Iranisches Personennamenbuch, vol. 2: Mitteliranische Namen, fasc. 1: Iranische Personennamen in manichaischer Uberlieferung.

• Author: Skjaerv, Prods Oktor
• Position: Book review

Iranisches Personennamenbuch, vol. 2: Mitteliranische Namen, fasc. 1: Iranische Personennamen in manichaischer Uberlieferung. By IRIS COLDITZ. Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophischhistorische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, vol. 889. Vienna: VERLAG DER OSTER-REICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, 2018. Pp. 716.

This impressive collection, according to section 1 "Allgemeines" (pp. 5-6) and section 2 on the source material (pp. 6-15), contains all Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Bactrian, and New Persian proper names found in Manichean manuscripts, including figures in narratives from the Manichean myth, except names of demons. It also includes outdated, alternative, and "ghost" names in earlier editions. For the sake of completeness, non-Iranian names have also been included. The names are culled from "ca. 4700 text fragments" (p. 6), discovered at various sites [ancient temples] in the Turfan oasis in northeastern Xinjiang, but currently dispersed among almost a dozen collections in Europe and Asia. The texts date from the time of the domination of the Uigurs (744-840 and 866-1368), by the end of which Manicheism had long since ceded its supremacy to Buddhism (beginning of the eleventh century), with only small Manichean groups surviving into the thirteenth century; it is assumed, however, that many of the Middle Persian and Parthian manuscripts were copies of manuscripts from the third-sixth centuries (p. 7). A few dates are found in manuscripts from the eighth, ninth, and eleventh centuries (p. 8 n. 6). All the manuscripts in the Berlin Turfan collection have been included (http://turfan.bbaw.de/dta/index.html), but from other collections only those published. From the Nebenuberlieferung, texts in several non-Iranian languages were mined.

Names of gods and demons are, surprisingly, not included other than when part of proper names, which leaves out the entire Manichean pantheon and pandemonium. (1)

Section 3 (pp. 16-18) reviews preliminary work and the state of scholarship involving numerous scholars, highlighting the work of Werner Sundermann.

Section 4 (pp. 18-31) deals with proper names in Iranian Manichean texts: the problems of assigning names to a specific language (4.1), subdivided into Iranian names (4.1.1); hybrid names (4.1.2): names with elements from several Iranian languages (4.1.2.1) and with Iranian and non-Iranian elements (4.1.2.2), e.g., Aryaman-radn with radn

Section 5 contains subsections on the forms of the names: names with one component (5.1), two components (5.2), divided into types of compounds according to the Indie classification (5.2.1, 5.2.2); then names containing a substantive plus a verbal noun (5.2.3); (2) dvandvas (5.2.4), e.g., Sad-farrox 'happy (and) fortunate'; names made by inversion (5.2.5), e.g, the "inverse bahuvrihi" A[gamma]at-farn '(to whom) fortune has come' (see on no. 3, below); substantives in apposition (5.2.6), e.g., Arda[beta]dn-wispuhr 'Prince-A.'; sentence names (Satznamen) (5.2.7), e.g., Yazad-amad 'god has come'; short names (5.3), e.g., Dosist 'most beloved'; cf. Dosist-Aryaman; hypocoristika made with various suffixes (5.4); (pro)patronymics (5.5); Schein-Dvandvas (5.6), e.g., Barist-xwarxsed 'belonging to/dedicated to paradise and sun'; names with three or four elements (5.7), e.g., Ohrmezd-ba[gamma]-dad 'given by god-Ohrmezd'. (3) In "Motive der Namengebung," eight classes are distinguished (6.1-8), from theophoric names to names from the "Dichtersprache."

Section 7 explains the structure of the dictionary. Abbreviations and bibliography cover pp. 86-167, the dictionary itself pp. 170-612, and indexes pp. 613-716.

The format of the entries is transliteration and transcription; B attestations with contexts and references to manuscripts (texts cited are not translated); P prosopography (at times quite extensive); D etymology (of both Iranian and non-Iranian words!), meaning...