PEHLEVI (valor. power; rabcin rehlevi = language of heroes) is the name of an ancient West-Iranian (Median and Persian) idiom, in use chiefly during the period of the Sassanides (235-640 A.D.), who, wishing fully to restore the ancient Persian empire, endeavored also to reinstate the primitive language, fallen into disuse as a court language since the time of Alexander's conquest. Yet they did not fix upon the pure Persian as it was still spoken in the interior, but upon the dialect of the western prov inces, largely mixed with Semitic words, to which Aryan terminations were affixed. The grammatical structure of the Pehlevi presents almost the same poverty of inflections and terminations as the present Persian. Although, however, less rich than Zend (q.v.) in inflection and accentuation, it yet boasts of the same copiousness of words as that dia lect. to which it in reality succeeded. It is written from right to left, and the letters are mostly joined. The remnants of Pehlevi extant consist of coins, inscriptions (found at llajiabad, Persepolis, Kirmanshah, etc.), and a number of books, all relating to the religion of Zoroaster. The most important of these are the translation of the chief part of the Zend-Avesta (Yazna, Visparad, and Vendid6d), and such original religious works as the • Bundehesh. Shikandgumfini, Dinkart, Atash I3aram, etc. The Pehlevi of the
books differs from that of the inscriptions and coins to such a degree—according to the larg,er or smaller preponderance of the Semitic element—as to have misled investigators (Westergaard and others) to assume that two utterly distinct languages, a purely lranic and a Semitic one, had been used somewhat indiscriminately at the time. The non Iranian element is called Huzvaresh (lluzooresh) by the Parsee priests,who, taking advan tage of the ambiguity of the Pehlevi alphabet, often substitute the corresponding Persian for the foreign words. The Iranian part of the Pehlevi differs little from the Persian of our own day, and, in fact. the Pehthvi changed first into Parsee, and subsequently into modern Persian. simply by getting rid first of its Chaldee, and then of those of its Iranian words which had become obsolete. The chief use of the Pehlevi dialect at present is the assistance it offers towards the elucidation of the Zend itself. For the his tory of its investigation since it was first made known in Europe, we refer to PERSIAN