The ''Book of Arda Viraf'' (

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...

: ''Ardā Wirāz nāmag'', lit. 'Book of the Righteous Wirāz') is a

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

text written in

. It contains about 8,800 words. It describes the dream-journey of a devout Zoroastrian (the Wirāz of the story) through the next world. The text assumed its definitive form in the 9th-10th centuries after a series of redactions and it is probable that the story was an original product of 9th-10th century

Pars Pars may refer to: * Fars Province of Iran, also known as Pars Province * Pars (Sasanian province), a province roughly corresponding to the present-day Fars, 224–651 * ''Pars'', for ''Persia'' or ''Iran'', in the Persian language * Pars News A ...

Title

''Ardā'' (cf. aša (pronounced ''arta'') cognate with Sanskrit ''

ṛta In the Vedic religion, ''Ṛta'' (; Sanskrit ' "order, rule; truth") is the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it. In the hymns of the Vedas, ''Ṛta'' is described as ...

'') is an

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

of Wirāz and is approximately translatable as "truthful, righteous, just." ''Wirāz'' is probably akin to

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

*''wiHro-''-, "man", cf. Persian: ''bīr''

Avestan Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...

: ''vīra''. Given the ambiguity inherent to

Pahlavi scripts Pahlavi is a particular, exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are: *the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script; *the incidence of Aramaic words used as heterograms (called '' ...

in the representing the pronunciation of certain consonants, ''Wirāz'', the name of the protagonist, may also be

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

as ''Wiraf'' or ''Viraf'', but the Avestan form is clearly ''Virāza'', which suggests that the correct reading is ''z''. ''Nāmag'' means "book".

Textual history

The date of the book is not known, but in ''The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East'', Prof. Charles Horne does not provide a definitive date for the tale. Most modern scholars simply state that the text's ''

terminus ad quem ''Terminus post quem'' ("limit after which", sometimes abbreviated to TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ("limit before which", abbreviated to TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items.. A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest da ...

'' was the 10th or 11th century. According to translator of the text, Fereydun Vahman, the origin of the story probably goes back to the 9th or 10th century and was from the Pars region. According to Encyclopædia Iranica, the story's definitive form goes back to the 9th to 10th century:“Arda Wiraz”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1987, Volume II, Routledge & Kegan Paul: London & New York, p. 357.

Plot summary

Wirāz is chosen for his piety to undertake a journey to the next world in order to prove the truth of Zoroastrian beliefs, after a period when the land of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

had been troubled by the presence of confused and alien religions. He drinks a mixture of

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...

, mang, and

Haoma ''Haoma'' (; Avestan: 𐬵𐬀𐬊𐬨𐬀) is a divine plant in Zoroastrianism and in later Persian culture and mythology. ''Haoma'' has its origins in Indo-Iranian religion and is the cognate of Vedic ''soma''. Etymology Both Avestan ''haoma'' ...

, after which his soul travels to the next world. Here he is greeted by a beautiful woman named Dēn, who represents his faith and virtue. Crossing the

Chinvat Bridge The Chinvat Bridge (Avestan: 𐬗𐬌𐬥𐬬𐬀𐬙𐬋 𐬞𐬈𐬭𐬈𐬙𐬏𐬨 ''Cinvatô Peretûm'', "bridge of judgement" or "beam-shaped bridge") or the Bridge of the Requiter in Zoroastrianism is the sifting bridge, which separates t ...

, he is then conducted by " Srosh, the pious and

Adar Adar ( he, אֲדָר ; from Akkadian ''adaru'') is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar, roughly corresponding to the month of March in the Gregorian calendar. It is a month of 29 ...

, the

yazad Yazata ( ae, 𐬫𐬀𐬰𐬀𐬙𐬀) is the Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept with a wide range of meanings but generally signifying (or used as an epithet of) a divinity. The term literally means "worthy of worship or veneration",.. and i ...

" through the "star track", "moon track" and "sun track" – places outside of heaven reserved for the virtuous who have nevertheless failed to conform to Zoroastrian rules. In heaven, Wirāz meets

Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda (; ae, , translit=Ahura Mazdā; ), also known as Oromasdes, Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hoormazd, Hormazd, Hormaz and Hurmuz, is the creator deity in Zoroastrianism. He is the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the ''Yasna'' ...

who shows him the souls of the blessed ('' ahlaw'', an alternate Middle Persian version of the word ''ardā''). Each person is described living an idealised version of the life he or she lived on earth, as a warrior, agriculturalist, shepherd or other profession.http://www.avesta.org/pahlavi/viraf.html Translation of the Book of Arda Viraf With his guides he then descends into hell to be shown the sufferings of the wicked. Having completed his visionary journey, Wirāz is told by

that the Zoroastrian faith is the only proper and true way of life and that it should be preserved in both prosperity and adversity.

Quotes

*They say that, once upon a time, the pious Zartosht made the religion, which he had received, current in the world; and till the completion of 300 years, the religion was in purity, and men were without doubts. But afterward, the accursed evil spirit, the wicked one, in order to make men doubtful of this religion, instigated the accursed

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

, the Rûman,Alexander the Great was called "the Roman" in Zoroastrian tradition because he came from Greek provinces which later were a part of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

- The archeology of world religions By Jack Finegan Page 80 who was dwelling in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, so that he came to the country of Iran with severe cruelty and war and devastation; he also slew the ruler of Iran, and destroyed the metropolis and empire, and made them desolate. **Introduction *Then I saw the souls of those whom serpents sting and ever devour their tongues. And I asked thus: 'What sin was committed by those, whose soul suffers so severe a punishment?' Srosh the pious, and Adar the

, said, thus: 'These are the souls of those liars and irreverent r 'untruthful'speakers who, in the world, spoke much falsehood and lies and profanity. **Section 4, Hell

References

External links

;Full texts * * *