فصلنامه پازند
پیاپی 28 (بهار 1391)

There remains a lot of works in Sogdian language, which was one of the most important Iranian middle east languages and lingua franca of the Silk Road in the 6th-10th centuries, in three scripts: Sogdian, Manichaean, and Syriac. During the 20thcentury and by the endeavors of European Iranologists these texts were gathered and published and were gradually made available to researchers. There are some tales amongst these published texts that are the focus of this study. These tales are analyzed using Ulrich Marzolph‘s classification of tales. They are sorted by their subject and also similar stories in other sources are found and compared.

The snake, well-known reptile, is an animal which is worth considering in the mythology of many tribes and nations in various forms. In Iran, a large part of designs is allocated to snake. Although the ancient people painted and carved the snake image on the artworks and reliefs, it seems that it has a certain meaning; symbolized something and connected with religion and beliefs. This point drew the researcher's attention to the application of the snake role in the remaining works of Elam and neighboring areas, such as Jiroft, and generally their differences with the Zoroastrian religion. The design of the snake in Elam reveals more than anything its connection with God, water, fertility and the other world, while in Jiroft we observe the design of interconnected, intertwined and closed loop snakes and even the strife between snakes and other animals. Afterwards, with the influence of Zoroastrian religion in Iran, this animal finds a new role which is completely different, so far as it is introduced as an evil creatures.

Ilamid is one of the significant eras in the history of Iran. Numerous inscriptions have been found from this era. The vast territorial area of Ilamid has lead to the finding of news inscriptions. Present paper introduces a newly found inscribed brick in Qale Afqan excavations in the province of Lordegan in Charmahal state in 1996. This inscribed brick belongs to Hutelutush- Insushnak (1120-1135 AD.). The related inscription is written vertically.

Baγ Nask is one of the Avestan Nasks of Sasanian period; although its Avestan text is not remained, according to the understanding of writer or writers of Dēnkard, a summary of its concepts is reflected in Dēnkard IX. This text has twenty two fragards. It is not a literary translation, but a brief review of some phrases. It also differs from what is appeared in Zand and contains meanings and paraphrases. Since the compiler of the text is a priest and familiar with religious teachings, this fragard is extremely valuable. In this article the concepts of seventh fragard of Baγ Nask is compared with gāhānic Yasn XXXI and its Zand texts so that the relationship between these three texts and different understandings becomes clear.

This article is a part of the author’s remarks on Manicheanism containing the Manichean teachings, history, philosophy, art and literature as well as related researches, such as the studies on Gnosticism etc. In the notes I have taken interdisciplinary subjects into consideration, as it is possible that in many cases some special Manichean notes influenced - for instance - the New Persian literature as well, and vice versa. Here, also all the latest researches concerning Manichean studies are mentioned.

There had been numerous languages and dialects all over Sassanian territory among which, the formal one, so called Sassanian middle Persian, had been supposedly divided to sub-categories. Of these, two are recognized as major versions, one in north (Dari) and the other, in south (Pahlavi). The southern Sassanian middle Persian version was divided to some other varieties in turn. Zoroastrian scripts (written in Pahlavi, as it is called generally) in primary Islamic period are possible to be considered as Southern form successor, for the sake of similar features. The spoken form of this version (in southern era, under Sassanid), which has been used in Zoroastrian writings afterwards, is apparently recognizable in Yazd and Kerman Behdīnān’s dialect nowadays. This article is to discuss the phonology, terminology and structural reasons from Yazd and Kerman Behdīnān’s dialect meanwhile comparing and contrasting against Southern Sassanian middle Persian Language. This leads to the conclusion that today’s Behdīnān’s dialect is the successor of Southern version of Sassanian middle Persian Language, which has been written in so-called Pahlavi script during 3-4 centuries after Islam.