Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/earlysassanianinOOthom EARLY SASSARIAR INSCRIPTIONS. THE HAJIABAD INSCRIPTION. ■f* JJJgb > .Ik TAKEN FROM PLASTER CASTS IN THE MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. tablets JTos. 1, 3, 4 , comprise the Qhalddeo-CPehlvi Version, tablets JSfos. § and 6 give the commencement of the Sassanian ' counterpart text. EARLY SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS, SEALS AND COINS. BY EDWARD THOMAS, Esq, LATE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE. LONDON: TRUBNER & Co., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1 8 6 8 . "N STEPHEN AUSTIN, PRINTER, HERTFORD. PREFACE. The original design of the present Memoir was limited to the introductory classification of the Pehlvi Inscrip- tions of the early Sassanidee, 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 ma- terials might perchance secure for them from enter- prising philologers 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 tran- script of these epigraphs before the public, in their cognate Pehlvi type, that suggested the article which appears in the Journal of the Royal 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. and are ready for direct revision from the sculptured originals. Up to this point my intention had been merely to act as the clerical preparer of the imperfect materials which 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 the 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 pre- liminary study of the subject by a full examination and synopsis of the alphabets in which these inscrip- tions were written, and likewise supplemented to the body of the essay illustrations derived from coins and gems, concluding with an attempt to trace the initial date and eastward spread of the associate Pehlvi alpha- bets during the Parthian domination. CONTENTS PAGE 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 Chaldgeo-Pehlvi Alphabet 10 Method of Writing . 11 Sassanian Pehlvi Alphabet 11 Method of W riting 12 Comparison of the Joint Alphabets 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 Bhbekan 27 Inscription No. 2. Sassanian Pehlvi of Ardeshir 30 Inscription No. 3. Pai Kuli— Sassanian 38 „ „ Chaldseo-Pehlvi 49 „ Note by Sir H. Rawlinson on the site of Pai Kuli 56 Inscription No. 4. Trilingual of Sapor 60 Inscription No. 5. Sassanian Pehlvi of Sapor 61 Inscription No. 6. The Hhjiabad bilingual Inscription of Sapor 70 „ Modem text of ditto 74 „ Commentary on ditto 73 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE Inscription No. 6. Tentative Translation of the Hajiabad Inscription of Sapor 98 Inscription No. 7. Sassanian Pehlvi of Narses 102 Inscriptions Nos. 8 and 10. Sassanian Pehlvi of Sapor II. and III. atT&k-i- Busthn 104 Inscription No. 9. Legends from the Signets of Varahrhn Kerman Shah 106 „ Unpublished Seal of that King Ill Inscription No. 11. Sassanian Pehlvi of Sapor II. at Persepolis 115 Inscription No. 12. Ditto of Sapor III. at Persepolis 116 Inscription No. 13, at FirozaMd 116 Sassanian Seals 117 Coins 119 Parthian Coins 121 Sub-Parthian Coins 128 Coins of Atropatene 133 Sassanian Coins , 134 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. So long ago as tlie year 1847, during a temporary absence from my duties in India, I volunteered to undertake the classi- fication of certain imperfectly determined and but partially deciphered series of coins in the East India House collection — in continuation and completion of Professor Wilson’s compre- hensive description of the more popular departments of Central- Asian Numismatics already embodied in his Ariana Antiqua. Among the subdivisions so treated may be cited the Kufic Mintages of the Ghaznavides, a detailed notice of which was inserted in the Journal 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 of 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 Professor Olshausen’s most instructive work “Die Pehlwie-Legenden : ” 2 while it was manifest that the obscure language, of which this imperfect alphabet constituted the graphic exponent, was dependent for its elucidation upon still more fragmentary and defective grammatical or lexicographical means : obstacles which the since accelerated progress of modern ethnography has, up to this time, failed to remove. Under these conditions I 1 A further paper on the same subject will he found in vol. xvii. J.R.A.S. for 1858. 2 Die Pehlwie-Legenden auf den Miinzen der letzten Sasaniden, etc. Kopen- hagen, 1843. A translation of this work is to he found in the London Numis- matic Chronicle, vol. ix., 1848. 1 2 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. naturally approaclied this new investigation with sufficient diffidence, and sought to secure the critical soundness of any suggestive deductions that might present themselves, by a decisive appeal to every archaeological test within reach. Foremost among these were the monumental writings of the earlier Sassanian kings, who, in traditional imitation of the Achsemenians, from whom, indeed, they boasted a but temporarily obscured descent — indulged ostentatiously in mural sculpture and attendant lapidary epigraphy. The Eock Inscriptions of Ardashir Babekan and his proximate successor are couched in duplicate versions, varying dialec- tically, and written in mere modifications of the same normal alphabet ; the one ordinarily employed to define the Pehlvi of Eastern Persia, and out of whose literal elements modem Zend was elaborated, is now conventionally termed “Sas- sanian : ” its counterpart transcript, which adheres more closely to Chaldaean literal forms, was once designated “ Par- thian,” from its occasional official employment under that intrusive dynasty, but has latterly been known as Chaldaeo- Pehlvi. 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 Sir E. Stannus , 1 sufficed to furnish a thoroughly trustworthy out- line 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 in- corporated into a classified table, which may be cited with still undiminished confidence, as freely representing the epochal current forms of the joint Pehlvi characters, and as furnishing an efficient illustration 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 palseographic data, afforded by the signets and seals of the Persian nation at large, fabricated during the period of the Sassanian rule, 1 The original impressions are now in Dublin ; secondary casts are to be found in the Assyrian Room in the British Museum, and the Royal Asiatic Society pos- sesses parallel reproductions. It is from the latter that the illustrative Photograph has been derived. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 3 the identificatory legends of which almost uniformly followed the Eastern type of the concurrent systems of writing. I had scarcely, however, arranged my materials for the elucidation of this branch of the enquiry, when I was called upon to re- turn to the scene of more important avocations ; but desiring that the various Antiquarian remains I had succeeded in bring- ing together should be placed at the disposal of those who might, perchance, have both greater leisure and ability to do justice to the study, I published a cursory notice, pretending to be little more than an introductory explanation of the con- tents of the three plates of gem and other legends already pre- pared, which figure in the thirteenth volume of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. The leading object of the present notice, as confessedly preliminary and tentative as its predecessors, is to draw the attention of resident European officials or chance travellers in the East to an elaborate biliteral inscription, originally engraved along the face of the terrace of the Fire Temple at Pai Kuli 1 (lat. 35° T 16" H., long. 45° 34' 35" E.), eye transcripts of which were made, under considerable disadvantages, by Sir H. Rawlinson and Mr. Hector in 1844, and from whose pencil fac- similes the modernized version now printed has been derived. Sir Henry Rawlinson describes the present condition of the engraved slabs as anything but promising for the acqui- sition of a full and complete copy of the ancient writings. The inscribed stones, which formed the terrace- wall sup- porting the edifice, are stated to have become displaced, and to have mostly rolled down the slope of the hill at hazard, so that their relative continuity would with difficulty be re- established, even if in the majority of cases the beginnings and ends of the lines of each block had not seemingly suffered extensive damage and abrasion. But, with all this, there is so 1 “At the northern extremity of the district of Zohab is the little plain of Semiram, a natural fastness of the most extraordinary strength, which is formed by a range of lofty and precipitous mountains extending in a semicircle from the river Diyalah, here called the ’Ahi-Shirwan, and enclosing an area of about eight miles in length and four in breadth.” . . . “ I searched eagerly for ancient monuments, and though I failed to discover any in the plain itself, yet across the river, at a distance of about three farsakhs, on the road to Suleimanfyah, I heard of sculptures and statues which would well merit the attention ol any future traveller in this country. The place is called Pa’ikal’ah, the foot of the castle, or But Khanah, the idol temple.” — Rawlinson, Jour. R. Geog. Soc., ix. pp. 28-30. 4 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. much, to excite interest in the broken sections we are already in possession of, that I confidently make the appeal to those who may happen to be in a position to improve our existing copies by means of photography, impressions, rubbings, new hand-tracings, or, better still, by intelligent transcripts in mo- dern Pehlvi — for aid in the cause, towards which the portions of the text, now printed, will contribute something in the way of a first proof, and for the encouragement otherwise of future Palaeographers, we may hope that, under a closer examination, the duplicate legends may aid each other both in defective passages and in the correction of the present disjointed order of sequence : while, as the first investigation was necessarily hasty, new discoveries of materials may happily reward more deliberate explorers, even as we can now appeal to the immense advance upon the imperfect transcripts of Mebuhr and Morier, achieved by the less hurried and amplified facsimiles of M.M. Flandin and Coste. 1 In order to bring the entire subject under one view, I have collected together all the fragmentary inscriptions of the Sassanidse at present known, commencing with those interpreted by De Sacy, which I simply reproduce in their corresponding literal equivalents in modern Hebrew and Persian type. The same course has been pursued with the highly interesting bilingual inscription of Sapor, from Hajiabad. Sir H. Eawlinson’s unpublished copies of the Pai Kuli legends, as well as his improved transcripts of the Tak-i-Bustan epigraphs have, however, been more exactly imitated in modern Pehlvi type, which has been made so far competent to resume its primitive duty by the introduction of three letters of the earlier alphabet, which have been lost in the degraded writing of the extant MSS., and finally a similar plan has been followed in the representation of the legible portions of two long and, for the present, most tan- talizing inscriptions of Sapor : artists’ designs of which have 1 Ker Porter remarks (i, p. 574), M. de Sacy “has followed Niebuhr’s copy, which, strange to say, having been made so many years anterior to mine, exhibits an inscription much more defaced than I found it. This may be seen by com- paring the large letters in my copy on the drawing with the large letters in M. de Sacy’s Greek transcript.” [Mem. sur div Ant. p. 31]. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 5 been given in Flandin’s great work , 1 though I am not aware that any attempt has hitherto been made to decipher or explain these singularly comprehensive documents. I am indebted to the same publication for the unique inscription of Parses, at Shahpur, which, together with the legends from the Royal signets of Varahran Kir man Shah have equally been admitted to the honours of the adapted semblance of their contemporary Pehlvi. None of the original drawings or published engravings of the more important inscriptions are sufficiently exact or con- tinuously complete to recommend them for imitation in fac- simile engravings, and even the plaster-casts from Hajiabad, however well they reproduce portions of the associate inscrip- tions, as exhibited in the Photograph, would not, in their pre- sent state, suffice to form an unbroken or perfect copy. The expedient has therefore been again adopted of recognizing these absolute impressions from the sculptured rock as a basis for the construction of standard alphabets of either class. In each case, the best examples of the normal character have been selected from the often- varying outlines of the same letter as fashioned by the local mason, and regard has always been paid to the corresponding outline of the given letter in other monuments of the period, whether lapidary, numismatic, or sigillary. The result has been embodied in the double column of alphabets engraved on wood, arranged with the ordinary type in the accompanying table ; and, as in the absence of all other positive examples of lapidary writing, these letters have to play a conspicuous part as representative types of their several pakeographic systems, no effort, short of cutting the individual letters, has been spared on my part to secure a true and effective rendering of the special characteristics of each symbol. The primary derivation of these alphabets may obviously be traced to Phoenico-Babylonian teachings. Specimens of that form of writing occur, so to say, in situ i as early as the time 1 Voyage en Perse, M. M. Eugene Flandin et Paul Coste, entrepris par ordre de M. le Ministre des Affaires Etrangeres. D’apres les instructions dressees par l’lnstitut. Paris, 1851. 6 vols. folio, plates, etc., and 2 vols. 8vo. text. 6 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. of Sargon, b.c. 721, when the individual characters present themselves in a fixed and cultivated form, far removed from the early stages of crude invention, an indication that, apart from the almost simultaneously established geographical range of cognate letters, would claim for them an extended anterior currency, which it would be as difficult to limit as to define ; my own impressions have always leant towards the concession of a far earlier development of that division of national civilization, which is comprised in the “ art of writing,” than the majority of Palaeographers are prepared to recognize. Let Hieroglyphics and Cuneiform retain their ancient fame ; but the question succeeds, as to how close upon their earliest traces did other systems of writing assert themselves, more facile in materials and more suitable for the purposes of commercial and private life than the formal sculptured figures of the Egyptian temples, or the complicated arrow- headed syllabary of Mesopotamian Palaces, which latter mechanism, however, in its transitional variations, so firmly retained popular favour in virtue of its applicability to the ever-ready clay, the comparative indestructibility of which had been established by many ages of local use. 1 Egyptologers, on their part, concede a very archaic date for the use of parallel systems of writing, and the age of Phoenician, with our present information, need no longer be narrowed within the limits defined by its surviving monu- ments, the majority of which must be held to have dis- appeared with the perishable material chiefly used for their reception. It it is clear that some form of Phoenician, con- stituting a kind of current hand, was in official use under the Assyrian kings, as the authoritative definition of the lion-Wjeights in the letters of that alphabet sufficiently de- clares ; and we are further justified in assuming, in all cases where two Scribes are represented in the royal sculptures, that in intentional contrast to the Cuneiform manipulator, the second amanuensis, who uses a reed and a parchment 1 Rawlinson, J.R.A.S. x, pp. 32, 340, and vol. i. N.S. p. 245. See also the names of Seleucus Philopater (187-175 b.c.), Antiochus (175-164 b.c.), and Demetrius (146-139 b.c.), upon the Cuneiform tablets of terra-cotta in the British Museum, deciphered by Oppert, “ Expedition en Mesopotamie,” ii. 357. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 7 roll, is designed to portray a man writing with ink in some one of the, as yet, but slightly divergent provincialisms of archaic Phoenician. Sargon’s Record Chamber has already proved itself a perfect storehouse of palaeographic data, and, if I am not mistaken, may claim to add another to its list of contemporary alphabets. Mr. Layard, in his admirable description of his own dis- coveries at Koyunjuk, interested his readers in an unusual degree by an account of the still surviving association of the hieroglyphic signet of Subaco, with that of the Assyrian king on a lump of clay, which was supposed to have formed the connecting attestation of the less permanent substance upon which some royal treaty or compact had been engrossed. In the same closet were found several impressions of smaller seals on suitably-sized bits of clay, which at the time attracted no attention ; these, however, on closer scrutiny, seem to bear four varying letters, which can scarcely represent anything but ancient Ethiopian characters ; at least two, if not three out of the four letters are readily identifiable with certain cor- responding characters of the modern alphabets. 1 It is not necessary, for the purpose of proving the currency of this form of writing, that we should be able to detect any of the leading names, either of Subaco, his relatives, or ministers. The importance of the identification consists in the very unex- pected determination of the definite antiquity of the writing of the Ethiopian and cognate nationalities, and the very close bearing this date has upon the alphabetical schemes of the 1 Mr. Bayard’ s account of the discovery of these seals is as follows : — “In a chamber or passage [leading into the archive chamber] in the south-west corner of the palace of Kouyunjik, were found a large number of pieces of fine clay bear- ing the impressions of seals, which, there is no doubt, had been affixed, like modern official seals of wax, to documents written on leather, papyrus, or parch- ment. Such documents, with seals of clay still attached, have been discovered in Egypt, and specimens are still preserved in the British Museum. The writings themselves have been consumed by the fire which destroyed the building or had perished from decay. In the stamped clay, however, may still be seen the holes for the string or strips of skin by which the seal was fastened ; in some instances the ashes of the string itself remain, with the marks of the fingers and thumb. The greater part of these seals are Assyrian ; but with them are others bearing Egyptian, Phoenician, and doubtful symbols and characters. But the most re- markable and important of the Egyptain seals are two impressions of a royal signet, which, though imperfect, retain the cartouche, with the name of the king, so as to be perfectly legible. It is one well known to Egyptian scholars as that 6f the second Sabaco, the ^Ethiopian of the twenty-fifth dynasty. On the same 8 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. Indian Ethiopians , 1 and the kindred nations to the south- eastward, in which many points of constructive identity have already been recognized. piece of clay is impressed an Assyrian seal, with a device representing a priest ministering before the king, probably a royal signet.” The annexed woodcut outlines represent six of the Ethiopian seals, copied from the extant clay-impressions of the original signets, that have survived both “Nineveh and Babylon.” My object in this, and I trust in all similar cases, is not to force 5 6 7 identities, but to place before my fellow labourers coincidences that may perchance elicit new truths. It is not pretended that the literal symbols here found asso- ciated with Egyptian hieroglyphics and Assyrian cuneiform will tally or accord exactly with the transmutations incident to the alphabetical developments of the once powerful, but for many centuries obscure, nationalities that in the interval must have remained more than ordinarily indebted to the advancing world around them. Under this latitude of identification, we may freely appeal to the later forms of Ethiopic, Amharic, or other cognate conservators of traces of the ancient writing, though it is more to the general palseographic configuration than to absolute and complete uniformity of outline that any test must be applied. It may be said in regard to the seals now presented, that they convey in all but five independent letters ; the most marked of the number is the S P , which occurs with sufficient clearness on three occasions. There can be little hesitation in asso- ciating this form with the modern Himyaritic J**} sh or the Ethiopian |*j sha, especially when the subjunct vowel i is added which is so distinctly seen in a varied form, even under possible repetition, in the ancient example. The second figure of special mark is the , which offers a more dubious range of identification among the derivative Ethiopian forms of bi, extending even to the Amharic *Tf| Jcha, and many other possible renderings ; but the most curious coincidence is in the near connection of the sign with the Sanskrit (U| of Northern India (Prinsep’s Essays, ii. p. 40, pi. xxxviii.). The third character, which almost seems to have been in a transition stage at the time these seals were fashioned, may be reduced in the modern alphabets to the Ethiopian (XB or CJU ma ; but of the prevailing coincidencies of formation under the general Ethiopian scheme there can be little question. The imperfect outline t , which recurs on four occasions, may be an Amharic 'f-f ja, or other consonantal combination of j, with a different vowel : an approxi- mate likeness is also to be detected to the Coptic Z/; or the old figure may, per- chance, constitute the prototype of the modern Himyaritic m. 1 Herodotus, ii. 94 ; vii. 70. Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. i. 650 ; iii. 264, note 1 ; iv. p. 220. J. R. A. S. xv. 233. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 9 The career of Phoenician writing in Mesopotamia and the proximate provinces of Western Persia, during the nine centuries and a half intervening between the reigns of Sargon and Ardeshlr Babekan, can only be obscurely traced. We know 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 the opposite direc- tion, under the treatment of the Yedic Aryans, they constituted the basis of an elaborate alphabet of forty-nine signs, the date of whose adaptation is unascertained, but which has now been discovered to have attained full and complete development from Bactria up to the banks of the Jumna, in 250 b.c . 1 How the original alphabet matured its literal forms nearer home we are not in a condition to determine ; 2 there is little doubt 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 limited scope of Phoenician, 3 or to the more material question of the cheapnesss and durability of the clay, whose surface, on the 1 Prinsep’s Essays, ii. 114; Journ. R. 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 e siecle, 1’ alphabet commun a toutes les populations semitiques de la Syrie est 1’ alphabet phenicien archa'ique, souche de 1’ ecriture grecque et de tous les systemes graphiques de l’occident. 2. Yers le Vie siecle, 1’ ecriture phenicienne type, celle que j’ai appelee Sidonienne , se constitue defini- tivement : le plus beau monument de cette ecriture est le celebre sarcophage d’ Esmunazar ; en meme temps la branche arameenne se separe de la souche com- mune. Le caractere principal de ce nouvel alphabet est l’ouverture des boucles des lettres beth, daletli , ain, resch. Mais pendant deux siecles 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 l’alphabet con- serve un caractere mixte qui m’a conduit a lui donner le nom d’ Arameo-Phe- nicien. 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 satrapes de l’Asie mineure.” Rev. Arch. ix. (1864), p. 204. 3 M. Oppcrt makes some interesting remarks upon this subject; among the rest, “ L’epigraphie assyrienne, d’ailleurs, malgre les complications inherentes a 1’ ecriture anaricnne, a un avantage precieux sur l’6pigraphie des autres peuples semitiques. Les mots y sont separes et les voyelles sont exprimes, ce qui con- stitue 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 stop to enquire. Many incidental examples of the local Phcenico-Baby Ionian of various epochs are to be found associated with the con- current Cuneiform on the clay tablets described by Sir H. Eawlinson (b.c. 700-500). 1 Towards the westward the Persian Satraps of the Achae- menidae employed the indigenous Phoenician, 2 and anony- mous Darics, presumably of the Great king, bear upon their surfaces the word in similar characters. 3 But the earliest occasion upon which we can detect a tendency towards the identities and characteristics subsequently deve- loped in the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi is upon the coinage of Artaxias of Armenia, b.c. 189. 4 In this instance the letters V s , D, and & notably depart 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- Parthian 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 the casual appearance of some of the more marked Chaldaeo-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 Kerman coins of Kodes (Kobad), 8 com- plete the list of examples at present known. Of the fellow or Sassanian-Pehlvi alphabet no writing what- ever has as yet been discovered prior to Ardeshir Babekan, 1 Journ. R. A. S. (new series), vol. i. pp. 187, 244. 2 M. de Luynes “ Essai sur la Numismatique des Satrapies et de la Phenicie. Paris, 1846. 3 Gesenius, PI. 36, fig. c. ; Mionnet, Nos. 35, 36. Tresor de Numismatique, PI. lxvi. figs. 1, 2. 4 Numismatic Chronicle, xviii. 143 ; vol. vi. N.S. p. 245, and vii. 237. 5 Numismatic 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 Prinsep’s Essays, i. 32. 8 Numismatic Chronicle, iv. p. 220. (A new coin in the possession of General Cunningham gives the local name in full nK13). SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 11 with, the exception of isolated letters, probably referring to local mints occasionally to be met with on the field of some of the Drachmas of the Parthians. 1 The differences between the rival alphabets we are more immediately concerned with, will be seen to be rather con- structive than fundamental; one leading theory evidently regulated the contrasted forms of the letters in each, the eventual divarications of the two systems, as in so many parallel cases, being due to the fortuitously most suit- able and readily available material for the reception of the writing, which so often determined the ultimate method of graphic definition. The seemingly more archaic structure of the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi clearly carried with it the reminiscence of Babylonian teachings, in which the formation of the letters was largely influenced by the obvious facilities of 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 the point of contact of the pen in the ordinary line of writing ; under these conditions the most 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 per- pendicular line, the minor discriminations being effected by side strokes more varied in construction but of less thickness and prominence ; as time went on, the practice developed itself of forming as many letters as possible after one and the same process of manipulation, the essential difference between the characters being marked by scarcely perceptible variations in the leading design ; hence arose the perplexing result of the general sameness and uniformity, and consequent difficulty of recognition of the imperfectly contrasted letters so marked in Chaldaeo-Pehlvi, and still so troublesome in modern Hebrew. The course followed by the pen in the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi 1 Parthian coin of Sanabares, dated 313 (a.d. 2), in the British Museum, with a Parthian D s and a Sassanian si a on the obverse field. See also Numismatic Chronicle, xvii. 169; Lindsay, pi. xi. Arsaces XXX. 12 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. caligraphy was singularly repetitive, starting from a given point at tlie top of the line of writing, it proceeded slightly downwards with a backward sweep, more or less prolonged ; from this angle the characteristic perpendicular curve com- menced, to be supplemented by the concluding turn of the pen which so often constituted the effective definition of the value of the letter. This formation is followed in the letters 1 1, 5, and less obviously in The letters n, D, and £ commence with similar leading lines, but have discriminating marks added by a second application of the pen ; in like manner 1 is distinguished from ^ 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 backwards on the head-line of the writing, and 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 s and f, and the combined outlines 3, / (3), Pi, and Even the letter N 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 ), which must be supposed to have been constructed like the upward arch of the associate H, 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^. The variation in the configuration of the letters of the Sassanian Pehlvi, as compared with its fellow alphabet of more determined Semitic aspect, may be attributed to the simple action of a different method of manipulation, in- volving a less restrained movement of the hand, and greater freedom in the onward or backward sweep of the pen than was compatible with the conventional restrictions of the caligraphy of Western Asia. There is every reason to believe that the ancient races to the east of the Tigris, in common with the partially civilized populations ranging over Central Asia and the Himalayas, very early in the world’s history, appreciated SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 13 tlie utility of birch-bark, and, even in tbe infancy of letters , 1 its applicability to tbe purposes of writing would readily have suggested itself. At all events, we have direct and independent evidence of its use in Afghanistan some centuries b.c ., 2 and we can cite very credible and unconstrained testi- mony to the fact that much of the sacred literature of the Ancient Persians was engrossed upon this substance , 3 con- 1 To show how forms of writing in early times must have been determined by circumstances and accessible materials, it may he noted that even so late as the days of Muhammad, when there were civilized teachers from the many nations around them, the Arabs had still to engross the stray sayings of their Prophet upon stones and other strange and readily available substances. Sir Vm. 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. Yol. i. p. iii. — Dr. Sprenger, in 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 Antigua, pp. 59, 60, 83, 84, 94, 106-7, 111. 3 I am quite aware that tradition affirms that the substance 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 Chaldaeo- Pehlvi on skins, and the latter in the corresponding alphabet on birch-bark. The following passages from the Dinkard, lately published by Dr. Haug, relating 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 hooks. Nor does Dr. Haug himself seem quite satisfied with his own interpretation, which, con- sidering 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 4 Dinkard ’ has been compiled from all the knowledge acquired (to be) a publication of the Mazdayasnian (Zoro- astrian) religion. 2. It was at first made by the first disciples of the prophet Zertosht Sapetmen 3. The excellent king Kai Vishtasp ordered to write down the information on each subject, according to the original information, embracing the original questions and answers, and deposited them, from the first to the last, in the treasury of Shaspigan (“ Pasargadae,” Haug). He also issued orders to spread copies (of the original). 4. Of these he sent afterwards one to the castle (where) written documents (were 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 after it had come into his posses- sion, that (copy which was) in the castle (where) written documents (were kept) was burnt. The other which was in the treasury of Shashpig5.n fell into the hands of the Romans (Greeks). From it a Grecian [ Lj J translation was made that the sayings of antiquity might become known. 6. 7. Ardeshir Babekan, the king of kings [ ^ J 14 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. siderable remains of which, indeed, preserved with unusual care, were discovered at Isfahan by the Arabs in a.d. 961. 1 This material, while it would on the one hand, in its smooth surface, offer ample facilities for the unchecked flow of the He came to restore the Iranian empire ; he collected all the writings from the various places were they were scattered. ... It (the Dinkart) was then (thus) restored, and made just as perfect as the original light (copy) which had been kept in the treasury of Shapan (‘ Shaspig^n’- — Haug) [ = See extract from Hamza, note 1, below.] “The beginning of the Ardai Virhf Namah ” (from two Pahlavi MSS.). 1. “ It is thus reported that after the religion had been received and established by the holy Zertosht, 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 spirit, the devil, the impious, instigated, in order to make man doubt the truth of religion, the wicked Alexander, the Roman residing in Mudhrai (Egypt) that he came to wage a heavy fight and war against the Iranian country. 3. He killed the ruler of Ir&n, destroyed the residence [Lj J and empire, and laid 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 Bab eg an, in the fort of the library. But Aharman, the evil-doer, brought Alexander, the Roman, who resided in Egypt, that he burnt (the books), and killed the Desturs, the Judges, the Herbads, the Mobeds,” etc. ^ ^ ^ j ^ ^ A “An old Zand- Pahlavi Glossary, or the “ Farhang-i-oim yak,” the original Pehlvi work upon which Anquetil’s vocabulary was based, edited by Hoshengji Jamaspji, and printed under the supervision of Dr. Martin Haug. Stuttgart, 1867.” 1 Hamza Isfahani (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 translation 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 Mascharis, astrologi Balchensis, cujus nomen est : Liber de diversitate Tabularum astronomicarum. Ibi ille : Reges (Persarum), inquit, tanto studio tenebantur disciplinas conservandi, tanta cupiditate eas per omne aevum perpetuandi, tanta sollicitudine eas ab injuriis aeris et humi defendendi, ut iis inter materias scriptorias earn eligerent, quae illas injurias optime ferret, vetustati diutissime resisteret ac mucori et obliteration! minime obnoxia esset, id est, librum (corticem interiorem) fagi, qui liber vocatur tuz. Hoc exemplum imitati Seres et Indi atque populi iis finitimi ad arcus, quibus ad sagitandum utuntur .... Ad arcem igitur, quse nunc intra Djei sita est, profecti ibi disciplinas deposuerunt. Illud aedificium, nomine Saraveih, ad nostra usque tempora perduravit ; atque ex eo ipso cognitum est, quis id condi- derit, propterea quod abhinc multos annos latere ejus aedificii collapso camera in conspectum venit, ex argilla secta constructa, ubi multi majorum libri inventi sunt, in quibus depositae erant variae eorum disciplinae, omnes lingua persica antiqua scripti in cortice tuz. Hamzae Ispahanensis (Annalium Libri, x. pp. 152, xxv.) St. Petershourg, 1844. — Abb Rih&n A1 Biruni (circa 940 a.d.) also records : Mais dans les provinces du centre et du nord de l’lnde, on emploie l’ecorce interieure d’un arbre appele touz C J est avec l’ecorce d’un arbre du meme genre qu’on recouvre les arcs ; celle-ci se nomme boudj J (Bhurjja). Renaud, Mem. sur PInde, p. 305. See also Prinsep’s Essays, ii. 45. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 15 pen, would, in the extreme tenuity of its texture, demand some 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 beld in deserved favour, especially when its other merits, so gravely enlarged upon by the local annalist, are taken into consider- ation. Certain it is that to this day, among the Bhoteahs and other natives of the Himalaya, birch-bark maintains its ancient uses, and many a petition and other documents en- grossed on its surface find their way among the “ stamped papers ” and the like civilized records of the Courts of the British Government in those mountains. It is then to the en- hanced freedom of penmanship incident to the employment of birch-bark that I am disposed to attribute the leading peculiari- ties 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 left constituted the basis of the entire alphabet in its con- junct 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, under the larger and more comprehensive view of the same question, we may trace in the contrasted formation and rela- tive location of the short vowels, a practical and conclusive illustration of the original caligraphic type of either system. The ruling ideal of this Pehlvi scheme of writing pro- ceeded upon a groundwork of curves, the leading model of which declares itself in the letter 2, which commenced to- wards the top of the general line of writing, being extended slightly upward and continued 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 been the subject of notice. 16 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. after the fashion of a reversed Roman C. This formation enters more or less into the composition of the letters CD, <■>, j, fj*i, CS, J, i*, *, and 2 long. In process of time, as the writing became more cursive, the initial point of the i , and of those letters which more immediately followed its tracing, was thrown higher up and further back in the 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 was discriminated in its final 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 up- ward 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 [ C) ]. It remains for me to notice more particularly a few of the letters of either alphabet with reference to their derivation and values, and their relative bearing upon the corresponding signs of other systems. First in order presents itself the independently-organized symbol for ch, a letter of considerable importance in Aryan tongues, but which the Greeks and Romans, in servilely following Semitic originals, so strangely failed to provide a literal representative for. The Chaldseo- Pehlvi contented itself with a like deficiency, and supplied the place of the ch by sh. The Sassanian character £4 ch was clearly based upon the h of its own alphabetical scheme, the additional power being given by the foot-stroke backwards, which was one of the leading peculiarities of this style of writing. The letter in its adapted form bears a faint, but not impossibly an intentional, resemblance to the Bactrian ^ ch. The Sassanian alphabet, again, is itself defective in the Semitic aspirate H kh, which the Greeks converted into H, a sound that fell short of the compound hu in Sassanian, SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 17 which was, perhaps, the best equivalent that the latter writing admitted of. It is to be remarked that, in spite of Indian influences, the Bactrian kh itself did not, for some time, assume a very definite or constant form. 1 The greatest obstacle, without any exception, to a satisfactory and positive interpretation of the early Sassanian inscriptions is incident to the inconvenient identity of the sign which has to answer for the sounds both of r and w. The Chaldseo- Pehlvi forms of ^ r and w, like the Bactrian ^ r and ~J v, have something in common, and the association survives in the modern Hebrew *1, ) ; but in all these cases there is a distinct, though not very marked, means of discrimination. Whereas, in the Sassanian-Pehlvi, there is not only no aid to the determination of whether the symbol 2 stands for j or but in many cases, where it is clearly the former, it has often to be read by the light of modern interpretation, as J. More- over, whenever two of these signs occur together, thus 22 they present all the above alternatives, and, in addition, may chance to represent an oft-recurring malformation of the letter u- due either to imperfect execution in the original, or, more frequently, to faulty copying by the modern drafts- man ; but in some cases the double 22 constitutes the au- thorised and constant formation of the altogether apart from any possible errors of original designers, contemporary engravers, or travellers from the West, who have in later days made these inscriptions known to us. The alphabet had not yet arrived at the equally perplexing transformation whereby the letters w and n came to hold a single literal repre- sentative in common in the )=w and of the Arabico- Pehlvi coins and modern MSS. writing; 2 but this latter, the “ grand Schiboleth du Pehlvie” of Joseph Muller, 3 is far 1 Prinsep’s Essays, ii. 147. 2 The eventual complication or conglomeration of signs under which the 2 as j fell into community and association with the symbol | , the ancient ijj , is still an enigma ; hut as it does not come within the range of the writing of the Sassanian Inscriptions, I commend it to the attention of those who still find a difficulty in reconciling the Parsi “ Awhoma” with the proper Awhanna of earlier date. (See, for instance, Oim "Yak, p. xxvii.) 3 Journal Asiatique, 1839. “ Essai sur la langue Pehlvie.” J.R.A.S. xii. 269. 2 18 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. less obstructive in practice than tbe earlier association of n and w. In order to meet this peculiarity in the Sassanian writing, I have had the letter a cut in facsimile and pre- pared for use with the modern Pehlvi type. The s of the joint alphabets demands a passing comment, as in its near identity in both systems, and the complete dissimilarity of either outline to any archaic or other deriva- tive form of the letter in Phoenician, it would seem that its origin must be sought for elsewhere ; it is singular that the Bactrian symbol for s in 250 b.c. J~) (in Aryan Indian (T \ ), and the Armenian correspondent of s D in b.c. 189, should so nearly accord, and that their general formation should be pre- served so completely in the Pehlvi alphabets of the Sassanians. The following are the gradational representatives of each class n n d >). The concluding -example is taken from the Sassanian section of the Hajiabad sculpture, and its configura- tion is aptly illustrative of the method in which the normal letter was formed, namely, by a second application of the pen to the leading design. In the present instance the body of the character is composed of the often-recurring i with a reduced % supplemented to it. The accelerated penmanship of more practised scribes gradually transformed the letter first into fyy and eventually into JD and —Jj , whence it finally progressed into the Pehlvi A), the Zend ji, 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 similarity existing between the signs for e and z in the Chaldseo-Pehlvi, which often renders them hopelessly indistinguishable ; this is the case even in the positive repro- duction of the inscription at Hajiabad, 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 and direct in its downward course, while the z is more curved in its sweep, and more marked in the initial and final points. The second obstruction to assured interpretation consists more in the oral sound to be attributed to the several letters 2 =n and L =L in the Sassanian writing. At times it would SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 19 seem that these letters were knowingly used indifferently ; on 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 employ- ment 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 2. 1 If, in. addition to these constructive difficulties, we add the imperfect phonetic aptitude or the want of system in the use of the symbols for and cu-t, <*f-G and cA5-k ; and more important than all, the authorised dialectic interchange of l—j b, p (< — jf), and ^ w, we have offered a goodly list of reasons why European in- terpreters have made 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 letter 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 influence 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 more or less fidelity to a vague reminiscence of the archaic 'W . A singular evidence of the community of Aryanism in alphabets suggests itself in these facts, though I am not prepared to claim any Noachian antiquity for the coincidence, but merely desire to show that the various branches of the Aryan pastoral races, as they are known to the modern world, 2 only began to understand and appreciate the value of 1 and l£L* — CjUpj and CjUli — C and CJjJ-J . a curious fact that all the early Numismatic legends use 2 both for r and w. It is )> does not appear till later, and then only irregularly. See J.R.A.S. xiii. 178. 2 Report of the Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, 9th April, 1866 ; Athenneum, 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 populations 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 should have prevailed throughout, in the adoption of the crude form of the vowel i, within a range that can be traced upwards from our own capital or italic I, through the Roman and Etruscan outline of the letter, and the independent Greek design , 1 whose but slightly modified shape is found typical in Armenia 2 some centuries b.c., and which re-appears almost identically in 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 Sassanian alphabet manifestly incorporated the old Phoenician nJ=i (the Persian Cuneiform 4 into its own system, and as it was already in possession of an ordinary short i ; the Semitic letter was devoted to the representation of the long or duplicated sound of that vowel . 5 A curious course 3 The following forms of the Greek iota approach very closely to the Chaldseo- Pehlvi outline^/ S J • See also Gesenius, pi. ii. ; Mionnet, volume “Planches,” etc , 1808, pi. xxxi. Nos. 1, 2 ; “ Inscriptiones Graecse Vetustissimse,” H. G. Rose (Cambridge, 1825), table i. Nos. 11, 15, 18. etc.; “Corpus Inscriptionum Grrn- carum,” A. Boeckh (Berlin, 1828), p. 6. “ Sed imprimis insignis est litterse Iota forma ^ , qum etiam in sere Petiliensi reperitur, et turn in nummis aliquot urbium Magnm Grmcim, 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 Bactrian medial i is composed of a single line thus / In composition it crosses the body of the leading consonant. The initial i is formed by the addition of the sloping line to the short «, thus ^.—Numismatic Chronicle, N.S. iii. pi. yi. ; Prinsep’s Essays, ii. p. 161. 4 There is some similarity of ideas in the form of the Pali ? of Asoka’s In- scriptions. Ex. gr. £ ghi, £ 9^' 5 M. Francois Lenormant has devoted a lengthy article in the Journal Asiatique of Aout-Septembre, 1865 (pp. 180-226), to “E'tudes Palaeographiques 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 this Journal, 1849, as well as from a parallel notice on Arsacidari coins, etc., inserted in the Numismatic Chronicle of proximate date, without seemingly having been aware of the publication of my second con- tribution on the same subject, which was printed in our Journal for 1852 (vol. xiii. p. 373). M. Lenormant has not been altogether fortunate in the passages SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 21 attended the maturation of this literal sign in the parallel alphabet, which, though in the retention of its primitive forms, claiming so much more of a Semitic aspect, provided itself, from other sources, with a short i, and lost all trace of the proper Semitic *3^ of Sargon’s time, and hence had to invent anew the long i required for the due 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 licence, however, I must confess he has been wisely chary of indulging in. M. Le Normant is mistaken in supposing that Sir H. Rawlinson ever designed to insert a long X 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 attiibuted 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 a supposition that I desired so to do (J.R.A.S. xii. 264; Numismatic Chronicle, xii. 74). Sir Henry undoubtedly suggested that the group of 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 3^J), supposing that, in the ordinary course of Aryan tongues, the several consonants optionally carried the inherent short vowel a. My correction merely extended to the separation of the character composing the second portion of the group into the since universally accepted g. i. M. Lenormant has gone out of his way to assert that “Le savant anglais a pretendu, en effet, que le pehlevi ne possedait pas de D.” This is not quite an accurate statement of the case. If I had not recognised the existence and frequent use of an {jm, which letter duly appears in my alphabets (J.R.A.S. xii. pi. i.), I could have made but very little 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 Chaldseo- Pehlvi version of Inscription No. vi. infra , makes use of the 7 in the penultimate of intD, and that the corresponding of the Sassanian text ^is susceptible of being resolved into the typical elements ofJJ . Moreover, it must he borne in mind that the Chaldseo-Pehlvi D was still unidentified, though I even then suggested the attribution which has since thrown new light upon the. entire question (N.C. xii. 78). In short, the point of interest at that time was to determine the course and progress of the discrimination and graphic expression of the approximate sounds of z and s in the alphabets under discussion. As regards my proposed rectification of M. De Sacy’s in JD12 Boman, which M. Lenormant confidently designates as “inutilement conteste' 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 upon sharing, in common with so many of Anque til’s ancient errors, may be safely left to find its own correction. Finally, I am hound to place on record a 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 English engraver; but I see 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 platres offerts a la Soci£t£ 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 ^j. The configur- ation of the c# clearly proceeded upon the duplication of the simple or short i ( f' ) ; and in order to avoid the possible confusion of the new compound with the ordinary a con- cluding curve was carried upwards and backwards from the second i through its own down- stroke and into the leading letter. In course of time both these double letters disappear from public documents, but the Sassanian letter is preserved in the Parsi alphabet , 1 and is but little changed in its Zend form ^ . While the short i was subjected to considerable modifications, till, on the Arabico-Pehlvi coins it appears as — J in its inde- pendent definition, or in the latest introductory stage towards the JSTaskhi “ Kasrah-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- presented by a very extended range of optional transcrip- tions when reduced into the elaborated characters of the pre- sent day, leaving the Chaldseo-Pehlvi letters to answer for their parallel power in the double The Sassanian counter- part must clearly be admitted to stand, according to the con- text, for or , and their several medial corres- pondents. An apt illustration of the difficulty the limited characters of the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi had to contend with in the definition of the mixed Aryan and Semitic speech they had to respond to, has lately been contributed, on the occasion of the natives of Persia having been 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- 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 in interpreting the power of this letter as See preface to the “ Farhang-i-oim yak,” p. 21. Though he seems at one time (1862) to have been prepared to accept the reading of j, converting the old ‘Boman’ into ‘j Barj.’ “Sacred languageof theParsees,” Bombay, 1862. p. 45. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 23 turies 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 in the spoken language of the country . 1 The sub- joined table will show how this singular compromise was effected, and its details are of considerable value in the pre- sent inquiry, as giving us a clearer perception of how the modern ear was prepared to deal with the sounds of the actually current speech, and how, with a clear field and en- larged and matured powers of alphabetical development, those sounds were held to be critically defined and discriminated in the general reconstruction of the ancient alphabet. Hebrew Alphabet adapted to the definition of the Persian Language . 3 1 = X t = b = X & = 3 <-> = a ii j = * S = i v = a .i 4=1 o II Si -T* II m = n r II b = b r = 23 ^ = n J = T ZA II i yJ o = 3 z = 3 A >> - i z 3 i = 1 £ = 4 V** = D s = t Xk II II z = n = P CO J = p CO _ X = I One of the most curious results of this adaptive revival of the ancient letters is to prove to us, what I have already persever- ingly contended for, that is, the use 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-Persic,” was printed by Messrs. Harrison & Co. in 1847, under the editorship of Mr. E. Norris, from a text arranged hy the natives of Persia according to their own perceptions of equivalent letters. 2 Michaeli’s Arabische Grammatik (Gott. 1781) arranged the discriminative marks as follows : — fi = CD, fl = lL>, n = £ , j = £, 5 = £, i = j, * - u°» v = J>> D = k, b - b, S - p = J, n = *. 24 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. such repetitions occur here in every page, as “ a Levite,” “a place;” WTbDK WliT “namely, Judas Iscariot” (John xii. 3); 'fo IfV^ *1M, [he] “went to- wards Jericho.” In its medial duplicate form it occurs in pX *H, “ in the law of Moses” (Luke xxiv. 44) ; hut its most frequent appearance is in verbs, as etc., where the introductory y is absolute. The kasrah form of the short i is expressed by the sign over the line, thus, '1, “ he,” Jib TIS hmb TT, “ in the house of my father” (John xiv. 2). The comparative table of alphabets inserted below will, I trust, 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 Pehlvi 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 Dr. 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 ; hut the forms of the letters are made a little more carefully than they were written by the person who copied that MS., and imitate more elosely those of some better scribe, although about a century later.” The modern Pehlvi 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 the primary intention of the designers as to em- ploy the letter u, to which they had assigned the value of a kh, as the more appropriate representative of the simple h , in order to avoid the confusion incident to the use of the un- pointed jj , which in the original scheme was called upon to do duty indifferently for either a or h. PEHLVI ALPHABETS. II — 1 •4T y * > H -6 c p. Sj 2 . 0 02 & 3F •i “ oA 9 Ph r tr-^ •tr J~N cm II el m H *i •O «/ < “ < d y 02 o 8 D P S b £ n — J - *1 - 3 a R P «_ *f s ' — n >% M n r 0 rs fV*4 •u tSJ * 0 * - -- £ - r— o 0 CM - •> H n in 8 0 Z 2, •3 JO ft r K r- y-'f r-O n o < >/ " L A *. n 11 J\ "J PQ n tr\ «l » n 1 1 3 MODERN X HEBREW. IUC DE LUVNES’ u NUMISMATIC T PHCENICIAN. OLD SYRIAC, RABBINICAL f) HEBREW. CHALDAO- 11 PEHLVI. SASSANIAN . . PEHLVI. 2J MODERN .. PEHLVI TYPE. " PERSIAN » NASKHI. ’ Q Hebrew Letters not used in the Pehlvi 0 Teth =\; V Ayin = ^. i p K»pl> ^ Tsade ’ and ^ Sm ' 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 its more 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 reconstruc- tion which seems to have been aided by the high degree of perfection already reached in the alphabetical definitions of cognate Aryan languages. PEHLYI AND ZEND ALPHABETS. VOWELS. Short Yowels , Pehlvi, M CL. S i- ) u. tt Zend , aj a. i e - j i. > u. Long Yowels, Pehlvi, Mi ai. -* L tr Zend, AM d. f u. % L m 3 e , tt Zend, i o. 6. do. consonants. Gutturals, Pehlvi, <3 k. Y M hu . 9- tr Zend, 3 L (Sikh. y*q. Palatals, Pehlvi, p ch. dj- tr • Zend, y ch . Dentals, Pehlvi, fa t. * d. tt Zend, P t. th . (a th. d. O^dh. Labials, Pehlvi, 0 P- _jb. it Zend, Q> p. b. Semi- Yowels, Pehlvi, $ i or y. ) r. tt Zend, W Cu med.) y. 7 r. 1? (» med.) v. tt Pehlvi , | v. or to. M h. tt Zend, oxf 70. tv li. Sibilants, Pehlvi, s. sh. s*- tt Zend , 5. (g.) 1^0 sh. M3 S. i *• Nasals, Pehlvi, | n. ■C m. tt Zend, j n . %>h. an. 9 m. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 27 Inscription Ho. 1. The first inscription of the series under review is engraved upon the most prominent of the Sassanian sculptures at Naksb-i-Rustam , 1 wherein Ormazd is represented as bestow- ing 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 is distinctly marked by the snake-crested helmet of the Mede . 2 Ormazd’s costume consists of a high mural crown, with closely 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 which float the conventional Sassanian fillets . 3 In his left hand he holds a sceptre or baton, erect, and with 1 Ker Porter, vol. i. pi. xxiii. p. 548; Flandin, vol. iv. pi. 182. A similar sculpture, reproducing the same leading figures on foot, is copied in pi. xxvii. Ker Porter; Flandin, 192, 3. 2 Astyages — , “ a dragon » “a serpent;” Moses of Khorene, i. 123, 167. Hia — Mar , “serpent,” Anquetil, ii. p. 497 ; Rawlinson, J.R.A.S. xv. 242; Zohak of the Shah Namah, Haug, 157. ^rfi , “ a serpent ;” a name of Krishna and Indra, “ subduing a demon ! ” The Dahak of the Yasna is described as “ tribus-oribus-prmditura, tribus-capitibus,” etc. (Kossowicz). Masaudi’s tradition speaks of “ deux serpents nes sur les epaules de Dahhak” (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 venoit du nom du roi des Medes. — St. Martin, i. 285. 3 Flandin’s copy, in plate 182 of his work, altogether omits these pennants, though Ormazd has them to the full in other plates, 186, 192 bis ; (Ker Porter, xxvii. No. 1). Ormazd is frequently represented in other composi- tions amid these sculptures. For instance, in plate 44, Flandin, at FirozaMd, Avhere he again appears in the act of presenting a cydaris to Ardeshir. This has relief is remarkable for the subsequent addition of a modern Pehlvi legend, which is only dubiously intelligible in Flandin’s copy. Ormazd is depicted in a new and modified form in the bas-relief at Thk-i-Bustan (pi. lxvi. Ker Porter, vol. ii. ; Malcolm’s Persia, vol. i. p. 259; and pi. 14, Flandin, vol. i.), where he is 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 his feet resting on a lotus flower ; he holds the peculiar baton or sceptre in the usual position, but this time with both hands ; and instead of the hitherto unvarying mural crown, the head seems uncovered) but closely bound with the conventional diadem, 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 government, or perhaps only his recognition as heir apparent, is illustrated by the coins of the period. See Num. Chron. xv. p. 181. t A similar form is given to Ormazd’s head-gear in the coin of Ilormisdas 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. Ardeshir wears a close-fitting scull-cap shaped helmet, from the centre of which ascends a globe-like balloon, which is sup- posed to typify some form of fire or other equivalent of our Western halo. The head-piece is encircled with a diadem, from which depend the Dynastic flowing fillets, and the helmet is completed for defensive purposes by cheek-plates and a sloping back-plate. The beard seems to have been in- jured if we are to trust Ker Porter’s copy ; but Flandin re- presents 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 cut 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 the persons, or the intentional portraiture of the contrasted divinity and king ; the former of which is of peculiar interest in disclosing the existing national ideal of the form and ex- ternal 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 tinged with ever-prevailing Oriental hyperbole, is modest in regard to the extent of his dominions, which are confined to Iran proper ; and the like reserve is maintained in the epigraphs upon both Ardeshir’s money, and many, if not all, of Sapor’s coins ; l though the inscriptions at Pai Kuli, if they are found hereafter to have emanated from the founder of the dynasty, about which there may still be some vague doubt — would seem to prove that the An Iran , or countries other than Iran , in modern speech, associated as Iran and 1 Varahran I. seems to have been the first to record the An iran on his cur- rency, but want of space in the field of the coins may well have counselled previous omissions. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 29 Turdn , had already been comprehended in Ardeshir’s later conquests. Inscription No. 1 . — Ardeshir, Babek, a.d. 226, at Naksh-i-Rustam. i is a transliteration, in modern Hebrew letters, of the original Chaldaeo-Pehlvi Lapi- dary Text. ii is a transliteration, in modern Persian characters, of the associate Sassanian-Pehlvi Text. hi is a transcript of the original Greek translation, which is appended to the duplicate Oriental epigraphs. |n"ik inc'nms xnSx jmttj "it i- 1 III. TOTTO TO -TrPOSrmON MA2AA2NOT ©EOT APTA£apow BA2lAea>2 ssxs xrbx '13 jnts' p intftJO Lpf- cr* BASIAeflN APIANwN acyevOVZ ©EHN TIOT ©EOT nAIIA/coT BAtrtAEnS. Image of the person of [Or]mazd -worshipper, divine Artahshatr, King of Kings of Irhn, of celestial origin from god, the son of divine Papak, King ! No. 1 a. 2 tabu imns "it -ons i- 'rf'-ji. Jj u - hi. totto to nposnnoN aio2 ©eot. Image of the person of Ormazd, God ! 1 2 3 1 The debased C=2, £=E, and co=Ll, 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. 27; Ker Porter, PI. xxiii. ; and Flandin, Yol. iv. PI. 180); hut it is obvious, as above given in Flower’s reproduction, a.d. 1667 (Hyde, p. 547) ; and in Chardin’s facsimile of 1674 (PI. lxxiii. vol. ii.) 3 Most of the linguistic details of this, or, perhaps, a less curt translation, have for long past been comparatively uncontested. The Zanii I have not as yet had an opportunity of fairly or fully submitting to- public criticism. The Mazd-Yaqna elements of the compound it has been the custom of late to recognise as “ Ormazd- Worshipper,” may perchance require re-examination when discovered to be as- sociated with the full and direct definition of the name of Ormazd, in apparent contrast to the abbreviated form, on one and the same stone. Bagi , with its pal- pable context of the Semitic A'lha, has from the first been accepted in its true purport, though doubts and difficulties remained in regard to the correct defini- tion of the final gi, which are now, I imagine, fully disposed of. Mina Chatri (and 13D) were freely interpreted by De Sacy with the aid of the Greek tran- script, and all that more recent philology has been called upon to contribute has been the more exact determination of the roots and incidental formation of the compound in the now recognised 0 r , “ Mundus superior,” and the Chitra of such constant recurrence in the Cuneiform inscriptions and in the no- minal combinations of the archaic Persian speech. 30 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. Inscription No. 2. This inscription is engraved on an unfinished tablet, to the left hand, and immediately outside of the area of the bas-relief at Naksh-i-Rajab (Ker Porter, xxvii. No. 2 ; Flandin, 192 B), embodying one of the many representations of Ardeshir’s re- ceiving the cydaris from Ormazd : but there is nothing in the absolute relation of the two sculptures to show that the in- scription in question was intended to refer to this particular group of the dynastic memorials graven on the surrounding rocks, though the probabilities are greatly in favour of such a supposition. Ker Porter does not seem to have been aware of the existence of this side compartment; 1 and although Morier 8 alludes to the single figure who is portrayed in the act of engrossing the identical record, he does not appear to have detected the inscription itself. It was left for M. Flandin 3 to repeat, in all innocence, a discovery which, in earlier times, had already been placed on record by Ouseley ; 4 but to the former artist we are indebted for the only full copy known in Europe, which has evidently been most care- fully 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, the most full and perfect of the entire series, is dis- appointing in the extreme ; and it is only by very bold guesses (such as no professed savant would adventure), that any recon- 1 Ker Porter, i. 573. 2 Morier, “Persia, Armenia, etc.” p. 138. 3 Dans le coin a gauche, et en haut du rocher, en dehors du cadre ou est sculpte le bas-relief, est une figure dont le buste seul a ete execute. Peu visible par la maniere dont elle est rendue, elle etait en partie cachee par un arbrisseau qui avait pris racine dans nne fissure du roc. 'En relevant les branches pendantes pour mieux voir cette figure, nons decouvrimes, sous leur feuillage, une inscription pehlvi tres-bien conservee et qui n’ avait pas moins de trente de une lignes presque completes. Je crois pouvoir affirmer que cette inscription etait completement inconnue, car il n’en est fait mention par aucun voyageur. C’est done une heureuse decouverte, non-seulement pour 1’ etude de la langue pehlvi, mais encore pour l’intelligence de ce monument sur lequel elle jettera certainement un jour nouveau.— Text, vol. ii. p. 135. 4 “Travels in Persia in 1810, 1811, 1812.” vol. ii. pi. xlviii. No. 3. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 31 struction of the purport of the original can be extracted from the distorted and disjointed characters in the French publication. The inscription seems to have been originally executed in well-defined letters ; but as far as M. Flandin’s copy enables us to judge, no effort was made towards the separation or division of the words, nor are any of those very useful discriminative final i’s to be detected in its lines. A large amount of in- dependent synonyms may, nevertheless, he readily identified, though much concession has to be made for the uncertainty of the orthography of the period, and its manifest and startling contrast to the mode of spelling accepted in modern Persian : and in this consists almost the sole advantage of the inscription at this moment, in that even if one half of the terms now me- chanically transcribed may be safely introduced into the meagre vocabulary of Sassanian Pehlvi hitherto authoritatively ascer- tained as opposed to the dubious and composite infiltrations of the ancient Pehlvi accepted in Bombay, some definite advance in this obscure study will be fairly established. I do not pro- pose to enter into any analysis of this inscription, as I have but little faith in the trustworthiness of the text even in its now partially amended form. I may mention that the modern Pehlvi version here given adheres as scrupulously as possible to the engraved facsimile, while the Persian transcript is avowedly suggestive, and, as such, has been inserted more for the secondary purpose of aiding those who may need an intro- ductory gloss upon the rarely-seen Pehlvi type, rather than for any authority that can be claimed for it. Indeed, in certain cases where the meanings of words were sufficiently obvious, I have departed from the limitation of mere reproduction, and modified the Persian correspondents in defiance of the imperfection of the Pehlvi original, in order to dispense with needless tests and references ; bnt in many instances, where obscure passages recur in the Pehlvi, I have designedly changed the Persian equivalents assigned in the first instance, in the hope that one or the other of the optional modernised versions may hereafter lead to a correct determination of the value of the doubtful constructive elements of this, for the time being, obscure media)val text. 32 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. The most curious question, however, relating to the in- scription in its available form is, that in spite of its length and apparent completeness, as well as the free legibility of a portion of its contents, there are no means of determining, with absolute precision, the monarch in whose laudation it was composed. The natural impression suggested by the position in which the epigraph is placed points primarily to Ardeshir Babekan, and several times in the text itself lend support to such a conclusion, the word from ^irO, a crown (in line 27) more immediately connects the inscription with the bas- relief it may be supposed to explain ; and, singular to say, it is not at all improbable that the missing name of Ardeshir may after all be hidden amid the obscure cross strokes of the broken letters in the first line of the facsimile, the artistic imperfection of which, however, I have hesitated to correct in my Persian transcript, but which may fairly be converted, with very scant violence to probabilities, into a reconstruction that would sufficiently accord with the "general tenor of the context, which concludes the current line with the conventional titular JJj ^ . The unusual title of Mir Shahinshahi, the latter a term spe- cially affected by Ardeshir, also connects the record with that monarch ; as in like manner does the singular designation of , “ King of the King’s sons,” or what in modern days would be , a name or title indicative of royal origin, and so directly identified with the family in- titulations, that Sapor retained the intact as his Imperial epithet. Of the ordinary titles occurring in the course of the writing, some are highly instructive in regard to the comparative no- menclature of the period, such as “ fire-worshipper” [priest] (2), (28, 30, 31), (23), (28) the Persian synonym 1 of the Greek which latter term, however, when quoted from Western sources, 1 The German philologists endeavour to identify the Greek fepos with ishird “ robust.” But a more simple association seems to present itself in the various words for Jire } Pehlvi T8 , Persian , Sanskrit . SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 33 was transmuted into the aspirated (Inscription Y. 4). In addition to which may be cited (24), YTrfj hodie als> jI> , etc. 1 «/ This inscription, even in its partially intelligible form, is also valuable as exhibiting so many of the essential charac- teristics of true Persian speech, in the multiplicity of the final i 9 s, and in the dominance of the inevitable verb , which even in this brief space crops up in all manner of moods and tenses. 1 The following passages from the classic authors and other external sources, bearing upon the pompous intitulations affected by the successive ruling dynasties in Persia, are calculated to throw light upon the inquiry more immediately in question, as to the terms likely to be found in the original manifestoes embodied in the court language and composed under official supervision, we have now to deal 'vith. Arsaces I. “ Certatimque summatum et vulgi sententiis concinentibus, astris (ut ipsi existi- mant) ritus sui consecratione permistus est omnium primus. Unde ad id tempus regis ejusdem gentis prsetumidi, adpellari se patiuntur Solis fratres et Lunse : utque Imperatoribus nostris Augusta nuncupatio amabilis est et optata ; ita regibus Parthicis abjectis et ignobilibus an tea, incrementa dignitatum felicibus Arsacis auspiciis accessere vel maxima. Quamobrem numinis eum vice venerantur et colunt, eousque propagatis honoribus, ut ad nostri memoriam non, nisi Arsacides is sit, quisquam in suscipiendo regno cunctis anteponatur : et in qualibet civili concertatione, quse adsidue apud eos eveniunt, velut sacrilegium quisque caveat, ne dextera sua Arsacidem arma gestantem feriat vel privatum.” — Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. c. vi. § 4. Shapur II. “ Rex regum Sapor, particeps siderum, frater Solis et Lunse, Constantio Csesari fratri meo salutem plurimam dico.” — Ammianus Marcellinus, xvii. c. 5, § 3. “Agitatis itaque sub onere armorum vigiliis, resultabant altrinsecus exortis clamoribus colies : nostris virtutes Constantii Csesaris extollentibus, ut domini rerum et mundi : Persis Saporem et Saansaan adpellantibus et Pyrosen, quod rex regibus imperans, etbellorum victor interpretatur.” — Ammianus Marcellinus, xix. c. 2, § 11. Khusru NaushIrwan. 7} Se rov Tlepcruv (iaaiXeeas ypdppaai pev iypaepri Uep(TtKo7s, rfj Se 'EWyviSt (pccvrj Kara, ravra Sttjtt ovOev Icrx^ei ra prjpara' “ 6e7os, dyaObs, elpr]voTvdrpios, apxouos Xoapbr/s , fiacreAebs fiacriAewv, evrvx^s, eixrefifys, dyaQoiroi.bsi (pnvi 6eol pe yaAl)V rixw /cal peyaAr\v fiaaiAeiav 8eSc6/c aai, yiyas yiyavrwv, bs e/c decov XapaKrripi^erai, 5 lovanviavcp K a'urapi, aSeA (p<£ rjperepcp .” — Menander (Protector) de legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes, § 3. Bahram ChubIn to Khusru ParvIz. B apap (plXos ro7s 6eo7s, uiKrjr^s, iirupav'fis, rvpavvcov e%0 l/ii> i (*J • L 5 & lAS J .V& • ' Jj AA^-Lm L*jJ& A-jlij’b jl fjj**J* ^ /** 4 ^^** 3j)*Srt3 J v3 -54-^22^3. ^^^JJ^2^2^^«’^fO^|2)|JU5J5 - f')2J))22^«2^-Gj ^J(5 J02^ f^ju) 2-6103 *{* py (V) tSSr^jS^ 23 2" J* 25 2^) J) JW2 2^ 4*|Vd J) 2 ^1 ^ P ^ "^2J ^ 2 " ^ 2f* 22*0^2.3} -Cuj*) j^-oajy j 2^3 fsj | .^ufo^a* ^22S2^r^ f* I f^r^ajjj 22^J)) |* J)J0AJ|V5 ja 2 j> (* ju) ) 4jJ 2^.44 J 2p«22-Cj) J agj ^JV JUJa)2£J f* £J 2 ^2^ |^ aju-^aaju-^i^^)^ ^ ^2^ 2 ^ jo^) fvj^ju) 2 16 36 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. ‘■Vj U^J S J* kJ^* J* 17 J j^>\jj^ j ijy) j 18 &*j cT* Jj uij 19 LsV^ L^r 5 ^ ^jj 20 ^ j bjy ^Jj (jijl <^L~^yA^ t 21 ^ b • -rS l 5 3 J fi' erf** 4 ^/ ^>r 4 ^j L$ lit* LS^jb^ L 5 ^ li Y* hirf* 22 23 ^Aij j j-OlJ 3 24 -2/* t -^ ^‘AJIjU J ^ 25 4^3 u jybU ^ 26 _j \ tm ^k*^ , ^ > jlY* 1^5^ 4II-^J^4X> 27 ^l^L# e 5 ^ 3 j ; l^* * -^» L 5 / *ir a> ^ 28 iJ?} IXL^t 29 yjj^ ^ijr* j\rP u^V uiHirt hfj j^J Jj * J^* 30 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 37 17 22 j^J>Naa^ja4j).(^)jy^u^^^Aip(v)-C«^aj>^a^))aJb(^ 23 ^5^afo.«a^^ajoaa^^a^^^^^p)a^o)^’^aj)fs9a^j) < Tj-$ > 24 jijH5jj33^a^^jLi^^^^a3j_^-f-€'^a-C5(v5jj^)fo^JU(V3Ju^)^fvj)^p^'-C2 27 £22pj>^j)£)*'))£2jU~SQ)»^(j2J’C rf J2X>2J(*22jJ' r iJ)Mj2*i*)r*J)2jJ 29 ^M)a2^J2JO^f *}4‘^t*&2j£j)jS'G2*wSzjr*2j)jz*z0*'-V3S , *j)'£ 30 _^a)|a^^aj^a^|«a^aAi)«)a.^J-C* 31 jo^-fl^a^f^a^ aaa^^^^^fsj^^j -^^aju SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. S& 6 uoe <>•* •*%u~ ^ dV0/>-r , gg ‘Ji c h; jEu*~ *- «*- 'xMu,t ; 6m* : ft* Inscription No. 3. — Pai Kuli Inscriptions — Sassanian. Sir Henry Rawlinson has most disinterestedly entrusted me with his own private note-hooks containing his original sketches of the Pai Kuli Inscriptions, as well as with an earlier Cuneiform copy-book, in which I find Mr. Hector’s independent tracings of the epigraphs on four of the slabs. I have intentionally avoided submitting any of my tenta- tive readings to Sir Henry, as not only has his time been of late fully occupied by more important duties, but I have been anxious that he should not be in the least degree compromised by any of my errors or imperfect interpretations derived from the fragmentary materials he has so amiably supplied me with. 1. The first inscription among Sir Henry Rawlinson’s sec- tional copies is, perhaps, the most interesting of the whole series, giving, as it does, the name of Ardashir Babekan, coupled with his title of King of Kings (l£L* The third line, like so much of the entire text, seems to con- tinue his laudatory intitulation, ufj, “ of Iran King.” The succeding line proceeds J 1, “ Lord of the Fire Temple” (on whose terrace the inscription is engraved). The Framata is here seen to retain its place in the official speech from the anterior date of the Cuneiform manifestoes of Darius, 1 while its modern counterpart perseveringly reaches our ears in the oft-cited Firmans of Ihe Porte. The conclu- sion of the record on this stone is obscure, and it is only by supposing extreme laxity of orthography in the original, and claiming, under such shelter, a momentary excuse for very hazardous suggestions, that the words may be rendered 1 Persian version, x. 286, 310 ; Scythic, xv. 146 ; Persian (Oppert) J. A. 1852. p. 152. The grand Yizier of Persia, in later times, was called , in Armenian, Vzourlc-Eramanatar. Journal Asiatique, 1866, p. 114. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 39 Pai Kuli Inscbiptions. — Sassanian. No. 2. No. 1. ... a .... ^0 ) -jjj •• 2*£j fO£ja« 2fO^JU(S52JU •• 1*^2041 t M 2 ••• JUJ3£) . . (*>.U-Ogj 2 ^ • fV5^ 4J^2f*.U . . . S'Gzf* a \?e)-<0 2 No. 4. No. 3. a jj-OAu j>_f j(vjju a ^ja ^ * it? * 7^r vja No. 6. No. 5. • S roj ^ ^3233)0 2 ^ j^jo 2 2 ro* AA V« 4.UO <\_4J J'j O AM No. 8. No. 7. J O ^ il ^0/31 * 7 J J ' * * A1A A C € 4? ^ v* i ^)OT7 d All^ ^ % ^ >^rl)_±_) i 2ir r- 40 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. L j “ Lord of Elephants/’ 1 and Chief of Officials, otherwise “ Head of the Executive.” 2 (2) The second lapidary sub-section opens with the words The Hirbad (flS’l/tf), Fire-Priest of the Scythian Namri , 3 a nomad tribe of ancient celebrity, possibly by this time permanently settled in close proximity to the kingdom of Armenia, with which their name is here associated. (3) The third stone carries on the lines of a previous sen- tence in the title l£L* [ l£L* — in Mr. Hector’s copy], which is followed, perhaps connected with, the succeeding word l5 £ li, which admits of varying renderings from uXii, “ heaven,” Llili, “a fire-worshipper” “fire”], etc., according to the short vowels it may be necessary to supply, supposing always that even the three leading Pehlvi letters are assured in the modern Persian form in which they are here reproduced. The word occurs again in section 12, and in a questionably modified form in 21. The ^ in line four answers to the province of Persia, and the ^ “ Dominus,” will be found to recur frequently in this and other inscriptions. (No. 14, etc.). (4) The opening i n section 4, like so many imperfectly defined and, dubiously complete names, neces- sarily attracts attention without contributing in its isolated form the means of a positive identification; * s fairly legible, and, with a continuous context, ought to present no difficulties. supposing it to be an undivided word, is 1 (?) Chald. “beautiful.” 2 “ Tuma ,” Tau’m&, ( Eawlinson , J.R.A.S. x. pp. 101, 178, 196, etc.) ; Scythic, takma (Norris, xv. 114, 134, etc.) ; “ Takman , fortis” (Fox Talbot, xix. 155); Takhma (Takhmuras ; Haug, 194). Oppert, J.A. xvii. 565. The superlative Tama may have something in common with the term (Haug, 89), or possibly may after all he merely an imperfect rendering of “race, seed, origin.” Cf. Tej5x&>, Tvkt6s , T £kvov. 3 Darius’s Cuneiform Inscriptions, J.R.A.S. (Norris, xv. 150; Rawlinson, xv 235 and xix. p. 263) ; Oppert, J.A. 1857, p. 197. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 41 readily recognizable, and associates itself with the technical p\j, “rest,” and other essentially Aryan terms. 1 (5) No. 5 suggests but little worthy of remark beyond the combination of \£L* The name of Sakan is well defined, and the preceding the designation is carefully marked as a final. 2 The word is of frequent occurrence (y. 3, 6). (6) The contents of No. 6 offer but little matter for safe speculation, with the exception of the concluding (7) No. 7 presents nothing remarkable beyond the i£L# which may be a mistake for owing to the mason, perchance employed indifferently on the duplicate epigraphs— having made use of a Chaldaeo-Pehlvi N, a letter which is nearly identical in outline with the ordinary Sassanian b of these inscriptions. (8) The commencement of the third line seems to retain the conclusion of the name of . The title of in line four also recurs frequently, and is readily identifiable with Anquetil’s Barbita=“ Salar &ef” (Z.A. ii. 486). (9) The ninth tablet contains a title or, perhaps, a name of some interest, which may be read conjecturally, as or ; the designation occurs again in the sixth line, where it is preceded by the definite title of Hierarch . The probably stands for “ fire,” as it is thus written in Hirbad ; but the determination of the compound is more open to question, unless it may be associated with the Sanskrit Gupta from ^ “to protect” (see also Nos. 17, 18, etc.). The word U which follows is possibly incomplete, but the obsolete Semitic or X'±>, “ lion,” so largely idealized and so consistently retained by the ancient kings in official seal devices and sculptured illustrations, and affectedly reproduced by the Sassanians in bas-reliefs and in titular com- position as U, “lion slaying,” 3 might claim a leading dominance in this place, but it may be better to revert to the 1 J.R.A.S. xiii. pp. 395, 399. 2 “Saka,” J.R.A.S., xii. 468; “Sacan,” xv. 150. 3 This term occurs on a beautiful gold coin of Hormuzdas II. (303-310 a.d.), 42 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. term “ heart,” (fromlisS, “to be fat”), which would more nearly accord with the general tenor of the inscription, and explain the frequent recurrence of the allied . Among other words on this stone may "be detected the important pronoun “ he,” “who,” “that,” the original Persian Cuneiform V (V) si, “ qui, que,” also “ quod, quia,” which is associated with the Chaldee '1, the relative pronoun and sign of the genitive. 1 The Hebrew HI, “ this,” the Arabic , “who,” and “that,” have all to be considered in their bearing upon the word, as the duties the Pehlvi ^ S had to be answerable for were manifold. Anquetil was obliged to allow the term a very extended range of meanings in his single specimen page of Pehlvi translations of the Bun-dehesh (p. 341, vol. ii.) ; but in his vocabularies he rather limits it to “ cela, celui-la,” the modern Persian (pp. 496, 504). The in these early Pehlvi readings seems to have been the contrasted form reserved for the sign of the genitive, which eventually settled itself into thej of the Shah Namah 8 and later Persian writings : while the CJj, which was probably pronounced zaka , subsided into the present <£ . The in line five is critically doubtful, as I have sub- stituted, on the authority of the very indubitable form of brought from Persia by Sir H. Rawlinson, and now in the British Museum. The following is a description of the piece: Obverse — King’s bust, to the right; the head is covered with a lion’s skin, after the classical precedent on the coins of Alexander the Great , this is again surmounted by flames of fire (?), at the back of which float the broad Sassanian fillets. Legend : Reverse : The usual Fire Altar, to the right of which appears the figure of Ormazd (?) offering a chaplet to the king, whose form, together with the head-dress copied from the obverse, occupies the left of the altar. Legend : Above the flame of the altar and below the circular legend the word is inserted. 1 De Saulcy, J.A. 1855, p. 187. * j urA ) l fvj A • Macan. iii. 1432. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 43 Pi! Kuxi Inscriptions.— Sassanian. No. 10. ■■■$ 5 $ •« S a wS-W* No. 12. No. 9. |-^ • • • 0*2 .3*2 a -fjp ^*j3 a 2 ^ 3 jo a j J220 ^ p* p)3 2 J5J*N>2* ^2(V5^ a*»3« No. 11. *a 2 I* -Jl-f aT ^aa* )a jf^-asa.. 3 ^ | 4 j^jujo 3a • f*-*o pj3 3a*. 22 3jj2ju p .. taja-fj jp3j^j .... aj.^..3.a No. 14. No. 13. * a ^^a^ ^3ai 2 ^ 2 ^ . . . «4J2^ju£j a wjuaji •• JJjaoap p)a... ^jjfop 2 a ja.... N II^JJ • ■‘0.^2^ JU(V5^20 No. 16* I^I JJ ..^3 p ^j3^ 3^ . p No. 15. • jaa . .* J 2 |*>^ a *}3-£ jjup *0 a jjufda^ jgjja j £ . a-f fss^jJa^ $S (^^3 2 ,W 3a p^OLJ 2 2 ^) 2 44 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. final given to tlie by Sir H. Kawlinson, an initial in supercession of bis apparent Tbe succeeding by* may, with equal propriety, be trans- literated as by*, a form we should look for with much interest as a dialectic advance towards the ultimate orthography of in spite of the incidental appearance of a later though, perhaps, mere provincial variety of the title in shape of on the coins of Firoz (ad. 458-484). This is the Klioda, “ Boi,” of Anquetil(ii. 442, 515), and the conventional Pehlvi term for “ king.” 1 (10) The tenth detached portion of the original mural record, among other words which need not be dwelt upon, concludes with^ ^ would be unwise to insist upon as, however appropriate, it appears in too unconnected and broken a form to be fairly relied upon. (11) The eleventh stone is remarkable for the preservation of the name of Hormazd The in 1 M. Mohl (p. x. Preface, Shah Nam ah) has suggested a very original hut scarcely conclusive explanation of the disuse of this term in its proper and archaic meaning, by assuming that when the word \ came to be accepted by the fol- lowers of Muhammad in the sense of “ God,” that they were able to obliterate all ancient memories of the linguistic import of the designation, and to raise their Allah to the exclusively divine title, heretofore so simply affected in the ordinary acceptation of “ king” by common mortals. It would, perhaps, be a more satisfactory way of explaining the difficulty, to infer that men of old, in the East, on attaining royalty, were given to advance a simultaneous claim to divine honours, and with this notion to assume the designations and attributes of their local gods ; hut as the world grew older, the words so employed reverted to their proper and normal linguistic import, which had been thus temporarily and conditionally misapplied ; terms which, in the case in point, had already in a manner ceased to convey any exceptional mundane distinction. See a note on the subject of the Armenian god j E’aldia in the Numismatic Chronicle , vol. vii. N.S. (1867) p. 151. Masaudi tells us a good deal about the origin and use of the term ; among other passages, in chap. xxiv. (vol. ii. p. 237, Paris edit.), he remarks — “ Les rois perses, depuis r origin e des temps jusqu’ a la naissance de l’islamisme, sont di vises en quatre dynasties. La premiere, qui s’etend de Keyomert a Aferidoun, est celle des Khodahdns mot a * e sens de rebb (j “maitre,” comme on dit rebb-el- meta “maitre d’un bien,” rebb-ed-dar , “maitre de maison.” In the time of Khusru Parviz the State Seal for Khorasan still retained the title in£A^ (p. 228), Aryan philologists propose to derive the word from | jyL, “self- coming” while the Sanskrit authorities suggest Swadatta “self-given,” or preferably Swadha “self-generated.” (Benfey). SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 45 line four may be another form of J which is a frequent adjective in the Sassanian inscriptions. (12) No. 12, though much defaced, retains some indi- cations of value in the possible restoration of line two, in the form of Jj The wordj^k is not necessarily and exclusively “the Sun,” but also applies to “fire, light,” though the former interpretation is preferable in this place, as only occurs as the abbreviated form for fire in combination. (13) The term again appears in No. 13, and is to be met with in various forms in the counterpart Ohaldaeo-Pehlvi version. ( 14) The words and if we could but rely upon their correct isolation in the general and undivided continuity of the writing, would claim a passing notice, while the L5 Ai3 as a standard expression identifies itself with , JJ5, “life,” “ the vital spirit but the interest in this tablet centres in the conclusion, which, though greatly defective in the original, or its reproduction, seems to contain the word The Soskyanto of the Parsis were “ the ancient prophets ” of the Zoroastrian creed. 1 I must repeat that the divisions in the modern Pehlvi representation of Sir H. Rawlinson’s facsimile are purely arbitrary, and that I have no reserve whatever in altering or re-arranging the connection of the letters. (15) No. 15 contributes a more ample legend than its fellows, and has the additional merit of being reported by its English transcribers a3 “very plain” in its writing; the words are fairly legible towards the commencement; and followed by l£L«, appear in the third line ; but the point of the highest interest in the whole inscription from first to last is the mention of the name 1 Haug, Language of the Parsees, pp. 219, 196, 164. A far more serious and critical examination of the earlier chapters of the Zend Avesta, by Dr. Cajetanus Kossowicz, (Paris, I860), gives 'Saos'yand as “ Salvator.” 2 I am doubtful about this word, as the copy reads preferentially The Gs and Zs are very difficult to distinguish in Sir II. Rawlinson’s facsimiles. 3 Tartan = A vestah-“ pur” ou “Parole.” — Anquetil, ii. pp. 448, 449. 46 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. of Zoroaster, with the appropriate introductory intitulation j. 1 The detached passage concludes hfj W Jj (16) In the second line of No. 16 may be sug- gestively substituted for the which, however, I have faithfully represented in the Pehlvi, in strict accordance with Sir H. Rawlinson’s copy. (17) No. 17 is one of the most complete and most care- fully traced of the whole series, but the facilities of interpre- tation are not, as yet, commensurate ; the third line may be reproduced in modern Persian as l ij [±+y ; line four admits of many optional conversions, but ’Jl> ^ \jj is the best merely mechanical transcript ; line five proceeds ^ l£L* (J*)) yjj, and a very speculative restoration might define 'the contents of line six as ^ (18) No. 18 repeats the word yHJ*, or, as it may be pre- ferably rendered, d^> “ Princely,” and adds a third and very clear example of the preceded by the word Though Mr. Hector’s copy gives a totally different version of the contents of line three, which may be freely rendered jy or { JL) > ^Jy\ lJL, while the is transferred, in all its completeness, to line four. (19) The nineteenth tablet, though very promising at first sight, seems to have been defective in the preservation of the definite forms of the letters. The opening djd may be suggested, as the first word occurs elsewhere. The conclusion of the last line gives the letters of y y ; but Mr. Hector’s transcript runs ^ y uio . (20) No. 20 presents us with the name of Tiridates, fol- lowed by the title of King, l£L« cuaLj. Tiridates was the early name of Sapor I. before he became prominent under the titular designation of “ Son of the King,” and the 1 The Armenian version of the name is Zorataschd. E. Dulaurier, Journal Asiatique, 1852, p. 32. See also Haug, p. 252, for variants of the original designation. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 47 PAi Kuli Inscbiptions.--Sassanian. No. 18. No. 17. AT A*aa .u^e)* a ja^Ja • e)aa« /TAga^ AAN V^f*a^ a ..jjj) aj|V 3 AjJj A-a^A^afv^ .... Jju^j |aj^jaj a a^) a foj .... |aa« A^AJ ff^a f-f a>^-£ .... A)3j>-fjUi,42^ I 1 ? ^afV5^ No. 20. No. 19. ... 2 A*A^ A£^ .... 4*41 2 AJ^)-£ 2 AJJ . ^22 J*>22 2 • • j*2J±r 2J2f**J(J ^ 0 A>A*f . -Aa.aAAK? a )^-a^jq aa V^^i^ 3 )- u *A"Ai' AJA-w a juajA-^A^ajuia^l^ ^ A 32 A-f . . ^23 ja- 6 -^A A -i Ai* AA5 No. 22. ,SN 2 }--f A? •'• rfijS A f sS* No. 21. UJHO-J ... Jju^af*^ a aj^a"^ 48 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. eventual associate in his father’s sovereignty; though, in this instance, as his definitive identification and regal title appears in full in No. xxv. we are bound to conclude that the name of Tiridates here made use of applies to some other ruler or independent local Sovereign. In line three may he read, with every reserve, j Jj j ^ ; but under a different arrangement of the words and a rejection of the dubious the Pehlvi letters will equally correspond to The fourth line commences with a name optionally L* or J!L)\ which is followed by the titles of and fepapxv?, Hierarch. Sir H. Eawlinson notices that there is a blank space at the bottom of the in- scribed face of this stone, as if the last line of writing had formed a portion of the conclusion of the main inscription. (21) The twenty-first tablet is considerably damaged and defaced ; but the fourth line runs continuously ^ (22) No. 22 is the last of the Sassanian series copied by Sir H. Eawlinson. In the first line may be seen the personal pronoun (KlPt, Chald. Din), Zend, ava, “ he or she,” the Cuneiform Persian Rauva, and the modern Persian j], ^\, The second line gives the frequently-recurring bj, with a word which may be rendered a transliteration, however, that can scarcely be accepted in this place. The several terms ijb&j and f 13 may be tentatively modernized, and the concluding line may be restored under protest in regard to the original copy of the final as lSJR* 1 An apt illustration of the difficulty of expressing these and other gradational sounds in the imperfect Pehlvi alphabet is contributed by the anomalous state of the power of the literary definition in Kurdistan at the present day: — “Les Kurdes lettres sont, en general, les gens qui ne savent qu’ imparfaitement leur langue maternelle. Ils correspondent avec leurs autorites et entre eux-memes, soit en persan, soit en turc, soit en arahe. Si parfois ils se voient obliges d’ecrire en kurde, ils le font a l’aide de l’alphabet persan. En effet, toutes les consonnes persanes sont identiques avec celles des kurdes, du moins pour ce qui concerne le dialecte de Soleimanie ; mais celui-ci contient heaucoup de voyelles et de diphthongues qu’il serait impossible de reproduire au moyen de 1’ orthograph e en usage chez les Persans. Comment, par example, figurer en persan les articulations ae, ee, oo, aou y eeou, clou, aoue, etc., qui se rencontrent si souvent et se suivent les unes les autres, sans l’intervention des consonnes, dans les mots kurdes?”— J. A. 1857, p. 302, SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 49 PAi Kuli Inscriptions in Chaldaso-Pehlvi. Sir H. Rawlinson’s eye appears to have been less trained to the peculiarities of the Chaldseo-Pehlvi than to an appreciation of the outlines of the more simple letters of the fellow or Sas- sanian alphabet, so that while his transcripts in the latter cha- racter are, as it were, written , the former are elaborately but mechanically copied , and in some instances (Nos. 24, 27, 30, and 32), so great was the desire of accuracy, that the letters are traced in double lines, as is usual in exact engraving. The writing itself, as I have already pointed out (p. 11 ante) presents great sameness in the different alphabetical signs, and in many cases a very slight inflection constitutes the essential discrimi- native mark of the given letter. There are no obvious finals, and the words do not seem to have been separated, as is effected to a great extent in portions of the Hajiabad Inscription. Under these circumstances my conjectural restorations must necessarily partake, perchance even in a larger degree, of the imperfection of the materials at command : which of themselves appeared to promise and may, perchance, eventually afford a better text and a greater amount of information than their more voluminous counterparts in the Sassanian character. In the ordinary course of the arrangement of the present article, under the conception of retaining in full prominence a systematic discrimination between the contrasted forms of the associate alphabets, I have reserved the closely-identical mo- dern Hebrew type for the representation of the since-severed and now obsolete outlines of the Chaldseo-Pehlvi originals, while devoting the current Persian of our days to the embodi- ment of the Sassanian Pehlvi, from whose archaic elements it claims so much of direct descent. But on this occasion, where, in default of positive facsimiles, I have been obliged to elevate the Hebrew into a leading text, I resort to the less classic Naskki type for my commentary, not only for the purpose of giving a second and possibly more suggestive identification of the true Persian original, in its now conven- 4 50 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. tional alphabet, but also as affording a readier means of com- parison with the gloss upon the more ample materials available in the less ephemeral Sassanian characters, which almost intuitively fell into the literal signs of that since amplified alphabet. No. 23. The first of Sir H. Rawlinson’s Chaldseo-Pehlvi Inscriptions, though carefully copied, is so imperfect in what remains of the original writing, that it would be useless to speculate upon any matter simply dependent on contexts. The word U , so frequent in the Sassanian series, occurs twice either in its full integrity or as a portion of other words, under the confessedly optional re-arrangement of the letters now presented, amid which it may be again remarked that no discriminative finals are to be detected. No. 24 exhibits a more extended range of subjects for legiti- mate speculation. In the second line^Lk c_->j J seems to be fairly assured in transliteration and simple in interpreta- tion ; the aspirated the Sanskrit from “ to rule,” corresponds with the concurrent Sassanian ; while the XDTlS Patisa in line three recalls the ancient Cunei- form orthography. The preceding words ^ may, under very slight modifications, chance to carry new signifi- cance, as Iordans (Greeks, etc.), and enemies with the Chaldean plural termination and the long u, which is rejected in the modern orthography. The same remark may be applied to ^ U£1 ^ CS)} in line four ; and , with much that is already intelli- • gible awaits but little extraneous aid for satisfactory interpre- tation. In line six the oft-recurring is succeeded by '"foW Yaztan Shamei, “ God of Heaven,” which brings the whole tenor of the inscription back to Semitic regions ; or, if a more distinctly Pehlvi rendering be sought in the (the Pehlvi jbb ^ , ‘'in the name of Almighty,” the Giver of the Zoroastrian prayer), the context of the succeed- ing word may be improved into . SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 51 No. 24. No. 23. “inert an jniN' t Ssm • • ins 3 imm • ■ ■ Nans patris 1 jwit 1 ttJDKS 1 net 'nsNn 1 ndsS p s'n nNTN 1 ns 1 ? • • • • • • • DnssN 'mneo 'ni jniN' wan • • ■ • • nD^nsDn "w jniN' 'ns e ; ms ns 1 ? — No. 26. No. 25. — xr\w ■ > ■ ■ - wy • • • • n^nrrra — "£?SJ'2i3 9l J'SN' SN1 b TiiSD 1 n'n'nx ' • • • nrw‘ nsx“i 1 D'Nnn • ■ • H3D 'Nne ; 1 “ine> 1 n3 • • n ns sin 3D 1 jn'Dis 1 — 'inmnnon -inert jn • nn'n bb nx'n *?nds b ■ • • • • lion nin' 1 n3n 1 '*?m ■ ■ • ne ; K3 jn 'N*?3ns 13D si • • • wins ns*?d mis'ne> No. 28. No. 27. ^ wyifa nn^n^i i *i "h — • • • nt.^nK 1 jnawi* ■ in 1 news |n?N' 'nsiSrs nils S“l • '3DT 3 n 1DN1S J'SsiN 1 nSST ■ ehmaw ) mn • ■ 'JO'insns '3snss inns- nrrM*oriT jns'N Nt'in n'lxn • 52 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. No. 25 exhibits in the second line the full constituent ele- ments of the word “ Sakandar,” but the name seems out of place, and the isolation of the letters is altogether arbitrary. The nirV - in line five is of importance, as the designa- tion, which can only apply to the Jews, will be met with here- after in the Hajiabad Inscription ; and, otherwise, there are many suggestive points in this text if we could but divide and determine the letters with anything like authority. The tablet concludes with the unmistakable name of Shapur, conjoined with the adjunct of “king” in their proper Semitic forms of arte iniaw ku j *#** . No. 26. After a detached or incomplete word of no present importance, the first line terminates with the letters \j j , which are dubiously suggestive of Avesta. The ^Ji\ of line two is followed by the Arabic (Pehlvi J^), and the name of ^3 (perhaps ^ ) is succeeded by the oft-recurring ^^1*3 . Line three seems to read (Inscrip. No. VI. lines seven and twelve) ; line four proceeds ^ / 3 the latter combination is curious if we may rely upon the transliteration. JU£ is followed in line four by the , which there will be further occasion to notice in the Hajiabad Inscriptions. concludes this sec- tion, though I must confess that I have but little confidence in the existing data or the result now obtained from them. The transcription of the first line of No. 27 may be optionally varied from the Hebrew text to j ^\j as the letters are very imperfectly preserved. ^bjl is clear in line two. or followed by ^jb ma y suggested as a tentative reading of line three; and, under even more reserve, for the fourth line. \y u jSb i may be received for the moment as a pos- sible reproduction of line five. The 28th tablet commences with ^bjl l£L* , “King of Iran.” In the second line may be doubtfully traced a variation of the SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. name followed by some damaged letters forming *'5f Xr I word j or j . Line three is likewise defective in the outlines of the letters, which, however, may be tentatively rendered , CJj -j\ j or CJj . Line four runs — • Lins five, under a mere servile reproduction of the original copy, may be transcribed U^jj L-jj j but the second word is freely convertible into l or other possible variants. The sixth line contains the letters j . 29. The legible portions of this section comprise letters answering severally to ^ . Line four, ^ ^ j J ^ tij,*— 'Q . Line five, ^.-o lO. . Line six, ^ i jy & ^ ^ ^ , No. 30 commences yxAjb . Line two continues from a preceding tablet . Line three, to judge from the copy, must be much damaged, j at the beginning and l!JoJ at the end are all that can be relied upon. The letters decipherable in line four contribute the following pos- sible combination : ^*4 - — The^J^ inline five, if correct, is exceptional, as the ever-recurring verb of the Sassanian system has not hitherto been met with in this Chaldsso-Pehlvi transcript. The in line six may equally well be converted into J , J* , or other new combinations ; for among the originally fully-contrasted forms of the ancient letters I can extend no certain faith to Sir H. Rawlinson’s copies of the £) and the H , as discriminated from one another : and worse still, the D, which, at the time his copies were made, was unknown, or rather unproven,— may so easily be taken for either of the approximated outlines of the first-named more com- mon letters, that the natural difficulties of a right interpretation of the damaged writings of Pal Kuli are almost hopelessly enhanced ! The apparently isolated words which stand at the foot of this tablet seems to afford a second example of a deri- vation of the verb in the form of 54 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. In No. 31 the previous reading of in No. 26 is fully confirmed by its definite repetition in this place. Line two suggests many uncertain details, though the best version seems to be y&j * — \j (*RT)> but the long vowels tend to cast a doubt about the identity of the word. After some obscurities, line two pre- sents us with the word which, adverting to the sub- SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 55 No. 30. No. 29. ronDX nn^'n 3'NH13 innm -ipppp • • • • d'n nrvn • n • m ’ns • kPk ijxti 33n i ire ; n rroeha inmro • • • ”3 'W i nsns i eh *rrannD p133 1 K3S3 31^3*133 331 • Si • • • rwSl3D • • • i 'inin jbtout 'm3 1 .... "'-0 ... *nn 33NS • ■ No. 32. No. 31. rnv ) • • i piD “imm-i33i Vm 1 hSm’N nV3N 3333331H 11DN 1 |ni n3“D 1 DINS Bhms 3N'3N i mns ’33ni3 iimsi W1 JN'm 1 “ij’DtX • • m3 meri }b 3W i rvn33 1 no'ns • •31 nmnm • • • ni3\s‘3x • • • i mn *wn Ti3in Sn^"lN2:X 113 wn i jnrx sequent associations, may possibly stand for the country of Syria, but which I prefer to consider as the ancient, much- esteemed title of Surena, a name the Homans learned to know but too well in the course of their Persian wars . 1 The country of Persia seems clear enough ; ( Jsj) presents a 1 Plutarch in Crassus; Strabo, xvi. c. i. §24; Ammian. Marcell. xxiv. c. ii. § 4, c. iv. § 12; Zosimus, iii. c. xv. ; Mos. Khor. i. 313; J.A. 1866, p. 130. The title was possibly derived from ^ , “King” ( ^ There is a term having something of the like import in Modern Persian in^U~jj«**j, “Regis Minister” (Vullers). 56 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. difficulty, but jyA Assyria can scarcely fail to represent that even then renowned kingdom, j \ , in line four, may reasonably be corrected into Armim, especially in its direct conjunction withyjAj& • The name of \ is confessedly a re- storation out of the very imperfect tracing of the original pencil copy, but the letters IXTlPiK are sufficiently assured to justify the insertion of the missing after the initial, and the needful termination before The concluding line is nearly illegible. Sir H. Rawlinson has favoured me with the subjoined Note on the locality and surroundings of Pdi-KuU, which unfortunately reached me after the preceding pages had been set tip in type. These ruins which I first heard of in 1835 whilst employed in the neighbouring district of Zohab (see Journal of the Royal Geograph. Soc., vol. ix. p. 30), I had an opportunity of examining in some detail during a two days’ visit which I paid them in 1844, in company with Mr. Alexander Hector, on a return trip from Sulimanieh to Baghdad. They are situated at the South-Eastern extremity of the rocky ridge of Seghermeh, at the distance of about four miles from the right bank of the river Shirwan or Diyaleh, and just beyond an easy pass which crosses the shoulder of the hill from the Karadagh valley. The hill which intervenes be- tween the ruins and the river, and which is a lower and less rugged continuation of the Seghermeh range, is named Gulan. The district on the river is called Bani-Khilan, and is well known from the ford of that name by which the river is crossed on the high road from Zohab to Sulimanieh. The exact position of the ruins is in latitude 35° 7' 16", and longi- tude 45° 34' 35". With these indications any traveller may succeed in finding the locality, but to enable him to inspect the ruins at his leisure it will be indispensable that he should be attended with a suitable escort, as the districts along the river, being a sort of debatable ground between the Persian and Turkish empires, are overrun with marauding Kurds who pay no respect to either Prince or Pasha. The ruins, which are called indifferently Pdi-Kuli ( s BA2IAEHN APIANHN EK 7 eNOGs 0ewv EKrONOY ©EOT nAnAKOT BAXIAERS. Image of the person of [Orjmazd- worshipper, divine Shahpuhr, King of Kings of Iran and Aniran, of celestial origin from God, the son of [Or]mazd- worshipper, divine Artahshatr, King of Kings of Iran, of celestial origin from God, the son of divine Papak, King ! The text of Inscription Ho. 5, in its full development, origi- nally formed the illustrative commentary on one 1 of the best executed of the many rock sculptures 2 to be found in various 1 Ker Porter, pi. xxi. ; Flandin, pi. 185. 2 This calamitous incident in the annals of the Roman Empire is treated under various modified details in the different sculptures devoted to its representation. At Darabgird (plates 31 and 33, Flandin), Sapor places his left hand on the head of Cyriades, as if in commendation, or confirmation of the position he was about to bestow upon him, in supersession of the kneeling Valerian. Sapor’s helmet is, in this instance, similar to the skull-cap ordinarily appropriated to his father, but the tied point of the beard, continues to mark his special identity. In plate 48 of Flandin (bas-relief B, at Shahpfir), we have a single kneeling figure before the horse of the conqueror without the usual incidental accompani- ments. In plate 49, has-relief A, also sculptured at Sh&hpur, the positions of the parties are greatly changed ; and if we may judge by the seemingly elaborate drawings, the younger man is now kneeling, possibly awaiting investiture, while Sapor places his right hand on the arm of Valerian, who is clearly in fetters, as if in the act of exhibiting him to the assembled troops. Sapor’s crown in this bas- relief follows the usual mural pattern. A novelty is to be noticed in this com- position in the introduction of a winged figure descending from the sky and pre- senting to Sapor a second diadem, which floats in unbound and open folds. See also Morier’s plate xiii. p. 91, Persia, Armenia, etc. London, 1812. Plate 53 is indistinct in the definition of the persons forming the general group, but Valerian is seen kneeling with hands outstretched in the ordinary attitude, while a standing figure behind him, in the garb of a Roman, presents a circlet to Sapor. The outline of the figure standing by the side of Sapor’s charger Inscription Ho. 5. 62 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. parts of Persia, devoted to tlie commemoration of Sapor’s suc- cessful capture of the Emperor Valerian in 260 a.d. The general arrangement of Sapor’s dress in this instance is similar is imperfect, but from the size it would seem to be designed to represent a youth. The angel with the Sassanian bandeau appears above, and in the side compart- ments are figured a Roman biga, an elephant, a horse, etc. E am unable to recognise in plate 51, bas-relief I) (Morier, pi. xi.) at Shhhpur, any association with Sapor’s triumph over Valerian, but understand the general design to refer to some other boasted success of the Persian monarch, perchance over the Syrian king Sitarun (Masa’udi, cap. lxxviii.) or possibly over Odenathus himself, who, under western testimony, is affirmed, on the other hand, to have gained advantages over Sapor in the war undertaken to avenge the humiliation of the Romans. Sapor’s portrait in this sculpture is more artistic in its treatment than usual ; and if Flandin’s copy, here reproduced, be a true rendering of the original we may fairly admit the traditional perfection of that monarch’s form and features. Head op Sapor I. From a Bas-relief at Shahpur. The head dress is changed from the ordinary mural crown into a close-fitting cap, from the sides of which rise eagles’ wings, and the whole is surmounted by the conventional globe. This style of head-gear is used by Sapor in the bas-relief Ker Porter, xxiv.; Flandin, plates 187, 188 ; but it does not appear on the coins of the dynasty till the reign of Varahran II. (279-296), who employs it through- out. Among the other head-dresses of Sapor may be noticed a sort of Parthian cap or helmet coming to the front in the head and beak of an eagle. ( Numis- matic Chronicle , xv. p. 180, fig. 3). SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 63 to that already adverted to under the notice of No. 4 bas-relief, but the face and head-dress are here admirably preserved; the former exhibits much of the manly beauty for which Sapor was so famed, 1 with a delicate though well-formed moustache, closely- curled or partially- grown whiskers, passing into a well-trained beard, which is retained in a quaint tie below the chin, so as to create a small prolonged imperial below the ring or binding which checked its natural flow, a fashion which, even in Sapor’s own time and afterwards, merged into a jewelled drop, constituting a terminal comple- tion of the beard itself, and whose exaggerated dimensions formed so marked a peculiarity in the medallic portraiture of later sovereigns ! Sapor has the usual bushy side- curls, and still adheres to the mural crown surmounted by the con- ventional globe, — the Sassanian fillets float freely at the back, and similar small fillets or barred ribbons are attached to his sword hilt, his ankles, and even to his horse’s head and tail. Valerian is fitly represented in the Roman costume, with the laurel chaplet on his brow, kneeling in front of Sapor’s charger, with both hands outstretched, in the obvious attitude of supplication ; a young man, also in Roman garb, wearing an identical chaplet, and who is supposed to be intended for Cyriades, stands by his side and receives from the hand of Sapor the circlet and wavy bands, which other sculptures in- dicate to be the accepted insignia of royalty. The inscription itself, which fills in the space behind Sapor’s horse, was partially copied by Niebuhr, 2 and a few lines were sketched but not published by Ker Porter, 3 M. Flandin’s 4 transcript is a most marked advance upon the early tracings of Niebuhr in the amplitude of the text, though only questionably improving upon the legibility of the selected sections contri- buted by his predecessor. We have most indubitable evidence in the portions now intelligible that the inscription emanated 1 Masa’udi— French, edition, ii. p. 160, iv. p. 83; Mirkkond, in Dc Sacy, pp 285-7. 2 Voyage en Arabie. C. Niebuhr. Amsterdam, 1780. Vol. ii. pi. xxxiv p 129. ' 3 Ker Torter, i. 541. 4 Flandin, vol. i. pi. 181, p. 541. 64 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. from Sapor (line 1, 2 , 6, etc.), whose name and title of Malkan Malka there can be no misreading, and equally is it clear that the great Hierarch of Hierarchs, whose designation is so often repeated, refers to the unhappy Roman “ Pontifex Maximus,” Valerian himself. 1 It will be seen that none of the bas-reliefs, commemorating the capture of Valerian, give any countenance to the loose accusation of the "Western writers regarding the severity of the treatment or wanton humiliation of the Roman Emperor on the part of Sapor. On one occasion only, in the entire series of sculptures, is Valerian represented in chains, and the anklets, in this case, may well be taken to be merely figurative. The few Persian authors, indeed, who notice this but little appreciated episode in the history of their own country, re- late that Sapor wisely took advantage of the engineering skill of his captive, and employed him, together with free artizans obtained from Rome, in the construction of the celebrated irrigation dam, and in the general embellishment of the new city of Shuster. Tabari, it is true, reports that after comple- tion of these works, Sapor marked and disfigured his prisoner, but the statement bears but little semblance of truth, and the Shah Hamah, in its version of the details, makes no allusion to any such barbarity. It is singular that in no one instance is there to be found any sign of the strictly western form of the name of Valerian, the Persian word sliatr'i , in two several instances, precedes the other designations applicable to the dignity he was supposed to hold ; and on the second occasion (line 11), this local title is connected with an outlying final or possibly directly initial ul, which, under the free licence of interpretation, the crude orthography of the associate texts fully invites, may be held susceptible of conversion into Val sluitr'i , 2 which perchance, may have conveyed to the indigenes 1 Eutropius, ix. c. 6 ; Zosimus, i. c. 36 ; Agathias, iv. 23 ; Trebellius Pollio in Hist. Aug. YI. vol. ii. p. 179; Aurelianus Victor de Caesaribus, xxxii., and Epitome, xxxii.; Lactantius, “de mortibus persecutorum,” c. v. ; Eusebius, ii. 301 ; Zonarae Ann. xii. 23 ; (U.C. 1010) ; Abulfarage, p. 81 ; Gibbon, i. p. 459 ; Clinton, Fasti Romani, i. 284. Coins of Valerian cease with a.d. 260-1. His name, however, appears in one law of a.d. 262, and in a second of 265. Eckhel, vol. vii. 387. 2 Val was a favourite name in these lands— as Val Arsaces, Val , King of Edessa SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 65 the nearest approximate sound of the Grecized adaptation of the original [otaaepianos]. The introduction of the name of Atjharmazdi with the suffix Malkan Malka is strange in the extreme, if the worldly titles are supposed to be applied to the Divinity ; but it might be better in the present state of our knowledge, and the defective context of this inscription, to limit the attribution of the designation to the Hormuzdas, the son of Sapor, who event- ually succeeded to his father’s throne, notwithstanding that the titular honors here conceded equal those of the reigning monarch. There is very much else in this inscription calculated to invite comment under the linguistic and philological aspects, with so many words that may be reduced into their simplest modern forms by, so to say, the merest turn of the pen : but my object, in transliterating these primarily conscientious though necessarily deceptive reproductions of a nearly obli- terated lapidary text, is accomplished in affording more ready means of comparison to future copyists, and determining a certain number of words for the illustration and confirmation of my leading text. With regard to the restored modern Pehlvi version now printed, I may remark that I have adhered as closely as possible to the very letters given in the servile engravings from which it has been drawn. In the case of the ordinary Persian transcript, I have allowed myself occasional latitude in suggestive modifications ; but, as a general rule, I have merely transcribed the old character into its modern form, leaving the multifarious optional correspondents of the ancient letters to be determined hereafter. Var, Yag, etc. The Shah Namah, with a proper Aryan disregard of the con- trasted sounds of n and l, reproduces Valerian's name as . J y, W jU-J j jJ J j ^ j j j\j* Tabari’s Persian version does not give the designation of the Roman captive. 66 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. Transcript op Pehlvi Inscription No. Y. in Modern Persian. J . ^L-J lSj •••••• 1 e/* hfj ^ ( — C. tj . . 3 t_£j l1? 4 \^^y„ j 4^^/V^-? * ^ j 6 ^ w'v^* ^Jj) 7 ufj j+A Aj! L _ 5 Ai3 8 ^j;J \j »£ ....... 9 LSj ^ 10 ^CS\J ^ Jj 11 hZr^&^l * • • uU?^ u*j^ ) • • • ^ wfj\ . . . . ^jJ> lL$ 1 Jj 13 J\y^ Jl ... , j J- 14 UjJ l/^ * ^ J 15 t 3 | fi ........ 16 J^i uoli'' • • • i 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 67 Insceiption No. V. ||NOa^ 3*U"£j^ 32«2gp[22] 32 . ... 12^3$ ^ JN32* 3|*^ [32]*2£)[^]22 2JU ..... |^^2i3-4* |2^$ ^2^22-Cww ^.2 )^2 3-f p^f*}^ 2J? j ^ p23is> ^2 p‘23^ ^2(^22 1^5^ 2 ^J>y-?2JU2JU 2 |2-^)JV5« 32f*22«ftfJU [£)] J2jPj 2 J2^g) ^i«2gj^a)^ 2 J2g) p^"£ 32*2 [£p.M] ^2 r^-G 2 2fdJ3«[^JU]0 3f*.$2 ^02*3* ^>5 23^) JJM wCjljj J)- 22 ^J 3£}*5 2 j X p^-£ 3^2)^* J*^ 3^ p...| 20 .a). 23)^ p23^ )2 ^JU23^ 32fd22 3* 3^fV>22Jy(^JU^. . . . . . -|JU22fOji 225^2 $22*2* *p «3|*^ ^*232* ^2 ^*[232»] p2fC p \*0 ^5P3- •" ^L? - Oa)^aj [^]. . $ap£* ^^3 322(V>A) 233^ 2 3"3^i'o" 3 3-T p^f*>3) 68 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. Aj y4» *2Jb « • « u*Jb 18 * .... 29 LS&. 30 lS) '~^\-r J.J ®1 .t ( ^ > J ^ Lii— ^3^/i^iJb ••••••.. 32 • • • • c-5j ^ ^ ‘ — y 34 35 ^£j\ ^yl 36 37 . . . = 40 . 53 64 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 69 ^ N 22 " -£P ... O* -22. • .-6j)p0 • . . ^ ••• ft3)2J( • • 2 • • -JO 22- -f 0 J))(V322 ATjJ) fpOJ2...0i^. •i’* 022 • J5*0^2^ 2 J-O • 81 ^ 2£J^ y ^ 2 82 j>)pa22J0 fd J>ptf^2 p0}2^>ftfjo ^)paja pd 83 p^^2^-f*c . . O J02- • S P^Jo) 2 V^J 2 ^ N^£j* 34 ^)p*22 pj ^2-02 ^A)22fCJ0 2£J^ £)_> 35 ^2^2 ■£)£ 36 £22f*40 J)2pdJ0 18 19 20 25 27 29 30 37 N 40 . «)[)'£)] .22^5". . _r . . .p 53 IN )jU-^ . . J0^22J0 . . . $$ . . ) •.£..•£ ^2J* 64 •C n • _3i 2 lf 2 • 22)5"^. • 70 SASSAN1AN INSCRIPTIONS. Inscription No. VI. The celebrated bilingual Inscription of Sapor, in the Haji- abad cavern, seems to have been first made known to the modern world by Ker Porter, whose description of the posi- tion and surroundings of the fellow tablets is as follows : — “The valley, or rather dell of Haji-abad, cannot be more than two miles in extent from end to end ; the most western extremity being formed by the rocks of Nakshi-Rustam, which stretch three miles from the village of Haji-abad, in a direction north, 68° west I was shewn a piece of antiquity in one of these caves, which I believe has not hitherto been noticed. It lies about a mile, nearly north, from the village. The entrance is exceedingly lofty ; and within, the cavern is still more so. We see that nature originally formed it of an immense height and depth ; but not satisfied with her amplitude, manual labour has added fifty yards of excavation in the vaulted roof. Along the right side, we found several square places hewn in the rock ; two, nearest the entrance, at about six or seven feet from the floor of the cave, were filled with inscriptions, both were in the Pehlvi character, not much injured, but widely differing from each other ; one consists of sixteen lines, the other of fourteen. I copied them with all the accuracy in my power, being much impeded by the height and darkness of their position. One portion of the three upper lines I could not make out in the least. Each inscription occupies a whole excavated tablet of about four feet in width.” Sir Ephraim Stamms’ s direct plaster casts of these inscrip- tions, taken from the face of the living rock, were brought to Europe and published in the form of jumbled and imperfect engravings, among the Transactions of the Royal Society of Dublin in 1835. The former obviously authentic reproductions of the original very early attracted the attention of Mr. Norris, who promptly devoted himself to their decipherment, for which De Sacy’s essays on kindred texts had already in a measure paved the way. The interpretation of these new SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 71 documents, however, proved a more serious task than had been anticipated, and Mr. Norris, in the self-denying hope 1 that some of the then more advanced Zend students might he in a condition to supply us with tentative translations, prepared with his own hand accurate pentagraph copies of the biliteral texts, which were eventually prefixed by Westergaard to his edition of the Bundehesh, 2 but no analysis or preliminary commentary was attempted on this occasion ; nor has that author, in his subsequent introduction to the Zend Avesta, 3 made any seeming advance in satisfying himself of the mean- ing or contents of these writings, beyond the detection of the single word j» , 4 which Anquetil had already determined from other sources. A similar reserve has been maintained by Dr. F. Spiegel, who has given us so excellent a work on the Parsi language, 5 as well as a series of Essays, of far higher pretensions, on the Huzvaresch-Sprache. 6 Dr. Martin Haug, indeed, was the only one of the prominent Zend scholars of that day who attempted to face the real difficulties of the interpretation, or who dared to venture beyond the safe limits, which the parallel Greek translations secured for the ex- planation of the opening passage, detailing the conventionally verbose titles and descent of the king. Dr. Haug’s first effort appeared in 1854. 7 A more ex- tended analysis is to be found in his work published in Bom- 1 I myself had very much to thank Mr. Norris for in these early days of our joint interest in Pehlvi decipherment. See J.R.A.S. (1849), vol. xii. p. 263 ; Num. Chron. (1849), xii. p. 72. I do not seek the slightest reserve in alluding to my own limited objects and contracted application of the documents in question in 1849. My studies, at the moment, merely extended to a definition of the normal forms of the lapidary letters with a view to aid the determination of the contrasted outlines of the cognate characters on the coins I happened to be engaged upon. See J.R.A.S. (1849), vol. xii. pp. 263-5-6, etc. ; Num.. Chron. (1849), p. 73, et seq. 3 The Bundehesh. N. L. "Westergaard. Copenhagen, 1851. Professor Wester- gaard had previously directly copied the original inscriptions themselves during the course of a tour in Persia, and some of his foot notes and corrections are of considerable value. 3 Zend Avesta, “The Zend Texts.” Yol. i. Copenhagen, 1852-54. * Pp. 18, 21. 6 Grammatik der Parsisprache. Leipzig, 1851. 6 Grammatik der Iluzvaresch-Spracke. Vienna, 1856. Die Traditionelle Literatur der Parsen. Vienna, 1860. 7 Uber die Pehlewi-Sprache und den Bundehesh. Gottingen, 1854, p. 5. 72 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. bay in 1862, 1 and a far more imposing array of critical identi- fications is inserted in bis introduction to Hosbengji- Jamaspji’s Farhang-i-oim-yak , 1867. 2 In conclusion, tbe writer announces tbat he hopes soon to publish a full “ translation and ex- planation of both texts” of the inscription. 3 I must frankly admit that my system of reading and interpretation varies materially from that of Dr. Haug, so that I labour under the disadvantage, as an amateur learner, of differing at the outset from a practised professional teacher ; but as there is no antagonism in the matter, but merely an independent search after knowledge in either case, I trust we shall speedily arrive at a translation that will satisfy ourselves and, I regret to say, the very limited circle of those who take an interest in these studies. As regards the materials for the reconstruction of correct texts of the two inscriptions at present available, I may men- tion that Sir E. Stannus’s casts of the Sassanian version stop short with the sixth out of the total of sixteen lines. The Chaldseo-Pehlvi text is complete in its full fourteen lines, but the plaster impressions have been taken in four separate squares, which have, as a rule, suffered greatly on the edges, and supply a very imperfectly connected line either at the horizontal or cross perpendicular points of junction (see the Photograph). The British Museum copies are in better condition than those of the Poyal Asiatic Society, while we may reasonably infer that the Dublin impressions are the best of all. Ker Porter’s artistic facsimiles are of great use occasionally, and M. Elandin’s more labored repro- ductions, at times supply the correct forms of dubious letters. I have also at my disposal a worn and nearly obliterated pencil copy of the entire Sassanian text made by Sir H. Rawlinson, who, however, omitted to secure a new facsimile of the counterpart Chaldsean. 1 Essays on the Sacred Language, "Writings, and Religion of the Parsees. Bombay, 1862. 2 An old Zand-Pahlavi Glossary, by Destur Hoshengji-Jamaspji, High Priest of the Parsis in Malwa, with notes and introduction by Dr. M. Haug. London, 1867. 3 Pp. XX. XXI. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 73 Hajiabad Inscription, No. VI. The opening word in either version of this inscription is defined in the plural form, in seemingly intentional contrast to the singular number, made use of on ordinary occasions, where the writing avowedly refers to an isolated individual in a given group of sculpture, or to a general composition, wherein the leading figure alone is indicated. In the present instance, the text must be supposed to advert to the general series of illustrations of Sapor’s deeds delineated in the bas-reliefs in immediately proximate localities ; or, pro- bably, to some special mural representation of the mun- dane and higher powers more directly referred to in the text, which may have been either only preliminarily de- signed, partially executed, or afterwards intentionally de- stroyed. 1 The duplicate legends in parallel cases com- mence severally with and <. • In this epigraph the Chaldsean plural is found in one version, and in the other, which seemingly represents a vague de- finition of the corresponding modern Persian neuter 'plural 1*, with the connecting izdfat attached. The specific term itself has, for long past, been identified with the modern jLj , S. HfifeRTT? Armenian and Aramaean, Patkar , “ imago.” appears to connect itself with the Persian cuneiform zana, 2 the modern Zan, “ a woman,” but which in early times retained its leading signification as directly derived from a 1 It is not easy to determine, with the limited information available, in what con- dition the three other tablets, ranging in line with these inscriptions within the cave, were found. There is nothing to show whether the rough surface was merely levelled and prepared, the tablets actually sculptured in relief or engraved in letters ; or, on the other hand, whether the finished work was finally damaged or destroyed. M. Flandin’s account of the walls of the interior is as follows : — “ Ils se trouvent au Nord-ouest des monticules qui indiquent le perimetre de l’ancienne ville d’ Istakhr et pres du village d’ Iladji-abad. Dans une gorge de la montagne on aperqoit des cavernes naturelles. Dans Tune d’elles sont disposees, sur sa paroi meme, cinq tablettes dont deux sont revetues d’ inscriptions pehlvis bicn con- servees.” — Flandin, p. 155, folio, texte; octavo, texte, vol. ii., p. 138. 2 Rawlinson, J. R. A. S. x. 320 ; xii. 432. Oppert, J. A. 1851, pp. 564, 572, dahyunam paruzandnam , “des pays tres peuples.” Anquctil, ii. 505, has Zana — “ germe, semence, noyau.” Cf. also ZAX2, zivistan , etc. 74 SASSANIAN IN SCBIPTION S. THE HAjrABAD IHSCEIPTIOK The leading text in the subjoined reproduction of the inscription , in the modern Hebrew type y is a transcript of the original Chaldcco-Pehlvi version. But it must be borne in mind that the local alphabet was altogether deficient in the several Hebrew letters )£, p. and The parallel Persian type embodies the Sassanian Pehlvi text , or the counter - part inscription in the old Pehlvi character , the sixteen lines of which have been arranged to accord as nearly as possible with the associate sentences of the fourteen lines of the Western writing. In this case also , in applying any test of modern languages , it must be understood that the old Sassanian alphabet consisted of eighteen signs in ally one of which represented both J and J ; while another , the double lS) has been superseded in more advanced systems. The several forms of £■, 4, J, k, 1?, and (J) were therefore altogether non-existent in the then developed power of expression of this alphabet. TIISW b "5T j'^ns 1 1 P cr* vi't? 1525 ik'*ik 5 k i pnK pb 25 2 ,1, — il J Ulri LsLL. 2 *0*525 pta wnrnK kmVk p-ms nn ink' 3 lSU— « jlL. lSJ. 3 *]SKS 53 'iniS'inia INK' J25 Tip 1525 JK'IK 4 \fibi i_s — t ‘ 'ji nr* X* wlr-i' 4 pTwn "N5*in n'-P k'tti "5t j*5 r\25K i k3*52d 5 1 A*) W— 5 M ^ •• s' D'l "5T pS '*555 1 NH? pK5K 1 JK3“I JKN313 6 Lsb J fj DJi cri' cr^ i jfi > 6 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 75 xna mn ana 1 ? w# m^nn 1 ? mn i ni 23 'xnn i \j l Jy— ?— 3 ^ L}j“ — £ -' ■ ‘ - ^ 7 a'x run' aS" nnaa 3 ' inWas jamnn ux 'tin 8 ^v.' c -o&^ *— cr^v U - 5 - 4 j (Jj 8 nin' 'ddx amt? xnaM?a m 3 nn ma w “jx » — - — i ^ hj-trl 40* yW ^ 9 nnD" 3 S w 1325 rnnsix f? j'ax mm io t A — 3 ». -J C* — ? I — ^jA j—&\ 10 ** / jns 1^33 nm .aim an' 1323 dix ma n t?>-i '-r wi sf-V. m 11 irta x'nnn i nmnn rj'n on " 3 ? 12 cJjJj ' — i — - — 41 J UJ- " C ’— k J— ^ 'W mba x'nnn 1325 1 mt? sp 'n't? 13 ^jJ.? j- 5 -* ./*' cri^ 0-2' i/Wr 15 pnn am an' spnS nit 25 a' 14 i— -0 u ~~*j 14 76 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. root in common with the Sanskrit ^I«t“to he born,” “man, individually or collectively, mankind,” etc. In the present inscription it appears to carry the double sense of the person (of Sapor) in this place, and subsequently in > for people of the world, in the same manner as in Persian is primarily the body , and secondarily, as in AiP*- , “ some people .” The 7 , J in the position it here occupies or in its subse- quently curtailed form can scarcely represent anything but the grammatical S, the recognised Semitic sign of the dative, which was so often employed to mark the genitive case. y2Baga and Bagi , “divine,” are manifest in their deri- vation and meaning, as is the Chaldaean cj>y, “a son” (from “to f° rm > 1° create”), which coincides in both versions. The contrast between the TllS > “ son’s son,” and the ^3 JYepos (^~J), “a grandson,” of the associate Sassanian text is curious, and a like discrimination is observed elsewhere in these inscriptions, while an earlier parallel of a similar term is to be found in the Cuneiform JYayaJca, “grandfather” (J.P.A.S. xv. 160). There is nothing that need detain us in the formal repeti- tion of the ordinary series of titles till we come to the con- junction } in line five, which is represented in the fellow text by the word (the Hebrew and Chaldee Syriac *2)1, Arabic < $, “also,” “besides,” etc.). The next words, and clearly stand for the Arabic Muhammad-i- Abdula. — J. R. A. S. xiii. 411. 3, Jut or) 1 J. R. A. S. ix. 388, 405-6, 410, 413 ; Jour. Asiatique, 1836, p. 14 ; 1864, pp. 173, 174. 2 Renan, Journal Asiatique, 1859. “ Elle se retrouve peut-etre dans les divi- nites arabes Aud et Obod, qu’on croit expliquer par ou tempus, pater temporis.” p. 268. 3 Selden, De Diis Syris, 1662, p. 176; Renan, J.A. 1859, pp. 266, 267; "ASoSos (iaaiAevs 268 and 273 ; Kitto’s Cyclopaedia of Bible Lit. and Smith’s Diet, of the Bible, sub voce t Eadad ; Josephus, vii. 2 ; viii. 6. The king’s worldly position and exalted pretensions towards a subdued God- 78 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. and present no difficulties in tlie obvious root aA and the numerous derivative associations of ancient speech to be found in “ the Almighty,” in the sense of “ power,” etc. In the same way accepting the Sassanian as the leading version, falls in completely with from ptf |H«» “ Lord,” 'pX, "my lord,” which we retain in our own conventional tongue in the derivative ''AScovls we learnt from the Greeks . 1 The Semitic from may, perhaps, be understood in the higher sense of the recipient of service , 2 rather than in the later acceptation of the word, as "service.” We may here pause for a moment to mark the contrasted dialects of the joint versions in the use of the Semitic genitive prefix S in the one case and the employment of the Persian Izafat in the other. The series of words line five, line seven, and in lines eight and fourteen, have clearly a common origin in the root “ to be exalted.” Abundant parallels of the same ruling idea are to be found in the Bible phraseology in JvSj? (from PlS^, “to ascend”), (from rm, u->, “ to be high”). While the derivative examples are familiar to our ears in “ Bimmon, Bamah, Bamoth- Gilead,” etc. The prnnBfr! and ^ ;A^A in their absolute identity of head had equally a fair analogy with and a simultaneous teaching in the con- ventional use of the mundane term for king, which was so often applied in its higher sense to the Divine power in the patriarchal ages. So that, in effect, the reigning king, the *A va£ auSpwv, without any conception of unduly approaching the true God, was, in effect, next to God upon earth ; just as the God of early thought was, under the worldly idea, only the self-created supreme king. The “My King and my God,” of David’s prayer (Ps. v. 2), finds numerous parallels through- out Scripture. “ The Lord is king for ever arid ever.” “ Save Lord : let the king hear us when we call” (Ps. x. 16 ; xx. 9). See also xliv. 4 ; xlvii. 2, 6, 7 ; xlviii. 2; Proverbs xxiv. 21 ; Isaiah viii. 21 ; xxxiii. 22. “I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King,” xliii. 15 ; Zech. xiv. 9 ; Malachi i. 14. 1 Renan, J.A, 1859, p. 263-4. 2 “ Yeneratus est aliquem , quomodo dominum servus venerari debet.” — Freytag. 3 Dr. Haug derives these words from KD*1, “to throw;” but 110*1 from D-11, “a high place, especially consecrated to the worship of idols,” seems to be a better identification. — Cf. 'Pa^as 6 vyitTros 9e6s. “ Hadad-rimmon.” Selden, ii. 10. Movers. Phceii. i. 196. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 79 meaning, and but slightly varied transliteration and plural dis- criminations require but scant comment, and point with suffi- cient distinctness to the immemorial office of Satrap, which constituted so essential an element of Persian administration. The slJjJ in like manner is as little open to contest either with regard to the reading or general import, and without needlessly seeking for ancient identifications we may confide in the meaning the Parsis but lately attributed to the word of “Salar en chef,” 1 or some modification of an equivalent dignity. The word is altogether indeterminate in the existing copies of the original, but its Chaldsean counterpart JKl-l sufficiently attests its primary meaning, so that it is useless to speculate further upon the true form. The closely concurring literal elements of the parallel JUiOtf and ^j\j\ would at first sight appear to identify the joint terms with the designation of Andta , the simple name of Tanais or Anahit, a divinity to whom the Achsemenians themselves con- fessed attachment in the days of their less severe adherence to the supremacy of Ormazd, 2 and whose worship was so far identified with degraded Zoroastranism as to secure for her an independent Tasht in the mixed invocations of the Zend Avesta. 3 The succeeding epithet might also be held to confirm the position it was proposed to assign to the goddess, while the attribution of the designation to a member of the ancient Chaldaic Pantheon might seem to be consecutively supported by the occurrence of the names of Gula (line 6), Anu (line 8), Banit , with its legitimate correspondent of ’Hpa 4 (in line 9), and the letters which constitute so near an approach to the designation of Ishtar (‘iHD'h in line 10). But it will 1 Anquetil, ii. 486. The pronunciation of the Armenian Sbarabied , “ conne- table,” does not differ greatly from the Pehlvi word. See St. Martin, Mem. sur. PArmenie, i. 298. 2 J.R.A.S. xv. p. 159. Inscription of Artaxerxes Mnemon, p. 162. See also p. 254. 3 Haug, “Language,” etc. Aban Yasht, p. 178. Ardvi Sura Andhita, “high, excellent, pure.” 4 Aj-k may be read as , the 2 will answer for either letter. 80 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. be seen, as the analysis of the bilingual document proceeds, that its text has nothing in common with idolatry, and that the various appellations as they occur in this inscription had, in the natural course of vernacular speech, already reverted to their primary significations, from which, in so many instances, the specific titles of the early divinities had been originally derived. Beyond this, there are otherwise grave difficulties in the way of reconciling the run of the passage with the preceding sentence, if Anahit or other local Deities are to con- clude the list of the mundane officials subject to the reigning King, which sense I conceive the leading must, of neces- sity, carry in this place. Though it is no easy matter to decide positively where the change from the enumeration of the titles of the Monarch to the invocation of the Divinity is effected, especially as the term LsJfc is applied in common to both ; but it would seem that concurrence of the parallel warn (1 and j) at this point marks the want of continuity, which the of the Sassanian is possibly designed to indicate in other parts of the inscription, 1 and under such a view of the tenor of the epigraph, we might be justified in accepting jnfcOK as an imperfect reproduction of the Chaldean pFDK (Syriac Aj|) “Ye,” in which case a translation might be suggested of “Ye Powerful” (Thou, 0 Lord), the plural form of the pronoun being designedly employed, as in and in the conventional pluralis excellentice of the Hebrew and other Oriental tongues. Hext in order follow the words : nt&'Knn D'i "it jns 'bn i c “ fr uji ittf' which, taking the Sassanian as the clearest text, may be rendered “also of joy among the people of the world pro- moting” (“and on earth peace, good will towards men,” Luke ii. 14 : Isaiah lvii. 19). 1 The particle j is irrespective of order : 5 on the contrary distinguishes it. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 81 The may be taken to correspond with nS\*J, “ rejoicing, gladness ” (from or “to move in a circle). 1 The of the Sassanian is replaced by (or, as some copies make it, in the other version, but as the reading of JS is pretty well assured, we may disregard the defect of the initial ^ in the second text, as that letter so frequently in- terchanged with 3. The and JfiD, “ in, among,” are both clear enough, and the various responsibilities of ^ j I have already attempted to explain (pp. 73-76 ante). which is erroneously copied as in most of the modern facsimiles, is consistently supported by the correspond- ing D1, and may fairly be associated with the ^ J, “ low ; ” LjJ, “the world” (^X, Jijt, “low “the earth”), while the D'l resolves itself into the Biblical Dp, “ a people,” in its wider sense for “ all mankind.” The word seems to be derived from D^p “ to rise up” (D'pn, “ to raise np”), the Arabic “stetit” “subsistens, sempiternus,” hence “Deus”). The parallel term in the Sassanian Pehlvi is which I suppose to be the participle present of the obscure verb the modern , “to place,” and under such a continuative action of “ placing, or who places,” the meaning would be clear, as well as in the causal verb of the counter- part writing. The joint texts proceed : "an N“Q mri inVnnS mn l in CTS'V W-~ & Als o of the God of Might, the Lord 2 of the creator, the heavenly creator, the beloved. The Chaldseo-Pehlvi version varies in the substitution of 1 nilT'S ^'3, “to rejoice in Jehovah.” Isaiah xxix. 19. — “Joyful even unto rejoicing.” Job iii. 22. 2 “ The Lord said unto my Lord.”— Ts. cx. 1. 6 82 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. ’irfcin 1 ? in place of CSjjsA. The may either be a very imperfect transcript of the jA>- (jSi Providentia Dei, from jAj potuit), or it may be an independent quotation of the Ja^, justice, another of the attributes of God, with the final Arabic ^ corresponding with the Pehlvi A Sj. One of the nearly parallel terms in these conjoint inscrip- tions, the root of which it is more particularly desirable to deter- mine, is lines 7, 9, line 11, and in line 13, and == in line 13. The last of which derivatives in its textual correspondence with X'Hin sufficiently indicates the sense of the entire series of doubtful words, and justifies what might otherwise be considered to be an improper manipulation of the materials of the original, with a view to suit preconceived ideas of its possible interpretation ; and, indeed, but few commentators would care to hazard an approximate meaning to words so similar in form but belonging to such opposite systems of speech as ^aA and when occurring in one and the same inscription ; but those who would encounter mixed Aryan and Semitic records must hold themselves prepared for similar responsibilities at every turn. Our latest authorities have already associated a-A with the Zend Khshaeta - ?T) “to rule,” hence “splendens, dominus, rex.” 1 The initial as represented by the associate Aryan ^ is quite in accord with the then existing practice, as may be seen in the concurrent and in the name of Zoroaster, in the fifteenth tablet of the Pa'i Kuli Inscription. The short i is also in favour of the identification proposed, and the occurrence of cu in prefer- ence to the modern A is alike typical of the earlier notions of orthography. The Chaldseo-Pehlvi accords identically with the Sassanian 1 Yullers, sub voce, . The word is common enough in the sense of “ shining,” if not something of larger import, in *AmA, etc. Anquetil (ii. 449) has Zend Schathrao= Pehlvi Far man dadar ; and (at p. 508), Pehlvi Scharitah = Padeschah. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 83 in the \jj but changes the concluding into 'foD- The former word is optionally rendered as Dominus on ordi- nary occasions, but the associate in this place and the recurrence of the same word in the next sentence in the Sassanian version seems to point to origin rather than to rank. Under such an interpretation of the passage would revert to its leading meaning of “Valde Propinquus fuit alicui.” 1 The associate *jbn= L has already been noticed (p. 40), and attributed to a source in common with the Aryan the Zend taoklima, Sanskrit and Cuneiform Tama , “granum, semen, radix.” The Creator of heaven and earth 2 is described by about the meaning or derivation of which terms there can be little question. 3 The next sentence contains the words mSnSs JNHTI 13K The Anu Haddian I propose to connect with the (a con- fessedly irregular form of the nominative of the pronoun “ I ; ” in the exalted sense of ego , as denoting the First Cause, which is symbolized in the Scriptures as “ I am that I am.” “ I am hath sent you.” (Exod. iii. 14). 4 In the present com- bination the words would read, “ God of other Gods.” The (j^b, of course, conveys some nearly identical meaning, and it becomes necessary to define, as far as may be, the force and origin of the frequently-recurring b . With our present 1 The word is used in a variety of senses, such as All L5^ “Amicus, Dominus.” “Dominus, herus, item filius.” 2 Isaiah xiii. 5, xliv. 24 ; Jeremiah x. 12 ; St. Matthew xi. 2/5. 3 Creavit, &03, “ 4 Exod. vi. 2, 3, 8, 29. to form, to create, to produce.” “For I am the Lord, I change not.” Malachi iii. 6. 84 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. limited knowledge of the derivation of the specific term, I am inclined to reduce it to the simple element of the Persian ° / lUo “ one,’’ 1 and to suppose that it referred in its early use to the one Divine power, but, in progress of time, came to be conventionally accepted as a term for other gods ; under these conditions the may he taken to be an exceptional Semitic plural, and to read in sequence, “ the seed of the high God of Gods.” 2 The continuation of the sentence in the Chaldseo- Pehlvi, though differing in its phraseology, confirms, if it does not extend, the signification of the fellow Sassanian text. The word £27^ has been associated by some of our late Cuneiform Expositors with the meaning of “race, family,” etc., hut without insisting upon an identification which would so singularly accord with the parallel version in this case, it may fairly be quoted as one of the possible divarications from the severe import of the original root, which is only doubtfully determined by our Lexicographers as tofas, “ to be smooth,” 3 “to escape,” hence “to survive,” and “to live;” also “to let escape, to deliver,” and inferentially, “to bring forth.” In another sense the derivatives carry the idea of “life,” while the word n\sSip signifies “ whom Jehovah makes distinguished.” The concluding ) nS, “ of him,” suffi- ciently declares itself. 1 Compare Sanskrit TTefi “one,” TJ^icn “unity” (oneness in theology). Persian i * C s “ unus,” ^ “unus, unicus,” “ unitas,” “ unitas Dei,” “ God,” etc. A curious example of the definition of the first cause or supreme universal spirit, occurs on a coin of Mahmud of Ghazni, struck at Mahmudpur — in the Sanskrit translation and repro- duction of the Muslim dill SI All ^ hy the word “the invisible one.” The provincial version of “ the indiscrete, the invisible one.” J. R. A. S., xvii. 157. 2 “unus unorum,” AsJj, etc. 3 Arabic Ui etc. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 85 The next passage continues : **nnn ws* "]nd\s nirv aS” intor l jh?- c w^ 1 * * * * .' ^yj) && In the Sassanian — and One that, of the Archon of the Jews, sole Lord of Lords he (is). In the C. F. version — .... over the Jews sole ruler, Lord created, ye (are). Having proclaimed the divine origin of our Lord, the text next proceeds to indicate his mission upon earth. The first word in the Sassanian counterpart of this passage that requires comment is the , which can scarcely be referred to any other association than that of the Greek ''Ap^cov} a word which entered so largely into the gradational definitions of the later Hebrew Hierarchy. In like manner I can hardly be mistaken in accepting the and (in line 9) as the common designation of the Jewish nation at large ; notwithstanding the prosthetic ini- tial \ in the one case, or the use of the final in the place of the more appropriate A in both instances, a substitution which is essentially characteristic of the indifference to the proper discrimination of the two sounds inherent in ordinary Pehlvi writings. The , the first syllable of which is obviously the , so often repeated in the general context, I have sug- gestively rendered in the adjective or adverbial form. is sufficiently assured and the ciyk “ he ” has already been the subject of comment (p. 48). The Chaldseo-Pehlvi version, as usual, is less clear than the Sassanian, the I have not yet succeeded in identify- ing ; but the “over the Jews,” accords sufficiently with the fellow text. The may perchance be a simple Pehlvi plural of with the authorized k final in the place of the n. Though the Sanskrit 1 “Xpurrhs 8e Trapayev6/j.evos apx te P 6 ^ s T ® u fieWSvreov ayaOuv.” Hebrews ix. 11. A considerable portion, indeed, of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews is devoted to the affirmation of this title of High Priest, and to the explanation of its import and bearing upon the old Law. See ii. 17 ; iii. 1, 2, 6 ; iv. 14, 15 ; v. 5, 6, 10 ; vi. 20; vii. I, 2, 3, 15, 16, 24, 26, 27, 28; viii. 1, 2, 3, 6; x. 21 ; xiii. 11, 12. 86 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. ekdki, “ alone/’ manifestly affords a preferable parallel to the associate passage in the Sassanian. My greatest difficulty in this sentence, I am free to confess, consists in the word ; any severe reduction of the term to the rules of Hebrew grammar would manifestly be out of place in the present agglomeration of many tongues, so that probably the best solution that can at present be offered is to understand the derivative in the proper and widely diffused sense of the original root “struxit, sedificavit, condidit;” and to look upon the fV^l in this sentence as bearing the f.-'O 9 sense of “ created,” (Arabic, “a thing constructed, a building,” etc.); 1 but I feel that I am treading upon delicate ground, though, under any circumstances, the contrast be- tween “ The Builder” (or Creator) and the final Edifice , whether the latter be symbolized under the terms, Son, Son of Man, Branch / house, foundation, 3 or the typical buildings of the later writings/ all in their degree fall under the self- same original metaphor, and all revert in their subordinate leading details either directly or indirectly to the Maker and the thing made ; so that in the present instance the less any particular definition is forced amid so obvious a succession of simple meanings, the more safely we may proceed to test what remains of the larger problem yet to be established. But on looking more closely into the general question* it will be seen that there are traces of a direct motive and intention / / / 1 A similar course of development occurs in the parallel cases of s / S' s’ :£'V' “ procreavit,” “Creator,” ijLA>» ? “creata res” (Homines), 1 jj ? “ creavit,” “creatura.” 2 Isaiah xi. 1 ; Jeremiah xxiii. 5, 6. “For, behold, I will bring forth my ser- vant the Branch.” Zechariah iii. 8, 9. “ Behold the man whose name is The Branch.” vi. 12. — Poetically, branch is son of a tree. 3 “ Foundation”— 0e/ieAios— which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians iii. 11. — “We have a building of God, an house not made with hands” (oIkoSo^u 4k G eov exojuev, oiKiav axtipoirolriTov). 2 Cor. v. 1. — “ But he that built all things is God.” Hebrews iii. 4, 6 ; ix. 11; xi. 10. — “In whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord.” Ephes. ii. 19, 20, 21. 4 Genesis i. 27; Isaiah xliii. 1, 7, 11; xlv. 12, 13, 15; St. John iii. 16, 18; v. 18 ; 1 Corinthians iii. 10, 11 ; Colloss. iii. 4, 10, 11 ; Hebrews ix. 11 ; xi. 17, 18. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 87 in the reserve maintained under the avowedly open term “ created,” inasmuch as with Oriental feelings on the subject of women, and the degraded position assigned to them as household goods, a difficulty would at any time present itself with regard to their part in so divinely inspired an event ; indeed, the birth of Our Saviour was one of the special points upon which the Eastern mind was altogether abroad and in- competent to understand, hence the earliest discussions on the subject at once introduced discord into their section of the church. 1 It will have been noticed that the parallel texts of the Inscription are careful to avoid the use of the term “Son” in reference to Our Lord, though Sapor is freely de- fined as “Son,” and “Son’s Son;” but the ^-4 j, and TV/S, which appeared, at first sight, to be undue shortcomings, seem to have been, in reality, guarded and designed limitations, which consistently coincide with the idea of direct and special “ creation by the Almighty,” without entering too definitely into the mode or method, which would be incomprehensible to and far beyond the range of average local thought. There are serious obstacles in the way of any conclusive determination of the value of the word , which it will 1 Here is a statement of the case as given by Tabari : “ Quand la religion de Jesus fut tres-repandue, Eblis fit son apparition, et un jour de fete, lorsqu’un grande nombre d’bommes, sectateurs de Jesus, etait reuni dans le temple de Jerusalem, il s’y presenta accompagne de deux Divs” (saying) “nous avonsvoulu entendre ce que vous dites concernant Jesus. Les bommes repon dirent : Jesus est le prophete, 1’ esprit de Dieu et le fils de Marie; il n’a pas ete engendre par pere. Je pense que Dieu est le pere de Jesus. L’un des Divs dit: Cette parole est un non-sens, car Dieu n’a pas d’enfants et n’a pas commerce avec une femme ; mais Jesus c’est Dieu meme, qui est descendu du ciel et est entre dans le sein de Marie ; il en est sorti pour se montrer aux bommes, sous la forme d’un horame, puis il est retourne au ciel, car Dieu a le pouvoir d’etre ou il veut et de montrer aux bommes ce qu’il veut. L’ autre Div dit . . . et il l’a etabli au milieu des hommes comme un signe (de sa toute puissance) ; puis il s’ est associe Jesus et Marie, afin qu’ils fussent honords a l’egal de Dieu. . . . Alors les Chretiens se diviserent en trois sectes, dont cbacune accepta l'une de ces trois doctrines.” — Tabari, M. Zotenberg, i. p. 566. So also Abgar, in bis letter to Our Saviour, evidently leant to the first conception, “either that thou art God, and having descended from heaven,” in preference to the alternative, “ or else doing them, thou art the Son of God.” Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. i. 13 ; Moses of Khorene (French edit.) cap. xxxi. ; Bayer, Hist. Osrboena, p. 105; Ancient Syriac Documents, W. Cureton, London, 1864, p. 2. 88 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. be seen runs parallel to tlie Sassanian • In tbe first place it is not by any means beyond possibility tbat they may both be verbs, the one from the Chaldsean I’I'IlI an( l ain “ to be,” the other from the Persian “to be.” An objection likewise exists to a too ready accept- ance of the in the sense of “ ye,” as it would appear that another form of the second person plural of the pronoun had already been used in an earlier portion of this inscription ( jflK3K line 6) ; however this argument need not uncon- ditionally condemn the identification, as either one form or the other is sufficiently irregular, as is the nominative itself, and the inscription in its several parts varies consider- ably in its current provincialisms. 1 But singular to say, the evidence to sustain the proposed interpretation is contributed by a second inconsistency in the very body of the text, where (in line 11) we find the word H^Pt, associated with the same — the former of which obviously suggests the Arabic “ thou ” as the seems to fall into some vernacular adaptation of the Arabic (feminine) plural “ you ” (JflX “you”). ninn nin* 'ddx Kvntf Lfy 0 mje ^ — - — S-J C. Tehlvi. — The powerful ... of the chosen Jews ye (are). Sassanian. —The Supreme Lord of the Jews outside the (ancient) rites, he (is). The opening word in this sentence requires both comment and justification, the crude cl? of the text I suppose to repre- sent the now conventional iolc, “ custom, usage, rite,” etc. In most of the modern facsimiles the final cl? has been resolved into two independent letters which would convert the original into the word ; but this severance of the component elements of a single letter is an error of frequent and almost natural recurrence among those who were either ignorant of the true forms of the character, or set themselves to trace 1 E.g. especially in the conjunctions j > t • There are other in- dications, likewise, of an interval having occurred between the endorsement or preparation of the introductory portions and the conclusions of these proclamations. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 89 words to which they could not assign a meaning. The pre- sent rectification is, however, sufficiently supported by Flan- din’s design. It is scarcely possible to be mistaken in the Persian in- dividuality of the word , “ outside, exterior,” which in its multifarious combinations enters so largely into the home- speech of the land of which Persepolis was once the metro- polis ; and within whose local circuit, in secluded crypts and caverns, the present epigraphs have been so strangely pre- served. The is a title of more doubtful allegiance; its value, in connexion with the frequent reiteration of one of its compound terms, within the limits of this brief record, should fully suffice to determine its second element, while the ever present of the contemporary Inscriptions in less adul- terated Pehlvi, establishes a priori , a definite suggestion and understanding of the Eastern Pati (Ufa:)- A somewhat similar compound under our Western adaptation is well-known and uniformly identified with the Patriarchs of the Christian Church. I do not seek to decide upon either one or the other derivation. I have only to reconcile in this place the possible want of discrimination by either party of the true origin of such closely approximating sounds ; but it is singular that Ma- saudi should have affirmed that the Christians derived all their clerical titles and designations from the Sabaeans of Harran LjLal!), 1 though he honestly retains the dubious r in which alone creates any difficulty in the present 1 French, edition, vol. i., p. 198. “ Les Sabeens de Harran, qui ne sont que les disciples grossiers des Grecs, et la lie des philosophes anciens, out etabli dans leur temples une hierarchie de pretres qui correspond aux neuf spheres ; le plus eleve porte le nom de Has Koumra (chef des pretres, ^'* 1 ). Les cbretiens, qui leur ont succede, ont conserve dans la hierarchie ecclesiastique l’ordre institue par la secte sabeenne. , . la neuvieme celle de mitran !>*). ce qui veut dire chef de la ville (metropolitain). Enfin au-dessus de tous ces grades est celui de batrih f t * c’est-a-dire le pere des peres (patriarche). . . Telle est l’opinion des chretiens instruits relativement a cette hidrarche. . . . II est hors de doute que les chretiens ont emprunte l’idee premidre de cette hierarchie aux Sabeens et que le kasis le chemas etc. sont dus a 1’ influence des Manicheens. — Masaudi, cap. viii. 90 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. identification ; while, on the other hand, Moses of Khorene specifically reproduces the Ptiachkh as simply “Prince” (i. 159). 1 2 The opening terms of the Chaldseo-Pehlvi counterpart of this passage are obscure, the leading word inconveniently occurs at the cross junction of our plaster casts, and the British mason has studiously adjusted the edges for the sake of the frontage, but to the clear detriment of the impressed letters. Westergaard himself seems to have had some doubt about the state of the characters as they now stand on the sur- face of the rock, and is, moreover, rather vague in his attempted rectification of Mr. Norris’s pentagraph. The succeeding with so many analogies around it, would present no difficulties with an ascertained leader, whether substantive or adjective; but about the following 'DDK there can be small matter of contest, as the separated sect declares itself out- side, or as having abandoned the ancient rites; that is, as being “ without the law,” in the one case 3 — here it is more specific in claiming a special pre-eminence as “ chosen,” ((Jsrk, ^ U-) special, select, most peculiar, 4 a selection 1 “ Vagharchag institue, pour gouverner de la partie nord, cette grande et puissante race : le titre de la principaut6 est Ptiachkh (prince) des Coucaratzi.” — Mos. Khor. vol. i. p. 159; ii. 13, 169. Yisconti, Iconographie Greque ii. 363. Onyx Gem in the Imp. Cabinet : OT5A2 niTIASHS IBHPflN KAPXHAHN. Ousas, Prince d’lberie (des Iberes Carchediens). “ Le prince a des boucles d’oreilles a la maniere orientale, une longne chevelure artistement arrange en nattes suivant l’usage des rois perses de la dynastie des Sassanides,” etc. 2 This is possibly the Hebrew "HD, Chaldee “HD, “ to set in a row, order,” I i ** “ ordo, series,” “schola, liber,” etc. 3 1 Corinthians ix. 20 : “And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; 21. To them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, hut under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law.” (Tots av6p.ois o>s avojios, fxr) &>v auo/xos ©e£, aAA’ ivvopcos Xpiarcp, 'Iva Kepd^a-co avofiovs). See also Romans ii. 14, 17 ; vi. 14 ; vii. 4, 6 ; x. 4 ; Galatians ii. 16, 19 ; iii. 10, 11, 12, 13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,” 19, 23, 24 ; iv. 5 ; v. 18, etc. 4 ’T/uets 8e 7eVos e/cAe/cTbj/ /c.r.A. . . . 9 “ But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people ... 10 which in time past SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 91 the succeeding word indicates to have been directly from among the ranks of God’s ancient people. “inD"23 w 130 nensix f? pax — s*j£ C. Pehlvi . — Of a certainty, the Master, the divine Lord, etc., etc. Sassanian. — And, of a certainty, the Master, the divine Lord. One of the most curious instances of the mixture of tongues in the whole of the parallel inscriptions is contributed by the word which is incontestably proved by its association with *, in line 13, to stand for nothing but the conjunction “ and ” ; while its derivation is declared in the Sanskrit eva ; the Hindustani^!, Bengali etc. ^ is shown by its counterpart]^^ 1 (^ib, certa cognitio), to be the Arabic inna , “certainly,” with the prefixed J. The cul Firmata , has already been met with repeatedly (p. 38, etc.), and its correspondent though looking so strange in its Semitic clothing, is equally attributable to Aryan ethnography, and accords with the Sanskrit Upadeshtri , “ one who points out, who orders, or advises.” 2 The “ Divine ” in is of constant occurrence in these Sassanian epigraphs, and needs no new elucidation. The ^aJj! I have, of necessity, a difficulty about, more especially as the synonym in the other text is even less positive. It might be suggested, with considerable reserve, that the former may possibly have been a compound of the Arabic Vj], “ primum” with the Persian from JA, “the heart,” as in the modern term “merciful,” etc., but such an explanation is scarcely satisfactory ; and a were not a people, but are now the people of God ; wbicb had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” Epistle of Peter, ii. 9, 10. 1 I myself at first read this word as Adin, but the foot-curve in the plaster- casts is indeterminate, and I observe that both Norris and Westergaard reject the sign of the d altogether. 2 TTpadeshtdy U A Guru ,” “a spiritual guide,” from ^T? + “to shew,” with affix A nearly similar sound is found in “ a superior,” from “ to see.” 92 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. combination that should include the reduction of JjJj! into “ as first in rank /’ 1 in parallelism with the conversion of ‘inD^S into the Sanskrit “ supreme /’ 2 however removed from the ordinary laws of interpretation, would, perhaps, better satisfy the requirements of the general context. rwn am an* pa dik wa LJj t-? A J O. Fehlvi . — Created J esus of divine aid, the Lord, thon Sassanian . — Lord (Jesus) of divine aid, {the) Lord, he The eleventh line of the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi legend commences with the repetition of the word already adverted to. In this instance the designation responds, in the order of sequence, to the of the conjoint Sassanian version. Immediately following the former of these words, in its own lapidary context, we find in clear and definitely- formed letters, and in full integrity and isolation, on the surface of the recent plaster casts of the still extant original, the three letters constituting the name of Our Saviour. Of these three literal signs, the two quasi vowels, or, pro- perly, mere carrying consonants of the Semitic system, are entirely dependent upon the true vowel sounds appropriate to the written word ; but in these periods of undeveloped gram- mar such subdued but highly important elements of speech were altogether unprovided with definite graphic exponents. Under such reservation as regards later and more elaborated schemes of orthography, many versions of the test letters Dltf might be suggested, but the most simple and obvious of them would still revert to a very exact counterpart of the name of Jesus, whether out of its many declared varieties we select the Hebrew or the Greek series of definitions. Amid all the various adaptations of the old whether Joshua, Jeshua, Josue, Jesu, or 'Irjcrovs, there is still the same basis in 1 The Armenian der, “ Mouratzan-der” Seigneur des Medes. — Mos. Khor. i. 157. 2 From + “who stays” (a title applied, in the Sanskrit system, to BraAma). Cf. 7rpoaTaT77s (7r polar 77/at). SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 93 these Persepolitan forms of the early Phoenician for the re- construction of the Iensa, or some such close similitude to the real name, that should set at rest all question upon the mere orthographical issue . 1 It will be seen that the name is altogether wanting in the Sassanian version, and it has even been the custom of ordinary copyists to close up the words an( ^ Aj as if no letters had ever intervened between them. But Flandin’s facsimile, which has evidently been traced with a scrupulous desire for accuracy, indicates the existence of a fissure or dis- integration of the surface of the rock, just at this very point, and extending downwards through the succeeding lines, while the tracing equally indicates by the distance between the two words as nearly as possible the space required for the three missing letters. The ^Ajy** of, so to say, both epigraphs, seems clear enough, though it may be needful to explain the preference here assigned to the translation of “aid” over the more common rendering of “ hand ” Persian Dictionaries draw a very nice, but seemingly just discrimination, being the singular and plural forms of one and the same word : Aj is essentially “ a hand,” but in the sequent rationale of “ power,” the subordinate com- binations extended over a very enlarged range of significa- tions : in the Hebrew the derivatives were comparatively restricted, but in the Arabic these divarications concentrated sooner or later, in the Persian vocabularies, into the plural 2 p . c/Aj in the leading sense of “ aid, assistance, succour,” and in 1 In the adapted alphabet of the Persian Jews, made use of in the Bible Society’s New Testament, the name is written yijy'. It is as well that all objections to tlie apparent absence of an initial ' or Yod in this unquestionably important name in the present text, should be answered in anticipation by a citation of the PDX of line ten, where tlie expressed alif initial clearly defines a simple <,_£ ora Jod of Hebrew Grammar. See also the 1 prosthetic in and in =e5. On the other hand, there need he no reserve in admitting that, under the licence claimed above, the name may be converted into many other modified forms, hut notably into > “a sign,” (or possibly ply uz, or even Alt, My, “refuge”). However, it is the essentially Christian characteristics and general tenor of the document that chiefly recommends the reading advocated in the text. 94 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. some cases even to the signification of “ repentance’’ (“ Poeni- tentia” Freytag). The KT of the parallel version might be quoted in support of the duplication of the final in cfJj only that this would not be altogether a safe argument in the pre- sence of the exceptional (emphatic) &T of the Chaldsean vernacular in Daniel v. 5, 24, though probably any such heritage had been subdued by contact with the mixed dialects of more Southern latitudes. The word t — JSfaba would at first sight naturally suggest the obvious interpretation of “ Prophet,” but taken in con- nexion with the of the counterpart transcript it will be necessary to elevate its meaning into “ Lord,” or a later adaptation of the ancient “ Nebo,” as derived from the root bJ, “ Editus, elatus fuit,” 1 “to be prominent,” and not as having any direct connexion with “to pour forth.” The article H the prefixed to the ^*D, which gives force to the parallel term, would altogether remove the joint titles far above the grade of a mere vates or “ prophesier.” The effect of the double letters of the current speech <—jj and seems to have been sought in graphic expression by the lengthening the vowel sound of — into j , as in the analogous case of u/b , which was the substitute for the dominant Arabic (the modern Persian i-Lib). The texts next reiterate the passages from lines 6, 7. niawin epn on jns C. Pehlvi . — . . well sustaining joy among the people of this world. Sasmnian . — . . well upholds joy among the people of the earth. It will be noticed that there is an addition in this line to the previous formula, in the introduction of two new words, which are expressed in mere letters as *T n and respect- ively, to which I myself have but cautiously, and, at last, of very necessity, admitted a perhaps over simple meaning. 1 Arabic lexicographers bring the whole series of parallel terms for Prophet S." under the common root Ui . SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 95 But having reached thus much of the conventionality of the then local speech, so marked in situ , and so singularly pre- served in the dependent ramifications of the more advanced vernacular in its ultimate spread, I feel that but few will be found to contest the data the rock records of the middle of the third century a.d. so strangely reproduce as specimens of the crude prayers and invocations of a new faith, neither the matter nor manner of which was fully understood by the compiler of the inscription. But of all the quaint problems that have presented them- selves during the course of this rather tedious development of a complicated and obscure bilingual manifesto, no single item has afforded so much of a surprise as this Hip of the Cfialdsean texts, which even the most daring ingenuity would scarcely have ventured to coerce into the modern Persian conversational and sonorously aspirated ^^Kliub , 1 unless the fellow version had contributed both the first hint and the simultaneous proof of the correctness of the assignment; even now, many critics may refuse to see the Greek ev in the js) of the Sassanian writing, especially as the meaning, in either case, so oddly accords with the general tendency of the translation which I may be supposed to be too hastily advocating. Hj? sp w 11-6:3 s'Tin i ^ Jj } G. Pehlvi . — And the God lie (is), Lord, great in goodness. Sassanian .— And the God that (is), Godlike, abounding in goodness. pin in xv epn 1 ? -max' w irta xmn no i G. Pehlvi . — And the heavenly Lord he (is) Lord; Oh increase of good aid, Lord of Lords. Sassanian .— And the heavenly Lord, that (is) Lord on high, Master (giver) of aid, Lord ! 1 The orthography, in this instance, may have been affected by the Arabic pro Formidabilis, aut verendus, reverendus, fuit.” The Persian word is more correctly defined in line fourteen of the original inscription as = c-jyb. 96 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. But little remains to be said in tbe way of strictly philo- logical commentary upon the concluding passages of the parallel inscriptions, though their curt and imperfectly con- nected sentences necessarily admit of many and obvious gra- dational renderings. However, as any possible divarication from the leading intention of these epigraphs must, after all, revert to the general tenets of the Christian faith, we have only to accept this singular Eastern paraphrase of portions of our own authorised version, and, under such a concession, frankly to test and compare its very limited departure either in words or ideas from the Greek of the New Testament, on which we base our own interpretation. The first of the remaining difficulties consists of a question of grammar, which was at this time, necessarily, but little subject to fixed laws ; and even had the parts of speech been in any way reduced to a recognised and defined system, the eccentric intermixture of words, phrases, and constructive identities of this Camp language , 1 would release a modern interpreter from any reserve in dealing with doubtful or exceptional terms of minor significance. 1 The direct effect of Sapor’s campaigns to the westward upon the Court language of Persia has been for long past fully recognised and understood (Mohl, Preface to Shah Namah), hut we could scarcely have anticipated its resulting in so incoherent a polyglot as these Bilingual texts present us with. It is true that Persepolis was peculiarly situated in regard to conterminous languages, both old and new, and Sapor’s freshly imported Aramaisms may have added to the normal difficulties ; but much of the imperfection of these writings is undoubtedly due to the novelty of the subject, and to the impossibility of rendering whatever may have been the peculiar form of the recognised sacred text, into degraded Persian vernaculars , with even a remote chance of its essential meaning ultimately reaching the understanding of the less educated masses. And this, indeed, is the fatal obstacle to all Christian teaching in India at the present day, — not that we English are unfaithful, or unwilling, but that Eastern and Western thoughts and deductions start from different bases of symbolical ideals. Though the whole question only amounts to this, after all, that our Western instruction in Christianity commenced later in the world’s history, and under the influence of comparatively advanced knowledge and more or less purified teaching. Europe at large received the Gospel in its best form, but every step it went Eastward, it had from the first to encounter hostilities and to submit to concessions of a character calculated to degrade its sublimity, — it was, in effect, the going back to old and self-willed races, instead of carrying welcome tidings to simple but intelligent, though undeveloped peoples. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 97 Under the most simple and ordinary processes of critical analysis of an epigraph freely abounding in both Hebrew and Arabic terms, it might almost be taken for granted that the word *73, in lines twelve and thirteen, merely reproduced the established Sb, 0^, “ all,” of the authorized speech of those confessedly leading Semitic authorities ; and though, with some straining, it might be possible to connect the word, in a vague way, with a suggestion of “ universality,” it is far preferable to let it down into the quietude of its more direct associations, and to suppose that Sb is nothing more than a local reflex of the Arabic article Jl, “ the.” It is quite true that in this very version the corresponding Hebrew Pi (for has been recognised in its proper and correct form ; but in so strangely composite a manifesto as the present, simplicity, or a reduction to primitive elements, is the only true safeguard to- wards ultimate elucidation ; and as we know, on the other hand, that the Persian tongue was then (as it is now) altogether defi- cient in any representative of our ever- recurring definite article “ the,” which, in these combinations of languages, it had to borrow with more or less sonal aptitude from neighbouring nations ; can it then be felt strange that the severe “ lam , of definition fi with its prosthetic \ , at this time only colloquially developed, should have been so readily merged into the Sassanian or the but faintly removed Chaldsean Sb now under discussion. The leading derivation and ample duties of CJj have already been referred to (p. 42), and the ^Pl=jk, “he,” of the asso- ciate text, scarcely admits of doubt. The single word that still remains to be noticed is the Tllfo which seems to resolve itself into the Arabic inter- jection b (Persian ^) “oh,” prefixed to the word (here written “increase, addition,” etc. (from u p^J-C j>).ua£p^ <7j2j p-f)^ p)jy)a P3-& V^* No. 9 a. . . . jo^)-£ p^J-£ ^J-aagp^ p-0^ p)jy)a No. 7. \j»3jS-£ r^)S ju^)-£* p^3-£* p2^p 2 p2^JU ^ J>2fV3(^2^ J>2*2£p~J^ 3^3 pa^ju ^ 3-C p^)-f [)$] p2J)p2 .?^3 j>en x»jSs 2f0^«f02^> JU^3-? No. 10. t-iOji* A)J)JU22 ^2«2£p22 J y^3^ p^)“£* p)^p 2 p).p AOJJ22 \X>5J$S^ r?yz) p^)-£ J>a^2£p2a p3j5p a ^ju3j)jsj j>e)i P3-& vf a^aju Ao^aa ju^)-f p^)-£ No. 8. j)3^(V5^ ju^jaaa p^3-f J>a«2£p22 aj-f p)^p 2 p)^.u j-^Jo 3^ p^-f * 0.022 a^ p3j>p a p3^.o aj^)-£ yyj>^22 ^V(2^ p 104 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. lie is ordinarily held to have been the son of Yarahran II . 1 It is true that this may possibly have been a mere figure of speech on his part, in desiring to ignore the intermediate successions of less renowned monarchs; but there is nothing- inconsistent in the youthful appearance of Narses in this sculpture with the probability of his having been, in effect, the son of the later days of Sapor, who died only some twenty- one years previous to the regal accession symbolized in the bas- relief ; and, singular to say, one of the Armenian authorities lately collected by M. EVariste Prud’homme, in illustration of Sassanian history , 2 directly declares that Narses was the son of Sapor I . 3 Inscription No. 7. — Narses, a.d. 294-303, at Shahpur. uW' 3 cW 4 ^ 3 ^ 2 1 IT * 7 ^ Msidjst 6 [g^] 5 U \£L* jxAfj] 10 ^ y* uWl ? 8 lO . 11 Image of the person of Ormazd-worsliipper, divine Narses, king of kings of Iran and Aniran, of heavenly origin from God, the son of Ormazd-worshipper, divine Shahpdr, king of kings of Iran and Aniran, of heavenly origin from God, grandson of divine Artahshatr, king of kings. Inscriptions Nos. 8 and 10. ( Pehlvi transcript , page 103.) The Tak-i-Bustan inscriptions, identificatory of the figures of the two Sapors, the second and third of the name, sculptured under the smaller arch of the excavations in that locality, have for long past been before the public in the decipherments of De Sacy and his commentators ; 4 and their final determina- tion may now be said to be set at rest by the exact copies of Sir H. Bawlinson, here reproduced in modern characters. Unlike his previous facsimilies, which were to a certain extent 1 Moudjmel Altawarikh ( Journal Asiatique, 1839, p. 38) ; Hamza Isfahani, p. 37 ; Mirchond, De Sacy, p. 301. 2 Journal Asiatique, 1866, p. 101-238. 3 Ibid., Sepeos, p. 17. 4 De Sacy, Memoires sur div. Ant. p. 211, and second memoir, Journal of the Institute, 1809, vol. ii. p. 162; Ker Porter, ii. 188; Malcolm’s Persia, i. 258 ; M. Bore, Journal Asiatique, June, 1841 ; M. Louis Dubeux, Journal Asiatique, 1843 ; Spiegel, Grammatik der Huzv&reschsprache, 1856, p. 173. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 195 mere unaided tracings, in this instance the transcriber knew both the letters and general import of the record he was em- ployed upon, and hence his text may be freely accepted as disposing of all exceptional variants and doubtful readings. By a critical examination of these writings, Sir Henry has been enabled to rectify the constituents of the much- canvassed “ Voliiya ” of previous translators, and to establish the true value of the word, in the more natural a correction of consider- able importance, in that, while demonstrating the authorized provincial or epochally progressive substitution of two 22’s for the legitimate archaic form of Ul, sh, and thus adding to the general ambiguity of Pehlvi interpretation on the one band, it extends a new latitude to the optional reconstruction of many obscure passages, which had hitherto been circum- scribed by the already sufficiently dubious phonetic powers of the leading basis here duplicated 2, which, under ordinary circumstances, had to respond alike for the powers of j r and j w, and to meet the manifest incertitudes involved in the technical licence of subordinate convertibilities. These lapidary epigraphs have also proved of service in contributing a modified form of the ordinary ch, in the shape of fSj , a contour of the letter frequently met with on gems, and which was otherwise liable to be mistaken for a simple h. The intentionally final i’s are also very carefully defined, in marked contrast to the ordinary initial and medial vowel, a practice which is also scrupulously observed in the majority of the signet legends. The statues of the two Sapors, father and son, in this bas- relief, are strangely alike, a similarity extending even to the minor details of their garments. In Her Porter’s copy, the father, who stands to the right, seems to be the larger man ; but the difference in Flandin’s sketch is not so apparent. The former author represents the faces of both kings as having been completely destroyed ; but Flandin, having pos- sibly cleaned the surface of the stone more effectually, recon- structs their features after the ordinary Sassanian physi- ognomy, with the curiously tied beards and bushy hair. Both monarchs stand to the front, with their hands crossed on the 106 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. hilts of their straight swords, and the only difference to be detected between them is the half-moon which, in Flandin’s drawing, figures as a frontlet on the crown of Sapor III. The sculptured effigies of the two kings in their near identity of treatment would seem to imply that they must haye been executed almost simultaneously, and the juxtaposition itself may possibly have been designed to mark in one and the same field the father’s recognition of the heirship of this par- ticular son, who eventually succeeded to his throne in the ordinary course. Inscription No. 8. — Shahpur II. a.d. 310-381, at Tak-i-Bustan, y 9 | ^ ij* ^fjP^ 8 ¥* J 7 lO. JiL. Inscription No. 10. — Shahpur III., son of Shahpur, a.d. 385-390, at Tak-i- Bustbn. j 6 5 4 W * 9 3 2 1 9 W* ljjI 9 c/* s' W * 12 [js y u^y ct* y^ n lA j dy} l^L » 10 lO* u UX« ls Inscription Ho. 9. The intervening legends in this series have been recovered from another class of dynastic remains, being taken from the still extant official signets of Varahran Kerman Shah, the son of the great Sapor Zu’laktaf \ under whom he adminis- tered the important government from which his title was derived. In a section of the old world, where the seal so readily adapted itself to the indigenous clay , 1 and where all 1 Job xxxviii. 14. See also Gen. xxxviii. 18, 25; xli. 42 ; Exod. xxviii. 9, 10, 11, 21, 36; 1 Kings xxi. 8; Neb. ix. 38; Esth. iii. 10, 12; viii. 2, 8, 10; Song of Solomon viii. 6 ; Jerem, xxxii. 10, 12, 44 ; Dan. vi. 17 ; Matt, xxvii. 66. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 107 men carried seals ; 1 indeed, where everything was sealed, from the formal documents on terra cotta and other sub- stances, down to the mouth of the lion’s den and the stone of the sepulchre, it was natural that the Signets of Kings should typify a parallel ascendancy , 2 and as such carry a political import equal, if not superior, to that of the Crown itself . 3 As this same section of the earth’s surface passed under the subjection of dynasty after dynasty, ancient ideas still held their sway, and in the advance of civilization as types and devices were elaborated among the masses, the representatives of the Royal sign manual were naturally more carefully treated, and at last, under the Sassanians, the complications of Persian ceremonial had arrived at a subdivision involving 1 Herodotus, i. 195 ; iii. 128 ; vii. 69 ; Strabo, xvi. c. i. § 20 ; Ctesias (Phot.) lvii. 2, 5 ; Xenophon Cyrop. viii. c. 2, § 16, 17. 2 A striking instance of the importance attached to Royal Signets, in very early times, has lately been contributed by Sir H. Rawlinson’s decipherments of Cunei- form documents. Sir H. remarks : “ I have recently lighted on a small clay tablet at the British Museum which bears an inscription to the following effect : — “ Tiglath- Ussur, king of Assyria, son of Shalman- Ussur , king of Assyria, and conqueror of Kar-Dunis (Babylonia). Whoever injures my device (?) or name, may Asshur and Tama destroy his name and country.” “ A signet-seal with this legend having been carried off as a trophy in war from Assyria to Babylon, I, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, after 600 years, took the city of Babylon, and from among the spoils of Babylon recovered it.” “ The reverse of the tablet contains a repetition of the legend of Tiglath - TIssur with the gloss, ‘ This is what was written on the signet-seal.’ ” — Athenceum , 22nd August, 1863. 3 Alexander “ Literas quoque, quas in Europam mitteret, veteris annuli gemma obsignabat; iis, quas in Asiam scriberet, Darii annulus imprimebatur.” — Quintus Curtius, vi. c. 6, § 6. See also x. vi. 4 : “ Tunc Perdicca, regia sella in conspectum vulgi data, in qua diadema vestisque Alexandri cum armis erant, annulum sibi pridie traditum a rege in eadem sede posuit.” 5. “Et Perdicca, Ego quidem^ inquit, annulum, quo ille regni atque imperii vires obsignare erat solitus, traditum ab ipso mihi, reddo vobis.” See also Josephus Ant. xii. c. 9, § 2; xx. c 2, § 2. So also Justin. “ Sexta die praeclusa voce exemptum digito annulum Perdiccae tradidit. Nam etsi non voce nuncupatus heres, judicio tamen electus videbatur.’* xii. c. 15, § 12. In like manner Pompey’s “Head and Seal” are brought to Julius Caesar. Plutarch, in Pompey Ixxx. and in Caesar xlviii. Dion Cassius, xlii. 7, g*xp ls °v tT]V re Ke ks-sD ^3 |i>4> 1 uV.' liL* lSj&x t-^ 1 ulAtf 2 Varahran, king of Kerman, the son of Ormazd-worshipper, divine Shahpur, king of kings of Iran and Aniran, of celestial origin from God. 1 Numismatic Chronicle , N. S. vol. vi. p. 241. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. Ill The second less perfect seal, to judge from the engraving of 1791, 1 does a certain amount of justice to the profile of the Prince, who is there figured with a full and well arranged beard and curled locks, while his Parthian helmet is adorned with the self-same device as is seen on the more valuable gem. The inscription, however, breaks off abruptly, though the introductory portion follows the arrangement of the lines of the legend above given, while the which follows in line after the l£L* , and the reduced size of the letters of the name of Varahran, sufficiently establish that the first published design is not a mere vague copy of the more finished seal. The transcript in modern Persian runs — It seems, it must be confessed, a strange hazard that brings to us, from a far distant land, two if not three signets of a king who lived nearly fifteen centuries ago. The authenticity of the portrait-seal of Varahran, employed while he was his father’s viceroy, in Kerman , is sufficiently attested by the legends on its surface. The signet we have now to deal with as clearly declares its associations, though in a less formal manner, inasmuch as the style of head-dress borne by the chief figure typifies the conventionally distin- guishing crown of Varahran IV. as “ king of kings,” or after his accession to Imperial honors. 2 3 The seals of the deceased Sassanian princes were, without doubt, religiously preserved in the Jewel Treasuries of the family, who, as we have seen, were sufficiently jealous and punctilious in these matters ; so that nothing short of a total disruption of dynastic ties would be likely to have scattered abroad such cherished symbols of ancestral domination but precisely such an extreme convulsion took place some 250 years 1 Tassie’s Gems (London, 1791), pi. xii. fig. 673, vol. i. p. 66. See also Ouseley’s “Medals and Gems” (London, 1801). 3 The date of this event is not very exactly determined, hut it may be placed in 389 a d., with a reign of ten years, extending to 399 a.d. Clinton, from Western sources, fixes his advent to the throne in 388 a.d. — Fasti Romani, p. 518. 112 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. later, in the total conquest of Persia by the early Muham- madan Arabs, whose practice of dividing the spoil, on the one part , 1 and their objection, then but partially developed, to graven images, on the other, would equally conduce to the dispersion of the more or less correctly-appreciated valuables of this description . 2 The gem in question, an engraving of which is given in the margin, has lately been brought to this country by General A. Cunningham, to whom I am indebted for my present knowledge of it, as well as for many recent obligations of the same nature. The seal is sunk into a dark onyx, upon whose upper surface a milk-white film has been allowed to remain. It is stated to have been obtained from Bawal Pindi, in the Punjab. On the first cursory inspection of the device, a suggestion arose as to whether the standing figure might not represent the oft-recurring Sapor I. with the prostrate Yalerian at his feet ? Put it was felt that, as a general rule, the coin portraiture of each Sassanian king had been intentionally reduced to a de- finite typical model in respect to the form of the crown, — which suffices, even in these days, to determine, with almost invariable precision, the individual monarch to whom any given piece should be assigned, however obscure or defaced the descriptive legends may chance to be. Ardeshir Babegan, and more notably Sapor I., as we have seen, varied with the progress of their arms the forms and representative devices of their crowns ; but their successors 1 After the battle of Kadesia, the spoils, after deducting one-fifth for the Ehalif, were divided among the sixty thousand horsemen at the estimated rate of 12,000 dinfirs each !— Price, Muhammadan Hist. i. 117, 120, 121. 2 There are odd tales, alike, of the Conquerors, from the desert, offering gold for the better-known silver, and of their being unable to distinguish camphor from salt, etc. ; but in regard to the number of precious stones stored up and partially adapted to the purposes of Oriental display, there can be no question. The carpet of “ Cloth of Gold,” of 60 cubits square, had its pattern fashioned of jewels of the highest value. This was cut up into small pieces, “ one of which, of the size only of the palm of a man’s hand,” was afterwards sold for 20,000 dirhams; or, as others say, for the same number of d'mfirs.”--See Price, 117, 121, 122, etc. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 113 necessarily exercised less licence in this respect, though the sculptured representations were not always bound by Mint laws. The first monarch who adopted, on the public money, the design of head-dress introduced by Sapor I. (as figured in page 62), was Yarahran II., at least to this particular one of the several kings of the name are all coins distinguished by this style of head- gear, by common consent, attributed ; and to Yarahran IY. are assigned, by the equally arbitrary decisions of Numismatists, all those pieces that are marked by the subsidiary modification upon the earlier form, com- prised in the introduction of the projecting front of the mural crown, in advance of the established eagle’s wings ; and it is this peculiarity alone that, in the present state of our know- ledge, determines the attribution of the seal to the last-named ruler. 1 2 The subordinate prostrate figure is evidently designed to represent a Roman warrior, but the semblance of the “ lau- reated” Yalerian of the sculptures is altogether abandoned; and though it may be freely admitted that the helmet with the flowing plume, here depicted, is identical with the design adhered to in the leading Imperial mintages of his period, ^ yet it must be remembered that there were many such western casques left behind in Persia, to serve as models for artistic 1 Some of the local historical authors pretend to give descriptions of each Sassanian king’s costume in succession, from a hook of portraits, which was sup- posed to carry considerable authenticity. The following is Hamza’s account of Yarahran the IY.’s dress and appointments: — “Yestis ccerulea est, acu picta, braccse rubrse itemque picturatse, corona viridis inter tres apices et lunulam auream; stat, dextra manu hastam tenens, sinistra gladio innixus” (p. 39). The description of the crown in the original text is couched in the following terms : — y The may possibly refer to the three projections of the mural crown Pinna arcis vel muri). The Persian version in the Mujmal-al-Tawarxkh has A \ , (M. Quatremere, in the Journal Asiatique, 1839.) The . * has very much the air of the ordinary Persian ^ > which would so nearly accord with the Arabic i n the parallel descriptive passages. 2 Visconti. Icon. Rom. vol. iii. pi. 56, Nos. 10 and 13. See also Tresor de Numismatique Icon. Rom. Helmet of Gailienus (pi. Iii. fig. 5), and his successors. 114 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. reproductions, even if, in the interval, any general change in equipment of the Byzantine legions had been sufficiently obvious to reach Oriental perceptions. So that with the parallel divergences of forms and types, it will be preferable, under all circumstances, to assign this seal to the later epoch. The device of an Assyrian king in the act of slaying a lion was a favourite subject for royal signets in very early times, 1 and the same symbol of power entered largely into the figura- tive sculptures of the Achaemenians at Persepolis; mutatis mutandis, amid the more civilized tendencies of the fourth century a.d., Yarahran reproduces a similar idea, but replaces the lion by the type of the normal national adversary. There is no record, as far as can be ascertained, of Yarahran having personally encountered the Romans after his accession, 2 but it is not impossible that he may have fleshed his maiden sword during the campaigns of his father, Sapor II., against Constantius, Julian, and Jovian, or on later chance occasions ; and hence may have adopted this emblematic device on his seal, as Sulla adhered to the gem which depicted his early success against Jugurtha. 3 I conclude this resume of the extant Sassanian inscriptions by a reference to two mural epigraphs at Persepolis, copied by Sir Wm. Ouseley in 18 11, 4 which, so far as I am aware, have not been reproduced by any other traveller. 5 The original writing does not seem to have afforded a very favour- able text, and the coarse and straggling lithographed copy inserted in “ Ouseley’s Travels,” is anything but encouraging 1 Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, 154 ; Ker Porter, ii., pi. 54, etc. ; Flandin, Hi., pis. 121 bis , 122, 123, etc; Gr. Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, ii. 123; iii. 338. 2 The treaty of peace with Rome was ratified in 384 a.d. 3 Pliny, xxxvii. 4; Plutarch in C. Marius, x; Valerius Maximus, viii. c. xiv. § 4. 4 In the inner chamber of the Hall of Columns at Persepolis, among the various inscriptions in other characters, “ we also find two Pahlavi inscriptions, which, though slightly cut, are sufficiently conspicuous ; yet no former traveller has, perhaps, taken the trouble of copying them. In plate xlii. both are given ; one containing twelve lines, the other eleven. While copying these inscriptions from the marble, I reduced each letter to about half of the original size. They record the names and titles of Sh&hpuhr, Auhormizdi, and Varahrfin. Among all the ruins at Tdkht-i-Jevishid , I did not perceive any other specimen of Pahlavi writing.” — Vol. ii. p. 238. 5 Flandin adverts to them in general terms, but gives no copies. — Folio, texte, p. 1060. SASSAN1AN INSCRIPTIONS. 115 to the home decipherer. I have given a few broken specimens of the more legible portions, from which it would seem that the one inscription refers to Sapor II. and the other to Sapor III. The style of the associated inscriptions varies considerably, both in words and letters. No. xi. uses the ^ l in Sapor’s name instead of the 2 . r ) and introduces a t J), “of,” be- tween the King’s name and his titles. The word occurs once if not twice in those portions of the text in which I have not as yet succeeded in tracing a running context sufficient to justify even a suggestive restoration. It will be noticed that the genealogy of Sapor III., as given in No. xii., differs from that recorded at Tak-i-Bustan : here he is represented as the great-grandson of Varahran, while in the Northern inscriptions (Nos. viii. x.), where his own descent is carried up two generations, and extended in his father’s official pedigree to a common ancestor, the great grandfather would appear to have been Narses. But even supposing Sir W. Ouseley has not been hasty in his decipher- ment of the name of Yarahran, which, however, comes out clearly enough in his facsimile, it would always be preferable to accept the more proximate and immediate declaration of lineage from Narses, and to infer that the Southern annalists of later days were careless about remote descents. Inscription No. xi. Sapor II. Son of Hormazdas II. (Sir W. Ouseley vol. ii. pi. xlii. B.) • . . IxL* ...... . 1 ±fj ^ ^lO. 4 C J ^ lJ) 7 ' 0 l^Li uij 10 116 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. Inscription No. xii. Sapor III. Son op Sapor II. (Sir W. Ouseley, vol ii. pi. xlii. A.) ^ ........... 1 lO. (^)^* W"» 4^ (^r* 4 v l£j& }*$■*> • • • 10 Inscription No. xiii. In order that I may not be supposed to have neglected any of the materials within reach, for the illustration of my subject, I devote a momentary notice to the seven lines of com- paratively modern Pehlvi that have been engraved upon the bas-relief (B ) 1 at Firozabad. The subject of this sculpture is one of the many repetitions of the investiture of Ardeshir Babegan by Ormazd, and in itself presents little worthy of comment beyond the greater simplicity of the garments of the persons represented, and the peculiarity that Ormazd’s baton is exchanged for a pointed saw-edged sword. Of the purport of the inscription, it may be as well to attempt to say nothing, as Flandin’s copy is more than usually illegible, a difficulty, perhaps, inherent in the more com- plicated writing. The letters, where decipherable, present undoubtedly modern forms of the normal types. The epigraph has been cut in the vacant space between the Divinity and the King, and reads upwards, perpendicularly, instead of horizontally, as in the established usage. We may conclude that the inscription has been added at a period considerably later than the first execution of the sculpture, to record for posterity the interpretation put upon the tableau, while Pehlvi still continued the current language of the country. Flandin, plate 44. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 117 The marginal engraving of a Carnelian Seal lately acquired by the British Museum (No. 12 ? 3) is inserted for the pur- pose of illustrating the use of the word lLSOj (p. 40 ; Hyde, p. 358, “ Bilaghy quorum hoc ultimatum magis peculiariter Flammam no- tare videtur ’ ’ ) . The woodcut has been executed in Germany, but it must be confessed that much of the strange presentation of the device is due to the conven- tional treatment of the original gem, rather than to the short- comings of the modern artist. The stone, moreover, has suffered from a fracture, which runs entirely across its surface, and is especially damaging to the forehead of the profile. The legend is as follows : \j — A ^*^3 ANors 4 >iaeaahn. Le roi assis, a dr., tenant l’arc ; dans le champ, ta. Being unable to refer to any original coins of this particular type, I had sedulously transcribed the above description from M. Rollin’s “ Sale Catalogue,” under the impression that M. de Long- perier, having withdrawn from circulation, as far as he was able, all copies of his Memoires . . des “Rois Parthes Arsacides” (Rollin, Paris, 1857), was desirous that the work should be altogether ignored by those who might have access to impressions still un- redeemed and at large ; but the Publisher’s note at p. 511 of the Catalogue 2 seems to relieve me of any such needless reserve ; and 1 MOT2A2 and MOY2H2 were used indifferently on the coins. — Lindsay, pi. iii., figs. 62, 63, and p. 171. 2 “ O’est encore a M. de Longperier quo la science est redevable de la decou- verte de ces legendes arameennes, des l’anncc 1841, dans la Revue de Numismatique franqaise, pages 250 et 251. Le savant academician faisait pressentir saprecieuse 124 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. though I should hesitate to criticise, in any adverse sense, a con- fessedly incomplete production, it would he unfair to conceal my knowledge of its contents, or to fail to express my great regret that such an accumulation of choice materials should even tem- porarily be withheld from the general public. At the same time, recognising the excellence of the plates, I hold myself altogether free to draw my own independent deductions from the facsimiles, as if I were inspecting the coins themselves, though I pass by the text, even where I have examined it, as if it were still un- written. No. 5. M. de Longperier’s plate, No. xiv., fig. 10, is a copy of another coin, with the letters on the obverse, which is not noticed in M. Rollin’ s Catalogue, but which the author seems to attribute to Yologeses III., as he makes the king of that name, whom Mr. Lindsay supposed to be Yologeses III., into Yologeses IY., and so on in succession, advancing the numbers throughout the series, a process which is necessitated by the discovery of a new Yologeses II. The coin in question is similar in its typical details to that engraved by Mr. Lindsay under No. 86, pi. iv., and is marked by the peculiar tiara, with curled ornaments over the ridge, which is held to be special to this king in his silver currency. No. 6. Mithridates. The usual size. Weight, 53 grains. B. M. Obverse. Head of king, with formally pointed beard, flowing hair behind, but flat on the top of the head above the diadem. Reverse. King seated on his throne extending a bow. Legend. At the top fcO /fo Mitradat Malka. Imper- fect Greek on four sides, l. baiiaea. 2. iianoy. 3. EYiiriTou AKIAOT. 4. n4»ANIOY5 T4>AIAAHE. One coin, B.M. A second coin of Gen. Cunningham's is engraved in Longperier’s plates, and is noticed in Rollin’s Catalogue under No. 8053. A third coin is also engraved in M. de Longperier’s work. The date of this reign is supposed to be after 418 up to 424. No. 7. Yologeses IY. Silver. Obverse. Head similar to that engraved under No. 87, pi. iv. decouverte dans son grand outrage qui, a si juste titre, a obtenu le grand prix de numisraatique. II donne six rois differents, et tous out lc titre de A'lalca, faisant suite a leur nom propre.” SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 125 Lindsay. On the field the letters or properly speaking J*j, for the vau follows the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi model, while the lam, in this instance, is clearly and essentially after the Sassanian form of that consonant. Reverse. The conventional type of the enthroned Parthian monarch, extending a bow, associated with the usual degraded Greek legends and the monogram for Tambrace. B. M. Two coins. Dates on the larger coins extend from 389 to 439 a.s. No. 8. Yologeses IY. Silver. Obverse. King’s head, as in the engraving. 1 Reverse. The usual type with the debased Greek legends, Rut the opening ba2iaeh2 in the top line is replaced by the Ghaldseo-Pehlvi arte wh) ValgasJii MalJca, “Yologeses king.” Monograms, TA. The Greek has been omitted in the cut. Nine coins in the B. M. Dates range from 460 to 488 a.s. No. 9. Yologeses IY. Bronze. Weight, 104 grains. Obverse. King’s head with the usual tiara. Monogram, a Greek B. Reverse. Device, ^ , forming a square, around which is the legend toSo “jehx Yologeses, Arsaces, king of kings. I believe I may claim to have been the first to publish decipher- ments of these legends. 2 They are chiefly remarkable in reference to the present enquiry, as demonstrating a determination on the part of the ruling authorities of the day to emancipate themselves 1 I am indebted to that enthusiastic Numismatist, Richard Sainthill, Esq., of Cork, for the loan of the above, and of the second similar wood engraving, both of which originally appeared in his “Olla Podrida,” London, 1853, vol. ii., p. xxii. 2 Numismatic Chronicle, xii. (1849), p. 84 ; xvii. 164, etc. 126 9ASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. from the scarcely intelligible Greek, which had sunk into a state* of complete degradation in its exotic life on Eastern soil, and to> reclaim due priority for the local language and alphabet. The distinctive symbol on the reverse, which has been the subject of much discussion, 1 1 conceive to have been the mere conventional representation of the Sun, based upon ancient models, the worship of which was largely alfected by the ArsacidaD. 2 The earliest symbol of the Sun, under the first Chaldsean monarchy, consisted of a simple circle, which in advancing ornamentation was divided into four quarters © , and ultimately improved into something in the form of a flower. 3 The primary idea is preserved in “ Dominus rotundus,” 4 and its effective use under some such form of the figure of the Sun is testified to in the “ Imago Solis,” which we are told formed so prominent an object in the cere- monial processions of Darius Codomannus. 5 The same simple round orb is used to represent the Sun on the sculptured monu- ments of Persepolis, where, in the bas-reliefs which ornament each Achaemenian king’s tomb, “Mithra” is exhibited in a pro- minent position in the heavens to the front of the Eire Altar. 6 " The old symbol seems to have undergone many modifications r according to local treatment, which it is scarcely necessary ta trace in this place, 7 but I may advert to its appearance as the leading symbol on a standard of the Sassanian period, where placed upon a lance-pole and supplemented by a cross bar with flowing horse tails, it is borne in the front of the battle. 8 1 Pellerin, 3rd Supplement, p. 32 ; Mionnet, v. p. 68C ; M- de Luynes’, Coins of “ Soli,” Essai, p. 64; Ariana Antiqua, pi. xv. fig. 9. 2 Moses Khor., French edition, i. 163 and 337. 8 Ancient Monarchies, G. Rawlinson, i. 159 ; Layard’s Nineveh (1853), p. 211. * Selden, 223; Hyde, 114. 5 Patrio more Persarum traditum est, oito sole demum procedere. Die jam illustri signum e tabernaculo regis bucina dabatur. Super tabernaculum, unde ab omnibus conspici posset, imago solis crystallo inclusa fulgebat. — Quintus Curtius, iii. c. 3, § 7. 6 See Her Porter, pi. xvii. p. 519; Flandin, plates 164 bis, 166, 173, 174, 175, 176, 178. 7 Texier, Asie Mineure (Petrium), plates 75-6-7-8-9; Layard’s Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 213, 456; Donaldson, Architectura Numismatia, pp. 23, 72 ; El Gabel (Jupiter Sol) at Emesa, a.d. 222, pp. 76, 80, 88, 98, 105, 106, 127, 150, 330; Levy, Phon. Studien, p. 37 ; L. Muller, pi. ix. (Tricca); Marsden, Numis- mata Orientalia, pi. xvii. figs. 1-7 ; De Saulcy, Journal Asiatique, 3me serie (1839), 1 re Lettre ; Longperier, pi. xvii. ; Das Labarum und Der Sonneu-Cultus. Edward Rapp. Bonn, 1865. Lajard, Culte de Mithra, pi. xxxv. et seq. 8 Ker Porter, pi. xx ; Flandin, 184. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 127 No. 10. Yologeses Y. Obverse. Front face, with bushy side curls. Lindsay. Fig. ‘93, pi, iv. Reverse. Similar legends and monogram for Tambrace ; but the letters both in the Greek and the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi, are even more imperfectly formed and straggling than on previous coinages. Dates range from 502 to 520. No. 11. Yologeses YI. Obverse. Profile of king (Lindsay, Nos. 94, 96, pi. iv.) with the letters ^ in the field. The tiara of this king, as well as those of Artavasdes, are marked by an ornamental spiked or leathered bar running up the side of the helmet. Reverse. Type and legends as in the silver coins of Yologeses IY. Six coins B. M. Dates range from 521 to 538 a.s. No. 12. Artabanus Y. Obverse. Head of king, with a plain side bar on the tiara, which is less elevated, or, rather, more encroached upon by the succession of fillets than usual. Reverse. The usual type and debased Greek legends with the Chaldaso-Pehlvi, froSft in the top line. Seven coins in the B.M. Dates range from 521 to 538 a.s. No. 13. Artavasdes. Obverse. Head of the king distinguished by a parted beard and feathered bar on the tiara (Lindsay, No. 95, pi. iv.) behind the head in the field the Chaldaeo-Pehlvi letters ‘IX. Reverse. The usual type and debased legends, with traces of kdVs inmx (Mr. Lindsay’s coin is more legible than the Engraver has made it appear). Two coins, B.M, Date 559 a.s. It is curious to observe the contrast in the spelling in the initial portion of these names of Artabanus and Artavasdes. Tho llurtabi of the former seems to have been imitated from the oral 128 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. sound of tlie Greek 'Aprafiavos, while the Artabazu is clearly the- proper Persian form of the name b c “ strong arm,” as we have the proximate synonyms and on the coins of the Achaemenian Satraps, Tiribazes and Pharnabazes. SUB-PARTHIAN COINS. No. 14. Silver. Weight, 25 grs. B. M. Two coins. PI. fig. 3. Obverse. Head of king to the left, similar in its details to certain examples of the portrait of Phraates IV . 2 Crescent (and star?) in the field. Legend, in mixed Chaldaeo and SassanianPehlvi, . . . fo — ^ • Reverse. Crowned head to the left. Legend, in Sassanian Pehlvi, ? The suggested may be possibly read as for ? No. 15, Silver. Plate, fig. 4. Obverse. Head to the left, with Parthian tiara. Legend. £ 322 ^ = LUJjy\ l Reverse. Head to the left, with head-dress arranged after the manner but slightly differing from Arsacidan models. Legend, imperfect. l£L* Other obverse devices of similar character, conjoined with a reverse Arab head, like the above, but altogether wanting in the circular legend, display the title of N. C. xii. fig. 3 ; while the legends on the reverse of a similar coin (Num. Chron. xii. fig. 4) seem to run "-Q Nnba nxi}, “ koua, king, son of Kamiut, king ” No. 16. Silver. Weight. Plate, fig. 5. Obverse. Head with Parthian tiara, ornamented with a crescent and a star, to the left. Legend. Obscure. Reverse. Head with the hair arranged after an exceptional Arsacidan fashion. Legend. ■. . ■ •*— ■ ? 1 M. de Luynes, PI. i., figs. 1-3, 4, etc., ^ magnus. Zend ereta , apra (’A prcuoi, Herodotus, vii. 61) andjjjL . brachium. 2 Lindsay, iii. 52 ; Longperier, ix. 9. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 129 I had intended to have passed over the Sub -Parthian series of coins with but scant comment, as the peculiarly degraded forms of the letters employed gave but little promise of legitimate Palseographic illustration, but the unexpected discovery of the correct attribution of an extensive class of these mintages throws new light, both historical and geographical, on the general inquiry. A short time ago, General Cunningham, knowing that I was interested in these medals, was kind enough to bring me three pieces of the type B, on one of which was clearly defined the ordinarily-bungled and unintelligible Greek monogram a combination that proved readily susceptible of being expanded into the full name of atpoiiathnh. The next step in the solution of the problem was to enquire whether any and what kings claimed, during the Parthian sway, the country of Azerbaijan. A branch of a family tree opportunely presented itself in the record of two reigns in Atropatenian Media, which had been casually adverted to by classical writers, in connexion with the wars of Lucullus and Antony in the East ; 1 and, singular to say, the two designations thus preserved, approximately accorded with two of the three successions perpetuated on the coins, viz., those of the father and son, Darius and Artaxerxes. The third but earliest of the race is called fTPirV Aturdat, “ Gift of Fire,” (’ATpaSdrrjs), 2 an association which, however strange to modern ears, is strictly emblematic of the early Zoroastrian creed, and clearly in unison with the parallel nomenclature of Mithridates and Tiridates. The name itself is probably identical with the Armenian Ardoates or Artovart , 3 which seem to have been corrupt transcriptions of the original Oriental term, which is more accu- rately reproduced in the Pehlvi (j •• An ,y|) an q jjl Jjj jy\) of the Sassanian Seals . 4 We have no collateral evidence of the existence of this particular Aturdat, but he may be conjectured to have been some relative of the great Tigranes of Armenia, and by him entrusted with the 1 Sir H. Rawlinson, Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. x. p. 65; Masson, J.R.A.S. xii. pp. 97, 122. 2 Nicolas- of Damascus, quoting Ctesias, Fragm. Hist. Grace. (C. Muller, Paris, 1849), vol. iii. p. 39S; Rawlinson's Herodotus, i. 252. 3 The Armenians seem fully to discriminate Artovart (’ApSoaros, Diod. Sic. xxxi. 28) from Artavazt and Ardaschas. St. Martin, i. 409. 4 J.R.A.S. xiii. p. 245, gems Nos. 63, 68. 9 130 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. charge of Atropatene on its conquest. 1 Though Strabo 2 is most distinct in his assertion that the successors of Atropates 3 continued in independent possession of the country up to, and after the commencement of the Christian era, and it might be inferred from his expressions that they strengthened their position from time to time by matrimonial alliances with the Kings of Armenia, Syria, and Parthia ; it is possible that, in all cases, the local king may have been permitted to retain the government, subject to the acknowledgment of fealty to the Suzerain of the day, whether Armenian or Parthian. However, be this as it may, we find Aturdat’s son Darius, or Ddril (Darir), as he calls himself on the coins, fully established as king of Northern Media in b.c. 69. 4 The appearance of a close copy of the head of Mithridates I. of Partbia (b.c. 173-136) on the obverse of the coins, maybe taken to imply that Darius recognized him as the common ancestor of the dynasty, and the real founder of the Arsacidan empire. 5 Tigranes the great is supposed by some authors to have been a descendant of Artaxias, but we know that Yalarsaces I. (b.c. 149-127), the great- grandfather of Tigranes, was placed upon the throne of Armenia by his own brother Mithridates I. of Parthia, 6 which would seem to establish a totally different relationship, unless we may infer a descent from Artaxias by the mother’s side. But under any circumstances the imitation of the style of the great conqueror on the coins of his successors, in the Conjoint Armenian branches 1 Strabo, xi. c. xiv. § 15; St. Martin, i. 291, 410. 2 Book xi. c. xiii. § 1. 3 The name seems to be merely Atur-Pati (Vfff), so also the word Atropatene may have something in common with (IJ3 to surround, to encompass), in which case the synonym ’A 7 / 3 drava would respond to (’?m) Ignis, f | “ fire,” Ag-patana , the JELagmatana of the Assyrian Cuneiform : an ety- mology which would sufficiently account for the frequent application of the name to the sacred places of the Persians. (Cf. "Ay padarrjs. Strabo, xv. c. iii. § 6.) 4 'O 5e HofJLTrrj'ios Kal rbv T avpov virepeAQcbv, iiroKipgaev "Avtioxw ri Koppa- 77 ews is (piKiav 6 "A vtioxos avrcp avvriXdet/. inoXipyjae $e Kal Aapeicp r<£ MtjSod, peXP ls etfre "Avtloxv (rvppax&Vi erre TiypavriirpoTepov. — Appian. Mith. cvi. AAPEI02 MHA02 is also mentioned in the triumph of Pompey as one of the kings conquered during the war. — App. Mith. cxv i. 6 M. F. Lenormant had already recognised the likeness of the head on the obverse of these coins to that of Mithridates I., as he is conventionally portrayed on a special class of his own proper currency, a similitude which was obvious and self-evident, though not obviously material (Journal Asiatique, 1865, page 205). But the appearance of the effigy of the effective founder of the Parthian Empire no more implies contemporaneity, than does a similar imitation by Ardeshir Babegan. so many centuries later, carry any epochal value. 6 St. Martin specially mentions that the kingdom, thus established, embraced Atropatene ; i. p. 289. SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 131 of the family, was quite consistent with the known reverence en- tertained by the Parthians for their ancestors, and the special feeling that none but the members of the family of the Arsacidse were fit to reign. The portrait, it is true, is probably intended to represent Darius himself, though much of the likeness of the original profile is preserved, but the symbol of the half-moon upon Darius’ tiara indicates alike his Armenian connexion, and marks the contrast with the star which forms the central ornament of the helmet of Mithridates I . 1 The proper Armenian coins of a king calling himself, in similar orthography, Aturdat, also exhibit on the obverse of the earlier examples, a bust, very similar to that of Mithridates I. as it is figured on the larger pieces of the Western mints , 2 with the head uncovered and the hair merely retained by the fillet. The same local sovereign’s name also appears on an- other class of the Armenian currency, which is distinguished by a Romanized form of the ancient Phry go -Armenian or Mosyncecian helmet , 3 surmounted by a crescent, which latter takes the place of the Roman eagle, that constitutes the crest in previous mintages. Another set of coins which connect themselves in their reverse types with Aturdat’s money, bear the name of Tiridates (JYTin) in Chaldseo-Pehlvi, having an associate obverse device of the same uncovered head of the Mithridates style. The reverses of the Armenian coins present a different type of Eire Altar to that employed by the Atropatenians. Originally the reverse design consisted of a built-up pedestal of the height of a man, having three small altars on the top, with the King or Mobed on one side and the curious Cuneiform symbol for an Altar , 4 in the form of a standard, on the other. Gradually the design of the Fire-temple is modified by the introduction of the figure of Ormazd issuing from the flames, and subsequently, as the worship of Venus, or Luna, grew upon the purer Zoroastrianism, the side altar is sur- mounted by a Cock , 5 6 and the device assumes a near identity with 1 Lindsay, PI. i., figs. 19, 20; Tresor de Numismatiqne, PI. lxvii., fig. 13 ; Longperier, PI. iii. 2 Tresor de Nnmismatique, lxvii., fig. 10 ; Longperier, PI. iii. 3 Herodotus, vii., 61, 62, 72; Xenophon, Anab. Y. c. iv., § 13 ; Num. Chron. 4 G. Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies I., p. 337 ; Num. Chron., N. S., vii., (1867), p. 238. 6 Selden, De Diis Syris, 309 ; Haugh, 213. The services rendered by the Cock (Paro-dars), the bird of Serosh., 18th Fagard, Z.A. M. V ambery in his “ Sketches of “ Central Asia” (London, 1868), mentions that to this day in Bokhara, a cock is offered on the Nauroz “by all P’ire ’Worshippers.” 132 SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS. the Ancient Babylonian illustration of the worship of the Moon, 1 which has been preserved on one of the Seal Cylinders discovered by Mr. Layard. The son of Darir, who is entitled Ardeshir on the coins, may fairly be identified with the king designated by Dion Cassius as the ’ApTaodaSr)? 2 of Northern Media, at the period of Antony’s invasion of that province in 36 b.c. The general character of the coins, in fabric, types and forms of letters, coincides completely with the issues of Darir, the one exception being that Ardeshir introduces the striking novelty among Oriental peoples of a veritable well-formed coronet crown, which seems to have been imitated from the “ Corona Muralis” of the Romans, with this im- provement, however, that whereas the Western model was formed of a mere succession of towers with triple pinnae, which had an air of much sameness, the Eastern coronet was designed after their own system of battlements of three gradational steps, which produced a much more open and bold effect. How the King of the Medes of those days came to affect such a head-dress it would be rash to say, but there may have been a vague design and a covert taunt in the Oriental mind which suggested the assumption of the Mural crown that the defender of the enceinte of Phraata 3 so well deserved. Though it is possible that the subsequently friendly relations established between Antony and the same King of the Medes 4 may have had something to do with the foreign adaptation. 1 Layard, Nineveh, pp. 538, 539; King’s Gems, pp. 129, 137. Strabo (xi. c. xiv. § 16) specially mentions that the Armenians had associated with their system of Fire-worship great reverence for Anaitis, and had built numerous temples to her honour. 2 Kal ?)\Qe xpt tov Evcppurov, vo/JLifav eprj/xov avrbv (ppovpas elvat' iirel p.4vT0i iravTa ra Sia (pvXctfcrjs aKpifiovs ovra evptv, e icelOev aneTpairero, iirl be rbv r&v Mfibcov fiacriXea ’ApTaovdadyv rep rrjs ’Apfxevias rrjs fid&vos &a