Erbadistan ud Nirangistan: Facsimile Edition of the Manuscript TD (Harvard Iranian Series, Vol. 3)

This manuscript of Avestan passages with explanations in Middle Persian gives the best text of the manual for priestly rituals in Zoroastrianism. It is a valuable source not only for the Zoroastrian religion but also for philologists interested in the Avesta language, containing Avestan passages used in the daily rituals. This text is basic to an understanding of the development of the Zoroastrian rituals over the centuries, for the Middle Persian explanations of the Avesta passages, although they may not offer great assistance to the philological interpretation of the Avestan text, do indicate how Zoroastrian priests, the guardians of the religious traditions, explained or adapted the texts to their own concepts. The difficulties of interpretation make the publication of facsimiles of manuscripts much more necessary in this linguistic area than in others.