Avesta
Sign in to saveThe Avesta is the text corpus of religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. It represents the largest literature of the Old Iranian period and contains the oldest texts in any Iranian language.
AI overview
The Avesta is a collection of sacred texts written in the Avestan language that form the foundation of Zoroastrianism, one of the world's major religions. It is historically significant as the oldest and most extensive body of literature surviving from ancient Iran, making it invaluable for understanding early Iranian civilization and language.
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Key facts
- Religious text.image
- Videvdad Sadah (Zoroastrian religious code), opened to first chapter, unknown copyist, Yazd, Iran, 1647 AD - British Library, London - DSC00550.jpg
- Religious text.caption
- Illuminated Iranian Vendidad Sade manuscript (MS 4060/RSPA 230) from Yazd, dated to 15 Ēsfand 1016 AY (1647)
- Religious text.religion
- Zoroastrianism
- Religious text.language
- Avestan
- Religious text.period
- Avestan period –900 BCE (Gathas, Yasna Haptanghaiti), –400 BCE (Vendidad, Visperad, Yashts)
- Religious text.background
- 990955
- Religious text.wikisource
- Avesta
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
25 sectionsContents
- Name
- History
- Zoroastrian tradition
- Modern scholarship
- Time and place of composition
- Oral transmission
- ''Written transmission''
- Avestan studies
- Manuscripts
- Editions
- Structure and content
- The Sasanian Avesta
- The extant Avesta
- Yasna
- Visperad
- Khordeh Avesta
- ''Vendidad''
- Fragments
- Translations
- See also
- References
- Notes
- Citations
- Works cited
- External links
The Avesta is the text corpus of religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. It represents the largest literature of the Old Iranian period and contains the oldest texts in any Iranian language.
The individual texts of the Avesta were originally oral compositions. They were composed over a long period of several centuries during the Avestan period (possibly ranging from the 15th century BCE to the 4th century BCE). The written transmission began much later during the Sasanian era (224 to 651 CE), with the creation of the Avestan alphabet. The resulting texts were then compiled into the multi-volume edition of the Sasanian Avesta. This edition was lost after the Islamic conquest of Iran, and only a small portion of it has survived, scattered across a number of individual manuscript traditions. The oldest surviving fragment of such a manuscript dates to 1323 CE.