Another outstanding event that occurred in the time of Rud II—and was more important than the foregoing events—was the emergence of the idea of worshiping God, and Rud II was the originator of that idea.1
What led Rud II to think of worshiping God was that she became more knowledgeable than her forebears and descendants about astronomy and realized that the stars in the sky have orderly motions and that their movements obey a specific law.
Up to that time the Iranians worshiped the sun and—as we have said—attributed everything to the sun.
But Rud II told her people that there is something that brought the sun into being, and that is “Mard,” and the Creator of the sun and the earth and the stars is “Mard,” and Mard has will; he was, is, and will be; and all must obey Mard—and Mard means God.2
The words “fard—mart—mazd (with z)—mardā—mazdā” and the like, which in Persian mean “Lord/God,” are derived from the first word “mard.” At first this word did not mean “male human” but rather “God.” In later ages, after kingship passed from women to “men,” “mard,” meaning “Lord,” also acquired the sense of “male human,” because the power of men became greater than that of women and the sovereignty that had belonged to women was transferred to men, and thereafter “men” were called “mard.”
The rise of the idea of worshiping God among the Iranians is one of the highly noteworthy manifestations of the genius of the Iranian peoples; by formulating and presenting this idea, the Iranians took the greatest step toward eliminating superstition and rendered a great service to humankind.
The idea of worshiping God that the Iranians presented to other peoples opened the way for the expansion of civilization, the growth of industry, and the emergence of the sciences; for superstition prevented human beings from taking up the pen to advance industry and from desiring knowledge.
Worshiping the sun, moon, stars, lightning, thunder, wind, rain, snow, trees, stones, and various animals constrained and limited human beings in such a way that at every step they saw themselves subject to one or another of these and could not take even the smallest step toward expanding their own knowledge; and the idea of worshiping God freed them from the chains of hundreds of imaginary gods and set them free so that, without fear of the sun and moon and stars and animals and the elements, they could stride forward in the path of development and industry and not fear entering the domain of the world’s beings.
This great distinction belongs specifically to the Iranians; and if Iranian genius had not arisen under the shelter of worshiping the one God, the Creator of all things, it is likely that even today humankind would be living in caves and, to obtain bare subsistence, would be forced to battle the beasts of forest and plain.
Tem, the husband of Rud II, as was his habit, roamed the mountains and the plain; sometimes he went so far that, without meaning to, he found himself days away. On one of those journeys, by chance he entered a very vast forested region that had various animals, including predators.
After returning to Khorasan, Tem described that forested region in such terms that a number of Iranians wished to see it.
Perhaps the very first Iranian migration for sightseeing was this one: a number of them set out from Khorasan and reached the great forest that today lies to the east of the Caspian Sea, and their eyes beheld a sea much larger than Lake “Hamun.”3
When the Iranians reached the Caspian Sea, they remembered nothing of the Central Sea, because those who had lived by Iran’s Central Sea had died, and even their grandchildren had perished; the next generation did not know what Iran’s Central Sea had been like. They compared the Caspian with Lake Hamun and realized that it was far vaster than Hamun.
Had the Iranians known the conditions of life on the shores of Iran’s former Central Sea, they would have understood that the shores of the Caspian are similar to those of the Central Sea and of Iran in former times—equally green—and that there various birds, especially ducks, coots, and teal, whose meat is delicious, are found in great numbers; and that on the shores of the Caspian there are so many fish that, during migration, they cover the rivers so it is as if fish are the rivers’ principal element and water the secondary one.
The Iranians realized that life on the Caspian coast was much easier than in Khorasan, for there provisions were abundant and there was so much wood that even if fires were kindled with that timber for thousands of years it would not be exhausted. Thus a group of Iranians decided to make the eastern part and a region to the south of the Caspian shores their abode.
Those Iranians who came from Khorasan settled in the area today called “Astarabad (Gorgan)” and in part of Mazandaran, and on the Caspian shores they found several new kinds of food (other than birds and fish), one of which greatly pleased their palate—what we today call “broad bean” (bāqolā).
Broad beans grew in abundance in the forests along the Caspian shores; after settling there, the Iranians domesticated this wild plant and cultivated it, and as a result of cultivation new varieties arose that did not exist in nature. To this day the Caspian shores in Gorgan, Mazandaran, and Gilan are among Iran’s main broad-bean regions.
Broad bean is a plant that in antiquity was obtained in some countries—including China, Japan, and Europe—in the wild; one may say it is native to Iran.
It was neighboring countries that later took broad beans from Iran and planted them in their own lands; and Iran—which gave all the principal elements of civilization, art, and culture to other peoples and was the world’s first teacher in cultivating humankind—gifted broad beans as well to neighboring peoples.
After the Iranians settled in Gorgan and parts of Mazandaran, in addition to broad beans they found other useful plants that, in today’s terms, changed their “diet,” and they succeeded in cooking delicious foods for themselves.
On the Caspian shores they found “pumpkin/squash” and “eggplant,” both wild plants.
But the Iranians domesticated those two wild plants just as they had broad beans; it is needless to elaborate that neighboring peoples later took squash and eggplant from Iran, just as “cucumber,” which had been a wild plant along the Caspian shores, was domesticated by the Iranians and given to other nations.
The wild cucumber of the Caspian shores was not like the cucumbers offered in Iran’s markets today; through repeated cultivation it became delicate and took on the form of modern cucumbers.
After some of the Iranians who had come from the east settled by the Caspian, they chose a new Iran-ban for themselves there, and another queenship arose in the eastern and southeastern parts of the Caspian; the ruler of the Iranians was given the title “Banu,” which is from the same Iran-ban and is the second part of that word.
The first lady of Iran on the Caspian coast came to be called “Rud-e Daryā’ī” (River-Sea), because she dwelt by the sea; since the word daryā (sea) had not yet come into being, she was called “Rud-e Ābi” or “Rudāb.” Rudab, the ruler of Iran on the Mazandaran shore, differed somewhat from modern ladies: she climbed forest trees, wielded an axe, slew predatory beasts in the woods, snared pheasants with forest “angon” (gum/resin), and for amusement would mount the burly, semi-wild cattle plentiful in the forests of Bād and eastern Mazandaran. Once Rudab mounted, the bull would run and try to throw the woman from its back to gore her belly with a single horn-thrust—but the lady of Iran did not fall from the bull.
Whatever men did, the lady of Iran did as well, always busy with work and effort; plainly, such a powerful woman bore strong, healthy children and raised them to be powerful like herself.
One of Rudab’s amusements was to build a copper skiff, board it, and move along the Mazandaran coast on the Caspian Sea.4
The first skiff was built in Sialk; as we have said, the inhabitants of that city and the other towns on the shores of Iran’s Central Lake traveled along its coasts by skiff.
After the Iranians moved to the Caspian coast, the first skiff there was built by Rudab—a woman.
The ancients among the Greeks have said that the first skiff was built by Greek women, who then boarded it and set out on a sea voyage; but the first skiff (after Sialk’s brilliant age had passed) on the Caspian coast was made by Rudab—and, in all likelihood, with the help of other women (not men). The industry of shipbuilding was pioneered by Iranian women.
As was noted earlier, apart from metalworking, all the ancient crafts were brought into being by Iranian women under the leadership of their ruler, who was a woman; contrary to what we imagine today, women’s delicate hands were not incompatible with industrial work. In former times the hands of Rudab, the ruler of Iran on the Mazandaran coast, were not particularly dainty.
Rudab would seat her children in the copper skiff and travel along the Mazandaran shore, propelling it with oars.
At that time the Caspian was very extensive, and along Iran’s shores the sea reached the foothills of the mountains lying to the north of the country; so that when Rudab moved along the coasts, if she lifted her head she would see the mountain peak above her.
Likewise on other shores, the water had advanced as far as stretches that are dry land today. Two things caused the Caspian’s waters to recede and large portions to turn into dry land: first, the great evaporation of the waters of the Caspian, and second, a change in the course of the Oxus (Jihun) River.
- “The ancient Iranians, before they knew themselves, knew the stars.” — William Nanki, English Iranologist.
- From the book From—Word—Man—In—Iranians (i.e., the word “mard” in the Iranian language), by the English scholar William Bayley; other books by this Iranologist about Iran also exist.
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Iranikāh, by William Bayley, English Iranologist — explaining migration to the Caspian shores by two routes (east and west) and attributing the ancestry of the Gilakis to the western route.
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Reports from the Greeks about the first skiff being made by women (without a specific citation in the main text).
