inscriptional Pahlavi

Pahlavi is the official alphabet of the Late Assyrian and Ancient Persian chancelleries of the 6th – 4th centuries BC. Inscriptional Pahlavi is the earliest attested form, it's evident in clay fragments that are dated to the reign of Mithridates I (r. 171–38 BC). Other early evidence includes the Pahlavi inscriptions of Arsacid era coins, rock inscriptions of Sassanid kings, and other notables such as Kartir.

It was the foundation for most of the national Iranian and Turkic writing systems: Middle Persian, Uighur, Khorezm, Sogdian, Orkhon-Yenisei, etc. The Pahlavi font was used in the Middle Persian language, where translations from the ancient Iranian language «Avesta» (the Bible of the Zoroastrians) and commentaries to it «Zend» were written in the III-IX centuries. Therefore, the Pahlavi script was also called Phazend. The name «Pahlavi» comes from the eponym of Parthavia (Parthia), a country located southeast of the Caspian Sea.

This script contains 19 characters, such as letters and numbers.