A Unique Pahlavi Papyrus from Vienna (P.Pehl. 562) *

ARASH ZEINI UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS

with an Introductory Note by Dieter WEBER

A UNIQUE PAHLAVI PAPYRUS FROM VIENNA (P.PEHL. 562) *

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 MŠLWNtnˈ ‘to collect’, which is only attested in the Frahang ī Pahlawīg. Keywords: Middle Persian; Pahlavi documents; papyrology; Sasanian occupation of Egypt

RÉSUMÉ

Les documents moyen-perse ou pehlevi sont pour la plupart de nature économique et administrative ; ils sont conservés sur des supports en parchemin, en papyrus ou en textile originaires d’Iran ou de l’oasis de Fayyūm en Égypte. Les plus anciens de ces documents, principalement des papyrus, contemporains de l’occupation sassanide de l’Égypte, sont datés entre 618 et 629 de n. è. Cet article propose une édition d’un fragment actuellement conservé à Saint Pétersbourg mais qui appartient à l’origine à la collection viennoise de papyrus pehlevis. Ce fragment est unique pour son écriture et pour l’attestation du mot hutuxšān ‘artisans’ et du logogramme MŠLWNtnˈ « amasser » qui est uniquement attesté dans le Frahang ī Pahlawīg. Mots clés : moyen-perse ; documents pehlevi ; papyrologie ; occupation sassanide de l’Égypte.

* I would like to thank Professor Almut Hintze for her comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Professors de Blois, Malandra and Shaked kindly shared their thoughts on {MŠLWNtn′} and the FīP. Prof. Philippe Gignoux deserves special mention as the co-convenor of the workshops on Pahlavi papyrology. I am grateful to Dr. Dieter Weber for his guidance throughout and for bringing Hansen’s notes on P.Pehl. 562 to my attention and providing me with access.

39 STUDIA IRANICA 45, 2016, pp. 39-52 40 A. Z E I N I StIr 45, 2016

INTRODUCTORY NOTE (BY DIETER WEBER) The papyrus was object of investigation on the occasion of the First Summer School on Pahlavi Papyrology held in Vienna from 20 to 26 September 2009. It was studied by Arash Zeini at that time student with Dr. Almut Hintze at the School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS] in London who is presenting here his discussion and the results of investi- gation. The Vienna document P.Pehl. 562 is published here for the first time though it was shortly discussed in Weber 2010, pp. 256-257, in connection with considerations on the script and the scribes, viz. the term hutuxš; but the main problem of the heterogram in line 4 could not be solved at that time. I have to thank the authorities of the Papyrussammlung of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna for permission to publish this papyrus and using Hansen’s notes on this object and last but not least to Dr. A. Nikitin, St. Petersburg, to whom I owe the photograph.

DOCUMENT P.PEHL. 562 Document P.Pehl. 562, a letter written on papyrus, belongs to the Vienna collection of Pahlavi documents currently held at St. Petersburg.1 For an exhibition in the early 20th century it was labelled no. 451, visible on the top of the fragment. To my knowledge, P.Pehl. 562 is the only known Pahlavi document to employ such an exceptionally fine writing style, with a readability reminiscent of Book Pahlavi. While some text is lost above and below the surviving lines, the fragment seems to be complete to the right and left. The four lines preserved in the fragment belong to the main body (part B) of a letter, the greeting (part A) and concluding (part C) formulae being lost.2 As a result the addressee remains unknown. Like most Pahlavi documents, P.Pehl. 562 is undated. However, as the fragment was found at the Fayyūm oasis, it can be dated to the Sasanian occupation of Egypt (619-629 CE).

1 Pahlavi papyri and parchments originate from Iran or the Fayyūm oasis in Egypt. The Vienna collection of Pahlavi papyri, held at the Papyrussammlung of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, dates back to the late 19th century. The majority of these documents hail from the Fayyūm oasis, albeit from different stages of the finds. Today, the collection is dispersed, with documents being held in Vienna, Berlin and St. Petersburg. For more details on the Vienna collection and its faith, see Weber 2007a and Weber 2009. The Iranian group of Pahlavi documents, commonly known as the Pahlavi Archive, encompasses nearly 300 documents, the majority of which are kept in Bancroft Library, Berkeley, and in the Institut für Iranistik of the Freie Universität Berlin. On the Pahlavi Archive in general and its historical significance in particular, see Gignoux 2008 and Gignoux 2010b, respectively. 2 For the division of letters in part A, B and C, see Weber 1992, pp. 233-235, Weber 2008a, pp. 804-809, and Gignoux 2008. A U N I Q U E P A H L A V I P A P Y R U S F R O M V I E N N A 41

Exhibition no.: 451 Height: 10cm, width: 18cm, verso: free3

Fig. 1: Document P.Pehl. 562. Papyrussammlung, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (© Courtesy of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. Photo: Courtesy of Dr A. Nikitin)

Transliteration Transcription

1 MRʿḤ … ?WNty … 1 xwadāy … ?ēd … 2 PWN ʾlcʾnyk[yh] YḤWWNyt 2 pad arzānīg[īh] bawēd ōwōn awiš ʾwgwn ʾwbš 3 ʾy pldcyt′ ʾYK PWN hwtwhšʾn ʿL L 3 ē pardazēd kū pad hutuxšān ō man 4 nʾmk′ ʿBYDWNty MRʿḤ ZK Y 4 nāmag kunēd xwadāy ān ī čīnēd MŠLWNty

Translation (1) Sir! … (2) (if) it is in accordance with the value. So, (3-4) concerning that you may ensure that you write a letter to me by means of the scribes. Sir! That which he collects …

3 For the dimensions, see Hansen (MS). 42 A. Z E I N I StIr 45, 2016

Commentary -Line 1 The letters of the first word are much obliterated. The small hook following the initial {MR-}, here interpreted as a vertical stroke, excludes {MRYʾ} saxwan “speech” (CPD 74) as a possibility. Rather, the long hori- zontal stroke following this vertical stroke suggests {MRʿḤ} xwadāy “lord, master” (CPD 95) as a reading. While an interpretation of the first word as {MN Y} az ī is theoretically possible, it is difficult to reconcile with the context. A tear in the papyrus disturbs the second word. The most likely reading of the visible characters is {W NKSYʾ} ud xwāstag “and wealth/ money”.4 The interpretation of the final characters as {-Yʾ}, however, remains uncertain and tentative. The beginning of the third word is lost due to the rip in the papyrus. The characters immediately following the tear resemble two vertical strokes followed by the abbreviated phonetic verbal complement -ty, suggesting the presence of a verbal heterogram ending in {-WNty}.5 The final word of the first line is illegible.

-Line 2 The second line of the document begins with a small gap. The adjective {ʾlcʾnyk} arzānīg “worthy” (CPD 11), preceded by the preposition {PWN} pad, is followed by a short gap or a sequence of illegible charac- ters. Considering this gap and the fact that in this passage pad should be followed by a noun rather than an adjective, I have opted for {ʾlcʾnykyh} arzānīgīh “value, worth, worthiness” (CPD 11).6 Despite the peculiarities of the cursive script in the Pahlavi documents, as in Book Pahlavi {YḤWWN-} būdan is commonly written with three vertical strokes.7 While in the present document only two strokes are clearly visible, a faint and short stroke can be seen between the wāw and nūn, supporting the proposed reading.

4 For examples of {NKSYʾ} in Pahlavi documents, see Weber 2008b, pp. xxivff. 5 For examples of the verbal complement, see Weber 2008b, pp. 224-226. 6 While the adjective arzānīg is well attested in the published Pahlavi documents, the noun arzānīgīh is not; see Weber 1992, p. 246, Weber 2003, p. 196 and Weber 2008b, p. 267. For an example of pad arzānīgīh in MP literature, see Shaked 1979, § 127, 319 and E43d. 7 For examples, see the list of characters in Weber 1992, and Weber 2003. Weber 2008b, p. 225, gives a particularly useful overview. A U N I Q U E P A H L A V I P A P Y R U S F R O M V I E N N A 43

-Line 3 The reading of the optative marker {ʾy} ē at the beginning of this line is fairly certain, while the reading and contextual meaning of the phrase, awiš ē pardazēd, is obscure in this passage.8 The same phrase occurs in Doc. 11 in a marginal note: Ōhrmazdāndād awiš ē pardazēd.9 A present participle from pardaxtan, formed with the suffix -ag, is also attested in Doc. 25: pardazag ē stēd.10 The verb par- daxtan is widely attested in Middle Persian texts, with a similar construc- tion occurring in MX 1.197: awiš nēk pardaz “be thoroughly diligent about it”. The interpretation of this phrase is complicated by the fact that in the present passage the syntactic function and the referent of awiš “to him, it” are not known. If awiš is a postpositional form of the preposition ō “to, at” with a resumptive function, then its point of reference, possibly a personal name (Doc. 11), a personal or a relative pronoun (Doc. 13), has not been preserved in this document.11 Thus, in the absence of a referent, the resumptive function of awiš can be excluded, and it is unlikely that it operates here as a postposition. Considering that awiš ē pardazēd is followed by the conjunction kū “that”, I have translated the phrase as “concerning that (awiš) you may ensure that”. In the Pahlavi documents, similar to Book Pahlavi, the final {-K} of {ʾYK} kū is written with the variant form of kap̄ , also known from Psalter Pahlavi. A peculiarity of this document is the use of the standard {-K} in {ʾYK}, a feature shared by few other Pahlavi documents as well.12 The keyword of the present document is the plural noun {hwtwhšʾn} hutuxšān “artisans” (CPD 45), also attested in document P. 164, where the contextual meaning of the word remains unknown due to the fragmentary nature of the document.13

8 MacKenzie suggests the meanings “set about, undertake” for pardaxtan, pardaz- ō (CPD 64). pardazēd was initially read parrēzēd. It is to Weber’s credit to have recognised pardazēd here and in a number of other documents. He shared his new reading with me in an e-mail correspondence dated 13 February 2015. 9 Initially, Weber 2008b, p. 54, read this phrase as wahmāndād Māhāndād awiš ē parrēzēd. For a review of Weber 2008b and suggested new readings, see Gignoux 2010a. 10 For the outdated reading parrēzag ēstēd with the meaning “übrigbleibt”, see Weber 2008b, p. 106. 11 For postpositional forms of prepositions, see Sundermann 1989, p. 160. The resumptive function of such forms has been discussed by Brunner 1977, pp. 110- 112. See also Weber 2008b, p. 62, for a discussion of awiš in Doc. 13. 12 A comprehensive survey of {ʾYK} in Pahlavi documents is offered in Weber 2009, p. 316. See also Weber 2003, p. 179, and Weber 2008b, p. 217. 13 On P. 164, see Hansen 1938, p. 91, and Weber 2003, p. 53. Both P. 164 and P.Pehl. 562 have recently been discussed by Weber 2010, pp. 256-257. 44 A. Z E I N I StIr 45, 2016

As evident from Hansen’s (MS) handwritten notes on P.Pehl. 562, he weighed reading this word as “hušnūtišn”, suggesting “ku pat hušnūtišn(?) ō man nāmak kunēnd, xwatāy” for lines 3-4. This reading, however, is problematic, as also indicated by Hansen’s question mark. Although hušnūdīh “contentment, happiness” (CPD 45) is widely attested in MP, “hušnūtišn” is not.14 Presumably, Hansen was tempted by the phrase hušnūdīh (ī amāh) which is found in some introductory formulae.15 At the same time, Hansen rightly recognised that the spelling of the word attests a final {-n}. Thus he must have considered the possibility of “hušnūtišn” despite it being a problematic construction. It is the merit of Weber (2010, p. 256) to have recognised hutuxšān here. The terms hutuxšān and hutuxšīh are well attested in Zoroastrian MP literature, where they denote the social class of the craftsmen.16 In MX 58.5, for example, we read: (1) pursīd dānāg ō mēnōg ī xrad (2) kū čē āhōg ī āsrōnān (3) ud čē āhōg ī artēštārān (4) ud čē āhōg ī wāstaryōšān (5) ud čē āhōg ī hutuxšān / “(1) The sage asked Mēnōg ī Xrad: (2) ‘What is the blemish of the priests, (3) and what is the blemish of the warriors, (4) and what is the blemish of the husbandmen, (5) and what is the blemish of the artisans’”.17 By contrast, in the present passage hutuxšān seems to refer to scribes (pad hutuxšān … nāmag kunēd “by means of the artisans write a letter”).18 This is rather unusual, as in MP literature scribes and scribeship are commonly referred to as dibīr and dibīrīh (CPD 26).19 Our knowledge of the scribes’ social status and profession in the Sasanian and post-Sasanian era is sketchy at best and mostly derived from later sources. In the 13th century Letter of Tansar, for instance, scribes constitute one of the four social classes: clergy, military, scribes and artisans.20 However, in MP sources such as the above-mentioned MX 58.5, scribes do not form a social class on their own. Despite these differences, the image of the dibīrs that emerges from the comparison of the various accounts suggests that the profession was formally defined and catego-

14 A construction such as “hušnūtišn” is not permissible in MP, as the suffix -išn, forming verbal nouns and necessitative participles, is attached to a verbal form, usually the present stem (see CPD 46 and Weber 2007a, p. 963). 15 On hušnūdīh, see P. 136, 139, 166 and 297 in Weber 2003. 16 See AWN 14.10, MX 31.2, 58.5 & 10, Dk 7.1.20 and 7.1.41. See also Tafazzoli 2000, Ch. Durkin-Meisterernst 2004, p. 195, suggests that the badly attested {hwtw(x)[šʾg]} hutuxšāg “very diligent” in Otani 6170, may denote {hwtwxš} “artisan”. 17 Text after Anklesaria 1913, p. 158. 18 This interpretation follows Weber’s remarks on hutuxšān during the “International Summer School in Pahlavi Papyrology”, 2009, Vienna. 19 See Tafazzoli 2000, Chapter ii for a detailed survey of the material pertaining to scribes in the Sasanian society and MP literature. 20 See Boyce 1968, p. 38. A U N I Q U E P A H L A V I P A P Y R U S F R O M V I E N N A 45 rised, and that the scribes must have been in royal or state service.21 The professional services of the dibīrs do not seem to have been available to the broader public. As indicated in the Letter of Tansar, the fourth class, the professionals, or artisans in Boyce’s translation, includes all other professions. This class, I presume, corresponds to the class of hutuxšān, which included among others crafts- and tradesmen. It may be that the dibīrs were scribes in the service of the state, while here hutuxšān refers to artisans in general. This class could have included scribes whose writing skills were available to the general public, as distinct from the dibīrs. The first vertical stroke after {hwtwhšʾn} denotes the initial ʿayin of the following {ʿL} ō “to” and not a final otiose stroke belonging to {hwtwhšʾn}. The reading of the final characters of this line as {ʿL L} ō man “to me” is fairly certain and confirmed by similar usage in other documents, such as in P. 74: ō man nāmag ē kunēd “write a letter to me”.22

-Line 4 The absence of an optative marker {ʾy} ē before the ambiguous verbal form {ʿBYDWNty} kunēd suggests that it represents the 3sg.pres.act. of the verb kardan ‘do, make, act, perform’ (CPD 50) rather than a 2pl.pres.act. as a pluralis maiestatis. The horizontal line between {ZK} ān and the following {M}, is too short to be the optative marker {ʾy} ē. If the stroke is not simply a blackening of the paper, it could be an izāfe, allowing for the following interpretation: xwadāy ān ī … “Sir! That which he …”. The final word of this document is comprised of the characters {mʾšlwn} or {myšlwn} to which is attached the verbal complement {-ty}. While such a verbal stem is not listed in Nyberg’s (1974) glossary or MacKenzie’s CPD, the Frahang ī Pahlawīg (FīP) records the verbal heterograms {MŠLWNtn′} and {CBLWNtn′} for MP {cytn′, cyn-} čīdan, čīn- “gather, pile up” (CPD 22).23 To my knowledge, both heterograms are unattested in Pahlavi literature, whereby the Aramaic etymology for {CBLWNtn′} is less controversial.24 In K2525 (fol. 61v) the entry for čīdan (line a) and its interlinear transliteration with Avestan characters (line b) reads:

21 See Tafazzoli 1993. 22 See Weber 1992, pp. 179-180. For other examples, see Weber 2003, pp. 171-172. 23 See Jamaspji Asa & Haug 1870, p. 14, Junker 1955, p. 29, and Utas 1988, p. 15, 49. For an overview of the various editions of the FīP, see MacKenzie 2000. Scepticism of the FīP and the edition by Utas (1988) has been expressed by MacKenzie 1991, and 2000, while Shaked 1993 offers a more balanced view. 24 Ebeling 1941, p. 42, and Utas 1985, p. 89, both connect {CBLWNtn′}, with Aramaic ṣbr “to pile up”. See also Hoftijzer & Jongeling 1995, p. 958. 25 The manuscript K25 was published by Christensen (1944). 46 A. Z E I N I StIr 45, 2016

Fig. 2: Detail of K25, fol. 61v, entry for čīdan (after Christensen 1944, p. 166).

a: MŠLWNtn′26 cytn′ CBLWNyt MŠLWNyt cyn′yt′ CBLWNym mašlōnəm cyn′ym b: mašlōnitan jīδan gadlōnīt̰ mašlōnīt̰ jīnīt̰ gadlōnəm MŠLWNym jīnəm

The group of verbs preceding and following the entry for čīdan in the FīP underscore its agricultural connotation:27 kištan “till, furrow; sow”, rustan “grow” and drūdan “reap, mow”, čīdan, wēxtan “sift, winnow”, āpištan “to grind”,28 afšāndan “spread, scatter, sow”. Anquetil du Perron (1771, p. 518), the first scholar to publish the content of the FīP in the West as part of his Zend-Avesta, suggests the meaning “cueillir, prendre un à un” for {MŠLWNtn′} čīdan. Jamaspji Asa & Haug (1870, p. 155) posit the meaning “to gather, collect; to select, choose” for {MŠLWNtn′} čīdan and “to select, pick up, choose, gather, collect (as flowers, etc. from trees.)” for {CBLWNtn′}. Junker (1912, p. 1955) does not comment on {MŠLWNtn′} and records “to gather, collect, pluck (corn)” as its meaning. Kreyenbroek (1990), MacKenzie (1991) and Shaked (1993) do not discuss {MŠLWNtn′} or {CBLWNtn′} in their reviews of Utas (1988). Accepting Nyberg’s emendation of {MŠLWNtn′} to {MBḤLWNtn′}, Utas (1988:89) views {MBḤL-} as representing a paʿʿel participle derived from the Aramaic root bḥr “to try, to choose”, suggesting “to gather, to collect, to select” for čīdan.29

26 Most likely the gap in K25 following {MŠLWNtn′} should have contained the infinitive form {CBLWNtn′}, but note that the transliteration does not contain a gap. 27 See Utas 1988, pp. 89-90, for the verbs quoted here according to CPD and also K25, fol. 61r-v. For a discussion of the grouping of the verbs in the FīP, see Junker 1912 and Ebeling 1941, pp. 88-99. 28 Not listed in CPD. 29 See also Nyberg 1974, p. 56. A U N I Q U E P A H L A V I P A P Y R U S F R O M V I E N N A 47

As Malandra rightly points out, this emendation is problematic.30 Nyberg assumes the presence of the character i /G/, /D/ or /Y/, which can at times represent b /B/ in Pahlavi script.31 The MSS of the FīP, however, seem to attest s /Š/ rather than S.32 Thus, Nyberg’s assumption of S as representing A B ignores the manuscript evidence. His emendation also poses a semantic problem. From a historic-comparative perspective, the meanings “to try, to choose” do not seem to be attested for the verbs derived from the root ci, MP čīdan, in Iranian and related languages: IE 2*ku̯ ei̯- “sammeln, schichten” (LIV² 378), Vedic 1ci “aneinanderreihen, schichten” (WRV 444), Av. ci “amasser” (Verbe 46) or “schichten” according to ALF (298)33 and MP čīdan “gather, pile up” (CPD 22).34 Rather, the meaning “to choose” requires the preverb vi:35 attested, for instance, in MP as {wcytn′, wcyn-} wizīdan, wizīn- “choose, select, prefer, discriminate” (CPD 93), Christian Sogdian wycn-/wyct- “to choose” and NP guzīdan “id.”36 Therefore, Nyberg’s proposed derivation of {MBḤLWNtn′} from the Aramaic root bḥr “to try, to choose” must be viewed critically. Ebeling (1941, p. 103) considers {MŠLWN-} to be a participle and connects it with Akkadian šullû, viewing the latter as a š -stem (iii 1) derived from elû (Ibid., p. 42). He posits the meaning “to bring in, to harvest corn”. Ebeling’s proposed meaning for {MŠLWN-} is in agreement with the semantics of čīdan as proposed by the FīP. However, an Aramaic root reaf- firming the derivation of {MŠLWN-} from Akkadian seems to be unattes- ted. The entry for the lemma mšl2 in Hoftijzer & Jongeling (1995, p. 703) merely refers to bḥr “to select, to levy (troops)” (Ibid., p. 150), taking into account Nyberg’s above mentioned emendation. Thus, the entry for mšl does not represent a genuine attestation of the root in Aramaic. In absence

30 In this paragraph I draw on personal communication with Prof. Malandra, who generously shared his thoughts with me in an email of 17 April 2010. 31 See MacKenzie 1990, p. xii, Shaked 1993, p. 76, and also Ebeling 1941, p. 107. Examples are {ŠBKWNtn′} hištan or {CBLWNtn′} in the above entry from K25. 32 See, for instance, K25. The editions of the FīP do not list a variant reading with S. Presumably, Nyberg considered s /Š/ to be a corruption of S. 33 Differently Bartholomae 1904, p. 441, who suggests “aussuchen, wählen; scheiden” for “1kay-”. 34 For MMP and Pa cyydan, cyn- “to collect, gather, heap up”, see Durkin-Meisterernst 2004, p. 132, and Henning 1933, p. 181, 202, for ci “sammeln, aufschichten”. For a comprehensive survey, see Cheung 2007, pp. 26-27. Despite the wide semantic range associated with čīdan in NP, the Dehkhoda Dictionary, available at www.loghatnaameh.com, does not list “to choose” as a meaning. 35 See also LIV (378), Verbe (65). 36 For Sogdian, see Sims-Williams 1985, p. 231, and Cheung 2007, p. 26. For NP, see the online Dehkhoda Dictionary. 48 A. Z E I N I StIr 45, 2016 of further evidence in Aramaic, the link with Akkadian must remain a tentative suggestion. Alternatively, S. Shaked tentatively connects the heterogram {MŠLWNtn′} with the late Aramaic verb MSR “to transmit, convey”, attested in Jewish Aramaic and Syriac.37 This suggestion, however, implies a semantic shift to “transfer”, perhaps “to transfer (the harvest)”. Be that as it may, at present the strongest argument for {MŠLWNtn′} as a genuine heterogram in MP is its possible attestation in this fragmentary document. The additional character between the initial {M-} and {-Š-} in P.Pehl. 562 is possibly a scribal error caused by the traditional pronunciation of the verb. As the Pāzand and the NP transliterations in the manuscripts of the FīP reveal, this verb was pronounced as mašrōnitan, which could have caused the spelling {MʾŠLWN-}.38 Similar errors are attested both in MS Add. 22,379 and K25. The MS Add. 22,379 transliterates the infinitive as mšrōnitan, whereas the inflected forms are transliterated as mašrōnīt and mašrōnəm. In K25, Pahlavi {MŠLWNym} and Pāzand mašrōnəm appear in the wrong lines.39 Presumably, the scribe intended to write {MŠLWNym}, but added an {ʾ} in the Pahlavi line due to the verb’s traditional school pronunciation as mašrōnəm and thus continued the verb in its Pāzand spelling. Subsequently, the Pahlavi version was added to the next line, which should have contained the Pāzand transliteration. In P.Pehl. 562 the line that connects the initial {M-} with the following character rules out its reading as {-Y-}. It rather suggests an ʾālep̄ , of which the first tooth has coalesced with the upper tail of the mēm, causing its darkening. In this light, I have interpreted the final verb as {MŠLWNty} čīnēd “collect”. If this reading is accepted, document P.Pehl. 562 preserves the only attestation of the verbal heterogram {MŠLWNtn′} beside the FīP.

INTERPRETATION The four surviving lines of P.Pehl. 562 only allow us to make reasoned suggestions about the contents and purpose of the letter, rather than a fully qualified interpretation. Presumably, the condition upon which the addres- see should write a letter to the sender of P.Pehl. 562 (ō man) is set out in the phrase pad arzānīg[īh] bawēd. This notion is supported by the use of the modal adverb ōwōn “as, so” that immediately follows the phrase.40 The

37 Prof. Shaked generously shared his insights with me in an email of 04 Sept. 2010. 38 NP transliterations are found, for instance, in MS Add. 22,379, held at the British Library and described by Sachau (1870, p. 281). 39 See the third word in the third and fourth lines in the above reproduction. 40 In comparisons, the adverb ōwōn is often used in combination with the conjunction čiyōn “as, like, how, when” (CPD 23). The context of P.Pehl. 562, however, seems to rule out the possibility of a correlative clause with čiyōn. A U N I Q U E P A H L A V I P A P Y R U S F R O M V I E N N A 49 form bawēd is ambiguous as it could be either the 3sg. or the 2pl. present active of the verb būdan ‘be, become’. There are therefore a number of ways in which this phrase can be interpreted. If bawēd is 2pl., it would denote the addressee: if you are in a worthy manner [if you are in good health], then ensure that you send me a letter. If it is 3sg., then the sentence could be an inquiry about a third person: if he is in a worthy manner [if he is in good health], then ensure that you send me a letter. Alternatively, pad arzānīg[īh] bawēd could refer to a commodity which is examined against its expected value: if it [the goods received] is in accordance with its value, then concerning that ensure that you send a letter to me. The latter appears to be the more likely interpretation.

Arash ZEINI University of St. Andrews Institute of Iranian Studies School of History St Katherine’s Lodge, The Scores St Andrews KY16 9AL. Scotland U.K.

ABBREVIATIONS

Av.: Avestan ALF: Avestische Laut- und Flexionslehre MMP: Manichaean Middle Persian AWN: Ardā Wirāz Nāmag MP: Middle Persian CPD: A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary NP: New Persian Dk: Dēnkard Pa: Parthian FīP: Frahang ī Pahlawīg LIV: Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben MHD: Mādayān Hazār Dādestān MX: Mēnōg ī Xrad Verbe: Le verbe avestique WRV: Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

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