ܡܘܢܕܪܙܒܕ *mwndrzbd Magus-counsellor
Attested forms: ܡܘܢܪܙܕܒܕ mwnrzdbd/r (MS, Hoffmann); ܡܘܓܘܪܣܬܒܕ mwgwrstbd (cf. Nöldeke 1879, 451 n. 3)
MP mowān-andarzbed advisor of the Magi. The two attested spellings, mwnrzdbd/r and mwgwrstbd, clearly corrupt, refer to a Persian title; Hoffmann 1880, 50 translates "Ordner der Magerschaft", tentatively proposing that the Syr. form, to be read mwnndrzbd, reflects MP muγān andarzbed (hypothesis accepted by Khurshudian, who reads * muγ[ān]-andarzβaδ); PS Suppl., on the other hand, postulated a corruption of the Persian title Muγān arzbed; Gignoux (personal communication) observes that the Syr. form mwnrzdbd/r may be simply interpreted as mw-ndrzbd "conseiller des mages"; a similar interpretation, suggested by Maggi (personal communication), is the segmentation *mw(g)n-drzbd: the first element, mwn, corresponds to MP mowān, the plur. of the word for magus, and the second, -drzbd, reflects MP andarzbed, with the usual omission of the nasal before a consonant. Either in Gignoux's suggestion or in Maggi's one, the Syr. loanword represents MP mowān-andarzbed "conseiller des Mages". See also Khurshudian 1998, 94 (with bibl. on the Pers. title); Hübschmann 1895, 99; Gignoux 1986, 95 f. and n. 9; 105 ff. ● am 2, 519, 7; Hoffmann 1880, 50; MS 2, 68, 14 ◆ PS Suppl. 188; Hoffmann 1880, 50 n. 438