An Old Letter from Khotan: A Review of an Early Judeo-Persian Letter Called Dandān-Uiliq II

Document Type : Original Research Article

Author

Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies - Iran, Ancient Iranian Languages, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

This paper deals with an old Judeo-Persian letter called Dandān-Uiliq II (Abbreviated as DU II); which probably dates back to 9th century CE and further to its contents, has some important linguistic features, often without existence in later Persian texts written in Arabic script, for instance, the use of the adverb bē = but (as in Qur’an-e Qods translation), use of the conjunction kū, the use of the verb h- (to be) and ancient subjunctive mood. This paper also presents a new translation of the letter and its ancient linguistic features discussed in comparison to Early Persian texts (in Perso-Arabic script) and some early Persian translations of Qur’an, especially Qur’an-e Quds (probably written in Sistan in 12th CE). These features represent language transmission from Middle Persian to Neo-Persian (Dari). The given translation is not the same as previous English and Chinese versions and reflects my understanding of its syntax and morphology.

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🔓 © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Tissaphernes Archaeological Research Group, Tehran, Iran. Open Access. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeriv- atives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The ethical policy of Persica Antiqua is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and complies with International Committee of Persica Antiqua Editorial Board codes of conduct. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with Persica Antiqua. The ethical policy of Persica Antiqua is liable to determine which of the typical research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the concerned issue. For information on this matter in publishing and ethical guidelines please visit www.publicationethics.org.

References

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Persica Antiqua
Volume 3, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
January 2023
Pages 49-60

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History

  • Receive Date: 14 June 2022
  • Revise Date: 30 October 2022
  • Accept Date: 21 September 2022

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