Colophons and Marginal Notes of the Avestan Manuscripts of the Pouladi’s Collection in Yazd

Abstract

About 150 years ago, after Avestan researchers such as Jackson, Browne, and Westergaard had unsuccessfully attempted to discover new manuscripts in Iran, it was assumed that there were few or no Avestan manuscripts remaining in Iran. However, recent research and fieldwork in Iran have resulted in important findings disproving this assumption. Since 2011, more than eighty-five Avestan manuscripts have been discovered in Iran. One of these important discoveries has been Pouladi’s Collection, which was found in February 2016 in a Zoroastrian house in the Priests’ Quarter (Mahalle-ye Dastūrān) in Yazd. This article deals with the secondary life of Avestan manuscripts of Pouladi’s Collection, focusing on colophons and marginal notes.The article makes available a collection of Middle Persian and New Persian colophons and marginal notes, all which have been excerpted, transcribed, and translated for the first time from the Avestan manuscripts of Pouladi’s Collection, copied mostly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Based on different types of colophons, this contribution establishes a classification of colophons and marginal notes of this collection with regard to formal, contextual, and functional characteristics.