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A new Parthian Inscription

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

W. B. Henning
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Extract

The scantiness of Parthian inscribed material enhances the importance of any new find. The existence of inscriptions and drawings on the rock-walls of a gorge near Birjand (Southern Khorasan) had been known for some time; but their antiquity was not recognized until Mr. Jamal Rezai, a Persian student from Birjand, visited the gorge and took photographs, which he submitted to Dr. Sadiq Kiya, of the University of Tehran. Dr. Kiya at once correctly identified the writing as Parthian and, in company with Mr. Rezai, published the whole material, together with a preliminary reading of the inscriptions. Dr. Richard N. Frye also paid a visit to the site and reported on it briefly in the Persian literary monthly Mihr. Later some uninformed criticism, claiming modern origin of the remains, appeared in the same periodical; it was justly refuted by Dr. Kiya.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 85 , Issue 3-4 , July 1953 , pp. 131 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1953

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References

page 131 note 1 J. Rezai and S. Kiya, Guzāriš-i navištehā va peikarhāyi Kāl-i Jangāl (= Īrān-Kūde No. 14). Tehran, Isfandārmudh-māh 1320 Yezd. [= Feb.-March, 1952]. Here quoted as Report.

page 131 note 2 Year 8, No. 4, Tīr, 1331 [= June–July, 1952], p. 220. Only the principal drawing and inscription had attracted Dr. Frye's notice.

page 131 note 3 Year 8, No. 6, Šahrīvar, 1331 [= Aug.-Sept., 1952], p. 383.

page 131 note 4 Mihr, year 8, No. 9, Ādhar, 1331 [= Nov.-Dec, 1952], pp. 538–9.

page 131 note 5 Acc. to Report, p. 6, n. 3, kāl is a local word, in Khusf and Birjand, with the meaning of darre “valley”. Cf. Ivanow, , “Rustic Poetry in the Dialect of Khorasan” (J. and Proc. As. Soc. Bengal, N.S. xxi, 1925, No. 3), p. 257, kål “a river-bed, wādī, nullah”; see Vullers s.v. kāl 6.—As the brief vowels of place-names are not given in the Report, the correct pronunciation of Jangāl is necessarily uncertainGoogle Scholar.

page 131 note 6 Useful information on the geography and history of this region is contained in W. Ivanow's article, “Persian as spoken in Birjand” (J. and Proc. As. Soc. Bengal, N.S. xxiv, 1928, No. 4), pp. 236–246.

page 131 note 7 On the origin of this name (Xusf/b from Xwasp) see Markwart, , Wehrot und Arang, p. 20, n. 2Google Scholar. The forms with final -st are due to dissimilation, cf. the reverse change from st to -sp (see Trans. Phil. Soc., 1942, 50, n. 2).

page 133 note 1 Report, pp. 10 sq., figs. 4 and 5.

page 133 note 2 Presumably giving the name and title (or office) of the man represented in the drawing. A purely tentative reading: Wyšt' ny K'štyr(wk)[. It is impossible to say how much (if anything) is missing at the end. The writing, compared with that of Inscr. No. 1, tends to the cursive; the letter K deviates from the norm. Wyšt'ny probably=Hystanes | Histanes | Bisthanes.

page 133 note 3 One of them on a slab found among the debris on the floor of the gorge (Report, p. 13). There are, in addition, several isolated letters, belonging perhaps to Nos. 6 and 7.

page 133 note 4 Report, pp. 12–13.

page 133 note 5 It would be advisable to take squeezes rather than direct photographs. For the purpose of photography, the Report states, “the letters and lines of the inscriptions and drawings were whitened with plaster to make them show up better” (p. 7). We thus entirely depend on Mr. Rezai's powers of observation; he seems to have done his work with commendable care.

page 133 note 6 I owe thanks to Mr. J. Rezai for sending me, through the good offices of Dr. E. Yarshater, a copy of the photograph he had taken (which was published before in Report, p. 7); it accompanies this article. I am further indebted to Dr. R. N. Frye for giving me a print of his own photograph.

page 134 note 1 See Asia Major, ii, 176.

page 134 note 2 There is, however, a personal name of somewhat similar aspect (but uncertain reading), see Justi, p. 156a, Karardašīr (which could be Gar- instead).

page 134 note 3 The Kermān-Šāh Ardašīr need not be considered here.

page 134 note 4 Alternatively (but less likely), the name could be a recast of Ι'αρἱ πόλις (Isidorus Characenus, § 16), which lay in the neighbourhood of Farah—Neh.

page 134 note 1 The only significant deviation is in the letter ḥ, which has developed a loop at the bottom of the first vertical.

page 134 note 2 The other drawing, above p. 141, under (b), may be somewhat older; it is reminiscent of the representations of the Parthian kings on their coins.

page 134 note 3 The photograph, having been taken at an angle from the left, is somewhat deceptive; there is increasing distortion to the right side, causing the man to appear over-slim (except for his right leg and hand): in fact, as Dr. Frye's photograph shows, his chest and shoulders are abnormally broad.

page 134 note 4 Cf. Sarre, , Die Kunst des alten Persien, p. 40Google Scholar.

page 134 note 5 Intended to show the man strangling a lion (in the outcome, he seems to be tickling its ear).

page 134 note 6 As the village of Rīč near-by is now used as yailaq by the people of Khusf.

page 134 note 7 As yet we cannot take into account the documents, believed to be Parthian, which were recently discovered by the Russians at the site of Nisā. No copy, as far as I know, of the book in which they were published (D′akonov, Parf′anskie dokumentï iz drevney Nisï) has reached this country. See provisionally Masson, M. E., Vestnik Drevney Istorii, 1950, No. 3, p. 54Google Scholar.

page 136 note 1 Differently Marr, N., Etymologi′a dvux terminov Arm′anskago Feodal′nago stro′a (sepuh and naxarar), Zap. Vost. Otd. Imp. Russk. Arx. Obšč., xi, 1898, 165–174Google Scholar.

page 136 note 2 -axa- from -axwa- as in kaxard.

page 136 note 3 This was rightly seen by Meillet (differently Hübschmann).

page 136 note 4 Who compared nahapet < nāfapati, which may occur in the inscription of Paikuli, see BSOAS., xiv, 511, n. 6. Of the other words mentioned by Meillet, nahatak and nahang, the latter, which means “province” (έπαρχία), does not belong to nāfa (it reflects Mir. nah- from naθ-). It is met with several times in the inscriptions of Kartir, spelt nsngy (which has been oddly explained as meaning “few”).

page 136 note 5 An assumption made also by Marr, loc. cit., p. 171.

page 136 note 6 The Manichasan nwxwyr (cf. Andreas apud Müller, F. W. K., Handsckriftenreste, ii, 111) does not belong to this group, see Mittelir. Manichaica, i, 197, n. 2Google Scholar.