Brewer's: Zend-Avesta

The great work of Zoroaster, or rather Zarathustra, the Mede, who reformed the Magian religion. It is the Avesta or “Living Word,” written in the Zend language (B.C. 490). It now contains the Yacna, the Vispered, the Vendidad, and the Khordah-Avesta.

“The sacred writings of the Parsees have usually been called Zend-Avesta by Europeans; but this is, without doubt, an inversion of the proper order of the words, as the Pahlavi books always style them `Avisták-va-Zand' (text and commentary).” —Hang: Essays on the Parsis, Essay iii. p. 19.

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