Thalès

2013 — New Persian, Old(ca. 600-400 B.C.) Original bdg. HC. Demy 8vo. (21 x 14 cm). In Persian and Pahlavi. 63 p. [A]Yâdgâr-i Zarîrân: Matn-i hamâsî az dawrân-i kuhan. [= Ayâdgâr-e Zârêrân]. Ayâdgâr-e Zârêrân, or 'Memorial of Zarer', a short Pahlavi text which is the only surviving specimen in that language of ancient Iranian epic poetry. It is preserved in a unique manuscript, written in A.D. 1322. The chief editions are those of J. M. Jamasp-Asana, The Pahlavi Texts Contained in the Codex MK II, Bombay, 1913, repr. Tehran, [1971-72], pp. 1-16; Pagliaro, Il testo pahlavico Ayâtkâr-i Zarêrân, Rome, 1925; and D. Monchi-Zadeh, Die Geschichte Zarêr's, Uppsala, 1981 (reviewed by D. N. MacKenzie, IIJ 27, 1984, pp. 155-63). It celebrates an event in the early history of Zoroastrianism. Wistâsp, having accepted the "pure religion of the Mazda-worshippers" (dên î abêzag i mâzdesnân)), is challenged on this account by Ardjâsp, lord of the Hyôns. The wise Jâmâsp foretells that Wistâsp's brother Zarêr and many others of his kin will die in the coming encounter. Nevertheless battle is joined. Zarêr, after fighting heroically, is foully slain by a Hyôn, Wîdraf the sorcerer. His son Bastwar, forbidden by Wistâsp to go to the battle-field because of his youth, flouts this command, finds his father's body, and utters a moving lament over it. He slays many Hyons in revenge, and shoots an arrow through Wîdrafs' heart. His cousin Spandyâd, Wistâsp's son, ends the battle by capturing Ardjâsp, mutilating him, and sending him abject away. There are numerous traces in the Pahlavi text of an older Parthian version, with Parthian words, phrases and grammatical usages scattered through it (for these see most fully MacKenzie, loc. cit.). Parthian, and other apparently archaic, certainly obscure, elements are most concentrated in passages of reported speech, notably par. 92, Bastwar's incantation over the arrow with which he is to shoot Wîdrafs; par. 41, an oath-taking formula; and pars. 84-87, Bastwar's elegy for his father... (Encyclopediae Iranica).