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41-565: —  Events  — —  Figures  — —  Events and terms  — —  Events  — Frashokereti ( Avestan : 𐬟𐬭𐬀𐬴𐬋⸱𐬐𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬙𐬌 frašō.kərəti ) is the Avestan language term (corresponding to Middle Persian 𐭯𐭫𐭱(𐭠)𐭪𐭥𐭲 fraš(a)gird <plškrt>) for the Zoroastrian doctrine of a final renovation of the universe, when evil will be destroyed, and everything else will be then in perfect unity with God ( Ahura Mazda ). The doctrinal premises are (1) good will eventually prevail over evil; (2) creation

82-831: A number of reasons for this shift, based on both the Old Avestan and the Young Avestan material. As regards Old Avestan, the Gathas show strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the Rigveda , which in turn is assumed to represent the second half of the second millennium BC. As regards Young Avestan, texts like the Yashts and the Vendidad are situated in the eastern parts of Greater Iran and lack any discernible Persian or Median influence from Western Iran. This

123-640: Is aḥashdarpan אֲחַשְׁדַּרְפָּן , as found in Esther 3:12. In the Parthian (language of the Arsacid Empire ) and Middle Persian (the language of the Sassanian Empire ), it is recorded in the forms šahrab and šasab , respectively. In modern Persian the descendant of *khshathrapavan is shahrbān ( شهربان ), but the components have undergone semantic shift so

164-405: Is a restoration of the time of creation, there is no return to the uniqueness of the primordial plant, animal and human; while in the beginning there was one plant, one animal and one human, the variety that had since issued would remain forever. Similarly, the host of divinities brought into existence by Mazda continue to have distinct existences, "and there is no prophecy of their re-absorption into

205-462: Is attested in roughly two forms, known as "Old Avestan" (or "Gathic Avestan") and "Younger Avestan". Younger Avestan did not evolve from Old Avestan; the two differ not only in time, but they are also different dialects. Every Avestan text, regardless of whether originally composed in Old or Younger Avestan, underwent several transformations. Karl Hoffmann traced the following stages for Avestan as found in

246-566: Is classified as Eastern Old Iranian. But the east–west distinction is of limited meaning for Avestan, as the linguistic developments that later distinguish Eastern from Western Iranian had not yet occurred. Avestan does not display some typical (South-)Western Iranian innovations already visible in Old Persian, and so in this sense, "eastern" only means "non-western". Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and largely agrees morphologically with Vedic Sanskrit . The Avestan language

287-508: Is derived via Latin satrapes from Greek satrápes ( σατράπης ), itself borrowed from an Old Iranian *khshathra-pa . In Old Persian , which was the native language of the Achaemenids, it is recorded as khshathapavan ( 𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎱𐎠𐎺𐎠 , literally "protector of the province"). The Median form is reconstructed as *khshathrapavan- . Its Sanskrit cognate is kshatrapa ( क्षत्रप ). The Biblical Hebrew form

328-643: Is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta . It is not known what the original speakers of Avestan called the language. The modern term "Avestan" comes from the Avesta , a collection of Zoroastrian religious literature composed in the language, the name of which comes from Persian اوستا , avestâ and is of obscure origin, though it might come from or be cognate with the Avestan term 𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬁𐬬𐬀𐬐𐬀 , upastāvaka , 'praise'. The language

369-489: Is interpreted such that the bulk of this material, which has been produced several centuries after Zarathustra, must still predate the sixth century BC. As a result, more recent scholarship often assumes that the major parts of the Young Avestan texts mainly reflect the first half of the first millennia BC, whereas the Old Avestan texts of Zarathustra may have been composed around 1000 BC or even as early as 1500 BC. The script used for writing Avestan developed during

410-575: The c.  12th century texts of Neryosang Dhaval and other Parsi Sanskritist theologians of that era, which are roughly contemporary with the oldest surviving manuscripts in Avestan script. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in the Gujarati script ( Gujarati being the traditional language of the Indian Zoroastrians). Some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example,

451-524: The /z/ in zaraθuštra is written with j with a dot below. Avestan has retained voiced sibilants, and has fricative rather than aspirate series. There are various conventions for transliteration of the Avestan alphabet , the one adopted for this article being: Vowels: Consonants: The glides y and w are often transcribed as < ii > and < uu >. The letter transcribed < t̰ > indicates an allophone of /t/ with no audible release at

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492-531: The Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. A satrapy is the territory governed by a satrap. A satrap served as a viceroy to the king, though with considerable autonomy. The word came to suggest tyranny or ostentatious splendour, and its modern usage is a pejorative and refers to any subordinate or local ruler, usually with unfavourable connotations of corruption. The word satrap

533-508: The Sasanian period ". The Avestan language is only known from the Avesta and otherwise unattested. As a result, there is no external evidence on which to base the time frame during which the Avestan language was spoken and all attempts have to rely on internal evidence. Such attempts were often based on the life of Zarathustra as the most distinct event in the Avestan period . Zarathustra

574-414: The 3rd or 4th century AD. By then the language had been extinct for many centuries, and remained in use only as a liturgical language of the Avesta canon. As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood and recited by rote. The script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh "religion writing". It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left. Among

615-508: The 53 characters are about 30 letters that are – through the addition of various loops and flourishes – variations of the 13 graphemes of the cursive Pahlavi script (i.e. "Book" Pahlavi) that is known from the post-Sassanian texts of Zoroastrian tradition. These symbols, like those of all the Pahlavi scripts, are in turn based on Aramaic script symbols. Avestan also incorporates several letters from other writing systems, most notably

656-484: The Amesha Spentas, living without food, without hunger or thirst, and without weapons (or possibility of bodily injury). The material substance of the bodies will be so light as to cast no shadow. All humanity will speak a single language and belong to a single nation without borders. All will share a single purpose and goal, joining with the divine for a perpetual exaltation of God's glory. Although frashokereti

697-493: The Godhead." Avestan language The Avestan text corpus was composed in the ancient Iranian satrapies of Arachosia , Aria , Bactria , and Margiana , corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan as well as parts of Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan . The Yaz culture of Bactria–Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early " Eastern Iranian " culture that

738-452: The Great gave the satrapies a definitive organization, increased their number to thirty-six, and fixed their annual tribute ( Behistun inscription ). The satrap was in charge of the land that he owned as an administrator, and found himself surrounded by an all-but-royal court; he collected the taxes, controlled the local officials and the subject tribes and cities, and was the supreme judge of

779-547: The Parthian Empire; the semi-independent kingdoms and self-governing city states of the Parthian Empire were replaced with a system of "royal cities" which served as the seats of centrally appointed governors called shahrabs as well as the location of military garrisons. Shahrabs ruled both the city and the surrounding rural districts. Exceptionally, the Byzantine Empire also adopted the title "satrap" for

820-679: The Persians. They would ultimately be replaced by conquering empires, especially the Parthians . In the Parthian Empire , the king's power rested on the support of noble families, who ruled large estates and supplied soldiers and tribute to the king. City-states within the empire enjoyed a degree of self-government, and paid tribute to the king. Administration of the Sassanid Empire was considerably more centralized than that of

861-733: The Satraps ). The last great rebellions were put down by Artaxerxes III . The satrapic administration and title were retained—even for Greco-Macedonian incumbents—by Alexander the Great , who conquered the Achaemenid Empire, and by his successors, the Diadochi (and their dynasties) who carved it up, especially in the Seleucid Empire , where the satrap generally was designated as strategos (in other words, military generals); but their provinces were much smaller than under

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902-483: The age of creation, the second of mixture, and the third of separation), there will be a great battle between the forces of good (the yazata s ) and those of evil (the daeva s ) in which the good will triumph. On earth, the Saoshyant will bring about a resurrection of the dead in the bodies they had before they died. This is followed by a last judgment through ordeal. The yazata s Airyaman and Atar will melt

943-424: The army district, contrary to the original rule. "When his office became hereditary, the threat to the central authority could not be ignored" (Olmstead). Rebellions of satraps became frequent from the middle of the 5th   century BCE. Darius I struggled with widespread rebellions in the satrapies, and under Artaxerxes II occasionally the greater parts of Asia Minor and Syria were in open rebellion ( Revolt of

984-563: The conquest of Media by Cyrus the Great, emperors ruled the lands they conquered through client kings and governors. The main difference was that in Persian culture the concept of kingship was indivisible from divinity: divine authority validated the divine right of kings . The twenty-six satraps established by Cyrus were never kings, but viceroys ruling in the king's name, although in political reality many took advantage of any opportunity to carve themselves an independent power base. Darius

1025-490: The end of a word and before certain obstruents . According to Beekes, [ð] and [ɣ] are allophones of /θ/ and /x/ respectively (in Old Avestan). The following phrases were phonetically transcribed from Avestan: Satrap A satrap ( / ˈ s æ t r ə p / ) was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in

1066-513: The extant texts. In roughly chronological order: Many phonetic features cannot be ascribed with certainty to a particular stage since there may be more than one possibility. Every phonetic form that can be ascribed to the Sasanian archetype on the basis of critical assessment of the manuscript evidence must have gone through the stages mentioned above so that "Old Avestan" and "Young Avestan" really mean no more than "Old Avestan and Young Avestan of

1107-528: The fate of his own soul, and simultaneously shares in the responsibility for the fate of the world. The name suggests "making wonderful, excellent". D. N. MacKenzie in A Concise Dictionary of Pahlavi gives the meaning as "the Restoration (at the end of time)". Considering this meaning, the first part could indicate "early, first, initial", related to fra prefix, cognate with pro in Greek and Latin. Then

1148-499: The governors of which were also called satraps and (by Greco-Roman authors) also called hyparchs (actually Hyparkhos in Greek, 'vice-regents'). The distribution of the great satrapies was changed repeatedly, and often two of them were given to the same man. As the provinces were the result of consecutive conquests (the homeland had a special status, exempt from provincial tribute), both primary and sub-satrapies were often defined by former states and/or ethno-religious identity. One of

1189-594: The keys to the Achaemenid success was their open attitude to the culture and religion of the conquered people, so the Persian culture was the one most affected as the Great King endeavoured to meld elements from all his subjects into a new imperial style, especially at his capital, Persepolis . Whenever central authority in the empire weakened, the satrap often enjoyed practical independence, especially as it became customary to appoint him also as general-in-chief of

1230-430: The metal in the hills and mountains, and the molten metal will then flow across the earth like a river. All mankind—both the living and the resurrected dead—will be required to wade through that river, but for the righteous ( ashavan ) it will seem to be a river of warm milk, while the wicked will be burned. The river will then flow down to hell, where it will annihilate Angra Mainyu and the last vestiges of wickedness in

1271-487: The overall meaning being "making into initial state", hence "restoration". The eschatological ideas are only alluded to in the surviving texts of the Avesta , and are known of in detail only from the texts of Zoroastrian tradition, in particular in the ca. 9th-century Bundahishn . The accompanying story, as it appears in the Bundahishn ( GBd 30.1ff), runs as follows: At the end of the "third time" (the first being

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1312-416: The power of each satrap: besides his secretarial scribe, his chief financial official (Old Persian ganzabara ) and the general in charge of the regular army of his province and of the fortresses were independent of him and periodically reported directly to the shah , in person. The satrap was allowed to have troops in his own service. The great satrapies (provinces) were often divided into smaller districts,

1353-502: The province before whose "chair" ( Nehemiah   3:7) every civil and criminal case could be brought. He was responsible for the safety of the roads (cf.   Xenophon), and had to put down brigands and rebels. He was assisted by a council of Persians, to which also provincials were admitted and which was controlled by a royal secretary and emissaries of the king, especially the "eye of the king", who made an annual inspection and exercised permanent control. There were further checks on

1394-687: The semi-autonomous princes that governed one of its Armenian provinces , the Satrapiae . The Western Satraps or Kshatrapas (35–405 CE) of the Indian subcontinent were Saka rulers in the western and central part of the Sindh region of Pakistan , and the Saurashtra and Malwa regions of western India . They were contemporaneous with the Kushans , who ruled the northern part of the subcontinent from

1435-423: The universe. In later Zoroastrian texts, it is written that the molten metal will purify the wicked. The narrative continues with a projection of Ahura Mazda and the six Amesha Spentas solemnizing a final act of worship ( yasna ), and the preparation of parahaoma from "white haoma ". The righteous will partake of the parahaoma , which will confer immortality upon them. Thereafter, humankind will become like

1476-432: The vowels, which are mostly derived from Greek minuscules. A few letters were free inventions, as were also the symbols used for punctuation. Also, the Avestan alphabet has one letter that has no corresponding sound in the Avestan language; the character for /l/ (a sound that Avestan does not have) was added to write Pazend texts. The Avestan script is alphabetic , and the large number of letters suggests that its design

1517-526: The word now means "town keeper" ( shahr شهر meaning "town" + bān بان meaning "keeper"). Although the first large-scale use of satrapies, or provinces, originates from the inception of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great , beginning at around 530   BCE, provincial organization actually originated during the Median era from at least 648   BCE. Up to the time of

1558-462: Was due to the need to render the orally recited texts with high phonetic precision. The correct enunciation of the liturgies was (and still is) considered necessary for the prayers to be effective. The Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, also transcribe Avestan in Brahmi -based scripts. This is a relatively recent development first seen in

1599-420: Was initially perfectly good, but was subsequently corrupted by evil; (3) the world will ultimately be restored to the perfection it had at the time of creation; (4) the "salvation for the individual depended on the sum of [that person's] thoughts, words and deeds, and there could be no intervention, whether compassionate or capricious, by any divine being to alter this." Thus, each human bears the responsibility for

1640-803: Was sometimes called Zend in older works, stemming from a misunderstanding of the Zend (commentaries and interpretations of Zoroastrian scripture) as synonymous with the Avesta itself, due to both often being bundled together as "Zend-Avesta". Avestan and Old Persian are the two attested languages comprising Old Iranian , and while Avestan was localized in the northeastern parts of Greater Iran according to Paul Maximilian Tedesco  [ de ] (1921), other scholars have favored regarding Avestan as originating in eastern parts. Scholars traditionally classify Iranian languages as "old", "middle" and "new" according to their age, and as "eastern" or "western" according to geography, and within this framework Avestan

1681-442: Was traditionally based in the 6th century BC meaning that Old Avestan would have been spoken during the early Achaemenid period . Given that a substantial time must have passed between Old Avestan and Young Avestan, the latter would have been spoken somewhere during the Hellenistic or the Parthian period of Iranian history. However, more recent scholarship has increasingly shifted to an earlier dating. The literature presents

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