Pahlavi Texts: The Bundahis-Bahman Yast, and Shāyast lāShāyast

This volume constitutes the fifth installment in the monumental series 'The Sacred Books of the East,' edited by Friedrich Max Müller and published by Oxford University Press in 1880. It represents a cornerstone of nineteenth-century Orientalist scholarship, specifically targeting the translation of Pahlavi texts—Middle Persian religious and philosophical writings—into English. The work was commissioned as part of a grand academic project to make Eastern religious scriptures accessible to Western scholars and a broader educated public, reflecting the Victorian era's profound interest in comparative religion and linguistic history.

The translation was meticulously executed by Edward William West, a distinguished scholar of Pahlavi studies. West’s approach was deeply technical, as he aimed to provide the first reliable, annotated English translations of the Bundahishn, the Bahman Yasht, and the Shāyast lā-Shāyast, which are essential for understanding Zoroastrian cosmology and legal tradition. Despite the immense complexity of the Middle Persian script and the fragmentary nature of the source manuscripts, West's work was highly regarded by his contemporaries for its academic rigor and became the definitive scholarly reference for decades.