Egypt in late antiquity experienced two conquests: that of the Sassanids and that of the Arabo-Muslims. We began our study of multilingualism in Egypt with the two languages introduced by these conquerors (Pehlevi and Arabic), in order to shed light on the impact of military conquest on languages.
After five and a half centuries of relative stability, Egypt was invaded in 619 by the Persians, initiated by the Sassanid ruler Xusrō (Chosroes) II, who remained until 629. Despite the short duration of this occupation, the Persians left abundant documentation in Middle Persian, written in a script called Pehlevi. It currently numbers around 950 items.
It is difficult to draw any conclusions about the linguistic relationship between conquerors and conquered from this documentation and the parallel Greek and Coptic texts, as they are so impervious to each other. Greek and Coptic texts rarely allude to the Persians, and rarely characterize the nature of the relations that the Graeco-Egyptian population may have had with them. As for Pehlevi texts, they focus on military issues, and the local population is virtually absent. In short, there is little overlap between the two documents, with the notable exception of Šahrālānyōzān, a high-ranking Persian dignitary who appears in both Pehlevi and Greek texts (in whom it has been proposed to recognize the conqueror Šahrwarāz, but who is more likely the one who ruled Egypt in Šahrwarāz's absence) and two of his agents Xusrō (Χοσρόης) and Razbānag (Ῥασβανᾶς).
