Taxi in Zand

Zend oder Zand (Mittelpersisch: 𐭦𐭭𐭣) is a Zoroastrian puzzling term for exegetical glosses, paraphrases, commentaries and translations of the Avesta’s texts. The term zand ist eine Abkürzung des avestischen Wortes zanti (𐬰𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬙𐬌, was „Interpretation“ oder „wie verstanden“ bedeutet).

Zand glosses and commentaries exist in several languages, including in the Avestan language itself. These Avestan language exegeses sometimes accompany the original text swine commented upon, but are more often elsewhere in the canon. An example of exegesis in the Avestan language itself includes Yasna 19–21, eine Reihe von drei jüngeren avestischen Kommentaren zu den drei gathisch-avestanischen „hohen Gebeten“ des Yasna 27. Zand also appears to have when existed in a variety of Middle Iranian languages, but of these Middle Iranian commentaries, the Middle Persian zand is the lonely one to survive fully, and is for this explanation regarded as ‘the’ zand.

Mit der bemerkenswerten Ausnahme der Yashts, fast alle erhaltenen avestischen Texte haben ihre mittelpersischen zand, which in some manuscripts appear alongside (or interleaved with) the text living thing glossed. The practice of including non-Avestan commentaries nearby the Avestan texts led to two alternative misinterpretations in western scholarship of the term zand; these misunderstandings are described below. These glosses and commentaries were not expected for use as theological texts by themselves but for religious opinion of the (by then) non-Avestan-speaking public. In contrast, the Avestan language texts remained sacrosanct and continued to be recited in the Avestan language, which was considered a sacred language. The Middle Persian zand can be subdivided into two subgroups, those of the long-lasting Avestan texts, and those of the in limbo Avestan texts.

A consistent exegetical procedure is evident in manuscripts in which the native Avestan and its zand coexist. The priestly scholars first translated the Avestan as literally as possible. In a second step, the priests next translated the Avestan idiomatically. In the unquestionable step, the idiomatic translation was complemented similar to explanations and commentaries, often of significant length, and occasionally once different authorities subconscious cited.

Mehrere wichtige Werke in Mittelpersisch enthalten Auszüge aus dem zand of Avestan texts, also of Avestan texts which have past been lost. Through comparison of selections from loose texts and from remaining texts, it has been reachable to distinguish with the translations of Avestan works and the commentaries on them, and consequently to some degree reconstruct the content of some of the drifting texts. Among those texts is the Bundahishn, das Zand-Agahih („Wissen aus der Zand“) as its subtitle and is crucial to the conformity of Zoroastrian cosmogony and eschatology. Another text, the Zauberei, „Auswahl (aus dem Zand)“, von dem Priester Zadspram aus dem 9. Jahrhundert, ist ein Schlüsseltext für die zoroastrische Orthodoxie der Sassanidenzeit. Der Denkard, ein Text aus dem 9. oder 10. Jahrhundert, enthält ausführliche Zusammenfassungen und Zitate von zand Texte.