Bactrian1 was an Iranian language spoken and written in a vast region of northern Afghanistan but ceased in writing by the end of the 9th-century CE. Before the 1990s, our textual evidence for this language was minimal, comprising one complete inscription2 among damaged ones and coin legends.3 However, since the 1990s, the situation has dramatically changed, and the volume of textual evidence has considerably increased.4 Discoveries containing inscriptions,5 legal and economic documents,6 letters, etc.,7 have been deciphered, edited, and published by Nicholas Sims-Williams. He has also written excellent philological and historical commentaries.8 For example, in the first edition of Bactrian legal and economic texts, he states:
Ideally, a commentary might have been added in which these documents would be compared with similar documents from earlier cultures (Babylonian, Aramaic, Greek, etc.) and those of neighboring countries (Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Khotanese, Uighur Turkish, Tibetan, and so on).9
My work partly addresses this desideratum by writing a commentary on the legal formulary and historical background of Bactria during late antiquity. To that aim, I have used Sims-Williams’s elaborate translation of the documents because his literal translation enables me to consult each legal or technical point in the same way, each time it occurs. For the remaining documents, I have used those translated into English. Otherwise, I have translated the texts from the originals. The originals and translations have been included in this work.
Currently, there are only two articles on legal practices in Bactria, one by B. Waghmar, where he analyses “Bactrian diplomatics” and compares it with documents from various regions of Central Asia such as Gandhara, Tibet, etc.10 The other writing by J. Cheung is a philological discussion of two words in Bactrian deeds, which he compares with an Arabic document from 11th-century CE Egypt. My study examines another topic by placing the Bactrian legal formulary within the context of Near Eastern legal practice.11 Nevertheless, I recognize that my text is a first step in studying Bactrian legal culture, and I hope it will further advance the field.
For Bactrian grammar, see Sims-Williams, 2007, 38–49; Gholami, 2014.
This inscription is named for its findspot in Surkh Kotal, 1953. For an edition of the inscriptions see Davari Djilani, 1982, 53–64. For the new translation, see Sims-Williams, 2012a, 78f.
For all evidence before 1990, see Sims-Williams, 1988, 345ff; 1989, 230ff.
Sims-Williams, 1997 (2012).
For the inscriptions, see Sims-Williams and Falk and Sims-Williams and Cribb, 1996–97; Sims-Williams and Lee, 2003; Sims-Williams, 1998a; 2004 (2008); 2015a.
Sims-Williams, 2000 (revised edition 2012).
Ibid., 2007.
Ibid., 1998b; 1997 (2000); 2001 (2005); 2003 (2007); 2005 (2009).
Ibid., 2000, 7.
Waghmar, 2010.
Chueng, 2009.