Some Bird Names in the J udeo-Persian Translations of the Hebrew Bible

JES P. AsMUSSEN

Jn this mticle, I continue my studies of lexical points in judeo-Persian. This con­tribution is concerned with names of birds.

Birds are often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, both generally as 'birds' (cop, Judea-Persian mury; !jippor [!jippor], Judea-Persian parande) and specifically by their individual names (eagle, owl, and so on).

Highly interesting is the Judea-Persian simury for neser 'eagle', indi­cating that simury is not the mythological phoenix but the real eagle, aquila. 1 Also remarkable is the use of fiiwus (tii{Jfis) 'peacock', a loanword from Greek Taiiic;, for cayif 'bird of prey'.2 The "real" peacock occurs only twice in the Bible, in I Kgs 10:22 and 2 Chr 9:21, in the plural: tii( u) kiyyim. Thus the Agron, the fifteenth-century Hebrew-Judea-Persian dictionary, has tvkyym = fiiwos. 3 The Judea-Persian translation,4 although it does not always reflect genuine tradition, has fiios hii (1 Kgs 10:22).

The Judea-Persian bird names listed below are taken from the Vati­can Judea-Persian Pentateuch (Vat.),5 the British Museum Judea-Persian Pentateuch (BM),6 and the Judea-Persian translation of Job. 7

1.]. P. Asmussen, "Simury in Judea-Persian Translations of the Hebrew Bible," Acta Imnica 30 (1990) 1-5.

2.]. P. Asmussen, "Ornithologisches aus den jiidisch-persischen Ubersetzungen der hebraischen Bibel," in Corolla Iranica (Papers in honor of David Neil MacKenzie; ed. R. E. Emmerick and D. Weber; Frankfurt am Main, 1991) 1-2.

3. W. Bacher, "Ein hebraisch-persisches Worterbuch aus dem 15. Jahrhundert," ZAW 16 (1896) 218.

4. Published by the British and Foreign Bible Society (London, 1905). 5. H. H. Paper, "The Vatican Judea-Persian Pentateuch: Genesis," Ac0r28 (1964-65)

268-340; idem, "The Vatican Judea-Persian Pentateuch: Exodus and Leviticus," AcOr 29/ 1-2 (1965) 75-181; idem, "The Vatican Judea-Persian Pentateuch: Deuteronomy," AcOr 31 (1968) 55-113.

6. H. H. Paper, Ajudeo-Persian Pentateuch: The Text of the Oldestjudeo-Persian Pe11/a/euch Tm11slatio11 British Museum Ms. 01: 5446 (Jerusalem, 1972). Quite a number of texts, up to Lev 11 :20, are missing.

7. H. H. Paper, Ajudeo-Persian Boole of job (The Israel Academy of Sciences and Human­ities, Proceedings 5112; Jerusalem, 1976).

4 Jes P. Asmussen

1. coreb 'raven'. Vat. Gen 8:7, Lev 11:15: br:Jy.8 Vat. Deut 14:14, how­ever, has byr:;y, where BM has kFg. The Judeo-Persian Job 38:41 gives br:;y (Middle Persian varag) but has qyFy in the margin. This is New Per­sian kalay, q(k)elay, kulay 'raven' or 'crow', at any rate a bird of the corvus family. 9

2. peres 'ossifrage'. Vat. Lev 11:13, Deut 14:12 krks; BM Deut 14:12 k1gs: karkas, kmgas; Middle Persian karkas, kmgas 'vulture' .10

3. cozniyya 'osprey'. Vat. Lev 11:13 and Deut 14:12 cvq:;b: cuqab 'eagle'. 11 The BM Deut 14:12 translates mvsgyr: musgir 'a bird of prey of genus Accipiter'. 12

4. da:Ja 'vulture'. Vat. Lev 11:14 :Jazah: alah 'eagle'. 13

5. :Jayya 'vulture, kite, hawk'. Vat. Lev 11:14 Uzeyan: uzeyan, that is, zayan 'vulture' or 'kite' .14 The Judeo-Persian form seems to confirm Henning's suggestion: ''A Persian word for 'vulture' of possibly Eastern Iranian origin is zayan (for *zyan): Saka uysgana, vulture15 (Saka -ys- =

-z-). The Vat. Deut 14:13 has :;lh for :;ayya and is thus in agreement with Job 28:7: aluh. 16 The BM Deut 14:13 has hvm:;y, humai, "der sagenhafte Vogel Phonix; ein koniglicher Adler-ein Pelikan." 17

6. ra:;a, Deut 14:13 is apparently a mistake for da:;a. The BM text leaves the word untranslated (hr:;h), whereas the Vat. text has xvd:;vnd pr, xudavand-i par 'lord of the wing'!?

7. bat hayyacana 'daughter of the desert', ostrich. In the Judeo-Per­sian translations :Jvstr, stvr mvry: ustur, §utur mury. 18

8. talJ,mas, Lev 11:16 and Deut 14:15, an unclean bird, difficult to identify (owl, swallow, cuckoo?). Vat. Lev 11: 18 has msk/lrh; Vat. Deut 14:15 mvsk/lrh: musxVar 'eagle, kite'??19 BM Deut 14:15 gives b:Jz, baz 'fal­con, hawk'.20

8. P. Horn, "Zu den jiidisch-persischen Bibeliibersetzungen," Indo-germanisc/1e For­sclmngen 2 (1893) 138.

9. U. Schapka, Die persischen Vogelnamen (Ph.D. diss., Wiirzburg, 1972) 218ff. 10. Ibid., 212. 11. Ibid., 170-71. 12. Ibid., 270. 13. Ibid., 8-9. 14. Ibid., 109. 15. W. B. Henning, "Sogdian Loan-Words in New Persian," BSOAS 10 (1940-42) 97 n. 2,

with further references. 16. Schapka, Die persischen Vogelnamen, 8. 17. Ibid., 283-84. 18. Ibid., 154. 19. Ibid., 270. 20. Ibid., 13-14.

Some Bird Names in the Judea-Persian Translations of the Hebrew Bible 5

9. tinsemet, Lev 11:18, Deut 14:16, according to old tradition an owl species. Vat. Lev 11:18 and Deut 14:16 prstvr: parrastii(k) 'swallow'? 21

BM Deut 14:16 hvd hvd, hudhud 'hoopoe'.22 ·

10. siiliik, Lev 11: 17, Deut 14: 17, probably 'pelican'. Vat. Lev 11: 17 lyly: laylay (laklak, laglag, laqlaq) 23 'stork'; Vat. Deut 14:17 kF' m:Jhy: kasii miihi 'fish catcher'; BM Deut 14:17 lglg.

21. Ibid., 36-37. 22. Ibid., 280-81. 23. Ibid., 242.