Kerdīr’s bun-xānag and funding foundations in Sasanian Iran
Résumé
The exact meaning of the problematic expression bun-xānag, appearing once in each of
Kerdir’s inscriptions at Naqš-e Rostam (KKZ, 3; KNRm, 7), has been a matter of debate since
W. Henning’s first discussion of the compound in his introduction to the photographic edition
of Šāpur I’s monumental ŠKZ (Henning 1957). His literal interpretation of the term as
‘foundation-house’, which he understood as referring to the physical building on which
Kerdir’s inscription is engraved (the Ka‘ba-ye Zardušt), was called into question namely by
M. Shaki, who showed that in the context of the specialised expression pad wāspuhragān
pāymār, the phrase bun-xānag takes on the meaning of ‘property’ or ‘capital’ (Shaki 1974).
More recently N. Sims-Williams and Ph. Huyse confirmed this interpretation by comparing
bun-xānag to the Bactrian legal term bono kadgo, “estate” (Sims-Williams 1997, Huyse
1998).
The aim of this presentation is twofold. First, S. Azarnouche’s seminar at the EPHE on
the Bundahišn (Azarnouche, Religions du monde iranien ancien, 2017-2018) was the
opportunity to note two previously overlooked occurrences of the phrase (bun-xān and bun-
kadag, respectively GBd. 21a, 1 and 21b, 4), in addition to GBd. 25, 11 and 16, that have
already been pointed out (Humbach 1974 and Huyse 1998). I would also like to consider
another piece of evidence for the use of the term xānag as (financial) property in a Middle
Persian private inscription: on his Bišāpur votive ensemble dedicated to Šāpur I, Apsāy the
scribe specifies that it was built az xwēš xānag, an expression which could be contrasted for
instance with Mihr Narseh’s az xīr ī xwēš in a more private pad ruwān foundation at
Firuzābād.
This paper will be an opportunity to think more generally about the funding of public
and private foundations in Sasanian Iran (the complex financial mechanism of pad ruwān
foundations is detailed in the Mātigān ī hazār datistān) and consider KKZ in the context of
Šāpur I’s pad ruwān foundation at Naqš-e Rostam.
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