Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Page 141

IRANIAN RESEARCH IN THE NORTH 135
this day his vivid and graphic descriptions may be read with
pleasure.
Pure linguistics and the study of conditions in modern Iran,
these mark the two opposite poles between which lies the ter-
ritory covered by Iranologists in the North till to-day.
The first important contribution of the Northern countries
to Iranology was made by the Danish linguistic genius Rasmus
Rask, one of the pioneers of modern language study. Rask was
introduced to Modern Persian by the Swedish historian Hallen-
berg. But the real foundations of his Iranian studies were laid
by himself during his famous journey through Russia, the Cau-
casus, and Persia to India 1819—1823. During these travels he
acquired a knowledge of Persian and other Iranian languages
which greatly widened his horizon as a linguist and sharpened
his acumen as an investigator of linguistic relationships. He
brought back with him an invaluable collection of manuscripts,
which are now among the chief treasures of the University
Library of Copenhagen. In the present connection it is especially
his rich collection of Avestan and Pahlavi MSS which interests
us. They provided the material for the subsequent work of
himself and Westergaard, and they have made Copenhagen the
Mecca of Iranologists from all over the world. The Avestan and
Pahlavi MSS of Copenhagen are now being made available for
research workers all over the world, in their own reading rooms
and studies, by means of the impressive facsimile publication
“Codices Avestici et Pahlavici Bibliothecae Universitatis Haf-
niensis,” brought out by the Munksgaard publishing house,
Copenhagen, of which 10 volumes have appeared till now. In a
parallel series, “Monumenta Linguarum Asiae Majoris,” the same
publisher is placing a number of important older Iranian texts
at the disposal of the scientific world.
Rask’s most important contribution to Iranian research was
a little book from 1826 “Om Zendsprogets og Zendavestas Ælde
og Ægthed,” a pioneer work, which was subsequently translated
into English under the title of “Some Remarks on the Zend-
Avesta and Zend Language.” — In 1771 the French scholar
Anquetil du Perron had published, in his “Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage
de Zoroastre,” a translation of an Avesta MS which he had found
during a journey to India undertaken for that express purpose.
In this MS Anquetil du Perron believed that he had found the
authentic words of the old Iranian prophet in his own language.