The ''Mēnōg-ī Khrad'' () or ''Spirit of Wisdom'' is one of the most important secondary texts in

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

written in

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...

. Also transcribed in

Pazend Pazend () or Pazand ( pal, 𐭯𐭠𐭰𐭭𐭣; ae, 𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 𐬰𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬙𐬌) is one of the writing systems used for the Middle Persian language. It was based on the Avestan alphabet, a phonetic alphabet originally used t ...

as Minuy-e X(e/a)rad and

New Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thr ...

''Minu-ye Xeræd'', the text is a Zoroastrian Pahlavi book in sixty-three chapters (a preamble and sixty-two questions and answers), in which a symbolic character called Dānāg (lit., “knowing, wise”) poses questions to the personified Spirit of Wisdom, who is extolled in the preamble and identified in two places (2.95, 57.4) with innate wisdom (''āsn xrad''). The book, like most Middle Persian books, is based on oral tradition and has no known author. According to the preamble, Dānāg, searching for truth, traveled to many countries, associated himself with many savants, and learned about various opinions and beliefs. When he discovered the virtue of ''xrad'' (1.51), the Spirit of Wisdom appeared to him to answer his questions. The book belongs to the genre of ''andarz'' ("advices") literature, containing mostly practical wisdom on the benefits of drinking wine moderately and the harmful effects of overindulging in it (20, 33, 39, 50, 51, 54, 55, 59, 60), although advice on religious questions is by no means lacking. For example, there are passages on keeping quiet while eating (2.33-34); on not walking without wearing the sacred girdle ( kostī) and undershirt (''sodra''; 2.35-36); on not walking with only one shoe on (2.37-38); on not urinating in a standing position (2.39-40); on ''gāhānbār'' and ''hamāg-dēn'' ceremonies (4.5); on libation (''zōhr'') and the

yasna Yasna (;"Yasna"
'' xwedodah Xwedodah ( fa, خویدوده; khwēdōdah; Avestan: ) is a spiritually-influenced style of consanguine marriage assumed to have been historically practiced in Zoroastrianism before the Muslim conquest of Persia. Such marriages are recorded as hav ...

'') and trusteeship (''stūrīh''; 36); on belief in dualism (42); on praying three times a day and repentance before the sun, the moon, and fire (53); on belief in

Ohrmazd Ahura Mazda (; ae, , translit=Ahura Mazdā; ), also known as Oromasdes, Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hoormazd, Hormazd, Hormaz and Hurmuz, is the creator deity in Zoroastrianism. He is the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the ''Yasna''. ...

as the creator and in the destructiveness of Ahreman and belief in *''stōš'' (the fourth morning after death), resurrection, and the Final Body (tan ī pasēn; 63). The first chapter, which is also the longest (110 pars.), deals in detail with the question of what happens to people after death and the separation of soul from body. It is believed by some scholars that this text has been first written in Pazend and latter, using the Pazend text, it was rewritten in Middle Persian, but others believe that this text was originally written in Middle Persian and later written in Pazend,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

and Persian. The oldest surviving manuscripts there are L19, found in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

, written in Pazend and Gujarati, which is believed to date back to 1520. One of the characteristics of L19 text is that the word ''Xrad'' "wisdom" is spelled as ''Xard'' throughout the text. The oldest surviving Pahlavi version of this text is K43 found in Royal Library, Denmark. The ''Mēnōg-ī Khrad'' was first translated into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

as .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menog-I Khrad Zoroastrian texts Middle Persian literature