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IRANIAN HISTORY: ACHAEMENID DYNASTY
DÂTABARA
By: Rüdiger Sshmitt
DÂTABARA, title of a high official in the Achaemenid legal and juridical system. It is not attested in Aryan (Old Persian) but only in collateral traditions (El. da-ud-da-bar-ra; Late Babylonian da-(a-)ta-ba-ra/ri, -bar-ri; biblical Aram. dtbr, dətâbar; talmudic Aram. dw´r, dwwr) and in younger Iranian languages (Pahl. d´twbl, dâdwar; Inscr. Pahl. d´tbry, d´twbr; Man. Mid. Pers. d´ywr, dâywar; Inscr. Parth. d´tbr; Man. Mid. Parth. d´db´r, dâdßâr; Pâzand, NPers. dâ(d)war "judge"; cf. the loan translation Arm. datawor). In the sources available Old Iranian *dâta-bara-, lit., "bearer of the law" designates a high judicial officer, that is, a lawyer but not necessarily a judge. The only Aramaic instance occurs in the Book of Daniel (3:2-3), in an enumeration of higher officials; in the Babylonian documents of the Murašû archives it refers to the same person throughout, a man who had some relation to the satrap of Babylonia but in this context was acting only as witness to the transactions in question (Dandamayev, pp. 41-42).
The title also became a personal name *Dâtabara-, which seems to be attested in Aramaic Dtbr on a mortar from Persepolis (Bowman, p. 117, giving the incorrect reading Rtbr).
Bibliography
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R. A. Bowman, Aramaic Ritual Texts from Persepolis, Chicago, 1970. |
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M. A. Dandamayev, Iranians in Achaemenid Babylonia, Costa Mesa, Calif., 1992. |
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W. Hinz, Altiranisches Sprachgut der Nebenüberlieferungen, Wiesbaden, 1975, p. 85. |
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Source/Extracted From: Encyclopaedia Iranica
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"History is the Light on the Path to Future" |
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Encyclopaedia Iranica
The British Institute of Persian Studies "Persepolis Reconstructed"
The British Museum
The Royal Asiatic Society
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