Hamza al-Iṣfahānī as a Source on the Zoroastrian Story of Creation

Document Type : ..

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student in Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Professor of Ancient History, University of California, Irvine, U.S.A

Abstract

In the first part of Hamza al-Iṣfahānī’s Ta’rīkh sinī mulūk al-arḍ wa’l-anbiyā, otherwise known as Kitab al-omam, there is a chapter which narrates the Zoroastrian creation story, based an unknown source. The purpose of this article is to identify the source / book for Hamza. This is done by comparing the content quoted by Hamza and that of the existing Pahlavi books. We conclude that only one of the surviving Pahlavi texts have been used, namely that of the Bunahišn. Therefore the study of Bundahišn is in a way the model for the unknown source in Hamza al-Iṣfahānī's bibliography. 

Keywords

References

  • Al-Biruni (1878), al-Athar al-baqiya 'an al-qurun al-kahliya, Choronologie orientalischer Volker von Alberuni, Dr, C, Eduard Sachau, Leipzig: F, A, Brockhaus.
  • Al-Maqdisī (1899), Muṭahhar ibn Ṭāhir Le livre de la création ET de l'histoire, Clément Huart, Paris: Ernest.
  • Anklesaria, Behramgore Tehmuras (1956). Zand-Akasih, iranian or Greater Bundahish, Bombay: Dastur Framroze A. Bode.
  • Daryaee Touraj (2013) “Marriage, Property and Conversion among the Zoroastrians: From Late Sasanian to Islamic Iran,” Journal of Persian ate Studies, vol. 6, pp. 91-100.
  • Franz Rosenthal (1968): A History of Muslim Historiography, Leiden, E. J. Brill.
  • Hämeen-Antilla, J (2018), Khwādaynāmag: The Middle Persian Book of kings, Studies in Persian Cultural History (vole, 14), Boston, Leiden, Brill.

Imprimerie Nationale.

Leroux.

  • David N. (1971). A concise Pahlavi dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University press.
  • Macoudi (1917), Les prairies d'or, C Barbier de Meynard ET Pavet de courteille, Paris: Imprimerie Imperiale.
  • Rubin, Zeev (2008), "Hamza al-Isfahani's sources for Sasanian history", Jerusalem studies in Arabic and Islam 35:27-58.
  • Thaʻālibī (1900), Abou Mansour Abd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad, Histoire des rois des Perses, H, Zotenberg, Paris:
  • West Edward William (1897). The Bundahishn (Creation or Knowledge from the zand, from sacred books of the east, Volume 5: Pahlavi Text Part1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Historical Studies
Volume 12, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
Autumn and winer
March 2022
Pages 237-258

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics