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A Parthian Title in the Hymn of the Soul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Ilya Gershevitch
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Extract

The recognition that the setting of the story related in the Syriac Hymn of the Soul is Iranian is primarily based on the statement in the poem that its chief character, the Prince who “from the far Hyrcanian mountains” was sent down to Egypt to fetch the unique Pearl, was the son of the king of Parthia. Less obvious Iranian reminiscences are also to be found in the Hymn, some of which have lately been discussed by G. Widengren in Zeitschrift für Religions-und Geistesgeschichte, iv (1952), Heft 2,1 sqq., where, however, one misses a reference to the relationship of srbwg with the Sogdian word for “tower”, v. W. B. Henning, JRAS. 1944, 139 sq. It is proposed in the present note to explain the Iranian origin of a hitherto obscure title in the Hymn, which from the context appears to designate one of the highest officials of the Arsacid court. This is the title of the Prince's elder brother in verse 48, where the MS. has p'rybn “our p.”.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 86 , Issue 3-4 , October 1954 , pp. 124 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1954

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References

page 124 note 1 Professor Henning asks me to publish this Addendum to srbwg. “A later, independently borrowed form of this word is preserved in the Acts of the Martyrs of Karkhā d-Bēth Slōkh, Hoffmann, Mä;rtyremkten, 45, 'Und es baute Seleukos . . . einen Wartthurm (bēth dauqē) . . . der bis jetzt Sarbwy genannt wird,’ i.e. Sarbūy rather than Sarābowai (as Hoffmann thought). It should have been mentioned that Sogdian s'rβ'γ was borrowed by Uigur Turkish (e.g. Uigurica, i, 28 pu.) and may ultimately be responsible for Persian čarbāy (by popular etymology also čahārbāγ), cf. Bang, W, Le Muséon, xxxviii, 44 sq.”Google Scholar

page 125 note 1 Syriac b, pronounced v, corresponds to Iranian wafter I also in the name of the measure gryb(Parth. gryw, Armenian griv); cf. also Syr. dybdr' “devadaru”, and Arabic “quicksilver” (Mod. Pers. živa).

page 125 note 2 In the Eastern Iranian language area the same development of the consonantal group of pasca is found in Yidya špāč, vispač “behind”, špāč “ after, back ”, and, with depalatalization, in Khotanese pātco“afterwards, again”, v. Tedesco, Monde Oriental., xv, 212 n.

page 126 note 1 Tib. A in the Lhasa edition of the Kanjur in the Cambridge University Library, vol. 251, f. 318, b 4; Tib. B, ibid. f. 334a, 3. Tib. A in the Derge MS. of the British Museum, vol. 72, f. 201a, 2, has bydẖu khraẖu. I am greatly indebted for these Tibetan references to Professor W. Simon, Professor H. W. Bailey, and Mr. D. R. Shackleton Bailey.

page 126 note 2 Cf. Odeberg, Hugo, 3 Enoch, Part i p. 118: “all colours are seen in him (Meṛatron)” (Zohar, i, 181, b)Google Scholar.