A crucial stopping-point on the road to the early understanding of the Avestan language, Spiegel’s Grammatik der Altbaktrischen Sprache was an early European attempt to comprehend this ancient and complex language. One of the two oldest languages of Iran, Avestan is probably best known as the language of the Zoroastrian Avesta. This historic grammar of the language has an extensive introduction to the writing system, Din Dabireh, is based on Middle Persian. After laying out the alphabet, Spiegel moves into the phonetics of the language and the rules of how the sounds are pronounced. He discusses the way words are constructed and inflection before moving on to a considerable discussion of syntax. There is also an appendix on the Gatha dialect of the language. This German edition is a difficult find, and a valuable source for the historian of Iranian language studies.

Friedrich Spiegel (1820-1905) was educated in Oriental languages in Erlangen, Leipzig, and Bonn. He returned to the University of Erlangen as professor. His primary interests were Iranian languages and the Zoroastrian religion.