Le mihr yašt est-il le mihr yašt ?
The "mihr yašt" is the "mihr yašt"?

Summary/Abstract: The interest of this article concerns generally the historicity of the Sacred Book of the Iranians – the Avesta, the means by which one can identify the different temporal levels of the composition of the parts of Avesta which appears nowadays rather as a compilation of distinct fragments, preserved under different circumstances and, as far as possible, the initial aspect of this canonical book. Among the means of research, the author chooses for: 1. The comparison between certain parts of Avesta as it is nowadays preserved and the description of these parts according to the medieval pehlevi writings. 2. The analysis of the internal coherence of certain parts of the Avesta in concordance with the principle that many fragments still available and others of the same type were composed as early as the Achemenian period, though under a different presentation. The author focuses his analysis particularly on one song of Avesta – the Mihr Yašt (the hymn devoted to Mithra), bringing finally his research to the conclusion that there might have existed initially three categories of Mihr Yašt, with three different functions: juridical, liturgical and etiological.

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