The Damdad nask is one of the lost ''nasks'' (volumes) of the

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 t ...

. Although no texts in the extant Avesta can be clearly identified as having belonged to it, its content can be reconstructed to some degree from references in later Zoroastrian writings.

Sources

The nask itself is no longer extant. A short summary of its content is given in the

Denkard The ''Dēnkard'' or ''Dēnkart'' (Middle Persian: 𐭣𐭩𐭭𐭪𐭠𐭫𐭲 "Acts of Religion") is a 10th-century compendium of Zoroastrian beliefs and customs during the time. The ''Denkard'' has been called an "Encyclopedia of Mazdaism" an ...

(8.5), a 9th-10th century compendium of Zoroastrianism. In addition, the Rivayats by Kamah Bahram, Nareman Hoshang and

Dastur A dastur ( ), sometimes spelt dustoor, is a term for a Zoroastrian high priest who has authority in religious matters and ranks higher than a mobad or herbad. In this specific sense, the term is used mostly among the Parsis of India. The term has ...

Barzu Qiyamu-D-Din, a series of epistles from the 15th - 17th century, give a short overview on the content of the Damdad nask.

Name

MacKenzie provides two possible derivations of the name. First, it may be derived from a hypothetical

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

''*dāmi.dāti'', meaning "the creating of the creation". Alternativly, it may be derived from

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 ...

''dām dād'', meaning "he (Ohrmazd) created the creation". Regardless, the meaning of the name has been connected to the meaning of the name of the Chihrdad nask.

In the Sasanian Avesta

The

was organized into 21 ''nasks'', i.e., volumes, which were grouped into 3 divisions; the Gāhānīg (Gathic nasks), Hada Mānsrīg ( manthras connected with the ritual), and Dādīg (legal nasks). Within this scheme, the Damdad nask was part of the ritual nasks and its content has been described as concerning matters of Zoroastrian

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony is the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in ref ...

and

eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of Contemporary era, present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic and non-Abrah ...

. According to the Denkard, the Damdad nask was the fourth of the nasks of the Sasanian Avesta. However, the Rivayats place it as the fifth. They also state that it consisted of 32 chapters. According to the estimate by

Edward William West Edward William West (1824-1905), usually styled E. W. West, was a scholarly English engineer, orientalist, and translator of Zoroastrian texts. He was educated at King's College London. He prepared five volumes of Pahlavi texts (the ''Marvels of ...

, the Damdad nask consisted of ca. 8,900 words of

text, accompanied by ca. 29,300 words of

commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

Summary of the Damdad nask according to Book 8 of the Denkard
by

Summary of the Damdad nask in the Rivayats
by Ervad Bamanji Nusserwanji Dhabhar {{Zoroastrian literature Zoroastrian texts Lost documents