The new capital of Iran was preferable to Sialk in every respect, except that it lay on the path of the Turanians. The inhabitants by Lake “Hamun,” when they realized that the Iran-ban was moving the capital to their land, were very pleased and regarded that event as one of the sun’s blessings, and they gained confidence that once the Iran-ban had moved to the shores of Lake Hamun, he would prevent Turanian incursions. When the capital of Iran was transferred to the shore of Lake Hamun, the Iranians’ civilization had solidified, and the nation of Iran, in the true sense of the word, counted as a civilized nation; for in addition to living in cities, they smelted metal, farmed, raised domestic animals, and wove cloth. But to the east of Iran’s capital lived the Turanians, who were neither inclined to agriculture and animal husbandry, nor did they work metal, […]
The Eternal Landسرزمین جاوید
“The Eternal Land” is an expansive narrative of ancient Iran that, in a storytelling prose, traces a blend of myth and history from the eras of the Pishdadians and Kayanids up to the rise of the Achaemenids. Its well-known Persian version is by Zabihollah Mansouri, who, rather than a word-for-word translation, rewrote the account based on the works of Iranologists such as Roman Ghirshman, Marijan Molé, and Ernst Herzfeld. The result is a compelling, readable work with vivid descriptions of rituals, wars, kings, and historical geography—an engaging introduction to the world of ancient Iran for a general audience.
«سرزمینِ جاوید» روایتِ بلندبالایی از ایرانِ باستان است که با نثرِ داستانگو، آمیزهای از اسطوره و تاریخ را از روزگاران پیشدادیان و کیانیان تا شکلگیریِ هخامنشیان دنبال میکند؛ متنِ فارسیِ مشهورش به قلمِ ذبیحالله منصوری است که بهجای ترجمهٔ لفظبهلفظ، بر پایهٔ نوشتههای ایرانشناسانی چون رومن گیرشمن، ماریژان موله و ارنست هرتسفلد، روایت را بازنویسی کرده است. نتیجه، اثری پرکشش و خواندنی با توصیفهای تصویری از آیینها، جنگها، پادشاهان و جغرافیای تاریخی است که برای آشنایی عمومی با فضای ایرانِ کهن جذاب است.
Continue reading The Eternal Landادامه مطالعه سرزمین جاوید
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part XII)
Iranian migration to the shores of Lake Hamun
The Iran-ban’s husband beheld a vast lake and saw that forests surrounded it, and that along part of its shores people were sowing wheat. Zab, who had lost Iran’s primordial paradise, when he saw that great lake and the forests, realized he had once more found a paradise; he thought he should not live in the city of Sialk and that it would be better to move his dwelling from Sialk to the shore of that lake. Zab’s state of mind at that time was like that of a man in our own age who had been wealthy, lost his wealth, then spent a long period in poverty, and at last, through some turn of fortune, becomes prosperous again. Such a person, the second time, knows the value of wealth and will neither waste it nor let it slip away, for the long season of want has taught him to […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part XI)
Cattle Riders of the South
The inhabitants of the southern cities of Iran, distressed by the Turanians’ repeated raids, sought counsel from the Iran-ban, who was the wisest and most intelligent Iranian, and the Iran-ban sent her husband, Zab, to southern Iran. Zab, who had not gone south for some time and was unaware of conditions there, saw noteworthy things when he arrived. Among them, he observed that people rode oxen just as the people of the north rode horses; and he also saw in southern Iran two kinds of crops that did not exist in the north, both of which the southerners counted as “gāv” (“cow”), because the cattle ate those two crops and thus led people toward them. One of the two was a small grain still known in southern and eastern Iran as “gāv-dāneh” (gāvars, i.e., millet). The other was a kernel resembling wheat but slimmer and longer, which people also called […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part X)
The first type of commodity-to-commodity trade
Rud’s father—whom we know was a potter and also a coppersmith—and his apprentices (that is, the inhabitants of Sialk, who had copper-smelting furnaces in their homes) brought into the world something now known as “commerce.” Until the day Rud’s father and the other inhabitants of Sialk created industry, trade had no meaning in Iran, because each person, with each family, could meet their own needs. No one possessed something that another lacked and thus felt a need for. But after coppersmithing expanded in Sialk and the people there became specialists in making all kinds of tools and various vessels from copper, the inhabitants of Iran’s cities needed the people of Sialk to obtain copper tools and utensils. They brought sheep and horses, purchased the copper tools and vessels from the people of that city, and took them away; and thus “trade” came into being. Copper tools and vessels became so […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part IX)
Making a copper pot in Sialk
After Rud the Second and her husband Tam went to the city of Giyan (near present-day Nahavand), a chronic and unprecedented ailment appeared in Sialk: severe intestinal pain accompanied by diarrhea and fever. Rud could not understand what the illness was or how it should be treated. Those who contracted it would recover, and only rarely did anyone die; but they would become afflicted with the same illness again and suffer intensely from abdominal pain. However, after some time had passed, the disease grew more severe, and a number of the afflicted perished; their bodies were taken to the hill called “Gom” and placed there until the corpses decayed and disappeared. In other cities of Iran people also sometimes caught the disease and died, but in Sialk the number of cases was higher and the death rate greater. The dangerous illness spread in Sialk to such a degree that some […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part VIII)
Making a sickle from copper
Once it was understood that copper could be used to reap wheat, all the inhabitants of Sialk wanted copper and asked the potter to smelt it for them. Tam, who wished to marry Rud the Second, said, “I will not leave Sialk without copper; I must take some to Giyan so that the people there, too, can reap their fields with copper.” From the next day, the city of Sialk turned into an industrial town, for the potter could not quickly meet the people’s demand for copper. So everyone set out, brought ore-stone of copper, kindled a great fire, smelted the copper, and flattened what they obtained beneath heavy stones, producing sharp-edged tools. Gradually people realized the copper’s edge could be made even sharper, and they discovered that part of a copper sheet could be curled by blows of granite so that it would be easy to hold. Thereafter the […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part VII)
Tam met Rud the Second and felt in love
The burly, handsome youth set out for Sialk, and after entering the city he went into Rud’s house; before he saw the copper, he caught sight of “Rud the Second,” the Iran-ban’s young daughter. Tam was so shaken by the sight of the girl that he forgot about the copper. Rud asked him, “Who are you, and what do you want?” The youth said, “I am Tam, and I have come from Giyan.” Rud asked, “Who is your mother?” The youth said, “My mother is Mazun.” Rud said, “I have seen Mazun here and I know her. Why have you come here, and what do you want?” Tam pointed to Rud the Second and said, “I want her.” Rud said, “If my daughter wants you as well, your marriage will face no obstacle.” Rud the Second desired Tam, and in order to show that youth her skill she spun some […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part VI)
Carving stone to make tools
Rud’s father—who had invented bread-baking—continued his work of smelting metal and smelted copper without yet being able to make use of it. The sole use for copper was to harden the pots. As noted, to the northwest of Sialk, beside Iran’s central lake, there was a city named “Giyan,” whose queen bore the title “Mazun.” In the past, when Iran’s lake had not yet dried up, the inhabitants of Giyan came to Sialk by water. After the lake dried and the surrounding forests disappeared, the two cities of Giyan and Sialk became separated from one another, and great distances also arose between the towns on the southern shores of the dried lake and the city of Sialk. From then on, traveling from one city to another became difficult, and the people of one city would not learn of events in other cities except after some time. Occasionally a few inhabitants […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part V)
Mixing angun with the potter’s clay
Rud the Second, like all girls and boys in early childhood, played games, and one of her games was to gather the wool that fell from garments, roll it into a lump, and sometimes spread the thickened wool out flat. The little girl, seeing that her grandfather (Rud’s father) kneaded clay to make pots, also tried to knead her wool, but she could not produce a dough like potter’s clay. Rud’s father had advanced in pottery and would mix some “angun” (resin) into the clay before making pots. In former times the potter obtained angun from the trees of the neighboring forest, but after the lake and forest dried up, Rud’s father had to go toward the northern mountains to procure angun from the trees on their slopes. When Rud the Second saw her grandfather mixing angun with the potter’s clay, she set out to mix resin with the small […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part IV)
First Sowing in Sialk
That year, the rainy season was even shorter than the year before, and afterward the land grew somewhat green; but soon the sun’s heat withered the greenery. People still relied on wheat for nourishment, cooking it in pots and eating it. Then they realized that wheat, too, was becoming scarce, and that a day might come when, just as the fish had disappeared and ducks and deer had grown rare, wheat would also vanish. Rud told her followers, “Now that we’re forced to fill our bellies with wheat, do something so at least this plant does not die out.” Her followers asked, “What should we do?” The Iran-ban said, “Do what the earth does—put the wheat into the soil so that it may sprout and ear.” On that day, the queen of Iran laid the foundations of agriculture and taught her followers to sow wheat so they could make use […]