Paikuli inscription

The Paikuli inscription (Kurdish: پەیکوڵی, romanized: Peykulî, Persian: پایکولی, in Arabic: بيكولي) is a bilingual text corpus in Parthian and Middle Persian, inscribed on the stone blocks of the Paikuli Tower's walls during the reign of the Sasanian ruler Narseh (r. 293–303). The tower is located in the southern part of Iraqi Kurdistan, near the modern-day village of Barkal in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq. These inscribed stone blocks are now housed in the Sulaymaniyah Museum, with the field only containing the stones used in the tower's construction.

The inscription was erected as a monument to victory and explains how and why the Sasanian emperor Narseh overthrew his grandnephew Bahram III (r. 293) from power. In 293 Narseh marched from Armenia in open revolt against his grandnephew with a host of supporters and allies, whose names are recorded on the Paikuli inscription.