INTRODUCTION.
I. General Remarks.
The Pahlavi texts selected for translation in this volume are distinguished from all others by the peculiarity that both the name and station of their author and the time in which he lived are distinctly recorded.
His name, Minftj^ihar, son of Yftdin-Yim (or Gilradam), is mentioned in each of the headings and colophons to the Dirfistin-! Dfnik and the three Epistles attributed to him. He is styled simply afirpat, or 'priest,' in the headings of Eps. I and II, and afirpat khftrfil, or * priestly lordship/ in that of Ep. Ill; but he is called the rarf, 'pontiff, or executive high-priest,' of P4rs and Kirmdn, and the farmdrfir, 'director,' of the profession of priests, in the colophons to Dd. and Ep. II; and we learn from Dd. XLV, 5 that the farmd^ir was also the pe^iipAt, or 'leader' of the religion, the supreme high-priest of the Masr^/a-worshipping faith.
R^arding his family we learn, from Ep. I, iii, lo, vii, 5, that his father, Yftdin-Yim, son of Shahpiihar, had been the leader of the religion before him; and his own succession to this dignity indicates that he was the eldest surviving son of his father, who, in his declining years, seems to have been assisted by his advice (Ep. I, iii, 11). We also learn, from the heading of his second epistle, that Z^-sparam was his brother, and this is confirmed by the language used in Ep. II, vi, i, ix, 6, and by Z^-sparam being a son of the same father (Eps. I, heading, III, 2); that he was a younger brother appears from the general tone of authority over him adopted by M4nii^^ihar in his epistles. Shortly before these epistles were written, ZSui" sparam appears to have been at Sarakhs (Ep. II, v, 3), in
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