not reflected either, so y can express initial /d͡ʒ/ , e.g. yʾm for ǰām 'glass' (while it still expresses /j/ in the learned word y z dt' for yazd 'god'). Some even earlier sound changes are not consistently reflected either, such as

10608-555: Was retained/reintroduced in learned borrowings from Avestan . Furthermore, some forms of Middle Persian appear to have preserved ǰ (from Proto-Iranian /d͡ʒ/ or /t͡ʃ/ ) after n due to Parthian influence, instead of the usual weakening to z . This pronunciation is reflected in Book Pahlavi, but not in Manichaean texts: Judging from the spelling, the consonant /θ/ may have been pronounced before /r/ in certain borrowings from Parthian in Arsacid times (unlike native words, which had /h/ for earlier *θ in general and /s/ for

10712-446: Was still relatively rare as well, especially so in Manichaean texts, mostly resulting from Proto-Iranian *rd, *rz and, more rarely, *r. It also occurred in the combination /hl/ , which was a reflex of Old Persian /rθ/ and /rs/ (cf. the words 'Pahlavi' and 'Parthian'). The sound /xw/ may be viewed as a phoneme or merely as a combination of /x/ and /w/ . Usually /x/ , /xw/ and /ɣ/ are considered to have been velar ;

10816-502: Was the state religion of Sasanian Iran (224 to c. 650) before the Muslim conquest of Persia . The earliest texts in Zoroastrian Middle Persian were probably written down in late Sasanian times (6th–7th centuries), although they represent the codification of earlier oral tradition. However, most texts date from the ninth to the 11th century, when Middle Persian had long ceased to be a spoken language, so they reflect

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