The Jamasp Nameh (var: ''Jāmāsp Nāmag'', ''Jāmāsp Nāmeh'', "Story of

Jamasp Jamasp (also spelled Zamasp or Djamasp; ; ''Jāmāsp'') was Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 496 to 498/9. He was a son of Peroz I and younger brother of Kavad I. Jamasp was installed on the Sasanian throne upon the deposition of the latter ...

") is a

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

book of revelations. In an extended sense, it is also a

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an Artifact (archaeology), artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was cre ...

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

doctrine and legend. The work is also known as the ''Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg'' or ''Ayātkār-ī Jāmāspīk'', meaning " nMemoriam of Jamasp". The text takes the form of a series of questions and answers between Vishtasp and Jamasp, both of whom were amongst Zoroaster's immediate and closest disciples. Vishtasp was the princely protector and patron of Zoroaster while Jamasp was a nobleman at Vishtasp's court. Both are figures mentioned in the

Gathas The Gathas () are 17 hymns in the Avestan language from the Zoroastrian oral tradition of the Avesta. The oldest surviving text fragment dates from 1323 CE, but they are believed by scholars to have been composed before 1000 BCE and passed dow ...

, the oldest hymns of Zoroastrianism and believed to have been composed by Zoroaster. Here (chap. 3.6-7) there occurs a striking theological statement, that

Ohrmazd Ahura Mazda (; ; or , ),The former is the New Persian rendering of the Avestan form, while the latter derives from Middle Persian. also known as Horomazes (),, is the only creator deity and god of the sky in the ancient Iranian religion ...

’s creation of the seven Amašaspands was like lamps being lit one from another, none being diminished thereby. The text has survived in three forms: * a

Pahlavi Pahlavi may refer to: Iranian royalty *Seven Parthian clans, ruling Parthian families during the Sasanian Empire *Pahlavi dynasty, the ruling house of Imperial State of Persia/Iran from 1925 until 1979 **Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878–1944), Shah of ...

manuscript, that is, a rendering of the Middle Persian language using an

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

-derived script and accompanied by Aramaic

ideogram An ideogram or ideograph (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'idea' + 'to write') is a symbol that is used within a given writing system to represent an idea or concept in a given language. (Ideograms are contrasted with phonogram (linguistics), phono ...

s. The Pahlavi manuscript is damaged and fragmented. * a transmission in

Pazand Pazend () or Pazand (; ) is one of the writing systems used for the Middle Persian language. It was based on the Avestan alphabet, a phonetic alphabet originally used to write Avestan, the language of the Avesta, the primary sacred texts of Zor ...

, that is, a rendering of the Middle Persian language using Avestan script (also an Aramaic derivative) but without any non-Iranian vocabulary. The

Pazend Pazend () or Pazand (; ) is one of the writing systems used for the Middle Persian language. It was based on the Avestan alphabet, a phonetic alphabet originally used to write Avestan, the language of the Avesta, the primary sacred texts of Zoroa ...

version has survived in its entirety. * a Modern

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

translation in

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

has also survived. It is slightly younger than the other two manuscripts.

Bibliography

Boyce, Mary Nora Elisabeth Mary Boyce (2 August 1920 – 4 April 2006) was a British scholar of Iranian languages and an authority on Zoroastrianism. She was Professor of Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the Uni ...

AYĀDGĀR Ī JĀMĀSPĪG
' in Encyclopædia Iranica. *Bailey, H.W. ''To the Zamasp-Namak. I.'' BSOS 6, 1930–32, pp. 56–68 *Bailey, H.W. ''To the Zamasp Namak. II.'' BSOS 6, (1930–32), pp. 581–600 *

References

Zoroastrian texts {{Zoroastrianism-book-stub

See also

Bibliography

References