پژوهش نامه فرهنگ و زبان های باستانی
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 3، پاییز و زمستان 1400)

In Iranian mythology, we rarely find the name of Wekard. In the few remaining texts from pre-Islamic Iran, it is briefly mentioned that he was Houshang's brother and the founder of agriculture, which was also called Pishdadi. In Islamic texts, although he is mentioned as a prophet, there is not much news about him. But Abu Rihan al-Biruni is one of the few writers who has paid more attention to his life and his character that based on some theories suggested about his name, origin, duties and his relationship with social classes. Abu Rihan al-Biruni by equating dehghani and writing, has considered the dehghani as the dignity of the Dibiris class and has considered the star of Mercury to be the special star of writers and dehghani. However, in this article it has been tried to introduce Dehghans and to examine their role in transmitting the culture and literature of ancient Iran to the Islamic era and their relationship with the Debirs, as well as to the educated class of Iranian society. In addition, by analyzesing the role and position of Wekard in ancient times, we try to find out the causes of the anonymity of this mythical character.

Mourning rituals are one of the oldest rituals in history.Rituals play a large part in the continuation of community traditions. A look at the history and origins of these rituals suggests that public and formalized mourning rituals originated throughout the ancient world from the regeneration and resurrection myths and lasted for centuries. What makes the historical and genealogical study of these rituals remarkable in Iran is the amazing survival and durability of these rituals in Iran to date. The most important mourning ritual in pre-historic Iran is “Mourning Rite for Siavash”. The present study seeks to find out the mythical, historical, and ideological infrastructures of these pre-Islamic mourning rituals. The results of this historical-analytical study indicate that the main form of mourning rituals in pre-Islamic Iran, is strongly suspected to be a remnant of the very old rites of agricultural societies, which over time and under the influence of historical factors and necessities, manifested in the story of the epic martyrdom and resurrection of Siavash And has survived as part of the Siavashi rituals in ancient Iran.The results of this historical-analytical study indicate that the main form of mourning rituals in pre-Islamic Iran, is strongly suspected to be a remnant of the very old rites of agricultural societies, which over time and under the influence of historical factors and necessities, manifested in the story of the epic martyrdom and resurrection of Siavash And has survived as part of the Siavashi rituals in ancient Iran.

This paper studies “curse” and "cursing" in the royal Elamite inscriptions. In general, curses put forth a condition ignoring which would invoke an outside power, usually of a deity, to mete out punishment to any malefactor. Thus, this research examines "curse" and "cursing" concerning two specific subjects: first, the preservation of royal "names", and second the use of a curse to uplift the position of Huteluduš-Inšušinak, a Middle Elamite king in the late twelfth century BC.It makes clear that “curse” was mainly used to preserve the “name” of kings and queens. The “name” not only identifies a person, but in a more general sense it also conveys “offspring” and “continuity”. This study shows how the king asks the gods to preserve his name as well as his descendants. Indeed, a “curse” would assure the sovereigns that his name, memory and the royal line would survive all possible damages and threats, and thrive in the future.Huteluduš-Inšušinak suffered a series of devastating attacks commanded by Nebuchadnezzar. Other historical documents point out that the Elamite power was on the wane during the reign of the Elamite king. Nonetheless, he issued a curse that invoked one god and two historical figures, instead of invoking a group of deities.

In today's world, the media has a very wide role in conveying messages and social communication. Studies in ancient Iran show that the transmission of messages through humans, birds, symbols and signs (fire, minaret, tin, sculpture, etc.) It has been. in the governments of ancient Iran, due to the constant conflict with foreigners, especially the Parthian and Sassanid conflicts with the Romans, the spy and intelligence apparatus played a more effective role. But in general, the news and information system in the early days of the Achaemenid rule was wider and more organized than the Parthian and Sassanid dynasties and became the basis for subsequent dynasties. Now the question is whether the media was important in ancient Iran. What media were used in transmitting and receiving the message, was there a change in the transmission of the message, in which dynasties of ancient Iran was news and information more diverse? The results of the research show that informing and receiving news was important because it helped to exercise the king's power, prevent riots, monitor the behavior of the dependent states and counter the invasion of enemies. The resources available in the libraries have been used to do the work, and the research methodology is narrative in nature.

The present study is based on the history of Iranian studies of the Asian Society (La Société asiatique) of Paris based on its official organ, the Asian Journal (Journal asiatique). Since from the beginning, there are several articles related to the history and culture of Iran in this journal, and according to the data extracted from the journal in the first hundred years of the Society with quantitative and qualitative analysis and review of Iranian studies articles, it is possible to determine the position of Iran in the Oriental studies of Society from the very beginning, and the position of different scientific schools especially philology and ancient languages can be seen. Also, the scientific and cultural relations between Iranians and prominent French Iranologists can be observed. Following these studies, other insights such as the motivations, concerns, and goals of the sponsors and the research priorities and missions defined by the Society have been obtained. Finally, by examining all these cases, it can be seen that during the period under review, the view of French Iranologists towards Iran and Iranians has always been friendly and respectful. The present result is independent of the perceptions and opinions of European orientalists, especially French, and is only relevant to the Iranologists of Asian Society.

Examining the Pahlavi advice books shows us that friendship is an individual trait before it is a social concept. This means that every person must first be characterized by the temperament of» friendship« by using good teachings, and then strive for friendship and gaining good friends. Understanding friendship and good friends is one of the basic concepts of Sassanid advices that plays an important role in understanding their thoughts correctly. Therefore, this research tries to give a clear answer to the question of what is the place of friendship in Sasanian advice books and how are these ideas organized? The findings of this study (which has been done by descriptive- analytical method) indicate that Pahlavi advice books, in both religious and empirical types, place great emphasis on friendship. Religious advice books, with the aim of spiritual salvation, are based on loving the soul and living as it pleases. Also, empirical-practical advices, in the light of achieving salvation and mental health, emphasizes the friendly relations of people and good living in the shadow of friendship. The Pahlavi friend-oriented advices express an idea that intends to destroy demons with the help of friendship and to continue the creation and upbringing of good people by establishing security and peace. Hence, the essence of the idea of friendship is » people-friendliness«, which has been interpreted as the law of Ahuramazda. In this way (which is not to the liking of demons), warnings are always given to stay away from the deceitful false friends, and to know the good friend of the selfish friend, the role of the righteous and consultation with them is spoken.

Ritials have always played an important role in the practical area of religion, which also applies to the Zoroastrian religion. The Avestan texts can be divided into two categories based on their ritual use: the texts recited in the rituals by the priests in the Fireplace, such as Yasna, Visperad and Vendidad and the second category of Avestan texts, such as the Yasts and Avesta fragments, can be read outside of the fireplace by other People in the community. Yasna ceremony is the oldest basis of zoroastrian ritual, , although their ancient form has changed and became simpler due to manuscripts, but has remained and has not been destroyed. Our main source for the Yasna recitation ceremony is the manuscripts, which have been written or collected by the clergies and they were used by the clergies as tool for holding the Yasna recitation .The main purpose of this article is to introduce the Kerman manuscript and to explain and analyze the structure and content of this manuscript, which was used for reading in Yasna or Yazisn ceremony . This manuscript belongs to the family collection of Mobed Rostam Rashidi, which is kept in the zoroastrian museum in the fireplace of Kerman.

The mādayān ī hazār dādestān or the Book of Thousand Judgments is a text in the Pahlavi script and language belonging to the late Sassanian era. The content of this text is exclusively legal without referring to religious issues. The laws in this text are more civic and rarely refer to criminal law. Issues such as partnership, marriage, divorce, debt payment, guarantee, inheritance, rent, adoption, etc. are raised in this text. Restorative justice tries to establish reconciliation between groups and ultimately in the society by emphasizing on repairing and compensating the victims and making the criminal responsible for the crime he committed. In order to achieve this, elements such as Voluntary action, expression of truth, encounter, agreement, support and non-publicity are discussed and investigated. The purpose of this article is to examine the restorative elements in the text of Mādayān ī Hazār Dādestān and tries to answer the question whether the mentioned restorative elements can be seen in this legal text and can it be examined? Investigations prove evidence of the existence of these elements; For example, in the element of voluntariness, a person who commited a sin deserving of death, whenever he surrendered himself voluntarily, this act of his would cause the death penalty to be removed from him. In exression of truth, whenever a person was inclined to tell the truth from contradiction, he was not condemned because the investigation was on its right path, which was to remove the damage. In encounter, the use of the pronouns "I" and "you" in the text shows that the two sides were facing each other and talking to each other. And ....

The present article represents two significant issues of John of Dailam’s actions, Syriac Christian saint, who lived in Iran after Arab’s conquest and in the time of Umayyad Khalifa “Abd-almalik ibn marwan” in the late seventh and early eighth century A.D. one of these issues describes the relationship between Christian monks, including him, and the khalifas, governers or nobles through the healing skill in which Christians famously mastered and sometimes, some of them, like John of Dailam, implemented it by means of prophet-like miracles which were attributed to them. the other issue relates to the selection of Persian language as the monastery language in the city of Arrajān in Pars. John of Dailam apparently consented to use it in the Persian- speaking monastery, which could possibly be considered iconoclasm and non- conformity with Syriac church’s regulations concerning the language of praying. Both of these issues seem to have been related to Iranian religious, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and despite the disapproval of some bishops and their inappropriate attitudes regarding the Iranian backgrounds prior to Islam in Iran, John of Dailam took actions concerning the aforementioned issues then. With respect to the relevant studies, these two considerable issues not only led to the spread of Christianity among the Iranians of the region at that time, but also the resistance of the Persian speakers caused the Persian language to replace the non- Iranian language in the prayers of the Persian- speaking monastery. Thus, while finding or maintaining a place in Iranian Christianity, notwithstanding the decline of its official form at that juncture, the Persian language continued to exist,even in verbal form among its speakers.

When Shamshi-Adad V, the powerful king of Assyria and the successor of Shalmaneser III, overcame his brother's revolt, a new world of people and eastern settlements appeared before him and his army. Among these peoples, the Medes and their royal city, Sagbita, have determined one of the most interesting martial fates in the history of the western plateau of Iran. With the victory over this city, the king of Assyria was able to gain a great territory and thus, after his father, he became the founder of the era of plunder of Median people in the next two centuries. What happened to the royal city of Sagbita in the ninth century BC, and whether there was a connection between it and Ecbatana in the Greek texts and Hagmatāna in the inscription of Darius I in Behistun, is the aim of this research. Also, the relationship between the historical and mythological content of texts related to the emergence of this city is a topic that this study has addressed. The present article shows that although geographically there is no similarity between Sagbita and Bitī-Sagbat with Hagmatāna, the name and memory of the two, as well as the proximity of their geographical boundaries, gave rise to Hagmatāna or Ecbatana in the next century.

Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is one of the most important and everlasting epics in Iran and the world which its significance is not only the result of managing the scenes and representing the images which are appropriate the subjects but also the choice of the words and phrases make this epic as a masterpiece in the world. So we could ask these questions that how much Ferdowsi was aware in the selection of words and what did the “speech” mean in his thoughts. This article tries to find the meaning of the word “speech” in the Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. It seems that it is used in different meanings which is understandable from the context. It shows the importance of “speech” for Ferdowsi. But it could be asked if there is any similarity between the meaning of “speech” in Shahnameh and Pahlavi texts. To achieve the result the meaning of “speech” would be studied in both Shahnameh and Pahlavi texts. On the other hand, it would be compared the importance of “speech” in old Iranian ideology and Shahnameh. This study is done with descriptive and analytical method and it tries to study the diversity of meaning of the word “speech” in Pahlavi texts and Shahnameh with semantic approach.

Initial consonant clusters as frequent and remarkable phenomena are of great importance for the study of Old Iranian Languages. These clusters have been broken or reduced moderately, and occasionally eliminated entirely in the course of the development of Old Iranian Languages, particularly Old Persian and sometimes Avestan, into Middle Persian, and then of Middle Persian into New Persian. This paper aimed at discerning, and then classification of, various phonological changes by which these clusters have been reduced. In this survey, 398 New Persian derivatives of Old Iranian origin contained such clusters have been analysed to achieve the target. Some of the most significant results obtained in this study include: 1. the accurate classification of changes into 6 main categories encircling 15 variations in the case of two-consanant clusters, as well as into 3 main groups including 6 variations subject to three-consonant clusters; 2. identifying a. anaptyxis, b. second consonant deletion along with first consonant development, and c. initial dropping (initial consonant deletion) as the 3 most active changes 35 two-consonant clusters have been involved with; 3. identifying a. first and third deletion, and b. initial dropping along with anaptyxis as the 2 most effectual changes imposed upon 4 three-consonant clusters.