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Aban Yasht
The Aban Yasht is the fifth Yasht of the 21 Yasht collection. It is named after Aban, the Waters, but is actually in praise of Anahita. It belongs to the so called ''Legendary Yashts'' and, with 132 stanzas, it is the third longest in the collection. Overview The Aban Yasht is named after Aban, the personification of the Waters, but its content makes it clear that it is actually addressed to Anahita. Anahita is a goddess of rivers and lakes and, in Zoroastrian practice, she fused with Aban over time. It is the fifth Yasht of the 21 Yasht collection and it is grouped into the ''Legendary Yashts'', due to the lenghty descriptions of Avestan heroes sacrificing to her. Several verses of the Yasht form the Aban Niyayishn, also known as the Ardwi Sur Banu Niyayishn. The Aban Niyayishn is the fourth prayer from the Niyayishn collection, and likewise dedicated to Aban and Anahita. Both, the Aban Yasht and Aban Niyayishn are never recited in the presence of fire but only near bodies of w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasht
A Yasht (, ) is a hymn of praise composed in the Young Avestan language and dedicated to specific Zoroastrian divinities. The term commonly applies to the collection of 21 Yashts, although it may also refer to other texts within the wider Avesta collection. Name The English word ''yasht'' is derived from Middle Persian 𐭩𐭱𐭲 (, "prayer, worship"). In the Pahlavi literature, the word is used interchangeably with ''yasn''. Yasht probably originated from Avestan 𐬫𐬀𐬱𐬙𐬀 (, "honored") from 𐬫𐬀𐬰 (, "to worship, honor"). It may ultimately go back to Proto-Indo-European ''*yeh₂ǵ-'' or ''*Hyaǵ-''. Avestan 𐬫𐬀𐬱𐬙𐬀 is also the origin of two other terms. First, Avestan 𐬫𐬀𐬯𐬥𐬀 (, act of worship), which is a general Zoroastrian term for an act of worship or specifically the Yasna ritual, and, second, Avestan 𐬫𐬀𐬰𐬀𐬙𐬀 (, (being) worthy of worship), which is a general Zoroastrian term for divinity. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the List of largest empires#Timeline of largest empires to date, largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of . The empire spanned from the Balkans and ancient Egypt, Egypt in the west, most of West Asia, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Basin, Indus Valley of South Asia to the southeast. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Medes, Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognised for its imposition of a succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persian Mythology
Iranian mythology, or Persian mythology in western term (), is the body of the myths originally told by ancient Persians and other Iranian peoples and a genre of ancient Persian folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Persians' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of not only Iran but of the Greater Iran, Persosphere, which includes regions of West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Transcaucasia where the culture of Iran has had significant influence. Historically, these were regions long ruled by dynasties of various Iranian empires, that incorporated considerable aspects of Persian culture through extensive contact with them, or where sufficient Iranian peoples settled to still maintain communities who patronize their respective cultures. It roug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avesta
The Avesta (, Book Pahlavi: (), Persian language, Persian: ()) is the text corpus of Zoroastrian literature, religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. Modern Edition (book), editions of the Avesta are based on the various manuscript traditions that have survived in Zoroastrianism in India, India and Zoroastrianism in Iran, Iran. The individual texts of the Avesta were originally Oral tradition, oral compositions. They were composed over a long period of several centuries during the Avestan period, Old Iranian period (possibly ranging from 15th century BCE – 4th century BCE). The written transmission began during the Sassanian empire, Sassanian period, with the creation of the Avestan alphabet. The resulting texts were then compiled into a comprehensive edition of the Sasanian Avesta, Avesta in 21 volumes. This edition was lost sometime after the 10th century CE and only a small part survi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herman Lommel
Herman Lommel (7 July 1885 – 5 October 1968), born Hermann Lommel, was a German Indologist and Iranologist who was Chair of Indo-European Studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt from 1917 to 1950. Biography Herman Lommel was born in Erlangen, Germany on 7 July 1885, the son of physicist Eugen von Lommel (1837-1899). Since 1905, Lommel studied comparative philology, Indology and Iranian studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the University of Göttingen under Jacob Wackernagel (Indo-European), Hermann Oldenberg (Indology) and Friedrich Carl Andreas (Iranian studies). Lommel gained his Ph.D. at Göttingen in 1912 under the supervision of Wackernagel. He completed his habilitation at Göttingen in 1914, and subsequently lectured there. Lommel served in the German Army during World War I. From 1917 to 1950, Lommel was Chair of Indo-European Studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Lommel specialized in the study of Indo-Iranian languages and cultures. He wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Darmesteter
James Darmesteter (28 March 184919 October 1894) was a French author, orientalist, and antiquarian. Biography He was born of Jewish parents at Château-Salins, in Lorraine. The family name had originated in their earlier home of Darmstadt. He was educated in Paris, where, under the guidance of Michel Bréal and Abel Bergaigne, he imbibed a love for Oriental studies, to which for a time he entirely devoted himself. In 1875, he published a thesis on the mythology of the ''Avesta'', in which he advocated that the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism had been influenced by Judaism (and not that Zoroastrianism influenced Judaism as many scholars said). In 1877 became teacher of Persian language at the École des Hautes Études. He continued his research with his ''Études iraniennes'' (1883), and ten years later published a complete translation of the ''Avesta'' and associated ''Zend'' (lit. "commentary"), with historical and philological commentary of his own (''Zend Avesta'', 3 vols. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Textual Criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range in dates from the earliest writing in cuneiform, impressed on clay, for example, to multiple unpublished versions of a 21st-century author's work. Historically, scribes who were paid to copy documents may have been literate, but many were simply copyists, mimicking the shapes of letters without necessarily understanding what they meant. This means that unintentional alterations were common when copying manuscripts by hand. Intentional alterations may have been made as well, for example, the censoring of printed work for political, religious or cultural reasons. The objective of the textual critic's work is to provide a better understanding of the creation and historical transmission of the text and its variants. This understanding may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lost Literature
A lost literary work (referred throughout this article just as a lost work) is a document, literary work, or piece of multimedia, produced of which no surviving copies are known to exist, meaning it can be known only through reference, or literary fragments. This term most commonly applies to works from the classical world, although it is increasingly used in relation to modern works. A work may be lost to history through the destruction of an original manuscript and all later copies. Works—or, commonly, small fragments of works—have survived by being found by archaeologists during investigations, or accidentally by laypersons such as, for example, the finding Nag Hammadi library scrolls. Works also survived when they were reused as bookbinding materials, quoted or included in other works, or as palimpsests, where an original document is imperfectly erased so the substrate on which it was written can be reused. The discovery, in 1822, of Cicero's ''De re publica'' was one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bagan Yasht
The Bagan yasht was, according to the Denkard, the fourteenth ''nask'' (volume) of the Sasanian Avesta. The work itself is lost, but based on later references, several of the extant Yashts are considered to have originally been part of the nask. Sources The nask itself is no longer extant. Some information on its content are given in Book 8 of the Denkard, a 9th-10th century compendium of Zoroastrianism. In addition, the Rivayats, a series of epistles from the 15th - 17th century, give a short overview on the content of the Bagan yasht. Name There is some confusion regarding the name of this nask. For instance Yasna 19-21 is also sometimes called Bagan yasht, even though these parts originally belonged to the Bag nask. In the Rivayats, the name is given as ''Baḡān yašt'' and ''Bayān yašt''. In the Denkard, however, it is given as ''Baḡān yašt'' or ''Baḡān yasn''. While ''Yasht'' or ''Yasn'' is derived from Avestan ''Yaz'', to sacrifice, the term ''Bagan'' probably ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sasanian Avesta
The Sasanian Avesta or Great Avesta refers to the anthology of Zoroastrian literature produced during the Sasanian period. Most of this work is now lost, but its content and structure can be reconstructed from references found in a number of texts from the 9th century onward. Compared to the extant Avesta, the Sasanian Avesta was much larger and organized into 21 distinct volumes called ''nasks'' (Avestan: ''naska''; Middle Persian: ''nask'', 'bundle'). Of those, only one is preserved in its entirety, while others are either lost or only preserved in fragments. Sources The most important source on the Sasanian Avesta is the Denkard, a 9th-10th century compendium of Zoroastrianism. The 8th and 9th book of the Denkard give an overview of the Avesta as it was available at the time. Whereas the 8th book lists the content, the 9th book provides a lengthy summary on a number of its nasks In addition, the Rivayats, a series of epistles from the 15th - 17th century, also list its con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign over ancient Iran was second only to the directly preceding Arsacid dynasty of Parthia. Founded by Ardashir I, whose rise coincided with the decline of Arsacid influence in the face of both internal and external strife, the House of Sasan was highly determined to restore the legacy of the Achaemenid Empire by expanding and consolidating the Iranian nation's dominions. Most notably, after defeating Artabanus IV of Parthia during the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224, it began competing far more zealously with the neighbouring Roman Empire than the Arsacids had, thus sparking a new phase of the Roman–Iranian Wars. This effort by Ardashir's dynasty ultimately re-established Iran as a major power of late an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beaver
Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-largest living rodents, after capybaras, weighing up to . They have stout bodies with large heads, long chisel-like incisors, brown or gray fur, hand-like front feet, webbed back feet, and tails that are flat and scaly. The two species differ in skull and tail shape and fur color. Beavers can be found in a number of freshwater habitats, such as rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. They are herbivorous, consuming tree bark, aquatic plants, grasses and sedges. Beavers build dams and lodges using tree branches, vegetation, rocks and mud; they chew down trees for building material. Dams restrict water flow, forming ponds, and lodges (usually built in ponds) serve as shelters. Their infrastructure creates wetlands used by many other species, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
