The Middle Persian heterographic writing system: a short historiography
Résumé
The use of Aramaic heterograms is a defining characteristic of the Middle Persian writing system. Western scholarship’s misunderstanding of Middle Persian heterography and in particular the assumption that arameograms were loanwords pervaded the study of Sasanian inscriptions and Zoroastrian manuscripts all the way until the second half of the 19th century. It was the cause of serious misreadings and at the root of the fierce debates that polarised scholars concerning such issues as the nature of the Middle Persian language as well as the linguistic relationship between inscriptional and manuscript Middle Persian. Some scholars even called into question the ‘genuineness’ of this suspiciously ‘mixed’ language and by extension the authenticity of the Zoroastrian manuscripts brought back from India by Anquetil Duperron. Their appreciation of the articulation of Aramaic and Iranian elements in Middle Persian reflects the tropes of scholarly debates and ideology in their time. This paper proposes to retrace the main controversies surrounding the Middle Persian heterographic writing system and highlight the key discoveries that helped elucidate it.
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
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