Pahlavi Texts

The Pahlavi Texts, edited and translated by Edward William West, were published in the late 19th century as part of the monumental Sacred Books of the East series, overseen by Max Müller at Oxford University Press. This collection sought to make the foundational religious documents of Zoroastrianism accessible to Western scholars, providing English translations of Middle Persian manuscripts that had previously been largely obscure or unavailable to the broader academic community.

West, a distinguished scholar of Pahlavi, brought meticulous rigor to the project, navigating the significant linguistic complexities of the archaic script to produce definitive editions of texts like the Dadestan-i Denig and the Pahlavi Rivayat. While the work was designed as a dense academic resource for linguists and theologians, its publication marked a turning point in the study of Iranian history, establishing a bedrock for future research into Sassanian religious thought and literature.