Sahrestaniha I Eransahr: A Middle Persian Text on Late Antique Geography, Epic, and History : With English and Persian Translations and Commentary ... Pahlavi, Persian and Pahlavi Edition)

From 14th century India survives a manuscript known as MK (or Mihraban Kaykhusrow) after the scribe that wrote it. It is one of the few secular Sassanid collections to survive. Most Parsai works are directly related to Zoroastrianism. The Sahrestaniha I Eransahr is a brief geographical work. It is more of a gazetteer of place names so it doesn't have a lot of literary merit. While other pre-Islamic Sassanid texts received their final form in post-Islamic times, this text seems to be completely intact in its original form. The work is mostly a list of places and the kings or heroes that built them. For me the most interesting bit was a reference to Alexander the Great. Later Zoroastrians claimed he had destroyed the Avesta (Zoroastrian scriptures) by burning them. The Sahrestaniha I Eransahr claims Alexander found the Avesta written on golden tablets which he proceeded to throw into the ocean. I very much doubt the historicity of this but it is good to see what the Sassanids thought of Alexander.As the Byzantines and the Sassanids were such fierce rivals it is worth looking into some of the few authenitic surviving texts.

In 90 printed pages of a monograph titled "Sahrestaniha i Eransahr", Dr. Touraj Daryaee has provided an ideal model worthy of emulation, by all future authors of works on Iranology and linguistic studies. His style of presentation outlined in the table of contents is worth following by scholars engaged in as near a complete elucidation of a difficult linguistic or historical text. He begins with Acknowledgement, followed by a brief Introduction, followed by a Romanized Transcript of the text, followed by an English translation, then a Persian translation, then followed by Commentary, followed by the Middle Persian text in the original Pahlavi characters, then followed by a Map, then a Glossary explaining all the words of the text, ending with an exhaustive Bibliography of works referenced in the text.The Sahrestaniha-i Eranshahr is probably the only surving Middle Persian (Pahlavi or Pehlevi) text on geography written in the late Sassanian period of Iranian history and finally redacted in the eight century CE. In general the text lists the various towns and cities of the then Iran and Asia, and the various rulers and kings responsible for their construction and establishment, many historical and some mythical. It sheds brief insights into the ancient Persian geographical world view defining the concept of Eranshahr. What is most unique about this text is that it provides some unusual pieces of information and names of the Peshdadian and Kayanian dynasties of pre-Achaemenid Iran, not generally found in other Middle Persian texts. Every Zarathushtrian, Parsee, and those interested in Ancient Persian lore will benefit from giving this little monograph their undivided attention. Congratulations to Mazda Publishers for an excellent printing of this rare and unusual piece of ancient Iranian history.

A new edition of this fundamental text was necessary. The new translation is extremely useful, and the comments by a this specialist are excellent.