Comparison of the Most Important Moral Issues in Ḵosrow Anōšīrvān's and Middle Persian Precepts

Andarz Literature (Andarznāma) has been one of the most important literary genres in ancient Iran, and many of them are accessible today, especially in the Pahlavi (Middle Persian) language. There is no doubt that the precepts common in the Pahlavi language have influenced the Persian and Arabic precepts. However, the extent and direction of this effect can be the subject of numerous studies. In this study, Ḵosrow Anōšīrvān's Persian precepts were selected in order to study their moral themes and compare them with Pahlavi's precepts. The rationale behind selecting this corpus was that Ḵosrow Anōšīrvān was one of the authors who wrote Andarz Literature in the Pahlavi, Persian, and Arabic languages. The results of this study showed that some precise evidence can be found in Pahlavi's precepts identical to the moral themes of Anōšīrvān's Persian precepts. In addition, it seems that the general theme of the Pahlavi precepts of Ḵosrow Qobādān, which is in fact a testament, has influenced the concept of “transience of worldly life” in Persian precepts, as well as the story of the search for Anōšīrvān's tomb.