Note 115 — ON ORIENTAL CARPETS

Zendavesta:—‘Zend’ is old Persian or Achæmenian, meaning commentary or explanation, and was the ‘Zend’ which accompanied the ‘Avesta,’ = the law or the word. The original text of the Avesta was not written by a Persian, as it was not couched in a language used in Persia, nor indeed were any existing Persian customs or practices sanctioned by its tenets. It was written in Media and in the language of Media by the priests of Ragha and Atropatine. It has been practically decided that the greater part of it was written before the third century B.C, while no part of it was written after the fourth century A.D.