Bancroftiana, Number 123 Fall 2003: Rare Pahlavi Texts Now at Bancroft

Rare Pahlavi Texts Now at Bancroft

Fig. 1 By defeating the Kushans to the east and the Romans to the west of the Persian Empire, Shapur I (AD 241-274), son of the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, extended his dominion over a vast area, from the Indus and the Oxus to the western frontiers of Syria and Mesopotamia. His colossal statue, carved out of stalactite, still stands at the entrance of a mountain cave overlooking his capital city of Bishapur, in southwestern Iran. After C. Texier, Description de l’Arménie, la Perse et la Mésopotamie, Paris 1852.

An extraordinary collection of ancient manuscripts from the Near East, datable to the 7th or 6th centuries, now resides at The Bancroft Library. With great pleasure I join the Bancroft staff in announcing this rare Pahlavi Archive. As one of the largest known collections of its kind uncovered in recent times, the archive comprises texts, many with clay seal impressions, written in Middle Persian, or Pahlavi, the language of the Sasanian dynasty of pre- Islamic Iran.

Who were the Sasanians?

As the last great Iranian monarchy before the Arab conquest of Western Asia, the Sasanian dynasty (AD 224-651) is best remembered for its distinctive cultural expressions and for its longevity. The Sasanians came to power when Ardashir, a provincial sovereign of Persia, in present-day Fars province in southwestern Iran, defeated his Parthian overlord to become ruler of a new dynasty in Western Asia, named after an ancestral figure (Figs. 1-2). By the mid third century, ambitious Sasanian kings extended Persian rule across almost 2,000 miles, from the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea, and from Syria’s Mediterranean shore to Afghanistan. Along with territorial expansion, the Sasanian age was a dynamic period of cultural and economic revival (Figs. 3-4). The Persian Empire enjoyed intensified trade and exchange and served as a major gateway to the Silk Road that linked the West with China and the Far East.

The Pahlavi Archive at Berkeley: History and Content

The Pahlavi Archive at Berkeley comprises 260 silk and leather manuscripts, 82 of which still have one or more clay bullae (seals) attached. This collection is currently being cataloged by Professor Philippe Gignoux and Dr. Rika Gyselen, both directors at the CNRS in Paris, in preparation for their eventual publication and digitization of the documents and bullae for a Bancroft Library website. The documents so far examined by Dr. Gignoux appear to be economic texts, and receipts for goods, dated to years from an, as yet, undetermined era.

Fig 2 A detail of the head of the statue of Shapur I, see fig. 1, portrays the prevailing image of imperturbable majesty.

The Pahlavi Archive was presented to the University of California as the gift of an anonymous donor in May 2001. After its receipt by The Bancroft Library, a sample of leather from the collection was sent for carbon-14 testing to Dr. Timothy Jull at the University of Arizona. Dr. Jull’s report on the result of the test, sent to Anthony Bliss, Curator of Rare Books and Literary Manuscripts, gave the radiocarbon age of the manuscript as 1,323BP (Before Present), plus or minus 77 years. This equates to a date range of 651-776 AD (with 68% confidence), and 600-888 AD (with 95% confidence). A smaller number of documents and bullae (mss #217– 260 and 63 unattached bullae) was placed on permanent loan to the library in January 2002.

Some Physical Characteristics

The Pahlavi Archive in its entirety includes 308 detached bullae and 82 bullae still attached to manuscripts. Of the 82 bullae found on manuscripts, 27 are on silk and 55 on leather documents. The majority of the bullae at Berkeley are made of buff to light gray tempered clay, resembling potter’s clay, but a few specimens are made from reddish clay, and a fraction from a coarse, friable clay with organic particles. The small bullae were seemingly rolled between the thumb and the index and middle fingers into a roughly coneshaped lump, about 2 to 3 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide.

Archival and Administrative Practices

Occasionally several documents, each bearing a bulla below the bottom line, are bound together at the top center of the page with an additional bulla with one or more seal impressions (ms #43). Carefully cut slits found at the top center of many unbound manuscripts from the Berkeley collection suggest that a bulla originally bound together other documents in a similar fashion.

Fig 3 Sasanian architecture and sculpture was distinctive. The great arch of Taq-i Bustan, a rock-cut pavilion overlooks a natural spring in a hunting park, or paradise, in Iranian Kurdistan. Inside the great arch are carved scenes largely from the reign of one of the last Sasanian kings, Khosrow II (AD 591-629). After E. Flandin & P. Coste, Voyage en Perse pendent les années 1840-41, Paris 1843-1854, I, 2.

Fig. 4 Detail of the bust from an equestrian statue of Khosrow II, from Taq-i Bustan, that was to become a prototype of the medieval equestrian knight. On the back wall of the great arch, shown in fig. 3, is the rock-cut image of the haloed king portrayed as a victorious knight in full armor, with a lance in the right hand and a shield in the left.

One manuscript (ms #37), shows, in addition to the carefully cut slits at the top and bottom of the page, a round perforation at the top corner through which is passed leather straps connected to a large, disc-shaped bulla. Close examination of this manuscript and its bulla reveals a careless puncturing of the leather document and seemingly haphazard knotting of the bulla straps on the verso, the result either of an ancient or later manipulation of the manuscript and its bulla. One of the distinguishing features of this exceptionally well-preserved manuscript is the presence of traces of a short inscription close to the bulla on the reverse of the document. This may be compared with the use of short inscriptions on the reverse of some Bactrian documents giving the names of the vendors and witnesses, written beside the holes for the seal string.

Concluding Remarks

In offering a summary of the history and content of the Pahlavi Archive at Berkeley, I take this occasion to thank Philippe Gignoux, for his untiring effort toward the decipherment of the Pahlavi documents, and Rika Gyselen for her excellent work on the classification of the Archive’s seals. I wish to express my deep gratitude to The Bancroft Library staff for their interest in the housing the Pahlavi Archive and in planning for its conservation and future publication. We are particularly indebted to Director Charles B. Faulhaber and to Anthony Bliss, Curator of Rare Books and Literary Manuscripts, who were instrumental in negotiating the transfer of the Pahlavi documents to the Bancroft and who arranged for the digitization of the collection in preparation for a website publication. Dr. Todd Hickey, Assistant Research Papyrologist, Center for the Tebtunis Papyri at The Bancroft Library, offered invaluable assistance toward the classification and digitization of the collection. I am also grateful to my friends and colleagues, Martin Schwartz and Denise Schmandt- Besserat, Professor of Near Eastern Art, University of Texas, for their invaluable advice and inspiration on the preservation and study of the Archive from the very beginning of its history at Berkeley.

—Guitty Azarpay
Department of Near Eastern Studies