Chapter ZENANA to ZEND of Z by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Pahlavi books always style them Avistâk va Zand (Avesta and Zend)” i.e. the Law with its traditional and authoritative explanation. Abastâ, in the sense of law, occurs in the funeral inscription of Darius at Behistun; and this seems now the most generally accepted origin of the term in its application to the Parsi sacred books. (This is not, however, the explanation given by Haug.) Thus, ‘Avesta and Zend’ signify together ‘The Law and the Commentary.’

The Avesta was originally much more extensive than the texts which now exist, which are only fragments. The Parsi tradition is that there were twenty - one books called Nasks, the greater part of which were burnt by Alexander in his conquest of Persia; possibly true, as we know that Alexander did burn the palace at Persepolis. The collection of fragments which remains, and is known as the Zend-avesta, is divided, in its usual form, into two parts. I. The Avesta properly so called, containing (a) the Vendîdâd, a compilation of religious laws and of mythical tales; (b) the Vispêrad, a collection of litanies for the sacrifice; and (c) the Yasna, composed of similar litanies and of 5 hymns or Gâthas in an old dialect. II. The Khorda, or small, Avesta, composed of short prayers for recitation by the faithful at certain moments of the day, month, or year, and in presence of the different elements, with which certain other hymns and fragments are usually included.

The term Zendavesta, though used, as we see below, by Lord in 1630, first became familiar in Europe through the labours of Anquetil du Perron, and his publication of 1771. [The Zend-Avesta has now been translated in Sacred Books of the East, by J. Darmesteter, L. H. Mills; Pahlavi Texts, by E. W. West.]

c. 930.— “Zaradasht, the son of Asbimam, … had brought to the Persians the book al-Bastah in the old Farsi tongue. He gave a commentary on this, which is the Zand, and to this commentary yet another explanation which was called Bazand. …”—Mas’udi, ii. 167. [See Haug, Essays, page 11.]

c. 1030.—“The chronology of this same past, but in a different shape, I have also found in the book of Hamza ben Alhusain Alisfahâni, which he calls ‘Chronology of great nations of the past and present.’ He says that he has endeavoured to correct his account by means of the Abastâa, which is the religious code (of the Zoroastrians). Therefore I have transferred it into this place of my book.”—Al-Birûnî, Chronology of Ancient Nations, by Sachau, page 112.

„ “Afterwards the wife gave birth to six other children, the names of whom are known in the Avastâ.”—Ibid. page 108.

1630.—“Desirous to add anything to the ingenious that the opportunities of my Travayle might conferre vpon mee, I ioyned myselfe with one of their Church men called their Daroo, and by the interpretation of a Parsee, whose long imployment in the Companies Service, had brought him to mediocrity in the English tongue, and whose familiarity with me, inclined him to further my inquiries: I gained the knowledge of what hereafter I shall deliver as it was compiled in a booke writ in the Persian Characters containing their Scriptures, and in their own language called their ZVN-DAVASTAVV.”—Lord, The Religion of the Persees, The Proeme.

[c. 1630.—“Being past the Element of Fire and the highest Orbs (as saith their Zundavastaio) …”—Sir T. Herbert, 2nd edition 1677, page 54.]

1653.—“Les ottomans appellent gueuures vne secte de Payens que nous connoissons sous le nom d’adorateurs du feu, les Persans
sous celuy d’Atechperes, et les Indou so us celuy de Parsi, terme dont ils se nommet eux-mesmes. … Ils ont leur Saincte Escriture ou Zundeuastavv, en deux volumes composée par vn nommé Zertost, conduit par vn Ange nommé Abraham ou plus-tost Bahaman Vmshauspan. …”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, edition 1657, pp. 200–201.

1700.—“Suo itaque Libro (Zerdusht) … alium affixit specialem Titulum Zend, seu alias Zendavestâ; vulgus sonat Zund et Zundavastaw. Ita ut quamvis illud ejus Opus variis Tomis, sub distinctis etiam nominibus, constet, tamen quidvis ex dictorum Tomorum quovis, satis propriè et legitimè citari possit, sub dicto generali nomine, utpote quod, hac ratione, in operum ejus complexu seu Syntagmate contineri intelligatur. … Est autem Zend nomen Arabicum: et Zendavestâ conflatum est ex superaddito nomine Hebraeo - Chaldaico, Eshta, i.e. ignis, unde [Greek Text] Estia … supra dicto nomine Zend apud Arabes, signifactur Igniarium seu Focile. … Cum itaque nomine Zend significetur Igniarium, et Zendavestâ Igniarium et Ignis,” &c.—T. Hyde, Hist. Rel. Vet. Persarum eorunique Magorum, cap. xxv., edition Oxon. 1760, pp. 335–336.

1771.—“Persuadé que les usages modernes de l’Asie doivent leur origine aux Peuples et aux Religions qui l’ont sub-juguée, je me suis proposé d’étudier dans les sources l’ancienne Théologie des Nations habituées dans les Contrées immenses qui sont à l’Est de l’Euphrate, et de consulter sur leur Histoire, les livres originaux. Ce plan m’a engagé à remonter aux Monumens les plus anciens. Je les ai trouvé de deux espèces: les prémiers écrits en Samskretan; ce sont les Vedes, Livres sacrés des Pays, qui de l’Indus s’étendent aux frontières de la Chine: les seconds écrits en Zend, ancienne Langue du Nord de la Perse; c’est le Zend Avesta, qui passe pour avoir été la Loi des Contrées bornées par l’Euphrate,