Studia Iranica, vol. 45 (2016)

Vol. 45/1 (2016)

ARTICLES
• KELLENS, Jean, “Unité et diversité du rite avestique”, p. 7-15.

Summary
The three textual layers of the Avesta, the Gâthic, the Haptahâtic and the Young Avestan one, begin oddly by the same lexical sequence: the triad thought-word-deed, the verb to choose and the name of the cow. When analyzed, this rhetoric peculiarity betrays at the same time the ritual unity of the whole Avesta and a fundamental divergence between the Gâthâs and the Yasna Haptaηhāiti.

• AGOSTINI, Domenico, STARK, Sören, “Zāwulistān, Kāwulistān and the Land Bosi. On the Question of a Sasanian Court-in-Exile in the Southern Hindukush”, p. 17-38.

Summary
The present article analyses Chinese histories and encyclopaedias for data on diplomatic contacts between Tang China and a country named Bosi (Persia) postdating the death of Yazdegerd III in 651 AD. Combined with evidence from Iranian apocalyptic texts, numismatics, and artistic metal ware they seem to point to the existence of a veritable Sasanian court-in-exile somewhere in the southern Hindukush area, i.e. in the political environment of the courts in Zāwul or Kāwul, until at least the middle of the 8th century.

• ZEINI, Arash, “A Unique Pahlavi Papyrus from Vienna (P.Pehl. 562)”, p. 39-52.

Summary
Middle Persian or Pahlavi documents are mostly economic and administrative in nature and are variously preserved on parchment, papyrus and textiles, originating from Iran or the Fayyūm oasis in Egypt. The earliest of these, mostly on papyrus, date from the Sasanian occupation of Egypt and are thus more securely located in time (618-629 CE). The present article offers an edition of a fragment that is currently held at St. Petersburg, but originally belonged to the Vienna collection of Pahlavi papyri. This fragment is unique for its writing style and the attestation of the Middle Persian term hutuxšān ‘artisans’ and the heterogram MŠLWNtn’ ‘to collect’, which is only attested in the Frahang ī Pahlawīg.

• WITCZAK, Krzysztof Tomasz, NOVÁK, L’ubomír, “Pamir Cereal Name in Medieval Greek Sources”, p. 53 – 64.
Summary
The Northern Pamir area differs from all the remaining Iranian languages in fact that Iranian velars *k, *g, *x were palatalized to *ḱ, *ǵ (*ɣ), *x́, later to Shughni-Roshani č, ž, š, in the position before *a or *ā. The chronology of the process is unknown. According to the present authors, the Pamir (Early Shughni-Roshani) cereal name *ǰæwærs (τζαβάρς) ‘Indic millet,Panicum miliaceum L.’ (< Iranian *gawarśa-) is attested as early as in a 15th-century document written in Medieval Greek: τζαβάρς ισχχιντί · κέχρος ἰνδικός (Parisinus Graecus 2419, 31.4). The gloss in question clearly demonstrates that the so-called 'Pamir palatalization' was completed by the 15th century AD.

• MOAZZEN, Maryam, “Institutional Metamorphosis or Clerical status quo? New Insights into the Career and Work of Sayyid Mīr Muḥammad Bāqir Khātūnābādī”, p. 65-88.

Summary
Sayyid Mīr Muḥammad Bāqir Khātūnābādī (d. 1715) was the first Safavid mullā-bāshī. He achieved unrivalled prominence in the court of Shāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn, the last effective Safavid ruler. A number of scholars have documented his influence on the shah, but little has been written on Khātūnābādī himself. Khātūnābādī had several overlapping careers: he was Shāh Sulṭān ˌusayn’s advisor in religious matters and the head of religious scholars, as well as the rector and teacher of the Madrasa-yi Sulṭānī. In addition to these responsibilities, he authored a number of treatises and translated works from Arabic into Persian, including a glossed translation of the Gospels. This paper explores Khātūnābādī’s educational and intellectual formation as far as the sources permit, linking him to the institutions and ideas that he represented. It also analyzes the socio-political role he played in the troubled milieu of early eighteenth-century Iran. This more comprehensive examination of the life and career of Khātūnābādī affords us a new perspective on the conditions of the religious and scholarly community in early modern Iran.

• JAYHANI, Hamidreza, REZAEIPOUR, Maryam, “The Authentic Layout of the Main Avenue of Fin Garden in Kashan”, p. 89-126.
Résumé
L’étude sur le plan de la plantation actuelle des cyprès et des bordures des lotissements dans l’avenue principale du Jardin de Fin à Kāshān montre quelques irrégularités. Ces irrégularités et quelques réparations sont arrivées plus tard à l’époque qājār. Dans cet article, l’identification des irrégularités et de la restauration de dessin authentique du jardin avec l’aide des âges des arbres et de leur emplacement dans le jardin et certains lotissements précis sera réalisée. Les résultats révèlent une différence importante entre le dessin authentique de l’avenue principale et la situation actuelle et aussi à un plan dessiné par Donald Wilber.

Summary
Study of the current planting plan for the cypress trees and borders of the plots in the main avenue of Fin Garden in Kashan reveals some irregularities. These irregularities occurred during the Qajar period and some later repairs. In this article, the irregularities are identified and a proposal for the restoration of the authentic layout of the garden will be arrived at by relying upon the ages of the trees and their location in the garden and on certain specific plots. The results reveal a meaningful difference between the authentic layout of the main avenue and its current condition as well as the plan drawn up by Donald Wilber.

IN MEMORIAM
GYSELEN, Rika, “Malek Iradj Mochiri (1927-2015)”, p. 129-132.

COMPTES RENDUS p.135-155.

Vol. 45/2 (2016)

En hommage à notre collègue et ami, membre du comité de rédaction, Paul Bernard, 13 juin 1929 – 1er décembre 2015. p. 163-164.

ARTICLES
• PANAINO, Antonio, “6666 or the Figure of Ahreman’s Invasion. A Note about Wizīdagīhā by Zādspram 28,2”, p. 165-196.

Summary
The presence in the Wizīdagīhā ī Zādspram 28,6 of an explicit reference to the figure 6666 in connection with the manifestation of Ahreman’s arrival into the world immediately suggests a direct comparison with the ‘Number of the Beast’, 666, appearing in the Apocalypse of John, 13, 17-18. The author analyses many symbolic interpretations of this number and its importance in the Early Christian tradition, in particular in the framework of Irenaeus’sAdversus Haereses and the related chiliadic milieu. While the presence of this number in the Mazdean context seems to be another evidence supporting the thesis of a Western influence on Iranian apocalypticism (in spite of the apparent absence of Syriac versions of theApocalypse of John in earlier times), the circulation of millenaristic doctrines presents a more complex situation, in which also the Iranian component should have played its remarkable impact in earlier times.

• BENKATO, Adam, “Sogdian Letter Fragments in Manichaean Script”, p. 197-220.

Summary
A number of Sogdian letter fragments are preserved from the Manichaean communities in Turfan. Although the majority are written in the Sogdian script, a small number are written in a cursive variety of the Manichaean script found only in these texts. Their edition and study provides a brief glimpse into the dynamics of the community. Furthermore, the first paleographic analysis of Manichaean cursive is undertaken.

• SZUPPE, Maria, “Ādīna Muḥammad Qarātēgīnī et « son maître ». Transmission des écrits de la tradition kubravi tardive en Asie centrale dans un recueil manuscrit de Ferghana”, p. 221-244.

Summary
The paper focuses on a manuscript copied in the 19th century now in the holdings of the Ferghana Regional Museum (Uzbekistan). It contains several texts by Central-Asian authors identified as Kubravis, one of whom lived in the early 17th century and the others in the 18th century (as proposed here). A study of the volume shows that this collection of texts circulated both in the Kubravi and the Naqshbandi milieus of Central Asia.

• FLOOR, Willem, “Seyyeds in Qājār Iran according to European Sources”, p. 245-273.

Summary
Although socially and religiously an important group not much has been written about the seyyeds in Qājār Iran. So far the most detailed study is by H.-G. Migeod, who made a very useful contribution in his excellent dissertation (finally published in 2006, i.e. 50 years after its conception). However, Migeod did not cover all aspects of this group and, therefore, I would like to add to our store of knowledge by offering this more comprehensive treatment of this group during the Qājār period.

• HERMANN, Denis, “Dispositions testamentaires et financement de la transmission religieuse. Le recours au waqf par un gouverneur qajar de la région de Takāb dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle”, p. 275-301.

Summary
The paper analyses four waqfs established in the second half of the nineteenth century by a provincial Qajar governor who was also a member of the šayḫiyya, a Shi’i mystical-theological school. The waqfs endowed by Sulaymān Ḫān Afšār (Šāh) Qāsimlū (d. 1309/1891) played an important role in the organization of the group. They helped to fund the publications of the works of the co-founders of Shaykhism Šayḫ Aḥmad al-Aḥsā’ī (d. 1241/1826) and Sayyid Kāẓim Raštī (d. 1259/1843), and keep alive the memory of the latter by maintaining his tomb in Karbala and distributing an allowance to his male descendants. The paper focuses on the many changes that were made by the founder to the function and management (tawliyat) of these waqfs, changes that were challenged by the descendants of the initial beneficiaries and managers (mutawallī). Also, this study reveals the role of the governing elites in the doctrinal dynamic of Shi’ism in Iran during the Qajar period.

NOTE
GYSELEN, Rika, “Čandwargar. Le nom moyen-perse pour la coupe ovale polylobée sassanide”, p. 305-306.

IN MEMORIAM
GRENET, Frantz, “Paul Bernard (1929-2015)”, p. 309-312.
BAZIN, Marcel, HOURCADE, Bernard, “Xavier de Planhol (1926-2016)”, p. 313-316.

COMPTES RENDUS p.319-326.