Language and literature Parthia

hercules, hatra, iraq, parthian period, 1st–2nd century ad.

the parthians spoke parthian, north-western iranian language. no parthian literature survives before sassanid period in original form, , seem have written down little. parthians did, however, have thriving oral minstrel-poet culture, extent word minstrel – gosan – survives day in many iranian languages in armenian ( gusan ), on practised heavy (especially lexical , vocabulary) influence,. these professionals evident in every facet of parthian daily life, cradle grave, , entertainers of kings , commoners alike, proclaiming worthiness of patrons through association mythical heroes , rulers. these parthian heroic poems, known through persian of lost middle persian xwaday-namag, , notably through firdausi s shahnameh, [were] doubtless not yet wholly lost in khurasan of [firdausi s] day.

in parthia itself, attested use of written parthian limited 3,000 ostraca found (in seems have been wine storage) @ nisa, in present-day turkmenistan. handful of other evidence of written parthian has been found outside parthia; important of these being part of land-sale document found @ avroman (in kermanshah province of iran), , more ostraca, graffiti , fragment of business letter found @ dura-europos in present-day syria.

the parthian arsacids not seem have used parthian until relatively late, , language first appears on arsacid coinage during reign of vologases (51–58 ad). evidence use of parthian nonetheless widespread comes sassanid times; declarations of persian kings – in addition native middle persian – inscribed in parthian.