The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature EARLY RELIGIOUS POETRY OF PERSIA
EARLY RELIGIOUS POETRY OF PERSIA BY JAMES HOPE MOULTON, M.A. D.Lit. (Lond.), D.D. (Edin.), D.C.L. (Durh.), D.Theol. (Berlin). Greenwood Professor in the University of Manchester Cambridge: at the University Press 1911
cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: /9781107605794 Cambridge University Press 1911 First published 1911 First paperback edition 2011 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library isbn 978-1-107-60579- 4 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521
IN PIAM MEMORIAM EDV ARDI BYLES COWELL TPO<t>EIA
PREFACE THE fascinating field of Avestan literature has been strangely neglected in our country. I have tried in a modest way to open it up for students of poetry and students of religion, who will I trust at least recognise from these pages that the subject is worth pursuing further. The little book ventures on ground which is full of pitfalls for investigators who are not able to give undivided attention. I have therefore appreciated very specially the help of two old friends who have looked over my proofs the Editor, with whom I read the GatMs under Cowell long ago, and (for the first half of the book) Prof. Williams Jackson, whose paramount authority in Iranian subjects every expert knows. To them and to other scholars named in the book itself I offer very warm thanks, only asking the reader not to hold them responsible when I have dared to be original and very likely wrong. J. H. M. WESLEYAN COLLEGE, DIDSBURY. August 1911.
CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE Preface vii Transcription and Pronunciation.... xi I. The Aryans and their Language.... 1 II. General Description of the A vest a... 10 III. Avestan Yerse-forms 17 IV. Early History of the Religion.... 28 V. Zarathushtra 48 VI. After Zarathushtra 74 VII. The Gath&s: Literary features.... 80 VIII. Contents of the Gathas 87 IX. The Yashts and Later A vesta....119 Bibliography 162 Index 165
TRANSCRIPTION AND PRONUNCIATION The alphabet which appears in Avestan MSB is replaced throughout with Western letters. The system of transliteration here adopted has been governed mainly by the desire for simplicity : no attempt has been made to differentiate certain sounds which have separate symbols, but no intelligible distinction of quality. Transliterations enclosed in brackets are used in the body of the text, the others where an Avestan or Old Persian word is given as such. Vowels : a à (à in father) e ë (cf. u in bwt) e ë (as in let, fete) o ô (as in note) Consonants : k g (hard) X (kh) (as in loch) y (gh) (dialectic Ger. Ta^e) c (ch) (as in church) j (as in Judge) t (hard) d ê (th) (as in ba,th) à (dh) (as in ba^e) t (th) (? nearly = 6 or Ô) P b f % (as in French an) I (as in law) i I (as in quinine) u ii (as in pwll, pool). w n (ng) (as in sang) n m y v r (trilled) s (as in seal) z (as in zeal) s (sh) (as in sure) z (zh) (as in a^ure) h XV (hv) (as in Welsh chwech).