Scribes commissioned to copy ancient
manuscripts were able to preserve Zoroastrian literature
Parinaz Gandhi
Copying a manuscript was a time consuming and laborious task which only certain priests with requisite know-how could undertake. The person who commissioned the writing was the patron who would pay an honorarium to the scribe/priest who rendered this sacred service for which God bestowed blessings on the patron. It was an offence to erase the scribe’s or the sponsor’s name from the colophon of a manuscript bearing these details. A colophon is a postscript to a manuscript where the scribe provides his own name, the date and place where a manuscript is copied and the name of the......