Vendidad of Astan Quds

The present work is a manuscript of the Vendidad numbered 26288, preserved in the manuscript section of the Astan Quds Razavi Central Library in Mashhad. The Martyrs Foundation of Tehran donated this book along with several other manuscripts and historical documents to the library in 1999. It is unclear which family or individual owned it originally or how it was acquired. This manuscript, traditionally called Vendidad, comprises the entire Vendidad, the complete Yasna, and parts of Visperad and the minor Avesta. As mentioned at the beginning of the book and in the second colophon, it is famous as “The Avesta of Yasht, Visperad, and Jaddiodad with magical procedures of Yazshni ritual.” The manuscript was written and dedicated for performing the Yazna ceremony of Zoroastrians by priests and religious leaders. Its main text is in Avestan script written with black ink, and the reading instructions for the Avesta, in Pahlavi language and script, are written in red ink. Two scribes wrote it in different eras: the older part by Bahram son of Marzban in the Sufian period and the newer part by Bamesh son of Nushirvan in the Qajar period. Marginal notes and interlinear glosses, sometimes in Pahlavi or Persian script with black or red ink and later in pencil, were gradually added over time. In addition to the main text and colophon, the book contains two additional colophons in the middle, written in Pahlavi and Persian scripts; one belongs to the older part and the other to the newer section, offering valuable information to the reader.