Titles of the Sasanian Government 531 



tion. 1 The suggestion offered by K. Hori, 2 that the Chinese transcrip- 

 tion should represent the Persian word izad ("god"), is not acceptable: 

 first, New Persian cannot come into question, but only Middle Persian; 

 second, it is not proved that izad was ever a title of the kings of Persia. 

 On the contrary, as stated by Noldeke, 3 the Sasanians applied to them- 

 selves the word bag ("god"), but not yazdan, which was the proper word 

 for "god" even at that time. 



96. WHfc^- fan-pu-$wai, *pwan-bu-zwi5, designation of the queen 

 of Parsa (Wei $u, Ch. 102, p. 6; T'ai p x ih hwan yii ki, Ch. 185, p. 17). 

 The foundation of this transcription is presented by Middle Persian 

 banbu$n, bdnbiSn (Armenian bambiSn), "consort of the king of Persia." 4 

 The Iranian prototype of the Chinese transcription seems to have been 

 *banbuzwi5. The latter element may bear some relation to Sogdian 

 wdbu or wybyHh ("consort"). 5 



97. St #i *S mo-hu-t'an, *mak-ku(mag-gu)-dan. Officials of 

 Persia in charge of the judicial department ^ S ft ffl. M (Wei $u, 

 Ch. 102, p. 6). K. Hori 6 has overlooked the fact that the element 

 Van forms part of the transcription, and has simply equalized mo-hu with 

 Avestan moyu. The transcription *mak-ku (mag-gu) is obviously found- 

 ed on Middle Persian magu, and therefore is perfectly exact. The later 

 transcription fH M *muk-gu (mu-hu) is based on New Persian muy, 

 mdy. 7 The ending dan reminds one of such formations as herbeban 

 ("judge") and mobehan mobeh ("chief of the Magi"), the latter being 

 Old Persian magupati, Armenian mogpet, Pahlavi ntaupat, New Persian 

 mubid (which, according to the Persian Dictionary of Steingass, means 

 also "one who administers justice, judge"). Above all, compare the 

 Armenian loan-word movpetan (also movpet, mogpet, mog). s Hence it 



1 R. Gauthiot, Essai sur le vocalisme du sogdien, p. x; P. Pelliot, Les in- 

 fluences iraniennes en Asie centrale et en Extrfime-Orient, p. 11. 



2 Spiegel Memorial Volume, p. 248. 



3 Tabari, p. 452. 



4 Hubschmann, Armen. Gram., p. 116. In his opinion, the form bdnbufn, 

 judging from the Armenian, is wrong; but its authenticity is fully confirmed by the 

 Chinese transcription. 



6 R. Gauthiot, Essai sur le vocalisme du sogdien, pp. 59, 112. The three afore- 

 mentioned titles had already been indicated by Abel-Remus at (Nouvelles melanges 

 asiatiques, Vol. I, p. 249) after Ma Twan-lin, but partially in wrong transcription: 

 "Le roi a le titre de Yi-thso; la reine, celui de Tchi-sou, et les fils du roi, celui de 

 Cha-ye." 



8 Spiegel Memorial Volume, p. 248. 



7 Chavannes and Pelliot, Traite" manichgen, p. 170. Accordingly this example 

 cannot be invoked as proving that tnuk might transcribe also tnak, as formerly 

 assumed by Pelliot {Bull, de I'Ecole francaise, Vol. IV, p. 312). 



8 Horn, Neupersische Etymologie, No. 984; and Hubschmann, Persische 

 Studien, p. 123. 



