RESOURCESare also available in R. C. Zaehner's The Teachings of the Magi: A
Compendium of Zoroastrian Beliefs (London, 1956; repr. 1976).
Avestan literature itself is the subject of extensive modern schol-
arship. Since most of this scholarship concerns Old Iranian philology
and arguments over the nature of Zoroaster's original message, there
is no point in citing it here. There are, however, three important
observations to be made concerning Avestan literature in the Sasanian
period. First, the Sasanian A vesta was oral liturgical literature which
had been composed over several centuries before the Sasanians had
come to power. Second, no matter when it was composed, its content
was available for reference through recitation and Middle Persian
commentary during the Sasanian period. Third, not all of the Sasanian
A vesta survived the fall of the Sasanians. A survey of those sections
of the A vesta which survived in the ninth century can be found in
Book VIII of the Denkart, while Book IX of the Denkart contains
Middle Persian translations of lost Avestan passages that illustrated
the doctrines of the Gathas through myth.
There has been a major argument over when the Avesta was written
down. F. Nau, in "Etude historique sur la transmission de l'Avesta et
l'epoque probable de sa derniere redaction," RHR 95 (1927): 149-
99, argued against the existence of a written text during the Sasanian
period on the basis of references to recitation of the Avesta in late
Sasanian Syriac literature. He suggested that it was written down only
at the time of the Muslim conquest to enable Magians to have a sacred
"book." But the recitation of a sacred text is not in itself incompatible
with the existence of a written text. From Bailey to Boyce it is con-
sidered possible for a written Avesta to have existed by the middle of
the sixth century. However, putting a text in writing does not itself
guarantee that it is "fixed."
Magian tradition credits Aturfarnbag-i Farrukhzatan, the leading
mobadh of Fars in the early ninth century, with collecting the dispersed
Avestan texts. What survives of the Avesta with its Middle Persian
commentary (Zand) was published by K. Geldner, Avesta, the Sacred
Books of the Parsis (Stuttgart, 1896), and translated into English by
J. Darmsteter, as The Zend-Avesta (SBE, Oxford), vols. 4 (1880),23
(1883), 31 (1887); (New York, 1898) vol. 3. The Middle Persian
translation and explanation of the Yashts was published by B. N.
Dhabhar, Zand-i-Khurtak Avistak (Bombay, 1927) with an English
translation, Avesta (Bombay, 1963). For the oldest parts of the Avesta
composed by Zoroaster, see H. Humbach's edition with a German