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Bundahishn; (Creation of the Origins) (additions
till 9th century)
a compilation, no author known. From Iran, Zoratostrian religion.
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Bundahishn is the name traditionally given to an encyclopedic collection of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi. The original name of the work is not known. The content reflects Zoroastrian scripture, which, in turn, reflects both ancient Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian beliefs. In some cases, the text alludes to contingencies of post-7th century Islam in Iran. Most of the chapters of the compendium date to the 8th and 9th centuries.
Taken from: Dan Shapira; Zoroastrian Sources on Black People in Arabica nr 49
Friedrich Max Miller; The Sacred Books of the East. Volume 5. Pahlavi Texts. Part
1
Also called: Bundehesh , Bundahis
The (text) says, too Yim (1), when his royal glory departed from him, took a female dew to wife, and gave his sister Yamig to a dew (2) to wife. Because of his fear of the dews, the apes, the
bears, the forest-inhabitants, the tailed ones, and other noxious sorts arose from them; and his lineage did not progress there from.
Regarding the black people, the (text) says: During his sovereignty Azi Dahak (3) let loose a dew on a young girl and let loose a young man on a parig (4) and they had sex with the visible image
of the male; through this new way of the action the Black people appeared.
When Fredon (mythical hero) came, they (the black people) fled from the lands of Iran and settled on the coast of the sea. Now, through the invasion of the Arabs, they (the Zing-i-Siak posht
(i.e. the black skinned negroes)) are again diffused through the country of Iran.
Note: in these last sentences allusion is made of black people formerly living in Iran (like the Dravidians in India) as well as to the black slaves brought by the Arabs into southern Iraq who
would soon revolt.
In a different part of the book:
Again because of the Adversary (devil), the mixture occurred, such as Zangig (Blackman), who are those of water and of earth, and gilabig (or saglabig=slaves), who live in both water and
earth.
In a list of all animals;
Fourth, fifteen species of ox, the white, mud-colored, red, yellow, black, and dappled, the elk, the buffalo, the camel-leopard-ox (giraffe), the fish-chewing ox, the Fars ox, the Kagau and other
species of ox.
(1) Yim, or Yima, or Jam, is the Zoroastrian First Man. Beside Yim there is his twin-sister Yamig, or Yami.
(2) Dew: A daeva is a Zoroastrian supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. In later tradition and folklore, the dews (Zoroastrian Middle Persian; New Persian divs) are personifications of every imaginable evil.
(3) Azi Dahak: Zahhak also Zahhak the Snake Shoulder is an evil figure in Persian mythology, evident in ancient Persian folklore as Azhi Dahaka (Azhi= snake-which grew out of his shoulder).
(4) Parig: female "demon" who appears to people to deceive them.