Inscriptional Pahlavi is the earliest attested form of

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 '' ...

, and is evident in clay fragments that have been dated to the reign of Mithridates I (''r.'' 171–138 BC). Other early evidence includes the Pahlavi inscriptions of Arsacid era coins and rock inscriptions of

Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

kings and other notables such as

Kartir Kartir (also spelled Karder, Karter and Kerdir; Middle Persian: 𐭪𐭫𐭲𐭩𐭫 ''Kardīr'') was a powerful and influential Zoroastrian priest during the reigns of four Sasanian kings in the 3rd-century. His name is cited in the inscriptions ...

Letters

Inscriptional Pahlavi used 19 non-joining letters:.

Numbers

Inscriptional Pahlavi had its own

numerals A numeral is a figure, symbol, or group of figures or symbols denoting a number. It may refer to: * Numeral system used in mathematics * Numeral (linguistics), a part of speech denoting numbers (e.g. ''one'' and ''first'' in English) * Numerical d ...

: Numbers are written right-to-left. Numbers without corresponding numerals are additive. For example, 24 is written as ‎ (20 + 4).

Unicode

Inscriptional Pahlavi script was added to the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2. The Unicode block for Inscriptional Pahlavi is U+10B60–U+10B7F:

Gallery

Image:Taq-e Bostan - Pahlavi writing.jpg, Inscriptional Pahlavi text from

Shapur III Shapur III ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ), was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings () of Iran from 383 to 388. He was the son of Shapur II () and succeeded his uncle Ardashir II (). His reign was largely uneventful; to the west, ...

Taq-e Bostan Taq-e Bostan ( fa, طاق بستان, ) is a site with a series of large rock reliefs from the era of the Sassanid Empire of Persia (Iran), carved around the 4th century CE. This example of Persian Sassanid art is located 5 km from the ...

, 4th century File:Naqshe Rajab Darafsh Ordibehesht 93 (1).jpg,

's inscription at

Naqsh-e Rajab Naqsh-e Rajab ( fa, نقش رجب, ) is an archaeological site just west of Istakhr and about 5 km north of Persepolis in Fars Province, Iran. Together with Naqsh-e Rustam, which lies 2.5 km away, the site is part of the Marvdasht ...

File:Gold-Münze Ardaschir I Sassaniden.jpg, Coin of Ardashir I (r. 224–42) with Inscriptional Pahlavi writings File:MIK - Sassaniden Pahlavi-Monogramm.jpg, Sasanian relief with Inscriptional Pahlavi monogram ʾpr, which stands for ''abzūn farr'', meaning "May his '' farr'' increase!"

References

{{list of writing systems Abjad writing systems Iranian inscriptions Middle Persian Obsolete writing systems Persian scripts