Zoroastrian Hermeneutics in Late Antiquity
Commentary on the 'Sudgar Nask' of 'Denkard' Book 9
by Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina
The Sudgar Nask of Denkard Book 9 is one of the most enigmatic and yet fundamental texts of Zoroastrianism. It is a commentary on the ‘Old Avesta’ of the 2nd millennium BCE produced in Pahlavi (Zoroastrian Middle Persian) in the Sasanian (224-651 CE) and early Islamic centuries. This commentary purportedly based on earlier Pahlavi translations and commentaries of lost Young Avestan tractates commenting in turn on the ‘Old Avesta’ is a value-laden, ideologically motivated discourse that displays a rich panoply of tradition-constituted forms of allegoresis. This terse yet highly allusive text mobilizes complex forms of citation, allusion, and intertextuality from the inherited Avestan world of myth and ritual in order to engage with and react to the profound changes occurring in the relationships between theology, religious praxis, national identity, and imperial politics in Iranian society. Despite its value and importance for developing our nascent understanding of Zoroastrian hermeneutics and the self-conception of the Zoroastrian priesthood in Late Antiquity, this primary source has attracted scant scholarly attention due to the extreme difficulty of its subject matter and the lack of a reliable translation. This volume represents the first critical edition and translation of this formidable text which will contribute to the philological, theological, and historiographical study of Zoroastrianism in a pivotal moment in its rich and illustrious history.
- By (author) Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina
Other Titles in this Series
Die Sprache der Bilder
Eine Studie zur ikonographischen Exegese der anthropomorphen Gotterbilder im Zoroastrismus
Volume 27
The Zoroastrian Law to Expel the Demons
Widewdad 10-15: Critical Edition, Translation and Glossary of the Avestan and Pahlavi Texts
Volume 23
Holy Wealth
Accounting for This World and The Next in Religious Belief and Practice: Festschrift for John R. Hinnells
Volume 24
Zur lichten Heimat
Studien zu Manichaismus, Iranistik und Zentralasienkunde im Gedenken an Werner Sundermann. Herausgegeben von einem Team 'Turfanforschung'
Volume 25
Die Entwicklung der Ergativkonstruktion im Alt- und Mitteliranischen
Eine korpusbasierte Untersuchung zu Kasus, Kongruenz und Satzbau
Volume 21
Penitential Sections of the Xorde Avesta (patits)
Critical Edition with Commentary and Glossary
Volume 22
Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies
Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies, held in Vienna, 18-22 September 2007
Volume 19
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Cities through Time
Glimpses into Urbanity and Community in Mediaeval to Modern West Asia and Egypt
Volume 1
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Global Gulf
Geo-Economic, Geo-Political, and Geo-Technological Transformation in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar
Ḫattušaš utnē išḫameški
Hittite and Other Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Piotr Taracha on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday
Ismail Hakki Bursevi’s translation of and commentary on Fusus al-Hikam By Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi
Volumes 1-4
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Qatar’s Societal Security
Towards the Inclusive National Concept of ‘Baladna’ Identity, Migration and External Threats Since 2017
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
