ABSTRACT
The first translation of the Avestan Sh-rzag into a Western language is found in the work Zend-Avesta by Anquetil-Duperron (1771, 2: 316-36).1 It is preceded by an introduction (Anquetil-Duperron 1771, 2: 315), in which the text is presented as “composé de petits et de grands Khoschnouméns [= šn mans] des Esprits célestes qui président aux trente jours du mois.” In this introduction are found some observations on the title of the text (recorded by Anquetil-Duperron as Si-rouzé and interpreted as having the meaning of “thirty days”) and on its ritual uses. The translation has a large number of misunderstandings of the meaning of the original text. The Sh-rzag is correctly divided into 33 paragraphs; moreover, in S. 1 each paragraph is introduced by “Je fais khoschnoumen à” (the translation of xšn maine).2
