Avesta
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Avigfdor
exist specimens of about fifteen of the original nasks. This material, moreover, is supplemented
by various passages
that have been translated from the original Avesta into Pahlavi and are thus preserved; or by quotations of the Avesta text itself incorporated into the Pahlavi treatises. All this bears but a small proportion to the Avesta of Zoroaster's time, and the remnant is but small in extent when compared with the Hebrew Scriptures. What is still extant is commonly divided into the following six classes: (1) Yasna, including the Gathas, or Zoroastrian Psalms; (2) Vlspered; (3)
Yashts; ments.
minor texts;
(4)
(5)
Vendldad;
(6)
frag-
Extant
Avesta.
or priest, in connection chiefly with the sacrifice of "haoma." In the midst of the Yasna the Gathas are
These are the Zoroastrian
inserted.
psalms, and they represent the verses of Zoroaster's own preaching and teaching, embodying especially his belief in a new and better life; the coming of a Messiah, or Saoshyant the annihilation of Satan and the evil principle, Angro-Mainyush, and the Druj, "Falsehood " (see Ahriman); and the general restoration of the world for ever and ever. For theologians the Gathas are the most interesting and important part of the Avesta but at the same time they are by far the most difficult. Less characteristic is the short book known as the Vlspered. It consists of brief invocations and offerings of homage to "all the lords "(" vlspe ratavo "), as the name implies. The Yashts, or Praises, twenty-one in number, contain praises of the angels or glorification of the spirits, and personified abstractions of the faith. They are generally written in meter, with some claim to poetic merit. One of the most interesting is the thirteenth, or Farvadin Yasht, on the worship of the spirits (" fravashis "). The doctrine of the ancient Persian faith, which this Yasht contains, has been brought by Paul de Lagarde into connection with the Purim festival. Another Yasht (Yt. 19) is in praise of the kingly glory (" hvarenah "), the halo, sheen, or majesty which surrounds and protects the king as a mark of divine favor (compare Moses' shining face, Ex. xxxiv. 29).
The Vendldad,
in
twenty-two chapters,
is
an
Ira-
nian Pentateuch, and it contains numerous parallels of interest to the Biblical student. The real pioneer exegete at the end of the eighteenth century was Anquetil du Perron then followed Burnouf and Rask; later came Haug, Westergaard, Spiegel, Roth, Hiibschmann, De Harlez or more recently, West, Mills (a stanch advocate of the
Pahlavi), and especially Geldner and James Darmesteter. The latter's theory of the late origin of the Avesta (in" Le Zend-Avesta," iii., Introduction, and " Sacred Books of the East, " 2d ed. iv. Introduction) can not be said to have found much favor among specialists or support among those best qualified to judge; but he has brought out numerous likenesses between the Avesta and the Old Testament. Bibuorraphy Dannesteter and Mills In the Saered Bonks of ,
,
or Darmesteter's French version, Zend-Avesta, Paris, 1892-93; Windischmann, Zoroastrische Studien, Berlin, 1863; Spiegel, Eranische Alter-
the East, 3 vols., 1880-94
Le
thumshunde, 1871-79, i.-iii. ; Idem, Avesta, 3 vols., Leipsic, 1852-63; W. Geiger, Ostiranische Kultur, 1882 ; 0. H. Schorr, in He-Haluz, 1889, viii. 1-120 : Geldner, Awesta-Litteratur, and Jackson, lranlsehe Religion, in the Grundriss derlran. Philolotiie, Strasburg, 1896-99; Alex. Kohut, TizZendavesta and the First Eleven Chapters of Genesis in J. Q. R., ii. 223.
A. V.
k.
AVIANIXS, HIERONYMTJS
W.
J.
Christian Oriental scholar; lived at Leipsic at the end of the six:
teenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He devoted himself to Hebrew versification,
and published a work
in two volumes, entitled, Poeseos Sacra?, Trium Principalium Linguarum Orientalium, etc., ita Disposita ut Simul Lexici Vulgaris Usum Admittat, Exhibens qua Aperitur via, etc., Omnis Generis Carmina, etc., Scribendi" " Clovis
— a liturgical work, comprising seventytwo chapters — contains texts used by the "dastur," The Yasna
Trie
350
(Leipsic, 1627).
Bibliography
Steinschneider, Bibllograph.
t.
Handbueh, p. 16. I. Br.
AVICEBRON, SOLOMON IBN GABIROL. See Gabirol.
AVICENNA
LAH IBN
(ABTJ
SINA)
ALI IBN ABDAL-
Physician and philosopher His of note born at Bokhara in 980 died in 1037. works, which were brought to Spain about one hundred years after their publication, exerted a great influence upon Jewish thought in the Middle Ages. His philosophical investigations are embodied in a great encyclopedic work entitled " Al Shefa' " (Healing), a term which in the Latin translation has been corrupted into " Bufficentia. " This Latin translation, prepared by the aid of Jewish interpreters, has been frequently used by Jewish authors, notably Samuel ibn Tibbon in his " Yikkawu ha-Mayyim. It is divided into four parts namely, logic, physics, mathematics, and metaphysics. In addition to the "Shefa'," there is a smaller encyclopedia, "Al-Najah," which, under the title "Healing of the Soul," was, in 1330, translated by Todros Todrosi in Rome. In regard to Avicenna's importance as a philos:
opher, Maimonides and Shem-TobFalaquera have both expressed their views. Maimonides says "The works of Avicenna, although distinguished by tolerable accuracy as well as by subtlety of speculation, are nevertheless inferior to those of Abu-Nasr alFarabi; they are useful, however, and deserve to be studied." This opinion is shared His by Shem-Tob Falaquera, who declares Importance that Avicenna's works are " exact, but as a Phi- incomprehensible to those unfamiliar losopher. with logic." Of greater importance are the medical works of Avicenna, and as an author he has been distinguished in this domain by the honorary title of " Prince of Physicians. " His chief medical publication is the " Canon, a complete system of medicine, which, in 1279, was translated into Hebrew by Nathan ha-Meati ("of Cento "). Parts of the work were translated also by two other Jewish scholars, and numerous commen:
have from time to time been written upon it. In addition to this work, Avicenna has left a smaller medical compendium in ten volumes, and has even given expression to his medical knowledge in rime. The last-mentioned publications were likewise pertaries
Hebrew translations. The "Canon" ("El Kanun fi't Tib'
petuated in
literary production of Avicenna,
is
"),
the greatest
a colossal work,
