Recognition of the two concepts of “mardōm” and “bandag” In Zoroastrian Middle Persian advisory and jurisprudential legal texts

"people" is the most key concept in social history. It was used in the same way in Middle Persian Zoroastrian texts. The aim of the research is a comparative study of the two words of mardōm and bandag in the advisory and jurisprudential legal texts and understanding social relations through it. Therefore, based on the linguistic approach, the research raises the main question, which category of texts do each of these two words appear more and how are they applicable to members of society? The authors hypothesize that mardōm was often used in “the advisory texts” and the general sense of the people, both Zoroastrian and non-Zoroastrian, and in contrast, bandag, in the sense of the subject, was used in jurisprudential legal texts. The result of this research is to pay attention to the fact that in “the advisory texts”, mardōm is used as a general term for all members of society regardless of their political or social orientations and is one of the most widely used words that pay attention to the moral status of people regardless of their class status. The use of terms such as šāhān šāh bandag in the jurisprudential legal texts is also related to the political concept of bandag, which can range from the lowest to the highest levels of social order. In contrast, other terms and expressions have been used to discuss the role of community members concerning the members of the community to which they belong and other communities.