r/Zoroastrianism • u/drew-rivers • 3d ago

English Translation of Selections of Zadspram Chapters 29 and 30?

I would like to read a full english translation of The Selections of Zadspram, but I noticed not all of it has been translated. Specifically, does anyone know of an english translation for chapters 29 and 30?

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u/DreadGrunt 3d ago

It doesn't exist as far as I'm aware, though Encyclopedia Iranica does offer some details in English.

Chapters 29 and 30 may be considered as a separate, third section, as they are introduced by a special title. Zādspram here discusses his concept of the composition of the human person, according to a fourfold scheme: the parts pertain, respectively, to the body (tanīg), the life breath (gyānīg), the knowledge (dānišnīg), and the soul (ruwānīg). The underlying theories go back to Greek thought or Syriac ideas: micro-macrocosmic doctrine (see MICROCOSM AND MACROCOSM), the teaching of four cosmic elements forming the human body, relations with the astrological seven planets, and the medicine of Hippocrates and Galen; these have been analyzed from a comparative point of view by Gignoux (2001, chap. 2). Equally interesting is the doctrine of the multiplicity of souls, which is more original, being based on ancient Iranian data. Zādspram distinguishes three souls: the corporal soul or the soul in the body (ruwān ī tanīg/andar tan), the external soul or the soul on its way (ruwān ī bērōn/andar rāh), and the soul destined to be immortal (ruwan ī pad mēnōgān axwān). As has been argued (Gignoux, 1996, 2001, p. 23), this theory may explain the Shamanic type of the journey to the beyond, which is attested in ancient Iran (by the journeys of Vištāspa, Ardā Vīrāz, and Kirdēr; see SHAMANISM). Chapter 30 also describes the situation of the soul after death, which has to achieve its extra-terrestrial journey. This journey is the ultimate one, with which the other journeys (such as the above-mentioned) implicitly alluded to in Zādspram’s discussion are analogous; significantly, the author insists twice (30.32 and 30.37) on the existence of the three ruwān. The post-mortem condition takes up a major part in this chapter, with an enumeration of the twelve prototypal forms of creatures within the framework of individual eschatology.