Khalili Collection of Aramaic Documents

The Achaemenid Empire, established in 559 BC by Cyrus the Great, covered a vast part of the Middle East, stretching from India to Africa. It had an effective postal system and a book-keeping system based on a small number of languages, mainly Imperial Aramaic. Therefore, official records, such as the Khalili documents, were kept in Aramaic although that was not the spoken language of ordinary life in Bactria. Local rulers known as satraps implemented royal decrees in their provinces. The Khalili documents illuminate the administration of this empire and its eventual fall to Alexander the Great in 329 BC, dealing with topics such as city fortifications, military leave, and food delivery. Khalili has written that he was motivated to collect Aramaic documents from the Achaemenid period because, as an Iranian Jew, he felt a personal connection to the topic. A possibly-historical queen of the Achaemenid empire, Esther, is described in the Hebrew Bible as saving the Jewish people by dissuading her husband Ahasuerus from killing them. There are references to administrative details of the Achaemenid court in the Biblical Book of Esther, which therefore must have been written by someone living close to the court. Khalili has described as unforgettable his experience, as a child in Iran, of hearing Aramaic, the language spoken by Moses and by Jesus. == Documents in the collection ==

November–December 330 BC From 1993 to 2002, over a hundred Bactrian documents emerged, in the bazaar of Peshawar and other sources. They included economic documents, legal documents, Buddhist texts, and letters on leather, cloth or wood. Some were found in perfect condition, still sealed. The largest collection of these was acquired by Nasser D. Khalili. Khalili's collection comprises 48 documents in Official Aramaic, This is the earliest surviving use in Aramaic of the original (Greek) form of Alexander's name instead of the Eastern variant "Iskandar" (Lksndr). Another list describes the provisions for troops led by Bessus, who took over as king after killing Darius III but whose reign lasted less than a year. The presence of these lists is further evidence that these documents came from the official archive of a satrap. • A dispatch document, acquired by the collection in its original sealed form, recording a transfer of 40 sheep. • A one-line text that may have been a label. • Two lists of names, whose purpose is unknown. • Two notes on a debt and acknowledging receipt of goods. Tallies The 18 wooden sticks are tallies, usually dated, describing quantities of goods. The types of goods are not stated, suggesting that the numbers refer to a standard traded commodity. The dates are written as years of the reign of Darius III. These tallies likely come from the practice of cutting a stick in half so that the supplier and receiver of a good each have a matching record of the transaction. The numerical quantity was not written on the stick; instead, the two halves were held together and notched with a pattern that expressed the quantity. File:Khalili Collection Aramaic Documents IA 15FR.jpg|Small document, perhaps a label File:Khalili Collection Aramaic Documents IA 5F.jpg|Letter from Akhvamazda to Bagavant File:Khalili Collection Aramaic Documents IA 24FR.jpg|Letter from Bakhtrifarnah to Chithrachardata File:Khalili Collection Aramaic Documents TAL4FR.jpg|Tally stick == References ==