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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.
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