By Ali Hassuri, Tehran
I
A Pahlavi Inscription from Kazirun
On the way to Sarizjän next to Käzirün to the south of Shiraz, between
Bälädih and Darn Meydanak, there appear the signs of a few dakhmas,
the first one (on the west side ofthe mountain) has an inscription which
I am going to read here. The dakhma stands on the mountain while the
inscription is carved on the face of a rock midway to the top.
Stil raz N
• Baladih
J«re a
^■^•^
O»'*^*
Two Unpublished Pahlavi Inscriptions 93
There are a few other dakhmas opposing to this one (to the south) two
of them are very large and now used by shepherds for their sheep.
On the top of the mountain stands the fire temple of Mihmarsiyän
(well known as Jere). This inscription is in Book Pahlavi.' Here I
attempt to draw the inscription and then reconstruct it.
Reconstruction Inscription
^ r
c^ieu-y
.-•v J^Z^i
ViVO
rix^r^Qt^
Transliteration ZNH 'stwd'n
ZK y
whStbh (I)
'p'n d w (ht)
y BNT (H) Lm(k)
y plhw d (yn) ' n
Transcription en astödän än I wahiSt bahr äbän duxt i duxt (i) ramak I farrax" denän
Translation This astödan
belongs to
heavenly
Äbän duxt
daughter (of) Ramak
son of Farrax" den
Note: The letter for H in BNTH in the inscription is much more similar
to a ('), so that one can read it an a rather H. If so it should be taken as
an error of stone-cutter. As this type of inscriptions belong to the end of
the Sasanian dynasty, this kind of errors should be expected.
' I am indebted to my friend Mr. A. Garrusi who prepared with great incon¬
venience the photograph. As the photographs are not clear and as the districts are not safe since 1979, I have not been able yet to get better ones.
n
A Pahlavi Inscription from Qal'a Bahman
Qal'a Bahman (Fig. 1) is a large castle 70 kilometers from Bahman, a
village 50 kilometers from the westside of Abade in Fars.^ It is inacces¬
sible except to someone who knows the path-like roads recently built for
transporting beetroot. Qal'a stands opposite the modem village of Qal'a
Muxtärxän, named after the person who built it. The castle stands on
the top of a hill directly on its rocky surface, to a height of about twenty
meters. Below the castle there are two large ponds which served as its
water supply. These ponds have steps cut in the stone. On the top of one
Q*" Map 2
^ I am indebted to Mr. A. Husayni who told me about the castle and led me to the place.
Two Unpublished Pahlavi Inscriptions 95
of these ponds there is an old inscription (perhaps not Iranian) which I
could not identify at all, mostly because it is very difiicult to reach and
extremely damaged. The only way to the castle is through a hole in the
rock on the N. side.'
On the top of the castle, on the rocky surface, there are about seven
inscriptions in kufic written around a little hole and nearby a design
consisting of concentric circles. From the inscriptions I could read two
dates (165 and 307 or 309 A.!!.).* They are carved in such a manner
that it is difficult to separate them from each other.
One of these Kufic inscriptions has a Pahlavi version which I could
read. The inscriptions are on the ground and when I reached there the
snow began to fall on them.^
Here I am going to read and translate the Pahlavi inscription which
was first thought to be older than the Kufic ones, but after examining
one of the Kufic inscriptions it became clear that both are of the same
date and about the same subject.
I also examined the other Kufic inscriptions but could not find any
relation. This is more understood when we see that these two inscrip¬
tions are close together while the others are in some distance.
' There are many fragments of potery around the castle and in it, belonging to different periods of occupation.
* Because the word ^ has no dots and it can be read both ^ (seven) and j-J (nine), cf fig. 4.
° They are exposed to rain, snow, ice and sunshine. Because ofthe cold and snow I could not prepare good photographs from the inscriptions, some I copied
and these copies have been more useful for me.
6 .vr-
The Pahlavi inscription (Fig. 2) is written in book alphabet except for
a few letters which have preserved somehow inscription type such as k.
ZNH kl'th'cym mhmt' (n)
'p'fn krt SNT 100 50 5
whrmzd hng (')m BR' YHBWNt .
m
This castle Hazim son of
Muhammad
built in the year 165
'HR in the Ohrmazd month . . .
and gave . . . then
? 33
ws . . . .
3 10 20
The Arabic version (Fig. 3) ofthe Pahlavi inscription makes some of
the words certain because it reads as follows:
<;b>- j.^ ^.jUp]*^
AjU j ,JC^ j uf**^
"Repaired it" IJäzim son of Muhammad son of Janana, year five and sixty and one hundred."
So there can be no doubt about Häzim son of Muhammad son of
Janäna who has improved this castle in the year 165 A. H. (786 A. D.) in
the time of Ohrmazd day (the first day of each Yazdgirdi month). Unfor¬
tunately the Yazdgirdi date is incomplete and we can doubt about it, but
in one ofthe other Kufic inscriptions a Hijri date is synchronized by the
Yazdgirdi date as follows:
> *:- Oy'^'^ jU—T jjj
"(The day of Asman) 27th day Monday .... of the year seven (or
nine) and three hundred."
This date is less incomplete, so these three different concordances can
be given for it:
Hijri Yazdgirdi Christian
day month year day month year day month year
19 Rabi' 1 307 Asman 27 Murdad 5 287 8 September 918
9 Rabl' 11 309 Asman 27 Tir 4 289 30 June 920
18 Dhü l-Qa'da 309 Asman 27 Bahman 11 289 2 March 921
The word translated into castle is kl't in the text while one might
expect diz instead. As I know this is the first time that this word appears
in a M.P. text, but it is well known in Persian meaning a village or
castle. Muhammad ibn al-Husain in his dictionary, Burhän-i Qäti', has
The pronoun is in fermnine representing qal'a which is feminine in Arabic.
TAFEL I
Fig. 2.
Pahlavi Version of the Inscription of Qal'a Bahman.
Fig. 4.
Another Arabic Inscription from Qal'a Bahman with the Date 307/309 A.H.
Two Unpublished Pahlavi Inscriptions 97
given the most accurate meaning: "a castle built on a mountain or a
hill." The other form ofthe word is qalät, well known all over Iran and
mainly Fars where at least a hundred qalats can be found, one of them
qalät-i gäzurän (village of the cloth-washers) near Shiraz where Sa'di
was buried and which now is called Sa'di, after his name.'
The equivalent word used in Arabic is qal' a i Jä which seems to be the
same word. The word * Ji has no root in Arabic or Semitic languages
and it should be the Arabic form of qalät. We have many other samples
of Arabic q equal to pers. k for example: ^^^ui for ^fjUS" ,^y\i for ^„IT
for S~S etc. though we have qalät pronounciation in Persian too."
The word may have come into Arabic before the Islamic period
because we have samples which have preserved their old Iranian forms
in Arabic, showing q equivalent to k for example .1 ij, warqä' meaning
wolf, comparable to Avestic v^hrka-.
In Iranian chronicles and histories I could not find the name of Häzim
ibn Muhammad, he may have been one of the early Muslim pioneers
who fought or lived in this district.
In one of the Kufic inscriptions (Fig. 4) which has the date of 307 or
309, mentioned before, there can be found the name of
^ A.^. Thus one may think that he was the grandson of
the same Häzim ibn Muhammad, but I think approximately 150 years is
too long for a person to find a grandson.
' Old Iranian villages were built in a castle form and this is why they are called qal'a sometimes, comparable to äbäd and äbädi (village) which etymologi¬
cally mean protected or fenced (from pä.)
' The oldest well known is Qalät i Nädiri, build by Nädir to serve as his
capital.
7 ZDMG 134/1
(3rd Dey 308 Yazdigardi = 3rd January 940)*
By A. Sh. Shahbazi, Göttingen
No sound tradition regarding the date of Firdausi's birth has come
down to us. The Mushm custom of recording the date of demise alone on
tombstones seems to have deprived those early scholars who wrote on
Firdausi of the opportunity of obtaining his birthdate from what would
otherwise have been a most reliable source. Fortunately, however, the
Sähnämeh' itself provides several clues as to the poet's birthdate. These
references have been so carefully analysed and used by J. Mohl^ and
Th. Nöldeke' that since 1905, all studies on the life of Firdausi have
drawn upon the arguments and conclusions of those two outstanding
scholars without succeeding to present additional data. Any fresh
discussion of the subject must likewise begin with a statement of the
divergent views of those two pioneers.
1. Mohl's dating
Firdausi closes his epic with an epilogue which contains references to
his own life and work.* Mohl noted the following:^
This article developed out of an introductory note to the chapter "Firdausi and his Sähnämeh" m the present writer's forthcoming work Iranian historians and their works. 1 am deeply grateful to Professor Dr. W. Hinz for his valuable
help, and to the authorities of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for
having sponsored the study.
' All references are to the edition prepared by E. E. Bertbl's and his asso¬
ciates and published in nine volumes in Moscow (1960-71); volumes are cited by Roman numbers, pages by Arabic figures, and verses by smaller raised Arabic figures. For the sake of literal accuracy, translations are made by the present writer.
^ Le Livre des Rois. Publife, traduit et commentfe par J. Mohl. 1-VII. Paris 1838-1878.
' Das iranische Nationalepos. In: W. Geiger and E. Kuhn (ed.) : Grundriß der iranischen Philologie. Straßburg (1896-1904), II, 130-211, esp. 151-52.
* Sähnämeh, IX, 381""^':
° Öu säl andar ämad bi-haftäd-u yak
hami zer Si'r andar ämad falak.
Siy-u panj säl az saräy-i sipanj.
